Another Collaboration Piece

This is the second piece of my collaboration with my art friend Phyll.  This is my piece on which I made a background, seen in the first picture.  (I posted this background and explained how I did it on Dec. 12, 2009, here is the link.)  I sent it to Phyll to work on, and when I got it back, it looked like the second picture.  I was so, so  pleased -- it bowled me over.  She modeled the figure out of polyclay herself.  She covered a miniature trunk with the polyclay and then glued all of those beads inside it.  When I opened the box this piece was in, it took my breath away.  Truly it did.   I was just so impressed with her creativity and what she did to my piece.  Thanks so very much Phyll.  You did yourself proud!!!

I think the greatest thing about doing collaboration art like this is that the end result is such a surprise, and in my experience, far surpassed my expectations.  Phyll took this in a direction I never would've thought of, never would've gone.  I thought what she did was so interesting and so perfect for this background.  It's such a unique piece of art that we both took part in creating.  That makes it very special, at least to me it does.   I'm so grateful and fortunate to own this piece of art.  I plan on framing it soon and hanging it on my wall  

I think I will continue doing occasional collaboration work with other artists because I think it's fun, definitely challenging, and a very worthwhile experience.  I think it's one way, out of many, to grow as an artist.  It's also a great way to get to know another online artist better, in a more personal way.  It's been a pleasure getting to know Phyll better.  So, I definitely highly recommend doing this kind of collaboration.  Be bold and try something new, even out of your comfort zone.  I know you won't regret it!

New Art -- A Collaboration

Yes indeed, this is another wonderful collaboration with my art friend Phyll. This is my third collab, and it's been awhile since I did the last one. I love doing collaborations, but it's a lot different and more challenging than making art alone. This one was especially challenging for me, because Phyll's background (the first picture) was made out of polymer clay and baked. She stamped into it with various items. The texture on it is so yummy.

I didn't quite know how to do my part due to the great texture on it. I love what she did, and considered it a stand-alone piece on its own. But I did have to finish it, and I was stumped as to what to do. I looked through some of my stashes and pulled out some things I thought would work on this piece, then I jumped in with both feet. This is not my typical art style, and I felt out of my comfort zone, because all I really did was glue on all these various pieces to embellish what Phyll had done. I loved her background and didn't want to cover up too much of it, I wanted it to shine through.

So, this is how it turned out, and I must admit I do like it a lot. I think it would look great in a nice frame, but that's up to Phyll. The work she did on my background is spectacular and I love it, but I haven't taken any pictures of it yet. When I do, I'll post that piece too.

I am so pleased to finally be able to post some new art. I felt so bad about neglecting my blog, but other than this, I didn't have any new art to post. When you're fighting cancer, other things become secondary. For me, that included art too.

I finished this over a month ago, but didn't get it sent to her until last week. I asked her to email me the pictures, since I hadn't taken any, so I could post it on my blog. The pictures came today, so here it is on my blog. I'm doing the happy dance.

2nd Part of Big Reveal -- Heather's piece

I decided to post Heather Robinson's piece from our collaboration project on my blog. My piece, and my explanation of our project, are posted below. Heather sent me her beautiful background on stretched canvas. The colors were so yummy and soothing, it inspired me to do a nature theme on it.. I love doing nature themes. As you can see, our pieces ended up very different, but I think they are both beautiful. Our project was very successful.

Big Reveal of 2nd Collab Project

I'm so thrilled to be able to post this beautiful art work. This is my second collaboration project of this type. My dear friend Heather Robinson and I teamed up to put our hearts and minds together to create this piece. One I am in love with, I don't mind saying, and I'm so excited and grateful that it's MINE ALL MINE!!! This arrived in the mail last week, and I've been admiring it ever since.

The first picture is of the background I made on this 8x10 inch piece, done on thick piece of chipboard. Then I mailed it to Heather for her to work her artistic magic on it. And so she did, and I'm in awe of what she turned this piece into.  The second picture is what it looks like now.  I totally LOVE what she did, and the result of our heartfelt collaboration. She made her background on stretched canvas, and sent it to me, and I did my part on that and sent it back to her. From what she told me, she loves her piece too. We chose to synchronize our blog posts of "The Big Reveal", so you can click on her name above to see her piece, and what I did on that.

I'm happy to post the before and after pictures here of my piece. Because it shows how Heather transformed my background into a totally different work of art, by using what I did as a jumping off point. One that never would've happened or been created if we hadn't done this together, as a collaboration. And I did the same with her background. I was oh so excited when this arrived in the mail, and I could finally see how she chose to complete this piece. I kept wondering and guessing in my mind, but had no clue what she was doing on it. Once I opened it, I was in heaven, and at peace. Because this was perfect, and meant to be, and far exceeded any expectations I had.

I realized that she finished this piece in a way I never would have, meaning it never would've occurred to me to do what she did, not in a million years. Because we are two different and individual artists. One interesting and even surprising thing about this collab effort is that although Heather and I have the greatest respect for each other's art, we both admit that our art and art styles are very different, indeed almost opposite. She uses a lot of vintage images and text in her art, whereas I rarely do. My art style is more raw and unexpected and unconventional, and hers is more refined and elegant and generally conveys a message. Initially, this was a bit of a concern to us, that our art styles are so very different.

In the beginning, I think both of us, secretly and privately, felt like we had to reach for the "middle ground", and try to make art more like the other person's style. But over time, in a number of wonderfully honest  and vulnerable emails, we expressed our thoughts and feelings about this, and realized the goal was not to meet in the middle, or compromise our own art styles, but to make our own art in our own styles, and be true to ourselves. Once we established that and agreed, we felt freedom and excitement and anticipation at what the other would do on our backgrounds. That made it so much more interesting and exciting, knowing that our art styles were so different, but that we could still be true to ourselves.

Heather and I were online acquaintances and friendly before we embarked on this collab effort. But in the process of doing this, we became true friends and got to know each other much better, in a much deeper way. Our friendship grew and blossomed, because we shared our true thoughts and feelings about our art and ourselves and this whole process and collab effort. Now we have a wonderful and special friendship that we intend to maintain, that we both appreciate so much. And I don't think that would've happened if we hadn't embarked on this venture and adventure, and both said an unqualified YES to it, even though we both had some underlying fears and concerns.  I am just so grateful that Heather and I agreed to do this project. Grateful for the awesome, beautiful art piece I ended up with....but even more grateful for the friendship and connection we developed, which to me is the real prize!!! Thank you so very much dear Heather, for this awesome art piece, and even more so for your friendship.

I have to shout out to the world -- MISSION ACCOMPLISHED -- beyond my hopes or expectations, regarding this collab effort. And I also have to say that the same thing happened in my first collab effort, with Mary Schweitzer. Click on her name to see my finished piece from her. Mary and I also became friends as a result of our collab effort. Gee, it's funny how that happens. No, not really. I think it's the extra bonus, the special gift, of doing this kind of cooperative venture and adventure with another artist.

So as you might expect or understand, I'm very big on doing the collab thing right now. It's rather a life changing experience, as a person and artist. At least it has been for me and for Heather, as she told me that. I see it as the next step of my art journey, and life journey. And it's not like I sat around and thought about it, about doing collab projects, before the idea came to me last summer. Because it just popped into my head, out of nowhere, totally unexpected. And I just went with it, and invited Mary and Heather to jump in and go with it too. I simply did it on impulse, and am so happy and grateful I did and they did. (Because sometimes when I do things on impulse, well the outcome isn't so great, LOL.)

For those of you artists out there reading this, I totally encourage you to jump in and do a similar collab effort, for the first time. At least try it once, but most likely if you do, you'll want to do more than one. (I've got two more going right now.) I am very fortunate to have a local art group here in Denver metro that meets once a month, and I totally love it. But many of you don't have that. And so I know, you make your art alone at home. Yes, you may belong to great yahoo groups and visit blogs, and know a lot of artists online as acquaintances, but when it comes to online art friendships, and really connecting with other artists, do you have that? Well if so, that's wonderful. If not, and you'd like to have that, then you might need to reach out and take the initiative, and propose a collab effort with another artist. The most likely by-product of that will be friendship and a beautiful piece of art.  And gee, if they should turn you down for whatever reason, that's okay.  Just know there are other artists out there who would love to do this and would say YES!

I don't know, maybe I'm trying to start a movement here. My muse hasn't confessed to me if that's what she's up to or not. I just know doing a collab effort is a very special thing, with so many positive benefits. It's a challenge, a growth experience, a cooperative experience -- that isn't available doing art alone. It's a totally different experience, and a positive step forward in my opinion, in the art journey. It requires trust, cooperation, communication, vulnerability....all things that build friendship.  All things that may not be easy, but the rewards make it totally worth it, in my opinion.

Well, I hope I didn't go on too long here, but this means a lot to me. Not only in my own collab efforts and experiences, but in my hope that YOU out there will try this also, and reap the wonderful rewards and benefits I have. So yes, I'm trying to start a Collab Movement here.   I'm wondering, what is the next step in this MOVEMENT?  Perhaps the sky is the limit.

A dream come true....and my 100th blog post!

 

Yes indeed, this is my 100th blog post. When I started this blog on February 10th of 2008, I never envisioned making my 100th post. At that time, as a newbie blogger, I was concerned about making my first few posts, and doing it right. And here it is, 14 months later, and I'm up to posting for the 100th time. So for me, this is kind of a milestone of sorts, and one I'm happy to celebrate.

But even better yet, I have some very exciting news to post about on this special 100th post. I'm marveling at the "timing" of this, and thinking perhaps it was meant to be. My exciting news is that my art work has been published! Yes, a dream and goal of mine has come true. And I'm thrilled about it, even bouncing off the walls.  The new book in which my work is published is Collaborative Art Journals and Shared Visions in Mixed Media by L.K. Ludwig. It's supposed to be available in June, but can be pre-ordered on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/reader/1592535208?%5Fencoding=UTF8&ref%5F=sib%5Fdp%5Fpop%5Fidx&page=139#reader-link.

This is the first and only time I've submitted my art for publishing. It came about this way. Over a year ago, I joined a very cool yahoo art group, one of my favorites, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ExpressionStudio/. I became acquainted with, and friends with, two wonderful artists in that group, Darlene Wilkinson and Gail Pierce. Darlene saw the call for art for this book, and invited Gail and myself to participate in a collaborative effort to make a book for submission. She chose the theme for the book as "Circles". Gail and I enthusiastically accepted her invitation, and got busy making eight pages each on manilla folders, and sent them to Darlene, who made her eight pages and then compiled our book and sent it in. We heard back that our book was being considered for being included in L.K. Ludwig's book, and of course we were thrilled. Then for the next year, we didn't hear another thing about it, or receive any communication. 

So we've been in the dark about this for over a year, and didn't know until a few days ago when her book was coming out or that our Circles book was included. But now we know, and we're all so excited about it. We are each supposed to receive a complimentary copy of the book, but we don't know when it will arrive. I'm chomping at the bit to get mine, because I don't know which pages of our book were published. And beyond that, I'd love to see and read her book.

So, that's the story on this "adventure", this dream come true for me. When we submitted this book, I was so, so hoping it would be accepted for publishing. And yet, I was wary of having too high expectations, and then possibly being disappointed. I tried not to put too much importance on this, or obsess about it. So yes, it was a dream and goal, but one I tried to keep in perspective. And it's so wonderful to end up achieving this goal, rather than end up disappointed. 

I want to give a lot of credit and thanks to my friend Darlene, who initiated this whole idea and our book. Because without her, and if she hadn't so kindly invited me to take part in this....well, this never would've happened for me. Thank you so much Darlene! This book was my first collaborative effort, and it encouraged me to persue other collab efforts with other artists, although those weren't for the purpose of submission for publishing. 

The five photos in my last post and the three in this post are of my eight pages in our collaborative Circle book. I've wanted to post these on my blog for over a year, but wasn't able to do that due to the rules of submitting for publication. Now, I can finally post these, which makes me happy. I'm a very happy lady today, for a number of reasons. Today is a good day for me.

My pages in a collaborative Circle book

Read the next post about this Circle Book.

Collaborative Project -- Fairy in a Tree

Wow! Isn't this a fabulous piece of art? And I'm the very lucky owner of it. Recently my good art buddy, Mary Schweitzer,http://greenwomandesign.blogspot.com/, and I agreed to do a personal swap. We wanted to do a collaborative project. And so we did, and this is my piece that I get to keep and admire and treasure. We each worked on our own 8x10 pieces, then sent them to each other to be worked on, and then sent them back.This was a first, and totally new to us, to do this kind of collaboration. I think we were both nervous about working on each other's art, but that was the whole point, so we jumped in and did it. For results we couldn't have gotten on our own, as this beautiful piece shows. And I'd like to encourage those of you who do personal swaps to consider doing a collab effort like this, because you don't know what to expect. And what you get back can be so much better than what you sent, as this piece proves.

I made the collage background, and Mary made the oh so realistic tree, with a fairy perched in it. I mean truly, doesn't this tree look totally real??? When it came in the mail and I opened it, I was bowled over and blown away with what she did on this. And immediately emailed her to ask HOW she made the tree. She made the tree with brown tissue paper and gel medium, and lots of scrunching and shaping. I think she should do a tutorial on this on her blog. Because I've never seen tissue paper used this way before, nor seen such a realistic, dimensional tree on art before. I'm just so lucky it's on my art, and that I'm the lucky owner of this fabulous piece.

I've admired Mary's art for a long time now, even to the point of (shame on me) envy. I consider her a very innovative and avant garde artist, who tends to think outside the box and push the envelope when it comes to her beautiful art. I was thrilled when she agreed to do his collab swap with me. And I'm more than thrilled with this art work, and that we followed through on our idea to do a collab project.

So thank you so much Mary, I couldn't be more pleased with how this worked out. I'm so lucky and proud to own some of your avant garde art. Please visit Mary's blog, and enjoy her beautiful art. And if you even feel a bit envious, I can relate to that. And if you want to see Mary's piece, and what I did on it, she has it posted on her blog. What is so interesting to me is how very different our pieces are, and what we both did on the other's pieces. That's what's so cool about doing a collab effort -- you just don't know how it will turn out until you get it back.

So right now, I'm thinking COLLABORATION RULES!!! Can you blame me?