Aqua, Violet & Olive Journal Page

When I am working on art projects I often have paint or ink that I don't want to waste so I will open my art journal and use it on a random page.  This affords me the opportunity to see if I can marry the facing pages to one another.  Sometimes it doesn't work out, but often I can find a way to carry the colors or themes across both pages.  Reading Randel Plowman's book "The Collage Workbook" inspired me to try making a word collage.  How wonderful to find that I had words in my collection in the colors from the facing page.  This color scheme happened by accident.  The right hand page had been gessoed, and one day I added the aqua/turquoise paint.  Another day I was testing out two handmade stamps I had created with fun foam, so I stamped the violet paint onto the page.  Yet another day I was using my new Adirondack inks on something and "stamped" the wet stencil onto the same page.  All very random, and yet it ended up yielding a color combo I probably would not have thought of but I really like. 

I often wonder what my art journal is for.  I play around, try new materials or techniques etc. but when I am working in the journal I often wonder if I am wasting my time.  I make "pretty" pictures and imitate other artists.  I'd like to see my journal leading me toward the development of bigger more finished/polished art pieces, but so far that hasn't happened.  I suppose at the moment my art journal just serves as a place to work in that creative mental state.  So much about practicing art is a matter of faith.  I have to have faith that the practice moments, the moments that don't lead to a fully formed art project, are just as valid and important as working on something more concrete.  When you are an artist that works full time at a non creative day job, it is easy to feel like your precious and rare art time is wasted if you are not working on a "real" project.  Just screwing around feels like wasted time.  I have to have faith that all this screwing around is teaching me something even if I don't realize that I am learning. 

New Journal Pages

After six months or more of working on a series of stitched pieces I finally decided it was time to wrap things up.  I put away the sewing supplies, sorted the fabrics I was using back into their color coded scrap bins and moved on.  For months I've been saving things I wanted to add to my art journal and thinking about taking a different tactic in approaching my art.  So far I'm incredibly frustrated, but that will be another post.  I've created several new journal pages that I'd share.  This is just one of them, but getting the rest of the pictures sized for posting will take me a little while.  Which is okay, really, as it will give me something more to post over the next week or two.  When I started this journal I went through and cut windows and page edges and other things, and collaged various papers etc. randomly throughout.  The other day one of my co-workers was wearing an outfit in shades of teal and copper that I really liked and I wanted to do a page spread with those colors.  I thought they would like nice on the pages with a window peeping through to an unfinished spread in purple, bronze, and old paper.  I'm sort of channeling Michelle Ward here, as I decided to try cutting out a mask/stencil of a leafy front and apply it in different ways on the page.  Loved the effect!

More to come.  Right now I have to go bug the lovely ladies as SAQA for advice on another issue.  Too much to do, not enough time, and I don't want to spend all day at the computer!  LOLOL.

Fall Arts Harvest Exhibition

40 West Arts is hosting another art exhibition as a part of Denver Arts Week and I will have 3 pieces in the show! I also served on the jury for this exhibition which was an interesting experience. The three pieces that I entered are rather different from my usual work, but are representative of some of the other work I am interested in doing.

 

Still Not Good Enough - 2012

Sometime back I posted these pieces in order to discuss the fact that I had no idea how to finish them. I simply cannot afford to frame my artwork and I don't even know if they are worth putting the money into if I could afford it. But I like them and really wanted them to get out into the world. Eventually I decided on mounting them to painted hardboard and stapling clear vinyl over the top. They have a sort of grungy graffiti look to them and I felt that the hardboard, vinyl, and staples added to the look. There is also something narrative going on there with the feminist issues and the vinyl..... I'll leave that to your imagination and personal interpretation. These photos don't show the vinyl. I knew it would be shiny and hard to photograph so I took the pictures before adding it.

 

How Can I Serve You? - 2012

 These pieces were created with scraped acrylic paint on heavy bristol paper. I scraped, splattered, mono printed, stenciled, spray painted, etc. Happy painting abandon! Then I tore up a newspaper and reassembled it as a collage, photocopied the result and started playing with the silhouettes. As a nod to my predilection for using fabric, I included a wee bit of hand dyed cheesecloth. The collages were glued to the hardboard with gloss gel medium. Good thing too! They buckled. Even though I let them dry while weighted with heavy books. It was kind of a mess. There is an artist named Johnathan Talbot who does amazing collage. He uses a technique where he pre coats his collage materials with gloss medium and lets them dry. He then arranges his collage items into place and IRONS them down. I used this technique to place the collage silhouettes. When my pieces ended up buckled I put parchment paper of the top and ironed the heck outta them. It worked! The gel medium I used as glue fused down quite nicely! Phew!

Woman's Depth - 2012



Spectacular Color! Blurry Trees!

The other day I was walking toward the door to my office and I realized how amazingly beautiful these trees were.  The early morning sun was hitting them just right, turning the autumn colors into a blaze of glory.  I just happened to have my camera in my pocket so I quickly snapped a few pics.  Sadly they came out blurry, but the point wasn't to get great pictures of trees so much as to get great pictures of the color.  I am not normally drawn to autumn colors.  I prefer bright jewel tones, but nontheless, autumn is my favorite season of the year.  They say autumn on the East coast can't be beat, but I've always been stunningly happy with autumn in Colorado.

 

2nd Place Winner!

I recently entered this piece in the "On My Own Time" art exhibit for State employees.  The exhibit is being shown at the Metropolitan State College, Center for Visual Arts, in the Santa Fe Art District of Denver.  Its a really nice gallery in the major Denver arts district so I am really happy to have a piece of art hanging there for a couple of weeks.  But even better..... I won 2nd place in the fine crafts category!  The competition is a two part deal.  The first part was the current exhibit.  They juried these entries to determine who will go on to the second part of the OMOT exhibit that will hang in the State Capitol building from December through May.  I'm very excited that this piece will be shown in our State Capitol.  My mother took a REALLY bad picture of me holding my ribbon at the reception and since it is my only documentation of the event I will share it in spite of how horrible I look.  I blinked.  Can you tell?

And a close up of the label.  Hey, I'm no where near jaded yet.  Got to document those successes you know!

Published in Quilting Arts Mag!

When my copy of the October/November issue of Quilting Arts Magazine arrived today I about burst from excitement.  A couple of months ago I entered a piece in the "What's Your Signature Color" reader challenge and my piece made it into the magazine.  This is a small 8" x 8" quiltlet made of fabric that I pieced, stamped, quilted, embroidered and embellished.  The squares are fabric-paper edged with gold and layered with small fabric scraps.  Sadly the blurb next to my piece says I live in Lakewood, California when it should say Colorado, but that little error hardly dents my thrill at being published in one of my favorite magazines.

My blog has been languishing lately for lack of acceptable photos to post.  As an art blogger I feel like I can't post anything unless I have a photo to go with the post, but my artwork has all been in awkward stages and my photo sessions have not been very successful of late.  The other day I tried to take photos of some of my artwork on the day that I had my eyes dilated.  Needless to say, those photos did NOT come out well!  LOL!

For several months now I have been working on artwork in a raspberry, lime, plum color scheme.  I've been trying to use the same basic materials in each piece so that they are part of a series, but I have not been trying to make each piece similar to any other piece.  Frankly I'm getting sort of tired of working with the same materials over and over again, but at the same time the ideas just keep on coming.  Money is really tight in my world right now so I'm also trying to play with ways to make the most of the materials I have.  Ways to use every scrap.  Sometimes I think this way of thinking holds me back since I feel like I have to a use what I already have.  But it is so easy to fall prey to the idea that a new art supply or tool will magically cause me to make amazing, inspired art.  Anyway, working in a series has proven to be a very productive approach for me.  

The piece above is made from leftover backing paper from painted Wonder Under, and stained newspaper that have been woven together.  I used t-shirt transfer paper to add a word cloud to the surface and then I added a swipe of pearlescent white paint and splatters of white gesso.  Earlier in this process I had created a "fabric" from little scraps of other fabrics that I quilted in spirals and then cut into piece that I finished with a blanket embroidery stitch.  I added these squares with glue and stitch and then added a few finishing embroidered motifs.  Then I mounted the whole things on a painted canvas background.

This piece is also made of woven papers.  Specifically embossed wallpaper and fabric paper that I made of all sorts of materials.  I stitched purple organza flowers over the top and added the quilted bottom portion and a border.

I have some plans for this series is I can make a few dreams come true.  There are several other pieces in the series but some of them aren't finished yet.  More photos to come!