An Eiffel Tower For Mom

Today is my mom's birthday. Almost 9 years ago she and I spent a delightful day in Paris. Yes, only one day. And one glorious night touring the city, before taking the bullet rain to Provence. Since that time Mom has been back to Paris and is going again in a few months time. Lucky her....

For her birthday I decided to create a multi-viewed collage of the Eiffel Tower. I scanned in a Paris street map for starters. Layered over it is a cropped photo of the Eiffel Tower that I took while standing at the base of it. I also used an image of French writing that I had gotten free from an art magazine web site (Alas, the site name alludes me. It was months ago...) Using various image editing techniques and playing with saturation levels I was able to come up with 3 images I really liked. I printed them on a decent weight paper, cropped them and arranged all on canvas. Once I had an arrangement I liked I glued them down using my all-time favorite glue: gel medium. I want to add some paint and other embellishments to the piece before handing it over to Mom, but I did let her get a good look at it today and she loved it! Now if I could just figure out a way to get back to Paris I'd truly be a happy camper.....

The first three images are the collages I created on Picasa. The last image is all of them arranged and pasted onto canvas.

Yet More Nudes

I've been playing around in Picasa again creating multi-layered collages. The backgrounds for these were all created from my own scanned art work or photographs. The foregrounds are from vintage French Nudes. I love the ethereal look of these images and cannot wait to print them out and play around with them to see what I can come up with! I know I'll be making some mail art postcards with these and perhaps some ATC's as well. As for what else I'll make, I won't know until I do it. That's one thing about being a foot-loose and fancy free artist, you never know when inspiration will strike or what you'll create. Personally, I wouldn't have it any other way....

Tasteful Nudes

<I'm participating in a Tasteful Nudes ATC swap. These are the four I created using vintage Art Nouveau images. After printing the images I highly embellished them with paint pens, markers and colored pencils. They came out far better than I expected and now I hate to let them go! That's the one problem with participating in art exchanges. Sometimes you make something that you love so much you don't want to mail it off to your hostess or partner. But, I always do, no matter how much I love something. If I created it for a specific swap then off it goes! I hope the people who receive these ATC's love them as much as I do.

Digital Collage

I've been playing with creating digital collages again. This one is by far my favorite so far. The background is from a journal page I did for a round robin I hosted (and got stiffed on!) a few years back. The foreground image is from a set of Art Nouveau images I own. I love the transparent, multi-layered look.

Inked!

Yesterday I went and had my tattoo finished! Originally designed for me in July 2007 by Paul Wade, I never had any work done on it until October '07 due to my very dark tan. Even in October I was too tanned to have it colored so have been living with it black all these months. Even all black it was gorgeous but, it is even more so now that it's complete.

Paul is the owner of the Tattoo Gallery in Southboro, MA and is a true artist. When I first went to him with my ideas I never dreamed how truly awesome the design he created would be. On his first try he was able to draw exactly what I wanted. The best part, for me, is that no one will ever have this same tattoo. It's MINE! How awesome is that?

Altered Couture

I need to go scrounge around the thrift stores. I'm in altered couture mode. I feel the need to take discarded clothing, slash, dye, sew, paint, stamp and manipulate in any whatever way that strikes my fancy in order to create items that are fun, funky, full of personality and expression of my self. Having finished the jeans and jacket I was working on I've been riffling thorugh my closet looking for more articles to alter. nothing in there strikes my fancy, thus the need for a good bout of Thrift Store shopping! In the meantime, I'll imagine all the ways I can transform something old into something new and see what kind of inspiration I get.

And while I do that imagining, I'll take a few moments with my handy, dandy camera to get photos of those altered jeans and the jacket to post here!

Postcard Mania

I've been busy this week making postcards. A few of them have gone out via Post-Crossing, a few others are for mail-art swaps. and the rest are for use in the near future, for when the urge to send mail-art strikes. I love making postcards and then sending them off into the world. I like to imagine that each person who encounters them along their way, from the mail man who picks them up to the people who handle and sort them in the various postal warehouses they pass through, might stop a moment to view them, perhaps ponder them or smile at them before sending them on their merry way. It probably isn't true, but it's a nice little fantasy I have.

Post-Crossing has been exceptionally fun for a lover of postcards. Not only do I get to send out as many as I wish, but each one is assigned a unique id alpha-numeric code so that the receiver can log it in once it arrives. Once logged I get to find out when they arrived, how long it took and read the comments made by the receiver. For each one I send out that gets logged back in I receive one in return. Fun for me no matter how you look at it!

I've also been busy altering some clothing. A denim jacket that once belonged to my mother has undergone a complete transformation. It's been dyed, bleached, stamped, cut, sewn and painted. The result is a stunning, funky jacket that I can't wait to show off. I also painted a pair of jeans with skulls, done free-hand with paint pens. These too are fun and funky. So much so that I just may submit them to Altered Couture just to see if they get picked for publication.

I love altering clothes. It's something I have always done. Long before it became the popular thing to do. Ages before books & magazines geared toward altering clothing, creating wearable art or any of the other catch phrases now in use, were even thought of. Am I ahead of my time when it comes to these things? I don't think so. For what bored teenage girl hasn't taken out a pen or marker and doodled all over her jeans or created a jeans purse? I know all the girls I hung out with did it. Granted, it was usually me who instigated the happenings, but that's just because I was more fearless than they were and was always the one to say, "Hey, let's do such and such!" before anyone else would think to say it. Or maybe I am ahead of my time. I'll go with that because it makes me sound so revolutionary....

Day of the Dead, revisited

Last night I finished up the ATC's for the hand-drawn ATC swap I'm in. I made 6 images in all and am looking forward to getting 6 in return. I'm amassing quite a collection of DOTD ATC's!

I also started an ATC swap at Swap-Bot titled 'Blue for You' It's a mixed media ATC exchange. All cards for the swap need to be primarily blue & also use at least 3 different media to create them. Each participant will have 2 partners that they send 2 ATC's to. I love hosting swaps through swap-bot. They make it so darned easy to set them up & you always get a decent number of participants. The only drawback is you occasionally get flaker's (people who flake out & never send) but that happens anywhere you swap unfortunately. Once I get my cards done for that swap they'll make their appearance here.

Day of the Dead

I've been busy this afternoon creating some more ATC's for the hand-drawn Day of the Dead swap. I've managed to create three more so far. I love creating these images! They are so whimsical and vibrant.

Immersed in art

It's been a busy few days art wise. I had several swaps I made ATC's for, including one I'm hosting. Plus the completion of a Goddess doll for a swap. I'm amazed I was able to get so much done this week with all the mayhem at home: sick kids, dr's appointments, the drudgery of housework & laundry. It just goes to show that you can carve out time for art everyday even with a hectic home life.

These six ATC's were for a Funky Zetti swap I'm in. Each one is hand-drawn using various markers.

This is one of the ATC's I made for a Hand-drawn Day of the Dead swap. I love Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) imagery so couldn't resist joining in on another swap featuring them! Actually, I've joined two swaps with DOTD themes. I have a few more cards to make for this swap and then I need to do the ones for the other which is a Zetti DOTD swap. I'm hoping to get to them today.

And last, but certainly not least, is the Goddess doll. The shells were collected by me on Casey Key, which is located on the West coast of Florida. The legs and bottom of the doll are filled with popcorn seeds to enable her to sit up on her own.

On the Darker Side

I'm currently in an ATC swap for Art On The Darker Side. To me, the Darker Side isn't so much dark but emotional, raw and REAL. It is the side of us that doesn't live by societal rules. It's where our deepest emotions reside. A place where we are truly ourselves, imperfections, hang ups and all. Creating so called "darker art" can be very powerful & freeing. It can also make some people feel very uncomfortable when confronted with the rawness of another's emotions. But, art is all about feelings, both negative and positive. I for one embrace that.

Time Flies!

It's been days since I managed to post anything. Where has the time gone? I've been busy with home life and getting caught up on some projects I needed to finish, but even with all that I should of been able to carve out a few moments to post here. Obviously, I'm not an obsessive blogger or I never would of allowed days to go by with out an update! Or, perhaps, it is simply a lack of discipline on my part. I'm sure that's it because being a highly disciplined person is just not in me. I flit from one thing to another, have multiple projects going at a time and generally float through life like a feather on a breeze. It works for me so I don't expect that to change anytime soon.

So, what have I been working on? ATC's, journaling, making a Goddess doll for a swap, altering a denim jacket, reorganizing my bookcases so my newest additions can fit (a loosing battle, by the way) and general chores around the house.

The journal work I did was adding paint, marker & text to a hand-bound & collaged journal I made in a workshop back in December. Raine and I spent a day at Ink About It immersing ourselves in journal making & collage fun with Kelly Kilmer. Kelly was a great person to take a workshop with. She's fun, livley and very creative. And, as luck would have it, she's coming back to this area in August so I'll be jumping on the chance to take classes with her once again.

The cover & pages shown were started in class, with the addition of paint, marker & text being added in my studio.

Big Questions

I love mail art, both sending and receiving it. Give me a cool piece of mail art over plain mail any day. I especially love mail art calls. Creating a mail art piece on a specific theme can be fun, challenging, inspiring or even all three.

Given my love of mail art and mail art calls how could I possibly resist submitting a piece to wackystuff's BIG QUESTIONS call? Of course, I couldn't resist at all and I suggest you don't resist either. Wackystuff creates cool art and offers up equally cool mail art call themes. BIG QUESTIONS is only the latest. Check it out even if you don't end up submitting a piece.


Postmark Deadline: September 30, 2008
Send mail-art asking a significant question to:
BIG QUESTIONS
615 Foul Bay Road
Victoria BC V8S 4H2
CANADA

Badonkadonk

Last night I got together with the other Wild Women in my family & we went and had ourselves a grand old time at the Trace Adkins concert in Lowell, MA. There's nothing like a night of Honky Tonk Badonkadonk to chase away the winter induced blahs & kick start those creative juices. Music is essential to life. It keeps the soul alive.