Creating a Studio Flag

Studio Flag
©Melynda Van Zee 2010

Creating a flag is an opportunity for you to use color, text, and movement to piece together a little bit of blessing for your home, family or studio. For centuries various cultures have created and flown prayer flags as a way of releasing their prayers/thoughts/images into the world. Bits of left-over canvas scraps from my studio, basic craft paints, a couple of chip brushes and a Sharpie all combined to make creating these individual pieces a snap. The tricky part for me was the sewing-this became sort of a "sewing primer" for me-a great place to learn the basics and experiment-no need for perfection here! Thanks to my patient sewing instructors-so good for me to sit and learn something new-to let someone teach me and show me the way. Wasn't nearly as difficult as I made it out to be (although I am still not entirely prepared to deal with the whole "bobbin" thing...by myself).

1. Select random pieces of cotton canvas. Cut into shapes and lay out in desired size. I used a decorative flag I already had as a basic template for size and shape. I simply laid the decorative flag down on my studio table and placed my painted pieces on top until the design was complete.

2. Use craft paint and chip brushes to add color to canvas pieces. After one side is dry, paint reverse side.



3. A black Sharpie is a simple way to add words and designs.

4. Use a sewing machine to sew pieces together with basic and zig-zag stitches.

5. Remember to create a pocket to slide flag pole through-I also added an interior canvas tab loop that attaches to the clip on the flag pole (so your flag does not slide down).

Enjoy!

Hopefully the flag will help those enjoying the studio tour this weekend to find my house. Click here for more info on the Red Rock Arts Alliance Studio Tour and don't hesitate to stop by if you happen to live in my corner of Iowa.

Sometimes There are No Words

Sometimes There are No Words
©2010 Melynda Van Zee
40" x 30"
Acrylic on Canvas

I finished this painting in June and I kept searching for the right title-something that could say what I was experiencing as I created the piece. The harder I searched, the more nothing would come, except sometimes there are no words. As much as I love words and on some days love to talk (just ask my friends), the lesson I've been learning in my art lately is that it is this is why so many of us choose to create-whether we are composing, gardening, sewing, or painting. When words aren't going to do it, when there are no words to be found, when the words are inadequate for whatever is in the soul...that is one time when it is time for me to paint. So often people will say to me that a particular work I created has so much emotion, and I think I began to think of many of my paintings as only portraying a particular emotional place-an emotional landscape if you will. But, I recently heard the soul described as the place where emotion, intellect, belief and passion all intertwine. That is the place I want to continually paint from-not just from my emotion, not just from my intellect, not just because there is a particular image I like and I have the physical ability to reproduce it. I want to paint from the place that takes it all-the intellect, the emotion, the deep belief and allow it all to mix and mesh together and from that place, create. The difficult thing is that I can’t just will myself to paint from this place-I’m learning it is more a process of allowing myself permission to simply be right where I am, and then paint from that place of knowing-and sometimes the knowing is messy, complicated, intense and beautiful all at the same time. I wish life came to us in neat packages-easily definable with a clear path...”untie ribbon, peel off tape, remove paper” but it doesn’t seem to work that way for me-for any of us. Life is full of uncharted paths, darkness we didn’t expect, holy moments of surprise and hope often mixed with uncertainty-that is the challenge of our humanity...and such a difficult thing to capture in adequate image or word, but try we do-because we can't not.

Detail of Sometimes There are No Words

©2010 Melynda Van Zee

Detail of Sometimes There are No Words
©2010 Melynda Van Zee

Detail of Sometimes There are No Words

©2010 Melynda Van Zee

Personalized Vintage Home Decor

Here I the photos I promised from the finished project mentioned in my latest post. What a delight to help a homeowner personalize her home with a vintage pattern excavated from below years of old wallpaper patterns!

The view from the kitchen into the dining room.

Look at that gorgeous original woodwork on the stairway and doorways in this restored Iowa farmhouse.

A close up detail of the motifs and links.

A peek into the process...

Karen Harrill from Co-Line Graphics created the vinyl stencil to the exact dimensions I needed for each individual wall. She also taught me the correct way to apply and remove the stencils. The vinyl stencil was totally the way to go with this project to create the aesthetic unity necessary and meet the unique needs of this project. Notice the "E" and the "N" in the corner of each stencil? That way we knew which pattern belonged on which wall-North, South, East or West.

Historical Reproduction "Practice Mock Up"

I'm going this week to recreate this historic stencil pattern in the dining room of a restored 100+ year old farmhouse. I've been looking forward to and preparing this project all summer.Using some very modern methods (scanning, computer CAD program, and a professionally cut vinyl stencil to lay out each wall to its specific dimensions) and some very traditional art tools (pencil and tracing paper, stencil brushes and paints) to recreate this vintage pattern. The homeowner found glimpses of this pattern buried under layers of old wallpaper when they began remodeling the dining room. They took some photos and traced the pattern, then turned the project over to me. This is very different work than most of the creative activities I have been engaged in lately, but maybe that is part of the challenge. I think that it is always a good thing to take on a new project that will grow you as an artist and stretch you into new (or remind you of old) places you have been. I know working with this project has made me ask some new questions and seek out specialized help. I've learned new tricks and enjoyed seeing and helping a family as they restore a precious family heirloom (in this case an entire house!)

Sharing the Work...Notes from ArtFest Midwest

Booth at ArtFest Midwest- Varied Industries Building, Des Moines, IA

July 24 & 25, 2010

I love sharing my work...it is always an interesting experience to interact with people as they respond to the work- which pieces evoke an emotional response, which pieces cause people to stand and look for a long time, which colors appeal to different personalities. While I don't paint only for the response of others, I still glean so much from interacting with people as they view the work.

Implications of this Rejection 48" x 36" 2009 Melynda Van Zee

This particular piece seemed to draw out many interesting comments including...

1. "How did she get those circles so perfect? Did she use a stencil to trace them? 'No.' Well, then she must of drawn those really slow and carefully to get them so even."(I can promise no stencils involved here-that would be more like years and years of drawing swirls-my college drawing prof would have us draw pages of circles).

2. "I sure wouldn't want to be around you while you were painting that one. There must of been a man involved." (I laughed out loud and in the interest of full disclosure it was a man who made this observation)

And, I think it is great when people see things I missed...

3. Don't you see the fish? (I hadn't, but now I do!)

Rhythm of the Struggle 40" x 30" 2010 Melynda Van Zee

4. "That one-now that one looks so like you..." This comment gets said about various different works on a regular rotating basis- maybe certain people see more of one side of a particular emotion in me than others???

Observing the Recovery 36" x 48" 2010 Melynda Van Zee

5. And, of course, someone was going to ask...do you drink before or after you paint those? My friend helping with the show, explained that in fact that wasn't the case. I told him that part of my process was often to play music as I worked and his final comment..."I don't think it was country you were listening to."

And, so many more thoughtful, deeply engaged questions, conversations, stories shared- the power of art to move and make people engage the bigger story we are all walking...what a gift for me to be able to be present and share bits of my story and journey deposited on the canvas. Met some great new friends, wise business and artistic minds and connected with some friends I had lost touch with over the years.


Deep thanks for all the help, encouragement and support to make this weekend happen. Friends, family, friends of friends-thanks to you all-I am so blessed!

Passion & Glory

When people walk an art show, they get the opportunity to see the finished product-the end result-the final step in a long process of creating. The actual act of creating still remains a mystery for most people, but when I look at a painting like this one above, I know the full story. I know whether this was a painting that flowed out of me like a stream I couldn't stop, or if it was a several week (or month or, even on rare occasion, a year) battle of sorts-me with the painting struggling to get out. I know how many layers of paint, how many times I wanted to stop, how much courage it took to paint the colors swirling inside. What I will say about this work, is that it was an intense journey...and I may have learned more after the painting than even during the act of creating. I always learn during the process, but lately it has been after the intuitive painting has emerged that I was able to see what I could not see before. So often I think a painting is about "this" and then, I see in hindsight that I had only scraped the surface. This is what keeps me coming back, keeps me returning to the paint, to the process, because there is so much we do not see yet. So much underneath the surface, waiting to break forth, so much yet for me to grasp.

New Work Available next week at ArtFest Midwest

Next weekend, I will be hosting a booth in Des Moines, Iowa at ArtFest Midwest "The Other Art Show". I'd love to have you stop by at the Varied Industries Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds anytime Saturday, June 26 from 10 am-6 pm or Sunday, June 27 from 10 am-5 pm. If you aren't able to attend the show, but interested in my work, feel free to contact me by email.