ArtiphyTheHeart

Contemplation...

For A Life Made By Hand and Mixed Media Monday

 

Thank you to Land of Nod Studios for the image of the angel which I altered slightly and re-colored for this page.  This will be another short post, as I am in the midst of several larger projects.  In addition, I am...

Reading one monumental piece of fiction,

Plus a great piece of literary commentary,

And a book on the Stanford Creativity Course.

Glad that tornadoes didn't touch down in our area last night.

Listening to soft wind and rain, 

And getting ready to put some music on and paint.

Have a great day, Everyone!

Something New!

...For Mixed Media Monday

Picking A Theme:

I'm always over the moon when Diane asks me to guest host for Mixed Media Monday!  So much wonderful talent and varied interpretations on the themes make it like a trip to the candy store when the artwork starts pouring in!  Being one who hates being boxed into a corner, I like themes that are wide open, and given that we are beginning a new year, I figured that all of us have something new to share, to say, to wish for...

Journals and Sketchbooks:

Those of you who follow me regularly know that among the other things I do, at any given time I am working in multiple journals and sketchbooks.  I have seven which are currently "open".  Most of them aren't chronologies since I have the need to jump around inside the books.  But there is always one that is kept in order of date so that later on I'll have something to look back on and see what I was doing in the order that it was done.  The pages above are from my current chronology, a bound book of handmade papers.  I have decided to do the entire book in two-page spreads.  The right sides are painted, collaged and journaled, and the left sides are abstract collages, done to coordinate with the right sides.  

Abstraction:

Sometimes, often, the colors and patterns need to speak for themselves with only a little artistic nudge to make sure they are properly complimented.  It isn't always about filling up space.  It's often about carefully leaving things out.  I love my endless lists, doodles, narratives, images, papers, paints, pens, crayons, etc. on a page in a book, but so often, side by side and one after the other, they overstimulate and overwhelm.  And flipping through a book like this for more than a few minutes at a time makes my head hurt!  So I'm unveiling for you today my "something new", which illustrates not only some *thing*, but a concept as well, clean and raw.

Now I'm off to finish the day...

More artwork

A late lunch

A lot of relaxing

A pot of chili or a shepherd's pie...hmmm...must make a decision...

Then a trip to the theater with family and friends

Have a great day, Everyone!

New Year, New Stuff....

 

...Paris--For Theme Thursday:

Some scribbles in one of my journals after a day of flipping through books on graffiti at Barnes and Noble.

Drawing--Quote No.1:

"If you're creating artwork, it's always about the drawing.  Always." --Hippie drawing Prof. at ASU in the '70s whose name I can't remember, but it doesn't matter because he was quoting someone else whose name he couldn't remember...  

What he was trying to get across to us was that even if you're making a sculpture out of two sticks and a piece of string and you've never touched pencil to paper, everything created is always drawn in your mind before it's created, even if so instantly that you don't recognize it.  There is no art without visualization.  Ever.  And drawing is about seeing, not motor skills.

Drawing--Quote No.2:

"A successful drawing is one that appears on paper exactly as your mind's eye pictured it" --Same Prof., again quoting someone else...

Q. But what if it turns out better than I pictured it?  

A. Then what you have is a less successful drawing that accidently looks better than your mind's eye knows how to picture.  Solution: Practice drawing AND seeing.  

Working In Books (as opposed to "workbooks"...):

At the moment there are five books I am working in.  The Paris page was done in a little hand bound book that I carry with me in my purse, always.  This book is filled with stuff:  drawings, scribbles, notes, lists, collages, glued abstracts, paint, pens, inks, crayon, pencils, watercolor, markers...ad infinitum.  I work on both sides of the page in this book.  It's bound with a variety of papers so that when I want to work in acrylic, I can.  When I'm just using pencil, there's a page for it.  When I want a colored background for gel pens, there are lots of those, too.  And watercolor paper, etc.

The other four serve different purposes; all I've bound by hand.   One of the collage journals is filled with acrylic backgrounds on one side of the page only.  Why?  I'm not sure, but there's something in the back of my mind brewing for the other sides of these pages.  Probably a description.  Anyway, I can use a box cutter and remove pages from this book when there's one I want to make a print of, and I don't have to worry about what's on the other side.

Another one is specifically for work I'm doing in A Life Made By Hand.  

Another one is a chronology.  I do a page every day, or every few days, in chronological order.  I don't skip around in this book and I date the pages.  Later on, this one will give me an idea of what I was up to in 2010.  

Oooops, I said five.  Not true.  There are seven.  The other three are unfinished working journals. I use these to try out new ideas and new techniques.  

I also do lots of things outside of books.

Less and More in 2004 2010:

I liked 2004 better because it rhymed.  Oh well.  Here are some things I'd like to spend my time doing more of, and others that I'd like to do less of.  This is as close to New Years resolutions that I'll ever come:

More:

Drawing

Glueing

Writing

Painting

Abstract compositions

White space

Playing

Getting serious

Laughter

Time with family and friends

Reading

Music

Focus

Organic

Less:

Non-productive time online

Rushing around

Time spent suffering fools

No:

Additives

Preservatives

Hormones

GMAs

I can already see that this will be a prosperous year, as the "mores" far outweigh the "lesses" and the "nos".

Here's what I'm up to at the moment...

Reading Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain, Thomas Foster's How To Read Literature Like A Professor, and Thomas Pynchon's The Crying Of Lot 49 (all of them Tom's? ...very curious, indeed!)

Listening to Soft Machine's Six, and National Health's Tenemous Roads

Drinking tea (some things never change)

Watching HBO videos of The Flight Of The Conchords

Getting ready to celebrate Russian Christmas (old calender) tonight with friends of the family

Guest hosting for Mixed Media Monday next week, so stop by and submit some artwork!

Have a great New Year, Everyone! One great day at a time!

It Takes A Woman...

...For Mixed Media Monday and Pointy Hats With Wings

 

A Funky Fairy...

Personally, I think my funky fairy began as one of Cinderella's ugly stepsisters.  But not all of us are beauty queens, and I think it's far more important to spend time mending broken hearts than to worry about one's reflection in the mirror, so she gets my stamp of approval in spite of her need for good plastic surgery, and rehab for her addiction to cosmetics and other fashion enhancements.  

What She's Made Of...

Layered acrylics, Pitt pens and manga brush pens, patterned papers, collage images from magazines, Nancy Baumiller (aka: Crowabout) and my personal stash, Cran d'ache NeoColor II, and Sakura white gel pen, glaze and souffle pens. 

What I'm Going To Do Now...

I'm in a rush to see part two of The Prisoner re-make.  If I suspend the urge to view it as a remake and choose to look at it as a stand-alone program, it's passable.  Although the attempted humor and propensity for taking everything all to seriously are so thoroughly Gen-X, that it makes one wonder if anyone under 30 or over 40 was ever within a mile of filming it.  But somehow I'm still hooked, or maybe "committed" is a better word.  It will NEVER replace McGoohan's Prisoner, and it makes me seethe every time I think of the derogatory comments made by the directors of the new version about the original--directors who clearly have no understanding of the era, the politics or the symbolism present in the BBC series.  Ignorance is not bliss.  But as part 2 of the remake is about to be broadcast, I'm off to view it.  So until my next post,

Be Seeing You...

Tick Tock...

...For Crowabout, Mixed Media Monday, Theme Thursday, Wednesday Stamper, Three Muses, and Pointy Hats and Wings

My fashionable (MMM theme) Zetti (WS theme) was made with images from Crowabout, and from my own private stash of patterned papers (TT theme).  And since the passing of time is a recurring theme in my dreams, it fits for the Three Muses theme, as well.

Tonight's post will be short and sweet.  I'm a little under the weather, and as it's always better to be on top of things than underneath them, I'll be calling it a night early, hoping for lots of rest and pleasant dreams.   I plan to hop into bed with the book I'm reading:  The Needle's Eye by Margaret Drabble, a glass of wine, and I'll try to catch an episode or two of the original Prisoner series on DVD before I drift off to sleep.  We're trying to finish the original series in the order they were made before the new Prisoner airs this weekend.  I must say, I'm not optimistic about the re-make.  From what I've been told, not much of it seems to even follow the original story.  Still, we're only a couple of episodes away from finishing the original, so it will be fun to have those fresh in our minds when we see what the studios have come up with on Sunday.

Stay well, and have a great day, Everyone!

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!!