Christmas Diamonds

Well I'm obviously not much of a blogger yet. I've been meaning to post these photos for two months. The holidays start in October in my family due to several birthdays and it just seems like there is never time to take care of tasks like this. Anyway, here is another project that I made this year. I got into a Christmas project frenzy for a while over the summer with the intent of having something to sell, turn into cards, etc. That didn't happen but I still enjoyed making Christmas-y things.  The only thing that makes this a Christmas project is the snowflakes.

fabric paper, bristol paper, tissue paper, acrylic paint, beads, embroidery, ribbon, stamping, glue, punched paper, brads, fabric

painted wonder under, painte paper towels, hand dyed string

Red and Purple Floral

Titling my art is something I have yet to figure out. In the meantime I tend toward a fairly literal description. This piece was completed earlier this year and is my first official piece of mixed media art. In 2006 I began studying fine arts at the Metropolitan College of Denver. I spent two wonderful years studying and thoroughly enjoying being an art student but I was compelled to leave school when I developed chronic pain issues and could not keep up anymore. After years of struggling to figure out what I wanted to do with my life I am determined to make art, even if I can't finish my degree right now. In my spare time, when I am not in too much pain, I make art. This piece came about after reading Beryl Taylors book "Mixed Media Explorations". I began by making my first ever fabric-paper. The floral motifs in some of the scrapbook paper I used inspired me to work on a floral theme. Like Beryl Talor, I adore fleur de lys and metallic elements. The flowers are all paper or fabric-paper. The fleur is fabric-paper with cut out red velvet wonder-undered and embroidered over the top. The background is cotton and hand embroidered with gold metallic floss. I machine embroidered over all the flowers and added beads. The lace edging is all hand dyed with the same paints and inks that I used on the fabric-paper. I learned a lot from making this piece. Right now it hangs in my bedroom where it matches the red and purple color scheme.

Cat Hair Studio

So this is what I have to deal with! All six of my indoor cats like to come into my studio, but Harry here is particularly helpful. This is one big cat and his favorite place to be is right in the middle of whatever I am working on. Needless to say I have to be vigilant when working with wet paint and glue. I named my studio and blog after this lovable guy. He leaves cat hair all over everything in my studio! Some people bleed on their art. I do that too, but mostly I have cat hair on my art. If I ever sell anything I'm going to have to include the caveat that people who are allergic to cats might want to reconsider. I do try to remove the cat hair - that roll of packing tape is always near by - but getting it all of is totally impossible. Thank goodness for photo editing software!

Time to begin

To blog or not to blog? This is probably not the most original question, but frankly its been on my mind. Part of me is excited to join the blogging community. After all I enjoy perusing other people's blogs. These days, if you want to be an artist, you just about have to blog. But it does seem like an awful lot of work and I'd really rather spend my time making art than monkeying around with all this computer stuff. But here I am, diving in. I hope to make this a place where I can showcase my work, share techniques, and meet other artists. Right now I have a day job, which makes it hard to prioritize my spare time, but I see my computer as an essential element in moving toward my professional artist future. So here goes!