One

Letters and Numbers

The Creative Everyday http://creativeeveryday.com theme for May 2012 is  ONE.  I have been creatively blocked for a while.  Yes, I can blame the energy sucking job, my distractions like watching Downton Abbey for the umpteenth time or just everyday stuff that I allow to get in my creative way.  Yet, the blame won't get me anywhere and I am pledging to let go and just accept that I am where I am suppose to be and I am finally getting my artistic butt in gear.  

The above is one of 18 pieces I have done since last July.  I had flurries of moments where I created grid after grid.  Once school started - I am a teacher by trade - the energy slowed to a grid here and a grid there.  Christmas came along and all my creative energy went into holiday crafting.  Yet, this most recent one was in an effort to redirect myself back to my ultimate goal:  Create an life that is infused with art.

These grids are a great exercise for me.  They allow me to not think and play with colors, textures and patterns.  It is an experiment in composition as well.  Like my mood boards that I change by the season, I like these grids.  They are orderly, quiet and soothing for me when I have had a trying day, moment or week.

I started these exercises last summer (2011).  The images are from magazine pages, bits and pieces I have culled from my favorite magazines.  I work in a 6 " by 12 " spiral sketchbook with paper that is a heavyweight natural, white and is able to take the Mod Podge I use to glue the squares down without buckling.  For the squares I use a Marvy Uchida 1" punch.  The images come from magazines that use a heavier weight of paper because I find that the Marvy Uchida will eat the paper if it is the cheap or super thin brand of magazine paper.

To start, I draw a 4 x 7 grid rectangle lightly in pencil, then arrange the squares in a pleasing way.  Sometimes I let it sit for a day or two and move things around - I also pray the cat doesn't do a jump on to the table and scatter the pieces.  Sigh.   Once I like the arrangement I carefully move the squares to the table in the right order.  I use a sponge brush and lay on a nice juicy layer of Mod Podge and then adhere the squares one by one in a single row using my fingers to quickly push out any air bubbles.  I then use a brayer - a hard rubber one use for linoleum prints to make sure the squares are flat and glued.  I repeat the process with the next four rows.  I put one thin layer of Mod Podge over the whole thing.

If you are one of those people who collect magazine pages and really need to weed out and also want a quiet easy exercise just to get your mind off your troubles, free up that creative bird to soar a bit try this.  

July - Creative Everyday Theme: Blue

One of my blogging groups is Creative Everyday - Leah Piken Kolidas' website http://creativeeveryday.com  She gathers like minded folk around being creative everyday and encourages us all to exercise our talents and share them.  She provides themes to stimulate those of us who are looking for a direction to take off on to and for those of use who are blocked or sluggishly procrastinating getting into our studios.  In anycase, I finally have gotten past my block and thank you Leah I produced something!  The theme being blue I did a collage using phototransfer, rubber stamping and adding type.  Here is my first effort in a long time.

"Awake, O north wind...Blow upon my garden, let its fragrance be wafted abroad." - The song of Solomon

My summer vacation has begun with blue skys and warm days that have been long awaited.  Given that California has experienced the coldest and wettest year so far and last summer was a precursor of it, I thought this collage spoke of clear summer days with lazy clouds and winged spirits free to soar.

It is the end of July! How did that happen?

Hello, it has been a long time since I have made any entries to this blog.  Many reasons:  I got focused on my other blog http://lachatelainechocolat.blogspot.com  This venue focuses on my love of history, historical clothing and domestic arts.  Yes, I got distracted.  In addition, work has been a bit of a downer and draining of any creative juices.  I am much more confident with my sewing and cooking.  I am still a fledgling artist - my 'rebirth' has not been consistently growing.  However, with a vacation - 3 weeks long thank God - I have begun to adjust my attitude and refocus on my art.  So, I worked on one painting thus so far:  Agapantha Collage

20" x 15" Image, text collage and botanical portrait

Detail of painting

I had been collecting images of Agapantha flowers and I wanted to develop a portrait that was not the traditional image on a blank ground.  I am trained as a botanical illustrator but I love to do mix media and collage work so I am developing a way to connect the two.  

I have other images in my head similar in process and hope to be able to work on them on a regular basis. 

I have been struggling to find time to be creative beyond my sewing and craft projects - not that I get them in that often either.  I guess it is about finding balance between what I should do and and what I want to do.  'Gotta pay the bills' my left brain whines, but I essentially don't want to sell my soul to a worker bee life.  So, my plan is to do something creative everyday. I have talked about this again and again with friends, family and in my journals but it never comes to fruition.  I am tired of whining about it, so in the effort to celebrate life in general, I will be working towards a 'creative' life - the life I dream about, think about and have been too afraid to attempt.  So, with that in mind, apologies for being away so long, I am back, ready to rock and roll with my art and will be sharing as often as possible.  Thanks for hanging in there with me.  Cheers.

Springing into action

The rain and cold continue but I am really loving  staying in doors playing with many creative endeavors.  One is the art journal I started at the beginning of the year.  I did intend to write in it but it has evolved into a place to play with collage and mixed media techniques.  From several resources I made up a list of techniques (packing tape transfer, rubber stamp, etc), themes (ocean, winter, etc.) and other ideas that would provide a jump start on each page.  I printed them out and then cut them into strips and put them in a jar.  I fish around in the jar and pull out the various ideas - about 3 to 4 - and begin playing.  So, here are some of my results, enjoy!

Collage and soldering

After a very long and hard week at work, I has two wonderful things to look forward to:  1).  The time change - yes, I love this time change because the days are longer and when it is as beautiful and sunny as it was this last weekend, it is a fantastic shift.  All winter I am getting up in the dark and going home in the dark after work.  As a visual-kinetic person I need LIGHT to keep my energy going.  I welcome spring with open arms!  2).  I took a class at Castle In The Air  http://www.castleintheair.biz  from Ulla http://ullam.typepad.com/ullabenulla on making ornaments and jewelry of small or miniature collages between glass and soldering them together.  Here are the ones I made:

The top piece is has lace sandwiched between glass that I had to circle cut. The piece to the left of center - are three 1 inch squares linked together.  The two to the right are made from microscope glass with the collages sandwiched between them.  The central  square on point was an exercise in adding the decorative wire at the top.  The 1/2 circle is not done but shows what the piece looks like before you solder.
Soldering isn't hard but it isn't easy either.  Well, not for me.  I am one of those crafters that swiftly works through projects.  With soldering you have to really slow, slow, slow down and methodically apply the solder so that it ends up smooth.  For my first efforts, I did pretty good and I really loved the process.  Ulla is a fabulous teacher and coach so it was easy to quickly get into the projects she set out for us to do.

I think I will do more of this in the near future.  Birthday presents and Christmas presents present chances to work on my technique.

Tiny art, big learning curve!

ATC's - Top left: Spider; Top right: Batty flight
Bottom left: Comfort me with apples; Bottom right": Black & White

ATC's are a wonderful way to play without the scary expanse of a large canvas or format. The ATC's above were part of a group that I began a week or so ago where I played with different bits and pieces and techniques within a small space. I just wanted to 'do' something and I wasn't ready to dive into a huge long term project. So, I got cracking on these 2.5" x 3.5" canvases (actually chip board).

ATC's - Top left: Water Fall; Top Right: AutumnToile
Bottom: Lady of the house

These little pictures were fun to do since I didn't have an agenda or expected outcome. I could just explore, play and make it up as I go. I used paint, images and bits and bobs. During the process I tried to think about color, texture, and composition. How did I succeed in these areas?