Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Messy Work Table Reveal Day!

Here is the post from Lynns blog with links to the participatins artists blogs.  Its so much fun to peek into everyones studio!

Fibra Artysta - Mixed Media Fiber Art: messy work table photo collaboration reveal day! :...: Here we are - time to show off your messy work tables! :) Being an artist is a gift but let's face it, its not neat. And where other peop...

Monday, March 26, 2012

MESSY WORK TABLE photo collaboration

If I actually had any readers they would think I am stalking Lynn Krawczyk!  Really I'm not!  I'm just trying to get involved in the blogosphere and she keeps giving me great opportunities.  Thanks Lynn!  This is a photo of my work table as it looks right this minute.  I'm working on a readers challenge for Quilting Arts Magazine all about your signature color.  You might be guessing that mine is purple.  Pink is actually my favorite color, but almost everything I make ends up with purple in it so I dug out the purple scraps and went to town.  My work table is usually twice as bad as this but I cleaned up a bit a few days ago because I couldn't find anything.  The surface is covered with several pieces of freezer paper that are looking really cool with all the paint and ink and glue.  I love the idea of taking photo's of my work table.  Its such an evolving space.  An artists work table reflects the mood, joy, and pain of the artist.  The frenzy, pleasure and chaos are evident in the piles of media and ephemera.  Imagine years of such photos as a record of where you've been as an artist.  My journal is calling my name right now!  I love my work table.  I'd hug it if I could.  I suppose I could get down and hug a leg, but that might look all wrong, if you know what I mean.  Feeling pretty silly today!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Fibra Artysta - Mixed Media Fiber Art: MESSY WORK TABLE photo collaboration

Fibra Artysta - Mixed Media Fiber Art: MESSY WORK TABLE photo collaboration: Last September Seth Apter hosted an online photo collaboration that I just completely fell in love with. He called it Paper Stacks and t...

Shoe Shots Blog Hop

While reading Lynn Krawczyk's blog I came across a post about a blog hop being sponsored by the Fly Tribe blog.  I've been admiring Lynn's Where I Stand Sunday blog posts and wanting to do something similar but not wanting to be a total copycat!  Here is my chance to play!  I guess lots of people out there are photographing their feet so I won't be alone in copy catting.  This is a pic of my feet in my ratty old slippers in my studio.  The floor is covered with bits and pieces from an art quilt I just finished.  There are so many bits leftover that I plan to try another project using the scraps and I've been sorting them into sizes.  My studio table is not very large so a lot of stuff gets "sorted" onto the floor.  It looks like a bomb went off in here much of the time!  There is comfort and warmth in the slippers and the golden oak floors that make up my favorite space.  Most of my personal time is spent wearing these slippers in this room so it is a fitting first photo of my feet.  (Try reading those last few words out loud.  Several times.  Fast.  Guaranteed to make you laugh).

Collage painting

I recently completed this 9"x12" collage painting.  Can you tell who inspired me?  I'm utterly fascinated by Lynne Perrella's work.  Could stare at it for hours.  Her work makes me shake.  That shaking feeling is what made me realize that I wanted to be an artist.  Nothing but art makes me feel that way.  It's like being seduced by a new lover.  Back to the painting....  This actually began as an experiment inspired by one of Jane Davies techniques where you dip a pipe cleaner in ink and feather it across the page and then scrape various colors of paint over the top with a credit card.  Great idea!  All my attempts looked like crap.  Sigh.  I put the papers away for a while and recently dug them out to see if I had any ideas.  The I took another look at Lynne Perrella's series based on Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and some ideas took off.  Stencil's and tar gel and t-shirt transfer paper, oh my!  It was great fun and I'm really happy with it.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Lynn Krawczyk

I was a happy winner of a fat quarter of fabric designed by artists Lynn Krawczyk.  She recently opened a Spoonflower shop and did a fun blog hop where five lucky people won some of her fabrics.  I received a fat quarter of her Coffee Cup Stain design and it's really wonderful!  So much detail and the fabric quality is really nice. This picture is kind of washed out unfortunately.  You can't really see the fabulous text patterns in it.  Lynn is such a talented artist and a great blogger too.  By the way she did give me permission to post a picture of the fabric.  She's so nice!  Here is a link to her Spoonflower shop:  http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/fibraartysta

Friday, March 9, 2012

A new mixed media book

I signed up to be part of the C&T Publishing Creative Troupe and one of the great benefits is that I get to read PDF versions of their books for free as long as I post book reviews. Check it out! What a great opportunity! I've been considering writing book reviews for a long time now, seeing as I have a huge library of art books! Here is my first review for C&T Publishing:


More Fabric Art Collage by Rebekah Meier is a treasure trove of techniques that will appeal to any mixed media artist. Many of the techniques presented in this book have been around for a while but the author does an excellent job of explaining the techniques in simple terms that will make it easy for any artist to get started. She does not address the problems that can arise from some of the techniques, such as getting fusible adhesive on your rubber stamps when embossing Fast2Fuse, or completely disintegrating your tyvek when ironing it! The techniques are presented in such a way to help you get started and to inspire ideas, but they are not in depth examinations of the process. The author suggests several ways to upcycle items found in your home or art studio, such as paper towels, aluminum foil, dryer sheets, soda cans, waxed paper and scraps left over from other art projects. With these ideas nothing goes to waste although you risk finding yourself wanting to save every last scrap that you might otherwise throw out! The author covers a really nice array of substrates/foundations, texturing mediums, and other art supplies such as transfer paper, and Rigid Wrap, and Mul-tex. There are numerous ideas in this book for using lots of techniques together in one cohesive piece of art which will appeal to all the technique junkies in the mixed media art world! All in all this is a very inspiring book and would be an excellent resource for an art group looking to work on a book study. The artwork shown in this book is a bit more sophisticated than that show in her previous book and is very inspiring. Rebekah Meier uses these techniques to create artwork that is layered, interesting and feminine. This is a book to return to again and again for ideas and inspiration.