Oh Look a Featured Artist! - Kylie Budge

wallflowers
Originally uploaded by kylie budge

I really want to start featuring other artists more often. I tried to do it as a regular Friday thing, but with my schedule that is hard.

But here is the perfect starting point for me to do better. I had the pleasure to meet woodblock printmaker Kylie Budge through Flickr last year at some point. 2007 was a bit of a blur with the pregnancy and all but she stood out as a great talent. I've blogged about her in the past, but I just have to do it again because this piece is so breathtaking.

I just love how the colors balance each other out and the delicate line work, I would love to see the blocks that make up this print. It is so breathy it would be perfect in my studio. I have a thing for abstracted nature.

Her style of printmaking is different from mine. We both use wood, the same kind even, but that is where the similarities end. While I go the western route at that point with oil based ink rolled up onto the woodblock she goes the eastern direction with watercolors or pure pigment mixed with rice paste brushed onto the block and then printed by hand with a barren instead of a press. This is moku-hanga. It is something I hope to learn myself someday when I can find a class that is being taught closer than Connecticut. It is a laborious process but is so worth it for the translucent colors. Both eastern and western have their own charm.

More of her work, including her current mixed-media pieces can be found here at her etsy shop.

Collage-A-Day

#9 - Collage Challenge
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Well, I've completed my first week of the Collage a Day challenge that Magic Jelly set up and I am quite proud of myself. As is typical of me I have done more than one a day, and only missed once when all I did was cut a ton of paper. I get carried away by things and can only pull myself away when I absolutely have to. If it wasn't for blee I would probably have twenty or thirty by now! I think the day I ended up skipping was Thursday when I was feeling light headed and super sick. I'm feeling better now but I do need to go to the doctor to get checked out for anemia. But I more than made up for the lost day.

It was hard at first even though I have been using elements of collage in my ACEOs for a couple of months now. I wanted to push myself father and do even more with it and incorporate as many mediums as possible without cluttering the pieces.

Unlike some people I didn't put any time, medium or size constraints on myself. I figure that I am new enough to collage that just doing it is a challenge enough for me. Plus it is really hard for me to keep track of time. Not only do I get lost in projects but I do most things not in one sitting. Like right now I have a box filled with cut paper elements similar to what are in this piece. Because one night I got to cutting shapes and couldn't stop for hours. I have various book pages including a dictionary that is over thirty years old and belonged to my mother, washi and old block prints of mine.

If you are interested in seeing my set and the group set they are on Flickr. I highly recommend the group as there is some awesome and inspiring stuff to be found there. I feel like I can do almost anything at this point! *roar*

I'm far from done. Not only am I going to keep up with collage but I am going to keep up with the one a day challenge hopefully for the rest of the month.

I also have a personal goal of doing art, anything really from sketching, carving, cutting paper to printing, daily for the entire year. I'm pretty much doing it already so it shouldn't be a problem. I mean I can always find time to fill a sketchbook page with random doodles at the very least. I have much to do in 2008.

Challenges - New Beginnings

Reindeers Hide in the Forest
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Sure, I have been able to post new work. But it was work created at the end of 2007 that is still being scanned in. Hoping your year is off to a bang as well. I know it is for at least some of you. The world might be scary but this isn't part of that world is it?

This work is so new that it is very unfamiliar territory for me. The challenge is to do a quick collage a day for two weeks. Or at least that is the original challenge as I have really run with it and am currently doing a couple a day. Ever since December or late November I have been pushing myself artistically. Of this I am proud. I am proud of every failed piece because it truly is a learning experience and overjoyed by each little success. It started out small with me getting out the washi paper I had been given many months prior and cutting little leaf shapes into it. Then I glued those papers onto black cards and made some ACEOs. They were different, they were fresh and not only did people buy them but I had a new energy and desire to explore. And a taste for new paper starting with washi.

Now here I am cutting up an out of date dictionary I dug out of my closet and uses pieces of super old prints of mine that I destroyed for scraps long ago.

More! My tiny exacto blades are my new favorite tool. I even maticulously set up a portable washi paper cutting station so unlike my woodblocks I can do these everywhere.

And I have been sketching more than I have in a long time. In fact I only have a couple pages left of my current moleskine. Great timing since I have a 25% off one item coupon at Dick Blick burning a hole in my pocket.

Now I need to get back to work. My energy level is near frantic as I can't do everything I want to do and have such a hard time focusing on one task. Too many ideas with limited time. I'm thinking that I may be a wee bit manic but what am I to do other than ride it out and enjoy it while I can. Put it to use and try not to overwhelm myself.

I'm not feeling negative lately and that is something. Far from it. Using art to keep my mind from thinking about what is going on out there is my escape. If I didn't have it I would be a mess of anger and worries all the time.

Eeek! It is way past the witching hour for me, I need to get to bed pronto!