Other Project

A Painting for CAMDA

Next Friday, I'll be featuring the work of Bridget Farmer, a very talented printmaker.  After I came across Bridget's work, I discovered that she has an Etsy shop devoted entirely to raising funds for CAMDA (Cambridge Mongolia Development Appeal). 

According to their website, "CAMDA was first formed in 2000 as the result of  widespread poverty and hardship among Mongolia's nomadic herding communities caused by the dzud that year, which is a climate disaster when a drought summer is followed by a winter of extreme severity. Deep snow accompanied by long periods of ultra-low temperatures (-45C) killed millions of herd animals leaving their owners destitute.  News of the first disaster got scant media coverage and John Pirie felt urged to help ease the plight of these herding families. Little was then known about Mongolia, a country still grappling with immense financial deficits, undergoing huge social and economic reforms after 70 years of a Soviet command economy."      

CAMDA develops and maintains grass-root projects.  These projects include a WSPA-funded Mobile Vet Project (2003-2007) to inoculate essential horses against parasitic diseases. A Well-Refurbishment Project to bring water to remote drought-stricken Gobi regions. They also make grants for simple grass cutting equipment to co-operatives in northern provinces where grass is more plentiful. Horse-drawn mowers or diesel tractors fitted with cutter and rake attachments are loaned to local communities helping boost reserve fodder stocks to help see them through the long Mongolian winter.

I was inspired by Bridget's generosity of time and talent in creating a shop for CAMDA and decided to donated a piece of my work to the shop.  This original watercolor painting will be available at the shop once it makes it way to Bridget in Northern Ireland.  It depicts the a Mongolian Landscape with a Ger.  Nearly all Mongolian herders live in white gers (felt-lined tents, yurt in Russian).

What are your favorite examples of art for a cause?  

Featured Artist

Walter Helena Photography

Walter Helena Photography is a Vancouver, British Columbia based company. At the helm of WHP is Nadine, who has utmost respect for fine art images that are reproduced at the highest of quality.  WHP creates themed collections -- each of which are produced in limited edition quantities of 25.

More about Nadine, in her own words.

I travel often and I always carry my camera with me (a Canon EOS 50D, which I adore). A very heavy necklace.



Through my printing styles, the photographs become pieces of art; thick paper, texture beneath the ink, intensely saturated colours, ragged white edges. They are beautiful. And I’m not just saying that because I love each one individually (and I do).



I take immense pride in the reproduction of my images. Each individual WHP image is part of a themed collection and is available in a variety of sizes from 5 x 5 inches to 40 x 40 inches. 


Many thanks to Nadine for sharing her dream-like photographs!


What do you think of these ethereal images? 

Wedding Invitation

Love Hands Silhouette
I have recently revisited the invitation which I design this fall featuring silhouettes of hands spelling out love.  The theatrical nature of shadow puppet inspired me to format the text with the boldness of a playbill or a marquee.  

I was checking out the variety of shadow puppet silhouettes featured in the flickr group dedicated to that topic.  I am particularly fond of the ocelot and the bird submitted by DanieleDG.

Do you have shadow puppet skills?

Western Avenue Series

Mile 2: 114th Street-106th Street

This painting is a part of my Western Avenue Series, through which I'll be making 24 watercolor paintings, one to document each mile of Western Avenue, in Chicago.  I started this project because while it is not considered to be among the most “beautiful” of Chicago’s streets, Western Avenue is a perfect place to document the humanness of Chicago, the positive and the negative. In the words of Stuart Dybek, "Western, with apologies to State Street, is a great street,  Unlike State, it is a street that goes to the interior, the heart of the city, as it glides and glows through a United Nations of neighborhoods."  Check back next Monday to see a post about the next mile of Western.

The painting representing the second mile of Western Avenue depicts Clissold Elementary School.  Clissold is a beautiful old building and is a part of the Chicago Public School system.  It is one of several schools located along Western, including Roberto Clemente and Lane Tech High Schools.

Clissold Elementary is named for Henry Rowland Clissold (1842 - 1930). Clissold was born in England, came to Chicago in 1863 and worked as a printer for the Daily News, Tribune, Journal, and Times.  He managed publishing of publications of the Society of the American Institute of Hebrew. Clissold was the first clerk of the village of Morgan Park, as well as a member and president of the Board of Education of Morgan Park. 


Click here to purchase this painting.

Other Projects

Cheerleading for the Dinner Party

A few weeks ago a friend sent me a link to post written by Alexandra Lange on the Gourmet Live Blog, which asked the question, "Whatever Happened to the Dinner Party?"  I was immediately indignant--the dinner party is doing just fine thank you very much!  I relish few forms of entertainment more than gathering people in my home for a meal, so I felt certain that meal-centric parties were alive and well.  

After reading the article, I had to admit that my gatherings take a different form from the elegant dinner parties described by Ms. Lange.  She describes the parties her mother hosted as complete with china, lipstick and fresh flowers.  To start,  I don't own china, in fact only about five of my set of eight everyday dish place settings remain unbroken.  I do, however, delight in coordinating menus around at least the hint of a culinary theme and experimenting with "from scratch" preparation of all manner of menu items.  I also delight in the small non-food-related things that make a meal feel a bit more special.  

With only enthusiasm as a qualification, I would like to champion the dinner party and offer a few helpful hints in planning and hosting these gatherings.  I was initially intimidated by hosting more than a few friends, but in the last several years have taken to hosting as many as several dozen people for dinner.  In hosting larger parties, I found that advance planning is the key to success.  I recommend deciding on a menu at least a week and advance and choosing, as much as possible, dishes that can be prepared in advance (and possibly frozen).  This will allow you make portions of the meal days or weeks in advance, so as to avoid frantic preparation as your guests are arriving.  Soups, pasta sauces, and cakes all tend to freeze quite well.  Baked dishes like lasagna and quiche also work well because you can make them early in the day, put them in the oven as your guests are arriving, and let them bake while people settle in with drinks and appetizers.  

While I don't entertain with ironed table clothes, china and crystal, I am unwilling to serve food on disposable plates either.  My paternal grandmother had a gift for making things "feel special."  When we would visit as children, we were served cranberry juice and ginger ale in a wine glass at "cocktail hour," fresh flowers often graced the dining room table, and it wasn't uncommon to fabricate place cards even when the only guests were me, my Grandmother, and my Grandfather.  I cherish those memories and try to do small things that make guests feel welcome.

Like the food, I've found that it is really helpful to prepare other items in advance of the guests arrival as well.  I use on side table in the dining room as a bar, putting out water and wine glasses, pitchers of water, and other beverages.  I am happy to have a collection of about thirty plates (many of which were collected from the thrift store).  I've taken to preparing a "tea tray" in advance--it's nice to have mugs, assorted teas, sugar, and honey ready to be served with dessert.  Finally, I delight in details like serving dessert with small demitasse spoons is somehow so lovely.  


With exuberant support for the future of dinner parties, cheers!


What are your best tips for preparing and hosting dinner parties?  

Featured Artist

Brendan Kirwin
Brendan Kirwin is a media producer, documentary filmmaker and video artist living in Chicago, IL. Brendan is dedicated to using technology and media to create social change. Along with various documentary and non-profit video projects, he has been working on Journey to Peace a documentary, following reformed gang members as they work to bring peace to their neighborhood. As a extension of Journey to Peace, Brendan helped organize Chicago Conjunto, a community arts event centered around non-violence. He has a BFA, in Music and Multimedia, at the University of Michigan. 



Dear Olivia from Brendan Kirwin on Vimeo.
You have written that you are "interested in how we communicate through art and media and whether this nurtures true connection or merely feeds more static into our live."  What do you find most challenging about making "true connection" through video art?
I think the most challenging thing for me in creating video art is the lack of immediacy that comes with the medium. If I have an idea that I want to express, I first have to shoot footage, or scan found images, or create motion graphics that evoke the idea. Then I have to work with these images in Final Cut (the video editing software I use) to create a sense of rhythm and cadence that is harmonious with the idea. That's a much different experience than putting paint on a canvas or playing an instrument, and because of this I find that my video art tends to be more cerebral than say my writing or my music. Is a video attempting to represent my human experience really capable of transmitting that experience to another person? I don't know. I like the idea of exploring the limitations of technology (both conceptually and practically) through multimedia, creating a way to scrutinize this overwhelming deluge of "progress".


A number of your documentary projects could be considered a form of art as activism.  What qualities of film-making do you consider to be uniquely suited to social activism?
I would hope that all social documentaries could be considered art as activism. Documentary filmmaking is the best way I've found to convey human experience in a concrete way. The major obstacle of getting people engaged in a social issue is convincing them that it's worth their time and energy. As the saying goes, "You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into," so with an issue like homelessness or gang violence, it's going to take more than statistics and figures to change someone's mind. The way past that is to get people emotionally engaged, and there's no better way to do that than putting a face on the issue. One of the best ways to nurture empathy is through collective experience and short of having the person walk in another person's shoes, you can do that through documentary films. 


Are there specific themes you would like to explore or film-making techniques you hope to experiment with in future projects?
The past few years, I've found Buddhist psychology and practice to be an extremely engaging and liberating part of my life and I plan on exploring more how mindfulness and compassion opens up our heart and mind. I hope to experiment more with stop-motion animation, because it's whimsical and challenging, and seems to be a good medium for exploring the process of "being in the moment".  


Sincere thanks to Brendan for sharing his thoughts on film-making and especially for sharing his short film Dear Olivia.  Pretty extraordinary, right?


What do you think of Dear Olivia?

Wedding Invitation

Wild Flowers in a Mason Jar

The design for this new wedding invitation was inspired by a month spent at age eleven with my Aunt Anne and Uncle Will, in their cabin, on the St. John River, in New Brunswick, Canada. The memories of this trip have been dulled by time, but there is a definitely a certain fondness associated with that summer.  It was a visit marked by canoe trips, swimming, travel to Prince Edward Island, walks through the cemetery, going to movies, and picking wild fruits and flowers.

I have glimpses of memories of arranging collected flowers in jars on a picnic table overlooking the river.  The beautiful simplicity of flowers in a classic blue mason jar seemed a lovely image for this new invitation design.  I've paired the original watercolor painting with with elegant "mason jar blue" text.  

What are some of your best summer memories from childhood?