Sunday Meditation - House Collages and Redneck BBQ Painting

She heard the mountain laughing as the moon and stars came out, and crow came to take her for a ride...Art-A-Day Journal Houses
My art-a-day journal has these whimsical, somewhat quirky collaged houses here and there that make me smile. When the mood strikes and I have interesting paper to play with out comes another one. I like combining my journal collages with pen drawing and a few words. My favorite pens lately are the Uniball pens with permanent ink, ultra fine lines, and their gel pens with an even smaller .38 line, and of course, the occasional Sharpie which sometimes bleeds to the other side of the page.

The first collage above has to do with the our interconnection with the landscape, the crow-raven native american story of being the bearer of light and I call it "Crow Came to Give her a Ride". Below, the second one I call "No Dumping" because that's what the label says on the frig in the picture, and it all relates in a way to my continous effort to declutter all the debris I've collected over the years, an effort that never seems to end. Especially true, since I experiment with all kinds of art, my eyes see potential new uses for ordinary things, it's laughable. Doesn't it seem like we all do it, amass physical and mental stuff that eventually is useless to us and in the way of other things, ideas, outlooks? Perhaps collaging lots of houses is a way of remodeling...
The third collage below reflects the pure fun of the Artfest retreat in April, and in fact, is made from remnant candy paper we were given, a nice reminder, I call it "Beaver Brittle House."Sunday Meditation
Now here's a really fun and funny video. I don't think I will be experimenting with BBQ sauce this way, but maybe the point is just to be creative, use whatever you have on hand, you don't have to go buy new art stuff, and probably don't need another workshop either (though these are fun things to do).

So here it is: "Redneck Art made with BBQ Ribs - Speed Painting" from Eclectic Asylum Art. The music is "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" by The Creaking Tree String Quartet. By the way, probably because the original would get moldy, the artist makes prints out of his art and sells them on Ebay, you can google it. I saw an Elvis portrait print done with real cheetos, actually quite good too. Cheers to family and friends in Texas who will love this!

Tulip Fields and Art Quilts, and Woodpeckers and the Honeymoon Palace

Mother Earth painted with a full palette today, Earth Day... cloudy, rainy, then sunny and blue skies, fabulous blossoms in the trees and masses of tulips and daffodils in the valley...
Tulip Fields
This is a watercolor painting I did several years ago from a photo I had taken in the Skagit Valley. Prints will be available soon in my Etsy shop.

Wednesday finally I was recovered enough from the flu, and we ventured out for a day trip to the Valley again to enjoy seeing the farms and countryside and the annual tulip festival. Luscious color blanketing the fields... and we saw several bald eagles too.
We stopped in the LaConner Quilt Museum (one of only 12 in the country), housed in the 1891 Gaches Mansion a National Historic site... a wonderful old 3-story house. There were 3 different exhibits, but one in particular I found to be just breathtaking. Karin Franzen's "Birdscapes" were exquisitely executed on filmly layers of organza and other transparent fabrics and appeared to be attached only at the top instead of traditional quilting through all the layers. This gave them an ethereal quality capturing movement of the cranes and ravens very well. Unfortunately no pictures allowed, but you can get a hint on the museum web (but only a hint, as the picture does no justice to the quality, texture, movement and light of the actual pieces. Well worth a visit.

Woodpeckers and the HoneyMoon Palace
And speaking of birds... this is a local Northern Flicker which I was lucky enough to photograph 2 years ago looking out one of our windows. They are a beautiful variety of woodpecker.
Families of northern Flickers have come back year after year near our house, and I believe nested in back in gigantic cottonwoods adjacent to our property. Occasionally they would drill a hole in the side of the house and hubbie continued to patch them over. This year the owners of the 3 giant cottonwoods took them down as they were becoming a people and house hazard, esp. during storms... So this year our returning Flicker has hammered at the same side of our house with a vengance, several holes... no sooner was a patch done and hubbie turned the corner, than the determined Flicker was drilling another hole.

To prevent dire consequences for our bird friend, I researched and found plans for a nest box and another one here, just the right size for the Flicker, after all they lost their habitat cottonwoods and needed a home. So here's our celebration of Earth Day this year... that's my husband installing the "Honeymoon Palace" on the top south side of our house. No sooner was it installed than the flicker moved in, and we heard and saw him happily widening the door a tiny bit. Then hubbie says the Flicker was rearranging the furniture, as he found a few shreds of some of the newspaper on the ground (kind of like the requisite moving the sofa around in a new place). I hear these tiny taps at 6:30 in the morning now, but we're so glad he has a home and soon there will be a bird family in there. I think I'll name him Ralph looking for his Alice, suitable don't you think, for the Honeymoon Palace...

Sunday Meditations - Imitating Lomo and Painting like Pollack

Imitating something is a good way to learn, but in the end my own hand begins to reveal itself and steer in my own direction... and it's better that way... Imitating Lomo Photography
I have been playing a lot with Photoshop (PS) lately while recovering from flu... I decided to try imitating Lomo photography, because I don't want to buy a Lomo camera and deal with developing film too, but I love the funky pictures. The first truck picture is after PS altering, the second is the original photo. Isn't that a great picture - taken at a garlic farm in Sequim, WA - the truck had the Superman icon on the side panel and was parked next to the chicken pens. Who knew, Superman hides out in a tiny sleepy Washington town at a garlic farm.

Aaah, what is Lomo? Here's what Wikipedia says: "...Lomography is the commercial trademark of Lomographische AG,Austria.... As the company states, they were 'charmed by the unique, colorful, and sometimes blurry" images that the camera produced. Lomography emphasizes casual, snapshot photography. Characteristics such as over-saturated colors, off-kilter exposure, blurring, "happy accidents," and alternative film processing are often considered part of the "Lomographic Technique.' Users are encouraged to take a lighthearted approach to their photography..." There are groups for Lomo lovers too, just google and you'll see.
Meanwhile, here's my second try, Lomo effect on the left, original on the right. This is the Kaslo, BC City Hall, circa 1906, a wonderfully charming town we visited on a Canadian road trip last year.Painting Like Jackson Pollock
Another fun thing to do while recouperating... yes, another computer thing, paint like Jackson Pollack.... Here are my creations, I love the intense colors (maybe why I like the super-saturated Lomo style too.....

So here is the meditation, go to this site and take a few minutes to play... with colors and lines and splotches. Painting and drawing (even virtual) can take you into that soothing place where you lose track of time and enjoy the moment.... The site is owned by Milton Manetas, original design by Stamen and lets you virtual paint a la Jackson Pollack style. I ran across this site a couple of years ago and had forgotten about it til I saw it mentioned somewhere recently.

Herons, Watercolor Barn, Needlefelting, Orchids and a Trip to India

This week we've had gray days in the Northwest (no surprise), hail and snow, too, but Friday was a gloriously sunny day when I had the pleasure of spying on the local herony, watching them preening, fixing their nests, sitting on eggs, and coming and going, all so enchanting, since we do afterall, live in suburbia.
The day before I enjoyed the Seattle Asian Art Museum with a friend and loved the Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur exhibit - a fabulous collection of Indian paintings from the royal courts of Rajasthan from the 17th-19th century. These were exquisitely detailed watercolors with the cosmic and god elements, birds, foliage and courtly events depicted, and the museum has provided magnifying glasses to really see the depth and detail and rich rich colors. Add to this a photo exhibit from India and we got a real taste of the culture. For locals this show is on til the end of April.

Afterwards I couldn't resist the nearby Conservatory where the tropicals grow - above are only two of the many beautiful orchids. Their exotic nature is fascinating...as is the lush growth of ferns, palms, birds of paradise, cacti, bromeliads and much more, in the humid warm air of the glass enclosure...

This lush growth and peeks of the sun makes me think of spring, just hints of it lately with bulbs and crocus rising through the soil. And spring makes me think of the Skagit Valley north of us where the flower fields will reign in April with the month long tulip festival we always visit. Here is a watercolor from a few years back inspired by one of our trips there, enjoying the old farms on a sultry day. I listed this a few days ago in my shop.

The previous week I also had the fun of going to Sew Expo billed as the country's largest from dawn til dusk one day... walked and walked the fairgrounds where it was held, ran into quite a few women I knew. SO many fibery goodies, techniques, colors, and vendors, and workshops, it was overwhelming but fun. Here is a small needlefelted (NF) picture I finished at home. I drew my own design (ongoing theme of "Happy Houses") and barely started NF when the one hour workshop was over! I am pleased with more detailing and blending I was able to accomplish in this experimental piece.

About Starting a Blog, Not Lost in Translation, and Art from a Photo

Sometimes things are "lost in translation", but saying it more than one way seems to help.....

The photo I took many years ago in the small village where one of my French aunts lives and beneath it is the watercolor interpretation/"translation" entitled "French Country Dreams" that I did two years ago. Prints of the watercolor will soon be available in my Etsy shop. Meanwhile I'm thinking I might like to paint this scene again, and I'm sure it would get "translated" differently yet again.

Google Translator

Experimenting with my blog, I located and added the gadget in the upper right corner, a google translator. A click on this gadget takes you to a page where you enter the url address of the page and choice of language translation. This is mostly for the benefit of any of my French cousins who may stop in for a read. I have been thinking of them a lot lately since one of them made a trip into the unstable Congo recently. But, what a great discovery this little gadget, since in past, I've found Spanish and Japanese art sites I couldn't read...so now I'll be able to translate anything! We are all just a click away.

About Starting a Blog

For those looking to start a blog, it has been very easy to use Blogger. Go here to their page and just read and follow the instructions. From our local library I also checked out Blogging for Dummies by Susannah Gardner and Shane Birley. This was after I had already set up and started blogging, but it was useful as a reference on what I had already done and for going a little beyond the basics. A couple more blog books are on order from the library. Here are some concerns and thoughts I had when contemplating a blog, just bear in mind, it's all very subjective, and you must figure out what is right for you. I hope this will be helpful.

1. Why do it? Many reasons are possible, but I think mine is a combo of: self-expression, conversations with others with like interests & expanding my community, presenting my art, business, becoming visible, sharing something that might be of benefit or inspire others, doing it because I really want to not because it might be the trend.

2. Finding Voice: What do I want to talk about, identifying what really interests me, a unique perspective, am I writing for me or the audience or both, who is the audience; It took a bit of reflection but I summarized it in the header and the "about me" sidebar, and for me it's also a bit of a "virtual sanctuary" - I intentionally want an uncluttered peaceful feel, focusing on the positives, and a combo of writing and visuals.

3. Setting my own limits: How much time to devote, how many postings a week. Initially it takes more time, reading and figuring it out, but then my goal is posting a couple of times a week, not so overwhelming for me and enough time for readers to actually see and read something and comment.

4. Privacy: My personal concern about this is that basically what I said could be read by anyone, not just art friends. So, for me, certain subjects are off limits just for ID security, eg., personal info or family/friend info or pix, birthdays, etc. Nor am I interested in using a blog for heavy duty angst or personal problem solving as some are inclined, nor highly controversial topics.

5. Copyright: As an artist I want to show my work and occasionally be compensated for it. So in posting I added copyright statements and on some artwork I experimented and self-taught myself how to add watermarks with Photoshop. And as I respect others work as well, I won't post pictures of other artist artwork or pictures of people without their permission and a reference as to whose it is.

So far it's been a rewarding experiment, serving to help me clarify thoughts or my focus, meeting other artists, sharing art and writing. So, start up a blog if you haven't, and let me know about it.

About Posting

I must confess that until I started blogging myself, I'd been a "lurker" reading them and not saying anything. But now, I find it's very encouraging to hear from others, so now I do post comments here and there. Unfortunately on 3 of my favorites the system of comments doesn't work and I haven't debugged it yet! So if you are secretly reading my blog, I would love to hear from you and what you think... do drop in and say hello.

Mosaic of Paintings

Playing around with Photoshop again , today I taught myself how to do a mosaic using some of my 4x4 mixed media paintings. Three of these ("Happy Houses) are still available at the Kaewyn gallery, as they decided to keep them a while after the recent miniatures show since they had gotten lots of positive comments on them. Photoshop is full of wonderful possibilities, but can appear overwhelming if you have never tried it. I self taught myself - one tool at a time, experimenting to see what it would do, and I am still learning. Delighted with my mosaic, I know I will do more, perhaps with photos.

This is another tassel I started today, but I wound more yarn on than I would like, I wanted a thinner tassel. So I will do what my friend did and cut it in half, and finish off in a different way, so I will have 2 tassels, perfect for using when I restring some brass bells that I have.

Sometimes you start something thinking you know where you are going, but end up somewhere else.

And I finished up another small fiber experiment, namely a miniature book with doodles, images and favorite quotes. All this while I was inspired watching Obama on this historic day.

Art Show

There is still time for you to see 6 of my paintings at the Kaewyn Gallery, 10101 Main St. in Bothell, WA in the "Miniature Masterpieces and More!" art show which is from Dec 5 - Jan 17, 2009. Though their website is not up to date, it does list their hours: http://www.kaewyngallery.com/

Here are a couple of the paintings in the show... 2 totally different styles I have. Traditional watercolor and acrylic mixed media. But as you can see, I always love color.

Art Page A Day

"To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival." Wendell Berry

I bought a 100% recycled paper acid free 8 1/2" and 11" 110# artist sketchbook this past November and decided I would do a year of an art page a day (who said resolutions had to be in January??) -- any kind of art -- collage, pen & ink, paint, colored pencils, whatever I feel like doing. This is in addition to my regular journal, plus any other artmaking that I typically do. I will fill several of these sketchbooks since they only have 50 pages. It reminds me of The Artists Way (Julie Cameron) and how interesting things emerge when you take the time to face a blank page. I'm seeing a lot of birds and houses in these art pages.

I'm finding that much of the time I am challenging myself to recycle that odious junk mail that comes in the door. It's very pleasing to make the junk into something visually stimulating like a collage. A small contribution to "repurposing".

"Flying overhead the bird looks down upon a sea of plastic and a landscape of waste and invisible toxins, all the castoffs of the humans who dominate. When will they learn respect for all the living?"

I was experimenting last summer in my painting with a playful style exploring the idea of "Happy Houses", places where we can find joy, smile a bit and have the sun shine down... No matter, shape, how big or small, the concept of home as a haven no matter what other circumstances surround us. Here are a couple of houses from recent art pages. Aren't the junk mail papers colorful and fun?