A Card For Autumn and A Bit Of My Life

Seasons

A little secret about me is that I'm usually just a tad bit off the season. If it's December, I might be craving fresh summer strawberries, watermelon, and all the colors of spring. If it's summer, I might be thinking about silvery, snowy blues and winter whites. And somehow, hot August always makes me want to crochet with wool! On top of that, just about the only time I'm not in the mood for a heart-shape is around Valentine's Day, but the rest of the year, I *heart* them! I believe in the value of flowing with the seasons, but I live in the desert where traditional seasons don't exist, at least in the sense of weather, and I am just a bit of a ~~rebel~~ free-spirit. But this year, I seem to be more in sync! Going with the flow is very natural to me right now. I have no idea why. And autumn themes and colors have just felt right.

So here is my first autumn card of the year, which combines one of my oldest stamps, the pumpkin from PSX, with a couple of my newer stamps: Kelly Panacci's borders. The pumpkin was stamped with black Staz-On and colored with water colors that blend a bit into the white background. The borders were stamped with marmalade distress ink, and embossed with mustard seed distress embossing powder. The black dots are punched from black cardstock and glued to brown Bazzill. The button is from an article of clothing past, hand-sewn to a torn square of muslin on top of a tan felt square, with the same black thread used in the rough cross-stitches and other thread marks on the larger torn muslin piece at the left. The word "autumn" was penned with a brown Micron pen, as was the edging around the word.

I made the card "just because", and it just happened to fit two of today's challenges for the week: Arty Girlz "fabric" theme, and Crazy Amigo's "buttons".

On Another Note, In Answer to Some Questions...

And here's a little explanation, just in case you were wondering the same question that I have been asked a LOT lately, in emails, or in case the same question has been asked of you. The question is: How is it that you do both the really artsy stuff and also the traditional layout type of cards? Which one is the "real" you?

So rather than respond personally to all the (more than 15) emails (all at once??), I'll tell you what I think the answer is in my case. I began with a fine arts background and influences from a VERY early age (3?, 4?), and that is where my heart and soul reside, but I also had strong, graphic design influences along the way.

A Bit Of An Artistic Biography That You May Skip If It Puts You to Sleep (or use as a cure for insomnia)...

School

When I was in high school, one of the art teachers divided the year into 2 week segments, and introduced us to different artistic disciplines which we worked on for two weeks at a time before moving on to the next. I got a taste of pottery, weaving, carving wood blocks, ceramics, mosaics, sculpture (from clay to bronze and everything in-between), paper mache, you name it, we did it, but in short, introductory spurts, just to give us an idea of what was what. I loved to put a lot of these things together, and developed a taste for mixing-media and collage.

When I got to college, I enrolled in fine arts, but I took an advertising design class on a lark. Graphic design and it's principles were not new to me, as I had spent and hour or so, four times a week, hanging-out after school in a graphic design class my mom was taking. The teacher was fine with me being there, and even let me participate, as long as I used my own materials. It was a great place to wait for my mom -- my ride home. That was where I developed a respect for the structure of design and it's commercial applications.

Fast-forward back to college, where the two-headed beast in me began to emerge: One head thought it was a fine artist, the other head, a graphic designer. Even in mixed-media, these two cannot always share the same space compatibly, but I learned that they can work very effectively side by side, as long as the fine artist is not a snob, and the graphic designer (illustrator) has no chip on its shoulder.

Business

All the time I continued to paint and collage, just for me. Most of the non-teaching jobs I held after college had me doing at least some graphic design in one form or other, whether it was newsletters, drafting, illustration (and even cartooning), product design, interior accents such as designing and coordinating accessories for business conventions, from the color scheme of the room right down to the look of the notepads, pencils and promotional items.

When I discovered rubber stamping in 1998, it was at a trade show where I was buying fabric from vendors to cut and pack into kits of my cross-stitch designs which were being sold through catalogs. That was a true combination of fine art and design. I developed the artwork in watercolor and pencil, then colorized it for floss, and incorporated it into a graphic grid. The only problem was that it wasn't satisfying, so after two years of a growing cottage industry, I hung up the floss and went back to paint and craft.

But l learned something of value in the process: Developing the artwork in pencil and watercolor was right brain. Artistic soul-food. Freedom. Talent. Stitching the samples was an equally pleasing but entirely different activity, and very left brain. Precision. Skill. I found I could be fed by art, and unwind with craft. A blissful combination. But designing cross-stitch kits excluded my first love--mixed media and collage. So the day I decided to quit the kits, I made a pact with myself to create something every day, no matter what, in whatever media/mediums/subjects/disciplines I felt like dabbling in at the moment.

Art For Myself

I grabbed the two rubber stamps, ink, embossing powder and heat-gun that I bought at the trade fair, and made something with them. It was so much fun! And when from time-to-time it would seem too mechanical, I'd combine it with watercolor, and everything else.

One day, when a fellow rubber-stamper saw me draw something, I was asked the inevitable question: "Why do you use stamps when you can draw like that?"

I asked her if she liked to cook. She said "Yes".

I asked her if she was a good cook. She said she thought so.

I asked her if she ever ate in restaurants. She said "Of course".

I asked her why she would ever eat someone else's cooking when she was such a good cook. She said, "Oh, I get it!"

And so I told her how thoroughly I can be fed artistically by simply coloring-in someone else's design, and how at other times, I just have to create something "big", entirely on my own. She said, "Oh, I really get it!"

And I told her that I loved making things with so many elements and symbols, that you could look at it over and over and still see something new each time you looked. She said, "Me too!"

I told her there were other times when I wanted a sophisticated design, no frills or fluff, very modern and trendy, and I wanted to design it myself. She said "Oh, I buy cards like that all the time."

I asked, "Why don't you make them?"

She said, "Because it's not the style I work with."

I asked, "Why not add it to your repertoire?"

She said, "Do you think I could do that?"

I asked, "Can you add, subtract and count?" She said, "Yes".

I said, "Then you can pick your colors, subtract till you get two or three, do the same with your shapes, pick a font, stamp it, print it, or letter it yourself, and lay it out on a grid." After all, you already have the artistic sense and skill.

She said, "You lost me at the grid".

I suggested she look at page layouts. Find the shapes, place, them, repeat them or subtract them (today I would have told her to find a sketch challenge).

She said, "Really? That's it?"

I said, "Yes, that's it."

So she started working in multiple styles, whenever she felt the push, one way or another. And people started getting confused at what "type" of artist she was, and what it was that she "did". She called me on the phone and asked, "How do I answer them? Now I'm confused!"

And I asked her, "Are you happy with what you're doing?"

She said, "Yes, more than ever before."

So I said, "Then it seems that the confusion belongs with "them", and not you!"

She answered, "I can live with that".

I said, "Me too!" And that's where I am today!

Have a great day, Everyone!

Comments

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Great card. I love that pumpkin. As for heart shapes, I have a friend who sees hearts in everything. It's uncanny. And as for the many inquiries, I get the same questions too from non-artistic persons. I don't really have that much drawing talent, but I do love colors and have a pretty good sense of balance. Like you, I've had a broad education in various kinds of art. The sketch design idea, though, is new to me, and I am learning about it.

Posted by: faye | October 28, 2008 at 06:36 PM

whee that was a lot of insight into yourself. Good article and wish I had that kind of insight into myself and could put it into words like you..... Miss Show and Tell. :)

Posted by: Barbara | October 28, 2008 at 06:46 PM