A whole year of funk?

Wow. I knew I was in a bit of a funk, but a whole year?

That sucks. I sure hope its past me now. I really want to move on to good things.

Retirement should be good for my art right?

Fingers crossed......

Its not really been a whole year of funk, but it has been a year of struggling with my muse. The Athens Art group was part of the thing to help me get past it. And it did. I have created and I have learned and loved it. I've just been a very bad girl and not kept my blog up.

So....here's to more blogging and sharing with my online art friends.

Athens Art Group

Monday was sadly the last day of the Athen's Art Group for the season.

I've so enjoyed this day each week. Its been a big part of getting me back into creative mode.

I have a few unfinished pieces from the class as well, but this one is finally done.

Acrylic 8x10

aaaaaaaaaaaand, a moleskin journal spread

The theme was women. I wanted to somehow depict how a woman is so many things...wife, lover, mother........ This only touches on it, but I only had 3 pages!

A few of my recent ATCs

I'm catching up on my commitments finally. Might as well catch up on blogging too.

For a private trade, I made a Gambel's quail. I just love these guys, Bill and I see them when we go to Portal Arizona and they're so much fun to watch.



Here are some cards I made for a Tribute to Tim Burton swap. Silly, but oooooh so much fun.



Then there was a Dark Disney Princesses swap. Another silly but fun topic.

Forced retirement and my art

Well, since my job is ending in a few months, it looks like I'll be looking at a sort of "forced retirement". It may be interesting to see how my art is affected by this. Over the last few months, the not knowing has certainly been rough on my poor muse. She'd been hiding for some time.

So...now that I know, at least I can look forward. More time on my hands should mean more art. I hope it means time to take some art classes and go to more live model drawing sessions and just plain do more of the things that nurture my soul.

I hope...

Getting "in the groove"

Now that winter is past, I seem to have some mojo back. Its a relief really. I was actually getting scared that I'd lost it.

So what I've mostly done is just a few quick and fun projects, but its helped.

These were for an ATC swap titled eVil Cute. Morbid huh? They were fun to make. I think we all have some capacity for evil in us, even if it just comes down to silly things like this.



This is an acrylic 3 page spread for a traveling moleskin journal group that I'm in. The theme was texture. OK, so this one wasn't quick. But it was fun.

My moley is home!

My first traveling moleskin journal book has arrived safely home. And I must say, its absolutely, stunningly, gorgeous in hand. It feels so incredibly special to me. I sure hope that all the artists that contributed to it realize that.

The artists in the group were
(1) my entry pages
(2) Bex (3) Wendy (4) alteredmommy
(5) adriayna (6) eggstudio (7) arteeztmom





Isn't it gorgeous?!?

Plein Air

Now that we're done building the cottage, I'm excited to be able to have some art supplies up there and actually have TIME to paint and draw.

So I set up my portable easel on the deck and tried some plein air painting. OK, so I wrecked a couple of canvasses. It still felt awesome. And its all about learning right?

Journey of the Moleys IV

I'm almost done with the journey of the moleys. I've just finished this one and there is only one more to do for this group. Note that I've already signed up for a new one! But it won't start until Sept, so I'll have a short break anyway.

The theme of this moley was "Sea", so I incorporated a scene from a trip to the Washington State/Oregon coast in one section and added a cutaway underwater scene featuring 2 seahorses.

I find water difficult to do. I'm relatively pleased with the resulting watery effect, but hopefully with practice I'll get much better. I've also been experimenting with Prismacolor markers (and a few other brands too), so thought I'd try using markers as my base layer (I usually use watercolour) and then do the inking on top.

I've also noticed previously that some markers made my pencil outline messy, so after I put down my pencil outline, I used a 10% grey color to outline over that, then went back and erased all the pencil that I could. It worked quite well.

Journey of the Moleys III

My latest moleskin entry was for a theme "a little bit about yourself" for Bex

I've been playing with image transfers off and on so thought I'd incorporate a few here too. So the photo of the cottage that hubby and I built and the puppy is using gel medium image transfer. The puppy transfer is from an ATC of watercolor and pen that I made earlier in the year.

The background and other oval images are watercolor and ink. The original intent with the background was to use circles to represent family. I come from a large family, so there were to be lots of circles. Somehow in the process circles morphed into ovals as the shapes seemed to work better. But when I was painting the background they started to look like jelly beans so I went with that. Ironically jelly beans have a meaning for me too.


Bill and I usually take Jelly Belly jelly beans with us when we go camping and we have a few around the campfire. So...jelly beans they are. But family they are too. Lots of flavors. So the double meaning works. Silly, I know, but hey....
The other ovals are the types of things that I love. Birds, animals, nature in general.

The moley I'm working on now is on the theme "Sea". I've sketched and erased so many ideas. But now I've settled on one. But you'll have to wait for that one.

Journey of the Moleys II

I have 3 moleys in hand now, so the pressure is on. The one I'm working on currently I'm still struggling through the background. I keep changing my mind. The theme is "A Bit about Myself". So there is alot of symbolism in it. At least that's the plan. :sigh: Not sure its working out. I guess at worst, I gesso over everything and start over. Problem is I'm behind as is.

:double sigh:

I'd post a WIP, but I honestly don't want to scare anyone. All my works look horrid at first.

The journey of the Moleys

I'm still catching up on my postings here. I really need to do this more often. :sigh:

Anyway, I finally finished working in arteeztmom's moleskin journal. The theme was "Happiness is..."

So here it is:






Next I work on Bex's and its theme is "A bit about myself"I've started jotting down things and have just started sketching ideas. So far, nothing has really jumped out at me as to how I'll proceed.

I'm actually enjoying working in these. I think its helped me break through a bit. Even stopped by a book store to see if they had Moleskins. They do, the full assortment, but minus the Japanese accordian book. Sheesh. He did say they'd order it for me if I want. I may try one of the watercolor journals next tho. Its a nice size to carry around.

Flowers!

My latest ATC creations were some flowers that I did for a swap. Watercolor and pen.

I've felt a bit blocked lately, but once I got working on these, it started to loosen up. I seriously hope it lasts.

Having Fun with Caricatures

Recently I arranged a trade with someone. She saw a naughty CarelessBear card that I did and wanted it, so in exchange I asked if you would do "me" in her fun style. I provided a recent pic and she ran with it.

Here's her card of me. (Look Ma! No wrinkles!)

Anyway, I was so delighted with it that I started a PAT style swap on ATCsforall.com. There were groups of 4 and each person would submit a photo or 2 for people to work off of. The results have been funny and fun and enough to bring tears to your eyes at times.

Here are 2 that I did. I've started on the 3rd and will post it when its completed.

The Moleskin Journal group

I've hooked up with a few artsy friends and we're passing accordian style Moleskin journals around the globe. Each person adds 3 or 4 pages to the journal and then sends it onto the next person in the group.

These little journal books are great for mailing around. They're sturdy and lightweight, so even postage to Holland only costs $3 something to mail.

My journal theme is "Feathers, Fins and Feelers". I'll post pics of it as I get them.

I'm finding this project to be really invigorating!! At first I was intimidated about painting and drawing in someone else's journal. What if I wreck it! What if I spill something on it? What if? What if? What if?

But I had to get past that. I've completed my first 4 pages which were for Dana's journal.
Her theme was "The Elements" as in the classical Greek elements. So adding a little bit of me to the mix, this is what I came up with.

Tag --- I'm it!!

It sorta feels like grade school. A game of tag, and now I'm it. Well, a fellow has noticed that I hadn't updated in awhile, so my assignment is to share six random things about myself with all my dear readers. Here goes:

1. I'm a bit of a fanatic when it comes to our society taking our planet for granted. Just a bit. Not a total crunchy granola, but I sure do wish people would make more effort to do their part.
   
2. I hate to exercise, but I'd rather do that than give up eating, so I force myself to get to the gym.
   
3. I seem to be intolerant of enriched white flours. Not technically allergic to it, but it does nasty things to my digestive system and you don't want to be around me if I eat too much of it. Yes....that includes cakes, pies, cookies and all those other yummy things. Poor me! You've been warned. If you see me eating such items, run. You'd think I'd be skinny, but I'm not. Because.........
   
4. I love nachos. Corn tortillas, covered in cheese and piled with onions, peppers, and olives. Oh.... and a dollop of guacamole and some sour cream. OK, a BIG dollop of guacamole. Yes, I love good Mexican food and Thai and Cambodian and Chinese food, and....
   
5. I wish I could cook better. I actually enjoy cooking, but I'm not really all that good at it. I'm adequate, just not "good".
6. I love to travel and explore new places. I don't care if I have to take unpaid time off work to do it. I'm gonna travel, cuz you never know what tomorrow will bring. So, I'm gonna enjoy today, enjoy my kids, my grandkids, my husband and I'm gonna travel.
   

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And my 6 to be tagged are

• Eggstudio
  
• BlueSkySunburn
• Muppin
• KatieV
• Boatbird
• Genxster
  

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THE RULES

1. LINK TO THE PERSON WHO TAGGED YOU

2. POST THE RULES ON YOUR BLOG

3. WRITE SIX RANDOM THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF

4. TAG SIX PEOPLE AT THE END OF YOUR POST AND LINK TO THEM

5. LET EACH PERSON KNOW THEY ARE TAGGED AND LEAVE A COMMENT ON THEIR BLOG

6.LET THE TAGGER KNOW WHEN YOUR ENTRY IS UP

7. DON’T BREAK THE CHAIN

I only have another week....

I have 3 Christmas packages to get out soon. The bulk of them will be art and/or handmade. So...the heat is on. I can't share pictures because well....because they're a secret. So I have to bear all the frustrations and failures all by my little lonesome. I was feeling quite blocked for awhile there, but my mind seems to have cleared some and I'm making progress.

I'm having loads of fun with one "fun" gift. I made a prototype and it turned out well, so now I'm onto the "real" gift. Its fun and quirky and.... well....fun! Nothing artsy about it.

So this weekend was devoted mostly to these gift packages, which will consist of a large or larger item and several small things. I've got 2 of the big things totally done. No big gift yet for the 3rd package. I'm still deciding what to do on that one.

Of the smaller items. One gift, a large drawing isn't panning out too well. I actually like it, but its not turning out to give the mood its supposed to. So...I may have to start all over. Tho I'll save this for later. A second piece, same size is watercolor and ink; it's turning out well. I've got the watercolor washes down and just need to add the ink work. This is the time consuming part, but I can work at it in fits and spurts. And then there is the fun piece. Again something I can work on it fits and spurts, so I work on it when I need a break on the others.

I only have another week to get them in the mail. Oh geez.....I only have another week.

My first Tarot cards...

These were done as part of a project on iATCs. My assignment was the Fool and the 6 of Cups.

Well, this isn't my usual type of drawing and I found this exercise extremely difficult. So....after numerous failed or half failed attempts, here they are.

ATC Recipe for Collage

Some time ago at the now defunct ATCards.com, I hosted a swap that was based on an idea that I had gotten from the internet. I believe it was teacher's art project for her students. I can't for the life of me find the site or page now.

Lately, though, there has been some renewed interest in using this theme for teaching kids how to make ATCs using collage as an example.

The idea is that a good collage is made up of multiple layers and should include:

1. pleasing colors
   
2. contrast
   
3. use of lines and texture
4. a focal point/ balance
5. uneven numbers of elements or layers (3 minimum, 5 is better)

So this recipe includes certain ingredients which will help satisfy those necessary components.
The ingredients:

• 2 toothpicks
  
• 5 punched dots
• fabric
  
• 2 visual textures
  
• original background

You are encouraged to use your imagination. You may use the toothpicks whole or break them. All ingredients may be cut or otherwise altered.

Here are some examples of what was submitted for the swap.



First Row:

• Smullis
  

2nd Row (left to right):

• Goatgoddess
• Chatty
• Glenwine

3rd Row:

• Scrappylicious
• CarolynMinto
• BlueRue

A good resource for collage is: 5-Layer Collage by Carole Pivarnik

The Baby Quilt

I thought it rather ironic really. The night before Amanda went into labour, I finished the baby quilt. I remember thinking "now the peanut has nana's permission to be born". LOL I was just teasing of course, but there you have it, he listens to his nana.