New Drawings to Music

Once again I was treated to a wonderful concert at The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra with pieces by Alfred Schnittke, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Valentin Silvestrov and Ludwig van Beethoven. The conductor, Joshua Weilerstein was young, enthusiastic and brilliant! The Mozart piano concerto had Joyce Yang on piano and she was fantastic. The concert was an interplay between traditional classical music and contemporary music which referenced the older music. This was done in a playful way by Schnittke and in a melancholy, beautiful style by Silvestrov. The Sivestrov piece, "The Messenger", had a haunting, synthesized wind sound blowing through it.

Again I sketched during the concert, which I find involves me in the music in a completely different way. I almost feel like part of the orchestra, working along with the musicians. It's also amazing how the music effects the way I draw; faster pieces making me draw more frenetically. The end result is very gestural because the music keeps changing and the musicians' bodies are in constant motion.

Here are two of my sketches from the concert:

How to Make Relief Prints using Feathers, Leaves and Flowers.

I facilitated a lovely Magpie workshop last Wednesday (April 20th) at the Hastings branch of the VPL. It was for an after school group, ranging in age from seven to nine years old. We made relief prints from leaves, flowers and feathers. The children were great, so creative and sweet. I had awesome help from Magpie's Nest Community Art Space's members Dawn and Nika.

Here are some of the pre-workshop experiments I did and how I did them:

You will need: a soft rubber brayer, a glass plate (glass from old picture frames work well), printing ink ( I use water soluble Speedball block printing ink), some nice art paper and a variety of leaves, feathers and flowers.

First of all roll your ink onto the glass plate. Once you have the right amount (too much won't give you enough coverage and too little will make your print gloopy) and it is evenly spread, place your leaf or feather onto the plate. Take your brayer and roll over the leaf, feather, or flower, making sure not to scrunch it. It is helpful to start from the centre and work your way out to the edges of the object and also to place it face down, so that the ink goes on the front. If you are using a leaf, you can flip it over and ink both sides. If you are using a feather, or flower, it is easier to only ink one side.

Carefully arrange your object onto some nice paper, making sure that its parts are spread out in a natural way and not bunched together. This is particularly difficult with feathers and flowers. When using a feather, I find it helpful to pick it up by the shaft and lay it down quickly before the vanes have a chance to bunch up. Flowers are very delicate and may need reconstructive surgery once you lay them on the paper. Take another piece of the same paper and sandwich the two together. Rub thoroughly with your fingers, or the back of a desert spoon. Carefully pull the two pieces of paper apart and voila, you have two mirror image prints!

When one colour is dry, You can experiment with other colours, layering images and colours on top of each other.

While you are at it, there are a few other interesting experiments you can do. Once you have used your leaf, feather, or flower, you will notice a ghostly negative image on the plate. place a sheet of your paper carefully on your plate, being careful not to smear the ink. Take a clean brayer and firmly roll the back of the paper. carefully lift the paper and you will have a negative print. The children loved these "ghost" images.

Next you can create lift drawings by again rolling a smooth and even surface onto your plate with your brayer. Gently lay a piece of paper onto the ink, being careful not to touch the back of the paper except very lightly. You are trying to keep the paper touching the ink as clean as possible. With a pen, or pencil, draw onto the back of the paper. Draw anything you like, but for my example, I simply traced a leaf and then drew in the veins as I saw them. You want the ink to touch the paper only where your pen is making an imprint. If you press anywhere else, your image will disappear into the ink.

  

You can use these techniques in many ways in your artwork: for greeting cards, collages, etc.

Here are some examples of how I have used feather prints, ghost images and lift drawings.

Art Journalling and Mail Art

Here are some more pages from my envelope art journal!

Art Journalling and Mail Art Process

I created this art journal for a workshop at Magpie's Nest. I made it from envelopes by gluing the flaps together and then folding the attached envelopes accordion style. I am still decorating every surface and placing mail art treasures inside the envelopes. I'll post more pictures when it's finished!

I went to Friends of Chamber Music with my sister in law to listen to the Emerson Quartet and decided to sketch while they played. It was so much fun! The music totally informed the way I was drawing, both the tempo and the mood completely took over what I was doing and I was lost in the most lovely, absorbed way. I called this drawing, "From Haydn to Bartok", because that is what they played until the intermission. After intermission I drew two quicker sketches of individual musicians which I gave to them after the concert. I highly recommend drawing to live music. It makes the experience so lively and immediate.

Well it has been a long time since I have visited this blog. It has been a busy time indeed with big changes in my job, art shows, and much activity with the nonprofit I helped to cofound, Magpie's Nest Community Art Society. 

One of the things I have been doing is running a weekly Art Journalling group every Tuesday as part of Magpie's Nest. Here is a word inspiration for this weeks Art Journalling workshop, "Transmutation". This is the action of changing, or the state of being changed or altered in form, appearance, or nature and especially to a higher form. This word perfectly describes the creative act of taking whatever materials and ideas inspire us and transforming them into meaningful creations that speak to us and others. Tuesday, Feb 2nd, join us for Art Journalling at Another Space, 1523 E Pender St, Vancouver, from 2-5pm.

Yarn Bombing with the Magpies

Hello. My webpage is complete and up for viewing. Actually, it has been for some time. I have been busy with Magpie's Nest Community Art Society. Here are some pictures from our last workshop, which was yarn bombing at Baaad Anna's Yarn Store, the best yarn store in the world, located at 2667 Hasting Street E, Vancouver. Much Knitting, crocheting and needle felting was done on the night of March 20th, and then items mysteriously appeared in our neighbourhood on trees, light poles and bike racks! Strange happenings!