COVEN RULE #2
FLOWER POWER

WHAT IS ART? In art school, there were no computers, just all types of hands-on classes. Photography, ceramics, painting, figure drawing. Then there was the teacher who assigned the Bodoni project. Yep, the Bodoni project. Draw one letter with straight edges and one letter with curved letters. The trick? Do not mess up. Then you get to repeat and repeat until it is perfect. The tools? My trusty KOH-I-NOOR Rapidograph pens. You had to put your complete trust into these refillable ink pens or they could, at any moment, spew blobs of black ink all over your almost finished perfect letter. Which is what happened. Again and again.

All of these hands-on classes taught me one thing. Real design. The fundamentals. I feel a lot of emerging artists were robbed of what I learned. Do most of you know what Rubylith is or do you own Schaedler Precision Rules for the ultimate precision in measurement? Did you know my ceramist teacher was from Tiffany and Co.? I loved art school. I loved carrying massive amounts of supplies up and downstairs knowing that I would be creating amazing pieces of art.

My girlfriend once made the mistake of inquiring what rule tape was. The next day she came to work and her monitor was covered in a spiderweb of rule tape. Now she knows.

To this day, my trusty eraser for everything comes in kneaded form and I am often found with an X-Acto knife instead of scissors. Somehow going back to the basics of my education in the arts, without computers, has gifted me a stronger sense of design both by hand and page design.

Coven Rule #2

What Amanda Lovelace Taught Me.

April 2021

IT ALL STARTED IN PRAGUE In a bookstore in the center of the city I came across the witch doesn’t burn in this one by Amanda Lovelace. And, since I am a green-eyed Lutheran witch my husband decided to order it and have the English version be waiting for me when we returned to the States. So excited to be home thumbing through this and came across coven rule #2 – Burn whoever tries to burn you. How perfect as many have tried to alter my direction in life. The list is longer than I have room in the digital world. 🙂 You all know who you are. And, green-eyed Lutheran witches cannot be pushed around. I warned you … AM

Flower Power

Forever blooms in a book unwilling to wilt or fade.

March 2021

A BEAUTIFUL BUNCH OF FRESHLY CUT FLOWERS decorates your dining room table. So lovely. So welcoming for family and guests. Only to awake the next day to the process of death. They wilt, they fade. The petals start dripping. The pollen dropping onto your beautiful tablecloth, smudging it as you try and brush it off. It disappoints me time after time. So I started my own flower book. A book of painted flowers that can rest on my dining room table and forever be vibrant and alive. My first painting took a long time. each petal had to be perfect. And, my husband played along every single time I showed him my updates (which was about 5 times a day). He really doesn’t want to see it again! I remember experimenting with a lot of different acrylics. Amsterdam Acrylics were bright and smooth and I also used Liquitex basics since my kids had some leftovers. But, it was my professional line of Liquitex that really made the yellows pop. The Cadmium Yellow Light was applied over all the yellow petals I had previously painstakingly painted which created the perfect yellow. AM