Handmade in PA interview hits the interwebs

A friend and fellow alumna, Carrie Hamilton Barlup, writes for the Handmade in PA blog and interviewed me for a series on artists. The interview is currently up on the website!

Read it here:

Inspired by... Maria Mangano

CHAIR-ity Benefit photos

Here are some photos of the chair I made for the Mt. Lebanon Library Fundraiser last week. I'm a lover of both reading and birds, so of course I had to combine them in my piece, "Words of a Feather" (cue the groans):

All of the birds featured appear in books throughout history - everything from the dove in the Torah to the dodo Alice in Wonderland.

I tried to be diverse in both genre and bird species. A favorite of mine is below - Jurassic Park.

Everyone from professional artists to hobbyists and organizations decorated chairs. Here are some of my favorites.

Sam Ditch, For Glitter Mountain's Majesty:

Lucy Jones and Alicia Koloski, Armchair Philatelist:

A big group of artists, Children's Imagination:

Jessica Turner and Nina Barbetti, Spring Forest:

Mary Dornenburg, Artist's Studio Chair:

 I didn't get the artist's name on this one, but the title is You Can't Get There From Here:

New work in progress

With spring arriving, I've been working on the latest printing of my cookbook (more on that later!) as well as some new work. Here's a snippet of my project for the Mt. Lebanon Library's CHAIR-ity benefit (I'll post photos of the whole piece later so as not to spoil the surprise):

I'm also making some new small mixed-media pieces. I was lucky enough to choose a present in a white elephant exchange last December that turned out to be a mid-century fancy address book, complete with very old (pre-seven-digit) phone numbers. I've been making small drawings on each page. Here are the first three.

Passenger pigeon

Laysan crake

Moa

All three were driven to extinction at various times in human history, either due to overhunting or habitat loss. Not all of the animals in this series will be birds - or extinct - but these are the first three I was inspired to do. They're all a combination of gouache, graphite, and watercolor.

More bats

Working on some ideas for new pieces:

Yep, I'm still into the bat thing. It's hard to forget about - in Pennsylvania (the state in which I currently live), the Game Commission has failed to take steps to declare that bats are becoming endangered, therefore deciding not to move forward with protection and treatment, despite the fact that 98% of some of the state's bat populations have already died from White Nose. In keeping with our state's history of prioritizing mineral profits over public health and the environment, there were a lot of people who felt that helping the bats make a comeback - by doing things like limiting the hours windmills run and cutting back on logging and mining to stop the spread of the fungus - were too much of an economic sacrifice, and forced the Commission into backing down from their initial stance of considering bats endangered. Not good.

Bag It: The Movie next Thursday

As part of the outreach for A Matter of Convenience, Rose and I are screening the film Bag It: Is Your Life Too Plastic? at the Mattress Factory next Thursday. Here are all the details:

When: Thursday, November 15th, 6pm
Where: Mattress Factory Museum, 505 Jacksonia Street, 15212
What else: we will have snacks and giveaways, and are also requesting that people bring their phone books in (with plastic wrapping, if you still have it!) for recycling.

This event, like all the outreach we have planned for AMoC, is free and open to the public. Hope to see you there!

A Matter of Convenience opening reception

A Matter of Convenience opened on September 16th to a wonderful reception - almost 200 people were in attendance! You can see a set of photos from the opening here.

food web

Cutting out lots of itty bitty tiny animals from scrap paper. Show opens in 6 days.