Michelle in Comix!

Click on the comic for a larger image.

The Artist As Storyteller came down last week, but the catalog for the exhibition lives on! Curator Alison Frost did a comic about each artist, in my case, incorporating text from this very blog.

Each artist was given several pages to create something unique for the catalog. You can see the series of drawings I did here.

The Compound Gallery still has catalogs for sale - visit here to get your copy.

Sneak Peek - Agents of Change, Artists As Activists, installation photos

I feel like this post should begin with the words: It was a dark and stormy night, in a nod to the way Snoopy always began his novels. Thought it's not that stormy, or even dark right now, but I'm proud and humbled to be a part of the upcoming exhibition at the Jean and Charles M. Schultz (yes, that Charles M. Shultz) Memorial Library Gallery! The exhibition, Agents of Change, Artists As Activists, features work by yours truly, as well as the Guerilla Girls, Betty Kano, Art Hazelwood, Occuprint, and a few others.

Here are a few sneak peeks of the installation in progress - my Ghost Trees:

This amazing piece by Betty Kano:

Occuprint posters:

Art Hazelwood representin' Occupy Oakland:

And the Guerilla Girls!

The opening reception will from 3-5 on Thursday, September 13, and will include a voter registration drive. Hope to see some of you there!

Richmond Library Papermaking

I was fortunate to teach a short, introductory papermaking workshop this weekend at the Richmond Public Library. So lovely to teach close to home. It was a promotion for Richmond Grows Seed Library, focusing on using leftover food materials. As examples, I had prepared artichoke and corn husk, as well as some leftover daylily-palm bark-fennel-hodge-podge mix leftover from the Papermaking with Plants workshop. The daylily in particular I'd scavenged on a walk past the Richmond Art Center while they were pruning, and it felt very appropriate to share it with fellow Richmond folks.

Just a reminder - there are still spaces for this Saturday, August 18's, Watermark Workshop in San Francisco at Bryant Street Studios. Follow the link to register.

Late Night Papermaking

As a promotion for my upcoming Watermark Workshop, I thought I'd post some of experiments for a new suite of watermarked handmade papers that I'm working on.

I'm tentatively calling the series Corn and Corporations, and the suite, of which this is the first, will be a series of logos of corporations that are part of our corn-based food systems. Though I guess technically, the USDA isn't a corporation, but it's part of the overall system.

Above is one of the laser-cut vinyl watermarks that John Sullivan of Logos Graphics made for me on a mould. Below are some tests.

The watermark, made of corn husk fiber, has been couched onto a sheet of denim. Together, these two fibers with this watermark embody the mythology and reality of our food systems and the American heartland.

I'm curious how the paper will look dried, if the denim will be too dark and the corn husk too light for clarity.

There is still time to register for my Watermark Workshop! And check out the photos from our past workshops - Papermaking with Plants and Pulp Painting.

Upcoming Watermark Workshop

Papermaking Basics: Watermarks
August 18th, 2012 from 10am - 5pm
2012
$150
Click here to register.
Taught by Michelle Wilson
Class fee: $150 Materials $10
Held at 1890 Bryant Street, #308 San Francisco

Please note the original date was August 25. The date has now been changed to August 18.

Watermarks are a mark-making technique unique to hand papermaking. In this class, learn the secret of turning your own images into watermarks - images that hide within a sheet of paper but be visible when held up to the light. The class will cover various ways of making both invisible and visible watermarks.

Check out images from our previous workshops - Papermaking with Plants and Pulp Painting.