5×8″ acrylic, ink on sketchbook page
I scraped, brushed, and palette-knifed acrylic paint to create this piece. The quote is from an interview with artist Ellen Wagener. We talked in DeWitt, Iowa, where she lived at the time. Ellen now lives in Arizona.
5×8″ acrylic, ink on sketchbook page
This is brushed on acrylic paint and lettering with marker. I had a few moments during the painting process of wanting to take the advice of “starting over” with this one. But…here it is.
Today’s words of wisdom are from Urbandale artist, Laurayne Robinette—who also happens to be my mom! She has modeled resilience and persistence (and beauty!) in her artwork as well as her life. How lucky am I?
5×8″ ink marker, colored pencil, watercolor pencil on sketchbook page
Doodling—originally I thought I would do marker doodling all over the white spaces. But I thought it might look too busy and it would be even harder to read the quote. And it would have taken more time, probably. In any case, after the marker and colored pencil work, I used two colors (blue and lavender) on the background with a tiny bit of yellow around the artist’s name.
The artist I’m quoting, Emily Martin, lived and worked in Iowa City at the time of my interview (1998). She was making a lot of artist’s books at that time, as well as paintings and sculpture.
5×8″ acrylic, ink on sketchbook page
The acrylic paint was applied mostly with a palette knife. The lighter blue coloring in the background was brushed on. Artist Jo Myers-Walker is the speaker of today’s quote. She was living in Ames when I interviewed her. She now lives in Iowa City and is still very active as an artist and teacher. You can read and see more on her blog.
5×8″ collage, acrylic, ink on sketchbook page
I took a little patch of green silk sari and collaged it to the page, then added some patches of acrylic paint. I put a block print using acrylic on top of the fabric piece before lettering the quote with an ink marker.
I interviewed the artist and professor,
Gelsy Verna in Iowa City. Gelsy went on to teach in Wisconsin. I was saddened to learn from one of her students that she had died suddenly and much too soon.
6×8″ silk sari pieces, acrylic paint on paper
For this piece, I collaged two pieces of silk sari on to a sheet of mixed media paper. The collaging medium darkened the fabric more than I had hoped. Then I added some translucent/transparent acrylic around the fabric, and lettered the words with ink marker.
The words were spoken by Priscilla Kepner Sage, an Ames fiber artist who taught at Iowa State University for many years.
5×8″ acrylic, ink on sketchbook page
This painting is a little tongue-in-cheek (ha!) in more ways than one. I had fun brushing on the paint freely, not worrying about being representational.
The quote is from my interview with Iowa City artist Sara Slee Brown.
digital photo (black-and-white filter applied)
This leaf is a beautiful red in the color version, but the artist I’m quoting was doing mostly black-and-white photography (or at least not the vivid color this is) so I thought I’d tone down the color for this purpose. Perhaps I’ll share the original version at some point.
Photographer/artist Dolie Thompson was living in far western Iowa near the Loess Hills when I interviewed her. I found her to be quiet yet strong, much like her artwork.
8×5″ acrylic, ink on sketchbook page
This is a scraped and brushed acrylic painting. I’m not so happy with the lettering I did on this one, but there it is.
The quote is from artist Joan F. Vitale. She lived near Indianola when I interviewed her, but she has since moved out of state.
8×5″ acrylic, ink on sketchbook page
I love this quote. The artist I’m quoting, Ames artist Gretchen Weber, was a calligrapher and maker of artist’s books. She also taught at Iowa State for several years (she died earlier this year). I had brief thoughts of trying to make this piece more calligraphic in her honor, but my brief practice sessions were not enough! So, I stuck with my usual lettering.