Happy Halloween and Found Art Tues 10-30-07

Well today is spook day! Our family loves this holiday. I am letting my three children skip their dance classes tonight after school to do the candy thing. My 14 year old still so gets into it. And of course my 12 year old twins are right there with her. Our fall colors are at their peak right now and the weather is just warm enough for the children to be comfortable.

My offering this week is a card that I made about two years ago. I cheated a little on this one because of time constraints. Anyway I submitted this little card for a contest and won a prize. Naturally I saved it. But now it will be left for someone to find. The skeleton is actually stamped into candle soot. That definitely sets the mood. And the rest of the background is just a variety of inks and stamps. Enjoy your tick or treat day!

K

Don't Drink 10-26-07

My daughter Kaitlyn, a freshman in high school, had an assignment to desgin a T shirt with a message revolving around not using drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. So we thought abut doing a collage and gathering some text/letters from magazines, using alcohol as the main focus. My Kaitie is somehow always behind the eight ball. She gets so much homework plus she dances 4 nights a week and weekends. It was no big surprise that I wound up doing the magazine search and the art. Kaitie helped me position the pieces for collage. She does not get much enjoyment from doing art, which is a shame. I hope some day she appreciates her Mom's style.

I did a larger monoprint this time around and the method I used was described in the Collage Techniques book by Leland and Williams (see entry below). I hope she gets an A on this :)))))

k

Found Art Tuesday: Line 10-23-07

I just purchased another technique book called Collage Techniques. You would think that I had them all by now..Ha not quite! This one is by Nita Leland and Virginia Williams, http://www.amazon.ca/Creative-Collage-Techniques-Nita-Leland/dp/digital-features/1581800983. It has been around for a while, published in I believe 1994. I can't believe I did not have this one in my library! I have been playing with the acrylics book (Acrylic Revolution) purchased just recently and I decided to combine some techniques from this book with what I already have been doing.

This work was an experiment in monoprinting. I used both watercolor paints and acrylics to make the background print. And added cut out forms for mountains. All else is hand drawn using oil pastels markers and acrylics. The piece is called TIMBERLINE. OK so I could not think of anything more profound. I used 140 lb watercolor paper as the substrate. Now I can get a bit more ambitious with the next little project. I plan on monoprinting a background for a project my daughter has at school. This one has to be done by Friday so I will have another example up of monoprinting. I think I will use acrylics this time around.. There will be no need to "fix" the background so it won't smear when I ad polymer medium for collage items.

K

Found Art Tuesday: 10-16-07 SEED

I am finally back in the saddle. This past week two really wonderful events happened, Rosa returned to her blog with a new found art theme: seed. And I will be have a gallery show at the Raue Center for the Performing Arts http://www.rauecenter.org/ in May of 2008.

I simply can't believe that my work was accepted. I found myself reflecting on the fact that I am no different than many of you...I have self doubts...Am I good enough, why would anyone like my art, oh sure, it does give me pleasure and that is what counts right? And then I went to the Raue on this past Saturday and saw the work of two local artists. The work blew me away. Check out the websites of Nancy Reid http://www.nancyreid.com/ and Johanna Gullick http://www.johannagullick.com/. How can I even hang my work in the same gallery? These are award winning artists, professional artists. Then I found myself questioning the Raue's criteria for selection. I just keep shaking my head... I know my husband is very proud of me.... I guess I should be thrilled. At least I am back in the studio. So I have some work to do, goals to make, and dreams to achieve. This is a big one for me. The Raus is one of the few fine galleries in McHenry County. I am still in shock!

Now for the found art theme. I created a little abstract design and collage focused around the seed of life. Hence the title.."Seed of Life." Life is so precious...we are all stars. To make the decision to have children should not be taken lightly, it is a privilege. This work is done on one of my favorite substrates- a drink coaster, this one from a Chili's restaurant. I used tissues, acrylics, inks, and some doodling by yours truly.

I am so happy to resume my cyber space friendship with Rosa..although I may not participate as much as I like in the project, I know it is there for me when I need a quick release. Rosa...thank God for you!

The studio awaits me once again. I have a work in progress that I should post soon. It is about half done. It is a fairy from my Sleeping Beauty series (now of 3 paintings). She is one of the many faeries from the ballet Sleeping Beauty. Although she is not wearing a tutu nor pointe shoes, she is very real to me. I promise to share her soon.

k