an unexpected art form

If you have ever visited Great Britain, you know that pubs are much more than just bars. And you also know that part of what makes them so special are the wonderful signs that advertise them. I was listening to a program on The World (public radio) yesterday afternoon about the dire situation many pubs are facing these days and how many of them are closing. The report in itself was interesting but what caught my interest was the mention that the artists, who create the beautiful signs, are also in a difficult situation. Look at the link below to find out more about pub signs, their history and some of their designs. I think some of them are so beautiful and, to me, a reminder of life many, many centuries ago when every profession was advertised in such a way. http://www.innsignsociety.com/

(Image featured on the Inn Sign Society website)

We are more than ever surrounded by signs of all kinds. However, I think the emphasis and goals of many of these signs have changed: color and design psychology as well as marketing tools have taken over and the beauty of the sign or the illustration of the name have become secondary. I guess in a world where everything goes fast, signs have to be reduced to a logo or a specific color to be instantaneously recognizable. Who has time any more to look at all the details of such sign as the one on a pub? What a shame!

Shipping artwork

I am thrilled to report that my "Offerings" are going to be represented by Artspace and Textures Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ(http://www.artspaceaz.com/). So I needed to pack them and ship them. The more box-like pieces were not a problem. It was a bit more tricky with the flower-like ones.

I have found two very good information sources on packing artwork: the September 2008 issue of Art Calendar (http://www.artcalendar.com/) has a couple of interesting articles on the subject. The other is the book "Making & Marketing Better Artwork" by Milton Townsend (http://thebluemoonpress.com/). It has a whole chapter on packing art. Townsend is a glass maker so I guess he knows all about shipping fragile artwork!

By the way, his little book is packed full of all kind of practical information about the business aspect of being an artist. Anyway, I packed my pieces and took them to the shipping store for double boxing and shipping. And now, I will breathe again when I hear from the gallery that the pieces have arrived and are in good shape!

Working again on new piece

I finally got to spend a few hours in the studio stitching! This feels so nice since the past weeks have been very busy with studio work...but not stitching. I have been embroidering on the red panels (see previous post) and am almost done with them but to change a little, I started working on the outside panels for the box. Because the fabric is dark blue and the design very intricate, I had to use tissue paper: let me tell you about it because it is a great tip when you have quilting, appliqué or embroidery designs on dark fabric. Since a light pencil is necessary and since they brush off very quickly, it is essential to protect the traced design while you are working. Otherwise, by the time you are done with a small part of the design, all the markings for the rest are gone. Soooo frustrating!

So I deal with that, after the design is traced on the fabric, by basting a sheet of white tissue paper over the entire thing. Then I tear small bits of tissue paper just on the area I am working on. It tears easily and protects the rest of the markings. This has saved my sanity on many occasions. One word of caution, use only white tissue paper! If you use colored tissue paper and a drop of water falls on your project, the tissue will dye the fabric!

Zaida Ben-Yusuf

I was trying to catch up on reading some of my magazines and looking at the summer issue of ARTnews when I saw a short article called “Pictorialist and Pioneer, Zaida Ben-Yusuf: New York portrait photographer”. What attracted me at first was the little photo accompanying the article.

Zaida Ben-Yusuf was a professional photographer in the early 1900’s and apparently, after a brief career, disappeared from the public eye. Her work has been re-discovered by Frank H. Goodyear III and an exhibit of her photographic portraits was held at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. I thought that I would definitely try to go see it, just to discover that the exhibit ended….today! It is however possible to see some images and find out a bit more on the links I am including below.
http://www.npg.si.edu/
http://www.si.edu/opa/insideresearch/articles/V16_PortraitPhotographer.html

I would love to get the catalogue written for the exhibit. I like her photographs and I would love to learn a bit more about her life.