ArtiphyTheHeart

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!

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 Productive Hours...

...My Favorite Time Of Day

Late mornings into the evening hours seem to be when I get the most done.  Perhaps because the light is strongest during these hours, or maybe it's "just because".  But those are the hours when things seem to come together for me with the most energy. 

Why This Collage?

"Time of day" is the Mixed Media Monday theme this week.  I'm not sure how to describe why this collage works in words because it's more of a feeling.  But look at the strong contrasts, the alertness, the ripe fruit and deep green leaves--sun and chlorophyl.  Bright, alert, productive, growth, ripeness.  That speaks the "sunshine hours" to me.

And with only a few hours of sunshine left, I'm on my way out the door to enjoy what's left of the holiday with my family.

Have a great day, Everyone!

All You Need Is Love....

And A Touch Of Flower Power...

Nostalgia...

Sometimes it's better to look at something from afar rather than to experience it firsthand.  For a lot of people, this is probably holds true for the 60's.  It would be the case with those who experienced and/or participated in the most negative and destructive aspects of the decade, such as drug abuse, violent riots, and a host of other illicit and unpeaceful actions and behaviors which ironically, were often conducted in the name of peace during those tumultuous times.  But hindsight is clear sight, and sorting the wheat from the chaff, we can sift and lift out those many positive and beautiful things that wouldn't be a part of our collective experience, had that decade not happened.  

Mixed Media Monday has chosen blues and greens as this week's theme, and TMTA wants to see some "flower power".  I've combined these two challenges in All You Need Is Love, even employing that straight-out-of-the-60's piece of equipment:  The spin and splash.  

An Obscure Tidbit of 60's Trivia...

For those of you who don't know, a spin and splash is a device which holds paper, has a splash screen, and rotates.  While the device holds your paper and spins, you apply paint, some of which makes it's way onto the paper.  The rest is caught by a removable and cleanable splash screen, instead of spraying onto your face and your clothes.  You probably do know about this, but did you also know that this device pioneered in the '60's?

Over the years, this device has been marketed and sold under a variety of names, but if you happened to be at the Arizona State Fair in the '60s, or at any of the many other places where the concept was previewed, you might remember encountering a carny with a microphone hawking the chance to make your own psychedelic artwork.  For a dollar you could grab all the squeeze bottles your heart desired and participate in one of history's first make-and-takes.  All you had to do was squirt the paint within the time allotted for the spin.  A piece of paper was placed on a rotating wooden plank. At the flip of a switch, gears turned and tons of American kids, teens, preteens, hippies and wanna-bees, got a shot at the granddaddy version of the same mechanism you can buy at toy stores today.  The initial devices were pricy, but in addition to the look-alikes that hippies made from scrap wood and lawnmower parts in their garages, some of these things went home from the fair with those who were willing to shell out the cash.  They were heavy.  Not only in the '60s sense of the word, but in actual weight.  The first spin and splashes were made of wood and cast iron gears and bolts, not today's plastic.  Most of them were sans splash screen, so if you had an inventive mind and you stood in just the right place, you might get a psychedelic t-shirt painted from the spillage that was flung through the air, as well as what was on your paper.

Back To The Future....

Now that you know enough to dazzle your friends with this useless piece of trivia, I'm off to rest after what has been an especially trying day.  Here's what I have planned for tonight:

Feet up, a cold drink and a good book in hand

Possibly an hour or so of mind-numbing television

Some good old fashioned cutting-out with scissors to free the brain and hone the drawing skills

A game or two of something or other with my kids, if they're up for playing, and

Sleep!  Precious, restorative sleep!

Have a great day, Everyone!

She Won Him Playing Bingo ...

...For Mixed Media Monday and Sunday Postcard Art...

Say "I Do"...

For some reason, wedding-themed artwork seems to be all over the web right now.  Everywhere I look I see examples.  So not to be outdone, I've crafted my own 4X6 postcard using images from Ten Two Studios "white wedding", "faux postage-white", and "white things" collage sheets.  The neutral images in these sheets coordinate perfectly with the the blues and the browns I've used, and would go well with any set of colors, for that matter.  I'm sure this will end up as a journal page before it's life cycle is finished.

Blog Challenge/Candy...

In case you hadn't heard, the BasicGrey Challenges team is back, and to launch their new round of bi-weekly challenges they're sponsoring an incredible give-away!  Get on over there before 10PM UK time on August 21st, which gives you a generous amount of time since this is only the 3rd, and sign-up for the draw.  Then be sure to join in on the challenges once they begin!

Software Hell...

For those of you who are following my continuing saga in Photoshopland (a darker fantasy than disneyland, for sure), the update is that two weeks ago, another customer service rep at Adobe apologized and assured me that I would receive my Photoshop x-plat upgrade within a week.  When once again another promised deadline passed, I spoke with yet another Adobe customer service rep who told me I'd receive an email explanation and an accurate ETA from the "highest department" within customer service within 24 to 48 hours.  Of course that was days ago and I've still heard nothing.  Yes, I have asked to speak with supervisors, managers and the like.  I'm told there aren't any who take phone calls.  Seriously.  They've said that.  More than once.  So an attorney friend on Saturday advised me to go to the FTC since this is a federal issue, and take it from there, since I can't be the only one this is happening to.

For those of you who need to be brought up to speed, the short story is that in compliance with Adobe's rules, I destroyed my bought, paid for and registered copy of Photoshop CS3 for PC and sent-in their required letter of software destruction, in order to be eligible for an upgrade to CS4 for Macintosh.  That was mid-May.  I have been going-on three months--that's a quarter of a year--without the software that I need and already paid for, while the goons at Adobe shuffle me from one customer service rep to another and don't answer my inquiries in their support portal.  If any of you have suggestions, email me!  Please!

Other than that, life goes on.  Right now I'm:  

Listening to the Hair Nation channel on Sirius/XM

Bogged-down with final touches on multiple projects which need to be in the mail pronto, and

Planning to watch an episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour on Hulu before bed tonight

Have a great day, Everyone!

I *Heart* Wool...

...It's the all-weather fiber!

Playing (Which is the MMM theme for the week)...

By now it should be no secret that I like to mix things up a bit, then make them come out right in the end.  Hence, sheep from Ireland in front of haunted house from somewhere else, flowers from yet another source, plus a banner from a car advert that I wrote on top of.  Mix them up, set them right, and you have a story...

Words (Which the 3 Muses want this week)...

Click the picture to enlarge it, and it should be big enough for you to read the words.  The story is as old as rock concerts and hauntings, which means that it has been around the block for centuries, or at least since the 1960s.  You've heard it all before.  Sheep want tickets, stand in line all night to get them, line wraps around buildings, and even towns, scary things happen after dark, sheep don't care 'cuz they loves their music and they loves their wool!

Heat...

Basically, anything exceeding body temperature has the potential to mutate brain cells.  That's why a cooling, loosely woven wool something-or-other is a good choice in hot temperatures.  The holes in the weave breathe, and so does the natural fiber.  It is obvious that I was wearing something synthetic when I wrote this.  The oddness of the story times the 115 degree outdoor temperatures directly correlate with the number of synthetic polymers per square inch of my clothing.  But then again, had I been wearing wool, the story might not have been as interesting.  Sometimes in artwork, as in life, a mutation of brain cells can substantially reduce the boredom factor.

In my attempt to stay cool, I am

Going to drive an air-conditioned car to run errands in air-conditioned buildings

Planning to drink copious amounts of iced tea along the way and

Listen to some cool tunes while I'm at it, then come home and

Paint with colors in the cooler range before

Acquiring and drawing some cool images for future collage

And finally when it's too late to work, I'll flip my pillow to the cooler side and drift off into peaceful slumber, dreaming of ice, ice cream, ice bergs...

Have a great day, Everyone!

Collage...

...And A Collage of Ideas

Generally Speaking...

When you think about it, everything in life is a collage.  Even we are the collaged bits and pieces of our ancestors, with some things discarded, and others re-mixed with bits and pieces of our environment.  And since this is an on-going process, perhaps it is better to say that we are all collages in the making.

Mixed Media...  

That this mixing is such a part of us all might be the reason I connect so readily and fully with the medium.  When I tell people that I am a mixed-media artist, I'm saying that not only do I choose to work in multiple mediums, I also combine them in collage.  And I prefer to combine them in ways that are unique and meaningful, even when symbolically apparent to me alone.  

The ability to capture information from a variety of sources, retain some, discard others, and rearrange things at will is a very powerful tool for the imagination.  It gives one creative license over everything, making possible those choices that cannot always be part of everyday reality.  The potential for invention is enormous and endless.  Mixed media is a safe haven of power.  What better forum to explore, exploit, and explode.  

The Chicken or the Egg?...

Art does not so often illustrate reality as much as it prefigures it.  In retrospect, countless inventions and even entire periods of history have been accurately portrayed in the artwork which preceded them.  If you doubt this, just read Art & Physics, Parallel Visions in Space, Time & Light, by a man I would have loved to have met, the late Leonard Shlain, who died last month at age 71.  Dr. Shalin himself was a collage, and a synthesizer of ideas across multiple diciplines.  

This title may sound unapproachable, especially since in bookstores, Dr. Shlain's work is categorized as science instead of art.  But not only is it refreshingly easy to understand, it is a book which once begun, every serious artist would have a hard time putting down.  Read this book and you'll never again wonder (if you ever did) what possible purpose there is to being artistic.  In the last ten years, I have purchase two copies of this book for myself and have given it as gifts to fellow artists.

Elements...

As for my journal page above (made for A Prompt A Day), if you click to enlarge the picture, you'll see that the figure at left is really a composite of body parts and limbs.  In this case, I drew a figure, separated it into parts, cutting each apart to use the parts as a template for tracing onto alternating pieces of Swedish text and unprinted pages.  I cut and arranged the pieces into a pose, then glued them down onto backing paper before cutting out the entire figure.  Essentially, what I've made is a paper doll of the purist form, and although dolls with connected limbs are most often cut this way to be hinged for movement, I did mine this way so that I could rearrange the pieces at will to achieve a definite pose.  

I finished the doll two days before I began working with the combined photographs to create the central image for my journal page.  When the collage was almost complete, I added the doll and decided its final placement.

Mixed Media Monday...

I love challenges that give me a nudge, but do not tie me down to specifics.  What you see above is not an illustration. It is a journal page with a collage which serves as a central focal point.  But it imaginatively fits the theme this week at Mixed Media Monday which is "playful dolls", so I'm placing it there among the many other pieces of beautiful, playful and imaginative artwork that this wonderful challenge site inspires.  Like everyone else, I have no idea today what place our collective work will serve in history, if anything specifically.  But collectively, I'm glad to be connected to the zeitgeist which presently prefigures discoveries yet to be made, even if I may never live to see the fruits of this.

Right now I am...

Nibbling on veggies and cheese

Drinking tea

Watching the sun go down

Listening to a Donovan album my daughter picked up at a Tracks In Wax (used vinyl) for $1, which I never knew existed.  I thought I had collected them all over the years, but somehow, this one slipped through the cracks.

Reading Atmospheric Disturbances, an unusual little novel by Rivka Galchen, another M.D.

Have a great day, Everyone!

My Story Has To Do With Routines...

And How I Try To Avoid Them...

Mixed Media Monday wants artwork that tells a story, and here's mine:

When I was in my late teens, I was in an automobile accident that left me with a year of back and neck pain.  Besides physical therapy, my ballet teacher helped me work out the kinks in my muscles, and after a very discouraging afternoon of what felt like torture in the dance studio, I told her that I needed her best advice.  She said she'd be happy to give it to me, but warned me that her best advice had nothing at all to do with ballet.  I told her to go ahead and give it to me, and this is what she said:  "At all costs, whenever you're able, avoid routine, and years from now, when you're no longer as flexible in body, your mind will be sharp and you will always be flexible in life."

For some reason, I really took that to heart.  I learned to vary my diet, to try new things, to listen to music that I didn't especially like to see if I could hear something of what the people who enjoyed it were hearing.  I tried to make decisions that would expand my horizons rather than feed my comfort, and when I found myself avoiding my comfort zone too often, I'd go back and spend some comfort time to keep from forming an opposite habit.  I quit smoking and vowed not to let my habits control me.  And gradually, without trying or realizing it, I became a good, confident public speaker and writer, my body gained strength and my artwork improved by leaps and bounds.  In addition to going to school full-time and working on the weekends, I read and drew for pleasure everyday as well as for classes.  Work and school were routines of course, but in my free time, I made sure that I did not fall victim to any set and predictable schedule.  I consciously varied my activities.

Today's journal page pays homage to that simple way of thinking which has opened so many doors for me.  I am not limited by common thought, and when I subscribe to it, it is by choice, not because I have a need to do what is expected.  I may not be able to bend my body the way I could at 19, but I'm still reaping the benefits of that ballet class, because I learned to bend with the times without breaking my back to follow the crowd.  

Have a great day, Everyone!

Eggs, Eggs And More Eggs

I Love Easter!

 

If you wonder where I've been for the past few days, every one of these (25 total) little chicks would tell you that I've been hanging out with them in my studio! 

Twenty of them are for friends in an art group I belong to, and five more are for my family.  Perfect timing, since they fit Mixed Media Monday's"Come Fly With Me" theme, and are also perfect for the Created By Hand theme this week, which is "Easter Eggs".  The next two photos show them both closed and open. 

The first step in creating these delightful little Faberge-style eggs was to decide on a shape and cut twice as many as I wanted to make, which in this case amounted to 50 egg shapes.  I painted layered watercolor backgrounds on all, using both flat and shimmering Gansai paint, then I cut 25 of them in half.  The next step was to stamp the flourishes, flowers and dragonfly on each of the 25 fronts, then emboss in gold.  Variously colored diamond accents were added next, and hinge holes were punched, and brads were chosen for each egg, according to its color.

The next step was to choose, print and cut out images of chicks and flowers to collage to the inside of the eggs.  When this was done, I glued the bottom half of the front of the egg on top of the back, then added fine grain glitter to the images above.  When the glitter was set and dry, I attached the hinged tops, outlined the eggs with a gold Krylon pen, and added the silk ribbon bows.

This was a fun project, and although I usually hate making multiples of things, this was a delight because of the paint and darling images.

Have a great day, Everyone!

 

  

Spring Colors. . .

To Make Life Sing!

 

The wonderful Diane asked me to guest host this week at Mixed Media Monday, and with all of us being a bit tired of winter, I chose "spring colors" for the theme, and whipped up this page in my art journal. 

I had a great time with lots of whimsical images, patterened papers, brightly colored paint, and pens to doodle and write with, so this was a labor of love.  I hope you all will join-in the challenge and head on over to MMM to post a link to your artwork and take a peek at everyone else's.

Right now I'm:

Itching to paint and stencil something

Glad to see the early buds of spring bursting forth on our mulberry tree

Enjoying the last few weeks of fragrant orange blossoms

Happy for spring, but not looking forward to the long, hot summers

Going to draw a little bit, then say "buenos noches, amigos"!

Have a great day, Everyone!

p.s.  Thank you Rosie!  Do you recognize the paper lace??  I cut it from your Dovecraft RAK!!

 

This Makes A Dozen

My Top Ten List. . .

 

The written word is Mixed Media Monday's theme for the week, and what I've written on this journal page are ten things that make me happy.   They are of course also what I "wish" for, which is the TGIF theme this week.

This page was done with acrylics,  two thin strips of patterned paper, a magazine image, Pitt pens, and images (gloved hands) fromPhenomenon1859's Etsy shop. 

Today I:

Made and labeled batches and batches of home-made glimmer-mist

Painted ten pages

Cut out a dozen gloved hands and one chandelier

Drank lots of tea

Had a late lunch and skipped dinner

And now I am very sleepy, and am still peeling paint off my hands. 

Have a great day, Everyone!

 

 

 

 

No. Eleven

Another Place and Time:  How I spent summer vacations...in the '60s...

Journal page:  Magazine image, Christine Adolph stamp, VW Van (courtesy of Printable Heaven), flowers--meticulously cut from a junk-mail advert, Marvy Markers, Sakura Glaze and Souffle pens, one K&Co. rub-on, and photo corners, on acrylic painted background.  Go check out Mixed Media Monday to see how everyone else interpreted "time". 

Right now I am...

Sipping tea

Listening to Sirius-XM Classic Vinyl...Alice Cooper's "School's Out For Summer"...you know, he lives here in Phoenix, and it was a kick to see him dressed in leather, sitting in the back of the auditorium during Christmas pageants at the preschool that his daughter--and mine, attended!

Impatient to paint, paint, paint...

VERY glad I cleaned the studio yesterday (glad you didn't see the "before" picture)!

Still a bit behind the curve on projects (due to the flu), but am catching up rapidly!

Have a great day, Everyone, and stay well!

 

 

 

Page 9. . .

A familiar quote. . .

 

Albert Szent-Gyorgoi Von Nagyrapolt said:  "Discovery consists of seeing what everyone has seen and thinking that which no one has thought."  This quote is wound around the two images collaged together on this page.  In the background I have added:  It is no secret that seeing like an artist sees is different from seeing like the masses.  Artistic sight is thoughtful and questioning; it strives to see and understand and know everything it sees in its true and exact reality, even--and especially--when after mapping and plotting each line--each mark--it chooses to keep some and reinvent or completely discard others.  Artists study everything they see and apply new thoughts to what is seen.  Since most of my heroes are artists and thinkers, especially thinking artists who share their thoughts freely, I'm submitting this page for the Mixed Media Monday challenge.

Both altered images were cut from magazine ads.  The woman was from a cigarette ad, and the bear is a plastic honey bottle.  Lots of paint, lots of pens and a little glue.

Right now I am:

Wondering if I'll ever admit to myself that regardless of plans, what isn't finished on Friday, remains unfinished till Monday

Ready to slap some more paint on paper

Caring for my daughter who has caught the bug

Needing more sleep than I've been getting

Going to make another cup of tea

Refusing to admit that this is really the final week of February

Glad for the quiet that I am listening to

Have a great day, Everyone!

 

 

Blue and Purple Madness. . .

"Purples/Blues" is the Mixed Media Monday theme this week, and I'm a day late!  I've been looking forward to this post ever since a little bird told me that my friend Rosie would be guest host, and now I've arrived late to the party!  Shame on me! 

You really have to click on this to enlarge it!  I started by collaging the blue and purple center signature of a new art journal/sketchbook I'm working in, because these two pages have the most vibrant blue and purple acrylic backgrounds of all in the book.  I took care to choose collage images with blues and/or purples in them, and along the way, I found Emily Dickenson's poem "Much Madness Is Divinest Sense", and thought it a perfect description of the reaction of the masses to the more surreal, phantasmagorical and dream-like concoctions in much of today's mixed-media, and the reality behind it.

Images in this piece were taken from the following sources:  A mini pile of paper from One Good Bumblebee, Memories of a Lifetime Birds and Butterflies images, Artful Illusions, magazine image(s), a pile of paper from Kelly Kilmer, rubber stamps from Sanrio (Hello Kitty) and A Muse (Owl Buddies), and Gemstones from Hero Arts (tiny purple rhinestones).   Emily Dickinson's "Much Madness Is Divinest Sense" was taken from the sixth edition of the Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature, Reading, Thinking, and Writing, edited by M. Meyer. 

I give you these references so that you can get an idea of what I draw from, and how I work.  Among all the other bits and pieces that I collect, I have a library of new, and in-good-condition used, reader's copies of extremely diverse books.  With the exception of one or two, most of my old college textbooks are long gone.  But I have a nice collection of others that have, over the years, replaced them.  The cannon in English Literature (sorry, I just can't bring myself to capitalize that "c"...) seems to change with whims and tides, for better and for worse, so I keep adding to and updating, and in general, having fun with the seriousness--no, the preeminence--I gave to the words of the dean of the college of liberal arts and sciences on my first day of orientation at A.S.U.   

We were all freshmen, gathered in the Music Theater (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright), waiting to hear the deans of the various colleges give their respective 2 cents worth to promote their areas of study.  I was enrolled in the college of Fine Arts.  But I will never, ever, forget the words spoken by the then dean of the college of liberal arts and sciences.  He began humbly and truthfully, warning us, all the way back in 1971, that the world was embarking on a pitiful one-way journey into the realm of specialization, which would eventually over-take and make dinosaurs of the study of liberal arts in general, and the humanities, specifically.  He told us that we were facing a world where general knowledge would be seen as a threat to the masses, and eventually our social and economic livelihoods would depend on our ability to focus on narrow areas of expertise.  He said that for survival, we would need to adapt, but if we didn't at least quietly respect, study, and pass the humanities on to future generations, we would certainly lose our hearts and souls.  And now, true to his words, very few institutions of higher learning even employ professors of philosophy, the classics are at best, viewed an option for outside study, and fine art students are encouraged to "define" themselves, as opposed to exercising a liberal freedom of study and description. 

The next words he spoke are words I have never forgotten.  They are words I have chosen to live by, and are as follows (I remember them verbatim):  "Any worthwhile institution of higher learning should have but one purpose:  To instill in it's students a burning desire for, and fruitful methods and pathways leading to, the life-long pursuit of knowledge, not only in academic sciences, but in all of the humanities.  This study may begin in a school, but all schooling has failed if it ends there."

Right then and there, I heard my calling, and I realized that what I needed to take away from my college years was not so much knowledge in itself, but every means and mechanism I could pack in my suitcase, that would keep me learning for life!  So I embarked on a quest to learn how to learn, to learn best, to learn most, and to learn longest.  When I heard that speech, something in me ignited, much in the same way, I imagine, that saints are on fire when they hear the words of God.  It was eerie, and electric, and I am not at all exaggerating.   So now I read, write, draw, paint, collage, and express myself in every way I know how, hoping never to run out of ways to learn, and learning every day how little I know, and how much more there is to learn.  And I think this is the best life, ever!

Have a great day, Everyone!

Harmony

Today's Mixed Media Monday theme is "harmony", and for me, there was no time in my life where I felt more at one with the universe, more completely purpose driven and accomplished, and more true to myself in gentleness and strength, than when holding my children as babies.  There is no emotion I can imagine that could be more harmonious than the peaceful love of a mother for the infant in her arms. 

This piece began as a catalog advertisement.  I made a black and white ink jet copy of the image on very cheap and thin copy paper, which I find is the best base for painting over with inks when I want to keep it somewhat transparent. I used thin layers of Tsukineko inks in the base colors I chose for the piece, paying attention to the lights, darks and shadows.  For some wonderful reason, the Tsukineko inks sit on top of the ink jet print and do not disturb or dissolve the ink jet layer underneath.  When dry, I used this as the base for oil pastel, building up color, layer upon layer until I was satisfied. 

The mother in the original photo was young and had a carefree look on her face.  I aged her slightly, and gave her a more serious look.  When the image was complete, I adhered it to 140# card and cut it out.  The background is an 8 X 8 piece of Basic Grey patterned paper which I chose equally for it's colors, and for the paradisaical look of the garden of flowers.  I cut out parts of some of the flowers and placed part of the image behind these, then I cut out other flowers from the left over pieces (paper was originally 12 X 12) and glued them on top.

It seems like forever since I have done something painterly.  I know there have been other little things in the meantime, but the last piece I can remember was almost a year ago when I made my blog banner.  I used to work in water soluble oil pastels quite a lot, but set them aside while I tried my hand at quicker drying acrylics, stamping inks, and lots and lots of other techniques.  It will take this piece about 3 weeks to cure.  Another reason that I use oil pastel so rarely these days.  But I am in no hurry, and it felt so wonderful to paint at a leisurely pace in a creamy, build-able medium, that I have probably just embarked on another artistic journey.

Have a great day, Everyone!