My work for sale at ROCO benefit, a new diptych painting, and roses!

I mentioned in a previous post that two of my mixed media works are currently at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center...and here they are, on the wall! "Astronomy Professor" is #485 while "Magical Jasper" is #486.  The red dots below denote sold works (each are just $20), and all proceeds benefit the Rochester Contemporary Art Center.

 

Click here to see the works up close!

 

Things, too, are happening in the studio. A new work from the Origin of the Milky Way series, titled "Orion's Arm" appears below. It is for sale in my art shop here. (Sorry, folks....you'll have to scroll past the rose picture, since the Blogger picture insert interface is making things tough...*tsk, tsk, tsk*)



A close up of the roses on the trellis outside our house....
there are more rose bush pictures below. The pic insert
command is giving me a hard time....grrrr....



Origin of the Milky Way Series - "Orion's Arm" - Diptych Painting
with Gold Leaf each small canvas is 4" x 2"; as shown, the work is
approximately 8-1/2" high (with the space between)
Check it out here!

 

A view of the whole rose trellis (there was a close up
above)

 

Our other rose bushes...we got these beauties at Ollie's Outlet a few years ago
for like $3.99 each. What a gorgeous return on a tiny investment!

New Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook Pages and...



Another page from the Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook
Project (still in progress but almost complete!)



Another mixed media work on paper, still in progress.
(We're to the sewing portion now....)

Page 7 of the B.A.L. Sketchbook Project, now completed.
To see if before, click here.

Sister Moon and other stories....

Savannah Schroll Guz, "Sister Moon" (2013)

Savannah Schroll Guz, "Oracle" (2013) revised from yesterday!

Savannah Schroll Guz, "But I Believe" (2013)

Savannah Schroll Guz "An Old Belfast Friend" (2013)

Savannah Schroll Guz, "Very Glad" (2013)

Savannah Schroll Guz, "Lemon Moon" (2013)

Oracle finished, sunrise, the mess in my studio, etc....

I'm working like crazy to get new works done for an upcoming opportunity (more on this if what I hope develops does come to fruition....). My upstairs studio area is a certified mess, but it's filling up with things I'm very excited about. Remember my earlier post on the genesis of a new work? The first image below is the finished piece. I've done a good deal of bead work, using two different colors, a pearlescent mint green and a fire polished purple glass bead, to visually emulate what I imagine is both the otherworldy nature of the Oracle's experience and the influx of energy she conducts. Around her are various phases of the moon. The rest below is a pictorial....



"Oracle" (2013) watercolor, ink, seed beads, cotton
embroidery thread

 


The view from our bedroom window this morning....



My upstairs studio space with mixed media works in various stages of completion
 (there are skeins of lace on the lower left hand side of the table)

Another up-close picture of "Raining Histamine" (left), now with lace trim at the bottom, and
"But I Believe..." (in progress) on the right.

Another shot of the studio table...."But I Believe" (from the image above) is
close to being finished and appears in the plexiglass frame at middle right.

Raining Histamine...new work on paper completed...

Remember the mixed media paper work, onto which I was sewing beads in yesterday's post? Here it is, all completed. It's much more striking in person, as the seed beads sparkle and catch the light.

"Raining Histamine" (2013) charcoal, watercolor, paper collage, ink,
cotton embroidery thread, and seed beads on paper

My studio is a mess, but it's a happy place.....



I have discovered the joy of using a sewing machine on paper. "The Astronomy Professor"
is getting an application of red thread. He has since been mounted on
a 6" x 6" sheet, further embroidered and hand-colored, and will be on his way to the
 Rochester Contemporary Art Center for their 6 x 6 x 13
exhibtion by the end of next week (with a few other works).

 

I've started a new series of works, intended to be seen together. Additional
pictures follow this one. Is my studio a mess? Um, yes. 




More of my studio mess. Find the schanuzer with the shirt on in this picture.
Nah, it's not a fashion statement, it's to keep the little lad from scratching
himself silly. Long story...involving K9 Advantix, which is some
bad stuff, let me tell you.



I am so, so excited about this new project! It involves
scanned vintage post card pictures, segments of one of my
drawings from 1999, and cut outs from 1920s sheet music.
Things have only just begun with this series....



Bacon and Eggs Abstraction and working with cyanotypes...

In the spirit of fun, I've made a funny little art jewelry piece called "Bacon and Eggs Abstraction". It's a cute little work where the eggs float and cast shadows behind two large strips of bacon, heavily marbelized with fat (made all the more...shall we say enchanting?...by the addition of irridescent painting medium to the fat marbeling and egg whites...so much like pixie dust!) And because, back in October/November, I got that beautiful, gi-normous bead and jewelry-making lot from an auction in North Lima, Ohio, I've started adding beads to my work. With the beads, I offer further visual interest and 'kitsch-ification' of the pin's subject: some dangling bead charms. Actually, it looks pretty neat when it's on the jacket lapel, if I do say so myself. :-)

"Bacon and Eggs Abstraction" (2013)
art pin made of polymer clay, acrylic paint,
varnish, seed beads, and faceted glass beads
Click here to see it in my shop!

"Bacon and Eggs Abstraction" pinned to a jacket.

In 2-D art news, I've been inspired by Cathy Cullis' works, like "House Quartet" and  "Garden of My Mind", and consequently, I continue to experiment with embroidering paper. With "Snow Blankets" (below), I've begun adding cyanotypes to the underlying etching. What's a cyanotype? It's a what is more commonly known as a sunprint. "Cyan" is blue and "type" meaning, roughly, print. I made these cyanotypes back in, I would say, 2007 or so at my parents' house. Michael had gotten me a little packet of them, and I did clover leaves, palm fronts, and doilies. I've had them in a little plastic bag in my studio since then. Now, they're very handy and will figure into the next several works-on-paper that I do (a glimpse of something even newer is just below "Snow Blankets").


"Snow Blankets" (2013) embroidered etching with gouache,
oil pastel, black ballpoint pen, and cyanotype on paper.



This one isn't titled yet and is still in progress....stay tuned! Let the embroidering
begin tonight!



New Totem Necklace and Something Flowing...



"Something Flowing and Ungraspable" (2013)
oil pastel, gouache, and black ink on embroidered etching collaged
with cardstock ink drawing and sunprint
What's the writing? An excerpt from my story, "Flooding the Memory River"



"Star Chart" Totem Necklace
New in the shop!

Check out the listing here.



A week of snow and....

It's been snowing on and off here, and sometimes it looks as if our house is in the middle of a snow globe. It's wonderfully dramatic to have these big flakes swirling around outside. I've also been, very happily, making a lot of vintage sales and 'tidying' my shop and my stock, taking pictures, and also fighting a bout of feeling under the weather. I started on "The Dream" (below) on Saturday night, but because I felt so terrible on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I didn't finish it until early this morning. This is the last segment of the giant aquatint I'd done at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts back in 1999. I have another etching, about the same size, downstairs in a folder. I'll bring that up and cut it into pieces and work into it next....as well as continue with some art jewelry and forge ahead with the Radium Girls graphic novel. 

Speaking of graphic novels, Michael and I spent some time at Barnes and Noble in Robinson on Sunday night, after he was done with his usual 3rd Sunday systems engineering assignments. We filled our bellies with Red Robin goodness, and then went over to hang out in the comic book section. I picked up Craig Thompson's Blankets (for the 3,000th time) and his Habibi (for the first time). His work is dynamic, and I learn quite a bit just by looking at his line work and use of space. 

For now, I present the new mixed media work: "The Dream"....

"The Dream" (2013) collage on aquatint, with ballpoint
pen, white watercolor, oil pastel, and purple embroidery thread
Now in my shop: www.savannahschrollguz.etsy.com 

"The Dream"

"The Dream" (back side)