Why Mannequins?

Part of what drew me to the idea was the challenge that would come with painting people made of plastic. Their skin is hard, the stares are blank, the proportions are skewed. Conceptually they also serve as a commonplace tool showing onlookers what they should be wearing. Although a departure, they still fit within my theme and support it in a new way.

I've also used this opportunity to seek out some examples of dress that I haven't run into as easily. For example, my bride to the right. There was something eerie about her that I wanted to capture. I think she has been on display in this shop window for a while, so why not take it a step further immortalize her in painting.

The wedding dress on its own is such an important garment in our society. It resurfaces across every level of income and is prominent in many cultures around the world. It is worn for one day, but remembered for a lifetime. Still, at the end of the day, it is just fabric. I love to bring focus to the power of dress, and this is a monumental example.

- Danielle Festa (see more at Daniellefesta.com/art/blog)

"Portrait of Tally Philosophe"

After 4 months, I have finished my ode to J.S. Sargent and Isabella Stuart Gardener. I decided to take a photo everyday I worked on it. Here is my stop animation of my progress (zoomed in edition). I decided to skip ahead the 20 frames that it took me to build up the gesso, the most time consuming aspect of this piece.

~ Danielle Festa

Zines Zines Zinnneeessssss

The Boston zine-scene is ramping back up as of the last couple years, which is really awesome. I know zines have been there all along, but as someone on the periphery of the zine world, I can really see from recent events that there is fresh interest in zines as a medium for art and writing. Washington Street Art Center is happy to be part of it by hosting Spring Zine Thing, put on by members of Small Craft Advisory.

WSAC will be hosting around 15-20 zine makers to come sell, swap, read, and talk zines all afternoon. I am in the process of making a collaborative zine with Marissa, all about one of our favorite subjects: ART. So with 2 weeks to go, you totally have time to finish your zine and come hang out! Or if you just can't get the final pieces together, you should still stop by, and even bring your zine to work on at the community table.

Other upcoming zine events in our area after SZT include a Somerville Salon zine talk at the Armory, and there is also a call for zines by the Waltham Lincoln Arts Project for a show later this spring. Everything rules!

SAC and MCC Fellowship Grant Award Plans

I am sure everyone at WSAC has heard that I got an LCC fellowship grant in visual arts for 2012. As part of receiving a grant through the Mass Cultural Council and the Somerville Arts Council, you are basically asked to brag about it, which I have absolutely no problem doing. Ha!Anyways I thought it would be cool to document it here, since the WSAC is where I was able to spend all my time making art to apply for the grant. I definitely feel that having a separate studio from my apartment is a huge luxury, and I feel really lucky to have a space at WSAC and to get to work around all of you!

So far I have 2 public events planned to show what the grant money was used for. My friend Marissa and I are putting on the Spring Zine Thing on April 15th. It is gonna be super low-key and really fun, I hope a couple WSAC zines end up getting made for this. That is my not-subtle hint that you should all make a zine. You can even show up on the day of and make a zine. I am going to make my first zine, probably with a lot of paper cutting in it, that is about making art and finding time/inspiration, and how process and collaboration are things I am really interested in.

The second event is gonna be the September gallery show, and it is going to be great! Lauren, Alex, my friend Sarah and I are going to collaborate, and are already doing some serious long-range planning for making the September show completely amazing. I can't wait to see it come together. We will definitely have our regular opening reception, but we are also going to figure out a series of workshops, talks, and video presentations to go along with it, during or after gallery hours on Saturdays.

This blog post was totally supported by the Mass Cultural Council and the Somerville Arts Council. Thank you!!!

Rad Artist Installment #4

I was talking to Monique about paper art the other day, and we got on to talking about a friend of hers who uses a technique called quilling. Lisa Nilsson is a paper artist who uses this technique in some of her work to make cool pieces with anatomical subject matter.
Nilsson also does work in other media, but her use of paper is most exciting to me. Her series of installation boxes (vaguely in the vein of Joseph Cornell or Louise Nevelson) are also really interesting, and I like how tightly the pieces within the box are tetris-ed together so perfectly. Definitely someone whose work I would love to see in person, and hope to someday soon! There is also a post on the MCC site where you can see Lisa Nilsson's studio, which is always my favorite extra tidbit to see about contemporary artists.

the newengland craft conniseuer

Check out this great on line craft publication written by Janet Shepard

www.ne-crafts.com

Sewing Machine Mechaninism

Someone was asking me about how a sewing machine works, and why there are 2 threads. Maybe it was someone at WSAC? Regardless, since there have been a bunch of sew-ers and fabric related projects, take a look at this mesmerizing gif of how it works.

Cool right?

Interviewed about art and craft in Boston

The Bazaar Bizarre Boston organizers got interviewed by WBUR to talk about the continued rise of art, crafts, and handmade economies. Andrea Shea from WBUR interviewed 4 out of 7 of us and it was really fun! The piece will likely only feature one or two of us, and will be on Morning Edition tomorrow, either at 5:50 and 7:50, or at 6:50 and 8:50 if you want to tune in and listen. It will also be posted on WBUR afterwards, and I will be sure to post a link!

Getting set up for silkscreening

I haven't been set up for silkscreening in years, but I'm getting ready to get started all over again. Exciting!

Rad Artist installment #3

I think I have made 2 other posts about cool artists? Well, I am going to start giving them all this subject so I can keep track of who I have seen and loved their work.

Just saw Debbie Smyth's work (sadly, only on the internet!). HOLY CRAP her work is so cool. Specifically Lauren, Alex and Danielle might be into this woman's work because of her use of thread, multimedia, and handwritten text, but I think a lot of the WSAC artists would be into the style of her work.




So cool! Her piece 'Fly Away Home' that is the first series of images from initial sketch to finalized installation is what first drew me in. Her use of the space, the thread, pins, and the cut out handwritten text is so great. Debbie Smyth is definitely an artist I will be looking out for places to see her work in real life.

Come to Open Studios and you could win 2 free Early Bird tickets to BBB!

Planning on going to the Boston Bizaare Bizarre? How about getting a pair of Early Bird tickets? Early Birds get to come into the BBB at 11AM, that is a whole hour before the rest of the world, with just 100 other shoppers.  Early Birds get first crack at the tables without the crowds! Normally they sell them for $10 a piece, but they are all sold out, and this is your chance to get tickets for free!

The very last set of Early Bird tickets can be won this Saturday at our WSAC Open Studios - mere hours before the BBB! You could avoid the BBB line, and get first dibs on your favorite crafts by spending the day in the art-centric neighborhood of Union Square Somerville!

Follow the WSAC on facebook or addWSACSomerville on twitter to find out how to win the very last 2 Early Bird tickets!  When open studios winds down in the evening, Gretchen Graham's photography show "My Blue Heaven" will be ramping up for the opening reception downstairs in Gallery 321.

A nod to J.S. Sargeant and Isabella Stuart Gardner

After a visit to the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum, I was struck by a painting that drew a few parallels to my themes. Immediately I was drawn to the appearance of fabric behind Mrs. Gardner. It turns out she chose this tapestry to be hung behind her. This is one of the wonderful things about Isabella, especially for her time, she always made the choices.

Our timing was good because there was a talk about the piece as I was there that afternoon. It turns out this painting was very controversial for its time, because of her attire. Although it has lost its shock factor on us, for the period, it was unnatural for woman to show their arms, in addition they were appalled by her plunging neckline, not to mention that is no place for pearls. Again, this was Isabella's choice to dress this way. She liked her arms, her chest and her waist and didn't care what others thought. After the painting debuted and the critics were shocked, Mr. Gardner refused to have the painting shown to anyone during his lifetime, and it wasn't.

In conclusion, this got me thinking that I would love to do a bit of an ode to Sargent and Isabella. I have a friend in mind that I think would fit her personality and daring approach. In my modern day take I will have to do a little more to get that shock of course. I've also decided it would be fun to give my subject the same choice of fabric as a backdrop. I will take her to the fabric store and let her pick what she will be surrounded by in her painting. Mine will also be real fabric, since that is how I roll. I am hoping to get it to a place where those who knew the painting got it, but it didn't hit you over the head. We will see how this goes!

- Danielle

Artist Megan thinks is rad - Gregory Euclide!

A friend of mine sent me Gregory Euclide's website a few months ago and I have been meaning to share it with you guys. His subject matter is like a weird combo of my interests in cut paper and layering or removing sections of 2D work, with Danielle's interests incorporating fabrics or other materials and patterns into paintings...but with really amazing landscapes.

I think I like his relief work (above) the best, but his installations are really cool too!

Thank you Porter Square Liquors

This Friday night wine will be flowing freely at the WSAC event "Sewn Identities" thanks to Porter Square Liquors. Hope to see you there!

Non Toxic Printmaking Class at Cambridge Center for Adult Ed

I just saw this non-toxic printmaking class, if anyone else is into printmaking and wants to be able to do it in the studio without poisoning everyone! I have taken 1 printmaking class through the Brookline Adult Ed, and 4 German classes with Cambridge, and I have really liked all of them. This class will probably be at the Brattle Street building by High-Rise bakery in Harvard Square, and is a little over $200 for 8 classes on Thursday nights, starting mid-June.

This printmaking class is taught by someone from SMFA, and the primary reason I want to do it is to get a feel for the solarplate etching, and using the water based Akua etching ink. I have wanted to try these all winter but didn't want to get a ton of expensive supplies only to ruin them through blind trial and error. Here is the solarplate website, and here are a ton of images of work done with this process on flickr.

I also have a small manual table top press with felts than can accommodate about a 9"x18" plate, so if anyone ever wants to do any monoprints or lino cuts and doesn't have access to a press you are more then welcome to hang out with mine. I just got a small butcher block table to have a dedicated space to set this up too.

Artists Megan is excited about

Hi Danielle, hi everyone! Here are some artists I love, whose pieces I recently got to see in real life. I was in Portland a couple weeks ago and they have a pretty nice, if a little small, art museum. The modern art wing was really nicely laid out with a lot of really cool pieces in it.

Since I like cutting paper so much, I was really psyched to see a ton of Kara Walker's art. She seems to work a lot (or only?) in black and white, but also had a few pieces that were cut to stand up in a sort of scenic diorama. Her art has a lot of imagery about race, gender and sexuality, and I am totally fascinated by how fine her cuts and lines are. She tends to display the paper very very flattened, so her pieces often look like silkscreened black ink on white.


Another artist I really loved, was Mickalene Thomas. Her silkscreens are AMAZING! The picture below is so much more amazing and detailed and vibrant in real life. She also sometimes uses rhinestones or glitter, which sounds like a weird effect. Somehow it looks perfect, and not at all cheap or tacky. Or maybe the cheap and tacky quality of rhinestones is what makes it so perfect? Either way if you ever see or hear of an exhibit of hers around, and you like silkscreens, I would highly recommend going, they are so beautiful.

So there are 2 artists that made me feel really excited to work on my own stuff.

Cool website

Google is trying a new site called Google Art Project, very cool resource making up for the inability to take pictures in museums/ be at every exhibit. Art Project, powered by Google

Crit next week! Bring your own artist or two or few!

Hey guys,

We were talking last meeting about doing a crit where we all share artists that we like/ are influenced by or we think each other will be interested in. So that will be next wed. the 18th at 7. Jerry said he might be able to get a projector, and I just ran into Caleb today who would like to join and may also have a projector (pending a ride!).

Let me know if you guys are interested and if we have a projector I will let you guys know and prob have you email me associated images so I can make a lil presentation. But feel free to bring books, or whatever you have!

~ Danielle

jeans?

Does anyone have old jeans they want to donate to my next painting? A little stretch would be preferable. Thanks!

Tuesday evening watercolor classes

Ok I'm doing it! Anyone can register at www.daniellefesta.com/art/wc.html