...it's not really magic...

After hopelessly looking for and asking people about my house's stud finder, I gave in and treated myself to this for Christmas:  the magic stud finder.  I somehow got mine new for $6, must've been on ebay.  It really seems like magic compared to the electric kind we had before, that would always stop working if you accidently took it a half a millimeter away from the surface of the wall or would just be beeping and you wouldn't be sure if you found a stud or you found the electrical wiring jackpot.  The magic stud finder works with three really strong magnets that you rub all around the wall and eventually they'll stick to a nail in a stud, and bam, there's your stud!

It's not magic, it's just plain ol' science!  And I'm crazy about it!  No batteries required!

color editing in photoshop

ah, Photoshop.  I know how to do about six different things in photoshop, and I do them over and over again on various different (sometimes not-so-relevant) problems hoping that one of the six will end up working out.  This six-trick pony tried to edit a dark photo on her own, and it wasn't going so well.

Here is the original photo:

There are a lot of darks, and then that one really bright, washed out spot where the light hits the floor makes things even more complicated.

Here was one of my color correction attempts:

I tried to lighten it, but all it really did was make the colors duller and wash out that bright spot on the floor even more.

And finally, here is the photo my friend Charles Roderick, a professor at Harper College, color edited:

He brought me through all the steps and of course a month later I couldn't remember how he did it at all.  Luckily, I emailed him about it a couple months later and he remembered exactly what he did, and even had a video showing the steps!

Here is that video tutorial: http://vimeo.com/5293279.  

It involved going into levels to figure out where the lightest part of your photo is, and then going into curves to actually adjust the colors.  

Hope this helps someone else as much as it helped me!

my very first solo show!

Two weeks ago I set up my first solo show in the McLanahan Gallery at Penn State Altoona in Altoona, PA.  It's a part of the Ivyside Juried Art Exhibitions.  It runs from January 10 - March 3, 2013. I made a few new 2D pieces for the show recently.  Here are some not-the-best photos I took.  I'll take better ones when I go back to the gallery, probably a couple more times.

Here's a link about the show: http://www.altoona.psu.edu/now/news.php?value=4005

emilywhite.com was taken....

I finally made a website(!!!):  www.emilyrwhite.com

portside arts center's upholstery class

I've been lugging around this beat up, saggy, old , $5 from a thrift store children's recliner chair for at least one year now... actually it's probably more like two.. Every single person in my life tells me to throw it out and I tell them I'm going to keep it and reupholster it (I bought a couple books off amazon) and they say I never will and I'm just a pack rat.  Well, I am a pack rat, BUT I did register for an upholstery class! ...it doesn't start until January of 2013, but hey at least my space is reserved and my children's recliner chair will only be able to collect dust for another four months.

There's more info and some photos on the website: http://www.portsideartscenter.org/upholstery-class.html

Back from 3 months in Poland!

For three months this summer, and two and a half months last summer, I was working as a part of a team in nine cities across Poland to recreate the polychrome painted ceiling of a 17th century wooden synagogue for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews' core exhibition.  My job was to teach various groups of American and International travel students (some who had never painted before) how to replicate these paintings, using a limited number of black and white photos taken before the synagogue's destruction, and a couple of surviving color study resources.  We used only painting techniques of the time - we painted with hand-ground natural pigments mixed into rabbit skin glue.
This summer we were in five cities: Gdansk, Sejny, Kazimeirz Dolny, Szczebrzeszyn (notice there are only two vowels in that whole word!!), and Wroclaw.  For more info: http://www.handshousestudio.org

A gift a few of us made for Hands House after we completed the project.

All of our signatures in the lantern.  This board was going to be covered up by the flames boarder, so no one will actually see them.

baby b jumps over pie/fourth of july

Baby B Jumps over Pie/Fourth of July, 19" x 14", watercolor and ink, 2012.

Finished this a few months ago and never posted it.  I had to wait to do the table cloth until I could buy an appropriate piece of fabric for it.  I have a nice oval frame for this one, but unfortunately the glass broke so I'll to keep looking for another.

Philadelphia Mural Arts training program: done

Last week I had my last Muralist Training class with Dave McShane.  We had to pick an actual wall in Philadelphia and design a theoretical mural for it.  Typical themes for community murals are:  social problems (anti-drug, anti-domestic violence),  history, portraits of role models, education, health, religion, and sports.  I was personally intrigued by how many horse and carriage pairs there are.  I especially liked how in lots in the heart of the city there are horse stables.  It just surprised me.  There happen to be a stable near my boyfriend's work, so I chose an empty wall near there.  I wanted it to seem like the horses were pulling the wall/building.

 

Mural drawing, 10" x 13", pencil on bristol paper, 2012.

The next step was to make a 5 ft x 5ft painting of a blown-up section of the drawing.  I had this pretty much done in one week.  I think I do want to work on it a little more.  I definitely need to take new photos since the direct sunlight hitting the dark parts of the painting in this photo make it look sort of dull.   I'm going to mount this on plywood and frame it before the class' show in June.

Pull, 60" x 60", acrylic on this weird fabric used for murals that feels like dryer sheets, 2012.

good art news! and good other news! about myself!

Probably over a month ago I went on an applying-to-calls-for-art spree.  Here's what I've heard back about:

• I got accepted into the Philadelphia Mural Arts Training Program and completed it.  I actually had my last class last week.  My class will be having a show in June, which I unfortunately won't be able to attend since I'll be in Poland.
• My bison model is in Philadelphia's City Hall right now until May, in a show called Meta-fiber (part of FiberPhiladelphia).
• My ceramic armadillo got accepted into TEJAS Gallery Space's Tactile show, in Ohio.  This means I have to properly package it and ship it extremely soon because it needs to be there by April 3.
• I applied to the Fleisher Olman Gallery's 2013 Wind Challenge and made it to the second round of judging.  In the second round, a total of 27 applicants out of 247 will be participating for 9 exhibition opportunites during the 2012-2013 season.  I have to bring one piece in to be judged along with the images I sent, and you better believe it's going to be my bison, which most definitely will be a pleasure to move.
• My bison will be published in the next issue of Whitefish Review - the "wild issue".

Not art related, but still good news:

• I very recently signed the lease for a 3 story house in Fishtown, Philadelphia.  It comes with a probably 15' x 25' garage, and all for the price of half of what I paid for just 1 bedroom in Boston!  I'll be moving in this weekend.  This also marks the end of my paying $150/month for a storage space for my bison (!!!).  Last weekend, my 2 other roommates and me ripped up the disgusting dog-hair caked wall-to-wall carpeting on 2 floors of this house, only to find sections of it had been water damaged and instead of being properly repaired, someone jigsawed out giant sections of the floor and slapped some pieces of plywood in.  We took up the plywood and replaced it with pine boards, shellacked it, and polyurethaned it.
• If you can, please donate a couple of bucks to have the second summer of the Poland project I've been working for be documented!: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/15287081/filming-the-replication-of-a-17th-century-wooden-s

PAINting

 Versus, 17" x 18", watercolor, 2012.

I'm so glad that this painting is finally off of my desk!  Deleting the 27 reference photos for this piece off my desktop just felt amaaazing.  Almost every aspect of this was a struggle for me.  The funny thing is, I've learned to do the section of a painting that I'm looking forward to the least (99% of the time it's the background) first.  In this case it was the metal of the model t, which was actually the only part of the painting that was easy for me.  Oh, the irony.

This was my first time using friskit/masking fluid.  I had never used it before on a real painting.  I did buy some one time. Then I waited approximately five years and tried to use it.  I was EXTREMELY disappointed and didn't try it again until now, after buying a new bottle.  Turns out the stuff works great.

 Dark blue would've been nice.

 Red would've been a little nicer.

 I was rooting for the yellow.

But alas, none of those colors looked right and my wiener of a boyfriend kept trying to convince me to make it grey blue the whole time, so finally I tested it out.  Of course it looked the best.

 

I've learned from experience that taping wax paper over every part of my painting except for the part I'm working on is a good idea.  I drag my hand all over the paper and usually end up doing something bad. Also, doing a test painting of a part that I know is going to be extremely difficult always pays off.

I tried to log my hours spent on this piece.  I've tried to do this before, but never successfully.  The "never successfully" has been maintained for this one, although I can tell you it took more than 36 hours.  Much more than 36 hours actually, but how much more I do not know.  I stopped keeping track before I even started the glass and sky.

new camera

I bought this bad boy specifically for taking photos of my art (more 3D than 2D, which implies that I'll have to start making 3D work.....).  I chose this one pretty much only because my best college art teacher recommended it as a nice but not-so-nice-it's-reflected-in-the-price camera.

and 2 more are verrry close to being finished

 19"x 6", watercolor, 2012.

10" x 13", watercolor and ink, 2012.