Cassie Stephens: put a bird on it

Sunday, January 27, 2013

What the Art Teacher Wore #52

Tuesday is the New Monday: We had Monday off which completely confused me all week as to what/when/where/why/how I was teaching. I never did get it sorted out. Surprised? sweater and skirt: Four Seasons Vintage in Knoxville; necklace and fishnets: Target; shoes: Dolls by Nina

Well hello dere. Whatcha been up to this week? Ah, that sounds delightful. Me? Funny you should ask cuz I was just about to tell you. My dear ole hubs has been out of town and I've been livin' it up. And by that I mean, hosting a mini-dinner party, dinner'ing and brunch'ing with long-lost-friends and throwing a craftastic afternoon party. It's been so much fun but I gotta tell ya, me and the cat are starting to miss The Bearded One. Thankfully he returns Monday.

This week I also visited Nashville's art museum, The Frist Center for Visual Arts. They currently have an exhibit on German Expressionism and I fell in love with that group of painters and their work all over again. I was a big fan of that bunch in college, especially Paula Modersohn Becker. I thought I'd share her work and life story with you. But, I gotta warn you, have some tissues handy as her life was a sad one.

Photo of Paula Modersohn-Becker and Self-Portrait with Red Hat and Veil, 1906 Paula was born in Germany, the third child of seven. At the age of 12, she had her first drawing instruction and was hooked. At 22, she encountered the artistic community of Worpswede (a northwestern part of Germany famous for its long tradition as an artists' colony). In this area, artists had retreated to protest against the domination of the art academy and life in the big city

It Might As Well Be Spring Wednesday: In my art room in the mornings, I've been playing a CD of music from 1945. One of the songs is "It Might as Well be Spring". Check out this rendition by Clifford Brown, you'll like it. dress: vintage; fishnets: Target; shoes: John Fluevog

Little Blonde Girl, 1905. It was in Worpswede that Paula met and married the artist Otto Modersohn and became a stepmother to his daughter. Soon after, she began making numerous trips to Paris and was strongly influenced by such post-impressionists as Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh.

Girl with Flowers. In 1906, Paula took her last trip to Paris. She began painting many nude self-portraits which was unheard of at the time. Personally, I am in love with the color palette in this painting. That icy blue and coral pink is such a beautiful combination.

New Background Thursday: My art room is currently in such a state of chaos that this is the only clean clutter-free place I could find to snap a photo. Yowza, I need me a maid! And a life coach. Probably some therapy. Maybe a tête-à-tête with Dr. Phil? sweater: my put-a-bird-on-it number, DIY here; dress, belt and booties: Anthropologie; tights: Target

Girl with a Cat. One of the things I really love about her paintings is the density in her artwork. Objects look heavy yet there is an air around them. I'm trying to figure out how she is creating that look. Is it the strong outlines around objects? I'm not sure, but I love it.

Fluffy Friday: I cannot stop wearing my crinoline under my dress! Even if I did knock some clay projects off a shelf (no worries, they were just my old examples I'd been hoarding). Not only do I love the added fluff but it's also pretty warm. sailboat shirt: Old Navy; dress: Issac Mizrahi, thrifted; tights, booties, belt: Anthropologie

Farmer's Wife and Portrait of a Girl in Brown Dress and Black Hat, 1907. After returning to Germany from Paris, Paula discovered that she and her husband were pregnant. After many years of trying to conceive, this was an extremely happy time for Paula. Many of her nude portraits were of her growing belly.

Saturday Brunchin: I had the chance to spend the afternoon with my first student teacher. I've been so lucky to meet such great young women. jacket: Lucky Brand; scarf: Urban Outfitters; dress: vintage, gift from a friend; tights: Target; booties: geez, I love these things! Anthropologie

Self-Portrait, 1900. Sadly, 18 days after her daughter was born, Paula died at the age of 31. She died of something called embolism which, in her case, may have been related to her pregnancy. When I initially heard this at the art museum, I was so sad. However, when you see what joyous paintings she created when she was pregnant and even after giving birth, you know that Paula would not have had it any other way. She was meant to be a mother even if only for 18 days.

Paula painted these portraits of her good friend poet and writer Rainer Maria Rilke. When Paula passed, Rilke wrote the poem "Requiem for a Friend". If you've ever lost someone, this poem (it's called a poem, but it's more like prose) will most certainly strike a chord.

Geesh. Sorry to leave on you such a sad note. Thankfully, Paula Modersohn-Becker left behind an enormous body of work that I find to be just beautiful. I hope you've enjoyed it as well.

Until I get a chance to share my students latest masterpieces (the fourth grader's castles are amazing!) and my newest DIY (one that I began two months ago and finally finished!), enjoy your week.

Monday, January 7, 2013

DIY: Put a Bird on It

I am interrupting this post with a link to my latest felted sweater...my version of an Anthro sweater with the bonus of a DIY tulle skirt! Check it here. Hello, my name is Cassie and I put birds on things. I know, I'm so cliche that there's even a Portlandia skit dedicated to birds-on-things-itis. Which I apparently have a bad case of.

There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.
Audre Lorde

Oh, were truer words ever spoken? However, I'd like to just change it up a little bit, if I might, to fit my purposes: There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them with felt.

Yeah, that's better.

So, as you might recall from this post, I have recently caught the felting bug. Like, big time. Which is a really good thing because I have a mountain of thrifted, slightly boring-ish sweaters I'm just dying to felt-ify. Yet another reason to justify my hoarding ways.

I began felting this sweater one evening without any sort of plan but with an urge to put a bird on it. Before I could talk myself out of it, I felted a white paisley shape for the body, overlapping that with the red, blue and a couple specks of black. The tree branch and the leaves took no time at all.

For the back of the sweater, I found some images of birds on pinterest (if you'd like to see them, you can check out my "felting" board) and just started felting away. Originally, I had planned to felt a large tree growing up the middle back of the sweater with birds all over it. But hubs seemed to think that was too cliche and suggested I have the branches growing from the side of the sweater. Huh. Why didn't I think of that?

The birds look out of focus, don't they? That's the fuzzy nature of felting. Which drives a nit-picky detail-oriented artist like me kinda nuts. Also, check out that needle tool on the bottom left. A couple of you mentioned in my felting post to beware of stabbing myself. I'd done it a couple of times, but when I literally had to pull three bloody needles out of my index finger, I thought "ah! this is what I was warned about!" That quote being the g-rated version. Ahem.

After felting eleven or so birds on the back of the sweater, I added the tree branches and leaves. I know, I'm making it sound really easy. I'm not gonna lie, some of those flying birds were a bit tricky. I found the key is to work small because you can always make the bird bigger. Meaning, if it looks like a shrunken head birdie, add more felt. However, if you give it a big ole head to start then the next thing you know, you got some sort of crazy giant-headed bird monster that will frighten small children. Which, just gave me an idea...

Want some outfit details? Belt, dress and shoes: Anthro; For the Birds Enid Collins box purse: best ebay purchase ever; felty hair flower: gift from my moms-in-law. AND check out my new hair stylin's. I've been steam roller rollin' my hair almost daily and it's time consuming. This 'do took less than 7 minutes and I love it. I combed some hair forward for a faux bang and put a bumpit at the crown of my head. I braided the bottom of my hair, twisted it into a bun and pinned it with 27 bobby pins (give or take).

Next up on my Hair 'Do To Do: This Hairy Nesterpiece. BTW, ya'll need to check out one of my fave blogs The Hair Hall of Fame. So much awesomeness on heads.

And that is all. At least for now. I've got another sweater in the works after I promised myself I'd take a break. But when I recently experienced a DIY fail, I felt the need to felt again. And punch my frustrations out. While watching out for my fingers, of course.