Holiday Giveaway (Week 4)

Congratulations to Vicki of North Dakoka who won last week's giveaway! Vicki will be receiving a Bathing Beauties tee in the mail.

We have one final giveaway of the season. The winner will recieve:

• An assortment of holiday cards from Bethany Schlegel | Art + Design Etsy Shop.
  
• A bird print from Bethany Schlegel | Art +Design Etsy Shop.
  

Rules are the same as before...There are a few ways to be entered to win.

• Buy something from my shop (well, actually, any of my shops: Bethany Schlegel | Art + Design, Buzz Buzz Bee, or July Twenty Fourth) and be entered twice into the drawing.
• Sign up for my mailing list. Already on my mailing list? Send this to a friend and have them sign up. Have them fill in your name/email where it asks how they found out about my site, and you both are entered for a chance to win.
• Join my facebook page. When you join, leave a comment to let me know you joined. Again, already a fan? Suggest a friend and let me know you did and you will both be entered!
• Tweet or blog about or link on facebook to any of my shops: Bethany Schlegel | Art + Design, Buzz Buzz Bee, or July Twenty Fourth...send me the link and you will be entered!
  

Each time you do one of the things above, your name will be counted.

Hurry! This giveaway ends Thursday, December 17th at 11:59 PM EST.

(U.S. and Canada only.)

Starlight Mint

Here's a starlight mint I painted yesterday.

Holiday Giveaway (Week 3)

Congrats to Gayle of Washington, D.C. who was the winner of last week's giveaway. She won a Game Over raglan!

It's time for a new giveaway!

This week's prize is a Bathing Beauties long sleeved tee. It's a medium Classic Girl American Apparel tissue tee in yellow. If it's not a fit for you, it's perfect gift for someone on your list!

There are a few ways to be entered to win.

• Buy something from my shop (well, actually, any of my shops: Bethany Schlegel | Art + Design, Buzz Buzz Bee, or July Twenty Fourth) and be entered twice into the drawing.
• Sign up for my mailing list. Already on my mailing list? Send this to a friend and have them sign up. Have them fill in your name/email where it asks how they found out about my site, and you both are entered for a chance to win.
• Join my facebook page. When you join, leave a comment to let me know you joined. Again, already a fan? Suggest a friend and let me know you did and you will both be entered!
• Tweet or blog about or link on facebook to any of my shops: Bethany Schlegel | Art + Design, Buzz Buzz Bee, or July Twenty Fourth...send me the link and you will be entered!
  

Each time you do one of the things above, your name will be counted. Your name and entries will also be rolled over to the future weeks if you don't win this time, so keep doing the above to be entered more often!

Hurry! This giveaway ends Sunday, December 13th at 11:59 PM EST.

(U.S. and Canada only.)

Holiday Giveaway (Week 2)

It's time for a new giveaway!

This week's prize is a Game Over raglan. It's a Standard American American Apparel size medium with green sleeves. though this is a female model (me) the shirt is actually a unisex shirt and wears well on both men and women!

There are a few ways to be entered to win.

• Buy something from my shop (well, actually, any of my shops: Bethany Schlegel | Art + Design, Buzz Buzz Bee, or July Twenty Fourth) and be entered twice into the drawing.
• Sign up for my mailing list. Already on my mailing list? Send this to a friend and have them sign up. Have them fill in your name/email where it asks how they found out about my site, and you both are entered for a chance to win.
• Join my facebook page. When you join, leave a comment to let me know you joined. Again, already a fan? Suggest a friend and let me know you did and you will both be entered!
• Tweet or blog about or link on facebook to any of my shops: Bethany Schlegel | Art + Design, Buzz Buzz Bee, or July Twenty Fourth...send me the link and you will be entered!
  

Each time you do one of the things above, your name will be counted. Your name and entries will also be rolled over to the future weeks if you don't win this time, so keep doing the above to be entered more often!

Hurry! This giveaway ends Sunday, December 6th at 11:59 PM EST.

(U.S. and Canada only.)

Holiday Giveaway (Week 1) -- WINNER!

Though I should be in bed, it's past midnight here in Massachusetts...

At 12:00 midnight, EST, using random.org, I drew the winner for the week 1 raffle. Congratulations to Amanda of Alabama! Amanda won a peace crane tee and a pair of origami earrings!

Not a winner this time? No worries! In an hour or so, a new item will be posted and follow the same rules apply. Please enter often!

Sad you missed out on the tee or the earrings? The tee is available at my BuzzBuzzBee Etsy Shop and you can purchase the earrings at my Bethany Schlegel Etsy Shop (more colors available -- please contact me with color requests!).

Thanks for playing!

Holiday Giveaway (Week 1)

To celebrate the holidays and make room for new goodies, I am going to have some holiday giveaways this year!

This week's giveaway is a tee shirt made by yours truly!

It's a girl's size ten American Apparel classic raglan with a paper crane silkscreened onto it. This also comes with a pair of hand folder origami crane earrings on sterling silver earwires.

Not a ten year old girl? No worries! Give it as a gift!

There are a few ways to be entered to win.

• Buy something from my shop (well, actually, any of my shops: Bethany Schlegel | Art + Design, Buzz Buzz Bee, or July Twenty Fourth) and be entered twice into the drawing.
• Sign up for my mailing list. Already on my mailing list? Send this to a friend and have them sign up. Have them fill in your name/email where it asks how they found out about my site, and you both are entered for a chance to win.
• Join my facebook page. When you join, leave a comment to let me know you joined. Again, already a fan? Suggest a friend and let me know you did and you will both be entered!

Each time you do one of the things above, your name will be counted. Your name and entries will also be rolled over to the future weeks if you don't win this time, so keep doing the above to be entered more often!

Hurry! This giveaway ends Sunday, November 29!

Open Studio & Cleaning House

Yesterday's Open Studios/Holiday Sale was quite a success. Thank you to all the wonderful people who came to sell and shop! Missed it? No worries! We do hope to have another event in the future. In the meantime, here are some things you can do to make yourself feel better...

• Retail therapy. Visit one of my shops: Bethany Schlegel Art + Design (for holiday cards and art), Buzz Buzz Bee (for shirts and other miscellaneous cool stuff), or July Twenty Fourth (for cards made jointly with my friend in San Francisco). Need to get out? Also find my work at Magpie in Davis Square.
  
• Get a penpal. You don't even have to send any mail! Sign up for my mailing list so you don't miss future events. Other perks include art in the mail and the possibility of helping me with my projects! Haha!
• Visit a museum. My work is still on display at the Danforth Museum School's Holiday Sale.
• Win a prize. That's right. I am cleaning house and over the next couple of weeks I will have some teeshirt giveaways. Stay tuned for details!
• Meet my friends. Visit some of the other vendors you missed. Check out our vendor page for links.
• Bake some cookies. Email me your snail mail address and send you a (beautifully designed and photographed) recipe in the mail!
  

Speaking of cleaning house...while cleaning the studio, I realized I have a lot of stuff in my studio. I need to figure it out, but daily? weekly? I am going to have a goal of some short projects that only use items I have in the studio and post them more often for your viewing enjoyment.

Ernie!

I have been taking a bunch of photos of my latest cards...Ernie just makes me so happy! You can buy him here -- well, a likeness, as Ernie himself is not for sale!

I've Missed You!

I feel like I haven't written in a month! Oh, I haven't! Sorry about that! It's been a busy month, getting ready for the holidays -- I know, when you sell stuff, holiday prep starts too early. Don't worry, I don't have a tree up in the studio and the Christmas music isn't playing yet (unless it accidentally jumps in when I have my iPod on shuffle...but that happens all year because I am too lazy to take my Christmas mix off the iPod in the off season). But right now I am relaxing in Prescott, Arizona while we visit Kevin's parents, so I have a moment where I can catch up here.

So what have I been up to? I have been designing and printing holiday cards. The ones I have done myself are only half printed and haven't been posted yet, but if you are nice I'll put in a little sneak peek and offer you a 10% discount if you preorder (preordering simply involves telling me how many you are interested in buying -- there is no commitment until you see the cards and like them in their final state!) by Monday, November 16. The dachshunds are printed as flat cards with translucent envelopes -- but again, order by November 16th, and get a 10% discount. Sorry the pictures are only the digital images and the colors are also off. I didn't have time to take pictures before we left and didn't get time to print the Portuguese Water Dog card before leaving either.

The ones I did with my friend Melanie for our collaboration are printed and will be available on our etsy website very soon. The discount period is now over. Again, unfortunately all I have available are the digital images, but once they are available on etsy, the actual photos will be available.

Prices for all cards (before the discount) are:
1 card: $4.00
10 cards: $25.00
50 cards: $100.00
100 cards: $175.00

What else? Shows, shows, shows.

I entered five framed pieces, ten unframed pieces, and twenty cards into the Danforth Museum's Holiday Sale. This sale, located in Framingham, MA, runs until December 13th. This is a wonderful, intimate sale of local artists.

I entered two framed and two unframed pieces into the School of the Museum of Fine Arts's InsideOut Sale. This world reknowned sale runs November 18-22. For the first time in public, I will be displaying Message in a Bottle (which I still need to get an actual picture of for this blog -- I only have the image of it digitally, before printing).

Finally, November 22 also marks the day of my own Open Studio/Holiday Sale. From 11-5 in Waltham, it will feature about ten artists selling photos, cards, fine art, knitting, jewelry, stained glass, and everything in between.

Whew!

Hope to see you!

P.S. Again, sorry for my lack of actual photographs! It's been so hard to find the time to photograph the work after it's actually done.

New Cards Availbale for PreOrder!

I've been busy with a lot of things lately, but I haven't forgotten about my faithful readers.

I told you a while ago about July Twenty Fourth. Well, we have some cards for the holidays available for preorder!

Our website will be finalized soon, but in the meantime you can get the preorder information here at the July Twenty Fourth Blog.

I promise I'll get my cards up soon, too!

Leave it to me...

Yesterday, while waiting for some printing to be done, I drew a lot of leaves. I love them. Next I am going to use them in my art, some fabric, who knows what else.

This posting does not do them justice. Please click on the image for a better view.

We Have A Winner!

Please visit July Twenty Fourth for more info! Thanks for helping us choose!

Vote on a logo and win prizes!

My friend Melanie and I met in science class in seventh grade. In almost two decades of knowing each other, we've been through a lot together.

Recently, we started a joint project (julytwentyfourth) in which we do design work together over the internet. She's in San Francisco and I am in Boston, so we stay in touch the way of the 21st century, blogging and emailing.

Our most recent project is a logo for our joint efforts. We are down to the last two and we want some feedback!

Help us out and you might win some cool goodies from julytwentyfourth.

I'm debating whether you should know why we are called julytwentyfourth or whether you should be deciding for aesthetic reasons only. If you want to know, and it will help you vote, feel free to ask.

Click here to vote!

Mailing List Reminder

Fall is the time of shows, events, sales, and a whole bunch of other goodies. To be sure you don't miss out on these things, please make sure you are on my mailing list and your information is up-to-date if you moved recently -- if you aren't sure, feel free to sign up again! If you are worried about another mailing list, don't worry, I really don't bother you with things too often. And, if you opt into snail mail as well, you might even get some Bethany Schlegel Originals in the mail as well!

I Made the Front Page!

...of the Living Section of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, that is!

Read the article and see my art here.

If you are in Indiana near Fort Wayne, be sure to check out the Motherlode Gallery's show at the Allen County Public Library. The opening is tonight from 7-9 pm and the show runs through November 11.

Thanks for a great show, Motherlode Group!

Message in a Bottle

I love this piece but am scared to print it...it's quite large (for me, anyway) at 19x25".

Busy, busy, busy...

I just wanted to check in. I haven't been posting but I have been busy.

Last week and this week was a lot of prepping for shows I am going to take part in, all three of which start in a week or so.

September 11th opens Big Ideas, Small Packages at the Allen County Public Library, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This is a juried show for which they accepted the banana and Thirty-Eight Self Portraits (Because I Wish I were Smaller). I am pretty excited about this. This is the first juried show I have entered in a long time.

September 13th is the kickoff for the Danforth Museum's Small Works Exhibition and Sale. This wasn't juried. Yesterday my friend Anisha and I each brought in four pieces of work. Definitely worth checking out as all work is priced under $400 and 40% goes to the Danforth's Museum School..

Finally, there's A Book About Death. This exhibition runs from September 10-20 at the Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery in New York City. This is a super cool concept in which artists submitted 500 postcards and when visitors go to the gallery, the pick out postcards to assemble their own "book" about death. Here's my entry: I'm number 396.

Enjoy!

Variations

I got some really positive feedback on the bird drawing I did, so I decided that while printing Soldier. Merchant. Man. (4"x6", mixed media on board) that I would also make some prints (Untitled), on paper from the image. I am really excited about them, but I am not sure if they should be worked into further. I like them for their simplicity -- the starkness of the white bird against the gray paper. I like the fact that the bird has just a wide open page to fly on (which now brings me to the desire to print this little bird all alone on a large paper...)

Then part of me thinks they should have something else to them. I'm not sure. Perhaps I need to leave it for a while and come back to it. I think art is so exciting in that way though...how you can work on something, leave it, and then come back to it months later and finally get what you wanted -- or just finally have it come together even though you didn't consciously know what you wanted. Soldier. Merchant. Man. was like that. I worked on it in February (at which time I only did the board using scraps of paper from an old book) and then again in June (?) when I drew the dead baby bird and then finally in August when I added the bird in flight. And it is exactly what I wanted in the end, but I didn't know it at the beginning.

Since I already had the screen made, and I love experimenting, I also pulled a version of it on green fabric. I love that too, but I have no idea what to do with it.

Finally, I had been constantly imagining a piece with a bird and a cage and shrunk the bird to work in Leonard (4"x6", mixed media on board). I like it. This is the second version I did, the first the cage was too high and I couldn't get the bird to balance correctly on the page.

And yes, I don't know what my new obsession with birds is, but they are so elegant and so fragile, I just love using them in my work.

Soldier. Merchant. Man.

I finally figured out how to finish the piece (Soldier. Merchant. Man., 4"x6", mixed media on board) I started in February. I had started it as a way to deal with Grandpa Miceli's death. He died at 92. He loved a good long life and passed away right after watching a UConn Girls Basketball win with Grandma, which was probably his idea of a perfect evening. Rest in peace, Grandpa.

A Day at the Beach [WIP]

Here are the bathing beauties again. I was just playing around, moving them all over the page as if they were paper dolls.

They need work, particularly certain parts of the bodies. Also, I think the images of me "posing" are just too stiff and don't really fit. Also not loving the "skill" in the particularly overweight women. I'll need to work on this, because I really like the idea of having all shapes and sizes...right now the sizes are generally pretty similar.

Catching Up

I'm really catching up here...I am waiting for that pattern I did to save in illustrator. It's HUGE so it is taking forever.









Above are some prints on paper I made from the screens I made for The Canvas Project...My words were: tam-o-shanter, boss, deedle, sterling, and cafe. These are not necessarily in that order below, and I didn't print "sterling" so it's missing from the collection. Images are about 3x3 on 6x6 inch paper.

And here are the actual canvases I submitted. These are each 3"x3" square.

Sorry for the cell phone quality (or lack thereof)...

Bonus points to anyone who can match up the words to the images!

Well, I'm off! Illustrator is done saving!

Flight Patterns

When I was in school I used to love to work with patterns. I'd then make them into tongue-in-cheek clothes with my poor sewing skills.

Examples were the boxers with the crabs and the dress with the dress pattern on it...

I had forgotten how much I loved this...today I stared playing with my birds in a pattern. Not loving it, but still super fun.

I think I also need to rework some projects from college that I can now redo with more experience and skill, because the concepts are certainly there!

Maybe I'll play around with printing them on one of the any fabric on demand sites that are out there.

Flying By

It's been a while since I posted. I have been very busy in the studio. I finally finished my piece for Danger. I am excited about it. I need to take a photo to post it...

In the meantime, this little guy made me happy.

Not sure about my recent obsession with birds. They are just so elegant and beautiful.

Hand Drawn Bird

I don't love this bird. I liked him alone, on paper, but not in this drawing.

Stepping back again. Need to look at again with fresh eyes.

Thinking Outside the Box...Literally

I think this might be the answer. Who knew?

Gotta go get another bird though.

In Progress...Taking a Step Back...

So I am kind of at this point I need to take a step back and look at this print. Something is missing I think, which is a struggle because I want to keep the simplicity of it as well.

Further, I want the clothes to be the focus of the print, and that's not happening.

And I don't like the navy blue in the pallette, but I am not sure what other color to use because clearly I need one more. Grey?

Not sure about the ground. Thought I might need it to offset the sky. I'd like it to be graphic as opposed to drawn, but at the same time, I want this to be a print, a drawing, not graphic design. Does this make sense?

Just kind of talking myself through the process...thanks for coming along for the ride.

Ok, I am going out to try and get some pictures of flying birds, because this one is not mine...I just borrowed it for the sketch...

Danger

No physical work in the past couple of days, as I am pondering the word "danger" for a show I want to enter -- er, um, have to enter as I have already paid to enter! I am having a tough time with this one...

Found this quote: "As soon as there is life, there is danger." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Will report back with the results.

Returning to the Laundry

So there are some projects I keep coming back to. Laundry is one of them. I have really been into combining my drawing with my screenprinting. Today was (finally) relatively nice out, so I took to the yard and drew laundry on the line.

I tested the drawings in photoshop with the palette I want to use -- ever since I saw these colors on a sheet of origami paper, I realized these are my colors (if one can actually have colors...)

I have included the scrap of paper, too.

Tomorrow is socks, boxers, a couple of tees, some underwear...ooooh! Tomorrow is supposed to be 76° and sunny. Don't forget the sunblock!

Keeping Busy

I have been a slacker of a poster but I have been keeping busy. One project I have been working on I have to keep under wraps for a while -- it's a present that has yet to be given.

Another mini project I have been working on today I saved until the last minute so it is in the mail to the show as we speak. I do have pictures from my phone, so I will try to see if they are postable later today.

Finally, I spent some of Monday and all day yesterday printing (an edition of about 200!) the joint artwork Melanie and I have been working on. I am really excited for it. I love the collaborative effort. It is a six color screen print that we have been working on solely via the internet (since she is in California and I am in Massachusetts). Enjoy.

Bathing Beauties

Really quick here...just wanted to do a little post and another plea. I changed the style of my bathing beauties and it is going to be more like Thirty-Eight Self-Portraits (Because I Wish I Were Smaller).

If you sent me a full length bathing suit or underwear photo, you might be able to recognize yourself so far.

I need more though, ladies! Full length, please! Send 'em along!

Thirty-Eight Self Portraits (Because I Wish I Were Smaller)

I just entered this in a show...cross your fingers for me...

It's called Thirty-Eight Self Portraits (Because I Wish I Were Smaller), and it measures in at 8 inches by 7 inches. I had so much fun with it. Of course it wasn't so much fun when I was coloring in the third print because the first two didn't look as I wanted and I was racing the clock because the post office was closing in two hours!

Anyway, it's been an especially interesting project about body image, because knowing since about sixth or seventh grade that I wish I had smaller hips or smaller thighs or whatever, and then finding all the pictures, I realized that there were points I thought I should be "smaller" when really I looked pretty darn good.

Keep visiting, because I know I am going to work on more variations and now that I have these thirty-eight drawings of me, I see them being integrated into a lot of other works.

In Progress: A Few More...

Just a few more. Enjoy. A few more to be added before screenprinting, and hand coloring.

Mini Mes

Just wanted to post some little mes I have have been drawing.

Study of a Dead Baby Bird

Note, these drawings are referred to in order, but the text about each one doesn't fit next to the image, so I have put a number next to the drawing I am referring to. Although the drawings aren't numbered, I trust my readers to understand that the first drawing on the page is 1, the second 2, and so forth.

Growing up, we had a charcoal drawing of a dead baby bird in our house. (The image to the left is not it. That's mine!) It was truly beautiful, once I learned to appreciate it for the art that it was and not for the rotting corpse. My father loved to quote the artist, his friend Steve Halford, and I in turn liked to quote my dad. When asked why he drew a dead baby bird, Steve answered, "Because a dead baby bird is a lot easier to draw than a live baby bird." True. But a dead baby bird isn't that easy, Steve, so I am quite impressed with the drawing.

Yesterday, Kevin called me outside to see a dead baby bird in the front lawn. I scooped the bird up onto a disposable plastic plate and I promise I too would try my hand at my own drawings.

I did one yesterday and three today. I don't love the drawings, but I loved the exercise, and I never before got to appreciate the beauty and the delicacy of our feathered friends in such intimacy before.

Additionally, I loved the excuse to spend the day in the warm sunshine -- what a perfect day! (Drawing a dead animal certainly is an outside activity.)

Yesterday's drawing was simply pencil (1). After giving it some breathing room, I like it better than I remembered.

Today I stared off with a watercolor sketch (2) which frustrated me so I stopped. Looking back, I like the simplicity, lightness and unfinished nature of it.

Then I went to focus on a gouache drawing on a collage page (3) -- I started this piece when grandpa passed away in March. I collaged some pages from an old book full of synonyms. I found a bunch that described grandpa: merchant, soldier, and man. I found it to be the perfect base for the drawing, because in the last months of his life, I saw him as delicate as a baby bird. I am frustrated though because I don't like the drawing at all. The image became too colorful and too muddled. The gouache wasn't even adhering to the area where the head was. You can't see it because I scribbled over it in graphite -- while covering up my frustration, I think I was also trying to demonstrate the dark empty space grandpa left in all of us.

Finally, I did a simple pen and ink and then filled the background in deep red gouache (4) which I am not loving, but I don't hate it either. I love how the red really makes the little bird pop off the page.

I am wondering how I can take this gorgeous creature and maybe turn it into a silk screen. Or is it too delicate for such a bold medium. Maybe it would work for just that reason.

This little bird had a short life, but I like to think that I immortalized it in some way.

My little friend is starting to smell and attract flies (but a citronella candle works wonders for the later) so I think tomorrow will be our last day together. I don't know though. If the smell gets much worse, these might be the final drawings.

More Fruit, Still Going Bananas

I'm just stuck in this awful rut. I don't know what I want to make, what I should make, what I need to make. I just finished Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland, but since it's been such a long time since I read the beginning, I think now I should go back to read that.

Anyway, the banana made me so happy I thought I should continue to pursue fruit, but clearly I am not sure if that was the answer either.

I think that if I decide these aren't working, I will just sand them away and use the surfaces for something else. I will sit on them for a while, but once I run out of my collaged surfaces, they might be the first to go.

Sorry this post is so blah -- I am just in this fantastic rut. A fabulous teacher reminded me of something I said about D.H. Lawrence's The Rocking Horse Winner and thought it might apply to my art, but since I don't remember the story, I think I will go back and read that and hope for a miracle!

I promise someday I will be out of this rut. Today I threatened to quit as an artist. But that's not what I want the answer to be either. I think most of it is trust and facing the fear.

Oh, about the art, like the banana, each are 4"x6" (or 6"x4"...you know what I mean) and done in gouache on on collaged surface. The apple core was done today, the kiwi on Thursday.

Changing My Layout

I spent all morning trying to find a new fixed width template I like. I don't know why a fixed width template didn't occur to me before, since that's what I really wanted. Nonetheless, while I really like this layout, I am still trying to iron out some kinks, so please bear with me.

This also means, a lot of my right links are missing. Boohoo! I will add them back over time, it is just a tedious process.

Thanks much!

Going Bananas!

This was a good drawing to do today since Ernie was driving me bananas! I do love you Ernie, but you can be quite a pain in the neck sometimes.

The image is 6"x4" gouache on collaged panel. Told you, I am loving the gouache.

Tiny Pieces

Yesterday was a very productive day at the studio. I put all my anxieties aside and just created. I worked on some sketches of Ernie, and one of my face (being an artist makes you quite vain in a way, because the best and easiest model you have is yourself in the mirror)...

I also made two tiny pieces...Spray Bottle is 3x5" on a piece of board that has been collaged and sanded. The image is watercolor, gouache, pencil, and ink.

Screen Filler is about 5.5" square on a piece of wood. It's done in ink and gouache. Yes, I just rediscovered my water based paints and I am loving them.

I think I am going to start working on a series of containers. I seem to have this obsession. I don't know why.

Building a Home...Part II

I wrote last week about the Home project I am working on. It is flat and needs something added to it. I am thinking of adding some more graphics to it...Not sure if this is the answer. I think I will need to sit on it for a while.

The Bathing Suit Project: A huge favor...

This message is for all my fellow female readers (but male readers can help by passing this along to female friends):

It's been a year and two days since I last visited The Bathing Suit Project and it's really something I would like to continue on with. But I need your help! I have nearly exhausted the images of everyday people in bathing suits...This is where I need you. I know, it is a HUGE request of something that can be very personal -- but I promise I will include my own recent pictures -- in which I am not feeling my best at all...!

Pictures can be old or new, as long as they are full length of you in a bathing suit or even just your underwear. Send more than one if you have it! Please be sure to include your height as well.

Images will be used for silhouetting purposes ONLY and your name will never be matched to the project.

Here is a link to the silhouettes I have so far, just so you can see just how unrecognizable you will be!

Thank you so much for your continuing support. If you choose not to send a picture, I will not hold this against you in any way. I am just trying to use my resources as much as possible!

Thank you thank you thank you!

Best,
Bethany

__________________________________________________________
Please send this to friends (and have them sign up for my mailing list as well!)

Building a Home

So here is a piece I am working on for a show called Home. It's a reminiscence of my childhood -- specifically the afternoons when I was home from kindergarten...I'd be playing on the floor, and some cheesy eighties song would come on (it was 1985, after all) and I'd begin to miss Dad, who was still at work.

It's a tryptich, so all of the pieces would be hung as shown, each framed separately. In this case, I think the frame is just as important, and I am going to find a frame in a dark wood stain, just like the furniture at my parent's house. For reference, the record player image is 13x13" square

Something is missing. As much depth as I was going for in the piece -- collaged layers make the base, and line drawings overlap with color halftones, it still seems flat and boring to me. I am thinking of adding words or something, but I have yet to decide.

Testing Halftones

I have never done a color halftone screenprint before. I had old instructions from when I took screenprinting in 2001 or 2002, but those didn't even work with Photoshop anymore...so I needed to test it. I used a picture of Ernie to test it, and I think it is pretty fun. I am really loving the art of these color halftones...there is something magical about the process, putting one color down and then another until you get the whole image. Additionally, I think the look is really quite appealing and the quality is perfect for what I want to use it for...there is this fine art meets industry, handmade meets technology, and probably best of all, past meets present.

Art Auction Now through April 30

I last wrote about the auction to benefit the Farmington Public Schools in Connecticut, and I think I posted the wrong link. Click here for the correct one.

Prices are very reasonable and there are some wonderful and unique items. Some are local to the Hartford area, but many can be used and enjoyed anywhere! You can even bid on my work!

Thank you for your support!

Art Auction to Benefit Farmington Public Schools

Please stop by and see some of my artwork at the online auction to benefit the Farmington Public Schools in Farmington, Connecticut. (That's where I went to school!) Auction runs from March 15th through April 30, but you can preview online starting today! Along with my work, there is other wonderful artwork by current students, art teachers, alum, and professional artists, as well as many exciting other items/services to bid on.

P.S. That little logo in the left corner is also a donation I made to the foundation. Yep! That's my work there!

Discard 2009: Now Up-To-Date!

So I have been a slacker on this, but I figure as long as I get rid of 365 items, it should be ok! I've decided to put no information (except eventually the date) unless people want to guess. First and foremost I want to get rid of the items and document them! Clearly you can see that the documentation has been most efficient and sucessful as photos, but that doesn't mean there won't be a drawing or collage once in a while.

You can see these images up close and personal on my Picasa site. I'm still working out some technical difficulties (such as: how do I get the file name to be the caption?) but for now you can enjoy looking.

Enjoy!

Cleaning

Here is a bad iPhone photo of a test print of the cleaning products. Not sure how I feel about it. I have some others that I want to play around with. I am not sure I need the outlines anymore, even though oddly, this is how it started...

I joined Inkteraction!

This is a pretty cool and inspirational printmaking network.

You Make My Heart Swim

So. This is the last Valentine or fish post for a while. Since I had come up with a few ideas for mom, I decided I might as well use a couple of them. Flat pool colored cards were on sale at the paper source (what luck!) and so I printed up a pile of these fun cards.

I'll sell some at Magpie and some at my Etsy store or you can contact me directly as always. They are 5 1/4 inches square and come in white envelopes. Being square, they require extra postage -- an extra 20¢ to be exact.

Tomorrow is a snowy day, so I am going to stay at home to catch up on stuff. Hopefully I will have more for you about my actual project as well as Discard 2009 -- the fact that I am not getting any smaller sure is helping with this project!