Monday

Vintage Negatives, Old Photographs...

I have a number of different collections of old negatives and vintage photographs. One of these collections is a group of vintage negatives from the 1940's my mom bought one day at Thrift Town in San Leandro.

It came with a huge stash of old photography stuff as well. All of the negatives are coiled up in metal canisters. I've only barely looked at them because there are so many. There are two different formats and the better ones are these ones like the Bear shots below. I love this Bear, he's so awesome lumbering along the road so I thought I'd share with you!

This weekend I got the film positives for my new prints all printed out. The new prints are 16 x 20 with 4 layers each so printing just the film positives takes a bit of time to get the most out of the transparencies. I've two weekends before spring Artwalk at the Brewery and I may be able to get all three done...but I'm not sure...It'll depend on how things go. Oh the Screen printing Gods, they can be so temperamental.

ps- I also got some work done on my newest silver project but it may need to take a back seat till I can make some progress on these prints. I'm pretty excited about the prints- they have a nice amount of hand drawn elements in them. Sometimes this makes them harder to sell as customers really like the vintage, retro imagery but you never know what will strike folks.

Last Friday was so much fun at Reform School Open Craft Night. For those of you in the Los Angeles area- check it out! I'll be there next month if my schedule allows and you should too!

Friday.

something simple.
Wednesday was my boy's birthday so i didn't get much time in the studio but i did manage to complete this small drawing of a bird and make some headway on the three prints i'm working on. i was prowling through a vintage Sear Roebuck for inspiration and also came across these flowers to draw. Everything else is super busy so making time is quite the challenge.

this evening i'm off to the first open craft night at Reform School's Home Ec. Should be super fun- I just have to figure out a project to take with me-
I'm so used to working in the studio with all of my books and pencils and such!

Tomorrow the Farmer's Market in Pasadena and more work on those prints I'm working on- hopefully I'll get all my negatives printed this week.

Have a great weekend!

i woke up to this today in my blog roll.
how awesome!!!

it's by an artist Carolyn Salas working with Adam Parker Smith.
love the faint shadow behind the deer.

Los Angeles- how you shine

this past Saturday I went to my second theater tour of one of the historic theaters in downtown Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Theater! It is a fantastic beautiful example of the old theaters in the Broadway area of Los Angeles.

When I arrived they were playing old trailers on the big screen and it was just grand! After a presentation on the history of the theater we got a tour from the projector room all the way back down to the downstairs lounge and basement. One of the most amazing thing about the Los Angeles is how many public spaces it has in addition to the auditorium. The downstairs lounge is amazing! and the murals in the kids play room are original and very charming.

I took a pic of this light fixture all lite up. The theaters are often quite dark so taking pictures is a bit tricky.
Here's the view from the projector room looking down to the big screen.
The tours the LAHTF are putting on are quite fantastic. I won't be able to go next month but you should! Check out their website for more info.

sunday- Hobby Day!!! yay!
and luckily for me it was cold and a bit rainy so I didn't feel the least bit guilty making jewelry all snug in my studio instead printing and being cold and getting wet.

I made this necklace!
I'm still sticking with simple shapes to learn how things work. The shapes are imperfect on purpose, I started with perfect circles and them hammered and tweeked them until they were a bit more organic. i made the jump rings and the clasp as well.


I let myself start another necklace that will have to wait til lanother day but I'm excited- it looks like honey comb!

weekly drawings

just got them scanned, a bit late in the day but here they are.



i'm hoping to go to another theater tour tomorrow morning in down town los angeles but then i've got to work all afternoon. hopefully i'll get a chance to make some more progress on new prints. (and make some more jewelry!) there's always Sunday to cram everything into!

new prints

in the works!

working on a few new pieces inspired from recent drawings and adventures.
i'm thinking they'll be big, in the 16" x 20" range which is always exciting.

i'm totally getting into using halftones as layers in photo shop! i'm mostly self taught when it comes to photo shop and only recently gave up putting all my prints together by hand, this is pretty exciting as well! sometimes i wish i'd learned a lot more graphic design in college as i'm often bumbling along using photo shop and googling all at the same time to try to get to the results i want. but it is pretty satisfying when i get there on my own.

when i sit down to work on a new print i really try to push myself to make something modern and simple that will fit into a number of different decors. then i get thoroughly distracted with my own sense of humor or a simple satisfaction in a shape or form. these days i'm trying to use a bit less found imagery and to create things from my mind's eye instead of just copy and pasting. it's a challenge but i find myself infinitely more pleased with the prints i'm putting out there when i do.

here's a b&w close up details of a print in the works! stay tuned for more!

busy weekend!

Friday night I rode my bike down to Pasadena to meet up with my boy to go to Art Night in Pasadena. We got off to a rocky start when I realized that even after having directions from him I still went to the wrong bar! duh!

After smuggling my beer in my hoodie and walking my bike over to the correct bar things got back on track. Some light snacks, another round and we were ready for some ART!

We ambled up to The Armory to check out their "Off the Walls" show but got properly and wonderfully sidetracked by the shop "Gold Bug"! We were walking, window shopping and catching up when what did I spy through the window? Taxidermy!!! In Pasadena???
Yep, so of course we had to go in. I gushed and ooo'd and ahhh'd over all the beautiful things in the shop...and then they handed me a complimentary glass of wine! Even better!
They have an amazingly beautiful selection of jewelry, personal adornment and things for the home. All sort of Macabre, Memento Moire, Gothic in nature. It's the perfect place to stop in and buy yourself something nice. Like I did- I bought myself one of these awesome metal teeth! It's a prehistoric Bear tooth if I recall correctly. It's a really nice weight, fun to play with in my pocket and works double duty as a business card holder or picture holder. But for now it's migrating from pocket to pocket depending on what I'm wearing.
link: Gold Bug

After wanting to spend all of my money on the delights of Gold Bug we did make it to The Armory, and two other stops after that. It was a great evening!

Saturday I got up bright and early and went to the Farmer's Market in Pasadena with SarahLiz. My usual Market is Sunday Mornings in Montrose but I find that they are often lacking on a few key things that make it worth getting up early for me. Mushrooms, better tomatoes and less antiques being a few sticking points.

The Pasadena market is great! Not surprising, they have a mushroom lady, beautiful tomatoes and a ton of different kinds at that. Plus a fish guy who had oysters! Woohoo, we love oysters- can't wait to buy some next time. I had no idea the Pasadena market was nestled in where it is, I have good friends that live super close but I'd never noticed the farmers market because it is totally hidden in a park. Alas I didn't take any pictures but take my word for it- beautiful produce.

The rest of Saturday I puttered away on my jewelry hobby! It's super fun so far, Saturday I put together and then soldered my very first earrings!!! Here they ARE!
My very first time soldering! They aren't perfect but they are wearable, cute and make me happy. I worked out something simple for my first project so I wouldn't be biting off more than I could accomplish. Three small 1/2 inch circles pounded flat and then soldered together. I also made the ear wires. I totally want to get a tumbler to see how that changes them and makes them shiny!
sunday I took care of some house stuff, worked in the studio a bit and then we went out for celebration dinner at Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles and we had a feast!!! It was so good! I had my first plate of bone marrow, we had some delicious octopus, meltingly good mozzarella and of course -some fantastic pizza's. mmm...I had leftover pizza for breakfast and it was delish!

Hope you had a great weekend!

drawings and old pictures

inspired by Dali's collage "Ants" from 1929- i have a postcard of this on my studio wall.

my version has termites

i made these next two at our tax appt. this week. he has this great selection of crystals sitting out on a table. they are very beautiful.

these old photo's are from some scanned negatives i found in some of my old books. i'm not quite sure where they came from but i think they are very striking.






I'm off to ride my bike to Pasadena in a little bit- meet up with my boy and go to some of the open events for Spring Art Walk Pasadena. Should be fun!

artnightpasadena.org

i love food.

'tis true. i love food, snacks, treats and all things yummy.

i told the boy i wanted to take him out for dinner to celebrate his new job and then hee hee i went and picked where we're going... snicker.

it's cool though, i think he'll like it.
i've heard that this place is notoriously loud so i chose a slightly off time to go- late sunday afternoon. hopefully we'll be able to slowly eat our way through all the yummyiness without the crushing crowds of a saturday evening.
here's the menu- bonus points if you know where we are going!
doesn't it look yummy? mmm, i want the squash blossoms right now!


now i'm off to work on some drawings...or maybe some sewing...well, i'll be in the studio at the least.

monday

another week! but this time with the fun-filled addition of day light savings!

gee- can you tell i'm a little off today, or what ?!? :)

looks like i'm not gonna get much time in the studio this afternoon as it's...let's see...7:30pm.
you'd think that extra hour would be all awesome but today it totally threw me off- well, that and getting my numbers together for year end accounting. turns out i did pretty well when i look back at it all. hell, i took a trip to italy! and honestly some people live off less- mind you- they don't live in california with all the modern conveniences but still makes me pretty happy to be doing so well with my art.

here's some pics of a nice visit out of town this past weekend. i was only away for Friday evening but it was a beautiful day to take some pictures. the sky was sparkling blue!

friday drawings

here's this weeks drawings.

as usual i feel like the week sped by super fast and i wonder where exactly it went!

i got these started on Wednesday and I usually have a bit more time in the studio to putter away on Thursday evenings but yesterday I baked up a storm (double batches of triple chocolate cookies, cornbread muffins, blackberry scones!) and went with the boy to get some new clothes for his new job that he starts on monday! Yes, a new job! Pretty exciting, I'll still be doing what I do while having the additional help of some very talented people.
Great changes in the mix!

Scroll down if you just want to see the cookie porn!

the next two are a bit more gestural and unfinished but i still like them.drawing of a bee on a flower i bought a few weeks ago- all made of feather quill!

and below; chickens! we might get chickens at some point...it would be pretty awesome!

mmm...and now for the Cookie Porn! Triple Chocolate Cookies!

insides!

i'm going camping in the desert this weekend with a bunch of awesome peoples to celebrate a friends wedding! Here's hoping I stay warm and dry!
Have a great weekend!

making.

earrings!
so i sat down in my studio on Monday evening with all my new toys spread out and tinkered away at some ear wires. I've never made any before and it was super fun! I don't think I'd want to make thousands of them but I do like being able to make earrings out of the little bits and pieces of awesomeness that come into my life.

here's the first pair- they have a long sort of narrow kidney shaped ear wire with matching bits of vintage lace from a tattered dress that belonged to my great aunt. the wires latch along the back.
pair 2, larger circular ear wires. i see these all over etsy and a friend of mine is partial to them as well. i like the simple shape and they are super comfortable to wear.

last pair i made. first i made the wires and then i rooted around in my stuff for something to put on them. i came across these super sweet round globe's of peach pearls i've had forever (bonus- thay match a super long strand of larger peach pearls i have!). a few jump rings later and they are good to go.that's it for now. i'm working up to using the new torch!

Palace Theatre

This past Saturday I had the delightful experience of touring one of the old theaters in downtown Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Historic Theater Foundation had a open house at The Palace Theater entitled "All About The Palace" part of an ongoing monthly series to tour all of the theaters in the Broadway area.
We arrived at the theater at about ten am and were invited in by the volunteers and allowed to wander freely around the theater! It was fantastic! At about 10:30 there was a presentation telling us the complete history of the Palace and delving into the history of Los Angeles Broadway and the Vaudeville days. After that we went on an extensive tour of all the nooks and crannies of the theater. Down into the deep basements and up into the third floor galley.
The next open theater is March 21st and is a tour of the Los Angeles a bit down the street from The Palace. Check out the link for more info and sign up for their mailing list to get the details on the next open house.

http://www.lahtf.org/