Artwork by La Muneca y Yescka at the Hive {October 2013}

Last might my family and headed to the Hive to experience WALLSPEAK- ¡Prohibido olvidar! ¡Hay que hablar!

"Wallspeak is a transborder gallery show presenting a visual language of resistance and humanity, calling attention to the past and speaking ourselves into the future—A series of work that questions the visible and non-visible borders of oppression. La Muñeca is a Mexican-American, Phoenix based street artist that challenges the norms of race-politics and cultural representation through painted wheatpastes of both the beautiful and gritty realities of injustice. Yescka is a Mexican street artist visiting Arizona from Oaxaca, Mex. who denounces global social and political situations through graffiti, paint, woodcut, and stencil. Both artists make obvious the view of the oppressed in accessible locations in order to link art and public action. " -facebook event decription

I can't explain to you how much I enjoy LA MUÑECA's Artwork!  She's extremely talented and always inspiring me.  Below are examples of work and the work of Oaxacan Artist, Yescka (His facebook and website here). 

 The two met through a friend in Oaxaca this past summer while LA MUÑECA was traveling in the area.  They established an awesome friendship which can only be illustrated through the images below.  The two like minded artists display their work almost seamlessly together in a shared space, creating an effect of both resistance and peace.  Something about LA MUÑECA's work is calming to me, even with the aggressive subject matter, while Yescka creates a more violent yet satirical approach to the subject matter.

 

Along with the visual art, the event hosted spoken word and musical performances.

My Sister, Sister & Brother-in-law also enjoyed the event with me.

The space was filled with supporting members of the community. 

There was a musical performance by Shining Soul {their facebook page here}

Their lyrics focus on indigenous peoples and the concept of being an "illegal" immigrant, an interesting concept to be explored by someone who's ancestors were invaded by illegal immigrants (see also: Christopher Columbus).

The artist Yescka had a few amazing pieces of merchandise for sale.

Both of these pieces above by Yescka.

Above by LA MUÑECA 

Above; Yescka

Left; Yescka, Center; LA MUÑECA, Right; Yescka

Left; Yescka, Right; LA MUÑECA

Above; Performance Art

It was such an honor to speak with both artists.  I'm so proud of  LA MUÑECA for creating artwork that is opening up dialog and creating an international community full of like minded people. 

Hope this post inspires you to search out local art in your community, and if you don't have a strong community of artists, go out and create one!

-Jennifer

You can also follow along on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and Tumblr!

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D.I.Y. Starting a Chevron Painting.

I know chevron patterns are all the rage right now, and I wanted to incorporate the pattern into a new watercolor painting of mine.  Below you'll find the step by step process for marking out a chevron pattern using a ruler and pencil.  

Divide your paper into four sections, mine was 24 inches across so I marked every 6 inches.

Then on each of those lines I marked one inch apart.  

I also marked the edges of the paper ever one inch, then I connected the inch placeholder on the left (the 2nd mark) to the top on the 1st column. 

I continued this all the way down the column.

Below you can see the completed column.

then in the second column, I went from the top of the page to the second inch mark on the middle column divider.

I repeated this process until the second column was complete.  THEN I went back and added the partial lines, the ones that go off the pages, I imagined they connected to an inch placeholder off the page.

Repeat the process for the 3rd and 4th columns.

Once all the columns are completed add any additional designs or images.  

Happy Chevron Drawing!

Now I just have to find time to finish this...

Feel free to follow along on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and Tumblr!

D.I.Y. Toddler Activity {Painting Plants}

This afternoon when returning from our errands I noticed our flower plant in the front wilting from the summer sun, before it had a chance to kill all the leaves we snagged a few for an art project! 

{Please excuse the iphone pictures, I didn't have time to grab the "real" camera}

First, we started with watercolor painting the veins of the leaf.

Then stamped that onto a piece of cardstock.

Removed the leaf and Voilà! watercolor art.

And when we were done experimenting with watercolor stamping, we moved on to acrylic painting...

I just grabbed a few of my green acrylic paints and let Cupcake here choose her colors...

With slightly more supervision, she painted these leaves with the colors of her choice.

Then we stamped again.

I like these way more than the watercolor version, but to each his or her own!

and then she just kept painting. 

and I helped, notice the top of our finished pieces; we both painted leaves!

I'm keeping the painted leaves to frame next to the finished artworks. 

Hope that gives you some artistic inspiration for you and your toddler!

-Jenn

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Leaf Printables for Coloring!

I just drew all of these for work and then thought I'd share them with you all.  My little Cupcake loves to color in the images like a coloring book, so enjoy.

Here are the cleaned up PDF versions if you prefer, I added the areas that were cut off from the images above (may be out of order) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11