Oil and cold wax

I took an oil and cold wax workshop with Stacy Phillips back in September and started quite a few works on paper and board. I’m loving this new to me medium  I’ve sold one, have more in the works and will be showing them all together at Art And Roses in Boise ID June 5, 2022

 

Ice Dying

It's been almost a year since my last post and things are starting to get back to "normal."  I rather embraced staying home and looking after my health and creating in my studio without outside obligations. But also fun to get back out and this summer things kicked off with an in person art retreat ice dying fabric. Thanks so much to our host, Marianne!

The crews all here! Let the fun begin!

Working with caustic materials and powdered dyes 

pour ice on top of the fabric in a pan or rack for the melted ice to drip through, then sprinkle the powdered dye on top

then let all the ice melt and work it's magic

checking if it's ready

aft3er 24 hours they are ready to wash

Success, out of the washer and ready to wear!

Boise Weekly Cover Art

Artist Statement: Thank goodness for simple pleasures.

One of my found object pieces was chosen for the week of July 4th cover. Originally it was submitted for a bike scavenger hunt the paper was sponsoring but the event was cancelled as mostly everything has been this spring/summer. The title is "Ride On" and is comprised of a wood panel painted red, a piece of corrugated tin with a wooden shape of the US that I decorated with tape and paint, brads and a paper cut out of of Idaho. Surrounding the shape is a bike chain ring with silver beads. I've had 2 people contact me since the cover to offer to donate odds and ends to me. Thank you.

The longest one month show ever

These are just a few of the mixed media pieces that were accepted into a one month show at St. Al's for the Month of March 2020. Then Covid 19 hit. Needless to say they don't want me in the hospital and I don't want to go in if I don't have to so... the show must go on....

The Glass Bottle - a True Story

A couple weeks ago there was a garage sale at a neighbors. John had just had his 99th birthday and I was worried that he had passed away. I wandered over there and found a picture frame and an old glass bottle for my art projects. The lady at the check out said he had gone to a nursing home and that he agreed to the church members holding the sale for him and all proceeds were to go to a lady at the church who had 6 kids and no car. What a nice gesture on his part!

Several weeks went by and I was trying to decide what to do with the items. The glass bottle had an inscription on it:  W H NYE Druggist Boise City, Idaho. I googled his name and found out he was buried in the Pioneer Cemetery B.1833-D.1894 Served with the Army of the Potomac. Honorably discharged shortly after Antietam. Druggist before the War in the East and afterwards in Boise, Idaho.

I knew the bottle was probably old but not over 125 years old!

 I looked up the battle of Antietam and didn't find his name in the register so I contacted the webmaster that I had a name for him. He was thrilled to add Captain Nye. 

I can't believe I helped add to a page on the Civil War. Here is the link: http://antietam.aotw.org/officers.php?officer_id=18134 

A New Year...New Art...

I've pulled 63 pieces of art from my studio since the 1st of the year.  I have a piece in the Valentines for Aids show at the Flying M. I have 7 pieces at the C.W. Moore lobby show. I just hung the pieces above at InDepth Solutions as their artist of the month. I have 5 pieces in the BSU Earth Day Exhibit which is on the Second Floor of the Albertson's  Library at BSU. And I am the artist of the month for February at Gallery 55 in McCall, ID. 

Bike A new mixed media piece I made this week.  

Wonder 8 x 8 We are Women Fundraiser April 11

8 x 8 for We Art Women Fundraiser- April 11

No. 5 8 x 8  We Art Women fundraiser- April 11

Another new piece this week. Original acrylic painting of the McDowell mountains in AZ. with a cow skull. Mounted on an old chalkboard, hand painted with barbed wire and added embellishments.

" But Love Goes on Forever"

This is the box that was in my first photo in my last post. Given to me free at a garage sale earlier this summer by an older lady who said she used it for her earrings. She was selling her house and moving...I would love to be able to show her what I did with those frames as well as with this blank box.

The completed box. The topper is from a bird house given to me by a friend that was redecorating her yard. I took the birdhouse and it was in my garden until we moved and by then the whole thing was falling apart but I kept the metal top. 

Detail: little glass jar that I put ribbons in to match the color scheme. 

Small basket I've had for over 50 years! (it was in my original doll house) Music scroll, fairy dust, packet of "secret letters" 

The title of the piece comes from this ceramic shopping bag which is from the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage Missouri. I visited there with my family about 20 years ago. 

Our new neighborhood has held something called "The Sycamore Stroll" for years. I was lucky enough to be in town for this one. It is a neighborhood of garage sales with hotdogs, lots of neighbors on foot or bike going from house to house to find treasures. I was in heaven on my bicycle in the perfect spring air and abundant flowers. I bought a box of the little plastic wine glasses from a woman whose mother used to collect miniatures. I filled it with tiny glass beads and resin.

A friend gave me a roll of hand printed paper of bicycles. I've been cutting them out and using them in projects. I put the little dog that was made hand painted in Scotland, that I also have had for years.  

I hope you enjoyed my little journey with this piece as much as I did making it and telling you about it. 

Mini Mixed Media Frame Project

 I stopped by a garage sale by my house and came upon these gems. They were all wrapped up in there original plastic but had seen better days. I wound up having to throw away the actual art and the wood they were mounted on as they were moldy. 

But I could save the beautiful metal frames from Italy. I cleaned them up and added some white highlights.

Then I tinted them with layers of transparent washes of Golden acrylics.

I traced the shape of the frame on paper made for acrylic paint and added a few layers of paint and tissue papers.

Now what to add next? I went through my old transparencies from teaching and cut this one up.

and layered those on top of the collages.

The glass needed attention next, I cleaned and scraped off the paper that was stuck to them and added details with pen and paint. 

Now the fun of mixing and matching the collages with the frames and glass.

A more tedious next step was cutting out new backing for all of them.

I glued the cardboard in with liquid nails and glued paper over that with Elmers and then signed each one.

Last, I added small embellishments and dots and flourishes a la Michael DeMeng. 

Before and After

 What do you think? I sold one the next day and still have 6 available. Thanks for looking. 

Be

Details from "Be" 

 In between filling out applications for various shows, working on the cello project and The Sketchbook project, I've been working on this fun little project for "Thrifty Show." A Swell collective show using something from a thrift store.

The birds water dish says, " Friendship is a blessing"

The project started with a birdcage from the Youth Ranch Thrift Store and the glass beads from the Salvation Army.

Aladdin's' shoe filled with magical birdseed. 

The clasp to open the cage is a ladybug brooch from the ReUse Market.

Lots of beads, baubles and dots of paint. 

"Be", to be content with where you are in life and to make the most of it.