House No. 18: Green House

House No. 18: Green House

graphite on cardstock

2.75 in. x 3 in. x 2 in.

018/365; 01/18/11

 

It was so cold and grey today that I wished for a little cultivation spot for myself that was warm and protected. I needed to see some green and hope of spring, and so I made a greenhouse.

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.

House No. 15: Easy Bake House

House No. 15: Easy Bake House

repurposed chipboard, packing tape

4 in. x 3 in. x 2.5 in.
015/365; 01/15/11

Today, when cleaning out a closet in an old house, I found two boxes of Easy Bake frosting from the eighties and made this house out of them. In essence, Easy Bake ovens are the training toys for homemaking, modern day little girl hearths.

It's funny to think that these boxes are from the time when I was coveting them. Though I had always wanted an Easy Bake oven, I never had one as a child, but as an adult I have a couple antique ones. People have differing views of the gender role-playing that homemaking toys encourage. What are yours?

House No. 14: Pizza House

House No. 14: Pizza House

pizza and broccoli
approx. 9 in. x 9 in.
014/365; 01/14/11

It seems that I am on a food-house kick. I made today's house while having dinner with my hub and his mom, Carol, and we all got involved. The broccoli foliage was Carol's idea.

House No. 13: Communal Home

House No. 13: Communal Home
super delicious Ethiopian food on injera bread
approx. 12 in. x 12 in.
013/365; 01/13/11

Tonight's tasty house was made with help from my sister and the fantastic people at The Nile Ethiopian Restaurant of Richmond. The Nile is one of my favorite restaurants, so much so that it was the destination location for both my friend Angie and me for our birthdays this past year. Tonight's platter included Yemisir Wat, Shiro Wat, Ater Kik Alicha, Gomen, Atkilt, Fasolia, Dinich Wat, Bedelgan, Inguday, and Timatim Selata. The roof is a piece of injera bread.

Ethiopian food is eaten communally from a platter lined with injera bread, which sops up all the deliciousness if you can make it that far. (This food is super filling.) One eats by tearing pieces of injera and scooping from the platter. It makes for a lovely connection with your food and your dining companions. Here is a photo of dinner before we dug in.

Beautiful, isn't it? I didn't take an "after" photo, but I assure you, there was not much left. * urp *

House No. 12: Starter House

House No. 12: Starter House
ink on repurposed chipboard
9 in. x 6.5 in.
012/365; 01/12/11

Today, one of my coworkers gave me starter for a friendship cake. A friendship cake, for those who are unfamiliar, is a recipe that calls for a starter that ferments for 10 days, after which you can make additional starter as well as bake a cake. This new starter is then passed on to friends, and they start the process again in ten days. In theory, I suppose the starter could be passed around for generations. Actually, perhaps I shouldn't think about that.

The friendship starter got me thinking of a creative starter, which is exactly what Noah Scalin's 365: A Daily Creativity Journal is doing for many of his friends. People are sharing their work, connecting and even setting up monthly forums. Pretty cool.

With all of this in mind, I created my house today as a creative starter for collaboration. I am inviting everyone who is interested to use this illustration to make something for their own 365 projects, or any project at all. Then please send me a link to your post or email it to me at Madonna {at} TheHappyHomemaker {dot} org, so that I may share it next Friday here and on The Happy Homemaker Facebook page. I can't wait to see if people use this drawing and what they create if they do.

House No. 11: Home in My Skin

House No. 11: Home in My Skin
Digital Photo Manipulation, Photos by Heather Addley Photography

5.25 in. x 6.5 in.

011/365; 01/11/11

 

My house today is a 365 crossover collaboration with Heather of 365 Days of Me. Heather shot a group of photos of me today, and I was excited to explore body image and self through her lens. It was a great opportunity to explore the idea of self as home, particularly with an artist who focuses so keenly on self and the body.

House No. 10: Home Cooking

 

House No. 10: Home Cooking
bread, milk, eggs, vanilla, powdered sugar, apricot jam, and whipped cream

7 in. x 5 in.

010/365; 01/10/11

Have you ever noticed that when the forecast calls for snow, everyone seems to deplete the grocery stores of milk, eggs, and bread? I have often wondered if there is some tradition that I do not know about, that everyone makes french toast on snow days. Well, it is supposed to snow again this week, so here is a themed breakfast in the hopes that it will be enough accumulation for a snow day.

House No. 9: House Husband

 

House No. 9: House Husband
printed photos mounted on repurposed chipboard

6.5 in. x 7.5 in. x 5 in.

009/365; 01/09/11

 

My own home has little to do with the structure in which I live, though I am quite fond of the old thing that is gradually being restored, but, rather, where my significant other is to be found and the life that we build together.

Home is, for me, where I can be myself, warts and all, and feel safe and protected and sheltered from the rest of the world. And there is no other place that has all of those elements for me other than the space I share with my husband.

House No. 8: Dorze Home

House No. 8: Dorze Home
pencil & ink on repurposed 100% cotton rag cover stock

5.25 in. x 3.75 in.

008/365; 01/08/11

My house today is a drawing of a traditional house of the Dorze of the southern region of Ethiopia. Dorze houses are constructed with vertical bamboo poles and woven bamboo. The thatch is made of ensete plant, grass, and bamboo stem covering. 

The houses are very tall, some are up to forty feet high, and re-locatable. When chewed at the bottom by termites, the house is trimmed from the bottom and moved. The older the house, therefore, the shorter it is, and they can last from sixty to eighty years. 

The house is subdivided and contains a hearth, sleeping quarters and a place for livestock. I think that these houses are ingenious and fascinating. They are the original green, sustainable houses.

House No. 7: Textile House

House No. 7: Textile House

vector fabric pattern

5 in. x 5 in.

007/365; 01/07/11

Textile arts, like weaving, spinning, sewing, embroidery, knitting, crocheting, tatting, and quilting, are a foundation of homemaking. Home crafts, typically done by women, have traditionally been the lower rungs of the arts. Isn't it interesting how things done at home are often the least valued?

It's a big thing to consider, and it includes factors like the Industrial Revolution, gender roles, working inside and outside the home. Really, I just wanted to make a fabric pattern. But with any visual representation, the image and the medium come with a lot of baggage.

I think that is what I love most about art and design. We pick up images and tools and media and try to reshape references that are intrinsically woven within the fabric of our culture.

Well, that, and I really like to make stuff.

House No. 6: Tree House

House No. 6: Tree House

ink on repurposed 100% cotton rag cover stock

5 in. x 5 in.

006/365; 01/06/11

Trees are living homes to birds, squirrels, and insects, and, even dead, trees are an important part of an ecosystem. Dead trees provide homes and food sources for animals and birds, particularly woodpeckers and flickers.

After reading My Side of the Mountain, I had a childhood dream of living inside a giant, hollow tree. (Then after re-reading this novel as an adult, I was dismayed by how environmentally irresponsible the book is. The fifties were a different time. A time when it was okay to steal Peregrine Falcon chicks and raise them yourself, but I digress.)

I drew today's home using a tiny stencil to create the tree's leaves. I cut the stencil out of an index card using an XACTO knife.

House No. 5: Orangeries

 

 

House No. 5: Orangeries

carved kumquats

tallest about 1.5 in.tall

005/365; 01/05/11

This morning's architectural breakfast references the citrus houses, predecessors of the modern greenhouse, that were used to winter citrus trees.

These little houses are made of kumquats carved with an X-ACTO knife.

I love kumquats and use them frequently as space fillers for bento. I have not really gotten artistic with my packed lunches in the past, but fun food just tastes better — don't you think so? Perhaps a bento house is in my future.

House No. 4: The Dresden Walls

House No. 4: The Dresden Walls

repurposed paper, foil, and miscellaneous scrap on chipboard

6.5 in. x 6.5 in.

004/365; 01/04/11

Being a human magpie, I collect every shiny thing that I come across. I have organized boxes of paper, candy foils, laminated papers, the interiors of tea bag envelopes ...

For today's house, I thought that I'd break into my collection, which actually includes a few pieces of Dresden foil scrap that I didn't end up using. The metallic paper being an homage to the Dresden handicraft, I decided to make today's home in one of the styles of Saxony.

I find the most unique part of the house's collage, and what makes it look like the houses of that region, is the foiling of the half-timber that ornaments the walls.

Update 04/20/2011: Better photo.

Now with 100% more natural light.

 

Ahh. So much better.

House No. 3: Homigami

House No. 3: Homigami

luscious paper stock from a paper company sample tablet

3 in. x 2 in. x 3 in. with base; house alone is 1 in. x 2 in. x 1 in.

003/365; 01/03/11

One of the best parts of being a designer is the free paper swag, samples that paper reps, companies, and occasionally printers pass on to designers to pique our interest in new products.  Although I cannot foresee printing on this stock, which is "Hots" by Domtar, I love making stuff with it.

Today's house was inspired by origami, but I used glue. The house is constructed of the basic origami box and tent shapes.

House No. 2: Home is the thing with feathers

House No. 2: Home is the thing with feathers

feathers on repurposed chip board

4 in. x 6 in. x 4 in.

002/365; 01/02/11

Today's home is inspired by birds (making it a birdhouse?) and titled after Emily Dickinson's poem "Hope" is the Thing with Feathers. 

While working on this piece today, it kept reminding me of Meret Oppenheim's Object of 1936.

 Now, while I'm a fan of that particular piece, my true Oppenheim love is Glove (for Parkett no. 4) of 1985.

Perhaps Glove will be an inspiration for another day ... hmmm ...

House No. 1: Welcome Home

 

 

House No. 1: Welcome Home

repurposed paper and chip board

3 in. x 3 in. x 2 in.

001/365; 01/01/11

My first home welcomes the start of this project, the new year, and you. Happy 2011.

Coming 01/01/11

I'm making more stuff.

Inspired by Noah Scalin's Skull-A-Day project and using his book 365: A Daily Creativity Journal, I am making something every day. Welcome to my new year's resolution, 2011.