The Matchbook

DEMO: Green Juice, Green Cup

2013-04-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

I've recently gotten a juicer, and have been making and drinking a lot fresh green juices! I take the juice with me in these mason jar sippy cups I made - and everyone has been asking where I got them. (It's not a new idea - there are other tutorials on-line, but I can't find the ones that initially gave me the idea - otherwise, I'd link to them!)

Folks have been suggesting I sell them, but the great crew over at Cuppow have already got something similar going. So, instead, I decided to share how to make them yourself!

I start with pint (16 oz) wide-mouth mason jars with bands and lids, 1/4" rubber grommets, and metal straws. (Follow links to find the items on Amazon). I like the wide-mouth jars because they're easier to clean. The pint jars will also fit into a standard car cup holder, which is a bonus for me!

Then, I punch a 3/8" hole in the lid. I use a metal punch, but you could also use a 3/8" drill bit. Don't worry if the edge is sharp: the grommet will cover that. I punch the hole close to the edge because I find it makes it easier to use the straw to get the last bits of juice out, but you can certainly punch your hole in the middle!

These are the rubber grommets that I use.

I just push the rubber grommet into the hole.

Once I do that, the back, the front, and the cut edge of the hole are covered by the rubber grommet. The straw will still fit through, with just a little gap, but won't make an annoying rattling sound. (This is an especially good thing if you are using the sippy cup in your car cup holder!)

And you are ready to go!

If you need a larger container, say for water, the 24 oz jars that Bionature brand organic strained tomatoes come in work well. You need longer straws, though, like these. But, they still fit in a car cup holder! Either way, the sippy cups are grown-up and green, and the whole thing (even the straw!) can be washed in the dishwasher. Nothing gets thrown away! And the only plastic in the whole thing is the rubber grommet and the lining on the seal of the jar.

And it's so easy! You could even do some glass etching to personalize the jars. Or, paint the glass and/or metal bands with Pebeo Vitrea paints - after baking, the paints can even go in the dishwasher!

So what's in my green juice? It varies, but I always juice these things:

A bunch of kale (yes, a full bunch)
4-8 stalks of celery
1 large cucumber
1 lemon
1" piece of ginger (I like ginger!)
2 granny smith apples

Sometimes, I'll add spinach, romaine, parsley, or even a little filtered water to the mix. And, I use organic produce whenever possible! The granny smith apples take away the bitterness of the juice without jacking up the sugar content too much.

Let me know if you make one! And if you decorate it, I wanna see it!

2013-04-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

Last month, I was working with the sacral chakra. (You can read a bit more about chakras in my February post on the root chakra, and get a summary of the chakras here). This energy center is all about feeling, creative generation, balance, flow, and enthusiasm. The color is orange . . . I did the collage above last month - the ripe vegetables, the orange rock with the cleft, the boat, the pencils, the jumping figure, the sensuous reclining Mondigliani figure . . . all of these say creativity and flow and passion to me.

I did this one last month, too - somehow Christina Hendricks just embodies everything sensuous! The matches are symbolic of creative inspiration for me. I was also really playing with the idea of balance in this one - the way I try to balance my desire for contradictory things: nesting and flying, achieving and rebelling, ritual and experimentation, structure and newness, control and flexibility, busyness and calm.

I also updated the altar in my studio, filling it with water symbols and images of ripe fruit.

This is a collage I did for the sacral chakra back in 2009, featuring a bit of an image by Egon Shiele. I like how simple it is, but how all the sensuous qualities of the chakra still come through.

Photo Safari: Bosky Dell

2013-04-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

Last month, I went on a field trip to Bosky Dell Natives - it's a native plant nursery in West Linn, Oregon. I went with the owner of Independence Gardens, the folks who are helping me put raised beds for a vegetable garden in my front yard. We were shopping for some shade-loving native plants, including edibles to put in the back yard.

This is not an ordinary plant nursery - it's more like a crazy fairyland garden full of amazingness.

We did end up buying plants for the garden, but I also had a wonderful time taking pictures.

And thus, a household errand turned into a full-on artist's date.

We were there over an hour . . . and I found these sheets of corrugated metal that are in the process of oxidizing - it looks like the metal is being rusted or patinated on purpose, to be used for siding. I was struck by the colors.

And the amazing textures. I love these warm yellows, oranges, and reds mingling with the cool grays and turquoise and minty blue-green.

I think this is likely to turn up in some encaustic work sometime soon!

No Octopus was Harmed in the Making of this Cardigan

2013-04-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

Can you tell I'm wearing an octopus?

A while back, I saw a black and turquoise octopus sweater at Think Geek - and I wanted it (along with a bunch of cool Doctor Who gadgetry!). But I really didn't want to pay for it. And then they sold out.

All hope seemed lost until I remembered that I had an old black cardigan, lightweight and tightly knit, along with a love of applique and massive fabric stash . . . a plan started to come together.

I put a piece of butcher paper over my old sweater and started sketching out an octopus. I was inspired by the cardigan I saw online (which you can see in the picture above), but mine quickly took off in a different direction . . .in part because I wanted the mantle to look at least somewhat realistic. I based my drawing on images of the Giant Pacific Octopus, like the ones here.

I labeled and cut out the pieces of the sketch to create a pattern. I raided my stash for some old t-shirts and stretchy fabrics and used the pattern to cut pieces of fabric out. I used a lot of fabrics with dots as a way of referencing suckers.

I used Lite Steam-a-Seam 2 (a fusible webbing with a light tack) and my iron to attach the fabric pieces to the old cardigan.

I love the way that it came out almost as though the octopus is camouflaged, and a little tough to see, since that's part of how octopus hunt and survive in the wild.

I stitched around the edges, just to secure it, and to outline the mantle and the curling of the tentacles. One of the tentacles wraps around the arm, and a few more curl around to the back.

Now, of course, I'm wondering if anything else needs an appliqued octopus on it . . .

Creating With Limits: Part Two

2013-03-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

I blogged a few days ago about how awesome self-imposed limits can be when it comes to creativity. So what happens when the limits aren't self-imposed? It's one thing to choose to work with 1" square pieces of paper; it's another thing entirely to be forced to work with 1" squares because it's all we've got.

The limit can be money, or time, or space, or materials. No money to buy any good brushes. Only ten minutes a day to make stuff. My "studio" is a folding table my bedroom. Can't find the shade of blue I always use.

Last year, to deal with chronic health problems, I was given some limits regarding what I could eat:

No gluten.
No grains - yeah, no corn, no oats.
No dairy.
No soy.
No processed sugar and minimal natural sugars.
No legumes, no beans, no peanuts.
No oils from processed grains or grasses - canola, safflower, out.
Minimal alcohol and caffeine.

What did that leave?

Nuts and seeds.
Fruits and vegetables.
Oils from fruits and nuts (olive oil, coconut oil)
Lean, unprocessed meat.
Eggs.
Spices.
Water.
Herbal tea.

Oh yeah. I put up a fuss. And then . . . something shifted.

It started to be fun. I was exploring books on eating Paleo, searching grain-free recipes on line, finding ways to eat more vegetables, adapting recipes, using my food processor like a madwoman, discovering new Portland restaurants with me-friendly menus . . . in short, I took on cooking and eating as a creative challenge.

Most of my creative energy last year went into learning how to cook - and eat - all over again. And yeah, my health is better now. I still have chronic challenges with fatigue, but the symptoms are way more manageable now and I've identified and cut out a lot of the things that triggered the problems in the first place. Generally, I've even been able to stick with it.

I don't share this because I'm looking for dietary solutions and health fixes (there are plenty of other folks blogging about that!).

I share this story because it proved to me that it really is possible to re-frame the limits not as excuses, but as questions, questions that lead to creative thinking. The limits - whether they're self-imposed or thrust upon us by necessity - can serve as a starting point rather than a stop sign.

Consider any of the limits that keep you from creating or making art - how might you change those limits into a question that challenges your creativity instead?

Creating With Limits: Part One

2013-03-07T13:30:00.000-08:00

I taught a collage class on February 24th, and I was really struck by one thing: Unlimited options can be utterly overwhelming. When you can do anything, what do you do? When you can go anywhere, what direction do you start moving in?

Sometimes, stepping into my own studio is overwhelming. I have tools and materials to do jewelry-making, found-object sculpture, acrylic painting, encaustic painting, printmaking, sewing and more. In many ways, my studio is a mixed media artist's fairytale wonderland, full of options. I have had plenty of times in my life when I felt restricted by external limitations, and my current studio certainly reflects that.

But having a studio like this doesn't mean it's always easier to make things.

Sometimes, I sit out here and surf Facebook on my phone. Because there are just too many possibilities.

"Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they give unlimited resources." -Twyla Tharp

Artmaking is all about making decisions, hundreds of tiny decisions that add up to a solution to one of the world's most vague and poorly defined problems: "In what ways might I meaningfully fill this empty space?"

Sometimes, I need limits.

I need a structure. I need a place to start, something to narrow down the problem a bit and knock it down to a manageable size.

Putting limits on an artist usually sounds like a bad thing. And yet history is full of artists using self-imposed limits to push their creativity: The haiku. Mondrian's use of a limited palette and straight lines during the 20's and 30's. Even Rodin's focus on the human form in sculpture and Shakespeare's endless sonnets.

As I rebuild my own creative practice, one of the things I've been doing is giving myself some limits. A favorite? The square paper punch. I punch squares out of scrap paper, out of junk mail, out of magazines and catalogs and the bits of paper that my students toss in the recycling bin. And then I arrange the squares and glue them down, almost like paper quilts. I've been doing it for about a year, and I find it to be amazingly creatively satisfying.

I'm the one deciding whether or not to accept the limitations, and that makes all the difference.

The Root Chakra

2013-02-20T14:00:00.000-08:00

I starting taking an 8-month Creativity and the Chakras workshop with my friend, Jill Kelly. We take on a project during the 8 months - mine is build a sustainable creative practice. As part of the workshop (sort of an assignment for myself), I'm doing a collage or piece of artwork for each chakra. That's the root chakra collage I did last month - full of food and nourishment, roots and bones, earth and family, heritage and home.

(If you're wondering what the heck a "chakra" is, it's essentially an energy center in the body which is associated with various emotional, physical, and spiritual attributes. The wikipedia article is a bit overwhelming, but gives you a bit of an idea of what we're talking about here.)

The root chakra is located at the base of the spine or perineum, and is your connection to the material world and the physical body you inhabit. It is associated with the color red, survival, security, courage, family, heritage, fight or flight instincts, roots, bones, self-preservation and earth. You get the idea.

Here's the first root chakra collage I did, back in 2009, as part of preparing for a chakra collage class I taught. It's a lot more food and nourishment and grounding energy (see the shoes??) than the other one.

You might think that after doing one collage for each chakra I'd be done. But I'm not. You can see the similarities, the differences . . . each time I explore the theme, I get something different out of it. The 2013 collage has more roots, more bones, and more of my own painting and drawing.

Though apparently, no matter where I go, there's a bird.

Collage and other "Not Really Creative" Creative Practices

2013-02-18T21:19:00.001-08:00

I'm slowly trying to find my way back into a creative practice. There's been some drawing, there's been some encaustic work, but most consistently, there's been morning journaling and there's been collage.

I've been adding drawing, adding paint, but collage - cutting and gluing bits of found imagery - is an easy place for me to start. I can do it in front of the TV in a total no-pressure way. I can move pieces of cut up paper around first thing in the morning before I'm really awake. I can take two minutes and glue something down as I walk by.

I realize, too, that for the last twenty years or more, collage has been my default. When in doubt, I piece things together. I find connections between disparate things. I cut and glue.

And I haven't given collage a lot of credit.* I've tended to dismiss it as "not really creative." After all, I'm just taking someone else's images and rearranging them. But seeing those connections is actually an essential creative act for me.

Just like journaling, which is something I've done since I was a teen but never really considered valuable. Or even cooking. After all, the final products are rarely impressive or - wait for it - saleable.

So I'm curious: Are there any essential creative acts - things that sustain you, that have the potential to form the basis of a creative practice - that you tend to dismiss as "not really creative" simply because the product isn't "impressive"?

I'm reminding you - just like I'm reminding myself - a satisfying creative practice is built on a foundation of consistent creative action, not on a foundation of impressive final products.

*(For those of you who are wondering about this, yes, I have written a whole book about how creative and valuable things like collage and journaling are - but that doesn't mean I don't need reminding, that I don't still struggle with seeing them as valuable. I do. I still fight those inner voices.)

Working with Bones

2013-01-24T21:21:00.003-08:00

I was in the studio today, actually working. Amazing to get my hands in the wax again!

I've been working with bones, making molds of different bones I have in my collection, then casting them in paperclay. These are embedded in encaustic with bits of collage. I'm sure where it's going, or if it's done yet. It's just good to be moving!

In the Studio

2013-01-18T18:01:00.001-08:00

I spent the day in the studio today. Cleaning up. Sorting. Unpacking boxes from my last traveling teaching gig - in October of 2012. Things had gotten so out of control in there that I've been scared to go in - it's felt really overwhelming.

I've done some collage over the past few weeks - but I've done it in the living room.

And no, I didn't paint today - I've got to find all my tools and make space to actually work in there first! These are just some old pieces that I found and photographed today.

For whatever reason, I find them totally amusing. And inspiring. They're fun process painting pieces that I did years ago. It makes me curious what else is in me, waiting to come out!

Small Steps

2013-01-14T10:58:00.000-08:00

I'm beginning to draw again.

The past year has been tough - I won't go into a lot of detail, but there really hasn't been much artmaking in it.

Last night, though, I drew an elephant.

From several angles.

And I've been doing some morning pages. I'm beginning to find my way back in, and it feels good.

There are no huge resolutions, just small steps.

Saying NO to Make Room for YES

2012-12-13T21:11:00.002-08:00

I recently saw an article on the Spirituality and Health website that was titled “Just Say Yes" by Jamie Stringfellow.

My first thought was, “Are you kidding me?? What I need to do is learn how to say no more often! Saying yes all the time has gotten me into this mess!”

“This mess” is the state I’ve been in the last year – exhausted, anxious, over-committed, and dealing with stress-related health issues.

But then I read the article. And in reading the article, I realized what they meant by saying “yes.” “Yes” is an attitude that is open to possibility. “Yes” is an attitude of creativity. An attitude of “yes” is also about turning your attention to the things that are most important to you. It is about responding from a place of positivity and love, rather than a place of negativity and fear.

Often, when I say “yes” to another commitment, to another activity, to another event, I am acting out of fear. I’m not really open to possibility. I’m thinking, “They’ll be mad if I don’t do this” or “I really need this on my resume because I need to prove myself” or even “No one else can do this the right way.” I’m afraid of failing, of doing something imperfect, of letting someone down.

What I’ve been saying “yes” to is my fear; what I’ve been saying “no” to is the idea that I am loveable, that I am enough, and that other people are incredibly capable.

We do this all the time in our artmaking as well. We say “yes” to subject matter that we think will make other people happy, color combinations that we’ve been told are good, a medium that we know we can control. But by saying “yes” to those things, are we missing the opportunity to say “yes” to artmaking that feeds our soul, that speaks with our own authentic voice, that pushes us to grow?

What we practice in our art translates into habits that shape our day-to-day lives. (In my case, it’s been slow, but it is happening!) And that’s the gift. If we try saying “yes” to what we most love in our artmaking, regardless of the risk, we also end up saying “no” to the fear.

Want to read the original article that inspired me? Here it is.

The Beauty in Single Use Plastics

2012-02-17T10:00:00.000-08:00

One of the things I love most about working with reclaimed single-use plastic trash is that, in its own weird way, it’s beautiful.

That may sound nuts, but this stuff is all designed by someone to attract our attention. The bright colors, the fun patterns - all are intended to get our attention in a crowded store.

And I gotta say, they work.

I first started collecting plastic bottle caps because they couldn’t be recycled curbside, and they just looked like they ought to be good for something. And those bright dabs of color looked a lot like dots of paint . . . not surprising since modern acrylic paints are, well, plastic.

Next, I dove into plastic bags and food packaging – I had read an article about fusing plastics to make a kind of material, and I was excited to try it! Besides, there had to be something I could do with all of those frozen burrito wrappers my boyfriend was producing . . .

A lot of the fun for me has been figuring out ways to use these materials in a way that really brings out their beauty!

Thanks to a RACC Project Grant and Cheryl over at Create Plenty, I'll be headed into Trillium Charter High School on February 27th to share the beauty (and the dangers) of single-use plastics with two classes of Earth Sciences students.

We're still in the last phases of fundraising for the project, and you can find the plastic quilt pictured above, "Bird on a Wire" for sale here, at the Create Plenty website.

Collage

2012-02-09T10:00:00.001-08:00

Using images from the Portland Art Museum guide . . . Love the interaction of the two nude figures.

Paperquilts: A Practice of ArtMaking

2012-02-06T20:59:00.006-08:00

I've been so busy working on my book the last year that I haven't spent a lot of time in the studio just making. I'm beginning to move back into it - spending time in the mornings and at least one full day a week. Fiddling with materials.

I've been sorting through old collage papers and these are bits and scraps that ended up in the recycling bin, too small for my student collage bins.

I took a tiny paper punch, less than one inch square, and began punching those bits of papers , making hundreds of tiny squares. It felt like going through old clothes and rags, cutting out the bits that might be salvageable for a quilt.

And so I began piecing the bits of paper together . . .

Building a paper quilt. Those little scraps and bits become something more than just recycling, something interesting. I have no idea where this will end up, but I've been keeping the recycling bin nearby.

Summer Reading: Plaster Studio

2011-06-24T22:42:00.000-07:00

I was so excited to finally get my copy of Plaster Studio! This is a book by two great artists and great teachers - Stephanie Lee and Judy Wise. I've been lucky enough to take a class from Stephanie Lee, and Judy Wise saved my bacon once when I was teaching down in Arizona and ran out of encaustic medium. So, no, I didn't get a free review copy, but am a bit biased in favor of these lovely ladies . . .

I was delighted that the book includes instructions for one of my favorite Stephanie Lee techniques - Cracked Burlap! Part of why I'm so excited to get this book and learn more about working with plaster is that it's a wonderful substrate for encaustic. Once dry, it's rigid and absorbent - the perfect surface for wax.

And the smooth but cracked surface she manages to create are very tempting to me.

And the instructions are really well done - step by step photos, with the written directions right underneath. And the detailed information about different types of plaster and how to use them - AMAZING!

The book even offers ideas for making three-dimensional substrates - cages, nichos, shrines, vessels. And all of them can be decorated with mixed media - I lean towards encaustics, but acrylics can also be used. The book includes ideas for both.

In fact, the only minor complaint I have about this book is that it includes projects with instructions to put wax over acrylic . . . something I've learned to think of as a no-no. (Imagine dripping candle wax on a plastic tablecloth and how easily the wax will chip off when it's cool - encaustic on acrylic doesn't generally create a very stable bond).

That said, a lot of people - including Stephanie Lee and Judy Wise - use encaustic over acrylic all the time very successfully. They use thin coats of acrylic on very absorbent surfaces so that the wax can still penetrate the surface.

Bottom line, I loved the book. I read it cover to cover, and am adding it to my list of "must have" reference books for encaustic - especially for those who are interested in doing dimensional or sculptural work.

Summer Reading: At Home with Handmade Books

2011-06-23T00:02:00.000-07:00

A month or so ago, I got a surprise in the mail: My very first ever freebie crafty item to review! Yup, this is the disclaimer - this book was sent to me to review, completely unsolicited: At Home with Handmade Books by Erin Zamrzla.

I have quite a few books from the publisher, Shambhala. Titles like Art Heals by Shaun McNiff and Art is a Spiritual Path by Pat B. Allen. But I didn't even know they did full color how-to craft books!

But they do, and there is a similar philosophy expressed. The projects are beautiful, simple, practical and useable. The focus of the book is using recycled and reclaimed materials to make new and functional books. At Home with Handmade Books includes projects that use socks, tea bags, and sponges - and includes books that hold recipes, serve as pincushions, and double as sachets.

I loved this recycle-bin book project - it uses old hardback books and turns them into journals with blank interiors and Japanese-style binding. I love changing up the binding from hardback to hand-stitched!

There's also a whole series of travel books that you can make to feature collected postcards or store road trip souvenirs . . .

This though, is my favorite project . . . it's a book made of ziplock bags that you can use to store collage tidbits! I don't do a lot of bookmaking, but this is one I would absolutely make!

And the instructions are very easy to understand . . . something that's a challenge with complicated and precise projects like bookmaking.

Making with Heart

2011-06-15T00:03:00.000-07:00

The Rebel Craft Rumble is happening tonight - it's a big fundraiser for SCRAP. I'm one of only four contestants competing for the chance to go up against last year's Craft Master, Sister Diane. It's quite an honor - and quite a challenge. One of my competitors, Miss Demeanor of Criminal Craft fame, has been talking some trash on Twitter about me . . . in a friendly, may-the-best-crafter-win, get-my-goat kind of a way. (To be fair, so has Sister Diane. And I haven't exactly been a shy flower). So, now I'm just gonna make it official and throw down the glue gun gauntlet right now.

What the heck makes me think I've got what it takes to compete with the top crafters Portland has to offer? Well, besides an incredible amount of hubris . . . perseverance and a willingness to try a lot of crazy stuff until something works.

A few months ago, I was working on an installation for Mad/50 with the theme "The Commons." I struggled with this thing. I was working with the idea of common space, the spaces and places that we share and hold in common. National parks, sidewalks, monuments, and even churches. I started off with this.

I like the trees and the background maps of Mt. Hood. They set the tone for the kind of common space I was looking for . . .

But it just wasn't workin' for me. The two women talking over the fence? Nope . . . too literal. Cheesy. The big church window? I liked the idea of it and set it aside. What the piece needed was heart, soul, some kind of center.

So I tried to make a heart - home is where the heart is, and that's the real common space. I really went for it . . . I went dimensional, used plaster, paint, cord . . . the whole nine yards.

Yeah. It looks like . . . well. Some kind of dead squid thing. From a bad horror movie. Needless to say, it didn't make it into the final version. I kept trying to work with the church window . . . but it was just too big. In frustration, I went in a completely different direction. Circles, connected.

By a slightly less frightening, but still symbolically open, heart.

And here I am with the final piece where it was installed at SE Madison and 50th in Portland. Yup. I kept at it - through the crazy squid heart phase and all the things that didn't work. I kept at it. So look out, Miss Demeanor. It's you and me in the first round, and I am Gonna. Keep. At. It.

And if I'm lucky, I'll make it work! May the best crafter win.

Playing with Leaves and Octopodes

2011-01-06T18:16:00.000-08:00

(For those of you who are wondering, octopodes is the most accurate, though not most common, plural of octopus.)

Back in September, I got invited to teach encaustic techniques to an organization I had never heard of before - the Nature Printing Society. It is a group of scientists, educators, artists, and other geeks and misfits who love making art prints from any sort of natural ephemera that will hold still long enough - plants, fish, and yes, even octopus.

nature prints by Bridget Benton made by placing feathers
and plants on light-sensitive etching plates; plates are then inked and printed

Making impressions of natural objects is one of the oldest - and most accurate - ways of recording the essential characteristics of natural objects: this is why the scientists love it. It also opens up whole new worlds of creative possibilities: this is why the artists love it. And as for the geeks and misfits, hey - who wouldn't love rolling ink on an octopus or tramping through the woods looking for nifty leaves and branches to print?

nature prints on fabric by Bridget Benton using an inked gelatin plate for mono-printing; shown here collaged with some mass-produced fabrics

Yup - you guessed it: artist, educator, and nature-loving nerd that I am - these are my people. I eagerly accepted the invitation to teach - it seemed like a great opportunity to learn some new things! In fact, doing the work to prepare to teach an encaustic class for nature printers opened up some new possibilities in my own work - I played with pressing leaves and other natural objects into the wax, and using oil paint to pick up the impressions. This led to a whole new series of work that I showed (and demostrated) during Portland Open Studios in October and at Guardino Gallery in December.

encaustic with oak leaf impressions

And I had a great time teaching at their annual conference at the Oregon coast. The whole group is so open to learning and sharing techniques that I felt completely at home. I took several classes while I was there, too, but there was one that had me giddy with excitement: Octopus Printing. Now, fish printing or gyotaku, is pretty well known in the U.S. as a Japanese import: you ink up a dead fish and then gently press paper onto the inky fish surface to pick up an impression. Using octopus as a giant rubber stamp, however, is not as well known.

gyotaku, or fish print, made by Nature Printing Society member

But I am deeply drawn to octopus. Octopodes. Octopusses. However you say it, I love their sensuous shape and suckerness. And to get a chance to print them? How could I resist? We started out with small ones, sold for food at local Asian markets. Thawed, cleaned, and dried, they are remarkably easy to position and print. They can also be re-frozen and then re-thawed and used again for printing. I admit, this is not for the squeamish.

me with my first octopus print!

several of my wee octopus prints!

I would have been happy just to make little prints. However, some local fisherman had caught a large octopus in their nets: knowing that we were in town and looking for non-commercially viable catch to print, they saved it for us. Several brave souls from the Nature Printing Society, including our intrepid Octopus Printing Instructor, Sharron Huffman, cleaned and gutted the octopus so that we could do giant octopus prints.

Sharron inking the large octopus

Sharron after the first print was pulled from the octopus

Now, Sharron has been printing octopodes for many years - she's as drawn to them as I am. She had one specimen, purchased at a Seattle fish market, that she carefully conserved and used for years to print from. She even has a detailed how-to on her website. Now, if you're lucky enough to live in the Portland area, and want to do some hands-on octopus printing, she's having a workshop in her home studio in February! Oh yeah - you can bet I'll be there!

print of large octopus tentacles by Bridget Benton

large octopus print on silk by Bridget Benton

If you're interested, here's the info: Sharron Huffman will teach Beginning Octopus Printing February 12, 1:00–4:00 p.m. at her home studio in Milwaukie, Oregon. $65 plus $15 materials fee. Limited to 5 participants. Contact Sharron at slhuffman@mac.com for more information and registration. I hope you'll join us!

participants in the octopus printing classroom, Nature Printing Society workshop, 2010

Gallery Walk 2010: Guardino Gallery

2010-09-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

It's Last Thursday on Alberta. A few Last Thursdays ago, I had an opening at Guardino Gallery - sharing space with amazing sculptor Julie Fiedler, and I never posted about it, so I thought I'd give you another little virtual tour.

Most of the show was encaustic work. This piece, "A Wish and a Prayer," was one I really struggled with, but I love the way the shape of the praying hands and the wishbone echo each other.

I think this piece was my favorite in the show . . . the piece has a lot of dimension, and the cat's cradle is actual string suspended over the moonlit sky . . . I want to do more in this series, but it's incredibly difficult to construct and work the multilevel surfaces; it takes a lot more time than I have right now!

Here's another piece that rocks the multilevel surfaces . . .and takes full advantage of the scroll saw my father-in-lawish gave me two Christmases ago. Here, the heart sort of turns into an octopus on one side of the bridge and a tree on the other . . . the bridge is Portland's St. Johns Bridge. I'm not totally satisfied with this one . . . I think the octopus is maybe a little much. I think I want to keep working on this one, maybe pull the octopus tentacles back a little bit and make them more vine or root-like.

A few more encaustics . . ."What is Left Behind" and "Recipe for the Moon." Each of them includes some collage elements . . .

This is a diptych . . . my first really successful one. I had just finished reading an article on bower birds, and somehow the drawing hand and the heart only really came together after I added the bower bird. It feels like the bird is making a bower in the heart . . . there's a seduction of some kind happening in the painting. At least for me. It's always interesting to me what other people see in the paintings.

Here, I'm combining encaustic on the panel and the panel is mounted on a reclaimed drawer decorated with acrylic, tea bags and resin. More hands. More tea bags.

And here's a look inside the gallery . . . me and Julie's stuff looked really great together! I had a few collages up, too, things I'd worked on while I was up at Whidbey Island this summer.

And this Last Thursday's opening at Guardino on Alberta with Katherine Dunn and Lisa Kaser looks AMAZING . . . and there's a Dia De Los Muertos opening at Fantasma on Alberta featuring the work of Alea Bone and Linda Rand . . . be sure to drop by and check them out!

Gallery Walk 2010: 100th Monkey

2010-09-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

Back in April, I had a feature show at 100th Monkey Studio's Gallery . . . it included a bunch of my work to date with recycled and reclaimed materials, along with some experiments (including a few that didn't go so well). I felt the piece above was one of the most successful . . . I created a background with tea packets stitched together, then gessoed and painted on the surface. I really like the effect.

So now you're going to get the virtual tour! This piece includes actual teabags along with the tea packaging.

This is an encaustic piece that utilizes tea tags my friend Leslie has been saving for me . . . I have probably hundreds of them and this was my first foray into using them . . .

And here I experimented with drier sheets . . . I printed on them, then stitched them to a canvas surface, along with plastic bottle caps, like buttons.

Here was another experiment - birth control packets and a nest with egg and branch. Home - how we make homes and how we make ourselves feel at home - has long been a theme of mine. Naturally, this intersects a great deal with the role of women and women as homemakers, and the traditional crafts and practices of women and how, as women, we have the option to accept or break out of those roles and redefine them.

And then after all of that deep stuff, we move back to bottle caps. Their plastic wonderfulness and total flexibility and bright colorfulness.

Fused plastic bags as quilt blocks. Another very fun thing. I'm not sure why I enjoy it so much - perhaps just the meditative ironing and arranging and stitching. So, I'm fusing up more plastic bags this week while it's still nice enough to be outside and get good ventilation.

And here's a few more that were in the show.

Now, imagine yourself standing in the gallery . . . considering the pieces, sipping a glass of wine, and deciding which ones appeal to you and why. Or which ones don't appeal to you. The ones that inspire you to try something new, and the ones that make you think. And hey, while you're at it, try heading out to First Friday this week if you're in Portland, or maybe take a gallery break sometime this week wherever you are.

Hello, Green Craft!

2010-08-25T23:41:00.000-07:00

Ok - you folks saw it here first, back in 2008, with my series of DEMOs on making jewelry from bicycle inner tubes, and now it's seeing print in Somerset Studios' Green Craft Magazine:

The photographer - and I couldn't find the photo credits - did a wonderful job!

The directions aren't terribly detailed, but the whole magazine is filled with some great inspiration! And in the article, I'm teamed up with Shirley Goff, who creates wonderful handbags from tires, along with a lot of other wonderful recycled adornments!

Check out the magazine and see articles on turning a men's dress shirt into a halter top and making earrings from pop tabs along with a lot of other crafty recycled wonderfulness.

In Which Our Intrepid Blogger Goes on a Cruise

2010-06-17T19:46:00.001-07:00

Featured below, you see all the reasons why I wanted to go on a Crafty Chica Cruise: Of course, there'd be crafting, a trip to Mexico, and a shot at sunshine in April, but the big draws? Getting to hang out with the Crafty Chica Herself - Kathy Cano-Murillo (right) and the ever-delightful Sister Diane (left). Add sun, surf, and stuffed iguanas, and I was totally in!

Now, it turns out that I'm not much of a cruiser. Seasick? Check. Mildly claustrophobic? Check. So overwhelmed by the possible shore excursions that I actually didn't spend any time in the surf? Check. A little freaked out by the floating Las Vegas casino atmosphere of a Carnival Cruise ship? Double-check.

But I still had a great time! Why? Well, Kathy Cano-Murillo is just as fun, generous, and crazy glitter sweet as her books, blog posts, and awesome craftiness would lead you to believe. Not everyone lives up to their on-line image but the Crafty Chica does it - plus some! (And man, did she score us some serious swag!!) Here she is modeling the amazing apron she decorated during the cruise!

I also had an incredible time being roomies with and generally geeking out with Sister Diane. She was there creating an epic podcast about the Crafty Chica Cruise - I haven't seen sign of it yet, but I'll let you know when I spot it! In the meantime, she chronicled our adventures at the Mexican fabric store and the Mexican paper store in nerd-a-rific technicolor detail! Here's a shot of us heading ashore - with no idea what wonders lay ahead!
But the thing is, vacations are generally made great by the things you don't expect. In my case, it was towel animals.

Yes, towel animals. Finally, I understand why hotel towels are always so darn stiff and scratchy - its because they have to be if you're going to fold them and roll them and twist them into loveable animals!

Apparently, towel folding or towel origami, is popular on cruise lines and tropical resorts. Having spent no time at either before, they were brand new to me!

If you're feeling inspired - and maybe in need of a vacation at an exclusive resort - try venturing into the land of towel-folding with Ian:

Of course, if towel-folding seems too mundane or you're looking to get really fancy, you may just need to hop over to Amazon and order this book:

And no, no-one did anything fancy to our toilet paper on the cruise. But if you want to go on your own crafty cruise, the Crafty Chica is already accepting reservations for an 8-day cruise next spring!

Art and Healing: Part Two

2010-06-06T23:04:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been so busy doing things that there hasn't been a whole lot of time to blog about them - or time to absorb what's happened. *

It's been a wonderful whirlwind, and now I'm ready for a little reflection and a little quiet artmaking time. Sometimes things don't make sense until we write them down or until we share them - either through words or through our artwork or both.

And a good place to start reflecting is the amazing women I had the opportunity to work with at the Quest Center for Integrative Health's Healing Empowerment Project. The Project, led by Jo Brody, provides an expressive outlet for those living with breast cancer and its consequences. With a different art class led by a different art teacher each month, the women have the opportunity to create, explore, and take an active role in their own healing process.

The participants, diving in!

Opportunities to teach in an environment like this are few and far between, and I was honored to be invited to teach an all-day shrine making class earlier this year. As is often the case, it seemed like all I did was unload materials from the truck, offer a little bit of information about structure and adhesives, and then get out of the way.

The women were fearless. They took risks, told personal stories, and were absolutely willing to work intuitively. It was a joyous and inspiring thing to witness. And there is such a lesson there. Perhaps once you have faced your own mortality, the blank canvas just doesn't seem as scary as it used to.

Starting with Egyptian deities . . .

and completing with feather and sea.

Dress patterns, Botticelli, and Mother Mary . . .

United by spirals.

A collecting of materials . . .

and a lid of riotous color.

This piece, assembled by a particpant, features an image of singers originally created by Deborah Koff-Chapin.

And this is what art is about - at least for me. Expressing and exploring, and maybe getting lucky enough to tap into something utterly beyond ourselves.

* If you were curious . . . In the last four months, I've attended workshops at ArtFest in Port Townsend, taught several workshops here in Portland, joined Sister Diane on a marvelous Mexican cruise with the Crafty Chica, had a feature show at 100th Monkey Studios Gallery, participated in a few charity art auctions, taken on the role of Treasurer for Portland Open Studios, celebrated my 40th birthday with friends, visited family in Texas, and now, I'm in Beverly, MA, for the Encaustic Conference at Montserrat College of Art and will then be heading off to present at the Summit of Awesome in my hometown of Portland, OR. I have a serious back-log of eye candy and insights to share, so get ready!

An Artist A Day: Auction Tonight!

2010-05-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

Last month, on April 21, I had the chance to sit in the window at Muse, a local art store at 4224 SE Hawthorne, and start on an encaustic painting. Along with 33 other artists - each scheduled on a different day - I was working on a piece to be auctioned off to benefit Schoolhouse Supplies. You can see all of the work that got created, and all the work that's up for auction at Muse's An Artist A Day website.

Here's the piece as I started on it, working in the window at Muse, and beginning the background.

Next, I added the image of a heart . . .

After I got it home, I added additional imagery - bees and honeycomb - and worked more on the colors.

And tonight, you can go over to the big opening at Muse and bid on the piece from 6pm - 8pm, though I think the bidding closes at 7:45! Prices start at only $75, and the pieces are medium-sized, 16"x20". Proceeds help buy art supplies and get them into the hands of artists and teachers in the public schools - what could be better than that?

Here's the finished piece, called "Where the Work Gets Done."