block print

Leviathan for #twitterartexhibit

Image | | sandpaperdaisy

I’m happy to say that everything worked out and my special #twitterartexhibit one-off painting featuring my linoleum-block print Leviathan is safely in New York, NY, at the Trygve Lie Gallery where it will be sold for charity!

This year, the myriad and wonderful postcard-art show will benefit Foster Pride and the money will be used to provide art education and opportunities to children in foster care! I am proud and blessed to be part of this amazing show with talented artists from all over the world.

The art this year (and in past years) is phenomenal. You can browse the rich variety of pieces on any of these pages:

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/twitterartexhibit
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/twitrartexhibit
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/twitterartexhibit

Below are some shots of the piece as I worked on it. You may or may not be able to tell, but there are shimmering silver planes in the water that actually shine when you move the painting.

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Our upcoming July 12 Hand Prints show featured in this Sunday’s paper!

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The Sunday paper today (Evansville Courier and Press) featured a beautiful spread with our art for the upcoming July 12 “Hand Prints” show at Wessleman’s Nature Center, as you can see. The online article is here: http://www.courierpress.com/news/2014/jul/05/arts-beat-printmakers-step-out-of-the-shadows-in/

Thanks to Stephanie Osbourne of littlelemonpress for her awesome snapshot of our article. The prints shown are two lovely block prints by Stephanie: “Zinnias” and “Life and Death,” and my very own Tentacle Raccoon at the far right.

Bait, or the Keyfish!

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See that little black fish blockprint on the right? That’s the real-world form of these little guys:

a cute playful fish with a keyhole in its belly is enticed by a key on a hook

As you can see, he’s pretty cute in color too, huh? I’ve intended to use COPIC markers to add color to a few of my “Bait” block prints before now, but haven’t done so. Perhaps in time for the art crawl!

Incidentally, my “keyfish” idea started out with a simple photomanipulation of three objects in my house, a soapstone fish and two pendants from a broken necklace, a big key and a heart-shaped lock. I photographed everything and combined the keyhole with the fish, and history was made. I like this little fella and intend to make some sort of more developed digital artwork out of him!

a cute cheerful soapstone fish with a keyhole in its belly is enticed by a key on a fishhook.

Eurydice

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I took the name for this traditional linoleum block print from the ancient Greek legend of the singer Orpheus and his wife. Orpheus and Eurydice were deeply in love and happy, but on the night of their wedding Eurydice ventured out into a field (some say to dance) and was bitten by a snake and died. Orpheus then descended into the Underworld and got Hades to agree to allow him to take Eurydice back to the realm of the Living, provided he did not look back at her on the way. Tragically, Orpheus looked back almost as he and Eurydice were about to be reunited, and she remained in the land of the dead.

The high heel shoe implies dancing to me and a beautiful woman, and the bear trap in the field shows the misfortune and the sudden snap of deadly jaws that sealed Eurydice’s fate. Below are the different sketches I made before making my print and adding watercolor to it. Eurydice was originally made for Hand Prints 2012 and went on to appear in mixed-media collage form in last year’s Earth Day Art Crawl (above).

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Check out all the cool things I saw at Art in the Wild!

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From the adorable “pot o rocks” and cute sock critters to block prints and leather masks, Art in the Wild featured a whole gamut of creative beauty. Many of these artists and crafters will be at the Earth Day Art Crawl and I’m doing my best to get even more there! In the meantime, feel free to drool over these beautiful examples of local art:

jan steinmark recycled sock critters
erin bowen booth
pot o rocks erin bowen
mahja mandalas
mandala by anitra larae
nondecaf art feathers
mallard pendant nondecaffinated art
block print little lemon press
cheyenne knox pottery
andy roques glassblowing
silent salvation booth
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necklace by silent salvation
sandpaperdaisy booth
sandpaperdaisy booth wide shot

Individual shots of the mandala, necklaces and flower print are the pieces I went home with. Sorry, you can’t have ’em! =D (Incidentally the cute white, pink and blue crocheted surface these items are resting on was created by my friend Jenny of Jenny’s Unique Crochet! It’s actually my favorite hat.)

Painted rocks: Erin Bowen
Leather masks and feathers: Courtney Hostetler/Nondecaffinated Art
Block prints: Stephanie Osborne/Little Lemon Press
Mandalas: Anitra Larae/MahjaMandalas
Upcycled jewelry: Jamie Gish-Bates/Silent Salvation
Sock critters: Jan Steinmark
Ceramics and Pottery: Cheyenne Knox
Glassblowing and metal jewelry: Andy Roques

The shot of my booth features Sandpaperdaisy Art’s plushie stars (a joint effort between myself and my wonderful friends Kim and Jay Williams) and my original prints and pinback buttons, as well as jewelry made by Kristy Spindler and Rebecca Trapp.

Fenris Devouring the Sun, the rebirth of an old monoprint

this traditional mixed media print depicts fenris the wolf devouring the sun during ragnarok, the norse end of the world.
| sandpaperdaisy

I mentioned in “The Many Faces of Daedalus” how I liked to re-examine or even re-use old art to try and perfect an idea or turn it into something new entirely. Fenris Devouring the Sun is one of these pieces! The colorful background of this piece is in fact a very old monoprint of mine depicting the Sirens from the Odyssey. I never did anything special with this print, and when I finally pulled it out of my student portfolio a decade later I still enjoyed the vibrant colors but I was deeply unsatisfied with the clumsy linework. Experimenting, I turned the print this way and that to see if a different orientation suggested a new picture.

The results excited me. As the hair and faces of the sirens my lines were wholly unsuccessful, but as the body and rays of the sun and some suggestions of Fenris’s fur, they were perfect! I hastened to design Fenris around the lines I liked from my old monoprint and then soaked the old print in water and printed upon it with black. In fact, this image from the “ABOUT HEATHER” page shows me carving Fenris from humble typing paper with my trusty X-Acto knife. In the background at the far right, you can see my old monoprint too!

heather landry aka sandpaperdaisy working at her kitchen table

Then I continued to experiment, using watercolor, COPIC marker, india ink, just anything I could think of really. The result, I’m pleased to say, took a Juror’s Choice Award at the 2012 DOOMSDAY show! It also got the following comment from the judge:

“Heather Landry’s Fenris Wolf is a high-intensity nod to the near universality of end-of-the-world archetype across cultures.” -Rob Millard-Mendez, juror for the DOOMSDAY show

fenris monoprint and juror's choice award ribbon from the 2012 doomsday show at angel mounds, evansville indiana

So there you have it, a successful makeover of a very student monoprint. Have any of you had good luck with revisiting a piece?