Maria Doering's Art & Adventures

Daily Doodlez - Daily Drawing

2012-01-25T10:17:00.001-05:00

Alright, so far it's been a pretty productive January.... I think I might dub this month: Paperwork January. My husband and worked hard on some immigration documents and of course there are applications to fill out for exhibitions and residencies too. Luckily I have the most amazing husband in the world and so that I can be more productive and creative next to my 3 jobs he is going to be my manager and take care of all the frustrating and annoying parts of the artist's life. YEAY!

What better way to start the year than with a drawing project that guarantees daily drawings for 1 year.
My dear Fiona had the brilliant idea to start http://dailydoodlez.tumblr.com which is an image blog where anyone who wants to participate posts a drawing a day for one year. Thanks to the iphone/ipad app Instagram, posting to the tumblr takes a second, and not 20 minutes. The project is in honor of our dear Racheal who passed away this past November. She always told us to draw more and doodle more, she was totally right!

Drawing everyday of course brings out new ideas for patterns for my paintings and prints. So I am playing with the new patterns in painted form as well.We will see where it leads me next. I am in the middle of 1 major drawing and 3 paintings right now. Will post finished works soon. :)

Sophie - Part II

2012-01-11T09:13:00.000-05:00

Some more Portrait shots from the Photoshoot with the lovely Sophie. :)

Sophie

2012-01-09T11:48:00.001-05:00

Did a photoshoot with the lovely Sophie yesterday. Here are just a few of many nice images.

Racheal Anilyse

2012-01-04T12:37:00.000-05:00

I would like to take a moment and talk about my dear friend Racheal. I met her in Hartford Art School during my studies and we had been in close contact via writting old school (20 page) letters to each other and of course the internet. Racheal passed away on November 18th.

I don't have the perfect words to explain and describe what an honor and inspiration it has been to me to have crossed paths with her. Racheal was an incredible friend, artist, supporter and teacher to me.. She is going to be so greatly missed.

Racheal always send me Cds with music which are all stacked on my desk in my studio, ready to rock out to when I need it. She always had kind, constructive criticism or a lovely witty comment up her sleeve when it came to my art work. Racheal founded Underground Art School website and magazine, trying to fill in the knowledge gap between artschool and the real world. As so many of us she graduated with an incredible set of skills and talent but realized (as everyone else) that we never did learn how to survive with these skills in the harsh reality of life. So she decided to take matters in her own hands and don't just learn for herself but to share the knowledge with everyone who would listen and be interested.

Pretty much anything Racheal put her mind to she made possible against all odds. She wanted to be a children's book illustrator so she put all her time and energy into figuring out how to make that happen! Check out her beautiful illustrations! http://rachealanilyse.com/

One of many inspiring things Racheal did was motivate Fiona and I into a doodle competition, the doodle off. So for a few years we put on intense drawing competitions over a certain period of weeks, the winner in the end was the doodle master but most of all it motivated all of us to draw every day, improve our skills and to explore new ways of drawing.

In honor of Racheal, Fiona decided to create Daily Doodlez where anyone who would like to participate can add a doodle (drawing, sketch) a day for one year. At the end of the year we will put together a zine or a book with the best works in it, in honor of Racheal, the proceeds will go to the Racheal Anilyse Art Initiative. If you would like to contribute or participate please get in touch with me or Fiona.

I am so honored to have had you as my friend Racheal and I hope you know you will live on in so many hearts around the world!

(All images in this post are copyrighted Racheal Anilyse)

Anne-Marie Painting

2011-11-25T11:43:00.001-05:00

Title: Anne-Marie
Medium: Acrylic Painting with printed fabric Linocuts on wood panel
Dimensions: 36 inches x 36 inches
Work time: 1 Month and 3 Weeks.

It's currently exhibited at the Square Affair Fundraising Exhibition at the McClure Gallery.

October, Fall and all such things

2011-10-31T19:20:00.000-04:00

Hello!

Life has been busy. I am back to working 3 jobs.
1. at Click Imprimerie on Mackay, stop by and say hello!
2. I teach a LOVELY Drawing I course at the Westmount Visual Arts Center and
3. I carve and soon print linocuts for Francois Morelli.
AND of course I also make art. I am currently working on a large 36x36 inch painting for the Square Affaire (the fundraiser for the VAC at the Mclure Gallery) that is due November 14th. So as soon as it's finished I will post photos!

Scott is also working 2 jobs at the moment. So between the two of us we are busybusybusy again. But we balance it ok at the moment. A big highlight recently was our little Tea date. We discovered an AMAZING tea house in our neighborhood. It's the CHA GUAN Tea House on Monkland. The total experience was lovely. We did wish the owner himself would have been present since we heard he tells you more about the history of the tea and the ceremony. But otherwise it was truely a beautiful experience. We relaxed in a comfortable environment for about 2 hours enjoying our tea with the whole Zhong tea set ritual.
I had a fantastic Ginseng Wulong tea and Scott enjoyed a tea that was picked by Monkeys I don't know the name of it though. I was so tempted to buy a Zhong tea set right there because it seemed like there is no better way to enjoy a cup of tea!

Scott tried their "Healthy Sprint Bites" delicious shrimp, mango and cucumber in a spicy sauce inside this amazing edible rice paper shell. Beautiful presentation!

Lovely Zhong tea set!

TINY cup of tea. :)

Asima - Painting

2011-10-06T09:00:00.001-04:00

"Asima"

24"x30"

Medium: Acrylic paint on ricepaper mounted to canvas
Process: I used one of my pattern linocuts printed on ricepaper as a starting point and attached that to the canvas with gel medium. Then I alternated between painting her and the additional pattern in the background.Between each pattern layer parts of the pattern were accentuated with gel medium for more three dimensionality. The final piece was spray-varnished for protection from UV.
Timeframe: I began this painting in July and finished it at the end of September.
Price: $1800 (CAD)

Close-ups

A new Sketchbook

2011-09-16T10:50:00.000-04:00

This time I made myself a sketchbook out of some paper I had lying around and used an old proof of a silkscreen as the cover.
Work has gotten a lot busier, less time for drawing. And I am also preparing myself for my Drawing 1 class that I am teaching at the Westmount Visual Arts Center starting next week Thursday. I am quite excited to meet all my new students!
The big painting I have been working on all Summer is slowly but surely nearing it's final stage. So as soon as it is done I will post it on here as well. :)

Annual Watercolor

2011-08-25T09:39:00.000-04:00

Like clockwork, as soon as summer begins, my fingers itch for my watercolors, this year it was my first little project since the wedding. So since we couldn't go on vacation I decided to paint a place i would like to go to right that moment. A stairwell in a small town in Southern France.

Summer Sketchbook-ing PART III

2011-08-23T19:56:00.000-04:00

Finished this small sketchbook.
I'm going to go through older sketchbooks and see if I find a few more that need finishing. :) I'm on a roll and I love it! :) These are all pen and inks!

Summer Sketchbook-ing PART II

2011-08-15T18:48:00.000-04:00

I have continued with my sketch-adventures, here are the newest ones!

Summer Sketchbook-ing

2011-08-09T11:21:00.000-04:00

Since the wedding my fingers have been itching to draw again and what better way to start than to fill up a sketchbook. I had a thin moleskin one lying around and thought I'll share where I am at up to now. I filled it half way so far. There is no specific theme it's really just about getting back into a drawing routine, and not overthinking it but drawing anything and everything.
When it is not busy at work, I draw what is around me, or from a photograph.
They are mostly pen and ink.

MY BRIDESMAIDS

2011-07-15T12:15:00.001-04:00

Fiona, Anne-Marie, Maria and Patrica

I have been thinking about writing about my bridesmaids for a while, I think it's time!

My Maid of honour was my best friend since Freshman year University: Fiona Clark. She is kind of like my female soul mate, we don't need to tell each other things we just know what's going on. She is by far the MOST important friend I have ever had. She means the world to me.
Many many people pulled together and helped us during the six months before the wedding but no one was there for me like Fiona. She lived up to being everything one can hope for in a best friend and maid of honour! She came up from New York several times through the 6 months before the wedding to help me try and pick out a wedding dress, print invitations, print fabric, print the napkins, make the decorations, she designed every bit of typeface that one might need and she did a TREMENDOUS job on the wedding programs. She took the pattern and text we gave her and just turned it into yet another BEAUTIFUL part of our amazing day! The programs are tokens people took with them that they will remember the wedding by in years to come and it meant so much to us that she designed them! Fiona organized one amazing and fun bridal shower with a CRAZY bachelorette party... yes we did get picked up with a stretchcar limo in the middle of the woods and got to see some BEAUTIFUL male 'dancers'... ;) ). We had a lot of fun! Fiona was my lifevest through out the preparations, she kept me going the night before the wedding when i just wanted to curl up in ball and sleep at midnight but we were still not finished setting up. And when I still hadn't written out my vows so I can read them off during the ceremony, she painstakingly copied them word for word for me in three languages at 2am, so I could go to sleep and get married a few hours later! Anything I needed she made it happen and I can't thank her enough for it.
I wish every bride out there a maid of honour like her. And every woman out there a best friend like her. THANK YOU! I love you, Fi!

Bridesmaids:
Anne-Marie and I met in Montreal a couple of years ago and connected and have become close friends since, she now lives in Ottawa, so Scott and I go to visit them (her and Matt) whenever we can, or they come to us. Whenever we hang out it seems FOOD takes center stage. We have crazy elaborate breakfast feasts! So naturally Anne-Marie was in charge of helping me with researching food and coming up with ideas for the buffet, two weeks before the wedding she came to visit me and we baked all the quiche and olive and ham bread for the wedding, we then froze it until the day before the wedding. It's crazy but we did it and it was amazing! THANK YOU ANNE-MARIE!

Patricia McCarthy and I met during our studies in Hartford,CT, we lived together for a while and bonded very much over all the allergies we both have! We have stayed close friends since and Trish was a great source of help, information and inspiration during the 6 months before the wedding since she has attended many weddings before. Trish almost didn't make it to the wedding, she was supposed to fly in the Tuesday before but ended up in the ICU at the hospital because of her allergies and I had almost give up hope when i got a text message from her on Friday right before the rehearsal dinner that she was now going through security at the airport and would be there in a few hours! It was quite an adventure and I am SO happy she made it afterall! THANK YOU TRISH!

Eva DeAngelis and I have been friends since Highschool in New Jersey and I was so happy when she agreed to be one of my bridesmaids! I haven't seen her in a long time and was thrilled that she would be there for such an important day! Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be, just two weeks before the wedding she was laid off from her job in New Orleans which made it impossible for her to join us, I missed her greatly and wish she could have been there! She did help a lot with the wedding dress research and she made my veil which arrived (despite the postal strike) last minute the night before the wedding. THANK YOU EVA! I hope that she has found a job in the meantime and things look up! The few weeks before the wedding I definitely started to have the sinking feeling that it was bad luck to be my bridesmaid!
Veronika Luther was an old friend of mine since 5th grade in Germany and I really wanted her to be my bridesmaid but unfortuntely the trip from Germany was a bit much. Despite the fact that she declined the offer she assisted tons with helping to translate everything into German for the wedding website, the programs and of course the ceremony. THANK YOU VRONI!

Honorary Bridesmaids:
Suzanne Kennedy and Alice Wong are two friends of mine I would like to mention as well, as I said before there were lots and lots and LOTS of people who helped us tremendously over the last 6 months. But there were a few that put in so much energy and enthusiasm and support that I would like to call them my 'honorary Bridesmaids'. Alice traveled all the way from San Jose, California to attend the wedding, we were friends in Hartford during our University years and have stayed in touch on and off for the past 5 years. She was there for the entire wedding week and she never tired of helping with ANYTHING that needed to be done. If it was doing the dishes or putting up decorations she was always helping. THANK YOU ALICE!
Suzanne and I met over the past 2 or 3 years but started hanging out a lot more the last 6 months. Her and her boyfriend Alex arrived on Thursday and from that moment on Suzanne was helping out! When we had to go to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on Friday she stayed in the tent and continued decorating relentlessly! THANK YOU SUZANNE!!!
Thank you for EVERYONE else who helped with the million details! Our family was very supportive for such a fast last minute destination wedding and did their best to be part of it and help out as much as possible! THANK YOU! As mentioned before tons of friends helped out and Scott and I will never forget it! THANK YOU!

Our wedding decorations and details

2011-07-14T19:09:00.000-04:00

My hand painted signs were spread out through the ceremony and reception sites.

Silk flower petals all along the aisle. We gave people little pouches with blue and orange petals which they tossed during our recession.

My brother Martin build this BEAUTIFUL cedar box for us, it has our wedding pattern laser engraved in the lid and 2 locks with two keys on each side. We used this as our unity symbol, Scott and I wrote love letters to each other prior to the ceremony and locked them unread inside this box. Each year for our anniversary we will add another letter. If one day we should come to a rough patch or on our 25 wedding anniversary we get to open the box and read the letter together.

Our wedding programs. More photos of this one to follow in a later post.

Orange Cala lillies were my wedding flowers my maid of honour and I made the bouquets and the boutoneers ourselves the night before. For the bridesmaids we mixed orange and white cala lillies since their dresses were Orange.

Little fabric - flower garlands showed you the way to the bathrooms.

Seating Chart

I made TONS of these fabric flag buntings, with orange, blue and white fabric on which i printed my orange and blue pattern, there are all held together by blue and orange satin ribbon.

I printed the napkins with the orange as well as the blue pattern.

The little favours were handmade fabric pouches filled with our own mix of Chrysantheum and Green tea. The label was also the seating card.

The I sewed 8 blue and 8 orange table runners each about 10 feet long.

The center pieces were more than 30 herb plants, we had everything there from different types of parsley to lemon balm, basil, rosemary and many more.
I also had different kinds of glassjars filled with candy, dried peaches and oranges.

The table numbers where all handpainted onto different shaped and sized pieces of wood.

There were mini-flag buntings around the dessert table.

The wedding cake was made by our AMAZING friend Nicole Grinstead, with a beautiful caketopper made by the wonderful Marigold Santos. The two of them incorperated our colors and wedding pattern into the cake design. It fit breathtakingly into the entire setting. The cake was a vegan and nut-free moist chocolate cake with raspberry filling, buttercream and fondant on the outside.

There were many more details of which I haven't found any photographs yet. They might follow in the next post!

Photographer: Kes Tagney
Except for the cake and the boutoneer photo that was taken by Martina and Kirkor Cinarli.
Wedding cake: Nicole Grinstead and Marigold Santos
Design of any printed writing and the program: Fiona Clark
Wedding pattern, printing, sewing and making of mostly all the decorations: Maria Doering
Assistants: Scott Fisher, Fiona Clark, Suzanne Kennedy ... and MANY MORE!

We did have a TON of friends and family help us throughout the last 6 months with production of decorations, invitations, set up, etc. EVERYONE pulled together during the last 4 days before the wedding to ensure that it would be the MOST beautiful day of our lives. THANK YOU to ALL!

JUST MARRIED!

2011-07-11T14:40:00.001-04:00

Photographer: Kes Tagney

Wedding dress: Oui je le Voeux, Montreal

Tuxedos: Moores

Location: Fiddler Lake Resort, Cabin 93 & 74, Mille-Isles, QC

more photos coming soon! :)

new paintings - work in progress

2011-04-13T11:00:00.000-04:00

rather poor photographs of these 2 works in progress. better soon to follow.

under pressure - stone litho

2011-04-12T09:07:00.000-04:00

Every year the Concordia Student Print Association (S.P.A.) organizes a big print exchange, over the past few years it was the SPA box project, where they would build beautiful wooden boxes to house the SPA exchange prints. So instead of a folder or package you would get a nice wooden box containing the prints.
This year they decided to bind them together. I can't wait to see what it's going to look like. I think I'll keep the finished book in one of the SPA boxes in the end because I wouldn't want it to get damaged.

This year I kept it simple, I drew up a small litho on my lithostone and printed it in white Rives BFK ragpaper.

The finished drawing on the litho stone before the etching and printing.

The finished print.
Title: "under pressure"
Medium: black and white stone lithography on Rives BFK white

Size: 10" x 11"

Edition: 40

Jamaica March 16 - 22

2011-04-05T11:16:00.000-04:00

Hello!
It's been quite busy, mostly because we went on vacation for 2 weeks, first real vacation in 4 years for me. We spent a week in Jamaica and then on the way back we stopped in Georgia to visit my parents. Here are a couple of photos I took in Jamaica.

I love how scott is almost as tall as that palm tree. ;) I told him to "hug a palm".

Letterpress workshop

2011-03-14T21:01:00.000-04:00

Today I taught another Letterpress workshop. I was lucky and had a lovely group of students who were all eager to learn, and work in teams and as always it was a great experience for me too!

Locking the type into the press... it's always quite the puzzle..

I think at some point their were 14 hands working on this all at the same time.. .AAAAAHHH :) I don't know how we did it but it worked!

Explaining different non-toxic ink options. Introducing Akua inks.

Introducing Hawthorn Inks (Lindseed based).

Setting up the inking system on the Vandercook.

In this workshop we did use Handschy Lithography Inks to print the type, but we cleaned up with Estisol and soap and water, instead of Varsol. Thank god for not having to deal with the stinky toxic solvent!

Adding more ink.

Students typesetting.

Because we were printing many different types of letters and fonts, and old warped wood as well as lead type we had to touch up our inking with a little hand roller.

First round of proofing and explaining how printing works at the same time... :).

Not too shabby for a first proof, we had some trouble with the lead font, more pressure was needed.

Then all the students printed their own. :)

We printed three students at the same time with the first one, and 4 students at the same time the second round.

2008 design blog feature

2011-03-10T10:01:00.000-05:00

I google my name once in a while to see what pops up and I was surprised to find one of my prints in a feature on a design blog called Design Strategies dated back to 2008. I thought it's actually really nice that my print was featured with other items under "HOPE" :).

Snowing again...

2011-03-07T13:51:00.000-05:00

I'm so sick of winter. There was some hope that spring might be coming (last friday) since it was raining for like two days. And today we look out of the window...

And it's still snowing harder...

So one of the many things I've been working on lately are these little pouches, they are going to contain our wedding favors for our guests. I'm making about 90 of them.

Scott gave me a sewing machine as a gift for Christmas 2009. And it was the best gift ever, I've used it non-stop since. I've also broken endless needles and have gotten my thread, needle and fabric stuck in it and whatnot. But my "Singer" baby is loyal and patient with me and we are getting along great! ;)

Studio Chaos

2011-03-03T12:01:00.000-05:00

Of course I've been working more than 10 projects at the same time. So my studio space is total chaos at the moment.
- Anne - marie portrait
- pillow fabric linocut prints
- carving linocut for francois morelli
- working on wedding invitations/thank you cards
- inventory for Sunrise Passion Goods
- inventory for Pattern Passion Goods
- those three paintings hanging on the wall above my desk are still not quite finished
- lanterns for the wedding
- pouches for wedding favors
- etc..etc..

So it's kind of chaos right now..

Finding a place to store my Thesis work was also a challenge. Should have stuck to tiny drawings instead of 8x2 ft linocuts! ;)

More Invitation Photos

2011-03-03T11:49:00.001-05:00

My dear Fiona posted some more photos of our wedding invitation printing session. Check it out HERE!

Figure Drawing

2011-02-21T12:18:00.000-05:00

I am going to be teaching a figure drawing class at the Westmount Visual Arts Center in April. I'm very much looking forward to it.
Going through my own artwork I found a bunch of my own figure drawings, definitely some of my favorites
.

hmmmmhmmm perspective ;) always a challenge!

I especially like the way you can feel gravity weighing on here body in this one, that's one of the most difficult things to portrait properly.

Detail

Sweet as Pie

2011-02-21T09:43:00.000-05:00

When we visited Scott's parents during Christmas, his Mom showed me how to make pie crust (turns out it's a ridiculously simple recipe). So the past two weeks I tried a couple of pies myself. I still have a bit of trouble rolling the crust out but after a few tries it always works eventually.
Above is a good old Cherry Pie, and below is my own creation, pudding filling, topped with some cherries, and finished off with deliciously melted Lindt chocolate.

before the chocolate attack...

after the chocolate attack :)

Work in progress - Portrait of Anne-Marie

2011-02-20T20:56:00.000-05:00

This is the early stage of a drawing on wood panel, lots more work to do on it.

Making of my wedding invitations

2011-02-19T20:35:00.001-05:00

Our wedding invitations where quite the production, but of course I couldn't help myself, they just had to be totally unique and turned into this crazy elaborate project.

THE INVITATIONS:
ENGLISH:

GERMAN:

THE MAKING OF....

Our wedding colors are blue and orange, so first I needed to mix a large batch of inks of exactely the colors Scott and I had envisioned.

DONE!

Linocut Pattern printing on the envelopes and the actual invitation. Fiona assisted printing both sets of envelopes. AMAZING!

Inking up the block.

Prepping the press.

Placed envelopes on the linocut.

printing of the outer envelopes

We printed the outer envelopes with blue.
The fabric portion of the invitation was printed part linocut and part silkscreen.
Fiona helped with the first few and Scott assisted with the rest of the batch on these. It would have taken me 3 times as long with out them!

The amazing Chloe Beaulac printed the fabric invitations with Fiona as her assistant, while I printed the letterpress parts of the invitation.

Ironing each print to make the silkscreen ink permanent.

LOOOOTS of Papercutting...

Letterpress with type setup.
All other parts of the invitations where printed digitally on my good old epson desktop printer ;).

When we finally had all parts of the invitations printed and Anne-Marie, Matt and Brad came over to help us assemble them. It was amazing and a lot of fun that everyone helped!

My mom was so amazing to address all of the envelopes. We missed only 2 addresses in the end. So glad she labeled everything for us, she has a beautiful handwriting! Thanks Mutti!

Sunrise Passion Goods

2011-02-18T12:41:00.000-05:00

Except for Wedding planning I've been up to quite a bit of stuff.
Here is a new side project I'm working on. I had such a good time making those hairpieces for my bridal party that I just had to keep making more. So I decided might as well start up a new little venture. And hope to brighten people's days with some ridiculously bright colors/flower combinations.
Check out Sunrise Passion Goods .

This weekend I am planning on posting photos of the making of my wedding invitations. So check for some pretty cool images. :)

Hairpieces

2011-02-06T22:35:00.000-05:00

I've been making hairpieces for my bridesmaids. And I've enjoyed the process so much that I just kept going and making more. :) So here are the ones for the bridesmaids and other creations.

The three above are for my bridesmaids, I have one more to make for them.
The ones below are me just experimenting. :)

My Wedding Invitations (the process)

2011-01-20T18:30:00.000-05:00

Fiona (who is also my maid of honour) was here this past weekend from Friday to Monday and we worked hard on the wedding invitations. She posted some sneak previews of the process (not of the actual invitations ;) ) on her blog, they are beautiful photos go check it out! http://weefi.wordpress.com

Wedding Pattern Linocut

2011-01-09T22:13:00.001-05:00

As part of the overall look/theme of our wedding, I came up with a pattern that will be printed on the invitations, the linens and other decorative items at the wedding ceremony and reception.

Making of the Save-the-date- cards

2011-01-09T16:40:00.000-05:00

Scott and I making the save - the - date - cards for our wedding :) Lots of work but about 10 hours of great fun! :)

Engagement Photos

2010-12-20T16:15:00.004-05:00

Our dear friend Nicole Grinstead and her husband Andrew agreed to take our engagement photos with us. The two were great and it was a very enjoyable photoshoot.
We walked around the Old Port in Montreal. In the end we had so many photos that we liked that we couldn't decided on just one for the Save-the-date cards. We had all the best ones printed and mixed it up. So everyone is receiving a different card :).
Scott and I are a great team and we worked hard to get those cards finished before Christmas. I will post pictures of the process soon we want them to arrive at people's homes first. ;)

I am engaged :).

2010-11-21T09:02:00.002-05:00

I'm engaged!! I'm going to get married next year in June (or July).

Ahh!

My (most wonderful person in the world) Fiancé Scott proposed to me in the evening of November 17th, 2010. Completely spontaneously out of the blue. He had planned to wait until the weekend but realized that carrying around a ring is like a ticking bomb so he just couldn't help himself.

What did I do to trigger such spontaneity? I told him how I trash-talked one of his rival hockey teams. Scott is a very big Vancouver Canucks fan and when I told him that I was giving a buddy of mine a hard time about his hockey team, it must have blown his mind.

We had both just come home to eat a snack and leave a few minutes later, him to night-class at French school, and I to go back to work to job #... who knows. So when I trash-talked the toronto leafs he looked at me and said.... "OK .. that's it... close your eyes.. I have a surprise for you..." ... Now I was intrigued but I completely expected that he had a Canucks T-shirt or Jersey for me, definitely something hockey related.

So he sat down next to me with his hands behind his back, telling me to open my eyes again, and asked me to choose a hand. I said left, he told me there is nothing in the left hand. I said middle... he laughed and said there is no middle hand... I said right... and he placed the ringbox in my hand, opened it and said: "Would you like to marry me?" And from the moment the ring box showed up in my hand my mind stepped out of my body, everything was blurry and I watched my body freaking out with an asthma attack while my mind was screaming YESS!!!. Then I realized it's not enough to have my mind screaming I have to actually tell him too or he will freak out. :) So I said YES! and then freaked out and started crying (totally happy tears).

Best part... he proposed to me in his boxers... I loved it!!! Because it was just THAT spontaneous, and it was beautiful and completely REAL!

He gave me his Mother's engagement ring, which is sooo beautiful. I am very excited!

Work in progress - woodpanel mixed media paintings

2010-11-13T20:38:00.003-05:00

I'm working on 3 new paintings. I collaged some of my pattern prints and fabric onto wooden panels and painted over with acrylics and gloss gel medium.

"Theresa" Commission finished - and pumpkin carving.

2010-10-31T13:25:00.004-04:00

"Theresa" - Acrylic on stretched Canvas. 16 x 20 inches.

A commission that is being shipped to Austria.

Scott and I carved pumpkins last night. This one is mine, and the one below is his:

Inner Landscape - sale and installation- and lots of other stuff going on

2010-10-16T13:40:00.009-04:00

Hello!

my last post was in September, and now October is already leaning towards it's end.
There is a lot to tell about so, so here it goes!

Anne-Marie Leuchs saw one of my large mixed media paintings during her last visit in Montreal, and decided to purchase it. Scott and I delivered it to her in Ottawa today and I installed it for her in her bedroom. I am extremely excited about this because this painting couldn't have found a better home! It fits PERFECTLY into her bedroom, onto her light yellow painted walls with her red drapes and comforter, one could think it was painted for that bright and beautiful room.

A hearty handshake to welcome Anne Marie to the world of art collectors and patrons...

... and all of it is just THIS exciting!

Matt asked me if I am sad that I don't have it in my studio anymore, and I honestly have to say there is not the tiniest bit of sadness, "Inner Landscape" found the perfect home and will be appreciated with all the love it deserves. YEAY!

So now that I got all this excitement out of the way, here is what else is new:
Scott and I purchased flat-files for my studio and we rearranged a lot of our furniture in the entrance hall/studio area. I am really happy with my space now, and I should have bought these years ago!

Last weekend I took a little break and drew Scott while he was studying. It was just a quick sketch for fun.

I currently work 4 jobs. I teach at the Westmount Visual Arts Center. I have a WONDERFUL group of very enthusiastic students in my black and white to color portrait drawing class. And I am enjoying teaching them as well as learning with them very much.

There are piles of books around my desk at the moment, each class I seem to carry an entire library to my students. I haven't had the chance yet to collect enough for regular powerpoint presentations, and books are just irreplaceable.

I also work full time for Epreuves Illimitee/Proofs unlimited a small commercial printer/mockup shop in Lachine, or what used to be Ville St. Pierre. My boss is currently building a new website/identity but in the meantime this old site will give you an idea of what we do.

I've also been doing research at Concordia for a Sustainable Concordia grant that we received to find non-toxic printmaking solutions for the Print Media/Printmaking shop. And it's been REALLY interesting and very enjoyable. I think I am going to start printing more with non-toxic alternatives myself. I really like what I learned and found out.

And last but definitely not least I am working for Francois Morelli, check out his website HERE. I am creating a linocut for him of one of his belt head drawings. It's a really great experience and I get to work on a very large lino. YEAY!

So.. and in between all this craziness, I am planning new projects of my own. Also Scott and I have been doing inventory of all my art works, we are making a database to keep better organized and we are somewhere at 740 pieces and no where near finished.

In all this stress we were invited to a lovely evening at our friend Ryan's place, he had brought back 2 boxes of Oysters from Prince Edward Island and Scott and I had Oysters for the first time. DELICIOUS! Aparently I am very talented at shucking Oysters, I "cracked" almost the entire first box. It was a lot of fun.

New York New York...

2010-09-08T08:35:00.009-04:00

We spent Labor Day weekend in New York visiting my best friend Fiona. Scott had never been in New York so we explored the city for two days straight (my legs are still sore). It was nice to see the city out of someone elses eyes :).

Fiona has a beautiful new camera and took lots and lots of pictures of us, so some of these are hers and some are mine (u can usually tell by the quality).

Brooklyn Bridge! (taken by Fiona)

In the Subway. (taken by Fiona)

Fiona and I at a Gourmet Pizza place that specialized their dishes for people like me (with lots of allergies).

One of my fav. buildings in New York. The Flatiron building.

Short break at the Flatiron building. (taken by Fiona)

Scott's first "dirty new york water"-hot dog. hahahaha he loved it and it was delicious. (taken by Fiona)

During our visit of the MET this one was definitely one of my favorites! The Massacre of the Innocent by belgian painter Francois -Joseph Navez (1787 - 1869) (taken by Fiona)

Scott and Fiona's turtle had a bonding experience.

Jamie striking a pose for the camera

Fiona and Andre at Central Park

Devon and Bird - finished

2010-09-07T22:36:00.001-04:00

"Devon and Bird"
Finished :)

Devon and Bird - Monotype - in progress - Part VI

2010-08-14T13:05:00.005-04:00

Hello hello,

I printed another layer last night (red tone) and two more layers of blue this morning. I think that I only need one more warm layer and then it's finished :).

The ink transfered onto the offset blanket right before it's being printed.

Image with the newest red layer.

close up.

mixed up a blue this morning that wasn't in my palette.

Inked up plate.
wiped plate.

printing.

with the blue layer.
wiping the second blue layer of the day.

with this layer I think the shadows and blues are all established. I believe I should be finished after printing one more warm color. On this print I have worked completely out of order from the way I usually work. My usual approach is to work lightest and warmest color to coolest and darkest color. But I to achieve the grays I had to switch it up a lot which is kind of refreshing!

Devon and Bird - Monotype - in progress - Part III

2010-08-09T19:25:00.003-04:00

Two more blue/grey layers added.
Shortly after printing.
2nd blue grey layer before printing.
layer on the offset blanket shortly after printing.

Devon and Bird - Monotype - in progress - Part II

2010-08-05T22:56:00.005-04:00

I just finished the next layer on the "Devon and Bird" Monotype and I am so excited, also because it took 3 solid hours to wipe this one, that I have to post pictures right now. Lol ... as I mentioned before, Monotype always gets me all crazy with each layer because with each layer the image becomes more and more refined, detailed and clear. So it's like seeing the image emerge ... so crazy to me since I work each layer up separately...anyways.. enough with the rambling here are the pictures.. :)

Above is with today's blue layer and below is what it looked like before. Btw really sorry for the bad photographs, when it's done I will take some proper ones in perfect lighting and without the skew. ;)

Inking roller/inking slap.

I rolled the blue on my linoblock
then wiped the blue away except in the places I wanted it to print... I do this with rags (shop towels) and Q-tips (the Johnson& Johnson ones for super absorbancy) and the small and harder no-name brand ones for detail.

Lots more to wipe....

And this is what the finished wiping looked like before I printed it.

Devon and Bird - Monotype - in progress

2010-08-03T23:05:00.007-04:00

Monotype - awesomeness... "Devon and Bird"... I don't know what it is but everytime I do a monotype I am sooooooooooooo amazed by the outcome.. it's as if I forgot how much I love this technique and then I do it and am blown away. So these are a few photos of the work in progress.

My palette of mixed inks ready to go...

first grey.

then yellow on top of the grey.

then a transparent orange on top of the yellow and the grey.

then a transparent red tone over top of orange, yellow, grey.

now a less transparent stronger red ontop of the light red, orange, yellow and grey.

same red again but in fewer areas to get it more intense and darker.

This was the dark red tone it's sort of like a key layer that starts to really define the image. This is it on the linoblock on the press ready to go.

And this is the most recent state 1 run of lightblue, 2 runs of dark red, 2 runs of red, 1 run of light red, orange, yellow and grey. 9 colors and I haven't even begun to add the dark blues yet, and I also have a nice dark brown to add if the blues aren't enough. So well see. The shirt is going to be mostly blue, and bird needs lots of grey tones too. This is printed on a sheet of white 22x30, I will have to trim probably 2 inches from the top, since it's not centered on the sheet right now so the final print will probably be around 20x30. I have 3 of these that are close to identical. And as always I'm printing them on a small offset press.

PILLOWS!

2010-07-30T10:30:00.006-04:00

Hello!
Should I start with Cards or with the gigantic pillow? Ok I guess the pillow it is. :) I'll talk about cards tomorrow... So in my last two entries I mentioned I am working on a new linocut. During my week-long stay in Val David I finished carving that little "monster of intricacies". During my last few hours before my departure I printed a few "test sheets" of fabric with the round lino and then headed home. So thinking about what I want to do with this fabric I spontaneously decided to pin two (back to back) together, sew them and have 2 large round pillows as a result, and I am definitely excited about them . They aren't finished and I think I might want to attach a zipper or buttons to allow you to take the stuffing out, or add more.. not sure yet. But I kind of love this, I could imagine a whole room filled up with these weird "cell" - pillows :D

finished linocut

detail

detail

p

I have to buy more stuffing to fill it up, but you get the idea :).

val david and fetes de l'estampes

2010-07-25T10:45:00.006-04:00

Every year in July Atelier de l'Ile organizes the Fetes de l'Estampes/ Print festival and this year they organized the two owners of Papeterie St. Armand to come and make a 160 foot long sheet of paper with the public. So they put down one layer of pulp down and let the public "paint" and collage ontop of the still wet pulp with different colored pulp. It was pretty cool.
In the mean time I also printed more cards, will post better photos when I add them to Etsy.

The very very long sheet of paper...

Paul is putting down the first layer of paper/cotton pulp

That was my contribution ;).

back in Val-David for a week

2010-07-22T20:53:00.004-04:00

Hellllo!
So have I mentioned I got a full time job? I think I have, well if I haven't I work for a place called: Proofs Unlimited/Colormage and so far it's been pretty cool. I've learned loads and it hasn't gotten boring... oh AND it's a 9-5 job ... and only a 10 minute drive to get there... :) I like it. Anyways I am also going to teach a Portraiture/ life drawing course at the Westmount Visual Arts Centre starting in September. Every Monday night for 12 weeks! Oh boy! :) Have to make sure my French is up there, since I have to teach billingual! So have been practicing lots here in V.D.
I'm up north for a week because my boss closes the company during Quebec's two weeks of "construction holiday". This week is my time to relax AND pretty much everything I am making is to be sold on etsy or at the art boutique. So I'm focusing big time on producing new greeting cards and a few other fun things. Additionally I've made major progress on my new linocut, this time a round one! Yeah I know sounds way out there ;).
new round lino

A little preview to some of the cards i'm printing.

In the summer there are crazy things going on in Val David, including 1001 pots, a huge pottery event. This was one of my favorite things that I realllllly wish I could afford. :D

I also REALLY would love to have this tea set, each of the tiny cups were something around 20 dollars. ;)

Love those wobbly cool vases!

That's Nicole this super cool person who I stay with each time I'm in Val David. It's like a home away from home :).

Graduation and 8th Annual Graduating Student Exhibition

2010-07-01T22:05:00.003-04:00

So I finally finished my Masters of Fine Arts in Studio Arts. ;)

YEAY! Scott took some photos before Convocation. This is on our sun deck in the back.

I was selected to install my "Inside Me" fabric piece at the FOFA gallery for the Eighth Annual Graduating Student Exhibition. The Vernissage was at 6pm right after Convocation Ceremony which was held at Place des Arts inside the concert hall, salle Wilfrid Pelletier. Convocation was streamed on the web the archives of the entire ceremony can be viewed HERE.

Here are some photos of installing "Inside Me". I'll have a few photos on my film camera that I need to scan, hopefully I'll get to post them in a few days.

Large Format Linocut Workshop at Atelier de l'Ile (Part 2)

2010-06-14T20:21:00.018-04:00

Hello!
And again I've kept you waiting for a long time. I apologize! I just started my first full time job, I'm graduating with my Masters in Fine Arts in a few days and I'm going traveling right away the day after. Anyways June 4th-6th I taught the second and final part of the Large Format Linocut Course at Atelier de l'Ile. Denise, Nicole, Yolaine, Johanne, Lise and Marie-Claude completely blew my mind with their relentless printing efforts and team-work skills. We were all amazed how much we printed and finished during 3 solid days of work. The final outcome was an edition of 10 perfect prints 24x36 inches (combination of all 4 blocks), and numerous experimental monoprints, artist proofs and just plain old FUN!

Yolaine and Lise mixing inks and experimenting with different rolling/inking techniques.

Johanne and Marie-Claude experimented and printed lots on different fabrics, here they mixed colors and did draw-downs on their fabric swatches.

Nicole and Denise practiced mixing inks and finally decided on a few colors to use for their print experiments.

Yolaine spot rolling with small brayers.

First proofs.

First proof of the block that scott and I had finished at home.

Johanne and Marie-Claude inking.

First beautiful results on fabric.

Yolaine and Lise proofing on newsprint

Nicole and Denise, Inking perfection :)

Experiments on fabric and ricepaper.

More fabric awesomeness by Johanne and Marie-Claude.

After they practiced mixing inks, printing different colors, techniques everyone came to a first decision on what the colors for the combination print should be. So Saturday we pulled the first proof with those colors.

Then everyone discussed and made decisions on what needs to be done to make it work. The afternoon was spent with fine tuning it deciding on the "bon a tirer"(BAT print) and beginning the edition.

These are all 4 blocks.

The print on the left was the first proof, the one on the right was the BAT.

B.A.T. for those of you who aren't printmakers, the BAT is the version that the rest of the edition is compared to, it's the perfect print before editioning begins.

I liked the comparison of this proof and the print below. Nicole and Denise pulled this proof of their block during the first weekend workshop in May, then the two of them spent 3 weeks carving together to finish it before the second part of the workshop in June. I think it is very clear that they both learned A LOT! :)

A good monoprint of Yolaine and Lise's block.

Great experiment on fabric by Johanne and Marie-Claude.

Sunday we finished editioning. Thanks to the strange quality of the ink that we were using, the thickness of the paper and Van Son Three Way Dryer we were able to layer all four blocks on top of each other right away which is unusual. Usually one would print one color on the entire edition, let it dry, then print the second color... let it dry...etc. I'm glad we found a way to print all four layers one after the other per print, otherwise I don't think we would have finished during the weekend.

Hard work, YES. Loads of fun and laughter, YES! :)

At the end of the edition Johanne printed my block for me.

And Marie Claude inked my block for me so I could assist during each one of the printing runs themselves.

After we finished editioning, I showed everyone who they can do prints at home without a printing press, and we did one version of our print on Baika. Everyone tried the Speedball Baren, a Japanese bamboo baren and just a good old soup spoon.

Relentless teamwork :).

Yeay!

And this was the one copy on Baika ricepaper.

GREAT WORK LADIES! :)

Large Format Linocut Workshop Val David (Part I)

2010-05-14T11:11:00.013-04:00

Hello! I haven't been the most active blogger lately since I have been very busy between applying for jobs and preparing/teaching the Linocut course in Val David at the Atelier de l'Ile. BUT it has been a lot of FUN! The premise of the course is to become comfortable with the large lino block, composition, carving, pattern experiments but most importantly it is a collaborative project. We have 3 teams of 2 Participants each, and every team is developing and carving one 2 x 3 ft large linoblock. The goal is to play and experiment with patterns and textures and create a composition based on movement.

Nicole and Denise discussing and drawing out their composition and patterns on vellum.

Lise and Yolaine carving up a storm!

Johanne and Marie-Claude working on their block.

Proof of hard work!

The more comfortable they are getting the smaller the pattern.

Intricate circle pattern carved by Denise and Nicole.

Marie-Claude's specialty is carving very very very long strips of continues linoleum that we called "Spaghetti".

Originally the class was designed for 8 Participants, so we had one linoleum block left over which I used to do demos on. Of course I'm now finishing it at home, and since I don't have a teammate I asked Scott to help me carve (photos of that follow at the end of the entry)
Yolaine and Lise inking there large block as a team.
The course is a 2 weekend adventure, at the end of this first weekend we proofed the blocks in progress. The Participants are going to finish carving until the beginning of June. The first weekend in June is the second part of the workshop, when we are going to first experiment, and then print and edition all the blocks together.

HMMMMMM! Textures!

Marie Claude and Johanne inking their block.

FIRST PROOF!
Nicole and Denise pulling their first Proof! :)

In all the craziness I totally forgot to take photos of Nicole and Denise inking their blocks, so sorry!

And finally...

Back home Scott is helping to finish the 4rth block, so it is ready for the 2nd part of the workshop in June.

He carved until lino came out of his ears.... ;)

Celebratory Litho

2010-04-28T16:19:00.005-04:00

As treat to celebrated all that work that I did for the past 10 months I drew up a small litho on my own little litho stone. :) My grandpa had gotten it for me a few years ago and it is always a treat to work on it. I think I am going to explore the figure without a set ground/background for a while. I am starting to really enjoy playing with what happens if the paper is the ground, if it is free floating. It opens up an entirely different way of thinking about the support that I am printing on. :)

I think the drawing is pretty much done in this one.
Image ready to be printed. (After it was etched, rolled up and etched again.)

The stone on the press.
The stone on the press.
This is fresh of the press, the wet sheet of Rives BFK cream.
Just a quick shot of what it looks like on rice paper. Better images will follow once I decided if I am going to print any of my patterns over top.

AUFLÖSUNG: beyond the surface : Vernissage April 10th, 2010

2010-04-25T11:34:00.009-04:00

I was completely overwhelmed during my Vernissage. So many wonderful people came to see my work and I couldn't even speak with everyone. But I wanted to say THANK YOU, for coming to see my work. My Mother took a few photos, so here a few snaps from the show!
First we storm the Buffet then we hang out with the artwork. :)

Nicole and her cousin came to visit from Val-David.
Anne-Marie and Matt live in Ottawa, I was so excited to see them at my exhibition. In fact I was so excited and overwhelmed that I forgot to say hello to Matt until about half an hour later. Embarassing.

Genevieve, a fellow Grad student who came by to give me very insightful feedback! :)

FIOOOONNAAAAA! :) Fiona and Andre both drove up from New York City to attend the show and chill in Montreal for the weekend. :)

Nicole Davidson, the mayor of Val-David. She is the kindest and most wonderful person I have met in Canada. She was supposed to go on a well deserved vacation in Cuba and moved her trip one week later so she could surprise me at my Vernissage. :) THANK YOU NICOLE! :)

Margarita who graduated last year with her Masters stopped by and took a very close look at my 8ft linocuts.

My buddy Jay who used to go to U. of Hartford as well drove up from Potsdam, NY with a friend of his. Was really good to see him!
My Dad :)

I'm explaining lithography to Sandra :). With whom I took a Massage course last year.

Scott was so cute, one of his business school friends came by and he explained to him printmaking! :) It was awesome to witness!

I can't even begin to explain how much crap this man had to endure because I was going crazy with stress for the three months prior to the exhibition. Thank you for continuesly picking me back up and being there no matter what! :)

I'm so glad my parents where both able to come to the show! It was SO nice to have them both here!!!!! I hope it happens again soon! :)

Auflösung: beyond the surface Artist Book

2010-04-20T13:29:00.002-04:00

This is a Limited Edition of 15. Hurry and secure yours now!

AUFLÖSUNG: beyond the surface

2010-04-17T12:36:00.020-04:00

"The Beginning of the Journey"
12 ballgrain lithographs printed on Mailaender offsetpress on Rives BFK rag paper
each sheet is aproximately 20x30 inches

"Presumption" ( 3 states), "The Flow of life" (3 states), "Struggle" and "Rest" (3 states)

"Rest" (3 states)
Stone lithograph with linocut and double-sided ball grain plate lithograph on Nepal Light ricepaper

"Struggle"
Stone Lithograph with linocut on Nepal Light ricepaper. In this display it actually has a "pattern" print hanging directly behind it so that the viewer has to either get really close to see what is hidden or lift the print up.

"Interior Landscapes" (Series of Six)
Acrylic Paint, Sharpie Pens, graphite, gel medium, wax, stabilo color pens, cheese cloth, India ink on wood

"Awareness" ( 2 states) and "Rejuvenation" (3 states)
Stone lithographs with pattern linocuts
also some blind embossment

"Pattern"
"Embodiment"
8 shaped and suspended scrolls
linocut and lithographic pattern combinations doubles-sided on fabric, starched and molded around my body then suspended and backlit

"Pattern"
double-sided linocut and ballgrain litho on Nepal light ricepaper

"Embodiment" and "Pattern" (on the right)

"Rupture Scroll I"
Double-sided ballgrain plate lithography with graphite, charcoal, watercolor, india ink, color pencils and pens on Nepal light ricepaper

"Rupture I"
(one of 6)
Double-sided ballgrain plate lithography with graphite, charcoal, watercolor and india ink on Nepal light ricepaper
"Rupture I" (back view)

"Fragmentation" - "Re - Formation" - "Wholeness"
2x8 ft Linocuts printed double-sided on Baika rice paper with a soup spoon

Back view of large linocuts

"Rupture Scroll II"
Double-sided ballgrain plate lithography with graphite, charcoal, watercolor and india ink on Nepal light ricepaper

"Struggle below the surface"
Linocut (front sheet)
Stone lithograph with linocut (back sheet)

Inside-Me (Claustrophobia)
fabric installation
Double-sided ballgrain plate lithography printed on Mailaender offset press on varied fabrics, sewn, stuffed and pinned over shapes of chicken wire

Carved Linoleum mounted on Plywood

I could just go on forever. I think these are enough photos for today.
Coming soon: Video footage of the exhibition.

Installation of Aufloesung: beyond the surface thesis exhibition.

2010-04-14T09:49:00.009-04:00

Wednesday March 31st, I hired a friend of a friend who owns a van and was super cool to help me bring all the work to school, which were the best 40 dollars I have spent! If you need someone to help you move your art work or your band or anything, let me know I'll give you his contact information. VERY cool guy! He is coming tomorrow to help me bring everything home. Definitely worth it! So anyways, I brought everything to school. Met with Judy my advisor to get her thoughts on it all, she stopped by at least 5 or 6 times over the next two days which was incredibly helpful. Then around 6 o'clock Armeno and Scott showed up and started painting the walls because it looked like a disaster, I started working on the fabric installation in the middle of the gallery since that one no one could help me with. I brought chocolate cupcakes and bought a bag of Samosas, which is pretty much what I lived of for 2 days.

CHAOS ...
WHERE to put it all?
The chicken wire that supports the fabric pieces.

Since he is SO proud of it, I just had to post the photo of Scott painting this wall. To my amusement he pointed it out to everyone at the Vernissage that he painted it for me :). Armeno ("the great") and Brad ("also the great") painted almost the entire rest of the gallery while I worked on setting up the fabric installation in the center.

The boys realigned and attached the window covers. Looks way easier than it was! This way I had control over the lighting.
the fabric installation is growing in the meantime, I think I used about 3000 sewing pins to hold this all together.
Brad and Armeno then put i-hooks in 1-2 ft distances along the wall and stringed fishing line between, to build a hanging system for my starched fabric work "Embodiment". They painted the I-hooks white after so that they turn almost invisible.
it's growing...

more wiring with invisible fishing line.
On Thursday morning Caitlin and Evans came by to help put up the Embodiment pieces and the giant linocut prints.
I don't remember when this was but I was surely confused.
toools tooools tooools I love tools.
Talking and thinking about 30 things at the same time. Thank you to Judy my advisor (who took the next few photos) for helping me make sense of it all!
Still growing!
Armeno is awesome, have I mentioned that he is amazing? This show wouldn't have been possible without his input and help!! I can't even begin to explain all the effort he put in to make this perfect!! :) A million thanks!
It was about 8 pm on Thursday, we still had 2 walls to hang and damn was I tired. But everyone just continued to be brilliant! I really love this photo, Judy took it and I think we all look much better than we felt ;). Brad, moi, Caitlin and Armeno (from left to right).

yeah... I know... at this point prints where just on the floor without even newsprint to protect them. ;)

On friday morning Scott and I came in and worked a solid 5-6 hours on getting the lighting perfect and hanging a last few pieces. Then we went kiteflying since it was the first nice day of the year. And later he went home to make a fantastic beef roast and I went back to the gallery to finish the ever growing "inside me" fabric installation and to clean up the gallery.

I think I might have mentioned it a few times before but without: Armeno, Brad, Caitlin, Scott, Judy and Evans I wouldn't have been able to get the show up! So... A MILLION THANK YOU's TO YOU ALL!

Starch fest ... starring Joanne Madeley

2010-04-14T01:27:00.009-04:00

It is 1:55 am and for the first time in months I can't sleep. So since my thesis insanity is now officially over, I am going to start posting everything I've been wanting to post that relates to the thesis exhibition.

This entry is going to be about the "starch fest" I had with Joanne Madeley, who so wonderfully volunteered ridiculous amounts of her bit of free time to help me mold/starch my body into the printed fabric that I have recently finished.

After trying corn starch blob and sugar water I settled on spray starch. It took about 1 - 1 1/2 bottles of spray starch per piece of fabric, and they turned out AMAZING!

But first I had to wrap myself in plastic wrap to prevent possible allergic reactions.... ;)

So here is the best part of this absolutely ridiculous plastic wrap adventure. As Joanne and I were working on this project I was waiting for UPS to deliver my exhibition invitations. So when the UPS guy finally rang the door bell I was completely wrapped in this plastic stuff and tried to hide in my jacket. Never the less he still noticed it and told me cheerfully: "OH! My wife does that too when she works out! She wraps herself in plastic!" and I explained to him that this isn't for a work out it is for an art project and he said: "Oh gosh! Don't tell anyone that the UPS guy's wife shrink-wraps herself!" Sorry Mister UPS guy, this story is too good not to tell!

By far the most difficult and uncomfortable position to hold.

Joanne and I blow-dried together.

Hmmmmm Spray Starch! Who would have thought that a bottle of Spray starch can be as little as $2.70 and as much as $5.20. I was absolutely amazed to see the price differences between all the different drugstores and supermarkets for EXACTLY the same product.

The kitchen turned into "Starch-camp".

THESIS EXHIBITION!!

2010-03-24T09:46:00.004-04:00

AUFLÖSUNG: BEYOND THE SURFACE DEBUTS

MONTREAL, CANADA - March 24th, 2010 German born artist Maria Doering's thesis exhibition Auflösung: beyond the surface debuts next week (April 3rd-14th, 2010) at the Concordia University MFA Gallery. Doering's artwork explores the interrelationships between interior and exterior physical experiences, seeking connections which allows unseen depths to surface and merge with the environment.

Doering creates a wholly unique approach to print-based installation. The work created for this exhibition has been in development since her BFA at the Hartford Art School in Connecticut, where she specialized in traditional printmaking and life drawing. Doering's graduate studies at Concordia have allowed her ideas to evolve into a profound understanding of her concentration: Her body as a sentient vehicle for understanding and expressing both physical and psychological experience through a rigourous and engaged print practice. She speaks through "a vocabulary of patterns" to explore the layers of both the print medium and the body's interaction with the internal and external world. The printmaking approaches featured in this exhibition range from highly rendered portraits in lithography to larger than life linocuts printed on delicate rice paper and fabrics, suspended and shaped to suggest the human form.
The Vernissage of Auflösung: beyond the surface is being held on Saturday April 10th, 2009 from 4 to 7PM.

-----------------------------------

Special thanks to: Evans Adrian for helping me with the posterdesign and the press release! Also unlimited thank you's to Judy Garfin!!! Most amazing thesis advisor EVER! LOTS OF LOVE! More thanks to follow later!

thesis book in progress...

2010-03-14T10:55:00.004-04:00

In addition to my thesis show/work, thesis statement, presentation and such I am working on a book that showcases the concepts of the thesis show. It will be an edition of 15. Five of the books will go to my thesis jury as a gift during my defense. And the rest will be for sale.
The book is going to have proofs of some of my prints in it, some digitally printed type and the rest typeset on the letterpress. It will be made of synergy bond paper, rice paper, and several other papers. It will have large empty sections where the "owner" of the book can take notes, or use it as a journal. Overall a fun/exciting project. Of course a LOAD of work. So I got a few pages done yesterday on the letterpress.. here some sample shots.

Things to do ....right now...

2010-03-06T11:15:00.009-05:00

Things to do:

-finally decide on the title of the show - done

-make show invitation & order them

-finish preparing thesis presentation

-sew fabric scrolls and make hanging system

-trim edges 3rd linocut ricepaper scroll

-finish writing thesis statement

-fix up rupture scrolls/drawings!

-figure out the format of the thesis statement books (edition 15),

- cut covers, cut more papers, print more stuff, bind books, layouts, go through more proofs and prints to include

- maybe typeset and emboss some phrases
-get clip lights from G. and P., ask at CDA about clip and floor lights for show

-get pins,wire,fishingline, nails, thread - done

-make chicken wire structures for fabric installation - almost done

-sent out invitation as soon as they come in

-order vinyl letter for show title/name for gallery walls

-figure out transportation for materials to the show (friend with huge van? rent a truck from Home depot?)

-deal with MFA group show submission and installation

-deal with starving artist project submission

-taxes

-figure out what to do with blog/process idea

-recruit more helpers for installing the show

-press release for show...

-food and drink for vernissage

-check if security got letter for opening hours

-keep starching fabric

-make more mesh-shapes

-hanging system for ricepaper prints.

-sent press release EVERYWHERE

ETC.

work and work and some adventures :)

2010-03-01T10:48:00.007-05:00

Hello my dear friends,
About a month until my thesis exhibition has to be hung. I'm so exhausted. But of course have to keep swimming. Let me tell you about the last 2 weeks. As every year it was my birthday on Feb. 14th, and I spent it quietly this year, no energy to do much of anything. So i baked myself a heavenly birthday cake and had a few people come over to eat it with. It was a Layered Chocolate Cake with Raspberry filling covered in a thick layer of Dark chocolate. For a first attempt it turned out great! My friend Anne Marie brought the candles and she couldn't get enough for 25 so her, Matt and Bhinesha did arranged them in Roman Numerals. It made a big mess of wax all over the cake but it was great! The night before my birthday Scott and I went to eat Sushi at a new Sushi Buffet place that we discovered not long ago. A bit pricey but AMAZING.

I finally finished drawing my on the litho stone I've been working on for a long time and got around to printing it last week Sunday. It was extremely exhausting, I definitely over did it this time. I think I printed about an edition of 40 (but varied papers) in 12 hours. I know I have done more for less time, but this is a big stone. And I printed by myself. So after I was so tired that on my way home I had to will myself to walk the last two blocks to our apartment without calling scott to pick me up just 6 houses away. Eitherway though printing was successful.
The dry stone, ready to be printed.

The wet stone.
Drying the prints...
On Ricepaper.

Experimenting printing it overtop some of my patterns on ricepaper.
For my birthday Scott gave me a card saying: "save the date: Feb 22nd." "things to bring: 1 bathing suite, 1 nice dress, 1 set of comfy clothes". So on Monday Feb 22nd (right after my day of printing) we hopped in the car and left for the "mystery" location. On our way Scott told me that we are going to the Eastern Townships, a town called Magog, very near the border to Vermont. Once there we checked into a cute Bed and Breakfast, then left to spent the afternoon/evening at the Nordic Station Spa. AMAZING!!!!

The craziest thing, Magog is right on a huge lake, and when we went down to the "allfrozen" lake, they had turned the walkway around it into an "ice-way" so if one desired, one could skate as if going for a walk along the water. SUPER COOL! :)

After that wonderful 1 1/2 day adventure I felt much refreshed and rejuvenated and went straight back to carving my 3rd linocut. This time to help me carve faster I heated the linoleum with a pot of hot water. It made carving easier for my wrists and hands and allowed me to make progress much more quickly.

10 very productive days in Val David

2010-02-04T09:10:00.011-05:00

I wanted to apologize for leaving everyone in the dark during my 10 day retreat in Val David, usually I blog at least every 2-3 days while I am there, about a week before I left my laptop broke, and I borrowed one from school, but safari kept crashing on it every few minutes, it was very frustrating. Therefore I decided to wait until I return and get to use Scott's computer. So this entry is going to fill in the gabs and show in detail what I've been working on during my stay.

Before I left for Val David I prepared the 2nd 2x8ft lino, first I draw the rough outlines of the image on cheap mulberry paper, than trace it into the block itself, and draw in the pattern. After the first lino took me about 2 1/2 months to carve I decided to approach this one differently. Instead of slowly working my way accross the block, i carved by pattern, drew in the first 2 patterns, carved those, then drew the rest, etc. Turns out that was the better approach for me since lino #2 only took me 3 weeks to carve.
Upon arrival in Val David I walked to the local hardware store and bought two 3/4 inch 2x8ft boards of plywood for mounting my lino. When I carve lino i automatically break the surface tension of the material, and once inked up and washed the softer layers below the hard surface soak up anything wet, causing the lino to warp and buckle. Even with small pieces it is important to mount it to something, could be an aluminum plate, wood, masonite..etc.. It stabilizes the block and ensures that I can pull large editions over a long period of time without the running into problems.
I bought a huge bucket of non-toxic "latex" contact cement. It was a different brand than what I usually use and for some strange reason had this ugly mint-green color. ;) For mounting permanently with contact cement you have to cover both surfaces with it 1-2 layers and then let it dry before laying one surface on top of the other. When placing them, you have one chance to get it right, the second they touch that's it. It is a very strong bond. So the first block I mounted it by having two people holding it up and I slowly aligned it and lowered it onto the wood moving from one side to the other. A bit of a pain in the butt. Definitely worth it though.

My linos weren't all that straight either so I had to trim a bit off the sides of the wood, not a problem though. :)

Before I could print the first lino I had to chop away all the large areas that I didn't want to print, since the lino is mounted to wood, it's stable enough to chop away as much as I want without having to worry about any accidental holes.

Seeing lino #1 inked for the first time.

After I figured out the colors I wanted and several proofs, I settled on printing everything with a spoon, instead of the printing press. Hard work but guaranteed perfect impression.

As soon as I finished printing lino #1 I had to finish carving lino#2 since the plan was to finish both and get both printed during my stay.

Again I chopped away everything BUT the pattern.

Detailed shots of lino#2 pattern. It varies from lino#1

One of the proofs of lino #2, I decided it was too dark, so the next one (see below) I tried a different color combination.

The ricepaper is so thin, that when you rub over it with a spoon, the image comes through almost perfectly, this helps to see what spots haven't had enough pressure yet. (See bottom right of picture which hasn't been "spooned" yet. This whole "spooning" work was the subject to many "spooning" jokes. It was decided that I am a Master Spooner. ;).

again the light/hazy areas are the ones that haven't been "spooned" yet.

As I started to finish up with my linos I began working on a small litho that is also supposed to be part of the Box project organized by SPA (Student Print Association at concordia)

After all the carving and all the spooning, my arm muscles didn't even feel the difference when I switched to printing litho, and I ended up printing an edition of 60 in 8 1/2 hours. (This is a lot of prints in a little time, trust me.)

6 of these I printed on Somerset rag paper, the rest was all on Baika Ricepaper. (the cut offs from my large linos worked perfectly for this small format (10x10inch) edition.)

the image on the wet stone.

proofs and the finished edition.

on about 50 of the 60 prints I printed a section of lino #1 (yes, that means 50 times more spooning.. ). Sorry for the bad quality picture. Without my laptop I'm a bit limited in my means.

This is what the back of it looks like.

And this is what happens when you hold it up to the light. :) The lino pattern almost turns clear.

Back in Val David for 10 days.

2010-01-25T13:07:00.005-05:00

Following are the photos of my 2x8ft linocut, I proofed it several times on the electric etching press with the 9ft pressbed, but printing didn't go well at all. So finally to get 2 good impressions I finally printed it by hand with a spoon.

This is a inked-up close up.

The lino on the ridiculously long pressbed.

Bottom part of the print.

Top.

Snowy Val David.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-31T10:12:00.009-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, holidays and all the good stuff, we definitely did. In fact it was filled with smiles and Laughter! :) My friend Veronika, my boyfriend Scott and I traveled down to Georgia to visit my family and stayed for a short week filled with AMAZING food, lots of fun and a little bit of sightseeing.

Scott and I on Christmas Eve.

As most of you know, since we are German we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve primarily. This is how we do it in my family: Go to church, then open presents, then eat a huge dinner of cooked carp. And for the last two years we made our own new tradition: we DANCE. ;) Doesn't matter how many or how few we are, we through on some 70's, 80's and 90's rock'n roll and Dance. My dad is the DJ. :) When we open presents, we do a lottery, everyone's name gets put in a bowl and one at a time a name gets picked. That person gets to open all their presents. That way everyone sees what everyone got, and gets to say thanks! I really like it that way, it's much more about love and family and being together and enjoying everyone's presence. Than it is about the gifts themselves. :)
Scott got a Vancouver Canucks book for Christmas from my parents. He was VERY excited.
In the front my brother Martin watching my Mom unwrap her gifts.

After-Dinner Digestive Herbal Snaps Shots..... Soon after, my Mom started taking Tequila shots with Vroni. ;)
After Dinner everyone was Dancing...
More Dancing....
My brother has become not only a wood technology specialist, he also has worked very hard in ceramics over the past semester. This Vase is what he gave me for Christmas. I think it's amazing! and it was inspired by the Pisa tower.

For my Mother he made this incredible water pitcher. It's really beautiful!!!

The morning of December 25th, since Scott usually opens presents then, my mom had one more gift for each of us that we were not allowed to open until that morning. And as probably many people this year each of us got a REAL "SNUGGIE" .... yes the blanket with sleeves. As retarded as those commercials are. It is mad comfortable! ;)

So on December 25th, we usually have some kind of huge LUNCH, or something between Lunch and Dinner, since after it you are so full you don't want to eat for a week. This time my Dad made Roasted Ducks with German potato dumplings, Brussel sprouts, kale, stuffing and green bean casserole. OH MAN it was so good, we had so many left overs that I just kept eating it randomly over the next 3 days between meals. Scott was also DELIGHTED, he gave it a big thumbs up. ;).
On the 26th we did some sightseeing in Atlanta. My dad dropped us off infront of the Aquarium, and we walked through the Olympic parc up to the Phillips Arena (Hockey) and the CNN building. We thought it was cool so we did a tour through the building and got to see the CNN and HLN studios as they were in use. It was pretty cool.

After our sight seeing tour, we went Bowling, Blacklight Bowling. It was so much fun! My parents at the bowling alley, Scott tried to jump into the picture but didn't make it. ;)

I have so many more pictures but I think this gives a bit of an overview :).
I wish you all a Happy New Year! :)

Leaving for Georgia tomorrow.

2009-12-21T21:44:00.005-05:00

On December 13th, Scott and I organized a little "cookies & gluehwein" get-together at our place and despite snowstorm people came and it was fun :). Vroni took these two snow pictures right before she arrived at the party.

hm delicious cookies and fruitcake that vroni and I made, ryan's chocolate pudding cake, bhinesha's almond cookies, brad and shiri's polish cookies, anne-marie's lebkuchen and spekulatius cookies and of course my Gluehwein, which is spiced, heated wine. It tastes delicious and goes down like water. Hence everyone was quite happy for most of the evening ;).
At the moment the Print Zero Exchange 6 is being exhibited at the mouse print gallery in montreal. It's a tiny gallery and has over 380 prints shown at the moment. It's VERY cool, make sure you stop by to check it out!

Scott and I received a huge package from his family, it came by Greyhound express and weight 36 pounds! There were so many presents in there that they don't all fit under the tree. Or it looks like the presents are too big for the tree. ;)
Scott and I have been giving each other little presents through the advent calender that I made a while back. On December 11th there was this note in the calender and it lead me to a not so small present under the tree.

This is what the monkey lead me to! A really nice, real leather portfolio. Now I can carry my artwork around in a mad stylish portfolio case :). It doesn't just look good, it also smells good! Hmmm leather!

Btw, I don't have a picture of it yet, but i finished the first big linocut. 2 more to go... and less than 3 months to do it! What I can say, after one week of doing nothing but carving, my right hand thumb feels broken...

Also one other thing I don't yet have a photo of. Today there was another monkey-note in my advent calender and it lead me to a beautiful Singer sewing machine! OH MAN! I played with it all day! <3 <3 <3

Tomorrow Scott, Vroni and I are heading to Burlington, VT to fly to Atlanta. I hope all of you are having quite the exciting Holiday Season! I hope all of you get to hang out with family and/or friends! Lots of Love and Happiness!

11 days until take-off.

2009-12-11T10:38:00.010-05:00

I appologize for the scarce blogging these days. I'm really starting to feel the pressure in terms of my thesis. As always I'm working on way too many things at the same time. I now applied to a total of 30 different galleries/residencies and for each rejection I am sending out two more applications. Since I've only received rejections so far it's a lot of work keeping up with that promise ;).
Ok where should I start... I guess thesis. I've done almost nothing but carving my lino for the past 2 weeks at least on the days where I am home. My hands/ wrists/ fingers are in rough shape from it. But since my lino isn't the only piece in my thesis exhibition I started another large litho on my fav. stone at school. It's a piece that feels like it should belong to the "rejuvenation" print that I worked on over the summer.
Anways I better start showing some pictures, so much more to talk about, so here it goes:

My new Litho in progress:

A few days ago, it snowed, HARD and for a long time

Poor Scott had to go out in that very very windy snowstorm.

I'm still working hard on that Arthousecoop.com Sketchbook project. Oh man, I almost wish this was part of the doodleoff ;). January is here soon.. that's usually around the time when we start thinking about the next doodle off anyways.. I think this year it's going to have to wait until after my thesis, but there definitely needs to be one! :)

Last but not least I finished the christmas cards for this year, very different from the past. But I like it. Goes well with the good year that almost lies behind us.

I typeset the letters, so they have a nice little embossment. :)

In 11 days Scott, Vroni and I are flying to Georgia to visit my family. I can't even begin explaining how excited I am!!!!!! :)