nathalie-kalbach

Artist in Residence – Interview with Elena Zazanis

Today I am sharing an interview I did with writer, actor, and creative Elena Zazanis. This is an interview series I call Artist in Residence.

I heard this great quote recently: “On the bright side, I am no longer calling this shelter-in-place. I am now an artist-in-residence.” It got me thinking about how times of adversity and challenge are often what inspire action and creation for us artists.

I decided to seek out some peers whom I admire and ask them how they are using this time to be working artists. What has changed for them? Where are they finding room to create at home if they previously worked in an offsite studio, out-of-doors, or are now sharing a home studio with other working-from-home family members? What are they creating now – is it influenced by the current situation or on a similar path as before? Are they feeling called to action or struggling to create?

Everyone is responding differently to this crisis. Let’s learn how others are coping with their new status as Artists in Residence.

 

A little bit about this video:

This interview is with my dear friend Elena Zazanis. Elena is a true renaissance woman: a singer, actor, producer, writer, director, a wonderful cook, and much, much more. She has recently organized a roundtable group of creatives that I participate in and in this interview she talks about her motivations for getting this group together and the benefits of communing this way. She also discusses her daily life before the pandemic as an actress at a local law school where she helped students role play different legal scenarios, rehearsal with her music group, auditions, and meetings with collaborators. She describes how the current situation is effecting her routines and her apprehensions about getting back to it once restrictions are lifted, an exciting new script she is writing and her new focus on personal projects, and her techniques for warming up her creativity.

You can follow Elena here on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elenazazanis/
… And watch a trailer for her short film here: https://www.rgbshort.com/clip
…Elena’s musical group Cabaret Sauvignon can be found here: https://www.cabsavjc.com
…And here is a link to her website: https://www.gemprodsllc.com

Nat

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Artist in Residence – Interview with Sara Stadtmiller and Gary Mellon

Today I am sharing an interview I did with photographer Sara Stadtmiller and artist Gary Mellon. This is an interview series I call Artist in Residence.

I heard this great quote recently: “On the bright side, I am no longer calling this shelter-in-place. I am now an artist-in-residence.” It got me thinking about how times of adversity and challenge are often what inspire action and creation for us artists.

I decided to seek out some peers whom I admire and ask them how they are using this time to be working artists. What has changed for them? Where are they finding room to create at home if they previously worked in an offsite studio, out-of-doors, or are now sharing a home studio with other working-from-home family members? What are they creating now – is it influenced by the current situation or on a similar path as before? Are they feeling called to action or struggling to create?

Everyone is responding differently to this crisis. Let’s learn how others are coping with their new status as Artists in Residence.

 

A little bit about this video:

This interview is with my friends Sara and Gary. Sara is a photographer and Gary is an artist in several mediums and it was such a treat to get to talk to both of these inspiring individuals! Sara talks about her business expanding into a new space, the variety of work she does, and the challenges of juggling work and family life during the pandemic. Gary talks about the variety of artistic roles he’s played, his motivation and drive to create, and the benefits of creating for others. They also discuss their latest project – a “quarantine gallery” group art show that they’ve organized in the windows of Sara’s new studio space, bringing beauty and something positive to the neighborhood and to their own lives too. Finally the duo talks about applying creativity to other aspects of their lives to make all kinds of things work.

You can find the gallery show here: http://www.srsphotographer.com/outside-looking-in-a-quarantine-gallery/

Sara’s website is: http://www.srsphotographer.com

And be sure to follow Sara on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/sarastadtmiller/
and Gary on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/gamellon/

Nat

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A Look Back – Cool Stuff You May Have Missed 16 – Visual Texture

A Look Back – This time I’m looking at creating Visual Texture. This is one of my favorite tricks – creating the illusion of texture on a page using various tools and media. I love how you can fool the eye into thinking that an image or pattern has dimension to it, just by how it’s created. Below are 5 ways to experiment with it in this Look Back.

A Look Back is a blog series to show you some projects and posts that you may have missed – sometimes going WAY back in the archive. I think it will be fun to revisit a few ideas that we haven’t seen for a while. I’m excited to see how a little look back might inspire something new in the future :)

First up is a trick to do with some ArtFoamies foam stamps from this post in my Foam Stamplifier series – just stamp the foam stamp (here I’m using my Mini Hex set) with Distress Oxide inks and then spritz with water. When you lift away the water droplets with a paper towel you will reveal some beautiful visual texture.

 

Next is just using the right stamps – like my Cardboard rubber stamps that I’m using here in this art journal page. These stamps totally capture all the cool cardboard textures out there.

 

If you have stencils and a graphite stick or crayon around, you can try creating visual texture with frottage – rubbing! I used this technique along with my Batik stencil for this page in my Stencilbop Challenge. Check it out!

 

Another way to achieve the look of big texture with stencils is to use a few different colors of spray paint like I have here in this art journal page. I’m using my Hamilton stencil and just by moving it slightly and using spray paint I can create the illusion of a third dimension.

 

Finally, the visual texture that you can create using a hand carved stamp is really quite effective. I carved a large street scene for the stamp I used in this art journal page and just love the rough woodcut aesthetic of it.

I hope you enjoyed this look back and maybe it inspired you to give something new a try :)

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

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Artist in Residence – Interview with Wes Mingus

Today I am sharing an interview I did with musician Wes Mingus. This is an interview series I call Artist in Residence.

I heard this great quote recently: “On the bright side, I am no longer calling this shelter-in-place. I am now an artist-in-residence.” It got me thinking about how times of adversity and challenge are often what inspire action and creation for us artists.

I decided to seek out some peers whom I admire and ask them how they are using this time to be working artists. What has changed for them? Where are they finding room to create at home if they previously worked in an offsite studio, out-of-doors, or are now sharing a home studio with other working-from-home family members? What are they creating now – is it influenced by the current situation or on a similar path as before? Are they feeling called to action or struggling to create?

Everyone is responding differently to this crisis. Let’s learn how others are coping with their new status as Artists in Residence.

 

A little bit about this video:

This interview is with my friend and ukulele teacher Wes Mingus. Wes is a professional musician and composer, so we are exploring a different side of the arts with this chat. In this interview, Wes talks about his journey as a working musician and the challenges that come along with that, his shift to teaching to help balance work and family life, and his current situation navigating the pandemic and dealing with cancelled performances and classes. He discusses the collaborative nature of his artform, adapting to the new realities of life in his work, and his process of creating music. He also touches on working from home while everyone is at home :)

You can hear Wes’s latest track here: https://soundcloud.com/wesming-1/2x2l-quarantine2
And be sure to follow him on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/wesmingus/

Nat

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We Shall Overcome Mini – New Painting

I love this mural in in my neighborhood by case case_maclaim – We shall Overcome. I walk by this mural quite often and especially during this time of pandemic it has resonated with me a lot.

It is also a reminder of all the things that are broken and still need to be overcome …I still have hope.

This artwork is created on an 8”x8” canvas board using spray paint, acrylic paint, gouache, and markers.

It is available in my store and I would love to give it a new home ! 

Nat

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Rise & Shine – Maura Hibbitts

Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have an art journal page from Maura Hibbitts to lift you up a bit. Maura is using my new Mini Motifs, Nightingale, and Wabi Sabi rubber stamps with this month’s theme: Rise & Shine – Sometimes it is inspiring to think of each new day as an opportunity to do something good – to shine. Create something that will encourage others to do the same and let’s all bring a little more light into this world!

“Rise and Shine” bring back strong childhood memories of my mother using these exact words to get me out of bed in the morning and off to school. Some days I can remember grumbling to myself, “what is there to shine about today?” Those were the days I was so cozy and snug, I just did not want to get up. Today, I am thinking about these words a little differently. Right now, we need things to look forward to in our daily lives, things that shine brighter. Perhaps it is a beautiful sunny day, or the flowers starting to bloom (at least here in upstate NY) that bring some joy to us, so we want to rise and start our day. I am also hopeful that there are brighter days ahead for all of us!

I started off in one of my large art journals with fluid acrylics and a brayer. I began at the top with a good squirt of Hansa Yellow Medium, and rolled the brayer in several directions, to create an area for my sun. Next, I added some drops of Ultramarine blue and Cobalt Teal Hue for my sky area, and rolled the brayer vertically to blend a bit. I also went in and added a bit of Translucent White. I repeated the same vertical strokes with the brayer and Yellow Green Light and Green Gold at the bottom of the page for the grass area. Any extra paint, I just rolled onto the page next to this one, no use wasting any of it.

Once the paint was completely dry, I began to stamp the sun. I did this with the Arts and Crafts Motif stamp in a repeating pattern, and used the Moonlight Duo Nebula Rust ink.

I stamped three Nightingale images in the grassy area with black ink. One great tip I have learned over the years, is to use an uneven number of objects. One bird didn’t feel like enough. Remember that saying, the early bird gets the worm? (another rise and shine moment) Well, my trio of birds is out early looking for them!

Next, I stamped a variety of “flower stems” with the Wabi Sabi stamps – Jazzed, Groovy and Gnarly and black ink.

I turned the Arts and Craft Motif stamp into flowers, and stamped them with bright inks, using pinks and oranges, on the end of the stems. I don’t know about you, but colorful flowers always make me smile.

Next, I took several colors of Posca paint pens to add in a bit of detail on the sun and flowers. I also drew in a few leaves for the stems, and added some dots into the grass.

Final step was to hand letter “Brighter days are coming!” with a Posca pen.

I try to live my life in a positive and optimistic way, and even when times are really difficult like now, I have to believe bright days will be here again. Creating a cheerful art journal page helps uplift my mood.

What helps you to Rise and Shine each day? Children, grandchildren, spouse, friend, pet? A sunny day, your garden, art, birds singing outside your window? Look for the special joys in your life to help lift your spirits. I wish you the best! – Maura

Thank you Maura! We are definitely ready for some brighter days ahead :)

Want to give Maura’s project a try? You can find all my Rubber Stamps in my Online Shop. Here are some of the other supplies Maura used:

Feel inspired? Working on something yourself that you’d like to share?  I love to see how you interpret our monthly themes. Email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share your projects in my next  “n*Spiration From Around the Globe“.

Nat

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Artist in Residence – Interview with Bruno Nadalin

Today I am sharing an interview I did with printmaker artist Bruno Nadalin. This is an interview series I call Artist in Residence.

I heard this great quote on the web recently: “On the bright side, I am no longer calling this shelter-in-place. I am now an artist-in-residence.” It got me thinking about how times of adversity and challenge are often what inspire action and creation for us artists.

I decided to seek out some peers whom I admire and ask them how they are using this time to be working artists. What has changed for them? Where are they finding room to create at home if they previously worked in an offsite studio, out-of-doors, or are now sharing a home studio with other working-from-home family members? What are they creating now – is it influenced by the current situation or on a similar path as before? Are they feeling called to action or struggling to create?

Everyone is responding differently to this crisis. Let’s learn how others are coping with their new status as Artists in Residence.

 

A little bit about this video:

This interview is with my friend Bruno Nadalin, a very talented printmaker artist who is also a teacher at the Jersey City Art School. Bruno talks about the impact that the virus has had on his teaching, the challenges of creating online classes as an alternative, and opportunities to create and hone certain fundamental skills despite the situation. He discusses the possible impacts on his own work that social isolation may reveal with time, his gallery show that opened just days before we went into lockdown, and his current experiments including sculptural elements created from metal printing plates.

You can learn more about Bruno, see his work, and get a link to his website  at: https://www.instagram.com/bruno_nadalin/

His prints for sale can be found on his etsy page.

A video tour of his gallery show can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncn9wzwisJk

*Please note that there is some sound syncing delay in this video, and although it is there, it is still a great listen! Our apologies!

Nat

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Nat’s Spring Pattern Fun – Video 8-14 Recap

When I received my new RubberMoon Stamp Designs I once again couldn’t stop making samples and patterns (remember last year’s April Patterns — well it happened again this year lol). I decided to record a short video for some of them and post them on my Instagram.

These videos are short and sweet – You can see what I use and how I pull the pattern together. I hope it inspires you to give some of them a try and maybe come up with your own too.

Here is a recap of Patterns 8-14 – I hope you enjoy :)

Pattern 08: First up is a simple linear pattern using my Mini Motifs and Fan-fare stamp sets. 2 colors + 2 stamps = Pattern Success

 

Pattern 09: Next up is another duo – I love when stuff fits nicely together and that is the key with this pattern. I’m using one stamp from my Hex Set Small along with one stamp from my Triangle Love set. 

 

Pattern 10: How about Diamonds and … Pearls? I made this pattern with one of my Triangle Love stamps and one of my Small Circle Jumble stamps.

 

Pattern 11: Another fits-just-right combo is my Solid Hex Large with my Triangle Love stamps overtop. This pattern also has a stamp from my Floral Tile Small set in there too. Hexes, triangles, and squares.

 

Pattern 12: Balancing delicate and bold is a winning strategy for patterns. In this one I use some stamps from my Mini Motifs set and the Solid Triangle Large stamp from my Triangle Love set.

 

Pattern 13: My Triangle Love stamps are also designed to play really well with my Hex Set Large rubber stamps: the sides of the triangles are the same length as that of the hexes. Look how that can translate into a great field of pattern!

 

Pattern 14: How easy is it? All you need is a couple triangle stamps and 2 different ink colors to make a field of pattern.

Here are some of the stamps I used for these patterns:

Nat

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