Not that Mazurek, but another one.

2010-09-21T22:30:00.000-07:00

Don't you ever take notes overtop of previously drawn sketches?

Exciting News!

2010-09-21T22:23:00.000-07:00

The molten lead decoy piece got into the Hope Against Hope show!

October 8th, 2010. Phoenix Shot Tower 7pm-10pm.

2010-09-21T22:14:00.000-07:00

This guy is from 2008, the year when I compulsively drew animal familiars--rabbits and hedgehogs exclusively.

That's what working in a label printing factory will do to you.

I didn't realize the correlation of the images until just now; that was supposed to be a bottle of milk but it could easily be a stand-in for Dr. Thunder.

2010-09-21T22:09:00.000-07:00

And oh yes, some more of these guys.

2010-09-21T21:31:00.000-07:00

The only library book that I never returned at all was The Essential Rilke. When I lived at my first house, I found it between the cushions of an arm chair. I had already paid the replacement fee, so I pretended that the book wanted to stay with me.

Since I never took any pictures of my old house, there are a handful of objects and sounds that I have that are charged with memories:

-a sloppy Christmas window decoration

-my Black Snake Moan poster

-student artwork from my very first class at Mt. Washington Elementary.

-hissing radiators

2010-09-21T20:35:00.000-07:00

Completed during the 2010 blizzard.

2010-09-19T23:08:00.000-07:00

This piece was initially vertically oriented and purposefully so. It was a submission to a show that was centered around the Baltimore Shot Tower. I wanted evoke molten lead being poured down a steep shute.

2010-09-19T22:57:00.000-07:00

Portrait of a co-worker's grandmother I was commissioned to paint last Christmas.

I took this picture before I added the eyes, because I knew that it would look better.

The experience was lovely, but I don't think I'll ever do portraits of beloved family members.

2010-09-19T22:54:00.000-07:00

My contribution to the "Baltidelphia" show from October 2009.

HEXCHANGE

2009-10-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

I have work currently up at the Hexagon, on Charles Street (next to Club Choices, across from the Depot) in a print exhibition. It is a screenprint, the image will be up within the week.

The show will be up until November 8th, I highly recommend seeing it, more so for the other prints than for my own. It was a Baltimore-themed show, and everyone brought something fresh to the table.

Next, I will be working with an artist from Philly, Kristen Neville, on a collaborative project for three months in a group show called "Balti-delphia." Very, very, exciting!

Theater Club!

2009-10-11T20:27:00.000-07:00

Since mid-September, I have been running a theater club at the school where I work.

Technically, it's more of a puppetry club, but theater allows for more wiggle room, planning-wise. I've also found that art projects are more successful when they have other applications, in this case working hand in hand with a music component and with dance.

I'm working with are high to low functioning autistic kids, so the performance component ties into the socialization criteria set for the club.

The results, so far, have been fantastic!

This month, the project is based off of the Chinese Lion Dance, where they have a large cardboard head with a moving mouth and a fringed body made of a plastic table cloth.

One half of the classroom designs the puppets while the other half practices drumming. The first day, I had the kids try out the puppet and the drummers leapt right in, it was so seamless I wanted to burst. Soon, I'll upload pictures of the finished products---they added flames to the mouth flap, and in my book, lions are allowed to breathe fire. Each time we meet, I am blown away by their ingenuity and confidence in their work.

This week, we will videotape and with any luck, it will be edited into a montage that will be showed at the spring talent show. That way, they will be performing for an audience without any added stress.

The "Rain Dance" is aimed at the lower-functioning kids and will be based around creating a simple costume and sound effect and an unrehearsed performance. Each element will have his/her cue to come in, and from there, it will be on the spot. This club was partially made for them in mind, because it is so hard to plan anything for them, given their limited verbal and dextral capabilities. I just want them to be able to take part in something that they can do that isn't patronizing and also gives their parents the pride of seeing them in a school play.

Next month, I'll trade off teaching duties with someone else, which will give me more time to plan the next project, which will be a shadow play based on Indonesian puppet plays. My idea revolves around a Polish folktale that involves an exploding dragon, but it might be too time consuming. As long as it is monster based, I trust it will get the students involved--they love the Pokemon so much.

2009-10-11T20:24:00.000-07:00

Currently the volunteer promotions director at the Hamilton Arts Collective.

Here are two posters I designed for the month of September.

2008-11-09T23:54:00.000-08:00

I've decided that they are exorcists.

Only, the demons don't get sent to hell, they

just get washed up, and are given a nice home.

2008-10-27T20:16:00.000-07:00

hello kitty kat
...and penguin pirate, what are you doing here??Next to the green guy, this is probably my favorite one to date. The body is a little crooked, and Penguin's wings are too small, but the cat ears peeking out surprisingly work as "feet."

I just wish the material didn't fray so much, because it moves like a dream.

Need more floss...and thread that matches the material would greatly improve the presentation.

2008-10-25T16:56:00.000-07:00

This was the best result after trying upload all of these pages four other times.

The order is completely out of wack, but honestly, the plot is so minimal, I don't think it matters.

What order do you think it should be in?

This was a mini-zine I came up with for the Baltimore

Book Festival last year.

It was a lot of fun to research and it was the first time I had put a full length comic together, let alone one without complete English dialog.

Needless to say, only

family members bought copies, but I'm still proud of "Preevyet."

2008-10-23T23:47:00.000-07:00

Flip Doll #4

Estimated assembly time:

1/2 of "The Prestige" and

3/4 of "My Own Private Idaho"

I didn't plan on this, but the devil horns also work as feet.

Working with felt is so much easier and yields cleaner stitches with less fraying. Next time I will put more effort into embroidery...and the arms.

2008-10-23T00:40:00.000-07:00

Flip doll #3--with handy face flap.

He didn't mean to overreact, he mistook you for someone else.

Possible project for Mt. Washington.

This didn't take me very long to make, so I'll come up with a couple other patterns that they can use.

Is it sad that I made a mix cd for classes that might happen? I'm listening to it as we speak.

2008-10-14T23:14:00.000-07:00

Yeah! Vertical!!

Just started drawing communicants, mostly just to draw tulle

I can't wait to upload Tobias' werewolf.

Last week, I started teaching an after school program at Mt. Washington Elementary involving relief printmaking, or "stamp making". Initially, it was a little alarming...considering a child stabbed himself five minutes into the class. Soon, I realized that I'd be dealing with a room full of kids, aged 7-12 (when told at first that it would just be 4th and 5th graders) and they're all using knives. The fear lasted about five minutes, thanks to Mom voice.

Given it is an afterschool program, a lot of the kids don't want to be there, but everyone has at least tried it. Today was the best session since they were able to print, some swapped plates with their friends and printed theirs. Now the problem only is that they wanted to make more but we didn't have enough time.

There's only one more session left, unfortunately. This was the first time that I worked with my own lesson plan and selected my own materials. It could be something I could easily get used to.

Also, saw "Beautiful Losers" at MICA's Fall Film Series. You should see it for Margaret Kilgallen---Margaret Kilgallen as she is working, more specifically. She was so incredibly focused and engaged in her paintings and wanted them to be shared with the community, instead of antagonizing it. I had seen an art book of hers a couple years ago and remember being impressed but actually watching her work, was inspiring. She kept the whole film from getting horribly overblown.

Poor Harmony Korine got a two minute segment on "Gummo", a couple of questions in the beginning, and random clips but he made them count. But that still equaled more screen time than Jo Jackson, or any other female artists featured in the documentary.

Bedtime now.

2008-10-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

Just cock your head to the left and you'll get the idea.

"Harvest 3"

Ink on bristol

2008

2008-10-03T11:36:00.000-07:00

Both images are supposed to be horizontal.

That's how they were saved, anyway.

"Harvest 2"

ink on PVC foam sheet

2008

2008-10-03T11:32:00.000-07:00

This was supposed to be included in the previous post, considering all of the references I made to it. Blogspot lied to me.

"Harvest 5"

gel pen

2008

Introducing Our Ladies of Productivity

2008-10-03T10:40:00.000-07:00

For whatever reason, I can't stop drawing them. It started in June, I was drawing all day in order to get rid of an artists' block. After more beer I'd want to drink in the afternoon, sketches of fat girls in gym class, clouds, stars and a telephone, these women came unannounced.

The only explanation that I can come up with is that I had seen a little nun at the Italian Festival, who was dressed the same way and I was taken with how she looked.

When I was in Catholic elementary school, the nuns that I saw wore black. Later, I found that this is supposed to signify that they are 'dead to the world' and are brides of Christ. Seeing this woman who had taken the same vows dressed in white seemed so joyful and it made her look almost like a fairy.

The facial coverings are a resolution for handling the face, because lately I haven't been satisfied with what I've been coming up with. Also, I find it more interesting to draw and it allows me to convey their emotion through their body language, which is a new challenge.

This is probably my fifth attempt, which I did during lunch at the Nautilus diner.

The waitress made a comment while I was in the bathroom about how it reflects self-esteem issues. Good for her. I'd be lying if I said that this wasn't true, but in my mind, they're more of a parody.

Someone had told me that good art reflects the worst aspects of the artists' personality, and I would have to say that I was running with that ball. Not to say that my intention was to make GREAT ART but own up to my stupid little neurosis'. These little ladies, sterile nuns specifically, are caught up in repetitive activity that they are convinced is meaningful, although it doesn't make any sense.

Now that that is out of the way, their more recent incarnations are less deathly serious, and more angelic. I'm adding younger girls because everything was getting to homogeneous.

There are even bunnies. Bunnies don't need any explanation.

Welcome!

2008-10-03T10:20:00.000-07:00

Hello, internet, my name is Kathleen Mazurek. After dragging my feet for some time, I finally got a website together, so to speak. Little Scratch is my artblog, which I will update as often as possible. My work is mostly drawing based, which then extends into printmaking--drypoint, relief and silkscreen more recently. I like to think of myself primarily as an illustrator, given the figurative nature of my work and how a narrative takes part in the process. Usually the images come first and a story emerges. This is where the 'little scratch' comes from--scratches are the beginning of everything that I make.