GirlZilla: Destroyer Diary

Hello Ladybugs! I wanted to show you what I've been away working on. We're gearing up for our very first gallery night: scrubbing the studio, fliers flying and paintings exploding all over!

For this exhibition, I wanted to experiement. The goal was to recreate this journal entry on a large scale. I'm being called to my journal more and more and wanted to translate some of that manic process oriented spree into my painting. Here are the results!



I began with a bunch of boxes I scavenged from the dumpster behind the museum. After a generous coat of gesso, the city was sketched in...


















I always default into this stuffy super serious figure drawing mode and it just wasn't working. Still after days of drawing and redrawing, the face was all scrunchy and wrong...so I scrubbed it out -->



















While frustrated with the yuckiness I had achieved, I joked about just making the head GIGANTIC.

And then decided that's how I would solve the problem. :)

























GirlZilla!
























Outfitted with a found cardboard bow and war paint to compliment her rainbow laser-vision, she was ready to crush the rest of the cartoon city. But even with the additions, it wasn't jiving...it didn't have the collage-y vibrations I was going for. It was time for DRASTIC MEASURES!



















So I pulled out the big guns: Spray paint, stencils, chalk, markers, oil pastel and GLITTER! I learned so much about my materials making this painting: what sticks to what, what resists what, what mixes with what. And that stars make everything better...



















Add a little leopard print eyeliner and GirlZilla is ready for Gallery Night!

What have you been making, Muffins?

Dream Journal: Violet Diamond Water

Hello Damselflies! I can tell the moon is growing, because my dreams are becoming more and more bewitching and vibrant--lavish creamy colors and details I remember days after...

"A few nights later, I was a mermaid--Serpentine and glistening. Long tendrils of hair suspended in the shallow water. The sand below was studded with jewels--I touched each one with my fingers, occasionally scooping them up by the sparkling handful. I was quick and free--my purple scales flashing. I could make out the wobbling orb of the moon from beneath the waves. I had never been happier."

Where have you been wandering?

Destroyer Day Dream: Art Journal Entry

Hello cherry bombs! Went the the journal today with day dreams of wasting the city with rainbow laser vision and white lighting. I'm going to ride around on a big black raincloud fulla sour candy--smash up some parking meters and swing around on bridges. A new painting perhaps?

What are your fancies today?

How To Ruin a Music Box

Hello Sunflowers! The studio is sticky with gold glitter and birthday candle wax as I continue working on my creepy craft fair items. It's exciting to see the little morbid mountain of goodies slowly growing. Other crafters have been posting their wares as they work: It's getting exciting! Here is my latest monstrosity:

Before: An angel trinket from my grandmothers house.

After: A Dia de Los Muertos Music Box.

Materials: silk flowers, plastic gems, pony beads, bottle caps, acrylic paint, gold charm, glitter, balsa wood, found images, hot glue and feathers.

It plays "White Christmas". :) Merry making everyone!

Full Moon Dream Board: Hell No.

Hello Dumplings!*

It's snowing a powder sugar snow on our fair city today--a day to hibernate, a day to catch up! The semester kicked in with no hesitation and since I've been up to my eyebrows in work and classes. I did stow away for a moment to piece together a dreamboard for the last full Moon, but had to buzz out of town and never had a chance to post it:



I've been thinking about boundaries a lot lately--not in a negative restricting or suffocating way, but in a protective, nurturing and assertive way. Boundaries that keep me, my time, my guts and my energies safe and loved--learning to say "Yes!" to what I want and politely tell things that suck my energies and leave me feeling like a lead raisin to BUGGER OFF. In her book, Women Who Run With the Wolves, Clarissa Estes talks about women suffering from a do-all-miracle-worker complex: that we try to be Everything to Everyone at all hours of the day. She writes that in order to maintain our health and sanity, we need to learn to say no and protect what is ours. I've been practicing--my first order of Boundary business was saying HELL NO to a totally bogus project I was getting sucked into. Not this time! *grinning and washing my hands*



In studio news, I am taking an artist book and art journaling course online. My visual theme for this particular journal is HerSpeak: Voices of Goddess. I'm using women in my life, myth and global goddess traditions as inspiration for contemporary interpretations of Goddess. Here are a few pages from this week's planning and gathering:

What have you been up to at your typewriters, stoves and easels, my darlings?



Until Next Time--

Much Joy and Merry Making!

Sacred Commissions

It's a blue gray afternoon here near the lake--a perfect day to be tucked away in the studio with a "kick-in-the-pants" cup of coffee catching up on commission work. I've been doodling and googling all afternoon working on gathering notes and getting down initial blocks of color for a special custom altar piece. I always feel incredibly honored when someone asks me to create work for their sacred spaces! Such a treat!
Though most times it is an invigorating experience, sometimes being asked to make an intensely personal piece can be a little overwhelming. For example, this past summer I had a client ask me to create a Day of The Dead inspired memorial piece for her mother and auntie who passed away a few months prior. They died together in a tragic auto accident in the spring and she wanted a work that illustrated their friendship as sisters and impact as mothers.

Woah.

That is Heavy...

"El Dia des Los Muertos" by Molly Roberts 2008

As we discussed the details of the work it was obvious that her hurt was still very fresh. I scratched down notes trying my best to keep up as she recited memories and lists of her mothers favorite things: "violets, butterflies, lilies-of-the-valley..." As much as you try to relax and be creative while working on a piece like that there is a pressure that is present. You want the work to be perfect--it has to be perfect. It's not only a decorative artwork that needs to be aesthetically pleasing and functional within the living space. You know what you are making is part of the family's grieving process. You're not just drawing and gluing--You are an active part, you are helping in the healing. Every bit of foil, every spot of ink counts. Needless to say, it can be intimidating.


Fortunately, this current piece is being created for a more joyous occasion and magickal purpose! And after a fruitful visit to the natural museum yesterday afternoon with my Muffin, my brain is full of scaly wings, star fish spikes and primal cave paintings--a festoon of new patterns and visual rhythms just waiting to spill out onto canvas! Back to work!

What sort of objects or images do you have in your private,meditative or sacred sanctuary space?

*~Many Blissings & Merry Making, Friends!~*

Goddess Portrait: Curve Wave Stream Glide

Once my turkey hangover subsided, I stepped into the studio to continue working on my "She Portrait" series. I was glad to work on this commission today. I'm still feeling a bit "static-y" but as I smoothed out pastel with my fingers, I did my best to enjoy a tall glass of cold water think about flow:

ebb, undulate, Curve, Wave, Stream, glide

Don't worry. You'll get it all done. You always do.

I'm finding a lot of joy in making these works as they are so different from my usual process. Normally, my works are tight and graphic or large scale preplanned projects in either oil or charcoal. These are "everything-but-the-kitchen-sink" sort of pieces: acrylic, oil, marker, pastel, oil pastel, found papers, candy wrappers, gesso and chopped up valentines. Layer on top of layer on top of layer. It's also a treat to make them as it was a rare opportunity--I've never had a client say "just go with it" and mean it! (Often I'll have clients who SAY go with it...but seem tentative or surprised with the result.)

I hope she enjoys living with them as much as I did in making them. I'm off to my work bench--there is much more matte medium in my future. One She Portrait to go!

Wishing You a Joyful Thanksgiving!

I am truly THANKFUL for all of you gorgeous souls

sharing your world and working your

magick through cyberspace!

I am blessed to have found you and honored

by your compassion and kindness.

I hope each of you have a Joyous Thanksgiving

and a Merry New Moon!

*~Much Peace and Many Blissings~*

Sketchbook page by Molly

Sequin Meditation + Wintery Works

I was delighted to see one of my silly wintery works, "Snow Shoe Hares" featured on KaylaCoo's blog! How fun!Thank you! (Be sure to visit her—the work is stunningl!) http://kaylacoo.blogspot.com/2008/11/shopping-list-saturday-sunday_23.html

I sleep better when it snows—for some reason a fresh blanket of snow is like a little baptism. I woke up during the wee hours of the morning for a drink and there was that exquisite lavender glow that happens when clouds murmur close to the city. Perfectly still. The fresh air felt extraordinarily good. Little flakes of snow were wandering down and I admired bright berries clinging to branches frosted with ice. My brain was a flip book all afternoon; I kept getting ideas while riding on the bus and frantically scribbling them down on the back of receipts. So much to do, so little time! The last few days I’ve been flitting around in my studio finishing up odds and ends, completing holiday orders, and making progress on my metal smithing work while I listen to big band records.I love listening to old jazz records. I have such an embarrassingly slight knowledge of the art, but I find the music to be sumptuous and comforting especially as the temperature plummets. The vinyl has a constant hiss and crackle that takes the place of the fireplace I don’t have. Ella is The Queen. My favorite Fitzgerald track of all time is her singing Mack The Knife to a screaming crowd in Berlin and forgetting the words. It is a performer’s worst nightmare, and of course being the remarkable talent she is, she brushes it off-- the skat is perfect. Such grace!

Perhaps I’ll make a Peggy Lee to match?? It was delish dancing to tunes and pushing around purple paint. I had a tacky fever and the only cure was hi-fi trumpets and sequins—and lots of them! I’m not sure whether it is a skill that has been ingrained into my system via endless girl scout craft dates or an obsession I was born with, but there is nothing quite as tactilely satisfying as slathering a surface with adhesive and assaulting it with sequins. Picking out the perfect color and placing them one at a time.

It’s so meditative, like stirring sugar cubes into tea or chipping off cheap nail polish one finger at a time.

What is your meditative minutiae?

"Ella" by Molly. Acrylc, ink & sequins on wood. Available at www.dollmachinegallery.etsy.com

Backbends: 3 Experimental Books

This is the story of a Girl and her Bone Folder. *Sigh* My studio has been crawling with renegade smudges of rubber cement and paper scraps. But after much folding and scribbling, I recently finished up a batch of experimental book forms:

"A Good Wife Knows Her Place"

This is a jacob's ladder book composed of 12 small collages on book board. The text comes from a 1955 Good Housekeeping article that draws out a list of rules all "good wives" must follow. The instructions range from "Let him speak first, his topics of discussion are more important." to "Always greet him with a smile to adequately express your desire to please him." I paired the text with vintage imagery of circus performers and contortionists to attempt to explain a frustrating lifestyle of constantly jumping through hoops to please. I enjoy this form because it can be read both forwards and backwards and acts as a toy that actually must be "man handled" in order to read. Acrylic, gesso, found papers, colored pencil & oil pastel.

"12 Sleeps"

This is a petite book--it's pages only slightly larger than a silver dollar. To make this book recorded my dreams for 12 nights, typed them and printed them on opalescent vellum. The box that houses it is collaged with dream interpretation text and coffee filters. I wanted this to be an experiment in sequence, so none of the pages contain any punctuation. This way each dream record bleeds into the next in one continuous sentence reminiscent of the way real dreams progress. The translucency of the pages allow the viewer to see a ghosted image of the next dream. This book can be read in a continuous loop as it doesn't matter where you begin reading the text, you will eventually complete the cycle.

"Dear Johnny

"Dear Johnny" is a maze book that makes commentary on celebrity obsession. The book itself is a grainy recycled card stock that has been generously coated with gesso and vine charcoal. The pages are full of the somewhat disturbing rantings of a crazed fan. In the beginning, the writing is fairly benign and the handwriting is small and reserved: "Dear Johnny, I've seen all your movies." "Dear Johnny, I'm your biggest fan--I'm sure lots of people say that, but I mean it." As the viewer turns the tiny pages the writing becomes more progressively larger, more frantic and manic, "Dear Johnny, I'm bleeding to death in my sleep." "Dear Johnny, we were mean to be, you just don't know it yet." It ends abruptly. The treat however is when the book is unfolded completely, you are greeted with an image of Johnny Depp as Sweeny Todd. :

This one is my personal favorite. :)

Supercharged: Studio Work

I don’t know whether it’s the unusually balmy weather, the full moon or if I’ve found the perfect balance of caffeine and cat naps, but I feel supercharged! I was working in my studio like a crazy lady last night and it was excellent—mixing big puddles of pink and getting my fingers into chalk pastels. My short circuit issue seems to have passed. *Whew!* I have to admit that moments or days of creative block put me in sort of a panic. I believe it is the worst nightmare of every artist is to wake up one day and say…I don’t have any ideas. But fortunately this was not the case and got a mountain of work finished so I can begin restocking my etsy. I recently received an awesome commission request from one of my clients. She bought a piece from me ,“Garden Goddess”, a few months ago and decided she needed more “She-Portraits” to keep the original company. She-Portraits—I like that! So I’ve been sketching and pasting away, trying to develop a series of Goddess works suitable for her. These are energizing to make as they are very loose and textural with bright pallets and lots of movement. And adding to my already supercharged condition is seeing all the delicious dream boards! I had never participated in making them before, but found the experience to be helpful and viewing other people’s magickal works to be most enjoyable. Thank you so much, Suzie for organizing such a gorgeous project. <3

Full Moon Blissings Everyone!~*

Maya Angelou: Phenomenal Woman

I watched intently as the Great Dr. Maya Angelou recited a poem on Martha Stewart this morning. (Yes, I watch Martha—don’t tell anyone.) I wrapped up tightly in my pajamas, sat very still, and held my breath as she read in a way only the Beautiful Maya could. Her delivery, diliberate. Her gesture so graceful and effortless. I was overwhelmed and I decided I needed to post her work in case there were those in the blogosphere that hadn’t yet heard or seen this sublime bit of lit:

Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Maya Angelou

It's so delish! So Divine! It makes me want to put on something purple and dance around! I feel like I'm armed with big scissors to cut away gray! We are phenominal, damnit! I'm going to put a little extra wiggle in the walk today, just for Dr. Angelou.

"Ostara" by Molly Roberts. Oil, vine charcoal, found papers & oil pastel on wood.

Make it Willy Nilly: Palmistry Painting

It’s like I’m a badly made fourth–grade-science-class-potato-battery—the electricity between my brain and my fingers is shorting out! My grey matter knows what it wants to see and my digits are just being difficult. For the last two days I’ve been making really silly mistakes and struggling in my studio. Something was out of whack. I decided to light some black candles, get barefoot, anchor down at my drawing table and get work finished. I thought that maybe I should do a “work out” piece to get the kinks out and see if that helped get my electricity skipping about. This is the result:

Book making and jewelry smithing have eaten up my creative thought for the entire semester. I appreciate the methodical, cerebral, meditative nature of these things but I’m craving something more visceral—a little wild—maybe a little willy nilly! The last few weeks I’ve been trying to make something intuitive everyday: something separate from my commissions or academic work. Something that blatantly ignores composition rules, proper technique and traditionally scholastic subject matter, but speaks solely to my tactile and vital curiosities through just the simple joy of making and exploring personal iconography. No, these works are not "properly planned", "polished" or "aptly made", but that's not the point. These are pieces that are of the moment! These are pieces that speak to my juices.

"Gods Graves and Scholars" by Molly Roberts Acrylic, ink, oil pastel, water color and found papers on wood.