Alphabetica : week 1

We are studying Lynne Perrella's Alphabetica in the ZNE book club this month. Week 1's assignment was to choose a word that has some meaning for us and adorn an art journal cover with that word.



Here's my journal...

I chose the word strength from my favorite quote, from a Kleenex commercial of all places: "My tears do not compromise my strength." I really like that one. This year my strength has been challenged... with my spirit, my health, my creativity, etc. so I thought it would be a good word to focus on.

Oscar Noodle the Poodle

Oscar is Sandy's pride and joy, so I just had to showcase him for her birthday. The little dog in the doghouse is Oscar's own dog, Corky.

The photos are a bit blurry, sorry.

This is a mixed media painting on paper mache using acrylic paint, scrapbook paper for the pillow and crown & hat, and Swarovski crystals. Happy Birthday Sandy!

{Admire} Susan Shepard-Knaupg

The assemblage above by ZNE Member Northwest_Pretties * Susan Shepard-Knaupf.

Isn't it lovely? I love the pink! The love how the contents isn't limited to the inside, it spills out the front. The cute Zeti style hats are a fave of mine too. Very inspiring...
I want to make an assemblage soon too. Maybe a halloween one. There's a great one in the latest Somerset Studio that I'm dying to try, using those carve-able pumpkins.

The Garden Bracelet

I took a beading class yesterday, from the fun and amazing Kelly Angeley. She's been seen all over the pages of Stringing Magazine - including the cover of the Spring issue!
So below is the bracelet I made.... click on any of the pics to see them larger, directly on my flickr page, where I've stuff written about each shot.

At long last, I have made something new! This will be the first in a series that I'm making with this gal.... this one is called The Escape Artist.



Credits and steps taken to create it can be seen here.

My house to yours....

This is the glass house I made for the Habitat for Humanity Auction. This is how it was done:

• cut glass in shapes for the house (2 pieces for each side/roof)
• made the collages for each side in photoshop and printed (credits to follow)
• added glitter to the butterfly wings, then sandwiched each collage in between each set of glass and edged with copper foil (available at www.artwerx.us)
• soldered up the edges, forming the house
• glued on twigs and moss found locally, then the little birds, pocket watch (available at www.artwerx.us), and silver spoon.

I left 'vent' space in the walls so tea lights could be placed underneath. For the roof I sandwiched a printed paper and copper mesh that was heated to color. I'm pretty happy with it. I need to make another to keep for myself, but I think I'll go a bit smaller.

House collage was made using my fave digi-artist's kits:
Tracy Ann Designs
*Peek-A-Boo Words 2
Holly McCaig
*Flourish
Jen Wilson
*A Little Birdie Told Me
Rhonna Farrer
*Peachy Keen
*June 2006 Freebie
Kathryn Balint
*Make a Fairy
Melanie Willman
*Call of the Wild

The layout I made used:
Holly McCaig
*Summer Lovin
*Journal Dates
Meredith Fenwick
*Covered Stamp Sheets 2
Jen Caputo
*Torn Out & Curled Rips

Sneak Peek

I really am terrible at creating something when I have to. I've been struggling to come up with something for the Habitat for Humanity auction on June 2nd.... until today. I finally finished the design work for the bird house. I'm making mine from glass, but I needed the artwork to sandwich between the panes.
Here's a screen shot of what I've done.








This next one is in poor lighting, but you it's just a sneak peek anyway. Because my glass was too thin to cut the hole for bird house , I had to come up with something else. I chose a pocket watch. I stuffed it with moss for a nest, and a teensy tiny mushroom bird that my mom sent me. The spoon that's all bent up in an antique silver spoon that I got at the antique shop a few weeks ago. It's the perch.

Now I just need to get a wood base and some votives to go inside, so when it's soldered up it will be a sweet glow in the highest bidder's home.

I need some artistic advice

I'm making a glass birdhouse 'Sally Jean' style, for the upcoming Habitat for Humanity auction. I was lucky enough to get an invite to participate in this and I'm really honored. So... I'm making a glass house, but the front will be totally solid (no bird hole), because this will be purely decorative. My problem is the the 'hole'. I want to put something there to represent the whole, but I don't know what. Someone I know is using the standard wood house, and she's dressing up her hole with an vintage optical lens. Super idea, but I don't want to do that same thing as her. What can I use for my 'hole'? I'm using a vintage spoon or fork, bent up for the 'perch'. The style of the house will be a kinda vintage, kinda nature.... so what are your suggestions?????
I'm going to post pictures from start to finish... I think that might be fun.
So then there's the wood house they gave me... I think I will do that more 'whimsical' in style... fun colors, lots of pattern. I'll keep you posted on that too.

I love ETSY

oh yes I do!
I've been selling lots of nest charms and I've been buying some very neat-o stuff too. I'm anxiously waiting for this sweet drawing:

It's from DUDADAZE's shop.
And this cool patch:

From my fave Altered Diva.

It's 2:20 am.... I must TRY to get some sleep. Just 5 more minutes of Etsy & Flickr!

Just call me Itchy Scratchy

The weirdest stuff happens to me.... Today was day 2 1/2 of having a crazy rash all over my chest, shoulders, back, neck, face, eyebrows, arms and scalp. Oh and it's even on the insides of my eye lids and lower lash according to my doctor. Jeepers. I am apparently having some extreme reaction to 'something'.
I don't have a clue what it is that I got into contact with. The last time I had a reaction this bad was when we added cedar chips to raku fire, about 6 years ago. I totally forgot about that, but I guess it was in my 'record'. He asked me what I was concocting now, lol. Drat, nothing as fun as raku.... just painting with the usual supplies. So now I'm all jacked up on prednisone for the inflammation and swelling and clarinex for the itchy itches. Needless to say I didn't go to work today - I would have scared the customers away looking like a puffy measle patient! Instead I continued to paint the day away, trying to get a bit of art to hang for my upcoming show at the gallery.
I'll be the guest artist for the month of March at the River Gallery in Old Town Florence, OR. They are hosting a reception for me this Saturday from 1-3 pm ... I should be rash free by then, lol.

Don't Let Go

New nests

Same design, but in sterling silver & freshwater pearls.
Available here OR by clicking on the 'buy now' button in the right hand column if you don't want to sign up for Etsy! Free shipping in the USA and comes packaged in it's own tin. If you are outside the USA, I'll bill you $5.50 for shipping via priority global.

STUDIO FRIDAY : Proud Artist Of

This weeks Studio Friday (well I'm late, so it's a few days ago) is about being proud of a piece of art that hasn't been in the 'lime light'. For me, I think it's my "Key to my heart" piece, which kicked off my art sales for 2006. It was the first piece that got me out of my shell, to show and sell, and really jump started me for the rest of the year. It hung in an alphabet show and sold quickly, so I am proud of that. I was the letter K in the show....

It's acrylic on stretched canvas. The K is is plexi-glass that I painted (on the reverse side). The heart is paper clay that I formed by hand, then painted, and the key and key hole are metal additions to finish it off.

A little DAQ does a person good

With little time and inspiration to work on my collages these days, I've been blessed to have hooked up with some fun & crazy woman at Digital Art Quirks.
I can sneak a little creative time when I'm having my coffee or right before bed, to create some digital art and just hit 'save' when I have to leave it to rush off to work. It's kept me in the creative zone at least, until I can get back into my 'tangible' art.
Here is a design I did for a magnet swap with the DAQ gals.
I made it in photoshop, then sent the file to my local print shop for printing and laminating. I cut them out, stuck on a magnet and voila - a quick and easy swap fulfilled.
Another project is kind of a 'right of passage' for the group. It's the quirk naming ceremony. We choose our first name and create a digital collage for it. Then the next person on the participation list comes up with your second name and voila - you have a new quirky name within the community. We then can create a third collage with our new name.
For my own first name, I chose 'spirited'. This is the collage I created for it:

Then Kate (digime) created my second name 'wings' for me, and created this heavenly collage for me:

So my new DAQ name is Spirited Wings. I will create my final collage for it this week.
It was my pleasure to give Helen (belles) her second name. She chose 'eclectic' for her first name and I chose 'butterfly' for her second, so her new name is Eclectic Butterfly. Here is the collage I created for her:

The best head ache I've ever had

Today, like many days, I woke up with a head ache. I think it's the switch from sunny weather to rain. Sometimes barometric changes throw me off. Instead of letting it consume my day, Tyler & I went to the thrift store to see what looked interesting. I scored a terribly tacky wall pocket. It's painted black and gold and is deliciously hideous - I can hardly wait to transform it. When I do I'll post the pics here.
After that I went to Sandy's with my crazy big canvas that I bought yesterday up in Newport. I like to paint on small canvases... like 8x8 or 12x12, but I'm making all new art for my entries into the jurried show. The size limitation is 40 inches in any direction, so my new canvas fits right in there at 24x36 inches. I'm doing another in my 'twilight' series... and I'm making sure it gets noticed :) So today I packed up my paints & super size canvas and headed to Sandy's house. It was a great afternoon of painting, talking, and just hanging out. It's usually all work with us these days, so spending my day off there was a treat, especially since I had a headache... it was nice to hang out with friends.
When I came home I was followed by 4 fire trucks, 2 Florence police and a state police car, heading past our place, down the road to another apartment building. We couldn't see any flames but there was lots of smoke and the smell of melting plastic and such drifted down the street. It was raining out and cold rain felt so good on my aching head. Tyler and I stayed outside in the pouring rain for a half an hour just letting the drops soak us. It was a great end to the day.
Well it was supposed to be the end of the day....
It's approx. 2:55 am and I'm wide awake. I just finished another entry for the show. It's called Nesting. It's along the same premise of Grow, but a different look.

Grow

Well here's to hoping I can grow.... as an artist and as a person, since I'm probably not going to get any taller. (I belong to the 5 foot and under group)

So, this is my latest....
I layered acrylic paint, papers, and texture medium on an 8x8 canvas. Then embellished with vintage clip art I got from flickr's Collage Images group, and added wings made from vintage french text. I fashioned a nest from moss and a wood egg that I painted. "Grow" is made from a distressed 'deluxe' scrabble tile, cut paper, a watch face and a regular scrabble tile. The black dots in the upper L corner are old snaps and buttons are vintage from a collection my mom sent me.

This is one of the pieces I will be entering into a jurried show tomorrow. I really hope I will get in because I one of my beeswax collages is in a commercial for the show - and wouldn't it suck if I didn't get my art IN the show?!! The chances are probably slim to none, as over 300 enter and they only take 100. I don't do the usual 'look' you see around here.... everyone does coasty stuff. Oh well, I can't get it if I don't try, right? I won't find out till Nov. 1st, cross your fingers for me.

Say hello to my little shelves

On a brisk stroll through a discount shop I spotted little shelves as I was walking out the door. They were just plain white with little scroll supports, so I picked up 3 to play with. I've made-over 2 so far...
An 'old' Asian one.... using vintage text pages that were torn and decoupaged on. Then one of my own bird graphics that I made in photoshop added on top, then I mixed my 'green tea' colored paint with Golden's glazing liquid and painted over the entire thing. Some black paint aged it for me... now I just need to seal it.
And these are pics are the bright bird one, with fun striped edges.

Twilight and the Cup cake

I found these snazzy paper mache 'plaques' at Micheals, on sale, so I did what I always do and got 3. One to 'try' one to sell if it turns out good, and one to keep if I like it, for another project. I'm weird, I know, but this has worked well when I'm finding/trying something new, and I'm at least 55 miles from anywhere.

So, since I have finally

found my style

.... here is more of it, on my new paper mache plaques! Click to see them larger.

Twilight
*painterly background
*painted papers for the trees
*bird with my signature crystal eye
*sweet sparkle stars

Bon Appetit
*one calorie free cupcake made with painted paper icing
*painterly background
*alphabit tile 'bon appetit'
*too sweet glitter 'sprinkles'
*a painted vintage button for the cherry on top

a gift for Sandy...

Again, a little art therapy is oh-so-good for the soul.... distracting me from things I just shouldn't be thinking about. Click on the pics to see larger images.

I just finished this m-media painting for my pal Sandy. She's a fellow bird lover like me, so I had to include a chirpy in it (with my signature crystal eye).... and a house, because she loves houses, and of course a quote, because most of my work has words in there somewhere.

I'm still in my 'folksy' stage... this one is one a nice 3 inch deep canvas, and measures 4x8 inches head on. The painterly background is done with acrylics... painted papers form the house, heart and grass... words I printed & cut out for the quote, a vintage button and lastly - what house would be complete without a ribbon chimney?

I hope you like it Sandy.... it's been a while since I've done some new art.