Potter and Clay

"...He will rejoice over you with gladness and singing and calm your fears with His love." Zephaniah 3:17

Today I had the pleasure of seeing my cousin, twice-removed (or rather, my grandma's cousin), do a presentation on his testimony through the use of his pottery.  Having a love for the creative arts, this was my jam.  It was fascinating seeing him work with such ease as he related his art to how we are the clay and He is the master potter.

Afterward, as I went onto my small group, Renny's message stuck with me.  We just started our study of James had memorized James 1:2-4,
"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

Now for a little lesson in Latin...
The word sincere comes from the Latin word for wax, cera, and sine, meaning without.  That seems odd, eh? Well, I'll just let you know what I was taught--as there IS some controversy on the etymology.  In classical culture, as pottery was being made, there were vessels that were without flaws and those that had cracks or would not be suitable for carrying liquids or other contents that could slip through the cracks.  Therefore, if a vessel was not made that was up to standard, it was sealed with wax.  When a vessel was not sealed in wax, it was considered sincere.

As I pondered trials and pottery and being sealed without wax...I was so grateful that we are not simply made and then marked sincere or not.  We are constantly being molded and shaped by both the good and bad trials we face.  We must therefore rejoice in the opportunities of growth; knowing that each obstacle we endure, we are becoming more sincere in our faith. Not until that glorious Day will we be finally marked sincere--made perfect in Him.

We all took home a little treasure of his art...perfect for flowers or coffee, don't you say?

Have you seen any art lately that stuck with you? Inspired you? Made you think for days after?

This one was incredible...a verse from Isaiah in Norwegian! 

Ballerina Bulldog

A few weeks ago I attended an incredible art exhibit at the American Swedish Institute.  It was based on the awe-inspiring medium of papercutting.  Ranging from large pieces stretching high above my head to smaller ones perfect for a nursery, there was simply not enough time to stare at these works of art.

Some had stories or descriptions attached, some were left up to the viewer to interpret.  One of my favorites was one that the artist had cut to a specific piece of music...for 6 months straight! The intricate designs and patterns were reflective of the musical piece through crescendos, climaxes, and repetitions in the tune--WOW.

It was impressive to say the least.

I hope I never stop to see the wonder of all sorts of various art mediums--whether a painter, musician, chef, photographer, writer, or one that cherishes slicing through the world with a scissor and x-acto knife in hand.  In this expansive world of all types of people, how wonderful it is that we can speak to one another through the universal language of art?  There may be cultural influences woven into works, but that is what brings such beauty to the individual piece.

I loved this list that my sister shared with me via Pinterest...

 

What is your favorite medium of art--to do or to admire?  Have you seen any exhibits lately that took your breath away?

Cheers,

Alissa

Familiar Face

There's just something to be said to waking up next to a familiar face...

Mine happens to be a collage of magazine shreds.

Besides this fingers-for-nose, sideburns-flaunting, feathers-in-hair gal, here's a quick peak at my side table.

Well-equipped with:
1. my favorite tall green candle from Ampersand (cannot wait until it is all finished up so I can use it for a vase...more on that later!)
2. thankfulness journal-a while ago, I took on the task of slipping into my sheets as I jot down three things I was grateful for that day.  And nothing can be repeated.  Try that out for a challenge, folks!
3. a small dalahorse figurine (made from paper clay)...and yes, I agree, it looks like a unicorn from this angle.

And if we are taking this opportunity for honesty, I usually have a cup of tea, chapstick, a book (or three), pens, sharpies, more pens, sweater comb, random program from my high school graduation...ok, well, maybe that's a little much...but you know how your best efforts of a clean bedside usually turn out.
 

 

I like this little lady because I made it back in the day for my very first art class, freshman year of college.  We had to make a collage and I was not one of those girls that cut out lipstick and bikinis and such from magazines to make a summer inspiration board (clearly, before the days of pinterest).

Simply put, I was a novice.  So, off I went. Tearing and shredding and pasting, trying to make sense of values and texture.  After a few good hours, a face began to emerge!

Waking up to this simple collage reminds me daily that inspiration and success can come when we least expect it. Sometimes we have no idea what the results will be when we start pasting pieces of our lives together.  Occasionally, something beautiful will emerge.  However, more often than not, our attempts end up being crumpled and toss in the waste basket--but we mustn't forget that there is beauty in the process of failure too.

That's a lesson I have had to learn and re-learn every. single. day. Failure still brings us closer to our goals...even when it feels like three steps in the wrong direction.  So, keep truckin' along! Sooner or later, our failed attempts start working out, and something beautiful is created.

Cheers to beauty in our mistakes!
Alissa

Stone Lithography

After doing my post on "A Day in the Life," I thought it would be fun to show the behind the scenes of a project I did for my sisters--printmaking through stone lithography.

I claim to be no expert and this was my first (read, trial and error and error and error) go at it.  It is a very demanding process but fun and proved to be a good workout.

First, we select a stone and bring it into the graining room...

 

This is a process by which you physically remove any and all grease deposits in the stone that resulted from previous drawing.  The stone must be coarsely grained and then slowly polished with finer and finer grits until it has a smooth but toothed surface.  You must take care to clean hands, stone, levigator, and surrounding surfaces when changing grits to prevent from unwanted scratches on your stone.

This is my stone...wet with grit sprinkled on it ready to swirl (the very heavy) levigator in order to slowly remove grease and level the stone.

After graining FOR HOURS, you begin to take joy in the little beauties...such as this pretty swirl.  As I said, this is a workout.

Now if only I had remembered to bring a protein smoothie....I might as well be getting swole when doing this, right?

Next, drawing a rough sketch of your design. I selected to do a design combining my sisters' love for string instruments and a phrase from one of my favorite songs...

So, I grabbed my sister's viola and started sketching....


Then, I drew my design (quite dark because I needed to see it through the back of the paper) on a large sheet of paper to be transferred onto the stone.  The transfer will appear backwards on the stone as we want it to PRINT readable.

Now begins the drawing with grease crayons. I purchased my crayons from the U of M bookstore and clearly they had been collecting dust for a while...with continuous small breaks and clumping, I was not very pleased with the quality of the crayons.  If I had had more time, I would have loved to replace them and begin again but that would have meant more graining...and we all know how most would feel about that.

The boarder around the design was created with straight Gum Arabic in order to have a place to rest my arm when drawing.  As the stone produces any image created from grease, that means if I were to smudge my hand across the surface, I could accidentally create a smudge of hand grease that would end up printing on my image.  This is a pretty finicky process and but can produce beautiful results when handled with care.

Then we covered the image with rosin, a cinnamon-looking powder. I believe this was to soak up any extra grease not attached to the stone.


Then cover with talc.  One thing for sure, this process is not speedy. There seemed to be a million steps and I certainly cannot explain why each was necessary...I just figured why not, eh?

Next comes the fun part...or daunting part! Mixing nitric acid with the gum arabic to create an etch of the drawing in the stone. Each part of the drawing (that you wanted to be darker, lighter, medium) needed to have a specific etch (mixture of nitric acid and gum) created...we were given a rough table of how many drops of acid to add to achieve which strength of etch.

Then cover the whole stone with the lighted etch and buff that into the stone with a cheese cloth and let stone sit for 90 minutes, at the least.  Have I mentioned this was a lengthy process? And we haven't even gotten to the printing? Uffda.

Once the stone has had its alone time, we are finally ready to roll up! This step of the process if for removing the drawing materials and preparing it for printing. First, wash out drawing with lithotine. Then, rub stone with asphaultum printing base (a thin tar-based liquid which will help your stone take the ink).

By this step, I am fairly convinced all printmakers are actually chemists.  Our goal after covering the stone with these scary-sounding liquids is to reveal a ghost image...that is to say, an image of your design without any color--only open areas of the stone for the ink to settle into.
 
Then we can roll the stone with our normal sponge/ink process...that, my friend, is a process in itself and therefore I'm just going to convince myself as though you know alllllll about it already.

Once the stone is full, dry the stone with a leather fan (aka a wooden rod with a piece of leather attached at the top...) Now start swirling--round and round.  Just in case you were losing those arm muscles.

And THEN, etch your stone AGAIN. Yes, I said again. As in, begin from step one with the rosin, talc, gum....and waiting 90 minutes...

Can you believe I made it out of this class alive?! Well, the process was well worth it! After letting the stone sit for 90 minutes, then I rolled the stone up and began printing.  I printed two a bit lighter because I wanted to personalize them for my sisters as a gift.

Below is the heavier printed edition...I'm thinking of still adding color to these but it will probably turn out a bit more faint of color than the lighter printed variable edition.


I had completed these editions in late spring and was secretly waiting until Christmas to present them to my sisters.  If you know about me and gift-giving, you know I don't like having to wait.  I want to shower you with gifts as soon as I make the gift or purchase it.  Needless to say, keeping this a secret may have been my greatest accomplishment with this project.

I have never really watercolored but decided to give it a whirl for this project. I thought the delicate addition of color would be prefect to not take away from the original print.


Finally, the print was completed!! On the left is the watercolor/print edition finished and on the right is the lighter print before the water color. I am kicking myself for not getting a better photo of the print a bit closer...but at least not both prints are being sent to Canada.  I guess I'll have to visit sissy in St.Paul for a quick snap.
Hope you enjoyed this lengthy post! It was a fun process to learn but ever so thankful that alternatives to lithography were formed...I think I'll be sticking to photo-litho from now on.

Wishing you all the best in the (fast-passing) NEW YEAR!

Cheers,
Alissa

A Day in the Life...

If you have been to the Macy's 8th floor Holiday exhibit downtown Minneapolis, you have vicariously lived through a "Day in the Life of an Elf."  Well, here is my edition....

We'll call it a Day in the Life of Visual Merchandising.  This certainly isn't a comprehensive lesson, but a mere glimpse.

We are in the heat wave of summer, so that obviously means school is just around the corner! With school comes all those wonderful styles of fall.  Therefore, scuba gear is out and books and pencils are in...at least in our world.

But not before trying on the googly-eye goggles.

With the ever-changing promotions, we are greeted with scraping sticky letters from the windows at 5 in the morning.  Early bird catches the worm, as they say, and these to-do lists are never ending!

Putting my art minor to good use with some arts and crafts.

Some snaps from spring windows.  It was out with the colorful old and in with the deep sea creatures.  Every day is new and brings with it a new adventure!  I guess you could call us elves, working endlessly when no one can see to bring little delights to all :)

And we too have diets of sugar, sugar, sugar....at least, today we did! We had a mason jar full of skittles and polished them off before our lunch hour at 10 am. It's a quirky schedule to say the least.

Cheers,

Alissa

Planning and Procrastination

With Aquatennial week quickly approaching, there were many last minute tasks to plan and execute before the big event. What big event, you say?  I'm developing, planning, coordinating, and hosting one of the first events for the candidates of the Queen of the Lakes Scholarship Program for the Minneapolis Aquatennial.  Let's just say it has been a busy summer.

Since I am quite excited about this new event, I'll hopefully write up a quick blurb about it after and share all the juicy details...but for now, we will stick to today's silly turn of events.

Without air conditioning, Mom and I have been escaping to anywhere that will allow us to linger.  Today the lucky winner was the American Swedish Institute.  Planting ourselves in their new cafe, Fika, I knew the ASI would be a perfect place to hunker down and get to work.

But with the grumble of one's tummy, I postponed my to do lists just a few minutes longer.  This refreshing cold sunflower soup hit the spot and we were ready to take on the world! 

A snap stolen from my Instagram, this view was the perfect companion to tackling some tasks.

After getting a bit done, then came the distractions...

With a beautiful glass exhibit in the Osher Gallery, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a quick peak!  This lovely photo was printed on a thin sheet of glass and hung in front of the window.  It was the perfect place to capture the light and juxtapose the lake and trees with the green outdoors.

A glass forest. I felt like I was in a children's book...or maybe this was just nagging at my child-like wonder because it took all my effort to "look with my eyes and not with my hands" as mom would so affectionately say during my childhood.

Paper-thin.

And fun to see the Turnblad Mansion peaking through the windows.  The new addition to the ASI perfectly complements the older museum and each highlight the other.  A lovely combination of Scandinavian design, both old and new.

We also got side tracked trying on glasses. I am on the hunt for some darker rimmed specs...

For now, my search will continue...

Cheers,

Alissa

Stop and Smell the Roses

For anybody that knows me, I love flowers. Everything about them. My dream is to be in a secret garden or have a secret garden or discover I have an unknown limpy cousin and teach him to walk through the magic and beauty of flowers.  Can you tell I wrote my AP Lit essay on the secret garden...under pressure, it was the only thing that popped into my head. 

Anyways, back to flowers. Naturally, one of my favorite events would be the Minneapolis Institute of Art's Art in Bloom.  It is the most wonderful event each spring where local floral artists (really open to anyone and many non-florist participate too) to recreate a piece of art through a floral arrangement.  Just like the Rose Parade in Pasadena (whoa, another love of mine), all materials must be completely natural.  The arrangements can include things like vases but the interpretations are planned ahead but often made just hours before they are due in order to remain fresh.  Here are some snaps I took on our annual adventure to the MIA with mom and sis.

Nothing could be more grandeur...just need some yogurt and a sassy flock of girls.

Look! I found a crescent! I had to take a snap with it...maybe one day I will send in one of my "Capture a Crescent" pictures to send into my sorority magazine to be on the back! :)

We were on a tour where we had the opportunity to hear a bit about the art piece and the interpretation through the floral arrangement--it was great to hear a bit more about the process than simply taking a stroll through the museum but we had to be quick to snap our pictures. We were on a time schedule!

Can you believe the detail?? Each piece became more and more amazing...

This one could have been one of my favorites.  You could feel the emotion of the painting through the arrangement! And this side view captures the beautiful vase they selected to display it in...very reminiscent of waves, don't you say?

I had to take a snap of my favorite painting while walking through...the velvet so wonderful it is always difficult to not want to reach out and touch the smooth texture.

We actually knew the "florists" that submitted this one! Grew up with this family that owns a local landscaping company, Aloha Landscaping.  They are a talented bunch to say the least.

May I take you home with me? I think it would go smashingly with my glitzy chandelier.

This was a photo? painting? of a tornado over St. Paul.  I believe it was a painting but the artist created from a photo. I'd say the added pressure of an imminent tornado approaching would put me over if I were live painting...

A group of kids that were in our tour group sketching the pieces we were stopping to discuss.  They looked like a homeschool crew so I had to wiggle over to the mom for a quick chat. Sure enough, they were homeschooling and it was a pseudo-field trip. As a previous homeschooler myself, it was a lovely sight!

Itty bitty toothpicks were made into a fence at the bottom with houses scattered throughout the "field" of delicate pink flowers.

The creator of this beautiful piece happened to be there and gave us a quick talk about the inspiration behind it and process of creating. He actually was the very first to arrive in the long line of participants on the day they are allowed to select their piece of art to interpret. A man who knows what he wants!

Everywhere you looked there were flowers. Are you beginning to smell the sweet aroma yet?

I just LOVE the hustle and bustle of the museum.  We went at the last minute of the exhibit so there weren't as many people but the passion for art in this city and community is a beautiful thing in itself.

I'll leave you all with this lovely vantage point of downtown Minneapolis. A view I never tire of.

My 2014 goal is to participate next year! And now that I've posted it, hope you can keep me to it! Here's to an endless amount of flowers and the ever-blossoming spring just around the corner!!

Cheers,

Alissa

As you can see by the size of the roses in the bunch, this is an over-sized bouquet. I'll be expecting this on my birthday, k?