art and life - both the cherries and the pits
This is our friend Miquel's Girona art studio ceiling, which is in an ancient building located on the original Roman road, La Forca. Girona, Spain has a gorgeous, history filled Old Quarter.
These are images in and around Lisbon, Portugal. It's a very beautiful city I enjoyed seeing for the first time last week.
Here are a few shots of my new Lycra fabric. I designed this textile using one of my new collages (www.cherrypits.net/portfolio). I plan to make this into a dress prototype, in the same style as the one below (Woman on the Bay Bridge) that my friend/model Kat is wearing. I'm showing close-ups so you can see the layer in the collage which is a photo I took of flowers. Mirroring the artwork abstracts it quite a bit.
I've just started to sell my dresses and my tapestries, in addition to the rest of my work. The tapestries are large single images printed on silk with a built-in hanging mechanism. I'll be posting about those soon. These are all extremely limited editions.
I'm off to get some fresh inspiration now - look for the colors, textures, and patterns of Spain and Portugal. I'll post some photos here for you while I'm traveling.
Woman on the Bay Bridge Dress
Here's my latest dress design and prototype. The original art is a collage I created digitally. The dress is made of "4-way stretch" Lycra, just like exercise leggings - so it's super comfortable and packs like a dream. No zippers, just slip it on. If you wear this, heads will turn! I wore it to Art Market SF and Renegade Crafts Fair over the weekend, and it made people smile. The bit of fabric that was left over from making this dress (which I made from a single yard of digitally-printed fabric) I then made into a rag doll (see blog entry below). Model: Katherine Shedrick ©2016 SRKirshenbaum
Until now, I've made editions of fine art prints using silkscreen and etching techniques. This is photo of "Red and Black Moment", my first digitally printed edition of 10. This is a 16 x 20 inch print on archival paper made with pigment inks. I worked closely with a local expert in fine art printing to get these luscious results. The black looks like matt velvet and the red lines are like a silk ribbon is running through it. These prints are for sale on my just-opened shop on my Cherry Pits website. They are not available anywhere else - yet!
Red and Black Moment
Combining all of my interests and exploring each and every overlap brought me to do these three quick sketches. They are based on the three dress prototypes I've created and combined with various pieces of my artwork. These drawing are whimsical versions of products that don't exist yet.
First art doll underway
©SRKirshenbaum
This is my first venture into doll making. Here's a photo of my almost finished doll, from my original artwork titled "Woman on the Bay Bridge". I've always wanted to make dolls. As a kid, I had some very unique art dolls, made by fantastic fiber artists. Spoiled! Using my leftover fabric from my first Lycra dress prototype, this qualifies as a rag doll. My work starts out as a figure drawing, painting, or collage. If I make it into fabric then I scale it and create a repeat pattern. In this case, I've extracted the original art work from the repeat pattern of the fabric to make a single doll. She's about 6" wide (foot to foot) and 9" tall. And she feels great to hold and squish!
This is one of my first editions of art based wrapping paper.
©2016srkirshenbaum
Now I'm applying my digital painting and drawing to creating patterns for textiles and gift wrap. Here's an example of my gift wrap (right). It's heavy-duty paper with a soft sheen.
Here are several of the fabrics I've designed and have begun making product prototypes. So far I have made dresses, pillows, tea towels, and the table runner I showed you all recently. My sewing coach and teacher, Connie Walker-Shaw at SEW helped me create this first series of textile products. (see http://www.walkershaw.com).
The thumbnails below do not show the full image of the scarf, but if you want to order one (yes, I am starting slowly...there will soon be an online shop), so for now, each can be made into a 36" square scarf or a 20" x 60" rectangular (long) scarf. They are made-to-order in lovely Silk Crepe de Chine.
Title: Wrapped
This is a thumbnail of Cherry Pits original fabric for a made-to-order silk scarf. ©2016srkirshenbaum
Title: Protected
This is a thumbnail of Cherry Pits original fabric for a made-to-order silk scarf. ©2016srkirshenbaum
Title: In the Garden (SF - Lyon Street Steps)
This is a thumbnail of Cherry Pits original fabric for a made-to-order silk scarf. ©2016srkirshenbaum
Title: Stretch
This is a thumbnail of Cherry Pits original fabric for a made-to-order silk scarf. ©2016srkirshenbaum
Title: Extended
This is a thumbnail of Cherry Pits original fabric for a made-to-order silk scarf. ©2016srkirshenbaum
