Nov 20, 2010 | Latest Art Projects, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, To Market To Market |
"An Ocean Runs Through Us" Limited edition of 8 dolls by Clarissa Rizal - In the background you will notice a small version of a print of the original painting of the same name
I just completed these dolls today and had to post them ASAP because my most favorite part about finishing them off was making the hand-written, matching canvas labels! Ha-eh!? That being said, I know you can relate, right?
The title for this particular collection of dolls is “An Ocean Runs Through Us” – named after the large triptych painting I did in 2005 because the fabric of these dolls is printed with the imagery of the painting. (I also have a limited edition of Giclee reproduction prints available in a slightly smaller size than the original painting – you may see this set of prints on my website under the “Shop & Buy” section.)
One of the dolls is holding the labels (that I am so proud of!)
I purchased a large format Epson 7880 24″ printer from Parrott Digigraphics, Inc. – I wasn’t sure if I was savy enough to learn how to operate the machine and retain the information, but a couple of experts assisted me to print my paintings’ images on cotton, silk, canvas and paper. Although the operation of the printer is sometimes a pain in the ass cuz things just do not always go smoothly, I have a blast with this printer; it is soooo much fun!
The dolls' "hair" and "ties" are scraps of Chilkat warp I had accumulated over the years knowing I would put the scraps to use someday
Each of these 18″ dolls are one-of-a-kind, no two alike. The Epson Ultrachrome inks are guaranteed 80 years from fading. Printed on cotton sateen fabric, the dolls are stuffed with polyester, with cedar bark and wool warp for hair and neck ties, and held together with antique mother-of-pearl buttons. Each Limited Edition doll is signed and numbered; there are only 8. Come down to my booth (C-4 in the main hall) and check them out at the Alaska-Juneau Public Market during the Thanksgiving weekend at Centennial Hall. Doors open at noon on Friday, November 26th. We’ll see you then!
A bird's eye view of a doll and the hand-made labels with the tools to make them
Nov 13, 2010 | Latest Art Projects, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, To Market To Market |
"Tlingit Jed-i" acrylic on canvas - 16" W x 20"H - by Clarissa Rizal - November 2010
These are my latest paintings on canvas. They will be available for sale at my booth in the main hall at the Alaska-Juneau Public Market opening the Friday after Thanksgiving, running the weekend through Sunday at the Centennial Hall in Juneau. I started these paintings this past Spring while living in Santa Fe; but with the major move back to Juneau in May, and the time getting back onto my feet, I am now settled long enough to complete the set of five (and then some)! Come visit and see other new items of interest. My booth is C-4 (How do you remember? Think “C” for Clarissa)
"Good Thing I'm Crazy Else I'd Go Insane!" acrylic on canvas - 16"W x 20"H - by Clarissa Rizal - November 2010
"Ravens Prepare For Next Ice Age" acrylic on canvas - 16"W x 20"H - by Clarissa Rizal - November 2010
Nov 11, 2010 | Latest Art Projects, Showing Off, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, To Market To Market |
"Hands Up!" Time to celebrate by taking a breather from creating...just for a moment, only - just for a moment!
On Tuesday, November 9th, I discovered I have been awarded one of the First People’s Fund “Artist in Business Leadership” grant for 2011. I have applied to the FPF for a couple of their grants for about 5 or 6 years. If any of you have applied and not received a grant yet, ask them what were the key points that you had not met. There is a trick to grant-writing; you gotta provide what the grantors want to see and what they want to hear. Of course, I am very happy to have this support; it comes at a very good time. This grant assists in paying for various aspects of my business (i.e. website updates, blogging, new brochure, new business cards, publication of my first book of robes, etc.).
Celebrating with popcorn! Yah! (If you are grossed out by this photo, it's your own fault for looking!)
As part of the grant-writing, FPF asked a few questions: What motivates me to create? What is my most rewarding experience in creating my work? What is the greatest challenge in establishing my art career? What have I done to promote my business? I don’t know if anyone has ever asked me these questions, so I had to think about my life as an artist and what are the things that are true for me. I share with you my answers.
“I cannot say if I’ve ever been asked what motivates me to create? I just create; I never thought about why I have a powerful drive, though I’ve had this passionate drive as far back as I can remember. Could my motivation be inspired by the humpback whales cresting beside the boat, the eagles nesting outside the window not a stones throw away, the ebbing of the tides reflecting a sunset on a lonely beach? Is it the smile on a toddler’s face dancing to a drumbeat for her grandmother? Is it a weaving student’s eagerness to learn another trick-of-the-trade in Chilkat weaving? The appreciation of a client’s cry as they receive their first button robe? The creation of another wild, colorful painting offsetting the grey skies of Southeast Alaska? Salmon running upstream; tender smoked salmon with steamed rice for dinner? Am I motivated by the gift of dreams that may provide concepts for a new robe design, a tune never sung, the planting of a tree in someone’s honor? Am I motivated by the mourning of my father, the pending passing of my mother, another clan matriarch? Does motivation, passion and creativity have a beginning and an ending?
My most rewarding experience in creating and selling my work is the level of patience and gratitude that has grown in me as I have evolved as a student into a practicing artist, entrepreneur, cultural instructor and an elder-in-training eager to continue learning, expanding and sharing.
The greatest challenge in establishing my art career was the financial illiteracy; I had zilch education in that department during my entire career. I jumped into doing business and all that is required to run one. It was never a thought to get educated. I experienced the school of hard knocks, yet I persevered; I learned by trial and error. I did pretty well considering. However, I want assistance as I really begin to take clear action to expand.
For the first time, I created a Marketing Plan this past Spring 2010. I have not looked for outside sources to finance my business. All expenses have always been financed out-of-pocket. (Most of the income I make goes right back into my business.)
This past Spring 2010, I took a few classes at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They included the (above mentioned) marketing class, introduction to accounting, introduction to new media and intermediate painting. My website is the only online market I use. In the near future, I will be included in the Redtail Native American online market as soon as the new venture is launched.”
Okay...celebration is over; time to get back to work!
Nov 3, 2010 | Latest Art Projects, Tlingit Culture Accentuated, To Market To Market |
Soft sculpture Dolls
I am presently working on a Limited Edition of 8 dolls; there are no two alike. The image on each doll is from my acrylic painting on canvas called “An Ocean Runs Through Us” printed onto cotton sateen before cut out, sewn and stuffed. In this photo, I have yet to add the “hair” (made of cedar bark strips). The dolls measure approximately 18″ tall; their joints are “buttoned” together. They will be available at the Alaska Juneau Public Market held during Thanksgiving Day weekend at Centennial Hall.
One of several new prints, "Totemic Theory" Limited Edition Giclee reproduction prints will also be available at the Market
Beginning of another couple of paintings on canvas
Sep 9, 2010 | Latest Art Projects, To Market To Market |
A wooden box captures all the necessary little tools when jumping from weaving loom to weaving loom, whether they are looms in a class setting, or my own looms in my studio
Artists employ all kinds of tools for their trade and we never really pay homage to the tools that assist us in whatever the art we create. I’ve taken photographs of few of my most trustworthy “friends” who are with me on a day-in day-out basis, making business all that artfully simpler.
Very Important Paperbooks (VIP): A Franklin Covey planner and two notebooks, one for computer skill notes and website updates, and the other to list all the projects with "to-do" listings under each project category
Folks wonder how I accomplish so many things, like where do I find the time for it all? Well, besides not having much of a social life, nor owning a television all my adult life, nor taking vacations or looking for entertainment outside of myself, I have lots of time to organize, speculate, design and create (as well as the bookkeeping, note-taking, email responses, website updates, blogging, etc.). Outside of having creative time, and the usual paperwork, keeping organized is the key to accomplishments. I am a left-brained, right-brained person, can you tell?
Keep organized. It's a joy to reach out and select what you need in the very moment of its need instead of searching through stacks of paper strewn about the desk top - like just reach out and touch...the very thing you need
Let's face it you backwoods, artists - get with it! The wave of this future is right now and guess what, if you don't have a computer or laptop, the world of business is going to leave you way behind...as much as I resisted for many years to the technological world and the hubbub, I was forced to get on board by sheer pressure
This HP Officejet 6500 Wireless is not as quiet and smooth as my Canon MX700, but it does the job when i need to download, print and fill out applications to submit on the double!
Peppermint tea English ala creme with Vitamin Bs and C and a dash of cellphone radiation is a way to start a vigorous day
Love seats are a necessary tool to accommodate to sporadic visitors and late-night Netflix videos while spinning Chilkat warp - this is the first time I've owned a love seat - they are not sprawling like a couch
Aug 11, 2010 | Latest Art Projects, To Market To Market |
I am presently working on a portfolio of my first fifty Chilkat & Ravenstail weaving robes and button blanket ceremonial robes. My goal is to have this book available for sale at the “Alaska-Juneau Public Market” held in Juneau at Centennial Hall during Thanksgiving Day weekend.
Between 1983 and 2010, I designed and created 50 Tlingit ceremonial robes in the button blanket style, Ravenstail dance robes and the Chilkat dance robes. Keeping with the Tlingit tradition, each robe conveys a message, story or clan identity. The first 25 robe photos were snapshots before I got the idea I would document the latter half of her robes by a professional photographer! Like Duh!?
You will find the copy of this book available for sale on my “Shop and Buy” page of my website; check in with me periodically through this blog or my website. Or better yet, email me your email address so I may may put you on my list to send you the announcement of this book when it comes hot off the press! My email address is: clarissa@www.clarissarizal.com
Aug 11, 2010 | Latest Art Projects, To Market To Market |
Clarissa inspects the final version of her Chilkat robe design "Jennie Weaves An Apprentice"
I am working on several Chilkat designs at once. Some of the designs are just “generic” Chilkat patterns I’m drafting up for my students and folks who just want a new pattern to weave; some of the designs are for actual Chilkat robes. I am designing a series of robes called “a robe-within-a-robe.” It’s obviously a Chilkat robe within a Chilkat robe. I presently am working on one that I’ve wanted to weave for the past 24 years, and am finally doing it! The story of the robe is based on my apprenticeship with Jennie Thlunaut back in 1986 called “Jennie Weaves An Apprentice”, the same name given to the handbook I wrote.
Traditionally, a male artist painted the pattern board on wood and the weaver used wooden templates for the given shapes that she would hold up to the robe as a guide. Of course, we now create the actual robe image onto paper and most of us use paper templates as a guide. Yet, being the innovative people that we are in our modern times using resources at hand, I conjured up a simpler step. Several years ago, I developed the use of clear transparencies as the guiding template. The template has all the design elements (i.e. eyebrows, eye, nose, mouth, etc) within an 8″ x 11″ sheet of paper. Below is an image of Chilkat pattern transparencies; the one I am holding in my hand is a headband pattern I have used in my most recent Chilkat weaving class for beginning Chilkat students:
Clarissa holds a Chilkat pattern transparency; a modern adaptation used as a guide in Chilkat weaving.
I am both a Northwest Coast designer AND a weaver, which puts me in a unique category amongst Northwest Coast Native artists. As a weaver, I understands the intricate, Chilkat design elements that are workable and weavable in the unique Chilkat design style; as a Northwest Coast designer, I understand the form line elements – both are required to create a Chilkat design successfully. I would not say that I am an excellent designer of Chilkat, because I am still learning (in the words of Jennie Thlunaut), yet there are very few of us who understand how to design Chilkat and feel confident enough to create original designs. It is not as easy as it looks.
As I mentioned earlier, I am weaving the robe “Jennie Weaves An Apprentice.” I always base my designs on a historical/personal event or clan emblem. It is a commissioned robe where my clients and I got create with a payment plan suited to their pocketbook. I am open to doing trades or partial trades depending on whether or not the client has something to offer that I cannot do without! We set the deadline for the end of September or October. Based on the various things going on in my life, it looks like end of October. I must complete it by the end of October because I want to finish up the manuscript and photos for my robe book in time for publication and distribution by Thanksgiving!
Aug 11, 2010 | Class Act, Honoring Others, Latest Art Projects, To Market To Market |
I am in the process of editing this handbook that I wrote and self-printed for a class I taught at the University of Alaska Juneau back in the Summer of 2005; and I’ve had this handbook available to my students since. I hope to have the edited version completed by this Winter 2010.
This practical guide provides Chilkat weavers of all experience levels pertinent information gained from my apprenticeship in 1986 with the last traditional Chilkat weaver, Jennie Thlunaut; combined with my experiences as a weaver and a teacher of this traditional art form since the mid-80’s; topped with additional information from Jennie’s daughter, Agnes Bellinger. Most of the information in this handbook can also be applied to Ravenstail weaving. With black & white, color photos and drawings, some of the information includes: Jennie’s astounding fingering technique (for speed, accuracy and tension), her philosophies, traditions, values and tricks-of-the-trade; including my apprenticeship with Jennie, preparation of materials and supplies, natural & commercial dyeing, weft color samples, list of suppliers, a traveler’s weaving loom pattern; designs and descriptions; and, keeping with traditions, some of the information is shared with a touch of storytelling. This handbook is intended for use by either an experienced weaver who is seeking some additional information in Chilkat weaving, or utilized as a supplemental guide with a weaving instructor.
You will find the copy of this handbook available for sale on my “Shop and Buy” page of my website; check in with me periodically through this blog or my website. Or better yet, email me your email address so I may may put you on my list to send you the announcement of this book when it comes hot off the press!
