I Made These For You Because You Weren't Here

A Box Full Of Nothing

I love small containers with lids. If you do too, I have a few handmade art boxes available at this weekend's Mercer Island show. And if you hate art but love basketball, it looks like they're setting up for a tournament near my table. Maybe I'll get lucky and break another frame!

Put On Your Shiny Boots

I will be at the Mercer Island Summer Festival this weekend sharing a table with Alexandria Sandlin (http://cherrybones.typepad.com/blog/). Come buy some stuff from us!

http://www.mercergov.org/SectionIndex.asp?SectionID=61
http://www.mercergov.org/News.asp?NewsID=1407

We'll Take Turns

Playing the folded paper monster game with a friend.

The Sky Opened Wide Like The Tide

Since I flat-out stole the title of this post from The Blow, I might as well get right to cribbing their lyrics as well:

when I find you tonight
I'll put you in my boat and away we'll ride
away from the city lights
to the place where the water makes the heavens and the earth collide

from "The Sky Opened Wide Like The Tide" by The Blow...click here to listen to it

I started these two paintings with a similar approach but slightly different goals. They both feature blue very heavily, something that I've been doing a lot of lately because those expanses of blue can represent the sky or the sea. The sky is second only to the sea in my book (I can stare at either for a long, long time and be perfectly happy), so I guess it makes sense that for this batch of paintings of two figures connecting in various ways that they're backed by something I see as comfortable and joyous.

To finish things off and give a little more attention to The Blow, here's a new video they made that has a lot of ocean so I am obliged to like it.

SUMMER 2011: The Blow (ASK ME demo version) by Melissa Dyne + Khaela Maricich from Dyne + Maricich on Vimeo.

Measure Twice, Draw Once

I had this drawing of a dancing kiwi bird that I really wanted to turn into a painting. I did a thumbnail sketch that I was really happy with so I set to drawing an outline on a full-sized piece of paper. I don't usually put too much time or detail into my pre-painting drawing because I tend to lose the lines in the paint and I also like to make most of my decisions with the paint rather than a pencil. But for this drawing I was having such a good time that I put a lot of care into it.


Then I went to paint it. It turned out that this fabulous, highly detailed drawing I had done was on the back side of the watercolor paper pad cover and not on actual watercolor paper. I toyed with the idea of painting it anyway but the texture is all wrong and the cover paper is coated so it wouldn't have worked out at all. I thought I would solve the problem by getting upset and never painting kiwi again. So I moved on to another project, a drawing on a piece of sticker paper...which I finished and then realized I had drawn it on the non-sticky side of the paper.

So I learned an important lesson - that no matter how many times I essentially destroy an entire drawing I still don't take the extra second to make sure I'm drawing on the correct surface. I file this in the same category as the fact that I have burned rings into my fingertip multiple times by checking to see if the car cigarette lighter is hot.

I still wanted my kiwi to dance though, so this is the start of me trying again on actual watercolor paper. I don't like the drawing as much, but at least I can paint it.

The Purpose

Prints of "The Purpose" are now available at http://www.imagekind.com/The-Purpose-art?IMID=577fd50c-9f54-483c-a3ef-ad9ae6bae553. The pink words are not on the actual print, but you could always buy some pink letter stickers and add them yourself.

Your New Baby

This blotchy face was my first time playing with some new brushes. The "widescreen" format was so that it could be folded to fit in a CD case, but I've been wanting to work in these dimensions for a while. I wish I could say that there's a deep artistic reason behind that, but it actually stems from the fact that I have a weird frame I got at a yard sale a long time ago that matches these dimensions and I want to make a painting specifically for the frame.

I took these pictures while the paint was still really wet, so in some spots you can see the texture of the paper show through in a way that it doesn't in the finished painting. I have a few kinds of paper that do that really dramatically, and no matter how many paintings I do on them I always panic when the paper starts to show through. I think that constant state of panic makes me a better painter though, because what I think of as some of my best brushwork is on those kinds of paper.

Today We Are Five

I've been busy with non-art lately, but this is a drawing I did for part of my daughter's birthday present.

Everyone Look At Me

I'm not really big on drawing attention to myself, but since I recently starting showing up on film again (mirrors too!) I suppose it's worth sharing when someone takes pictures of me with my art.

Cementing its place as my favorite Seattle art walk, Columbia City was a great time last Thursday. Thank you to all the wonderful people who showed up! I will probably add the Ballard art walk to my roster soon, but it's going to have to try really hard to edge out Columbia City and its intimate atmosphere and delightful live music selection.

Columbia City has also done a great job of documenting the art walks and posting information and photos regularly throughout the month. Here are a few links to pictures they've posted:

Last week's art walk:
http://ccartwalk.blogspot.com/2011/06/jonathan-arras-spirals-in-love-at.html

May's art walk:
http://communityartscreate.org/Community_Arts_Create/My_Albums_2/Pages/May-ArtWalk_2011.html