My Foray into Graphic Design

Monday is a big landmark for me.  I’m due to hang my ‘Garden Walk’ collection at the MonroeCounty History Center.  This represents a series of garden-themed pieces I’ve made over the past few months specifically for the show.  I have blogged about most of the pieces over the past few months, but Monday they will all be up for viewing at the venue (202 E. Sixth St.). 

My life took an interesting and productive turn when I mentioned the show debut to Colleen at Wonderlab. I dropped by to re-stock my cards in the gift shop, which is managed by Colleen.  She told me that visitors who see the cards often ask where they can see the art, and that she would love to be able to direct people to the actual pieces.  She asked if I had a rack card for the show—the kind of small promotional card you can pick up for free to help advertise a show.  I’ve never done one, but that only meant I had a new challenge!  They said they would happily distribute rack cards for the show, as did some of my other notecard distributors, so I was off to design a rack card. 

I spent a big chunk of my week, in between completing pieces for the show, coming up with a design I liked for my new and first-ever rack card.  My final design tells you as much about my friends as it does me, because I got a huge amount of help and input along the way.  When I came up with a prototype I showed it to Cappi Phillips, Dawn Adams, and Sarah Pierce and got some very useful advice to create the second version.  I belong to a Facebook group called Art Girls, and they were wonderful at giving me their opinions.  Sometimes you have friends and don’t know what their background is, and I learned that my friend Pat Hecker used to be a graphic designer.  She gave some great advice to help me finalize my design.  The rack card design is complete and off at the printers, and they’ll appear around town as soon as I receive them. 

As I’m writing this, I’m in the final stages of completing my last piece for the Garden Walk show.  I’ll snap a picture before I post the blog so you can see the lilies I’ve been working on.  I encountered a very unusual phenomenon as I was quietly working away in the art studio.  Usually I listen to WFIU but sometimes I like to work with the music off and listening to my own thoughts, and I swear that as I finished the lilies I could smell them!  It freaked me out a little bit.

With all my energies directed toward finishing my garden collection, there hasn’t been time to think about much else.  Time marches on, though, and there are two big events coming up at the end of the month.  The Trashion-Refashion show is always a big event.  Even though I’m not modeling any clothing this year I will have my Re-Shirts there for sale.  The Open Studios Tour was a big hit last year, so I’ll open my home again for the show at the end of April.  I’d like to have a bunch more Re-shirts for each of those two events, so Monday afternoon I’ll pull out my trusty sewing machine and get to making more.  That should be a fun change of pace for a few days.

On a final note—good news!  With only a little prompting, Jim recognized that it was time to bake me another pie.  I went off to a meeting Monday evening and I came home to the delightful aromas of a cherry-strawberry pie sitting on the oven.  The next day, even before I could get a picture, Jim gave Tommie a slice for breakfast.  Apparently Tommie didn’t want to take a piece because he knew it was ‘Mom’s’ pie, but Jim assured him it was OK.  Just as he lifted it out I came downstairs in the morning and they both looked a little worried.  In the end, I got my picture, a slice of delicious pie accompanied by an espresso, and a relieved and happy family!

Until next week,

Martina Celerin 

Trip to Grandma’s

Last week was spring break for the boys and Jim, so the whole crew got out our winter clothes and headed seven hours north to see Grandma.  Along the way I created 32 green leaves that will go into my ‘Old Friends’ piece that features white lilies.  I know a lot of my friends question the wisdom of driving north for spring break, but we have such a wonderful relationship with Grandma.  We hung out, played ping-pong, ate well, and Jim and Tommie even braved the cold and wind to go on a fishing trip.  I’ll just report that the fish we ate all came from the freezer and Meijer’s.  While the trip was restful for everyone, I’m just not good at just sitting around.  I took my needle felting with me and also managed to finish all of the red petals for the tulip piece I’m envisioning for the Garden Walk exhibit.   All the pieces I’m working on are very spring-esque, including the now-finished tulip piece and the lily piece that’s still in progress.  

In Michigan we had lots of family time.  We even introduced Grandma to fondue, which she liked.   When Jim and Tommie went off fishing, Grandma, Jacob and I headed out to check out a stained glass supply store.  I did a lot of poking around to see if there were some interesting bits of glass that might be useful in my fiber pieces.  As I was looking, Jacob came up to me with a new craft he was interested in trying—now he’s making Kumihimo bracelets.   

He started out with dyed hemp cord and has since launched into bracelets featuring more bling-y material we picked up at Jo-Ann’s in Fort Wayne on our drive home.  He’s even hired me to attach the findings when he’s done, and so he’s off on his latest creative venture.   I suspect that if you come to our house for the Open Studio’s tour in late April he will have a display wall set up to vend his creations alongside my art work. 

Now that I’m back in my art studio I’ve been assembling the pieces I’ve made into completed works.  The first is Spring Tulips.  I love the colors in the piece—they’re just so bright and happy.  The piece is an off-the-wall bouquet and is very robust.  Now I’m gradually attaching the main veins to my lily leaves, and then attaching each leaf onto a major stem.   

I have been needle felting the white lily petals that will eventually be assembled into a lily flower.  All the while I’ve been moving mountains—of laundry!  The big piles down by the washer have all been moved through the system and onto hangers or into piles.  Now if I could just get someone to carry them upstairs! 

Finally, Indiana basketball has been a big thing.  They played an exciting game against Michigan to win the Big Ten Conference title (hooray!), and now they’ve won their first game in the NCAA tournament.  It’s all fun.  The flowers are just starting to appear (finally!), which means crocuses, snowdrops and the first daffodils are appearing in the yard and around town.  And since it’s spring, my thoughts are tuning to…  PIE!  Aren’t we due for another pie soon?  I see the bags labeled ‘cherry’ and ‘peach’ in the freezer.  Fingers crossed!

Until next week,

Martina Celerin

The city Blooms…

Last week featured a lot of preparation for the Bloom Artists Showcase this past Sunday.  I pressed and tagged all my new Re-shirts, including my latest style.  My first style I called  ‘Art Tanks’, but the new ones feature a flap in the back.  My friend David Goodrum suggested I call these ‘Art Tails’ - he’s such a creative fellow!  In the wake of my sewing machine breakdown, I also had plenty of time to start more pieces that I’ll feature in the ‘Garden Walk’ show at the History Center starting April first.

  My latest piece will feature three white lilies, inspired by some of my older friends.  Lilies take a long time to develop and flower, then they burst into display mode late in their lives.  I’m a very detail oriented person, so when I started on the project I needed to have some models in the house.  The pictures from the web just didn’t give me the level of detail I needed.  Jim answered the call and picked up some lily buds, but then he left them in the car in an attempt to surprise me.   

It turns out that the lilies didn’t like the freezing temperatures and came in as little green rocks.  The plant tissue just started decomposing in the warm temperatures and I never got to see my lilies!  Fortunately, I found some post-Valentine day lilies that needed to be adopted for a very reasonable price.  My art studio smelled great for a couple of days, and I got to look carefully at the shape of the stamens.  It didn’t take long to get the hang of making them, and so I plowed forward and wove the green background for the piece as well! 

Sunday brought the Bloom "Local Artists Showcase", and I was up early and set up by 10:30 for the noon start.  Even though about one thousand people came, it still wasn’t as well attended as last year, when the show was held on a Saturday.  The artists were an enthusiastic bunch, and everyone had a good time.  My Re-shirts proved to be a big hit.  At one point there was a real feeding frenzy, with people swapping shirts and trying them on in a round robin fashion fest!  I had a great time and did a lot of laughing with my customers.  The best news was that it was a lot lighter to pack them up to bring home after selling a bunch of them!  I did have half a booth full of my wall art pieces to complement the Re-Shirt half, but I think fewer people noticed my wall art.  I think the Re-Shirts were just so bright and colorful and vibrant that my wall pieces played second fiddle.   

There were even a couple of humorous moments when people were drawn in to the colorful Re-Shirts before connecting me to the wall art.  I got the “Oh!  I know you!” response a few times.  I did also get several generous offers from people who have clothing and fabric scraps willing to donate them to my stock, something I’m delighted about.  I’ll start block printing next week for my next round of Re-Shirts.  And before you ask, no, I don’t sleep. 

On the family front, the boys went over to a friend’s house to have a multi-holiday celebration.  How do you celebrate Lincoln’s birthday, Valentine’s day, the Chinese New Year (the year of the Snake), and Darwin’s birthday?  By making a chocolate stovepipe hat and decorating it with Gummi snakes!  Of course!  Everyone had fun, and we came home with more chocolate than we needed.  In between everything else there was lots of eScrabble, a beautiful day on Sunday after Friday’s ice storm, but alas, no pie.  Very sad.  I did hear that Jim discovered a bag of frozen Farmer’s Market raspberries hidden in the freezer!  I’m going to start thinking really loudly about what I want now, OK? 

Until next week,

Martina Celerin