Claudia's Studio Updates
Japan, studio catch-up and PASTA
Hi! I hope the sun has been shining on you. What have I been up to? I feel like I keep asking myself that, but since I haven’t been powering towards a next exhibition the answer seems less obvious. In reality, plenty has been happening, here are some highlights.
I went to Japan! Matt was sent for work so we had the opportunity to tag an 8-day trip on the tail end. And it was beautiful! We stayed in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Naoshima, with day trips to Osaka and Teshima too. There was a bit of everything; city, history, temples, shopping, countryside, cycling, walking, trains, ferries, art, and eating. The food was excellent and quite varied, I wish we'd had more time to try even more - noodles, soups, sushi, katsu, pickled veggies, things on sticks, and so many eggs!
Being there brought me so much joy, and really helped to fill my cup. It was such a visual treat, with so many things I’d never seen before. Moving around, it felt like the cities were thoughtfully designed, with trees and nature truly embedded, and the streets seemed so clean, which gives you this feeling that people take pride in where they live. I'd highly recommend a trip to Japan to anyone, I really do think there's something for everyone.
Denver’s City Park Farmers Market got in touch to ask me to design their artist tote bag for 2024. It married lots of my favourite things together – drawing, a community-based project, and growing veggies, so I was delighted to do it. Their first market of 2024 is THIS Saturday, 4th May, the bag’s available to purchase at the info tent, come support your local farmers market : )
I taught a screen print workshop at Washington Heights Art Center, in Lakewood. It was so delightful to be back in a space with people who were eager to learn and flex their own creativity. I’d wondered if people would begrudge giving up 4hrs on their Saturday AND Sunday but everyone was so energised by being in the space together, we had a lot of fun! I’ll be teaching another called Screen Printing Basics on June 29th & 30th, 10am-2pm both days, you can sign up here.
Website / Shop Updates
I just finished updating my website to include pieces from my most recent show Home Away from Home, where I exhibited a body of work exploring my relationship with the sun. As a starting point I began collecting sun symbology that I saw in my neighbourhood, in books, and other media - once you start looking for suns you realise they’re EVERYWHERE. I began a daily ritual of drawing them one by one, and eventually translating a select few into this Sun Compendium screen print, which you can find in my online shop.
Some of the imagery in the print also made its way onto my Sun Charms that are also available in my shop. They’re ceramic disks all made with slightly different ceramic processes, I made a log of the ways they were made in this doc here. They have a magnet on the back so they’re easy to hang on your fridge or a screw in the wall, and each has a slightly different personality. The other new pieces you can find on my website are: Bathing in Sun, Longing for Rain, and The Sun she never sleeps.
And now, some things I’ve enjoyed recently…
Read:
A Game of Thrones - I didn’t really have any desire to read it but Matt and I share a library on our kindles and he’d downloaded it, and now I can’t stop reading! It’s a real slice of escapism.
Cook:
I’ve been making pasta! I got into it a little in the pandemic and now I’m back on it! We’ve had it with a spring pea sauce, tomato sauce and meatballs, and I want to make some ravioli next. After a couple of terrible tries, I’ve found the dough recipe that works for me:
Crack three eggs in a bowl and weigh them, divide this by 2, then multiply it by 3, and the answer tells you how much flour to add (eg. 2:3 ratio of eggs to flour, if the eggs weigh 180g, you’ll need 270g flour)
Weigh your flour in a bowl, add 3g salt and mix
Create a well in the flour, add the eggs, and using a fork mix the eggs, slowly incorporating all of the flour until a dough comes together
Knead the dough briefly until a smooth ball forms, let rest for an hour
Roll out pasta
Listen:
Matt has been recording radio shows for KGNU, a local and Independent community AM/FM radio station here in Denver. It’s a freeform show called Sleepless Nights, you can find his sessions by heading to this page, and looking for the ones hosted by Meandering Matt. I’m so proud of him!
Look:
And that’s it! Thank you for reading, I appreciate you : )