Here is the latest oil on canvas painting inspired by the landscape surrounding Buffalo Thunder Casino and Resort where I recently visited.
Buffalo Thunder
crafting
Fabric Landscape Study 7 and SUGAR SCULLS!
Here is yesterday’s painting… would you believe that after more than two hours of playing tennis yesterday I was so wiped I didn’t feel like blogging? Well, that is what happened.
What have I been up to today? Crafting!!
It’s a lot of fun running an online craft shop and one of my favorite things to make are stitch markers. They are used to mark the placement of certain stitches or patterns within a knitting project. Knitting as a pastime has really picked up in recent years and there are knitters of every age and interest. Soooo, you can get quite creative with what you make into a “marker”…
For example, with Halloween coming up I’ve done a recent shop update with many scull-themed markers. Many of the beads used in my store are purchased from small shops around New Mexico from hispanic New Mexicans. It has made me very curious about all of the scull/skeleton imagery associated with their culture:
SUGAR SCULLS (and scull masks and skeleton imagery etc.) are symbols of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrated these days on All Hallow’s Eve (Oct 31) and All Soul’s Eve (Nov 1). These traditions go back thousands of years and included dancing in honor of deceased relatives. Sugar Sculls with the name of the deceased on the forehead are eaten by a friend or relative of the deceased. These celebrations are exactly that; celebrations of death, not as a tragedy, but a re-birth. Living is but a dream and when we die we wake up… or something to that effect. (Information from: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070911144931AAzPwvu)
So anyway, I spent some time making stitch markers today and taking pictures of the process to give you and idea of why I’m attracted to such a simple activity. All of the colors and the huge variety of different combinations you can make keep me interested while giving my mind and body a break from painting.
To buy stitch-markers, project bags, knitted items or knitting patterns visit multicraftual.etsy.com
¡Tenga un buen fin de semana!
Getting Crafty!
Today I got the Multicraftual Etsy shop back online after being on vacation. Most stitch-markers are only $5 and there are new summery wedge bags with floral or bike-themed prints:
Dragon helped me with my crafting… until she got tired:
Day 12 of the Drawing Challenge and a Knitting Pattern
Day 12: Draw your most recent accomplishment.
This is a drawing a lace shawl that I designed recently. The shawl was inspired by the architecture of the Eiffel Tower and is composed of lattice lace sections, ridge sections and rows of eyelets to suggest the scaffolding and platforms of the tower.
This shawl is the first knitting pattern I’ve written but it was enthusiastically received when published on Ravelry.com. I am very pleased to say that there are more than 130 shawls in progress (or already completed) right now. To me, that is an accomplishment I can feel proud of.
This drawing obviously does not do the shawl justice, but you may find it interesting nonetheless. I have become an avid knitter over the past year and a half, such that I am often thinking about how to paint and draw knitting. Who knows how these different art forms might intersect in my future!
Here is a photo of the actual shawl. For more information about it or to knit it yourself, follow the link above and join Ravelry! The website is free and this pattern is also free – for a limited time.
Butters
Hi Folks,
It’s been quiet on the painting front since returning home from my residency, but I’ve been busy in other areas of life. Honest.
Go visit multicraftual.wordpress.com if you are interested in crafting and want to watch my friend Liby and I in a new video podcast. We yammer on about crafting, we sing songs and put knitted garments on her cat pancake etc. Pancake is a star. The podcast is worth watching just for his expressions.
Crafting podcasts (and there are many: dramatic knits, stockinette zombies, 90% Knitting, the knit girllls, whatcha swatchin, yarnivore, craftstash, willow fairy knits to name just a few) are most often watched while engaged in knitting or crocheting yourself. As I recently explained to my mother, it is not meant to be captivating in the same way a tv show or movie is… rather, it is like sitting down with friends to knit and gab together. That is the best I can explain it.
In other news, the Brit (husband) and I are gearing up for a move into a new home July 1st. Same town. Portales. It means “porches” in Spanish. We like it.
The move means less time in the future with the neighborhood cat Butters. Since I got back from residency, Butters has been visiting me every morning for pats and scritches. His meow is a scratchy pathetic sound like something from a dying animal. But he is nevertheless quite talkative and affectionate. I will miss him (and frequently walk through our old neighborhood just to visit him).
Keeping busy
With fewer posts up the past few weeks you’re probably wondering what I’ve been up to. As the sole juror to an upcoming exhibition: Simulare Vitae, Student Juried Exhibition which will be on display from November 1st to December 2nd at Runnels Gallery, I’ve been quite busy going through submissions! With over one hundred entries it’s been quite a difficult decision-making process.
I will remind you closer to the date but just so you know, the reception and awards ceremony for Simulare Vitae is Friday, Dec. 2, 5–6:30 p.m.
In other news I’ve put that new sewing room to good use recently and made my first bag:
