Artist Spotlight: Alanna Cavanagh

I am always impressed by artists. I find it fascinating how someone can be inspired by the world around us, notice the simple things, and translate that into a piece of art that "speaks to me". You know that feeling that you get when you look at a work of art, be it a painting, photograph, sculpture or any other form, and instantly it connects to something deep inside you and invokes an emotional reaction? I love that feeling.

One such artist whose work speaks to me is illustrator Alanna Cavanagh. Her work is light-hearted and whimsical with a retro vibe. Looking at her art makes me think of women in fitted sweaters and cat's eye glasses, housewives in aprons, and men in dapper suits.

I especially love her silk screen prints. I'm not sure where I first saw Alanna's Big Scissors print, but it really caught my attention. My mom used to sew us clothes and she had a pair of orange-handled scissors just like this so no wonder I find the print appealing.

Then I saw these images of chef & TV personality Trish Magwood's home in my fave House & Home magazine and it literally stopped me in my tracks. The combination of Trish's beautiful, family-friendly, light and airy home paired with Alanna's colourful artwork really did me in. I had to have a piece Alanna's art of my very own.

And this is what I got...

and this lovely, complete with coffee stains.

Would you believe that I've actually planned a special wall in the basement reno to feature this print? Because I have, that's how much I love it so. Its being framed right now (yay for Michael's 60% off custom framing!). Can't wait to show it to you back in my home.

All photos courtesy of Alanna Cavanagh.

Children's Art Display

"Red cup on green paper" - by Chloe, June 2010

The little one has started to come home from daycare with works of art that she's made. I adore these charming pieces but the question is, what to do with it all? I'd like to display some of it but how? Should I use sticky tack and put it up on her bedroom walls and create a collage

source: Design*Sponge via The Boo And The Boy

Or maybe I change out some of the items on her picture rail and display the art in various sized frames, like in these photos?

If I get enough pieces, doing something like this would be fun... scan all the individual artworks and create a poster out of them!

source: Ohdeedoh

I like this idea too... create a chalkboard canvas. Rather than have a whole chalkboard wall, having a canvas like this elevates the art and makes it seem much more sophisticated and special, don't you think?

source: mycakies

Do you have a budding Picasso at home? How do you display their art?

Artist Spotlight: Chris Langstroth

It looks like its going to be another hot weekend here in Toronto. Hopefully it won't be too much of a scorcher as we're hoping to head out to the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. I look forward to this show every year. Its great to see such varied art works from established artists to unknown students. One booth we always make a stop at is that of artist Chris Langstroth.


We love the textures and colours of his paintings. I would love to have one of his large paintings in our living room one day but for now they're a little out of the budget.

Have you invested in original art for your own home? It would be great to have more in our home, but I find there always seems to be something more pressing to spend our $ on.

Art Not So Smart

Six months to hang a piece of art? That must be a new record around here. But yes, that's how long it has taken us to finally hang up the vintage ship photographs. We came across these 3M Wireback Picture Hangers at Michaels and knew they were just what we were looking for.

We've been hesitant to drive nails into the wall, not only because we may ruin the wallpaper, but because we share the wall with our neighbour and didn't want to find out it was made of 1" of plaster on a concrete wall and a nail could cause it to potentially crumble behind the wallpaper. So, non-wallpaper-ruining 3M strips to the rescue!

We had a really hard time deciding what art to put on the wall in the dining room. A mirror would have been an option, but that would have reflected the kitchen (which can be a mess at times). And while these five photos together may be a bit busy, we love to look at them and wanted them displayed prominently since they had personal meaning.

The tragic ending: As I was typing this post, boat photo #2 fell down and hit the cap rail!! I don't blame the 3M strip... with the wallpaper having a slight texture, we knew there was the possibility the strip wouldn't adhere well. We did do a test beforehand - put up the strip, let it set for a couple of hours, hung a photo (with a blanket sling & pillows set up underneath in case it did come crashing down), waited 24 hours and hung up the rest - but I guess the wallpaper did us in!

Fortunately, there was only a bit of damage on the backside of the lower corner. The rest of the photos have been taken down... guess we will have to drive those nails into the wall after all! Let's just hope this doesn't take another six months to get done :)

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ABC

ABC's never looked so sweet. From Jeanie and Jewell

DIY Project: Milk Bottle Cap Art

While in St.Jacobs, we stopped at Market Road Antiques. I found these in one of the little booths - they're old milk bottle caps. Don't you just love the typography?



I thought I could make a little art project for the kitchen with these caps. All I needed was some double-sided tape from the Dollar Store and a Ribba frame from Ikea. Removing the mat from the frame, I lined the frame with some polka-dot scrapbooking paper and figured out the layout and arrangement of the caps. I put a piece of double-sided tape on the back of each cap; the tape is about 1/8" thick and provides a slight relief or raise of the cap from the surface.



Its a small detail but adds a bit of interest to the art. Can you see how the caps have slight shadows in certain light?


And here's the finished art "in situ". A little vintage pop of colour in the kitchen!

Artist Spotlight: Jeffrey Flores

Let's leave this bit of nastiness behind, shall we? We've had a beautiful sunny and warm Easter weekend here. Time to throw open the windows, let the breeze blow in, and bring with it thoughts of summer days just around the corner...


...days of being outside, hot sun on sweaty skin...

...hanging with friends, or just chillin' out.

Goodbye winter days. Time to put the layers away!

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Original illustrations by my brother Jeffrey! He is the true artist in the family. You can get in touch with him at flores.jeffrey@gmail.com if you'd like to get one of his pieces for your own.

The Art of Framing Art

When we were emptying Mama HandyLuster's home to prepare for her move, we uncovered a set of wonderful old photographs. The photos were taken by Wallace Macaskill, a great Canadian Maritime photographer renowned for his photos of the Bluenose schooner (one of which was used for the Canadian 10-cent piece, where it appears to this day). Mama HandyLuster had been given three of these prints as a gift, and had found two others at a garage sale. When I saw them, I knew I wanted to display them in our home. I loved their worn vintage quality and since HandyMan loves to sail, they would feel very personal.

Mama never had the photos framed and given their size and the fact there were five of them, I knew it would be a bit pricey to do so. Luckily, Michaels offers 60% off custom framing every few months so I waited for the sale. Now here's where a lack of forethought ended up costing me a few $$. I have never had anything custom framed before (Ikea has served me well to this point!) and thought it couldn't be too difficult - just pick a frame and a mat, right? Wrong. Do you know how many different frames and mats Michaels offers?? There are 15 variations of white alone! But I had a squirming baby on my hip and had driven 1/2 hour to get to the nearest store so there was no way I was leaving without placing my order. Really.Bad.Idea.

The framing people were helpful but let's just say they weren't really versed in more contemporary styles and like everything matchy-matchy. So while in my head I was thinking of something more like this:

I ended up ordering something more like this:


Huh. Yeah, what just happened there? I don't know. After I got home, I thought more about it and realized I needed to order a more neutral mat. And on closer look, I also realized the mat width the Michaels' framer specified wasn't as large as a thought it was (only 1.5") and would look really skimpy. So, the next day I packed up the kiddo again, made the trek to Markham, and picked out what I should have picked out the first time: French White mat, 3.5" border.


Some of the photos were vertically oriented while some were horizontal; some were sepia toned while others were more black and white. Because I wanted to display them all together, to make them more cohesive I had them matted so that their exterior dimensions were all the same.


The plan is to display them in the dining room but we haven't yet decided on the layout. So for now, I have them propped up in various spots around the house.


After the framing fiasco, I'm not quite ready to commit and drive some nails into our pretty wallpaper! Baby steps here folks, baby steps.

The Delightful Doily Display

I managed to squeeze in some time last week to work on a project I've been wanting to do for a while. Remember that huge bag of crocheted doilies that we inherited from Mama Handyluster? I had thought I would frame them all individually - but then realized that's a lot of doilies and a lot of frames that will take up a lot of wall space! So I came up with a new plan.

First, I gathered some materials: fabric scraps, a picture frame (1' x 3'), and some foam board. Using the piece of cardboard that came with the frame as a template, I cut a piece of foam board just slightly bigger. The foam board should just fit the hole in the frame, with a margin of about 1/16th of an inch from the edges.



At this point, you might want to get an extra set of hands to help you.


Next, I temporarily wrapped the foam in the fabric scraps to see how the doilies would look against the different materials.


I picked one of the fabrics and cut a swatch big enough to wrap the foam board. HandyMan ironed the fabric, using some spray starch to get it nice and flat, and we wrapped the foam board and taped off the excess on the back. After I settled on a design, I used some sewing pins to hold the doilies in place. The pins were too long so I snipped off the ends from behind. Then we put the foam board in the frame and attached the backing. Unfortunately, I had to remove the glass from the frame as there wasn't enough depth once the foam was in place.


And here is the doily art hanging in Chloe's room. I managed to use quite a few of the doilies which was great because they were all made by HandyMan's great grandmother and I wanted to keep these pieces of the family history. HandyMan's not a fan of doilies but even he had to agree this project turned out pretty cute.