My work at Pittsburgh's GalleriE CHIZ and new studio work

I'm excited to announce that my art jewelry and several of my works on paper will be on display and available for purchase at the fantastic GalleriE CHIZ in Pittsburgh's Shadyside neighborhood. I've always loved this gallery for its creative atmosphere and happy vibe. Owner-Director Ellen Chisdes Neuberg and Assistant Director Blanche Baxter are wonderful, and I'm so glad to be among the gallery's artists. Check out the gallery's beautiful mosaic facade--

GalleriE CHIZ is located at 5831 Ellsworth Avenue  Pittsburgh, PA 15232
Here, my art jewelry is currently available for purchase, and my works on paper will also be
available for purchase shortly.   

Right now, I'm working on pieces for Rochester Contemporary Art Center's 6" x 6" exhibition. On Monday, I finished the first of three works,"Astronomy Professor". An update on this will appear soon, as I am almost done with work two of three.


Savannah Schroll Guz, "Astronomy Professor" (2013)
aquatint, oil pastel, gouache, gold leaf, cotton thread, drawing paper
 and ball point pen on heavy grade cotton paper.

Does he look familiar? He's on my sewing machine in this post.  More to come!

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....



New swanky things from the studio

Lots of things are happening in the studio this week...here is a glimpse:

"Luna" polymer clay, acrylic paint, protective
sealant, fire-polished Czech glass, and amethyst
beads.



"Traveling with the Blood Tide" is getting a
tentative frame fit, to see how it might be best
to exhibit it....more on this as plans take shape!




"The Dream" is also getting a tentative frame fit for the same
upcoming project....more on this soon!



I'm taking part in the Brooklyn Art Museum's Sketchbook Project. I ordered my sketchbook on Friday night, so it should be here by next week. I'll be completing the "Right/Write When You Get There" themed sketchbook, which, along with 2,499 other artists' sketchbooks, will tour Kansas City, Louisville, Columbus, and Pittsburgh this October. Also, I opted have mine digitized, page by page, so it will be available to view online, and not just in the mobile library. I'm really excited about this!

And...one more art necklace, which I beaded on Monday morning!

"Geisha Girl II" polymer clay, acrylic paint,
protective sealant, glass beads.

"Geisha Girl II" (detail)

After some time in the studio.....



"Flight Patterns" aquatint, oil pastel, black ink, cardstock, and
cotton embroidery thread



Two more works (in-progress!) from the series...more on these
to come!



The underdrawing, originally from 1999 (and quite a bit larger--I've
cut it down into four pieces like this one), is also in progress...
The stars and circular sewing machine thread pattern are new.



I've put together a binder full of my present series for an appointment I
have this week. I used Michael's comic book protectors to mount the smaller
works. 

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)

'The Girl Knows These Corridors' and 'So Much Like Love'.....

Last week, I began cutting up a fairly large etching-aquatint I completed back in 1999, when I was in graduate school and, for the sake of my sanity, took a printmaking class at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. On their own, the etching-aquatints I completed were pretty unimpressive--more like an abstract jumble that never coalesced into real works I felt comfortable with.
My Dad has been giving me things that were stashed in the studio in the Pittsburgh apartment, and thanks to his diligent cleaning and discoveries, I have many boxes of goodies I can work with now. I brought the folder of etchings back to my studio here, cut them into smaller pieces, and have been working into them with a variety of materials, like oil pastels, embroidery thread, and watercolor (I'm excitedly awaiting the gouache set I ordered on Etsy...it should arrive from Israel soon). I also attached the drawing of the doe I made for our 2012 Christmas card to one of the works. Here are more productions from this week....

"The Girl Knows These Corridors" (2013) - cropped etching collaged with a black
ballpoint ink drawing, embroidered with yellow cotton thread, and
augmented with white watercolor and oil pastel. Now in my shop!

At the side and bottom of "The Girl Knows These Corridors" is a text excerpt from my autobiographical flash fiction work, "Italy, 1990". You can read the entire work here: http://fictionaut.com/stories/savannah-schroll-guz/italy-1990

The hand-written text that appears at the bottom and side is:
"The girl, now a woman, knows those corridors. She didn't then, but she's walked them since she knew each of those men, although she's several—no, many—years behind them. She can't even see their backs from where she is. Yet, she knows..." (the rest of the story paragraph is: "the wallpaper of the hallways, its texture against her fingertips.")

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On Thursday night, I completed this work (while watching a pretty riveting episode of DCI Banks involving art forgeries and duped museums--fun!). It is a segment of the same etching as the work above and those featured in previous posts.

"So Much Like Love" (2013)  - cropped etching, embroidered with magenta cotton thread, and augmented with white watercolor and oil pastel.

At the side of the work are words from my written work, "Charlotte's Nexus", a story about a little Polish girl who, as a ghost, haunts the doctor who has caused her death. You can read an excerpt from the longer story here: http://fictionaut.com/stories/savannah-schroll-guz/charlottes-nexus

The hand-written text that appears at the side reads:
"It was, some of her older facets told her, so much like love. Rushing away from the source, nearly drowning, coming back again…and again…and again….until the drowning could be mastered, managed, sustained."

New Art Necklaces!

Inspired by Flavia Marele and Ildiko Muresan's (a.k.a. DoubleFox Studio and a.k.a. Harem6) lovely ceramic necklaces (see two examples here and here), I've started making some of my own painted polymer clay goodies. A glimpse appears just below...more pictures will follow as I complete additional pieces!

"Starry Cloud" (2013) polymer clay, acrylic, varnish, glass beads,
silvertone chain. Read the listing in my shop here!

"Raining Shield" (2013), polymer clay, acrylic paint,
sealant, silver plated findings, glass beads.
You can see the whole listing in my shop!

"Raining Shield" (2013), polymer clay, acrylic paint,
sealant, silver plated findings, glass beads.
You can see the whole listing in my shop!

Radium Girls: Weeping Wound

The next page in the Radium Girls Graphic Novella is complete! Gory, this one. This was the 1920s, and of course, the weeping wound depicted was something the man sustained in WWI. Moving through the story steadily....if you would like to see what's coming up, you can read the entire tale by clicking here.