ArtiphyTheHeart

New Year, New Stuff....

 

...Paris--For Theme Thursday:

Some scribbles in one of my journals after a day of flipping through books on graffiti at Barnes and Noble.

Drawing--Quote No.1:

"If you're creating artwork, it's always about the drawing.  Always." --Hippie drawing Prof. at ASU in the '70s whose name I can't remember, but it doesn't matter because he was quoting someone else whose name he couldn't remember...  

What he was trying to get across to us was that even if you're making a sculpture out of two sticks and a piece of string and you've never touched pencil to paper, everything created is always drawn in your mind before it's created, even if so instantly that you don't recognize it.  There is no art without visualization.  Ever.  And drawing is about seeing, not motor skills.

Drawing--Quote No.2:

"A successful drawing is one that appears on paper exactly as your mind's eye pictured it" --Same Prof., again quoting someone else...

Q. But what if it turns out better than I pictured it?  

A. Then what you have is a less successful drawing that accidently looks better than your mind's eye knows how to picture.  Solution: Practice drawing AND seeing.  

Working In Books (as opposed to "workbooks"...):

At the moment there are five books I am working in.  The Paris page was done in a little hand bound book that I carry with me in my purse, always.  This book is filled with stuff:  drawings, scribbles, notes, lists, collages, glued abstracts, paint, pens, inks, crayon, pencils, watercolor, markers...ad infinitum.  I work on both sides of the page in this book.  It's bound with a variety of papers so that when I want to work in acrylic, I can.  When I'm just using pencil, there's a page for it.  When I want a colored background for gel pens, there are lots of those, too.  And watercolor paper, etc.

The other four serve different purposes; all I've bound by hand.   One of the collage journals is filled with acrylic backgrounds on one side of the page only.  Why?  I'm not sure, but there's something in the back of my mind brewing for the other sides of these pages.  Probably a description.  Anyway, I can use a box cutter and remove pages from this book when there's one I want to make a print of, and I don't have to worry about what's on the other side.

Another one is specifically for work I'm doing in A Life Made By Hand.  

Another one is a chronology.  I do a page every day, or every few days, in chronological order.  I don't skip around in this book and I date the pages.  Later on, this one will give me an idea of what I was up to in 2010.  

Oooops, I said five.  Not true.  There are seven.  The other three are unfinished working journals. I use these to try out new ideas and new techniques.  

I also do lots of things outside of books.

Less and More in 2004 2010:

I liked 2004 better because it rhymed.  Oh well.  Here are some things I'd like to spend my time doing more of, and others that I'd like to do less of.  This is as close to New Years resolutions that I'll ever come:

More:

Drawing

Glueing

Writing

Painting

Abstract compositions

White space

Playing

Getting serious

Laughter

Time with family and friends

Reading

Music

Focus

Organic

Less:

Non-productive time online

Rushing around

Time spent suffering fools

No:

Additives

Preservatives

Hormones

GMAs

I can already see that this will be a prosperous year, as the "mores" far outweigh the "lesses" and the "nos".

Here's what I'm up to at the moment...

Reading Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain, Thomas Foster's How To Read Literature Like A Professor, and Thomas Pynchon's The Crying Of Lot 49 (all of them Tom's? ...very curious, indeed!)

Listening to Soft Machine's Six, and National Health's Tenemous Roads

Drinking tea (some things never change)

Watching HBO videos of The Flight Of The Conchords

Getting ready to celebrate Russian Christmas (old calender) tonight with friends of the family

Guest hosting for Mixed Media Monday next week, so stop by and submit some artwork!

Have a great New Year, Everyone! One great day at a time!

On The Fifth Day Of Christmas...Ornaments!

For T!m's 12 Tags of Christmas, Inspire Me Thursday, One Powerful Hour and Wednesday Stamper...

 

Making It Work...

There were so many elements to this tag, and since I make it a practice never to shop in the middle of a project and instead use the things I have on hand, tons of substitutions were needed to make this work.  You might want to take a look at T!m's tag and then come back to mine so you can note the differences, but I'll describe what I did differently in detail below. 

The Ornaments...

I had much more fun than expected making the ornaments, and that says a lot, because I knew they'd be a blast!  Santa was first, and I made sure that he was all decked out in the traditional red and green. This particular Santa required a larger fragment than the one T!m used, so the ornaments took up more space on my tag, than his did, but I think I like that!  All images used for the ornaments are stamps, and all but the three trees which are from PSX, are from the Stamper's Anonymous mini holidays collection.  The charms made from the fragments alone would make great tiny gifts, as would the tag itself!

The Background...  

About the only things I really wish I'd had on hand were the white Mambly rub-ons that T!m used for the sentiment on his tag, and the gorgeous flourish stamp that he uses so often.  But all-in-all, I'm happy with this tag, and now I know what to do with the set of idea-ology fragments that had been sitting in my stash unused for such a long, long time!

Using What I Have On Hand...

Except for the inks, most of my tag employs substitutions for the products that T!m used, simply because his exact items were not in my stash.  But I did follow his design and techniques almost to the letter.  Whenever possible, I use a Ranger product as a substitute because they're made to coordinate so well, but as you can see, I've used lots of other things, too.  Here's the list of my improvisations:

• I inked the Hero Arts manuscript background stamp in walnut stain distress ink and used it in place of the script stamp that T!m used.
• As I said, I'd love to have T!m's flourish stamp, but since I don't, I used some rub-ons from a K&Company set.  
• I used the pine bough from Stampers Anonymous mini holiday set as a substitution for the stamp that T!m used, but I followed his technique.  I didn't have the exact colors, so I used embossing powders that were already in my drawer.  For the green, I sprinkled on a combination of Ranger's evergreen, and peeled paint Distress powder, and sprinkled a line of tea dye Distress powder for the bark.
• "Joy" was handwritten with a water-based Sharpie paint pen.  I sprinkled it with DecoArt's glamour dust before it was dry and voila!  It stuck, and it glimmers!
• The sizes of fragments I used for the ornaments differed from T!m's because of the images I selected, but the product was the same.  Santa was colored with watercolors and red marker, an off-brand of green glitter glue (I hated it!), and red Stickles (Must have Stickles!).  

Everything else was done using the same products and techniques that T!m used.  I can't help repeating how valuable it is to follow someone else's steps using the same supplies they use when learning something new.  You can always make adaptations later, and as necessary, but initially, learning from the master's hand using the master's tools is the best!

Now I'm Off To...

Get to the store and back before the next storm arrives

Cook for my family

Put some music on!

And share a "crafty" video with you before I go....

!Caution!...

Do not watch this if you are offended by strong language!

"GangstaCraft" is funny!  But if you're offended by, as Bridget (aka Scissas) puts it "potty mouth language", then skip it!  Personally, I think it's a hilarious parody!  But if you're offended by language then please just pass it by.  And if the little ones are around, please skip it until you're sure they're out of ear-shot!  Now that you've been duly warned, if you choose to watch, Enjoy!

I must say that it was a little eye opening that I actually have experiece with EVERY item mentioned!  

Have a great day, Everyone!

Surprise! Another Tag...

...For T!m's 12 Tags of Christmas, Inchy By Inch, Soartful, Inspiration Avenue, and One Powerful Hour...

 

So Much Fun...

OK, this was by far, the most fun I've ever had making a tag!  And not only did I have to use my imagination and improvise quite a bit since I never shop while making a project and always use what I have on hand to complete it, but I even got one of the steps entirely backwards, and it still turned out so well that I have fallen in love with it!

Charming...

And isn't that little charm just the most adorable thing you've ever seen?  It reminds me of a festive house, warm and cozy and all decked out for the season!  Definitely makes you nostalgic to be home for the holidays!  If you look very close and very carefully (click to enlarge the photo of the tag above), you might be able to make out the word "wish" which is just a whisper of script over the top of the Christmas tree inside the charm.  Certainly appropriate, because after all, what's Christmas without wishes?  

And This Is "Note"worthy...

Now take a close-up look at the back of the charm.  Nothing is left unfinished.  Inside is a snippet of a song, because what's Christmas without gloriously sung carols?  But truth be told, I have a love-hate relationship with Christmas music.  So much of it is beautiful and heavenly, and so much of it is boring, repetitive, gratuitous and common -- overplayed and over-rated, which is why we make our own mixes at home and play just what we like throughout the season!  

Using What I Have On Hand...

As always, I'll direct you to T!m's blog so that you can see what he did and how he did it.  As for me, since I never shop during a project and always use what's in my stash, here's a list of my improvisations:

• Thank goodness I had that set of stamps from Stamper's Annonymous, otherwise I don't know how I could have even come close to the way this tag turned out.  But I don't have many any re-inkers, and I don't have a sheet of cut-n-dry felt, so I had to improvise here.  Instead of inking up the felt and making a custom stamp pad (which is definitely on my list of things to do in the future!), I was very comfortable inking the stamp itself with Marvy dye markers, which I do have in plentiful supply.  This was a great solution, especially since I really didn't have an immediate use for multiples of this stamp in color.  So I colored the part of the image I wanted, breathed on it to re-moisten it just before pressing, and stamped!  
• I used a K&Company rub-on for my word "wish" instead of a word cut out and pasted.
• Ooooops!  I got T!m's instructions backwards for stamping the tag.  Instead of stamping with black archival ink and then coloring the background with distress inks, I colored first and stamped over.  Not a problem.  It works either way.
• I have only 3 stickles (*sniffs back a tear*), but picket fence is one of them, and it worked perfectly to create snow and icicles on the roof of the charm when I squeezed it over a teeny bit of titanium white acrylic paint applied with a toothpick. 
• I was lucky enough to have the frames, the glass, and the memory capsules in my stash.  I even have a selection of Barbara Trombley's fabulous glass glitters, but alas, none of it is "clear".  So I had to improvise, and once again, I love how it turned out!  I used a tiny smattering of Suze Weinberg's iridescent Zamora beads (which generous Carol gave me for free as she scooped them up from the floor of her shop after I broke the jar--clumsy, butter-fingers me!), along with a few speckles of silver glass glitter, just for the charm and sparkle.  The iridescent beads are awsome!  They play off the lights beautifully and don't occlude the background image.

I think that everything else I did was done from T!m's instructions, which is fabulous because there's so much to be learned in using someone else's techniques along with the products they're actually using.  Even if you'd rather use your own stash and methods for projects at hand, it's valuable to accumulate stores of information and experience from the heads and hands of other artisans which can be applied to pieces of your own work in the future.  I know I said this very same thing in yesterday's post, but really, it is worth repeating.

Now I'm off to...

See what needs to be cleaned-up after last night's desert hurricane.  The rain was driven horizontally by 75mph winds, and this lasted for hours!

Infuse myself with lots more caffeine to stay awake through the afternoon and evening.

Forget about cooking and let everyone make their own soup and sandwiches tonight, 

While I make more tags!!

Have a great day, Everyone!

3-a And 3-b...

...For T!m's 12 Tags of Christmas, Lots To Do, Saturday Surprise, and Wednesday Stamper...

3-a:

Have I mentioned how much fun I'm having taking my in-studio vacation to make T!m's 12 tags of Christmas?  On day three he made two tags.  The one above and the one below are my interpretations of T!m's examples and instructions, using what I had on hand to make them both.

3-b:

 

If you want instructions for making the tags, you'll need to get them from T!m's blog.  You'll also need to see T!m's tags to understand what I did differently, for comparison and contrast.  I've listed my adaptations below: 

Using What I Have On-Hand...

• As much as I would love to have them, I do not own a distress ink stamp pad or re-inker in "soot", which was needed to color the tags.  I substituted washes of sumi-e ink, but I suppose you could use black watercolor washes as well.  
• T!m used washers and brads to attach the worked images to his tags.  I'm absent washers, so I set some nailheads instead, then used the studded hammer tip of Ranger's texture hammer (LOVE this tool!) to rough them up a bit.  
• Alas, I do not own the glorious trees stamp that T!m used, but last year I carved my own tree, so I pulled that out of my stash, masked the image to layer it, and created my forest on 3a.  
• On both tags, I substituted a Rhona Farrer flourish for T!m's, and on 3a, I used Hero Arts "dot pattern" for the negative image snow flurries instead of the stamp that T!m used.
• My metal "Joy" charms are, well, not metal at all.  I used 120# kraft, die-cut the circles and embossed the larger ones, giving each of them separate washes of metallic Japanese ganzai paint.  You could use perfect pearls just as easily, I'm certain.  I antiqued the edges with Ranger's walnut distress ink and used a Micron pen to write "Joy".

I think that everything else was done from T!m's instructions, which is fabulous because there's so much to be learned in using someone else's techniques along with the products they're using.  I think that even if you'd rather use your own stash and methods for projects at hand, it's valuable to accumulate stores of information and experience from the heads and hands of other artisans which can be applied to pieces of your own work in the future.  

A Hint Or Two...

Somewhere along the line, T!m makes a point to say that "it's all in the details".  This phrase should be listed as one of the supreme life-lessons for artists.  As with all projects of artistic merit, paying attention to the little things makes all the difference in the world.  I tell my own students:  Be careful not to confuse acquiring the patience to do things precisely with being "fussy".  Paying close attention to detail is often the only line that's drawn between amateur and professional, and it is what will train you to do what you intend to do with ease.  

And one more hint (just because I'm feeling generous):  Never confuse "happy accidents" with "mistakes".  While true "happy accidents" are sometimes encountered -- often leading to wonderful new discoveries, "mistakes" on the other hand, are neither "happy", nor "accidental".  They are sign posts that read:  "more practice needed".  

If I ever hear another student whine and say something like, "I don't need to take this too seriously, it isn't like I'm going to be doing it for a living..." (and I will hear it, again and again...), I think I'm going to keel over and go mad!  In a nutshell, even if you're a hobbyist, an accomplished hobbyist is a happy hobbyist, and you can't be having fun if you're unhappy with your work.  Did you hear me use the word "perfect"?  Never!  "obsessive"?  You've got to be kidding!  I said "accomplished".  There's a huge difference here.  Accomplishment has everything to do with how you feel about your work when you've honestly assessed it, and it's that sense of well-being that drives us to artwork in the first place.  So there you go "n" and "n" -- you know who you are, LOL!  Some good advice that I hope will help you get even more enjoyment out of everything you do!

And thanks, T!m.  It really is "all in the details"!

Now I'm off to...

Put the finishing touches on a pot roast

Finish one of the books I'm reading and get back to The Time Traveler's Wife

Feed the dog

Put on some music, and

Make more tags!!

Have a great day, Everyone!

T!M Two...

...For Inspire Me Thursday's handmade holidays theme...

 

...On The Second Day Of Christmas...

Or should I say, the second day of my in-studio vacation (see yesterday's post), I came up with my interpretation of T!m's tag.  At the risk of repeating myself, I'll remind you that it's my policy not to run out to the store in the middle of a project for supplies.  I use what I have on hand, and if there's something missing that I feel I must have, it's added to a list for later.  That said, I'll go on to explain the differences between my tag and T!m's, but you'll have to get yourself over to T!m's blog to see the real deal, along with the generously detailed instructions he gives with his in-process photos.

My Substitutions...

Stamps:

I have only one set of T!m's acrylic stamps, along with a few wood mounted singles.  Not a Christmas theme among them.  So for the gorgeous frame that T!m used, I substituted a frame from Urban Lily's "little things" set of clear stamps, and for the flourishes, I used an acrylic from Rhonna Farrer's "swirls v:I" set.  Believe me, I am seriously lusting after the tattered elements frame from his collection!

Inks & color:

I used the reds and greens from my collection of distress inks, not exactly the same colors as T!m used, but in the same family.  My colors were shabby shutters, peeled paint, tattered rose and fired brick, and I substituted a mix of perfect gold and interference green Perfect Pearls for the antique golden color that T!m used to splatter on his tag.  

Metal:

I have no metal accents.  I love metals, but rarely use them as I have a slight nickel allergy and don't want to aggravate it.  I do keep thin sheets of metal on hand that can be snipped and embossed.   These can be worked easily, with little or no hand to metal contact.  To make my corners, I cut an inch square, embossed it with hand tools, cut it in half diagonally, snipped a triangle out of the middle, let it slightly overlap the corner of my tag, and folded the ends under to the bottom of the tag to secure.  The metal was a shiny gold color, so I antiqued it with alcohol inks:  Ranger's rust, and Pinata's burro brown, along with a touch of black Staz-on.  I used the same products on the metal flowers and brads which I found in my stash.  I have no idea who makes them.  I took a hint from T!m and snipped one of the flowers in half and glued it down with diamond glaze, making the partial flower at the bottom, underneath the other two.

Now I'm off to make tags 3a and 3b -- yes, there are two today, and if I get them done, I'll post them tomorrow.  So be sure to stop by later!  ...and I'll give you a *hint* -- we're making plaid!

Have a great day, Everyone!

Tim's Tags...

For Saturday Surpirse -- "Christmas in unconventional colours" theme

  

Tag--You're On Vacation!

Just havin' some fun, and LOTS of it!  Every year I collect Tim's tag recipes.  I have a binder full of them. But every year I'm just too busy to play.  I'm not letting that happen this year!  This year it occurred to me just how long it's been since I've had a vacation, and just how much I need one!  Can't go anywhere right now, so I'm taking my vacation in my studio--making Tim's tags!!  

Go Get It For Yourself!

If you want his instructions -- and who wouldn't? -- you'll have to go to his blog.  I'm not embedding a youtube, adding photos, nor am I going to say things like, "First Tim did "this", then he did "that"...and bore you to death over something that is not in anyway shape or form boring!  Instead, I will tell you a bit about what I did that's different.

Tim's Way and The Ranger Way...

What I take away from every conversation, every class, every online tutorial with Tim is twofold:  Tim's way, and the Ranger way!  These don't conflict.  They are two sides of the same, generously talented guy.  Tim's way is to show you how to use his ideas to spread your wings and have lots of fun and success.  The key word that repeats itself here is "explore".  You use what you have to create in new and exciting ways.  Don't have stickles?  Be creative.  Find something you DO have that will work instead and use it!  The Ranger way will show you how to use every Ranger product on the market precisely so that you get the most out of it and make your work sparkle in ways you couldn't have otherwise imagined. And of course to learn how to use Ranger products,  you should actually be using Ranger products, or how else would you know?

What I Do, and Do Not Do...

So here's how I've chosen to get the most out of this and come up with some spectacular and unique tags in the process:  I read through Tim's blog post, gather up the products he uses that are already in my stash, and look for clever substitutes for the ones I don't have.  I do not interrupt my fun by taking trips to the store!  However, if there's something I really like and think I can use in the future (there always is...), I'll put it on a list for later.  

What's Different?

Alas, I don't have many of Tim's stamps, so I used PSX's Brushed Snowflake 5, and some snowflakes from a set of Art Journey Christmas stamps (RAK'd from Willy).  Rudolph is actually "Rob the Reindeer" from JudiKins.  

I didn't have the stickles that Tim used for the icicles, but did have red and black stickles and used them for Rudolph's (aka Rob's) eyes and nose.  I do regret not having the icicle stickles, because while I love the range of light that DecoArt's brush-on crystal twinkles achieves, they don't hold their shape and tend to flatten out and spread very quickly.  Stickles rock!  They have body and the power to hold their shape, but can also be flattened and spread around if that's what you need.

I substituted Range's Crackle Accents for the Ranger brush-on distress crackle that Tim used.  It did the trick and gave stunning results, but it was a labor to squeeze out in quantity and work to spread it around with a popsicle stick.  Much easier and efficient to have what Tim used, but the final crystal crackle looks the same. 

Tim's tip on wiring ribbon makes me hoot with joy!  The sad thing is that it requires a heavy-duty artist's double-stick tape, not Scotch brand, which is too weak to hold the wire.  So I beefed-up my ribbon with an undercoat of Diamond glaze, exercised copious amounts of patience, and moulded it into shape.  It worked, but there's no question: I gotta get the right tape!!

I do have Grungeboard!  LOTS of it!!  And until now, I wasn't really sure what to do with it, so it sat in a drawer with some other DT stuff plus some other mystery products I've been given by advertisers over the years.  Stamping Rudolph (Rob) onto Grungeboard and embossing him with Ranger black made him easy to cut out.  Really easy.  And notice those antlers?  The detail?  I had no problem at all with that area being weak or frail as I snipped away.  Grungeboard rocks!  

I do have my share of Ranger's wonderful paint daubbers, but no white.  Plenty of acrylics, though, so I used a dampened fingertip and some titanium white to glaze the flourish behind my reindeer.  And about that flourish....Tim used one from his collection of Grungeboard flourishes.  Very lovely!  But I don't have any Grungeboard shapes.  So I freehand cut mine from a sheet of plain.  Like I said, Grungeboard rocks!  All that snipping detail, and not a bit of it weakened or lost to the cutting floor.  Strong and flexible.  Just like me!  (Hah!)

Now there is one other item that has me lusting and salivating.  That Dymo labeler of Tim's that writes in script!  LOVE that!  But my antique version worked quite adequately, so I'm not disappointed.  However, if you're wracking your brain for that perfect Christmas gift for me, and you haven't already purchased a Cricut Expression, then perhaps a Dymo labler with a script font?  Wouldn't want you to have to suffer over wondering what to get me, now would I?

Dr Who?

I realize full-well that I've just said "Tim" all through this post.  Don't tell me you're asking, "Tim who?" If you don't know who "Tim" is, then what the heck are you doing here?  OK, I'll be gentle.  If you're a newbie, or "otherwise" talented, then meet Tim Holtz.  Click on his name.  He's a great guy who hails from my old and frequent stomping grounds--Prescott, Arizona, and he is artist, craftsman, spokesman, and product demonstrator and developer par excellence for Ranger Industries.  Never heard of Ranger?  Unbelieveable!  Go to Tim's blog.  There are plenty of links.  

Now it's time to tell you what I'm up to next...

More tags!

A very late breakfast (Is it really 2PM?)

Another cup of tea to take off the chill

Another box of kleenex (tis the season *sniffle*) 

And some music!  For once, it's actually too quiet in here!

...And as always, there are journal pages, books, and a collage or two in the works as well!

Have a great day, Everyone!

THANK YOU, LAURA...I WON!! The Grand Prize...

...All Nine Sets of New Release Layers Of Color Art Stamps!!!  Wooo hoo!

Please bear with me!  I am so thrilled right now, I'm probably not making sense!  I just got an email from Laura of Layers of Color art stamps, saying I had won the first prize--all nine sets of her newest release stamps!!!  I cannot tell you how over-the-top thrilled I am, especially since it has been a dream of mine to own her entire collection!  These are stamps are some of the most beautiful, and the highest quality available anywhere, and each one is lovingly hand-drawn by Laura, herself.  You owe it to yourself to stop by the Layers of Color blog, or the store website, and take a look at these!!  There's a button on my sidebar that will take you there, or you can click the links in this post.

The card above was created using one of the LOC architectural block stamps.  Below is a collage of mine using the same stamp set in an altogether different way.  You can read about this collage by clicking HERE.

Thank you so much, Laura!!  This is a dream come true!!

It Takes A Woman...

...For Mixed Media Monday and Pointy Hats With Wings

 

A Funky Fairy...

Personally, I think my funky fairy began as one of Cinderella's ugly stepsisters.  But not all of us are beauty queens, and I think it's far more important to spend time mending broken hearts than to worry about one's reflection in the mirror, so she gets my stamp of approval in spite of her need for good plastic surgery, and rehab for her addiction to cosmetics and other fashion enhancements.  

What She's Made Of...

Layered acrylics, Pitt pens and manga brush pens, patterned papers, collage images from magazines, Nancy Baumiller (aka: Crowabout) and my personal stash, Cran d'ache NeoColor II, and Sakura white gel pen, glaze and souffle pens. 

What I'm Going To Do Now...

I'm in a rush to see part two of The Prisoner re-make.  If I suspend the urge to view it as a remake and choose to look at it as a stand-alone program, it's passable.  Although the attempted humor and propensity for taking everything all to seriously are so thoroughly Gen-X, that it makes one wonder if anyone under 30 or over 40 was ever within a mile of filming it.  But somehow I'm still hooked, or maybe "committed" is a better word.  It will NEVER replace McGoohan's Prisoner, and it makes me seethe every time I think of the derogatory comments made by the directors of the new version about the original--directors who clearly have no understanding of the era, the politics or the symbolism present in the BBC series.  Ignorance is not bliss.  But as part 2 of the remake is about to be broadcast, I'm off to view it.  So until my next post,

Be Seeing You...

Tick Tock...

...For Crowabout, Mixed Media Monday, Theme Thursday, Wednesday Stamper, Three Muses, and Pointy Hats and Wings

My fashionable (MMM theme) Zetti (WS theme) was made with images from Crowabout, and from my own private stash of patterned papers (TT theme).  And since the passing of time is a recurring theme in my dreams, it fits for the Three Muses theme, as well.

Tonight's post will be short and sweet.  I'm a little under the weather, and as it's always better to be on top of things than underneath them, I'll be calling it a night early, hoping for lots of rest and pleasant dreams.   I plan to hop into bed with the book I'm reading:  The Needle's Eye by Margaret Drabble, a glass of wine, and I'll try to catch an episode or two of the original Prisoner series on DVD before I drift off to sleep.  We're trying to finish the original series in the order they were made before the new Prisoner airs this weekend.  I must say, I'm not optimistic about the re-make.  From what I've been told, not much of it seems to even follow the original story.  Still, we're only a couple of episodes away from finishing the original, so it will be fun to have those fresh in our minds when we see what the studios have come up with on Sunday.

Stay well, and have a great day, Everyone!

Bringing Hope...

For Layers of Color, Mixed Media Monday and Pointy Hats and Wings

A Celebration...

In my opinion, one of the brightest spots on the web is also an online shop.  If you haven't visited Layers Of Color art stamps, you owe it to yourself to stop by and take a look at the gorgeous artwork that owner Laura Campbell lovingly puts into the stamps she sells!  And visit the gallery, too!  There is plenty of inspiration not only from the talented design team, but from customers as well!  This is the perfect time to do so, because if you visit right now, you can pick up all the details about the huge give-away that's coming up on November 14th and 15th in celebration of the release of nine new LOC original art stamp sets.  

The Collage...

I'm going to go into a bit of detail here so you can pick out the LOC stamps I used in creating this collage.  The background was painted with layered acrylics.  I recycled a piece of gift wrap tissue with script by adhering it to the surface with gel medium and then added successive layers of medium and acrylic paint over the top.  I buffed it smooth, and assembled my little party fairy using wings, hat and body parts from Lisa's Altered Art, a star from Sandra Evertson's Fanciful Paper Projects, and two different Layers Of Color architectural block stamps for the skirt and top.  I drew and painted the hand on a separate piece of paper, then cut and collaged it to the surface.  The sleeve was made using another one of the stamps from the LOC architectural block set, colored in-between with watercolor pencils.  I added the scrolling, flowery rub-ons from Heidi Grace, and as nice as they are, in retrospect, wish I had painted them myself by hand.  Lastly I laid-in the shading and the dots.  

Mixed Media Monday...

"Opposites attract" is this week's MMM theme, and what could be more attractive to a human than a tiny fairy bringing beauty and hope.  There are also the obvious opposites of color and contrast, handmade and mass produced elements, and rough and smooth textures.  

A Spot of News...

This is the only place on this blog that you'll hear about my next piece of news, so if you're interested, please read-on!  I've begun another blog.  It's a home on the web for the very satisfying cards and crafty pieces that I love to make to unwind at the end of a long day.  Early on, I tried to blend these pieces in with my other artwork and into this blog, and while this may have worked, it confused me, and some other artists who emailed me, wondering just what it was that I did primarily.  The answer was, and is, that I'm one of those rare-ish half-right, half-left brain people who's hemispheres are so equally balanced, that I find it just as easy and just as satisfying to make fine art on the one hand, and graphic design on the other.  I spent a great deal of my life drawing and painting and getting an arts degree, and just as much of my life writing and working with publishing layouts and graphic design.  As one graphic designer friend of mine put it, "You've joined the ranks of artists who get as much satisfaction from creating your own art from scratch, as you do from pushing around and arranging the elements created by others."  This is so true, and it describes me to a "T"!  So for my own peace of mind, and at least for the time being, you can find my arty cards and crafts at ArtyCardsNCrafts.  ArtiphyTheHeart will remain the place for everything else I do.  Maybe I'll even choose to post some of my drawing and painting in the future...we'll see... But for now, that blog will link back to this one, but this one will stand on its own.  

Asking A Little Favor, If I May...

If you decide to visit ArtyCardsNCrafts, or if you get there through a blog challenge I've entered, please take a minute to look at the list of links in that blog's sidebar.  My hope is that it will become the most comprehensive and up-to-date listing of card and craft challenges on the web.  So if you know of a challenge that is not listed on that blog, please email me with a link so I can add it to the list!!

And now I'm off to:

Have a late lunch

Catch up on some reading

Visit GoodReads, as my DD recommends it so highly,

Do a bit more tweaking and blog maintenence, and

Work on an art journal page, already in progress

Have a great day, Everyone!

The Seer...

... For Crowabout #58, Creative Catalyst #85, Created By Hand, and Theme Thursday

The Carnival...

We all know that there's a first time for everything, and often its the singular impact of those "first times" that set the stage for the "rest of the times" in our lives.  My first onset of bravery and outspokenness, together with the way it was handled by my parents, set the stage for a lifetime of not being afraid to speak my mind, but also taught me to think before speaking.  

The theme for this week's creative catalyst is "the scariest or most daring thing you've ever done".  Before I begin to tell you about my scary and daring moment, it's necessary to consider that bravery is a relative concept.  An act of bravery is dependent on many variables and factors.  It's relative to fear, time, place and perception.  So when I tell you about my experience, please keep in mind that I was five years old, attending my first fall carnival.  It was outdoors, Halloween night, pitch dark, and occurred at a time in history when parents weren't as afraid for their children as they need to be now.  For some reason, I found myself not quite lost, but temporarily separated from my parents, and holding a big bunch of tickets in my hand.  So I walked into the bright lights of the midway all by myself.

The Scary Thing...

In the midst of all the open games, there was a closed, draped, tent which was beyond my power to resist.  I had to know what was inside, so I parted the curtains and went in.  It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust, not only because it was much more dimly lit than the midway, but because the scene was in complete contrast to the noisy booths outside.  The walls and ceilings were lined and draped with multicolored silks, and glittering specks of light moved about the room.  Finally my eyes settled on the turbaned figure in front of me, eyes deeply shadowed, face lit from below the chin by the light of a glowing crystal ball.  At first I was too enchanted to be afraid, but then she grabbed my hand, at the same time taking about half of the tickets I was holding while she forced me into the seat at the table in front of her.  Then she proceeded to read my five year old palm.  I have no idea what she said to me.  All I heard was the deeply mysterious sound of her voice while I tried to look away from her shining face, but my eyes remained fixed.  Somehow I knew that this was exactly where I should not be, and as soon as she finished talking and let go of my hand, I tore out of the entrance and found my parents.  We stayed at the carnival another hour or so.  

The Brave Thing...  

Before I continue, there's something else you need to know about me at that time.  I was an only child, a bit shy, and I really spent my days just going with the flow.  I got along with everyone, and didn't push issues, throw tantrums or rebel against anything.   I didn't tell my parents about the fortune teller until just before we left, but they knew something had spooked me, and were waiting to give me the opportunity to say what it was before they asked questions.  As I told them the story, my feelings about it began to change significantly.  What had been my fear, converted into a sense of righteous obligation, and as we walked by the tent on our way out of the carnival, I dropped my father's hand and ran back inside.  The "gypsy" was bent backwards toward the exit, boxing up the decorations and entrapments, and I guess I startled her because she had a look of mixed surprise and anger on her face when she turned to look at me, but that didn't deter me.  I told her off.  Inside my brain, I was seeing the faces of kids I knew who were younger than I, and I told her she had no business scaring the beejeebes out of children and taking their tickets to buy things for herself.  She stood up and began a sentence: "You little...", but my dad had walked into the tent so she stopped.  He stared at her with stone, cold eyes while he took my hand silently and steered me back outside.  I thought he would be angry with me for running back in there like that and for talking to a grown-up that way.  But the only mention he made of it at all was once, in the middle of the ride home, he said, "Sad, how easily some people will abandon their freedom for the hope that someone will determine their future."  I don't think we ever spoke of it again.

The Seer...

As I was cutting up this week's collage sheet for the Crowabout group, the only thing on my mind was color.  I had painted the background a few weeks ago and it was perfect for the colors in the images.  It was while I was arranging the pieces that memories of the carnival and the fortune teller came back to me.  And I still think it's funny that I don't remember a word she said.  In fact, I remember distinctly that I wasn't hearing her the entire time she was speaking as she read my palm.  But I remember my father's words, verbatim.

Now I'm ready to

Brew another cup of tea

Finish filing collage images

Get back to work on a series of papers I'm designing

And try to stay awake (it was a night of interrupted sleep), and

Put some music on!

Have a great day, Everyone!

Autumn, Arizona Style...

...For A Prompt A Day and Saturday Surprise

 

It's more like spring than fall in my area of the Southwest, but the rusty colors of autumn are synonymous with cowboy culture.  Old, rusty hinges, tools and even spurs can be found all over the desert, and it doesn't take an archeologist to dig them up.  

Standing for something, and standing up for what you believe in is also part of the character of the old west, and something that is deeply rooted within me.  A few generations ago, Phoenix shed it's rodeo culture to become a mecca for tourists.  Sadly, the trade-off for development, economic growth, and an influx of dream-seekers seems to have been a an ethical one, and now, defending the dollar is a much more common argument than defending a principle.  I'd even venture to say that for many, simply defining a principle would be too great a task, let alone defending one.  Instead of cowboys, opportunism now hold the reins.

But leaving won't make it better, and this time of the year the weather turns the hell-heat of summer into a paradise.  Besides, you don't have to look too hard to find communities in Arizona where the old west is still alive.  However, you might need a trail guide to find them.  Not so much to locate the actual geographic destination, as in the past when you needed full day, a guide and a pack animal to get where you were going, but a guide to help you discern the true spirt of west, which unless you were born to it, you'll find it difficult to pick out from among the curios and latter-day fables that are sold to tourists like snake oil cures. 

So I'm staying put, at least for now.  And you can't fight progress--even when an economic evolution devolves a culture.  Some would call it a revolution, and maybe it is.  But instead of a helmet, my hat of choice is an inverted flowerpot energy dome.   I"ll bet Devo never guessed it would become the new Stetson.

Have a great day, Everyone!

Hair-Cut...

...For A Prompt A Day and Three Muses...

Beatrice, again...

In my last post I talked a bit about ceramist Beatrice Wood.  At the time I was working on that post, I was also painting backgrounds in a smaller journal with the idea of putting her on paper while I was out.  

I'm not sure I'd call Beatrice a "muse" exactly, but she's more than just an artistic influence.  I like her outlook and share her craving for freedom to create without the hypocrisy of, or judgements imposed by society at large.  She had an enviable ability to shun convention with graciousness.  At one and the same time, she was a seasoned professional and an innocent.  She lived her 105 years with about as much honesty as any of us can hope for.  And like Beatrice, I too have "a burning desire to be hugged".

Process...

Nothing needed to be added to this page.  But this morning when I remembered the Three Muses "Hair" theme, I thought I'd see what my muse looked like with a modified page boy, so I clipped her one from a piece of black paper and liked it enough to glue it down.

And now I think I need a nap.  It's been a long 20 hours.  

Have a great day, Everyone!

Cowgirl Ranch...

...For Crowabout, Pointy Hats and Wings, and Mixed Media Monday...

Beatrice...

Last night I watched a documentary on the famous ceramist Beatrice Wood, titled, "Mama of Dada".  If you can get your hands on this, you need to see it, and I'm told that the entire documentary is on the web, so I'm sure if you Google it, you might find it. 

Beatrice died at 105.  The film was made to celebrate her 100th birthday, and the interviews with Beatrice were done when she was in her late 90's, still working, and sharper and more alert than many of us when we are in our 30's.  Her artwork is sheer genius.  She was a true alchemist.  Her glazes are without equal--anywhere, anytime.  But it's her chosen mix of independence and self-discipline that speaks to me most clearly, and I believe that mix is the secret of her long career and her total presence of mind.

DADA...

Webster's defines Dada as: "A movement in art and literature based on deliberate irrationality and negation of traditional artistic values."  In reality, Dada cannot be defined, as labeling it as an art form of any kind would immediately classify it as something other than "Dada".  Dada is a mindset which insists on the license to create without the constraints of surrounding societies.  Beatrice's work is pioneering and classical at the same time.  Beatrice as an artist, and as herself, embodied the spirit of Dada like nobody else, exceeding even Marcel Duchamp with her intense combination of freedom and discipline.  

Tying It In With The Process...

The documentary played in the background while I worked with the Crowabout images, and I'd pause it from time to time and play parts of it back as was necessary while painting, drawing, cutting, glueing, and taking stretch breaks.  For me, placement of images and painted areas on paper often are made by shape and color, regardless of subject matter, although I am basically a storyteller when I create, and without thinking, I am thinking of scenarios and painting new ones in my head as I move ahead with what I'm doing.  So much of it is subconscious work, that when I declare a piece as finished, I let it "sleep" for a period, then go back to it and allow it to tell me what influenced it.  

Is there anything more self-disciplined and independent (read DADA) than a cowgirl?  There were other images on that sheet that I could have chosen, but this was the combination that my eyes and hands picked and placed, along with other pieces of ephemera, a child from Lisa's Altered Art, and additional paint and dots.  Now that I think about it, a cowgirl is probably the perfect combination of pinks and blues, and all the gradients in between, and while I think that idea was somewhat present at the time, it wasn't until I was finished that the symbolism took hold.

Beatrice said, "If I could sum up my life, I would say it was a burning desire for freedom and to be hugged."  My vision of Cowgirl Ranch is a place that provides a girl with both.

Now I'm off to:

Paint some pages in one of my handmade take-along journals to fill some down-time while I'm out this afternoon

Make sure I've packed a decent supply of pens and snippets

Choose a new "before bed" book to read tonight, and

Think about what we'll have for dinner

Have a great day, Everyone!

The Tooth(ache) Fairy...

...For Me, for Crowabout, for Three Muses, and for Pointy Hats and Wings

 

No Satisfaction...

Sometimes you're just not satisfied, and that's how I felt with my last collage, "Row C".  The puzzler was that I liked it to look at, it was definitely "finished", but I felt personally unsatisfied, like it got there without me.  After forgetting it while I worked on something else, I realized that it was nothing about the collage itself that bothered me, it was something personal.  It was about the process.  I felt cheated because the collage was finished and couldn't hold anymore, and I really wanted to play with pens and inks and paints on top of something.  So I just had to do something else, and that's how The Tooth(ache) Fairy was born. 

What I Did About It...

I chose one of my simpler layered acrylic under-paintings to begin with so that I could indulge my urge to doodle without the distraction of a multi-colored background, then I mixed some pink and started painting.  First a border, then some funky flowers.  Then I grabbed my tiniest black Micron and filled in part of the bottom with a million tiny ovals and circles.  Then came dots, circles, squares, an object here, an object there, some rub-on numbers and stars.  Before I printed him, the doggie was enlarged and adjusted in Photoshop as high contrast screen tones, and was given a pale-pink wash, which I later intensified in areas with a couple of Prismacolors.  His heart (Lisa's Altered Art) was too red, so it got a dusting of pale pink pencil to tone it down.  I created the box body of the fairy from items in Crowabout's collage sheet and glued on an altered pointy hat, then some wings (Lisa's Altered Art, again).  The arm was the last thing I added.

In Search Of A Home...

Here's a true confession:  I don't enjoy making things just to illustrate themes.  It feels like work. Probably because a lot of the work I do in real life involves illustration.  Even teaching art revolves around illustrating themes and concepts, and I now just want to create from what's inside of me.  That's why now, when I design commercially, I choose to design for vendors of products I use, and I do this for the express purpose of using their products in my artwork rather than illustrating a product itself.  It's their products shown off to advantage, but my art, my style, and my themes.  

I think that's why I am so in love with the Crowabout group.  Nancy chooses collage images that are wonderful and often zany, and I get to express myself using these terrific things that I might not have run across on my own, and I get to use them in and out of contexts, all my own.  I know it's why I love Kelly Kilmer's A Prompt A Day.  Even when I'm not actively participating, the vast stores of prompts and the infinite combinations thereof, are creative DNA that subtly find their way into the things I do! 

Also, I really love web challenges. I love this wonderful community of blogging artists, and seeing what others create around various themes.  But when I participate in themed groups, I usually do so when I have a piece that fits.  Rarely will I create something on the fly just to fit a theme, so when I finished The Tooth(ache) Fairy, I took it around the web in search of a theme, and discovered The Three Muses "numerology" theme in the process, where it fit.  

Now I'm off to:

Clean up the studio and file images

Try and motivate myself to do some long over-due blog maintenance

Get people where they need to go 

Figure out what we're eating tonight, and

Get back to the book I'm reading before I fall asleep

Have a great day, Everyone!