Baker's Mark

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Natalie Baker
Stitch, 2010
Screen print, 22”x30”
$80 

In the past couple days my sister and I have been giving serious thought to opening up our own Cupcake/Bakery Business. This idea has really gotten me excited and tons of ideas flowing. Now, I know the cupcake business isn’t an original idea but we definitely have something original going for us. I mean, come on, we are sisters and our last name is Baker, couldn’t be more perfect!! I have also had a passion for baking my whole life and with my up and coming graduation I am going to have to do something with my life… so why not?? This might just become a new endeavor for me and my sister. My parents are really excited about the idea as well. Again, a family of ‘Baker’s’ opening up a Bakery..Brilliant I’ll say! We are thinking we would start up near the Texas State campus in San Marcos since HeyCupcake already has a strong hold in Austin but maybe eventually we would become stiff competition for them. Who Knows, this is all hypothetical/dreamlike at the moment but it’s really gotten me riled up.

Well, this thing is definitely interesting! I had some good luck with it. I first chatted with this super cool guy from Norway. Then I also chatted about American muscle cars with this guy from Holland. I like the idea behind it because it just connects you randomly to other people around the world and you can decide to chat with them or just hit next and it connects you with someone else. Now, there are a fair share of creeps that just want you to watch them jack off but when you sift through those people there are actually some down to earth people on there to chat with. I’ve attempted to chat with some people in another language because they didn’t know much English but my french skills did not come through for me and getting a Google translator was too slow. Overall, I like this thing that I have been hearing repeatedly about. There is a certain amount of thrill to it :)

This was my first test print that I completed so my screen printing on the bird looks way better on the other prints (this one is a little salty) I really like the way they turned out.

For the past two weeks I’ve been hacking away at a 3’x4’ piece of wood to carve an image of a peacock. I’ve done woodcuts before but never close to this scale. I had to work in the wood shop because the tools I had were dwarfed in scale and they have larger ones in there to use with a rubber mallette. Yesterday I finally completed all the carving and bought my extra large paper to print it. I was determined to get it done and did it all on my own. I used this large ink roller to ink up the wood block and then put it on the press and carefully laid my paper on top and ran it through the press. Then repeated this process 6 times. Woooo I get all exhausted thinking about it again. After all this I could barely stand because my legs were quivering in exhaustion. But here is the final result after all my hard work. This is not the final final result I want because I am going to go in and do some color screen printing and also some water color in each feather. Will keep you updated on the end result in the upcoming week.

This was kind of an experiment for me to explore a different way of creating a topographic surface and also used for a glaze test. I think it looks way better photographed then it does in person. I would really like to make a bunch of these and fill a whole wall.

I’ve been having a really rough past couple weeks and for those who know me well are aware of what I am talking about.

This past Saturday I had a a good day and something positive to look forward to, the opening of my Senior Art exhibition for graduating Studio Art majors at the University of Texas at Austin. My family was in attendance and I know they really enjoyed seeing my other fellow colleagues work as well as my own. You know, they got to brag and tell my life story to strangers…gotta love ‘em.

Here is the piece I had on display. It is a ceramic sculpture about the population of Austin, TX in the year 1988 (year I was born) It is sectored in pieces that coincide with the separation of Austin by IH-35 and Lady Bird Lake. The multiple pieces form a topography with the representation of different densities in relation to the population.

This is the piece in its Bisque state (after first firing but before glaze firing)

This is me with the piece installed at the show after its Glaze Firing

I apologize I do not currently have a detailed photo of the piece on its own.

Coming Soon.