House No. 170: Wedgwood House

House No. 170: Wedgwood House
acrylic on repurposed heavy cardstock
6 in. x 7 in. x 8 in.
170/365; 06/19/11

I found this heavy blue card stock in recycling, and the color immediately brought Wedgwood Jasperware to mind. I am a fan of Wedgwood, particularly the black Jasperware. I love the contrast of it. The blue Jasperware is so ubiquitous that its shade of blue is frequently called Wedgwood Blue.

For today’s house, I studied details of the Hellenic-style ornamentation used to decorate the porcelain, and then worked from my sketches to paint the house that I fabricated from the cardstock. I based the shape of the house on the Greek Revival style, with a low-pitched roof and gable-facing facade, to coordinate with the neoclassic style of ornamentation.

House No. 125: White on White House

 

House No. 125: White on White House

collage on matboard

8 in. x 8 in.
125/365; 05/05/11

Today's house relies on texture rather than color, line, or contrast. And it was rather difficult to photograph because of it.

The matboard that I used as a background for this house was salvaged from my classroom, and the paper and strings were also upcycled. The paper is from the same source as House No. 121: Spring Cottage. The strings were left over from the tags from House Number 71: Tagged Houses.

House No. 116: Beach House

House No. 116: Beach House
pencil, ink, white out tape, and acrylic paint on repurposed matboard
10.75 in. x 6.5 in.
116/365; 04/26/11


I found this piece of mat board on its way to the trash* in my classroom. It was almost a finished piece without my adding to it. When I looked at it, I saw a beach landscape. I just added the details to create a house from the indications of one that I already saw there.

As I tell my students, we have to see before we can create. This is a perfect example of that.

I added the graphite, the white acrylic paint, and that one white stripe on the sand.


*Honestly, some of our students don't seem to have clue as to what they are throwing away.

House No. 102: Metallic Colonial

House No. 102: Metallic Colonial

collage of repurposed card stock and foiled paper
3.5 in. x 2.85 in.
102/365; 04/12/11

Some more shiny paper and other scraps fished from my magpie nest were the materials for this simplified colonial style house. I often like to do very detailed work, but I also like to occasionally break a houses down to its barest elements, an icon or symbol for “house.” And today, I also broke down “tree.” Or green lollipop. It can go either way.

House No. 99: Tea House

House No. 99: Tea House

ceramic teapot, ink on paper, cellophane tape
8.5 in. x 6 in. x 5 in.
099/365; 04/09/11

This is my second tea house and a sister to yesterday's coffee house, another readymade using the same windows and door.

I love this little teapot, a gift from my sister-in-law. It reminded her of the invitations to the wedding for werepanda and me, which were designed after medieval manuscript pages. The pattern includes some of my favorite motifs: alpine strawberries, pomegranates, tudor roses, and oak leaves with acorns.

I have always loved acorns, but my attachment to them grew when I was living in France. The werepanda's surname comes from the French word for oak grove, and when he, speaking little French, would telephone my building, the receptionist, who spoke no English, would leave me a note that “Mr. Oaktree” had called.

House No. 92: Tiny House Portrait

House No. 92: Tiny House Portrait

mixed media
1.25 in. x .75 in.
092/365; 04/02/11

My sister's best friend from college, Stephanie, is visiting from Vancouver this weekend. She loves vintage clothing, and so I brought her to one of my favorite shops in Petersburg, Second Hand Rose. If you love vintage clothes, Gwen has a beautiful collection. You should visit. There is something from every era, at every price, and Gwen is very knowledgeable about couture. She will hook you up with the perfect Mad Men or flapper or Jackie O look. She has a broad selection of gents' attire as well.

One of my finds today was this beautiful little pin that looked just like a frame, and so I created a wee portrait of a house to fit in it.

The house belongs to a dear friend of mine, one of the most creative people on the planet. I love her house, and I wish I had her decorating sense. It is classic and wild and unique and beautiful all at once. I hope to do a collaboration with her soon for this project.

The paper that I used is lush repurposed paper from the pages of a matchbook calendar that my fabu cousin Christy gives me every year for Christmas. She makes them on her antique press on the loveliest cotton fiber paper. I always use the backs of the pages when I am through with them and tear them from the pack.

House No. 72: Outside the Home

House No. 72: Outside the Home
black and white ink or finely corrugated cardboard

10 in. x 10 in.
072/365; 03/13/11

A few years ago, when a new couple moved into the neighborhood and a few of us were stopping by individually to welcome them into the area, a couple of friends of mine and I were asked by the new lady of the house if we worked outside the home.

This question lead to peals of laughter amongst those of us who were asked, a catch phrase for our lexicon, and an attempt at hosting for the woman a welcoming dinner dressed in 1960's attire. A dinner to which she never showed up, I might add. Perhaps she was not one to venture outside the home. We enjoyed our nut-encrusted cheese ball in our pearls, sweater sets, and aprons without her. The couple moved to NoVa.

Anyway, the term, while amusing and archaic, is one that I appreciate because it acknowledges that there is plenty of work to be done within the home and that keeping a home has value.

It was this term that inspired my house today, which I masked off before working the drawing outside of the form of the house. And now I must go work within the home before the weekend catches up with me. I have some scrubbing to do and a catbox that needs zen gardening.

Today's post makes me think of this:

Eurythmics - Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves (Official Music Video). 

House No. 42: Achromatic House

House No. 42: Achromatic House

ink on cardstock
1.5 in. x 3 in. x 1.5 in.
042/365; 02/11/11

A black and white house because I wanted to draw circles with a fine tip pen today. Sometimes, you gotta just follow your impulses.

House No. 33: Groundhog House

House No. 33: Groundhog House
ink on paper
11 in. x 8.5 in.
033/365; 02/02/11, Groundhog Day

We take this break from our regularly scheduled alphabet houses to wish you and yours a happy Groundhog Day. And, as I do every year, I wish that Puxatawney Phil would bite the guys in the top hats. Poor little rudely-awoken bugger.

House No. 32: Barraca

House No. 32: Barraca
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout
8.5 in. x 11 in.
032/365; 02/01/11

Barracas, Spanish for barracks, are traditional, thick-walled houses of Valencia, Spain made of sticks and clay. They frequently have crosses at the apex of the gables and centered religious iconography above the front door. The structures are frequently, though not always, gable-front houses, meaning the principle facade of the house is on the gabled end.

House No. 25: A Room of One's Own

House No. 25: A Room of One's Own

ink on cut and glued repurposed cardstock

8 in. x 7 in. x 10 in.

025/365; 01/25/11

In honor of Virginia Woolf's birthday, my house today is a home for creativity. In the paraphrased words of Woolf, one must have a little money and a room of one's own to create.

Our creative room is not only a physical space in which we may work but the room to evolve and grow and the space for independence and free thinking. Woolf made her room in a lodge at the bottom of her garden at the country house she shared with her husband.

My house today is loosely based on that writing lodge where Woolf wrote some of her best known works. I realized while working on it that today's house is the first in which I have done an interior.

House No. 23: Shanty

House No. 23: Shanty

Repurposed scrap wood & wood glue

3 in. x 3.5 in. x 2 in.

023/365; 01/23/11

Today's house is the antithesis of yesterday's McMansion. Plus, it doesn't smell of fried food.

This was a collaborative piece. I designed, measured, and glued it together, but my husband worked the power tools. That's what she said.

It's rough and tumble, this little shanty, but I think it's sweet. The wood has so much character on its own.

House No. 21: House Call

House No. 21: House Call

Ink on cotton rag paper (more paper swag, this time from Crane)

5 in. x 4 in.

021/365; 01/21/11

The call is coming from inside the house!

House No. 17: Dream House

House No. 17: Dream House

graphite on cardstock

3 in. x 3.75 in. x 2.25 in.

017/365; 01/17/11, Martin Luther King Day

 

Today I think that I'll let my house speak for itself. I will leave you with some words from Dr. King that give me some pause for thought.

"When we look at modern man, we have to face the fact that modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stands in glaring contrast with a scientific and technological abundance. We've learned to fly the air as birds, we've learned to swim the seas as fish, yet we haven't learned to walk the Earth as brothers and sisters."

House No. 16: Flying House

House No. 16: Flying House

ink on paper

6 in. x 8 in. 

016/365; 01/16/11

 

I have been finishing up my submission for the Sketchbook Project this weekend. The theme I chose for my sketchbook is Dirigibles and Submersibles. I added a home zeppelin to the last page.