Tiny etchings

I've always loved tiny things, but my tiny etchings were inspired by two things: laziness and thrift. I was in a weekly printmaking workshop where we had no lockers or anywhere to leave our tools and plates during the week, so we had to schlep everything each time. Zinc plates can be heavy, and I didn't like carrying around a heavy bag. There was a large metal cutter called a guillotine in the studio, where you could cut a plate down to the size you needed. One day I noticed that there were long narrow strips of zinc on the floor beneath the cutter, so I picked them up and cut them into pieces about 1x1 inch or a little bigger. Not only were they free, they were lightweight! So my long series of miniature works began.
This one one of my first minis - it's loosely a portrait of my friend Mo Lea, who was in the workshop with me. She had an outrageous blond mohawk and a penchant for skulls and bones, both in her work and her jewelry.
I always liked doing sketches of girls wearing sunglasses, and this girl has miniature sunglass pin on her lapel...mini within mini.

When I was in high school, there was a phone on a small shelf in the upstairs hallway of my house; we used the wall above the shelf for notes and phone numbers, but sometimes I would draw these silly-looking birds. My mother finally painted over the notes and numbers, but she left the birds. When I did this etching, I thought my birds were not really serious enough for an etching, but my papermaking mentor Harriet Germain loved this etching best of all of mine - she called it "the chickens." It has a special place in my heart because Harriet is long gone and she meant so much to me.

Drawings that pop out of my pen

Sometimes, when I'm doing nothing in particular, like waiting on hold on the phone (or, in the old days of the internet, waiting for a file to download) these little drawings pop out of my pen. I use whatever pen is handy, whatever little scraps of paper are on hand. I usually don't have a subject idea or a reason, they just appear. This bunch are done on small pieces of mat board, leftovers from framing; the pen was probably a very fine Sharpie or something similar. I haven't done many of these lately - I hope some more pop out of my pen soon.

I did these in Seattle on a rainy day, although real Seattlites rarely use umbrellas.

Nostalgia for Hawaiian nights...Cherries on a cloth...I've done various versions of this.

Repeat repeat repeat

Here's some more repeat patterns - I did a series for stationery and gift wrap, and some for my own amusement.

Simple Roses

Ribbons

Geometry

Bubbles

Mod Flowers
Squiggles

This last one was once the background of my web site, back in the day when I had the time and energy to change my site every couple of months. Now I'm lucky if I get to it every five years! It's good, though, because that means I have lots of other work to do, so I guess all that time I spent fiddling with my portfolio site paid off...

Art and such

This blog is to show and sell my art, particularly small pieces. Pen refers to my scribbles, doodles and little drawings, the sort I like to say "just popped out of my pen." Press refers to my printmaking; etchings, collagraphs, and monoprints, which I print on an etching press.
I recently moved, and in the packing and unpacking process, discovered I had lots of small etchings on hand - most are less
than 2 inches square - that I used to sell in magnet frames as "Fine Art for the Fridge." I might make some into cards, or magnets, or other items, or sell them just as tiny frameable art.
My pen drawings have been scanned and sometimes digitally colored, and I plan to sell them in various forms. I might even take requests, if someone wants them on a card, button, pocket mirror, etc.
I know things will change as I go along, so let's get started! I haven't decided exactly what to do with each piece, so I'm going to post the images and think about it later...

This little drawing was originally done in ink and colored pencil on frosted mylar. Drawing on mylar is fun because you can view it from either side and see different effects. It might make a good greeting card, or a magnet.
Dogwood - a repeat pattern I did for a gift wrap company (I don't know if they ever used it).

This repeat of garden tools came from a series of mini etchings from my "Fine Art for the Fridge" series.

I guess that's all for today!