Yesterday, I told myself I’d feel better if I got into the studio. I’ve spent most of the past week on the couch, trying to complete bits of work in between coughing fits. The week before that was my son’s April vacation and I honestly don’t remember what I did. I did know it had been a long time since I had a good studio day A good studio day means a few hours of puzzling how to create something new. There’s a certain concentration level where my mind is completely focused on problem-solving. I select a substrate, adhere the first layer of paper, and dive in. The color palate and the composit ..read more

The #100 Day Project starts each year in February. There is a website, weekly emails, and social media support. You choose an idea you want to explore and post your work every day on Instagram using the #100dayproject hashtag. I completed three of them, and each time my art improved and gained many followers on Instagram. (I wrote blog posts about each of them and you can see them here, here, and here). When the project started this year, I felt that pull to join, but I knew my schedule was already too packed. Creating the art is one project and writing Instagram captions feels like adding a ..read more

Earlier this year, I was one of the featured artists for Drew Steinbrecher’s first Collage Makers Summit. My lesson involved using stencils on a gelli plate to get the look of letterpress printing without a press. It turns out that there aren’t really great options for letter stencils and I think students struggled to find any they like. This got me thinking, and I reached out to Mary Beth Shaw, the owner of StencilGirl Products, about designing a line of abstracted typography stencils. She said to send her a proposal of what I was thinking. Here’s the thing- I’m just making everything up as ..read more

Last week, I snuck into my basement studio to make a collage while my son watched television upstairs. I knew I had about thirty minutes before he got bored and came looking for me. My table was covered in papers from various printmaking and collage sessions that had never been cleaned up (see first sentence for the reason). I pulled out a piece of 9” x 12” watercolor paper and made some space by pushing everything to the side. I relied on paper scraps for this collage because they were everywhere. There was also a piece of a vintage, fabric-backed map that I’d just picked up that week and was ..read more

One of the first art supplies I bought during the Covid lockdown was a gelli plate. I saw one being used on Instagram and was transfixed. Back then, I hadn’t started a collage practice but was trying out every mixed media supply I could get my hands on. I think the gelli plate led me to collage because I had to do something with all the papers I was creating. (And if you aren’t familiar with the Gelli plate, it’s a commercial product that lets you create prints without a press). Because there were a lot of papers. I watched endless videos about the many, many ways to create patterns and textur ..read more

The question I am most asked, (second to what type of adhesive do I use) is how do I seal my work to protect the vintage papers? I’m going to bring you step by step through my process. This is not the only way to prep/seal, but these techniques and materials create a finished surface I like. Preparation When I work on paper, I start my collage without any preparation, but many of my collages are on Blick Premier Wood Panels 1-1/2" Gallery Profile, Cradled. Working on wooden panels means I don’t have to cope with curling paper substrates and can sand everything off and start again. I use Frog ..read more

A few months ago, I was invited to teach a workshop at a local public library. They had seen the class I was teaching at the local art association and hoped I could do a similar version at the library. The art association class lasted for eight weeks but I distilled some of the key elements into a two-hour class. I provided all the materials and the library paid me a stipend. The workshop was free for the participants with a limit of ten people. When I began to write this blog, I put my class description into ChatGPT and asked for a two-hour lesson plan. What I ended up with was very similar t ..read more

When I was teaching middle and high school English, I spent a lot of time writing lesson plans. Sometimes they were complicated, multi-paged documents that laid out everything I had to accomplish for a unit or lesson. Sometimes it was as simple as a few ideas jotted down on a sticky note. I’ve found that writing plans for an art class isn’t too different. And teaching art to adults isn’t all that different from teaching reading and writing to children. It comes down to creating a lesson hook, an engaging narrative, interesting materials, and a balance of instruction and hands-on learning. I’ve ..read more

A few years ago, I saw that Tara Axford was using a Cricut Joy to create custom stencils for gel plate printing. I put one on my Christmas list and when it arrived, happily went to work. And then the frustration began. Every so often, I dig it out and try again, usually after just enough time has passed so that I’ve forgotten how to do anything and have to relearn the steps. This blog is written to help you figure this out, but mostly it’s so I can have a reminder of how it works. For those unfamiliar with a gel plate, it’s a way to create monoprints without a press. I have several in differe ..read more

It’s eight thirty and I’m walking home through the woods after getting my son onto the bus. It had snowed the day before, and rained, and snowed again, and what remains is a crusty mix of ice and snow. Under the trees, the snow is pocked with holes from melting water on the branches and the ground is becoming visible. I find the tracks of deer and coyote and know the deer spent the night under the shelter of the great white pines. I’m almost home when I see a tiny white pine just visible over the snow. It’s a bit icy, and the sun glints off the branches. My artist’s eye knows that this is inte ..read more