Cyanotype Photograms (Look what I can do!)

Stagnancy, boredom, restlessness. I think every artist I know, while whiling away hours in the studio, has gone through those awful feelings every now and then. For me, it's been happening during the last week or two. At the same time I have been thinking of all of the printmaking I used to do in college and missing it, wondering how I can integrate it into my current work. I haven't come up with all of the answers yet, but I am definitely on my way.

I find that when I am feeling artistically stagnant, the best thing to do is try a new technique, preferably in the company of friends and fellow artists. Luckily, my friend and simply amazing photographer John is just the man. Not only do we work well together and we are nearly guaranteed to have an evening of hilarity whenever we hang out, but John has a great studio space and is always experimenting with new photographic techniques. The latest one, which he was generous enough to share with me last week and with a group of us last night, is cyanotype.

Creating cyanotype prints involves coating paper with a chemical solution (click the link above for a more detailed description), covering the paper with objects, negatives, or transparencies, and exposing it to UV light. The resulting print, as you can see from the cyanotype photograms that I made above, is a gorgeous deep blue.

I am definitely having fun experimenting with this new technique! I have a little series in mind, and I think I managed to rope John in to at least one more Wednesday. It is helping me look at my work in a new way, and filling that printmaking bug that I've been trying to pin down. I'll keep you updated with new work!

Etsy Supply Street Team ESST

I just want to take a minute to give a shout out to Team ESST, or Etsy Supply Street Team! I have been on this team for about a year now, and they have been so helpful and supportive to me and my supply shop. Make sure that whenever you are buying craft supplies on Etsy, add "ESST" to your search and you are sure to find thousands of great supplies from some of the sweetest sellers out there!

Happy Earth Day!

"Meditation," by Lea Keohane, 2009. All Rights Reserved.

It's Earth Day! As I'm always reminding my daughter, TURNING THE LIGHTS OFF as you leave the room will help the environment a lot. Sorry for the yelling, I just hate feeling like a nag :) Luckily, through the things she learns at school and what I try to teach her, Indigo is really exited about almost anything that will cut back on pollution and help take care of our planet. Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed when I think about our carbon footprints, but then I remember that we can only do so much, yet we each can do SOMEthing that will make a difference. Here are some things we do around our home:

*I usually paint with acrylics, but when I do use oil paints, I clean my brushes with vegetable oil rather than turpentine, and I refuse to use any solvents in my painting.

*I use rags rather than paper towels to wipe paint off of my brushes, and I use the same rag for a really long time. By the time I clean my brush with soap and water, it has very little paint left on it.

*I rarely buy bottled water. When I do, I will wash and re-use the same bottle for as long as possible.

*We use cloth napkins. I got these cute ones on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=11162202

*Every Wednesday, I get a huge stack of paperwork from Indigo's school. It's really frustrating, but the school does need to communicate with parents somehow, so I understand. Paper that is only printed on one side, I cut into quarters and use it as scrap paper. Printed on both sides? Recycle.

*Rather than buying serving-size food items (frozen dinners, snack packs, etc.), I buy larger items and divide them up into small tupperware containers. Same with dinners--I cook a large amount and divvy up the leftovers into portion-sized, washable containers so I can grab food and go when I'm in a hurry (also helps me with my weight!).

*Instead of plastic bags, I use tupperware as much as possible, and re-usable grocery bags. When I do get plastic shopping bags, I use them as trash bags rather than just sticking them into the trash.

That's all I can think of at the moment, although I'm sure there are a couple more. It's a good start! What do you do to help our planet?

All A-Twitter

Twitter. You can't escape it, so you may as well give in. Haha! Seriously, though, Twitter is a really fun, potentially addictive website. You get 140 characters to say whatever you want throughout your day. You can tell people what you're doing, share a cool link, promote your business, chat with friends, or anything you want! As someone who spends most of her day working alone in her apartment, I have to be careful not to tweet every random neurotic thought that pops into my head. But I really love it! Here's an example of my most recent tweets:


So, who are these people, you ask, that you are chatting with, sharing links (or neurotic thoughts) with? They are your followers. YES! I started by finding a number of friends and following them, and they followed me back. Now, through sharing my twitter link on various sites, I have nearly 450 followers and growing. Some people follow everyone who follows them. Others only follow a limited number of people so that they can have a more personal interaction with their followers.

Like I said, you can tweet whatever you want! It is similar to the "updates" that you can type into facebook or myspace. I like to share some of my thoughts during the day. Also, whenever I list a new item in my Etsy shops or update my blog, I will share a link. I try not to over-do the links though. I want people to take a look at what I'm doing & I want to build my customer base, but I don't want to come across as annoying. Like any social networking site, or anywhere in life, really, there is a fine line of etiquette and it can vary a bit from person to person. Different people are interested in following others for different reasons, too, so don't be surprised if you lose a follower or two here, and gain a few more there.

See you on twitter!

Pondering Star

"Pondering Star" 2009 by Lea Keohane. All Rights Reserved.

When I was in high school, I had the most amazing art teacher. Her name was Mrs. Luna, and I learned more from her about art making than from almost any other single instructor I had in college. While my drawing style is very illustrative, that has developed over many years and I actually can do very realistic drawings if I feel like it. That is thanks to Mrs. Luna, who gave me a lot of the basic skills that I needed.

I remember a lot of her sayings and rules and one that really stuck with me was that we were not allowed to use erasers in her class. She wanted our drawings to be bold and strong, and she wanted us to learn how to use our mistakes, incorporating them into our drawings rather than erase them. I'm pretty sure that back then that really pissed me off, but it has stuck with me to this day. That idea has really influenced the way that I draw, as well as the way that I begin each of my paintings.

Drawing is one of my greatest passions, and each of my paintings begins with a drawing, in permanent ink (yay sharpies!). If you have ever painted over permanent ink, you will know that even after several coats it may still bleed through, so there is little room for error. What this does for me (besides add interesting effects if I choose to paint over the ink) is give my work a level of confidence that I never had when I spent my time sketching things out in charcoal first. I am sure of every mark, and while I experience my fair share of "happy accidents," nothing is a mistake.

New ACEO's

"Aura" 2009 by Lea Keohane. All Rights Reserved.


"Dandy Daisies," 2009 by Lea Keohane. All Rights Reserved.

"Bitsy Mousey," 2008 by Lea Keohane. All Rights Reserved.

New Magnets Listed!

I'll be getting the rest up today, but as of this posting I have 6 of my new magnets listed! Just click on the photo above to link to them all.

Also, can you believe it's April already? What happened?!? Today is April 2, my friend Josh's birthday. Happy Birthday Josh! He & his wife live all the way in Australia, so I won't be able to celebrate with them, but I'm sending all of my good wishes anyway.

It's funny how inspiring it can be to have a goal...when it is attainable. I am working really hard on giving myself goals that are big enough to be real accomplishments, but small enough to actually achieve. I have a problem of setting huge goals, making crazy-long to-do lists, and ultimately scaring or frustrating myself straight out of achieving anything.

With that in mind, I haven't been posting my goals at the beginning of the month lately, but this month I have a big one for my art shop--get up to 100 listings! For a long time, I have been lingering between 70 and 80 listings, and it's just not good enough. My long term goal is much higher (400-500 listings), but I think 100 is a good start. That means I have 21 to go for the month (more if you buy stuff! I wouldn't mind that at all :) ). It will get me off of my butt and list some things that are finished but unlisted, and inspire me to make more art to reach the goal.

With that said, it's time to list some more magnets and make some more art!