Monthly Studio Review #2

(An experiment in which I look back at a month of my creative life at the start of a new one. See last months’ here.)

1. Paintings on Canvas

I completed three 11x14 inch acrylic paintings on canvas, the first work I started and finished in the new studio. I posted a couple of these last month and mentioned my process here. I seem to be continuing with the “animals in unlikely places” theme, more to come on that.

Process note: It took me longer than I expected to settle in and feel comfortable working here, in the third bedroom in our new home. Unpacking and organizing took forever, and then I had to spend some time just hanging out in the studio, doing other things besides artwork. (I was easily working on sketchbooks and art journals in the living room and dining room, that’s always felt more fluent to me.) Since I was physically unable to spend as much time here as I’d have preferred, due to caregiving responsibilities, it kept feeling like re-entering a brand new space. Honestly, I had no idea I was so space sensitive — previously I was working in a screened-off corner of the dining room! But now my studio space is starting to feel like a creative ally.

2. Location Drawing

Lots of location drawing, which gives life to my years. I’ve previously posted a number of them here.

I’m especially excited about some sketchbook drawings I made at my local community pool, which saved my sanity daily this summer. This one has stuck in my mind for some reason, and I’ve started to develop it further.

3. Other Sketchbook Drawings and Drawing Sessions

☀️ Drawing from National Geographic magazine is still a pleasure — a quarantine habit that’s stuck! (Sometimes I draw straight from an image, other times I combine freely.) I’ve noticed that my usual “horror vacuii” style is sometimes being joined by a few compositions with more white space. (Also the case the bathing suit sketch above.) This was a style I worked in more a few years ago and I wonder if it’s returning in some way — although obviously I’m still pretty good at packing a page.

🌈 I also did a bunch of sketches of 1970s hotel interiors. These are from the heyday of the Poconos.

Although I know this makes me sooooo oooooooooold, the 70s were when I made my debut on this planet, and its design ethos is present in my blood. My memories are of course vague — In Kindergarten, I remember having a disco lunch box, and thinking that Jimmy Carter and Jiminiy Cricket were probably the same person!

🙄 I read another biography of Marc Chagall, this one by Jackie Wullschlager. (Earlier this year, I’d read one by Jonathan Wilson.) My grandparents had a lithograph of his that I lived with for many years. I love his art and wanted very much to admire him as a person, but… “I felt disappointed i what a spoiled and petty shithead he was,” I wrote in my notes. I did admire Bella Chagall, though, so I made some drawings of her and her daughter Ida.

✅ Online drawing sessions: Holly Surplice’s Wonderful Wolves session replay entirely lived up to its name! Emma Carlisle and Sarah Dyer teamed up to draw cars, which I weirdly liked a lot. (I have a little internal cringe about car enthusiasm, due to it being an obsession of the ex-husband, but I actually do quite like the look of vintage cars…I’ve actually been drawing more of them since.) I also joined Beth Spencer’s Introvert Drawing Club, which could not be more perfect for me, the confirmed introvert. I’ll have more drawings from that next month.

Hi Embroidery!

My fingers got itchy for the needle as I prepped my embroidery books for their star turn at The Art of The Book Show in Rochester, opening on September 18th. I’d been on a little break from embroidery, but I’m back, baby.

Here’s the ignoble first of my “Collaborations with Anonymous Project,” in which I use the incomplete embroidery project of a stranger as a prompt. I shared the second one here, the first one was kind of a mess because I went too far and then I kept going! I failed to take a photo of the first one before I started stitching, but the first one was taken before I’d done too much.

Hi Refillable Pens, and Bye Markers!

Note: I’m not adding links to common art supplies I’m mentioning, you know how to Google and I’m not doing affiliate links at the moment. As a matter of policy I’ll just add links to things that are in some way specific, or a little more tricky to find.

I made a real switch in my art materials. I’ve been feeling uncomfortable with non-refillable markers for a long time — for one thing, they are very expensive, and for another thing — just a lot of plastic in the trash.

This is the second time in my creative life that I’ve made this switch. Back in my full-time writing days, I was very particular about a certain Uni-Ball pen and bought boxes of them. At some point, I realized that I would be saving money and resources by using a refillable pen, which is when I got my Lamy fountain pen, a refillable cartridge, a syringe, and Noodler’s Ink, the very best ink.

Over the past few months, I’ve been slowly experimenting with filling water brush pens with liquid watercolor or ink, with the goal of replacing my Tombow brush markers.

It’s taken some trial and error and some very annoying and messy leaking, but I was able to finally put away my markers and go 100% refillable.

I found that Pentel Brush Pens are the only ones that don’t leak on me. In the brush pens, I use Ph. Martin Concentrated Radiant Water Color and some of their Bombay inks, Ecoline liquid water color, Noodler’s ink and some Winsor and Newton — I really like their Polar White. Michael’s Artist Loft liquid watercolors are also pretty good and very affordable! It’s really great to be able to mix the exact colors that I want.

To replace fine liners, a Sailor Fude pen with Noodler’s X_Feather Black Ink is the way to go. I also have a calligraphy nib on a long Lamy pen, which I use with Lamy’s gray ink, gorgeous.

I’m still experimenting with empty brushes and containers for acrylic paint, to replace my Poscas. Still not thrilled with this yet, but so far, some cheap refillable dauber bottles from Amazon filled with a mix of acrylic paint and water are doing the job.

In Conclusion!

I didn’t think that I’d gotten a lot done, but it was actually not a bad month now that I see it all in one place. So I guess I’ll keep these reviews going for now, since it makes me feel all productive.

P.S. Please forgive the imperfect photo editing and any typos…if I got uptight about it, this would never have been posted!

Collaborations with Anonymous #2

Since my favorite art supply is randomness, I’ve started an embroidery project wherein I “rescue” (purchase) incomplete embroideries from thrift shops and then take them to completion in my own way.

I should say this is far from my original idea. I’ve read about people doing things like this, most notably Shannon Downey’s “Rita’s Quilt” project.

So here’s the piece in its original form, and where I took it. The picture on the left was taken on July 22nd, and on the right, on August 23rd. (When I realized it was exactly a month of work, I tried to call it done because I do like date symmetry. But it needed some more the next morning, so alas.)

My project isn’t to try to suss out what the original embroiderer had in mind, but rather to use it as a jumping-off place.

To add a level of complexity, I’m using mostly fiber I’ve also purchased at reuse stores, thus also from abandoned projects. Full disclosure, I do supplement with my own stash, some of which was bought new! I like to use a variety of threads and textures — so the original embroidery was made in yarn, I’ve used silk thread, regular cotton embroidery thread, perle cotton and sashiko thread. I also threw a little applique in there — the fabric pieces were sourced from Fabscrap.

The Peacock and the Peahen Have a Big Night

Earlier this year, I saw a peacock unexpectedly. Yes, it was in a game preserve, but I also happened across the game preserve unexpectedly — that’s life in Pittsburgh for ya. I did a bunch of sketches on the spot, followed up with more when I got home, then did a wonderful animal life drawing session focusing on “fancy fowl.”

All of which I did with no idea of why I got so interested, or what I’d do with these studies.

I ended up with this pair of paintings, both 11x14 inches, acrylic on canvas. Also the very first paintings I’ve completed in my new studio!

The peahen is stepping out for the evening, and the peacock is doing his walk of shame the next day. For the sake of their privacy, what happened in between is an ellipsis.

Keystone Crossings Sketchbook

This year it feels like I have spent most of my time driving between New York City and Pittsburgh.

Elder caregiving responsibilities settled squarely and solely on my shoulders unexpectedly in mid-March, necessitating these 600 mile + round trips.

Altoona, PA. Branches that grow vertically like this are called “water sprouts”; they’re a sign of distress.

”Other countries have social safety nets, the United States has women.” I think about this quote often on these trips, as the mileage adds up to a couple of Continental crossings.

The first few trips were so fueled adrenaline and panic that that I had little time to notice anything extraneous. But as the crisis phase resolved into tedious difficulty, I began to think about how to make this long drive less taxing.

There is just so much Pennsylvania, each and every time!

One plus is that the landscape changes quite a lot along the way. The state is geologically so varied, formed by the distinct influences of the rivers Ohio and Susquehanna. Further East geological forces give way to the sociological influence I think of as New Jersey.

After a few drives of just contemplating this landscape while listening to audiobooks and podcasts, I thought, now wait a minute. I’m an artist and here is a big new-to-me subject.

So I decided to plot sketching stops a long the way.

Stopping every couple of hours to walk around and draw a bit helps so much, with the physical and mental fatigue. The trip takes longer but at least I’m not arriving already depleted.

On my last trip, I stopped in Scranton and checked out the Iron Furnaces. I’ve mentally bookmarked this place as an excellent teaching venue for extreme perspective. I have a few more sketches in the purse notebook from this stop that still need developing, it was such a cool place to draw. (In case it’s not obvious, I did not do naturalistic color in this work.)

I also stopped in Altoona. I’d never been before, so I just drove around and sketched what caught my eye.

I also stopped in Bloomsbury, but I haven’t moved those sketches out of the purse notebook phase yet. The weather wasn’t great, so I hung out in a coffee house. (Fog & Flame, recommended!) I like doing coffee house drawings, but at this point I don’t consider them place-specific.

I did plan drawing stops on the way back, but that didn’t work out as well. I wasn’t able to focus on drawing at all; I was just so flat exhausted. When I stopped I just stretched my legs, replenished my caffeine blood levels, and did nothing more than dumbly glance at my sketchbook in my purse as I climbed back into the car. Nothing was more compelling than getting home.

So next time I’ll hit the places I skipped— lookin’ at you Allentown, Harrisburg, Johnstown! I’ll share as I go along, and as I develop more work from these sketches.

Sweet Emotion [Art Journal Pages]

Not long ago, I did this series in my art journal, exploring different emotional states, “Mad” was my first and favorite, “happy” was my second favorite and the last one I did, make of that what you will.

[ I feel duty-bound to disclaim that these are not edited photos. The colors are a little off. These are handbound journals with pages of various sizes so other pages are visible around the edges. But if I spend loads of time editing these, I’ll never share them! So now you know. ]

Our Town Newspaper Story on Embroidered Journals!

Fun!

For those who love books as art–or books and art–a visual and tactile treat awaits as Greenwich Village-based artist Alison J. Stein works feverishly to stitch, snip and appliqué a growing stack of delightfully-designed booklets that will eventually be exhibited as books without paper.

Local Artist Alison J. Stein Prepares to Unveil New Works: Embroidery Books Our Town, January 30th, 2023.

And a few extra images of the books for your viewing pleasure:

From Art Journal to Greeting Card

I’m always curious about how designs go from an artist’s head into reality, so I figured I’d share a meander through the process on my 2022 holiday card.

Like all my projects, this card started out in one of my many art journals. I found an image I liked, brought it into Photoshop, and turned it into something card-ish!

You can read a detailed description, including images considered and not used, here.

Fiesta Flora in Mexico City

In 1908, the ladies of San Angel, a neighborhood in Mexico City, dressed up in their finest, and covered themselves with flowers. They also so adorned their carriages, and their parasols, and their horses and their houses — and who knows what else. This all was for the first Fiesta Flora, or flower festival, during which minimalism was unknown, and thanks goodness for that!

When I visited just before the pandemic, then neighborhood’s Museo de El Carmen displayed a series of compelling black and white photos documenting what must have been some very fragrant proceedings! Here’s one of them:

My rusty Spanish precludes me from learning too much more about this event, but I’ve returned to these photos a number of times in the years (!) since. And This was the inspiration behind this textile piece which I worked on this past summer. It’s embroidery plus applique on vintage fabric, stretched on a 10x10 inch canvas.

It was fun to make all kinds of flowers with thread — I made almost every kind I know how to do! (I probably could have squeezed in a few more if I was really in the spirit, although I’m aware no one would accuse me of creating minimalist art.)

Here’s an area of detail from the lower left. French knots are the best.

Detail

The Dazzling Margins - Exhibit Postcard!

Preparations continue apace for my solo show upcoming at the NYPL Mulberry this summer! Here’s a sneak peek at the exhibit postcard:

Save the Date for my Solo Show! "The Dazzling Margins" at the NYPL.

I’m so excited to say I’m having a solo art show at the New York Public Library’s Mulberry Street branch this summer! The show will open on June 4th, 2022 and go through August 28th

It’s called “The Dazzling Margins: Vibrant Glimpses of NYC Liife” and is based on my observations of this neighborhood during the pandemic. Especially in the early going, pretty much my only excursion was to the Mulberry Library to pick up and drop off books — and try to get the damned forehead thermometer to register that I was standing in front of it. (Move closer, move further back…usually the security guard would take pity on me and beam-test my wrist.) The “neighborhood” is the sort of ill-defined area — technically Greenwich Village, but just north of Soho, some people call it Noho… in any event, my stomping grounds.

More info to come!