G44 Gallery Show Opening- Monoprints

As the opening of a show featuring my artwork alongside artist, Joe Higgins, at the G44 Gallery in Colorado Springs, CO approaches (opening Nov. 9), I realize that I have never fully described my artistic process and how I discovered my own monoprints.

Knowing my artistic tendencies leaned toward bright color and graphic style, my friend and fellow art major, Kate, nudged me toward taking a printmaking class, late fall 2009 during our senior year at Colorado College. I originally didn't want to do printmaking because I thought it involved an overly technical process that left no room for true inspiration. It was only a week into the class that I was proved wrong.

Before the paper ever reaches the press bed, I spend hours flipping through magazines, newspapers, old sketchbooks, postcards, anything made out of paper that has an image on it. When an interesting shape catches my attention: a shoe, ice cream cone, a skirt, a woman's hair, I cut it out and try to fit it together with another found image. The idea is to intertwine them so that they become one image. The finished shape hopefully resembles some sort of living, botanical plant, but it doesn't always. Once these pieces are carefully glued together, they are laminated and used as stencils in the print shop. It takes about an hour to hunt for and make a single shape that you see in any one of my monoprints.

One afternoon in 2009, again my friend, Kate, came across me spray painting one of my stencils onto a piece of paper. She said something like, "You should print that!" It was then that I fell in love with the sharp, embossed edges and sometimes mischievous character of the work I peeled off the press bed.

My artwork is on the right side of the poster.

At the G44 Gallery are some of the monoprints born from this time of discovery at Colorado College. In 2010 I exhibited my thesis artworks in Packard Hall and received a great positive response (although they were not for sale at that time), which I think in part led me to covet these particular monoprints until now. I realize that no one would gather a beautiful bouquet and store it away. So these artworks are out of hiding, available for the first time, and ready to be enjoyed again.

Monoprints

Opening Night

Friday, November 9

5-9pm

G44 Gallery

1785 S. 8th Street, Suite A

Colorado Springs, CO 80905

To see more of my monoprints please visit MeganMccluskey.etsy.com

In a Poster Contest Frenzy!

Maybe it was my seldom seen competitive spirit resurfacing, or maybe I just needed to make something, or maybe it was the $500 and VIP tickets reward! but I entered a poster contest for the upcoming 2nd annual USA Pro Cycling Challenge.
Vote here!
Colorado Springs is a host city for the race (stage 5), so I spent every tiny spare minute I had last week and made a few posters for my town. My house was in shambles by the time I submitted my artworks, and I think my husband and my child felt slightly neglected in the process, but I think it was worth it, even if I don't win. I do need to thank my mom for watching Clio and Conor for letting me borrow the new mouse!

This is my personal favorite, and the last one I created. My brother, Adam, was my model (thanks, Dude!) on a sunny day the other weekend. We took a ride through Garden of the Gods and I snapped a few pictures, which I then manipulated for the final posters. 

                      

If you think of it, please vote for my designs on Facebook! 

It's very simple to vote and the public vote is going on now through March 30.

Exploding with Joy

I can barely describe the happiness I felt and the joy that was exploding out of me when I painted this. Typical me, I decided to paint a vast landscape of the mountains and plains of Colorado.

This particular scene may be appreciated as you cruise down US-285 passing Crestone, Colorado. We took a little vacation there when Clio was about 3 months old. It was a nice place to get away. Really quirky and lots of hippies, so naturally that's where my alma mater's Baca campus is located.

I snapped a picture as we were driving home on a beautiful day in August (2011). Oh DANG IT! I just realized that I signed the painting today and dated it with a '11. Not a big deal. Ok.... anyway...

The mountains are always awesome and the Sangre de Cristo range was particularly stunning on this day. I will admit, however, that it was not the mountains that I was most excited to paint, but the clouds and the sky.

3 hour drive there...not her favorite

sleepin' with daddy

The sand dunes

UFO lookout platform

dipping our toes in the Arkansas R. on the way home

Painting Food

Well, my sister is obsessed with food, she even has a blog about it; so when she wants to have a painting party at our mom's house (and it's her idea) we paint food. When it's my idea, we paint flowers. But anyway.... as our mother has been the instigator of our creative pursuits since we were all young (there's four of us total: three girls one boy), she happily hosts painting sessions in her basement studio in her home.

shallots and asparagus 8x10, oil on canvas

We set up a still life, put on a "pretty" movie (as I like to call that genre of movies including anything inspired by Jane Austen's novels) just to listen to in the background, and then we all go for it!

When my nieces, Sofia (5 this month) and Julia (2 1/2) wake up from their naps, they always want to paint too. It gets a little crazy at this point, and there is definitely no hope left for my mom's carpet. I will take a picture of this scene for you the next time it goes down.

pink roses 10x13, oil on panel

The Weirdest Pregnant Lady You've Ever Met in the U.S.A

Well, I've never been pregnant before, and I am sure if I had been I would still think it was the craziest experience of my life. It seems like I waited so long to start "showing" in order to have pregnant lady rights. You know, better parking spots at the grocery store, cutting in line, making my husband lift anything heavier than a baby, taking naps, and eating a ton....ugh.

The truth is, I have never felt so averse to food in general in my life! And it is not due to nausea, although I sympathise with all the poor women who have battled morning sickness throughout their pregnancies. I was one of the lucky ones this time. Yeah, start hating me, I only threw up a total of four times since I found out I was "with child." Anyway, the point of this post is my need to express how often food disrupts my day (and night) and how uncreative I have become in the kitchen due to my constant need to fix myself something to eat.

Note: I buy the large 32 oz yogurt containers now...three (no wait- four) at a time. Since I am hungry all through the night, I get up to pee and eat yogurt about twice a night. Sometimes I can't see very well due to the fact that I was just sleeping, so I have found it easiest to take out the whole tub of yogurt, plop down on the nearest patch of carpet or rug (I occasionally sit in a chair if it is already pulled out) and dig in with a spoon. I never EVER in my entire life imagined myself behaving in such a way!

So while people ask me if I am enjoying my food these days, I say that I am but only to be polite. I really feel like I am force feeding myself all day long. However, I eat for my baby and that makes every trip to the fridge at night worth it. And really, there could be much worse for me to moan about. Everyone is different, but this is how I am adjusting to pregnant life. Not too much longer now and it will all pay off. We are expecting our little person any day now!

Happy Eating!

Around the Corner...

Well, having this baby is just around the corner. Yes, I am pregnant, and have been for the last nine months! It's funny, I almost still want it to be a secret (although my belly is definitely not hiding anything these days). It is such a special gift to have a little person kicking around inside of me.

At church today there seemed to be newborns everywhere (ok I saw 3 total). I keep forgetting how small they are when they are brand new. Looking at their faces made me realize what is about to happen. Yeah, hello mama!

Of course I have been arranging and decorating the baby's room. I chose light purple for the walls (she's a girl) and decided to decorate with bugs...not the nasty ones. Cute bugs only. So on her little white dresser I painted pretty insects on the knobs.

The cradle is as old as our house (1898ish)

Monument Creek

This view of Monument Creek, from the northern most bridge in Monument Valley Park, is one that I have wanted to paint for a long time. I have been jogging or walking by this scene, usually stopping to take a look, for about ten years. Interestingly, the creek itself has not always been among the most attractive places in Colorado Springs. For the longest time it smelled like a port-o-potty! Fortunately, I haven't noticed the stench in a while (probably due to some much needed landscaping to make the water run faster, I guess). 

Anyway, I captured this scene last summer, sitting on the bridge in the early afternoon with my paints at my side and my canvas propped up against the railing. I hope sometime to paint the creek at sunset! Excited for warm weather? Oh yes.