Creative Spring cleaning time

"Flowers of Sulphur" ATC

Supplies: collage sheet images and ephemera from Collage Stuff; inked background collaged with paper stash bits; roses sticker from Current.

Sittin' here on this early Saturday morning listening to the radio playing old school rock. Gettin' up every 15 mintues or so to work on the quick random chore and think about what to write next...this post could take the entire morning to write, winkwink.

You may recall me mentioning that I needed to reassess where my creative time's going...that's I would stew on it and see what solutions I could cook up. Well, been there and done it, finally. All that's left to do is the doing of it.

I weeded out my membership in my Yahoo and Ning groups last week. I left about half of them. I left one because I was just irritated with it more and more. The mutual back-scratching, the encroaching commercial marketing posts rub me the wrong way sometimes. Since I'm not into this hobby to be published or seek design teaming, it detracts from my available time and energy. To each his own, it's nothing personal. I'll miss some nice swaps and artwork being shared, but there are only about 50 bazillion other sources out there when I need inspiration.

I'm thinking I also need to temporarily limit my existing involvement in the groups that remain, more specifically in the 3 groups I most actively participate in. Since these have my heart and I would never want to leave them for good, I want to disrupt my space there as little as possible, so I'm going to first try to change my email preferences. I've always chosen to have every message emailed to me as soon as it's posted to the group. That makes for a huge inbox at times and is a time taker. So, I will try getting a daily digest instead. That may be all I have to do.

I also want to keep a presence in the swaps albeit a minimum one. In my stamping group, I've committed to making birthday cards for the RAK list and will continue that. I will also keep doing one card of the month and one ATC. In my altered design group, I will continue the weekly ATC mingle and the monthly lottery. And in my paper trader group, I will keep doing that monthly lottery and the occasional swap. There is a spring cleaning recycling swap coming up to stuff a 9x12 bubble mailer full of goodies that should be easy to do and good for me.

I don't think I have mentioned it, but I signed up for and paid $120 for two classes back in January that I have not done one thing in. One is a Remains of the Day journal-making class taught by Mary Ann Moss, and the other is Kelly Kilmer's A Life Made by Hand journaling class. Thankfully I have 3 more months in Kelly's and even longer than that in Mary Ann's, and I didn't sign up for either to participate daily in, so both are saveable if I act now. I also have subscribed to Vamp Stamp News and Rubber Stamp Madness, and I need to devote some time to trying out the techniques and ideas they have. And then there is my year-long subscription to Technique Junkies, which is probably the biggest treasure trove of educational goodness. While I have done a few labs, there are a zillion more waiting.

I had bought all of these with Christmas money and hadn't really paid attention to the cumulative effect. They were all things I really wanted, so now's the time to take advantage. I'm actually looking forward to the change of scenery, but that's me. I'm a fickle little winch sometimes.

The biggest behavior change is going to be my stopping all the challenges and sketches, and that will not be easy. I figure I'll first employ the Don't Ask, Don't Tell rule, which means I'll check out the sketches and use them but I won't tell anyone. It's like dating someone hot and heavy but not committing. It also lessens the time it takes to be involved in yet more communities of people. I hate it when people post and run in a group, so if I'm gonna post my work I try to praise others'. If I don't post my work there, I avoid that altogether, yet I still get the design foundation I might need on a card or other art.

I've been in the mood lately to be more free creatively, so I am hoping these changes to my daily art goals and activities will let me do my own thing more. This will either work, or not, but it's my plan and I'm sticking to it, winkwink.

Bad Hair Day Life and Art School Update

I made this page with my hair affliction in mind, which is that I just have bad hair. Period. And, when I have the supreme luck to have my hair look good, it's all gravy, baby. Looking on the bright side.

I used collage sheet images from Nancy Baumiller's Collage Play with Crowabout challenge group. And my painted background is another page in my Kelly Kilmer monthly ning class A Prompt A Day.

So, a little art school update: I have winded down on doing art journal pages, as I am worn out from it. I pushed my envelope, enjoyed it, challenged myself and kicked my art up a notch due to it. But I had to just stop this past weekend, enough being enough. I needed a break and I did nothing artistic. That behavior bled into this week, and last night I realized I could keep it up even longer, which will really blow my schedule all to hell because I am already behind in multiple classes. Time to get a grip.

My adjusted gameplan is that since I created 12 journal pages in 24 days and that is an average of one every 2 days, I plan to continue output at that speed or maybe 1 every 3 days. Yes, 1 every 3 is the plan. This means I will continue to do September prompts throughout October and that is more my style. Since each page usually takes me 3-4 hours start to finish, you can see I was doing little else when I was churning them out.  I would dearly love to do a page a day, but I like my pages to be just right how I like them and mean something, like collages in a book, so they do take longer. That's just the way it is and is going to be. I'm embracing reality with a smile. We won't even factor in my physical restraints.

I should be on Lesson 3 in my Suziblu class; instead, I've barely finished Lesson 1. Suzi cleared me to go to Lesson 2, but I really don't feel she should have (how is that for confidence?). I shall advance anyway, and if it bites me in the butt I will start over, no problem. She recently extended our stay in our class until the end of December, so that means we have a lot more time to do the course. Was that a prayer of mine being answered? No, she has a book deal and magazine and all kinds of famousness brewing, and has to juggle that and her classes. Whatever the reason, I'm happy. Another reason I am happy is that I realize now that I can draw those doll faces. I have Suzi's pdf's and videos that teach how, so I have accomplished my biggest goal, which was to discover the secret to it and find out if I could do it. Again, the quality wil be mine and not hers but I never ever expected to have her quality. I actually enjoy her method as there is a surprising amount of geometry involved, and I'm always up for a good game of math, you know. ;-) (Sorry, I cannot divulge any more technique secrets as she will have me killed if I do -- proprietary info and all.)

I haven't even begun my friend Linda's altered tin and cards class and we are in the 2nd week. {Hanging my head in shame, but I know she forgives me...that's what friends are for...let's not forget I didn't really need the class, but I wanted to support my friend, plus I am taking it for the motivation to make Christmas presents, and it'll probably be one of my more enjoyable classes, too.}

I hope to concentrate today and catch up quickly, so all will be perfect. Since we are to do only one tin in there and I am going to do a minimum of 3 (and since I basically knew how to do it -- I am emphatically not saying they'll look great, but I do know how to alter a tin), I think I'll be caught up by Sunday. I have to cover my tins and then do my dividers that go inside. I wasn't motivated to do it before, but now I am actually looking forward to it.

I wish I could say the same thing for my Paint Shop Pro classes. I just cannot seem to get past my fear and my lack of desire combined. I'm going to do a few lessons this morning before altering my tins, and if the feeling continues, I'm dropping them. I am so unmotivated to learn so many of the things PSP does that I'll never do, just in order to learn the few things I do want to know, ya know?

The free Taking Flight book study began again over on On the Wing ning, and since I blew my first chance to study Kelly Rae Roberts' awesome book, I really have to do it this time. My lovely friend Teri has decided to lead it again, but probably not 3 times. My realization about being able to draw petit doll faces will only help me with Kelly Rae's faces, which I love equally, so strike while the iron is hot, I say. I should mention, this was not on my original class load, so it's an Add. Dang, I'm an art glutton.

While we are on Adds, I had counted the Lynn Perella Artists' Journals and Sketchbooks book study group over at Artists Round Table (where I did the Gwen Diehn class), but now I have finally decided to audit this, if only for the section on decorating slidemounts, which is my favorite part of the book. We will see how it goes, but I've decided to sign up today.

Well, I'm worn out talking about what I'm gonna do and now need to rest in order to actually do something. Doncha love it? Onward Christian Soldier! LOL Here's to Don Quixote and Windmills! Laterz!

Art school

Guess what? I'm a full-time student now! At 53, I've gone back to school.

As promised, here's my additional post on Back to School for the GPP Street Team Crusade #33: Back to School, where I nitty-gritty the details about my new student status.

All without leaving my home. :-) I am taking a bunch of online art classes, it seems, in September and October.

It all started with deciding to take Kelly Kilmer's A Prompt A Day monthly class...again. I signed up for January's and did a few pages. Didn't like it cuz I didn't like getting dirty with paints. It's similar to my feelings about camping. Hate the thought of it and the first few days of it, until I'm really dirty. Then, I love it (and by then, it's usually time to head back home. I cannot win.)

At any rate, I did not finish that class and always regretted it. Meanwhile, I began painting in my composition books because I took Eliece's class and in there we just used one or two colors at a time. So I got used to painting. And keeping the brushes and paints wet. And cleaning the brushes. And cleaning up the mess.

Now I like it and I'm getting pretty good at it.

(Here's my first September page in Kelly's class... "The Life Aquatic". This was done in my Wake Me When It's Over Journal.)

Guess I'm feeling my oats here, because once I signed up for Kelly's September class, I took the plunge and signed up for SuziBlu's Let Petit Doll Beginner class, too. Wow, I thought. My September's gonna be ker-razy:

1. A journal page a day Sept. 1-30.
2. A 5-week class Sept. 5 - Oct. 8 learning to draw shabby dolls.
Well, wait, there's more.

The other day, somehow I found myself surfed over to this amazing place called My Creative Classroom. Omg, let me just say I wanted one of every course they give. There's like 5 I want to take and had to just refuse. But when I saw that my friend Linda was teaching how to decorate altered tins, well, I had to sign up!

I figured, learn from the Mastress how to decorate those, make some cards and voila, Christmas present! Since I have like 6 tins sitting around, it sounded like a Plan and it will be a great one. Then, I saw a Bind-It-All 101 class. This is just the shove I need to get jiggy with my machine (so I can try to fulfill my dream of being like my friend Tina, the mini-book Queen), so I signed up for that one as well. Then, I ran screaming from there, well, screaming YAY and MORE LATER, but at least I left before doing more damage.

So, let's subtotal:

1. A journal page a day Sept. 1-30.

2. A 5-week class Sept. 5 - Oct. 8 learning to draw shabby dolls.
3. A 3-week class on altering tins and making greeting cards Sept. 14-Oct. 4.
4. A Bind-It-All 101 class for 4 weeks from Oct. 6 - Nov. 3.

Let's see, is that all? Well, no. Still have 4 more Creative Lettering lessons to do to finish that course, and then I have a free one to choose. I finally decided on Doodling. But that's self-paced, whenever, so I can always fit that in. There is the A.R.T. class coming up in October on Lynn Perella's book Artists Journals and Sketchbooks. I wanted to take that, but I don't. That Decorated Page class was a killer! They work your butt off over there, lol. So, it's great, but be prepared.

1. A journal page a day Sept. 1-30.
2. A 5-week class Sept. 5 - Oct. 8 learning to draw shabby dolls.
3. A 3-week class on altering tins and making greeting cards Sept. 14-Oct. 4.
4. A Bind-It-All 101 class for 4 weeks from Oct. 6 - Nov. 3.
5. A Doodling class - self-paced, no deadline.

It has been awhile since I was in collage (the last time was in 1992-ish working on my Masters and teacher certification), but that looks like a full load to me.

Actually, 18 hours at least, because Suzi's doll class is like a adding a lab and is worth 2 classes timewise to any of the others.

And then there is running the 4x6 yahoo group. And I didn't even count taking my Paint Shop Pro classes! Oops! Make that 21-22 hours. Wow, the blood is coarsing the old veins now! I'd better stock up right this minute on midnite oil!

Things should be hairy-crazy-busy, but I'm looking forward to it.

Art overdose, bebe! :-)

Until next time,

Creatively lettered...

Hey. Hope your weekend is going good. I've had intermittent internet service this entire past week, plus no car as the Hubs took his in to have some work done on it and they've had to keep it waiting for parts so he's had mine. I've been doing a lot of throwing out of stuff, which is great but should mean more but doesn't because I'm such a packrat. I've been in a rather unattached mood though, so I hope to make a dent in my crap before I start getting clingy again.

If you are a packrat, you know you have to fool yourself sometimes. Usually I keep anything that can be donated, but never do it. So, I know this sounds horrible, but I'm just throwing stuff in the trash as it seems to be the only way to actually lose stuff. It's mostly old books that smell kinda musty so I doubt anyone would want them anyway.

I've been cutting off the covers of hardbacks and saving those, though. I saw where someone gesso's them and then uses them as substrate for collages and paintings. That is a great idea and book boards do not take up near the same space as hardback books. So I'm ahead there.

I've also been going through the books for any cool images and have found quite a few. So, I'm gaining those, and it takes time, but if I let my old packratty self do those 2 things, then I'm able to trash the remainder and not look back.

I have found a little time for art this week, but only one thing to show. I'm in the middle of decoupaging cigar labels onto Hubs' cigar humidor, per his request. I had put it off so long (he requested it back in April) that when I went to get it I found he had already started it for me by glueing a few on himself! I was able to peel them off (he must have scarfed a glue stick or something), but I got a good chuckle out of it. I bet he has watched me enough to think he can do it too, right?

I had mentioned last time that I was probably going to do Lesson 5 again (in my Creative Lettering class), and I did. I used a quote from Maya Angelou and love how it came out. Love the blue and green together, too. And, I plan nothing as to spacing -- well, I don't pick a 5 word quote if I have 6 lines to fill -- but this came out perfectly spaced without any planning. Just amazing, lol.

Until next time,

Freaky Friday

This is an altered art mixed media piece I did a while back. I made it for Nancy as a thank you for a kindness and, well, as an homage because I used her red mulberry card she made me as the focal point. As she lives in Canada, I waited until she received it before showing it here.

Have you ever had a piece that just would not photograph well in total? I got some great close-up macro shots, so I just decided to show them all throughout this post.

I innocently began by cutting the front off her card, trimming it up, then collaging it with gel medium onto 4x6 chipboard that I had painted pink. I immediately noticed that this caused some of the mulberry paper to lighten and discolor slightly, which was nice albeit sort of garish.

I got out my oil pastel finger cremes and rubbed them into the angel face to highlight its contours and shadows. Then I colored her lips a bright red with marker to accent them and rouged her cheeks.
I decided on a quote to use, found some ornate font, and printed it out on the cardstock I dug out (I want to say it's Basic Grey, but it's been too long and I'm too lazy right now to research it). It was at this point I felt my Muse moving me towards a little gothic, a little Victorian style, so I tore out the words and distressed the edges aggressively, then inked them aggressively.

I pop-dotted the words so they would stand out and look a bit vulnerable, too, like they might have been crumbled up before. The rest was easy and self-explanatory. I totally enjoyed making the little hanging angel-winged and heart-bead-tailed slide mount. What a great use for them! I'll be making more...one day.
************
Anyhoo, moving right along, I finished my vintage swap tags...finally, and got them mailed off. I'll be showing those next, but I wanted to display how the backgrounds turned out before being embellished:

I wish I could tell you it was exciting making these backgrounds, but it was actually boring and lengthy. Lots of drying and flattening time inside my ridiculously heavy botany plant book, in between layering of colors and patterns with ink and stamps and the occasional dry brushing of gesso or paint. Probably 5-6 layers on each tag. This was my first time to do this, so I'm sure I moved at the slowest rate known to man. It should get faster with practice. I think what distracted me was having to get out and put up my materials while the tags dried and flattened. Start, stop. Start, stop. I tend to put it off entirely after awhile, so sticking with it in a determined fashion was tough for me.

I do think it was worth it, though, in the end. Those are some gorgeous backgrounds, eh?

Until next time,

a busy week begins...

It's not turning water into wine, but did you know you can turn your art into food, one dollar at a time? At The Bread Art Project, you can digitally art-up a slice of virtual bread which when approved will hang on display at the site, and the best part is that $1 will be donated for your effort to feed the hungry.

My entry, shown above, is on country white bread, untoasted. I uploaded my angel sketch and toasted it. Then I add the text. It took all of about 4 minutes, too. Pretty cool, huh? Go check it out and make them some money!


Here is an artist trading card that I made for one of my yahoo group swaps. This one is quite popular over at my flickr, so it must not stink too bad. You could not have forced me to believe that while I was making it, though. This is another one I almost File 13'd. What's up with that? I go more than 2 years never throwing out one atc...then in the space of a week, I almost throw out 2 of them.

This one was suffering from eye confusion for one thing. I couldn't get a direction for my eye to follow. I added the brown leaves rub-ons and then the 3 crystals. Voila! My eye was told where to look. The background paper is more of my homemade layer-stamped stuff. I also had some rub-ons that were past their prime, so I ended up having to diamond glaze them down. I probably need to have a Rub-ons Challenge and try to focus on using as many of them up as possible...and then throw out the rest!

I worked this weekend on making altered post cards for that yahoo group's upcoming Trading Frenzy on Sunday. I'm trying to finish 4 cards by Saturday. The Hubster's 57th birthday is today (Happy Birthday, Hun!) and I've been so focused on these cards that I completely forgot until last night about a birthday card for him.

So, I went to American Greetings Online and printed him out one. Sealed it before wondering if I should have photog'd it, but it's not my art so I didn't. Besides, how far is it gonna go? LOL Man, talk about a one-track mind...on my mail art, blog, photos. It's fun, though, and I'm enjoying it to bits.

This week I also need to do our tax return extensions, pay a few bills, make 2 atc's, keep working on my post cards, and package up some atc's to mail off. And then hope to work on journal and glue book pages. Wish me luck!

until next time,

*Cutesy* art for Easter

This little card is for a weekly mingle on one of my yahoo groups. This week is an egg theme. I received a trade from Linda and she'd included some paper goodies. So I used one of the papers as the background, which just happened to be my mental constipation point on this card. So many choices, but when I saw the large mosaics, they reminded me of colored sidewalk tile or concrete blocks and I liked the look. The egg is a die cut I bought a long time ago thinking I could use it as a stencil or template. But it's too flimsy because the cut is too delicate. The girl is a vellum sticker that is semi-see-thru, so I stuck it down on white card stock and cut it out. Three very old Doodlebug posies sit atop the die cut's flower cut outs. The card's edge is inked in 3 different chalk ink colors: pink, green and wisteria.

Okay, go ahead, say it. The atc is...cute. Cutesy. Many of my peers consider that art-yuck. On many of the yahoo group database lists, where they ask your dislikes, it seems the 3 top answers (in no particular order) are usually dark (goth), nudes and cutesy, with religion a close fourth.

I used to agree with them. That was before I figured out the Rules Of Me, though. Realizing my ROM made me aware of an art world within my parameters. Namely, I wasn't ever going to be some famous artist with a big artist bank account. My goal was not to create art for posterity. My goal was to create art using up my ridiculously huge supplies inventory, and to create art as a therapy and a hobby.

And in that art world, Cutesy lives on a well-known street in a good neighborhood. Nobody laughs or disses her when she walks by. Besides, everything that goes around, comes around. So when you see me create something artsy and relatively in-fashion; then, you see me create something cutesy, I'm just using up my supplies and trying to make it look good. :-)

While it was initially a let-down in a way to realize my own ROM and to surrender to it, it was also empowering. There are actually times now when I don't worry about my art fitting in or if it's good enough or what my peers think of it. I've often thought why I let my supplies dictate what I make when I could easily shed them all and envision the art first, then buy stuff that fits it. The answer is that I'm still a student. I'm still learning, and using my supplies is one way to do that. I'm not saying that students can't go out and do it the other way. I'm just saying I can do that too if I want. And this way I have both options. ;-)

ROM's usually don't deal in lofty, far-off goals and dreams. They are usually lists of reality. Most artists and creatists (*nodding to Ann* winkwink) have the wish lists, the dream lists, but do we have reality lists to guide us in the everyday? My ROM has taught me to be honest about my love of paper piece collage, of coloring, of cutesy, of vintage, of dry adhesive even though I have tons of wet. The natural way we create if left to indiscriminately use what we want to reach for. And while I've come to terms with liking unpopular art techniques, a strange thing has already happened. I've seen one of them (paper piecings) come back into vogue. That goes around, comes around thang.

I'm still pretty sure, though, that the wings and zetti styles that I'm finally getting interested in still have a way to go before coming back around. They are just now fading out of style...

Win some, lose some.... winkwink

I hope you have a Blessed Easter and great weekend!

Until next time,

time for nesting

Lots of people over on my Flickr have been liking this atc that I made for the spring mingle swap (I made 4 altogether and this makes the last one in that series.) It's amazing what a good background and cute die cuts will make. ;-)

I suppose I've been inspired by the admirers because I plan to be busy bee-ing creative this week, laying low and making more backgrounds, cards, printing photos to alter and collage. Hoping to trim up some loose end projects and make progress on others. I have quite a lot on my list to do. If I kept a list, that is. I use my art calendar and there's deadlines, but I'm energized instead of traumatized...more proof to me it was the right thing to do to retire from accounting.

Until next time,

takin' names and dishin' ideas

We interrupt this blog post to bring you the latest important alert:
Less than 24 hours ago, dear readers, I asked 5 of you to step up and join me in Art Share Blog Candy.

Now I need only 1 more of you to step up, because 4 gorgeous, beautiful friends have committed - Nola, Lida, Rose and Paula...you ROCK! Thank you! Think about joining, okay?

We now take you back to our regular programming....



Here's a little atc that I made for a recent spring-themed group swap at yahoo. The digital image of the stone archway was printed out in draft mode, so that I could alter it with color. I've been working on using up some collage sheet card stock images, like the flower there, that are shaped for microscope glass. I pray for getting inspiration to use these images in ways other than as the main focal element, because I've been there and done that and boriiiinnnnggg. It's more fun to think up clever ways, anyway. :-))


***

A friend asked for advice today. I started writing my thoughts and realized it wouldn't make a half-bad blog post, because I bet my friend is not alone in her concerns.

She's been having trouble finding her own art voice. It seems that she can't get an original idea to save her life, and the blog hopping and gallery visits don't help. Her worry over it has dug into her self-confidence a bit, I fear.

Adding to it is that she is classically educated in art, and she's been talking about going commercial. These factors fight each other, I believe.

Quite simply, if someone's trying to find their art voice while they sell their art commercially, how can they do both without copying to some extent? By that I mean, taking inspiration from here and there to create something versus taking inspiration from within yourself and not being influenced by anyone else's art.

My thought process is, one either sells what they uniquely create or they sell what's hot (and in a few precious situations the two are the same). I know this to be true because this is where I am in my artistic journey, but I don't sell and I think this is why.

I think my friend needs to choose one of those last factors as the most important one so she can know it, and then proceed from there. There's no shame in either one. As Albert Einstein once said, "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

I don't think Einstein really meant a literal theft of someone else's vision. I think he was more clever than that. I think he was saying that there is no real virgin birth of creativity. All artists are inspired by others and many succumb to it, either to conform in that direction or to rebel from it. Einstein's saying if you can make it look like your own, you've achieved creativity.

If one can embrace this interpretation of Einstein's quote, then maybe worrying about not having found one's voice shouldn't be important. Me, I like seeing original unique art in styles of my preference (some of it I don't like at all). And I love coming up with my own unique pieces that rock. But if I needed to earn money selling my art and there were styles that I could do well, then that's what I'd do because I had to.

I do think that there are many artists out there who barely make the effort to hide their sources nowadays and that sort of gives inspiration a bad name. I hope if I ever find myself in a similar situation, that I would do all that I could to my work to hide those loose ends. If I could accomplish that, I wouldn't worry about the rest, because in comparison that's high integrity nowadays. ;-)

Until next time,

revel in the season

i am so ready for sunshine and growth. i've been feeling bad for the last two weeks because of my arthritii therapy I had. i thought it would leave me more time to create, but I didn't even feel up to trying much. i had to resign from a postage stamp swap because i could only manage to get 2 made. "revel" is one of them.

i used an image of a bronze statuette from a mail order catalog because i loved the boy's expression. i made a stamp quilt for the background and really enjoyed doing it. i have a lot of postage stamps (which was why i joined the swap to begin with...to use up some stamps).



here is the other atc i did, also with the stamp quilt background. this one is called "playful". i used a stamped image of a pug puppy as the focal point here. i ran across it in my scraps and have absolutely no memory of that stamp. i'm guessing it came in a rak, but regardless, he is a cutie. i used my black gel pen to do the black parts of his face...eyes and snout.

there are actually like 5 different types of pens and pencils on that dog, lol, but i can't remember any more what the others are. i just reach and use and reach and use sometimes, my unconscious mind takes over and i don't remember details.

i've been meaning to build up a trade inventory of atc's, so i think i will keep them for that, and hopefully make more of those stamp quilt backgrounds. can you tell i like them?

i looked back at the goals for this year that i blogged on new years day. i have made progress of some sort on every goal except for my ribbon, and that's without consciously remembering the goals. not bad, imho. not bad for me, anyway.

on the other hand, i've also picked up a few new interests that are nowhere in my original goals, and have been spending much of my time on those: art journaling, altered books, drawing. perhaps a revised 2009 goals list is in order, but not today or anytime very soon.

for the first time in 30 years, spring does not mean tax (over)time for me, and i'm gonna drink it in while it lasts here in texas!

until next time,

peek-a-boo

Except for the image of the Asian girl, this ATC was done completely from scraps, and I got really lucky about finding such complimentary colors and shapes. The scroll on the left was actually from an old Zip'eMate die catalog that had the most gorgeous page borders. I merely hand-cut it a bit with the old Xacto.

I have delusional visions of using all of my scraps in the creation of ATC's, cards and various collages, but I really should admit to myself that it would probably be impossible to accomplish this in my lifetime (my crafting snail's pace alone get in the way.) Still, I continue to entertain the possibility and hold out hope of one day littering the entire world with my scraps on pieces of art. Pipe dreams are necessary to life no matter how dumb, I guess.

I have recently discovered something about what motivates me to actually create (versus thinking about and planning to create). It seems that I really pump it out when I am angry, resentful, or otherwise negatively frustrated. What is produced isn't reflective of those feelings...I can't really recall any art of mine that's really negative. Perhaps it's like a catharsis for me, to improve my mood and outlook, to help me work through what's eating at me.

At any rate, it got me thinking about so many of the well-circulated axioms and inspirational ideas on the blogs. Like on blogs that ban negativity, or that constantly advise and reference angel-like behavior. Personally, I suspect that although the intentions might be stellar, many blogs don't completely reflect reality in terms of the blog owner's true life. I mean, surely there can't be that many flawlessly-behaved people? When's the last time you read a blogger who talks about being jealous or resentful or ridiculing or even catty? Other than here, that is. winkwink

So here I'll say it: being pissed off is a great motivator for me. I'm definitely not going to shun it or suppress it, so I might as well say it loud and proud, honey! I believe I'll name this condition and call it my creative anger. Yeah, book deal, here I come! winkwink

I have trouble sustaining it, though. I'm often quick to passionate anger, but just as quick to want everything to be copacetic again. This might be one reason my work product is created in spurts.

The positivity push seems more of a spiritual religiosity to me, as opposed to workplace/social relationship guidance. It's been awhile since I toiled daily in a workplace outside my home, but I have non-crafty friends who do, and when I describe the blog mantras, nobody ever pipes up and volunteers that it sounds just like a seminar they've attended or an office policy. Being polite and ethical is about as close as it gets. Apparently, the work place is more understanding of human feelings of all kinds, and let's face it, capitalism requires jealousy in some amount. 'Don't get mad, get even' is a popular work phrase. Yet, here on the blogs, we don't discuss those feelings as vulnerable participants. If they are mentioned at all, it's as if the writer is victorious over them or impervious to them.

I guess I'm just saying not to be so quick to bash negativity, because it's part of life. Are we so weak that the mere mention of them sucks us into its vortex? I highly doubt that. Instead of condemning and denying, maybe accepting and dealing with our entire range of feelings would be more helpful and a a lot less guilt-inducing. Just sayin'... :-)))

Until next time,

In my own backyard

Jack Haley (Tin Man): What have you learned, Dorothy?
Judy Garland (Dorothy): Well, I - I think that it - it wasn't enough to just want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em - and it's that - if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right?

Do you remember that part, in the final scene? Other than it being a bit weird to me now that they talk about back yards on a farm (WTHeck??? Farms have backyards???), this speech by Dorothy describes exactly how I feel right now about my art.

~~~


Today's sketch is sort of a break-through for me. It may look pitiful or like nothing special to the majority of the world, but to me it's mesmerizing and beautiful.

I sat down in front of a photo that my friend Paula took, of a cemetery angel. I'd seen it on her blog and couldn't take my eyes off her. I can sketch her, I thought.

And, I proceeded to. I am so grateful to Milliande and her Creativity Club, for her 2-part video on mixed media face drawing. Creativity Club is one of the art communities I belong to. Milliande's videos gave me some really good sketching advice, and I took copious notes. And I am doubly grateful to Paula, who graciously lent her angel to me. I titled my sketch "Paula's Angel" in commemoration of this thoughtful kindness.

I was able to let go a little of the anal need to sketch literally, and instead be a tiny bit whimsical...just a wee bit. Baby steps will get me there (repeat after me). I made the face too small, the neck too thin and long, the eyes too far apart, and the hair without detail, on purpose. I think I captured her essence of beauty, too, and to me that is the beauty of a cemetery statue, the essence of life emanating out from within all of that stone.

Anyway, my apologies if I seem to be bragging, but I am quite pleased with myself. I just might be one step closer to drawing whimsical art, which is something that should fit me since there is little hope of me ever mastering realistic sketch portraits...I mean, let's be honest. ;-))) Whimsical is fine and will give me plenty of challenge enough. I have always been in love with the art of Flavia Weedn, who I always think of when I see any whimsical art. I consider her the mother of it all.

Here's hoping I can continue to like what I sketch. But I know these kinds of successes are hit and miss, so I can at least go back to my blog and re-read my posts about the ones that all came together and made me feel good about creating.

~~~
I know that I have talked about my Composition Art Journal group, but I just realized that I should mention that I also belong to the Gluebooks group on yahoo. I just became active, so I don't know for sure, but it looks like this group may be the most fun in terms of the art. The only rules are to find a book, find some cutouts, and glue away. Everything else is left up to me.

Note to file: When I say magazine collage, I also mean junk mail collage. Whatever is modern and timely and easily discarded.

I have always enjoyed the low standards of magazine collage. Not to imply one bit that it's easy to do. Au contraire! A good, intelligent piece takes as much smarts as anything. It's just that anything goes, and consequently there's an absence of hoi polloi critics. It does enjoy a certain bad-boy rep in the art world, perhaps more exactly, illegitimate child status maybe, but magazine collagists generally get left alone and hence, it is naturally freeing to create in this genre. I am not limited to magazine collage, but I want to explore it more this year, as a therapy, so many of my gluebook pages will hopefully have this type of collage on them.

Until next time,

new endeavors

The brunt of my tax business sale paperwork is done now. I knew that my blogging needed to start again, so I looked at what areas of art play I wanted to immediately persue.

I've been admiring all the eye candy of art journaling for awhile now. I even took a shamefully few baby steps in it last year, but I couldn't find a hook in it for me to have a passion for doing it. I love seeing that passion in others' pages, though. So, I was spending a lot of time looking, but not touching, :-)

Well, an attempt must be made to break me of that! So, I decided to join a few classes, learn on-the-job in a group, etc. My first decision was to join Composition Art Journals yahoo group. Missy loveloves those hardback notebook paper books, always has. Consequently, I have a stash of them. The thin paper is a limitation, but I am playing around with different mediums and techniques to find what works best for me. And it's been fun. I love the feel of those little books. I also love my Moleskine, but the two are not comparable, in my opine.

Here's my first page that sat around for nearly 2 weeks until I felt comfortable adding the journaling. It's hard sometimes to loosen up my anal-ity. I have to take baby steps. :-)))



When I saw the porch photo in a Lowes ad, I just connected with it. I wanted one, lol. Anyway, I scanned it into my Paint Shop Pro and did the watercolor effect on it. Printed it out and then painted around it.

I've given the compo-book the theme of an *almost daily* daily journal. I figure that a daily just sets me up to fail. I need the vagueness that *almost* implies. I also treat it like it's no-fail. If I want to scrapbook in it, I can. If that is where my creativity feels safe that day, like Randy in a Christmas Story, in the kitchen cupboard, that's where it can play.

Something else I wanted to consider trying to learn was how collagists get the depth in their backgrounds. Pam Carriker is an artist whose work I love, and so I signed up for a 5-week workshop she's teaching.

The great thing is, it's been stressful but great. The bad news is, I cannot share any of it (as its her proprietary method). But we have a class group on Flickr, so all my classwork is uploaded to my Flickr account first, if you want to see it. :-)

I also bought some books and some Pitt pens and markers to teach myself Calligraphy. I may have to take a class to force me to learn it, lol. So we'll see how that goes. Haven't gotten into it yet.

And, I need to scrapbook some pages for my mom's purse album I am making her. 2Peas is offering a deal through 1/31 where if you upload 20 new creations you get a $20 store credit. Even though I can't show those here either (until after I spend that credit, hehe), money talks! If any of you who are into scrapping have your mojo on, that's a great deal.

Looks like my compo-book pages will be all I can show here for awhile, so I will spread them out, hehe. More laterz!

happy 2009!

i blogged about my resolutions aka life vision thing for 2009 over at Antics, and the inherent themes of re-assess and re-calibrate seem to be the ticket for what i'll call my 2009 art vision thing.

for 2007, i chose a guiding word for the year: focus.

for 2008, i realized i needed four words that together made a slogan: dare, bare, care, share.

for 2009, i am adding a few new words while sticking by the old ones since they still resonate with me. i very much need to continue to focus, and i still need to keep daring, baring, caring and sharing. i just need to kick it all up a notch or two, carry it further.

so, my 2009 additions are reassess, recover, recreate. i was a little doubtful of recreate until i read the definition is "to create anew". and i need a big ole mess of that. deal done.

to summarize:

focus
dare
bare
care
share
reassess
recover
recreate

now, in detail:

--> i only got two months of my art calendar made for 2008, but i discovered that there are two months in 2009 that match the 2008 months. so, hey, i already have two months made for 2009! maybe this year i can finish.

--> i am 97% finished with cling-cushioning all of my red rubber and that brings me one step closer to completing my big stamp inventory project. the next step is to cut all of the clinged rubber out, then put up all the stamps in their respective cases. that will complete phase one. phase two is stamping the images into my binder. phase three is scanning in all the image sheets, but that's optional. when i get phase two done i'll be celebrating.

--> i have a similar binder and storage system for my diecuts and that's about 50% done. so i need to get that finished.

--> my ribbon collection is about 97% on hangers and 3% wrapped on thread cards. only a fool would put them all on the cards at this point, but i answer to 'fool' quite a lot, actually. the hangers make the ribbon look all pretty but are a royal pain in the butt to go through to find what i want to use. so i quit looking at all and that's not how to use the dang ribbon up.

--> it seems like forever since i created any art. so i am beginning to fantasize about it a little, hehe. i really hope that i can figure out how to create on something every day, and keep it up for a long time, as well as be able to create a variety of what i make, like on a monthly basis create a layout or two, a couple of cards, some atc's and some art journaling. that all seems like a dream too good to come true. still, i want to try.

so, that's how the details roll. and that's only a few of them but it's a start. i'll be working on some/all of this just as soon as i finish all of the !@#%#$^$%&%^*^^* paperwork to finalize selling my tax biz. right now, i feel like the old life is never gonna leave. so i must keep plugging away on the mundane crap that will let me start my new year! ack! (did that make any sense? lol)