Wedding Invitation

Birds on a Branch
     In continuation of the regular presentation of new wedding invitation design each Wednesday, here is a new design featuring birds on a branch.  I often associate of birds with love.  In fact, I already have an invitation featuring birds on a wire, and three designs featuring doves. 

    I was curious about this association between birds and affection, so I did some some brief research.  I found that origin of referring to people as "love birds" comes from an actual species of bird: the lovebird.  A lovebird is a type of parrot, which got its name for its very sociable and affectionate nature. When a lovebird bonds with its mate, their bonding usually lasts their entire life.
    In feng shui tradition, the ability to fly and soar high up in the sky is closely associated with the ability to be near heavens, as well as the ability to serve as messengers from heavens.
In traditional feng shui applications, birds are considered powerful symbols of new opportunities that are there for you even in times of adversity. Birds can also symbolize love and commitment or abundance and good luck.  New opportunity, love, commitment, abundance, good luck, no wonder I think of birds as a great image to be included as two people begin a life together!


What do you think of birds as a symbol of love?

Galway, Ireland

"Foggy Galway Day," pen & ink, Jane Sloss, 2010

I spent one day during my recent visit to Ireland in Galway, the fifth largest city in the country.  It is a lovely city situated on the eastern corner of Galway bay.  The day I visited, the city had a delightfully ethereal quality about it.  A stubborn fog, along with a series of canals and channels that run through the city made it seem the perfect setting for a mystery.  I was delighted that after arriving to Galway by bus and meandering around (without map or guide), I stumbled upon the Galway City Museum (free!), a lovely pedestrian district, a grand city square, and the National University of Ireland.  After wandering for a long while, I settled on the patio of  a cafe, sipped a pot of tea and made this painting of the Galway Cathedral, which was glimpsed among the trees, across a canal from where I sat.


Stop by my public facebook page tomorrow to see some of my photos from Galway!


What is your favorite way to spend a foggy or gloomy day?

Other Projects

Photographing My Paintings
I've never taken much of an interest in photography or received any formal training on the subject.  Sure, I can travel the Grecian Islands, take several hundred photos, and get a few really great images.  There isn't really much challenge in taking great photos if the scenery is stunning.  It is more challenging, for me, to take photographs which effectively convey information about my painted work.

Several weeks ago, I spent a full afternoon taking photographs of paintings in order to post them in my Etsy store.  This was only my second attempt at photographing paintings, though a good bit more successful than the first.  I experimented with photographing the paintings in different types of natural light, including hanging outside on the front porch.

It was certainly challenging to get the light just right, in order to see the painting without glare or reflections.  I achieved some fairly successful results.  My favorite part of the whole ordeal, by far, was photographing the paintings with props.  

The experience reminded me a bit of the work of this week's featured artist Sabina Nieto.  Sabina tends to create "occupiable spaces" in her collages.  She wrote, "...Otherwise ambiguous destinations for the wandering eye are provided windows, walls, vanishing points, or horizons to register where you are..."  Similarly in photographing my paintings, I'm drawn to the idea of creating imagined environments, in which the painting seem to fit much more naturally than they do when they exist solely as well lit objects, in a sterile environment.  The addition of domestic do-dads and bobbles seem to, in Sabina's words, "[make] these spaces richer by becoming more specific.—equipped with hiding places, beach blankets, a make-shift armchair . . . one could ask, 'May I make myself at home?'"     

What are some of your favorite props for photos: mustaches, sunglasses for your dog, vintage items?

Featured Artist

Sabina Nieto
In the second installment of the featured artist series, I would like to introduce Sabina Nieto. Sabina is a California native, trained as an architect-builder and is infinitely amazed by the hand-made, regardless of scale. Pulling the strings of technical presentation by day, in her off hours she co-curates a modest gallery in Berkeley, and is a freelance designer in range of media. You can find her building at the dinner table, most any day. 

Please feel free to get in touch with Ms. Nieto. 

“Baptistry,” collage, 8” x 11”, Sabina Nieto, 2010

What inspires you about collage as a medium?  Where do you search for and typically find the images used in your collages?      Collage-making and image juxtaposition has long been one of my immediate ways of visualizing an idea, if not a fluid medium of playing with place-making.  I borrow images from what are mostly found and second-hand books and posters.  I’m drawn to quickly-aged source materials (bearing the marks of weather when found curbside, or belonging to a particular time when featuring culture)—revealing their age through tell-tale costumes, antiquated equipment, or the yellowing of paper. 
     I’ve always loved collage as well as assemblage, collections, altars, quilts—a bit of visual potluck.  From many moments of refuse, a whole personal map can be divined.   I never doubt the place from which these kinds of things are made.

“Observatory,” collage, 11” x 11.5”, Sabina Nieto, 2010

You seem to create spaces in many of your collages, what interests you about compiling an occupiable environment through found images?

    I often drop representations of people into my collages, creating “occupiable environments”, perhaps part of a residual architectural convention insisting people be considered when designing as well as, very functionally, providing scale.  These places become personal.   Otherwise ambiguous destinations for the wandering eye are provided windows, walls, vanishing points, or horizons to register where you are.  If we’re lucky these spaces become richer by becoming more specific—equipped with hiding places, beach blankets, a make-shift armchair . . . one could ask, “May I make myself at home?”

“Sub-rosa Correspondency,” collage, 5.5” x 7”, Sabina Nieto, 2010

Who are some artists of inspiration, in the realm of collage?

. . . or from drawings that feel like collage?
Dada posters
Aldo Rossi
Eduardo Chillida
Joseph Cornell
Daniel Spoerri
Cristiana Couceiro

“Night Depository,” collage, 7.75” x 11”, Sabina Nieto, 2010

Thank you so very much for sharing your work Sabina!  I will be eagerly following the ongoing "visual potluck" available at How to Dig a Hole!

What do you think of Sabina's work?  Who are some of your favorite collage artists?

Wedding Invitation

Mount Vernon, Baltimore

This is the second wedding invitation, in my new Wednesday series.  Each week I will feature a new invitation in my expanding collection, which can be viewed at my Etsy shop.   

Today I am featuring two versions of an invitation, which is in the design process for a dear friend who will wed this spring.  Her fiance proposed to her at the Washington Monument in Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood.  They wanted an invitation, which would reflect that part of their story.  After developing a few initial concepts they liked this design, which features the Washington Monument, Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, and the Lafayette Monument.   

 

After executing the initial watercolor painting without sky, I realized that one could achieve very different results with the addition of washes for the sky.  The warm evening sky adding to the whimsy of the design,  the version without sky more minimal and modern.  

It was a delight to design and execute this invitation as I lived in Mount Vernon during my two years in Baltimore and I'm very fond of the neighborhood.  These images hold a certain nostalgia for me and I'm sure for me and I'm sure for many residents of Charm City.


Have you visited Mount Vernon?  Which invitation do you prefer?

Rossaveal, Ireland

"Rossaveal, Ireland," watercolor and pen on paper, Jane Sloss, 2010

On my recent trip to Ireland, I returned from the Aran Islands on a ferry to Rossaveal.  I stayed a bed and breakfast on the road to Galway.  As I parked my bike on the side of the B & B, I was completely mystified by the scene which lay behind the home.  The sunset was brilliant over the bay.  After settling into my room, I went outside and tried to capture the scene.  Painting a sunset is an interesting undertaking as the image is changing dramatically with each minute.  It was marvelous!  I'll be posting photos from Rossaveal on my public facebook page tomorrow--stop by!


What are some of your favorite places to catch a sunset?  What do you think of this sketch from Rossaveal?  

Other Projects

Halloween Costume
Last Saturday morning, with attendance of a Halloween party looming, I fabricated a costume with two qualifying factors in mind: 1.  Costume fabrication must take approximately one hour.  2.  Costume must be assembled without the purchase of any materials.  With those constraints at hand, I went about cutting fabric from my stash into circles of various sizes.

These circles of fabric in shades of blues and green, were assembled concentrically and ready to be incorporated into the costume.  Construction paper was cut into similar concentric circles, and attached with framing wire to a barrette.

And voila, I'm a peacock, albeit a bit of a stylized one.   

After dissembling the costume, I glued the stylized "feathers" to illustration board to make unique notecards. 

If you would like to receive one of these notecards, just leave a comment on this post and I'll send you one of these cards (six notecards available).