Milk Paintings

Here are some new paintings I made using Milk Paint. Last week I e-mailed my friend Betsy about using milk paint, since I had been curious about it for awhile. Betsy works at Ecologic, an environmentally-friendly interior design store that also sells handmade goods from artists like me. Betsy makes beautiful handpainted gourds with all kinds of colorful patterns. She gave me some samples of milk paint that I had asked about. It's based on an old formula of casein (milk protein solids), lime, and pigments, and after it has been mixed with water it becomes a biodegradable and non-toxic paint that is environmentally friendly (paint they used to use in the old days). I spent a few days experimenting and making small paintings on wood blocks. This paint was really fun to use. It is a bit like gouache paint, but dries much harder and can't be re-activated with water. It has a chalky quality to it that I like. Also, the wet paint doesn't last long, so I have to work fast because the paint doesn't store well after it is mixed with water. This is good for someone like me, since it forces me to work for a long stretch of time on the paintings so I don't waste the paint. I experimented with sealing the surface with wax polish and with varnish. The wax will darken the color a lot, which is useful in some cases.

It was fun experimenting with new materials. I have lots of ideas for this new paint. I love the fact that it works so well on the wood panels. I picked up a bunch of free wood panels that a cabinet-factory near Ecologic was throwing out, so i have a nice little stash to work on! I have some plans of combining painting with linocut prints. I will post pictures of more things I work on as these paintings develop.

The Rest of Them

Here are the last of the paintings I did for Harrison St. Coffee Shop. I am happy to have finished this series - it's satisfying to see all of them together.

All of the paintings were drawn from life, except for the Asparagus Flower which I drew from a photo. Also, the design on the plate was made up. This was an interesting way to work. I went to the grocery store and farmer's markets, and kept an eye on veg and fruits that looked particularly beautiful or interesting. Then I had to draw them before too many days passed and they got rotten or misshapen. I took photos of the foods so that I could reference the color when I went to paint them, since usually after I drew them I wanted to cook/eat them. It was fun drawing the cupcake. It was a nice treat to eat - delicious!

Veg Head

whoa, this summer has been busy. i've been teaching 5 days a week for ArtVenture, an art summer camp for kids at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. I taught 4 weeks of screenprinting, and now i'm teaching a Paper Toys class. kids are fun, energetic, and keep you on your toes. they are also overwhelming. i've had to take many naps this past month.

still working on those veg paintings for Harrison St. Coffee Shop. it's been really hard to do almost anything outside of teaching, so i've really had to push myself to get the paintings done. 5 more to go by the end of august (that's less than a week, eep!)

And More Illos in Print

Some of my drawings are included in the fabulous "An Artful Agenda" planners and agenda books. Check out the shop. These are really wonderful planners, full of illustrations on each page from 8 different artists. Stephanie McDonald, the proprietress and designer, is contributing 5% of all proceeds from sales towards art education in public schools. And the interior pages are printed on 100% recycled paper! Pictured above is the cover art by Kelly Bertram, and a couple of interior pages with my illustrations. The new August to August Planners just came out, but there are a whole range of products - a Lesson Planner, Universal Agenda (undated), and blank Diary. Get one for yourself and start organizing your life!

Zine Philosophy for Broken Pencil Magazine!

click on the image to get a larger view

i've been published! i just received my copy of Broken Pencil: The Magazine of Zine Culture and the Independent Arts in my mail yesterday. it has a happy pink cover with a robot on it.

Broken Pencil is a magazine based in Toronto, Canada. I met the editor, Lindsay Gibb, at the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair in march, and i gave her a couple of my zines to review. In June she asked if i would like to write something for the "Zine Philosophy" section of the magazine - where zinesters write about why they make zines, their inspiration, and zine philosophy. i decided to make mine like how i would make a page in a zine - handwritten and illustrated. this was fun, and it is so exciting to have an illustration in print and circulating around Canada and the U.S. Doing this illo also re-inspired me to get back into zine-making. it's been a year since i made a zine! life just catches up with you, you know how it goes.

Okra Process

Here is the original drawing of the okra, done in pen and ink with a rapidograph pen (my favorite kind of pen!) I love how sculptural the okra looked, and the repetition and slight variation of its shapes. It was also such a fresh shade of green.

Veg!

I was commissioned to do some paintings for the walls of my favorite vegetarian cafe in Richmond, Harrison Street Coffee Shop. They have remodeled and are re-opening tomorrow! I only had 4 paintings to give them so far, but by the end of August I will have all 15 done. It is so fun to draw fruits and vegetables! it's rather relaxing. all the paintings were made using a gel transfer technique, where I drew the veg and then made photocopies of the drawings. Using gel medium, I transferred the photocopied image and then painted the back of the gels with acrylic paints. I mounted them onto wooden boards and painted additional decorations directly on the boards, and sealed them off with varnish. I like working in this technique because I can work on the drawing first and then color it in. I can also make multiples of the same drawing, but each is a little different because i paint them all by hand.

From top to bottom: Okra, Plums, Lemon. I got the okra and plums at my local farmer's market because they looked so attractive. i had never liked okra before because the first time i ate it, it was so slimy! but i battered it in flour, salt, nutritional yeast, and "chicken-style" seasoning and fried it up. it was delicious!