Hello, friends! Here is a little bit about life around here right now: What are you working on? Design Boot Camp Level 2 started this week and, as a result, I am in my sketchbook every single day. The thing about teaching that always amazes me is how much I learn when I teach. The artwork in my sketchbook is by Richard Diebenkorn. I dream of seeing work from his Berkeley Series in person some day. In the meantime, I have the coffee table book to pore over. What are you loving? We have been hyper COVID careful, but we... Read more →

Over the past few weeks, I've been working on this large (36x36) striped painting: It's actually on top of a painting I threw together back in 2017 when we were staging Steve's house to sell it. It never felt like a finished painting to me, So recently, I let it sit in the studio for about a month. It was on the floor. It was leaning on some drawers. I hung it on my painting wall. I just kind of lived with it for a while. Soon enough, I starting cleaning my brushes off on it and I even let... Read more →

As you know, I spent the month of February doing a paper weaving every single day. During that month, I heard about a German paper weaving tool that school children in Germany use. I eventually ordered this German weaving tool, but I was reluctant to order it for a long time because the tool is $6.95 and the shipping is $7.50. That said, I'm so glad that I did. It's a total game changer. It comes with no instructions because it's pretty intuitive to use. It's like a long skinny pair of reverse-grip tweezers. I think of it like a... Read more →

Back in 2018, I took a class from Pat Pauly. I came home with yards and yards and yards of fabric that I printed over the five day class. It's no secret that one of the keys to me being prolific is that I'm very fast when it comes to making things. I did so much printing that I had to buy more fabric half way through class! Over the past few years I've pretty much been hoarding my pretty fabric. I did use it to make some shirts for myself... ...but that's pretty much been it. (BTW: It's the... Read more →

As I mentioned yesterday, I used a bunch of bleeding tissue paper in this new 18x24 mixed media collage: You can see some of the texture and pattern on the bleeding tissue paper (as well as the brilliant color) in these close-ups: I love this one. I popped it into a frame almost as soon as I made it, and hung it on our bedroom wall. Our bedroom isn't very photogenic, so here's a pretty bedroom with this lovely painting: I feel like I should sell this piece, but I'm not quite ready to let go of it. Thanks for... Read more →

My toddler joins me in the studio most days. We spend time in the studio doing lots of non-art related things: hiding, moving trash cans, building a fort, and so on. We also do a lot of drawing, cutting (he loves scissors), sewing (the sewing machine is endlessly fascinating), moving fabric all around on the design wall, and gelatin printing. But his number one favorite activity is using the spray bottle. I've experimented with a variety of spray activities, but the one we keep coming back to is spraying bleeding tissue paper. Don't worry. I'm one step away from him... Read more →

Are you a messy stamper with ink all over your fingers? I am! Today, I'm going to show you how to create a removable magnetic handle for your ink pads so that your fingers stay out of the ink! This is a tip I learned on YouTube from Kathya Kalinine. I had to try it immediately since I'm a super messy inker. Here's the video: All you need is a super strong magnetic coat hook and a sheet or strip of adhesive-backed magnets. A few tips to keep in mind: Rare earth magnets are super duper strong. I personally keep... Read more →

There are many different ways to work in a series. Sometimes it's a single idea. Sometimes it's a technique repeated. Sometimes it's the same supplies or colors used over and over in different ways. Sometimes it's a combination of things. YOU get to create the "rules" around the series you're creating. Last week, I decided to create a series of square collages using the same six papers. My only rules were (1) square, (2) collage, and (3) the same 6 papers. Here are the six gelatin printed papers I started with: Knowing that I like a lot of contrast, I... Read more →

Here is the first of what I assume will be many, many, many mixed media collages made from my gelatin printed striped papers. I put together a short process video: Monthly members have access the the real-time (about 30 minutes) version of this video. As you can see in the video, I used Matte Medium to adhere the papers together and I didn't use a substrate of any kind. This has positives and negatives. On the positive side, you can make your collage any size. It's also really nice and lightweight because it's just copy paper. On the negative side,... Read more →

Back in 2015, I tried Color Burst Powders for the first time. I believe they're now called Color Sparx and co-branded with The Crafter's Workshop. I've been using them a lot with my son (he loves spraying what looks like nothing and seeing the color magically appear), so I thought it was a good time to re-post my original video all about them. Here's 2015 me trying out Color Burst Pigment Powders for the first time: As a side note, I re-watched this video last night and was inspired! 2015 me really had a lot of good ideas! ;) Here... Read more →