It is hard to convince myself to start chipping away at my huge list of To Dos when it is so warm and there are so many end of the summer activates to get taken care of! We have entertained each of our three nieces (separately of course), we have done most of the summer parties that we always do, and now we are winding down the summer with our Labor Day camping trip/The Boy’s Birthday camping trip. I have really been trying to take it easy since I graduated from graphic design school in June but I have been doing a little art while lounging around complaining about the heat.
I have talked about the Super Hero Tome round robin I hosted a couple of times in previous posts. I explained the theme in my post titled “Pretty Pretty Books”, and showed you all the work I did in my book before sending it off in the post “Fart in a Windstorm”. This week we wrapped up the round robin and now we are all just waiting for our mail carriers to bring our books home so we can drool over all of the amazing work that has been done. While waiting for mine to get here I thought I would show you what I did in everyone else’s books. Please forgive the bad photos… we have had a battery shortage around here this summer; I swear I have purchased at least five packages specifically for my good camera and when I want to use them they are nowhere to be found. One of these days I am going to open a random drawer or bag and hit the battery jackpot.
So this first set of pages I put in my friend Cindy’s book. I actually hated the way the first spread turned out and begged Cindy to mail it back to me after the swap was over so I could fix it but she saw the photos and loves them and said “No way man! These are awesome”! The first spread is all paint and collage (using bits and pieces I got when I visited Cindy last spring). I carved a stamp for the eye in the second spread and the hands I used are cut from a bag I saved from the Body Worlds Exhibit last year.
Some of us had more specific themes or story lines than others and I did my best to honor each person’s vision for their book. Rhonda mentioned her superhero being able to fight the pain and anxiety brought on by severe migraines, and also spoke to one of the hero’s powers being an ability to guide the dead peacefully to the beyond. I thought my interpretation for the latter may have been a bit gruesome but she seemed to be on-board with it. Each of these are collage, acrylic paint, and some Prismacolor markers.
Denise had a fun little story to work from! Her superhero was to be a young girl just discovering her powers. I got a real young Rogue feeling from the back story and though her idea of poison lips and sultry manipulation was really fun to work with. Again, these are all collage and acrylic paint. I had a lot of fun with this one (I think the fact that I was pretty pissed off at Big Orange the week I did these helped in the wild depiction of her powers).
And last but not least was my friend Jen’s awesome little book! I wish I could show you pictures of the way she made it because it is very neat. She wanted her book to be like a well used old superhero manual. It had sections for costume, powers, pointers, troubleshooting, and something else I am forgetting. It was so tiny and neato I could have worked in it forever! Sadly, I had to send it back after doing three spreads but I don’t think she would have been happy with me keeping it all to myself!
Before I go I have a bit of news/a couple of announcements. I guess I should have addressed this straight away but better late than never… The blog theme here has gotten all bland and icky because I am in the middle of changing some things around and doing a rebranding for Katie Cahill Art. I am also moving/getting rid of some content and just doing some general reorganizing. I will be creating a web portfolio for my graphic design work and focusing on just my art and hobbies here from now on. Katie Cahill Art will have a shiny new look after the long holiday weekend!
Also, next week my co-host Sharon and I will be having our final preproduction meeting for our new mixed media arts podcast! We just have a few more things to hammer out and a bit more microphone testing to take care of and then we are off to the races! Recording should begin sometime in September and I will make an announcement here once the first episode is up on iTunes and the blog and FB fan page for the show go live. This project has seen many setbacks and I am thrilled that things are finally coming together!
Oh! I almost forgot! I am building up inventory for the Katie Cahill Art Etsy Shop and will have new journals and other goodies up there for purchase very soon!
I hope you all have a fantastic and safe holiday weekend!
Katie Cahill Art 