Pandemic Surprise.

Shock, surprise. What happens when we take off our masks and see each other in person? 

Every birthday I write a poem or doggerel for the grandchildren along with a small quilt, or now a card. With little information I search for photos and put them into Comic Life which enlarges and makes smaller without loss.  I collected photos from young to teen last year, but I asked Erika if I could see her favorite photo should I want to paint her. I had sent her birthday card, but when I got the photos of this year, her favorites without the mask, I saw she had grown up and I needed another card,  I returned to Comic Life. I added a flattening filter just for fun and more mystery.

The first card I created, made more sense of the "ears." Looking at the two, you can see what a difference a year has made...what I didn't see happening under the mask.We will all have plenty of visual surprises once this pandemic has passed, as it will. Click to enlarge.

RED and Babel

Dr. Colin Bethel MD

     How to post in September when extending the relaxing mode of summer? "I have no ideas?" It is in the doing (painting, writing, movie making) that ideas appear! I made a movie for granddaughter and was shocked how many ideas occurred in the making.That is my lesson this month. Paula Pitman Brown said it, and I found it true! She also said, "Red is your color." (Van Gogh had his sunflower.  :*)) Click on to enlarge photos.

     Back in November 2005 I entered the Cambridge Art Association RED show an encaustic painting with copper leaf, Dr. Colin Bethel MD. At the same time I encouraged Cindy Ryan to enter her huge cups painting which won the prize! RED is a biennial show. This year I found lots of reds in my stash: Misappropriation, The Breakfast Club and Erika Zen-ing Out to enter.

Misappropriation

Erika Zen-ing

      The political painting Pen and the Dragon which is up now in Harvard Square's University Place gallery will be coming down from the Fall Salon. This reminds me of my Vanity in Aspic, my redo of Breugel's Tower of Babel,  the babble of the political season...the vanity and breaking of hubris.

The Breakfast Club

Pen and the Dragon

Vanity in Aspic

   
Pen and the Cashdragon:
The contest of good and evil, saint and demon, hero and villain, liberator and tyrant has long been a favorite of artists and writers. Here Raphael's St. George and the Dragon meets the cyberpen vs. wealthocracy. In the saddle of the white horse, wielding the pen and paintbrush, sits Arianna Huffington, icon of cyberjournalism. In the supporting wing stands Anita Hill, as the Statue of Liberty. The dragon emerges from the cave of the forces of pharmaceutical, petroleum and financial industries. The Supreme Court can be seen far in the background as the ultimate referee.

Vanity in Aspic:
The painting starts with the Flemish painter, Pieter Breugel's Tower of Babel, showing the foolishness of men's social pretensions as they strive to build a tower to God. As I was painting it, the men started to look like ants, and tower to look like aspic which melts or dissolves. The artist falls off the top.

Painting Daily here ...always available model

     Ignoring the serial snowstorms, Joe drops me at the Boston MFA every Thursday to paint a series, in my case, self portraits. I love my classmates and teacher. Sadly, there are only two more classes. When I get home, I paint some more, all in acrylic. NO MORE. I am transitioning back to oils, alkyds (faster drying oils because of the resin) and maybe encaustic.  I ordered a cardboard carrier for wet paintings, and it will be a joy to return to this easier medium.

      Whereas I painted 18 self portraits, two were a different size and not included in these photos. These are all 9 x 12's, on cardboard backs of legal tablets or in the last few, on canvas boards. I won't have any problem tossing, but in deep concentration, I learned something on every effort. After class is over, I will either return to a bigger canvas and my engagement with art history subject matter (see LindaHicksweb.com) or enjoy the suggestions of Carol Marine in her book Daily Painting for a 6" x 6" painting a day. This is a fabulous book that I bought yesterday and highly recommend...relevant to many creative endeavors. Click on the photos to enlarge or scare yourself. Do you have a favorite?

         Since my blog is a storage site for my crafts that I return to see how I did something years ago, I will add that Erika had a birthday on Valentine's Day and is now nine. We gave her a small guitar (she often fiddles with Joe's). She likes to see herself on her quilted birthday card so I printed photos of her on EQ Printables, cotton lawn inkjet fabric sheets. Pardon the photography. I developed the soft birthday card in Comic Life software and sprayed the batting with a glue (bad idea). Then I simply sewed around the two photo fabric sheets, batting between, and added stick-on rhinestones. I cut the edges with pinking shears which you can see only at the bottom of the poorly cropped photo, but it looked very nice "in person" for a quick, simple, but attractive finish. I also finished Erika's crocheted scarf, "the draft dodger"!  Click on photos to enlarge.Thanks for visiting if you did!

Valentine grandchild: soft card and uke

    Valentine's Day is almost here along with Erika's 7th birthday. I like to make a soft birthday card, a 12" x 12" quilt for a grandchild; but I am more proud of the red ukulele that will excite her.  The card still needs embellishment, but posting time has passed. I will probably add beads and some gold wings from puff paint. Visual solutions are sometimes slower to arrive these days!

     I was very tempted by the Alex Toys My First Sewing Kit, but the temptation of the family ukulele orchestra won out. I found the Hilo toy ukulele at Guitar Stop in Cambridge and was pleased by the sound and the fact that it holds its tune. It is smaller than Hannah's concert ukulele and will be easier for Erika to hold. For her, I ordered the book Jiminy Kokopo's Ukulele Sing and Strum Fun Book. I just received the very thorough Ukulele for Dummies for myself. What a rich find. I am telling you this information so you will join us :*)!

Dance recital gems: a journal quilt

     Springing forth in May are recitals and commencements. We drive 4 hours to watch the grandchildren perform.  Two recitals in the same day elicit funny reactions. I made a small journal quilt to remember two comments, because journal quilts help one remember not only significant events but amusing moments you don't want to forget:

     Erika performed in the first recital. The family was seated around a big table for lunch in a local restaurant. As we ate, different ones heaped praise on this second child in the family. Finally, it was too much for the first born who exasperated, blurted out, "I don't get it! What is all this carrying on about Erika!" We pointed out that after her three dances in the afternoon, she surely would receive similar accolades. I free-motion quilted this and another gem on the small quilt.

       Later, on the way to Hannah's recital, after some frustrations of lost crayons, Hannah was disagreeing with her mother and told to "put on a happy face" to get ready for the performance. Hannah, noted for her pretty smile, responded, "I am really not a smiley sort of person." That struck me as so endearingly straight forward and self-assured. I didn't want to forget that moment or that small journal quilts (8" x 8") are more fun to make than 12" x 12"s).   (Click photos to enlarge)

Heart and Flower Die Cuts with Grands

click to enlarge

     My flower and heart dies arrived for my new Accuquilt machine. I wanted to cut out some hearts and flowers for the children to make something.
     First, I WonderUnder-fused the backs of fabrics from my birthday quilt and rolled those through the die cutting machine. I cut the bigger hearts in half and took the flower stems, petals, flowers and circles in a plastic bag to the children's house when we went to Friday supper. Hannah and Erika placed the cut-outs on a 1/4 yard of quilted yellow fabric which I had halved, one section to each girl. The children made their placements, pinned them and I returned home to iron and stitch the hearts and flowers on.
     Erika just wanted to hug hers as it was, but I stitched a bias tape around the edges. Hannah wanted to turn hers into a purse for craft projects. I slipped some new scissors in since she was frustrated that hers were not sharp enough to cut the fleece she was using to make a quilt at home.  I bound Hannah's with grosgrain ribbon I had fused. My sewing is NOT professional, but sometimes you want to find results fast. I must slow down! (two blogs in 24 hours is not slowing down). Oh, I also bought a Fiskars scissor sharpener. Did not know about those.

Hamsas: a blessing for Nina

   Many things happen at once. Son has taken a job in NYC. His wife's mother had a major bike accident. They just sold their house and will be off to choose a new one. Mother's Day is nigh.

Hannah 7

   Daughter-in-law is wildly busy winding up the house situation, packing, mothering, but off to see her mother on Mother's Day. I thought the children could paint hamsas scented with lavender and I would quilt them for this other grandmother. I first heard about hamsas on my visit to The Jewish Museum last week on vacation to see the Maira Kalman exhibit. The shop was closed but I asked for ideas to send to Nina who is still in hospital. I saw jewelry of hamsa design and I looked up the term on return home. I Googled "Images" of Hamsas and was partial to a stained glass pattern, but there are so many others.

Erika 5

   I made copies of hamsa patterns for the children to trace or to have a jumping off point for their own designs. I meant to TRACE their hands for signatures and flat forgot, darnit! I had ironed white fabric. Hannah, 7 and Erika, 5 chose different patterns and David, 2 worked on paper with watercolors. They left after supper; and I partially quilted the pieces, including the paper two-sided one of David's, spraying the interiors with lavender. The girls worked with Lumiere's halo and jewel color textile paints, having first placed their white fabric over the outlined designs. One could see through the white fabric. Hannah chose a teal blue  batik fabric to back hers, and Erika chose a multi-colored one. I used the two papered watercolors for front and back for David. All scented, are in separate envelopes, ready for a trip to their grandmother Nina (Nana).

David 2

click to enlarge each