Blog — Mallory Donen

art process

Kicking off the New Year!

I haven’t been posting much lately about my art practice and that’s mainly due to a busy last couple of months at my day job. This post will be short and simple, so that I can quickly share a few photos of some work that was wrapped up at the end of 2019.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe that the year 2020 has now started!

Pattern E (front view), 2019, acrylic, canvas, embroidery floss, 9.5 x 9.5 inches

Translation #5 - Cross-Stitch, 2019, embroidery floss, Aida cloth, 6 x 6 inches

Pattern E (back view), 2019, acrylic, canvas, embroidery floss, 9.5 x 9.5 inches

Translation #6 - Cross-Stitch, 2019, embroidery floss, Aida cloth, 6 x 6 inches


July 2018 - Update

  • Upcoming Show: Neither Here Nor There

  • White Rock Youth Mural Complete!

  • Paint by Number Series - Progress and more videos

  • Diane Arbus - Almost done

Neither Here Nor There

So excited for this upcoming exhibition which features an all female roster of artists! The artists showing include the following: Madison Tyrell, Sara Khan, Marzieh Mosavarzadeh, and myself.  I'll be showing work from Glitch Series 01, as well as potentially a few other works. The opening is next Saturday, July 7th at 3pm. But don't worry if you aren't able to make it that day, the show runs until July 20th. Plenty of time to go check it out! The South Main Gallery is located in Vancouver at Main Street and 6th East Ave. 

White Rock Youth Mural

WhiteRockYouthMural_threeparts.jpg

Great news! I'm happy to share with you the finished photos of the White Rock Youth Mural. It was a long process to get this thing completed, but it's finally done. This residential area between Finlay and Victoria street just got a little brighter. Take a gander when you're visiting White Rock Beach this summer and be sure to see it in person.

Paint by Numbers Series

Still trucking away on my Paint by Numbers Series of quilted paintings. I even made one while I was camping last weekend! It's a bit of a tedious process, but I'm starting to slowly see this body of work come together. The next step will be to start framing them! I'll continue posting videos where I will reveal the squares for each painting, if you haven't watched any check out the videos below for a peak behind the scenes of the selection process.

Watch me choose the next set of squares for Pattern #3, which is part of the "Paint by Numbers Series". The series of quilted paintings, further explore ideas from my thesis "I Come From a Long Line of Machines".
Watch me choose the next set of squares for Pattern #4, which is part of the "Paint by Numbers Series". The series of quilted paintings, further explore ideas from my thesis "I Come From a Long Line of Machines".
Watch me choose the next set of squares for Pattern #5, which is part of the "Paint by Numbers Series". The series of quilted paintings, further explore ideas from my thesis "I Come From a Long Line of Machines".

Diane Arbus

Stayed tuned for final photos of my cross-stitched Diane Arbus portrait, it should be completed by the next month's blog update!

In the meantime, here's a close up photo to show some of the detail in her face. 

September Update

Things have been super crazy while I've been getting ready for my two exhibitions coming up in October. Therefore this will be a short blog! Amongst all of the chaos I did manage to create some new art! I also recently finished a cross-stitch commission based off of an 8-bit video game called, Chrono Trigger.  

Linocut Tutorial

The video below is a step-by-step tutorial on how to create linocut prints.
From beginning to end I'll show you how my printmaking process comes to life.
Let me know in the comments section below if you have any questions! 

All of the prints you see in this video are pictured below
and are available for purchase at my Etsy shop.

Coming Home

My first year in the MFA program is almost complete. I will be home in two weeks and I couldn't be any more impatient. I find myself missing the mountains, especially since everyone from BC has been posting photos of the nice weather all over social media. This longing for the mountains inspired me to paint a landscape in my studio the other day. Here is how it all came together. 

I started by using a paint brush and india ink to create an outline of mountains, a lake, and some trees. I visualized a scene from my camping trip last summer in BC. Next I added line details using coloured micron pens. 

Coming Home, India Ink and Coloured Micron Pens on Bristol, 11"x14", 2016, Mallory Donen

Afterwards I scanned the above image using a flatbed scanner. I used Photoshop to generate the panorama landscape image below. 

It's amazing how much you can miss things from home that you often take for granted. Can't wait to come home and be reunited with the mountains. 

From the Studio to the Computer: Making Patterns

This semester I've had two courses that have kept me very busy with lots of reading. To be honest I haven't spent a lot of time in the studio. This is also due to the fact that I've been creating a lot of work from home on my computer using Photoshop. But the day before open studios I found some time to be in my studio and play with all sorts of different materials and processes. I decided to use this spare time to let go, relax, have fun, and experiment with whatever I had lying around.

I had some pre-mixed paint that I had been storing in some old tupperware containers for a couple months and I was going to clean it up. I then proceeded to use paper towels to scoop out the old paint. But instead of throwing out the paint, I used the paper towel similar to the way I would use a sponge to apply texture to several sheets of bristol. I also mixed some paint with crackle paste medium and used a palette knife to create shapes and textures on cardboard and card-stock. Lastly I ripped a small piece of canvas and collaged it onto a sheet of stonehenge with some of the paint and crackle paste.

Although I was creating with little intention, in the back of my mind I knew that I would be able to use these small pieces as sources to create digital patterns. The next day when everything had dried I scanned all the images using a flatbed scanner at the school. Below are the patterns that I created using the above experiments. Each source image precedes the patterns that were produced using that image. 

Patterns really can be created out of anything and everything. The world is my oyster! I'm feeling so inspired these days and I don't see it ending any time soon! 

- Mal