Tuesday, April 29, 2008

This Week's Prompt

I'm posting this now rather than yesterday 'cause my 80 year old Mom had surgery yesterday and I was at the hospital for 10+ hours. Playing a little "catch-up" this morning. She's doing well.

The prompt for this week is as follows: Think of something that you still own from childhood or from your teenage days. You can get it out and look at it. (If you don't have anything then dredge up a memory!) Now do art or write from that object. The art/writing can
be based on the object itself or on the feeling that the object creates within you. Just go with it.

"An unused memory gets lost, ceases to exist, dissolves into nothing - an alarming thought. Consequently, the faculty to preserve, to remember, must be developed." Author Christa Wolf

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Belated Thank You



I totally forgot that I wanted to say thank you to everyone that has made a comment! I really appreciate each and every one.
I'm showing a couple pictures of my beeswax collage soul chairs while I'm posting my thanks. It's hard to really get a good shot of them, but they have quotes, a few images, and paint and then are coated with some beeswax. They are about 6" tall.

How Was Your Weekend??

Mine was great! On Friday I got together with a very good friend. We talked and had lunch and then shopped abit for art supplies. A nice day!
Saturday and Sunday I went to art/writing all day workshops. It was all based on the idea of reverse kindergarten - learning to color outside the lines. We did paper dolls, totem poles about us, collages, masks, and writing. Very cool and very free and creative! It was a very supportive group of about 25 women and was held at a place over by Saratoga Lake. A nice experience.

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." Pablo Picasso

Friday, April 25, 2008

Beeswax Collage and a Poem

This is a collage that I did that is embellished with beeswax. The collage is made up of tissue papers, transparencies, collage images, angelina fibers, and handmade papers on a stretched canvas. The beeswax is applied and smoothed with an iron. Beeswax is a fantastic medium!
I have taught several workshops in this and most people really enjoy working with it. Plus there's a bonus...it smells good!!

This is something that I plan to use in artwork soon and will share as my ending quote. I love the rhythm of it and the images it evokes. I'm off to a weekend of art and poetry writing this weekend!
"Nothing that is can pause or stay;
The moon will wax, the moon will wane,
The mist and cloud will turn to rain,
The rain to mist and cloud again,
Tomorrow be today." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Spring Nesting



These are pictures of one of the birdhouses that I decorate. They are decorated with papers, paint, quotes, bird collage pics, and then beeswax. You can't really see the beeswax here, but it adds a nice touch! This is a large one (9" tall). I also do small ones and even smaller ones that are windchimes. They are fun to do and were very popular last year when I was a member of an artist co-op.
"Sometimes you look into a mirror and can't remember what age you are. Somehow you expect to see a 12 year old or an 18 year old looking back at you."
from the novel Intimacy by Hanif Kurelshi

Monday, April 21, 2008

First Prompt and a Quote

The Very First Prompt on my blog is "What Remains". Take these two words and use them as a jumping off point to start something...anything. You could use the mood they evoke in you to do artwork...you could use the concept as a technique by applying and removing paint, mediums, whatever...you could write from the two words...write a poem or other words that come to you when thinking of what remains and then use them in artwork...do a photoshop piece. Anything you'd like. And if you do and would like us to know, just leave a comment.

Now a quote and I'm going to go work in my art journal.

"My creed for art is that it should enrich the soul. It should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he would not discover otherwise...a part of yourself you never knew existed." jazz pianist Bill Evans

Friday, April 18, 2008

Suddenly Clicked Re. the Photos!

Not to let on that I'm a little slow on this stuff or anything, but it suddenly clicked as to why the post looked different here than in preview. Duh!...this area is wider than the blog, whereas the preview area shows it like it is in the blog. Okay -- I'll get this eventually!

May I suggest that you go read a few poems? It's National Poetry Month!! Look up a favorite childhood poem....find a couple favorites from another point in your life....and read a few that you've never seen before.















The first picture is one of my paint and texture collages. It's done with paint, different mediums, cheesecloth, and lacy paper. I've really been into doing these lately.
I hope these photos show stuff okay. I know quite abit and do quite well with film photography, but digital photography???well, not so much and digital photography and computers...forget it, I know practically nothing.
These are 2 of my Affirmation Collages. The first one is the one I'm keeping (and is my Mom's head). Okay, now I'm confused. Here the 2 photos are left and right, but when I go to preview they aren't next to each other. At any rate the one with yellow shoes mentioned is my Mom! I'll have to show it to her and see what she thinks! The affirmations in my collage all have personal meaning to me (for ex. the yellow shoes one - just before doing the collage one of my daughters and I were shopping and looking at Converse One Star sneakers. I liked a pair, but thought I might be too old for them. Well, thanks to her I bought a pair!).
"We are but birds of passage and must build our nests out of what materials we can find." Lady Wilson 1889




Thursday, April 17, 2008

Thank You and Info on Prompts

First I want to say thanks to everyone that left comments and/or e-mailed me! I really appreciate it and it makes me feel that yes, indeed "someone" is out there.
On Monday I will start posting prompts. I plan to post one every Monday. Sometimes they will be 1 word, sometimes a phrase, and sometimes a question.

Tomorrow I'm getting my digital camera back and plan to post some photos then. I've been working on some collages and beeswax collages. Lately I've worked on Affirmation Collages for a swap that my friend Marilyn (In My Room in my sidebar links) is hosting. They were patterned after a Kelly Rae article in Cloth, Paper, Scissors and were really GREAT fun!! Mine is a combo of painting and collage. I enjoyed it so much that I'm doing another swap with an art friend in Arizona plus I made one to keep. Mine to keep is done with my Mom's head and then has a painted dress and body.

"We don't have an eternity to realize our dreams, only the time we are here." Susan Taylor

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Quotes and more

I love quotes and lines from books, poems, and songs! In fact, I've so far collected an entire notebook of them. Alot of art that I've done has had quotes incorporated into it. There's just something about coming across words that express something that you've thought or felt, but couldn't put into words. I always hope when I use one in art that it'll touch someone else the way it touched me. Anyway, I'll be using quotes here, too.

Just in case anyone isn't familiar with these, I wanted to mention Blogarithm and Bloglines. Blogarithm sends you an e-mail to let you know that blogs you read have updated and Bloglines updates automatically everytime one of the blogs you read posts and you go to it whenever you want. Very cool way to read your regular blogs!

"Isn't that just how it happens. A person need only walk over your threshold and your life can become forever changed, lived under a different sky." from the novel These Granite Islands by Sarah Stonich.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

First Post

This is the start of my new blog! I'm really excited about this and have some ideas that I want to try... like a prompt each week that could be used for either art or writing (OR to write a poem and then use it in a piece of art!) AND maybe some art swaps/challenges AND an occasional drawing for a small piece of art AND who knows what else will come to mind! Hopefully, as I get going on this, someone somewhere will read it. Very soon I want to figure out how to put pictures on.
For those of you that may not know me, I'm in my early 50's, have 4 grown children, 1 granddaughter, and another grandchild on the way. I'm a self-taught mixed-media collage artist and also do beeswax collage, art journaling, book arts, and assorted other art activities.
I'm really looking forward to this new adventure!