Cards For Every Occasion

A bit of show and tell here, of six cards I made last weekend, all with birds, and all from scraps. This view omits the wonderful texture they all have, of course, and the gloss finish each of them have makes them look very professional. The biggest one (the one with the tree) measures about 5x5 inches. To get a better view, remember that you can click on the image. Which one is your fave?

Blog Button

My friend Tara (of Tinkerfrog) has organized an online quilting bee, for which I volunteered to make a blog badge that people could put on their blogs which would be hyperlinked to the project's blog. I thought it would be a neat project for me to try out. I don't know anything about graphic art, and our computer has yet to have Photoshop installed on it (oh what a dream that will be when it happens!). I thought I'd create something I could make in my art room, scan in, and resize to be the right size for a blog. One night recently as I was falling to sleep, an idea for it entered my mind: gessoed base with visible brush strokes, light green, then rectangular "patches" made of paper and fabric, and stitching. A couple days later, I gave a couple hours to it, and here's how it turned out:


I love it! I wish you could see it in real life--its colors are so vibrant, and the texture is wonderful. It measures the same as the little painting in the post below, about 7x10 inches. I added the blue border once I scanned it in... the actual piece stops with the green background.

So I sent it to Tara, and she wrote back right away to say she loved it!! I was so pleased. We talked about using the image not only as a button that people could have on their blogs, but also as a header on her quilting bee blog! How cool is that? I provided instructions for her to give to her quilting participants, and we called it a night.

Well, the next day, I was clicking around her blog and to blogs of the participants, and I TOTALLY FLIPPED OUT!! Four or five of them had added MY ART(!!!!) to their blogs! Heck yes, my art is out there in the world! Isn't that just fabulous?

Be sure to visit the quilting bee blog by clicking here. And if you want to see the badge on other people's blogs, you can click on their names. Angie, Elizabeth, and Melina for sure have it.

Bonus: last Wednesday, while arting away in my room and listening to the radio, I dialed the radio sation's number when the DJ announced a chance to win, and I was the requisite fourth caller!!! I won two tickets to see To Kill a Mockingbird at the local theater on September 29th!

A great week, plus more arting today...

Developing My Own Style

Having a day off a week is affording me the time to practice a lot, which is so good, as it means I can finally begin developing my own style. I mean, I think I have a style, but a lot of it feels borrowed from other people. So I'm working on it.

Last Wednesday, I was inspired by this photograph my sister took of one of her friend's daughters, as well as one of Kelly Rae Roberts' newest paintings.


©2009 by Ashley J Hamrick (visit her blog here to see more)


Brave In All Things by Kelly Rae Roberts ©2009

What I liked about Ashley's photo of the girl is that she has such a unique expression. Is it curiosity? Contentment? I-love-being-the-model satisfaction? I'm-starting-to-get-impatient? Whatever she was thinking at the time, she sure is darn cute, and carrying an expression that is intent and interesting. Brave in All Things inspired me because of the background. Be sure to visit Kelly Rae's blog (post from 8/31/09) to find out more about the painting and meaning behind it, but be sure to notice the depth of texture and color in the background. On the sticky note I had in front of me when I was first looking at this painting, I wrote a list: stamps, cut-outs, cursive, circle blots. I also noticed the colors, the bold black line separating the top and bottom, and the woman presented in the foreground.

While I worked on this for most of the day, I listened to NPR and, in the evening, Obama's address to the joint session of congress regarding a vote for his health care plan. While I understand the expense and the many complex details still to be ironed out, I am generally for the plan. It is somewhere to begin, and I so strongly believe Americans should be looking out for one another. That a plan should be passed, so that all of us (not just the privileged) can be cared for in our various times of need.

And thus, For All of Us by HLM ©2009

Painting measures 7x10". Click on the image for a closer view.

Last night I dreamt I met Kelly Rae, and that I had a chance to ask her about her techniques and painting style. I promise, I am not obsessing over her! But she is really present in my thoughts these days. So this morning I bought her book, Taking Flight, online (probably the closest I'll get to actually meeting her and having that discussion). I can't wait for it to arrive!

Please be sure to vote in my poll to the right regarding the name Follow Studio, if you haven't already!

Back to the studio...
:)

Anniversary

Just over one year ago, I started this blog, shortly after I took a class with Lynne Perella at the Artist's Nook. After the class, I resolved that it was time to truly start taking myself seriously as an artist. I gave myself a deadline to work with: 5 years to see if I can get where I want to be. Make art a priority in my life, envision and work toward what it is I want out of this journey, eventually have a studio where I can exhibit and teach, have a website, sell stuff. Over the last year, I've talked more about art and created more art than I ever have. And since returning from Europe, I have to say that I've felt a real shift in myself and attitude. I feel that I've come a long way in my first year. I've committed to this blog and felt a responsibility to work that I've never felt before. Not obligation, just responsibility. I've held myself accountable, and I've trusted that every bit is an important part of the journey. And I've learned so much, just by pushing myself to try new things, and practice, and be patient, and not be lazy!

Today was my first "art day." That is, September marks my first month working at my day job 80%, so that I can have a day a week devoted to creating. Just getting to the point of having such a day seems like such a triumph in this last year! Being in an work environment where I could even ask for such a thing, let alone being in a financial position to cut my wages in exchange for time makes me so grateful. This week, I came up with a great way to frame the whole thing: in exchange for getting paid less, I'm receiving approximately 52 days more off a year!

And today, I relished every single minute. I woke up early but without the alarm, and after a bowl of cereal, plopped myself down in my room, switched on public radio (great music during the day!), and got to work. I painted and cut and glued and colored with my Prismacolors. I can't post what I worked on for most of the day quite yet, because of technical hiccups with our scanner and new computer set-up, but I hope to soon. And after I completed that piece, I decided I had a couple more hours in me and figured I'd finish a project I started in concept over three years ago. Here it is!


This is a wall hanging that measures about 3x2 feet. I was inspired by a couple of quilt shows I attended, and motivated to make something for some friends who'd recently been married. I found the purple-blends-to-orange fabric at the fabric store one day and was so inspired I got right to work on the quilt design. I knew it had to be properly quilted to have the effect I was after, so instead of laboring through that myself and probably not getting it right (it's never been my favorite part of the process), I bartered with a friend's mom who owns a quilting machine. I exchanged 10 handmade cards for her excellent quilting. She and I worked collaboratively on the quilting design and thread colors, and she also suggested that I use the orangey-pinky-purple batik as a background. I hadn't thought at all about that. Her quilting made the piece, and by the time I got it back, I knew I would have to keep this one. I had to think of something else for my married friends! This piece has been hanging unfinished on my wall for a year, and so today I trimmed up the edges and sewed on the binding, and now it is beautiful and finally complete.

At the risk of babbling on and losing your interest in reading this overly-long post, I wanted to let you know that I've been working on brainstorming a name for myself other than Art by HLM. I think that if I want to have customers, I need a brand of sorts, something that is a little catchier and not as abstract (which is then hopefully easier to remember). I've thought and thought and recently I came up with Follow Studio. I'm sitting on it for a little while, but so far I like it. Follow your heart, follow your bliss, follow me on this exciting journey of art! What do you think about it? I'd love your opinion, for better or for worse. Please vote in my poll to the right, and if you don't like it, leave a comment to let me know what you think.

Lastly, I just want to thank you for being such loyal friends and family to me through this. That you read this blog at all and support me in your various different ways means a lot to me. I don't think I'd have made it this far without your love and encouragement.

Here's to another fun year of art and moving forward toward the dream!

Art & Europe

I'm back from my European adventure and I am excited to blog once again! My entire trip was filled with moments of art and inspiration, so I thought I'd share some of that with you. It cultivated in a final day of actually making art with Amb in Italy, so be sure to check out the next post about that as well.

First of all, you know already that before I left, I aspired to make quilts for five of the new babies I was to see. Lucky for me, my meeting with Tara from Tinkerfrog was particularly helpful in finishing that bear of a project. She suggested omitting the batting and just sewing them front-to-front with cute flannels, and voila! they'd be done in a snap. And so, here they are, all wrapped up like bon bons and ready to pack. If you'd like to see photos of them with their recipients, just email me: artbyhlm (at) gmail (dot) com.

After delivering the second of the quilts, I had the chance to learn about napkin art. This is something I'd read about previously in Craft, Paper, Scissors, but never really realized its potential and simplicity. My friend Andrea made these two pieces for the guest room in her home, and sadly, the photos don't do them justice. But you get the idea. And they were made from canvases, a napkin each, decoupage glue, and a little paint around the edges. I was so inspired I promptly bought a bunch of napkins in the art store in Hameln, Hobby Haus (one of my old haunts).

Later in the week, I had breakfast with my dear friend Barbara, who is a quilter. She made that purple and brown piece on her living room wall a number of years ago. It is entirely hand-quilted. In the foreground, you can see a multi-media quilt she recently purchased. Now that is my kind of quilt! Small, and incorporating various items to give it texture.


On a day trip down the Weser valley with an old colleague, I stopped for a bathroom break in a cafe where the staircase was something else! First, it was wallpapered in this black and white striped paper, and then there were these fine silverware prints and a wall full of pepper mills.

Next stop, Lucerne, Switzerland, where one of its most famous attractions, the Lion Memorial, is an incredible work of art. It commemorates the fallen Swiss soldiers of the French Revolution in the 1700s, and was designed and carved by Bertel Thorvaldsen and Lukas Ahorn in 1820-1821. I had been here before, exactly 20 years ago, and it was wonderful to see it again as an adult. I could better appreciate its meaning this time, and its artistry. To carve something like this from a slab of rock takes a special talent. I admire the way a sculptor's mind must work to conceive of such a project.

That same day, I visited the Bourbaki Panorama, a true marvel! You view the 360-degree painting from the center of a large round room. It wraps around you and you feel like you're in the scene, which depicts the end of the Franco-Prussian war and the French soldiers finding refuge in Neu Chatel, Switzerland. There is even a soundtrack to go along with it, which, mixed with the air conditioning, makes it easy to imagine being there in it. It was created in the 1880s by Edouard Castres, and it took a large team of painters to complete it. The other cool thing about it is that other artists made a faux-terrain in the year 2000 to give the painting depth and make it more realistic. I highly recommend a visit to this museum if anyone ever goes to Lucerne. It was a definite highlight of my trip. Visit their website here if you'd like to learn more about it. I'm afraid it wasn't the easiest thing to photograph, so sorry for that.

On a walk about Lucerne one evening, I came across a window in which there were many expensive items. However, the window design included these lovely sewn-paper butterflies, hanging by threads. So lovely.

The next week, I found myself in Nice, France! Amb and I walked by this church, which was nice (haha) in its own right, but I was particularly enamored by the young woman outside who was drawing/painting the church. You could tell that she was taking the time to be painstakingly detailed, and in my opinion, her half-finished piece was far more beautiful than the church itself. She was lovely, too, in the afternoon sun.

We also visited the Henri Matisse museum. Everything about it was wonderful. It was a small museum in a beautiful building, near a park full of olive trees, and the admission was free! I was only familiar with a couple of Matisse's things, and it was great to get to know his work better, and understand that art doesn't have to be complicated to be good. This piece, called Nu Bleu IV is actually not painted but collaged! The blue paper is cut-up pieces arranged in the shape of the woman. Much of his work involved simple contrasting colors and shapes. We were incredibly inspired.

Finally, while shopping in town, Amb discovered a card shop that sold 6x6" cards with the art work of Gaelle Boissonard, a French woman who seems to be "one of us." We tried looking her up online, and her work has been commissioned for a French card company called Correspondences. But she has nothing more than a blog, which you can view here. It's all in French, but her work is fantastic, and Amb and I have become instant fans. This is one of the many cards I purchased that day.


That's it for my European art experience. As I begin my four-day work week in September, which means I can devote an entire day every week--guaranteed--to making art, I am inspired and refreshed. I can't wait to show you what will come!

So glad to be back. Check in with me every couple of weeks to see what happens!

xoxo

HLM