Merry Christmas

   I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year! Here is a little angel that I drew for email Christmas cards, maybe I'll get a printer next year and send them by post. 

Our Christmas tree! I was determined to make one for our flat, and here it is! It stands about a foot and a half, made of cardboard and paper. The green stuff is hand made paper I bought and also brown paper painted green with acrylic. The stars are paper too! Yellow on one side and a map of Great Britain on the other. This tree is around 80% recycled material! 

Jesse added an ornament: my name tag from Thanksgiving!

    As you can see, there is not one snow flake in all of Liverpool. This is my window sill, a sad winter sight for us New Englanders! These past few days have been drizzly, windy, and warm enough to go without a coat. I hear that snow does fall here, rarely. The closest I have witnessed is hale, which looked like snow at first, but just bounced on the ground and melted! As you can tell, I miss New England and wish we could be there for the holidays. Maybe next year!

tall tree

This is a new little painting. I made it for the Christmas Presence exhibition at the Bridewell and I'm really happy with how it came out! There is a frame for it, which separates the three sections. They fit together correctly when it's framed, but I like the disjointed way this looks. The middle is my favorite part.

Panic and such

Well our exhibition is up at Wolstenholme Projects and I am quite happy with how it turned out. The private view was lots of fun and I want to thank everyone for coming! Hannah is doing a week long residency at the Bluecoat this week called "eight days a week" so check it out if you can. Also the Bridewell Christmas market is this Saturday, I am helping out with it (as a part of my internship duty) and will also have a table there with handmade cards, books, and bookmarks. There will be an exhibition sale as well, so check it out! Get in the holiday spirit with some mulled wine and caroling. I can't wait, really.

Some photos of our show at Wolstenholme.

over cape cod

Another two pieces. These are about panic, like the others. The girl in the air, a dream of flying, looking at the curve of the earth (she is not panicking and has a pleasant emotion, perhaps just before the fright).  

The blue winged thing is an angel. I have often felt an enormous sense of fear, ever since childhood, when thinking about heaven, hell, and angels. This is a representation of the mystic angel that is at the gates of paradise, and her sword. She is blue, like the gods you will see in Indian art, which I find interesting and unnerving. 

shoot the moon

This is a new piece for the show called "don't panic" . It is about the worries related to being a female, and specifically toxic shock syndrome, a terribly scary name for an equally scary disease. It is a contemplation of the moon, of death and of the fear about the horrible things that can happen to our bodies. The personal element is that my mother (among her many unreasonable fears) opposed the use of tampons, which can cause tss, and instilled a fear of them in me.

A few things

There are so many things to do in the world! Here I've taken photos of a pillow and two new books. The quilt pattern on the pillow is called Tennessee Waltz and I made it using a sewing machine a while ago. I made one then for Jesse, and this one but never had the chance to finish it until now. The green border is hand stitched because I don't have a machine to use here, but I quite like how it came out and was successful in my "blind stitching".

Both of the books are pamphlet style and filled with graph paper. The design on the cover is a lino-cut, which I really like working with. I have been invited to share a table at a book arts fair in Liverpool, so I am starting to make more of them in order to sell and also a few personal books to show to people. It's so much fun!

The painting is a watercolor and based on a sketch I did at the veggie cafe on Lark Lane called Green Days. It was really nice how the cups and things were arranged on the table and how the shadows fell. Jesse was actually sitting there studying, but I cut him out!

Don't Panic

Here are two new watercolors. The one of the woman in the bathtub is the first in a series I am making for a group show. Two friends and I are putting together a show at Wolstenholme Projects, Liverpool city centre, where one of them has a studio. The title is "Don't Panic!" and my intention is to convey the fear or anxiety that occur in dreams as well as strange moments of panic in waking life. My aim is to have a range of images, some quiet, some humorous, and some more on the nervous side. I hope to show the scope of the state called panic.

This "flower beard" is a man who I think fits into my panic theme, though I'm not sure he'll be in the show. He represents old age and the reverence I feel towards age and those who live well in it. His flowering beard is the beauty this man holds in the later season of his life. After awhile I saw the similarity between this piece and my "Don Quixote" (first post on this blog) which is pretty neat. It was completely unintentional and so I can suppose that this is just part of my thought which insists in being known!

Birdhouse

Here are a few of the cards I have been making. My friend Hannah and I are working together on this project and planning to sell them at a local shop and at Christmas fairs. It's been really fun to work with linoleum prints and sewing. We are using mainly recycled or reused materials, which has been interesting and rewarding. They are all simple folded cards except the green one with the dark green ribbon, which is a pamphlet style book. I used paper from a sketchbook made from recycled paper for the inside pages and a road map of Britain for the end papers. Our little operation is called Birdhouse.

I'm excited about book arts still and am taking a workshop next month on binding, using recycled material of course!

On a Hill

Keep On

Two more new pieces. These are both watercolor and pencil. The bicycle wheel one is a detail of a larger image, but I quite like the cropped version. It makes it easier to appreciate the little things.

The girl is both a copy of Degas' Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, and also a character from the children's story my good friend Jill is writing. She is called Emily and has a bother Tom. We've been working together on this for about, well, two years and hope to make some real progress this fall and winter.

Ahoy!

It's a chilly autumn sunday morning here in England. I am spending the morning documenting a few things I am working on and the rest of the day on a new painting. Watercolor is a very tricky thing! But I love it. I can't find any Arches paper over here, except for 300 lb, which is not what I need and is very pricey. I am using Fabriano and I have to say it isn't as nice. The paint seems to separate more and it doesn't take as much erasing without breaking up. I am learning though, as always :)
Here are some things I have done in the last few weeks, as well as a small view of my desk. Jesse and I are sharing a flat that is meant for one person, but at least we each have a desk!

Now England

Hello! A new post after so long and so much change. I am here now in Liverpool, England. My husband, Jesse, is studying here and I am working on art and reading a lot. Actually, I have a job at a local vegetarian cafe and am working part time. It is really beautiful here in Mossley Hill. I should post some photos of all the lovely streets and fields. There are a lot trees here and it makes me so happy!

This is a watercolor and pencil drawing. I had the idea of a floating ribbon running through tall trees so I came up with this piece. I am working in this style more and more, really enjoying the soft colors and the graphite lines. Since this is a digital photo I used photoshop and heightened the contrast.

When I get a scanner I will be posting more of my work here and on my website, which needs to be updated badly!
Hope whoever reads this is well,

Cheers,
Mary

Show at Gallery 263

My window show at Gallery 263!
263 Pearl Street, Cambridge
www.Gallery263.com