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Saturday, September 30, 2017

Menko 11

Menko 11
I really like the juxtaposition of the two focal images in Menko 11.  The facing of the two images away from each other creates a balance and a statement.  I really like the texture in this piece as well.

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U-Ram Choe, Self-Taught Robotics Whiz | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 27




Friday, September 29, 2017

Menko 10

Menko 10
My personal shopper, Sally, showed me a technique that goes really well with this baseball card.  The background paper that looks like it has striations uses a light coat of light paint over a magazine page.  Then one sands the page lightly over a texture plate after the paint dries.  Easy peasy! :-)  Thanks, Sally!

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Sun Xun: One of China's Most Ambitious Young Artists | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 46




Thursday, September 28, 2017

Menko 09

Menko 09
There is a muted feel to this piece which appeals to me.  Each piece in this series is 5 x 7 inches.  This size has become an easy working size for me.  I need to challenge myself to do a much larger piece just to see if it is possible.  That would mean creating ephemera focal points in a larger size.  It can be done but I just have to do it.  Thank goodness for PhotoShop.

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Identity and Autonomy in 'Rain Room' and Beyond | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 44




Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Menko 08

Menko 08
I had to look twice to find the cat in this piece because I kept looking at the expression of the baseball player.  Just what is he thinking?  Maybe it is I was lucky to catch that ball or perhaps he was distracted by the woman and almost missed catching the ball.  Make up your own story.

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The Universal Themes of N.S. Harsha's Art | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 22




Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Menko 07

Menko 07
I used bits of this and that including the rice paper of a Japanese decorative umbrella.

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Thomas Struth: A Life in Photography | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 51




Monday, September 25, 2017

Menko 06

Menko 06
This series just makes me happy. :-)

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Intellectual by Nature, Poet at Heart: Xu Bing | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 15




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxHWJjaUDQg

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Menko 05

Menko 05
There is just something about red.  It is bold and strong.  It has so many hues, it can't be defined by just saying its name and yet it can.  It pops everything else surrounding it.  I like using it.

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FX Harsono and the New Art Movement | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 62





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgYrWO9Ks3Y&list=PLqq4LnWs3olUpaD8oXCF7IlLikGBY7HFg

Saturday, September 23, 2017

Menko 04

Menko 04
I used many bright colors in the papers that I made for this series.  When looking at the total series a warmth is given off.  For some time I have wanted to be able to share the total series at once or at least in rapid succession.  Yesterday I learned how to create an animated gif in PhotoShop and will share the total series when Menko 14 debuts.

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South Africa's Picasso: William Kentridge | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 41




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaTnWGGhkzY

Friday, September 22, 2017

Menko 03

Menko 03
The vintage baseball card used in this piece almost looks like it has been sanded as it has a very soft scrubbed look.  I rarely use stamped images in my work but I have some bug stamps that I rather like. I also like repetition as in the three cats.

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Ai Weiwei: Artist and Human Rights Champion | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 54




Thursday, September 21, 2017

Menko 02

Menko 02
I really like the odd shape of the vintage Japanese baseball cards.  They almost look like fabric dolls.

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Indonesia's Fantastical Storyteller: Heri Dono | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 23





Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Menko 01



Menko 01
Menko is the Japanese name for collectible cards.  In this case the cards are all pre-WWII baseball cards.  In this series I am using cats and the somewhat cartoonish vintage baseball cards in most of the series.   I also have vintage papers including Japanese ledger paper and images that I made on deli paper.

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Elmgreen & Dragset on Creating the Unexpected | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 35




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpuc2hNcD60





Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Elephant 14 - Accordion Journal

Elephant 14


No. 14 is the last of the Elephant Series.  Each piece in this series has been secured into an accordion journal.

Elephant Series Cover



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Ali Banisadr's Impassioned Landscapes | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 24




Monday, September 18, 2017

Elephant 13 - Accordion Journal

Elephant 13 - Accordion Journal
Do you think this is a Mother's Day photo?  Kind of looks like it.  Love polka dots, drips, and adding texture.  In this case, Portfolio pastels were used.

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Artist Abraham Cruzvillegas Takes on the Tate Modern | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 13




Sunday, September 17, 2017

Elephant 12 - Accordion Journal

Elephant 12- Accordion Journal
Take a note of the tissue paper I created for use in part of the background.  I laid bottle caps down on the scanner and scanned them.  Once I had an image I printed on tissue paper.  Don't forget to use a printer paper backing to the tissue paper when printing or you will have issues with your printer.  If you need more information on how to print on tissue send me an email.

Someone asked me about my images, the vintage photos, yesterday.  Most of the photos are of total strangers. I do not have many family photos.  I decided a long time ago that I would use the originals in my art but one can certainly use photo copies.

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Turning Science into Art: Conrad Shawcross Brilliant Ideas Ep. 20





Saturday, September 16, 2017

Elephant 11 - Accordion Journal

Elephant 11 - Accordion Journal
I am trying to think of other things that I can scan easily to make my own tissue paper designs.  I have scanned dominoes, bottle caps, my Mah Jongg set.  Oh, I just thought of one, checkers.  Send me your ideas.  Any accepted idea will get a snail mail postcard from me.

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The Godfather of Contemporary Art in India: Subodh Gupta | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 12





Friday, September 15, 2017

Elephant 10 - Accordion Journal

Elephant 10 - Accordion Journal
This is one of my favorites of the Elephant Series.  Reason being is because I really like the vintage photo and I created tissue paper out of my Mah Jongg set pieces which you can see in the background.

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The Playful Public Art of Luke Jerram | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 6




Thursday, September 14, 2017

Elephant 09 - Accordion Journal

Elephant 09 - Accordion Journal
Recently an art friend mentioned to me she finally understood why artists might want to do a series. For me a series gives opportunity for creating a body of work on a certain subject.  In the case of the Elephant Series it is obvious to me.  The ephemera dictated the series.  There are common threads in the series and yet there are differences in the way those common threads are used.  For instance, the use of the sewing machine.  All the sewing was very random.  Line was created with the randomness. Each piece in the series has a vintage photo.  Yet each photo tells a difference story.  Each piece has bugs but the placement of the bugs is different or the bugs vary in type.  So for me the challenge was to create similar pieces but with different outcomes.  There is no doubt though that it is a series because of the common elements.

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The Iconic Public Sculpture Art of Jaume Plensa | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 11






Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Elephant 08 - Accordion Journal

Elephant 08 - Accordion Journal
Until I started looking I had no idea how many elephants are on stamps and matchboxes.  I have quite a collection now.  I created my own papers for much of this collage.  One of them I particularly had fun doing was the Dominoes paper.  I took our set of Dominoes, laid them out on the scanner, scanned them and then printed on tissue paper.  I did that with several other things I had around the house.  It makes for a fun collage paper.

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Wilhelm Sasnal and the Power of Image | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 47






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK0Xd1-iZdo 

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Elephant 07 - Accordion Journal


Elephant 07 - Accordion Journal
Catherine, in the U.K., commented recently how she liked the drips and how they create dimension, pushing images towards the background.  This certainly is the case with the blue drip over the grey elephant.

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Painting Beyond Painting: Ellen Gallagher | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 10



Monday, September 11, 2017

Elephant 06 - Accordion Journal

Elephant 06 - Accordion Journal
Green elephants who would have thought?  Dr. Seuss most likely.  It reminds me of a story about a child who drew a purple animal in art class.  The teacher said, "Horses aren't purple!"  That ended the idea of creativity for that child.  Why can't horses be purple?

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Francesco Clemente Paints A Multicultural Landscape | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 9




Sunday, September 10, 2017

Elephant 05 - Accordion Journal

Elephant 05 - Accordion Journal
Using vintage photographs of unknown people gives me the freedom to make up any narrative that comes to mind and gives a second life to the images presented in the photo.  Most likely the people in the photos are no longer living or in the case of the little boy might be quite elderly now.  It is almost like, if you will, a rebirth being exposed in a piece of art.

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Danny Lane: Master of Form and Light | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 7




Saturday, September 9, 2017

Elephant 04 - Accordion Journal

Elephant 04 - Accordion Journal
I have mostly resisted using stamps in any of my mixed media pieces.  However, every once in awhile I find some stamps that I can not resist.  For instance, special order, bugs, and custom stamps are favorites.

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Portraying the Sordid Shadow of Colonial History: Yinka Shonibare | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 4


Friday, September 8, 2017

Elephant 03 - Accordion Journal

Elephant 03 - Accordion Journal
I love using old letter parts in collage.  I found a huge stack of letters at a garage sale which I have been using frequently.  In fact, one of the upcoming series is a whole set of letters use on the substrate.

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Artist Cornelia Parker Questions the Rules That Govern Us | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 2




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGtS2oX-Rao

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Elephant 02 - Accordion Journal

Elephant 02 - Accordion Journal

For this series I worked on each piece separately and then when I had 14 finished I added them to an accordion structured journal.  The vintage photographs came from a sale on Ebay.  I got over 200 images.  Many of the images are of babies which I give to an art friend who likes using them.  I do not use very many children images unless I find just the right one.  

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India's Outsider Artist, Looking In: Bharti Kher | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 8