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Ria Sharon

pondering creativity, process, and making art

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Artist’s Sketch: Soraya Nulliah

January 25, 2016 by riasharon

soraya nulliah sing true detailI started painting and drawing in my teens without any formal instruction, support or encouragement. As I headed into my twenties I abruptly stopped and went through a long period of soul searching, discovering myself and mending my soul. All the while, my dreams of art lay hidden in my heart just waiting to bloom. A 4-month life changing pilgrimage through India when I turned 30 brought me face to face with mySELF and my dreams of art began to take hold of me so strongly, I could do nothing but succumb. I started to paint again and filled up canvases with my heart’s deepest longings. While my earlier works were heavily influenced by Indian aesthetics, my art today is more universal in nature. My works are very woman-centered and speak of the many aspects of the female soul; empowerment, wisdom, courage and grace. Yet I also address the broken parts of ourselves–our fears and vulnerabilities. I believe it is when we acknowledge and share all parts of ourselves and our journey, therein lies the power to heal ourselves and others.  I put my heart and soul into my art–every piece becomes a part of me. Nothing makes me happier than when I have touched another person’s heart through my paintings. I strongly believe in the power of storytelling. It is through our stories that we learn, share, grow, celebrate, love and live. Each of my paintings tells a story of the deepest parts of our souls. Of what it is to be fragile, vulnerable, joyful, hopeful…of what it is to be human.

1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
I work in mixed media and what I absolutely adore about it is… anything goes! I am always trying out new techniques and products; new ways of doing things. For instance, I just started mixing oil pastels with some of my water based products and they work so well together and create such interesting effects.

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?
For the past year or so I have been in recovery (from an extremely abusive childhood) so I find that working in my art journal has been cathartic for me. I absolutely adore art journaling… it seems to completely free me up and provides an avenue for me to play and have fun. I tend to work on 2-3 different art journals at one time sop that way I can always keep working while waiting for pages to dry.

soraya nulliah art j 4

3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
I try to work every single day even if I can just squeeze in a half hour. I find that keeping work on my table allows me to keep my creative juices flowing.

4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
It’s a lot of hard work. Sometimes people have a very idealized view of what being an artist entails but, like anything else, it entails a lot of hard work and time. The thing is, though, I absolutely love it! My heart is in it and I feel so fortunate that I get to do this work that is always interesting and challenging and soul-full. It fills me up.

5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?
Trust myself. Trust my voice and my vision. When I was younger, I was so insecure about my art and what I wanted to express. I thought I had to have a Fine Arts degree to be taken seriously. But what I now realize is that I had to believe in myself and my work; I had to take myself seriously.

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An Artist’s Sketch: Shannon Newlin

December 15, 2015 by riasharon

ShannonShannon Newlin is an illustrator and painter. Her professional experience includes over 10 years in product development as well as Disney Consumer Products styleguide design. During her time as creative director for a licensee she developed multiple product lines from concept through to production. She and her team also won Disney’s Infant Division “Product of the Year” Award.

After several years in NYC and Los Angeles, she now resides in Charlotte, NC with her husband and children. She founded Shannon Newlin LLC where she she sells and licenses her artwork for wall art, fabric and handcrafted home decor.

shannon.newlin1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?

My favorite medium is watercolor. I am a big fan of Winsor & Newton’s tube watercolor paints. I also love to mix things up by introducing bits of gouache, liquid acrylic and cut paper.

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?

At the moment I am getting ready for the Indie Craft Experience “Atlanta Ice” on Nov. 21-22. If you are in town I hope you can stop by and say “Hi”! I am really excited about it since it is a juried show to participate, and I am so honored to be there.

I have several things going on on my desk and easel in preparation….I am creating one of a kind hand-painted wood wall art pieces as well as original art on canvas and paper. In addition, I am created hand-painted notebooks and printed holiday cards to offer a range of gift items.

newstudio

3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?

I would say being consistent at painting everyday, even if it is just on a scrap of paper. Sometimes the paperwork or marketing part of the business can take away from the creative time, so I try to allow myself a few minutes just to throw paint around so I can feel creative.


4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?

My art and process really stems from wanting to express myself in a way that sparks inspiration and conversation. I like to take creative risks and learn by them. It can be scary but often times it takes you to the next level and is a great learning tool. I believe the creative process has to happen organically and not because one is following a trend that everyone else is doing. Your voice has to come from within, and it takes time.

5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?
Believe in yourself and keep going. Art-making really is a process, one day at a time, a journey of learning and growing…there is no real finish line. That is one reason why I love being creative…it is fluid….just jump in and enjoy the ride.

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An Artist’s Sketch: Els Vlieger

November 17, 2015 by riasharon

caseyI’m an illustrator, painter and surface pattern designer from the Netherlands, living in Leuven, Belgium with my husband, three kids and my dog. My designs have been licensed for fabric and for serving trays. I design birth cards and wedding invitations and I have both written, designed and illustrated a children’s picture book for a Dutch publisher.

I’m a late bloomer as a professional artist. I got an MA in art history at Leiden University (the Netherlands) and started my professional career researching 17th century Dutch Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It was an inspiring place and exciting time for me, studying these gorgeous paintings and living in this wonderful city.

But ever since I was young I wanted to create and my love for pencils and paint lured me back to school again. I got a degree as graphic designer and I now combine my learnings as art historian and my creative passion in my designs.

I’m inspired by the Golden Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer, by my travels, by everything nature has to offer, by lovely old picture books, beautiful patterns and old stamps. On rainy days I like to browse old National Geographic magazines.
I admire the work of Saul Bass, Paul Rand and Charley Harper. I love the bold and fresh Marimekko designs as well as the classic William Morris patterns. I’m available for representation and licensing opportunities. You can find me on elsvlieger.be

Two-Sisters-painting

1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?

I use lots of different media, both traditional and digital. For my fabric patterns I start with ink drawings, and then use Illustrator and Photoshop to finish them. Adding textures will bring my art alive.
I love traditional media, acrylic, gouache, ink and color pencils, and always finish my paintings with details and scribblings in pencil. About 80 % of my work is done behind my computer, but it feels so good when I have finished a real painting. It is more rewarding and relaxing in the process and it is more spontaneous compared to working with computer programs. There is no undo, no command-Z. It’s sometimes a bit scary – I mean when your preliminary sketches are quite alright and you have to paint over it, it feels that you are about to ruin it right away. And it’s time consuming too, but when you eventually hold a piece of paper with your painting it is ultimately rewarding.
The variaty is essential for my work and stepping away from the computer frequently to paint and get dirty hands is what I like best.

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?

I have just finished new fabric patterns for the small Belgian label Kersenpitje. It will be released early spring and has birds, wild flowers and hares in it. It will be a bit different from the first collections since it has no color, only black line drawings on a white background. I like this collection in particular since I drew the various wild flowers during my summer holiday in the Scottish Highlands, so in a way it takes me back to this great place.
I am putting new pattern designs on Spoonflower as well. And I am working on a new painting of a girl and animals in a landscape. It must become sweet, yet a bit alienating. I love that combination. Previously I finished a gouache painting staging my grandmother and great aunt — my granny with mushrooms and bark in her hair and my aunt with branches growing from her head. I want to make a series of portrait-like paintings with a strange twist.

Lets wander

3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?

Walking my dog is always very good for getting new ideas. He has been with us for four years and it is the best way of getting out of the house and away from my desk now that my kids have grown up.
My morning walk especially helps me with getting new ideas or solutions to problems I have encountered. Besides, my dog is the best company during the day! I tend to talk to him and it is always nice to play frisbee with him, especially after sitting behind my computer for too long.

I love going to the library and get tons of -usually- heavy books. Libraries have always been my happy place; back in my art historian days, I tend to bury myself in library caves. It is always exciting when you run into something unexpected and interesting. Going out and making an effort is good in the process of collecting new material for projects.

Pinterest works well for me for getting reference material and color inspiration. I think it is one of the best ways of collecting things on the internet; I quickly find what I need in my boards. But I also love the old fashioned way by browsing my files of magazine and newspaper clippings I have collected over the years.

I use my many sketchbooks to try out new ideas. I have sketchbooks with very thin paper, ideal for delicate pencil drawings with lots of scribbly lines. And I use my sketchbooks with thick paper for the more robust drawings with black ink with brush and bamboo pencil. These are usually the best ways to loosen up. And for drawing my icons for my fabric patterns I use ordinary copy paper. This is easy to scan and will not withhold you from experimenting, since it is cheap and there is a lot in stock.

4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?

I always start with pencil and paper, never use a tablet in the initial process. I have tried that but it is not the same for me. When I draw new icons for my patterns I like to directly use the black ink or brush pen without drawing in pencil first. This way it is more spontaneous and usually better. For composition, colors and other inspiration I study Dutch and Flemish paintings from the 16th and 17th century. There’s so much to learn from these masters from the Golden Age. And besides, I’m surrounded by these books, so they are at hand.

2014-Els

5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?

Never stop learning new skills; you will be amazed what you can master. Try to be an expert in lots of different fields. Experiment with new media, materials, combinations. Be curious, be organized. Meet with other artists. Don’t be afraid to show your work and send it to prospects and especially don’t be too much of a perfectionist, since this is often a drawback for achieving things.

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Filed Under: an artist's sketch

An Artist’s Sketch: Jane Moore Houghton

October 27, 2015 by riasharon

caseyJane Moore Houghton is a mixed media painter living and working in Central Massachusetts, US. Jane received a BS in Studio Art from Skidmore College in 1987. Since 2006 she has been granted seven solo exhibitions as well as several group shows. Jane’s latest series of works, her “Beasts” series was shown in a solo exhibition at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts in Worcester, MA this past winter.

This series features large, enthralling portraits of endangered and at-risk animal and plant species. Jane’s unique technique of using embroidery on layers of tissue paper is a feature of this series and has caught the attention of a variety of media outlets: Cloth, Paper, Scissors Magazine (11/12-2014), several podcasts and online blogs. Most recently, Jane was asked to speak at the Nantucket Whaling Museum about this impactful series. You can connect with Jane on her website, janemhoughton.com

arapawa-goat

Arapawa Goat

1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
For my mixed media work I use acrylic, gouache, ink, oil stick and colored pencil. I have recently (in the last few years) developed a technique of incorporating hand embroidery on tissue paper into my paintings of endangered and at risk animals. I developed this technique as a way to honor my grandmother who taught me to embroider when I was a young girl. I love using it in my work as a way to stay connected to her memory. Plus it feels like sketching with thread which has been challenging and fun!

arapawa-closeup

Close-up of Arapaho Goat’s embroidered area

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?
I tend to have a few irons in the fire at the same time! Currently I am working on an emerging series of works called “Beasts II: Heritage Breeds and Heirloom seeds” …which grew out of my “Beasts” series, featuring endangered and at-risk plant and animal species. I will hang a solo show at the end of this month with some pieces from both series. I am also developing a commercial art portfolio and am launching my first advent calendar kit this season. This kit grew from a spontaneous act last December of posting a “doodle” a day from my sketch books during the advent season. They were so popular that I decided to offer them as an advent calendar kit this year . It includes 24 doodles on 3” x 3” cards that can be displayed on a tiny wooden easel or hung on a cord with tiny clothes pins (all included).

3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
I try to keep structure and simplicity in place so that my creativity can sprout from a place of peace. I keep a weekly calendar that I keep organized by using different colored sticky notes for each type of task. For example, orange notes are for anything that falls under the exercise category… blue is business related tasks… pink is time making art… yellow is mediation and consultation or research time… green is anything related to my roles as mom, wife, pet owner, friend, etc… I can move the notes around and block out time for each thing in a given week. Also, I try to start my day with a little meditation time and journal writing to get my “monkey brain” to get grounded before starting my day.

4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
I guess I would want to share a bit about my embroidery on layers of tissue paper technique since I don’t know of other artists doing this in the same way… It’s a technique I developed where I make a tissue paper fabric of sorts by layering three layers of tissue paper glued together with gel medium. I smooth out the layers and hang them to dry. When it is dry it becomes like a delicate fabric that I can embroider on and then adhere the embroidered piece to the surface of my mixed media works. For example, a large portrait of a humpback whale I did in my Beasts series last year featured embroidered barnacles on the surface of his body. In my emerging “Beasts II” series I am beginning to use the embroidery in a less planned-out way and am trying to push the boundaries of using it in a playful and intuitive way.

5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?
jane-moore-houghton The advice I would give my young artist self: get your work out there – not with the goal to get published (I wanted to be a children’s book illustrator) or to be an instant success but to get feed back and grow from the experience so that you can reach your goals. Don’t let the fear of success and how that might change your life hold you back. Find a mentor and set up a lunch date with them every month. Find a tribe of other artists trying to do what you are wanting to do and support one another. Don’t ever stop making art.

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Filed Under: an artist's sketch Tagged With: mixed media

An Artist’s Sketch: Casey Saccomanno

October 20, 2015 by riasharon

caseyCasey Saccomanno is a Women’s Wear fashion and print designer currently living in Brooklyn, NY. She earned her BFA in fashion design at Philadelphia University in 2008. She most recently worked on designing the Nurture line sold at Dillard’s and is now focusing on print design opportunities. Casey’s designs are frequently inspired by traveling, music, nature, and living in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. She is an animal advocate and lives a vegan lifestyle, one day she dreams of owning a business and donating a portion of the proceeds to local animal sanctuaries.

casey-work

1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
Right now, watercolor is my medium of choice, I even like to combine it with mixed media such as metallics, salt, bleach, and india ink. I love painting and watercolor achieves a organic fluid appearance. I like that it is really unexpected how the watercolor will look once it dries- gives a really beautiful unique look.

casey-feathers

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?
I am working on a couple of print collections including a exciting project with an amazing company called Threaded Earth based in Australia. I am planning to post some fabric designs on Spoon Flower within the next few weeks. Right now my camera is full of photos of nature and photos of my neighborhood in Brooklyn- there are some murals and street art that lends great color inspiration for me.

3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
I love to get out of my apartment and explore the local museums and botanical gardens for inspiration. I love to listen to a great playlist while working, music can really positively affect my creative mood.

I believe in this quote: “Distance and difference are the secret tonic of creativity. When we get home, home is the same. But something in our mind has been changed, and that changes everything.” -Jonah Lehrer

4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
I relish in a handmade approach to design, nothing should be created by only looking at a computer screen. My sketch book and hand drawings bring life to my work.

casey

5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?
I would challenge myself to live by the following mantra: to travel, sketch, create, experiment, and test boundaries. Sometimes when testing boundaries, it is important to remember that perfection is not achieved immediately and true skill needs to be nurtured and practiced.

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Filed Under: an artist's sketch Tagged With: fashion, print design

An Artist’s Sketch: Marieke Middendorp

October 14, 2015 by riasharon

bonnieI am Marieke Middendorp, dutch illustrator and single mummy of two sweethearts. After I finished University in Rotterdam (I wanted to be a documentary maker) I moved back to Groningen and had several non-creative jobs. I started Studiopie.nl in 2009, besides my day job, first focusing at kids clothes, art and decorations for kids rooms. A little later I taught myself graphic design and designing websites. Only when I started the Lilla Rogers ‘Make Art That Sells’ course at the beginning of 2014, I realized I am a illustrator and not a graphic designer. So I picked up a pencil and could not let go. This is who I am. I have accepted my quirky, non-realistic- style as it represents who I am.

STUDIOPIE-penduka-playpelican

1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
Actually I use a lot of mediums. I always start with pencil. Making clear lines. But I also use black ink, watercolor, gouache, clips of paper, ecoline and particularly Photoshop. I guess you can say I make collages in photoshop; I take all the bits and pieces, make my own patterns and textures, scan them in and make it a complete artwork in photoshop using LOTS of layers.

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?
I’m working on some different pieces at the moment. On my desk there is a design for a tattoo; with lots of flowers, butterflies, hearts and birds in the shape of a scull. Love doing that, it’s completely different from what I usually do. And I’m working on a logo/banner for a website of a fantastic writer with whom I also am working on a childeren’s picture book. And I’m always working on my personal work, which is a bit more editorial.

3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
marieke-indestudioThe most valuable activities is keeping my body healthy. I take lots of breaks to reduce my RSI (which can be very frustrating, because sometimes I just want to surrender to my flow), eating healthy, making long walks and getting enough sleep. I think its very important not to stress about things. Have a little faith in the process and outcome. Sometimes I get scared something will not work out, or i can’t get inspired and actually almost all the times when I let it go, relax myself by making a long walk or read, I come up with the best ideas. Also, sometimes I just get started and it will all be allvcright. I get inspired by nature, reading books, seeing great beautiful things; art, patterns, other peoples work, photography, textures, quotes etc.

4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
When I’m working for someone else I mostly get inspired by the assignment, what they want it to represent, the message they want to send out, and I try to catch the feeling. Sometimes thats quite difficult, but I love it when you are brainstorming with a client and you complement each other and together you take it to the next level.
For my personal work, I’m a highly sensitive person and I use my art as medicine or diary. I love doing that. I need doing that. It is so soothing. And I always want to convey my feelings and thoughts. The biggest compliment is not that it’s beautiful but when somebody is touched by seeing my work.

There’s one project I’m very proud of. At my kids school there was a fundraiser for Penduka. Penduka is a foundation that helps disadvantaged women in Namibia to improve the standards of living by making beautiful handmade products. My contribution was the design for a playground for the kids of these women. They actually built this play pelican and kids there are enjoying it. That makes me very happy!

The whale was an assignment for MATS class. It turned out to be a very personal, timely and special for me. I saw the message with hindsight.

Marieke_Middendorp_JUNE

5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?
Do not be afraid to show yourself, do not be ashamed, do not listen to your own voice that says you are not good enough. Do not compare yourself to others. Do what you love, what you need to do, and show yourself to the world. Now I know, that when something looks like its going to suck: finish the piece. In most cases its actually turns out to something good! Trust yourself.

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Filed Under: an artist's sketch Tagged With: illustration

An Artist’s Sketch: Bonnie Christine

September 29, 2015 by riasharon

bonnie Bonnie Christine is a surface pattern designer, fabric designer for Art Gallery Fabrics and creator of Going Home to Roost. In addition to teaching and sharing all that she knows with the Roost Tribe, you can find her working in the garden and spending time with her husband and children. Join her in living an extraordinarily creative life on her blog, Going Home to Roost!

products1

1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?

my medium of choice is pencil and paper, and then illustrator. i absolutely love sketching for a collection and seeing it all come to life as i turn my artwork into repeating patterns for fabric, wallpaper and more!

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?

house25 right now, i’m working on my 10th fabric collection for art gallery fabrics. currently on my desk is stack of portfolios i’m working on sending out to my list of dream clients (exciting yet scary!) and a pile of fabric i need to begin sewing through for my display at international quilt market next month.

3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?

one practice i live by is to do something every single day that moves me closer to a big goal or dream of mine. it’s through this practice that amazing things happen and big dreams come true!

4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?

biothe artwork and patterns that i make are a direct reflection of my heart and life. though they may not seem like it at first glance, they each represent something near and dear to my soul. they tell the very story of my life!

5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?

be confident in your style, your work and your willingness to share with others. it will bless you in so many ways!

house42-3

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Filed Under: an artist's sketch Tagged With: surface patterns

An Artist’s Sketch: Maria Ojacastro

September 23, 2015 by riasharon

PrintMaria Ojascastro teaches children and adults as a Design/Visual Arts faculty member for the Center of Creative Arts and as a private instructor from her home studio in St. Louis. Her heritage and family inspires much of what she does, especially her three sons, one who is a cancer survivor, and all three who are now thriving with the diagnosis of Asperger’s. These personal challenges have led to specialized workshops she created for individuals whose lives have been touched by trauma, cancer, or atypical children. She’s presented workshops for many educational and cultural institutions including the Kemper Art Museum, The Missouri Mental Health Counselors Association (via live national webcast) and the Center for Survivors of Torture and War Trauma. She also teaches art to individuals whose lives have been touched by cancer at the Siteman Cancer Center, the Cancer Support Community and St. Anthony’s Cancer Center.

In 2014, Maria’s art was featured in a two-person exhibit in the Millstone Gallery at the Center of Creative Arts, entitled “Breathe.” “Breathe” was an exhibit of recently created works that layered prints, paint, text, and found objects as a meditation on resilience, salvaged from the relics of interrupted journeys. She received a Masters of Fine Arts from Washington University in St. Louis; studied in Santa Reparata International School of Art in Florence, Italy; and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana.

COCA Millstone Gallery Exhibition: Breathe - Maria Ojascastro and Rudy Zapf at COCA in St. Louis, MO on June 18, 2014.

COCA Millstone Gallery Exhibition: Breathe – Maria Ojascastro and Rudy Zapf at COCA in St. Louis, MO on June 18, 2014.

1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
I love printmaking… I studied printmaking, I think like a printmaker, I create like a printmaker, but I don’t have a printing press in my studio. So I often draw and paint on top of old prints and layer them in my work. Whether I’m painting, drawing, or melting encaustic wax, the elements I love about printmaking — textures, colors, layers and unpredictable results — make their way into my art.

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?
I taught a few of my private art students this summer how to make fairy gardens. So now I’m making a couple fairy gardens in old terra cotta pots for myself. It’s not something I planned on, or even pictured myself enjoying. But when a mom asked me to teach her two kids how to make fairy gardens, I couldn’t help but enjoy the whimsical nature of miniature furniture, sparkly gems, and pretty colors. It is a fun mini project for me.

3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
Going somewhere new or trying something new gets my creativity going. I’ve been doing a lot of college visits for my twins, who are senior high school students. I also recently brought all three of my sons to a zip line/adventure course to celebrate my youngest son’s 15th birthday. If I move my body — to another city or just zipping across the forest — my mind works better.

COCA Millstone Gallery Exhibition: Breathe - Maria Ojascastro and Rudy Zapf at COCA in St. Louis, MO on June 18, 2014.

COCA Millstone Gallery Exhibition: Breathe – Maria Ojascastro and Rudy Zapf at COCA in St. Louis, MO on June 18, 2014.

maria-ojacastro4. What’s one thing do you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
I often hate my art before I love it.


5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?

If you are going to get a degree in art, study something practical also — business, education, etc. If you are going to do something practical, also do something creative — dance, write, play an instrument etc. The left brain and right brain are equally important.

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Filed Under: an artist's sketch Tagged With: collage, mixed media, painting

An Artist’s Sketch: Jen Sertl

September 15, 2015 by riasharon

jens In 2004, my sister and I were both stay at home moms… and it was just before Christmas. She said, “I have no money to buy you a Christmas present”, and I said, “that’s good, because I don’t have any to buy one for you either”. We are both artists…she had already found her niche, I had not. I cut up every bridesmaid dress I had ever worn, and cut every silk and velvet fabric I had previously hoarded and made table runners for my family members. One friend commented that they would make beautiful scarves. Inspired by this, I shopped them around to local boutiques and received orders for 3 dozen from one shop. Soon after, my cousin who was in the recycled textile business called telling me he had a couple barrels of vintage cashmere sweaters for me to look at. I bought as many as I could and started restyling them immediately…business blossomed.

I have operated my own company, Angelina Accoutrements, LLC, since then. For a decade, I have deconstructed and repurposed vintage cashmere sweaters and garments into new one-of-a-kind wraps, ponchos, scarves, hats and fingerless gloves utilizing a self-taught technique that delicately reworks the edges of the knit. Though I am a one-woman operation, I create and manufacture more than 350-400 original pieces of clothing and accessories each year~producing and selling them myself through luxury boutiques, private trunk shows, fashion shows, and most recently juried art shows. In addition, I work directly with clients to restyle their own cashmere into beautiful new accessories and statement pieces. Clients always come back to me telling me that whenever they wear their pieces, they get stopped several times by other women complimenting them, and wanting to know where they bought it.

angelina

1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
For a decade, I’ve worked with vintage cashmere sweaters, deconstructing them and reconstructing them into new wraps, ponchos, sweaters, scarves, fingerless gloves, hats for women and babies. I love that i can take something that was once discarded, and turn it into something beautiful again. I love unique pieces that tell a story and inspire a connection with the wearer of the item.

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?
Right now I’m working on hand-stitched infinity scarves with handmade bows of cable knit cashmere. They require quiet time with the needle and thread. They can’t be stitched on the machine because of the stretchy nature of cashmere knitwear. Some have wool boucle bows which is a little nod to a 3rd degree connection I share with Coco Chanel.

1920 x 1920 grey scarf with fingerless gloves 3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
I start each day with some quiet and meditation, which clears my mind and sets up my awareness level to high for the rest of the day. It adds a certain serendipity to my day and everything flows. Other activities that inspire me are getting out and about~anywhere new, or out in nature. This will sound odd after the “meditation” answer above, but watching Gossip Girl all summer with my teenaged daughter was inspiring beyond measure. The clothing and styling was probably the BEST part of it. We had travelled to NYC last spring and she and I both received lots of compliments on our fingerless gloves while we were there. When we came home, she made me sit down and watch Gossip Girl because it was filmed there. Spending quality time with my daughter and her friends really fills me up as well…I love seeing them have photo shoots together and watching them encourage and compliment one another.

4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
I love the connection between people that art creates… for me it is what helps to inspire me over and over again. It’s not just the creating of the goods that I love so much, it’s seeing a woman try something on and smile at herself in the mirror. It’s uplifting to me to hear clients come back and tell me how many compliments they receive when they wear my cashmere pieces. It’s what inspires me to get back to the studio and make more goods. It’s a big circle.

5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?
I’d tell her to always follow her heart, and that her path will “light up” along the way. I said those words in an interview in 2008 and my grandparents read the article. In 2011, my dear grandpa died. He and my grandma had been my greatest source of inspiration on how to live a good life. Shortly after he died, I started finding little stars on my path, ALWAYS while I was doing something in his honor, or something from the heart for another… I cannot tell you how many stars I found in the last 4 years. So I began making bracelets (see photo) in his honor and as a way to tell the story of connection with him after his passing. I didn’t realize until almost a year later that my grandpa was reminding me of my own words in 2008 in that interview… the question was, “when do you feel your best?” I said, “I feel my best when I follow my heart… when I do, the path in front of me lights up.” I still find stars almost every day at a poignant moment. And, as I’m sitting in my studio writing this, I hear a commercial playing that keeps saying the word “stars” over and over again. It’s little things like this that make life seem magical and perfectly in time… and that may sound crazy to some, but it makes me feel full of joy.
bracelets

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Filed Under: an artist's sketch Tagged With: cashmere, fashion, handmade

An Artist’s Sketch: Airees Rondain

September 10, 2015 by riasharon

AireesAfter running a desktop publishing shop from 1994-2000 doing graphic design and printing, I got married and focused my attention to building a career out of web designing. In the process of building my “sample” website to test my web design skills I recently acquired, a new opportunity manifested right in front of me – to design and make wedding invitations. That’s how I got involved with a social enterprise and became an advocate for the promotion of Filipino handmade products in the context of fair trade and sustainability. I was active in the wedding invitation industry promoting our eco-friendly handmade paper invitations for 13 years.

Making invitations while raising a family for the last 12 years made me want to do something else. It was in 2013 that I had this strong urge to paint. I’ve always wanted to paint and I started in 1990 before entering college but I stopped due to the demands of the course. I didn’t get paints on my hands in 2012 but I did get sticky hands because the hundred of handmade collage wallets and passport jackets I made and sold locally and abroad.

In March 2014, as a birthday gift to myself, I enrolled online on sketching and painting girls in boots during watercolor. I never put down the paintbrush again.

I’m not the kind of person who’d settle especially in my craft. After making hundreds of “watercolor girls”, the entrepreneur in me thought it would be nice to make a 2015 Calendar with motivational quotes for each month. I offered my custom portraits as well as unique gifts for Christmas. My work got the attention of the Editor-in-Chief of a nationwide daily.

This year, I started to dabbled in mixed media especially art journaling and am beginning to translate my artwork as designs for handmade paper wallets and stationery.

airees 1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
I can’t pick one of these two since they kind of balance my energy depending on the mood I’m in so I’ll say its watercolour and acrylic. I love the the “light feel” watercolour gives me and how I can just be playful if I want to. Watercolour is quite unpredictable that can lead to happy accidents. It allows me to relax when I paint loosely (like in my traveler’s notebook/illustrated journaling). At the same, it also gives me that certain level of control (I’m quite OC) if I paint custom portraits. Acrylic, on the other hand, is like my “cheat day” when my fingers feel tired of the controlled movement I do in watercolor. I am allowed to get messy, do finger-painting, experiment and explore. I use it mostly on my art journals.

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?
I just finished an art journal spread I titled “Home” and now I’m creating more for my first Art Journaling Workshop together with a friend on August 30. They also serve another purpose – I digitise and use them as designs for my line of handmade paper wallets, journals and other handmade paper products. It still feels surreal when I see my art journal pages used as a cover for a journal or paper wallet.

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3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
Working from home can be quite claustrophobic for me! I have a once a week “date-with-myself” at a nearby cafe or anywhere where my mood wants to take me. I eat good food and a cup a tea to cap off my lunch while reading a good book on art. Sometimes I bring my traveler’s notebook and do illustrated journaling. I think the slow and quiet time that I get to savour at least once a week recharges my creative soul.

I also need to make something creatively each day whether it be a small watercolour painting or gesso-ing my art journal page at the least! Making art each day is like taking my vitamin supplements!

4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
That we are ALL creative. We just have to tap in on whatever creative project is calling us and give it a try. It becomes a passion then if we MAKE time (not just finding time) to pursue it.

If you’ve always wanted to paint but don’t know how, start by getting a paintbrush and paint first, and by all means, paint away. Take workshops, read blogs, watch YouTube. Be consistent. Be gentle with yourself. Every artist was once an amateur.

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5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?
Have the courage to pursue your passion and work hard to become a better version of yourself than yesterday.

I took up Computer Science in college because it was the “the” course that will take me to places and give me a stable income. I was just starting to paint the summer before entering college but I stopped. It took me 24 years to pick up the paintbrush again because of that nagging voice inside my head that I can’t draw other than stick figures and I have never put the paintbrush down since then.

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Filed Under: an artist's sketch Tagged With: acrylic, art journaling, watercolor

An Artist’s Sketch: Carmen Reyes

September 2, 2015 by riasharon

CarmenCarmen Reyes is an artist and makeup professional whose focus over ten years practicing has evolved from beauty and fashion makeup to prosthetics and practical effects.

She holds an art degree in Production Design and has taken a Film and Television Makeup certificate program at Cinema Makeup School in Los Angeles, California. Since then she has worked on several major theatre productions in Manila, television commercials, print ads, and last year worked as Key Makeup and Prosthetics Artist on her first full length feature film entitled HENERAL LUNA.

Currently, she provides the prosthetics and practical effects for the children’s television show, Lola Basyang, which airs weekly in Manila and heads the Character Makeup Course at Makeup Design Academy.

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1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
Sculpting is something I am constantly learning and loving. The best for that is plastilina, an oil based clay which I have gotten used to creating textures with. The clay was firm enough, but it softens up when heated with your fingers or if need be with a lamp. I also learned also how to thin it out to liquid so it’s become really useful. I love seeing what can be created with it.

I also create different textures or build up with liquid latex, a milk-like liquid that dries rubbery. Combined with cotton, paper or foam products, it reminds me of papier mache, but its flexible, so it will stretch and move with the body when used for a prosthetic appliance.

When coloring, I use alcohol activated paints for detailing: veins, scars, marks, freckles. I love it because it sits on top of any surface, unlike oil or water based paints. It brushes on as soft as watercolour, but can be adjusted. I also absolutely love its staying power on skin especially against sweat. It makes my job a lot easier during long, humid shoot days.

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2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?
I’m at different stages of shooting three different movies right now: first one is a gritty horror story that revolves around a girl in high school that can communicate with spirits. My job is to recreate the dead spirits, and the brutally killed victims. It is up for Manila’s film festival at the end of the year, which is a pretty big deal for me.

Another is a spoof of the classic horror film, The Exorcist. Research for that project was kind of challenging because when I watched the director’s cut re-release in 2000, I was so creeped out that I couldn’t sleep by myself for months. It became fun to work on though because its a silly comedy and working on set was fun.

And another is about a socially awkward boy who relates most with dogs, especially with an abused pet Doberman, but gets bitten early on in the story. That’s where its my job to create a realistic bite wound, and how it should look as the timeline in the story progresses.

I am also part of a children’s fantasy series that airs on weekends. I love children’s stories and children’s shows in general so I love reading a new script each week and seeing how to translate it into something visual and practical. It’s fun because it tests my creativity but I’m given a lot of freedom with it at the same time.

My studio is a mess of things! There are severed heads and other body parts, face and body forms that I use to sculpt on. I store some raw materials too, just in case I all of a sudden get a project with a tight schedule, I can rummage through it and see what we can work with for the requirement.

3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
I love learning from different artists and I take advantage of learning online. I do as much of that as I can, but something I learned to schedule in as well is some purposeful rest and exercise. Since my creative output is also my job, it can be stifling when I’m overworked and unrested.

4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
On a production set, everyone’s job takes part in telling a story. There are times when my output is called to shout out or capture the audience, like when the story requires the audience to get spooked by a certain image. There are also times when your work supports and blends in the background. Like a wound that happened a week into the story and how that would look like days and months after that, or how a realistic looking beard or moustache can create a character.

I love how my art can express itself that way: keeping the audience in that present time and place, with that specific emotion. In that way, when the work is unnoticed or didn’t distract the audience then I’ve succeeded.

5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?
I actually got this advice during a time I was overwhelmed with the requirements at work, faced with the responsibilities of adulthood for the first time. I didn’t feel creative or effective at all with the pressures, and I would focus on my mistakes a lot. I brushed myself off and got to work the day after someone simply said, “It gets better.” And it did.

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An Artist’s Sketch: Catherine Just

August 25, 2015 by riasharon

catherineCatherine Just is an award winning photographer, artist and mentor. Her work has been published on the cover of National Geographic Magazine, and inside Photo District News Magazine, Oprah.com, Annapurna Living and other publications online and off. Her photographic career started in 1987 after she checked herself into drug treatment from a crystal meth addiction. In early sobriety she found that she could express visually what was so uncomfortable for her to express verbally. She studied Conceptual Photography at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and began an exploration of self-portraiture and alternative processes. Catherine believes that photography can be used to gather up evidence of what’s living in between the words. She uses photography as a tool for transformation. She is the co-founder of the here co. with Henry Lohmeyer, a space that offers photography courses, workshops and photo sessions with an emphasis on time spent together, supporting each other’s unique creative expression. Catherine is the proud mama of her 6 year old son Max, who happens to have Down syndrome. She’s in the process of creating the Max Harrison Foundation, a hub to teach children with DS how to express themselves through photography.

Follow Catherine on Instagram and find out more about her upcoming class, RISE.

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1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
My medium of choice is photography. Photography, for me, is a tool for transformation. When I was 18 years old, photography was a doorway to heal after I got sober from an addiction to crystal meth. It was and continues to be a medium that helps me process through difficult emotions and experiences. It’s also helped me create evidence by marking moments in my life that really matter. It helps me shift my attention from my mind down into my heart.

I love Polaroid and the mystery that it provides as well as the immediacy. I love that it sees things differently than I do, so I never really know what to expect. I love that I can’t really control every aspect of it. I love using long exposures to investigate a world I sense, but can’t really hold onto. It’s a world that I cannot see with my eyes or capture at a 60th of a second. It’s a world that’s in between the words. I love using the camera to see the unseen places: the places within a relationship that are felt but not spoken, the places within my heart that are hidden and broken, the places where fear lives, the unspoken dreams and wishes. I love creating a visual language around subject matter that has been difficult for me to express verbally.

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?
The Big news right now is that I’ve teamed up with Henry Lohmeyer to create the here co. We’re building the curriculum for several online photography courses, live photography workshops (Los Angeles and NYC are already on the schedule ) and teaming up during photo sessions for clients in the music, entertainment and entrepreneurial industries.

I’m also working on a fine art project called “Chasing the Fog::Learning how to Breathe” which has been a 2 year exploration of identity through self-portraiture, polaroids, long exposure, metaphor and symbology.

3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
I love working with a mentor that I check in with monthly. It helps me do the work when my life can feel consuming. I also have a group of photographer friends I meet with monthly to go over our personal projects with and give really constructive feedback. Those are the external practices. I also give myself a lot of room to explore even when I think I know what I want an image to look like ahead of time. Once I start creating the images, I give up a lot of control and listen, watch, lean in and have a conversation with the work as I’m making it. I never really believe that a photo is “bad” because it gives me so much information about what needs to happen in the next photo. It’s all information. I have two very distinct ways of working…One is to journal in a very specific way with a mind map process at the end of the journaling session. I use that to then move into my art making process. The other is to throw all of that out the window and just start making work. Both are so valuable to me and offer personal freedom that I need in order to feel safe in the creative process. Having too rigid of a system or a personal dogma of how things need to go….would probably kill the flow for me.

4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
Photography has truly helped me to live. It’s helped me explore and express myself through the darkest of times and has helped me document incredibly meaningful moments I never thought I’d experience in my lifetime. When I’m devoted to myself and to my work a shift occurs that I could have never expected. A layer of pain is transformed or I become more deeply accepting of it and my work actually has something to say to me if I listen closely and try not to orchestrate an outcome.

catherine-just

5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?
I read this question several times and thought about where I was at in my life when I started out as an artist. I was newly sober and so insecure that I couldn’t look anyone in the eyes. I was smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day just to put something in between my very sensitive, raw crawling out of my own skin self and the world around me. Making my work was a bridge from my intense desire to “leave” to my fierce devotion to “stay.” I really don’t have any advice to give my younger self! I think it was a brave move to stand up for myself and for another shot at living. I’m grateful I used the art process to get acquainted with myself and the world around me.

catherine-just-2

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An Artist’s Sketch: Katelyn Morse

August 18, 2015 by riasharon

Katelyn Hey! I’m Katelyn and I looove to paint. I make my home on an island in Nova Scotia, Canada. I’m blessed to be surrounded by so much natural beauty and I can’t help but to be inspired by it. I paint things found in nature – whether it be feathers, flowers, mountains or trees, I love them all! I love to inspire others to see the beauty that is all around then in this world we live in. I hope you enjoy my work!

katelyn-morse-studio

1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
I work with acrylic paints mostly. I just love the way I can blend all sorts of pretty color and the way it flows. I sometimes add a lot of water to it to turn it into somewhat of a watercolor paint when I’m in the mood for it!

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?
Plants, plants, and more plants! And my cat, and tea. Haha. 🙂 My desk has been overrun. I’ve just completed a painting of a succulent and next I will be working on a custom order of a few different provinces colored in with watercolors!

katelyn-morse

3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
Time. Lots of time needs to go into my painting – I have to set aside time or nothing will be done! Constantly working on new things, experimenting and finding what you love is of utmost importance. But quiet time to just sip tea and get inspired is just as important. A good balance is key! Also, tea and good background music helps as well!

4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
I strive to help people appreciate the little things in life we are freely given to enjoy. I paint mostly things from nature to inspire people to stop and smell the roses! The intricacy of a flower is something I’ve grown to appreciate and wonder at their beauty. I hope others can do the same!

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5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?
Don’t put that paintbrush down! Consistency will take you places. Don’t underestimate yourself and be determined. Be kind and show love always – that will get you for as well!

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Filed Under: an artist's sketch Tagged With: acrylics, florals, nature, painting

An Artist’s Sketch: April DeMarco

August 11, 2015 by riasharon

AprilI love the creative process found everywhere in life. I am a prosperous artist. I am owner of DeMarco Studios where I have been featured in multiple exhibits across New York City, including East End Arts, Garrison Art Center, and Flinn Gallery in Greenwich. I love sharing my expertise, educating students from high school, to college level art courses, online workshops and beyond.

I deeply enjoy collaborating with public and private designers and stagers as a fine artist creating lush abstracts for their interiors. The natural born teacher in me loves educating through my own online studio art courses such as “Meditation Painting.” As an educator and business owner I am INSPIRED. I will create innovative courses and workshops that combine the healing ability of art creation with demonstrations of entrepreneurial skills.

1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
I love acrylic paint. I love it because it dries fast. This works for me because inspiration and ideas come fast and are fickle, escaping me if I can’t capture them. The layering of strokes is like a (often heated) conversation for me. If I am interrupted by waiting time for the paint to dry then the flow is broken. When I am connected to inspiration there is a momentum that occurs in my action of painting. When I am in it, that miraculous outer body experience happens where I do not know what time it is or how long I have been painting. I live for that high.

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?
I am working on new beginnings. Yes, you can apply the same creative state of productivity to digital work- to any work. I am remaking my website to feeeel more like who I am. I’ve changed dramatically in the past year and it’s a matter of style, perspective and goals. Visual aids online are extremely powerful and if they accurately can reflect you than that is the way it should be for me.

3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
SOLITUDE and MUSIC I could say the music I play has an effect on how I perform but the truth is more the opposite. I choose the music based on the mood and energy I am already feeling about what needs to be created.

4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
It’s all on you. I used to love to share what each abstract work meant to me but I have moved past that point. I am happy to let the work go more in the sense and be used to represent and reflect whatever life experiences the view wants to attach to them. It becomes more of a trust between me and the audience, it becomes a sign of confidence that others’ perception have no relevance on who I am or how I should feel. It’s really symbolic for my new stage of life too.

5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?
Do not go to art school. My kids are 12 and 16 and I won’t pay for them to go for art school either. Gasping? Good. Let me explain how it is that I can preach such hypocritical blasphemy on the cult. Art school did not prepare me to support myself. The art world is a horrendous non idealic place of business that is more about marketing and branding than talent. If my children are creative and want to pursue the arts which means they and you are entrepreneurs. Artists are in business for themselves. My kids can major in business or entrepreneurship and learn the skills to be able to get their work in the world and support themselves. Art classes and mentorships can be found across the world by the best and it does not have to be at a university level. If you wanted the world’s best chocolate cake, would you deny yourself or it’s value because the baker did not go to culinary school rather spend his life perfecting his passion? If you are a writer, then write. If you are a painter, paint. This is what makes you great.

April2

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An Artist’s Sketch: Robin Mead

July 29, 2015 by riasharon

robinRobin Mead is an independent, self -representing artist whose works include digital and altered art, acrylic and mixed media paintings and watercolor landscapes and gardens. She also creates wonderful vibrant colored crochet afghans and handmade art journals that infuse her love of color into joyful creations that can be used in the home or given as gifts.

Robin combines her background in the Social Work profession with her love of expressing joy by creating colorful depictions of nature, preferably the ocean, landscapes, flowers and birds. She relies on her intuitive skills and insight to capture the ‘joy’ that she feels, and translate it onto paper, canvas and the digital screen. After attending art school on Long Island, New York in 2003, she began sharing her work in local shows and on the internet by way of websites, blogs and online shops. Robins work can be found in homes around the world as well as album covers, books, and in tutorials for creating art.

Robin also loves to spend time at the ocean or in nature looking for inspiration. She always has a bag of art supplies ready in hand and is usually creating something wherever she goes. Robin lives with her husband of 25 years and spends hours with him and her 2 daughters and her friends, sipping wine and laughing for hours.

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1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
So my medium of choice is definitely watercolor. I don’t really use it in the traditional sense, but more of a mixed media style. Sometimes I use it very diluted and other times with a very dense hand. I love the versatility of watercolor and I also combine it with many other suppliies, for example liquid acrylic, ink, cut paper, using it in a spray bottle..dripping it or just splashing it on. My go-to watercolor is Winsor and Newton… but I just recieved Dr Ph Martens liquid concentrated watercolors… and they are just amazing. My new Favs for sure.

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?
Today I was working on some collage pieces… I’m not really a collage artist but try to be sometimes… lolol. I use collage technique to ponder different things I would like to try.

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3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
The practice most important to me is to create everyday… no matter what. There is no other practice more important than that… there is no magic or secret on how to get better at art… or how to improve your skill… there is no class or instructor that is better than experimenting, exploring and trying out new ideas, techniques or supplies.

4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
The one thing I’d like to share about my art or process is to do what you love. I love color and line and that is what I use to create. There are many ways to integrate those things and that is how I develop new creations… there are of course other things I love about art… but most important is to do what you love… the rest will follow.

5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?
I so wish I did not have stipulations in my mind when I was young… about what art was. I thought you had to be able to create or copy a face from a person, like a sketch… that turned out like a masterpiece. I thought you had to already be great at art to be an artist. Those beliefs are what I would contradict to my younger artist self..and any other as well.

robin-in-studio

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An Artist’s Sketch: Chloe May Brown

July 21, 2015 by riasharon

chloeChloe May Brown makes objects for the everyday. She uses her hands to build with clay and translates her drawings into textile designs. Chloe incorporates fabric dying, screen printing, and sewing into creating her soft objects.

Chloe lives in Portland, Maine where she works as a designer at More & Co., spends time by the ocean, and hangs out with her cat. You can see her recent work at www.chloemaybrown.com as well as on her Instagram.

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1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?

Recently I have been in love with screen printing as well as hand built ceramics. They both have such different appeals to me. Screen printing is clean and immediate, I am able to see my drawings translated onto fabric in an instant. Working with clay is almost the opposite. There is an element of time which is not present in screen printing, I have to be patient between the firings, I am not always sure what the outcome will be, and there is always a surprise.

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?

I seem to always have a handful of projects all happening at once. I love to work this way, I find that one thing feeds off of another and something I am building in clay could inspire something entirely different that I want to make out of fabric. Right now my home studio is filled with screen printing supplies while I work on some fun new fabric designs. My desk is overflowing with fabric samples and color swatches. At my ceramics studio my shelves are filling up with vases and planters. I have been feeling so inspired by the growth and blooms this time of year, I am constantly finding ways to bring them into my home.

3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?

One of the most important ingredients to my creative process is to just make. To make with no agenda or outcome in mind. This is where so many of my ideas for larger projects stem from. I can be doodling and one little aspect of a scribble will inspire a new design for a fabric.

Being outdoors is equally important to my creative process. I live on the coast of Maine and this is an inspiration for much of my work. To take a walk around my neighborhood and see what is growing or to go for a swim in the salty ocean refreshes my mind and my vision.

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4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?

I get joy from making simple, beautiful, useful items. I want to make items that will become a part of one’s everyday life. Many of my pieces are made with this intention, dishes to eat your meals, pillows to rest on, or maybe just a painting to hang on your wall.

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5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?

If I could step back just a handful of years I would want to tell myself to do and make what feels right. Don’t try to force anything to happen that is not feeling natural. When something truly feels right you will know it and you should sail on that feeling whenever you can.

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Filed Under: an artist's sketch, design Tagged With: ceramic, fabric, pattern design, surface designer, texture

An Artist’s Sketch: Esther BeLer Wodrich

July 14, 2015 by riasharon

esther My analytical side wants to face each challenge of recreating what I see while the artist within wants to create something beautiful. I meticulously measure, align and mark to put together works in an autobiography of times and places past. Each work begins with a bit of fear and trepidation as my inner perfectionist strains to recreate what I see while accepting each imperfection as part of the beauty of the process. I am a graduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, although I’m primarily self-taught in watercolor.

I’ve been blessed with a loving husband and 4 beautiful children who sometimes surface in my art but each of whom are the greatest of artworks themselves. In 2011, I was diagnosed with a thankfully treatable form of cancer, but that diagnosis shook my world. This was a defining moment that put everything into perspective and challenged me to reconsider how I was using my gifts and talents. It pushed me to return to pursuing my too long neglected love of art. Now I spend part of each day sitting down with some paper, fond memories and something to mark the page with. God has given me a talent and desire to create, that no matter how busy life can get I cannot reasonably give up.

BeLer_SouthwarkBridge

1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
Since having children, my go to medium changed from oils to watercolor for it’s ease of setup and cleanup. Now I love it because I can achieve the detail I want. This past year I’ve been working on an architectural series in watercolor, pen and ink. I love how the pen and ink allows for sharp contrasts and crisp lines, while the watercolor adds layers of color.

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?
I recently started a drawing of the interior of the Great Hall at Ellis Island. I didn’t plan for it to coincide with Independence Day, but am grateful for the timely reminder of freedom.

3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
Nearing the end #The100DayProject, it has been enlightening to see how working a little bit each day has been very beneficial. Not only am I producing more work, but it is sharpening my skills, my drive and my imagination. Working each day has become a priority – I wake up early in order to ensure a little uninterrupted time before the rest of the day’s activities take over.

4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
My art forms a visual autobiography. I am passionate about experiences in my life and the people who fill those memories. I enjoy the process of recreating what I see, especially special people and places in my life that I cherish. I love to be surrounded by beauty as well as fond memories and am grateful to be able to share my talents and skills to help others surround themselves with memories they love, too.

No matter if I’m working on a graphite portrait or a detailed architectural drawing, I’ve learned that if you want things “just right”, there are no short cuts. Be patient and don’t rush to finish.

Hmm. I suppose that’s two things. I recently wrote about my process (don’t worry, it’s short).

5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?
I’m afraid this is a bit cliché, but truly it is to be yourself (ooh, I have a blog post on this one, too!). I struggled for a long time to find my “niche.” I became overly concerned with the conceptual or with creating a unique style instead of spending time creating. I tried and failed to create in ways that were outside of my nature that left me feeling disatisfied and my art feeling forced. Frankly, not recognizing or accepting who I was as a representational artist was both discouraging to me as an artist but worse, paralyzed my ability to create for a long time. My advice can be bullet pointed as follows:
• Accept who you are as an artist and a person.
• Ignore those nagging doubts in your head.
• Success will not simply fall into your lap.
• If you really want it, work HARD for it. Really, really hard.

BeLer_profile

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Filed Under: an artist's sketch, process Tagged With: drawing, watercolor painting

An Artist’s Sketch: Sanjukta Sen

July 7, 2015 by riasharon

sanjSanjukta Sen was born in India, brought up in Singapore and is currently residing in the UK. Currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Politics and International Relations at the University of Cambridge, she has grown up in an environment where art is highly appreciated – her father and sister are very into film and photography and her mother has been a practicing artist for almost 20 years now. She used to dabble in the usual arts and crafts as a child, but has only taken art up properly in the last two months when she needed something to keep her sane during the infamously stressful “exam term.” She does the odd illustration and graphic design commission here and there for the university newspaper, Varsity, as well as her college newsletter, Griffin and various societies.

sanjukta

1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
I primarily sketch things from life and I am too impatient to use pencils/erasers, so I put ink straight down onto the paper and wash my sketches with watercolour. At the risk of sounding cheesy, I love the spontaneity of the whole process. Once ink is down, it’s down and you can’t change it and instead of trying to plan every stroke you just end up going with the flow and accept what you put down. Similarly, you really can’t control watercolours – they have a mind of their own and flow and mix with each other. I’m still learning to embrace this anarchy and take joy in the novelness of the effect it produces compared to a more controllable medium.

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?
I’m always sketching things around me – people, buildings, mundane everyday objects. As such I don’t have specific projects that I’m continuously working on. However, I do have a separate summer sketchbook that I am maintaining in parallel with my other sketchbooks – I’m drawing a building or two in every city that I’ve visited in the last few weeks and will visit in the next few months (we get very long summer breaks!). Moreover, since next year will be my last year in Cambridge, I plan on dedicating a significant portion of my free time to sketching everything in this city – from the restaurants to the theaters to the colleges to the libraries and museums – you get the drift. What I will then do with these sketches I have not decided yet, but I want to record every single thing in this city in some sort of a visual diary and share it with people.

3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
I love being inspired. I often go into bookshops and sit in the corner flicking through books on urban sketching, or illustration, or graphic design in general. I spend hours online looking through the works of artists, their styles, what they find interesting, their medium of choice etc. It’s what keeps me inspired to continue working. It can be very demotivating seeing all these wonderful artists online on instagram etc. and thinking “I’ll never be that good, is it worth continuing?” Yes, it is, mainly because everyone has to start off somewhere. I’ve only been sketching properly for about 2 months now, I have years and years ahead of me and browsing through artists’ works and inspiring myself gets me excited about seeing where I end up.

4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
I want my art to make people happy, or at least happier. One of my artistic inspirations is Quentin Blake – he went to the same Cambridge college as I go to now and I’ve had the fortune to meet him. In his interviews he talks a lot about wanting to make people happy through his art, and he definitely does that. I’ve created an unofficial mascot for my college – the Downing Hedgehog – and every week I produce a cartoon of him doing something cute or motivating. Cambridge especially can be an extremely difficult environment to live and study in, and through both my illustrations and urban sketches I try to put a happier spin to everything. I don’t have a “style” yet but I would love to have one that radiates positivity. I’m working on it.

5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?
I’m still reasonably young and definitely very newborn to the art community, so I wouldn’t necessarily have any advice to give myself two months ago. One thing I do need to keep in mind though, both when I started off and in the future, is that not everything I do will be great, or even half-good. I am going to have spells of terrible sketches (and I already have had them), but I need to not get frustrated and keep going at it.

urban-sketch






 

Filed Under: an artist's sketch Tagged With: urban sketching, watercolor sketches

An Artist’s Sketch: Lisa Lehmann

June 30, 2015 by riasharon

lisa-lehmanArtist by trade. Maker by birth. Dreamer. Wife to best friend. Mama to 4 “smalls” (or not so small 17, 16, 13 & 11). Addicted to coffee… and dark chocolate Lover of wine. Self-proclaimed fashionista. “Ink” connoisseur. Captivated by nature. Plays with fire. Enchanted by the written word. Seeking authenticity. Crazy about her furry girls. Child of the King. Typically, Lisa can be found with a camera in one hand… Starbucks in the other, a golden retriever by her side and slightly covered in silver dust. Guaranteed to be wearing fabulous boots, sitting on bleachers at one of her “small peoples” sporting events, with a sparkle in her eye and a smile on her face.

lisa-lehmann

1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
Metal! Because it can move in unexpected ways and become something so delicate and beautiful but yet be so strong!

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?
New stones I picked up at a show. Turning them into amazing one of a kind pendants!

3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
The design process is huge. But it’s different every time. It depends on the medium. If i’m working with stones, I really need to touch them, trace them and then let the design flow from stone itself. Other times, it’s a design that comes to mind out of “need” / “want” for myself and then a pencil needs to hit paper. From there a copper or silver model needs to be created to work out the logistics of the design. How does it look? Feel? Is it balanced? Does it work?

4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
Find your own way. You can hear others process. You can study books on design. But everyone is different. You need to try many methods and see what feels best for you. And what works today might not work tomorrow, and that is ok. Exploration is part of the discovery. And beautiful things come from that discovery!

5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?
Trust your instincts. Try everything. Experiment. Explore. Discover. Be yourself. Do not be afraid to fail. And when you do, because you will… don’t give up. Just get up and start again. I tried to fit in a mold that I absolutely did not fit in for a very long time, but when I finally stopped worrying about what others thought about me, or my work, I was free to be me. And me is pretty ok.

studio-jewel

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Filed Under: an artist's sketch Tagged With: goldsmith, jewel

An Artist’s Sketch: Cynthia Morris

June 23, 2015 by riasharon

CynthiaDevoted to capturing life on the page in full color, Cynthia Morris loves to illustrate everyday moments in ink and watercolor. Her Writual Blessings deck is a colorful affirmation deck designed to banish writer’s block.

Cynthia is also the author of several books including the Paris novel Chasing Sylvia Beach and the how-to guide Create Your Writer’s Life. Cynthia intrepid traveler and foodie.

For her day job, Cynthia runs her company Original Impulse, where she coaches writers, artists and entrepreneurs to make their creative dreams a thrilling reality. Her Capture the Wow creativity workshops are held in the US and Europe and bring the joy of travel to the every day. Cynthia is on the faculty of Jonathan Fields’ Good Life Project and loves to bring the lessons and thrills of art making to life.

You can connect with Cynthia on her website, on Facebook, or on Instagram.

cynthia-bio
1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
My medium of choice is watercolor with ink drawings. I love making something appear on the page in line and then watching it come to life on a whole other level with color.

2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?
I just finished illustrating a book called the abundant artist. Now I’m working on a piece for Two Hands Paperie in Boulder. I’m the featured artist in their next newsletter. It’s a travel theme and I’m doing the wrap sheet.

I’m also in the middle of the 100 days project. I have been doing one watercolor painting per day since April 4. That’s a lot of fun.

3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
I rely on many practices to help me stay sane. I have dedicated yoga and meditation practices. I bike and walk a lot.

The Biggest asset for my creativity though, is my journal keeping. I have many notebooks going at once to keep me and my projects straight, and to stay inspired.

4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
For me making art is largely an intuitive process. That’s what I love about it. I’m not overthinking anything. I will get an idea and then I’ll just flow with it. I love giving my intellectual mind a break with art making.

5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?
Don’t worry about that F you got in high school. You will be an artist if you want to be. Just have fun.

cynthia-morris

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Filed Under: an artist's sketch

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A little about me

I have an undergraduate degree in art. By day, I work in higher ed and in my free time I'm currently putting myself through DIY grad school.

I teach classes on creativity and inspiration on Skillshare. I occasionally share my original paintings on Etsy and fine art prints on Minted. I've also been known to make puppy portraits.

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