Channeling Mary Cassat?

Nearly Bedtime, 6"x4", drypoint engraving on paper

Mary Cassat was an American artist who lived in Paris in the late 19th century. She was a member of the Impressionists, a small group of now-famous artists who started a unique painting style in the late 1800's. Mary Cassat favored images of women in her art, often mothers with children. As I was engraving the drypoint plate for this print, my artist-friend BDP sneaked a peek and commented on the Cassat-like subject matter. Cassat was a huge influence on me when I first began painting with pastels. And Cassat was influenced by Japanese printmakers. Now I appreciate and understand that influence more than ever. It seems a natural progression from pastel painting to printmaking.

The people in the image are my sister-in-law and her first child, from a photograph I took only a couple of years ago.

This kind of drypoint was made from using a sharp pencil-shaped tool to scratch the image into a Lexan plate, then wiping the plate with ink and printing it onto damp paper. The damp paper loosens the paper's fibers and allows the paper to pick up the ink from the crevices in the plate as it goes through the etching press.

For my Etsy friends: a photo of my art supplies

Today I made a promise on my Etsy bio that I would show them my coffee table covered with art & craft supplies. I said this is why I'm selling things on Etsy. (In case you missed my last post, Etsy is a website where you can sell handmade items for cheap.) So here goes. Here's today's coffee table mess. Please don't judge me; I'm not proud. Well maybe just a little. heehee!

Here's a related quiz (the answers are at the end):

1. What's the most important item on the table? (click on the image to enlarge it)

2. What do the two red X's mean?

3. What would my mother say if she saw this photo?

Answers:

1. My coffee (look for the red heart encircling it).

2. Available space on the table that I didn't notice last night.

3. She'd smile, she'd say, "My land," and she'd shake her head just a teeny bit. Right, Mom? (She's reading this.) Now if I was still living at home, I'd be in big trouble but that makes sense when you're sharing space with seven other people. Now I know why the dog wasn't allowed in the house -- Mom and Dad were looking out for my art supplies.