Awesome Mail

  Any day I get totally awesome Day of the Dead or Halloween ATC's, papers and such in the mail is my idea of an extremely good mail day. This delightful group came from Alaska. Bet those Muertos were chilly on the way here!

What's on my work table?

What's on my work table varies moment by moment. Here's some of what's on it right now:

   Lots of Dia de los Muertos & sugar skull images for ATC's and cards, Latte pens, ink pads and paper scraps. And that's just in one tiny section of my 6 foot table space! 
  What's on your work table right now?

Mixed Media Monday

  

I started this piece a while back (you can see it here and here), but the La Catrina image got misplaced. She reappeared in a box of miscellaneous papers one day, to my delight, so I immediately got to work on it again.  The substrate is Masonite, covered with papers, paint and gesso. La Catrina has been hand-colored and UTEE added on top. I"ll be adding metal bits, some skull beads and wire to finish it off.
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  I love using up extra bits of paper, paint, inks, etc by making ATC's.
ATC's are a great way to have a finished piece of art quickly, which can be quite satisfying! 

Four mixed-media ATC's made 10/15/11
The top heart is grunge board.

Journal Card 2 of 365

  My boy has been home sick for the past two days so I haven't managed to get much done in the way of art making. It's times like this that make me thankful I chose a simple art project for this year's 365 endeavor.  The journal cards I'm making are small, the same size as an ATC, and quick to make.  Something which makes any long term project easier to see through to completion as far as I'm concerned!

  Card #2 has a lots of glitz on it, which made me want to go back and revamp yesterday's card #1.That one had far more white on it than I like so I added some background color with my Caran d'ache crayons and a bit of bling with my gellyroll pens.  

  I've also decided that one side of the card will be a design prompt rather than a collage prompt because I don't do strictly collage in my art journals. I use an anything goes approach so my cards need to reflect that aspect of things.  

  For whatever reason the color on these photos is way off. They aren't nearly as dull looking as they appear here! In fact they're rather vibrant.

Card 2: Design prompt

Card 2: Journal Prompt

Card 1 Revamped

April 20-22 Journal Pages

Just a quick posting today to show off a few of my latest journal pages. It's cold and rainy here this week so I've been hurting. I'm thankful I can still make art even when I'm in pain. That's one of the things I like best about art, you can do it anywhere! I make a whole lot of art while laying in bed, not just working in my art journals, but also making ATC's, small painted/collaged items, hand-bound journals, postcards, mini art quilts, etc.

I have a bunch of cozy spots inside and outside my house that I regularly create in. One of these days I'm going to photograph all the different places I work just to show people that making art absolutely anywhere is indeed possible!!!!!!

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.

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.

Gothic Arches

I've always loved arches: Roman, Baroque and Renaissance being my three favorites. All are structurally the same but with design differences. In the art world, so called "Gothic" arches are becoming quite popular. Swaps and groups that focus on the Gothic arch abound.

At one of my favorite swapping sites I saw a Gothic Arch ATC swap. Loving arches as I do, how could I possibly resist? The swap called for a Gothic arch with a vintage theme depicted on the cards. These are the cards I'm sending out.