Coming Down

I feel as if I'm coming down off a high from a really great weekend with my daughter, Liza's college graduation, and seeing her twin brother who came up from Harlem, NYC. It was the kind of high that kept me going as far as getting up in the morning and going to work and now I'm coming down. I'm off tomorrow so that's a good thing. Before I got involved in helping my daughter decorate her graduation hat and my making her a crown I had played around with making some stencils with a hot glue gun. It was trial and error. Some of them turned out pretty sturdy but some were not thick enough and ripped when I peeled them off the glass. But I did have some fun with them. I like the "organic ness" of these prints. Thanks for stopping by.

She Wears the Crown

My daughter Eliza graduated from college this last Saturday. On Friday afternoon she came to me wanting my help in decorating her hat for the ceremony. Little did I know that was a very big deal these days to have decorated your own cap. So, we did. We sketched out a dream catcher with white pen and filled in the circle with purple glitter (of course) and then hot glued ribbons, feathers and "bling." Lots of bling. And then she graduated. And her very short mother didn't get very many good pictures being so short......... but she felt very proud. The day was hot. The graduation hat and gown came off and she wore the crown imageanchor="1" > That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Thanks for visiting.

Grungy, Messy and Mysterious

I don't like to show unfinished pieces but I'm finding I am doing it more often. Because I have ADD where art is concerned, I have a bazillion different things in progress. I mean I have a lot of canvases that I've set aside for years. Do you do that? How do you feel about sharing something that's not finished? I came across Roxanne Coble's work before I knew she was a guest teacher at 21 Secrets. I found I was drawn to her style. She suggested to us to work in areas. I call it little fragments. The pages seem fragmented yet they're not. In the end they all blend into one. It's almost as if each section of the piece tells a story and the story is in your imagination. I dunno. I find her work grungy, messy, and mysterious all at once and I like that. These couple of pieces are based on or inspired by Roxanne Coble's art journaling process. They don't feel or look finished to me. Maybe I'll return to show you what they look like when I feel they are. Roxanne Coble's process is altering a book to use as her art journal. I like that idea. I also like the idea that what's on the pages that are being altered often are the inspiration to what follows. With mine, I left certain images because they took me in another direction. They took me to the next fragment. I also like that there is no use of someone else's stencils or stamps. Mark making was all by the artist's hand. That's refreshing to me. I had an old sort of periodical magazine. Not hard cover but the pages are thicker than a normal magazine. I chose to add some of my vintage family photos. I am reminded by Roxanne saying how long it sometimes takes her to finish a page as there are so many layers, so she has many pages going on at the same time. And I agree, it's kind of cool to have a bunch of backgrounds laid down and then you come back to it for the final doodling phase. So, here are a couple of unfinished pages inspired by her workshop Fragments and Mysteries.

Artistic Embroidery

Because of my nearly one month absence due to my MIA computer and then more computer issues, I have not been able to share with you some of my work inspired by the latest 21 Secrets workshop. I have thoroughly enjoyed Paivi Eerola's Artistic Embroidery with Pens and Paper. Seriously, I find this gal's work pretty amazing, not to mention her very interesting background. I found her website full of "eye candy," and found myself pretty inspired to use my colored pencils and listen to music more when creating. Here is my take on her offering. Here's a few close ups. My intention was to show you the steps leading up to this point but I quickly forgot to photograph after the first three pictures. I forgot to mention that Paivi works with water colors and the way in which she uses them is unique, like throwing color down and then using pens and color pencils to doodle. This is how my background paper started out. The shapes were then embellished with doodles and color and then cut out and then glued down on a dark background. Learning water color has never been on the top of my list, but using it in this manner was really fun. Embellishing, coloring, doodling, cutting and pasting..... what could be more fun?!! Thanks for stopping by.......

Finally

I am up and running again thanks to the Geeksquad who came to my home and sorted out a bunch of computer issues for me this afternoon. It was a month ago that my visually impaired, geriatric dog, Buddy, bumped into the computer desk, knocking it over and cracking the screen, thereby my having to purchase a new computer, which I was none too overjoyed about. While they had transferred my data from the old to new, this was not the same program I was used to using in order to upload photos, edit and some other things. "Agent Jordan" was very helpful in resolving these issues as well as sharing other tidbits of computer knowledge which I greatly appreciated. Needless to say, I feel sooooooo much better. Today I am keeping it light, just showing you a couple of unfinished journal pages. I have been wanting to incorporate some vintage photos in to my work, and what better way than to use some personal family photos. . THe background of the first one was done with INktense blocks, gesso, and my own torn papers, and the second one is using the same as well as torn paper from a magazine image. These two girls were sisters. While I cannot remember the exact story, I know that one of them died in childhood. And the last one was just playing around withe inktense blocks, gesso, torn paper and some doodling. I rather like it. Of the art supplies I have ever bought I cannot say enough about these inktense blocks. The colors are luciously brilliant. I am thoroughly enjoying my new studio space, hopping from end of it to another. I still don't have it all organized, but I know that will happen when I can stop creating long enough to do it. I should have done that when I had all this computer trouble, but it was a lot more fun to come home after a stressful work day to throw some paint down rather than organize. I have lots more to share with you in the coming days. I hope you are well. Thanks for visiting.

Patience

I think as I am getting older I have less patience than I used to. Let me say this again. I know that as I am getting older I have less patience for technical stuff. My story goes like this. You know I've just moved my studio from upstairs to downstairs to this wonderful great room which used to be "the library," because it has floor to ceiling book shelves. It has become a wonderful studio space where most of the shelves are now housing art stuff, supplies etc. I also moved my office from another room into this new space. Dream come true. My printer of about 10 years kept saying paper jam for months where there was no paper jam and it would conveniently work at times if I rebooted the computer. Still it was not reliable. I bought another printer, a Canon, downloaded the soft ware, did everything I was supposed to do with running a test page, but could not get it to print from the computer. Ok. I take it back and put a little more money out for another HP (which I'd had previously) and got it home and installed the software, finally getting it to print from the computer. So, this is two weekends now, spent with just printer stuff........................................................... The next day, my very visually impaired, geriatric dog, Buddy, who has a clear path still in this room to his rug(or so I thought) bumped in to the chair against the computer desk, knocking over the computer onto the keyboard and cracking the screen. Ouch and expletive, expletive!! The story continues...... The crack in the screen was perfectly lined up on the left side of the screen totally blocking out the start menu etc. Best Buy was willing to send it off to be repaired, but it was a good chance it might have cost half the amount of what I paid for it 4 years ago, which did not make too much sense to me, and it was only possible for them to do it IF they carried that model in their store. They did not.......................................................................... Ok. Let's buy another computer that was compatible with what I had. And they would then transfer all my data, all my pictures, all my art to the new computer, yada, yada. Got it home to find out it was Windows 8 - no longer Windows 7 which is what I have been used to for so long. OK. It will take some time to learn to navigate these new surroundings. Kind of like Buddy. I'm thinking about a blog post at this point, but have not gotten that far. In the process of moving the studio I find these old family videos that are on CD and suddenly want to view them. Where is the bloody CD drive? I thought you said this was to be compatible with my old one? I go back to Best Buy and tell them my problem and I walk out with a nifty portable CD player for a reasonable price. I installed the software and got that working. But wait!! I still am learning how to navigate around this Windows 8 computer. I don't know how to get to some places, where to find it, what to do with it when I find it. Everyone wants me to create yet another password and account just to run this damn thing. Oh, yes, the printer needs to be reinstalled on this new computer. How much patience can one have? I was able to print a paper copy of my taxes. I was able to scan some documents. I about jumped through the computer with some special expletives when I hooked up my digital camera to upload some photos to my "What's On My Table" when I got a message saying something about the port not being supported for this activity. OK what the heck. I cannot import it where I want to because it's a totally new set up and I am a stranger in a strange land. I feel like I've been set up. It's all a test. OK, I say. Never mind. I'll figure it out later. I'll figure out later how to find my editing sources etc. and put the photos in the folders where I want. Just let me get a blog post up so I can go create some art. 21 Secrets is waiting. I go to Google Chrome like I always do and log in and am told I don't have any blogs. My blog does not exist!! OMG!! A few more choice expletives. Follow the prompts for "what do I do if cannot find my blog." That's stupid, I say. I can find my blog! I've signed in. Why the heck can you just not let me post?! Ok. So, I figure that out and here I am. Still breathing after seething. Laughing at myself. I DO NOT HAVE PATIENCE FOR THIS. These are from my little marbelized journal that I have been working on in the car in the morning before work. It's a quick way to get some art time in and it works well given the small size. It's really just a cheapo calendar book from THE Dollar Store that I altered with my marbled paper experiment one weekend. So, that, my friends, is my story. I have managed to find some pictures and get this post out. I know this was a long one........... thank you for your patience. I hope to be back on track as I learn to navigate this strange land. I hope you are well. Happy Easter. Happy Spring.