Photojojo Buddy Challenge

My good friend and photographer Nancy West and I are collaborating on Photojojo's 2 Tag-team Photo Projects For You + Your Pal.

We'll each be taking a photo and combining them with our pal's random photo every week. We'll see what kind of synchronicity this provides.

Here's the first one: Nancy's photo of Riley swimming with his favorite frisbee and my photo of some lights at Ray's Sushi in Hayward.

Give Blood - Give Life

My kids (CMM and WDM) and I donated blood yesterday for the American Red Cross. Families that donate together stay together!

Upcoming Trunk Sales - Laura & Nancy West

I'm teaming up with one of my favorite and inspiring artists, photographer Nancy West, to have a "trunk sale" for our friends and family in October and November. This is an excellent opportunity to get in on buying some unique pieces for yourself or as gifts this holiday season.







Details:

Sunday November 8th Hosted by Laura McHugh
739 Third Avenue
Half Moon Bay CA
10 am - 4 pm



Feel free to bring friends out for this fun day of shopping and meet the artists! We hope to see you there.

What Does a Green Ribbon Mean

Julia Nelson-Gal was kind to send me this photo of my entry to the Pacific Art League's current show Mostly Black & White.

I can't seem to get over there to see the show in person, and I can't read what the ribbon says. So, for now, I'm thrilled there is something hanging on the piece.

Here's Julia's entry on the right, which is fabulous. So cool that ours ended up being hung right next to each other.

Something's Starting To Shift

Detail

Great Minds Think Alike
Encaustic
13x15

I had a weekend full of art - but the kind of art that involves talking about it, hanging out with like-minded people, hearing lectures about it, shopping for the tools to do it... and feeling a sense over several weeks now (years, really) that I don't know what I'm doing and that I will never find my oeurve.

Hearing Tony Scherman speak at IEA starting something shifting in me. I'm still not sure what, but I did come home from the conference feeling like I could sit with encaustic again. I had such a great experience in the first workshop I took with Eileen Goldenberg a couple of years ago. She's such a fun and inspiring instructor and she makes you MOVE! Then, I came home and couldn't replicate any of it. My work was gloppy and uninspiring. It looked like a kindergartner had been let loose with modeling clay of the worst kind.

I went to the IEA conference last year and got reinspired and came home and tried it again - another run at the elusive mistress that is wax. Some success, but it was not sustainable. I know - you are thinking "to get good at something, really master it takes Practice, Practice, Practice." And that is true and I have not been putting in the time, but still expect results.

So again, reinspired by this year's IEA and a visit to Daniella Woolf's open studio wherein I saw a brief but wonderful demonstration of her doing encaustic that is more the type of encaustic I would like to be doing - mixed media collaging. I came home and made these two pieces.

Great Minds Think Alike
Encaustic
13x15

Decouverte Lecon XLV
Monotype and Encaustic on Rives BFK Paper
Paper Dim 22x30
Plate Dim 11x17

I'm feeling more competence. And that is good.

I also saw a ribbon on my piece (triptych) through the window of the closed gallery at Pacific Art League. That didn't hurt. I think I won something....

Moss Landing

Some photos of Moss Landing that appeal to the engineer in me.

IEA Retreat

I heard Tony Scherman speak at the IEA retreat yesterday. His talk was a mixture of mathematical concepts, philosophy, painting techniques, and autobiographical references interwoven with a backdrop of images of his paintings. I first saw his work when Stumbling I think. I don't remember finding it in connection with anything specific I was doing or looking for. When I saw the work I just thought it was beautiful - so ephemeral and painterly all at the same time. It didn't hurt that the splash image was of a work he did of Kurt Cobain in a series called "The Junkies."

He talked about how it felt when he first mixed pigment with the wax and saw it spread and melt. He explained how the first paintings he did, of Napolean, didn't feel complete until them staring back at him felt like when you look in the mirror and really "see" yourself for the first time. He talked about how important it is for artists to sell their work so that they feel the love flowing back into them for doing the work.

I'm still processing everything he talked about. I know it will have a profound impact on my work - I just don't know how yet.

International Encaustic Artist Annual Retreat

By Tony Scherman
Tony Scherman is a featured speaker at this retreat.

Tomorrow morning I'm headed to the IEA annual retreat in Carmel Valley. The venue is so lovely - quiet and relaxed. The program always includes an amazing collection of very successful artists who are so generous with their information. The community of encaustic artists is heart warming to be with and the food and lodging is also good.

If you are an encaustic artist I highly recommend IEA and the annual retreat.

More will be posted throughout the weekend. Stay tuned.

400th Blog Post! And - Art Accepted into Juried Group Show

Escuchen y Repiten Triptych
2 of 3
3 of 3
Monotypes on Arches Paper
Dim 11x17
Paper Dim 22x30

I started this blog as a way to make sure I did some art everyday. I love my computer and the connected-ness of the internet and I know myself well enough that if I link being on the computer with art, I'll do the art.

I haven't always done art every day and I haven't always posted the art I do end up making. Now that I'm retired, I do have a lot more time to do art and I still have days where none gets made.

I also have more time for art classes and have been fortunate to be in a master printing class at Aurobora Press in San Francisco. I also took a really really great print transfer class from Julia Nelson-Gal at the Pacific Art League (PAL).

Julia encouraged me to submit some work for the upcoming Mostly Black & White show at PAL. I submitted my triptych Escuchen y Repiten and was thrilled to find out today that two of the three pieces were accepted for the show which opens this Friday (10/1). Wow!

The point of doing art (for me) is personal but also professional. The personal side of me is soothed by creating the art. The professional side of me wants to get more of my art out there in the world. The blog is to help me self-manage all of this.

SO - I'M SO EXCITED THAT WITH THIS ENTRY, my 400th, I am going to have two large pieces in a great show. That's really what it's all about.

Beyond Cancer

I was noodling around on the Palo Alto Pacific Art League website to get the info to do my 400th post on this blog when I found the link to their on-line exhibitions. It reminded me that I had a piece in that show which is still available on-line.

Cool.

Third Time's A Charm

Today I had a little time after taking the daughter over the hill for makeup, gym memberships and a nice lunch at the Vietnamese place on El Camino Real (Mama's).

The sun is on the front of the studio because it faces west. It is a beautiful, warm day with no wind, and I have the quiet time to think through the steps of this chine colle thing. I did two tries before I got the third one right.

The two in blue were successful in that the chine colle part worked, but on the first one I used a cardboard plate instead of metal or plexiglass so the transfer of the photo wasn't what I hoped and I was working on a paper that already had been chine colle'd (is that a word?) underneath. I was going for a look with the tissue on top of the print with the two color bands.


Try #2 was much more successful but I put the wheat paste down over too much of the tissue so when I printed it, it adhered to the newsprint. Also I didn't create a distinct (sharp) line with the color.

Try #3 is a keeper. I did a good print of the photo squarely on the paper. Then I taped off the plate to ink up the red on either side. That created a nice sharp line. Finally, I put wheat paste only on the first 2-3 inches of the tissue so that it is loose near the edges of the paper where it then extends off. It's hard to see the beautiful details in a photo.


Very happy!

Chine Colle Problem Solved

I've been struggling for three months because I can't get the chine colle to work. I bought some stuff at the art store called Pure Wheat Starch, for $17. I prepped the paper and tissue by wetting it, then sprinkled on the powder as directed by putting it in a glass jar with a cheesecloth top. I even moved the powder to a nylon sock with allows for a nice distribution of the powder and is a holder all in one. Still, no sticking. :(

Pure Wheat Starch is NOT the same as Wheat Paste (did you know I can be kinda stubborn?!):



Even Deb helping me in my printmaking class couldn't make this stuff work so yesterday I remembered that I should buy some garden variety wheat paste - the kind used for wallpapering. I got the last $3 box of it at the hardware store.

I put it in the sock and put it on some new paper I bought yesterday at the art store for chine colle and voila! (I'm taking French now), it worked. Like a charm. The tissue paper was so adhered to the base paper that I could barely see it, white on cream. But it worked. Yay.

Art in Action

Now that I have more free time on my hands I'm volunteering with two groups: Art in Action* and Girls for a Change**. Art in Action got some nice press in the SF Examiner this week about its programs which help school children learn about art by viewing the work of masters and then creating art themselves.

I'm very excited to be piloting a Community Coordinator position for them that will hopefully help them leverage their programs to schools outside the SF Bay Area.

________________________
* Many thanks to my good friend Cipactly for telling me Art in Action needed volunteers.
** Many thanks to my good friend Tia for asking me to be her coaching partner for this program.

50th Birthday Photos/Videos

Many thanks to indoor girl Lillie for taking photos and videos of the big event on Sat nite.

Here are some pix: click on this link.

And here are two videos.

Video 1 - Don't Embarrass Me

Video 2 - Singing Happy Birthday

Printing Workshop - Weekend #4

We're at weekend 4 out of 5 in the Master Printing Class and I can't believe it is almost over. I've been working hard and learning a lot. Our last class is the same weekend as the 'Punkin Fest so unfortunately I will miss those festivities.

Yesterday and today I was attempting to gain more control of chine colle. I feel like I've got the xerox transfer pretty much down. I'm really pleased with the results most of the time. I know I have to start with a good crisp image and be patient when apply the ink.

The chine colle process still gives me fits. I may not have the right powdered glue - today I worked with methyl cellulose and it was fine after I got the wetting and patting dry pieces worked out on both the tissue paper and the receiving paper.

I got 4-6 good backgrounds with tissue as a chine colle layer, and in the last hour or so of today's class got several good prints done, including this tugboat. The print measures 5x7 in. Blue tissue paper was used under the print in the water area.

What Being 50 Means

Foiled

Here's a little story about butter tarts. Every Christmas, my siblings arrive at my door for dinner demanding to know - where are they? They being The Butter Tarts. I have hidden them, only to find them petrified later in July and there is nothing worse than a butter tart in the hand that is inedible. I'm having a big party tonight and made 20 doz tarts for dessert. So as to not have them disappear or be otherwise appropriated by my siblings, I wrapped the whole tower, reminiscent of the French wedding cake croquembouche in shrink wrap. I thought the little sign was humorous. We'll see what the sibs say.

Updated Website

I've updated my art website to include latest monotypes. See it here (open the Monotypes) page:

www.lauramchugh.com

Escuchen y Repiten

In high school, I took years and years of Spanish. My favorite part of the week was Wednesdays at 11 am when we had language lab for 30 min. The gist of the class was that we went into the lab, donned headphones and listened to the taped instructor - Escuchen y repiten. Listen and repeat.

This set of three prints, a triptych, takes off from that memory. Click on the image for more detail. Each print is a monotype measuring 11x17 on Rives paper, dimensioned 22x30.

09-09-09

Some things that happened on 1909-09-09:

• The National Library of China was created, to be housed at the Guanghua Temple (Beijing). The library opened to the public on August 27, 1912.
• The 1,600 foot long Santa Monica Pier opened to the public in Santa Monica, California.
• The first German woman to be a passenger in an airplane took flight with Orville Wright. The flight lasted 8 min and 38 seconds. He should have gone another 31 sec...
  

What will happen today?