Journal Play

I haven't been able to do much, because my husband shared his cold with me, so whatever energy I had was drained fighting my "gift". I feel better today, and really wanted to make some art, so I just played on a journal page rather than focus on something which needed a clear mind to get it done right.

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This page had already has some light lavender color on it from a baby wipe I had used to clean up other art pieces. Some of it shows down at the bottom left (it looks gray in the photo). I played around with using foam plates to stamp with, the first was the whole bottom of a plate with Vermilion paint, and pressed on there twice. Then I did a smaller one with a heart carved in and swiped with Sap Green. The page background is painted in a wash of Indian Yellow. I added a scrap of paper from Taiwan, and two butterflies are collaged on. Oil pastels were added for color effect and then some squiggles with a paint pen. Oh yes, I also used part of a background word stamp in the upper left corner and the bottom right corner. And it was fun!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

The Midnight Painting

Another difficult night to get to sleep last night, so up to my studio I went to see if I could get the "wired and tired" down to just "tired". I grabbed a canvas and this is what came from my time in the studio.

Mermaid Illusion

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This is a 10 x 10 wrapped canvas. The base was painted in two colors of acrylic and then I added a portion of an old French dictionary page, and two other scraps of paper. On the right is part of a Cavellini postcard I had received, where I succeeded in detaching the body of the peacock from the head when I was trying to separate the paper it was printed on. (If I get more than one of an interesting postcard, I try to reuse it in my art.) I decided - why not just use the tail - so it was placed under the tag I had made earlier. You can't see it, but the tag is covered in granular gel, which is why it looks a bit hazy. I then doodled some shapes, added paint, added oil pastels and tied some colorful couched thread through the tag and out onto the painting. I showed this to my daughter and husband, and this piece got the " I really like it except for...." reaction. My daughter didn't care for the tag, but her first impression was one of a mermaid. My husband has never cared for "those thready things" when they show up in my creations. It's an experiment piece, so I don't mind the critiquing. In fact, I'll step out on a limb here - what don't you care for about this piece? Really, let me know! :)

UPDATE - I redid the painting and it's at this link. Check it out!

While I was on the porch, I took a quick shot of Cossette eating. :)

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Micheaux - A Journal Page

I decided that it was clean-up-scrap time for my art table and used gel medium and paint to add scraps to a journal page. After finishing the background, I was rummaging through my drawer of images and came upon this information about Oscar Micheaux. His parents were slaves, but as he was growing up, he had several positive experiences that led him to become an author (first book, 1913, The Conquest, the Story of A Negro Pioneer). Several more books came after that one. In 1915 D.W. Griffith produced The Birth Of A Nation, a silent film which promoted white supremacy, the Ku Klux Klan and racism. Micheaux became one of several black filmmakers to produce a film to counteract Griffith's film. Called Within Our Gates, it was extremely well done. Micheaux went on to produce 24 silent films and then more than 20 sound films. After his death in 1951, his name faded into history until the 1960's when South Dakotans rediscovered his works. He has earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and several other posthumous awards.

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Mixed media background is made from scraps lying around on my art table, gel medium, acrylic paint, rubber stamping; images were aged and added, and oil pastels help to give depth. Some of the scraps are torn baby wipes, stained with paint.

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Starting a Small Book, and A Story: Bob White

In the latest issue of Somerset Studio, one of my favorite magazines, was an article about making paper from milk cartons. I was so excited about the possibilities, I went downstairs and pulled out the empty carton of Flax Milk (alas, no dairy products here except Greek Yogurt) and by the end I had 4 pages ready to incorporate with whatever I wanted to do. I decided I will make a small book and here is what was completed.

Front

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Back

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Since I plan on including 3D objects on each front page, the back will be more neutral and flat. I used acrylic paints, oil pastels, rubber stamping, a flattened old Dr. Pepper bottle cap, Micron pens, paper scraps, and cut out words. I have 3 more blank pages, and then I will make more from the next empty carton; page size is about 7 x 3.75. Once I feel the book is the right size, I'll put it all together. 

And in case any readers may be wondering about the wall hanging I was making, I had put it aside because of the trip out of town, and I was waiting for some more inspiration for details to add, and now I have them! So I will be posting about that as well, soon.

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Bob White

54th in the Tuesday Story Series

Yesterday I posted briefly that it had been a day for spending on the bed, as I had awakened weak and fatigued. In the afternoon, as I was playing a game on my laptop I heard a Northern Bob White quail calling from nearby. Their name comes from the whistle call they make, and it's one of my favorite sounds of summer. (Click here if you have never heard it) It brought back memories of a time early in our marriage when the quail provided us great entertainment.

When Tabitha was not quite a year old, John had been offered a job in Berkeley County which would provide more money for our family. It meant moving to Goose Creek, South Carolina, which at the time was not much of a town, more of a collection of homes, different stores and fast food places which catered to the nearby Naval Weapons Station. It was growing, though, and we were able to move into a new 2 bedroom condominium not too many miles from where John would be working. We had the end unit and it had a small screened porch facing a slice of woods which provided a sound buffer to the busy 4 lane highway on the other side. There was a patch of grass about 4 foot wide between us and the woods. 

It was lonely for me during that time, because we were down to one car, which John drove to work. It was also a long distance away from our church and the friends who had lived nearby. Sometimes if John did not have plans to leave the office, I would drive him to work and then Tabitha and I would drive down the interstate to visit friends; but mostly he needed the car, and he put in long hours. 

One day after we had settled into the apartment, I heard the Bob White calling from the patch of woods behind us. Late that afternoon, I saw a pair of them come out of the woods, clucking softly to several babies scrambling behind them. John came in just then, and we quietly went out to the porch to watch them. They did not mind us, but continued hunting for food, parents and chicks busily scratching the ground. Every evening after that, we would sit on the porch and wait for them to come out to feed. We sprinkled some corn on the ground for them. It was fun watching the chicks grow.

Watching them helped ease the loneliness, and there was also a whippoorwill in the woods which would make its calls every evening that summer around 9 PM. We only stayed in the condo for about 10 months, because John was offered an even better job which brought us back to Charleston, and a job where he stayed until he retired. But we enjoyed the birds the short while we lived there.

We have Bob White living here in the woods and pastures and still smile every time the call comes through the air. Maybe some day we'll see parents with their chicks again! 

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Tyvek Again, and a Story: It's My Pain, Not Yours!

While I have another project to complete for the texture workshop, I decided to do something completely different for a few days, as long as I have strength (if not, then it might last more than a few days!) It's spring and I'm in the mood to do something light and airy, even though I love the texture of the other pieces. So this will be texture of a different sort, and I have done this before. So today I pulled out my materials for a Tyvek collage:

The Tyvek is on the bottom, and I gathered up elements which were had kind of a "neutrally" feel and look to them

Old hankies, lace, origami mesh,

scraps from the scrap box, old pages and texts,

tissue, cheese cloth and other such things.

Now I will begin laying them out, attaching them, and then applying paint. Stay tuned!

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It's My Pain, Not Yours!

51st in the Tuesday Story Series

The year I turned 39, my dentist calmly gave me some upsetting news when I was in his office for my usual visit. Because of the way my mouth was shaped, and the growing problems I had been having with TMJ (pain at the jaw hinge), he recommended I get braces. WHAT?? AT 39?? What a way to go into my forties, as he told me that I would probably have them at least two years.

He sent me down to a well respected orthodontist for an evaluation, and my husband accompanied me. After the examination and the moldings of my teeth were made (yucky), we sat in his office to discuss the plan. I was not a happy camper to think that I would be celebrating my 40th birthday with bright metal all across my mouth. As John and the doctor were discussing the procedure and the costs of everything, John asked him how much extra it would be to have "invisible" braces across the front. The answer was that it would be a hefty extra charge, and I burst into tears. John calmly reached over to hold my hand and told the doctor that's what we wanted to do. What a kind husband!

As I said, the orthodontist was highly respected in the area, but, as my grandmother would have said, he was rather full of himself. I did not find him particularly 

sympathetic during the regular visits and I noticed when he said "do this" the tech assistants would hop to it. After a while, I was really getting annoyed with his superior attitude.

As anyone who has worn braces before knows, on your regular visits, the wires were often tightened to speed up the work of straightening the teeth. This experience could often be painful for the following few days. At the office, the room where you sat in your chair was an open one, with many chairs of patients being examined by the Tech Assistants and the doctor would go from chair to chair, overseeing what needed to be done, and if the wires needed tightening, he'd do it. One visit as he approached me, I just knew I was in for a tightening. And I was right, and it hurt! I looked up at him after it was over and said,

"That really hurts! You've never worn braces yourself, have you?" 

He stared back at me, and then in a very patronizing voice said "And I'm sure your OB/GYN never had a baby either." And turned to walk away.

"Oh yes she has! Two, in fact!" I snapped back, rather annoyed.

He stopped, and whipped around to look at me.....

... I glared at him....

... he stood there for a minute, mumbled something that may have been an apology, and left.

I suddenly became aware of big grins and stage whispers and realized all the assistants were in rather high spirits.

"Thank you for saying that!" More than one of them said. "He had it coming!" others claimed. Many of the other patients were also grinning.

I didn't see him anymore that day, but honestly, the next time I came back, he was very differential and it never seemed to hurt as badly again. Maybe he had had a change of heart! And maybe others had better treatment too!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Journal Journey

I have often seen art journals and just as often thought of doing one. They manifest themselves in all colors, shapes, and sizes, reflecting the owner's artful thoughts and feelings. It's always a work in progress, with one journal leading to another. But I have hesitated, because I don't like to commit to something when I am so unsure of what one day will be to the next.

But in reality, we all do not know what the next day will be. And if I am too fatigued and exhausted to lift a paint brush, or glue a scrap of paper, then I won't. When I can, I will. I like being able to express in color what I may be feeling, what I have experienced and all of it with the reality of God in the mix. So, I am sharing a couple of pages of what I hope will be a full book someday, and which will lead to others.

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This is mainly scraps from around my art table, including papers I had swished paint on when I was using up leftover paint. After adding the scraps, I added some matte gel, just playing with texture, and put a little more paint on there.

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And then last night, I had difficulty going to sleep (once again) so up I went to my studio with a glass of wine and played with some stencils and paint. Then I was able to go back to bed and fall asleep for the rest of the night.

So, this is my "expressionism" as opposed to finished art. It is a fun thing to do!

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And 3 More!

Last night I could not get to sleep again, so I brought a glass of wine to the studio and commenced to finish three more postcard in the foam core board series. (To see how the base started out, click here.)

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This one had a Japanese postage stamp, so I included the Chinese symbol for Double Happiness, a small image of Asian women. Some Stickles, acrylic paint, and Stabilo pencil were used.

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 The little Sun embellishment reflects the light a bit, this is the best photograph I could get. I had a small metal tag with the word "and", and dripped some alchohol ink on it to make it stand out. A large copper brad attaches it and there is a small metal frame attached with smaller brads. Stickles oil pastels, Stabilo, and acrylic paint finished it off.

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A yellow paper flower, jeweled brad, oil pastels, black Stabilo, and acrylic paint complete this one.

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!