I walked down the sidewalk today kicking a pine-cone, arguably one of life's most satisfying pursuits. I believe it was fun for the pine-cone as well.

I've been busy and productive since returning to Los Angeles: visiting with family and a few friends, continuing organizing the universe, letting things go, watching Doctor Who while making books, (or making books while watching Doctor Who...) drawing pictures, taking note of deadlines, then forgetting about deadlines, enjoying consciously as well as sleeping soundly thorough 1960s Disney science shows like this, writing many letters (on the computer and in my head), working on a website, and planning plans.

Or at least daydreaming daydreams.

I suppose things are good in Los Angeles. I start teaching again at CSUN very soon.

I have been posting some things in my Etsy shop this evening, including some more little books. Please take a look!



Thank you for reading!

the saturday 6am restlessness.

Opportunity-hunting online this fine December morn.

I did not sleep well last night.

Cups of tea.

Space-heater.

What does this image mean? It means I am starting a drawing-a-day project this winter. Mentioning it on my blog will keep me from abandoning the project when I start traveling. I am "nerding it up" by pre-stamping the paper with the dates. My rule for this project is that I will start a new piece each day, but I can work on them for more than one day. the size is a scanner-friendly 8 1/2" x 11". How long will I do this? I don't know. Forever. Or 'til I start teaching the Spring semester at CSUN. I don't know.

Recently. Also.

Never. Constantly.



This has black and pink and grey-and-pink stitching all over it. I love the subtlety of the bit of machine stitching with a grey top thread and pink bottom thread...apparently so did my scanner, as it decided I needed this funny little detail....

Recently.

Tulips and Smoke.

This grey ink is my new best friend.

I am very fond of snails.

Wednesday Morning, 6am in Los Angeles.
I recorded a two-minute video of this snail commuting across the sidewalk (with cars speeding by in the background) but I am having difficulty uploading it. But you probably have other things to do with the two minutes it would take you to watch it...

I woke up at 2:30 am, and was unable to go back to sleep. Serves me right for trying to go to bed early.

I've been drawing all morning, and noting how I breathe differently when I draw. It is nice. I like the drawing-breathing.

I have overhauled my studio, and am quite organized at the moment, and have a plan. Well, a few plans.

I also have a stack of pieces I intend to share on this blog and on Etsy...quite soon.

Yesterday I planted some seeds, including "moonlight" nasturtiums and "flying saucer" morning glorys. (glories, maybe?) I have an outer space-y garden.

My plan for the morning is to walk over the 5, over the River to Atwater Village. I'm going to have breakfast at the Village Bakery (I have only tried their scones, and their scones were acceptably yummy.) Then I will work a shift at Sante D'Or Animal Rescue, with my lady Sabrina and the gang.

In conclusion: snails, drawings, breathing, outer-space flowers, cats, bunnies, scones, and coffee.

I have no particular complaints today.

Hi Mom!

Hey look, everybody! Its cooled off enough for me to wear a wool hat! And look how long my hair is getting! I haven't had it cut in over a year, and I'm finally past that awkward in-between phase.



Maybe it was just the Sunday Morning Loveliness and the coffee, but this pile of books with Blue Bunny struck me as rather nice looking yesterday...

I've been doing a lot of things, but blogging regularly sure as hell isn't one of them. Yesterday I spent some time catching up on my friend Abbey's blog, Aesthetic Outburst, and as always I learned new things, discovered new artists/designers and felt all around motivated to try harder.

Let's see. So on Saturday I got up awfully early and went out to Northridge to be a presenter for "smART day", a day of workshops and lectures for art educators. I did the fastest mini-bookbinding workshop ever. It was kind of cool. Here's my TA & friend Katrina stabbing some paper.



Sunday I had a good morning of farmers marketing and coffee, and then tended to the ongoing cleaning/organizing/artmaking situation. It goes like this: "I should get to work on making stuff. But boy, this place is already so disorganized...maybe I should clean first." Then I sit on my floor organizing my safety pins by size for an hour....Then I take a nap.

It's something like that. I'm exaggerating a bit, (although there have been naps this weekend, make no mistake.) Anyone else get in these weird productive/unproductive cycles?

I have made progress on a project that isn't so much art-making, but rather documentation/organization. I mean, besides sorting the safety pins.

I'm always drawing. Doodling. On all sorts of bits of paper, envelopes, margins of my calender, post-it notes, and the agendas from faculty meetings. I've been tearing out and saving the good bits for some time.

Because I need more irregular bits of paper in my life, right?

I have started pasting these drawings onto blank 3x5" index cards. Then I put them in this beauty:



My ol' grad school pal Jeremy Entwistle rescued this library card catalog from university surplus, but he could not take it with him when we graduated. I love it. In addition to storing supplies and materials, (like more irregular bits of paper) I hope someday it will be full of little drawings. What I would really love to find (and I have looked) is some discarded library cards to use as a base for drawings/collages. When I was at Murray State University they were using old catalog cards as scratch paper at the library. I wish I'd swiped a few...thousand.

If anyone knows where I could get some catalog cards, please let me know!

Space.

I am itching to make some big art. Everything is rather cramped right now in michelle-land.

This is a big ink drawing on mulberry paper...spent a lot of the weekend drawing all these dots and circles. It's lovely and huge and delicate, and I want to make many more of them.

Yeah...that's all for now.

A Very Brief Report about Deer Isle.

On my Summer Vacation, I took a freezing cold plunge in the Atlantic Ocean.

I can only say that the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts was amazing. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, and I was fortunate to spend two weeks there. I learned a great deal, and I got to spend time with some wonderful people, like these misfit bookbinders:



Thank goodness for the timer on my Polaroid camera. This was a particularly glad evening.

It was bone-chillingly cold the majority of my two weeks in Maine. It was rainy and foggy, wet, and very moody. There were shades of green and grey I have never seen before, and so many different kinds of tiny growing things.

Descriptions are boring and difficult. Maybe you should just look at some more pictures....I have posted many images on my Flickr account. What? Didn’t know I have a Flickr account? Well, I don’t mention it too often, you know. Maybe because I'm still trying to figure out how to work Flickr. Take a look...here.

Anyway, It was a drag to return to LA....

There are new pieces for sale in my Etsy shop. I haven’t made work of this type in a while, and I’m really in love with these at the moment. These mixed-media drawings utilize appropriated imagery from my Mom’s Girlscout handbook from the 1950’s. I was never a Girlscout, and at one time in my youth I was sort of obsessed with my Mom's handbook.....Anyway, way back in 2003 I started using the kind of generic images of girls as points of departure for self portraits. I think that's what's going on here.



Please take a look. This is just one of the things that I’m doing right now.

Optics mostly.

So, here's an absolutely delightful scientific discovery. This is an up-side-down projection of my front window, through a magnifying lens. I wanted to share it with the world.

Today I posted four pieces for sale in my Etsy shop. They are pretty recent, but not the newest new. The newest new will be at Henry Road next week. As soon as I finish and frame things.....

Next Thursday, June 11th there will be a reception at Henry Road from 6-9pm. A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

I went over to Intelligentsia last week and tried to take pictures of my pieces. Probably one of the most awkward and embarrassing things ever: "excuse me, would you move your head?" ... "I'm sorry, sir...I'm taking a picture of the wall behind you...."




So, not my finest moment, and pretty terrible images of some good works. I'm no photographer. You'll have to go see 'em in person I s'pose...I have 9 or 10 pieces there, of an uncommonly large size for Michelle Moode art. I may try to take better pictures if I ever figure out when Intelligentsia isn't full of people.

90 sales in my shop. Thanks to all for your recent purchases and support.

Ferriswheel Friday.

Today's Ferriswheel is one of mine: here's a detail of a piece listed for sale in my shop. That's a lavender ferriswheel printed on tea-bag material. Etching and lots of stitching...

I also wanted to tell the world about my dear friend Ann. We recently got to catch up at SGC, over some drinks and some collaborative drawings. She's in her first year of graduate school, and she's making some great work. Who thinks Ann should open an Etsy shop? I do! Here's a table full of her pretty sherbet-colored ghosts and waxy paper doilies:


A good, busy week. Lots of new drawings in my shop. Please take a look, and if you like the work, or like what I do, or like me....by all means, let me know. Does that sound needy? oops...


(This is the cover from my thesis installation guest book...)

Honesty, Sincerity, Simplicity, Integrity...

..and Dots.

I had an intense time at the Southern Graphics Council conference. I'm still processing the experience, but I need to tell the world about it.



Late on Wednesday night I arrived in Richmond, Virginia. From then 'til the time I left for the airport, (4:30am Sunday, by way of the most frightening van ride ever!) I was joyfully overwhelmed by old friends, familiar faces, former professors, long-time heroes, former class-mates, even a former student. So many friends. Oh, and plenty of art.

I walked a lot, I talked more than usual, I laughed a lot, and realized I don't laugh enough in Los Angeles. I saw a lot of art. I got to show my recent work to the whole of the SGC community, but more importantly I had the chance to show my new work to people who's opinion (and approval!) is really important to me. Two of these good people: my former professor Nicole Hand from Murray State University, and Joe Lupo, my former professor from West Virginia University.

I sold some work, made a lot of good contacts, and even saw a few fellow etsy folks. I drank a lot of coffee, a few beers, and then a few more beers. Ah, printmaking....

A particular highlight was hearing Leslie Dill speak about her work. I have known and admired her work for some time, but getting more of an impression of her as a person has truly made me a fan. She was interesting, profound, poetic...and funny. And here's a piece for you to enjoy:


Lesley Dill, 2004
Breathing Leaves
2004
ink, thread, glue on tea-stained fabric

ah....

The intensity of the experience didn't end with me crashing, exhausted, onto my Ikea sofa-bed back in LA. Oh no, that would have been too easy! When I got into LAX at 10:45 am, (after over seven hours of travel...oh, and a mere 2 hours of sleep the "night" before...) my guy picked me up and we drove out to Simi Valley. Sam was photographing an event at his former summer camp, Camp Alonim. We had an amazing day, and I can't tell you how wonderful it was to explore a place that is so important to my person-of-particular-significance.

Future-recent work will include images of stacked pink stones, pepper from pepper trees, pink eucalyptus leaves, and perhaps a watching horse. I also grabbed some twigs from a burnt tree. Southern-California-wildfire-charcoal drawings? Aren't we excited?

Anyway, I really needed SGC, and I think I also needed to see Camp Alonim. And BOY am I tired.....

Today I posted a whole bunch of new drawings in my Etsy store. I love this series of "Island" drawings. Take a look....see if you don't agree!

March soon.

The past few days I have had several Etsy sales and lots of good news. Avocados are free and plentiful, and I've been making lots of work. Well, I have started a lot of new things. The above image is my works-in-progress wall of my studio apartment. There are a bunch of ferriswheel etchings, some fossil/seashell pictures that have been hanging around for a while, and the purply wine-drawings I started last night.

Sometimes a girl's just gotta have some wine, put on Lord of the Rings, and draw some pictures. Lately I've been doing so much "tight" sewing, that it was really a nice switch to just draw. I was drawing from johnny jump-ups and some of my dissected pocket watches, but the finished pieces will not be entirely representational.

Five years ago I was installing my Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition. Below are a couple of low-quality images of the very-large quilt-like pieces from that show. These were silkscreen on mulberry paper, with sewing, tea and watercolor. They had a lot of insane detail; sometime I should re-photograph these guys. One is in my parent's collection, and the other is in "the archive". The top orange grove was the first time I had printed an edition and then proceeded to sew all the prints together. So long ago....




This time last year, I was gearing up for my Thesis Exhibition...but that's for another post.

Ancient History.

Recently I have dug deep into the archives, and have been working on a crop of drawings started long ago and oh so far away. This evening I posted four of these for sale on my Etsy store.

Most people, (reading this, or that I know, or in the universe) haven't read my Master's Thesis. That's okay, really, but I do suggest that you follow the link and check out some of the images from the Installation. Anyway, I thought I'd post a little info 'bout how I work:

My working method is more cyclical than linear. I make a piece, and then I take it apart and reinvent it. I hide things in boxes for months or years. I cut pieces-into-pieces only to discover that they need to be sewn back together. I forget about things I’ve started, then later return my attention to them.

Each piece I make has a history because of this cyclical working method. This series of 14 drawings have had such an interesting evolution. I started them in fall of 2004, (I believe...). They have been written on and drawn on multiple times, and then rinsed out, almost removing my inky marks. They have been stained with tea. They have been torn into smaller drawings. I have considered them as one large piece. I have considered binding them into a book.

Recently I rediscovered them, and have now considered them one-at-a-time, as individuals. I have responded to the faint snippets of text that remain. I have made decisions.

And now I am letting them go.

Keep an eye on the shop for more of this "crop".