Drawing 101

Kurt Hollomon's poms-in-december

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I started a Beginning Drawing Perception Skills this week at Pacific Northwest College of Art and wow, am I worked up! I have drawn here and there before, and have even taken a weekend drawing class but somehow I feel more ready this time. Taking a class at the local art college feels like I am making a commitment to myself to practice and to learn from someone in person whose work I admire--a mentor. Something about my teacher, Kurt Hollomon, and his passion for the quiet pursuit of drawing really reaches me.    The above illustration is my instructor's ball jar drawing and below is mine from earlier this summer, pre-drawing class.   I have always had a terrible lack of confidence when it came to drawing, not having been one of those "naturally talented ones" early on who get a lot of praise and then gather more confidence and go on to practice more. I am a creative person and very visually observant, but I simply haven't had the goal of practicing my drawing on a regular basis. During the past 10 years I have spent more time nurturing my visual perception abilities and have watched my mother-in-law, Peggy, grow from an absolute beginner in her early 50's to a talented portraiture artist.     Her example has taught me that it's never too late to learn a skill that will bring a lifetime of enjoyment. With practice and some encouragement, anyone can learn the tricks and techniques necessary to depict an object or person more or less realistically.   Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, a classic book by Betty Edwards is a great place to start for simple exercises. Some of my other influences in terms of opening my eyes to the elegant beauty of drawing have been Paul Klee, Danny Gregory, who is a wonderful instructor through his books on sketching and creativity, and Egon Schiele, an Austrian artist whose expressive drawings and paintings pretty much reach the apex of human sensitivity. Even Vincent Van Gogh, an artist who nobody doubts had control over his pencil, questioned his own ability to draw. He got over that fear to produce some pretty nice work.   I made another drawing today and I hope to do a new drawing three or four times a week. You can't get good at anything unless you do it at least that much, or so I have heard. I am pretty sure I won't write when I am having a hard time of it, as Kurt has promised will absolutely happen. Look for reports on my successes!

Vera Textiles: The 70's Live on!

Vera Neumann is definitely not a household name even though it should be. Her textiles, illustrations, and designs for the home permeated the 50's, 60's and 70's fashion scene. Her trademark ladybug and flower patterns, and her recognizable first-name-only signature are iconic. I grew up in a house full of Vera placemats, and my mom was swathed in Vera couture from head to toe. My mom was a swinging single in the 70's and her signature scarf around a mop of flaming dyed-red hair was a real attention-getter. The look became engraved in my mind and whenever I see any Vera textiles at thrift shops, I buy them just for old times' sake and because, truthfully, they are more in style now than ever! I love the watercolor flowers, zingy multicolor stripes and charming little scenes depicted in sketch style. Not only was Vera a pioneer in the field of silkscreened placemats and other textiles, she invented mass-marketed Pop art and was ahead of her time in the world of women in business. Vera took charge of her burgeoning company and moved her mom and pop shop that she co-ran with her husband, George Neumann, into the international arena with savvy licensing deals and a constant output of fresh and recognizable product. Chances are very good that you had Vera placemats in your house growing up too (unless you are under 30 which is entirely possible).   I was recently browsing the Denver Art Museum book shop and found a brand new book of Vera's designs. I scooped it up instantly and have loved revisiting all of Vera's sumptuous patterns and learning the backstory to this incredible artist and business woman.

Seattle Getaway

We spent the weekend in snowy Seattle(!) in the beautiful Lake Washington neighborhood of Madrona. How did we get away with two teens in tow who only wanted to stay home and do, well, teen-things? We exchanged our home with a wonderful family through the really cool home exchange program called Intervac This was our second exchange--the first time we went to Barcelona for 4 weeks and loved every minute of the adventure. Some people can't understand why we would feel comfortable leaving our home, animals and, in the case of the Barcelona trip, our cars, in the care of strangers. Yes, it's totally a trust thing. Usually house exchangers never meet the people with whom they are swapping houses but we have met both of our exchange families, adding to the fun and intimacy of the experience. We were surprised by the 6 inches of snow that fell on our leafy, hilly walking neighborhood and fell in love with Franz, the cat! To address the teen issue we spent the ENTIRE day at EMP (Experience Music Project) which was built in homage to Seattle's own Jimi Hendrix. There were super cool interactive exhibits on Nirvana and the Seattle grunge scene, the history of the electric guitar, the Avatar movie, and a whole area where you could play and record music on electric instruments in little soundproof booths. We scored big with the kids but we were in heaven too!

The Secret to Life

I was perusing the web and found a wonderful video expressing something I was needing to hear today. If you have the time, and I know you do, listen and watch and learn from an old pro how to enjoy life.......simplicity, work and enjoyment. I learned about this video from Jude Hill, a blogger and quilt maker who keeps a site called SpiritCloth . Jude's blog is all about slowing down and watching the creative process unfold one stitch at a time.    Jude is an incredible inspiration, an advocate of the slow, the careful, the handmade. Her fabric work is full of oceanic indigos and earthy browns, rusty oranges and verdant greens. She offers imagery that includes moons, spirals, checkerboards; repetitive patterns mixed with the sense of random-ness. Reading her blog feels like you are sitting in her kitchen paging through her journals and notebooks and leaning over her carefully constructed textiles. Jude teaches via online tutorials from her rural home on Long Island, NY. She is the epitome of someone using internet technology in an earth loving way while retaining freshness and relevance for the benefit of others.

My Special Bead

I spent way too much for this red, white and blue bead and I don’t feel guilty. In fact, I don’t even remember how much it cost me at the time(maybe $90?) I only remember that I had to have it for my own. I bought it in a thrift store in Santa Fe. The owner told me it was from the 19th century. I know she wasn’t lying. This bead is a Chevron, likely made in Venice, Italy and likely used as a trade bead in Africa. I say “likely” because my bead did not come with a handy note detailing it’s age and provenance. I do know it is bead-museum quality.  My bead was made from glass in this way: colored glass is heated and blown through a tapered mold with corrugated sides, producing the star-like points on the end of the bead. Additional layers of glass are applied to the center core and molded again to produce another layer with more points. Stripes of glass are then applied to the surface. Still molten, the hollow gather is drawn or stretched into a 6-foot cane, cooled and sectioned into beads.   I bought it because I loved the way it feels in my hand. I love the indigo blue color and the rough patches of brown that speak to the distance and difficulty of the journeys of the people who carried it. I bought it because the stories it holds are rare and beautiful, like the bead itself. The story of african trade beads is a long and not always happy one, but it is worth learning more about these incredible little carriers of history. Chevron beads are plentiful and can be inexpensive, especially if you buy a strand and consider the per bead cost. For me, how much each bead cost me is not the point of having a bead collection. The idea is to appreciate the inherent value of the history that you hold in your hand and understand that the material manifestation of centuries of human experience can be contained in your palm.

I wanna "Make you Feel My Love"

My fave fashion icon and musical hero. Everything I do, make or listen to has a teeny bit of Dylan in it. Just so you know! Here's a fun article in Esquire on the subject.

Best New Year Wishes!

Happy 2012! My resolution? Embrace imperfection. I found this quote in my late mom's handwriting in a book of poetry. It was like she sent me a message to encourage and inspire me:   [quote]Blessed are the imperfect for theirs shall be the kingdom of love.

-Honoré de Balzac

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Finding my mom's handwritten quote in a random book pulled from a bookshelf reminded me that I am being protected by her watchful presence and that no matter if I am feeling small or ineffective or wondering what my real purpose is for the day or for my life, there is a reason for all that I do or dream. In honor of divine inspiration I decided to gather together some inspiration into a pretty package. I made this "wordle" to express my resolutions for the New Year and to investigate the words and ideas that give me purpose and joy each day!

  Peace, Jo

Living in the Light

Happy Hanukkah to all and may the season of light lift your spirits!   I made this eraser carving this morning just after my morning coffee. I love eraser carving because it's a shorthand way of making a woodblock print. Cheap materials, simple technique. I love to buy my art supplies locally from the smart and sweet staff at Muse Art+Design in SE Portland. When carving, it's a bit difficult to hold the hand steady after a cup of coffee but with eraser carving, the mistakes become part of the charm of the image. Unfortunately I had already sent out my holiday cards but there's nothing more fun than carving into a gushy eraser so I decided to go for it. I'll be teaching an Eraser Carving class on Saturday, January 28 from 10-2. It's crazy fun and anyone can do it. Even with the coffee shakes!

Happy (White Album) X-Mas!

Last week I was treated to the best thing going on in December in Portland. My dear friend Lara Michell, a wonderful musician and angelic singer in the Nowhere Band (a collection of local Portland talent) gave me a comp ticket to see the Nowhere Band and the vaudeville-style Wanderlust Circus, perform the White Album in it’s entirety. This was their 4th annual tribute to the miracle that is the Beatles’ White Album. The event was held in the star-spangled Alberta Rose Theater, a jewel-box of a venue.  The evening extravaganza offered the unmatched songs of the Beatles’ story-filled White Album (you know them--Blackbird, Dear Prudence, Sexy Sadie) as performed by the electric and magnetic members of the Nowhere Band, appropriately dressed in shades of white. The band was tight, Lara Michell rocked Martha My Dear, and the eye -popping performances by Wanderlust’s troupe were unforgettable. They included the mesmerizing acrobatic Troupe Kazum, the phenomenal aerial dancers AWOL,an insane trick roper named Leapin’ Louie, a Monk Mime doing crazy tricks with swords, jugglers, and much more.   The Master of Ceremonies, William Batty, is the elegant and eloquent frontman and circus co-founder, Noah Mickens who made the audience (at least this member) feel as though we could make the world a better place if we agreed to do our part. If you know what’s good for your soul, you will make plans to see next year’s White Album Christmas at the Alberta Rose. I’ll be there in the front row!  

Bohemian Rhapsody

I start with the beads that come from Bohemia, of course! This European region, now called the Czech Republic, is famous for colorful, richly textured glass beads in such vintage hues as coral pinks, cerulean blue, and jadeite green. Old Czech glass beads(and German glass too) are some of my favorite beads ever! I am a hoarder, an obsessive seeker, of these colorful little glass creatures and I am charmed beyond measure when I find a new bead that I know can only have been made in the past, when time was more plentiful than now, and fine craftsmanship was deeply valued.  Beginning in the 1560’s, a glass industry developed in the lush, green riverside villages of Jablonec and Nisou, near Prague. Hulking glass furnaces fueled by nearby forest timber and a plentiful supply of quartz deposit with which to create molten glass and press into molds allowed this region to enter the already thriving glass bead trade industry, centuries old, between Italy and Africa. The factory molds were used to create innumerable fantastical shapes including flowers, faces, feathers, animals and insects.   Vintage beads are by definition rare, and I like beads that play hard to get. Of course you CAN get them and the hunt is part of the fun. More on this later. For a start, visit my favorite local bead store, Dava Bead and Trade and ask them to lead you to Bohemia!  

Go-oo--od Morning, Bloglandia!

[quote]I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see.

-John Burroughs

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I am an enthusiast of life. An irrepressible optimist. A storyteller. A collector and a connector. I hope that this blog will be a tasty side dish for my website and for some of you, the main entree. Here will be a place I can recount the thoughts I think as I work and play in Portland, present you with images from walks I have taken, retell in my own voice stories I have heard. I will definitely rhapsodize about the friends I see each day and tell you about the cool things they are doing in the world. It’s not ALL about me, after all.   I plan on musing pretty heavily about my passions for jewelry making, old and rare bead collecting, printmaking, creative healing and holistic living. I might sometimes mention my cats. I am sure to brag a bit about my family, especially the teen rockers who share my hallways and my artsy husband who makes mosaics with his own unbridled passion. I look forward to your comments and can only imagine my retorts. I’ll see you here, in Bloglandia!

I Love Old Beads!

Sometimes beads get a bad rap in the jewelry design biz. There are so many beads in this world, a vast swath of them crappy and cheap, that their value can seem diminished. I am not ever going to talk about the cheap, crappy beads here. I will only ever talk about the rare beads, the sexy beads, the old beads and the stunning beads. I will tell you about the time I paid too much for this one, or the odyssey I went on to see the place where that bead came from. Beads are a form of armchair travel, not just geographically but through time, stretching back thousands of years, to Neolithic times. If you have ever wondered why so many beads have a magical eye staring back at you, or would love to peek into a window on women in Mauritania making polychrome Kiffa glass beads using their own spit, I will take you there!  

Jo Brody's Studio Sale

FINE SILVER!

  Friday, December 9th, 6 pm -10 pm Saturday & Sunday December 10th and 11th, 10 am - 6 pm

  Each piece is richly textured, hand forged & oxidized for an awesome new look! In addition to the new silver line, Jo has a slew of new jewelry in her signature style, rich with vintage beads, sexy gemstones and funky vintage brass dangles. As always, Jo will serve you delicious snacks & sips while you shop for gifts, and mingle with friends old and new.