The Process of a Portrait

By betterArts resident Jennifer Elizabeth Crone

In tenth grade, my then-boyfriend broke up with me a week before homecoming, right as the bell rang for me to go into art class. Seeing how upset I was, my teacher took me into her office and showed me a portrait she'd painted of her ex. Her advice? "Don't paint your boyfriends. Because then you break up, and you've gotta look at this guy." Ten years later I still remember that, but I painted Nicholas anyway, because I love him. And he would never break up with me right before homecoming.

To begin this piece, I applied vintage maps to a canvas, as well as a print-out of a ship I used as a source photo from a previous painting. I also incorporated some schematics I found while on a hike with Nick and his dad in Doodle Town, N.Y.

Next, I painted the canvas with beiges, whits, pinks, tans, and blues, allowing the maps and textures to shine.

For the pose, I used a source image that I took of Nick in December. I did a few preliminary sketches to get familiar with the shape, then drew a very simple line-drawing on the canvas to start.

Then I painted Nick, an hours-long act performed without breaking or taking photos:

I made the pillow behind him blow (in reality a dull tan), and left some of the maps showing through.
I added texture and light to the hair, added some aqua in behind his head and shoulders, and blending it all in. And the finished product:

"Swimming", oil and mixed media on canvas

Originally published at Jennifer Elizabeth Crone's blog, Sugarheart. To learn more about betterArts' residency program and to apply, click here.

Business Stamps are the New Black

Better Farm stamp on School of Visual Arts postcard, photograph by Chana Lesser

You know the drill: Americans use too many resources. More specifically, we've got less than 5 percent of the world's population but use 30 percent of the world's paper. More than 40 percent of wood pulp is used for paper production. Printing and writing paper adds up to about half of all United States paper production.

So, you do your part. You recycle wherever possible. You consider the environment before printing e-mails, driving directions, recipes, or what-have-yous.

But one papery surface seems unshakeable: that of the business card.

It's convenient, it's good networking, it's practical. Carrying a stash of business cards is classier than programming your work phone into people's cells, makes you seem more put-together than that guy scribbling his contact info onto cocktail napkins, and gives an aura of respectability to any professional person.

Patrick Bateman gets hot and bothered by Bryce's classy business card in American Psycho.

So how to achieve all this without doing something destructive to Mother Dearest? You could look into soy-based inks and recycled paper for your business cards, or take it another step further by creating business stamps. These can be printed on anything—from thick paper stock to mimic real business cards (recycled, of course); or cool gift wrap salvaged from your last birthday party, brown paper bags you'd otherwise throw in the recycling bin, or colorful pages from discarded magazines or postcards. Don't forget skin, walls, envelopes, fabric... The proverbial sky is the limit.

We did our fair share of Internet research on the subject, and found a nice self-inking Modico brand stamp at overnightprintscom. Wanting to keep the design universal for all needs, the Better Farm and betterArts stamps simply bear their respective logos, websites, and phone numbers. Check out the many faces a single stamp can have:

Syracuse Film Fest Hits Watertown

A portion of the Syracuse International Film Festival will be screened at 7 p.m. Friday, April 29, in the Sturz Theater at Jefferson Community College (JCC) with three free films to be shown as part of "Best of the Fest."

The screenings, "Tree" (animated short), "My City, Pizza" (short documentary), and "Protektor" (narrative feature) are made possible in collaboration between the Film Committee of the North Country Arts Council, Channel 7, and JCC.

betterArts Resident Jennifer Elizabeth Crone's Paper Art Project

The paper art project is a small scale-installation by Jennifer Elizabeth Crone that will hang from the ceiling. So far, Jennifer has died and dried (almost) all the paper with a homemade acrylic-and-water dye and started 3 of the 5 garland-like sculptures. Here are some preliminary photographs:

 For more information about betterArts' residency program and to apply, click here.

In the betterArts Studio

All photography by Nicholas Aquino-Roithmayr. Originally published on artist-in-residence Jennifer Elizabeth Crone's blog. To learn more about betterArts residencies and to apply, please visit the betterArts website.

Red Cross Art Show Features Two betterArts Residents

The American Red Cross of Northern New York held its Sixth Annual Art Show and Sale March 4 at Trinity Church in Watertown, N.Y.

Presenting at the show were betterArts' own artist residents Jennifer Elizabeth Crone and Mike Brown. Artists whose pieces were purchased donated 20, 50, 75, or 100 percent of proceeds to the American Red Cross. Dollars raised help support the Red Cross as it continues assisting families in need in all of Northern New York. Check out the event pics featuring some of our own!

Mike Brown and his self-portrait

Jennifer Elizabeth Crone and her piece, "Look Closer"

All photos by Jennifer Elizabeth Crone. For more information about betterArts' residency program, click here.

'Flowers Grow Out of My Grave': New work by betterArts resident Jennifer Elizabeth Crone

Oil on Canvas with distressed photographs, texts, and other things, by Jennifer Elizabeth Crone

Here's what Jennifer had to say about her latest completed work:

This painting took an extremely long time, perhaps the longest stretch of time I've ever worked on anything. I started it about a year ago with a thought I had while riding a train to New Jersey and looking at the naked trees through the fog. After painstakingly, and time consumingly, painting each tree in harrowing detail (which was already the 3rd layer, mind you), I of course put an egg made of text all over the bulk of the trees. At one point this painting was looking quite neon and graphic, if you can imagine. And here is the final work, a forest grown over a forgotten promise, winter covered with the inkling of spring.

For more information about betterArts residencies and to apply, click here.

Inspiration Station: Origami house

After a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck central China last May (killing 69,000 people, injuring hundreds of thousands and leaving millions homeless), the government is planning an extensive reconstruction project that includes building more than 1.5 million temporary homes designed to last two or three years.

Urban Re:Vision hosted a contest to answer this need; one particularly cool submission for which was designed by Ming Tang, whose central feature was to develop a temporary shelter for homeless people that exhibits characteristics of  umbrellas and folded fans. The structures can be arranged into various contexts and dwelling requirements. The self-reconstructive "origami" structures can produce potentially infinite scenarios. Composed of paper fibers, water, and cement, the buildings can be used for a variety of construction applications. The lightweight paper house can be pre-assembled in the factory, folded into a small package, and loaded into a truck for transportation. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

See the full submission here

.

Workshop Introduces Students to Tai Chi & Self-Defense July 9

Better Farm has scheduled a three-hour seminar July 9 to introduce students to the fundamentals of Tai Chi and self-defense.

Individuals will become acquainted with I Ching breathing exercises, which are the foundation of the Chinese Internal Chi (including Chi Gung, Nui Gung, Fuhn Hey, and Dim Mak); and prime aspects of personal safety and self-defense. Those in attendance will acquire basic skills including necessary holds and escape maneuvers, as well as the foundation of stances and postures associated with Tai Chi.

To learn more about Better Farm's workshop schedule and to sign up, click

here

.

Latest Work by betterArts Resident Jennifer Elizabeth Crone

Large oil on canvas with mixed media and reproduction antique German scrolls and sheet music/Jennifer Elizabeth Crone

For more information about betterArts' residency program, click here.

Workshop for Budding and Established Professional Photographers Set June 19-21

Better Farm, in association with Heath Photography, has slated a workshop for budding and established professional photographers from June 19-21, 2011, in Redwood, N.Y.

"For the Professional Photographer: How to build a relationship with your clients and keep them coming back!" will be taught by Penny Heath, a professional portrait photographer for the last 25 years. The two-day, hands-on course (all day June 20 and 21, with students arriving at Better Farm for orientation the evening of June 19) will explain in detail the workflow that makes a professional photography studio successful. Participants will be shown how to pose subjects for portraiture in studio lighting, as well as outdoors under natural light. The workshop will encompass everything from photographing the client to marketing and selling photography services. Those in attendance will also learn marketing techniques, customer service, special packages, and products that are sure to increase profits and raise a studio’s bottom line.

For more information and to sign up, please click here.

Move Over Doc Brown: Man invents machine that turns plastic back into oil!

As people debate rising gas prices and the recent approval of more off-shore drilling (favored by many as an alternative to importing internationally mined oil from, say, Libya), they forget one small detail: No matter where we drill, or how often, feeding the  Hungry Hungry Hippo that is civilization is inevitably going to use up a finite source. Our hunger, that is, is greater than our fix. 

We were born into a cyclical earth system and imposed a finite method over it—one of the great inequalities bemoaned in every sustainability lecture. To be sustainable is to be able to repeat an action indefinitely. You don't need me to tell you our current system works in a completely opposite way. That means we either have to change our way of doing things, or face the fact that it's a dead-end road.

Enter Akinori Ito, CEO of the

Blest Corporation

, who realized all this and

came up with a very practical solution

.

Ito devised a machine that actually converts plastic

back into oil

. The contraption utilizes a temperature-controlling electric heater that processes polyethylene, polystyrene and polypropylene. The result is a crude gas that can fuel things like generators or stoves and, when refined, can even be pumped into a car, boat or motorcycle. Here's a video clip about the process:

One kilogram of plastic produces almost one liter of oil in Ito's invention. To convert that amount takes about 1 kwh of electricity, which is roughly 20 cents’ worth. Blest makes the machines in various sizes for residential and industrial use. The smallest machine, which you can operate in your home, will run you just under $13,000.

Of course, what humans need to figure out (and soon!) is a way to live sustainably in a system of invention that is 100 percent renewable. That means no more oil dependency, period. Harnessing the sun, wind, or even the tides could work; and is even something

attainable within 40 years, according to one Stanford researcher

. Ito's idea is at least a giant step in the right direction, and a welcome addition to the world of reusing, reducing, and recycling.

To see sample machines and learn more about the Blest Corporation, click

here

.

An Invitation to Support Incoming 'Magic Hypercube' Resident

Better Farm will be visited June 5-11 by Forbes Graham, a composer and performer who runs Blaq Lghtn Productions out of Boston, Mass., and who was recently accepted into betterArts' residency program.

During his residency here, Forbes will be composing a trio for piccolo trumpet/trumpet, clarinet, and cello inspired by magic hypercubes. Magic hypercubes are a mathematical sequence in which the hypercubes ("size n") are such that the sum total of n elements along any axis equal the same number. Forbes has begun to explore a five-dimensional magic hypercube, which will be the basis for his composition at Better Farm.

Forbes has created a web page at kickstarter.com to fund his betterArts residency. You can learn more about his vision and help support him by clicking here.