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Dream World
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

April Fools!

Thanks everybody for playing along. With everything that has been going on lately I needed something to make me laugh and lighten the mood a bit. If you enjoy my collages don't worry they are still intact and hanging up on my studio wall. And if you don't well you don't have to come over to look at them.

Things are really no good. Awful really. The news about my friend is looking more grim by the day and today I really cried about it for the first time since hearing the initial news. I guess I have been in such shock and also been fighting feeling grim about it these past weeks but today I broke down. Then I baked them some popovers. They have people doing their grocery shopping, helping with the kids, somebody even got them Celtic tickets so they could go out on a date last night. I baked because I had to do something. Had to keep busy since blee has been so well behaved Monday and today and certainly wasn't feeling much creative energy. Jon is over visiting them now bringing the baked goodness.

I'm tired and sick feeling. I think I am going to enjoy one of the extras that I made in a muffin pan (not nearly the same as the ones using the special popover pan) and go to bed early. If I can fall asleep without him that will be something I haven't been able to do ever since we had the baby. Bedtime needs to have all three of us together. Speaking of her she turns seven months tomorrow (the 2nd). I can hardly believe how much I love her. She's the best thing that ever happened to me.





Goodnight and goodmorning.

March Is Fired!

my wall
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

What a terrible yet fitting end for a terrible month.

This was my wall of art before I destroyed them last night. Now I just
see empty nails on a wall. Last night an anonymous person took the
time to point out that my collages are too busy and it hit a little
too deeply.

It has been a long time since I have destroyed work other than to use
them in something else. The tree was spared since it is not a collage and therefor doesn't
fall under the umbrella of being too busy. But it does have a lot of
dots on it so maybe. I am starting to question everything about myself
right now. I wish I could just stop making art.

So last night, I took these collages and left them out in the rain to be destroyed over night. I will remove them from Etsy later today-not that they're in any danger of selling anyway.

What was I thinking trying to break out of printmaking and trying new
things? With everything going on right now I just can't handle this.
I'm going to have to take a break.

Blast from the (art) past

Time Capsule 2005
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Good morning and happy Thursday. This weekend can not come soon enough as I am very tired.

Been working hard and stressing myself out per usual. After somehow squeezing Collage #12 in between fussy baby time I need a break. If she napped even for five minutes I was working. I didn't even have lunch. But it was so worth it, as I am really happy with the result. I think I am most proud of how I used the gocco print in a non-traditional way and the stitching as I am most certainly no seamstress. Today I am going to take it easy and make something quick and dirty for the collage challenge. Sometimes those end up being the most interesting.



After my post yesterday I realized that I had neglected to explain what a Gocco is. It is a tabletop screenprinting device from Japan. Originally intended for Japanese schoolchildren it has taken off big time in the indie craft movement, especially with greeting cards and invitations. People do wall art too but the small size can be quite limited and the large model is ridiculously expensive and not all that large. And I am not much of a card maker. I just hope that when blee is old enough that supplies will still be available for us to make cards together. I can't wait to work on art projects with my little buddy! I'm going to give her a little art table that she can draw on as much as she wants just like I had. That is why those fancy kids tables make no sense to me. I don't want something where I will tear my hair out the second she invariably marks it up. No Pottery Barn Kids for this family.

After blee went down around 6pm I knew that I didn't want to make a damn thing, but I still needed to be productive. So I made a mess. That is I started going through junk boxes and tossing some and organizing others. Before I knew it was 11pm and I had to go to bed. But right before this realization I found these four unfinished prints from 2005. They were sitting at the bottom of one of my bins along with some meh ACEOs. It is like looking at something another person made at this point, two years feels like forever ago. So much has changed in my life much less my art. And I think that I have changed too. I'm not sure what I am going to do with them. But I really want to use them to mix the old with the new. Some may just get another layer (or two) printed on them, while others will find their way in collages. All I know is that they are very much a happy discovery. Maybe I will start squirreling stuff away on purpose?

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.

Officially Old!

My big strong girl
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Thanks blee. It happened, I just got back from asking our downstairs neighbor to turn their music down. They are having a karaoke new years party and it was loud. It isn't just because she is sleeping but I don't want loud music in general. I well on my way to becoming an old far. When the ball drops I hope to be asleep. I have no interest in celebrating or drinking. The last time I had a glass of wine I got a headache and champagne always went to my head.

Other than a brunch tomorrow we have no plans.

I have been doing a lot of art lately. I had a super productive couple of days a couple of days ago. That left me feeling very spent, hungover feeling actually. I have so much new work I haven't even come close to even scanning it all in. Much less uploading and listing it on Etsy. I just don't feel like doing much right now.



No actual resolutions for next year but I am hoping that I can be more positive as I have been feeling quite negative this year. It is a feeling that I want to fight.

Now to watch a sneak preview of the first episode of the new season of The Wire a week early. Then get ready for bed.

Happy New Year! Throw one back for me if you wish since I don't think I will be partying for a very long time.