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!

Another page from my Melange book

Okay, so here's the deal, the bottom line, in brutal honesty.  I'm still trying to find my way out of my extended art slump, and just not sure how to do that, or when it might happen.  I keep hoping and praying it will happen soon, but who knows?  It could happen today, tomorrow, or beyond that.  I dread thinking of the "beyond that".  I feel certain I will find my way out sooner or later, and that even yes, there is a reason for it, one I don't understand.  I'm not "okay" with it, especially concerning my blog.  But then again, learning to be "okay" with it might be the best approach and help me out in the long run.  I'm not sure where true inspiration and motivation come from, it seems to be rather mysterious to me.  If I could just produce it on command, that would be so great.  However, sad to say, I haven't figured out just how to do that.  If I ever do, I'll be sure and let you know.

This is another spread in my cherished Melange Book.  I definitely love the right page more, because I'm a nut for using rusted found objects in my art.  And I have a great stash of RFOs, one that might be the envy of many, most scavenged from my local truck stop parking lot.  So there's a tip for you.  The background on this page is wallboard joint compound.  I think I also used some walnut ink crystals misted with water.  The snake and centipede were added last, kind of as an afterthought, but I like them, even though they are kind of creepy.  I also used fabric threads and cheese cloth.

I'm wondering, how many of you out there use rusted found objects in your art?  And if you do, where do find them?  Do you get excited when you find them....like I do?  And are we crazy to get excited about a rusted object we might find?  Most sane people would say yes, and not understand at all.  But hey, with us artists, it's mostly a "given" that we understand quite well.  It has to do with the heart of an artist, in my humble opinion.  And with something found unexpectedly that can be used in our art.  And with recycling something in a creative, positive way that would normally be thrown in the trash.  And with the nature aspect of it, of nature causing and creating the rust.  And with the rich color and texture, that is hard to replicate any other way.  These are the reasons I love rusted found objects and love using them in my art.  If any of you have anything to add to this discussion, please do so.  I'd love to hear what you have to say about rusted found objects.  I think it's a subject well worth discussing.

So anyway, here is my latest post on my blog.  And I'm happy to post this for the first time.  And if it stirs up a discussion on RFO's, that's great and would do my heart good.

Bones -- Halloween/Autumn Collage

Ahhh yes, skeletal bones.  And a fine looking skeleton it is.  It started out lavender, the color it came in the package.  Which was cool, but not the color I needed for this piece.  So I painted it with Lumiere Gold and then rubbed black over it, then sealed it with Future Floor Finish (FFF).  Regarding the second photo, I once again played around with the fish eye lens on my photo editor just to see what it would look like.  I like the way it looks.

Let me back up a bit here.  This is an 8x10 inch piece of chip board.  I had an unopened package of multiple colors of Mulberry Papers, so I decided to finally use some.  I glued down an orange sheet with Mod Podge, and then glued down a piece of very red lace on top of  that.  I was going to go with that as my background, but I felt the lace was too red so I glued down another sheet of orange mulberry paper on top of the lace, and liked that result much better because it toned down the red lace and gave me the colors I wanted. I really like how the orange fibers in the mulberry paper show up so well.  I sealed the background with FFF also.

The orange piece is obviously a large paint chip from Lowe's.  I considered distressing it first, by sanding it and then etching in it with a sharp awl, but chose not to.  I did however brush over it thickly in all directions with gel medium in order to give it some subtle texture.  When dry, I rubbed paste brown shoe polish over it.  Well, before I textured it, I used my trusty Hot Stamps tool with my number set and burned in the numbers.  I did the same thing with my alphabet set for the word "Bones".  I do love my Hot Stamps tool, but haven't used it in quite some time.  It's one more great tool I should use more often than I do.  It works quite well on paint chips I discovered this time around.  It's always good to learn something new.

The spiders came in a package of Halloween confetti, and worked out great for this piece.  The paint chip came with the square windows in it, so it only made sense to glue the spiders there.  I had the transparent round pieces for years and never used them until now.  It's a miracle I even remembered I had them.  

The long fiber piece is an orange chenille pipe cleaner wrapped with the orange fiber specialty yarn.  Not my idea, but a great one.  This idea, and many more easy and innovative ideas for very cool embellishments are featured in Sherill Kahn's book, CREATIVE  EMBELLISHMENTS.  It's one of my favorite books ever, a must have for my own library.

The leaves were picked up off my driveway yesterday, not long after they fell off the tree.  I immediately preserved them by sealing them with gel medium on both sides, then put them in a book to flatten them out for a few hours.  I like them a lot on this piece, but am not sure if the color works well.  I would've preferred for them to be more orange, whereas they're kind of inbetween green and orange.  I don't even know what color to call them.  Maybe I'm crazy here, but it occurred to me I could paint them red/burgundy, and maybe even get crazier still and paint orange polka dots on them.  I mean hey, this is not exactly a serious art piece, right?  It already looks kinda funky, so why not expand on the funkiness with crazy painted leaves?  That thought is still tickling my fancy, but I'm a little afraid to try it....as in, what if it screws up the whole piece?  So I'd really like your opinions on this idea.  Do you like the leaves the way they are, or should I get crazy and paint them?  I'd really appreciate your input, because I still haven't made up my mind on this idea.  Thanks for any input.

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?

Time to post again

These are two works I'm entering into the Crazy Amigo Challenge at   http://crazyamigochallenge.wordpress.com/. I don't often enter weekly challenges like this, but lately I've been following Heather Robinson's lead, who enters lots of weekly challenges. Heather, http://creativesolace.blogspot.com/, is an excellent artist and good art buddy of mine, and I so admire her art. Some of you already visit her blog, but for those who don't, you really should -- it will be a treat! Heather and I have a personal swap coming up soon, a collaborative effort we'll be working on. I'm looking forward to that a lot. I think it will be very interesting to see what we end up with, considering our art styles are totally different. Greetings Heather!

The theme of the Crazy Amigo Challenge this week is Hearts. And I do love using hearts in my art! The first piece I created yesterday. I used a sharp awl to scratch diagonal lines into the brown side of a 5x5 piece of frozen pizza cardboard. (I should start abbreviating that into FPC, lol, I use it so often for a base.) Then I rubbed it with brown paste shoe polish, so the lines would show up. Then I glued some torn music paper, and text and an image torn from an old Cumberland General Store catalog published in 1976, and rubbed them with shoe polish. I don't even remember where I got that catalog, maybe at a yard sale, but I think I should start using the images, they are great. The rectangle on the right is a distressed paint chip. I've shared how I distress them in previous posts. I outlined that with a gold paint pen. The hearts were cut out of brown candy wrappers, the the gold circle was punched out of a foil bag that once contained coffee. After the fact, I don't think gold was the best color to use for the circle, but oh well. And the letters and number were burned into the piece with my Wallnut Hollow Hot Stamps tool. I finished by sealing it with Future Floor Finish (FFF).

The second piece is one I made a few weeks ago, and entered into a yahoo group challenge, the theme being using the colors red and green. I used the FPC as a base, but used the colorful image side, after sanding it a bit. Then I used my sharp awl to distress it and scratch the text into it, then rubbed with shoe polish. Then I rubbed magenta acrylic paint over it and quickly wiped some of it off, then rubbed green glaze over certain parts. I stamped with scroll stamps in the green. Then I glued down the hearts and the frame, made from distressed paint chips. Lastly, I sealed it with Acrylic Floor Finish (AFF from the Family Dollar store that gives more of a satin finish.)

As an aside, I wanted to say that I stumbled onto this website yesterday, myartfriends.com http://www.myartfriends.com/index.php, and decided to join. It looked interesting to me, and there's some good art there, and lots of different artists. So, I posted some of my work there, and will be posting more as time goes on. The works I posted have already been posted here on my blog. Just wanted to share that site with all of you.

That's all folks.

The Joy of Serendipity

This is my latest work, just finished. I spent a few hours on it today. Well, I have to admit that I'm rather slow when it comes to creating art, I can never rush through it and get it done quickly. Even when I think I can, and try to, it never works out that way. However, I do have to say I really enjoyed making this piece, and it was fun and easy. Why??? Because I was in the "zone", of just doing whatever came to mind. No stress, no pressure, no angst, no frustration, etc. Gee, it would be so, so cool if I could be in the "zone" all the time, but noooo, that's not the way it works out a good part of the time. So when I'm actually in the zone, I truly appreciate it and enjoy it.

I was SO in the zone on this piece, it's even hard for me to remember exactly how it came about and the steps involved in making it. I started out with a 5x7 piece of frozen pizza cardboard. And then used my very sharp awl to distress the brown side of it, which I've never done before. And rubbed brown show polish over it. I always paint or glue down a background first, but this time I didn't. Then I glued down some torn music paper, map paper, and text paper, and rubbed more shoe polish over it. Then I glued down some strips of rusted dryer sheets and rusted fabric and fibers from fraying the fabric. I also glued down a large skeleton leaf.

Then I used my Walnut Hollow Hot Stamps tool, which is basically a woodburning tool, and heat stamped the letters and numbers on. I thought it was finished at that point, but it wasn't. I sealed the whole piece with Future Floor Finish for a glossy effect, and while it was still wet, flicked Pearl Ex on it in gold and then copper. Again, I thought it was done, but decided no.... as in I had to push the envelope. I chose to spray mist it with Memories Mists in Strawberry Daiquiri and Mango Lemonade -- the only two colors of mists I own. And I totally love those two colors together!!

I confess, I was VERY afraid to spray on the mists, because I liked it the way it already looked. I really had to argue with myself to do that, and take that risk, but I went ahead and did it. Now, after the fact, I kinda wish I hadn't, but I did, so it's too late now. I don't know, sometimes I think I don't know when to stop, and let a piece just be what it is. I have to hold my breath and cross my fingers that if I take it to the next step, I won't ruin it. And sometimes I do ruin it, or feel I do. And other times, I'm glad I took the risk, and feel it turned out better for it.

With this piece, I'm not sure. I thought it looked good before the spray mists, but I think it looks good now too. Oh well, it's too late to go back, so this is the end result. And I'm pleased with it. And very happy I was able to get in the "zone" today, which doesn't happen often enough.

I have chosen to enter this piece into this week's Mixed Media Monday challenge, which is "Gold".  (http://mixedmediamonday.wordpress.com/).  So just click on the URL and it will link you to that website.  I'm entering this piece because I flicked gold Pearl Ex onto it in several places.

"Raw Art" - the title of this piece

This is somewhat different for me, but not totally. Lately I seem to be into using paint chips and distressing them, then rubbing brown paste shoe polish over them to highlight the distressing. I've done several pieces using this technic, which is my own technic developed by me, as far as I know. I've never seen it used by anyone else, or read or heard about it, regarding someone else developing this specific technic. So I feel kind of good about that -- that I developed a new technic that I've shared on blog.

In this piece, it occurred to me that I could use a sharp awl to actually write text on these paint chips. And that it would show up, after being rubbed with the brown shoe polish. And I don't often use text in my art, but this seemed an easy way to do that. Although recently, I've been using more text in my art than I ever used to. I also discovered that writing text with an awl is a bit difficult, it doesn't come out like writing with a pen, it's more like a "carving" process. Perhaps I can improve on that with more practice, but at this point, I kind of like the imperfect effect of it.

Well, let me back up here a bit. Last year in November, Cyndi did an artist profile on me on her fabulous website, Layers Upon Layers. My profile is here, if you want to read it. Just click on the URL. http://www.layersuponlayers.com/artist-profile-valerie-foster/ Anyway, Karen Campbell, a very fine and talented artist and a friend, and the leader of our local book arts group, left a comment for me about my profile. In it, she said "You specialize in raw art — art that comes solely from you and art that does not depend on a lot of commercial products. That truly is the toughest art of all." Well, I'm not exactly sure what "raw art" is, but I found her description of it quite interesting. It is true, I don't use a lot of commercial products in my art. Such as pizza cardboard, caulk/joint compound/spackle, rusted paper and fabric, paint chips, shoe polish, etc. I tend to use those kind of things much more than commercial products meant for art.

So on this piece, the term "raw art" bubbled up into my mind, and so I went with it. Although I must admit, I'm a little nervous about posting this piece, because it's kind of "out there" with the awl written text. But oh well, I'm posting it anyway, come what may. I seem to be going into a more primitive or primal direction lately in my art. And I'm so glad to be making art again, after a long slump, I'm not going to fight it.

In this piece, I used frozen pizza cardboard, and it's 8x10 inches in dimension. I used a piece of wallpaper cut from a sample book for the background. And a paint chip, which was sanded and written on with a sharp awl, then rubbed with brown shoe polish. Actually, I used two paint chips here, one glued on top of the other. The "windows" were already in the top one. Then I used my Walnut Hollow Hot Marks heat tool with the appropriate nibs screwed on, for the question marks and the lettering in the upper left corner. I'm so glad I "rediscovered" this great tool. The hearts and rectangles were punched out of paint chips. I used tea dyed cheese cloth in the upper left corner, and scrapbook paper in the center, and some copy paper I stamped with a stamp I carved out of styrofoam (a meat container) in the lower left corner. I rubbed over the whole piece with brown shoe polish and sealed it with Future Floor Finish for a glossy finish.

I'm still not certain exactly what "raw art" is, but Karen's description sounds pretty good to me. I'm willing to go with that, at least for now.

New art -- just flying by the seat of my pants

This is something I made yesterday. I wanted to make some art, but as per usual, had no plans as to what to make. So I was basically playing around. Although I did pull out my Walnut Hollow Hot Stamps Alphabet tool, which I haven't used in ages. It's like a wood burning tool, with the alphabet and some cool stamps as nibs to screw into the heat wand. I'm glad I foraged around and pulled it out and used it. I used it to heat stamp ART and also for the circles. It's always nice to pull out tools/supplies one hasn't used in while, and put them to use again.

This is a 5x5 art squared piece on a frozen pizza cardboard base. I started out with using a dyed paper towel, something I've had for a long time, as the background. Then grabbed a paint chip and distressed it with sanding, a sharp awl, and a dress pattern tool. Which I've done before on previous art, and like doing and using in my art. After distressing the paint chip and the torn scrapbook paper, I rubbed brown paste shoe polish over them. On the bottom edge, I used a piece of scrap fabric, and frayed it. I used the frayed threads to glue down, rubbed with gold waxy stuff, and glued the key on top. So that's how I created this piece -- pretty much the way I do most of my art, or at least for some time now.

Any questions? (tongue in cheek and just kidding). I guess I'm just a "fly by the seat of my pants kind of artist" most of the time. AS IN NO PLANS, NO RULES, NO FOUL! That's what reeled me in, regarding doing "altered art" in the first place. The idea there were no rules, so I could do whatever I wanted to do. If it hadn't been for that, I doubt I would've had the daring or courage to even try to do art, or see myself as an artist. That part of it was so appealing, and so freeing....it gave me "permission" to just jump in and play around. Not that I still don't have doubts and fears and angst, a lot of the time, when I approach doing art, and also posting it. And I wonder if that will ever change??? And if I didn't have a blog, and post my art on my blog in a public forum, if I'd feel differently about it.

Well, I do have a blog and do post my art, so it is what it is. And I'm happy it is what it is. Even though I keep waiting for it to become easier!!! Clock ticking, crickets chirping....waiting, waiting. It's still not easy, after all this time.

Shapes collage

This is a new piece I started last Saturday.  However, I wasn't liking it that much and it didn't feel done to me, so I set it aside for a few days.  Then I came home from work on Wednesday and decided what I needed to do to finish it.  I was happy to be working on art in the evening after work, because I haven't done that in a long, long time.  Most days, when I get home from work, I'm so tired I don't feel like doing much of anything.  Perhaps some of you can relate that?

After I added the shapes to this piece, I found I liked it much better.  This collage was done on an 8x10 piece of chipboard.  Normally I use frozen pizza cardboard for most of my bases, but with this being a larger collage, I wanted a sturdier base that wouldn't warp.  First I punched out various shapes out of junk mail cardboard -- the ads that aren't in envelopes, and glued those down on the base.  (I started out with a different idea of where this piece would go, and soon enough, realized it wasn't looking that way at all.  Does that ever happen to you?)  I was going to cover the shapes with a piece of crumpled tissue paper, but instead used a piece of scorched paper made with copy paper.

I made some pieces of scorched paper a long time ago, and never used them.  So I decided to use one on this piece.  Scorched paper is easy to make.  You just take regular copy paper and scorch it with a vintage iron.  This piece was crumpled and then scorched for more texture, but you can scorch uncrumpled paper also.  I use a vintage iron because it gets much hotter than the irons made today, and it's necessary to use a very hot iron to get the scorching and brown color.  I found my vintage iron at a yard sale for $2.00.  Lucky me!

After I glued down the scorched paper with matte Mod Podge, I then tore up a napkin and glued down parts of that, and also torn music paper.  Then I stamped on the scrolls, birds, and text.  Then I rubbed brown shoe polish (the kind in the round tin) all over the piece.  I wanted even more texture, so I brushed on gel medium thickly in random directions.  After that dried, I rubbed more brown shoe polish over the whole piece.  At that point, I set it aside for a few days.

Then I came back to it and finished it, by adding the shapes, the heart, and the key.  For the shapes I punched them out of paint chips.  The green shapes were distressed by sanding and using an awl and a dress pattern tool, then rubbed with brown shoes polish.  I really like the look distressed paint chips give.  I outlined the shapes with a paint pen and a black Sharpie.

You can't tell in the scan, but with the real piece the outlines of the shapes glued down first, under the paper, show up in a sublte way if the light shines on it right.  Anyway, the steps used in making this piece were simple ones.  I was happy to do stamping on this, because so often, I forget to make use of my stamps.  And I have far too many neat stamps that I have yet to use even once.  Isn't that crazy?  Unfortunately I tend to collect them more than actually use them.

So all in all, I'm happy with how this turned out.  And for the most part, I enjoyed making it and it wasn't a struggle.  I think setting it aside and coming back to it later was helpful and the right thing to do.

  

Art with a Vengeance

Oh my, did I really title this piece that? It sounds kind of dark and forboding. Yes I did, and for good reason, to my way of thinking. I fully think this is NOT one of my best artworks. But that doesn't matter to me, that's okay. What mattered, when I created this piece yesterday, was my frame of mind and the weird mode I was in. Because I really didn't care how this piece turned out, I was just desperate to make some art, compelled and obsessed with making some art. I had to, I needed to.

The frame of mind I was in was FRUSTRATION!!! At a number of things. Being in a major art slump, things going on in my life right now, and things going on in the world and my life in general. I was hot under the collar, and needed to make some art, and didn't really care how it turned out or even if I liked it. I suppose in a way, that's a certain amount of "artistic freedom", I'm not sure. I've never really felt compelled to convey a message in my art, but lately that seems to be the case, whether I like it or not.

I have to confess when I worked on this piece, I felt like I was in a frenzy. I pulled out a bag of scrap pieces I've been saving, most cut off the edges of my art. I just dipped into the bag, and pulled out various pieces, helter skelter and randomly. And madly (crazily) started gluing them down on this piece of frozen pizza cardboard, 5x7 inches in dimension. Well, first of all, I glued down a few pieces crumpled/uncrumpled yellow tissue paper, with matte Modge Podge. Then I rubbed over it with brown paste shoe polish. Then I madly started gluing down the scrap pieces with gel medium. Then painted over them with gel medium, or rather glopped it on thickly.

After it dried, I rubbed over it again with brown shoe polish. Then I used my finger to rub over it, on certain parts, with gold metallic glaze. Then I wrote the words on it with a gold metallic paint pen. But that didn't show up very well, so I wrote over them with a black permanent ink Sharpy. Then I sealed it with Acrylic Floor Finish, and flicked gold Pearl Ex over it while it was still wet from the AFF. The last thing I did was glue on the very cool old, vintage key, obtained from ebay.

Up close, the words on this piece are easily readable. But in the scan they aren't, and yet they are important to this piece. From top to bottom, the words read: Get it done! , Passion, ART, Fever, Do it. I added those quickly, based on my frame of mind at the time. I didn't stop to think about them, I just wrote what I was feeling. I really wish they showed up better in the scan, but they don't.

I don't think I've ever made art this way before, regarding how I felt and the frenzy I was in when I made it. And I'm wondering, is that good or bad? I mean like....making art is supposed to be fun and enjoyable, right? But in making this piece, I can't say I enjoyed it. It felt good, but not in the sense of enjoyment. I guess mostly in the sense of "glopping" it all together, with a "devil may care" attitude. Kind of like....take this, and take this, and oh yeah, here's some more"! It felt like a way to release tension and frustration, get it out on the table, and then heave a sigh of relief.

Wow, even as I'm writing this post, I'm not sure I want to actually post it. But I know I will anyway, and hope for the best. Hope that my artist buddies out there who read it can relate in some way. I love my online artist buddies, I really, really do. You all mean so much to me. I so, so appreciate the people who visit my blog, and leave comments, and connect with me regarding art. I LOVE YOU ALL!

New art I just finished

Yes, I actually got off the computer, and made art today. In like about two hours, this is what I created. I used colors that I like together, burgundy/wine and yellow/orange. These are some of my favorite color combos -- I just love them together. And believe me, I have no knowledge of how to use colors together, I barely know how to read or understand the color wheel, even though at times I've tried to study it and learn it. But I didn't get very far in that persuit. I really don't know much about color, or how to use colors together....and sometimes that bothers me and intimidates me. On the other hand, I mostly just use color combos, colors together, that appeal to me and that I like personally. And in the overall picture, I think that works out well enough.

As in often the case with me, when I sit down to do art, I don't have much of an idea of what I want to create. There are times that does happen, and it pleases me, and I go with it, but it's not something I can expect or depend on. I truly wish that was more often the case, where I knew what I wanted to create and had a plan, and then executed it....but no, that only seems to happen now and then and randomly. Then again, on the other hand, I feel some of my best art is pulled out of a hat, spontaneously, and not planned at all.

I have to say, most of the time when I create art, I fly by the seat of my pants! That is usually the way it goes for me. I'm not even sure I should admit that....it sounds rather "unartistic". I have to admit, I've been in a strange and unwanted state lately, regarding my art. And I haven't done much art at all in the past two months.

Well, it is what it is, and as I've often said here on my blog, I'm always happy when I get new art done, and can post it on my blog. The thing about having a blog is that if I hit a dry period artwise, and have no new art to post, it's not just a private matter between me and my muse. It used to be that way, before I started my blog. But now that I have my blog, and other people visit it, if I don't create new art, or post, over a period of time, others know it, and it isn't just between me and my muse. And yes, I find myself feeling guilty about that and bad about that. It's a bit hard to admit that, and yet it's true. So, is it just me, or do other artists feel the same way?

Geez, I'm not sure if I should write about all this on my blog. I feel the need to, but then again, it's kind of scary to put it out there on my blog, for all to see. Yes, I do consider myself an artist, but then there are times when I feel like I must be an imposter, and fooling myself as well as other people. Well, please forgive me, I'm just in a weird, crazy state of mind right now, and have been for a while.

So, I'll get on with explaining how I made this piece. The base is frozen pizza cardboard, my usual with most pieces. First I glued down, with matte Mod Podge, a piece of grid fabric. Then I crumpled up, then uncrumpled, then glued down with MP fuschia and yellow tissue paper. Then I rubbed over it with brown shoe polish. Then I distressed a piece of yellow paint sample, by sanding it, then scoring it with an awl, then rolling over it with a dress pattern tool, then rubbing over it with brown shoe polish. I must admit, I really, really got into distressing the paint sample, to the point where I was taking out my frustrations on it!

After I got it all distressed, I punched out the various shapes with paper punches. Before I glued them down, I used paint on swirl stamps to stamp the piece, then glued down the shapes. Then wrote on them with permanent brown marker. Then glued down the very cool old key, which I got off ebay in a key lot. Then I used a metallic gold paint pen to mark the edges of the piece, and the edges of the shapes. Soooo, that's how this piece was made.

I don't often use text in my art, so I must've felt like I had something to say here. Probably because I've felt "distressed" and stressed lately. I find that interesting, that I chose to do that. Kind of like it came out of nowhere, for me to convey an actual message in this piece of art. I seldom convey, or try to convey, messages in my art. I must've felt, or my muse felt, that I had to convey this message. I think mostly for myself.

Book made at Lynn Perella workshop

I attended this workshop over a year ago, and it was a totally great workshop. Lynn Perella was a wonderful instructor, and I was proud to come away with this book. This is the first time I've posted this book online, and I thought it was time to do so. It's been sitting on a shelf in my bookcase all this time, and I almost forgot about it. So it's time to bring it out and post it on my blog.

This is a crazy, nothing barred collage. I wasn't totally comfortable with doing this at the workshop - it was all very new to me - but hey, that's why I took the workshop, right? To learn new ways to make art, especially regarding collage. It was a fun day, and I was pleased to come away with this book. After I got it home, I did more work on it and improved upon it, in my opinion.

We started out with a very large piece of rosin paper. It can be bought by the roll at certain home improvement/hardware stores, and also online. I'm not sure exactly what it's used for in that regard, but it can also be used for art, so Lynn Perella used it for her workshop. It's a very sturdy paper, and comes in a pinkish red color. You can see that in some of these photos.

At the end of the workshop, Lynn helped me fold my large collage into this book format. These pages are 9x12 inches, and I scanned them. I had to scan each page twice to get the whole page, top and bottom, due to the size of my scanner. I suppose I could have, perhaps should have, taken photos with my digital camera, to get photos of each page whole, but I didn't do it that way, I chose to scan instead.

I'm not going into detail on how this collage was made, because mostly I forget. Shame on me, but it's true. Well, when you do a collage like this, you just start painting and then gluing all kinds of things down. And since this started out as one large piece, and then later was folded into a book format, I had no clue how it would look as a book. That ended up as a big surprise, but a good one, I think.

So here it is, and I hope you enjoy it. Just continue scrolling down to see the whole book, it includes a total of 16 scans. Well, I mean scroll down, if you're up for that. I've never posted this many scans in one blog post before, but this is the only way I know how to do this.

Nature in Threes

This is some new art I made today. I guess I can say I recently took a brief sabbatical from making art. Don't ask me why, I'm not sure....maybe I just needed a break. It really felt good to make art today though.

I didn't have anything specific in mind when I started this piece. This is 5 x 7 inches, the base is frozen pizza cardboard. I used wallpaper from a sample book for the background. Then I distressed three green paint chips, by sanding them and using a sharp awl on them, then rubbing brown show polish all over them. The leaf on the middle paint chip was made by spreading gel medium on the back of a real leaf, and then stamping with it. When it dried, I rubbed brown show polish over it. I used a punch for the grasshoppers. The middle grasshopper was punched out of the leaf I used to stamp with.

The other two leaves are real, glued on with gel medium, then coated on top with gel medium, so as to preserve them. When dry, I rubbed them with brown shoe polish also. Then I glued tea dyed cheese cloth on the top and bottom corners, then rubbed it with....guess what? Yep, the brown shoe polish. The "three" is stamped caulk, painted with Gold Lumiere paint when dry. I outlined the middle paint chip with a gold paint pen. The seeds at the upper corner are from my yard.

And the key is one I got on ebay, that came in a large lot of cool, vintage keys. I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE those old keys, and should have enough now to last me a while.

"Playing with Layers" collage

I don't do "layered" collages very often, and so far, I've only done a few. Why? I think because I have far less confidence in attempting them, I don't feel I know the technics used very well. Also, it's difficult for me to want to cover up things I've already done, as in the layering aspect. Consequently, I've mostly steered clear of them, except for occasionally. When I do attempt one, I do much better if I'm just playing around and experimenting.

When this first started out, I wasn't thrilled with it, and I almost wanted to toss it. Because I hadn't planned for it to be a layered collage, but it looked so bad, I felt it was the only way to salvage it. So I thought....hmmm, this is a good chance for me to play with layering.

This started out with frosting lightweight spackling onto frozen pizza cardboard. Now I'm well familiar with using caulk and wallboard joint compound, both of which I've used fairly often in my art. But I had never tried the spackling, so I decided to get some and try it, and see if and how it differed from the other two. I wasn't sure if I wanted regular spackling or the lightweight kind, but that's what I ended up buying. At first, when I first started frosting with it, I wasn't too happy with it. It seemed harder to work with, harder to frost, and harder to adhere to the cardboard, because it has a lot less moisture content than the other two. But I persisted and got some to adhere.

I wanted to embed some text into it, which was the first time I tried that. I had never tried that with the caulk or jc before. So I tore two short poems out of a book, one about Mom and one about Time. And tore another small piece out of a dictionary, and two small pieces out of a song book. I also used a few pieces of torn tissue paper and dress pattern tissue paper. That's the point at which it wasn't looking too good, and I was tempted to toss it. I set it aside to dry overnight and went to bed.

The next day is when I decided to try salvage it with a lot more layering and collage. I glued some netted fabric, lace fabric, and cheese cloth on, which I liked. Then I added the bird image and strips of rusted fabric, and few small pieces of decorative papers. Then the idea of stenciling the "B" occurred to me. I frosted more spackling over the stencil for that, and I really liked how that worked out. Then I did some stamping, glued on the punched out shapes and the feather. I also added some micro beads in gel medium on a few spots. I used my finger to rub on some different colors of glaze in different areas, then rubbed brown shoe polish over the whole piece. (I love that brown shoe polish.) I wrote the word "play" on there, and added some touches of gold rub on. Then I sealed it with Acrylic Floor Finish (AFF), bought at the Family Dollar store. The last thing I added was the rusted piece in the top right corner.

Making this piece was fun and challenging, and I should maybe try doing this more often. Maybe it would help increase my confidence at layering.

Regarding my beeswax collage (posted below)

I thought I would mention what I used for the base in this piece. (And no, it's wasn't frozen pizza cardboard, amazingly enough -- since I use that so often as a base for my work. I doubt that would've worked well for this kind of collage.) I used a flat piece of styrofoam, which was packing material for something I bought. I think it was a half inch thick, or maybe 3/4 inch thick. I cut it to the size I wanted, and then frosted wallboard joint compound over the top and let that completely dry. I tried to make it as smooth as I could, but it did have some minimal texture to it. That's what I took to our group meeting for this project.

I wasn't totally sure it would work, but I thought, why wouldn't it work?, and took a chance. I think all the other members who made collages that day used either stretched canvas or canvas board. But I know no one else used what I used for a base.

Thankfully, it worked just fine. The technic we used is featured in one of Claudine Hellmuth's books, I think her first book. We used melted beeswax, melted in potpourri pots, and then quilting mini irons (with the long handles) to keep melting the wax when we needed to, after it was painted onto the base and over what we put on our collages. Basically, it was a simple technic, not too difficult, and a great technic. Thank you, Claudine!

I was very happy with how my collage turned out, but as I said before, I got some much needed help from other group members. Had I been left alone to do this, I doubt it would've turned out as well. That's why working in a group can be advantageous, and also lots of fun, and I love my local group.

Memorial Day Remembrance

Memorial Day is coming up soon. An important day to me....one that honors those who have served in our fine Military, over years and decades and even centuries, and have risked their lives, even sacrificed their lives, the absolute ultimate one can give, to protect us and our freedom and our country. This is dear to my heart, because I'm an American Patriot, and am proud of my country and the military that has fought for our freedom. I thank God, often and sincerely, that I was blessed to be born in this country, blessed to be a citizen of this fine country, blessed to be an American. Because the fact is, millions and even billions of people out there were not blessed in this same way. And I did nothing to deserve this amazing blessing, but I'm grateful to my very core for it.

This artwork is not something recent, but was done 3 1/2 years ago at my local art group meeting. It's a collage done with beeswax, the first and only time I've used this technic. It just came together rather easily, surprising me a lot. But I happened to have the right supplies and items at the right time, and some help and input from other group members also. So in the span of four hours, this is what I created.

I gave it to a dear friend of mine, Donna, as a gift. She's in the Navy Reserve, and I felt she would appreciate this and relate to it, on a level maybe other people wouldn't or couldn't. I didn't start out making this for her, but once it was completed, I knew I wanted to give it to her, and was meant to be hers. She then took it to be framed, and it's hanging in her livingroom. So even though I no longer own it, I do get to see it when I visit her, and that makes me feel good.

I'm grateful and proud to be an American, to my very core, and my heartfelt and sincere thanks go out to all members of the military and their families, for the honorable and incredible sacrifices they make for my country, and for me personally. God bless America and please keep us safe, and God bless our troops and please keep them safe. Amen, and amen.

Floating Through Grunge

Thanks to Diane on the clothpaperstudio yahoo group, I can post the whole picture of my collage. She was able to rejoin the three scans I took of it. You can view her blog here. Thanks so much Diane.

So anyway, here is what it looks like as one cohesive piece. Better than the three separate pieces I think. I came up with the title of FLOATING THROUGH GRUNGE kind of off the top of my head. I didn't want to over-think it. I must admit, I've gotten quite attached to this piece. Thank goodness I didn't make it for a swap, and then have to part with it. That would be very difficult. Thanks to all who left comments about this collage, or emailed me about it.

My Own Grunge Painted Collage (done on upholstery fabric sample)

This is a piece I worked on over several days, since last Saturday after our local book arts group meeting. Doing the grunge painting on fabric there must've really inspired me. (Scroll down to see a post and photos on that project). I really enjoyed doing the grunge painting, and love the results of it....and started thinking hmmmmm, can I produce similar results all by myself, as just one artist? Because the painting we did at the meeting involved the whole group, 13 artists.

At our meetings, oftentimes members will bring things to share with the group. At our last meeting, some people brought fabric remnants and wallpaper sample books to share. So, I brought home an upholstery fabric sample. It's dimensions are 17 x 12 inches, and it's quite thick and somewhat textured. I didn't care for the color, it was kind of an orange/tan, and I didn't know what I planned to do with it. Then it occurred to me I could just use it as a "practice" piece for grunge painting, that it would be perfect for that. And since I considered it a practice piece, and just for fun, I lost all fear of ruining it.

Now you have to know something about me. I am fearful about the "C" word. Doing "collage" scares me, for some strange or stupid reason. Anytime I think I'm doing a "collage", I get fearful and anxious and tense about my art and what I'm doing. Because I feel like I DON'T know what I'm doing. I start to over-think what I'm doing, or should be doing, and start second guessing myself, and get all concerned about placement and composition. I also get that way about layering. I have a really hard time with much layering at all, because I find it hard to paint over or cover up something I've already done, especially if I like the way it looks.

That being said, I really wanted to see if I could cut loose on this "practice" piece, and do a layered collage -- spontaneously, and with abandon. And see if, and to what degree, I could overcome my fear of collage and layering. That was my main goal with this piece, much more than being concerned with how it turned out.

I really, really got into working on this piece bigtime, and everytime I thought, okay it's done, more ideas would come to mind on what more I could do, what more I could add. Although I must say, in the beginning, I really didn't care about what I painted over or covered up. But the further along I got, the more attached I became to the piece, and the more concerned I was about what got covered up, and where to paint and stamp and glue down. I felt much more free about that in the beginning than later on. So in that sense, I didn't totally achieve my original goal, but only to a certain point.

So anyway, I think it's finally done. That is if I don't add something else. I couldn't scan the whole piece because of its size, so I had to do three scans. It would look better and more cohesive to see it as one piece, but this will have to do. The bird was one of the last things I added, and is embroidered on denim. I embroidered it on a pair of bell-bottom jeans in the 1970's!!! How "groovy" is that? So gee, it's over 30 years old! I cut it off the jeans many, many years ago, and held onto it all this time. I'm amazed I still have it, and more amazed that I actually found it and thought to use it on this piece. I think this is the exact piece it was meant to be on, and was waiting in a drawer for all these years. I was also able to use three of my caulk inchies on the right edge of the piece, and I added those last too.

So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!! In comparing this to the grunge painted fabrics posted below, I think the results I achieved are somewhat similar, but also different, because this turned into a collage, and I used other elements in addition to just paint, such as glued on crumpled tissue paper, yarn, cheesecloth, ric-rac, fabric, silk leaf, and of course the embroidered bird.

So, what do you think? I'm almost afraid to ask.

I've been a good little "art do-bee"! Remember Romper Room?

Yes I have! What is a "do-bee"? Does anyone remember the TV show Romper Room from the 1950's? Remember Miss Gloria, the show's host? It was on here in Denver, I'm not sure if it was just a local show or not. Anyway, a "do-bee" was a good little kid, who got things done. Good things.

So I've been a good "do-bee" today, regarding my art. And getting a new art work done. Beyond that, doing something totally different from what I normally do. It's been on my mind lately, call it an urge, to do something with wallboard joint compound (JC), which is somewhat similar to spackle. Don't know why that "urge" cropped up out of nowhere, but it did. So today, I followed it. Beyond that, I didn't have a clue what I wanted to make.

But I was out in my yard, so I started picking up "nature" items, thinking I could use those in my art today. And so I did. I also used cheese cloth that I recently tea dyed. And I used walnut ink crystals in the JC, to dye it brown or sepia, because I didn't want to have to paint the JC.
That worked out well, although maybe I should've added more, to make the JC darker. Because once it dried, it came out lighter than I expected. I also sprinkled some walnut ink crystals on my piece, to make some areas darker.

And once I started on this piece, with the natural items to inspire me, my muse jumped in and things moved right along. The idea to add the cheese cloth to the back, and then wrap the piece with it, came at the end, out of nowhere. I do love using cheese cloth in my art though, and even more so now that I started tea dying it. Today I also put some in walnut ink, to see how that comes out. Hopefully, it will come out a little darker brown, whereas the tea dyed cheese cloth comes out a sepia color. But until recently, it never occurred to me to dye cheese cloth. However, I read a tutorial on the net that included doing that, so I tried it.
Sorry, I don't recall where I read the tutorial, or I'd give credit to that artist.

Anyway, as one idea leads to another, and one idea can inspire other ideas, this is where I ended up today. I chose a small piece for today, but hope to use this conglomeration of technics on a larger piece soon.

Regarding the Romper Room thing, as an aside here, I actually got to meet Miss Gloria when I was in my 20's. It turned out that a new girlfriend I made was her daughter. And so she took me to meet her mother. I have to say, it was a thrill to meet Miss Gloria, 20 years after I used to watch her on TV. And practice being a good "do-bee"!!! And never being a "don't-bee". (Like yea, right. I'm sure my own mother would have something to say about that!) Ahhh, the memories from childhood.

Slideshow of my Melange Book