The holidays are finally upon us. It seems incomprehensible that there are no more than four weekends left before Christmas Day. I’ve been busily at work in my studio making work to show and sell at holiday markets throughout December. And, I will be exhibiting my work at a cafe in Fort Greene, Brooklyn — my own neighborhood just a few blocks from my home — for the month of December. I’m very excited about this first solo exhibition of work and will let you know when it is up!
For now here is my schedule of holiday markets for December:
People often ask me whether they can buy my work online. I’ve had a little online shop on Etsy, a great online marketplace for art and handmade goods, for a while but only recently started listing more items.
I’ve finally given my Etsy shop a little makeover and have been slowly listing many of the woodcut and linocut prints I sell at Union Square. Please have a look, and feel free to provide me with feedback in the comments below!
It seems too early to be thinking about the holidays but preparations for the holiday season have been well under way. You can find me again this December at Brooklyn Lyceum’s second annual holiday craft market, a wonderful option for finding unique, creative and handmade gifts by local artists and crafts people. Look forward to seeing you there!
Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 19 – 20
11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Brooklyn Lyceum
227 4th Avenue, Brooklyn (Park Slope)
R/M train to Union Street www.bkcraftcentral.com
Halloween festivities, volunteering at the New York City Marathon (won by an American for the first time in 27 years), the awe-inspiring colors of fall, and this amazing video (paired with the beautiful Barcelona song) have been providing ample stimuli to get the creative juices flowing this weekend (not to mention the Yankees are winning….)
I never cease to feel lucky to live in the great city of New York…
… As in, missed a perfectly good day of selling this week (warm & sunny). Chalk it up to recovering from a full and hectic previous week/ weekend. Or as in, my camera, at the moment (completely, mysteriously broken. time for a new one?)
Alas, I stayed busy indoors printing and carving a new block out of wood. And finally got around to making a name card stamp. I honestly hate to waste beautiful materials when I’m making things, so having a little name card stamp makes use of not only leftover scraps of gorgeous paper, but the leftover ink I’ve used for a print run, which is hard to save. Now when people ask for my card I can give them a true mini-relief print. Sweet!
I’m delighted to have a tree print as part of a silent auction to raise funds for YKASEC, a Queens-based organization that seeks to empower the Korean American community by providing services and programs in the areas of education, civic participation, immigration, social services and culture. The organization is celebrating its 25th anniversary with fundraising gala this Thursday. Thanks Jackie, for the opportunity to contribute…
Yesterday I attended a workshop about writing artist’s statements. For several years I made my living as a writer for newspapers, but since returning to making art these “artist statements” remained elusive and scary to me – esoteric, high-art cultural artifacts that made me cringe.
The workshop – though not what I expected – was fun and illuminating. Far from the basic instruction on The Elements Of An Artist Statement, the session focused on understanding what it is to describe an object using words. For me it succeeded in beginning to demystify what it is I’m doing in my art. It helped me to realize I can use writing, as a compliment to visual description, to convey something to the viewer.
I wrote this little snippet during one of the exercises; we were asked to write a statement about one piece of artwork. Reading it aloud to the class uncapped a little reservoir inside me – a reminder of how much I once loved (and still do) to write…
The piece is a linoleum print depicting a fictional, flowering tree, whose limbs spread and flow in the sky, as if swirling in the wind. The tree is formed by the white negative space of the paper, in high contrast against a soothing turquoise blue sky.
The piece evokes a mood and a feel from a faraway land — a beautiful place where a cool breeze blows, and there is quiet. But if there is any sound it is a harmonious, peaceful sound.
Is anyone else feeling like fall? I’ve been dreaming about this color for some days now – a milky, mocha-latte brown that seems perfect for the cooler days of fall. I had a customer the other day from Vermont, and she said the foliage up there is already multi-colored, striking and beautiful. As much as I rue the passing of summer, I can’t wait for the blazing colors of fall to hit New York.
Now if only I can bring myself to put away my shorts and tank tops and pull out the wool sweaters and socks…
Sometimes life delivers to us packages that do not seem like gifts at the time, but if only we are quiet and still we can experience them as the mysterious blessings they are able to be. The fading of late summer into early fall has been such a season, it seems…
This beautiful little song seems to convey so much of what I’ve been surrounded by as of late — through dear friends, acquaintances, and kind souls who have been drawn to my work in recent days. A million thank you’s to the person who introduced me to this very special piece by M. Ward, telling me how my humble tree prints seemed to echo of the sentiments in this animated clip (I can tell I am going to become a huge fan of his music!) The music, lyrics and whimsical images are gentle and sweet. I love it that birds and trees — prominent in my own woodcut and linocut prints — are the characters that illustrate this song, and am so, so flattered to have my pieces compared to this.
Art is a gift that can be healing, freeing, and revealing.
An artist whose studio I visited this summer — a painter in his eighties and at the end of his life — said to us as we were thanking him for spending time with us, something along the lines of: “We make things in the hope that it brings joy to people. If that’s the case, well, then we’re happy.”
I could not agree more.
I sailed a wild, wild sea
Climbed up a tall, tall mountain
I met an old, old man
Beneath a weeping willow tree
He said now if you got some questions
Go and lay them at my feet
But my time here is brief
So you’ll have to pick just three
And I said
What do you do with the pieces of a broken heart?
And how can a man like me remain in the light?
And if life is really as short as they say
Then why is the night so long?
And then the sun went down
And he sang for me this song
