michelle ward

Ga Ga Gah!

First stop - GaGa's Workshop at Barney's.  Super cool.  Then the Bergdorf Goodman windows.  Swoon.  Then a fabulous dinner at a little corner place, and off to see Wicked.  Divine.  Great start to the holidays.  More soon....with photos.  Happy December!

 

 

happy thanksgiving

from our house to yours, have a blessed day..............................................................................

 

Wednesday is for Wizards

It's a girls night out to see Wicked!  Looking forward to the show, but first we will be off to see another wizard - David Hoey, the magician behind the windows at Bergdorf Goodman.  This year's theme:  Carnival of Animals.  Sneak peek below.  More HERE.  *swoon*, right?

 

11.22.11

 

I started working on this last week so I would be ready with birthday wishes for my favorite rock star today.  Plus, I wanted to leave enough time to request permission to use these photos from the talented photographer, PEROU.  He wrote back in less than ten minutes, with a thumbs up.  I love that the internet provides easy and instant access to artists.  Thank you Perou.

Hyvää Syntymäpäivää,  Happy 35th Birthday Ville Valo. 

having a ball

I've been playing alot with circles - in both photoshop and the messier kind of art making.  My table is covered in them.  I'm having a ball.  Moving things from my to-do list to the ta-da list.  It's not quite the 11th hour but I am chasing down a few lifelines before company arrives next week.  I love being in this phase of the creative process when the little voices chime in with opinions.  They can veer me in directions I hadn't considered so I listen closely.  Can't show you what I'm working on yet.  Soon....

 

Have a good weekend!

now and then

Can't stop screening Shakespeare over my painted backgrounds.  I'm in bard mode, can you tell?  It's not just because I'd recently seen Anonymous, but a few weeks ago I started planning the current crusade, and called it " All the World's a Stage", a W.S. line, and a title of a piece I did a lifetime ago.  I pulled out the Somerset Studio from over ten years ago.  I bet you still have it - it was a gorgeous issue.  My friend Lynne is on the cover.  And Judi has a multi-page article on book arts.  I made a triptych - thinking myself so clever to turn it upside-down, wanting to offer an alternative to the trendy-at-the-time art form.  That was then.....if I were to work on assignment now, this is what I might offer:

 

 

Digitally designed using custom brushes and text overlayed as screen.  Below, a variation after sliding the color around.  I find this a really useful part of the process.  Color combinations appear on the screen that I would never select in real life.  It gives me ideas to take to real pages. 

Then I colorized the first image (to the teal family) and layered over the second image, and used a large blurry edged eraser and got this one, Gah!

 

Here is the old piece made about twelve years ago....look how much it had faded since the publication:

 

And more lessons:

 

11.11.11

 

Ode to the Eleventh Hour

 

I used to be embarrassed that procrastination often left me frantically finishing a project at the eleventh hour.  I used to get nervous that I wouldn't meet an obligation and would be branded unreliable.  That was before I recognized that I thrive on the creative energy that surfaces while in crunch mode.  Beginnings are never difficult; in fact, I love that step of the process.  Seeing a project through to the finish isn’t the problem either.  The issue is that typically I’ve gotten involved in something else that has the greater portion of my attention and I end up scrambling to make a deadline, whether real or self-imposed.  Now I embrace that behavior.  Oh yes, I happily wear The Eleventh Hour Girl label.

 

My creative process usually begins with an enthusiastic spark.  Journals are filled with drawings and notes spelling out the numerous approaches I might take with a particular assignment or commission.  I like to spend a few days thinking it over, letting the ideas simmer.  I sketch out plans that are both realistic and fantastical.  During this phase I generate plans that may or may not come to fruition, and may or may not be used for the task at hand – it’s all good.  Then I embark on the mission, leaving wiggle room for whatever may happen along the way.  Sometimes a project takes on a life of it’s own and tells you how to proceed.  I make commitments and eagerly continue forward. 

 

Creating quality work and getting to the finish line in a timely manner is always the objective.  However, execution always takes longer than anticipated.  Real life and other distractions impede progress and there I am again, at the familiar eleventh hour.  I realize that is how I operate and I am fine with that.  Why?  Because when you are in high gear and under pressure you start to create from a different place.  Your efforts are more intuitive and authentic when working under the wire.  The artwork is more distinctive and less contrived.  All pre-planning is a faint memory.  A specific supply may not available so you improvise.  You become resourceful.  The mess on your table coughs up an answer you never would have considered.  Inventing clever results only happens when you are open to the answers and willing to see possibilities.  Desperation can be inspiring.  And the eleventh hour promises thrilling solutions.

 

Here’s a story:  back in college I had an assignment to draw architectural details in perspective. It required using illustration markers.  The night before the presentation I realized I didn’t have the right brown.  There were few hours left before the sun rose and all supply stores were closed.  It was too late to call a friend and ask for a loaner.  I was sitting at my drafting table with a cup of tea (to keep me awake).  There it was…. you guessed it.  I pulled out the teabag and started dabbing it around the surface.  Awesome!  During the classroom critique I got applause for the cool effect.  It was a classic case of necessity being the mother of invention but it also reinforced my last minute routine.  The eleventh hour rewarded my procrastination.

 

On another occasion, just a few years ago, I was in the zone, concentrating on an assignment.  Firmly planted on the floor of my studio, I didn’t want to get up to search for a paintbrush as that might break the spell and delay my completion.  A nearby shelf, just within reach, held a box of lonely supplies.  No brushes, but a brayer that would not only do the trick, it ended up being a better tool for the task.  I had that brayer for a handful of years and never used it.  Since then it has become one of my favorite things.  Was it ingenuity or the magic of the eleventh hour? 

 

Regardless of how hard I’ve tried to develop work habits that establish ample timeframes, I always find myself pushing the edge.  I have a love/hate relationship with deadlines.  While I whine about an encroaching due date I secretly love having one.  Experience has altered my perspective and I have come to regard deadlines as lifelines.  I believe having a fixed time for something to be completed makes me do it.  Rather than drown in the murky abyss of procrastination, I am motivated to get it done.  A pending deadline can still conjure up a sense of panic, but the concept of a dangling lifeline makes me appreciate having an opportunity to engage and apply myself.  Plus, I know that last minute breakthroughs are my constant companions.  Making it happen is what counts, even if it is during the eleventh hour.

 

Thank You Eleventh Hour. 

I will see you again soon.

playing with the playwright

I love to play digitally.  I find it keeps my acquired skills sharp.  I can honestly say I learn something every time I open a document and start messing with layers.  It's not unlike the lessons learned on my journal pages.  You hold an element over the surface, squint a little, then move it around with indecision until it feels like the right spot.  Commit and move on.  Each choice you make informs the next step to take because you see what's missing or what needs to be taken away. Working out composition - whether on the screen or on the page, is the kind of problem solving I love. 

Yesterday I cut a stencil of Shakespeare.  Haven't used it yet but loved playing with design in photoshop.

Then I shifted the color balance, and got this...looks like money doesn't it?

 

And here's a lesson:

 

More Shakespeare tomorrow.

the latest

Obviously I'm a little slow to the scene for this one as it's been hit over 4 million times.  In case you haven't seen it either, I'll share here.  I was just thinking I may own too many scarves....between Fallon and I we must have, well,....not telling....because I don't want to be put on the *don't send her anymore scarves* list.  On the contrary, I love scarves and will never stop collecting.  Would you ever admit how many you have? *wink*  This video is informative, but also very very clever and mesmerizing.  I'm not just impressed with the 25 ways to tie a scarf, I can't imagine what it took to put this clip together.  Wow.

 

 

I updated the Home Improvement page with sample pages of my Alice book.  Click HERE to see, or start the tour by clicking on the right sidebar button.  More kits will be listed on ETSY this week.

 

Last week I posted Crusade No. 57.  FIVE years of hosting the Street Team blog!  Sheesh, times flies.

Come on over and play with us.  We make new friends every month, and love to build connections through creativity.

not so Anonymous anymore

Have you seen it?  We loved it.  I'm always in line for a period piece.  Particularly if it is set in England.  Beautiful visuals.  I know there are critics who dis this one based on historical inaccuracy and blah blah blah.  I enjoyed the story - it's a clever and artful interpretation.  But I'm not here to debate the plot.  I'm here to wave the flag for Rhys Ifans.  I admit, I did not even recognize that it was him....how could you if you had only known him as Spike? And OMG, look at his writing desk.  Did you swoon over the shelves of leather-wrapped-quill-penned-on-parchment manuscripts?  Gah!  The sets, the scenery, the costumes!  That's it, I'm going to see it again.

In this interview at IMDb, you'll hear him say he created the image of his Earl of Oxford character after both Karl Lagerfeld and David Bowie.  Good call.  It worked.  When I googled the movie I was stunned to learn who played this lead role.  I never saw it coming that that guy was this guy.  Forget about *was Shakespeare a fraud*, this actor was real....good.  You've seen him before....

I WISH we could see the new Neverland film in the states.  I haven't investigated whether it will be available here.  Did anyone see it? 

I also love the mother/daughter team covering the role of Queen Elizabeth in Anonymous.  I prefer Dame Judy Dench's monarch like in Shakespeare in Love, but who doesn't love Vanessa Redgrave?  Did you see her in Letters to Juliet?  I wanna be her when I grow up. 

 

 

tattooed albino

OK, so it's not a real tattoo, and it's not a real albino pumpkin either.  I opted for the fakes this year.  Spent most of yesterday's free time working on this one.  There is something so relaxing and rewarding about drawing, especially when there is no agenda, just random markmaking.

We had an increased number if trick-or-treaters this year!  Love when the neighborhood is filled with children, wagons, parents, teens...all happily navigating the streets and sidewalks around piles of fallen branches and trees from the recent snow storm.  Not much white stuff left.  Just memories of another fabulous holiday, enjoyed by our family.  It was the year of big hats.....