Lily S. May–Life with Art
I'm back again after bouts of recurring illness over the past few months. I'm doing well now. Below are are few images of where I've been and am now. First, there's the great mask of one of the giant Night of Dread puppets from October 26th this year. Next are two mixed media monoprint masks… Continue reading Returning
I'm writing this as the assault on the Palestinians in Rafah intensifies. While sorting through some of my past work, I came upon a mask I made maybe 20 or 30 years ago. I made a mould, then made several versions of it. Here are 3 of the versions--2 made with layers of brown paper… Continue reading Paper Translations
The Night of Dread has been a wonderful event in Toronto for many years. It's an event held to face fears, to mock and banish them. On October 29th, the 23rd annual pageant put on by Clay and Paper Theatre returned after a two year hiatus during the pandemic. My husband and I paraded among… Continue reading The Return of The Night of Dread
Here's a recent sketch of a bespectacled papier/paper maché mask that I made in the 1990s. It's 7" high and is dangling from a lamp in the living room. Drawing--Papier/paper maché mask, Lily S. May artsofmay.etsy.com
I've been thinking about the way I tend to work. Perhaps a good metaphor is the process of meandering in that I work in several media and wander among different ones as I move along. I used to criticize myself for this as if sticking with one medium was the only way to be a… Continue reading Meandering
When the number of active covid cases has been high during the pandemic, I have ordered art supplies and groceries either for delivery or curbside pickup. And during these 2! years, I have accumulated MANY paper bags and paper used to cushion items in the mail. For a long while I kept thinking about recycling… Continue reading Papier/Paper Maché Masks
I've continued making contour drawings this past week. Most of these have been blind contour drawings. Blind because you don't look at the paper while drawing unless you wind up at the end of a contour or off the page. You follow the lines of your subject slowly with your eyes while your pencil or… Continue reading Ahab Mask
I've spent a few weeks seeing if I could come up with a plan to turn two paragraphs of my writing into a linocut--the actual words, that is. At first the plans had little grace, then the reality of carving so many letters felt stifling. A few words here and there is something I enjoy,… Continue reading Box Mask Print
Last night I attended one of my favourite events in Toronto, the yearly Night of Dread gathering and parade. Clay and Paper Theatre puts it on. They are the creators of enormous papier mache puppets and of theatre that aims to change the world. The theme is always a night of mocking fears to put… Continue reading Night of Dread
I continue turning some of my old prints into origami booklets. And, as so often happens, I've been changing the work in ways I didn't first set out to do. I tried a few booklets with simple collages of some poetry I've written. Then, this morphed into bits of writing about the weather or a… Continue reading Reading Old Prints, 2
Arts of May 