Dream World
Originally uploaded by m.Lee April Fools!

Thanks everybody for playing along. With everything that has been going on lately I needed something to make me laugh and lighten the mood a bit. If you enjoy my collages don't worry they are still intact and hanging up on my studio wall. And if you don't well you don't have to come over to look at them.

Mermaids - #18 Collage
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

mmmm smells like milk
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Bitter Pills - ACEO
Originally uploaded by mlee.etsy.com I can't sleep so here I am making a hopefully quick blog post after dusting off the Wacom tablet and doing a little sketching. A sketch that I added to my sketch collection on Flickr.

Both blee and I are still a bit sick so I am going to try and get back to sleep and take it easy today. Getting back into the swing of things slowly.

Done this week:

1) Made this new ACEO/ ATC
2) Finished carving
3) Hung art at cafe
3) Cleaned studio
4) Sketched with Wacom tablet

Things to do:

1) List ACEO/ ATC
2) Print
3) Finish hanging art

Night Falls on Two Trees
Originally uploaded by mlee.etsy.comMy normal Wednesday plans have been canceled and I am going to try and made the best of it.

Things aren't so good. My friend's illness is not getting better and my cat seems to have a problem with his eyes and I need to call the vet today. I might end up putting him in the carrier and pushing him in the stroller while I where blee down to the vet today. Good times. I also need to call a woman about pet sitting next month while we go to a funeral in Ohio.

But if I have some time I will use it to print and not jerk around and waste time. I still have a bunch of paper printed in various stages of completion. And while I have a fair amount of work from last week I would like to have more, in different colors.

Peaceful Butterfly
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Pfau
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Woodblock prints are back, my first of the year actually! Not that I am anywhere near done with collaging and gocco. In fact I made a collage that I am quite proud of just last night. But I had a chunk of time and was in the mood so I made about ten prints. Not a lot for me but it was what I was feeling. The peacock is my favorite.

She Speaks to Nature
Originally uploaded by m.Lee Where is it going to? Because I seem to be losing all sense of it. I completed this piece on February 21st, five days ago tonight. Yet it feels like it was something I did ages ago.

I'm tired, so very tired. And I am sick with a cold round two just after recovering.

I was waiting to write the perfect post about what went into this piece but life just kept pushing it aside. Now nearly a week later and it still hasn't been written. But I love this piece too much to ignore it and not share it here in my blog. So much of myself went into the creation. Images taken from various sketches, block printing, gocco, collage and even some drawing and painting all dancing together on the stage of the canvas. They work together to hopefully create a vibrant and complex yet well balanced piece. Collage challenges me in a totally new way.

New Hair with clips
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

The Smell of Pine - ACEO
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

She Waits in Darkness
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Yesterday sucked, but first the goodness.

Butterfly in Greenery
Originally uploaded by mlee.etsy.comIt was green and lush with just a sprinkling of rain late in the day on Sunday.

I hope everybody had a great weekend, ours went pretty well over all.

Jon's birthday was this weekend, and it was a good one I think despite Saturday being pretty hard on him. Sunday made up for it.

The weekend went a lot better than expected and we owe it all to little blee and her perfect behavior on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday daddy had to go into work at 4am and was there until two in the afternoon so it was just us girls. She was pretty easy going already and I had just mastered back carries in our new Mei Tai so we went on what turned out to be a two hour nap. She slept the entire time.

View from my relaxing chair
Originally uploaded by m.Lee No Valentine's Day chocolate for me please, but feel free to send hugs and kisses to miss blee.

I started feeling bad with a sore throat on Tuesday night, but I pushed on and ignored it because I had a new desk to set up and a studio to re-organize.

And I do have a wonderful and well organized work station. I also have a runny nose, headache, muscle ache, sore throat and a fever. I caught it from Jon who caught it from his dad when we saw them in New Haven. Thankfully the only hint of it in blee has been a slight cough. She's behind me right now in her bouncy chair inspecting one of her toys.

This reminds me a lot of last years three month illness, but thankfully without the throwing up.

duckie shows what the mirror can do
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

don't tip over!

rearranged print corner
Originally uploaded by m.Lee First thing this morning I did what I had been thinking about the night before and rearranged my print corner so that the drawers faced out in a better direction. They had been facing toward the press and the top ones would bump up against the paper rack and not open all the way.

But it could be more productive. Like right now instead of being at the computer blogging I could be finishing up cleaning my studio so I can do two things.

Masks
Originally uploaded by m.Lee This is one of my first woodblock prints. At the time I was still pretty into doing self-portraits and masks are a theme that have come up in my work on and off for many years.

This piece was made for the class I took at Mass Art called "Print into Books" taught by the inspiring Annie Silverman. She's a printmaking not a bookbinder and the book part was a bit of an afterthought. And I am cool with that because she and that class changed my life.

So glad to have my phone back!
Originally uploaded by m.Lee Didn't get too much accomplished on the art front yesterday, because we were too busy out playing outside. I don't know how mom's with strollers manage. Wearing blee around the city is so freeing, I don't have a stroller to lug around, get in the way and hold me back. It was a gorgeous day and today is looking to be one too. Luckily for my art my feet hurt a bit from all the walking I've been doing and my new comfy shoes won't be here until Monday at the earliest.

I hope everybody enjoys their Friday and their weekends. I think we will go walking around an area we are interested in moving to in a couple of years. There used to be a very cute toy store around there.

now this is my kind of bouquet!
Originally uploaded by mlee.etsy.comHope the mother's reading this blog had a great day and that the sons, daughters and partners were able to appreciate the mother's in their lives.

This was my first mother's day, even though last year while I was pregnant I did get a mother's day blessing from a gas station clerk while driving back from Brooklyn.

It started on Thursday when Jon surprised me with this incredible bouquet of fruit flowers. He told me later that he basically could have had the whole thing dipped in chocolate for an additional fee if he had clicked a button but I am glad that he didn't. There were more than enough chocolate dipped strawberries to keep me happy for days. Yum!

My big strong girl
Originally uploaded by m.Lee Thanks blee. It happened, I just got back from asking our downstairs neighbor to turn their music down. They are having a karaoke new years party and it was loud. It isn't just because she is sleeping but I don't want loud music in general. I well on my way to becoming an old far. When the ball drops I hope to be asleep. I have no interest in celebrating or drinking. The last time I had a glass of wine I got a headache and champagne always went to my head.

framed reproduction!
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Wish me luck! My heart is racing from it, I finally opened up a second shop for my reproduction prints. High quality archival prints in various, easy to frame sizes. I am going to stick to selling reproductions of my more expensive pieces and never in the same size as the originals. My 4" x 4" block prints and ACEOs will not be reproduced.

I'm sewing!
Originally uploaded by m.Lee Sewing can be very calming as it requires a lot of focus for me. It worked once before and liked it, I just kept forgetting to bring out the needle and thread and do it again. This time I had my composition all laid out without it but something was missing. So I dug around for my monotype printed and drawn bags and cut out a strip from it and then got out some thread and a needle. This time it is on an 8" x 8" gallery wrapped canvas. Once I stitched the strip to the backing woodblock print. From a woodblock print that almost worked but not quite, but I knew I wanted to keep it mostly intact like a stage for the rest of the image to come. Then I got out a brush and some gel medium and got to collaging.

what I did with my day (while blee sleeps)
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Merry Christmas!
Originally uploaded by m.Lee To me.

nice day for a walk
Originally uploaded by m.Lee Other than some really poorly timed stupid family drama we are fine.

portable washi art station
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Here they are! All of my six inch square collages. And I am quite proud of all of them. But I am officially out of all my canvas panels. I have one 8"x8" gallery stretched canvas and I had better make it good as those aren't cheap. If I get into using stretched canvas I am going to start doing it myself. I did it in art school, even high school all the time. Even going as far as making my own stretcher bars. That part I won't be doing.

365 Sketch - 12/365
Originally uploaded by m.Lee First, I would like to thank everybody who participated in my little Valentine's Day contest. I gave everybody who commented or wrote me a number and then picked a number at random.

The winner has already been sent her lovely prize.

I have a lot of information to go through as there were so many great suggestions. Apparently I need to get started carving some monkeys and Ron Paul along with using more metallics, bringing back monotypes, and working in black and white.