Monday, April 22, 2013

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:





Wednesday, April 17, 2013

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.