Portland Sketches

I went to Portland, Maine last month and did some drawing. I forgot to post any of the sketches until right now. I had a surprise day with nothing planned at all, which basically never happens to me, and I wanted to do something I had never done before so I booked it to South Station and hopped a bus to Maine. Destination: Cryptozoology Museum! I had been meaning to go there for quite some time so when I had the chance, I jumped on it.

The Cryptozoology Museum is this quirky little two room museum full of evidence and artifacts relating to Crypids, or animals that may or may not exist/still exist. Like Bigfoot, and Nessie, and Aliens, and Swamp Monsters. On display there were also things like vintage movie posters and tourist objects and cryptozoology related artwork. Also, for some reason replica Egyptian artifacts? 

I ate at a little cafe that was full of mismatched tables, musical instruments, art, and beautiful dreadlocked people serving you local beer and organic Mexican/Thai fusion food. Portland is like a magic wonderland. For real.

Altered Calendar Project: March

With creative input from my sister Anna who is visiting New England this week, I have completed the altered calendar piece for March: it is inspired by the popular Victorian Era pass-time of goat stacking. Wealthy gentlemen vacationing in the Alps would hold contests to see who could create the highest and longest-standing stack of goats. Mostly it was men who participated, but one woman-- Elizabeth "Bitsy" Gladstone was undefeated in goat stacking for several years running. Turns out goats are highly stackable!

Anna documented the collage process:

Collage detail: 

Historic Alpine Goat Stacking:

I hope y'all are having a goat-stackingly good month of March!

Scarf Paintings

I am currently taking a painting class at the SMFA as part of my Illustration Certificate. The class is organized like a workshop where we come up with self directed projects and the teacher pushes us in directions we need to be pushed. In addition to helping me critique all of the T-scapes I have done so far, my teacher encouraged me to think of another series I might be interested in working on in class. On the first day she talked about how weird artists are and how sometimes we collect things and don't know why, but eventually we will figure out what to do with them. There is a reason for everything we do, even if we haven't yet discovered it.

I realized that I have a vast collection of scarves so I decided to make a painting of each one. When my teacher asked if there are stories behind each scarf, I said, "Absolutely!" and she recommended finding ways to incorporate the stories into the project, so I began writing down each story. Once I had stories drafted for each scarf, a writer friend helped me pick out the heart of each story-- just one sentence or phrase to sum up the whole-- and I painted the text. 

I am really pleased with how this project is coming along so far! Here's what I've got: