Movie Project in the News

I spent over an hour telling the earnest twenty one year old reporter my life story. She heard about my transition to computer design, and how I was inspired to tell this story of Scottish migration to our new world of America.

A young photographer came to my stall at the Market. Neighboring vendors were amused as I posed for an extensive photo shoot around the van. The final photo here shows me at the back of my van with 'Of Scottish Descent' t-shirts. The youngsters who wrote the article and took the photos both have very Scottish names. Fiona Riley and Andrew McCabe are examples of Americans of Scottish and Irish descent. Thanks to Alexandria Times for this article. It was the Times which introduced me to my subject, William Gregory, in their 'Out of the Attic' article from 2015, early in the project.

After the interview I waited with bated breath for about two weeks. Finally the Times newsletter was e-mailed and there I was on the front page! You can read it by clicking the orange button. [The image above is not how the front page looks. I made a collage of images from the article.]

I hope you will watch my 25-minute film, the culmination of over seven years of work! Click the button below.

Watercolor paints! I did learn watercolor in my Arts major class in German high school when I was 16. And I did paint in oils for my art degree at VCU. Lately most of my artistic endeavors have been ink drawings for t-shirts and simple watercolor for my card designs. At an Art Swap event I got two lovely watercolor books, one on gouache, or opaque watercolor. With these books, I have been learning techniques that no one showed me before, and ideas I never thought of. I got watercolor paints at the Art Swap too, and went out and bought new gouache, paper, and brushes. I have been having fun trying out new techniques. Shown here is my recent gouache painting called "Boats on the Potomac." I had it at the recent street fair, Art on the Avenue, where it promptly sold.

The photo shows me in my new painting space in the basement. I added a small table so as not to have to move the sewing machine every time I want to paint. There is still a fair amount of shuffling around, but it is nice to have a dedicated painting space. This reminds me of Virginia Woolf's book, 'A Room of One's Own.'

Ellen Hamilton

In early October my neighborhood has a massive arts festival which draws thousands of visitors. Many of the vendors I know are there. It is an all-day bonanza of people finding their favorite hand-crafted items. We vendors spend weeks preparing our inventory. I printed up shirts, bags and more. We had beautiful weather, and despite the recent layoffs, sales were brisk.

New Shirts for Alexandria's West End

My Alexandria shirts for Autumn were depleted at Art on the Avenue. So I ordered long sleeved shirts in blues and reds, and have printed a new batch for the holiday season.

With my watercolor brush strokes I made a background pattern for my new Alexandria cards. I came up with four versions of the card for a 4-pack with tan and blue envelopes.