Our Portland Story

I recently completed a page to be featured in the upcoming book Our Portland Story.
It is a collection of short stories, photographs and illustrations created and designed by Portlanders about Portland. I was lucky enough to be paired with a local artist named Kerri Jones. Her story is about the local fabric industry. You can check out her amazing mosaics made of fabric at remnantWorks.

I was inspired to design her page based on old pattern packages. It seemed fitting to represent generations of women who have influenced Kerri's work. In her story she describes what it was like as a child watching her grandmother sew.

Below are a few designs that I scanned from a friend of mine's vintage pattern collection.Below is the final page for Our Portland Story.

Nikki De Saint Phalle

I can tell already that the last post is going to turn into an all out Italian tangent! Just roll with it. 

The research I'm doing is bringing up so many memories from my last trip to Italy in 2000. Since I'm feeling that my return is far over due, writing will have to suffice for the time being.

Let's talk about Niki De Saint Phalle, shall we? 

She is amazing! Her sculptures are so magical. Her use of color illustrates a woman after my own heart. My memories of walking around her Tarot Garden are charged with wonder. I didn't know where to go or what to explore first. I must admit that my first impression wasn't one of interest. I was consumed with the Renaissance then and I wasn't really sure what to think of her outlandish, childlike sculptures. But the more I walked around and  read the poetry in her work, felt the mosaics and let myself be consumed by her world; the more I submitted and fell in love.

Like most works of art of  this scale, photos will just not do it justice. However, here are some pictures I took while I was there.

Justice & Death

The Emperor & The High Priestess

The Empress

The Empress (detail)

Nikki lived alone inside the Empress, what she nick-named the "Sphinx, while finishing the garden. You can view interior photos of The Empress here. In her book  The Tarot Garden, she writes, " This garden was made with difficulties, love, wild enthusiasm, obsession and most of all faith. Nothing could have stopped me. As in all fairy tales before finding the treasure, I met on my path, dragons, sorcerers, magicians and the angel of temperance."

Shapes In Nature

The natural world provides a constant supply of inspiration for art. All shapes and lines that we create on paper can be traced back to something in nature. This is why I chose to use branches and bridges for my illustration for Chapter 3 of Foundations of Art and Design. The parallels between these two seemingly different shapes are more apparent upon further study. The Zakim Bridge is made up of a sturdy "trunk" with many branch-like cables that enable this structure to maintain it's integrity but also allow it to be flexible. Like branches enabling a tree to sway in the wind, these cables provide the structural give needed to protect against natural disaster.