109: Marta Harvey Tessellations

Mom and I had the great pleasure of chatting with Marta Harvey.  Marta has participated in #CarveDecember for many years and her tessellations have gotten more and more impressive every single year.  On the podcast we discuss the tessellation lesson she has put together for the upcoming #CarveDecemberClass as well as her journey as an artist (hint: she had to raise her family before she could really get started). 

Meet Marta Harvey:

Originally from Portugal but now living in the Boston area, Marta loves to draw and design patterns.

She creates hand-carved blocks that she then uses as a starting point for her art.

Each hand-carved block creates a unique pattern, ranging from simple iron-work inspired patterns to complex tessellations varying from flowers and leaves to whimsical animals.

Marta says: “I hope you enjoy my art as much as I enjoy creating it.”

Some things we discuss on this episode:

• what makes someone an incredible teacher
• art as a business
• MC Escher, and in particular, this print:

Also, Marta sent me this information after the podcast:

“My first tessellation (the one that took days):

I learned stamp carving around 2006/2007 in one of the Yahoo groups I was mentioning; we were working together through Gloria Page’s book “Art Stamping Workshop”.

This is the next tessellation, created while going through your book (Carve Stamp Play):

This is what I meant by having to create 2 stamps as one of the shapes is the inverse of the other. I think I used this online tool to get the tessellation shape.

And here are some of the ATCs where I experimented with lots of different techniques – just so you have an idea of what I was talking about.

Fun to see some of the carved stamps – the flowers on the top left and right, and one of the first continuous patterns I created on the bottom right.”

Find Marta Online:

• Instagram: @martaharveyart 
• Website: martaharveyart.com 

Our Recommendations from this episode:

• Julie: Yeti C