the blog of green honeydew

photography :: philadelphia :: trenton china pottery co

2013-12-02T22:55:00.000-05:00

"trenton china pottery co. #8, philadelphia"

Founded in 1927 by Louis Eidelson, a Russian immigrant, the Trenton China Pottery Company sold restaurant equipment and supplies on the corner of 2nd and Arch in Old City Philadelphia for decades and has been family operated for generations.

The company has since moved to a new location on Memphis Street and now operates under their new name, Trenton China Restaurant Equipment & Food Service Supplies.

"trenton china pottery co # 6, philadelphia"

Last month we visited Philadelphia and stumbled across this building during one of our walks. I fell in love with it at first sight. Maybe it was the faded advertisement or the pink, orange and red paints or maybe the old style fire escape ladders. I was so fascinated by the story of the building that when I got home, I researched its history. I imagine that this now empty brick building must have once been a proud bustling hot spots for restaurant owners and homeowners shopping for the latest kitchen gadgets.

art :: peacock

2013-11-30T09:22:00.000-05:00

i've been experimenting with a new series of animal illustrations in the last couple of months ... here is the 1st in the series titled "peacock" ... it started off with me digging up a peacock design i had done years ago ... i started tinkering with the design, adding textures and redrawing most of it ... here is the end result ...

"peacock"

art review: ai weiwei

2013-09-28T23:29:00.000-04:00

summer has come and gone and my hiatus has come to an end ... i have collected lots of inspirations and wonderful memories this summer and i can't wait to begin the creative process again ... firstly before i post some new works, i want to share my experience a few weeks ago at ai weiwei's "according to what?" exhibition at the art gallery of ontario

ai weiwei is a chinese contemporary artist who is extremely outspoken especially after the sichuan earthquake of 2008 where thousands died ... he is currently not allowed to travel outside china due to his political activism

what i found interesting and discovered through a video interview they were playing is that most of the art aren't actually made by himself ... ai weiwei explains that he comes up with the ideas and then his team helps him make the ideas into reality ... seeing as most of his works are massive labour intensive undertakings, i can understand why ... also, his art seems to be more about the political message itself than the execution (unlike most other art genres) ...

the "moon chest"(below left) features 7 wooden chests with circular openings ... they are positioned such a way that as you walk through the installation, you experience the many different phases of the moon ... this is one of the more visually pleasing pieces of the exhibition

snake ceiling, 2009

moon chest, 2008

the "snake ceiling" (above right) is a ceiling installation made with backpacks ... this is an inspiration from the approximately 5,000 children who perished from the sichuan earthquake

dropping a han dynasty urn, 1995/2009

han dynasty vases from 2,000 years ago are featured in the photographs above and the piece below ... ai weiwei tries to portray the idea of challenging traditional beliefs for the development of new ideas ... yet the coloured vases show that a new modern layer cannot remove the original past that still exists below

coloured vases, 2007-2010

rebar from collapsed sichua schools in the aftermath of the earthquake were used for the installation below

straight, 2008-2012

when most of us travel the world and visit tourist attractions, we take tons of photos sometimes just of the symbol and sometimes posing in front of it ... below are 3 examples of a series of photographs that ai weiwei takes in the same situation ... what do you think he is trying to say?

art: bubblegum

2013-05-25T09:06:00.001-04:00

i was driving into work this week and all of a sudden an image flashed across my mind ... remember that big bubblegum you blew when you were a kid? those big fat sweet juicy ones like bubblicious or hubba bubba ... inevitably one will be so big that it pops and sticks all over your face ...

i wanted to capture that moment ... here it is ... my latest piece is called "bubblegum"

bubblegum

these were the flavours i remember the most ... what about you?

art: captain ilias

2013-05-23T20:55:00.000-04:00

i just finished this illustration for my son's room ... his room has a nautical theme with a blue and red colour scheme ... he had a big smile on his face when i showed him ... made my day!

Captain Ilias

coming up the gangplank are our 3 newest passengers with their luggage ... mr. crab ... mr. clownfish ... mr.starfish ... i'm really happy with how this one turned out ... feels sunny and warm ... can almost smell the fresh ocean air ...

art: hung out to dry

2013-05-19T09:31:00.000-04:00

my latest piece titled "hung out to dry" was inspired by my recent trip to greece ... it was april and the weather enabled us to hang our laundry outside ... it was so windy that within an hour everything was dried ... it brought back memories of when i was little growing up in a hot climate which allowed us to hang the laundry on a line outside the window of a condo 25 floors above ground all year round ... i still chuckle when i remember back to times when a sock or a shirt would slip from our hands and land on someone else's laundry line floors below ... you would have to count backwards and downwards and try to figure out which apartment it was that you should call on to retrieve your clothes ....

this illustration was overlaid onto a photograph i took in greece ...

"hung out to dry"

inspiration: mary cassatt | artist

2013-05-12T16:40:00.002-04:00

happy mother's day to all the wonderful mothers out there! whenever one thinks of paintings of mother and their children, the wonderful mary cassatt comes to mind ...

mary cassatt (1844-1926) was an american impressionist painter who later made france her home. she was influenced by her good friend edgar degas and often painted her sister lydia, women and their children and life in society.

above: little ann sucking her finger, embraced by her mother, 1897

above: breakfast in bed, 1897

above: mother combing her child's hair, 1901

above: mother and child, 1901

above:mother and child (the oval mirror), 1889

above: la toilette, 1891

above: mother and child, 1900

above: young mother sewing, 1900

above: young thomas and his mother, 1893

above: mother wearing a sunflower on her dress

photography: bicycles & mopeds in greece

2013-04-29T22:03:00.003-04:00

after a beautiful and relaxing vacation, i am back at it ... the worst part of going away is not the travelling ... not the packing ... not the cranky kids ... not the security checks at the airport ... not the few added pounds ... not even the jetlag ... it's catching up on all the things you left behind when you come home ... the emails at work ... the bills ... the empty fridge ... and knowing that today is the furthest day from your next vacation ... at least summer is around the corner (yes ... positive thoughts ... glass half full ... lol)

on a brighter and more exciting note ... i took tons ... and i mean tons of photos ... i haven't even begun to sort through most of them ... but here are a few i've picked out of bicycles and mopeds ...

blue papaki

bicycle flowerpot

janissaries' mosque (chania, crete, greece)

red bicycle

white bicycle flowerpot

mint papaki

inspiration: hundertwasser | architecture

2013-03-16T20:13:00.001-04:00

hundertwasser was an austrian artist and best known for his contemporary paintings and architectural designs ... when we got the opportunity to visit vienna a few years ago, i dragged my husband around town to see some of his buildings ... here are some of the photos i took of his amazing work ....

above and below: hundertwasserhaus

above: kunst haus wien (museum hundertwasser)

above: spittelau incinerator

i bought this amazing book (and yes my pattern of buying heavy art books and using up all my allowable luggage weight continued ... )

i'm hoping to see many more of his buildings in the near future ... here are just some on my wish list ....

above: waldspirale in darmstadt, germany

(image courtesy of darmstadt.de)

above: rogner bad blumau in styria, austria

(image courtesy of rogner bad blumau)

above: die grune zitadelle von magdeburg, germany (the green citadel of magdeburg)

(image courtesy of www.gruene-zitadelle.de)

above: hundertwasserhaus in rorschach, switzerland

(image courtesy of kickmeto on deviant)

above: ronald mcdonald haus in essen, germany

(image courtesy of wikimedia)

art: urban cinderella

2013-03-06T10:41:00.001-05:00

this new piece titled "urban cinderella" is my modern take on the classic fairytale ... i overlaid my digital illustration onto a photograph i took of an alleyway ... i grew up reading fairytales and wonderful tales from writers like roald dahl ... some things will never change = ) .... enjoy!

urban cinderella

"cindy lost her shoe again"

art: the duck piper

2013-03-03T21:53:00.000-05:00

this piece is titled "the duck piper" ... this is one of my original digital painting overlaid over a digitally enhanced photograph that i took while taking a walk in my neighbourhood ...

"the duck piper's melodic quacking is sweet music to her loyal ducklings."

the duck piper

art: green honeydew boy

2013-02-26T09:17:00.001-05:00

i'm so excited that i finally finished "green honeydew boy" ... it's taken me a few weeks here and there to get it exactly right ... he was originally wearing a purple shirt but my son wanted green and i think he was right on ...

Green Honeydew Boy

"far from the madding crowd ... honeydew boy on top of his honeygloo"

art review: frida kahlo | painter

2013-02-24T18:23:00.000-05:00

frida kahlo is one of my favourite artist and when i found out that the AGO (art gallery of ontario) was putting on an exhibition (frida & diego | passion, politics and painting) of her work alongside diego rivera, i just had to go ... i'm a little behind in posting this as we had gone last month ... but better late than never ...

i have to say that bringing two little munchkins under the age of 4 to the art gallery is not highly recommended ... since this was a special exhibit, they have hourly time slots to control the crowd and you have to book it ahead of time ... as most parents would know, taking 2 little ones anywhere is quite the feat but having to be somewhere at a certain time is nearly impossible ...

(here's a description of the exhibit on AGO's website)

we managed to get there "on time" and checked in the coats (and scarves and mittens and vests ... yes it's winter in toronto), the stroller, the food bag, NOT the diaper bag and maybe our minds ... and thought wow we can do this! ... until we went to line up for the exhibit and saw a sign that said something like "no washrooms and no re-entry" ... ummm ... do we take turns going in? ... do we put a diaper on the older one in case? ... do we chance it and hope no one will notice the smell if we have an accident? ... luckily the people there were really nice and reassured us that if we needed to take one of them out they would let us back in ...

we finally got in and as expected there were a lot of people in those few rooms ... even though it felt like you were in a movie theatre where the annoying couple in front of you keep moving their heads while you try to catch a glimpse of the artwork and at the same time you were part of a slow-moving macarena train ... it was well worth it ... because of the biographical nature of her work, seeing frida kahlo's paintings in person almost feel like you're watching her life play out right in front of you ...

the AGO did a great job in curating so many pieces ... this was truly a wonderful exhibition

here were some of my favourites:

upper left: self portrait with necklace of thorns, 1940

upper right: the love embrace of the universe, the earth (mexico), myself, diego and senor xolotl, 1949

above: my dress hangs there, 1933

there was also a section of photographs taken of her ... this one was one of my favourite:

above: frida kahlo with idol # 11, coyoacan, mexico, 1940, by nickolas muray

her paintings are both surreal and real at the same time ... you can feel her pain and suffering ... i also love the way she incorporates the style of mexican folk art and fashion ... if you ever get a chance to see frida kahlo's work, i would highly encourage you to do so!

painted walls: bird stencil with faux finish

2013-02-23T09:54:00.001-05:00

i love experimenting with different faux finish effects on walls ... half the walls on my house has been an experiment! i painted our powder room walls and used bird stencils from martha stewart crafts that i bought at michaels and applied a faux finish underneath ... here's how it turned out ...

this is how i did it:

1. i painted a base coat of primer to cover what was underneath (another prior experiment)

2. i painted a coat of greyish blue

3. i prepared a mixture of brown paint with glaze and casually brushed vertical strokes to give it that aged look

4. i did the same thing with cream-coloured paint

5. i used the bird and berries stencil and randomly placed them all over the room using the cream-coloured paint

6. put the finishing touches on the room (ie curtains that i made, towel bar, mirror etc)

this is what i needed:

1. base colour paint (you can skip the primer if there's nothing dark underneath)

2. lighter colour paint than the base colour (must have a good contrast)

3. glaze

4. stencils

5. paint brushes / containers

Birds and Berries Stencils by Martha Stewart Crafts

(available at Michaels)

inspiration: snow globes

2013-02-22T00:53:00.000-05:00

who doesn't love snow globes? ... it's one of those things that you never grow out of ... when i come across one at the disney store, i'm always tempted to pick one up for "the kids" for a future birthday or x'mas gift ... and then i remind myself that if i did get it, it really would be for myself ... ha!

there you have it ... the inspiration (along with the winter weather) for the following digital painting that i created at the beginning of winter ... it is not obviously titled "snow globe" ... ok it is = )

surprisingly i don't own any snow globes but here are some cool and interesting ones:

snow globe

Steamboat Willie Snowglobe by Disney

The No Globe by Dorothy

DIY Tutorials by GreyLikesWedding.com

jewelry: bridal silver filigree rhinestone squares with ivory freshwater pearl necklace and earrings set

2013-02-16T16:32:00.000-05:00

sometimes the old inspires the new ... i sold a bridal necklace/earring set yesterday and as i sat down to package it for shipping, i had this sudden inspiration for a new necklace/earring set ... so voila ... i present the bridal silver filigree rhinestone squares with ivory freshwater pearl necklace and earrings set ... i'm quite pleased with how this one turned out and worth staying up till 3am for ... the filigree work reminds me of a prior era but the wire wrapped pearl gives it a modern touch ...

welcome to the world of green honeydew

2013-02-10T22:37:00.000-05:00

so i have finally gotten my act together and started a blog ... i have also decided to combine all my interests and love and put them all in one place ... it was getting too much to try to keep my different interests separate ... i was beginning to feel like i had an identity crisis ... rather than creating a separate blog for my artwork, photography and jewelry ... this will be a one-stop shop ... also makes it so much easier to manage ... and means i will have more stuff posted on a regular basis

this past week i've been experimenting with fine art pendants and am happy to say that I have now started offering them in one of my etsy stores (Heather Genevieve Designs)

here is an example of how one of them turned out ... this one is from one of my digital paintings titled "Green Honeydew Girl"