a family collaboration

My husband Andy and I (and Lucy) have continued to collaborate on all kinds of creative projects and back in the fall we started another large painting and have been slowly working on it- setting aside time for family painting sessions. We bring the video camera out to the garage and let it records hours of our work. It's really chaotic, super messy, sometimes challenging but always lots of fun! We are almost done with out latest painting (just a couple more sessions left) and I have put together a fun little peek into our process!


collaborate from Alisa Burke on Vimeo.

For more of our collaboration you can visit HERE

the art of collaboration

My husband Andy and I are different in just about every single way but some how we manage to always come together in the best of ways. This last year- with the baby, the move and the challenges that occur when you make big changes- we've had to learn and re-learn how to be partners. Spending all day every day as stay at home parents, business partners and a married couple is hard work and it takes a lot of compromise. We are still figuring it all out and most days we drive each other CRAZY but we are slowly getting accustomed to our new normal. 

The most profound change that has come from this transition is discovering how great we are at collaborating with each other. From parenting decisions to to business decisions to daily stuff, it turns out we can come together with our individual strengths and make great things happen. Lately we have taken our collaboration even farther and started making more art together and collaborating on art can be challenging! You have to give up some of the control, trust one another, give each other room for expression and somehow find common ground. But if you can pull it off- the creative process takes over, you are able to problem solve together, your differences blend together, there is laughter, peace and the calm that comes with losing yourself in the simplicity of creativity. Before you know it- you've made magic!

This painting is for our bedroom and something we have been planning for the last few months- a large piece that brings together both of our creative strengths. We reserved a couple of days, set up a camera, pushed record and captured hours of our life and the process of working together (even Lucy got in on the action)! While I have hours of footage (and the painting is still being worked and reworked) here is a small peek into our collaboration

Alisa and Andy COLLABORATION from Alisa Burke on Vimeo.

big and messy

Lately I have been sharing some of my own personal art that I have created to hang on our walls see here, here, here. As I mentioned in previous posts, I like BIG statement art that can be hung in places that pull your eye in or create a dynamic focal paint. A while back when we were organizing and updating our bedroom we went back and forth between purchasing a headboard.

After giving up- because I'm cheap, I decided that a great colorful piece of canvas may be just a good as a headboard. I didn't want any images, words, patterns- just lots of messy color. Never underestimate the beauty of a really good messy painting it can add that pop of color or even an element of abstraction to your walls.

I started by first stretching my own really large canvas- about the width of our king size bed. (I talk more about stretching your own canvas in this post)

Next I start slopping paint on the surface- this is the fun part because there are no rules, no right or wrong, just good ol' messy fun.

I blend color, I drip, drizzle, splatter all over the surface and let things dry in between layers so that the color won't get muddy.

The process is quick and expressive (perfect for blasting some good music while working).

And result is beautiful messy statement piece!

(Important note- because we live in Southern California and we experience way too many earthquakes and because my husband is a structural engineer who does earthquake testing for a living we bolt the big art to the wall- especially if it hangs over the bed! The last thing you want to to wake up to is a large painting on your head!)

BIG scrappy painting

I have been in the midst of organizing and cleaning my studio (its been a while and desperately needs to be done!) and after lots of work I ended up with a GIGANTIC pile of fabric scraps. While I am pretty organized with all of my scraps- I tend to keep just about everything that is fabric and it was time to scale it down a little. I had the idea to use all those scraps to create wall art inspired by the vibe of my new book- Sew Wild so I made a BIG painting full of all my leftover scraps that had the look of a quilt but without the sewing.

I painted over an old painting that I had created a while ago on a huge piece of wood. Side note- I love painting on wood almost as much as I love painting on canvas.

Instead of using glue or gel medium (which definitely could be used) I actually used paint as my binder. This is something that I have been doing since college when I wanted to add collage elements to my paintings.

I covered my surface with a nice generous layer of white house paint and then stuck my fabric to it.

If you don't sew or don't have the time to sew this is a great way to create quilt inspired art without pulling the sewing machine out.

I used all kinds of scraps in different colors and patterns, scraps of my handmade fabric, leftover scraps from my latest book project, scraps of painted canvas, scraps of recycled fabric...scraps, scraps, lots and lots of fabric scraps (at least they are not taking up space in my studio).

Once the surface was completely covered I add swipes of white paint and some drizzles and drips here and there.

Why? Just because I love to add a little element of messy and because it felt like the right thing to do :)

The end result is a huge piece of art that looks like fiber.

Of course, once again this guy just couldn't stay out of a photo!

creating large paintings full of text

Whenever I post photos of my living room (like I did earlier this week here) I get lots of inquiries about the painting that hangs above our couch. So I thought I would share a little bit about the process.

When it comes to art hanging on the wall in our home you might be surprised to hear that I like clean and simple lines, almost minimal but big, very big statement pieces. Since I spend a lot of time creating and teaching messy techniques full of layers and drips I think when it comes to my living space I need a break and want something simple for my eyes :)

Our living room is all white with accents of color and those accents (typically pillows and rugs) have changed over time.

When we renovated and moved into our home three years ago I decided I wanted a really large canvas as a statement piece to hang over our couch with text being the subject matter. In my opinion, words, letters and text can be so beautiful and interesting as the focal point of a painting and often can stand alone.

We selected out favorite E.E. Cummings poem and I used raw and unstretched canvas that I first primed with white house paint (I often use this in place of gesso). I let it dry and then went to town writing out the poem- and believe or not I used black shoe polish to write with- one of my favorite supplies when working and writing on canvas to get nice lettering.

I let some of the words continue off the edges so that is wasn't too perfect but more gave the illusion and spirit of poem.

The last step was to stretch it onto a frame to hang on the wall.

Instead of using stretcher bars, my husband created a really nice wood frame for me stretch my painting on.

Since creating this painting, I get more requests from friends and family for something similar for their walls so I have created numerous text paintings on paper, canvas and even wood (see above) with poems, quotes and lyrics.

The key (in my opinion) to a statement painting with lettering is going big and the bigger the better!

So I thought I would include an excerpt from a video lesson for my Graffiti Chic Part 2 online class (much of the class is all about working really large). In the video I talk about different surfaces and options when starting to work big- it will give you a little more behind how that painting in the living room was created and other options when creating a statement piece.

large surfaces from Alisa Burke on Vimeo.

And for those of you that are not aware of how to stretch a canvas I have included a section from my book Canvas Remix where I stretch a small canvas- but stretching a large one is done the same way :)

Ok...now go create something large!