Jean Fitz's Weblog

I’m moving

jeanfitz — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:04:28 +0000

(Only through Cyberspace though.)

Please keep up to date on Jean happenings over at heartjean.blogspot.com

Love you WordPress but to everything, turn turn turn, there is a season.

See you on the Cyberside,

Jean Fitz

Me and guv’ner

jeanfitz — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:15:31 +0000

So as soon as I heard that our very own Illinois Gov. Blagojevich was arrested this morning and was being held in a jail cell today, I thought of the card that I had made over the weekend. Every time I make one of these cards, which is part of a deck that is grown to almost 50 (!), I share it with my card making group, and then I write a whole bunch about it the next day. Here are some kernels of wisdom this particular card said to me…we always start with the “I am the one who…” phrase:

“I am the one who is inside a thick cushioned snowsuit-muting the outside world, paralyzing movement, getting fat and useless. I am the one who is a beat up car that’s most vital parts are rusting. I am the one whose parts are missing. I am the one who has painted over the same walls with 18 layers of old paint, glossing over history. I am the one who is a thick metal heavy door that hates to be opened and rarely ever does. I am grey matter that is quiet, muted, underground and with no new ideas.”

Man, this card’s a total drag. And it’s been overcast and sleeting all day. I’m sure it’s as sunny outside as it is in Rod Blagojevich’s jail cell today. Now is the Chicago winter of our discontent.

I love bad art.

jeanfitz — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:41:34 +0000

I sent out an email to help ward off the creative block I was in a few weeks ago…

“here’s how it works:
i give you 3 abstract words and 3 concrete words and you make me a piece of art on a postcard size card and mail it to me. you interpret the words however you see fit and with me in mind. you do the same, send me 3 abstract words and 3 concrete words, and your snail mail address!!!, and i’ll mail YOU a postcard with my interpretation of your words and with you in mind.
you don’t have to be good at making art. in fact, i love bad art. yeah, send me bad art.”
…and so now the art is rolling in! and here’s what a sample of my postcards looked like before i sent them out.

TV stills

jeanfitz — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:00:15 +0000

I found an old drawing I did while rummaging through old piles of paper. I forgot all about it! I said to myself, like someone coming out of a long coma: “Oh, right, I draw cartoons!”

I used to sit in front of the television and draw the talk show hosts’ and newscasters’ caricatures. TV is not my favorite sport but it does make me doodle. Youtube has statistically not had the same effects on my doodling. I’m not sure why. Maybe I’m busy clicking away with my mouse and I don’t have idle doodling hands. Can anyone figure out what faces these are? I don’t think the one in the upper left corner is a famous person.

I Cut Wood Like a Girl.

jeanfitz — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:43:51 +0000

I used to have this great fear of the wood shop in college. I also hated walking into lumber yards. They still have that “good ole boys” feel to them that makes me and my gender feel small. However much it has been in my head, I’ve had to learn how to overcome it because, frankly, I needed to use the tools to build my painting surfaces. I realized I still had some power tool anxiety when this fellow artist dude at my last art exhibit commented on the construction of my frames. (I build the backings to all my paintings.)He said that the miter saw would give me more accurate cuts. I chatted with him how I make them with my little jigsaw and make the best of it. He then says: “But, um, I guess your wood cuts have a certain charm.”

Translation: You saw like a girl.

I grinned and nodded and then vowed that no good ole boy was going to be able to say that to me again. Take back the power in your power tools, my friends!

Enter Jean’s very own miter saw. I am playing with my new great tool: the mighty miter saw. Forty-five degree angles are so sweet. I don’t know why it took so long for me to get myself this machine. It’s a new day for me and the miter saw. Stay tuned for some out of this world wood construction!

Living in a Creative Block!

jeanfitz — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 04:44:20 +0000

Quick, send ideas! I’m in a creative block! Just. Plain. Stuck. Help me get over the bridge.

If you read the title differently…I could also be living on a creative block in the city right now…but it’s getting cold and I think everyone walks their dog and then goes inside to watch TV. It’s just feeling like November in Chicago. Sigh. Nope, not in a city block of creativity. My brain is blank.

In the meantime, I will look at the pretty yellow leaves while they’re still there.

Freedom of the Press

jeanfitz — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:05:21 +0000

This past summer I made a homemade press using a car bottlejack, assembling some pieces of wood and metal–not without spending hours walking in circles in the black hole that can be Home Depot–and expending a little sawing sweat. I’m very proud of this DIY project (care of an article in the intermittantly useful magazine Readymade.) I’ve done a couple basic linoleum prints just trying it out but I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and really start squishing things. I’ve contemplated all things around my home that could be pressed…a soda can, apples into cider!, grapes into wine!…well, that’s a stretch), handbound books pressed together,…or the mother of all printing adventures…old school letterpress.

I took a mini 2-day workshop in the Letterpress studio at Columbia College recently. Their presses are probably from the 1920′s and were manufactured by a company named Vandercook. I learned such cute terms as quoin and quoin keys and composing sticks and arranging furniture around your type. I knew I was in the right place when someone went to the trouble of making a rubbing of Vandercook’s grave in a nearyby cemetery and then displaying it on the studio wall. Letterpress and Gravestones: my passions collide!

This relatively new process (to me) was invented (at least in the West) by good ole Gutenburg in the 1500s using a wine press similar to the one I have. Long live the freedom of the press! Sweet sweet mass produced prints for the masses. So if you see some antique letterpress equipment in a local store or you’re trying to get it off your hands, let me help you! Calling all letterpress equipment!

I am slowly acquiring my own letterpress equipment in my own space and I’ll keep you updated on this crazy project!

Absentminded drawing

jeanfitz — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:27:46 +0000

The dictionary says to doodle is “to draw absentmindedly.” What does it mean to be absentminded? Does this mean I forgot how to draw momentarily? What does it mean to know HOW to draw? This week’s doodling:

Calendars, Art Shows, and Graves, Oh my!

jeanfitz — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:51:36 +0000

Yes, those calendars are going like hotcakes. Thank you to all who came out to the Artwalk Ravenwood this past weekend! At one point, I was graced with the presence of 3 of the 5 clowns (featured in June of the calendar) at the same time! (L-R Erin, Alan, Dave.) Some calendars are still available on-line at my etsy store: jeanfitz.etsy.com. Remember this is a Limited Edition (!!!) so snatch ‘em while you can. And, of course, we’re going into a rough patch for this here country of ours and you’ll need to look at nice, uplifting pictures…but who can afford such a thing as fine art in a “crisis moooohment?” You betchya, I understand. That’s why I have a neat-o little set of $8 greeting cards (with envelopes that still taste like basil when you lick them like last year!) and then I’m selling fine art prints of some of my paintings…yep, all for sale at my etsy store.

Yippee! Affordable art! If you’d still like to see some real, live art, head on over to the Main St. Metra Station in Evanston. The Evanston Arts Depot has re-purposed the old train station into a theatre/cafe and arts space. My paintings are now hanging there during October for commuters and theatre-goers to enjoy.

On my way home from hanging paintings in Evanston, I just happened to pass by another great Chicagoland cemetery. It’s not featured in my calendar, but it’s certainly worth a browse… Calvary Cemetery, beautifully located along Sheridan Road facing Lake Michigan and bordering between Evanston and Rogers Park. It is the eternal home of many of Chicago’s Irish, and many of whom, unsurprisingly, are of relation to me.

More pictures from this particular trip to the cemetery are at my flickr site.

The 2009 Calendar Debut is here!

jeanfitz — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 05:46:29 +0000

The moment we all have been waiting for: The unveiling of the 2009 Calendar of Famous Chicago Graves!

You can visit me and pick one up in person at the ArtWalkRavenswood: http://www.artwalkravenswood.org/ this weekend. (In addition to the calendars, I will have greeting cards, new paintings, and fine art prints for sale. It’s free to look! And did I mention you get to see live artists stand near their work?)

I am offering the calendars for $15 as a special ArtWalk discount this weekend only! They will be for sale on-line at my etsy store as well for $20 starting now and after the ArtWalk.

This homegrown 2009 calendar, collaged lovingly by hand, features 12 gravesites “brought to life” in the Chicagoland area. ( January: Marshall Field, February; Victims of Al Capone’s St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, March: Oscar Mayer, April: Dick Tracy cartoonist, May: Emma Goldman, June: Circus Disaster Gravesite, July: Mrs. O’Leary-and her legendary cow, August: bicycle maker, Ignaz Schwinn, September: the legendary ghost and statue of Inez Clarke, October: Chicago’s famous ghost, Ressurection Mary, November: Enrico Fermi, December: Indian burial grounds.)
Learn about rich history buried around Chicago and keep track of your days at the same time!