I dropped off a new batch of greeting cards this weekend at Abrams Claghorn Gallery. After a long hiatus it’s great to be getting art out into the world again! So much has happened since I last blogged, including the birth of my daughter, nearly two!
A card in my “San Francisco Situations” series was mentioned in the July 25, 2015 issue of The Economist magazine!
The card pokes fun at the Bay Area’s latest tech boom. While it’s true that the Bay Area is brimming startups, not everyone is closing a round and purchasing a foosball table. The couch surfing card, with its couch illustration and the words “Thanks for your hospitality” is the most popular card in the series.
Scroll through more SF situations cards below. They’re all available for purchase in my Etsy shop.
Decals, Decals, Decals!
A couple of weekends ago I taught a decal workshop at Ruby’s Clay Studio.
The range of design ideas and glazes and clay bodies was huge and I learned so much from seeing where people’s imaginations took them, how decals presented themselves, and how different glazes withstood the firing.
I’d also love to give this workshop again (and again!). In the past I’ve taught it at Creative Growth and in Montana at the Clay Arts Guild. I’d love to teach it at other art studios as well as to groups of non-ceramic artists, where either I’d supply the ceramics, or we work with commercial ceramics. If you have ideas of where to teach, please let me know!
Ceramicists, check out this technical page,where I’ve listed everything from where to buy decal paper to troubleshooting glaze inconsistencies.
More decals in action are on my ceramics page and for sale on Etsy.
Gin, vodka, olives, bitters, Needles & Pens, an enchanted tree
It’s been a week of cocktails – drawing them, not drinking them. Though I did have a lovely glass of wine at Terrior, the host of SNAP reading series, while my friend Jenny read.1 One afternoon I took a break from penning my new cocktail card series and popped into Needles and Pens to check in on some cards of mine that they’ve recently begun stocking. Some had sold! Thanks everyone who has been supporting me and this great Mission establishment.2 I finished off the week with a trip down to San Diego to visit my boyfriend’s family. I hadn’t been to San Diego since college, but everything seemed about the same, save for the trees. . . .
I love that Angostura bitters turned an accident in measurement into their distinctive oversized label.
Martini cocktail card in progress
Martini card complete! Check it out on Etsy!
Thanks everyone who has been buying my cards at Needles and Pens!
Spotted in the suburbs of San Diego
____________________
1. And such a great story! It even had footnotes within footnotes.
2. YAY!!!! PLEASE KEEP BUYING CARDS.
Anatomical heart, Anatomical Heart, Anatomical Heart
Happy Belated Valentine’s Day everyone! Last week was a slew of anatomical hearts. Getting into the spirit, I drew an anatomical heart greeting card. My boyfriend swears he wasn’t copying me when he presented me with an anatomical heart card a day later – laser cut and engraved on a beautiful red card stock, no less, with a teaser promising another card in 10 days time. And to top off the anatomical hearts, I saw Jo Boyer’s heart-filled solo show, and was both blown away and tickled by all her takes on the anatomical heart.
Check out pictures of these hearts below, starting out with some process pics.
I don’t think I’ve delved this far into anatomy since Biology 101.
All inked up!
I have a light box, but during daylight hours I gravitate to the window. Pliers are to open stubborn ink tops.
I swapped out original labels for my own Valentine’s version. Get yours here.
Classy laser cut card from my anatomically accurate sweetheart, Jon Hollander
The inside does not disappoint (though I have yet to fact check!)
Jo Boyer’s amazing hearts! Vases, lanterns, and not pictured, flasks, and even a knife holder! Go see it at Ruby’s Clay Studio (552 Noe Street in SF) before it’s gone.
Jo Boyer’s knives. Heart wrenching and practical all at the same time.
Thanks for reading to the bottom of my hearts. Sending you love to last until February 14, 2016, or at least until my next post. XO, Liz
Collaboration with a laser cutter + Needles and Pens now sells my greeting cards + Calendars are in their second printing
I know that the holidays were ages ago, but I’ve neglected to post the greeting card my boyfriend Jon and I made for my Montana relatives. San Francisco looms in the background with a silhouette of a tree chopping scene in the foreground. The mountains in the middle are part of the range that surrounds Helena, Montana that folks refer to affectionately as the Sleeping Giant.
All the delicate little cuts and lines were created in just 3-minutes per card thanks to laser cutter that traces the lines of a vectorized version of the hand drawing (entirely drawn and vectorized by Jon). Such a fun and satisfying machine to use! I’m hoping to do more laser cut projects in 2015. See the laser cutter in action at facebook/lizworthyart.
While this is the only laser cut card out there with my name on it, I’ve been working hard promoting my other more traditional cards. Eleven of them, mostly from my SF situations series, will soon be on the card racks at Needles and Pens. This is a great Mission store that has been around for ages and has recently moved from a nook of a location at 16th and Guerrero on over to Valencia Street between 22nd & 23rd Streets. I’m excited to see them doing well and excited to be on their shelves!
My annual calendar is already in its second printing! This year’s theme is a little looser than past themes. I used pictures that I’ve been working with to develop a line of greeting cards and coupled them with fun words and phrases. January’s words are a reminder to be in better touch with the folks I love. February will give you a taste of the best medicine. March, well, just beware. April is a 2105 check-in. May, a swim with mermaids. June will tell you all you need to know to shake up a Last Word cocktail. July may make you never want to play the game Jax again. In August I ask a very personal question. September reveals how old I am. October is for the birds. November delivers words of caution, should you try to deep fry a large bird. December is all about bubble wrap and packing peanuts. Find me or get one while they last from my Etsy store.
Kangaroos, books, butterflies, organization, loosing control, travel, really smart moves
Happy New Year, everyone! For the last five plus years I’ve gotten together with friends to create collages to visualize our new year’s resolutions. We pool together old magazines and clip out motivating imagery and words – anyone need a tiger? a scooter? a picture of Oprah? – and affix them to file folders with glue sticks. Pictured is the one I made Saturday afternoon that now sits on my bookcase and cheers me on. True, the bookcase it sits on is not as organized as the one pictured in the bottom left, but by year end I plan to make it so! The word writer, nestled below the bookshelf, is a reminder to creatively express myself in words, including creating blog posts on a more regular basis! Above the bookshelf is a reminder to open myself up to the magic of the Bay Area. San Francisco has so much to offer people wise, be it my fellow bus passenger or a new artist at the clay studio, and I want to take advantage of that. I want to work smartly, not just harder and look to others for expert advice – maybe even expert advice from a stranger. Last year one of my major accomplishments was healing my knee. This year I hope to be bounding through life like a kangaroo, even doing a few little runs by year end. I want my year to be one full of love and boldness and imagination. A year of trips to the ocean and to other marvelous places. I look forward to sharing my adventures with you here. Got resolutions you want to share? Put them in the comments section below.
Big Santa, large trees, green hills, two brothers, the railroad, a turkey with a hairdryer
As a kid I much preferred writing this guy a nice letter. Over 30 years later, the Santa lap experience is still terrifying. This is at Betabrand, a store near my house that might soon be selling a Suitsy – basically a onesie for the professional potty trained crowd.
I knocked my exacto knife out the window when I saw this being lowered into Mark Zuckerberg’s new estate, across the way from me on 21st street.
Loving the rain and its bright green magic. Here’s Bernal Hill from the 48 bus stop a few mornings back.
Over Thanksgiving break, I stumbled upon two brothers in the Getty’s lovely gardens. Ryan and Trevor Oakes have perfected a special way of drawing. Using this concave contraption with a headrest that looks like an old-school cast for a broken bone, they get the brain to play a trick where they look with one eye and use the other to cast an image upon a piece of paper which they can then trace. So much fun watching them work and explain their process!
Coming back from LA, my boyfriend and I traveled via Amtrak. This train included a special lounge car, purchased long ago from the Santa Fe Railroad – so much beautifully shaped metal bolted together with space in between for great viewing windows.
My sister, Sonya, made Jon and me a turkey pinata to take down to LA with us. Here we are helping finish up the feathers with the aid of a hairdryer – a trick I often employ with my ceramics and ink drawing when I want things to dry a little faster. We stuffed it with custom fortune cookies made in Oakland’s Chinatown and everyone had fun taking a swing at him. Sonya, if you’re reading this, I saved his head for you.
Goldsworthy, Gallery Shows, Mini Munis, Pinata turkey
I spent most of Sunday adding little doors, window, wheels, and other details to my fleet of Muni buses. These details are printed on decal paper and will fire to a dark brown color. The buses will be debuting in the Ruby’s Holiday Show. . . .
. . .which opens at the end of this week. If Muni buses, or other more traditional ceramic forms, are on your holiday shopping list, make sure to stop by. I’ll be whipping up my traditional jell-O shots for the potluck reception.
But before the hoiday show goes up, there’s still a few more days of the Southern Migrations show. A couple of pie chart bowls from my “I HEART Ruby’s” series are on display along with a very nice selection of work by other Ruby’s artists.
Last weekend I took a tour of Andy Goldworthy’s pieces in the Presidio. This was the last stop on the tour, a small shack with an impressive ceiling. I love that human hair, harvested from a local salon, is part of the formula for getting such an impressive crackle.
This was another stop on the Goldsworthy tour, a grouping of 30-something trees touring up into the sky. Small trees have been planted around this sculpture; I’m coming back when I’m 80 to see the spire integrated into the forest.
Didn’t even budge!
My fabulous sister has started a turkey pinata Thanksgiving tradition. Here we add feathers cut from paper bags. Thanks for the fun and for the shots of Wild Turkey, Sonya! Still to add: googley eyes and stuffing of the non-traditional variety.
Monday, November 10, 2014
This week, I’m trying out more photos and less text. Not pictured: me getting new glasses (San Francisco has become slightly less foggy!), fabulous weather, me making holiday cards (sneak peek in my shop), and me with my nose in Edan Lepucki‘s new-ish book California. I’ve been dying to read it since I heard her speak this summer and it’s as good (and as dark!) as promised.
I voted! Plus check out my first Tattly brand temporary tattoo.1
Best monthaversary gift ever.2 Wheel on the back turns to add numbers until I reach the otter reward. Since receiving, I’ve yet to stub my toe, tweak my knee, or strain a wrist. Hurray! I think it’s working.3
Last weekend, Coreen Abbott demonstrated throwing big at Ruby’s Clay Studio. My mind is still reeling. While I plan to continue working small, I’m going to use this as inspiration to do other things in big ways.
Quiche for a friend’s baby shower! Elizabeth, here I am putting it in writing, that’ll I’ll bake you more when the baby is born.
My muni buses are all glazed and fresh out of the kiln. Stay tuned for fancy stuff like windows, doors, and the wires that connect them to the power lines.
_____________
1 Don’t worry Mom. It’s fake.
2 From the best boyfriend ever. Thank you, Jon!
3 Knock on wood.