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Book relics
I bound a set of books part of my efforts to support the department in which I taught studio art in 2016. I doubt anyone will be surprised that the traditional gift for graduating studio art majors is a sketchbook. Their art building is undergoing major renovations this year, but I salvaged a number of…
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A quick card
I went quiet this year because my first year of teaching kept me more than a bit busy. With the exception of summer break, it felt like any art time was either on the sly or preparation for a class. Today I returned to my studio to make a popup card. I’m not making a…
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DIY bookbinding tools
I’ve found a few modifications to my tools that help me work more effectively. For one thing, dulling the needles has helped me avoid a problem that irked me while making my Test papers series of books. My needles were very sharp, and that meant I could easily tear through the paper at the wrong…
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Gilding failure
I’m still trying to get the hang of hidden fore-edge painting. The painting is going well enough… My difficulty remains in the gilding. I truly believe the reflective quality of metal leaf is superior to that of every paint I’ve ever tried (and I had the chance to try quite a few over the years). …
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See artist books in Chico, California
Nineteen handmade artist books from my Test papers series are on display during June 2016. You can see them in person if you head to 122 Broadway in downtown Chico, California. There’s an added zest to seeing them at this art supply store, because the contents of each book are doodles by store patrons. For…
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Portraiture
This summer I challenged myself to do a self-portrait every day. I even set up a means by which to randomize the ways I go about these portraits. The portrait quota is definite, but I have reserved the right to abandon these spinner wheels if they prove too restrictive. We’ll see, won’t we?
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Visual note-taking
It took me rather a long time to notice that art was important to me, so I was that kid in class whose notes are words-only. In art classes I had to change my ways of recording information. There are strong trends, and it has been interesting in my first semester of teaching to figure…
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Lisa Yuskavage: The Brood in St. Louis
“It’s only paint. Nobody’s getting hurt here.” -Lisa Yuskavage, Q&A at Contemporary Art Museum (St. Louis) I took a handful of students to the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis. CAM is currently showing a collection of paintings by Lisa Yuskavage. The students got excited about her work, which was helpful because that meant we…
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Banderole mural
This is a rough picture (to be replaced*), but it shows a project I completed this week. The banderole’s white sections are chalkboard paint. The mural is located within a Sunday School, so the option of children’s continuous involvement was a key design component for me. For such a simple design, I was amazed by…
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Dürer at the Crocker
The short version is that you should absolutely go see the special exhibit of German art at the Crocker Art Museum (on display until Feb. 14, 2016). Albrecht Dürer’s prints and drawings are the highlights of the show, but the show as a whole is worthwhile. Look for the magnifying glasses available for viewers’…
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Turner at the de Young
This weekend I managed a visit to San Francisco for the show J. M. W. Turner: Painting Set Free. Since it was the show’s last day at the de Young, the crowd was intense. Luckily for me, the crowds were thinner around the watercolors and unfinished works. I was particularly interested in his study titled…
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David Hockney artist talk
David Hockney gave an excellent artist’s talk at the Getty on September 10, 2015. I was so inspired that I talked it up to everyone I saw the next day. (A few hear the same pitch on the day after as well.) Skip to 7:14 if you don’t need a refresher on Hockney’s artistic credentials…
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Lightfastness tests
This summer I ran some informal lightfastness tests. Methodology: I tested a variety of watercolors (right column), markers (middle column), and pastels (left column) on acid-free sheets. I made two versions of each test sheet. The control group (top row) went into a drawer, and the other set (bottom row) went in a window for…
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Millennial Founding Fathers
My quest during this first year after grad school has been to remember how to do art without the epic plan. (Perhaps that is a poor plan. Discuss amongst yourselves.) As a result, I’m attempting a few illustrations for a friend whose historical preoccupation is North America during the late eighteenth century. She generated an…
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destruction as art
I am completely unable to watch footage of art being intentionally destroyed as an act of cultural warfare. Any narrative about people taking extraordinary measures to protect artworks (regardless of how badly reenacted) gets a similarly strong reaction. There was a recent fashion show that wrapped the models up in what pretended to be framed…
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Morning glory print
My art process sometimes feels like a children’s book. Specifically, it feels like a recreation of If you give a mouse a cookie. If I want to make a decorative relief print of morning glories, I must carve the wood matrix. If I want the right blue, I must mix some colors. These colors are…
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Fore-edge painting
This is the sketchbook in which I try to draw world maps (without looking at references). The results are pretty humbling, so I looked at a map for the painting. I almost have this process figured out. The painting is enjoyable, but gilding the edges is still giving me grief. Fore-edge decoration (by other people…
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An illuminated souvenir
Last year I had the chance to visit Barcelona, which of course translated into a pilgrimage to as many of Antonio Gaudi’s projects as possible. I expected to admire his Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, but I underestimated just how moved I would be by the experience. As is typical, I have no mementos of…
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Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon
YOU ARE INVITED! When: Saturday, 7 March 2015 What: improving Wikipedia’s coverage of women in art (and increasing the number of contributors who identify as female) Where: everywhere (and at many locations where workshops are being held) Why: Very few of the contributors to Wikipedia identify as female. Are women excluding themselves, or are we…
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Colleen Wampole 