Hello Bloglandia

My goodness I've been gone for a long time! Not because I wanted to be tho. It was just a very long hard winter and holiday season followed by family obligations that prevented me from going up tp my studio to work let alone spending time on the computer. But hopefully that is all behind me now.

My apologies to my online friends whom I have neglected woefully and to my Yahoo groups that haven't seen or heard from me in forever.

But sometimes you just have to take care of business first.

So here are a couple of wall placques I did from a design I saw in Cloth Paper scissors. I actually made 10 of them and when I get them hung on my wall I will post a pic.
This is a stuffie monster I made my daughter for Xmas from a sweater i shrunk by mistake.

I have never made a stuffie before and am pretty pleased with how it came out. His name is Rufus.

I am working on a bunch of stuff, making up for lost time. Going in whole new directions too. So please come back and see what I've done. I promise to better about posting.

Peace

My Inchies Are Done

This was a lot of fun to do. After you get past the aggravation of trying to find that many tiny images that are meaningful or pleasing to you. I think I left off at going around the pics with black paint because my gel pens wouldn't write on it. So I just made sketchy black lines around each inchie. Then I dry brush coat of gesso. Then lines with a charcoal pencil that you smear. Then more dry brush gesso. Then more smeary charcoal.
Then you hit it randomly with a dry brush in grey.
The mag says to have gesso and marks on your inchies. And to outline some of the pics in the inchies with black pen.
But I didn't want to mark or cover any of them. They took too darn long to amass!! So I skipped this step.

Then I took stencils and made words that seemed to fit and dry brushed them with gesso. Then I lightly outlined them with charcoal pencil that I smeared.

That's it. Like I said, fun to do. Wouldn't it be cool to have a son or daughter or BFF collect images and do one of these pieces for them?

Peace

Wall Hangings

I'm not sure what to call these, wall hangings or placques or what.Anyway, this one is for a sister who had a bit of a run in with her teenage daughter. The words are'Raising teenagers is like trying to nail jello to a tree.' I was really happy with the image of a woman I found. I Google imaged Frustration and there she was.

This one is just cuz I like the saying. It is 'Give a man an inch and he thinks he's a ruler.' For some reason it just cracks me up.

So that's some of what I've been doing. Nothing profound, just putzing around.

Peace

No pics today

Today is for remembering.
I know I will never forget the feeling of horror and outrage.
That someone, some people would dare do this to us.
It couldn't be true.
But of course it was.
And now our boys and girls are still over there.
Even after all this time.
I am proud of my son and my nephew and all the soldiers.
But it saddens me and sickens me and I am always frightened for them.

Peace

Me in Inches

So I saw this done in Cloth Paper Scissors and it intrigued me. So I figured I'd give it a shot. The idea is to cut images in inchies and mount them on a canvas. So first I graphed out the canvas and found out that I would need 99 inchies!!



Then I decided that my inchies would be things that represent me or that make me happy. So I made an inchie stencil out of a piece of plastic and started looking for pics. It is a lot harder than you would think to find things that are able to be identified when cut into an inchie.

It probably took a couple of weeks of searching images in mags and catalogs etc. And I used some words from an old dictionary. But finally I got 99 and there they are all mounted with matte gel medium.

Next you're supposed to start painting in between them with a paint marker, but I don't have one so I am using a brush and some Topaz metallic craft paint.

I'll keep you posted about the next steps.

Peace

Heart Songs

I was inspired to make these by the article in May/June Somerset Studio.
The artist is Sarah Whitmire. There was just something about them that I had to re-create.

I used the museum canvases, which I love. I have found that Sax Art Supplies carries them for a decent price. Call them and get a catalog, it's full of great stuff.

I had a bunch of trims and old lace scraps, and I used them to trim out the bottoms. I used mechanics wire for the false hangers.

I cut scallops from sheet music for the sides.

I tried the crackling paints and didn't find them to be any better than using the medium. You will save a step, but the crackle isn't as noticable.

Peace

Trauma, drama, illness and an artistic kick in the teeth

I have been away from Bloglandia for a VERY long time. What a lot of stuff has been going on. But thankfully it is mostly over and life can get back to normal.

First there was family trauma, which will happen from time to time, especially when the family is large like mine. And there is always drama to accompany the trauma.

Then I got to lose over a month to an illness which while it could have been fatal, wasn't.

Before all this stuff happened, I got a real artistic kick in the teeth. I had mentioned the show I was going to be in. I entered this piece 'Imaginary Friends'And this piece 'Warrior'

And this piece 'A Really Good Hair Day'

So I'm pretty happy with my work, I thought I had some very unusual and creative things. Then they had the judging and I got beat out by this! A knock-off of a lawn ornament that the guy who made it told me he threw together just to prove he could do whimsy. I don't expect to win every thing I enter. I know full well that there are many many artists out there who are better than me. I also know that it isn't always who's better, sometimes it's all about the judges taste. This judge was a man and I don't know what to say about his taste. The welds were sloppy and the painting was spotty. I was really confused.

Then I enter a jury show for the first time. I am again feeling pretty good about my work. I entered the big black beaded wing, the bone and jewel dragon sculpture and Miss Noteworthy. I feel these are some of the best work I have ever done. I didn't enter looking towards winning, because this is a big show with entries from all over the states. But I truly thought I would at least get in.

Wrong.

I got the form letter saying thank you but no.

So I guess I have been creatively pouting in the midst of all the trauma drama and illness.

But I'm over it now. So screw 'em if they don't like my work. I do.

Peace