For The Love of Blogging...

Well, I thought blogging would be just one of those things I could truly stick to in a disciplined fashion. As it turns out, there isn't much beside my four-legged children that I can stick with on a long-term basis- in fact my husband keeps shocking me with the number of years that we've been married (a whopping six and half years!) I'm just one of those people...easily distracted or perpetually overwhelmed by self-imposed deadlines. Hence my blogging has been sparse. In the end I have decided that it doesn't matter how many comments I get, or how frequent I post - but what matters is that I have something to say or an image to share that is of some worth to me.

Today is election day and the US world I live in is somehow going to miraculously change (or not) tomorrow. More young people have been active in ensuring everyone they know takes on their civic duty to vote. Facebook comments read with anxiety, hope and fear. As it has been so easy to get caught up in polarized political attitudes, a good friend and fellow artist Nick Guarracino a.k.a. Grumpyboy reminded me that we shouldn't romanticize or idolize any human, there is no such thing as a perfect or completely good or bad person - at the very least we will wake up tomorrow and finally be done with Bush. Thank you Nick.

Now I offer you my favorite pic of the week, Chica. In this shot she is thoroughly annoyed that I have awoken her from her nap on my desk just for a pic!

Baby Chica Sleeping on My Desk at Work

Now I must return to watching my favorite Rocky scene where Rocky slides down his apartment wall making out with Adrian for the first time! So hot!

Halloween Illustration and Hosting tip #3

Wicked Cat Spell by marisol diaz

So here is another great Halloween tip- If your having a Monster bash and would like something a bit less gruesome than witch fingers try this POT of DIRT dessert!

Cups of Dirt Dessert - Better with gummy worms and spiders!

All you need are some small terra-cotta pots (with little paper cups inside). Fill them with ice cream of your choice, then cover the ice-cream with CRUSHED OREOS (it would be better without the filling)!!!!! Stiock a fake flower in and voila! You have a pot of dirt dessert! But to really get into the Halloween spirit add gummy worms and gummy spiders to the top - and daisies (Pushing up Daises reference) could be more fun!

Some Murder Mystery guests eating Pots of Dirt

Witches Fingers Halloween Madness Tip#2

Witch Finger made out of marzipan, pistachios and melted red chocolate

Another great halloween tip is making spooky witch fingers out of marzipan. As an artist I have always enjoyed making candies for parties out of marzipan and I have been known to make some pretty 'risque' ones for birthdays and bridal showers! By tinting the marzipan with food coloring, I was able to make a variety of flesh tones, my favorite being green! You should be able to do this easily by mixing or kneading the food coloring into the marzipan. I used a small thin knife (like an Xacto) to get some of the flesh creases and I simply balled up some marzipan to make the finger warts. Pistachios make excellent finger nails!

The hardest part is melting some candied red chocolate which I bought at a craft store like A.C. Moore or Michael's (the colored chocolate is usually in the baking/cake decorating section next to the chocolate molds.) As you can see some of the chocolate was over-cooked to get that textured crunchy look and thats exactly how you want it for a bloody cut off finger. Its just that easy! Try it!

If you're interested in a custom order contact me as I may begin to sell boxes of these treats on Etsy!

Before They Were All Eaten

Halloween Madness Begins!! Pumpkin Scars Decorating Tip!

I am a Halloween freak and since I have most certainly lost readership on my blog due to an overwhelming amount of 'to-do-by-yesterday-stress' and 'good-ol'-blog-neglect', I'm hoping to reinvigorate some new blog loyalty via one of the most creative, expressive and mystique filled days - All Hallow's Eve!

Wickedest Witch by marisol diaz

I illustrate a new halloween card every year (and soon those illustrations will be available for sale at my etsy store!) Along with making wearable art sculptural costumes, I also host an annual Murder Mystery Party and this year is our FIFTH one!


So Halloween Decorating tip number one: If you have a garden- grow pumpkins! If you can grow pumpkins scratch family member names in your pumpkin like this:The newest member of my family, Chica! The Pumpkin Must Still Be on The Vine

After allowing the pumpkin some time to heal while still on the vine, the results should look like this as the scratch marks scar:

Awesome Scarification!

52 Chelsea Exhibit

My most recent gallery exhibit is opening this Thursday @ 2:00pm in the 2/20 Gallery in Chelsea, NYC.

Our Opening reception will be this Saturday, Sept. 20th from 6-8 pm. We'll have sangria, finger foods and MUSICA so if you're in the area - swing by!

So what's up with 52? Well fellow artist, Nova Gutierrez was motivated to stir up a mix of artists responses to a deck of 52 cards. Therefore each of the four artist in this show respond and investigate the probability of chance, risk and design that is involved with any kind of playing cards. I for one, really upped the ante and focused on some high risk illustration. Stay tuned to learn more!

Inspiring Artist - Sylvia Levenson

While I was taking the class at The Studio @ the Corning Museum of glass I got to visit the museum collection frequently. One of my favorite pieces (and there were many) was this piece by artist Sylvia Levenson.

It's Raining Knives by Sylvia Levenson

On of our class assignments was to seek out a piece from the glass collection to respond to via our own art work. As I get adjusted to moving out of NYC and deeper into the jaws of suburbia, and as I watch the continuing politics of fear immobilize people, I was deeply drawn to this sculpture. The title card also spoke volumes about our human exchange with fear.

For me, Sylvia's sculpture invokes the innocence of youth. The colorful houses and even the astro-turf are reminiscent of cloistered safety. The fact that she makes use of glass only adds to tenuous, fragile and volatile potential of the situation.

In my own work I am very drawn to the melancholy of loss, especially innocence lost. I had been feverishly illustrating a series of young girls in my sketchbook and was considering carefully composing them in a paper-doll fashion of sheets of glass. In addition I am very interested in stained glass, and really wanted to consider cutting my sheet glass into forms before I illustrated on them with the vitreous paint (this technique is explained in past post). I was inspired by the element of repetition as well. That is how my art pieces entitled Lost Girls was born.

detail of Lost Girls by marisol diaz

Lost Girls by marisol diaz

So with little time (for class was in its last three days) I cut sheet glass, painted and fired as many girls from my sketchbook and bunnies as I could. The scale is much smaller and less colorful than Levenson's work but the inspiration is there...in my way.
Lost Girls 2 detail by marisol diaz

Glass Illustrations

Forgive Them Father For They Know Not What They Do by marisol diaz

So as one of my loyal readers noticed, I've been really busy (its called back-to-school-syndrome). So therefore I have neglected updating my blog!! I hope this new illustration buys me some time - because unfortunately this school year promises to be no easier than the rest. Who was that lame teacher 11 years ago who told me, "Oh don't worry no year is as hard as your first teaching year and every year after gets easier and easier..." yeah right. I've been waiting for the 'easy' part to kick in - its a decade too late! I wish I could be that care-fee teacher, but I'm not. And every year I get just as stressed about the first day of school as my students do. At least I still care. In addition, teaching high-school has been a great way of keeping me on my toes.

I thought this illustration was a great way to pay homage to this teaching year... especially the title. However I can't help but think more of the teachers than the students with the theme of this pic! If in this illustration the line work looks a bit anemic in areas, its because this is blasted onto sheet glass and rubbed into with pigment, than faired - so the lighter areas are where the pigment was less concentrated.

Happy back to school day.

Painted, Stacked, Fused and Sand-blasted Glass

The following art piece was also made during my time at Corning.

Soledad by marisol diaz

The following is a detail in which one can see the sand-blasted figure in the foreground more clearly.

Soledad detail by marisol diaz

Vitreous Painting on Glass

A good portion of what we did during my class at Corning was not just sand-blasting but also painting on glass with classic stained glass painting techniques. The technique we learned involved using kiln-fired pigment (generally around 1250 degrees) and can also be referred to as a type of enamel/stain, though we also used silver stains which are different than the paint. For the most part we used Reusche paints, which involve painting with a a mixture of powdered pigments, gum arabic and a liquid medium (most often water), then 'matting' and 'tracing' (both words mean something different than what you would expect those words to mean). A great example of how both blasting and these painting techniques are used masterfully can be seen in Judith Schaechter's new book enitled Extra Virgin about her stained glass art pieces and illustrations.

The following pieces are just my response to class assignments given to us by our instructor Denise Stillwagon Leone who taught a wonderful rich and stimulating class. If you are interested in learning any of these techniques I highly recommend taking a look at Corning and considering a class by Denise who is a beloved and consistently featured faculty member at Corning.
Untitled by marisol diaz 5"x7"With a second layer of glass & color paint behind

This assignment was about further exploration into mark making and brush strokes with a liner brush, or without. Depending on how well one mixed the powdered pigment, the right level of viscosity can achieve a rich smooth line. The painting is started with a 'matte' which is much like applying 'a tone or a wash' in watercolor painting. The line work is called 'tracing' even if you are not 'literally' tracing. You can notice that a final step can often include a 'scratching'

Untitled by marisol diaz 81/2"x11"

Glass Illustrations

Monkey See Monkey Do by marisol diaz

This illustration was sandblasted onto sheet glass (via the use of Iconics films) that was white washed and fired first. Then black reusche (kiln-fired powder pigment) was rubbed into the etched glass and re-fired. I'll be writing more about vitreous painting in the next post.