November Goals & Nanowrimo

Glass illustration by marisol diaz

So we are now into the month of November (my Birthday month) and every year around this time I do some life/goal assessment...and I try again and again until I succeed to fulfill them.

So this year being no different, I am trying one more time to do the following:

• start, continue and finish NANOWRIMO (national write a novel in a month) in which you must complete 50,000 words in one month towards your novel.Check out what I got so far! HERE.
• Get better Podcast equipment
• Interview more folks and start a full on audio Podcast Series beginning with another interview with NYC based Spoken Word Artist La Bruja! 
• Craft my tush off for the Annual Craft Fair
• Buy my long-awaited glass kiln and do some glass work
• Update my Etsy
• Update my techy equipment
• Post more tutorials
• Start some Style posts for both CLOTHES & FOOD!!! FOOD LOVE YAY!
• Make my Ladies of the Chicken Coop as comfy as possible as they start to lay some eggs!
• Update my Blog/Site diversification to include NEW and seperate blogs! 

So wish me luck as I start on this month long venture! -Ciao Amarettogirl

Updated Glasswork Portfolio

Hey there folks! It's been in baby steps I'm sure, but slowly I've been updating my Glass Art portfolio. All the portfolio's are in need of clean-up, re-organization and re-clarification since I hurriedly posted something up two years ago when I first started my blog. I would love for folks to click on the portfolio and check it out!

My Alice glass illustration and block by marisol diaz

I still have more to upload and rearrange. I have made a distinction between glass 'art' and glass 'sketches' as the first is more about pieces I feel are more resolved with clear intention and the latter is about products that emerge out of the process of learning and experimenting.

Wooly Willy magnet toy

Many of you have asked about the techniques. When illustrating, I work with ground glass called frit. It can be ground into different consistencies - coarse to powdery. Much like one would play with a 'Wooly Willy' magnet toy and push around the crushed magnets to draw Willy's hair or mustache, I push around the glass frit to illustrate. After each layer of glass has a frit drawing on it - it then gets fired, usually into one singular block of glass. Such is the case with the 'Alice' above. Often time there is great depth to these illustrations that is almost impossible to capture in a photograph head on. So please check out my glass art gallery!

Well, I hope you have all had a beautiful day!

-

Ciao Amarettogirl

Glass Explorations II

While contemplating the word encasement, I explored some new glass powder work this summer.

Unintentionally, my concept was very similar to an assignment that I gave my students last year. The assignment (to paint a distorted self-portrait by basing the composition on a scanned/xeroxed facial print) was a blessing for some students who flourished with the 'chiaroscuro' demands of the project. However, the assignment proved to be challenging for others, who were left feeling disillusioned, which for me as an art educator is never ok.

quick sketch of idea as I saw it in my mind actual xerox of my facexerox of my face 11"x 11" layered glass tile made with glass powders entitled ENCASED by marisol diaz When working with glass powders, your initial drawing is very forgiving since the dry powders can simply be wiped (or blown) away until you fire it. However if you're working to create strong blacks it can be challenging since the material that you're working with is transparent and will also be reflective (it is glass) - thats why we use light tables during the process. Once the glass is fired your options become very limited since you can only add material and re-fire.

For this piece I combined both picture references of my face to create a new composition that included my hand. After the piece was fired I re-fired it with a layer of clear glass on top. The thickness and depth that created is difficult to see in the above shot. That clear glass layer also really helped 'encase' the piece. In addition, it made more sense why this piece was made out of glass as opposed to a drawing or a painting. I love sharing these explorations with you all!