Spirito di ZNE

Yesterday I was featured at Sprito de Zne!
They wrote a really nice blurb about me - how cool. (thanks gals)
Check it out 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

Snow Day .... Charms & Headache Free

Last Thursday we had a snow day! Oh ya - we got a whole 2 inches and the town was in a tizzy and canceled school. They just have no idea what snow is around.... it NEVER happens. Sometime we get slushy snow mixed with rain, but it never never sticks on the ground, so to wake up last Thursday and this was amazing!
I was so sick with my damn headache, I wasn't able to go driving around to take pics of the dunes or anything, which was a drag, but I was happy to know it was there.

So yesterday (Sunday) was my fist day, migraine free, in almost a week! I just had the best time finishing up my charms for the other charm swap. Tyler spent the whole day with me (instead of being in his room hooked up to his headphones and guitars), so I was sheer heaven. After spending the entire day taping and soldering I hopped online to read my mail, surf the net, catch up on some blogs and even managed to crank out the two scrapbook pages for the snow and charms in photoshop! I was a little too excited and stayed up till 4:30 this morning playing, but I don't care - it's the first day I have felt like myself in weeks!!!

Here are my charms... I had made up the pic with brushes in photoshop, punched them out and stuck them to the glass pebbles earlier, so all I had to do was wrap them in copper tape and solder them up, but it took pretty much all day because I did quite a bit more than the 25 needed for the shop, since I knew that some of them might would be duds. I am not a master solderer, so I always make extra ;)

(All the credits for my layouts can be found on my flicker page... click on the link to right)

photo a day...

is one thing, posting them is another. I have been taking pictures, but I don't always get the time to log on, hook up my camera, edit the size, etc. Oh well - at least I'm taking more pictures.

I bought a 250 gig external hard drive last night. I have a dinosaur of a computer and it's full to the brim with all my pics, songs, and digital files. So full it won't even defrag properly, so I got some extra storage and it's nice to have my important stuff off my computer in case it ever crashes, I won't loose everything. I got an external one so the whole family can use it. My son can take it to his room and put his stuff on too. I'm pretty happy with it.

I'm working on my second set of charms for the other swap. I have to get them in the mail pretty quick so I better finish. I'll post pics later.

Took the hubby

Today I took my hubby to the gallery where my art is on display. We took a few photos, pardon the glare from the glass case the shadow from the display on the tree pic. You can't tell from the photo, but ALL the stars in the sky on the tree pic are Swarovski crystals. {photo frame credit: Anna Aspnes}

I've had requests to put my charm back on Etsy, so I'm going to do it. Again, if you are in the charm swap - don't look because these are being sent in to one of them (I won't tell you which one, so even if you do peek, you won't know)

Immigration update for those sweet souls who have been following along and sending me emails of encouragement.... We have filed our final papers - woo hoo! Ty can be out of school for some time still, but the superintendent is a champ and promised he would day anything it takes to get him caught up again, upon returning. At least that's a load of my mind.

Peace!

Too much of good thing....

I woke up this morning to find a letter, from a very upset artist, thinking that I had stolen her idea, and she wanted me to credit her for the design. Horrified that I was being accused of stealing, I wrote her back with my sources of inspiration (home decor items). Because I felt her pain of having an idea 'out there' when she was trying to keep it under wraps for an upcoming publication, I pulled my photos from flickr... my item for sale on Etsy.... but there's a bid on my auction on ebay, so I couldn't pull that. I pulled all those things out of empathy for her. After searching and finding all my links to send her, I found a ton of the same item on etsy already. Both posted before mine, and after. Hey they are adorable - who wouldn't want to make some? It just goes to show you there are no new ideas out there, lol.
I'm happy that we have worked it out this morning...
she has no ill feelings for me, and vice versa. As a matter of fact, she's one of my fav artists, so I couldn't be happier that this was all a big misunderstanding AND bad timing for other reasons.

Going for the hat-trick

Wow - what a great 2 days it's been.... first finding out I got into the show, then tonight we went to the reception and found out I got 2 honorable mentions! (for this one and this one) That's my first score.
My second score was our fantastic visit with my son's neurologist today. He found the answer we have been looking for, for 13 years. The tears just started welling when it happened - such relief.
So... the third score I need for my hat-trick is immigration to say yes to school with out 485 filing.
If you say prayers - we need one for that.

Doin' the Happy Dance

All day I had my phone call forwarding to my cell, waiting for the call from the selection group at the FEC gallery, to hear if I got in the juried show I've been making art for. I didn't get a call so I went down there (because I know the stuff had to be picked up by 5 tonight). I didn't realize they were only calling people to pick up art that didn't make it into the show... that's why they didn't call me because all 3 pieces of my art made it!!!! I am so excited!!!!! There is a private reception tomorrow night for all the artists who submitted. We can bring one guest, so I'm bringing Tyler, since he's seen me fret over this since I started my show pieces, and he was with me when I found out. He was so proud of me - that was the best!!!! He's never been to any of my receptions yet either, because he was Canada all year, so this will something I can share with him.

I'm so happy to have some good news, especially since we are going through this whole immigrations/school thing. The X's new wife told him this is my problem, so he won't help pay for this, which is our only stumbling block at the point. This really sucks - it's not me they need to help, it's our son. I swear, every man that leaves his family and gets a new one, leaves his original kids behind.... it happened with me, it happened to my best friend's kids.... and now poor Tyler. I just want to call the 'latest' wife and tell her she better not get too cozy, cuz sooner or later she'll be old news and she just might feel this frustration with the kids they have together too. But I'm not going to call - I'm just going to find a way and when they call seeing if he's coming up for Christmas I'm going to tell where to shove the mistletoe!

OK - back to the good news.... I recently got accepted into a group of artists that I not only admire, but really respect. I'm now a member of MMCA (mixed media collage artists) and I'm tickled pink. I accomplished my art goal for 2006 - to get my work out there in shows and galleries and start selling. My goal for 2007 is to start submitting my art to publications that I admire and really focus on some pieces that I can market to shops/galleries (they need to be reproducible)

Happy Halloween

This is my brain in the hands of the immigration dept....
Ugh, so much drama!

Isn't this great work? It belongs to turtblu on flickr.

Well today was not nearly as exciting as yesterday... no kids to save or anything.
I was unable to complete my last work for the show, so I'm handing in 3. I just didn't want to put 'anything' on it - so I'll wait till it comes to me and I can do it right, then put in the December art gift show.

If you are in the charm swap and you don't want to see what your charms look like, then DONT CLICK the Etsy link below! I can't stop making these little charms, so I put some for sale on eBay.

Happy Halloween.

The clock is ticking...

I have yet to finish that last piece to be juried for the show. Tomorrow is my last day to decide "what to put in the attic" Everything I try looks crappy. If magic doesn't happen tomorrow, I'll have to pull it off the list. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

In other news - it's been quite a wicked few days, around here. Thursday morning started off with a bang. The lovely department of homeland security decided to 'reclassify' my son to a different status, and so that voided his student visa. This is a nightmare because we had to pull him from school until he has the A-OK to go back. This was the year he decided he was turning his school life around darn it.... and pulled his grades WAY up. I'm trying to appeal, so that this doesn't drag out and cost him graduating with his pals. Man this chaps my hide!!! So I waited all day Friday for them to return my call on Friday, and missed my altered art group - oh and they DIDN'T EVEN CALL!!! I can't take much more of this crap.

I've been playing around with ideas for the charm swaps I'm in. I think I know what I'm doing for Dawn's, and I finally came up with something for Amber's. I haven't taken pics yet, but when I do I will just post a link to them, not the actual pic here, so anyone else in the swap doesn't have to have the surprise spoiled. I just love how they turned out. Hooray for small favors. So I got 18 of them done tonight and ran out of supplies... I'll get more tomorrow and finish them off. If you want info on the charm swaps, check out my site - right on the front page.

Oh! I almost forgot!!! While I was online, reading my favorite blogs, a cute little kid caught my eye, running down the street. He was tiny, like 3 years old tiny.... so I'm waiting for his parents to come by, with the stroller or something, trying to catch up to him, but NO! My street is crazy busy, and everyone speeds on it - so I was freaking out. I flew out of my chair with my eyes on this this little tot and a car rounded the corner - but just as that happened, my son and his friend did too so I was screaming from my balcony as I was running towards them... "scoop up that baby - a car is coming!!!" With one hand he was scooped up and pulled to the sidewalk and the car came to a screeching halt. I flew down the stairs and picked him up. He was crying and had no shoes on, so I took him upstairs, washed his face, and called 911. He stopped crying when he saw my turtle. I asked him if he was ok and he nodded, and he just snuggled up to me while we waited for the police to come. The cop asked him where he lived and of course he didn't know... which frustrated the cop. "He's only about 3" I said "of course he doesn't know where he lives." So we just sat by my front door, watching the street to see if anyone was out looking for him for about 20 minutes. FINALLY a car driving by sees the second cop car out on the road in front of our place and he asked him if he had seen a little boy around. "Like the one up there?" he asks as he's pointing up to us. That was the dad all right. Apparently they didn't realize he was even gone for a while..... and they lived 2 or 3 blocks away, around the corner. He could have been hit by a car on a million occasions, but he was ok. Thank God for that!

I made a new header for the blog.... for November. I'm just itching to put it up! I'll be a good girl and wait....

Coming Together

I'm so pleased, my entries for the art show are coming together. I got the bubbles out of my tree and I'm almost done my 4th and last peice. I changed my last one from a beeswax collage to another mixed media peice. My friend made me a few house canvases, and I used one of those (saving the other 2 for the December art gift show).
So the house.... it's cute and my favorite part is the roof. I cut shingles out of copper mesh, folded the edges in so they are neat and hammered each one on. Then I heated them up with my heat gun, to 'heat patina' them. {pictures coming soon}
It may not be sophisticated art, but it's mine - and they will either accept me or not and if they don't I'm fine with that. Surprisingly good outlook on my part ;) maybe because I sold a painting yesterday! I got a commision to make one like the one I made for my altered art group pal. It came together nicely and is sold and on it's way to it's new home.

Bubble Bubble Toil Trouble

Oh drat, my big tree is getting a little bubbly as it's drying. I may need to add another layer if I can't get it to settle down.

Did you watch Grey's Anatomy tonight? I love that show, but I wish Meridith would just hook up with McDreamy and be done with it. I can't handle another season of 'will they'. The divorced couple was pretty funny too - getting 'lodged' together like that.

My neighbors are driving me crazy. I swear they got booted from hell for being too awful and came here to live. I wish I could move out of Florence right now.... it was such a mistake to move here. It's just been such a struggle to barely stay afloat - totally not worth it. Just 2 more years and I'm free.

.... back to the de-bubble mission. This painting has got to make them stop and think 'hey, that might be fun in the show'.

whole lotta sky

I'm working on my biggest peice of art, ever (besides the windows I used to paint). I'm creating my 3rd work in my 'twilight' series, and it's a whopping 24 x 36 inches, which is huge for me. Pat found a clever way for my little easel to hold my canvas, which has helped alot. Here's a few shots to see it coming along in stages... (still need to add the tree trunks & stars) Oh the quality of the shot sucks, but I didn't want to take the time to fuss with it - I'll save the work till the final pic.

While up in Newport at the craft store I found some teeny tiny glass animals. I picked up a green tucan for my Mom and I got this little blue bird for myself. It's only 3/4 of an inch from tip of the beak to the end of the tail. I have this cute little thing on my monitor where the light from the window can shine through it.

Time keeps on ticking....

August has seriously slipped away in a blink.... and I'm not sure what I've done all month - so it really does feel like a blink. I have been on an art break, a blogging break, an everything break. Let's see, what's happened since I've been online last?

• major immigration issues with my son - I don't even want to write about that, it's too exhausting
• my X has just had is 4th biological child with his 3rd wife (technically his 2nd since we were not married, but you know) but he's really a dad of 5 because his latest wife already had 1. I'm not really wanting to write about that either, since I can't say anything nice
• yesterday was smoke'n hot here in my chilly town - I was lovin' that. Ty and I spent the afternoon at the beach
• I said farewell to 5 of my ocean related collage/assemblages. I was asked to have my art hang in a gallery in Burien WA, so I sent them off with wish to sell sell sell. If you happen to be in that neck of the woods, check out Atlantis Designs on 152nd Street.
• had lunch will Mr. FM - listening to his future plans pretty much assured me that the future misses is a smoke screen, for proper appearances sake. Geez.
  
  I'm just chill'n, waiting for my muse to return.

What's new?

Nothin! I haven't made any new art in a while - I haven't been in any shows to sell it, nothing sells off Etsy, and I even tried the farmers market - but that was the wrong venue. (desperate times call for desperate measures) Anyone wanna buy some art?

The need to create never stops, but I don't want 'unwanted' art piling up around the house so I've been back at my computer, playing with photoshop, making some digital layouts.

plugging forth

My second and last Tauk Tour art sale is coming up. Since I was overwhelmingly unsuccessful last time - I'm adding a few 'sell out' items. I had a great response to my art from people coming up and telling me they loved it, but I didn't sell any. They (the Tauk tour tourists) bought up all the lighthouse and coasty stuff instead. So, in my big quest to actualy SELL some art, I'm going to make what I hope/think will sell. Is that selling out? I feel like it is - I mean if I'm producing not what I want, but by the demand of the consumer, I'm not following my heart/vision. Oh well, I guess I can't afford to be picky.

***

I've made a few more digital layouts... click to see them full size.

This one was taken on Canada day - on our drive home from Lincoln City. The sunset was spectacular.










This one is my sweetie cat, Emma. She our resident fluff ball of love.

my vision - right before my eyes

I've been a bird lover all of my life, but never really collected much until this year - I have so much fun bird imagery & silhouettes that I've never been able to find before. So in my quest to bring more birdy things into my home I have collected little birdcages and I have them all grouped together. My next thing are nests. I've been creating a bunch off collages & mixed media paintings using nests. A few weeks ago I came up with another one, but I had to wait to go into 'the city' to a craft store to get the needed supplies. In the mean time I was cruising one of my favorite artist's etsy page and what did I see? My vision - it was almost exactly what I wanted to create, but was waiting for the supplies. I was half happy to see what a lovely piece of art it was and half heart broken because I feel like I can't create mine now.

Amanda has asked me "when was the last time you created something?" I must admit I haven't created a thing since I saw my vision - right before my eyes - not created by me. I've been struggling with my soldering too - which has pissed me off enough not to make any more. I'm seeing these incredibly lovely soldered items with smooth and thick edges and try as I might - mine are thin and uneven. Off all things of mine to be thin..... :)

Agghh - so I'm once again stuck - afraid of not creating something wickedly fabulous and original. I guess I'll just have to sit down and 'play' - that's when it starts to happen for me anyway........ not when I'm trying.

It's all about the bling

My sweet sweet friend Amanda has started a jewelry business. She is an amazing bead artist and you must check out her etsy store: BellaAzule.etsy.com I can't go anywhere without people gushing over my necklace, when I wear it - she's amazing. Why not treat yourself to something today - she only chooses the highest quality beads - and her prices are FANTASTIC!

I've just sold another painting/collage in the Small Picture Encore Show at the FEC. I'm so excited to have have 2 out of 3 at this show. Tomorrow I'll take in another new one to replace it. I'm doing the Snoopy happy dance right now.

I put some big paintings/collages on eBay tonight because they had a listing sale. They are a bigger 'chuck of change', but not as high as I was quoted to charge. I'm a firm believer of 'art for everyone'. So if you have some mad chedda' that needs spending, head on over and bid away! Head over anyway - even if you are window shopping :)

Getting over it

I used to have this major issue of people seeing my art, reading anything I write, etc. I couldn't stand it. Blogging definately got me over that hump, and entering my art into gallery shows got me over the 'don't look at my art' thing. I would still prefer to show it on the internet than in person, and attending gallery receptions is so NOT my cup of tea - but I'm trying to get over it.

Don't laugh, but I'm always shocked when I find out I'm not invisible. Huh? you ask - what is this gal smokin'? No really - I assume that as I'm driving down the road, in the sanctuary of my tinted window car, that nobody can see me - wrong. Even yesterday, I was walking through the grocery store, minding my own business and kept wondering, 'what the heck are these people looking at?' "You" my husband said - "you look cute in your new shirt - that's why they are smiling at you" Oh how sweet of him to say that. But again, shock on my part. I'm like a kid who covers her eyes then thinks you can see me. I concentrating on finding my green tea Sobe, so I wasn't looking around to see who I knew so I could chit chat or say hello. I was on a green tea mission - so in my weird little brain I just figured I was undetectable. Yikes - maybe that bit of craziness is just too much to share, lol.

So anyway - I decided to update the artist bio that I have to hand in to gallery shows, for their book. Viewers can browse through the book to get to know the artists. Most are just plain jane typed paragraphs, so I thought I would make mine a litte more jazzy. (except for Meredith Draper's awesome altoid soldier - that one rocks) I decided to talk about my personal side a bit more - because I figure if you are reading the bio book to lean more about the artists, we better offer something up worth look'n at. I hope mine fits the bill and helps me crawl out of my shell.

Art of the Day on EBSQ

Art of the Day - "Asian Handbag" by Tracy Webster

A purse I made was selected for Art of the Day on the EBSQ site - What fun! This is something I made years ago - nice to know it's still getting looked at.