Stephanie's Studio

I felt pretty good about my studio endeavors recently.  Bumbling along, working intuitively had been paying off.  My work ethic has been good and I’m putting in about 25 hours per week on my art.  Then yesterday, I had this seemingly brilliant idea to go to Michaels and buy some new stamps.  The rubber stamps weren’t marked down like I thought they would be so I was on to other things.  I checked out clear stamps and acrylic blocks but that was pricier than my budget.   Then I gravitated over to stamping embellishments and found some walnut ink sprays.  I have worked a lot previously with walnut ink in the manner of watercolor with my mixed media work and thought the sprays would be convenient for ATCs.  I did buy an almost filigreed design of a tree that is quite delicate.  I thought I followed the directions the way they were presented.  I stamped with the special quick dry ink called Versa, and then sprayed on the walnut ink....

I remember when I was at Tyler (School of Art), the big discussion in painting was still the effects that photography had on art.   That was a long time ago; the era before computers, long before digital art was even a consideration.   Computers have touched so many intimate aspects of our life, most of all the way we use our hands.   Last night I sat down to write out some Christmas cards.   The card writing was the most handwritten letter work that I have done all year.   I send so many emails each day but only a handful of hand written cards each year.   I remember when I made and sold handmade greeting cards in the 90s, they sold like hotcakes because email hadn’t caught on and people were still writing things by hand.   Now in the 2000s the cards languish in the boxes I put them in, waiting to be held or touched. I don’t mind at all though because whether they sell or not I’ve created them and I can use them to share with my friends.   The...

Yesterday I continued making art cards for the faire on Sunday. I enjoy this Shirley Templeesque little girl with her great shoes that remind me of some I might have worn and her gigantic snowball. Even in my art classes I've had the elementary children this week working with snow flakes and snowmen so I guess I have snow on my mind. I look forward to Yule, Christmas and Kwanzaa. Yule is such a great reflection time and it is very noncommercial. It is a time to pull in and get into your dreams and clear up interior clutter. I like the crossover between Yule and Christmas with the emphasis on evergreens and the notion of birth, only in my belief system it is the birth of Oak King and his triumph over the darkness brought on my Holly King. Kwanzaa is a time of family togetherness and community engagement, while delving into the meaning of the core Swahili concepts. I love gifting, making things and cooking during this season. I made vegetarian chili and pumpkin bread last night. I mu...

I also restarted Love Bird Designs, making art cards this fall for the holidays. I make cards every year but to give away as mini-gifts not to sell. This fall though, I've been doing some local craft fairs and have two more this season. This coming weekend I will be in one called Holiday Craft Faire at Oak Park Conservatory, in Oak Park, (10 a.m. - 4 p.m.) on Sunday. Previously, my cards were pretty abstract in their orientation but recently I ordered some vintage images from Art Chix Studio in Canada and received an interesting angel goodie bag, among other things. I particularly like this and another angel derived from a transparency, that I will post later. I call this one Dark Angel Noel. I wanted to give her background a Victorian feel because she seems to need to be in that environment. I found just the right green-tinged paper that reminds me of aging wall paper from one of my card stock books. She seems dark and mysterious, maybe it's because of the transparency she exi...