maracas – Paper Opera

We had the L.K. Sukany “Family Life Illustrations” art reception at Tea Bar and Bites art reception Thursday night. It was really fun and a lot of our friends and family came out – and some people from the Springfield community too!

There were some write ups on the event to promote it, which felt really fancy – especially on the KSMU Community Calendar.

The Damsels in Distress got together once again and played an all acoustic (no microphones even) show. We played acoustic guitar, mandolin, tambourine, maracas, glockenspiel, accordion, concertina, harmonic, and vocals.

The set list was: I do, The Statement, Arkansas, Girls Take Pills, Home, Gailey’s Mr. and Mrs. Campfire Song, D&D, I Like You, Candy Store, I Don’t Drive, Old Person Muses 40 Years Hence, Zero Field, Old Spanish Trail, Let Me Fall in Love, Sister, Home Sweet Home, Little Owl, Rare Red Rainbow, Fighting Hearts, French Song, Steven, and Neutron Rising.

Most songs can be heard on thedamselsindistress.bandcamp.com

The Family Life Illustrations can be viewed on the Paper Opera blog at paperopera.com/category/art/15-illustrations or at lksukany.wix.com/art/drawing

Thanks to everyone who came out to support our art and music!

I am working with Inktense pencils, Micron ink pens, and Canson Illustration 11×14″ 150lb art pad to create 15 illustrations (that is how many pieces of paper are in the art pad) of my current family life and inspirations.

This work is narrative in content and uses color in a monochromatic way accentuating one part of each drawing. These fun and quirky illustrations are a reflection of the current joy and activities I have been experiencing.

“Key of G” is a musical family portrait in the playroom. G was the first note our baby played on her Casio keyboard. I liked this drawing so much that I made it into E’s first birthday party invitations and thank you notes. It’s super fun with all of the patterns, shapes, and there is that party pink color again. I used Inktense Carmine Pink and Fuchsia blended. I never thought I would be a little girl pink promoter, but goodness there are so many cool things in pink!

Some of my favorite details of this drawing are the thread in a jar, the piano, the piano bench cushion pattern, M’s fun socks (completely made up), the rug pattern inspired by The Land of Nod,

the play kitchen with the triangles on the wall (which the pink triangle decals are from the Land of Nod and placed by Gallery Gal), our fun family musical portrait,

me playing accordion, E playing the maracas, Ein playing the jingle bells,

the fun pendant (that I designed and embroidered), table cloth triangle pattern, and flowers in the kitchen, M playing the concertina (Grandpa and Grandma Sugar gave us the concertina – thanks!),