Friday Inspiration: timbres d'art

Albrecht Dürer, Self Portrait at 22, 1493

Leonardo Da Vinci, Portrait of  Isabella D'Este, 1500

Amedeo Modigliani, Femme Aux Yeux Bleus (Woman with Blue Eyes), 1918

The last time I was in Paris I found these stamps at the Marche aux Timbres et Cartes-Postales, the stamp and vintage postcard market made famous by Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in 1963's Charade. The vendor gave them to me for next to nothing, they are not rare or valuable, but I fell in love with the tiny little renderings of the paintings. Each stamp measures a mere 1.625 x 2.125" (or 4 x 5 cm) and has the most exquisite level of detail and a full palette. 


I've always loved Dürer's Self Portrait at 22, in which he is holding a thistle. It was the first painting I saw at the Louvre that really made me stop and pause. It was tucked away in a quiet gallery which I found by accident the first time and found by memory a couple years later when I went back. 

Found Lines

Empty hangers, found lines, snapshots...

Sleepless.
The constant stream of traffic outside my window. It is oddly comforting. It pulses, it has become part of my rhythm. But tonight I am wide awake.
A snapshot...

Walking by crocuses / running past the first daffodils / the Charles / one river reminds me of another / Rome / Renaissance faces / overlapping edges / the shape of things / that particular blue / ovals / the smell of printing ink / copper / editions / paper / portraits of portraits / cousins / lentils / wanderlust / 222 / plural / airships / silence / letterpress / New York City / Whitney Biennial / elegant bullshit / new jeans / never wearing socks / Downton Abbey / used bookshops in alleyways / vintage Penguin Classics / the luxury of a novel / a new bed / wandering / old friends at the other end of the line / second chances / clementines / monochromatic / proceed with caution / an almost straight line / dreaming fool / finding my own way

Printing in purple

Setting up my printing guides on the press and soaking paper.

Purple color palette.

Inking a plate and pulling a print.

I've been spending a lot of time in the print studio lately. There is a very precise ritual and rhythm to printmaking that I enjoy. I can easily lose myself in the process for several hours.

My printing playlist--

Somebody That I Used to Know / Gotye
The Ghost Inside / Broken Bells
Punching in a Dream / The Naked and Famous
Walking with a Ghost / Tegan and Sara
Too Much / Sufjan Stevens
Santa Fe / Beirut
Heartbeats / José González
Because the Night / Patti Smith
Can't You Hear Me Knocking / The Rolling Stones

Open Studios

You are happily invited to take a peek into my studio and that of my 100 other fellow grad students at the Second Annual SMFA Open Studios.

Join us on Friday + Saturday, March 2-3, 2012 from 6-9pm at the Mission Hill Studio Building!

SMFA Grad Open Studios
Mission Hill Studio Building
160 Saint Alphonsus Street
Boston, MA 02120

For more info please visit: http://smfaopengradstudios.blogspot.com/