Mexican Wedding Cookie--studio visit #2

OK, so this studio visit wasn't exactly like a Mexican wedding cookie, but it reminded me of the cookie's delightful confectionery splendor. Jean Caffeine's house had eye candy sprinkled all throughout her house, and I only saw it in a state of packing (she and husband Oliver are moving back to Texas). Jean is a musician extraordinaire with a new album out and she is also an artist. I was lucky to experience conversation, music and art during our few hour visit. This Elvis moon greeted my arrival.

Jean was the first one I witnessed cutting up prints and collaging them back into work. I owe my process of also doing this to her.

This was a project that was done on Bristol board using a ball-point-pen-without-ink like-tool to indent the paper, then lighted colored, which left the indented lines the color of the board (white). I want to try this. Jean was hazy on the details since she did this piece long ago, but the results are pretty interesting.

Jean is a super big fan of trace monotype, which you can see in the upper left. I tried this technique awhile ago on a baseball print, shown how in this blog post.

This is not Jean's work, but a Mexican paper mache artist in Mexico City and sadly I don't recall the name. I have another one pictured below. I'll try and edit this post with his name once I get back in contact with Jean....

Here's another Jean work. She uses frisket at times--and I think she's used it here--which I've never tried.

I love this one of the Elvis moon. My guess is this is done on Bristol board with the indenting action mentioned above, then rubbed with color. The moon looks like trace monotype with some hand coloring. 

 More eye candy.

Here's a little fun nugget! Jean has been an elementary art teacher for years and I'm thinking this might be from her teaching world.

Keith brought in his uke and he and Jean jammed a bit. After awhile we all got into it playing various things like the tambourine and the shaker egg. FUN! Even though Jean is moving in a matter of days back to Austin, it was great seeing both Jean and Oliver in Durham, NC.