Container gardening season has commenced, and during the past few weeks I’ve been getting the patio ready for a new year of vegetable-growing adventures. I pulled out my buckets and filled them with the soil I’d stored and saved from last season, refreshing it with compost and other nutrients. After noticing that a squirrel or… Continue reading Painted Seed Storage Box
Category: Art
Mountains and Birds on the Cabinet Doors
One of the challenges of home ownership is reconciling your improvement ambitions with the realities of your finite time and (especially) budget. In our house, one of those projects has been the cabinets. When Brandon and I first bought the place, we imagined what it would be like to replace them, as they definitely contributed… Continue reading Mountains and Birds on the Cabinet Doors
Dawn and Dusk on the Pocket Door
Not teaching this semester means I’ve got more mental and emotional energy for art projects, including ideas I’ve had for the house. While I’ve already painted a bird or other animal in each room, I’ve also been meaning to carry out some larger concepts. For the past several months, for instance, I’ve wanted to paint… Continue reading Dawn and Dusk on the Pocket Door
Sketching the Yard
One of the things I love about our house is the number of large windows we have. In the living room especially, the sliding glass door and a window that reaches down to the floor provide ample views of our surroundings. The cats have spent many hours here watching birds, squirrels, and the sun itself… Continue reading Sketching the Yard
Good Tidings, 2022
Ten years ago I decided to try something new for the holidays by printing my own cards and sending them out to friends and family. That first card was a spontaneous affair, the result of my excitement to share in what was then a new medium to me, printmaking. Since then, making holiday cards has… Continue reading Good Tidings, 2022
Painting the House
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything about my art practice on here. Not that I haven’t been doing any sketching or drawing, but between various trips, conferences, and ongoing dissertation work, I’ve had plenty of other things to talk about. Today though, we’ll check in on my latest creative project: painting birds… Continue reading Painting the House
Good Tidings, 2021 Edition
With the holiday season comes the time for sending out handmade cards. For the last few years, I’ve been using methods that didn’t rely on a press, such as cyanotypes or block printing. Now that I’ve got my own miniature intaglio press, courtesy of the Open Press Project Project, I’m sending my first intaglio-printed card… Continue reading Good Tidings, 2021 Edition
Artwork, November Update
It’s been a couple months since I’ve written about my artwork on this blog. It’s not for lack of material. If anything, I’ve been drawing more than usual, but since the project I’ve just finished is a commission and its intended recipients haven’t seen it yet, I can’t share any of it right now. After… Continue reading Artwork, November Update
Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful
Usually when I post an art update, I talk about my own work. I’m in the midst of a project that I can’t share right now though because its intended recipients might accidentally see it, so today we’re going to focus on another facet of my creative practice: visiting art exhibitions. As I learned in… Continue reading Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful
How My Art Practice Influences My Scholarship
I’ve been talking a lot about my art and my research interests lately, but I’ve never mentioned them together. For a long time, that was how I felt about my academic work and my artwork: they weren’t related to another beyond giving me a better technical understanding of etching and other intaglio techniques, which was… Continue reading How My Art Practice Influences My Scholarship