Illustration Friday: Stripes and Happy Halloween 2016!

I was walking through the woods behind the house and stumbled upon this little abode. I knew that 
these little houses existed because I have written about them several times here and here. To actually find one is quite thrilling and I picked it up and brought it home. I hope to find a tenant very soon.
My submission for Illustration Friday's "Stripes" is " Candy Corn Cabin"  but it is a cross between a teepee and a tent which is why it works so well in the woods.  

"Life in a Candy Corn House is Sweet!" 
Wishing you all a Happy Halloween and happy Trick or Treat!

Josie's Garden for Illustration Friday "Childhood" theme

Paper Sculpture for Josephine's bedroom. I had to quickly take photos because it needed to 

be framed and delivered so I took a few with my phone and then with my digital camera. Different views and angles. I added the mushrooms after my first set of photos because I stumbled upon this little fragile world and had to incorporate it into the image. I feel pleased,

not with my photos, but with the original art. The finished painted paper sculpture is called

"Josie's Garden"...

It is the season now to go about the country high and low, among the lilacs hand in hand, and two by two in fairyland.
~Robert Louis Stevenson

Illustration Friday: Lush

My submission for Illustration Friday's "Lush" theme is a functional piece of art that can hang or sit and it also serves as a little vase or flower holder by way of the chimney. I am going with the origin of Lush from the year 1610, Middle English  LUSCH which means soft and tender :} I am calling this house "Lusch Life" and it is inspired by this song. Have a wonderful Labour Day Weekend and Happy Weekend to all!

paper, liquitex acrylics, glue, texture medium and a flower holder inside the house.
All photos and art by valerie walsh

Illustration Friday: atmosphere

My submission for Illustration Friday's "Atmosphere" is a dimensional painting I made for Dee Dee, my sister in 1995. It is wood, formable foam board, acrylic paint and resin. This was a bit of an experiment in several ways, I wanted to go beyond the traditional shapes of paintings and create leaves that give the piece dimension sort of jutting out curving around and also by painting part of the leaf on the surface to add a faux visual continuity for the eye. I made a few of these round layered pieces and really enjoyed this look. This flower girl is saying "I like the air up here". What does it mean? I don't know it was just fun to make, love the colours and I like it :) sorry about the glaring white spot, I took this picture at my Mom's house. She has an entire room dedicated to my art and it is a Valerie Gallerie of sorts and this was sitting up on a shelf so I did the best I could because I frankly had completely forgotten about this image.

I am not sure if they make this foam board anymore I bought a ton of it and you could wet it and it would form easier into shapes that I wanted to make. I never see it anymore so I imagine it was not so popular, but it worked for me. I have found through the years that when I like a product I buy a lot of it because many art supplies tend to get discontinued...

Illustration Friday: confined

Most of the time artists have to create in a confined perimeter. But I usually try to go beyond the boundaries any way I can get away with ;) My submission for Illustration Friday's "confined" theme is one of my dimensional paintings titled "Oriental Evening". My bridge paintings are quite popular so I have done them many ways for many people and each one is unique and yet similar. I think bridges help to break out of the confines and going outside of the frame helps too. I always put in details of life inside the windows in the form of glimpses of men and women, instruments. birds in cages, cups with tea or coffee in them and books, paintings, kitties and dogs. This one I even made some clothes on a line created from handmade paper and all the flowers are dimensional. I hope you enjoy!

Speaking of enjoyment I went with my friend Trish to see her daughter Katherine in her music group tonight at the Apple Store in Santa Monica. The name of the group is Sonos and they are so good that I want to share this with the world!!! We live on the same street and have been neighbors for years. I have watched Kath grow into a beautiful young woman so I had to go see Sonos tonight and give my support before they go back out on tour again. They have a deal on Verve Records, these kids are kicking butt! Because I know Kath so well I asked if I could have a picture with the band, a kind of "I knew them when" and I was the only one to have my pic with the band, YAY!!! They are amazing and you must click on to this word: kings of maybe and you can see what I am talking about. There are no instruments only voices in this group. Awesome!

sonosings.com

Illustration Friday: entangled

Many entanglements are affairs of the heart. It is a little hard to see but there is a man serenading a woman in this dimensional painting and he is wooing her with his song. "Mediterranean Night" is my submission for Illustration Friday's "entangled theme.

copyright 2000 valerie walsh

Illustration Friday: Caution

Caution to all who enter! My submission for Illustration Friday's "Caution" theme is a dimensional painting I did in the 80's titled "Bats". Throw caution to the wind this weekend

copyright 1985 valerie walsh

Illustration Friday: hollow

My submission for Illustration Friday's "hollow" is not an illustration but rather a clay pot that is comprised of 4 clay slabs that make 4 separate buildings and a hollow interior. It really isn't hollow but filled with the sky and stars. This vase is owned by a longtime collector of my art and I only made a few of them as they are large and can break and indeed one broke during an earthquake and one got broken that was in transit. Considering all the time and work it left me with a hollow feeling :(

copyright 1995 Valerie Walsh

Illustration Friday: hierarchy

Because of her place in the hierarchy, the King awarded the Princess her own castle. This layered dimensional painting was done for the Walker family in Washington. They commissioned 2 paintings, one for each daughter and this was for Amira. She loves lambs, butterflies, hearts, flowers, birds, etc. Also they wanted an image to represent the meaning of her name.
The girl's name Amira \a-mi-ra\ is pronounced ah-MEER-ah. It is of Arabic and Hebrew origin, and its meaning is "princess. Feminine form of Amir. My submission for Illustration Friday's "hierarchy" theme.

copyright 1994 Valerie Walsh

Illustration Friday: Theater

Another blast from my past and from the show I had called "Five Easy Pieces"in 1987. This dimensional painting is called "Vanity" and suits today's Illustration Friday theme "Theater". I wish I had more pictures of it but it sold long ago and was way before I had a digital camera. There are many little details like a compact with mirror and a tube of lipstick on the vanity, ashtray with a burning cigarette and a small hand mirror. copyright 1987 Valerie Walsh

Illustration Friday: impossibility

My submission for Illustration Friday's "impossibility" is a dimensional painting that I created for a family in Brentwood, CA. They commissioned many paintings and always encouraged me to make unusual and unique works for them. It was awesome to make large paintings and get to be kind of "out there" with my ideas and techniques. This image is another version of "Flying Home" but on a magic carpet with paper I made and molded to hold the house. I even sewed little tassels on the edges. The boulders and water are made from wood and I used prismacolor pencils for the jewel like tones in the rocks and painted over the color pencil than scratched away the paint to get the stone like quality. The idea of a flying house might seem impossible but is it? We have been taught that anything is possible, right?

copyright 1995 Valerie Walsh

wood, paper, thread, prismacolor pencila, acrylic paint, foam board.

Illustration Friday: Fleeting

Childhood is fleeting. My submission for Illustration Friday's "Fleeting" theme is a dimensional painting for Rady Children's Hospital auction on April 21st. The title of this painting is "Happy Home". I loved making it and hope it goes to a happy home and benefits a child who needs care.

Happy Easter or Passover or both :)



copyright 2009 Valerie Walsh

Illustration Friday: talisman

My talisman is a house key. A skeleton key that might have a past, some history. From a home that was lived in and loved in. Maybe it doesn't exist any more except in the memories of a former occupant, but the humble key remains.

My submission for Illustration Friday's "talisman" is "Housekey" made from clay,paint and handmade paper.

Copyright 2009 Valerie Walsh

Illustration Friday: poise

My submission for Illustration Friday's "poise" is a dimensional painting that was in a show I had called "Five Easy Pieces". All the paintings were dimensional and each one represented a word and a piece of furniture. The paintings were Vanity, Charity, Chastity,Sinkronicity and this is called "Stability" and this is the painting hanging on a wall, I only mention it because you might think it is laying down but it is vertical. It is 20" x 40" and it is 5" deep.

I can't seem to scan film real well,I am not sure how to size it becaue it is scanned at 2700 dpi and reduced down. This doesn't capture all the details. I could use some tips if anybody has some :)

copyright 1987 Valerie Walsh

Illustration Friday: "Heavy"

My submission for Illustration Friday's "Heavy" is a work in progress. It has a little attic room that goes with it, but I am just showing this closet today. I plan on making it look old and antiqued in the end. It looks like it might be a heavy piece of furniture but as you can see it is light and fits in the palm of my hand! I will repost when this whole project is done.

Happy Birthday to the best sister a girl could have! I love you Dee Dee xoxo

Illustration Friday: "stitch"

My submission for Illustration Friday's "stitch" is one of the little closets I made for the owners of Fred Segal Fun. I used wood, foamcore, wood dowels, acrylic paint and resin for the body of the closets. I made little dresses that I stitched by hand, little felt purses and wraps that I embroidered, hats and shoeboxes made from stonehenge paper, hangers made from floral wire and a cat made from clay. I love to sew and would like to make time to stitch up a few more things.

Venetian City

It was a once in a life time art job. I have a feeling I might not have the opportunity to create something quite like this again. I guess we will just have to wait and see...

This was created in a bedroom, for a man that owned the largest poster company in the United States. The format is as follows: The ceiling was painted my signature sky with stars, this art project was for the space above his closet so that when he lay down in his bed he could look up and see this Venetian City above him. It is 12 feet long 5 feet high and 2 feet deep. It does not end there, it follows around the room where his very tall bookcases lined the walls so I created more buildings for that area too. I build each building individually with inverted windows and doorways,
where sculpted people reside, a sculpted cat sitting in a chair, icon style paintings on an easel, a laundry woman hanging out the days washing, a lady in a gown standing on a balcony,a statue of a nude female , hanging vines with dimensional grapes and on and on. The patron spent several grand lighting it so that it looked like water glowing off the buildings and to cap it off it is replete with 3-d gondolas and barber poles.

Several years later my Mom and sister treated me to an Italian holiday and when I got to the real Venice I couldn't believe my eyes. It was an inspirational trip and it made me feel good about my creation. This job took 7 months and it was one of the best times and the most difficult challenges I have tackled. I learned a lot about myself and it goes along with the valgal rules of no job to small or to tall or to big if you know what I'm saying. The gentleman and his wife would throw these elaborate parties with interesting people. I would get to visit the installation and hear and see the reaction to the city in the bedroom. It was not something that you would see every day. At that point I could separate myself from the critical voice within and just say wow what a unique and amazing experience! For me art is where dream and fantasy come together.

This is a digital shot of a photograph, the only way I could show you the room. The white thing on the ceiling is the fan it had a glowing orb that looked like the moon, this is a shot of the closet (kinda cut off ) with 12 ft. of city. This project was commissioned in 1994.

The Paintings I do for me

There are a lot of paintings in my noggin that are filed under "Things to do". We all have these projects, lots and lots of projects that we would like to do. I have hundreds of them, all types. I realistically will never get to them all especially since new ideas crop up to be added to the file pile but I hope to accomplish most of them. One of the types of work I do are dimensional paintings, some are really dimensional and some are this flat layered dimensional thing I have been working on for quite some time. These paintings have become popular with the people that collect me, though I would make them anyway it makes me feel I am on the right track if people want to commission these works. I really enjoy making them because it is completely different than my other stuff. When you try different things it is just one more way to explore and delve deeper and add on to what you already do. I have worked with many artists and I always have a bit of a hard time wrapping my mind around the artists that hire people to do their work! Although people like me can benefit from this it still is a mind bender that they get paid handsomely, hang in museums and they really did not physically touch the work. Please do not think I judge, I actually think these artists are brilliant people, they are smart enough to get these amazing gigs by conceptualizing an idea and getting others to put it together. It makes me realize that I think on a much smaller level. I also am a hands on person. I need to touch the work, paint the paintings, print the print, sculpt the sculpture. Sometimes to my detriment because we can't do everything! And as time rockets past me it becomes more apparent that I might have to say goodbye to some of these parts of myself because I think I do better work now but I am not as willing, nor able to work every waking moment as I used to be. But I still enjoy making some things just for me.
This painting does not have any buildings in it for a change of pace . I have lived near the ocean my whole life and this is the island in my mind.