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7/31/2012

61 Days

I've just completed 61 days of art on an index card. It was a good challenge. It kept my mojo flowing. I fell behind a couple of times but I caught up and met the deadline.And I may not have been thrilled with many of my index cards, I felt lazy some days. Some days I didn't want to do it at all, especially if I liked the day before and my little inner pain-in-the-butt voice said,"I betcha can't top that one, smarty pants." I showed up and created something because showing up is the biggest part of it. Doing. Making time for creativity, small amounts of time on small amounts of space. It allowed me to participate in a group without seeing anyone,with my introverted self. lol. Isn't strange how much safer one feels when you're not looking at someone? Doesn't it feel kind of supportive and fun to bounce things off of other people, leave and get feedback? Feedback, give back, with others who are also sitting there feeling safe sharing their art on an index card? I think it was the right amount of days for me. I kind of heard myself say,"Whew!" I just finished looking through my pile of ICADS and put my favorite ones down on a piece of plywood just because. I found it interesting to notice what colors I am most drawn to, repeatedly. And then there were the days when I felt the need for more space. Here are most of the larger index cards. You never know. I might have ICAD withdrawal and have to start again. I should have mentioned this in the beginning. Daisy Yellow is a great source of a lot of "stuff." not just ICADs. Go and check her out.

7/29/2012

City on Wood

It has been brutally hot here. I have been feeling pretty sluggish and wiped out,from the stress at work and 106 temperatures, which explains my absence for a few days. You know it's going to be a very hot day when you leave the house at 7am and it's already 83 degrees. You come home at 5pm and it's 106. You tell yourself the air conditioning in your car and house really is working but it really doesn't feel like it. I am grateful for the coolness of this morning. I've been letting my city scape on wood sit for a few days. I couldn't decide whether it was finished or not. I liked it yet I didn't feel it was finished. I took pictures and was going to post it yesterday but something told me it wasn't finished until just before I went to bed late last night. Here it is when I thought it wasn't finished. Here are some closeups. I looked at it once more before heading for bed last night It still needed something, I thought. Can you see what was added at a few minutes before midnight? I think it's finished now. I like the little paint speckles. What do you think of this piece? I'm already thinking about another one. I'd like to be a bit more adventurous with the architecture. I'll let you know if the city officials and building inspectors have anything to say. Here are a few ICADs. We are coming down to the final few days. I have quite a collection and am trying to decide what I'll do with them.. If anyone really likes any of my ICADS please let know if you would like a small print. The trade off is that you have to follow/join my blog. I am also working on setting up shop on ETSEY, so stay tuned for that. Stay cool and please visit again.....................................................Jo

7/23/2012

A Bear at the Top of the Stairs.

When I was out doing some errands this weekend I stopped in at a thrift store near where I live. I don't know about you, but I love thrift stores. I couldn't walk away without taking a couple of these. They were whispering to me. Take us home and play with us. Paint and or decoupage. And for now they make a great seat for a bear at the top of the stairs. Not too bad for $6.00 each. Today's ICAD combines several of the weekly prompt( I do follow the prompts occasionally) of mail art and numbers. So one or two of these will be exactly that. This one is "numberless." We are nearing the end of the ICAD challenge. I look back at what I've done and I will say it has been an adventure. It has challenged me and I feel as if I've grown a bit as an artist. I can appreciate that art on an index card can be an experiment for larger pieces. I just may have to keep it up. We shall see. And speaking of larger canvases, stay tuned for the nearly finished City on Wood that I've been sharing with you. Thanks for showing up here.

7/20/2012

Brave

I've been feeling more brave lately. Very brave. I had to leave the index card space behind for the moment and stretch. Time to move to bigger spaces. I took a 25 x 25 piece of thin plywood and started to cover it with all kinds of paper. I've never been a scrap booker, but I had quite a collection of papers I had collected over the years, along with some of my own altered and distressed papers, and started tearing. Until it was covered up. Then I started playing with various paints, spraying, rubbing, adding gesso, spraying, rubbing again and stopped with this. I wish I had remembered to photograph all the steps I took in this but I didn't. The next step was to start building the city. It went through many transitions before I decided which I liked best. This was not the one I ended up with but you can see how I started laying it out. After much rearranging, altering, and meeting with city officials, (lol) this is what I decided I wanted. So, there you have it. the beginning of my city. Stay tuned.

In My PJs

Vacation day today. Yay for me! Get to hang out all day in my pjs if I want to and I do want to. I have art projects spread out all over the house at the moment between the upstairs and downstairs......... There's been a lot of thunderstorms in the evenings lately, and since my dog ,Buddy, is petrified of thunderstorms, and can't navigate the stairs because of his cataracts and long nails, I've been spending more time downstairs this week. Of course that means I have to move art stuff downstairs with me. Here are two more ICADS. I'm calling them River Valley 2 and 3 because they seem to be following the Icad from 6-16/12 which looks like this. I have another project I am working on, so I will come back later today and show you more. I hope you are having a good day. Thanks for spending some time here.

7/18/2012

Silently Drawn

Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love. ~Rumi....................................... .............................................................................. Here are yesterday's and today's ICADS also in conjunction with The Sketchbook Challenge "circles" theme. And some closeups which I think are nicer than the full image. It was 105 today. Enough of this! Thanks for visiting.

7/16/2012

Playing With Faces.

I am practicing drawing faces. I have never had any formal art classes other than what was offered in public school and IMHO (thank you , Robin. I get to use this now.)in my humble opinion, what was offered in art classes in the public school system was not saying too much. I think art teachers then told you that you must make the sky blue and the grass green and you got graded for staying in the lines or following instructions. So, yes. I am and have been very reluctant, hesitant. I get the heebee geebies when it comes to trying to draw faces. These sketches are mostly out of my head, other than a couple I worked from photographs. I see so many sketches of smiling, long haired-full- lash-and-lips- girls,(not women) all perfect, that I did not want mine to look like everyone else's. Not that everyone else's aren't good, but they all look the same to me. They're just so perfect and that's not realistic to me. Mine are pretty rough but they are mine and out of my imagination. I put a couple on index cards thinking I might go back and do some more with them later, maybe add some watercolor, which is new to me as well. So, here are some- in the rough, only on small sized paper for now. And speaking of faces, you've got to go check out this artist Check out how he begins the faces in the middle of the wall and fills the entire thing up. It's quite impressive.(IMHO) Maybe I should do that. I bet you I'd be pretty good at drawing faces by then. Thanks for coming by.

7/14/2012

Catching Up

I'm playing catch up. I've been behind on my ICADS but I've caught up through today. When I was working on these I had in the back of my mind that I was also practicing drawing faces, as well as incorporating the theme of "Circles" at The Sketchbook Challenge. So, there is a mixture of things going on here. Putting a face into the picture changes everything. I am not in the habit of putting faces into my art as I don't do well with them at this time but hope to get better in time. So, I'm just going to keep practicing. Here are my ICADS for the last several days as well as some closeups. And finally here is a two page spread in the SMASH BOOK as in the SMASH BOOK overhaul. Can you tell I'm having a blast? I'm glad you stopped by.

7/11/2012

Savoring

I decided tonight I didn't want to post any art. I didn't even want to work on an ICAD. I decided as I was driving home from work that I wanted to remember the things in this world that I love and love to savor. We get so caught up in this fast paced- I- want- it- now -instant- gratification- world, we may forget to stop and remember the little things that are special to us. Maybe, I'm just plain feeling sentimental, or maybe it's when I can hear myself think and breathe, when I can hear the quiet, I can remember these things. So, I thought I'd share with you a few of the things I savor. ~ The sounds of birds in the early morning hours. ~ Cobalt Blue. ~ The smell of fresh cut grass. ~ The smell of onions and garlic being cooked. ~ Morning glories and amaryllis. ~ Pachelbel Canon. ~ The smell of the ocean. ~ The roar of the ocean. ~ Having some money in my pocket. ~ Classical guitar music. ~ To dance. ~ My dog's brown eyes. ~ A good walk. ~ A baked potato loaded with butter, sour cream and scallions. ~ Book stores. ~ Art stores. ~ The sound of violin and cello. ~ Hearing my dog heave a great big sigh. ~ Books. ~ Seashells. ~ Seeing the snow fall at dusk or dawn. ~ The smell of patchouli. ~ Old, lacy, sheer curtains. ~ My daughter's naturally, curly hair. ~ The sound of rain when I don't have a headache. ~ A warm bubble bath. ~ Amaretto. ~ Red velvet. ~ The smell of Autumn. ~ Dark, black hair. ~ Mustaches on men. ~ Feeling the magic of Christmas. ~ A good story teller. ~ A good cry. ~ black licorice ~ A child's giggles. ~ Peace and quiet. ~ Crickets on a summer night. ~ My brother Jim's hugs. That's not too many things, is it? What are some of the things you really love? Thanks for visiting.

7/10/2012

Salad on My Plate

Yesterday I showed you some pictures of a piece that was finished but I hadn't yet taken the final pictures. This is on 15 1/2 x 20 canvas. It's been awhile since I've worked on something this large. Here are a few close up shots. This is a spin off of the ICAD I did based on circles which is the challenge for this month's The Sketchbook Challenge, so I also posted it there. I now have something big to put on the wall. Yay!! Today's ICAD is an attempt to draw what's in front of me, one of the prompts from Daisy Yellow to follow Danny Gregory's everyday matters. I am just beginning to play with watercolor in this way, so I got a good laugh at myself when I was drawing this and eating at the same time. Here's today's ICAD with salad on my plate. Please come again.

7/09/2012

10pm

Ok. Did I ever show you this? I took pages I had distressed last summer with Citra Solve and recently distressed them again with "Never Dull" which is interesting and leaves your fingers and your studio smelling like an auto repair shop. Anyway, I glued them down on this canvas and went to work. I just realized I've not yet taken pics of the finished product so you will have to come back tomorrow. Yesterday's ICAD is a carry over from the "circles" prompt from The Sketchbook Challenge. You can check it out here And today's ICAD is another that could go in The Garden Series bunch. I hope you like them. I kind of like them both. I've been practicing drawing faces again but I'll save those for another time. I need toothpicks to hold my eyes open. See you tomorrow with salad on my plate. :)