ArtiphyTheHeart

A Banner Month...

...One For the Studio...

A couple of months ago I downloaded the Spring Garden Fairies  from Ten Two Studios.  I love working with sheets of components to mix and match, and I love separate arms, legs, and torsos because I can pose them any way I choose.  The vibrant colors in these dolls are fabulous. They are the perfect contrast for the layers of mixed yellows, umbers, and titan buff (raw titanium matte) which pick up some of the other yellows in my studio, and the glaze pen border on top of the acrylic painted pennants!

There's another great banner in my studio that Tracey Lynn Huskamp made.  It's gorgeous.  It says "S-T-U-D-I-O, and it's made of vintage, glided edged portrait mats and vintage glass glitter.  I'll cherish it always and never replace it,  but it's the same color as my wall, and after a lot of soul-searching, I really don't want to repaint the wall, even though the banner is worthy of a better background.   So I came up with this companion banner. These pennants, threaded through with khaki silk ribbon, sit on the opposite wall from Tracey's banner and spell out: "My * Sanctuary".  The facing banners are very different, but perfectly compliment each other.

Here's a bit of a wider view (above), and the entire piece (below).

I must apologize for the photo quality.  I'm not the world's best photographer, but I clean-up well in Photoshop...or at least I could clean-up well, if Adobe would ever get my copy of CS-4 in the mail!  I ordered the X-plat upgrade in May, and I'm still patiently waiting...promises, promises!

Those very few of you who are my Flickr friends have seen pics of my studio (which I will not share with everyone), so you'll know how beautifully this banner fits!  And speaking of fitting in, the Crazy Amigo theme posted last Tuesday was "ladies", One Powerful Hour on Thursday asked for "favorite color", and on Friday, TGIF challenged "use words".  I think the banner is a pretty good fit for all three of them!

With that now done and lots more on the horizon, I'm:

Taking a break to cook dinner for my family, then

Find something good on Hulu (last night we watched "Super-size" me--tonight we're eating organic!)

Sink deeper into the Gormanghast novels, which--I agree with the literary critics--surpasses Tolkein in both scope and descriptive detail, and then finally,

Get some much-needed rest so I can start fresh tomorrow!

Have a great day, Everyone!

Summer...

...And How "Heat" Is Merely An Anagram For "Hate"...

Heat...

Yesterday was Thursday, but who knew!  Surely no one here.  It's too hot to think.  If we weren't experiencing this cool spell, I wouldn't have been able to figure it out even today.  But now that it's merely a balmy 109 degrees, I can think again, and I realize that it's Friday.  Probably too late to play with the OPH group and their "summertime" theme, but I'm going to go for it anyway.  And I hope that dyslexia counts, because I answered Creative Catalyst #69 backwards.  They want to know the favorite thing about where you live; I've given them my least favorite.  Oh well.  Blame it on the heat!

Ink...

My ode to summer in the journal page above is probably 50% wabi-sabi, meaning, the ink may not dry permanently on the acrylic paint.  It has been my experience that when writing on acrylic, Sakura glaze and Souffle pens work perfectly, as well as the gelly roll whites.  But the gelly roll metallics, as smooth as silk and joyful to write with as they are, sometimes, not always, tend to smear on an acrylic base.  Why only sometimes?  I have no idea.  But because they glide so beautifully smoothly and look so fabulous, I write with them anyway, let them sit overnight, and sometimes even two days.  Some of the time they dry, other times they don't.  Regardless of weather.  So I usually don't use them on top of acrylic, but it's hard not to because they write so luxuriously smoooooothly!  When I just can't resist, I take the chance, and also take the photograph.  That way, if I have to wipe clean and do over, I'll have the original digitally immortalized.  There's always a toothy ground that I could apply to take the ink, but in this case, I wanted to retain the glazed layers and not matt-up the depth of surface (that unfortunately this photo doesn't show because I'm presently Photoshop-deprived).

More Heat, Possibly...

Which brings me to a real bone of contention:  Adobe!  I still have yet to receive my X-plat upgrade to Photoshop CS4.  Adobe requires that the PC copy of CS3 and all it's components be removed and the software destroyed, and an Adobe document must be signed, received and "authenticated" before the upgrade for Macintosh is "approved".  The sticking point?  I've been without Photoshop for a month and a half.  After losing two affidavits two separate times, Adobe finally acknowledged receiving my document.  I began this process in May, and I am still waiting for the "authenticating" department to OK the upgrade.  In the meantime, as you recall, I was required to destroy software that I had paid for--software that I own!  Are there damages?  We'll see what the AG's office has to say, since Adobe has stopped answering my inquiries as to an ETA which I have been asking via posts to their support portal over the last few weeks.   To be continued....

On A Positive Note...

I've decided to close with a list of things that make me happy, so here goes:

The software update for Safari, the world's best browser!

IPhones, even though I don't own one

My hot pink Razer mouse

Sweet tea mixed with ice water over lots of ice in a frosty glass

The new video by director Anton Hecht which is on my Facebook now

And my NetChix pals, who keep me going even when I'm not painting and *gluening*!

Have a great day, Everyone!

  

"That Fourth Of July...

...When I Was Learning Chinese..."

I think you'll probably be able to read this page if you click it to enlarge.  The point of all this is that it took place over a period of time that included my 7th Fourth Of July.  And while the model in the photo does not look a bit like my mother, the scenario fits.  There is no question whatsoever that my mother could have given a fish a drink from a faucet while flying a plane on a mission in white kid gloves!  She was equal parts deadly-serious and fun-loving, which makes this piece a perfect fit for this week's One Powerful Hour challenge.

My parents were unique, having already lived their lives and careers before I was three years old and retiring--well, only "kind of" retiring--but that's another story.  

Roll the Credits...

Credits to Kohler for the ad, Tim Holtz and Ranger Industries for the stamps, Staz-On (Tsukineko) for the ink, and Sakura and Pitt (Faber-Castel) for the pens, Basic Grey for the paper, and K & Co. for the fish.  An extra BIG thank you to Sakura of America, who will be suppling me with a set of metallic pens as an RAK from the Creative Catalyst team.  

And a Note To My Facebook Friends, and Others Who Are Reading This In Syndicated Formats...

You can always read my notes in their original format, and view all archived posts and artwork, by clicking the link on my profile page to visit my typepad blog.  Questions?  Email me!

Right now I'm

Arranging a portfolio

Hoping to spend more time in paint and glue before the day is done

Feeling guilty for indulging my fast-food cravings...

..."Only one?, right!"...and no, I didn't eat both of them!

...And now that it has "cooled-down" to a mere 104 degrees at 8PM in Phoenix, we're on our way to watch the fireworks display from our back yard patio

Have a happy and safe 4th Of July, Everyone!