ArtiphyTheHeart

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!

No. 38, Or Catching Odile As She Topples From A Ladder

For Art Creations Friday...

 

To see the original image, pop on over to Art Creations Friday.   My photomontage is simple, but the flourishes weren't.

Speaking of ballet... 

As long as you're on the web, stop by Amy's blog by clicking HERE.  She has a clip of Baryshnikov that will knock your socks off!  Like Tom Waits?  You'll love his predecessor, Vladimir Vysotsky!  "The Horses" is in my top ten all-time favorites list.  More passion exits in the few minutes of that song than in the whole of some people's lives!

Other than that, I'm enjoying my weekend in spite of the heat!  

Right now I'm...

Sitting at Barnes and Noble, about to browse the music bins

Thinking of coffee and chocolate

Still reading The Evil Seed, but will finish it tonight

Looking forward to a day with good friends tomorrow, and

More painting and journaling before the weekend is done

Have a great day, Everyone!

Pear

...For Inspire Me Thursday

Time has been in short supply this month, but I couldn't resist taking an hour to make a quick digital sketch for Inspire Me Thursday's "Pear" theme.  It's high time I got back to drawing and painting!  You'll be seeing more digital paintings from me in the near future, as I've started scanning a backlog of my line drawings and am playing with color.  

 I'm ready for the weekend!  Right now I'm

Listening to Amy play my favorite piece of music, Chopin's Waltz in C Sharp Minor, Op. 64

Sipping an icy cold glass of Chardonnay

Finishing Joanne Harris (author of Chocolat) first book, The Evil Seed

Then off to watch an episode or two of Dr. Who, and 

Call it a night!

Before I go, a big "Thank You" the Quayside Publishing Group for gifting me with Timothy O'Donnell's new book, Sketchbook, Conceptual Drawings From the World's most Influential Designers.  To say this book is fabulous would be a huge understatement!  This is a must have for anyone who considers him/herself an artist, or who loves a true behind the scenes peek into artists' raw sketchbooks and notes.  I won this book in a drawing on Craftside.  If you haven't been there, you owe it to yourself to stop by.  There are daily reviews of books and products, usually with a sample project or two, worked up from any of a number of various and sundry publications, complete with instructions.  And from time to time, you'll find a video tutorial.  While you're there, don't forget to sign up for the free e-newsletter!

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!

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!

Clean Sheets, How I Love Them...

...And How I Hate Snobbery and Hypocrisy

A Prompt A Day...

Most of the journal pages I've done lately are part of Kelly Kilmer's "A Prompt A Day" group, which no matter who you are or what you do, you should join!  I'm not kidding!  You should join!  Without going into detail (if you want detail, you should join...), it is necessary for me to talk a little about today's page.  I've been making pages for lots of years, so for me Kelly's prompts are sometimes literally what I do, and sometimes just a nudge, then I go off in my own direction.  Either way it's good.  Also, too many years ago to count, I got into the daily routine of sketchbooks and art journals, so I have lots of books going at once.  The page above is from a hand bound book of 9 X 9s, and it's what I'm currently using with acrylic paint.  

Sheets of Paper and Sheets for the Bed...

Another one of the other journals I'm working in is a hand bound book filled with many different types of papers.  This one is purse-sized and goes with me everywhere.  I use it to jot down lists of books I want to read, quotes, stuff I hear, stuff I see, sketches, and lots and lots of doodles, drawings and collage.  This book was with me today when I had an hour-and-a-half to wait.  Early this morning I had taken a look at one of Kelly's prompts, but was half-asleep when I saw it.  So I used the little book to sketch out an idea in my head of what I remembered was central to the theme:  Sheets.  Bed sheets. I thought to myself, "What do you say about sheets?"  And instantly, I felt a wave of anger so strong it could have knocked me over!  Sheets!  The things I really want to line dry so I can curl up in the freshness of the sun every night and drift off into peaceful dreams of gentle breezes, but I can't, because of the narrow-minded snobbery of suburbia!  You see, we have a Home Owner's Association, and plainly speaking, these people feel that clotheslines belong in neighborhoods where people can't afford washers and dryers.  Yes, you heard me correctly.  They are snobs!  Ignorant, superior, snobs!  

Clotheslines ROCK!...

I did not grow up in suburbia with its middle class hypocrisies.  I grew up mid-city in a fairly affluent area.  WE ALL HAD CLOTHESLINES, AND WE KNEW HOW TO USE THEM!!  We had washers and dryers, too.  But we knew a good thing, and it was considered a luxury to sleep in clean white sheets, bleached by the sun and kissed by the wind!  

When I sat with my cup of coffee, working out my anger in that little book, it occurred to me that my anger was hurting only me.  Ignorance is not bliss, and I thought about how the HOAers will never experience the kiss of the sun as they fall asleep to the artificial perfumery of fabric softening dryer sheets, which ironically come in scents titled: "sun-dried linen"  and "summer breeze".   

Now that you've seen my little page, please forgive the spelling and grammar errors.  When I'm working out an idea, I usually do it quickly, often in run-on sentences, and always around a central sketch, since I get my first images pictorially and express them graphically before I write.

Back to the Page at the Top...

After I finished the little journal page in the coffee shop, I no longer felt the need to vent about the clothesline, and I remembered that another of my all time favorite things in life is to turn the pillow to the cool side.  Absolutely nothing is cooler than the other side of the pillow!

And Last, But Not Least...

Since my journal pages are filled with letters of the alphabet, I hope everyone at TGIF doesn't consider it too much of a stretch to put these pages among the others of that theme!

Now I'm:

Off to do some marathon watching of NCIS episodes

Drinking cool, sweet tea

Reading the current issue of Wired magazine

Listening to Amy playing the piano in the background

Happy to be starting the weekend!  

Have a great day, Everyone!

It's 105 Degrees Today...

...Time For A Swim!

No one in their right mind goes outside in Phoenix in the summertime!  I'm not just saying this because of my Bay Area roots and my 62-68 degree comfort range.  It's insane to think that a human is designed to retain brain cells in this heat!  In the middle of the day it's often actually too hot for a dip in the pool, and I don't want to end up as crispy-brown as the group in my journal page (which fits the criteria for Crazy Amigo's "bathing beauties" theme), so the key is to find a cool place indoors.  

So where do we Phoenicians go when we've been stuck inside of our own places too long?  Out for coffee, food, drinks, or to the mall is what you usually hear.  Me?  I browse antique shops, flea markets, libraries, bookstores, and record emporiums for used classic vinyl.  What's my music of choice?  Well, all of it really, but for some reason, when it comes to vinyl, it's the psycho psychedelic that Im usually after.  Particularly the early stuff by Pink Floyd and the early-to-mid years of Soft Machine.  And since I took another one of those crazy Facebook quizzes yesterday which accurately characterized me as a '60's child, it made sense to commit this to collage.

Right now I'm:

Sitting at Hob Nob using their wifi and drinking a great cup of coffee

Waiting for my kids (as usual)

Ready to browse our electronic library service for an audio book to download and listen to while painting tonight

Listening to Heart's "Magic Man", playing in the background, and

Poring over pages of artwork by Jef Aerosol on Flickr and YouTube!  This guy's awesome!

Have a great Day, Everyone!

Freedom Of Expression...

...Posted to: Created By Hand

...A Little Late For Flag Day, A Little Early For The 4th Of July...

Like Bruce Springsteen, I was born in the USA. And like many of us who were, it never crossed my mind that my citizenship is a choice.  True, there are places in the world where a US citizen is not free to travel.  But as long as America remains free, it's citizens have among other rights, the freedom to leave.  We have the right to visit other places, to compare and contrast, to make our own decisions, to formulate original opinions, and above all, we have the right to express ourselves.   

  

...Are We Artist? Or Are We Humanoid?...

Whatever our politics, wherever we live, wherever we're from, as artists, our policy should be to protect and harness freedom of expression as our most basic need.  In art other things are helpful, but only one thing is necessary:  Absent the freedom to express ourselves, every other tool is useless.  Even when told what to create, we remain artists if we have the right to dissent and retain creative control. But if we're told what to create and how it must be created, our innermost drives are accessed and controlled by others.  We are no longer artist, we are humanoid.  

True art is an expression of what lies within the artist.  Every one of us gleans ideas from the world outside, and there is nothing better than a good set of prompts or a theme to get the creative juices flowing. Artists can accept instruction, but cannot be babysat and remain artists.  Whether a concept is entirely original or copied, as long as it's the artist who says "yes" or "no", the resulting piece is an emulation from within.  Works that result entirely from dictation lack the heart and soul of the creator.  They may have merit as manufactured items of technical proficiency, but as art they are more akin to a zapped frozen dinner than to the cuisine of a chef.  

...Hybrids... 

I happen to appreciate a lot of frozen dinners, and a lot of manufactured crafts as well, but what I create, I create by choice.  Knowing the difference is key, and exercising choice is paramount.  "God Bless America" is a hybrid.  It is a collage using multiple media, techniques and textures.  The theme was chosen by a member of an art group; The interpretation is mine.  I drew from many material sources, including resized text from an old encyclopedia, inked prints, colored pencil, chalked edges, a transparency print that Epson told me wasn't possible (si se puede!), and part of a Halloween image printed with dye pens.  

...I Am Artist, I am Human...

And as I mentioned, the interpretation is mine.  Much more so than meets the eye.  I am after all, a symbolist.  What you see is what I choose, but there is much more beneath the surface than lies on top. For one thing, the decision to go vintage with this has more to do with my concept of freedom than my choice of artistic genre.  And for humor, that quality unique to humans, using the magic dust portion of a Halloween image as fireworks was just too hard to resist.  

Before you go, play the youtube of the Killers "Human".  If you hum the tune without the words and close your eyes, it will remind you of a Scottish ballad.  And when it's presented as the music behind the slideshow of a ballet academy's commencement exercises, it can bring tears to your eyes (especially the "cut the cord" part)....but that's another story.

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Right now I'm...

 

Off to lunch (brown bag in the next room)

Finishing an artistic obligation (slowly but surely, ticking them off the list)

Increasing my proficiency in AI and PS, a little more each day...

Listening to (no surprise) the Killers, "Day and Age" CD

Reading, "Whatcha Mean, What's A Zine?" by Todd & Watson

Have a great day, Everyone!

Rock Stars...

Heeeere's Johnny!  (Denver, that is...)

  

The TMTA theme for the week is "rock stars".  This may be stretching it a bit, since when I think "Rock", I think of the Stones, The Who, ACDC, Alice Cooper....you get the idea.  John Denver is not on that list.  But his music is heard on some rock radio stations throughout the U.S., and if you give yourself some liberty and a little poetic license, well, he just might fit....very tightly, but possibly still a fit....

My "Sunshine On My Shoulders" ATC was originally made for my AAWA group's "John Denver" theme.  I'm not really a JD fan, sorry to say.  I find him a bit too "rocky mountain whiny"....yikes, I know I'm gonna make some enemies here....but I do appreciate the widespread appeal to his music, and anyone who can acquire that many die hard fans has something worth showcasing, that's for sure! 

As far as my methods, well I took Barbara Hurst's advice and spent $12 at ToysRUs for an Imaginarium brand spin & splash.  Pinata inks and some glitter paint (which doesn't show up too well) were used for the sun.  The sun-lady is a magazine image enhanced with a micron pen, and the flowers are punched, and have diamond bling stickers in their centers.

For all of you who know me, it's obvious that February is ArtiphyTheHeart's FAVORITE month!!  I HEART VALENTINES!  You'll want to stop by daily--sometimes more than once a day--from now until the14th as I post the gifties, one day at a time, made and received from the 14 Days of Valentines swap hosted by Jeri Aaron of An Artful Gathering.  You can find "Day 1" HERE, and later tonight I'll have "Day 2" posted, so please come back!! 

In the meantime, stop by Lisa Vollrath's and pick up some gorgeous freebies as she counts the way to Valentines, also!

Right now I am:

At that very "excited" stage in an altered book layout

Listening to Classic Vinyl on Sirius/XM (no JD here, I'm afraid)

Thinking about a cup of tea

Anxious to get more Valentines made and mailed

Just happy to be here!

Have a great day, Everyone!