Pet Portraits For My Friend Jess

I am reaching out today on behalf of my dear friend Jessica Poor.  Today happens to be her birthday, and in her honor I have created a Go Fund Me account to raise funds for her as she faces homelessness and continues to struggle with disability and sever physical and mental health issues.

Jessica has helped me and so many others in countless ways.  Always willing to help, when my mom was in hospice, Jess offered me an affordable place to live and emotional support that helped carry me through this difficult time.  Help me pay her back for all of her kindness and generosity!

I am offering custom pet portraits (at 3 price-points) as rewards for your donations--above is a display of the process used to create this full color portrait of Ike and Weezie, my friend Kyle Alexander's adorable babies.  Using the commercial printing CMYK palette and process, I hand stamp each layer in order from yellow, magenta, cyan then black, making for an impressionistic portrait using hand-carved diamond-shaped stamps and archival ink on cotton paper.

The most affordable price-point will earn you a high quality print of this same image--for $25!

I am really excited to draw your fur-babies for a good cause! Please read on and consider donating--every little bit counts.

With Gratitude,

Rachel

The End Of A Fabulously Busy Year

I am thrilled, relieved, grateful, inspired, and overjoyed--this year has been exceedingly full and exciting in so many ways and it looks like this year is primed to unfold in kind.

I have not updated this baby in awhile because I've been blissfully nestled in a seemingly endless array of deadlines, from holiday gift typewriter-drawing commissions, to web illustrations and too many crochet projects--fortunately for my blog, my wrists are now protesting my use of them, forcing me to take a hiatus from drawing.

I keep getting asked to draw beautiful women--yes, please! Will release full image after Christmas presents are received...

So in the meantime I'll torture myself with these images of projects I can't wait to finish or begin:

I would totally date a grid.

Here's a snap of some freshly scored Rives BFK that I can't wait to dig into. This is intended for my upcoming show at Café Lulu in my hometown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in April 2016. I've got a huge space to fill and plan to make twelve to fifteen 30 x 44" drawings for this show--at this point mainly using permanent marker and other usual suspects of drawing materials.

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Purple ribbons available at Ace Typewriter in St. John's!

A recovering chromaphobe's in-progress self portrait.

I cannot believe I am finally basking in the magic that is working in color! The idea of creating a four-color CMYK typewriter-drawing was floating around in my head for awhile, but the problem stopping me was locating a yellow ribbon. Thanks to Ace Typewriter I have blue, purple, and standard black and red, but it appears that yellow may not exist--if anyone has leads, let me know! Luckily, my brilliant friend Jessica Poor suggested using Saral yellow transfer paper:

Photocopy of separated yellow layer on top of yellow transfer pape fastened to quality paper allowing the typewriter to transfer marks indirectly.

That pretty blue ribbon--it looks ultramarine but types a stunning cerulean. Tiny view before the cyan layer is added to the completed magenta (well, red) and yellow layer.

 This is why I refer to myself as a closet-printmaker. All of my drawings are attempts to make drawings that look or act like prints. Is typewriter drawing just a masochist's monotype?

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In more leisurely news, I've had the immense pleasure of discovering the Portland Correspondence Coop held every third Tuesday at the IPRC--it's a wonderful community of awesome creative people who meet and make mail art, often involving some kind of mail art exchange with a monthly theme, jovial conversation and a rotating cast of typewriters brought in to test-drive by expert/enthusiast Ethan Jewett of PDX Typewriters. Its free, open to the public and highly recommended--stay tuned via instagram, too!

The PDXCC has reminded me about how great mail art and old fashioned correspondence is in general--I mean, I use a manual typewriter to draw, I should be using it the right way, too.

In my early twenties, I had a solid penpal situation with my dear pal Emily--of which the peak of correspondence took place when we lived on the same street (and still used USPS!)--as well as romantically bombarding potential suitors and my friend Michael, who I met in Milwaukee but was instrumental in and an unforgettable help when I moved to Portland.

Klaus Nomi Elvis stamp

Drawing frivolous things--a forgotten pleasure

Reverse side of a wedding gift waiting to be sent. Color!

Anyway, I'm really excited to have begun a mail-art back-and-forth with Brendan Larsen, one of my favorite drawers I've found on Instagram. Also, I look forward to rekindling the practice of sending unexpected appreciative mail to loved ones as well as some good old typewritten-letter correspondence with Colin Smith and future fun drawing collabo with the talented Quinn Amacher. Anyone else?

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Lastly, I'm excited to announce that my typewriter-drawing, Carissa, is featured in the winter issue of PictureSentence and that the creators of the publication, Robert and Margaret Tomlinson, have invited me to share some of my work in a drawing show Robert is curating at the Western College of Oregon in February 2016.

Also in February, I look forward to a joint exhibition with the incredibly talented Stephanie Yoo* at Darling Press! Brooklyn transplants, she and her loverman Hunter have been super supportive in sharing my work with others and attending my shows (and letting me draw them!). I wouldn't have met them if it wasn't for my amazing cousin and prolific musician Lorna--who now also, along with her wonderful partner Keith, share this beautiful city with us. I'm so spoiled.

That said, I want to express my gratitude for the unending ways my pals and colleagues have offered their undeniable emotional, logistical, creative, brilliant, kind-hearted, and continuous support. Thanks so much for attending my many shows and events this year, and I can't wait to share the details of 2016's already mounting list of shows! Looking forward to the future! XO

*CORRECTION: The show at Darling Press will be a solo show after all, but Stephanie Yoo and I will have a joint show sometime later this year. 

Typewriter Drawing: Process

I forget that perhaps my process isn't as clear to others at it is to me.  Using my Sears Citation II manual typewriter, I use various symbols on paper repeatedly to create shifts in value and texture. My current series Unrevealed is a collection of such portraits based on photographs where the subject is obscured by light/shadow, perspective/foreshortening, or cropping.

studio view/in progress, Patsy, 2015
image made using: & % " # '

in progress detail, Erica, 2015

I typically pull the pin on the platen out, disengaging the roller so that I don't have to abide by the mechanical shift to the next line.  This way, especially if I'm working towards a rich black, I have more control and can more thoughtfully layer characters on top of one another.

studio view/in progress, Erica, 2015
image made using: o ' # % "

I discovered that # is my favorite symbol for skin since its natural appearance of crosshatching makes for an even balance in shading.  It covers a lot of surface area and is my main character for making pure black.  It resemble a mezzotint, but I can't decide which process of the two is more masochistic. % is a very effective symbol for hair.  The linear quality of the / in the % helps it illustrate the direction of the hair, but the little circles keep it from becoming cartoonish, and lend a softness to it which makes it look more believable.

Patsy, 2015
typewriter drawing on Rives BFK

This collection will be on view at Luke's Frame Shop in Portland, Oregon this Septmber!