Red Velvet

Yesterday being Valentine's Day I was struck with everything red discussed in the media in honor of the annual celebration of love. And after all of these years of celebrating Valentine's Day who knew there was so much new material to read or hear about. On Tuesday, NPR's Susan Stamberg did a story called The Color Red: A History in Textiles on Morning Edition about the exhibit Red at the Textile Museum in Washington D.C. She talked about the little rare bug found in Mexican cacti, the cochineal, used for making red dye and Louis XIV's contribution to fashion of wearing of scarlet heals.

Then to my further pleasure yesterday, I went online to the New York Times only to see an article on the resurgence of a popular Southern sin, the Red Velvet Cake. Cupid and my chocolate desires hit me and I was so overwhelmed by this decadent site that I used one of the photos from the article as reference for my "Coffee Hour Drawing". What fun!

This drawing was completed on Arches paper with water-soluble oil pastels. These are a really pliable medium, made by Crayola and non-toxic, I discovered these in college while interning at the Crayola Factory in Easton, PA. I haven't used them since art school; they offer very rich colors and can be manipulated fairly easily with water and brush.

It's hard to know what will sell and to spend your entire day as an emerging artist making only what will sell. So far I'm enjoying the exercise of the "Coffee Hour Drawing". I don't know if these will be appealing to people to buy, if they are, let me know. I'm looking forward to the next drawing.