Pass-It-On Wine Wraps

 My design.  Totally original.  This is it.  The way to gift wine.  (Copyright 2014)

write a message and pass-it-on

made made salvaged leather / no two exactly alike

Selling now at Sudbury Art Association Holiday Market, MA
Five Crows, Natick, MA
Wellesley Holiday Gift Shop, MA
*almost sold out in two days at Maynard ArtSpace Holiday Market 

Owls Are A Hoot

Reclaimed timber, leather, piano hammers, odds and ends ...

Bandsaw, hand drill, hammer, sander ...

All these owls have flown the coop, but more are

perched at the Sudbury Art Association's Annual

Holiday Market at 421 Boston Post Road
(aka Rt. 20) until December 24.

Free-Motion Stitching Has Me Climbing the Walls

Ovals, leaves, surfboards ... call the shapes that you want.  Applying FMS to colorful, textured, pliable, lightweight leather shapes and then exhibiting them on a wall brings a new mind-set to the uninspired term, wall-hanging.

detail of FMS (free-mtion stitching)

Leather wall-hanging, 30"x 45"

previously made earthy pillow with similar shaped motif

This large leather wall-hanging SOLD recently at Anthi's Drawing Room, Marion MA.

The earthy colors  and textures in this wall-hanging reminded me of stones in a river or creek bed.
The tricky part in this project was figuring out the path for attachment.

River Stone Flow, 40"

Student Projects / Summer 2014

Ready to take flight

Would you believe a lightbulb
is underneath it all?

A 10-year old student had a hoot repurposing an
assortment of found objects

Exploring mark-making in black-n-white on brown

A teen sketched her pillow design, cut the leather,
sewed together the 4 sides & sketched the free-motion stitching for me to add.

The technique of fusing plastic bags was introduced.
This student then took her newly-made "plastic cloth" home and used it to cover her block hooks.
 Very cool !

Purple Pig did not forget to stop and smell the roses.

This student wrote his name in bold marker lettering,
water-colored the negative space, cut apart the squares and rearranged the pieces 

Found-object fish

Art in the summer studio moved along swimmingly.

EVENT: The Texture of Textiles

There's A First Time for Everything

 

I love that my students are always up for trying new things in the studio.

     

  Another returning student explored painting with knives. She added dimension and texture to her canvas by trying new techniques and unusual materials.

This student is musically inclined so
she designed the first ever clock to
tick-tock 'n rock from my studio.

If at first you don't love it, paint over it! Doodle and dab.        
    

Another bright idea and first! 

This student was the first to design a pillow and use a sewing machine in the studio.
 She sewed the straight lines and I added the free-motion stitching to her canvas & leather creation.

A 9-yearold boy surprised me with his knack for fine-line mark-making.

Creating a walldoll was added physical therapy for a hand on the mend.
Aside from working his clever mind, this student sketched, cut, drilled,
gripped pliers, twisted wires and managed a glue gun.
His "Mister Kaens" assemblage is more that meets the eye.

ADULT ART CLASSES / Natick, MA

FYI:  Check-out Five Crows in Natick for their spring schedule art schedule for adults.
www.fivecrows.com

The upcoming Monday and Tuesday morning workshops are taught by yours truly.
Two 4-day classes offered: Fish or Fly  and Cutest House on the Block.
They each start at 10AM.
See what you can create with a simple block of wood.

Repurpose an old lightbulb when you sculpt a spring bird or a summer fish.

 

Community Art Projects Get Permanent Homes

I am very proud to report that both of my community art projects are now in permanent collections.

Out of Context/The Pulse of The Page is now at home in Sudbury's Goodnow Library.
Initially I was invited to participate in the library's year-long 350th anniversary celebration by exhibiting a work of art that included a book theme.  I decided to get community members involved by taking words out of context from discarded books.  I also looked hither and yon for discarded books bearing red or white spines. After many, many hours of work ...

Out of Context: The Pulse of The Page / studioCB

 Old Glory, my first community art production, is now at home in one of Sudbury's town hall offices, ----the town manager's foyer, to be exact.

Old Glory / studioCB

Abstract Show

Now exhibiting: Interlopers.
Jurist Bob Collins chose this acrylic piece to be included in the Post Road Art Center's 2014
Abstract Show which runs until May 1st in Marlborough, MA.

This painting could be a poster-child for the admonition to try something new.
Physicality, mystery and adventure kept me hyper-focused.  The paint reduction technique involved creating shadows and light by subtracting paint (as opposed to adding more paint) ---and I loved every minute of it.

Using knives on a gessoed panel substrate, I applied layers of acrylics, working my way up from light to dark.  I then saw the light again by rubbing away the darker layers. It took time and isopropyl alcohol.

Interlopers /acrylic on panel /18" x 24"

 Some of my art students wanted to give it a shot.  Student Raquel S. earned a Silver Key Award in  Scholastic's 2014 Art and Writing Competition.

Art student, Raquel, employed another technique of mine
involving the use of Contact paper. 

In process and upside down.

Design Week 2014

Please join us for a reception at 60nobscot as we celebrate the art and design community of Sudbury.  Come tip a glass, and meet the people responsible for some of the most diverse, high energy and creative work emanating west of Boston. Pieces from Kolman Artisan Glass, Walker-Cunningham Gallery, Cathleen Bradley, James Heroux, Jaeok Lee and 60nobscot's Ray Bachand, among others will be on display.

We are a group of artists and designers working within the confines of Sudbury, a small town West of Boston. We hope you will join with us early on a spring Saturday evening as we celebrate the creativity, imagination, inspiration, and fancy that bonds this diverse, loose knit group of like minds together. Our "wares" will be on display at the opening reception as well as during the entire period of Design Week. We also hope that a glass or two of wine, delectables from our own Bullfinchs Restaurant, the viewing of our works, and some thought-provoking conversation will motivate you into the rest of your Saturday night activities.

Leather On The Walls

My thing for circles continues. Wassily Kandinsky's study of color in squares probably did it for me.

So much time is put into creating my vibrant leather table runners that I thought it appropriate to create something for vertical viewing.

These can be viewed in person and purchased during Design Week in Sudbury.
The event reception celebrating art and design is March 22, 4:30 -7:30, 60 Nobscot Road.

leather wall or table runner

55 x 34"/ leather and stitching