Portland State Recent Grad Show

A painting of mine was chosen by guest curator James Yood for this upcoming show of alumni work in PSU's Autzen Gallery. The show opens this Thursday, with an opening reception on Saturday from 6 to 9 pm. Yood also is giving a lecture on Monday the 16th in Shattuck Hall (Rm 198) at 7:30 as part of the Monday Night Lecture Series.

Judging by his curator's statement, Yood seems pretty cool. Straightforward about art rather than pretentious and uber-conceptual (my perception of what many artists bound up in the academic world seem to be -- I likely just need to meet more people in that category). I'm going to try to make it to the lecture and see if that impression pans out.

Monthly Goals: November

Here goes an attempt at sticking with it and staying focused, prompted by the Monthly Goal Meetup on the Modish Biz Tips blog.

• Print winter holiday cards. Photograph them. Get them listed on Etsy. Send out email announcing their existence (by November 10th!).


• Finish up shipments to Bluebottle, Wholly Craft, etc. and get them out the door by the 15th.


• Finish printing 2010 Valentines cards and photograph them. If they don't make it into my shipments, that's okay, although it would be awesome if they did.


• Blog at least once a week (not counting monthly goals post).


• Spend more quality time, less time total, on the computer/internet.


• Figure out what I'm doing with painting versus paper goods. Launching a separate wedding invitation shop/webpage/company? Integrating it more into my overall studio umbrella and focusing more on painting as my 'main' thing?


• Finish HSC commissioned painting.


• List recent drawings and works on paper on Etsy.

Well, it's pretty clear that I'm the type to start many things and never finish them. Nothing on that list involves starting anything, except maybe the first one, which will begin tomorrow.

Fall has... Fell. Felled? Fallen?

I recently printed up a small run of birthday invitations for a friend's daughter -- my first custom design for a child. Expectedly, it's quite different doing a youth design compared to doing a wedding, but what surprised me more was how different it was to do a design for a specific kid, rather than just for "kids." Normally I think of kid-oriented design to be too saccharine, too bright, or overly Swedish-inspired for my taste (I get my fill of swedishness working for the big blue-and-yellow box) but this design came out a little edgy, I think. Or maybe a little 80s. I couldn't help but fall back into memories of Paula Abdul songs and that unforgettable skate rink smell (ancient chewing gum ground into little black spots on the carpet + icee machines + preteen hormones) at the mention of a roller skating party.

Excisum Meus Fratres, Puer Sola Ego Sum,
currently in Family show at Launch Pad Gallery,
is also available on Etsy

In other news, I have a new silkscreen print in the Family show at Launch Pad. Like much of my work, it came about spontaneously and left me to figure out what it was about on my own. I'm still not sure I have a good answer for that, but in order to title it I interpreted it in relation to the Family show. In Latin. It's called Excisum Meus Fratres, Puer Sola Ego Sum, meaning (I think), "My Siblings Having Been Lost, I Am An Only Child," which makes reference to the fallopian pregnancies that preceded and followed my birth, rendering me, irreversibly, an only child.

And last but not least, I've had two pieces accepted into a recent graduate show at Portland State. More details to come...

Size does matter.

Sometimes I get annoyed at things labeled 'handmade' that really aren't. Computer printed cards and "limited edition prints" are my personal pet peaves. But it seems that for many mediums, there's simply a lack of understanding. How can you really grasp difference between a screenprinted card, a letterpressed card, and a digitally printed card, or a handbound book versus a commercially bound one, if you don't even have a vague understanding of the mechanical processes involved?

So it was really refreshing to see some shots from the Ink & Spindle studio showing their printing process. (Their site has a few images; their flickr has many more)
Fantastic work, a studio to die for, and ethical working methods. I think I'm in love.

Studio Office Remodel, Part 1

The past couple of weeks I've been gearing up for a wholesale mailing blitz for my 2010 Valentines. (I know it seems early -- and for the real world, it is -- but give it a couple more weeks and you'll start seeing Christmas merchandise. The drop date keeps inching its way earlier and earlier. Pretty soon 'Christmas in July' will just link up with Christmas in December without any break in between. My point is: in the world of seasonal retail, September is not too soon to start thinking about Valentines Day.) Deciding on this year's colors, laying out my order sheet, running copies, printing color and design samples, and so forth.

I ran into a snag when my color printer ran out of ink. I was pretty sure I ordered 2 cartridges last time I ordered, so I thought, I must have a spare sitting around here somewhere. After it failed to turn up in all the predictable spots, I figured maybe it was time to clean my desk. There was a good chance it was buried in the 6 inches of stacked/falling/piles of paper.

My studio office. Note how the wall of the window well blocks off any light that might make its way into the office area.

A few hours later: a mostly clean desk but no ink cartridge. My desire for said ink cartridge (which it turns out I never ordered -- the second cartridge was the black one) morphed into a desire for a better office in general. I had been really craving some natural sunlight in my workspace, since I spend an awful lot of time sitting in front of the computer during gorgeous days.

I had been toying with the idea of a remodel for a while, sketching out ideas to make use of the strange, angular space my desk was in.

Daylight!

So the next morning I started ripping things apart. Meanwhile, of course, I was still in the middle of getting materials ready to mail. This was not going to be a quick remodel (quick remodels require detailed plans -- I barely had plans at all) and I have a hard enough time shutting my computer down at night. Besides, we had just gone to Everyday Music, and I had a stack of new (used) cds, and I can't work without music anyway. So I just stacked everything to the side.

Unplugging is for losers.

That was all a couple days ago now. Now I'm in the thick of the hard part. It's not easy to frame out anything when you can't attach anything to the walls (concrete). I can secure things to the exposed beams, or the staircase (although I'm not sure I would really call that 'secure') but everything else has to function on tension and gravity. Oh, and nothing's level. That's been fun. But I am making progress.I dropped $100 on some solid wood countertop from Ikea to use as the desk and worktable portions, but that's the only part that has really cost anything. The rest is recycled or scavenged. Much of it from the original framing that was in the basement "bonus room" when we moved in. (It wasn't much of a bonus, unless you like fire traps.)

More to come. Wish me luck.

New: Imprintable Birth Announcements

I was in Eugene last week, and because of the heat wave we ended up driving out to one of the forks of the Willamette River. I brought my camera along and took some shots of Queen Anne's Lace and other wild flora. I have been wanting to do a wedding suite featuring Queen Anne's Lace -- it's on the way, with matching Thank You cards -- but ended up with birth announcement cards, too!

Very classic and traditional, in pink and blue. I silkscreened them on my standard 100% recycled, eco-awesome, cream pinstripe textured paper, and on a whim tried them out in my laser printer. Turns out my favorite paper is printer friendly, so I can make imprintable cards! How cool is that?

Perhaps the best part is that the design lends itself to just about any color. Want something less stereotypical? Green? Purple? I can do them in any color you'd like. I can also do custom printing on the inside very affordably -- laser (b&w), inkjet (color), or screenprint (the possibilities are endless).

They're available right now on my Etsy, and I'll be at Craft In The Village on Friday, and Crafty Wonderland on Sunday. Come get some! And look forward to more imprintables from Carly Bodnar Studio...

Paper = Magic

There's something magical that happens when I actually get to print a design I've been working on. No matter how detailed my color mock-up is, complete with a scan of the paper I'll be using, and just the right color to approximate the ink, it's always better on paper.

I've been doing test prints of some of the designs I've been working on for my August 1st official launch as a wedding invitation designer and printer, and they've been coming out great. Incredibly satisfying, the act of printing.


I don't know if that's just me, being an artist of tangible things. I like to get my hands dirty in my work; if it's someone else's, I like looking at an angle to see the shadows under each brush stroke, being able to visually feel their imprint on the piece. It's the reason no digital print, no matter how exact, precise and 'perfect', can ever compare to a hand-pulled print. It's that special something.