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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Donnie Series X - Whooping Cough Quarantine

Whooping Cough Quarantine

Big Nose Kate was a persuasive woman at times and with a few promises Doc Holliday agreed to hide Belle until further arrangements could be made. Doc and Kate sequestered Belle in an outbuilding behind the Great Western Hotel.  To keep nosy people away from the building a quarantine sign was nailed to the door.  Doc could not keep secrets easily.  So it was up to Big Nose Kate to spin the story for him and to keep him numb with whiskey.  They agreed that a quarantine sign would buy them some time until Belle could be secretly whisked out of Dodge.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Big Nose Kat Helps - Donnie Series IX


Big Nose Kate actually was a dancehall girl in many different towns in the wild west.  She spent several years in Dodge City before heading to Tombstone, Arizona.  She befriend Wyatt Earp and became very good friends with Doc Holliday.  It seemed to me that Kate would be a fitting character to assist Belle with her problems. I can't wait to see how Belle flees Dodge with Kate's help.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Sons of Buttinsky

Sons of Buttinsky


This piece was started in March when I attended ArtFest.  Orly Avineri was teaching a postcard class using recycled materials, a class that I loved by the way!  I did not finish the piece until this week as I had put the background aside.  Well a happy mistake occurred when all the right pieces were found.  The mistake was the background or so I thought.  But wait, the planets must not have been aligned or maybe it was that I had not found the right collage materials yet. 

I had been thinking about how there are times when I am driven and no matter what I push forward somewhat like a determined elephant.  I do not know where most of my ideas come from, but they have been very fruitful of late and so I just go with it.  This is what happened with Sons of Buttinsky.  I found some ephemera recently at a fleamarket.  A postcard had some great messages on it and an amazing silhouette.  (These will show up in a later collage I am sure. )  I just love the Sons of Buttinsky, ancient, reckless, and independent.  Then the elephant showed up as I was cleaning up my studio desk as did the moth and the hand.  It all just started to flow together, but I had to find something to finish off the piece and thus the butterfly that had been sitting right in front of me for weeks made it complete.

The message on the fleamarket postcard find was intriguing.  Upon reading the message I found the person who had received a postcard was not sure who had sent it.  This person sent this postcard to whom they thought was the sender with a message to make sure that in the future initials were added to the postcards so that the receiver would know who had sent it.  It sounds so clandestine to be reading something from strangers and now using the find in a new way.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

September 2012 - ATC

I recently was asked to join an ATC group.  The theme for September was free choice.  The following just came to me when I found the phrase Paint-By-Numbers in a magazine ad.  September's ATC is double sided and folded and is 2.5 x 3.5 inches.  I don't know if anyone names their ATCs but this one is called Paint By Numbers.  Go figure!
front



back

Sunday, September 9, 2012

CitraSolv Sculptural Book

CitraSolv made paper accoridan book

close up

This past week I really got into the CitraSolv/National Geographic paper making business.  I love the effect of the chemical reaction between CitraSolv and the ink in the magazine.  I created three books and the a book sculpture using the papers that I created.  The papers were mounted on old library pocket cards.  The legs were created from rolled up papers using a wooden skewer and the "hinges" were created from some washi tape.  There was a problem during construction....how to keep the leg supports moveable.  I had to put backing on the washi tape so the legs would not stick to the "hinges".  This project actually took two days to complete due to the continual problem solving throughout.  So that the legs would not slip off I created "barriers" top and bottom of the book portion.  Now the piece folds easily like an accordian.  The "hinges"  also must be glued as the adhesive on the washi tape lifts in the heat of the day.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

The King and Queen of Spades

King and Queen of Spades
The royal family is continually in the news.  Paparazzi won't leave them alone.  Photos of anything and everything they do is instantly flashed around the world.  Prince Harry is now banished to Afghanistan after his latest adventures in Las Vegas.  Princess Diana, well we all know what happened there.......

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Intimate Conversation

The background for Intimate Conversation was made from the CitraSolv and National Geographic process detailed in a previous blog entry.  The subjects in this piece are Raymundo de Larrain and Jacqueline de Ribes. Extensive PhotoShopping was used in this piece to create the feeling of intimacy yet distance between the the two silhouetted.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Sylvie Daydreams


This collage was created from homemade Citra Solv papers, washi tape and ephemera.  Sylvie is a character rattling around in my brain.  The bridge tower was from a photograph of the Montlake Bridge in Seattle that I took five years ago.  The Montlake Bridge crosses the Montlake Cut which joins Lake Washington with Portage Bay and Lake Union.  Sylvie may have found a place on the bridge to build her nest.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Afternoon Rain on the Savannah

Afternoon Rain on the Savannah

This landscape came together rather quickly this afternoon.  I tried two new techniques, at least new to me.  First, yesterday I tried the CitraSolve on an old National Geographic magazine technique.  If you have not tried this method for creating a background it is truly amazing.  Here are some references to check out if you are interested.

Somerset Studio Magazine, The Art of Paper and Mixed Media, September/October 2012, article by Kayann Ausherman

Exhibition 36 by Susan Tuttle, Serendipitous Solvent Papers, article by Katie Kendrick

Diana Trout has a great "how to" video on her blog  http://dianatrout.typepad.com/blog/2010/08/fun-with-citrasolv.html

Gary Reef has a YouTube video on the process as well  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSwaIorBluc&feature=related

Second,  I  tried a matte medium transfer.  Once all was dry I added some watercolor and some gold glaze.  You will also see some washi tape in the landscape.