stains

in college i liked to work on tea-stained paper a lot (a trick i recall from my childhood babysitter's constant crafting). you can never perfectly control how it will turn out, and i love the dirty, worn but beautiful feel of it. a few months ago, needing to create something but not having the time or space to start some new oils, i revisited the tea paper, this time making use of the stain patterns as an active part of the picture, not just background. here are a couple i finally completed. the first is tea-stained, the second is red cabbage water-stained (which initially was a brilliant blue/purple/magenta, but faded to more of a blue/green). both wallpaper patterns i painted in watercolor, then sealed the paper with matte medium, and painted the objects in oil. i placed the organ-like objects over the most prominent blotches on the paper, to give the impression that the hanging subjects are the stain-makers.

Untitled Stain (pink) (2012)

Untitled Stain (blue) (2012)

greeting cards

i updated my etsy yesterday, adding some greeting cards that i recent printed up. these ones especially would make wonderfully off-beat valentines.

Blooming Heart (2011)

Baby's Breath (2011)

Heart Flourish (2011)

new website

i've been working on a new design for my website off and on over the last couple months (it's been slow). the current design is the original, and has been up since summer of 2008. time for a change. i want to clean it up, simplify it, and, most importantly, add some new work. and no more flash! this is my potential homepage design. what do you think? (and yep, i stole that intestine flourishy thing for the parrot scrolls pattern)

current website here

parrot scrolls

new pattern design, collaged from several of my illustrations. soon to be made into scarves. hopefully someone will want to wear them. maybe pillows later...

hello, there!

i have finally joined the blog world. welcome to mome rath garden! a little place for me to post what i'm working on, what inspires me, and maybe some other little odds and ends. i hope what i share will inspire, delight, intrigue, repulse... in some way capture you. and occasionally pull a little at your heartstrings.

baby bird 2012