Family

I realized that I had never posted this plaster/encaustic piece, which is one of my favorites, and it seemed appropriate with it's themes of travel and family. I adore the torn out piece of music from an old hymnal (and I mean old, this book is so fabulous, the woman I bought it from said she pictured Jesus carrying it around, and if you saw it you'd understand). The name of the hymn is "The Absent, Unforgotten", and I just love that, especially at a time like now as we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, as we gather with family and think of loved ones who have passed, or are perhaps away serving in the military.  I have to travel just a little at Thanksgiving, but it's so worth it to be immersed in the comforts of my family and the home where I grew up - I am very thankful that I still have that (and that my significant other is equally as happy to go there, where he is very loved).  I wish all of you the comforts of family and lots of love this Thanksgiving...

Christmas Cards

It's that time of year, when I put away my normal projects and get out my Christmas supplies. I've learned to start early if I plan any Christmas projects, and since I've now set a precedent of homemade Christmas cards I try to get those done first. Maybe not quite as many homemade ones this year, I'm going to try to limit it to people who I know truly appreciate them, so I still have some other kinds of Christmas projects left in me. This is a sampling of ones I've made this year - people have suggested that I just design one and make them all the same, but I just can't get myself to.  I'm sure it would be faster, but it would take the fun out of it I think.

I make very few cards these days, but they take me back a few years to where this whole art journey began - happening to see a copy of Stamper's Sampler (a Somerset magazine) in a Barnes & Noble, and looking through it and realizing what could be done with stamps. Then a few weeks later I decided to walk into a store I'd been curious about called The Paper Garden, and it turned out to be a wonderful store full of paper and every kind of stamp imaginable. I decided it was meant to be, bought my first stamp and went home and played with it and made my first card. Now, many many stamps later, I don't use them as often, less as a focal point and more as background for larger projects, but I still love them...

Art Under Duress

My friend Val asked me to make her something with her dog's name on it, many many months ago. Someone else had made her something with her other dog's name on it, and she wanted to have one of each. (She's pretty Dachschund crazy....)  I was immediately unenthusiastic about this assignment, as lettering is not a strong area of mine, and I didn't have a lot of confidence in what I'd make. I put it off, and put it off, but finally decided I absolutely needed to get it done for her for Christmas, so I grudgingly sat down to work on it. This is the result, it's on a 6"x9" canvas (it got kind of cut off because I scanned it), but I actually do like it, and most importantly, I think she'll love it.  It's made me realize that I need to work out of my comfort zone more, push myself to work on things that I don't necessarily have a lot of confidence about. How else do we grow, right?

Art Journaling and Inspiration Paralysis

I thought I'd share some of my art journal pages.  This is a variety that I happened to have scanned, as you can see I flit around a lot between different styles and mediums, depending on my current inspiration and what I may want to experiment with.  I love art journals, I love the whole thought of them. Art done just for yourself, with no one else to try to please, no wondering what you'll do with your piece when it's done. It just sits there on a shelf waiting for you to flip through and enjoy all over again.  I'm very sporadic about it though.  I feel sometimes like a sponge, that's absorbed too much inspiration, ideas and techniques to try, and it paralyzes me. Having a full-time job, when I finally find the time and energy to sit down in my "studio" (corner of our guest room), deciding what to settle down and work on is always the most difficult part. Sometimes I wish I had settled on just one thing that is my thing, art journals, painting, encaustic, plaster, assemblage etc.  Then I could just focus on that one thing and have less noise in my head, but I can't, I love them all. Maybe someday...

Industrial Goodness

I'm so excited about my new table that my significant other made, that I just have to share. We made some changes in the kitchen, and suddenly the console table I had in this spot looked completely out of place. Especially once I put up the old iron industrial window frames turned into a mirror above it. So I challenged my man to make me one, and boy did he come through. We found an old door that we used for the wood shelves, then he scoured iron yards for old rusty pieces that he could use, and really scored when he found the old casters.

I've been having fun decorating it. Old locker baskets, an old metal drawer, my old scale, and under the plant is my wonderful old prescription book from 1917 that I got recently. This will no doubt be an ever-changing display. Next step is painting the kitchen floor, checkerboard I think...

Crackled Plaster

I've been playing with a crackled plaster on burlap method I learned from Stephanie Lee, although I did it somewhat differently. I love burlap, and I like to leave it showing around the edges and outside. It was really fun, and messy, and I absolutely love all the cracks that are brought out by layers of paint. I wanted to keep the artwork simple, so as not to compete too much with the cracks and texture.The "A" on the top one was an old metal piece I got somewhere, and I've been reluctant to use it, as I am with many of my finds. But this piece just seemed to call out for it. The sunflower's center, below, is made from the outside spout of an old watering can, and the petals are made from an old sewing pattern and wire. I've had it in my head for a while, and I finally decided this was the piece to do it on. Really fun...

Halloween!

Fall has finally arrived here, my favorite time of year. My house is decorated, and I even made soup last night.  I get a little giddy this time of year, summers here are so hot that I start longing for Fall around the beginning of August, so when it finally arrives it's like heaven. To celebrate I made this collage piece over the weekend, it was a lot of fun. I love these kind of very old anatomical illustrations, and have been wanting to incorporate one into a piece. I like the combination of drippy paint, torn cobwebby cheesecloth, and "crystals", kind of a gothic feel to it, lightened up with the quotation "Trick or Treat, give me something good to eat", which is hard to read in this picture. Plus, the base layer is a page from my wonderful 1917 subscription ledger from Boston that I found last weekend in Petaluma. It's such a big fat book that it can definitely spare some pages...