Nicole Elena Robertson

New Year, new drawings

2013-01-20T16:04:00.000+10:00

2013 has been off to a hectic start-- apartment hunting, job hunting, applying for grad school-- but I have been trying to find time daily to draw. Most of the time, the drawings are crap. Practicing everyday though has helped me generate new ideas and produce a few usable drawings.

Call to Arms

I've been working on a series of drawings, which mash together American history and occult imagery. Growing up in Massachusetts, I noticed that New Englanders take colonial history quite seriously. The war is retold as a romantic epic, a cinematic underdog story. Humble townspeople band together to fight for freedom against the wealthy villain. Lexington and Concord, the Boston Tea Party, the Crossing of the Delaware are retold not as factual events as mythologies with fate and heroes. I wanted to use occult and religious imagery to poke fun at the sacredness imbued upon our national history.

Also, I wanted to draw Revolutionary soldier Siamese twin centaurs connected by the butt.

Living outside the US has given me another perspective on American patriotism. It's a strange and fascinating thing. Americans are emotional about their country. We're supposed to feel this deep, sacred love for our nation. For example, to not "support the troops", regardless of your individual political beliefs, is a form of sacrilege, a violation of a fundamental more. Patriotism in the US takes on a unique religious quality. It's our own brand of mythology.

I plan on developing these drawings into a screenprinted series. Watch this space.

Coronation

In other news, I drew a goat.

Harvest Workroom

2012-12-30T16:32:00.000+10:00

After weeks of meaning to do so, I finally visited Harvest Workroom last weekend for their year-end party. The East Brunswick screenprinting studio is home to colorful, sustainable Harvest Textiles and hosts artists-in-residence. I was able to get a few photos of the wares being sold by previous artists-in-residence and talented Melbourne makers.

Harvest Textiles

Maryann Talia Pau describes her incredible work as "Pacific bling." How good is that?

I love the mix of patterns on Stampel's jewelry hanger. I had mistakenly credited this image to Beci Orpin, who you should still check out. Also, check out her work for Built by Wendy-- so awesome. It reminds me of Dan Funderburgh.

Emily Green is a boss with color, and I don't use outdated slang lightly. Her watercolor print scarf is super dreamy.

Really, how insane is the detail on these pieces by Monolog? Designer Indie Calan had to stop producing those knit ropes (below) because of the damage they were causing to her hands. That is serious dedication.

I want to draw like Abby Seymour. Her linework is amazing. End of story.

Big Dumb Animal

2012-12-21T09:47:00.001+10:00

Happy apocalypse! If I die today, let this screenprint be my epitaph.

Linkage

2012-12-18T08:27:00.000+10:00

I just discovered the work of (above) Lorenzo Petrantoni, and then I curled up into a ball of envy and wept.

Rasputin is one of my favorite historical figures. His daughter, Maria Rasputin, is also fascinating. Among other things, she worked as a cabaret dancer, lion tamer, and psychic. I found a cute video of her performing a circus act.

Nicki Minaj discusses assertiveness and double standards while wearing an enormous, pink wig. Using Donald Trump and Martha Stewart as examples, she makes the argument that a man can be a shrewd businessman and hold high standards without losing the respect of others. A woman exhibiting the same behavior is dismissed as a diva or a bitch. Also, the wig.

Stella Forstner's completely sane account of growing up in Scientology, parts one two three four five six, is engrossing and beautifully written. Really, you have to check it out.

Insane stop motion graffiti from INSA on the XL Records' LA office. The building was painted FOUR times! Are you fucking kidding me?

Genius Abigail Marguerite compiles a list of 12 Things Any 20-Something Would Love to Find in Their Stocking. Smart lady.

You can find out what demographic Google thinks you fit in here. I've been placed in the 24-35 year-old female category. Almost!

The Big Design Market

2012-12-15T00:03:00.000+10:00

The Big Design Market transformed the Royal Exhibition Building last weekend into a small city of independent designers and artistic types. The talent and typography were out of control.

Seriously, how gorgeous is this building?

I wanted to scoop some of the inventiveness out of the air and stuff it into my brain. This market was incredibly inspiring-- the stalls that I have photographed are only a (pretty genius) fraction of what was there.

These customizable chairs by Zaishu are SO SMART. They have printed a selection of patterned, interlocking pieces for you to create your own unique chair. So cool!

Such Great Heights, please produce adult-sized tents. I'm not joking. Also, that fabric is disgustingly beautiful. I'm dying of talent envy.

Lightboxes printed with photos and set in vintage metal drawers by Two Layers of Cells. The photography on the lightboxes below is by Lisa White. The photos are of transitional spaces, often showing the character of age. They're empty and industrial, but somehow still feel warm. I think they're a perfect match for Two Layers of Cells' lightboxes, don't you?

Handdrawn type printed on farmer's market bags by Harvest Haversack. The type on the fresh herbs bag is too fucking good. The stall also thoughtfully featured a guide of how many vegetables each bag fits.

Fantastical drawings from Sunday Morning Designs, screenprinted onto pillows and digitally printed into what looks like a super fun coloring book.

I'm loving the 70s vibe of Adriana Christianson's ceramic work.

I was immediately drawn to the rich, retro color palette used by David O'Brien and Kate Sellars-Jones in their pieces at the KSJ Design booth, available on the KSJ website and at Things Are Electric.

Heartbreakingly stylish pieces from Retro Print Revival. I'm flipping through their gallery of sold lamps with consumerist longing.

Also, there was a taco truck, which is enough to make me return next year. Big Design Market 2013!

Transit Graduate Exhibition

2012-12-10T16:57:00.000+10:00

Hey, I finally graduated!

It's been four years since my parents dropped me off in the middle of Brooklyn, equipped with shower caddie, matching bed set, and the delusional expectations of an 18-year-old country bumpkin living in a city for the first time. I was going to be discovered and quickly whisked away into a glamorous world where my art would be celebrated and my outfits flawless. I can't imagine I'm the only person who goes into art school expecting this, right? Suffice to say, college did not go as planned. Many beers, pizzas, and bouts of 20-something introspection later, I ended up graduating from Southern Cross University, located in a rural area of Australia populated mostly by hippies and cows. I'm quite happy with the way things have turned out.

For my graduate show, I produced a series of screenprints on medieval saints and an accompanying text. I had taken a Northern Renaissance art history class during my last semester at Pratt and was fascinated by the demure symbols used to signify the bizarre and often grotesque narratives of saints.

Saint Barbara

Saint Lucy

Saint Catherine

I selected three saints with particularly crazy legends and picked apart their narratives, iconographies, and resulting patronages. I distilled them down into my own set of symbols, drawing each object separately and later collaging them together. It was a really fun way to work, and I was able to experiment with drawing and scratching away paint marker on acetate and adding in papercuts.

AND, the show's catalogue can be viewed online, so you can see all of my beautiful classmates' masterpieces.

I made little books to go with the prints, explaining each saint.

Saint Barbara, locked in a tower by her father, secretly converted to Christianity and requested that three windows be built in her bathhouse to represent the Holy Trinity. Her father attempted to kill her after discovering her conversion but failed when she was miraculously transported to a mountain gorge. A shepherd revealed Barbara’s whereabouts to her father, which resulted in his flock being turned into locusts. Despite being dragged through the streets, imprisoned, and tortured with fire, Barbara awoke the next morning without wounds. Her father then beheaded her and was smote by lightning walking home. Consequently, Saint Barbara is the patron saint of professions related to electricity and explosions.

Saint Lucy, despite her betrothal to a pagan, converted to Christianity and gave away her dowry. Her scorned bridegroom reported Lucy to the magistrate who condemned her to imprisonment and daily rape in a brothel. When the guards arrived, Lucy’s body became heavy and immovable. After oxen failed to move her, a guard instead gouged out her eyes and slit her throat. Saint Lucy is often associated with light and has become the patron saint of the blind. Her festival occurs near the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

Saint Catherine of the Wheel, the scholarly pagan princess of Alexandria, Egypt, converted to Christianity and was married to Jesus in a mystical marriage performed by the Virgin Mary. She defeated numerous pagan scholars in debate, was imprisoned by the Roman Emperor, and converted hundreds. All of her converted followers were subsequently killed, including the Emperor’s wife. The Emperor then proposed marriage to Catherine, on the condition that she renounce Christianity. When she refused, the Emperor condemned her to death on a breaking wheel. The wheel burst when it touched Catherine, so the Emperor instead beheaded her. Her patronage now includes unmarried women, mechanics, potters, and professions using wheels.

MISC. exhibition

2012-12-06T19:35:00.000+10:00

In May, I showed my work in MISC., a pop-up exhibition with my digital art class organized through through Lismore's Art in the Heart program. (There's an article about it here with a photo of yours truly and her boss, both having good hair days.) The Art in the Heart program connects artists with unoccupied commercial spaces and allows them to hold exhibitions, workshops, and all sorts of madness for very little cost.

My initial aim for this work was to create a positivity campaign in the form of street art. It evolved into a mash-up of decorative elements, Soviet propaganda influences, and experimentation with materials. I screenprinted a mirror, designed temporary tattoos and fortune tellers, and wheatpasted walls with papercuts and digital posters. Seeing people interact with my work was incredibly gratifying, and I would love to do another show like this one.

Mount Washington

2012-12-03T19:44:00.000+10:00

If it were possible, I would have been fired from blogging by now-- these photos were taken in June. My family and I visited New Hampshire and took the heroic climb up Mount Washington in a rental car. Really though, these photos don't convey how terrifying the ride is. There is no barrier between the narrow road and the long, bone-crushing tumble towards death. I could have died, you guys.

Towards the top of the mountain, the climate becomes alpine. Look at the lichen! This is what I imagine Canada looks like.

Triumphant return to blogging!

2012-11-14T18:28:00.001+10:00

Please forgive my long hiatus-- I have spent the past six months finishing up my degree and preparing to leave Lismore. As of yesterday, I am situated in Melbourne with Bachelor of Visual Arts, some sweet student loan debt, and a newly awesome blog. I will post recent work and photos soon, but present you with a pile of links in the meanwhile. Ordinarily, I spam my bestest buddy Abigail Marguerite with the gems I find while wasting my youth away online. I'm sparing Abby's inbox and planning on regularly posting my findings here.

Fuck rustic Pinterest cottages, fuck DIY, fuck shabby chic. I want to live in Sophia Loren's fantastically over-the-top Roman mansion and wear evening gowns during the DAY. These photos, taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt in 1964 for Life, are glorious.

Le HibOO posts videos of acoustic recordings performed in the streets in Paris. My favorites are "Immigraniada" by Gogol Bordello and "Celebrate" by Dark Dark Dark, a Minneapolis-based band that I previously hadn't heard of. They are played here two days before I arrived!

The Street Ghosts project is fucking great. In their words, "life-sized pictures of people found on Google’s Street View are printed and posted without authorization at the same spot where they were taken." Seriously, this is brilliant.

Ilona Szwarc's eerie and wonderful "American Girls" series poses girls with the American Girl Doll representations of themselves, often in matching outfits.

If you have some time to spare, I highly recommend graphic designer Kelli Anderson's Creative Mornings talk. The talk works off of her thesis, "When we make things, we initiate a collaboration with the preexisting conditions of the universe," and touches upon Carl Sagan, the history of khaki, and paper record players in an entertaining and accessible way.

A fictional Suri Cruise critiques celebrity child fashion, bemoans her embarrassing parents, is hilarious: Suri's Burn Book

Shadow series

2012-05-11T10:55:00.000+10:00

I am enrolled in a digital photography class this semester and shot a series of silhouetted portraits, papercuts, and objects for my final. The title of the series references Jung's idea of the psychological shadow, which he described as "the seat of creativity." And also, you know, the fact that these are literally shadows.

Fabric 8 Contest Submission

2012-05-05T20:38:00.004+10:00

I signed up for a digital design class this semester to improve my meager graphic design abilities. Spoonflower and Robert Kaufman's Fabric 8 contest seemed the perfect challenge to use the Illustrator techniques I have been learning. The theme was "modern fabric designs that evoke the style of pen & ink drawings colored with watercolor paints". For my submission (above), I scanned the rag that I have been using for silkscreen and concentrated on creating a repeating pattern motif in Illustrator. Unfortunately, my little design didn't make it past the first round, but I'm pretty excited to have figured this much out. Check out other submissions and vote here.

Paper Lantern

2012-04-27T16:04:00.000+10:00

I produced a papercut for the Play on Words show at Gallery 33.3 in Lismore last month. "Paper Lantern" is available in my Etsy shop for $34.

More Northern Rivers, Brisbane, and Bluesfest

2012-04-14T16:00:00.000+10:00

I just had a week off from classes, which I spent exploring the area, visiting Brisbane, and attending Bluesfest in Byron Bay where my boyfriend and our roommate played in the busking tent as Thump n Slyde.

Northern Rivers

2012-03-24T21:53:00.018+10:00

Here are some snapshots from the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, where I'm currently living. The photos are a mixed bag of Lismore, Southern Cross University campus, Lennox Head, and the Channon.

Back in Australia

2012-02-13T14:16:00.004+10:00

I'm sorry I've been an absent blogger lately. I'm back in Australia now and starting all sorts of new projects, like the papercut shown above. I want to learn to sew, improve my printing on fabric, and start making some functional, patterned objects. New things soon!

Vintage clothes for sale

2012-01-14T03:53:00.004+10:00

I'm selling some of my vintage clothing on my Etsy for pretty cheap. Help me find loving homes!

The Things I Wanted

2012-01-12T12:00:00.000+10:00

For my letterpress final, I produced an artist book with a silkscreened papercut on the exterior and embossed type on the interior. I had my grandmother in mind when planning the piece, but I think the result is a bit ambiguous and I like that.

Brokemas

2012-01-08T12:00:00.000+10:00

This Christmas wasn't exactly my wealthiest, so I had to go the homemade gift route. Above is a linocut of my friend Abigail Marguerite and I. Below is a preview of a gift I haven't given my boyfriend yet and will post about once I get to Australia. I'm hoping he doesn't stray into this part of the internet anytime soon.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-04T16:29:00.004+10:00

2011 is a hard act to follow, but I'm looking forward to 2012. In less than 3 weeks, I'll be flying to Australia where I will hopefully get my degree and have some serious adventures. I want to really throw myself into my work this year and figure out how you make a career out of this. Things might be quiet here for the next few weeks, but happy New Year and best of luck with your resolutions!

Nomad Home

2011-12-08T16:28:00.001+10:00

I started this piece while anxiously awaiting my reply for my Southern Cross University transfer application where I had previously created a traveling tent. I miss being nomadic, and I miss Australia. I combined papercuts of interpreted patterns from Turkey and Spain with some of my own inventions. I'm not sure if I prefer the silkscreen on paper or wood.

18 Mutual Friends

2011-12-06T16:31:00.002+10:00

This piece is unfinished, because I plan to mail these out soon! I linocut'ed and letterpressed formal friendship requests for 18 people who I admire but do not necessarily know. I'm working on gathering a list of 18 people. And stamps.

Facelift

2011-12-03T11:50:00.000+10:00

I printed this a while ago, but have been too much of a wimp to stick them around town. I approximated the markings a plastic surgeon would draw for a facelift and silkscreened them on transparent stickers. I'm still too chicken, but I really want to put these in dressing rooms in women's clothing stores. I think there is a connection between plastic surgery and the idea that women's clothing should hide or exaggerate various sections of their body. The whole idea of "flattering" clothing is that it masks the natural figure in favor of a societal ideal. Plastic surgery is extreme, but shares the same fear of our bodies and desire to just pay someone else to end our own insecurities.

Things to come

2011-11-23T17:00:00.000+10:00

This is the state of my bedroom right now. I'm probably pretty flammable with all this paper. Working on a bunch of new projects, applying for my transfer to Southern Cross University, ~~working retail~~ chasin' that paper. I'm aiming to be in Australia in 8 weeks. I can't wait.

Saints of Sinners

2011-11-21T14:51:00.001+10:00

For a while now, I've wanted to make a series of fake saints that dirty, desperate, college-aged kids might pray to. I silkscreened a digital collage and papercut with letterpressed prayers. I'm selling the whole set of 3 prints for $29 on Etsy.

Prayer for the Feast of Saint Stacy
Patron of One Night Stands

Bless us Saint Stacy for these gifts which we are about to receive and for the divine gifts which we have already received. Let us offer praise and thanksgiving for the gifts of beer goggles, anonymity, and emergency contraception. Amen.

Saint Ralph
Patron of Stoners

A Blessing
May Saint Ralph smile upon you always. May your pockets jingle with sufficient vending machine coin and your Easy Mac be in abundance. May the Lord hold you in His arms and carry you to an eternity free of paranoid and drymouth.
Amen.

Saint Maureen of Long Island
Prayer of Vanilla Vodka

Merciful St. Maureen of Long Island show compassion and care to those who drink on an empty stomach and chase shots with mixed drinks. May the sweet fragrance of bar bathrooms reach your divinity. Hear our prayers, wipe our tears, and allow us to reach home before we vomit in a taxi. Amen.

Natural Habitat

2011-11-18T07:37:00.002+10:00

I've been slightly obsessed with doing papercuts lately. So much in fact that I passed out doing work last night and woke up next to my X-acto knife. I recently silkscreened a papercut based off of a photo of my boyfriend at his grandparents' farm. I liked the way it looked like he was growing out of the landscape. I'm selling the prints on paper for $19 in my Etsy shop.