Oh, You're an Artist? What Media?

I’ve been hearing that question a lot lately and sometimes I’m not certain how to respond. I’ve worked in a wide variety of media over the years and naming every one of them doesn’t seem like the answer that fits the situation in most cases. I’ll generally say something like “well, today it was jewelry” or “I’m currently working in textiles and soap making.” I also hear people making a distinction between arts and crafts, considering soap making to be a craft and drawing or painting to be an art. Plus I sometimes hear people make the assumption that to be an artist means that I paint pictures. Well, I’m here to set the record straight. Or at least my little part of the record.Over the years I wrestled with myself, learning early on that art was considered a luxury by most people, the kind of thing one does if one has leftover time and resources. I believed at the time that I’d always make a living some other way, that art would be/could only ever be my hobby. But something changed all that. I remember the first time I came home to my identity as an artist. I was a student in college, I had three years of a Social Work degree and I’d just been denied entrance into the Social Work department at my college. I hated the classes and dreaded most of the professors, my grades were horrible, but I was learning stuff that was impacting my life anyway. (When I showed up.) Their rejection sent me reeling, I was young and ultra-idealistic and I wanted to make a difference in the world. And it seemed that my friends thought this is how one could go about that – by helping people as a Social Worker. It was a turning point for me, one of several. Now college was on my dime and I went off to Art School. I finished my education with excellent grades and a group of professors that I enjoyed. I had come home to my identity as an artist.Faced with real life on outside the hallowed halls of education, I got jobs. “Real jobs.” And I hated most of them. I’m rather creative and I tended to be bored out of my mind with a new job after only three months. My creativity was becoming a liability and there were very few jobs that I kept for any real length of time. I worked for liars, thieves and crazy people mostly. And in my thirties I found myself in the wilderness of Virginia, betrayed by my spiritual parents, suffering some huge personal losses and in one of the darkest depressions of my entire life. And something amazing happened.

"Lady Liberty" Watercolor

I had a dream in the night. I was in a room rimmed with doors and each door led to a different reality. There was one door that led to a well worn path that was hanging on by only one hinge. There were other doors that were solid and unyielding. I knew in the dream that something was about to happen, that I needed to prepare. I knew I had to close the doors to prepare. And so I went around that room pulling those doors shut. Some clicked closed easily, and the one door that led to the garden was so worn that I had to finagle it closed with a bit of stray wire. I left that room through one door and into other dreamscapes that evening.

"The Homestead by Morning Light" Watercolor plus Colored Pencils

The following day I sat at my desk (I was working as an art salesperson in a high end gallery that dealt in antique artwork) I began to explore what this amazing vibrant dream meant to me. I believe that dreams are parables, and sometimes meaning can be found there that applies to life. And I found in that dream the story of my life. I had tried many different things and nothing held my attention though I always went home to the same hobby. I had a visitation that day with God. There was an amazing presence in that room, it was a very rich spiritual environment that day. And my Creator began to show me a few things that I hadn’t really understood up until that time."Dogwood" (my first art quilt) hand dyed fabrics, sheers, beads and ribbon.

I pulled out paper and began to write down the labels on all the doors of my life, all the opportunities I’d had and all the things I wanted to do someday. And when I finally sat back and looked at the list, God gave me a gift of clarity. I saw on that page a person who had tried every door in the room but never gotten very far down any path. I realized that it was time to close all the other doors and walk through the one marked “artist.” And it hit home. My Creator had made me to be an artist. And while others may consider it a luxury or something only ever worthy of being a hobby, it was and is my calling.

"Floral Pearl Necklace" sorry the photo is so washed out.

People who have had a brush with death talk about their lives passing before their eyes. Well, I had my theology passing before mine. All the Bible verses I’d studied looking for meaning were now parading through my head. And some things clicked into place like nothing I’ve seen before. I could write volumes of the “download” that occurred in that place that day (I will write that book!) but this isn’t the place. I can only say that that day I became aware of a sense of calling and the infilling of the Holy Spirit. I recognized that I had skill, ability and knowledge that had been given or orchestrated by God. I was an artist, it was a revelation. That is my open door, and that is what my dream taught me. I realized that day that it didn’t matter what media I worked in, what mattered was that I released and reflected the beauty of God into the earth. And that can be done in a million different ways."Healing Hands" created for John Dufour with prints made for the Dufour family.

So I work in a variety of media, some folks will consider some of them art and some craft. I tend to believe that anything that an artist does is art, that craft is for those with hobbies. Not to suggest that everything I create is worth sharing – no! I have quite a bit of reject projects in storage, just ask my ex-husband! "The Winter Rose" pen and ink drawing for a program cover.
I’ve sold artwork or won awards in the following art media: In art school I concentrated mainly on painting and Interior Design in addition to a wide variety of media that I explored there. Jewelry design - beading in particular. My biggest award to date was in jewelry design and I’ve had work on the back cover of beading magazines and in catalogs. "Autumn" Mixed media college, cinnamon, pumpkin seeds, paper towel, buttons, photos, glazes, etc.
I won a “Best in Show” award for a piece that was mixed media collage with glazes and found objects.

"Iris" Watercolor layered with Colored Pencils

I’ve also won awards for a piece that was a combination of watercolor layered with colored pencils and another piece that was a pencil drawing. "Iris" a pencil portrait inspired by meeting Jeff Chapmen-Crane

Another award came for my hand painted art glass (not molten glass work but creating a finish on reclaimed glass.) Let’s see… polymer clay, mostly to make beads and jewelry components. Uh… painting in acrylics, oils and watercolors. Drawing in pencil, pen & ink and colored pencils. Recently I’ve revived an interest in quilting, launching into hand dying fabrics in cotton, linen and silk and very soon I’ll be trying marbling some fabric. I’m looking forward to that. I’ve done some banners and art instillations with fabric in a congregation I attended in the 90’s that was very open to experiencing God through the arts. I’ve designed a few homes and designed quite a few renovation projects and done all my own Interior Design work. I’ve toyed with metal clay, print making, ceramics, enamels, wire working, and metal working.

"HOPE" a quilt inspired by the work of Melody Johnson

I do all my own product photography and dabble in other kinds of photography. I’ve worked for quite some time as a professional cake designer and I’ve toyed with gourmet chocolate. Oh, and a florist, I did that also for a few years. And that’s all I can think of at the moment.

"Tiara" custem order for Prom inspired by the work of Bekki Fahrer.

Product Photography by Charles Garratt

Oh, I write poetry and other stuff. I have co-written and directed an impressionistic drama, and I periodically perform music – vocal and piano. I dabble in guitar and I’ve written a few songs. So clearly I’ll try anything that is creative. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I’m the Soap Lady at the local farmer’s market. I love creating new kinds of soap that marry the visual elements of color and texture with the sense of smell. I consider it an artistic treat to include fragrance in my work. That laundry list sounds like I’m bragging but I know that the gift to create didn’t come from me, I am only its steward. And that only by Grace. So ask me again what media I work in and I’ll respond with what I’m doing at the moment. Tomorrow it might be something else altogether. I’m an artist and honestly the media really doesn’t matter - at least not to me. I was designed to create, to release God’s beauty in the earth. And so with a huge helping of God’s grace… ever onward. I am Carmen Rose. I am an artist. And I am grateful.

Finishing up the Cake.

Finally we come to the interesting stuff, though I was really down to the wire with this cake so I didn’t get many photographs at this stage. I drove the cake to location, stacked the three tiers and began to decorate them. Now usually I would have decorated them and then transported them but I was running out of time. By that time I’d had three hours of sleep and it was an afternoon shindig. I decorated small “50’s” with some hearts/swirly things and some small fleur de lais. Each edge got a border and that was pretty much it for the details on the cake.

I added a bunch of colorful fresh flowers...

And then set the cake in place. Then we got some photos and then the guests started to arrive. Whew, that was close!

39 (million) easy steps to making a wedding cake, Part Two: icing the cake.

Icing a cake really isn’t that difficult if you know what to do, and if you get good at it then it doesn’t take that long either. Unless you start work at 1:00 am after a performance and a cast party and work until 4:45 am Saturday morning, then it seems like a long time. But I made all the fillings and icings and iced six tiers in that time so there wasn’t any grass growing under my feet. I don’t usually do that but it turned out fine. My husband was in bed clear on the other side of the house and I was able to have all the lights on and the music up without bothering him at all.

I made a white chocolate marzipan filling and a chocolate hazelnut filling, and those are recipes I don’t share. Yumm! And I decided to mix the white and chocolate cake layers together. So the first step is retrieving the layers from the freezer and unwrapping them to cut. I used a big expensive serrated blade knife that I called “the sword” for cutting cake when I worked as a professional cake designer but a cheap electric knife works ok.

I hurt myself with that sword once, I was cutting toward my hand and giving some real pressure to a especially hard frozen cake. It was for a wedding on New Years Day and so there wasn’t anyone else around. Something slipped and that knife ended up between my thumb and my thumb nail back about a third of an inch in. I was working alone in the bakery that evening and there was no way to get around the deadline of the cake so I had to think fast. I found the superglue and poured that into the wound, put the thumb nail back in place and taped it all up tightly and put on a glove. I cleaned up the mess and got back to work and had that wedding cake done in time for the reception. And I kept gluing and taping that thumb nail back together until the wounded part grew out and my thumb is perfectly fine now. All that to say that cutting a frozen cake can be dangerous so be careful! Put your hand on top of the cake and cut toward the center of the cake while turning, do not aim at your hand and keep your fingers out of the way!

Trim the top and bottom of each layer, especially when using a white or yellow cake, make sure to remove all the brown “skin” the cake gets on top and the part next to the pan. This gets rid of all the hard and dry parts of the cake, and believe me, it makes a difference in how people experience the cake! Layer the cake with fillings, being careful not to fill so much that the filling will migrate. You want flavor without adding bulk. When all the layers are stacked the carefully trim the sides of the cake until you are back past the brown dry edges. Trim to level the top if needed.

Now you are ready to apply a thin “crumb coat” of icing to the cake. Do this immediately because you don’t want the trimmed cake drying out. Seal in all that moisture right away with a thin coat. You can either set the cake back in the freezer until you have a firm surface or just wait for the icing to solidify a bit while you are working on other tiers.

Finally, come back and add the final coat of icing starting on the top and then doing the sides with a long icing knife. As long as you keep icing between your cake and your knife, you won’t bring up crumbs from the crumb coat and you can get an excellent smooth surface this way.

Now for a wedding cake I will take an additional measure to achieve a smooth surface. Fill a clean spray bottle with cool water and spray the cake thoroughly while spinning it on the turn table. Carefully work all the marks out of the icing keeping plenty of water between the knife blade and the icing. Work the top first then do the sides. This should result in an ultra smooth cake if done properly. Don’t remove icing from the cake, simply allow the water and very gentle pressure to augment what is there into a perfect porcelain smooth surface. Clean the board and allow the cake to dry and then you are ready to decorate as desired.

39 (million) simple steps to making a great wedding cake! (Part One)

Last week I made a wedding cake for my parent’s 50th anniversary celebration. I thought I’d share some of the steps along the way. It’s really not that difficult to do, but messing it up isn’t that hard either. So here are some things I’ve learned over the years making wedding and special occasion cakes. Everyone has seen the beautiful cake that is a disappointment to taste, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Some people think cakes made from scratch are best, but I don’t agree. I start with a cake mix and add all the stuff it says on the box, just in a slightly different formulation.
It’s pretty simple really, two cake mixes, (I have always used Duncan Hines) six jumbo eggs, 1 cup canola oil (for chocolate I sometimes use a good olive oil) and 1 cup water. It makes a thick heavy batter that requires spreading in the pan. And I always add 1 cup applesauce to chocolate cake, you never really taste it (unless the apple sauce is too strong) but it does wonders for the texture and moisture content of a cake.
Spray the pans with baker’s joy and divide the batter between pans. In this photo I’m baking a 14 and a 6 inch round, so the two mixes work out perfectly.
Most people over bake cakes, they want a toothpick to turn out dry but that also means the cake will be dry. The better test is to keep a timer and watch a few key elements: first, if you open the oven door and the whole cake jiggles, it’s is not ready to be touched, very carefully get that oven door closed! If you lightly touch the cake and it leaves a dip, the cake is almost done but not quite. It should spring back when you touch it.
The cake will start to shrink from the sides of the pan and that is your second indicator. Use an oven thermometer and do your best to keep the temperature at an even 350 degrees. My oven is an old one and bakes a bit unevenly so that is one thing to keep in mind, sometimes one layer will be finished and the other one will not be.
If you want two layers inside your cake, then bake two layers for each tier. Some people use deeper pans and bake a large layer and then cut it. I know it’s more work and more baking time but I think the cake is better if baked in the 2 inch pans as opposed to the really deep pans.
When the cake comes out of the oven, immediately cover it with waxed paper and flip it on to a board.
Get the cake pan off as soon as you can and wrap the cake in plastic wrap, sealing it as much as possible. It is important that you don’t leave the cake out on a wire rack or allow it to dry out while cooling, this just makes a dry cake with a hard crust. Yuck!

As soon as it has mostly cooled the cake should be moved to the freezer. This will help to preserve the moisture content of the cake and make it possible to do things like bake a cake on a Tuesday and then serve it on a Saturday like I did.

More info and photos coming. Stay tuned.

Time to Celebrate!

I looked back over a few blog posts this evening and had to laugh a little at the diversity of my work this month. From roofing to a king sized quilt, and hundreds of bars of soap… That’s what I love about my work, never can tell what’s coming next!

One of this week’s special projects was a wedding cake I made for friends. I was really happy with how this one turned out. The cake had four tiers and two more tiers in the kitchen. Two were white cake with a white chocolate almond filling. Two were chocolate cake with crème de mint filling and two were banana cake. All three flavors turned out very nice and there were no end to the compliments. It is a little hard to see the swirl design in the photos but I was happy with how it turned out.
Tom and Rachel are a beautiful couple. More than that, they both possess a soft hearted compassion that is really something special. Their wedding was a beautiful treat!

As people gathered around them to cut the cake, the bride was looking over her shoulder at the cake. Then she found me in the crowd and mouthed “thank you SO much!” What a sweet sweet girl! And isn't her dress beautiful?! She had it made when she was recently traveling in Cambodia with her Missionary father. She looked incredible!