Sustainable Studio

Crafting and activism are two of my very favorite things, so...

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 16:08:01 -0400

Crafting and activism are two of my very favorite things, so when I get to do both at the same time its just a perfect day. Last Sunday I joined the Occupy Arts & Labor group Debt Squares project.

I made the square in the foreground of this photo. It represents my home because I almost lost it due to medical debt after a serious illness. Debt is a huge burden, and to make matters worse many of us (like me) feel guilty about, even if it was though no fault of our own. It was so healing and empowering to sew and share with the other people participating in this project.

Amid all the footprints in the sand along the shore this one...

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 16:07:27 -0400

Amid all the footprints in the sand along the shore this one caught my eye. I’m assuming that someone wore flip flops with “REUSE” carved into the bottom.

I love my recycled flip flop doormat and I have recycled flip flop bracelets too. I reuse all kinds of things that come across my path but so far I haven’t made anything out of flip flops. So that’s my latest challenge. What can I make out of this summer’s old flip flops? (They’re in the washer now getting freshened up.)

Following the pattern of TV’s “Project Runway,” my 8 to 11 year...

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 16:07:01 -0400

Following the pattern of TV’s “Project Runway,” my 8 to 11 year old students create these designs in my “Trashion” workshops at The Art Farm. The girls are divided into teams and given an array of trashy items I’ve collected. And of course we have runway shows with guest judges. Every summer we exhibit the work. In the of 2011 we collaborated on a fundraiser with Donna Karan’s Urban Zen and exhibited the collection in the store. This summer we had a spectacular runway show in the Hamptons. (Ironic, yes!) Here are some additional photos.

I’ll be at Maker Faire this coming weekend, September 29th & 30th.

I love the magical process of collaboration and invention that occurs in these classes. Thanks to Treehugger.com for the wonderful article about my work!

I’m working on some super fast & super cheap projects...

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 16:05:58 -0400

I’m working on some super fast & super cheap projects for a workshop at Maker Faire. I was going to recycle a book from 1984 called “Art and the Computer”. Seriously, why did I even still have this totally 80s computer graphics book? But something held me back and I decided to keep it. These vintage computer graphics are so dated that I think they’re actually cool.

I made this necklace by glueing a page from the book on corrugated cardboard. I put a scrap of wire through for hanging and made the necklace by cutting a black T shirt into a long strip. Of course any image/collage from a book or magazine would be fun.

Easy & almost free necklace #2. I cut a felted sweater...

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 16:04:20 -0400

Easy & almost free necklace #2. I cut a felted sweater (orginally striped) into squares, threaded them on a scrap of wire and strung on my favorite kind of cord (a strip of an old T shirt). This T shirt happened to be tan and looks just like faux suede. Cost of necklace: free. I was going to donate the sweater & T shirt anyway. Plus I can make probably 30 from one sweater and T shirt.

I didn’t travel to the tropics to take this photo. I used an Elephant Ear plant in my back yard as the background. The bulbs are inexpensive and can be brought inside and stored for the winter. The leaves can be over 2 feet long and will turn any back yard into a tropical paradise. (A few Tiki torches can’t hurt either.)

I “found” this drawing on the parking lot at the...

Fri, 11 May 2012 14:50:06 -0400

I “found” this drawing on the parking lot at the beach today. My friend said it looks like Xs & Os. I said “hugs & kisses from the universe? I think not!”

Yesterday the surf was really rough so all kinds of things...

Fri, 11 May 2012 14:44:00 -0400

Yesterday the surf was really rough so all kinds of things washed up on the shore. My favorite finds were colorful and plastic. I started making and photographic faces on the beach with the stuff I collected. This one looks like one of my heros, Bender from Futurama.

I’m trying to create jewelry that reflects my values, so...

Wed, 09 May 2012 13:32:00 -0400

I’m trying to create jewelry that reflects my values, so all components have to be found/recycled or Fair Trade. I found the wood at the Brooklyn Botanical garden near Patrick Dougherty’s wonderful woven wood sculpture. It was a beautiful day with cherry petals swirling around like a pink snow globe.

Yup, I stole a wood chip from the BBG as a little souvenir. “I shall not steal” is clearly not one of my core values. Last month I stole a piece of cactus from a wildlife refuge and suffered from cactus pricks for a week.

I wanted to keep that all important wood chip integrity, so I just sanded it a bit, applied some lemon oil, gold leaf and attached the chain.

Yesterday I was all dressed up with no where to go in my...

Sun, 06 May 2012 12:14:00 -0400

Yesterday I was all dressed up with no where to go in my extravagant paper hat. The plan was to bring my cousin to a Derby day party where there was a hat competition. She’s 81, so when she asked me to bring her home to watch the Derby on TV as soon as we got there — I couldn’t say no. So now I have this wonderfully extravagant hat I made from only newspaper, a stapler and a glue gun — and no where to wear it. : (

I took this photo on July 13, 1982 at the Astor Place subway...

Fri, 04 May 2012 14:05:10 -0400

I took this photo on July 13, 1982 at the Astor Place subway stop on my way to work. Last week I saw a similar piece in the Haring Show at the Brooklyn Museum. I used a Polaroid SX-70, the same kind of camera Keith used to take the self portraits at the beginning of this show. Seriously, two of my all time favorite things: street art and Polaroid SX-70 cameras.

In 2012 you can see Keith’s work in a museum. You can also buy a vintage SX-70 camera on Amazon and get film from the Impossible Project. But nothing can quite compare with the magic of finding this work in ordinary places back in the day.

This week I got a little dose of the kind of magic I’m most fond of. Some wonderful people Occupied NYC with art on May Day and I found myself smiling like it was 1982.

I don’t think I ever got a good critique on a painting....

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:18:35 -0400

I don’t think I ever got a good critique on a painting. How did I deal with that? Simple, I stopped painting. Its pretty easy for me to look at a found or discarded object and think of some interesting way to transform it, but facing a blank canvas armed with just paints is something I just don’t do. For some reason doing a bad painting makes me feel like a total failure.

I decided to go dive into that emotional territory and spend the afternoon painting. The results were so bad … even the rags looked better than what I was working on. I felt like a total failure. I grabbed a beer and did a little journal writing for therapy. Then I threw everything in the trash except this one.

Now I’m looking at this painting thinking “Its not really that bad. Maybe I can do this.”

Traditional jewelry just isn’t looking right to my eye...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:49:39 -0400

Traditional jewelry just isn’t looking right to my eye lately, so I got the idea to combine beach finds with stitching to make jewelry. I experimented with drilling pieces of clamshell with my Dremel and a diamond tip drill bit. When I got the holes close enough to do some stitching the shell broke … so I decided to switch to driftwood. First I added a little paint in colors reminiscent of weathered post beach clubs (that I never belonged to), and then a bit of embroidery floss and wire. Really fun, I’m going to make more.

If you live near New York City you can go on a photographic...

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 11:51:14 -0400

If you live near New York City you can go on a photographic day trip to China and Japan. I took these photos with my iPhone at the Chinese Scholar’s Garden at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center in Staten Island. Walking through eight pavilions and numerous courtyards overlooking a variety of water features is more like a journey than a visit to a park. Even on this perfect day we had this hidden treasure all to ourselves.

On April 28th & 29th I’ll be heading to Sakura Matsuri festival at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. I recommend going early because it gets super crowded, bringing a “real” camera and a blanket for a picnic lunch. New this year is a matchbox haiku workshop.

Whenever I find something made from silk that’s under...

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:12:38 -0400

Whenever I find something made from silk that’s under $2.00, I buy it. For this piece I cut the back out of a silk blouse and tacked it over the bottom of a shoe box. I gathered up a few colors of Dye-na-Flow (a concentrated liquid color designed for silk painting), a spray bottle filled with water, some cups for color mixing and extra water.

First I sprayed the fabric with water to dampen it. Then I watered down the Dye-na-Flow a bit and started painting. When I finished the area I was working on I removed the tacks and repositioned the silk so that I had a new blank area for painting. The finished piece is 24” x 24”. I’m thinking of using this piece as the front of a boxy top and leaving the back natural silk.

Capitalism Works For Me! True/False – Boston Tour

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 08:38:40 -0400

Capitalism Works For Me! True/False – Boston Tour:

I’m a Steve Lambert fan & love this installation.

Every day different things wash up on the shore. Some days...

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 08:25:54 -0400

Every day different things wash up on the shore. Some days there’s lots of sea glass, some days there is an astounding array of deflated mylar balloons with their ribbons attached. Once in a while there are tons of starfish, or Monarch butterflies who aren’t going to make it to their winter vacation.

Today was driftwood day. Because I need garden markers for the seed I planted, I gathered up pieces that were once part of a show fence along the dunes. That trusty wood burning tool turned them into easy garden markers. I also found a giant piece of driftwood, and a man joking said that it would make a good weapon. I said “Its for the peas” (pictured above, just peaking through the ground).

My favorite beach find transformation was when I found lots of chowder clams at the shoreline, still alive and kicking. I collected as many as I could carry in my scarf and brought them home to make a big pot of chowder.

Photo

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:42:07 -0400

Something New

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:46:00 -0400

I was looking around my studio and found many things that were just damn ugly. The only thing they had going for them was that they were vintage, and vintage isn’t always pretty. On their own the color combinations weren’t working, and when I held them together … yikes! So I decided to take these mismatched ugLY fabric and paper and make a collage.

First I made a kind of a patchwork then adjusted the colors a bit with glazes. Still not much going on, so I added some oil pastels. What I really like about this piece is that it looks nothing like anything I’ve ever done before. So my recommendation is take the ugliest, mismatched stuff in your studio and make something out of it. Maybe you’ll find something new as well.

Guilty Pleasures

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:40:00 -0400

I’ve been experimenting with traditional art supplies recently — acrylic paint & mediums, pastels, oil pastels, inks. I’ve had this stuff in my studio for years but just didn’t have any reason to use it. I love repurposing useless things and giving them a new life. But using the traditional mediums … I’m feeling kinda guilty but I can’t stop!

Free Store Fun

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:29:00 -0400

I love exploring the ideas of alternative social and economic systems. (Maybe that’s why I Occupy?) When I heard that there was a pop up free store at Occupy Town Square in Fort Green Park this weekend I had to participate. Lots of great clothes and all kinds of useful stuff. There was something really beautiful about the fact that everything was free — it was a delightful little vacation, a breath of fresh air. I brought some art supplies and got a great haul of vintage postcards (for collage).

Thanks to Calliope for creating this really inspiring banner. You can see more of her work here.