Peace

Here is another project where I start out with a project from my friend Miriam who got rid of ALL of her art! She gifted me with many shadow boxes. This was one of them.

This was the perfect piece to show off my encaustic collage. 

Peace 12" x 8" shadow box mixed media 

Bikes and Biking On My Mind

Collage on top of shadow box

3D shadow box of a little girl with dog and tricycle looking out over the fence at a woman riding a bicycle and thinking someday I want a big girls bike. $65

Bikes are still on my mind as snow has not come to this part of Idaho yet.

Our ski resort is losing $100, 000 a day! The snow markers register- nada! so what am I doing? Riding my bike in January. I got a new mountain bike for Christmas which I rode yesterday- 16 miles, and lots of climbing! There were a few patches of ice and mud but overall it felt like a spring day. The temp. registered 52 on my bike computer!

I was never much of a bike rider until my late 40's when I got my first bike. My first big ride was the "Hotter Than Hell"  in Wichita Falls Tx. 60 miles in 112 degree heat! Since moving to Idaho four years ago, I got my very own mountain bike at age 50 (the previous 2 years I was riding my husbands hand me down) and am now registered for my first mountain bike race coming up in April!


Maybe I was that little girl looking over that fence, it just took me a while to get there... those of you who have followed my blog for a while may recognize the red trike in the shadow box. It was left mysteriously on my doorstep a year ago, I found out recently it was a fellow artist and neighbor who had left it there. So for a year I have been making a little pile of papers and ephemera related to bikes around the red trike.

Tuesday at Studio Em was the time to make it all come together. First I went through my little pile and divided up the ephemera into 2 piles, one that was more related to mountain biking and one that was more related to casual riding around town. The mountain biking ephemera will be for a future piece.

side panel collage

me on my new bike in January and no snow!

Other side panel collage

I Capture the Castle

(9" X 9" X 4 1/2" D)

We've all heard the sayings- Queen of the Castle, I want to be treated like a Queen, etc... I had purchased this Queen figurine awhile back and she came with a matching King. I was going to use them as a pair, but nothing seemed to work. I've had them sitting in my studio for a few months now, trying out different ideas.

I also have a miniature crystal ball and dragon that I am trying to work into a piece of art. The dragon is one of the remaining "original" miniatures that I collected as a child in NJ. Now that I have figured out a scene for the Queen, the King might have to be all about the magic.

Last week while participating in the February Arts and Crafts Show, I met Aimee in the booth next to me who sells notebooks made out of old books. She was selling the spines of the books which she no longer had a use for. (10 for $1 if you need any) Talk about reusing. Well when I saw I Capture the Castle- bingo! I had my theme. I had never heard of the book so looked it up and found out that this was the first novel of Dodie Smith (published in 1949) who afterward became famous as the author of 101 Dalmatians.

The glass coffee stirrer with the crown was given to me by my friend Deborah who had saved up a whole bag of goodies for me.

The thimble was purchased while I was traveling in England about 10 years ago. There is an "underground" ticket on the back wall from that trip. Inscribed on the back of the thimble is 100th Birthday of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

I have used a lot of different purples in this piece as purple signifies royalty. The curtain is a vintage handmade piece from my grandmothers collection.

Besides finishing this piece today - this morning I lead my first 1/2 of a docent tour at the BAM... 6th & 7th graders touring the robot exhibit with Bonnie, my docent mentor. I think it went very well.

This evening I spent with Marianne from the Gypsy Gallery, we attended the Capital City Public Market annual meeting and then went to the Modern to drop off our application for the Modern art show scheduled for 1st Thurs. in May. Then since our hubbies were out of town...well we might as well stick around and have a drink at the bar. Tonight was vinyl night which was pretty cool.