Helle #1

Helle #1

The series continues.  I don't remember where I found this photo now.  I have had it for quite some time.  I love hunting at garage sales, estate sales, flea markets, antique stores and the like for vintage photos.  I always wonder what kind of life each person had.    I used tissue paper and paint for much of the background.  The garden magazines come in handy for vegetation.

Pansy #2

Pansy #2

There is just something about this photograph that sucks me in.  It is another Australian mug shot.  The remorse and defeat just grabs me.

Pansy #1

Pansy #1

This is my first postcard in a series of eight with similar backgrounds and black and white photos.  Pansy comes from photographs that I found of females arrested in Australia for unspecified crimes.  I am pretty sure I have a good idea of the "crime" though.  The postcards in this series will be going out to the Pay-It-Forward participants who left comments on my blog.  There is still one spot left if you leave a comment on the Pay-It-Forward blog entry.

Postcard Round Robin

I am involved with three other guys on a postcard round robin.  The postcards below are the third round results.  One more round and we are done.  On this first exchange we decided to do postcards from our home town or city.  I chose Seattle.  Brian's is Long Beach and Terry lives in Bemidji.  Thomas is a Florida guy.  I will post the results of all the postcards after the next round.

I will have three pieces in the spring art show for the NW Collage Society.  The first one on the above invitation is called Bullseye.  It represents the history associated with the path towards equal rights for LGBT people.

Pay It Forward Art Project

Check out this idea.   

* Pay It Forward Art-making Project for 2014 *

I promise to make a small work of art for the first five people who comment on this post and say "YES, I want in". A 'like' alone is not enough of a commitment, nor is a comment about thinking Pay It Forward is a great idea.

You must in turn post the rules and make something for the first five who comment on your post.

The rules are simple:

– It has to be your work, made by you, and the recipient must receive it before 2014 ends.
– It can be anything art-based: a drawing/illustration or a conceptual work of art, a photograph, a knitted item, cross-stitch, paper maché – or anything in between.

I'm paying this forward thanks to Irene Rafael.  Yes, you can be on each other's pay it forward lists.

First five, GO!

PS. It doesn't matter if you aren't an artist, try something out, google/ YouTube how to make stuff, step out of those boundaries.

 Step 1  Copy & Paste this as your latest entry on your favorite social website (in my case, it’s this blog).

 
Step 2   For the first five people who comment on this blog entry saying they want to participate, you will do an art trade with them that must be completed by December 31st 2014. I would count as the first person so technically you only need another four. If you find your friends are keen you can do as many as you want. 

Step 3   All forms of art count including creative writing, photography, digital anything goes!

Round Robin - Michele

A group of six of my art friends has engaged in a dos-a-dos journal round robin project.  Once a month we work in one of the members' journals.  This month is the second month of the RR and I worked in my friend Michele's journal. Michele and I became friends in a RR last year hosted by Susie LaFond.  Michele and I first met at Starbuck's in Edmonds for the journal trade off.

We still meet once a month to chat about journaling and just about everything else.  Michele came to my house about a month ago for lunch and journaling.  Over the past year I have gotten to know quite a bit about her.  One thing that I know is that she is a great artist and is always trying new art techniques.  She puts 100% of herself into her work.  At the moment she is doing portraitures with outstanding results.

Michele likes to travel and since I have known her she has gone to Africa, India, Oregon, and Nantucket. Her photographs of her travels always appear in her journaling.  You should see the fantastic journal she did on her several African countries visit!

Usually when I start a journaling project I rarely have an idea of where it is going.  For Michele's journal I decided that I wanted to take her photograph wearing a variety of hats.  The morning of our lunch I emailed her and asked her to bring four or five hats to my house.  That afternoon I photographed Michele wearing some of the hats including the cardboard support for one of them.

After our afternoon of doing art Michele went home and emailed me a photograph of her when she was a little girl wearing a wonderful poke-a-dot hat.  These photographs all appear in the spreads that I did for Michele.  I then got the idea to find other women wearing hats.  My husband, Tim, was responsible for all the hat photos you see.  He is a researcher and has an extensive fashion file. Thanks Tim!

Michele enjoys the poet Mary Oliver.  I have included many of Ms. Oliver's quotes in my spread for Michele.

First spread

Center spread

Last spread

Fun and Easy Paper Making

Envelopes

Close Up of Envelopes

Close Up of  Envelopes

Creating papers from magazine images was one big blast.  I learned a lot about the quality of magazine paper in the process.  All you need is quality magazine pages.  Believe me there is a big difference out there.  Lay a stencil down with the magazine page over the top.  Run a sanding block over the the page leaving the stencil image on the magazine page.  You will have to practice to get the right pressure.  Poorer quality paper leaves holes.  That might be nice, too, though.  Spray Dylusions spray ink over the page and rub off the extra spray. The results are as you see.  Easy and fun!  I made envelopes of many of the results but one can certainly use the "new" papers in collage work.

For the Birds - Miro

For the Birds - Miro

Absolutely do not get me wrong, I am a fan of Joan Miro's work.  I love everything about what I have seen in books and online.  His sculptures are fantastic and his paintings so colorful and engaging.  With those thoughts I went off to see the Miro exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum.  The first piece one sees upon entering the show is spectacular.  From then on I was sorely disappointed.  It seems that lesser works were curated for the show.  With that said, I am going to return one more time to give the exhibition a second chance.

So last week Miro was my inspiration for a journal that I am making.  This triptych is the first part of the many fold out journal that is evolving.  If you look closely you will already see the holes for where I will bind in the other fold outs.  I will publish the finished journal when completed.

Triptych Collage Workshop

This past weekend I taught a workshop on creating mixed media triptychs.  The students and I had a blast.  I am so pleased with how their work evolved.  I know I did not want the weekend to end.  Here is a sample of their before and afters and a great photo of the group.  Well, the photographer, me, should have checked for all eyes to be open, but really who cares that much as it is a blink in time! :-)

The Group

After

Before

Before

After

Before

After

Before

pre-after, auditioning stage

For more information the processes that we followed for this workshop visit a student's blog...
 http://creativeupcycling.blogspot.com/2014/04/how-mixed-media-collage-unleashed-my.html

Postcards Continue

Oddity

Curiosity

Women Pirates

I have been working on adding pours to the postcards.  I really like the transparency and color addition that it gives.

Thoughts I have on these postcards.  They were experimental in nature.  I tried so many different things on them.  They are not my favorites but there are parts that I do like.

I would not want to buy insurance or a car from the man in Oddity.  The woman in Curiosity looks like Sally Field.  I particularly like the native.  It is as if he really is curious about these strangers who have invaded his land.  Look what they are wearing compared to his dress.

I guess I never thought about it before but there were women pirates.