Lena Corwin Happy Monday Inspiration

by Linda | Dec 21, 2009 | my creative journal

Can you imagine a blanket of white snow gracing the Tuscan countryside?  That’s the view I’ve been privelged to witness this whole weekend as it snowed in many parts of Italy where normally it would never snow and actually stick!  It’s been super fun having a winter wonderland to play in, but now it’s a cold Monday morning and time to get back to work.  The weather has certainly caused trouble for many trying to commute to the workplace.  I feel so lucky to be able to work from home, especially since I always take Mondays to collect myself, organize and fill my mind with inspiration for the week.  Today, I’m snuggling up with a warm cup of coffee and the beautiful works of Lena Corwin.

via Lena’s Flickr

Lena Corwin is a pattern designer and illustrator living in Brooklyn, New York and I first encountered her work when I purchased her book, Printing by Hand: A Modern Guide to Printing with Handmade Stamps, Stencils, and Silk Screens (affiliate link to Amazon).  I love how the book starts from zero, explaining the how-tos and whys.  Even though I might have dabbled in some of the techniques, it really helps to start from the basic foundation.  I like it so much that I purchased another copy to give to a friend this Christmas!  I’ve read through the book a few times, but still have to get through all the projects in a practical sense – she presents a project for each technique including patterns if you want to use her designs.  I totally love all her design work and I started following Lena’s website as well.  From there I found that she not only creates wonderful patterns in her textile work, but also print items and works in various other mediums.

via Lena’s Flickr

I love her sense of style and the feeling her work invokes.  To me her designs exude that organic natural feeling as well as homey comfort that I love, yet the professional finish goes hand in hand as well.  I always aspire to create handmade and art from the heart, but also strive for that professional finish and quality.  You can check out Lena’s shop for a sampling of the beautiful products she creates.

via Lena’s Flickr

As if that is not enough, Lena also works to curate a book/zine called Lines & Shapes.  It’s all about connecting with other artists, sort of a showcase of art and design.  It’s so fascinating to see how her work spans across so many mediums and it’s very inspiring to me especially because I love so many different facets of the creative life and can’t see myself focusing only on one aspect.  To see other succeed in multiple avenues, makes me feel less scattered and gives me hope that a jill-of-all-trades isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Isn’t it all so very exciting and wonderful?  I hope you can soak in the inspiration and have a fabulous holiday season as well.  Today is official the first day of winter after all!

Updates for this Lovely Tuesday

by Linda | Dec 15, 2009 | my creative journal

After getting some collage inspiration yesterday, I started on a triptych of tiny canvases using lovely Japanese washi paper for collage.  The designs are so pretty and I love the bit of texture and fibers within the paper as well.  Here’s a look at my work in progress…

You can see my little sketches on the bottom where I worked out some ideas and also the cutout templates on the top where the scissors are.  Making your own templates really help a lot, especially if you’ll be duplicating any craft.  I also used the shape to trace out sketching templates, as I played around with different types of hairstyles and faces for the ladies.

So why three of these little beauties?  My inspiration came from the original three muses in Greek mythology, but sort of Japanese-cute tortagialla style…haha!  Seriously though, I love how the muses embody the arts and inspire the creation and process of art…they can be my little set of cheerleaders for creativity.  I am so anxious to finish them up, but I have to wait in between steps for drying time, ugh!  Drives me a bit insane, so I usually have many projects going on at the same time to satisfy my short attention span.

Hope everyone is having a fabulous holiday season.  I’ve been so inspired by all the great blogs and online community out there, sharing tips, tricks and great projects.  Even with the blistering cold wind here in Italy, it’s a merry lovely Tuesday for me.  Ciao ciao!

Henri Matisse Happy Monday Inspiration

by Linda | Dec 14, 2009 | my creative journal

It’s easy to find inspiration in art and craft blogs daily or seemingly constantly these days.  I often get sucked into browsing site after site, lost in a frenzy of ideas.  Probably doesn’t help that I have a million feeds in my Google RSS reader!  Although people are amazingly generous to share their work, thoughts and techniques (for that I am so grateful) it can also be information overload at times.  I find it calming to turn to my classic art history books to learn from the masters every once in a while.  Maybe it’s being off the computer or maybe it’s the whole story that can be so intriguing and different, inspiration-wise.  With contemporary artists you are following their journey nearly in real-time.  With those from the past, you have the journey already complete before you and a lot of analysis has already been explored to reflect upon.  Henri Matisse is considered one of the best artists of the 20th century and the more I have learned about him, the more I am driven and inspired to create.

Young Woman with Parasol, 1905, via Web Museum of Fine Art

Many of us have heard and seen bits of Matisse’s work either in school, a museum or a TV program .  However, it’s immensely interesting to explore the life of an artist and the entire progression of his work.  Matisse is famous for his paintings, but he was also a master at drawing, worked in printmaking and even sculpture.  It’s hard to believe that even though his paintings sell for millions today, he actually didn’t have a solo exhibition until the age of 35, which was not a success either!  The greatness of the legacy makes me forget that every artist started as a student.  They went through many different trials…probably comparable to what we go through today as an artist trying to make it in this world.  Matisse’s Fauvist movement paintings were so controversial, he had trouble providing for his family with all the criticism.  Can you imagine that?  Matisse had troubles?  Oh, I should probably mention that Picasso was one of his best friends.  Just stop and wonder, perhaps one of your friends might be the next Picasso?

The Blue Dress Reflected in the Mirror, 1937, via Web Museum of Fine Art

I am personally attracted to a large body of Matisse’s work because of the bold and bright colors he used.  Many also call him a master colorist!  He emphasized the subjects with bold lines and expressive strokes rather than going for all the detail.  He went through many different periods and styles of work, but I also find the collage work in his later years of life to be fascinating.  Who said collaging is not a fine art?  He called it “painting with scissors” as he was too weak to stand at the easel in older age.  It’s also interesting to note that although Matisse lived during a very politically turbulent time in history, his work shows no trace of opinion or conflict.  Perhaps in his art he sought for the opposite…balance, comfort and refuge from a violent world.   All to allow the viewer comfort  in getting lost amongst the colors, shapes and harmony of the works.

The Acrobat Dancer, 1949, via Web Museum of Fine Art

If you don’t have any books on Matisse check out the artst.org gallery of his work and get inspired.  Coincidentally, there’s also a great post about collage trends and inspiration on Smashing Magazine. Oh the planets sometimes align for us all, right?  I think I’m going to do some collaging now…ciao!