ArtiphyTheHeart

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!

I Want To Ride My Bicycle, I Want To Ride My Bike...

...I Want To Ride My Bicycle, I Want to Ride It Where I Like!

When I look back on the things I did as a kid, two things stand out:  Painting, and riding my bike.  Not a day went by without art and a bike ride. 

A Day In the Life...

Painting was the catch-all term for everything artistic.  I could be lying on the floor of my room glueing and drawing, blending chalks and pastels, or constructing a shadow box, and if anyone asked where Barbara was, my mom would tell them, "She's painting".  Probably because most of what I did ended up with at least a little bit of paint on it somewhere.  I've always mixed my media.

In between times, there were dozens of other things I did, usually with friends, and unless it was happening at my house, I ended up riding my bike to it and back from it.  I wasn't really conscious of it at the time, but all those short, solitary bike rides to and from friends' houses and meeting places add up to a lot of collective time spent in thought.  Or maybe out of thought would be more accurate, because really, I didn't spend that time so much thinking, as noticing.  I looked at things.  Everything.  Relevant or irrelevant, it didn't matter.  It was all important.  It was all there to be seen, heard, compared and contrasted, and I did this like breathing--without thought.  The entire world was my source of information.

Patterns...

Not to say I never thought.  I spent plenty of my other time thinking about the things I'd notice on bike rides, and everything else, too.  For instance, have you ever noticed how related themes and patterns seem so often to occur simultaneously?  When I was growing up I'd notice that in a given evening, the themes on TV shows would often follow the same basic thread.  For instance, if the first sitcom I watched that evening dealt with a hit and run accident, the next one might have a patient in the hospital who had been hit by a car, and a third might revolve around a teenage son learning to drive and in the course of it, almost hitting someone in a crosswalk. Entirely coincidence that all of them aired on the same night;  None of the studios cooperating with the others or planning a blitz .  

And while some of the more obvious patterns do occur by choice, often seasonally such as harvest themes in autumn, the patterns I've always been keen to notice are much more obscure. The more hidden patterns in life just seem to leap out at me and say, "Here I am"!  I couldn't always connect the dots, but I knew that somehow, on some level, connections existed and could be found.   

I didn't know it at the time, but pattern recognition is one of the great gifts of artistic participation.  Because I created pattern, I recognized pattern.  I could see it on the outside because it was what presented itself onto paper from inside myself.  

They're Everywhere...

It was always fine until I mentioned this to friends, who'd roll their eyes and say, "So what?"  But I found identifying patterns interesting enough to not let any of that bother me.  Besides, I couldn't not notice what was so apparent to me, even if I tried.  So I just kept painting and riding my bike.

In high school and college, this pattern recognition made learning languages, math, biology and chemistry much easier.  Later, out of school and in the world, I noticed that in practice, medicine, psychology and forensics are all about identifying patterns, as are marketing, behavior research, and everything Wall Street.    A government service job I applied for required an I-Q type test for placement.  I wasn't told my score, but I was called in for interviews based on my knack for--you guessed it--identifying patterns and relationships.  What they suggested to me was so far off from the job for which I'd applied that I scrapped the idea entirely and went to work somewhere else.   Still painting, and for exercise and pleasure, riding my bike.

Connecting the Artistic Dots... 

Back to my childhood, on Saturday mornings I'd ride my bike to the art museum for classes.  I started there when I was four, and continued into my teens.  The museum was my safest haven.  It was a huge, echoing monument in stone to everything important.  Even at 4, I knew that my artistic pleasures were also my most serious work.  In the basement of the museum, I created with others side by side, most often silent to the ear, but loudly communicating our connectedness as we expressed our respective individualities in quiet.  

Aside from the benefits of the classes themselves, which thankfully were nothing like some of the structured agendas presented in the school art programs, the building itself contained all things extant and all possibilities under its one, huge roof.  Each work of art held it's own collection of infinite stories.  More than the history of a period and a study of technique, each piece held and holds the biography of the artist as well as the biography of the beholder.  The sum of these two contains the entire history of the universe.  

But even more than history, art is communication, and each work of art is a conversation.  On the way home from the museum, riding my bike, everything I noticed on the way over had been transformed through my experience with art.  The ride home took the same streets and passed the same buildings, but it was new terrain.  Without realizing it, I had discovered a great truth:  Everything is new when you emerge from the deep sea inside yourself, the place where you dive to retrieve the pearls of art.

Connecting Challenges...

I still paint daily, although I spend more time now driving a car than riding a bike.  I've spent the past week immersed in acrylics, creating various textured backgrounds to use in collage, and been having more fun than you can imagine making collage with the Crowabout group.  With only a couple of exceptions, most of the images used in Bicycle Ride came from our Saturday morning collage sheet.  When I began cutting and moving the pieces around, all the memories of bike rides past and a lot of the circumstances surrounding them came back like a flood.  The next time I opened my in-box to check my mail, Creative Catalyst #80 was there.   It said, "Tell us about something you cherished as a child. It can be a toy, or anything else".  Nothing to think about here. Bike rides and art.  In addition, Illustration Friday's theme is "pattern", and Created By Hand wants to see texture this week.  Click to enlarge and the texture jumps out.

Today...

If I could get everyone where they needed to go strapped onto the back of my bicycle, I'd do it.  But reality dictates that my kids need to be transported in a car, with air conditioning and seat belts.  We're still experiencing 105 degree days, and when all is said and done, we travel about 60 miles each day on average, getting to and from the various places we need to go.

Along with other things, so far today I have been:

Wonderfully surprised by a phone call from the South Carolina wing of our An Affair With Art group

Thrilled by a package from another member containing more fabulous packages within

Catching up on email 

Sipping tea, and

Preparing myself for the blast of heat when it comes time to open the door and go out into the hot afternoon

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.

l

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!

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!

 

  

One For Lisa With Stripes And Flowers

My 2-Page Spread In Lisa's Book For Her Altered Board Book Round-Robin:

   

I'm really not a swapping artist.  "Oh yeah," you ask?  "When was the last time you were completely swap-free?"  "Well, let's see," I answer......"I think it was sometime back in 2007....just before I started blogging."  And it is true.  I don't consider myself much of a swapper simply because I like marching to the beat of my own drum and making artwork in my own way, with my own themes.  So why am I constantly involved in swaps?  Well, I love to share my work, and very basically, I am a social, artistic soul.  

Because of this, I try very hard to put together things that I think the recipient(s) might like, as opposed to just creating something out of the depths of the top of my head.  (Heh, heh, if you really knew me well, this would make sense.  Someone once said that the portion off the top of my head was as deep as any well....I'm still wondering if that was an insult or a compliment, but I do see the truth in it!) 

Joining swaps often leads me in directions that I would never go, left to my own devices.  Sometimes I find the journey tedious, but most of the time it ends up delightful!  And I always learn something new, taking away from the experience just as much as I put into it, and oftentimes, even more!

Which brings us to Lisa's book--with stripes (this week's Crazy Amigo theme) and flowers (this week's Created By Hand theme).  I saw a couple of new papers from Webster's Pages that were beautiful enough to be left alone and framed.  I collect papers, sometimes to cut-up, and other times just to use as inspiration pieces.  Then I saw the red, fuzzy and flocked woodland animals, and the storybook theme rub-ons from Cosmo Cricket.  I HAD to do something with all of these!  This may not be an original piece that sprung from the depths of the top of my head, but it is one of the most delightful journeys into collage assembly that I have ever taken!  Thank you Lisa, for giving me the opportunity to play with this stuff!  This was so much fun to do!

And because of this, and all the great journaling pages and other wonderful artwork on her beautiful blog, I am nominating Lisa Cornelius of Simple Journeys for the *Makes My Heart Smile* award!  Now there are rules attached to this award, but it wouldn't be fair to ask someone to follow rules that I'm not able to follow myself, so I'll leave it up to Lisa, whether or not she'd like to be simply honored by this, or if she'd like to actively participate.  The "rules" say: 

1. The winner of the Award places the logo on her blog.

2. She makes a link to the person who sent the award to her.

3. She nominates 10 blogs (one each day).

4. She links to these ten blogs.

5. She leaves a message on the blog of the nominees.

 

Follow the rules if you can, and if you wish, but know that I don't blog daily.  I blog without obligation (even though I don't display the button), and while I have a wonderful time bestowing and receiving awards, I cringe at bestowing obligation.  So, here it is--to honor you Lisa, and for you to pass along as you wish and as you see fit. 

 

For my own part, from time to time as I make a blog post, I'm sure I'll get back to this award.  And before the day (or at least the year 2010) is done, I will have passed it along to ten other deserving blogging artists.  In the meantime, a HUGE thank you to Rosie Rowe of Altered(T)Art And Stuff, my wonderful friend who bestowed this award upon me. 

 

Right now I'm:

 

Listening to a howling wind and thinking, "There's no place like home...

 

Painting eggs--for a swap, of course

 

Happy with myself for cleaning-up my blog a bit

 

Enjoying a few days of random blog-hopping to broaden my horizons and find a few more kindred spirits

 

Getting ready to round-up Toto and call out, "Auntie Em, Auntie Em"...this wind is LOUD!

 

I'll be back to blogging a bit more regularly soon.  It's not all wind and swaps around here...there are other things I'm up to, and lots and lots of paint is involved, so stay tuned!

 

Have a great day, Everyone!

No. 10

Still-life With Milk...

 

OK, with all this said, I don't collect old milk bottles.  But I love the photos, and as funky-country as it may sound, I do *heart* cows. 

Life is busy-busy, so this is short and sweet, and fits Arty Girlz "butterflies" theme, and Created by Hand's "stripes". 

Right now I'm:

Rushing out the door

Enjoying a perfect sunny day

Anxious to get everything done so I can come back and paint

Falling in love with music (and video) from Kelly's blog HERE

Have a great day, Everyone!

 

Black and Brown With a Jingle On!

 

Jeri Aaron asked me if I have my jingle on, and without hesitation, I'm answering, "Yes"!    My jingle was on in August when I made my first Christmas card of the year, for no other reason than I felt like it!  It took a couple of months for me to ring the bells a second time, but by mid-October I was making tags and planning gifts for Jeri's 12 Days of Christmas swap, which I am SO looking forward to!   Halloween came and went, and I had a great time celebrating.  Thanksgiving will come and go, and I'll be right there in the midst of it, but right along side, I'll keep my jingle going.  And as we move closer to December, those bells are going to ring louder and louder!  You know, I'll use any excuse for a celebration.  So when a reason as big as Christmas rolls around, you'll definitely find me arriving early and staying late!

For this week's Created By Hand theme of black and white, I'm keeping my jingle going by creating another Christmas tag using the wonderful Art Journey stamps that I won in Willy's blog candy draw!

Now of course there are some rules to follow in order to keep this search for early signs of emerging Christmas spirit going.  Jeri has instructed me to ask this question of three of my fellow bloggers, who must in turn ask the question of three of their friends.  And as these things go, everyone you ask gets mentioned in a post and linked-to.  So tell me, Alberta, Lisa, and Ilonka:  Do you all have your jingles on?  I really want to know! 

And to all my bah humbug friends, you know who you are:   The years are way too short, and the days are way too long, not to seize every moment and make it a celebration!  As Liza Minnelli sings:  "You've got to ring them bells..."

Have a great day, Everyone!

Black And White. . .

This week's Created By Hand challenge is to make something using only the colors black, white, and grey.  Before I tell you about my black and white tea mailer, there's something else that's black and white beginning today......ArtiPhacts!  I launched another blog today with one short post and a tutorial.  Everyone is used to lots of color at ArtiphyTheHeart.  ArtiPhacts is what my daughter calls my "black and white blog".  My challenge pieces will remain here, and at ArtiPhacts you'll find other art-related things.  Go check it out! 

The top photo is the front of the mailer.  I used black cardstock as the base and layered the black and silver star paper underneath another piece of black cardstock.  I stamped the "sunface" from A Stamp In the Hand, with black Versafine onto white paper, and adhered a clear page pebble from Making Memories to the center of the face.  I then added the white rub-on flourishes from BasicGrey (even the name of the company fits this challenge). 

Inside on the left, I stamped a second, lighter sunface onto white card, mounted it onto black cardstock and then onto a star paper square.  This time I used BasicGrey's black flourish rub-ons.  Next, I used double-sided Scotch tape to adhere the ribbon, then adhered the layered image on top of it on the left.  I made a pocket from the star paper 1/8 inch shorter all-around than the size of the page.  The pocket is closed at the top and the bottom, but the sides are open.  This fits one regular-sized tea bag in its wrapper.  Once the teabag is inserted, the card ties closed and it looks like the picture at top.

Have a great day, Everyone, and don't forget to stop by ArtiPhacts and let me know what you think!

Pattern Paper With A Touch Of Pink

Yesterday, the ISMAKI challenge was to make a pop-up card.  I had so much fun with the pop-up I made yesterday, I decided to do another one today for the Arty Girlz challenge, "a touch of pink", using "pattern paper", which is today's challenge for Created By Hand.

The pattern paper I used is called "pink and yellow plaid" by Paper Pizazz.  It's glued to a Bazzill cardstock substrate.  The flowers used are from Making Memories, and the images of the pink Cadillac and ice cream soda are stickers from Stickapotamus.  The pink kitten is from Purple Peach.  The three stickers are backed with Bazzill cardstock, cut out and glued to the pop-out portion of the pattern paper.  When I'm ready to use the card, I'll attach an appropriate sentiment on top of the plaid paper between the bottom of the Cadillac and the ribbon, on the left side of the bottom inside of the card.  Until then, who knows what this will be...birthday, get well, thinking of you, thank you?...could be lots of things, depending on the need.

Have a great day, Everyone!

Sisters. . .

Wednesday Stamper's theme is "sisters" this week.  I picked up the original of this photo at an antique store and have been wanting an excuse to use it.  It was substantially re-colored and played with in Photoshop before I printed it onto matte photo paper and overstamped it with a Rhona Farrer design. 

Created By Hand's challenge for the week is VersaMark.  The fan is part of a stamp from Hero Arts which was stamped with VersaMark and colored with Decorating Chalks, then cut out and inked with a gold Krylon pen.  Most people know that I really do not like working with charcoal and pastels because of the messy dust and potential for smear.  But I do love these chalk cakes that you can neatly pick up with a sponge tool and touch on to VersaMark for a fabulous burst of color. 

The text is called "vertical thanks" from Wordsworth.  It was also stamped with VersaMark, then embossed with JudiKins Egyptian Gold. 

With my limited photography skills, it's hard to re-photograph something that's intentionally over-exposed and get it to show properly.  The card is much more detailed in real life, but at least this gives you an idea of what it looks like.

Have a great day, Everyone!

In My House There Is. . .Metal, A Door That Opens, and A Rooster With Wings. . .

Last Friday, Dans Ma Maison...required the use of metal, and my house has metal hinges, a metal door handle, a black metal key, and there is also a metal screen in the door. 

On Saturday, the grand opening celebration party for Layers Of Colors, requires something that opens.  The hinged, screen door to ma maison does indeed open.  As you can see here, the door opens onto some playful kittens inside the house.

And today, a challenge that I've have been wanting to join for ages, Created By Hand, asks that we make something with "wings.  The winged weather-vane rooster fits the theme.

The substrate for my house is museum board painted with acrylics, then lightly distressed with Tim Holtz tea dye ink.  Rooster and milk can stamps are from Close To My Heart.  The key is from 7 Gypsies, the hinges and brads are from Making Memories, the handle was a grab-bag item at a craft show, but I did distress it with Adirondack alcohol inks, and the screen is from the hardware store.  The image of the kitties is from Memories of a Lifetime.  Also used were German scrap, black lace sticker tape, Micron pens in red and black, pencil and cardstock.

Have a great day, Everyone!