July Piece - Patron's Mention

The annual Ripped Off show is easily my favorite recurring theme in EBSQ. Yes, the portraits and pet-swaps are fun, but nothing beats pairing up with another artist to try and work your angle on their piece. It is a freeing experience, and one that I hope to participate in for years to come.

This year, I paired with Torrie Smiley, a wonderful artist who does many perky still life fruits and drinks. I didn't think I could do any of her martini pieces justice, so I chose one of her tea pieces to rip off.

Here is her Morning Tea:


And my rendition, Afternoon Tea:


Two close-up, detail images:



Morning Tea, created through digiral freehand collage usign paper textures, took the Patron's Mention Award in the show, and I am flattered and humbled at the recognition.

For her part, Torrie took my photo of the Golden Gate, San Fran 2:


and painted this, piece The Bay Bridge:


Two close-up, detail images:



I love how she took the cars of the bridge, and the city off the hill, removing San Fran itself, in all of it's clutter, from the beauty of the Gateway to the West. I can't wait for it to arrive, and it is going up in my office. I hope Torrie likes Afternoon Tea as much as I know I'll enjoy having her lovely bridge in my home.

May Pieces - Motherhood and my daughter

This month I created 4 pieces, one in my more traditional collage style, as I was asked to do a piece for a non-EBSQ show on modern motherhood, and then I used my daughter as a model for 3 altered photograph-style pieces in two other shows.

For the motherhood show, and created a mostly-abstract representational collage, entitled Venus of Modernity:


Here are two close-up detail images:



I tried to create something that had a very symmetrical feel (something I think is easy to see in the detail images, but that is also still a hard piece, showing how a woman's self moves inward after motherhood. I patterned her shape after the famous Venus of Willendorf statue, round and life-giving, not only to harken back to a time when mothers' bodies were appreciated and valued, but also to be frank an honest about the changes that modern motherhood especially, puts a woman through.

Two other pieces were for the EBSQ Nursery Rhymes Show. Both pieces involved careful planning of the photo, attention to light, dress choice, my daughter, and the other (sometimes not so cooperative, models).

First, there is Sheep?


Two detail images here:



This piece required taking my little city girl 45 minutes outside of Portland to Dolce Farm and Orchards, where the family very nicely let us chase around their sheep, goats and chickens, amused at our obvious urban bent. I gifted them a copy of this print, and I hope they liked it.

The second nursery rhyme piece, featured my girl as Little Miss Muffet in Beside Her:


Detail images:



This was taken in the small fern-covered glen near our home, with my little model sitting on a decorative concrete bench. The spider was an ebay purchase, and was the perfect size, I think. A few touch ups and a watercolor filter to make it match the Bo-Peep above completed this piece.

Lastly, there was an EBSQ Flower-of-the-Month show featuring Irises. I entered my piece, also entitled Irises:


Detail images:



If you look very closely into the detail images of her eyes, you can see the iris flower reflected in her pupils, surrounded by her pretty brown irises. I love that piece, and only hand-feathered the edged a little bit with a smudge tool.