More Playing with Food and Other Stuff

Last week I told you about the Lifebook lesson with Flora Bowley who encouraged us to find different things for mark making or stamping. I showed you this. Although you cannot tell from looking at this, it began with marking making with various pieces of produce. After I went grocery shopping on Saturday, I took a potato and cut it up into various shapes and put it to paper. I forgot to photograph all of them but did get one to show you. Ok. So, it's not that exciting but it was kind of fun. I forgot to buy celery so I could use the bottom of the stalk to make that cool flower print. Saturday morning I was at my local arts and craft store (AC Moore) with two fun women. We had decided to take a break from art journaling and played with making prints on the gelli plate with the deli paper. This was in preparation for decorating Christmas ornaments. I really don't enjoy it when it seems anything having to do with Christmas is pushed upon us earlier and earlier every year, however,I think if you are making things, that's entirely different. Handmade things take more time and thought. Some ornaments were cut out of two pieces of card stock, glued together and decorated. Here's another plastic one that's getting collaged. And here are a few others that I made back in the summer time while watching Netflix in the evening. I haven't yet found the motivation to paint my pumpkins this year but maybe I still will. Are you creating holiday or seasonal things right now? Thanks for visiting here.

Painting with Food

On Monday when I was off from work I sat down with Flora Bowley's Brave Intuitive Painting lesson on Lifebook. I am blown away by this artist and one day would like to take one of her live workshops or one of her online classes. She had me(us) looking in the refrigerator for things to use as stamps. The best I could come up with was some mushrooms, some celery stalks, some cucumber slices and some onion. I wished I'd had some potatoes to cut in to sections or carve some stamps out of and I wished I hadn't thrown the bottom core part of the celery away because it would have made a cool flower image stamp like Flora did. I found it a bit challenging as my vegies were super slippery once I dabbed them in to the paint, but some of these made some pretty cool marks. She suggested we work on two pages at a time, one with only cool colors and one with warm colors. I think I can say I finished one of them. Here it is along with a couple of close ups. No paint brushes were used. Only fingers. I used a credit card and the end of the paint brush for mark making. I'm sorry I did not remember to take photos in the beginning with my veggies, and as it turned out, much of the mark making was blended or covered up. I like the color and I like the layers. I like that you can see through them in some parts.I like it better now after not looking at it for several days. I had no plan or outcome and that was the point. It really was intuitive and it was a lot of fun. Do you create art in this manner? Intuitively? Thanks for stopping in.

In The Moment

I am making my way through Lifebook 2014. I say making my way but not doing every single week's project. Some weeks I just plain miss or skip. One of the week's was Traci Baustista's class called In the Moment. I did this at least a few week's ago by now, but what I remember most about this, which is why I like her work, is it was very relaxed, very messy. She really encourages play and play with found things in which to make marks. There is so much out there in terms of stamps and stencils today, it almost feels like sometimes that one is made to feel one's art is not complete or as good as when you use the latest stencil or stamp. Don't get me wrong. I love stencils and stamps but it gets to feeling so commercial. I would rather make my own or find my own mark making things. That's what she encourages and demonstrates. I also like the grungy, sort of graffiti look in her art. To me, it's just plain fun and simple. Here is my take on her assignment. I am trying to hang on to that "in the moment feeling." Trying not to plan, look too far ahead, or worry about the outcome. I think it works sometimes, but not always. Sometimes, in your heart, you just know, when something's not right. Thanks for stopping by.