365 in 2013: 65 - 77

Time to catch up on my collage work......

#65 - Jungle Fever - I came across this elephant napkin that I received in a swap somewhere and it became the basis for this collage.

#66 - Romance by Phone - photos from inside my Netflix envelope - somehow I like where this one ended up....

#67 - Blackbird Sings - bird cutout on hand painted paper stripes

#68 - simplicity journal - hand decorated papers and an inspirational journal page image

#69 - simplicity journal - a collage built around a fun lettering inspiration.

#70 - simplicity journal - more fun writing to inspire me - filled in with paper & washi tape.

#71 - Movement in Black & White:  I like the splash of color added to this one.

#72 - Surprise Mosaic:  I painted some stripes on a left over piece of cardboard, cut it up and rearranged the pieces.

#73 - Kitchen Sink - decided to try a few collages with NO paper!  Yes, that's right, no paper. This one is made on a 6" square piece of cork; a slice of sisal, some drywall tape, coffee stirrer sticks w/ ink drops, some painted bubble wrap, etc.

#74 - Wired Up - on a coardboard backing, the first layer is screening, then some found metal and a hunk of garden mesh and some jewelry and brass wire.....everything but the key had to be wired down.....

#75 - Movin' Up - totally fabric.....a brown felt base, various fabrics including a bit of leather, red felt triangles, stitiching.

#76 - Screen Print - all fabric glued to a cardboard base; the heart is felt wrapped in yarn, the green netting is flared out.

#77 - Tracey's Spring - this piece started with a strip of a painting gifted from Tracey Fletcher King right in the center.

I continue to love to be challenged by this goal of 365 collages.  The whole idea started with Hanna challenging others to join her in creating 365 'somethings' ......there are participants making all sorts of different things - sketches, faces, characters, etc.  Join in - start anytime, make your year start today.......

genius

"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open."

The quote is from modern dance legend, Martha Graham and I read it on Jenny's blog Texterial.blogspot.com

Hopefully you can all find something in this that speaks to you too!

mail art and still painting

I received such a bounty of postcards this month - partly thanks to the fun swaps at MMSA and partly just folks staying in touch.

Here's all the mail that's been making me and my mail box so happy (I think I've got it all here).  So tonight I sat down and spent time writing back to all these wonderful ladies.  Sometimes people don't include their address which makes me sad that I can't send them something in return, but everyone else will hopefully get something in the next week or so.......

I thought I'd try working in a series so made a group that are similar in style - actually took the idea from the painting I did last week with dark leaves.....

Then I decided to try the "paint one big piece and cut it up" method of postcard making.  This is the cardboard from the side of a case of pepsi.  I painted, stenciled and stamped away, then cut it up into p/c sized pieces and ended up with 5 postcards!  I may add a little stitching or something, but this was a really fun exercise.  I know I've seen many of you use this technique and now I understand why! :)

So I had plenty of postcards made to return one to everyone and a few left over for the next batch.  Yahoo!

Next up, a quick update on my revised Joy painting which became collaged with maps and tissue paper layers....here's where it stands now:

Painted a layer of bright colors...........

Love the way the texture is showing up............

My next layer of gesso to push back some of that bright color......now where?  Will have to see .....

Hope my friends back east are lucky enough to escape the worst of the recent snow storms.  I can't believe the weather is still so nasty back there.  Whenever I think of complaining about the rain, I realize how much worse it could be (SNOW!) and just shut right up.  I'll take my rain any day!

painting ala carolyn

Inspired by Carolyn's 'Use Your Words' (it's a free series of inspirational and instructional videos) post, along with several others, I mimicked her painting.  You can see more contributions in the flickr group. A friend picked up a 12x12 canvas at a bargain and gifted it to me, just when I was feeling the need to try something other than collages and mail art.  Then I happened upon Carolyn's inspirational post......

  I copied this from Carolyn's Use Your Words (free tutorials) so please visit her to see how it's supposed to be done!  She has a button on her sidebar making it easy to find her lessons.

Version 1:

After living with this for a week or so, I've determined I need to make a few changes - I think the letters are too big and the top colors are too narrow and stripey.  So, a little rework is in order....let's see how it turns out....

Nope, still not feeling it.  Gesso to the rescue and going a whole different direction:

Maps, tissue paper and some of Karen's stamped tissue paper are the start of my next effort.  This 12x12 canvas may have LOTS of layers before I'm done!

a new painting

I took one of my early collages that I didn't really like anymore and decided to rework it.  I had this gardening ad torn out of a magazine from years ago that has been calling to me - so I figured it was time to use it as inspiration.....

My inspiration (above) and my starting point (below) an 11x17 canvas

This hot mess had some interesting textures and I liked bits and pieces of it, but overall I saw more wrong than right with it.  Time for a makeover.

Started by creating a new background - our friend gesso covered up most of the collage then layers of acrylic to make the background..... (it's actually much more green than blue - somehow my camera washed out the color and I didn't mess with fixing it in PSE)

 Here's the finished product - I like that I can see the hint of the bird profile still (lower right) and that my lines aren't too terrible in spite of painting over such rough collaging underneath.  I signed it but it was illegible cuz it's so bumpy so I washed it off and will try again in another place (maybe on the back:) )  I quite like how this one turned out.

introducing feedly

As I logged onto Google Reader the other day, the dreaded news appeared - it's going away as of July 1.  Oh dear, whatever shall I do?  How will I keep track of all my favorite bloggers?  Do I go in and resubscribe using my email account - or set up a new email just for blogs I follow?  Pretty cumbersome.

I found Feedly.  You can read about it here: FEEDLY
This is their claim:
We have been working on a project called Normandy which is a feedly clone of the Google Reader API – running on Google App Engine. When Google Reader shuts down, feedly will seamlessly transition to the Normandy back end. So if you are a Google Reader user and using feedly, you are covered: the transition will be seamless.  If you are a Google Reader, give feedly a try before July 1st, and you will be able to migrate seamlesly:

I'm trying it out for now - the look is a little different but most of the functions seem to be there - you might explore it as an option.  If you find a better one, please share - I don't want to lose touch with all my favorite people....

I also came across this list of other "Reader" services, so you might check out and prefer one of these.

365 in 2013: 59 - 64

I'm still 10 or so off the pace, but still plugging along.  This week are not my faves though I'm pleased with how Cowgirl turned out.  The photo is of my mother in law with her horse Lady.  For this series I painted and used my new distress spray inks over my cardboard backs to see what happened.  I liked the color on the background but found myself struggling with composition on some of these.....

#59 - Making It

#60 - Finding Seattle (used a Seattle Hertz map as the main pieces and a piece of a photo from Karen)

#61 - Cowgirl (my mother in law a number of years ago)

#62 - Y is for Yes

#63 - Vintage Gal (scrounged around and came across this image which is totally not my style, but somehow it felt like she could work on this piece - liked my inky spritzed background)

#64 - Moonrise  (cohesive or a jumble.....I go back and forth....)

I feel like it's an underwhelming offering this week, but sometimes you learn as much from stuff you don't love as you do when you call it a success.  I hope to carve out a little more collage time this weekend but I have to catch up on my mail art as well.....  While one project dries, I can work on the other!

IA tag swap

I participated in the Inspiration Avenue (IA) tag swap a few weeks ago.  I received 3 absolutely different and lovely tags.  IA is hosting a blog hop so we can all see the range of talented folks who swapped all these cool tags.  It was my first tag swap and I really enjoyed it.

Here are the tags I received.

On the left with all the party ribbon, the tag also sports a row of pearls, a feather and a dimensional heart - this lovely is from Kim P.  In the center, the blue tag has a beautifully drawn image hiding in the layers of paint - on the other side (also decorated) is the quote "A light heart lives long", and is from Maggie N.  On the right is a card of stamped goodness in a bright deep red (not the orangey red shown) with "Always follow your heart" on the back and it's from Nancy G.

Thanks so much ladies for making my first tag exchange such a rousing success - I love each and every one!

greatness

Just a quick note today.  I came across this on Pinterest and had to share.  As I read this I immediately thought of the supportive and encouraging art community I've become a part of online.  You guys often "see greatness" in others (including me) when our faith falters or our muse takes a vacation.

I love that we encourage each other to stretch, to keep going, and most of all, to believe in our own ability and creativity.  I love that I've been able to surround myself with such a wonderful group of women - you're the best!