art + story
I did it! I broke down and started an Etsy shop. On it I’m going to sell some drawings, paintings and ‘Lucy’s Tree’ books. It might turn out to be counter productive money wise since now that I’ve started looking around the site I just want to buy everything, but we shall see.
Link to shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/rozmaclean
O, and by the way, if there’s anything on this site that you see and want to buy but isn’t on the shop yet, lemme know and I’ll sort it out.
So, not too much new stuff has been up in my world, but it feels good to be finished a big project, which has a title now- “Violet and her Worries.” I am trying to figure out the best way to get the story published. . . but in the mean time it’s freeing to not have to work within the guidelines of a project.
I am realizing that I really like water colours, especially with line drawings over top. I am messing around with shapes and colours and lines, and it feels nice not to want things to look a certain way. Although, things are feeling super wide open, in that I have no specific ideas about what I want to work on next. I’m hoping it will become clear as I make messes.
Pikaland.com has offered lots of inspiration. I’ve been admiring artwork that’s graphic with nice bold shapes and clean lines, like Alan Brown’s work:
So I’ve started working on the very last illustration for my ‘worries’ project (title is temporary). The task of sending this out into the world is super daunting . . . So if anyone has any tips, advice, connections, etc. please give me a shout.
I have managed to write an accompanying story as well, which feels like a step in the right direction (although as I trawl the internet and find out more about the world of childrens publishing, maybe not so much? I don’t know). Am searching for ideas for the title, and the perfect name for the main character. So far I like Violet and Zoe.
I’m back at work now, and so thankful I had time over the summer to be anti social and hunker down and get things done. I have a feeling the next few steps of this project will happen in slow motion. Oy.
On September 10th I took part in Davie Days, an event that featured art, artisans, activities for kids, music, and all sorts of fun stuff. Hosted by the West End B.I.A., it was my first opportunity not only to see the printed books for ‘Lucy’s Tree,’ but to sell them to interested individuals (some family members included). A fun day with great weather, it was a nice way to say good bye to summer and to welcome what will hopefully be a crisp and beautiful fall.
A couple of months ago I took part in the NYC Art House Co-Op‘s the ‘Fiction Project.’ They took all of the filled up journals, from artists and writers everywhere, across the US. Now the journals are in the Co Op’s physical and digital libraries. Here’s the link to mine:
www.arthousecoop.com/users/rozmaclean/artwork
Today was the Mole Hill art walk/ 125th anniversary of Vancouver celebration. There were lots of artists showing work, musicians, and even a cowboy on stilts, who I now regret not taking a picture of. It was lots of fun with a great turnout, and for the most part bearable in the shade.
I showed the artwork from Lucy’s Tree, with a demo book that people could pre order, or sign up to be notified of when it’s published. With the exception of some frames breaking when they were blown over in the wind, things went pretty smoothly (I fixed the problems with some heavy garden rocks in front of the frames).
I like events like these because you get feedback and opinions from people who are just walking around, which is pretty different from when you invite all your family and friends to see your work in an enclosed space. I just wish I’d gotten to walk around and see more of the other artists. . . The other artists in my little yard were Michele Trask and Kate Moore. Both ladies were showing some pretty cool images, and I think we all worked on some painting and drawing throughout the day. Ashley Sommerville is a singer/ songwriter who shared the space with us, and kept us all in a good mood with her upbeat tunes.
By the way, thanks to everyone who lives in the Mole Hill Housing Society for literally opening up your back yards to this event. The residents were amazingly friendly and even volunteered to lug heavy tables around and do the thankless set up and clean up. Thanks guys!
So with the summer off, I resolved to finish painting in the illustrations from this story. This project feels like it’s been going on forever, and I am ready to finish it and send it away from me where it will magically be published by a group of wonderful people who feel like paying me for an unsolicited semi autobiographical comic-y children’s story about anxiety. Or I at least am ready to start officially writing it.
As it turns out finishing the painting might have been overly ambitious, as there are always distractions in life (like sunny days or trying to not be the lamest friend always), and it turns out I don’t have the longest attention span and seek distractions after about 4 hours of painting. I also don’t know what is a normal amount of time to spend painting something like this, but it seems to be quite the slow process. I want to say I’m a perfectionist, but there are just a lot of little details that take a really really long time to do. And it takes me a long time to pick any colours that aren’t blue.Anyways, when I put everything together in a pile of finished paintings, I feel much better about things. So that is what I am going to do. I will try to keep them in order. Also, I just got an iphone and am very excited about it, so the image quality may decrease and feature retro filters and scratchy framing effects.
On July 23rd my mom, Jan MacLean, and I helped out at the Mole Hill Heritage Society in Vancouver’s West End. Mole Hill is a housing community composed of heritage buildings, and all members of the community were invited to come and take part in the banner painting. The theme of the banner was “what community means to me,” and will be displayed in a public space within the housing society.
This day was beautiful but hot, and there was a great turn out from the neighbourhood, with artists of all ages in attendance. There were great attitudes, lots of painting, experimental print making (with leaves!), and pizza. All in all, it was a great success and lots of fun.
I wanted to say thank you to the West End Business Improvement Assocation, and especially to Lyn Hellyar, Executive Director, for awarding me with the President’s Choice Award for 2011. The exciting thing about this award, which is a result of my participation in the West End Art Krall, is that it means the story I illustrated and showed as part of the Krall, ‘Lucy’s Tree,’ will be published and distributed by the West End B.I.A. Awesome and ambitious Lyn has spear headed this project, and thanks to her we hope to see ‘Lucy’s Tree’ published by the end of August. Thank you so much for this award- I could not have asked for better fortune. Helen Davidson, the author of Lucy’s Tree, and I are both so excited to see this book become real. So so grateful,
Roz
This is some artwork for one of my favourite bands- Aunts and Uncles! They asked some of their artistically inclined friends to choose a song from their upcoming release and create some art for it. Then once the release takes place lucky music lovers will get a booklet of diverse art with their music. Good thinking. listen to them here: http://www.auntsanduncles.ca
roz macLean 
