Palm Tree. . .

Go to any art blog right now and chances are you're going to see or hear something about two of the most popular current trends:  Zentangles, and Stamp-carving.  Actually, both have been around for more than a century, under different names of course, but right now, these are the hottest of the au courant!

For me, both of them started in the '60s.  What are now "zentangles" was then "op art", and before that, artists and designers, especially Klimt, mixed repeated designs often to fill-in shapes and open space.  Block printing was taught in high school crafts, at least in California and Arizona, and I still have my first X-Acto set, pictured here.

   

Unfortunately, I no longer have my first carved block. Too bad because it was actually pretty good.  It was torture carving the not-so-soft and tending-to-splinter pine blocks, but it was good practice and I'm glad I learned how.  The carved block pictured here is one I did a couple of years ago when I needed a palm tree stamp right away and couldn't find one anywhere at the time.  The emery boards are for sanding, of course.  I cut one to fit the nooks and crannies so that I can smooth out all the points before I stamp.  If you decide to try this, be sure to score and chip away the larger chunks first, and always, always, carve away from yourself!  I don't do a lot of these because I'm prone to mistaking my fingers for the block *ouch*, and I really don't look good in band-aids.    

For all you aging hippies, you may remember the rock promoters that called themselves The Family Dog.  They designed and made the posters for the then up-and-coming San Francisco rock groups like Jefferson Airplane.  I haven't done a search, but if you're interested, I'll bet you can find examples of these on the web.  They used wood blocks and op-art in most of their poster art and had no idea that they were carving home-made stamps and making zentangles.  I used to get in trouble in high school art class for doodling op-art when I was supposed to be seriously sketching a subject.

Well, so much for my reminiscences.  The theme for today's WS is "trees".  I dug out the old carved palm tree stamp, inked it with Staz-On black, put my paper on top and brayered over it (you can't really stamp a wood block and get good definition by slamming it onto the paper).  The rest is black Sharpie--another of my all-time favorite inventions, and some Adirondak citrus acrylic paint dabbed and streaked to make the background.

Have a great day, Everyone!  I'm off to play with my Prismacolors, and maybe revisit some OpArt????

Comments

[Hermine]

Looks great, love it. I had acrved a tree today too :o))

[gillian]

Stunning Barbara, love everything about this piece, love your carved palm tree:)

[~*~ Patty]

Love your carved palm tree Barbara, great choice, your Zentangle doodling is super as well. That can be very addicting, just ask me....LOL
Klimt is one of my all time favs, enjoy reading your back story!

[femmy]

beautiful!!!!

[Barbara]

Barbara looks so wonderful I can't wait for the challenge piece from you. I just thought today I would have liked to have put a glaze of color over mine and here you have done it. Yours looks so professional not like mine but I will keep trying.

[Amy]

I love that green.
The palm tree is great!

[Laura]

Great artwork! I remember putting those designs in large bubble lettering. I never knew it had a name! I'll have to revisit my childhood art. Thank you for the inspiration!
Creatively Yours, Laura

[Sandy]

Wow what a stunner. So fantastic. Love it.

[filetta]

WONDERFUL !!!!!

[Kaz]

this is fab, I love the fresh vibrant colour you used, what a fab technique too. thanks for sharing it.

[Audrey]

Beautiful tree and background!

[sherry]

Barbara, I so enjoyed reading this post...it reminds me that fashion and art are closely linked and that as much as fashion "comes back" after a period of time, so do art techniques -- and as always, they are simply called something "new".

[Myriame]

Your card is so wonderful, really stuning

[Maggie Ann]

Very impressive!

[laury55]

love your OpArt ..really great

[Silvia]

Wow, really a wonderful card, love your carved palm and the zentangling. Great bright green colour ... I think, my blog will be one, on which you won't find Zentangles and Carved Stamps ;-)

[Rosie]

Golly Barbara, that's a great palm tree!! I can't imagine carving into wood... I have enough trouble with lino blocks (which I have now stopped 'wearing'!!)I can understand why both are popular and I tend to agree with you about commercialising the tangles. However, it's a bit like 'Painting by Numbers', isn't it? I guess people have to start somewhere... I was very inspired reading about Gloria Page in the peek inside her book about carved artstamps. Interesting woman! I love your 'social commentaries' - food for thought!! :-]

[Lisa Renea]

Woo Hoo! Barbara, thank you for the visit down memory lane! Those zentangles were all the rage back in the day-LOL. I want to let you know, I'm adding you to my blog roll-I Love your blog and your art truly rocks! I adore palm trees, I can't imagine cutting this from wood! Wow!!

[Marsup]

Amazing work! I can't imagine doing that!

[Karen Owen]

Love this bright color, and your carved palm tree is amazing!