Saturday, April 24, 2010
A Near Spinal Tap Moment
A friend of mine forwarded me a Call for Submissions for an upcoming art show. When I first read the flier, I thought the call was for 2' x 3' pieces, which works well for me because most of my posters are 2' x 3'. Well, I read the flier again, and it turns out the call is for 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches. Ahem.
A friend of mine forwarded me a Call for Submissions for an upcoming art show. When I first read the flier, I thought the call was for 2' x 3' pieces, which works well for me because most of my posters are 2' x 3'. Well, I read the flier again, and it turns out the call is for 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches. Ahem. So I made these three portraits for the show, all the correct size. I'm glad I figured it out before I walked into the gallery with three oversized posters. (Thanks, Rosanne!)
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Personal Growth
When I was much younger my parents gave me a set of unpainted nesting dolls. I loved the gift, but I never painted them because I couldn't think of a design that was perfect enough. Since they were nesting dolls, I wanted to use the nesting factor in the design, i.e. different layers of the human body, an unraveling mummy, etc.
I kept the unpainted dolls for years in the bottom of an old wooden trunk. I recently found the set, and turned it over to my kids, ages five and seven. I love how they painted the dolls (see above). More importantly, I love how much fun they had with the project, and regret not completing it sooner!
When I was much younger my parents gave me a set of unpainted nesting dolls. I loved the gift, but I never painted them because I couldn't think of a design that was perfect enough. Since they were nesting dolls, I wanted to use the nesting factor in the design, i.e. different layers of the human body, an unraveling mummy, etc. I kept the unpainted dolls for years in the bottom of an old wooden trunk. I recently found the set, and turned it over to my kids, ages five and seven. I love how they painted the dolls (see above). More importantly, I love how much fun they had with the project, and regret not completing it sooner!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Vintage Grumet
This is the first piece I ever printed. It's a ballpoint pen drawing of a woman picnicking under a tree. There is a lizard in the tree, with a long, curved tail.
This is the first piece I ever printed. It's a ballpoint pen drawing of a woman picnicking under a tree. There is a lizard in the tree, with a long, curved tail. I did this piece just after college. I thought it would be fun to try and print it, so I took the original to Kinkos and asked them reduce it to 5" x 7" and make 100 xerox copies on white resume paper. It actually worked quite well, and the whole print run cost less than $50. (There was a one time reduction charge of a dollar, I think, plus ten cents a copy, plus 30 cents a copy for the resume paper). I gave them out as Christmas presents that year framed in deep red cardboard mats.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
All in the Family
Each year I enter Adam Cadre's Lyttle Lytton contest, which challenges entrants to write the worst possible introductory sentence to a novel in 30 words or less. I received honorable mentions in the 2007 and 2009 contests, which pleased me disproportionately. Well, my daughter entered this year, and she was won of the winners! Here is her entry:
"Once upon a time, there was a talking lamp whose lightbulb fell out and hit a person and the person got shocked and destroyed everything."
Megan Groppe
Cadre writes of her entry, "This is such an uncanny recreation of the way five-year-olds tell stories that I assume that the Axe Cop audience would buy up the entire first printing." Megan was actually six when she wrote this, not five, but close enough.
See here for the rest of the 2010 winners.
Each year I enter Adam Cadre's Lyttle Lytton contest, which challenges entrants to write the worst possible introductory sentence to a novel in 30 words or less. I received honorable mentions in the 2007 and 2009 contests, which pleased me disproportionately. Well, my daughter entered this year, and she was won of the winners! Here is her entry:
"Once upon a time, there was a talking lamp whose lightbulb fell out and hit a person and the person got shocked and destroyed everything."
Megan Groppe
Cadre writes of her entry, "This is such an uncanny recreation of the way five-year-olds tell stories that I assume that the Axe Cop audience would buy up the entire first printing." Megan was actually six when she wrote this, not five, but close enough.
See here for the rest of the 2010 winners.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
C is for Curiosity
Curiosity is the letter C of my Abstract Nouns alphabet. I thought a picture of a dead cat was probably too graphic for a children's poster, so I drew the chalk outline instead.
Up next: Deception!
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Another Purchase!
I went to the Manhattan Vintage Book & Ephemera Fair on Friday night with my friend Helen. I went to many of these shows when I was in my twenties, and I have already mentioned that our entire apartment is decorated with ephemera (old printed matter such as posters or postcards that were never meant to be preserved).
Well, we have a wonderful addition to our collection. Inside a large cardboard box that was crammed full of vintage magazines and advertisements, I managed to find an 8" x 10" signed colored pencil drawing by puppeteer Bil Baird. I know of Baird because when I was a young child, my aunt used to take my sister and I to the Bil Baird Marionette Theater on Barrow Street. I was thrilled to find the drawing, and the man who sold it to me was equally happy to sell it to someone who loves it.
I went to the Manhattan Vintage Book & Ephemera Fair on Friday night with my friend Helen. I went to many of these shows when I was in my twenties, and I have already mentioned that our entire apartment is decorated with ephemera (old printed matter such as posters or postcards that were never meant to be preserved). Well, we have a wonderful addition to our collection. Inside a large cardboard box that was crammed full of vintage magazines and advertisements, I managed to find an 8" x 10" signed colored pencil drawing by puppeteer Bil Baird. I know of Baird because when I was a young child, my aunt used to take my sister and I to the Bil Baird Marionette Theater on Barrow Street. I was thrilled to find the drawing, and the man who sold it to me was equally happy to sell it to someone who loves it.
