Artist du jour: Shepard Fairey

I meant to put the art of Shepard Fairey on my blog for over a year, when I first became aware of him. Don't quite know what took me so long. I guess I needed a real life connection, like his up-coming show this weekend in San Francisco at White Walls. Apparently the show is already sold out! This guy has made an amazing career in the art/design world. Quite uncommon to straddle both worlds so sucessfully. He went to Parsons Design School and used Graffiti-Guerilla tactics with his Obey - Andre, the Giant campaign to catapult him to street-fame. His coup d'etat is of course The Obama Poster. He sells his designs on t-shirts, posters etc. on his own web site and in many young hipster boutiques. I love his patterns and the layering of patterns he uses on some of his pieces: very clever, very pretty and definitely catching the zeitgeist of vinatge and whimsy coupled with political criticism.

Frida Mania

The San Francisco MOMA is showing till September 28th an exhibition of Frida Kahlo's work. It is a fantastic exhibition and probably a once in a lifetime chance to see so many of her paintings. Don't miss this opportunity! I have been already been 3 times, since I am a major fan of Frida Kahlo and her work. So to commemorate this important artist I made my own Frida paper dolls. Reaching back to my childhood, when paper dolls were my most favorite toy and obsession. I was just 5/6 years old and would sit for hours cutting out paper dolls and their clothes until my finger hurt from holding the scissors. I still like holding the scissors (and yes, I also dress up as Frida Kahlo, when the mood strikes.)

Charms, Buttons and Embellishments

I have so much fun with kid's crafts and Shrinky Dinks are a little obsession mine. Last year I taught kids at Martin Luther King Middle School to make cool key tags from Shrinky Dinks and had a blast. So I had to revisit this craft, but this time I wanted to give it an adult twist, make something I would wear and use myself. I experimented with Ink jet printer shrink plastic and created a series of Victorian Wine Charms and Pins, as well as interestingly patterned buttons that I embellish greeting cards with. If you are tempted to join in the fun, come and take my class at The Workshop, September 24th.

1001 Butterflies

I spent 6 wonderful years at Oxford Elementary school volunteering and teaching art to the kids. My favorite art project was a farewell present to the leaving principal Kathleen Lewis. Inspired by the story of the 1001 origami cranes, I set out with the kids to create 1001 butterflies. A group of parents and I pre-cut 1100 butterflies in 4 different shapes and 3 different sizes. The kids decorated the black construction paper butterflies with glittery or flurescent gel pens (which I got for free from the Sakura Gelly Pen Company). For several weeks I went from class to class until all 300 kids at Oxford Elemantary had created 1001 butterflies. My friends Pam and Ellie helped me turn the unveiling of the butterflies into a powerful event. All kids, teachers and the beloved pricipal were present and blown away, by the power of 1001 butterflies!

Artist Trading Cards

Sometimes I need to pull back and just enjoy the creative process. Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) are the perfect project for a lazy afternoon, when you want to craft without the pressure. These small cards are not intimidating and invite you to try out a variety of techniques. I love to combine decoupage, drawing and stamping. If you are interested to learn how to make some, sign up for Courtney Cerruti's ATCs class, also at The Workshop. Her cards are delightful and she masters many different techniques! She is also a fellow arts and crafts blogger and has a wonderful blog.

A paper dress

My daughter made this beautiful dress from architecture plans at her friends house. It fit her perfectly and I loved taking the pictures.

Printing on fabric

Class samples
My student Cleo's work place
First stamps were carved out of buttery soft rubber
The stamps were used to print on fabric:

and on card stock:

I am still catching up and try to post all the groovy things that happend in the last several months while I wasn't blogging (due to elbow issues). I taught a wonderful and fun class for The Workshop a while back. It was part of my stamp making series, but this time we stamped also on fabric. More stamp classes are actually coming up in October, November and December. Check out The Workshop website and see all the classes I and other teachers teach for them.