This was my workstation: the loom.

It was a little overwhelming at first, but I got the hang of it after a while.

This was my view: the first few rows, the million strings everywhere, the shuttle, my feet on the bamboo pedals.

Making the first motif was really challenging. The logic was not evident at first. Thank goodness the whole time my teacher was watching with attentive eyes.

Then came the very long stretch… 80 cm of purple.

Finally, the last motif. By then I was a little more confident.

Here is the action for 2 motif rows (of course I’m at snail speed compared to the pros and don’t know the lingo):

1: Take motif string up (white vertical strings), separate the white strings well, to make the specific row we need
2: Insert the wooden separator in between the black strings by lifting the front white strings on both sides
3: Flip the separator vertical
4: Pass the shuttle with the red silk through, align well
5: Flip separator horizontal and tap in sharply
6: Press the right pedal down
7: Pass the shuttle with the purple silk through, align
8: Release pedal and tap in sharply
9: Repeat 3 – 8 the opposite way

My teacher and I with the final product: a 120cm raw silk scarf with a traditional Lao motif. This is probably the best class I’ve ever taken.

First, we picked the Annatto off the tree, which was going to make the “monk-orange” color. We had to open the pod and collect the little balls into a mortar.

Donatta and I worked hard at extracting those little suckers.

After crushing them with a pestle, the bright red powder was ready.

The powder was then added to boiling water and bubbled for a few minutes. You could see the color of the foam turn orange.

Once boiled enough, we dipped some white silk into the hot dyeing pot and left it there for half an hour or so.

After being dried in the sun, this is what they looked like finished: Annatto made Orange, the heart wood of the sappan tree mixed with metal made Purple and mixed with a limestone paste made Red.

The alternative for us passerbys, is to go to small little restaurants, take walks away from the main roads, go to the market, go fishing or take some classes. I’m sure there much more to do, but at least, that’s what we’ve been doing.

And so I took a traditional Balinese painting class. It was a one-on-one, 3-hour course where I learned how to sketch and paint with watercolors a traditional (and simple) flower design.

This is my teacher and I. Everytime I would do something right, he would say “ahhhhhhhh, good.” Or he would correct a curve somewhere and when it was shaped to his liking, he’d go “ahhhhhhhh, yes.”

There were lots of “ahhhhh” in these 3 hours.

I started with sketching the flowers. First with a pencil, then with a felt pen.

Then I painted the base colors for the flowers, stems and leaves.

Then I worked on the flower accents.

And finally the stem and leaves accents, along with a light background wash. Voilà!

Back in San Francisco, recommended by a dear FM coworker, I downloaded the ToonPAINT iPhone application, which turns any photo you take with the iPhone into a cartoon-looking simplification. I remember taking some photos of San Francisco and thought it would be fun to use the simplified lines as an inspiration and turn it into a painting.

That’s what I did with some container ship photos. I wanted to try and make a very cartoon looking painting. Or more like old comic book style. This is what I came up with… I could just imagine Spider Man jumping on one of those containers any time:

That style was fun, but not very “me”. I have a natural, non-technical sort of impressionist style (much like the way I painted the Vieux-Nice) which I wanted to toy around with. So once more, using the simple lines of a cartoonified image, here is the Cap Cleveland going through the Gaillard Cut of the Panama Canal, more Stephanie style:

This feels a lot better to me.

Like their big brothers, they are all acrylics on canvas… they all want a new home… want one?

#1 Warm abstract — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 14″x11″ (36cm x 28cm)
Date: 2005
Story: I think I made this one before the big warm colors abstract. I wanted to play with gradients, but not in a smooth way and with a bit of energy. I really like this painting.

#2 Blue Rose — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 10″x8″ (25cm x 20cm)
Date: Aug. 2005
Story: Warm colors, warm colors… gotta explore the other side too! And here we are in the blues, in the off centers.

#3 Crouched Man Holding Head

Dimensions: 12″x12″ (31cm x 31cm)
Date: 2005
Story: There’s a statue like that… I can’t remember what it’s called. You know, when you hold the guy in your hands it’s supposed to fit all of your fingers nicely along his spine, muscles and arms. Anyways, I like that body position and wanted to step away from my bright colors for a minute to see what happens.

#4 Nude laying and facing back — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 16″x8″ (40cm x 20cm)
Date: 2005
Story: Female attempt of the no-Stephanie-bright-colors series. I’m pretty sure this is an image I found in an art book or magazine.

#5 This and that and lots of chaos — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 10″x8″ (25cm x 20cm)
Date: 2005
Story: Back to colors! This is probably the quickest painting I’ve ever made. It took probably 45 seconds. Splash splash splash! It’s actually the color palette for another painting that I just flipped onto a canvas. Thought it would be cool and fun. Turned out messy, but still really fun.

Voila! You know everything of my past artistic life… on canvas.

They are all acrylics on canvas… want one?

#1 Upside down — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 12″x24″ (31cm x 62cm)
Date: July 2005
Story: I thought it would be cool to paint only a portion of a body position leaving the rest to the imagination. Some people think this person is diving. I thought of it as a hand stand. You can think whatever you wish.

#2 Ladders — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 12″x24″ (31cm x 62cm)
Date: 2005
Story: This one has a more philosophical meaning to me. I was in my spreading-my-wings phase, in the I-can-do-this-on-my-own phase. This is about the point where you can keep climbing the ladder (evolve, not the career ladder) without any support or guidance (the sides of the ladder) and not be scared to take risks and keep going. You are free.

#3 Abstract Rain — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 24″x18″ (61cm x 46cm)
Date: 2005
Story: I don’t know what kind of mood I was in that day, but apparently lots was going on. I just remember having fun making it. Splash!

#4 Fun with Tape — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 18″x14″ (46cmx36cm)
Date: Sept 2005
Story: Oh yes, this one was fun too. It was like a surprise. I would paint a bunch of vivid, warm colors and let dry. Then place some tape on the dry layer. Over the whole thing I then painted an opaque layer of dark blue. Let dry. And then came the best part… peeling off the tape. Surprise colors! Surprise contrast! Anyways, that was fun too.

#5 Fish in Coral — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 24″x18″ (61cm x 46cm)
Date: 2004
Story: Hmm yeah… don’t ask. That was probably right after seeing Finding Nemo or something. Not sure how this one came about but apparently I needed to get my candor out. Cutesy, cartoony wittle fishy.

Since then, my tastes have evolved, and so has my life situation. All of these paintings are sitting in a closet, being ignored and collecting dust. Well, not really collecting dust, because I wrapped them really well, but you get the point. Justin and I have been getting rid of stuff (almost to the addiction level) and I realized that I didn’t need to hold onto these paintings any longer.

I have large paintings, medium and small ones. I would like to give these paintings away… if ever you’re interested, just leave a comment. I’m not selling them, I just want them to find a home. I know most of them are a little weird… but hey, maybe one of you will like something.

Here they are… large paintings… acrylics on canvas… want one?

#1 Abstract warm colors — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 24″x 30″ (61cm x 74cm)
Date: 2005
Story: I have gone through a very warm color phase (you will notice….) and needed to cover a lot of wall space. So there you go… lots of energy in this painting.

#2 Female – Male – Hot – Cold — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 12″x24″ each (31cm x 62cm)
Date: Dec 2004
Story: These are 2 separate paintings but meant to be near each other, very much like I was viewing male and female – very different, almost opposites yet needed to coexist. Their energy is different, their colors are different, but in form and intention, they are the same. I had these in my bedroom for a long while.

#3 Deconstructed wave — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 36″x18″ (92cm x 46cm)
Date: May 2005
Story: Another one of those situations where I needed to cover a lot of wall space. I thought it would be cool to make a wave, but without its fluidity, yet evoking movement. This is my attempt.

#4 Flower — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 18″x24″ (46cm x 61cm)
Date: 2005
Story: I remember being attracted to flower paintings in general and thinking I could make one. Warm colors were obligatory and I started playing with really wet drips of paint to give the sort of flower veins a certain controlled randomness.

#5 Hippie trinity — *ADOPTED*

Dimensions: 24″x24″ (61cm x 61cm)
Date: Dec 2004
Story: Ok, this is my hippiest creation, I think. There’s not much to say about the women themselves. I thought of the positions more like a choreography than with an actual meaning. I just wanted to focus on the primary and secondary colors with their complementaries. The basics.

In this latest version, I added the bicycles which was the part I was the most nervous about.

I also added little details like writing “Decathlon” on the bike bar. Decathlon is an outdoors and sports store in France very much like REI. I love that store!

And just for fun, here’s the painting framed with the artist’s feet.

I think I need one last cession to finish it.

The whole process:
Act I
Act II
Act III
Act IV
Act V
Act VI

The whole process:
Act I
Act II
Act III
Act IV

To refresh your memory, it went from this: