Woman with Bird...my piece for Lotta Art

 

I'm quite proud of this one! I'm finding a way to mesh my figure drawing with my bird drawing on the sewing machine process!And then to "put a bird on it" ! It's all win win! This one will be my piece that will be i the Lotta Art Auction for School 33 in April.

My Valentine to my Students

I decided to inspire my amazing group of Advance Studio/AP students today by introducing a new twist to being introduced to new artist. Each week someone will need to inspire the group with a new discovered artist, song, poem, performance, etc that can be by them or by a master artist. I started it off today with this part of Phillip Glass's collaboration of Einstein on the Beach. This is the link I showed them. They were inspired! Happy Valentines day!

Sewing what I draw

I'm beginning to feel like my artist self again. I'm meshing my figure drawings with my drawn sewing. These are both free hand machine stitched! No programing.....I swear!

The New Sweat Shop!!! Amazing Happening #2 of 2013

Its true!!! Jennyjen has gotten another amazing happening in the second month of 2013! I got a beautiful space in the Mill Center! Suite 219! On the corner of the third floor with southern exposure! My new bud Kim of alittleparty was looking for a studio mate and I happened to see the google group post and acted! I am so excited! tons of space! Hopefully there will be a nice little open house in March. 

Amazing Happening Number 1 for 2013!!!!

Life is sooo amazing sooooo far for 2013! I got engaged in New Mexico over my Winter Holiday! My Englishman made me this incredible stone circle about balance. He asked me to help him balance a boulder on top of another. And luckily it did balance. And then, in the center of the circle he told me it wasn't a ring, but that it was all about balance and how I balance his life and then he did it...he asked me to marry him! And I cried with joy and of course, I said YES! Our trip was so amazing in this new landscape and frigid temperatures. We bathe numerous times in the hot springs, inside and outside. Snowshoed under the full moon on the volcanic plateau in the 2degree temperature...I didn't last too long. My painful hands made us turn around and come back inside. We finished our sketchbooks for the Sketchbook project ( all ready posted). And so this became amazing happening number 1 for 2013( even though it happened New Years Eve, I'm still counting it!)  More to come.
 Now enjoy the photos!

Sketchbook Project #3 for Me!

I did it again!!! Yes, I have, like the million of others out there, I have neglected my blog! The place where I divulged all of my stories and secrets and update people I know, and don't know, all about me! yeah, yeah, yeah...I could promise to do better, but I'm sure you all are of tired of hearing that one! But, better news, I also completed my third sketchbook for the sketchbook project. This time, I had a plan, as oppose to a given title. I went back to MICA for its open studio session this past fall so that I could draw the model every Tuesday night from 7-10. Missing only two nights, thanks to too much school ( my real job) and the holiday craft season ( my second job). Then I took all of the studies and drawings I did  and then I crafted them into a variety of places, spaces and landscapes that I was feeling at the time. SO here are my favorites: 

Bill Callahan knows how to shut up the B-more crowd!

 

  I have to talk about this miraculous occurrence that happened last Friday night. The miracle was: A man was able to sing with his guitar to a crowded outdoor crowd, and not one person talked while he sang! That’s right, not one person talked while he was performing! The man: Bill Callahan. The place: The area behind the Current Gallery. The event: Maryland Film Festival presents APOCALYPSE: A BILL CALLAHAN TOUR FILM with special guests Bill Callahan and director Hanly Banks! If you are not aware of Bill Callahan, you should acquaint yourself with this powerful songwriter with majestic low auto voice, who can make a large crowd stop and listen! Perhaps you are more aware of his band, SMOG. The night was beautiful with yummy bison tacos by the Golden West and beers by the Union Brewery! Catch a sweet performance here.

 

First Day Back At School and I already miss my summer vacation!

Today was it, August 20,2012. First day back at school for us teachers on my 25th. year of teaching. It was a pretty typical day back with the morning meeting that challenged your attention span. The introduction of new baby teachers and new protocol. I had a bit of a calm all day. Maybe because of my dream I shouldn't mentioned that I had last night of showing up to our faculty meeting unprepared and drunk to the wind! Nor the excuse of leaving the meeting to sit in the bathroom for 2 hours to find items to clog up the toilet that lead to a disgusting run over of all kinds of shite!This still is the dream. This stress dream before school started is much different than the others that I have had previously of waking up, realizing school started two hours earlier than it was, or the given a floor in a parking garage to teach a class of 100! , or the one about not being able to find my car while running late to school dream. No this one was different. Because I really didn't give a crap in this dream! Course I know I was really influenced by the fact that I watch Withnail & I last night. Had to be the drunken theme of this dream! Or maybe cause at year 25 you get to start to relax a bit about your job. You know what you are doing and you know you won't settle for lame teaching in yourself or in your department. Oh well, it is what it is...Stay Calm and Carry on...the mantra for the year! And to end this lovely passage I will conclude with some of my favorite pictures of my summer vacation trip to the beach, spent with my lovely Mr. Kidner and my family! Good times had by all. 

“I am a lucky kid!”

For the past two Saturday nights, my Ashley and I have been going out to the woods, to the gunpowder river and find peace. We arrive with our picnic dinner or evening snacks, fishing rod (for Ashley), paintbrushes and a new field watercolor set and pads for me. We get there around 6ish in the evening and we stay till it gets dark. We find a good rock that sits out on the water and commence with our favorite activities that may even just be, doing nothing! I think about my Dad and how he took us fishing as kids, camping and canoeing. We spent our favorite memories over the river and through the woods. We are armed with our mosquito repellent and headlamps. 

   I think about my two summer at Genesee Valley Outdoor Learning Center, being an adventure Camp director and the nights spent taking scared adolescents through the woods at night for games of camouflage, running to get out of a thunderstorm or simple going for night hikes without our trusty headlamps. These were fun times that are still fun times to have.  Last night the one sentence that came to me head that made we smile was this: “I am a lucky kid!” yes I am, even at the age of 49! I truly am. So, if you don’t know where my man and I  may be on a Saturday night, well, we aren’t gonna tell you. It’s our secret hiding place! 

What’s been happening in the Jennyjen Sweat Shop!

 It’s been a busy summer in the Sweatshop! We started our summer out with AVAM’s Sideshow Flea Market, Pile of Craft at the end of June and then Artscape in July. I had a number of wholesale orders and a new project that I will write about later on. I didn’t teach or write curriculum. That’s right, the first summer in 24 years that I did not work a summer job of some kind! Well, I guess that’s not true…this is the first summer that I worked for myself! And my boss wasn’t too awful to deal with! SO I did have some creative moments and started to do more drawing with my sewing machine. I started to draw bird portraits with my sewing machine. No programming involved! Just me freehand sewing on my machine! I really love these and they help me feel like I’m honing my artistic and observation skills! These are all for sale and in my shop!