GirlMeetsArt

Chairs in the world of Salvador Dali

Not chairs, but further exploration of carborundum printing and the surreal

One summer in the late 90s, I signed up for a one-week printmaking workshop at Oxbow, the summer art colony outside Saugatuck, Michigan, with Holly Greenberg. A dynamo of a teacher, Holly does collagraphs and linocuts with a retro feel and a spot-on sense of humor about gender issues.

Let’s dance the night electric.

Over the years as I have taken various art workshops, I have learned how to short-circuit my internal editor. You know, that peckish creature inside your head that shoots down any ideas you might have for a new piece of work.

My secret? (more…)

Living high off the hog will get you high cholesterol

The maternal side of my family has bad heart genes.

My mother and nearly all of her seven siblings suffered from premature cardiovascular disease and highly elevated cholesterol levels. My sister died of a heart attack at age 42.

This legacy has influenced me in a lot of ways. (more…)

This paper sculpture represents one of the first pieces of art I did while tapping into personal history. It represents feelings of being wounded and vulnerable following a serious knee injury.

In the early 1980s, while living in Chicago and making my living as a medical writer, I found myself looking for a different way to spend my vacation time. A coworker told me about Oxbow, a summer art colony run by the Art Institute of Chicago.

I had my doubts.

I’d traced comics as a child to make decorations for our windows, but that was the extent of my “artistic” experience. But I decided to take the plunge, despite the wave of second-guessing that swamped me as I stepped onto a yellow school bus with a group of teenagers to make the trek to Oxbow.