Where have I been? I have been packaging cards. A. Lot. Of. Cards.
Followers of Stickers & Donuts know that I’ve been drawing books for a long time (remember this Bell Jar wallpaper)? Friends and family know I have been stacking books, and taking weird videos/pictures of them, for even longer (no links, too embarrassing). Many years ago, I painted some of the books on my shelves and gave them out to my family as notecard sets for Xmas. I printed these cards on my home printer (ugh!). It’s been years since then, and last summer when I was going through a rough patch a friend saw my old cards and encouraged me to make them look more professional and try to sell them. He thought it would be good for me to have a project to get my mind off other things. It was a lot of work, but he was right! After I got the cards how I wanted them, I started selling them in local book and stationary stores and then on Etsy. Anthropologie discovered me on Etsy (!!!) and my cards are currently being sold in Anthropologie stores!
Not only that, but I just discovered yesterday that my favorite local stationary store, Rock, Paper, Scissors, was featured in the April 2012 issue of Southern Living as one of the best stationary stores in the south (true!). In the blurb I get a mention as a “Virginia artist.” (As an MFA student in fiction writing, I never thought I’d be called an “artist” for my fiction paintings.)
You can buy (or look at!) an 8-pack of my cards featuring four different designs at Rock, Paper, Scissors on the downtown mall in Charlottesville, VA, at Anthropologie stores, or on Etsy.
Thanks for bearing with our absences. xo M
I finally did it, I made my own etsy site: booknotes.etsy.com. I’ve been drawing & painting pictures of books for years (in addition to reading and writing them), so I took my art and made them into little notecards that you can use or frame. As I say on my etsy site, both physical books and handwritten notes seem to be on the decline, but I think the preservation of both is important, and I like that their “memory” can be combined into a single object.
There are currently six different designs (all blank inside), which you can purchase singly or in a 6-pack. All designs are copies of my original paintings or drawings, some colored or edited digitally. If you own a stationary or bookstore give me a shout at: maria [at] stickersanddonuts.com or via my etsy site, and we can talk about wholesale pricing.
One of my favorite artists is Frida Kahlo. I even visited her exhibition in Philidelphia last year! Frida had a tragic life, but remained strong and confident nonethless. So, it’s no surprise I’m in love with this children’s book aptly called Frida
The book describes Frida’s life loosley, poetically, and non-didactically, but the most dashing aspect is the beautiful paintings by Ana Juan. I love her take on Frida as a child, and especially love Frida’s skull-stuffed doll (I wish they had that for sale!):
The book is by Jonah Winter, who has written a plethora of other children’s books
My mom always found a way to teach her children about famous artists in a way that would make sense to us and we would understand, and I think this is a great way to be introduced to one of the most famous female artists in the world. Of course, I’m not a child anymore, and have read much on the history of Frida, and still find it a wonderful book!
In my effort to see more “New York City things” before I leave NYC (sniff, sniff), I finally went up the beckoning steps of the New York Public Library.
“Where are the books?” my friend and I asked when we entered. It looked like a museum with all of its marble and stodgy portraits and professional exhibits (AND I did not know the Gutenburg Bible was there! I will have to go back!). Eventually, we found the books, as well as the secret reason I wanted to visit in the first place:
YES. That is the REAL, original Winnie-the-Pooh (aka Edward Bear) and his friends, Eeyore, Kanga, Piglet (now we know why he is so small!), and Tiger. These are the actual toys Christopher Robin Milne were given as a gift from his father, A.A. Milne. The only lost friend is Roo (in an Apple Orchard), since Rabbit and Owl were invented. They were apparently well-played with, both by Christopher and the family dog.
Of course, since I was IN the children’s section, I had to take a quick look around. It’s not the children’s book area of my dreams (or the library of my dreams), but it’s still pretty cool. The murals were superb, and after a million years of internet research, I discovered the artist is Susy Pilgrim Waters (whose style reminds me a lot of Miroslav Sasek — unless that’s just because they are drawings of New York). Tucked away into her web-site, I found an image of all the mural panels:
I happen to really like the Guggenheim (not always the art inside of it, but the shape, which I feel as if I should be allowed to rollerskate down):
Anyway, The New York Public Library (this is the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, which is on 42nd and 5th next to Bryant Park) is *free* and open to the public, and also a good set of steps to sit down and eat lunch on : ). Check the hours before taking a trip!
I know several of my readers (and writers. and self.) are unemployed, and have wondered what to do with their new found time (besides, of course, looking for nonexist jobs, completely changing their future plans, and/or questioning the meaning of life). Well, how is this for a new column: Unemployment Project of the Week.
This week’s project: make a portrait of a portrait. This especially good for those of you, like myself, who have limited artistic ability. A portrait is hard, but if a portrait has already been made, an artist has already showed you the portrait-sitter’s most prominent and important features.
I am no artistic genius, but you can see I had fun with the above Frida paintings, took artistic liberties, and still managed to get something that is identifiable as the artist herself. To make these, I looked at a portrait of Frida Kahlo (far left, by Frida herself) and made two very different versions, the one in the middle is about 8×10 and in acrylic, and the one on the right is a little moleskin notebook sketch with watercolor.
You also don’t have to make a painting of a painting, you can make a painting of a photo, or any-which-way you choose. As you can see, I ruined this little cartoonish-painting (I suppose I could try and fix that left side of his face) I did on a business card-sized artist trading card. Nonetheless, you can tell who it is because it’s a famous portrait, so I was still pretty satisfied (expectations are low for the unemployed, alas).
And, finally, one of the most fun ways to re-create a black and white portrait is by making a linoleum print (pictured here hanging on my bulletin board with a nice little sharpie covering it). I think these are very eye-catching. Check out my sort-of old, but-still-completely-relevant linoleum print tutorial here.
Have fun with your portraits!
Never expected this set of paintings and sort-of-poem by Maira Kalman to be in the Opinion section of the New York Times, but I am so happy. (I lover her artwork, esp her rendition of the The Elements of Style.) Anyway, check it out, it’s about the inauguration and has tons of lovely pictures.
Upon seeing a tiny <insert ANYTHING>, only those with the coldest of hearts can squash a visceral response of…”aww.” Accompanied with the occasional shoulder shrug, of course. It is possible, however, that my heart is too warm. If I see almost anything that I can fit in my pocket or coin pouch, I succumb to the magnetizing cuteness force. Kind of like emf, the topic in physics class (that I especially despised). To my moderate embarrassment, my weak little heart melts into a Capri Sun-puddle. In my college bedroom, I maintained a small collection of worldly tiny acquisitions on my windowsill. A green alien (evanston, summer 2006). A heavy pig flashlight (japan, fall 2007). A pink cat rested on a longevity peach bun (ithaca, spring 2006). I’ve taken excellent care of my tiny treasures. Except the alien. He disappeared during my last move. The following is a list of twenty-two lovely things that are tiny enough to fit in your pocket (or other small places). Even pockets of Cheap Monday jeans, which I’ve included in the wee graphic above. I’m hardly a jean snob, but there are several pairs (Cheap Monday, Levi, Forever 21) that I wear more than others (Rich and Skinny = BLEH).
ANYWAYS, since I am excessively chatty, this post is too overwhelming without a click through. Click for the rest of this post! (more…)
The Odeon by Ian Dingman, 6×9, $35 with shipping
This is post ONE of THREE featuring illustrator Ian Dingman. TODAY I will introduce him as an artist & show you why I like (love) his work.
TOMORROW I’ll feature an exclusive & fabulous interview with lots of pretty pictures (he will tell us wonderful things about the new Criterion Collection release of Bottle Rocket and reveal the secret to his success. Okay, maybe not the second part.).
THE NEXT DAY Ian will tell us his current obsessions. I am super-excited-thrilled about this series of posts so I really hope you enjoy them!
Ian Dingman illustrates for the likes of The New York Times, Real Simple magazine, WES ANDERSON, and people like us (you and me!), who just want an Ian Dingman print on our walls (who wouldn’t?!).
I admit I’m a little stuck on the whole cover-of-Bottle Rocket thing. We know that Wes Anderson has impeccable taste, so his choice of Ian Dingman for a cover artist for a special edition of the filmmaker’s first-ever feature film certainly has meaning. Ian’s style expresses a lot of the same themes as Anderson’s movies: sadness, humor, awkwardness. But all of it, even the awkward parts, are beautiful, cartoonish, detailed.
Just one wonderful thing about Ian’s work is that it’s super affordable. You can own his ORIGINAL ARTWORK for less than $100. Or, if you are kind of poor, you can lie in wait until Ian does another print for Tiny Showcase (previous prints there have been a mere $20). (He will be doing something for Tiny Showcase! He wouldn’t reveal what, but I hope it’s a Learning Print!)
“Getting Late, Early” for Tiny Showcase
If you can’t wait for Tiny Showcase, and you are sort of poor, you can buy the first print I featured on this page for only $30. ($35 with shipping. I know this because, in my total indecisiveness and parsimoniousness, I’ve clicked on the “buy” button several times.) If you are REALLY, REALLY poor you can steal someone’s New York Times. You are bound to find an Ian Dingman reproduction somewhere in there.
For now, you can admire some of my favorite Ian Dingman works here:
Left: Look at that grass! Just look at it!
Right: This drawing actually gives me the fuzzy feeling I would have if I drove by this building on the street and, noticing its purple-ness (in a fall sunset, perhaps), pulled over to just look for a minute. Then, of course, I’d try to take a picture and wouldn’t capture the feeling at all, but Ian has.
Deloitte Review “Healthcare Revisions”
Art Director: Matt Lennert
It’s so amusing to look at all of the details in the picture above. I love that when Ian’s work is funny, often the people in the work themselves are straight-faced, unaware of the ridiculousness that surrounds them. (Another Wes Anderson similarity!)
Right image: Miscellaneous Wardrobe From
The 2002 Film Secretary, No. 1,
2008, ink and watercolor on paper,9.5 x 9″, $180
Left: You know how I love cupcakes.
Right: Can we talk about how funny the title is? Yeah, I know.
Remember how I said the people in Ian’s work don’t always notice the humorous situations they are a part of? Well, sometimes inanimate objects in his work give you this same feeling. Like, it’s just a shoe. Standing there. In all seriousness. But it’s funny.
For Social Gatherings Only
2006, ink and watercolor on paper, 8.375 x 5.125″
Like the Doctor’s Office drawing, this image is full of details. Maybe it’s the fiction-writer in me, but I love a drawing with details (and great titles).
So, as you can imagine, I recommend a perusal of Ian Dingman’s web-page. You can purchase work or just look. Or, if you want, you can touch it. But you might smudge your computer screen.
TOMORROW: INTERVIEW WITH IAN! NEXT DAY: CURRENTLY OBESSED WITH IAN!
My adventure-loving friend who joined me (or, er, I joined her) in Flushing and at Renegade, recently informed me that now you, too, can get your portrait painted like a Chinese propaganda poster at Maopost.com. The artwork is hand painted in oil on canvas by professional Chinese freelance artists.
You can choose from a variety of layouts and complete a solo or group portrait (maybe the whole family?!). They cost $180 to $270 (plus $35 for shipping) and are 24×15 inches to 32×21 inches.
My mom was born in Denmark, and during her most recent trek back to the little country, I asked if she would bring me back a Danish ABC book.
She returned with Halfdan’s ABC book, a wonderfully illustrated — and from the meager amounts I can interpret — funny, ABC book written with slightly less… wholesome… humor than we feed our American kids.
In Book By Its Cover style (okay, well maybe not as cool), I present you with some of my favorite pages from the book.
Jump!
