mail art

I have had a little bit of time to do art in the midst of all the craziness and busyness.  

I'm making mail art invitations to my first ever art show!  This is so exciting.

It is going to be at Simon's Tavern in Chicago.  The bar is owned by my good friend, Scott.  He and I have known each other since we were probably 12 years old.  

I've been posting some of my viking art the past few months.  That is a taste of what will be there.  I cannot thank Scott enough for this opportunity.

Please stop by Simon's Tavern, in the Andersonville neighborhood, in December to have the best glögg in town.  He makes red and white glögg and it is so delicious.  Don't take my word for it.  You have to try it!

I have one more painting to go before I am done!

The cards above were inspired by Mindy Lacefield's online class, True Free Spirit.  This is a class I adore.

Have a great weekend.

I heart glögg

During the month of September I have been in the process relocating to Wisconsin.  Therefore, I haven't had the opportunity to do much art yet, but I did do 3 small, 6" x 6", mixed-media paintings recently.

The hearts in these paintings are based on Scandinavian woven hearts.

Glögg is a Scandinavian mulled wine which is popular around Christmastime.  

Thank you for stopping by.

Volare

For this piece, I cut a Dean Martin stencil out of a manilla office file folder. Whenever I use spray paint I feel like a pseudo-street-artist and I like to do the piece sort of graffiti-like.  At least that is how I feel about it while I'm creating it.

The idea of adding silver leaf doodles came, in part, from reading Mati Rose's new book.  She likes to use silver leaf and I think that's something I can really get into more in the future.  The doodles are a definite nod to artist Keith Haring.  I used a silver leafing pen by Krylon.

The text in this piece, "your glögg has given me wings" is a parody of "your love has given me wings" which is a line in the Dean Martin version of the song, commonly called, Volare.  

Volare is an Italian word, which means "to fly".  

The story of how the song was written is quite interesting.  It was inspired by two paintings by Marc Chagall.  Go here to read about the background of the song.

There's a version of this song, which, incidentally, is not really named Volare, by the Gipsy Kings on You Tube, which you can see here.  The actual name of the song is "Nel blu dipinto di blu".  They give it a fun Latino groove.

I painted this art piece on a used board (previously it was building material), which I got at the Re-Store in Bellingham, WA.  It probably used to be a cabinet front.

The hearts with wings are a Scandinavian woven heart design.   They are collaged on elements.

Below is a video of the song, performed by the man who, along with a friend of his, wrote it.  This is on the Ed Sullivan show.  

Below is a video which shows the English translation of the original lyrics.  "Your love has given me wings" is not in the lyrics!  I've learned that the song was Americanized to contain those words.  In fact all the English words that Dean Martin sings in his version are not in the original song!




This Dean Martin painting is going to be part of the glögg collection at Simon's Tavern in Chicago.  It will be on display during glögg season, which is in the wintertime, around Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Caution, may cause happiness

I tried a couple of different, for me, art supplies on this mixed media painting, which I call "Caution, may cause happiness".  The text on the piece, glögg is the drug, is a parody of the lyrics to a song by Roxy Music, Love is the Drug.  Video is at the end of the post.

The majority of this painting was done with acrylic paint.  The outline of the bottle I did with a blue Stabillo pencil. I like how it looks.  Almost crayon-like, but a thinner line.

I got in the Swedish flag element, which I try to incorporate into every Viking piece, in the letter g in the word Drug.  This bottle is supposed to be a hybrid of a bottle of glögg and a prescription bottle.

Because I wanted to have a dripping paint look on the sides of the painting, and I didn't like how it was going with acrylic paint, I went out and got some Daniel Smith watercolor ground so I could do my drips with watercolor paint.  I applied the ground like one would apply gesso.  It primes the surface to accept water-soluble media.  I used Daniel Smith watercolor paints, which are my favorites, for the paint drips.  I like the way it turned out.  

The thing I really wanted to try the most was Dorland's wax medium as a sealer.  I learned about it from Juliette Crane in her class, How to Paint an Owl 2.  She has a special process of sealing her art that I replicated as closely as I could.  It turned out great.  It gives the painting an almost, soft-focus feel, as the wax is translucent. Her technique is a 3-step process, the last of which is application of the wax medium.  

It takes longer than just spraying the piece with varnish, which is what I had been doing on my previous pieces.  I think the result with the wax is worth the time and effort.  If you have not tried it, you may want to consider it.  You do have to let the wax medium cure for several days. It's not for you if you're in a hurry.

Because it is a matte finish you cannot put metallic paint or glitter under it because you will lose the qualities that make those things sparkle.  I miss that.  I love glitter.  For this reason, I will not use it on all my art.

This art piece I made for my good friend Scott Martin, owner of Simon's Tavern.  He was nice enough to buy a series of paintings from me.  If you're in or near Chicago, check out his bar.  It's a whole lot of fun.  I wrote about it here.

Thanks for stopping by.

antique art supplies

A few months ago, my boyfriend, Ben, was looking around on Craigslist, which he loves to do on any given day.  We had just gotten into watching American Pickers and we got the itch to find some antique treasures, like they do on the show.

Ben found an antique stencil making machine for sale on Craigslist.  

Ben thought it might be something I would like, so we answered the ad and went over to see it.  It looked funky and cool and old, like a rusted treasure, and we decided to buy it.  Sure enough, I've used it several times to add elements to my art pieces.  In fact, I used it to create my blog banner.

Another time we went to a used building supply store called the Re-Store.  Ben asked the gentleman in the front of the store if they had any drafting tables.  As luck would have it, they had one recently brought in, and it was lighted to boot!  It didn't take us long to decide that we would buy that.  We can use it as a light table or just a desk.

Another thing I buy, occasionally, at the Re-Store is used, building material that I use for art substrates; boards to paint on.  I guess you could say that I up-cycle them.  It's cheaper than buying boards at the art store and the shapes are usually more fun and unique.

When Ben and I went to an antique store in Port Angeles, WA, we found some rusted letters.  I got the letters to spell the word glögg, since that is what my recent art pieces have been about.  It was cool to screw them onto one of my up-cycled boards to create a fun art piece.  The letters are on my Pee Wee Herman painting.  To see that, look at my blog post here.  You will notice that I also used the stencil machine for some of the words on this mixed media piece.

In summary, I would like to say that I enjoy looking for art supplies in unusual places.  I like to go out and find unique things that reflect my eccentric side.  I'm lucky in that my partner has a really good eye for antiques! This is Ben.  Thanks, Ben, for finding some awesome antique art supplies for my art projects!

pop art

Mixed-media Pee Wee Herman painting.  Here I worked on up-cycled building material as my substrate.  I included things like vintage colorforms in the upper left and metal letters, screwed into the wood.

Lately I've been including pop culture references in my art.  It began when my good friend and former high school pal, Scott Martin, asked me to do a series of paintings for his bar, which is called Simon's Tavern. (The original owner was named Simon, in case you wondered.)  

A few months ago, I happened to make a funny art piece on glögg.  I sent Scott a photo of it, just for fun.  It was something he wanted to see more of.  He has always appreciated comedy, once studying at Chicago's famed Second City.  I can vouch for his status as class clown in high school. 

That first piece I did featured a parody lyric, "You might as well face it, you're addicted to glögg."  I had not planned to do any more.  It was a joke because I was drinking glögg with friends while I was painting it.  I was just kind of passing the time.

When Scott told me he wanted more paintings along this line, it got my creative juices flowing.  Glögg-ifying song lyrics was a blast.  I couldn't write them down fast enough.  Then trying to turn those ideas into paintings was another piece of a fun puzzle.  

How can I tie in some kind of visual, with a funny viking, that goes with the gag line?  They started out as parodies of lyrics, but eventually I moved into TV shows.  I'm working on pieces that are movie-themed as well.  I have an idea for a future piece that will merge sports and TV, with glögg of course!  Always with glögg!

I was going for a bit of a graffiti-style with this Johnny Cash inspired painting.

Thus my art has moved into comedic, pop-art, which I love.  I think I'm something of a closet comedian anyway.  This gives me a way to let that side of me out.  I aspire to be a Swedish Weird Al meets Andy Warhol. There's a combo for ya.

Incidentally, the Pee Wee piece is not part of the Simon's collection, while the Viking Named Sue piece is part of it.

Outta This World

Here is another piece I did for Simon's Tavern in Chicago.  For more on Simon's Tavern, click here to read my previous post.  I've been making a series of mixed-media paintings for my friend, and owner of Simon's Tavern, Scott Martin.  Most of the pieces, so far, are parodies of song lyrics.  This one is a parody of "Long Train Running" by the Doobie Brothers.  Click here to listen to that song on You Tube.

It's time for glögg slushies at Simon's

Hi everybody.  I've been busy making art for Simon's Tavern in Chicago. This is one of nine paintings in my ever growing glögg series. 

What is glögg?  Go here to see. 

Scott Martin, the bar owner, makes glögg slushies, his own invention, in the summer.  Glögg is traditionally a Christmas drink. But it's not only for Christmas at Simon's. If you're in Chicago, be sure to stop in for a one-of-a-kind glögg slushy. Even if it's not time for glögg slushies, go anyway because it's a fabulous, friendly, and fun neighborhood bar.

Here's an awesome video about some of the history of Simon's Tavern, as told by Scott.  Simon's Tavern is in the historic Andersonville Swedish neighborhood in Chicago, IL.

Simon's Tavern was featured on Anthony Bourdain's show, The Layover. See that video here. Anthony says, "This place has got it."

My art piece up at the top, with the parrot, is a parody of Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffet.  At Simon's you will be nibbling, not on spongecake, but rather on pepparkakor, Swedish ginger cookies.  If Jimmy Buffet had tried glögg slushies, he would likely be booking his next trip to Andersonville rather than Margaritaville.