Author: Studio Deanna

http://studiodeanna.com Honolulu-based internationally exhibited fiber and wire crochet artist, primarily using fiber techniques to create sculptures by combining wires and fibers into complete immersive installations.

An Artist’s Day in Tokyo

Spent Saturday running around Tokyo with another artist friend, Spendy Pencil! We had specific errands to complete but enough time for fun inbetween despite not meeting in Harajuku until 3:30 in the afternoon.

Out for a big part of the day and this is the only photo I took!! Love the perpective lines along with the blue/yellow/grey color combination.

I have continued to take macrophotos of my artwork and have a backlog of photos I’d like to see printed up. Spendy Pencil has two shows coming up soon so we started at Pictorico photo shop where we had discovered the perfect papers for each of our completely different styles of photography. We placed our orders and headed out to dinner.

Well, my dinner and her lunchtime, LOL!! A meal of papaya salad, Tom Yum soup, and Thai Iced Tea in Omotesando and we walked on to our next stop.

Sekaido is a 6-floor Mecca for art supplies and a great place to run into other art friends on their own art adventures around the city. It’s also a good place to find frames needed for artwork of any size. Spendy Pencil placed a special order to be completed in 90 minutes and we were off to Clouds Art + Coffee.

Our friend Erica was having a reception for her solo show in Koenji and her amazing illustration work again drew a big crowd that spilled out into the street. Congrats to her!!! I picked up a patch from an image which she drew and her partner, Shishunori, created the embroidered patch. I needed something to make my favorite Uniqlo hoody unique.

Stitched it on this morning, chose not to iron it as I’ll probably want to change it to another clothing item in the future.

Back to Sekaido to pick up Spendy Pencil’s frames and then back home. Spendy Pencil messaged that our art adventures came to almost 13,000 steps, 10 kilometers (6 miles)

Zipping on/off trains, inumerable stairs, and a great Saturday with friends!!

Start your own Tokyo art adventures at Clouds Art + Coffee’s upcoming exhibition all based around the color Green which includes @loriono_thespendypencil 💚📷✅

Follow more adventures (when I remember to take photos) on Instagram: StudioDeanna

by Categories: ArtTags: , , , , , , ,

Embroidery Designing

Embroidered (3) different colorways of an octopus design to decide which I prefer and found I love each equally so!

As I decide my future plans for these flower holding octopuses, I finished another piece for a completely different series in which I am working. It’s a portrait of my fibroid; originally a photo from the surgery which I photo edited and then had printed onto fabric. Finally, I French Knotted DMC 115 into 8cm of “Bloody Mess.”

Follow my day-to-day adventures on Instagram: Studio Deanna

by Categories: ArtTags: , , , , , , , , ,

Sketchbook Start

Broke open my new Midori Diary Sketchbook w/Storyboard sections on each page. Jumped right in with watercolor experiments from my friend Lori’s Art Cart of Awesome!

1. Kuretake Watercolor Pens:

2. Caran d’Arche – Watercolor Crayons

3. Watercolor Pencils

I preferred the watercolor crayons as they are small, portable, and had better solubility than the pencils. The pens gave gorgeous intense color but will be more difficult to carry around.

From page 1 I have had trouble staying within the lines :)

Using my Koh-I-Noor Progresso colored pencils next, I’m laying down preferred color schemes for pieces rough drafted in crocheted cotton and are being crocheted in colored copper wire for the final larger scale artwork:

Follow my day to day art adventures on Instagram: Studio Deanna

by Categories: Art, SketchbookTags: , , , , , ,

That New Notebook Feeling

My friends and I felt the strong pull from the sketchbook corner at the Ikebukuro Tokyou Hands and found ourselves caught.

Here I was introduced to Midori Diary Paper, designed and made here in Japan. Comes in such a lovely cream color and they are bound in such a way as allow each page to open flat.

So many choices in page organization, different sizes with lines vs grids vs blank pages with infinite possiblities.

Such a simple, personable packaging label. Nice handwriting in Japanese & English. And a nameplate sticker.

^ It came with a glassine book cover which I know I’ll tear immediately upon use, so I’ve returned it to its original bag and when I’m done I’ll add it back on.

^ Of all the Midori page designs I chose the Storyboard option. 8 fun little sections per page, “16 boxes per spread. Good for mapping out presentations or developing an idea progression.” Or maybe I’ll do some little sketches…or ??

For now, it looks too nice to mark up :)

Until then, follow my day to day art adventures on Instagram: Studio Deanna

by Categories: ArtTags: , , , , , , ,

Tokyo Collective: Illustrators in Tokyo

Go see the Hajime Show by Tokyo Collective this Sunday, Apr 22 from 10AM – 5PM at NinetyTwo13(Tokyo Chapter), behind Tokyo Midtown on the other side of Hinokicho Park.

Address: Akasaka 9-2-13, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan, 107-0052 (It’s in a grey building with NinetyTwo13 over the doorway, go to the 2nd Floor)

Many of the artists are also sequential artists so there is a Sequential Art Meeting starting at 7PM in the gallery space on Sunday evening.

Super proud of my friends for their gorgeous illustration work, absolutely beautiful, thought provoking, and so honest in their first experiences in Japan. I saw, felt, and experienced many of the same encounters on my first move here.

Tokyo Collective’s Hajime Show has compiled a high quality Zine containing work by each of the artists, available only at the show for the one coin price of 500yen!

Cover Art by Erica Ward @erica.ward.illustration

\/ Inside Cover Art by Julia Nascimento @ns_julia

\/ Erika Suzuki @suuueri_illust

\/ Tania Vicedo @taniasillustration

\/ Michele Laudig @michelelaudig I really liked the way Michele used layers of materials to complete her work which is difficult for a simple black and white printed to convey. Worth the trip to the gallery on Sunday to see them in person.

The complete list of artists with a mini bio:

I’m looking forward to seeing what Erica does next at the art & fashion show:

by Categories: ArtTags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Contact Zone: Ami Network Installation – Progress Report II

My Contact Zone installation has been completed! Here are a couple of teaser progress photos of my contribution to Contact Hawaii 2018.

Opening Reception on Sat, Aug 7 : Gallery opens at 5:30, Reception begins at 6:00 – 9:00 the Honolulu Museum of Art School in the Main Gallery.

Upon completion I’ve tagged my AmiNETwork art installation, finding the tag I had created has tarnish spots as if it was in the water along with the net. It also reminds me of fishing lures I often used as a child.

Of all the times I have flown into Hawai’i, I have repeatedly come from Japan with one time from Australia and only once from Mainland USA. I brought thoughts and ideas with me from Japan & Australia, thoughts on projects for when I arrived in Hawai’i and found Hawai’i so much more than expected. The iconic cherry blossoms in Japan remind me of renewal, the fresh signs of spring. Without the retail sale reminders of impending holidays each year, such as Halloween, I forgot they existed and my personal timeline shifted to the seasonal fruits and flowers throughout the year.

Stitching it strong; crocheting holes in the ghost net tapestry with colorful telephone wire.

After the show opens, watch for additional photos of the completed project. It’s a total of 3.5′ x 12.5′ (3.75m x 1m) in size!

I highly recommend stopping by the Honolulu Museum of Art School to see the complete Contact Hawai’i show. See what others’ Contact Zone experience is with Hawai’i.

Abbreviated Artist Statement – Stitching the fabric of a loose kind of tapestry starting with Ghost Nets(fishing nets) collected on the beaches; drifting, washing ashore, battered, collected, a piecing together of community. I will be adding to the Ghost Net pieces with the techniques I learned in the Net Making class at Na Mea. The word for both netting and network in Japanese is ami, which is also the word for things made of yarn. It is knit groups in both countries that has helped me stitch a life together.

I continue to grapple with my impact in Hawai’i, on the planet, with my activities, both physically and with the people I meet. Is this life capturing culture as my unwitting victims? Or am I stitching a beautiful community together as is my hope?

by Categories: ArtTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Contact Zone: Ami Network Installation – Progress Report I

I love working on larger scale projects. They often grow to take on a life of their own,  my original idea becoming stonger, and then distilling that idea to its most focused message. Ami Network is for the upcoming show Contact 2018. Please be patient as I really need to work on my photography skills or learn how to create artwork that is easier to photograph =)

IMG_9876

Ami Network has been two years in the making with the original thoughts regarding nets & networks after having met several ghost net artists combined with receiving a large amount of colored telephone wire. The plastic coating, in great color combinations over copper wire, is lovely to work with, easy to crochet, and easy to use in the handmade traditional hi’a.

IMG_0443

Ami Network is an autobiographical piece, a visual of my connections with people both near and far from my personal Contact Zone with Hawai’i. I began with a couple of ideas as to how to complete my Ami Network installation and I have tested those ideas. I was greatly concerned my original tapestry idea would be just a messy hodgepodge so I felt it needed some kind of order such as presenting it in a chandelier form. The more work I completed on the ghost net and telephone wire tapestry section, the happier I have become with it.  The chandelier idea started out great, but after much work, a fair amount of tweaking, I realized, the end result would simply be more, not better. Therefore I am editing back down to one of my original presentation ideas…as simply a large, beautiful tapestry.

IMG_9821

Contact Hawaii 2018 runs from April 6 – 22 in various locations on Oahu. You can follow my day to day progress via Instagram: Studio Deanna

Abbreviated Artist Statement – Stitching the fabric of a loose kind of tapestry starting with Ghost Nets(fishing nets) collected on the beaches; drifting, washing ashore, battered, collected, a piecing together of community. I will be adding to the Ghost Net pieces with the techniques I learned in the Net Making class at Na Mea. The word for both netting and network in Japanese is ami, which is also the word for things made of yarn. It is knit groups in both countries that has helped me stitch a life together.

I continue to grapple with my impact in Hawai’i, on the planet, with my activities, both physically and with the people I meet. Is this life capturing culture as my unwitting victims? Or am I stitching a beautiful community together as is my hope?

by Categories: ArtTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,