Butterfly Diptych

I love the word "diptych", it's an ancient word, and now I finally have an excuse to use it. I found a couple of old brass hingey things at a salvage yard, and immediately visualized using them to make a diptych.  What did NOT immediately come to me, was what the diptych would actually be of. I wasn't feeling inspired until I was playing with the hinge and a couple of wood panels, and suddenly I saw the center hinge as a butterfly body and I was off and running...

I have one more hinge, so now I need to come up with a different butterfly....

I've been working on making cards too, after everyone's good advice about having smaller things for sale at my show coming up in October. It's been taking me back to my early days a few years ago when I started this whole mixed media thing... I need to be able to make them relatively quickly though in order to have it be worth it to sell them affordably, but I always find myself getting sucked into the details and losing complete track of time. I'm definitely not good at mass production!

Is It Wrong to Deface a Globe?

It felt kinda wrong, but I did it anyway.  Admittedly it's kinda old but not an expensive one, and as I first touched a paintbrush to it I kind of held my breath to see if the globe police were going to descend on me.  But they didn't, so I just kept playing. I've had this a while with the intention of doing something with it, but I found it particularly difficult to figure out WHAT to do...I'd sit with it in front of me as I relaxed in front of the TV, just looking at it occasionally hoping to be inspired.  I finally just started - just put paint on it and followed my instinct, and this is where it ended up.  I think I like it....

I did something which felt pretty brave - I put a layer of wax all over it. You can't really tell in the picture, but it really adds a lot, I'm glad I did it, but what an adventure. One of those situations where the more you try to fix it, the worse it gets, with rivulets of wax running everywhere. But eventually, with only a few burned fingers, I managed it.

This is another piece that I'd started last Sunday during my art marathon, got it finished and waxed yesterday...Unfortunately there's a lot of glare from the wax.... Playing with texture...

And because this picture was in with these art ones I downloaded, and you're so good about indulging my occasional dog pictures, here are all my boys lazing around together in the heat...

Letting my crazy out to play...

I gave myself pretty much all day Sunday as an art day. I've had all these half-baked ideas spinning around in my head, various pieces and parts that I've wanted to do something with. I want to have more than just wall art at the upcoming show I'm in, plus some smaller affordable things (thanks for everyone's wonderful support and advice on this topic!).  So I pulled a bunch of stuff out of their various cubbies, and stared at everything, and let my brain stew for awhile.  A couple hours later there was utter chaos in the room my studio is - things laid out everywhere, glue drying, wax drying, plaster drying, power tools being wielded by my oh-so-handy man. I think the dogs were afraid to come in at that point. 

This is an old rusty film tin. The bottom of the tin has a layer of wax over the bug paper, and the skull has been dipped in wax several times.  It's attached to the bottom by a spring, so it comes up to the level of the top of the tin and kind of bounces around when you move it. I love it!

I've had this heavy, yellow, horn-like thing for quite a while. No idea what it was from, but I decided it was finally time to do something with it.... And a confession, I have a pretty serious thing about croquet balls...

Now, when I said in the title that I let my crazy out to play, this piece is where it really shows. I can't tell you what it is, except an assemblage of things I really love.

It's made from an old porcelain wall soap/toothbrush holder, an old cork fishing buoy, mystery hardware, a number from an old cash register, and this precious tiny little pulley that I'm not sure I can actually give up... It's probably too weird to sell anyway, so I guess I'll just have to keep it!

The other things I started I'm still working on.... I've discovered how much I like to have multiple things started. When I get home from work, it's so hard for me to start a project - the beginnging, the thinking and looking through all my stuff is what takes most of my time and energy. But coming home and just sitting down to a work in progress - that I have no trouble doing - that's the fun part. It's a good lesson learned...

Exposing Myself

Do I know how to write an eye-catching post title or what?  But it's the truth - I'm consumed by an upcoming event that it going to make me feel very exposed.  There's a really cool vintage antique show twice a year for the last few years called "Roses and Rust" that's in my hometown, and I always go. It's getting to be pretty big-time, I see it written up in magazines quite often now.  There's always wonderful vintage goodies, and I've gotten a lot of my bits and pieces I use in my art there.  So I've been thinking for a while that if all the people going to this event love vintage, rusty types of things, wouldn't they maybe like art made with vintage rusty things?

So I finally screwed up my courage and sent in a vendor application along with pictures of my art, and was accepted.  It's coming up in October, so for a while now my head has been spinning with what to make, how on earth to price items, how to display them etc. And the biggie - what on earth will I do with all this art if nobody buys it?  I look at my dusty art journals and wonder if I should just be safely, happily working in them instead.  But of course my answer to myself is I'll never know unless I try, and I guess at worst my friends and family will be getting art for Christmas and Birthdays for some time to come...

This is my most recent creation - I think I'm through with my brief Rooster phase now...

At the top is my favorite section of ruler, from an old extendable one, that I've been holding on to for a long time, it was hard to let it go...

I decided the cows needed a fence...