tea bag stains

doing to experimenting with tea bag stains on cloth. while i was knee deep in tea bags, i noticed the stains they were leaving in my sink. i like those shapes alot!

repetition with collographs

playing with repetition some more. using strips of bicycle tire tubes printed on muslin. i like the way the stray threads printed an image, too. can't wait to stitch these!

working on repetition

playing around with repetition. i used cut up bicycle tire tubes tied together with thread. i liked working on this. my classmates thought the work was pretty dark...

embroidery hanging in a show

my work is hanging in a show for BFA students at the maine college of art.

printing with bubble wrap

funny...some classmates put bubble wrap on the floor to the entrance of the studio. they sat around and watched the reaction as each person walked through the doorway, surprising themselves with the loud pop from walking on the bubble wrap! somehow i fell for the joke three times. so i had bubble wrap on the mind and decided to print with it on muslin. won't these pieces look great with stitching on them?

re-use, recycle, make art

at the beginning of the semester i wanted to put a 'maggie signature piece' on my studio curtain. i grabbed what i had in my apartment and come up with this. it has been a good subject of conversation...but i think the bell ringing every time i go in and out of my studio might be kind of annoying. can you tell what it's made of?

bh & irritable 4ever!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to the love of my life.

surprise!

i am learning the ins and outs of screenprinting. one of the first pieces i worked on was a 'night monitor' t-shirt that print majors wear when keeping an eye on other students using the printshop after hours to be sure it gets cleaned up and stuff like that. i successfully screened the images on the back and front of the t-shirt and left my shirt on the drying rack. when i came into the studio the next day, there was my shirt, hanging on my studio curtain beautifully embellished and personalized by fellow student, kat lamont while putting in some later hours the night before.

drawing and stitch - exquisite corpse

in my drawing class, we were exploring kind of an exquisite corpse drawing exercise. each person drew with a variety of objects and a variety of materials for a specified amount of time. then we each got a part of everyone's work. we had to make a cohesive piece of work using part of all of the drawings. i played with repetition and stitch and simplicity. what i like best is how it looks installed with glass head pins. i was inspired to use glass head pins after viewing the work of shannon rankin.

bad buddy in the print shop

lots going on in the print shop. we have a lift, called 'buddy,' that we use to pick up the ultra heavy litho stones. i decided to introduce bad buddy to buddy. they have become good friends.

resolving work with cloth and stitch

here i am back in portland maine at the maine college of art and enjoying every minute of working on my BFA in the printmaking department. printing goes well with cloth and stitch. i am a real novice with a alot of printmaking techniques, so i fret about making my work look like a printmakers work 'should' look. at heart i am a textile or embroidery artist...so, after haggling with my 30 day project, i came up with this idea as a beginning. i am really happy with it. i printed on muslin with coffee grinds. i ran the printed text thru my inkjet on kettle cloth backed with freezer paper. folks in the department were really curious about my techniques. i am breathing a sigh of relief about integrating what i love with printmaking.

ode to the baltimore green awning

in keeping with drawing and stitching a daily gratitude list, i focused one day on the green awnings in my south baltimore neighborhood. a few days later, i received an invitation to join in a baltimore print exchange and turned my embroidered piece into a hand-colored linoleum print!

summertime

it has been a fun summer of not working much and not going to school. so i spent my time being a bad influence on grandchildren and their friends: we made sock monkeys, chewed bubble gum cigarettes, and hunted for frogs. most of these pictures were taken with my phone.

maggie is here and i haven't forgotten the blog world. this has been a great summer. i am not going to grad school (but taking a few classes). i am not working (but looking for work). mostly i am just hanging out and enjoying my life. i have been making a gratitude list every day, focusing on the simple things. yesterday morning,there were birds in the alley behind our building playing in a spilled bag of cheese popcorn. i came back in the afternoon and they were still there eating and playing. here is my rendition of the event.

scrap quilt

playing with some old scraps i have from various projects over the last 20 years. it's kind of fun to work with what i have, instead of needing to start or buy something new...and even more fun to have the time to do it! can't wait to hand stitch this one.

letting go

here is a little drawing of ME. i am at a bit of a crossroads with school and career and not sure which way to go. i recently lost my job at the art center. the opus school of textile arts, where i was a BA (hons) student, closed a few months ago. i can't even give a link to that anymore, as they have virtually disappeared, after taking our course money. another program has opened in its place, named after the creative and inspiring late julia caprara but i have been hesitant to join, as i am not sure that distance learning was to my advantage. so i applied to and was ACCEPTED to an MFA program at the great and wonderful maine college of art, except now i am trying to figure out how to pay for it. anyway, i have been meditating everyday and writing my gratitude list and letting go. xo to all!

sowebohemian festival

our local sowebohemian arts and music festival was this weekend - great fun, good food and lots of local bands. one of the events that supports the festival is a poster silent auction which will be held on june 7. here are the posters i made:

more community arts

i have been volunteering with an artist-in-residency program at an elementary school with black cherry puppet theater, a local baltimore arts group. we worked with the students to teach them how to make paper mache hand and rod puppets, how to manipulate the puppets, how to make scenery and props, how to block out a show. we will put on a performance for families later this week. sooo much fun...and exhausting. this is all new territory for me. many thanks to b'more's fabulous black cherry puppet theater for letting me tag along for the past two weeks and apprentice with their enormous and hilarious puppet talents. and a shout out to local artist and puppeteer, jen strunge aka cotton monster who is on staff at black cherry and who taught me some good tricks of the trade.

baltimore's kinetic sculpture race

a rite of spring every year here in baltimore is the kinetic sculpture race. this year i had the prestigious job of judging the sock creatures on each vehicle. here i am in all my sock creature regalia. and here are some photos of the fabo sock creatures that were competing. great day!

crocheted sculpture

inspired by the work of liz grobler, i am working with the folks at the local senior center to make a crocheted sculpture. these women are the hardest working, most enthusiastic artists i have ever worked with. we are hoping that our sculpture, called 'warm welcome' will grace some of the local art venues in the coming year.

as you can see, being out of work is giving me lots of good community art time!

doodling

in my last post i mentioned that i had lost my job and decided to make a gratitude list. i have gotten so many good responses from others who like the idea that i am posting our lists on a new blog.

my doodling here is not because i am idle. somehow i seem to be busier in the last few weeks. anyway, just showing some doodles, since they look kind of like quilts. and i will keep you up with my new and exciting adventures in the next posts.

story about losing my job...

so along with lots of other people in this current economy, i recently lost my job. "don't worry," i think to myself, "something better will come along, it always does." here i am knocking on lots of (metaphorical) doors, and nothing yet...

what's a girl to do? write a gratitude list. so that's what i did (along with some collaging, and sewing and painting)... more of the story to come.

collage face

here is what i do when i am supposed to be doing something else - i play with scissors and glue and colorful paper. not a bad way to procrastinate.

i like having my sketchbooks covered with fun stuff. so here are three sketchbooks - all ready to be used for drawing or glueing or thinking out loud.

many of my collage ideas, originated from a workshop with anne marie grgich. great stuff!

doodles and quirky things

doodling about quirky things. guess i'll turn this into stitch one day.

booklie, the sock monkey

i haven't shown a sock monkey post in a while! here is booklie. i don't know where his book is, but he does love to read as you can see by the tatoo on his back. yes, booklie does wear glasses - my stereotype of a reader, and true for me.