Jackie McGill

Never Mind Writing Artist Statements, Use the Arty Bollocks Generator!

Jackie — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 01:10:30 +0000

When I took my art as professional practice class last semester, one of the most important things we had to do was write our artist statements. This took hours. After we wrote one statement, we re-wrote it… sometimes several times. The Arty Bollocks Generator would have REALLY come in handy!

“As shimmering derivatives become transformed through boundaried and academic practice, the viewer is left with a glimpse of the edges of our existence.” – My Arty Bollocks

Okay okay, maybe not, but it sure would sound funny reading them out loud. This site is really a riot… Check it out, create some bollocks. If it’s not artsy enough for you, reload another one. Generate your own artist statement here.

Printers’ Ball Marbled Manicure

Jackie — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 05:33:11 +0000

When I read the Printers’ Ball invitation, there was one thing I knew I wanted to get my hands on and that was the official event poster designed by Johnny Sampson. The second thing I knew was that it would be a great inspiration for the nail design I wanted to try out. Since I was going to be giving book binding demos, my hands were going to be getting some major attention, so why not spice it up a little bit? The invitation said to dress casual, and costumes were encouraged. I didn’t have much time to throw one together, so some crazy nails were the next best thing.

The technique I used is called water marbling, and I’ll be honest, it takes a few times to get the hang of it. But – once I saw my colorfully marbled pinky finger, I was hooked! If any of you artists or papermakers out there are familiar with marbled paper, it’s roughly the same idea with technique. You drop nail polish into a plastic container filled with water, use a tooth pick to create your design, and take your finger for a dive (nail first) down into the polish. I’ll be doing a tutorial on this soon, so stayed tuned!

Event Poster (click to enlarge)

By using the “It’s Alive” poster as inspiration, I created my color scheme. The polish shades I used to create this look were:

OPI – Ogre the Top Blue (process cyan)

OPI – OPI Red (shimmering cherry red)

Zoya – Pinta (dark eggplant)

Zoya – Kelly (purple-ish dark grey)

Essie – Blanc (white)

Finger Paints – Silver Sculpture (metallic purple-ish silver)

China Glaze – Re-fresh Mint (pastel mint green)

Seche Vite Fast Dry Topcoat (clear)

Here’s a looksy at the finished design after I did get my hands on the poster which will be going up in my studio soon! And don’t worry, I made sure my hands were clean before I started gripping my poster.

As favors at the door at the Printers’ Ball, they were giving out these neat spooky plastic fingers with long nails. See, this guy definitely had the right idea.

The 7th Annual Printers’ Ball

Jackie — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 21:20:51 +0000

Over last weekend, I attended the 7th Annual Printers’ Ball at Columbia College Chicago. Not only was it my first time going, but I was also going to be a student volunteer for the night in our Letterpress and Book Binding Studios. I heard that there was going to be tons of free poetry, prints and other fun stuff. Needless to say, I was pretty excited by the whole thing.

Book binding demos

So what is the Printers’ Ball, you ask? Basically it was an event planned by a group of people in collaboration with Columbia, The Poetry Foundation, and Poetry magazine to celebrate literary and printed work. This year the theme was It’s Alive!, as you can see in the event poster seen in my other post.

In the bindery, two fellow students and I were going to give 3-hole pamphlet stitch demos to whoever wanted to make their own little book to take with them as a souvenir. We had a few attendees who wandered in, and then before we knew it… the bindery was filled with people! I gave demo after demo and all the visitors were pretty enthusiastic about the whole thing. While talking with the people during the demos, I found there were a lot of teachers coming in, curious to see what all this book making was about. One even commented: “I’ve actually been afraid of book making, but after seeing how this works, I will definitely make a lesson out of this.” Great idea, I said.

Throughout the night, I took a few breaks to walk around with my camera, and I left with some great new material to hang up in my studio. Check out photos below for more action shots!

Welcome

Jackie — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 07:43:03 +0000

Hello there. My name is Jackie and I’m currently getting my Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts. I’m primarily a book artist, but incorporate different mediums into my work. For more information, you can visit my About page. In my mind, my blog will serve a few different purposes. They will include my adventures as a graduate student in Chicago, documenting artistic works in progress, things I find inspirational, and hopefully some tutorials. As I find myself using the word interdisciplinary a lot, *heh* my areas of interest range from letterpress printing and book binding to iPhone apps and desktop customization to beauty make-up and nail art.

Jackie; Age 4

If this sounds overwhelming, don’t worry – see that Categories menu to the right over there? This should help you sort through everything depending on what kind of mood you’re in. Basically, I’m interested in creative expression, whether it be in a book, on a poster, or on your fingernails. Please comment and subscribe if you like what you see, have suggestions or requests. Happy reading!