Time to Organize Every Little Thing

So Imagine my surprise when I opened this box last week. A woman from out of state had visited my booth at Art in The Park back in September. Then in November I received an email asking if I was the person whose booth she had visited and would I like some things she had been saving. I said, of course!

Here I am sorting them out to see what there was. Lots of animals.

 After I categorized them I incorporated them into my own collection in this wonderful cabinet that my friend Nancy gave to me several years ago. It had been a spider apartment house in her garage and now it is a wonderful place to store my miniatures for use in my work.

Pigs, pigs and more pigs!

Cute deer!

Cats!

Quack Attack!

This isn't all of it but gives you a good feel for how I try to keep "Every Little Thing" organized!
Thank you Joanne, Nancy and other wonderful friends that have given me things for my art over the past few years.

Time for a new blog post!

I was looking for a previous blog entry and came across this chart on my page views and thought, yikes! I better post something before I lose all my followers! This past few weeks I have not been making art but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. A week in Texas, then a house guest staying in my studio. I do have two separate appointments set up to meet with people to discuss commissions. I am also in the process of applying for 6 different juried events. Hopefully I'll have some good news to announce in the coming weeks. I'm also getting ready to attend art fest the last week of March.

 

The Long Horn State

 This is the 3rd project on my series using baby wipe container lids. My usual Modus operandi is to use items I already have in my possession or to purchase used but I could not find anything to fit this lid. So I purchases a new 5" x 5" canvas.

 I took the label off the lid and covered the back of the canvas with modeling paste. 

When the modeling paste was dry, I covered both the lid and the canvas with acrylic paint. 

Then I pulled out my miniature collections. Having lived most of my life in Texas I used a Texas theme.

 I inserted (using e600 glue) the blue Texas shaped magnet with a red rose that I had bought while visiting Tyler Texas and the Rose festival years ago and on top of that I glued a miniature cow skull and an illustration of a saddle from a business card. I also painted the black lava texture gel over everything.

 I then started adding details with "dot" paints and attached the hanger with Apoxie Clay.

Inside the lid I attached some letters and distressed them with acrylic. 

The finished piece without the lid.

The finished piece with the lid.

Making Art in a Secluded Winter Cabin

The lovely view from the table were I was making my art!

 My husband and I were invited up to a cabin for the week. The men were going to go back country ski and do manly stuff and the women were going to go into town and shop and eat and do women stuff.

Well right before we left I found out that the woman of the house was sick and would not be coming up until later in the week, so as an after thought I packed 2 bags of art stuff. Glad I did. She did not make it up at all and neither did the other woman.

I cross-country skied on the lake everyday and saw an eagle and a fox.

 So as the men drove off every day, I was left to my own devises! With no distractions such as a computer or people, I had hours of uninterrupted time which I put to good use. Below are the five projects I made...

Horse Racing- found object assemblage 5 1/2" x 51/2"

Bright Beautiful Butterflies Mixed Media-5 1/2" x 7"

The Long Horn State- Mixed Media/found object 5" x 5"

 Around this time I started running out of substrates (a layer that underlies something). So I had to get creative...I went outside but everything was covered in snow...except for the wood pile and there I found this shard of wood which reminded me of something from a shipwreck and then I even went digging in the grand kids toy box and found this shark. (I still have to confess taking this and risk not being invited back)

I had brought my baggies of alphabet pieces so I could pull the piece together. The starfish, seashell and scuba tank were all in the S bag. The card on the left under the shark, is a little ATC I made onto part of a cardboard box of noodles I found in the recycling bin.

SCUBA found object 9" x 4"

For the next piece I used a piece of a map and a page from a dictionary as the substrate and made a collage. It is a weird size, so I think I am going to find a frame from my stash and so it may change a little.

17 Postcards from Peru 81/2" x 9"

So even though it was not the week I thought it would be, I had a great time and made a lot of art! I did take lots of photos and will go into more detail on some of these pieces in future blogs.

Joint Compound 2

untitled 12" x 12" mixed media

 Here's another project I completed this week using joint compound. The square background is a metal tin piece from the thrift store and the rectangle in the middle is a very thick piece of water color paper with a layer of joint compound spread on it, a tree transfer from a book using gel medium, sketch of some flowers scratching into the surface and some leaves cut from hand-made paper.

 This photo shows an earlier stage of the piece and how I added joint compound around the edges to make the tin look it was emerging from an old wall. I used a lot of very thick adhesive under the watercolor paper, put a sheet of wax paper over it and stacked books on top to weight it down over night as the paper wanted to buckle. This technique worked very well. It dried nice and flat.

I needed something to tie the water color piece to the background and found this embossed sheet of paper which I cut out pieces of it and glued it and painted it around some of the edges as seen below.

Then I added some 3D berries

and last I added beads of metallic paint along the edges of the watercolor paper to further blend it to the background.

Playing with joint compound and other fun stuff.

First I taped off the bottom of a wood tray I had picked up at a thrift store.

 Last week I borrowed Plaster Studio from my friend Marianne. I decided to play around with some of the techniques. In the book they mention using joint compound which comes pre-mixed, this sounded good to me as I didn't want the mess of the plaster in my studio. I used to do plaster projects with the kids every year, mixing batch after batch of plaster and breathing the powder and making a mess, and then you have to know how much your going to need, because wet plaster doesn't wait. So.. even if the joint compound works a little differently I was all up for ease of using it.

After I taped off the sections of the tray I spread joint compound all over it and let it dry. Then peeled the tape off. Then wished I hadn't peeled tape off as I wanted to paint it without getting any paint on the wood. Well this was a happy accident. I re-taped it using wider strips of tape which then gave a nice white border around each square.

painting the white squares with acrylic paints as well as using Adirondack color wash sprays.

 Then I pulled off the tape and had these wonderful miniature paintings. To add more depth I painted melted way over the top and fused it with a heat gun. I then scratched into the surface of the wax and rubbed burnt umber paint into the scratches to add more texture.

I like the way this turned out. But I am considering adding a few 3D objects and then covering it in resin. What do you think? Leave it alone or keep going? I'd love to hear your ideas.

Tomorrow I will be presenting at 10 am, "How to tell a story through Found Object Assemblage" at the SCHOLASTIC ART AND WRITING WORKSHOPS: Timberline High School 701 E. Boise Ave.

from 9 am till 4 pm - 1 hour Art and Writing Workshops.  All are welcome...the workshops are free.   Bring your own brown bag lunch.  Invite your friends and peers...this is going to be fun.

Then from 1-3 tomorrow I will be over a Green Chutes with a free make and take table of a Valentine Pin. Stop in and say hi. :) 

Mrs. Beasley and Her Jaunty New Hat

"Mrs. Beasley and Her Jaunty New Hat" 

18" tall $35

this was a wooden box with feet I got at a thrift store. I painted the inside with gesso and the outside around the existing flowers. I added more of my own flowers and grass.

Detail of head. I added a butterfly on her back, a pearl necklace and the hat is made of a clay/jewel antique piece, ribbon, feather and silk flower.

This is Mrs. Beasely with just the necklace and butterfly wings.

The finished base, I added more paint embellishments and glued the 2 pieces together. The bottom box I actually glued upside down as I thought it looked better that way. I also brushed acrylic paint over the gesso and rubbed it in with a cloth to add some texture.

Why did I name her Mrs. Beasley? I don't know It just sounded good to me!

Strength For When the Wolves Come

Why wolves, you might ask? Well five separate things led me to make this piece.

1. The biggest factor was my fairly recent encounter with a wolf while on my mountain bike in the Wood River Valley in November. It crossed the path in front of me, stopped and looked at me and then wandered off into the sage brush. I tried to look to see where it had gone but it just seemed to disappear into the landscape, which was fine by me!  I was not sure if what I saw was a wolf or a coyote and engaged my friend Marianne who asked me a bunch of good questions about the size of the animal as compared to her huge dogs. We figured it must have been a coyote until I saw this newspaper article with the photo and then I KNEW that a wolf is what crossed my path!

2. Next up was this headline I came across in Ironman Magazine, whom my high school friend Steve is the editor:  "Strength for When the Wolves Come" really caught my attention as these words reminded me of a childhood memory. One night I was awakened by my grandmother having a nightmare and she was talking in her sleep. She was shouting to be careful as there were wolves in the house.  We lived in a suburb in New Jersey right outside of  NYC, so this was highly unlikely.  Well my little sister was woken up by my grandmother who was talking in her sleep but my sister didn't know she was talking in her sleep and assumed it was real and wanted to know where they were! We all got a laugh out of this the next morning but that night it seemed all too real!

3. The cool silver wolf pin someone gave me to use in a piece of art. 

4.  The the current controversial issue of the reintroduction of wolves in the state of Idaho and the lifting of their protected status.

 

5.  And the tipping point was finding the wolf statue last week.

 

This past week I bought this wolf statue at a thrift store in Ketchum. I already had the newspaper article and magazine cut out saved along with the wolf pin which was given to me.  I was saving these items to use on a future piece...with the find of the statue, I felt that I had enough items to start.

When I have an idea of what I want to make and it is something based on a letter, I dig out my plastic bags of letters and see what I have that I can use to complete the piece. I found several "w" game pieces and a wolf card.

I had a shadow box given to me by a friend that I decided to use for this project. I painted a mountain scene on the top, glued the pin and letters and then added paint to distress the pieces.

I painted and collaged all  4 sides and the back of the inside of the box. I then glued the statue and some silk leaves in the bottom. Unfortunately the glass does not come out of the box and it is very hard to photograph something with a glass front. 

The right side of the box...

and the left side. 

Nothing Like a Pretty Day for Some Inspiration

Everything looks better with snow on it.

While entertaining family from out of state we went to visit Sun Valley ID and had a great time walking around. We visited some wonderful galleries...you may have seen these  three sculptures on my Facebook page whom all seem to be enjoying playing in the snow.

 We also snowshoed, skied, shopped and had some great meals. I always make it a special point to visit the wonderful contemporary galleries in Ketchum. One of the galleries I went into  had a large encaustic painting hanging above a lit fireplace which was quite warm. I asked the woman in the gallery about the placement of the painting above the fire and if there was any problems with that and her response was "Well, that would be quite irresponsible of us now, wouldn't it?" Nothing like making a person feel dumb to encourage a sale! Despite that, it was a wonderful show!

If I'm going to Die, I'm Going to Have Some Fun. (One of my pieces in Text Messages)

Unfortunely we got back to town too late to attend the opening of a local show Text Messages that I have 2 pieces of art in. This exhibition will continue through April 5th. I saw many of the pieces while the show was being hung and was very impressed with the caliber of work. The theme of the show was that the piece was to contain some text.