Be an Author

Happy weekend everyone! 

Yesterday I showed you a page with many die cut typewriters on it. I die cut those typewriters out of some colorful origami paper. Today's page uses one of the left over pieces with the empty typewriter space. Type is the challenge this month at Art Journal Journey, hosted by the lovely Neet.  

Today's page is just a big old mess of color and stencils. I don't know, but I don't think my muse is feeling actual typewriters. Let me show you this page anyhow. 

My background is a page that came out of one of my old Dylusion's journals. Somehow it loosened itself from the binding.  It had lots of colorful stencil designs on it, but it never got finished after that.I think I must have gotten some new stencils and was trying them out, but I can honestly say I don't remember making the background.

I used an alphabet  stamp in the "blank" space in the typewriter shape on the origami paper square.  You can see I outlined the typewriter with a black Sharpie. I overlapped the alphabet stamp several times and left just a hint of the letters because I thought the overlapped  effect was interesting.  Plus if you are writing a story of any length, you would need to retype individual  letters multiple times.

I did stencil a a little bit on my origami paper in the hopes it would fade into the background and only the typewriter would stand out.

I also used a piece of round foam pipe insulation to stamp the dark brown circles on my spread. The lighter brown foam circles were already on the spread.  The type letters are some assorted left over die cuts. The little squirrel is also a left over die cut. I thought he looked cute on the corner, and maybe he's even the star of the story that's being written.

I also want to share photos today from one last piece at Art Omi.  This was a special exhibit that was  inside the main building. It's pretty impressive when you read what she did.

Here's what the Art Omi website says about it.

At Art Omi, McAndrew exhibits a sculptural installation. The installation portrays a group of friends sharing time together in a living room consisting of over 170 individual papier mache objects, all handmade by the artist.

For this exhibition, McAndrew draws from recollections of time spent among her high school best friends. The artist renders her friends as she remembers them at that time: casual, intimate, and out of view of the male gaze. Rather than portraying women and girls in their rooms as preparing themselves to exist for men or in the public sphere, McAndrew seeks instead to illuminate the messy yet harmonious space created by women left entirely to themselves. This tableau draws from the artist’s life and personal objects and includes renderings of snacks, spare change, melting ice cream, books, and magazines.

As has been explored elsewhere by McAndrew, Just the three of us references Classical representations of women found throughout Western art. By portraying three comely young women, McAndrew alludes to the Three Graces (or Charities), placing before them a bowl brimming with fresh fruit. Elsewhere, a de-idealized Greek bust features a double chin and rounded cheeks.

Continuing the themes of her past work, this new installation considers social constructions of the female body. McAndrew’s representations portray women secure in their identities, bodies, and environments. Reflective of her own experience as a plus-size woman, McAndrew confronts the viewer with depictions of women’s private inner moments, willfully subverting norms governing female beauty and behavior.

I wonder what story these 3 friends are sharing.

Hope you enjoyed today's post and all the photos from Art Omi this past week.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.