mLee's blog

Gouache ACEOs

Originally uploaded by m.Lee.

Hi!

Back from a pretty cold and grey weekend here in Boston. Not so good for my spirits.

But I do have some colorful little gouache paintings to play around with. Some will probably get printed on, planned on doing that tonight but I don't feel well so am just going to head off to bed. Some will get collaged on and maybe drawn on and some will probably be left as is. A fun little project to keep me going during a pretty blah time in my creative brain.

My Wacom Tablet may arrive Monday, or Tuesday at the latest I expect. Not bad for free shipping. I'm not really in a good mental place to play around with it but hopefully I will be once it arrives.

I'm still going through my studio and pulling out older but still beautiful pieces for my Studio Sale. This is the last hurrah for some of these pieces as I have a thing for using my own prints in my collages. So if you see something you like now is your chance. I don't run sales often. But I need to clear out my stock as well as pay for some framing for a show next month.

I'm continuing to list new work as well and hope to be making a new collage early this week on either a 6"x6" or 8"x8" stretched canvas.

Finished packing orders from last week and will be mailing them in the morning along with anything domestic that comes in by noon EST.

She Waits in Darkness

Originally uploaded by m.Lee.

More mixed-media collages are coming, I have one drying right now. A six inch square on canvas panel piece. I have one more canvas panel and an eight inch square gallery stretched canvas as well to work with. Plus cards and other things around the studio until I can get more canvas. I think this weekend I will pick up some eight inch canvas panels.

These two pieces are from the end of last year, I had so many I neglected to scan some and am getting to the last of them now. Getting into the collages distracted me as well. I also hope to block print my newly carved blocks (well new in the sense that they haven't been used yet) this weekend. Friday would be best as I think we will be meeting Jon's parents in Connecticut on Saturday (and Ikea maybe) and spending time with two of our bests friends on Sunday during their visit to Boston from Brooklyn. Hello brunch with banana and Nutella crepe goodness!

I'm still having a hard time but am plowing through. Jon stayed home yesterday because he needed to do some things so he worked from home. It sounds great but it actually kinda stinks as blee tends to be more of a handful when he is around. And since he is working he can only give me a limited amount of help. I nearly pushed him out of the door after the day we had yesterday. She didn't nap at all until she went down at six. That means twelve hours of no sleep. They aren't supposed to be able to stay up for much longer than two hours at a time at this age. When she did go down it was hard to as she was overly tired. But once she was down it was glorious. Too bad we were both exhausted.

Tuesdays are always better than Mondays! My least favorite days are Mondays and Fridays.

Expect at least one collage tomorrow, maybe more depending on how I spend my time today. I have other things that I really should get to so I may just give art a break for the rest of the day as I have already gotten a lot done and it isn't even ten!

Have a good one!

Time Capsule 2005

Originally uploaded by m.Lee.

Good morning and happy Thursday. This weekend can not come soon enough as I am very tired.

Been working hard and stressing myself out per usual. After somehow squeezing Collage #12 in between fussy baby time I need a break. If she napped even for five minutes I was working. I didn't even have lunch. But it was so worth it, as I am really happy with the result. I think I am most proud of how I used the gocco print in a non-traditional way and the stitching as I am most certainly no seamstress. Today I am going to take it easy and make something quick and dirty for the collage challenge. Sometimes those end up being the most interesting.

After my post yesterday I realized that I had neglected to explain what a Gocco is. It is a tabletop screenprinting device from Japan. Originally intended for Japanese schoolchildren it has taken off big time in the indie craft movement, especially with greeting cards and invitations. People do wall art too but the small size can be quite limited and the large model is ridiculously expensive and not all that large. And I am not much of a card maker. I just hope that when blee is old enough that supplies will still be available for us to make cards together. I can't wait to work on art projects with my little buddy! I'm going to give her a little art table that she can draw on as much as she wants just like I had. That is why those fancy kids tables make no sense to me. I don't want something where I will tear my hear out the second she invariably marks it up. No Pottery Barn Kids for this family.

After blee went down around 6pm I knew that I didn't want to make a damn thing, but I still needed to be productive. So I made a mess. That is I started going through junk boxes and tossing some and organizing others. Before I knew it was 11pm and I had to go to bed. But right before this realization I found these four unfinished prints from 2005. They were sitting at the bottom of one of my bins along with some meh ACEOs. It is like looking at something another person made at this point, two years feels like forever ago. So much has changed in my life much less my art. And I think that I have changed too. I'm not sure what I am going to do with them. But I really want to use them to mix the old with the new. Some may just get another layer (or two) printed on them, while others will find their way in collages. All I know is that they are very much a happy discovery. Maybe I will start squirreling stuff away on purpose?

Doh!

Originally uploaded by m.Lee.

I'm sorry I ever spoke ill of you. You were never an ill device devised by the evil one at all, you just had a mealy old press bed that was keeping you down. Replace that and suddenly using you isn't hard at all, almost like you were designed to be used by Japanese children or something.

I've been goccoing a bit since getting the new bed (old bed pictured on the left after having been scraped off of the plastic base), but nothing I felt the desire to share. I've been using scraps from them in various collages and I will do the same with the ones from yesterday, but these deserve to be more of a focus than a background player. Also, I like the full design enough that I am going to get some black Moleskine cahier notebooks to print it on.

I knew that the bed was bad months ago but didn't act on it because I had talked myself into thinking Gocco wasn't right for me. Basically talked myself into an artistic box where I am a woodblock relief printmaker who can't draw well enough and doesn't like silkscreening. And that the supplies are too much money compared to what I am used to. That if I mess up a small block it is no big deal, but to screw up a screen is a tragedy.

Well, I guess I am more willing to push myself and take some chances these days. Because Gocco is great fun and a useful artistic tool that you will be seeing more from.

morning moleskine

Originally uploaded by m.Lee.

My demons are at me again. Just need to keep busy to keep the negative thoughts away as they can only do harm.

Felt like giving up on the collage challenge, today is difficult for some reason. Yesterday would have been hard too if I hadn't done it first thing. Not so today instead I woke up and did this sketch comprised of various doodads from earlier sketches. I have a tweaked version on printer paper ready to be burned onto a Gocco screen once it is dry enough and I get the chance.

It was then that I decided what I want to try for my collage. I knew that I didn't want to use another ACEO blank or another canvas panel as I used those twice in a row. I also knew that I want to go through materials that haven't been used in awhile and incorporate them. Crayons! Maybe I am more into the whole multi-media aspect than strict collage. But there will be collage in it somewhere.

If you haven't already please run over to Modish to check out my studio in their Modish Handmade Spaces feature.

don't tip over!

Originally uploaded by m.Lee.

Today my other work of art, my studio is Modish Handmade Spaces feature. It is a great website and I am honored. I've been building it up, taking away and rearranging it for three years now and I am pretty proud of it. It is always changing. With the baby I pretty much have to keep it fairly clean and can't let it get like it did last year when I was in the middle of my very long and miserable pregnancy. It is impossible to get work done in such a mess and it isn't safe for the wee one. I had to make room for her space in my space!

Today has been difficult. Blee has not only been fussy, but crazy hungry and also when she isn't fussing she expresses her joy by trying to break the windows with her voice. She thinks screaming at the top of her lungs hitting octaves I didn't even know about is sooooo funny! And when I pick her up she just smiles and then does it in my ear.

But somehow she slept late so I was able to get a collage in before she woke up and my day went to hell. Thank you Modish for improving my day significantly and helping me remember that even with bad days I am still a very lucky girl.

#9 - Collage Challenge

Originally uploaded by m.Lee.

Well, I've completed my first week of the Collage a Day challenge that Magic Jelly set up and I am quite proud of myself. As is typical of me I have done more than one a day, and only missed once when all I did was cut a ton of paper. I get carried away by things and can only pull myself away when I absolutely have to. If it wasn't for blee I would probably have twenty or thirty by now! I think the day I ended up skipping was Thursday when I was feeling light headed and super sick. I'm feeling better now but I do need to go to the doctor to get checked out for anemia. But I more than made up for the lost day.

It was hard at first even though I have been using elements of collage in my ACEOs for a couple of months now. I wanted to push myself father and do even more with it and incorporate as many mediums as possible without cluttering the pieces.

Unlike some people I didn't put any time, medium or size constraints on myself. I figure that I am new enough to collage that just doing it is a challenge enough for me. Plus it is really hard for me to keep track of time. Not only do I get lost in projects but I do most things not in one sitting. Like right now I have a box filled with cut paper elements similar to what are in this piece. Because one night I got to cutting shapes and couldn't stop for hours. I have various book pages including a dictionary that is over thirty years old and belonged to my mother, washi and old block prints of mine.

If you are interested in seeing my set and the group set they are on Flickr.

I'm far from done. Not only am I going to keep up with collage but I am going to keep up with the one a day challenge hopefully for the rest of the month.

I also have a personal goal of doing art, anything really from sketching, carving, cutting paper to printing, daily for the entire year. I'm pretty much doing it already so it shouldn't be a problem. I mean I can always find time to fill a sketchbook page with random doodles at the very least.

Reindeers Hide in the Forest

Originally uploaded by m.Lee.

Sure, I have been able to post new work. But it was work created at the end of 2007 that is still being scanned in. Hoping your year is off to a bang as well. I know it is for at least some of you. The world might be scary but this isn't part of that world is it?

This work is so new that it is very unfamiliar territory for me. The challenge is to do a quick collage a day for two weeks. Or at least that is the original challenge as I have really run with it and am currently doing a couple a day. Ever since December or late November I have been pushing myself artistically. Of this I am proud. I am proud of every failed piece because it truly is a learning experience and overjoyed by each little success. It started out small with me getting out the washi paper I had been given many months prior and cutting little leaf shapes into it. Then I glued those papers onto black cards and made some ACEOs. They were different, they were fresh and not only did people buy them but I had a new energy and desire to explore. And a taste for new paper starting with washi.

Now here I am cutting up an out of date dictionary I dug out of my closet and uses pieces of super old prints of mine that I destroyed for scraps long ago.

More! My tiny exacto blades are my new favorite tool. I even maticulously set up a portable washi paper cutting station so unlike my woodblocks I can do these everywhere.

And I have been sketching more than I have in a long time. In fact I only have a couple pages left of my current moleskine. Great timing since I have a 25% off one item coupon at Dick Blick burning a hole in my pocket.

Now I need to get back to work. My energy level is near frantic as I can't do everything I want to do and have such a hard time focusing on one task. Too many ideas with limited time. I'm thinking that I may be a wee bit manic but what am I to do other than ride it out and enjoy it while I can. Put it to use and try not to overwhelm myself.

I'm not feeling negative lately and that is something. Far from it. Using art to keep my mind from thinking about what is going on out there is my escape. If I didn't have it I would be a mess of anger and worries all the time.

Peaceful Butterfly

Originally uploaded by m.Lee.

These two insect pieces are from the last few days of 2007. Still working on my first pieces of 2008, hit a bit of a lag this past week. This weekend wasn't productive at all artistically until the very end when I dragged out some pretty papers and a blade and got to cutting. Nothing big or complete but at least I can say I did something with my hands. Funny thing is that early last week inspiration hit me like a brick and I carved two blocks in about a day. Well, one block with two sides I should say if we are going to be technical. Went to bed wanting to print woke up and nothing but the desire to want to do it but I kept thinking about paper needing to be torn, the press needing to be reset and I just never got to it.

I'm hoping that my resolve to get stuff done will be better this week. But the truth is that during weekdays it is really hard for me to print because I can't really do it during the day while watching blee because I don't have that kind of time and I am usually to tired at night. And I can't let myself stay up late printing either. And printing is what I feel that I should be doing not starting new block or new project after project without completing them.

Maybe the bad weather that is coming with help get me making art again since I am not going to be going for long strolls around town with blee in the blizzard that is supposed to come tonight. And it takes days and days to dig out from these things. So a blizzard is a good thing? Tell me that when the dog needs to go out tomorrow afternoon.

Blee says hello and hopes that everybody had as lovely a weekend as she did. She's been sleeping so well and has been so happy and easy lately these really are the golden times with her for us. She's fun to play with, she doesn't cry much at all and we don't even have to change many diapers. And she smiles and giggles all the time except when she is in her sling when she just snuggles in all comfy before falling asleep before I zip her up to protect her from a cool breeze or sudden rain. I've been able to wear all 17lbs of her for hours in comfort.

Maybe this is really it, why I am not feeling like printing or even scanning in work. I am just too in love with my baby right now to pull myself away from her that long.

Maeby Cockroaching

Originally uploaded by m.Lee.

Getting rid of a sofa. This is more complicated than it sounds.

For awhile now Jon and I have been debating switching our livingroom and bedrooms. It is sounding like a better and better idea. Except there is no way that our ratty old sofa is going to squeeze down our ridiculously narrow hall, much less make the sharp turn into what is currently our bedroom. To get it into the apartment the movers brought it in through the window. Standing on top of the van and pushing it in. Close to electrical wires. Yeah uhm, not doing that again. This thing needs to come out in pieces.

An axe maybe? smashy smashy?

The reason for the switch is the baby's nursery is right off the livingroom and she goes to bed before seven every night. Currently she is sleeping in our bedroom but sooner rather than later we would like her in there. If it was right off our bedroom that would be easier. And we could watch TV, have company or simply talk without worrying about waking her.

We would simply get a small and inexpensive sofa for the new livingroom as it is smaller. We'd probably end up wasting a lot less space in the end.

* dog not included despite how attached she seems to be

Here's some art for you on this rainy day here in Boston. No long walks for me and blee except pacing around the apartment. At least I am getting more puttering done this way at the expense of getting fresh air.

Today is Friday so there is a good chance that I may print tonight. If I get more paper torn that is during the day. I'm already doing better since both me and blee got a riduculous amount of sleep last night. She was asleep by seven pm and didn't wake up until six am! As I went to bed at ten I had a good seven hours of sleep. Followed by a few more after that when she went down after a change and some food.

Hope everybody has a great Friday followed by a great weekend.