Giant Robot 2's Eleventh Annual Post-It Show

Hello my long-wondering-what-I'm-up-to blog followers! Let's just say my 2014/15 years have been a time of introspection and exploration. I've been taking workshops, webinars, and online classes. I've been taking trips and attending conferences. Basically, soaking up a bunch of knowledge and being inspired a whole lot.

And I've been creating. I've continued to experiment with my brush-pen patterns and designs. I've even started doing some representational experiments. I have an exciting new personal project focusing on just that, I'm hoping to get it started in early 2016.

In the meantime, I'm very excited to announce I was invited to participate in Giant Robot's Post-It Show Eleven! The show opens at the LA gallery on Dec 5th, 2015 (check for show news here). Here's a preview of the pieces I submitted to the show:

15 post-its submitted 

"7 of 15"

Some interesting bits about the show this year: All artwork is completed on actual Post-it notes. All Post-it's are $25 (50% goes to the artist). Over 450 artists are confirmed for this year's show — including Dan Santat, Susie Ghahremani, J. Otto Semibold, and Jamie Zollars!!  (forgive me other children's book peeps, the list is SO LONG I may have missed you).

Getting Ready for the CPSA International Show 2014

Great news! One of the pieces from my book, The Zoo's Annual Piggyback Race, has been accepted into the CPSA's 2014 International Show! It is always such an amazing honor to get into this show… especially with "less-than-traditional" fine art.

a framing work-in-progess

I'm super excited to be framing my first piece from the book. I used to work in a frame shop, so I've done most of my own framing for years. I try to use local shops when I can (strictly for the frame and glass, I cut my own mats and fit it all together myself), but my favorite local shop recently closed and I haven't been able to find another great local source yet.

But getting into this show presents another problem: shipping. There all kinds of requirements for framing the pieces that are accepted and you have prepare a re-usable box so the pieces can be shipped back (if they aren't sold during the show, of course). I used to have a heavy duty Air-Float box for shipping pieces to and from the CPSA Shows… but after 6 shows, that box had to be "retired".

I decided to try an online framing supply, figuring I could knock out two issues: frame & acrylic supply (pieces cannot be framed w/glass) PLUS a shipping solution — since the prepared frame would be shipping to me, I'd have a ready-made box to use!

The plan worked, with complications. The box I received my frame in is not the best, but with some modifications, I should be able to make it work. Also, the piece of acrylic I received has a flaw, a black speck INSIDE the plastic. Fortunately, American Frame's Customer Service was very accommodating and has rush shipped a replacement at no extra cost. AF has an average selection of frames, but the prices are among the best I've seen online. They also had a good selection of small framing supply odds and ends for very reasonable prices.

SCBWI-NM Enchantment Show

On May 3rd, SCNWI-NM celebrated the reception event for our first (hopefully annual) Enchantment Show at the Los Griegos Library in Albuquerque. Here's a little more about the show from our Press Release:

A magical art and writing exhibit for children of all ages, Enchantment, will be on view during the month of May at the Los Griegos Library in Albuquerque.  This unique show features collaborative pieces by members of the New Mexico Chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. 

MasterWorks of New Mexico: The Judge

Behind-the-scenes.

What an honor to be asked to judge a Show that I've been involved with almost every year since I've been in New Mexico. I had the pleasure of going in and seeing all the accepted miniature work yesterday—then had to the challenging task of handing out awards.
Don't let anyone tell you it's easy to judge other people's work, it's not. Although, that being said, I think I may have had it a little easier than the larger works judge. Miniatures have strict rules & regulations against which to be juried into the show—I was a juror back in 2011, that's also a tough job! But the jurors did a fabulous job selecting deserving works to be included in this year's display.
There are 7 categories: Oil, Acrylic, Water Media, Drawing/Printing, Mixed Media, Colored Pencil and  Three-dimensional—each of which I had to award 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, plus 8 honorable mentions, one Best-In-Show, and several awards for excellence, detail, etc.
It was a daunting afternoon, but more than rewarding for the honored recipients—it was a rich and inspiring experience for me. I walked out of there brimming with ideas and motivation to push myself more in my own work, experiment, and perhaps even branch out into other media.

I'm looking forward to the reception next Friday, April 4th 5-8pm… and to the next year of ideas and experiments and new miniature work to come!

Signing documents while the show is hung.

p.s. I'm also teaching my first workshop during/at the show. It will focus on mixing colors, blending, and burnishing with colored pencil—specifically how these relate to working in miniature. I'm nervous and excited for it, wish me luck!

Update: The SCBWI-NM Enchantment Show

Our local SCBWI Illustrator's group is doing a show this year, called Enchantment. It's a joint show with writers—several illustrators have completed and submitted pieces (loosely based on the theme of enchantment), which have been randomly assigned to local writers, who will write a one page story based on the image.

In May, all artwork and single page written works will be framed and hung together at one of our local libraries. I've decided to post my piece and my process so far. It's mostly done… but I'm still tinkering with it.

Initial concept, thumbnail sketch
Polly (polar bear) and Sunny (sun bear) meet in the middle of the ocean.

New Work: Masterworks Miniatures 2013

Once again, a new batch of miniatures are complete and submitted! Keeping my fingers crossed they are all accepted into the MasterWorks show.

After taking a year off to participate in the show as a miniatues juror last yea, I can only hope I do as well as I have in past years (2009, 2010, 2011). While I’m still inspired by my travels throughout the state of New Mexico, this year I’m focusing on it’s beautiful skies and sunsets. Like a couple years ago, I raided my own photo archives for inspiration on these pieces, but I started planning these piece for last year’s show… but I never was able to work on the finals. As usual, I left most of the work to the last minute—all pieces were completed last week, and submitted on Saturday.

Driveby Sunset

4.85" x 3" On Arches, 140lb. Hotpress

(6.75" x 5" framed)

This piece is based on yet another snapshot I took while driving home from Santa Fe one evening. I just loved the light of the sunset, outside the frame of the image and unseen directly, but reflecting it’s warmth into the image—while the blues and purples of twilight hide in the shadows of the clouds. It was a surreal moment I was lucky to catch.

Ember Sky

4.75" x 4" On Arches, 140lb. Hotpress

(5.5" x 5" framed)

Once again, I was inspired my the many layers and colors of the sky for this piece… the small yet intense colors of the sunset, so focused in one spot, while the sky above is still hanging onto late afternoon and dancing with frolicking wisps of clouds.

Sunset Aflame

3.65" x 2.65" On Arches, 140lb. Hotpress

(4.75" x 3.75" framed)

This one is a bit more traditional, a real flaming sunset—although maybe a bit more wildly colorful than reality. More desert silhouettes play beneath what looks like a writhing storm of fire, but I was there and I know just how peaceful it was.

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PROJECT NOTES: This year it was a little harder for me to get back into the minis. Maybe taking last year off to be a juror wasn’t such a good idea. I’m hoping I can find a new spark of inspiration to really get my head back in it next year.

Audiobooks/stories listened to while working on these pieces:

Neverware, by Neil Gaiman (BBC theatrical radio production)

The Map of the Sky, by Felix J Palma

New Work & Show Opening Tonight!

Hello!… 3.75"x3.75" - a brand new mixed media experiment.

It's time for our local New Mexico CPSA District Chapter Annual Show again, generously hosted by the Old School House Gallery! I submitted three pieces this year, including my Sleep Bears piece and these two new pieces. I hope to see a great crowd there tonight!

Snow Buddies… 5"x7" - some of you may recognize this as the
original drawing used for my Christmas card last year.

New Work: Colored Pencil, Small Work

I have a show coming up! These are my new small works for the show (not technically miniatures but all under 25 sq. inches). In addition to these new pieces, my Bandelier, No.2, Catch a Flying Star, Hey Diddle Diddle triptych (only Cow and Moon shown in link), Aesop's Fables, Fox and Grapes, New Mexico Christmas (the original graphite drawing, not colored like the link), and Sleepy Bears will also be hanging in the show.

New Mexico Colored Pencil Society, DC 219 Annual Show
at The Old School House Gallery
November 4-27, 2011
Opening reception November 4th from 5-8pm

DIRECTIONS: On the Turquoise Trail just north of Cedar Crest, NM.

FROM Albuquerque: take Interstate 40 east to the Cedar Crest/Tijeras exit 175 and head north. The gallery is 6.1 miles north of Interstate 40, on the east side of NM-14.

FROM Santa Fe: take Interstate 25 south to exit 278, the NM-14 South/Cerrillos Road
towards Madrid. Follow NM-14 south for 40.9 miles, the gallery is on the east side of NM-14.

Update Masterworks: It's Official… Again!

On April 1, at the Masterworks Show reception, I was awarded 2nd place in the Colored Pencil Miniatures category. WooHoo! My piece, "Massive Sky, Sandias" was the winner… which just happens to be my own favorite of the three pieces I submitted. Here is a picture of me with all three of my entries hanging at the show:

It was a truly fun evening. Each year I go to this show, I recognize more and more faces and they recognize me, I'm really starting to feel like I "belong". Shocker! I know. LOL

New Work: Masterworks Miniatures 2011

This year's batch of miniatures are complete and submitted! Keeping my fingers crossed they are all accepted into the MasterWorks show.

Judging from last year's success and the fact that two of the three pieces I entered sold (both New Mexico themed), I decided to focus on my own travels throughout the state. I take reference pictures wherever I go, sometimes even while I'm driving (very carefully!!!). Usually these get dropped in a folder on my computer and are rarely seen again. I decided to go back through these collections and find some choice references to inspire and guide me for this year's submissions. And while I still left most of the work to the last minute (all pieces were completed this past week), I was able to plan ahead a bit better and ordered my frames a couple weeks ago, so I could drop the finished pieces into their final homes as soon as they were finished.

Massive Sky, Sandias
6.5" x 1.5" On Arches, 140lb. Hotpress
(7.5" x 2.5" framed)
This piece is based on a snapshot I took while driving home from Santa Fe one evening. I couldn't believe it was a real sky, it was just so… massive and dramatic. Sun, storm, and clouds converging over the Sandias in a magical moment. I wanted to do a piece that was a less traditional shape as well. I love long & narrow verticals and horizontals, and this was one of the rare images I had been carrying around in my head since I snapped the photo -- waiting for the right moment to bring it to my drawing table. In the case of miniatures, they say the more "miniature" the better, so I decided not to mat this piece, placing it directly in the frame as if it was an epic grand-scale landscape in oil. My impression of massiveness carried through to the title in the end - I really loved the idea of naming this tiny piece "massive".



Bandelier, No.2
3.75" x 5" On Arches, 140lb. Hotpress
(7.5" x 6.5" framed)
Since I had so much success with the piece I did based on Bandelier National Monument in last year's show, I wanted to do a follow-up piece this year as well. Honestly, this place is just so breath-takingly amazing, I could occupy many years of art-making with this theme. I'll be quite glad to return to it year after year. I've been to the monument twice in the three years I've lived in New Mexico (and taken hundreds of picture upon each visit), I only wish I had time to go more often. I have to admit, somewhere along the line I messed up in my planning and I actually ended up doing this one a little larger than I originally intended (mis-measured somewhere in my process). I had planned to mimic the final presentation from last year's piece, but since the picture ended up larger (and I'd pre-measured and pre-ordered the frame) I ended up having to skip the double mat -- though I didn't realize it until AFTER I had cut and finished the mats with deckled edges and everything!. I'm not sure where the blue theme came from. I guess I originally didn't just want to render exactly what was there, but honor it, and accentuate the otherworldliness of the place, the mystic. I put a little more color variation in this one though, pulling in stronger purples with the exaggerated blues. I'm particularly proud of the teenie tiny ruins in the distance outside the cave (just above the top rung of the ladder).




Catch a Flying Star, DT
4" x 2.5" On Arches, 140lb. Hotpress
(4.875" x 6.25" framed)
This one is a bit different. This was another one of those special photos I kept in my head once I'd snapped the picture. It was just so crazy, colorful, surreal, and beautiful. Flying Star Cafe was one of my first New Mexico dining experiences. I went for the first time back on 2006, when I visited Albuquerque for the first time. A year and a half later, I moved into an apartment two blocks down the street. It has always been a special, comfortable place for me. And while they are extremely protective of their interiors (I believe they've gone so far as to copyright them in some way), this is actually a picture I took out the window, of the intersection of Silver Ave and 8th St. It just happens to be reflecting back a saucer-shaped ceiling, lights, and various other shapes and colors into the sky above outside. It makes for a magnificent alien encounter effect in mysterious New Mexico. *Side note - I totally forgot to sign this piece! Oops.

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I have to say, with each year, I get more and more into these tiny paintings. They are just so… precious. Not to mention, I can do them pretty quickly - as compared to a lot of the illustration work I do. I get to just immerse myself in the rendering, instead of having to think about story, narrative or objectives needed (or lack there of) for so many illustration & design pieces.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Gallery Award

Last night I attended the opening reception for my local Colored Pencil Society of America Chapter's group show at the Wooden Cow Gallery here in Albuquerque.
We had a great turn out. It was a fun evening of admiring our group's lovely work - such variety! There were several awards presented, including "The Cow's Choice" and three "Awards of Excellence" awarded by the Gallery owners. As a board member of our local chapter, I was not eligible for these awards. But there was also voting for a "People's Choice Award" at the opening reception - and my piece, AquaLuna was the winner! Excellent!

You can see pictures of all the award winners over at the CPSA NM Group Blog

New Work: Masterworks Miniatures

I'm submitting three pieces to the Masterworks Miniatures show this year and I've just finished the last one - so here they are to share with the world. If you'll remember, last year I submitted just one, but I was awarded 3rd prize in the colored pencil category. I'm going for 1st this year - do you think one of these could manage it?

The frames are being cut & joined now and I'll pick them up and fit the artwork myself on Saturday - I'll try to photograph & update the completed pieces here before the drop-off on Sunday afternoon!

Enchanted. 2" x 3.25" On Arches, 120lb. Hotpress, mounted to museum board.

Pueblo. 2.25" x 2.4375" On sandpaper.

Bandelier. 2.75" x 3.75" On Arches, 120lb. Hotpress.

These are the pieces matted (it is TOUGH to cut mats this small!).

UPDATE: 3/29/2010
Framed Pieces…

Illustration Friday: SUBTRACT

Simple Sauce
art 3.375" sq., frame 6" sq
colored pencil
©2009

So, this is a little bit of cheat, but I needed to do a miniature piece for a show (deadline was this morning), so I'm posting my entry for Masterworks as well as submitting it for this week's IF theme. The idea here is there were several other tomatoes on the vine that have been subtracted to make sauce. Am I stretching it a bit? Yeah, I thought so.

There are all kinds of rules for miniature works - the general one being 1/6th scale (if the actual tomato is roughly 3" in diameter, it can't be more than 1/2" in the miniature artwork. But sometimes that's not enough! If the artwork doesn't portray a 'sense of miniature' it can be deemed a small picture, as opposed to a miniature. It's baffling, I know. Anyway, I do have that concern with this piece... but I'll keep you posted if I make it into the show. -m.

Solo Show: WILDlife

In celebration of their first year in ABQ, Tangerine Cafe will be hosting my first solo show and gallery reception.

"WILDlife is a collection of my works centering on the animal side of life. Fantastical beasts, friendly fauna, and mysterious mammals alike come together to share a unique and all together wonderous journey through a variety of landscapes and stories."

Check out our announcement.