11.08.2012

printing up a storm.

Bag full of burnt gocco bulbs, all victims of a hurricane day of printmaking. During Hurricane Sandy, the time I didn't spend looking at this wind map, or fretting over what was happening outside and in far away places, I was in my printmaking studio late into the night of howling wind, printing up a storm. In some cases, very literally a storm. So many gocco screens were burned, the photo above shows just some of the bulbs that fell victim to my printing frenzy.
lighthouse
I drew this lighthouse a week after a trip to Chincoteague this past summer over pony week. The walk to the top of the lighthouse was one of my most favorite parts of the visit. When we reached the top, in the far away distance we could see the ponies swimming.
Printing up a storm! A peek at the 1st layers of two new Moleskine designs for @craftybastardsOn the gocco press late into the night of howling wind, layer 1 of a new design.
Keeping calm and printing on. Fresh on the press for #CraftyBastards.
All of the artwork I screenprint onto the covers of Moleskine notebooks come from pages of my own notebooks. What a coincidence that I'd selected my drawings of crazy weather, underwater adventures, and then end up printing them during the worst storm ever.

Crafty Bastards is this Saturday, November 10, from 10am-5pm at Union Market in DC. My super talented husband Sean Hennessey and I will be set up side by side, booths 108 and 109. Special 2-for-1 tickets are still available here. I hope to see you there!

11.05.2012

countdown to crafty bastards.

Saturday is Crafty Bastards, the most fantastical day of the year. It'll be my 8th time participating! This year is very special, as not only am I participating as a vendor, I also helped curate the show as a judge!

My whole house is pretty much an art studio, and over the past few weeks there's been art making going on in almost every room and it's the most amazing thing ever. So what does the weekend before Crafty Bastards look like? Let me break it down into two parts of what I do: Painting and Printmaking.

My Painting Studio: My assistant and I hung out here the whole weekend, painting away for @CraftyBastards. Loved every second!
A lot of magic happened in here this weekend. As usual, one week before is the perfect time to come up with a whole new direction for artwork! But first, on Friday I snuck out and got my already short hair trimmed even shorter. My short cut got a quick cut, the red is almost all out! One cut away from being all brown again, yay.
Then I dove into painting all day. On Saturday, while my canvases were drying, I printed up a storm in...

My Printmaking Studio: This afternoon I acquired an assistant in my printmaking studio. This is where I screenprint all of my notebooks by hand. I printed four whole layers that day. That's a crazy amount! By the end of the day, every part of me was aching. But there were so many pretty notebooks on the drying rack! Some complete, some left to dry for more layers. Here is one of my newest drawings, forever gocco printed on the cover of a notebook. Still not sure what to title this one. Sometimes that's the hardest part! New Moleskine notebook fresh off the press for @CraftyBastards. This drawing still needs a title! Crafty Bastards is this Saturday, November 10, from 10am-5pm at Union Market in DC. My super talented husband Sean Hennessey and I will be set up side by side, booths 108 and 109.

*While cats figure heavily in this post, this is just one cat, and she's just posing for the camera. As soon as work starts, she's done!