Melanie Testa's Blog, page 23

Amazed

I love being part of a community and enjoying what my friends do. I have spoken about Pat before. And I love the way she thinks about materials and uses them.

Her color choices are amazing, see those white dots tinged with blue? Pop!

The cover of this little book uses Fun Foam! A humble material, with infinite possibility.

And as you open the book the entire piece is based on a single sentence.

so let me ask

which is worse

being on a rush hour train

or

needing a plumber

Go check out her gorgeous...

Straight to my Heart.

It is my birthday on Sunday and I have to say, until my husband reminded me yesterday morning, I had forgotten. Usually I am quite excited and have 20 gazillion things I would like to do to celebrate. This year, I just kinda forgot.

So when the doorbell rang today, I was surprised. When I saw it was a box from my good friend Jeannie, I was excited. Luckily for me, I decided to open the box on the floor and knew this would be a bloggable event, so took my camera and set myself up for some fun. ...

Pretty Much.

I follow Roz Stendahl's suggestions (this links to her website). She is pretty smart! She has good ideas. She draws and well.

Roz uses realistic toys to help integrate drawn gestures and to help her prepare to draw live models (like a zoo trip). Now, I don't know where I would go that would have a Hippopotamus, but for reasons some of you may already know about, I do collect hippo toys and objects. This little guy was found in an antique store, he is cracked and missing an ear but well loved j...

The Zoo

Lyric Kinard has come up to the big city and we are off playing. Yesterday we went to the Central Park Zoo and saw a few great wonders.

The tropical aviary was amazing.

This tiny money caught my heart. I watched him move soil with such determination, I think he was hoping for some insect food. I will go back, I would love to have some drawing time.

Off to a drawing studio and a bit more fun today.

Arrow and the City Squirrel

The squirrel just wants to get along. Arrow? Not so much.

Chipper is the New Black!

My goodness. Sometimes I know how to lay down a happy, chipper page! If these colors don't smack you with good cheer, I don't know what will!

I have some reading to do! I have let my Birder's World subscription pile up! And if you know me, this magazine is important! So I started reading and fell in love with a certain photo of a beautiful Florida Scrub Jay and well, got busy getting to know his form.

So, you know, part of the reason I like to draw and paint birds is because I want to know...

Qtipicus Starbucitus

We all surf the web, right? Sometimes we find gem like glittering blogs and become smitten. It happened to me this week. Geninne Art Blog is all that. Glittery

and shiny and all. If you go over there, please leave a comment! We all live for comments.

So anyway, I like her painting style, so crisp and, well, birdy. And she made me get out my carving rubber and start cutting stamps. If you have been following my blog for a while, this may not seem like a stretch. I mean, there was a recent...

Journaling We Shall Go.

So I have been all busy with completing a second entry for Quilt National and have been a bit too quiet. I am sorry about that.

I have been journaling though. Last week I scooted, did I tell you we bought Scooters? Oh My Goodness, am I loving my Lime Green Scooter! It needs a bell. It definately needs a bell and I need a helmut, but I digress.

I have caught my breath.

We scooted down to Red Hook, David ran and I painted the above scene. I could have continued to paint more detail but a girl...

In the end we are waiting to be lit.

I'm on a mission and it has made me a bit quiet and preoccupied. I am quilting a piece that I will enter into Quilt National. The Northern Pintail, a dabbling duck (#3 ion the Birds in Decline list) and part of The 20 is almost entirely quilted, which doesn't mean it is complete. I will machine draw some imagery on the quilts' surface but the majority of quilting is complete. This is good! It means I will be able to move on to preparing for my two teaching gigs in August a little more...

What up!

I have been sitting on a few things and would like to give you a heads up.

Rice Freeman-Zachery did a podcast interview with me. We talked about creative space and the challenges of living in a Brooklyn New York apartment, Journaling for the sake of creative engagement, and where it might lead.

Rice Freeman-Zachery's Podcast of Melanie Testa

If you would like a reminder of my studio space, here is a video with commentary for the 2009 Studio Tour organized by Cate at Cloth, Paper, Scissors.

I ...