Project Cotidian

Getting Gemmy Wit It

 So I'm back y'all.  Thanks to a limitation on how long temps can work at Chicago Booth, I have much more time to devote to art.
I have been really into faceted and geometric shapes lately.  I have some of my influences below. the prisms at the planetarium, the hologram building across the street, the perfume bottle my grandmother gave me (which I have admired as long as I can remember) and my ceramic pieces from my Summer extravaganza.

 



So then one lonely Friday night when John was out doing some job hunting or group study or something, all of these influences were stirred into a pot, brought to a boil and vomited all over this piece of paper:

More small works followed, little studies, some I like more than others.

At some point it occurred to me that these prismatic shapes needed a nice place to live in.  My beautiful Summer in Santa Fe leant a helping hand with some landscape stuff.  (Not that my renditions do nature any justice.)

Some birds got in on this one:

 This is my most recent completion.  Really, it is the first oil painting I have completed in a long time (like years.)  I am so happy to be painting again.  I love engaging in the creative process, seeing ideas twist and turn, developing from one piece to the next.

In fact, I love it so much, I am introducing a new project!

Starting November 11th I will be painting one small painting a day for 30 days.  All paintings will be for sale, $75/painting, and will be shipped to you when the project is finished and all pieces have been photographed.  For more information be sure to follow my instagram where my pieces will be posted each day!

Summer of Ceramics

Howdy folks.  So you may have noticed my recent art rampage.  Well, I decided I want to focus a lot more time on art again.  I am still working part time for the University of Chicago till October 10, but I have been able to fit in some art making as well!  The following is what I did this Summer in Santa Fe. The watercolors are bad. but I like my ceramic little guys.

Another Weird Painting

What do you think of this one?

New Painting

I finally finished this little ditty that I started over 3 years ago.

Feedback?

Summer: New Mexican Style

Some snapshots from our Summer in Santa Fe.

Gone Fishin': A Guppy Shower

A week ago I co-hosted a baby boy shower for my sweet sister Claudia Pappas.  The theme was fishing since Claudia and her husband are huge fans of the great outdoors, and more particularly, the sport of fishing.  Needless to say, I went a little overboard in some aspects of the planning, I just wanted it to be perfect!

Here are a few details from the delightful event. 

I handmade all of these "Go Fish" card style invitations.

I used pen to draw each and every one of these 20 cards.

I dug up some vintage photos of women fishing. This one was my favorite. She is catching a baby. Get it? Get it? I added the ink triangles for a little border flair.

I loved the dainty women catching fish. I don't know about you, but my fishing experiences are ALWAYS exactly like this.

Here is the set of images I used all together.  If I had my way I would have had a complete deck of "Go Fish" cards for every invitation, but time and limited envelope real estate made that decision for me.

I guess the information for the shower is also important.  I wanted to hand write all of that too, but carpal tunnel was setting in.

So they day of the shower was a bit of a rush. I had stayed up till 4:30 AM the night before finishing the video, and the shower started at 11:00 AM.  My sisters-in-law were busy getting their babies out the door and my non-pregnant sister was picking up grandma. So I rushed to get everything set up while my mother made a bunch of food.

Jennifer and Katie brought a bunch of food with them when they arrived, including these sweet little cupcakes, jello boat ups and blue raspberry drink. Jenn also brought the orange and white chevron straws, which every hipster baby shower needs these days.

My mom's tuna salad on croissants was delicious. And I don't even like tuna salad.

Jenn's adorable veggie fish, my mom's Nemo cake, Katie's shrimp cocktail, Stephanie's daisies and my watermelon shark drowning in a sea of fruit.

We had goldfish crackers for people to snack on and my mom made those adorable swiss cake roll cat tails that did not seem to enjoy the heat.

Everyone was a little shy at first to touch all of the food that we had just worked hard to get together, so Stephanie broke the silence.

Refreshing on a warm day. So glad we got to have the shower outside.

No shower is complete without long, drawn out games about baby advice. 

So we made Claudia fish for it with a child-sized fishing pole and some magnets. She did okay until she  got tired, just picked up the bucket, put it on her lap and fished the advice out with her hands.

It was loads of fun and Claudia really enjoyed her baby shower. Which was the point. Right? Yes. Happy fishing y'all!