Homage Collage Reflection Workshop

I will be teaching a two-hour workshop on how to create your own personalized 12" x 12" mirror including the wide dark wood frame. You choose the subject be it a friend, relative or something you would like to honor with this personalized piece of art.

When making my sample for the workshop, I considered who would I honor? and guess what I decided -to make it for myself! It's always so hard parting with all these projects I make that I thought, "This way I get to keep it"

First step is gathering all your pieces of ephemera...tickets, pieces of old greeting cards, buttons, old jewlery, photos..etc. and laying them all out on the mirror frame.

 The hard part is taking everything back off so you can glue down the bottom pieces  and then remembering where everything goes. I did take some photos so I could look back but didn't have to. The memory still works... sometimes :)

 The next step was overlapping the papers with tissue papers.

 Then added a layer of further embellishments and some acrylic paint.

Using E6000 glue I added the 3D elements.

The final step was coating the whole project with Gloss Heavy Gel.

This workshop will be held Thursday October 13, 2011 from 5-7 pm at Twigs and Twist 1304 W. Eastman St. in Boise. To register call Gretel @ (208) 342-0600 The class will be limited to 10 people. Cost is $50 and includes mirror with 12" x 12" wooden frame and basic supplies.

What to Bring:

Ephemera (Items of collectible memorabilia, typically written or printed ones, that were originally expected to have only short-term usefulness or popularity.) related to a theme or a person.

These can be small 3 dimensional objects such as buttons, jewelry…miniatures of any sort.

And 2 D papers such as maps, ticket stubs, photographs, interesting papers, stamps, tissue papers, such as old sewing patterns, gift wrap etc.

*Assortment of ephemera available for purchase at Twigs and Twist

"I Knew the Bride, When She Used to Rock and Roll"

Found Object Assemblage

6"x18"

detail from "I Knew the Bride When She Used to Rock and Roll"

This piece is comprised of an unknown skull found on a hike in the Boise Foothills, antique screw back earring given to me by a friend, a piece of netting taken from something I had, tassel given to me by a friend, mirror purchased at a thrift shop and misc. beads that I had.

Some of the inspiration for this piece came from visits to NYC and San Francisco, this past year.  Paxton Gate , Loved To Death, and Evolution.

After showing the start of this piece to a friend he asked me if I had seen the series Oddities on The Discovery Channel. I had not even heard of this show and I don't have cable or dish tv, maybe I can catch an episode or so on the computer.

The name comes from a song (Dave Edmonds) on my husbands ipod that he was just listening to and I thought was the perfect title for this piece. 

Saint Of Secrets: Interactive Art Piece or Elaborate Diary?

Saint of Secrets
19" x 10" x 6"
Found Object Assemblage and
Interactive Art Piece

 The 3 tierd wooden box was found in a thrift store in Ketchum ID, just outside Sun Valley. The metal feet were purchased in Santa Fe, NM. The embroidery hoop halo was given to me by a friend. The mirror head was from a thrift store in Iowa. The pin on top of the mirror was taken off an old art project of my sisters.

wooden book contained in the Saint of Secrets

The book was from a thrift store and carved into the top was "Honduras" I assume it was given to someone as a souvenir and never used. I decorated it with paints and ephemera including an old key and jewel from my daughter. 

The cup is made of bark, I glued an exoskeleton on it? not sure what it is

The cup holds a set of colored pens that are to be used to write a secret in the book of secrets contained in the Saint of Secrets.  I had two thoughts for this piece, one it could be for the person who purchases it to write in or it could be for people that are seeing it in the gallery to write in it. 

Which do you think it should be?

Mirror Mirror on the wall...

...who's the biggest slacker of all. So at almost 50 years old, for the first time in my life I am getting my wish of being a full time artist...but now not holding down a "real job" I feel like a slacker. People always ask, aren't you bored? What do you do all day? Which makes me feel a little guilty...Yesterday I read my horoscope for LIBRA:

"It takes a lot of time to be a genius," said Gertrude Stein. "You have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing." I agree with her statement which is why I have high hopes that you're going to tap into more of your dormant genius in the coming days. The cosmic rhythms are nudging you to enjoy a time of profound slack, and I think there's a good chance you'll agree to that."

Well now that I have permission from the cosmos to slack...I am actually back to getting my creative juices flowing once again. I completed my project based on the snow I saw over New Year- an assemblage piece named: "Mirror Mirror on the Wall" and started a second piece which I will post this weekend.

KInky Keys

$40
While browsing through a local antique shop I came across this pin-up girl playing card with the letter "K" This was of course going to be the cornerstone for my piece on K. Original title was Key to my Heart but to fit my self imposed criteria it was changed to Kinky Keys.