Mixed Media Work

I've been working on several mixed media pieces the past week. This one's inspiration is 'The Visitant' by Theodore Roethke, a poem I came across in a library discard. The image of the woman at center is a packing tape transfer. Love the ethereal quality of tape transfers! At right is a face done with fluid acrylics, Neocolor II crayons and gel pens. She started out as a stencil called Eva by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. Love how you can use her stencils as a jumping off point for creating fabulous painterly portraits! I don't feel quite finished yet, definitely needs more layers to tie it all together.

Journal Pages

  Today is going to be a babbling day. If you prefer to skip the babbling and go straight to the art, go right ahead. I'll never know....  
    It's been a busy week for me. For whatever reason, late autumn is the time I feel most compelled to clean and clear. For three days now I've been going through closets, drawers and cabinets cleaning them out and amassing piles of things to donate. Clothes and shoes mostly. Or rather boots. The women in my family seem to have a hoarding issue when it comes to boots. Especially black boots. I'm not sure what it is about boots, black boots in particular, that we love so much. This love, and hoarding issue, carries over to coats too. I in particular have a weakness for vintage wool coats that I find at the Salvation Army. Something in me cannot possibly leave a vintage 1950's red wool coat with black cuffs and collar or a 1947 full length black wool pea coat to languish, unappreciated, at the thrift store. So I, of course, buy them, usually for less than $10.00, give them a good cleaning and wear them with pride. And love. Lots and lots of love. But I digress...
    What is it about late autumn that makes me want to get every nook and cranny of the house in order? I believe it's an instinctual knowing from deep inside. I know that the cold, dark days and nights are upon us and my time will focus on indoors. Somewhere inside I know indoors needs to be tidied up, swept free of summer's energy and made cozy for the long months ahead. For me, all this must be done before Samhain, October 31. As a pagan, Samhain is one of my most sacred and important seasonal celebrations. It's the time we say good bye to the harvest, give thanks for the abundance of summer, welcome back our ancestors and focus our hearts, minds and spirits on the darkness ahead. It's really a time of renewal and reflection for me and others who dance the spiral of nature based beliefs. Which completely explains why every year I am compelled to cleanse, purge and release that which is no longer needed.

Tiny journal pages, 4.5" x 7".
The one on the left was created using Neocolor II crayons on 9/30/11
The one on the right was created with collage and Gellyroll pens on 4/29/11

Another tiny journal page created with collage and Gellyroll pen on 10/9/11

Page created with collage, ink jet transfer, Sparkling H2O's, and Gellyroll pen
on 10/10/11

Mixed Media Monday

A few mixed media pieces started this week:

  There's Cinderella's little known Bar Hopping Slipper from her pre~prince days. She use to be quite the party animal before settling down with Charming and this is one of her favorite party all night shoes. As is typical for Cinderella, the other one is lost. It was created from an old bridesmaid shoe, beer tabs, a bottle cap, UTEE and molding paste. 

  The other pieces are paint and gesso transfers on masonite. 

  The shoe is finished, the paintings aren't. I love mixing things up so working on that shoe was a blast! Not to mention it was a neat use for an old shoe that had been languishing in the closet. I created another art piece from the matching shoe a few years back which can be seen here

The top front of Cinderella's Shoe

Side view of the shoe. I love the textural quality of this piece!
It's amazing what molding paste and can tabs can do.

Small, mixed media piece in progress.
Masonite substrate, paint, conte and gesso transfers

Small, mixed media piece in progress.
Masonite substrate, paint, conte and gesso transfers

Mixed Media... Tuesday?

A day late for Mixed Media Monday! Having everyone home yesterday had me thinking it was Sunday. I confuse easily. All I know is if I have the house to myself, it must be a week day and if there's people around, it's the weekend. Which explains why having people around yesterday had me thinking it was Sunday!


I signed up with Traci Bunker's second round of 30 Days of Get Your Art On and these creations are part of my 30 days. If you want to check out what Traci did for her 30 days either follow the link above or use the button at right.

4" x 6"on book board

8" x 10" on gesso board, LOVE the transfers and layering

8" x 10" on art board

11" x 14" on canvas, Really like the look of this one. It has an ethereal quality to it.

Mixed-Media Monday's

  I decided Monday's will be the day to share the mixed-media pieces I started over the past week. Or at least as many of them I can capture with my camera phone (note to self: MUST get new digital camera!)  I am really prolific when it comes to creating so it isn't unusual for me to have 20 or more pieces begun in a week's time. and I tend to leap around a lot, from working on substrate to altering objects, to working in paper mache to....  Well, you get the drift.  I'm convinced I have some sort of ADD that only artists have.


  I've been working on backgrounds for a series of paintings. The substrate size & type varies, but they share a color theme & subject matter. There was a chapter heading in an old book I was tearing text out of that caught my imagination (The good strange and the bad strange) so it's being used in each piece. Being quite strange myself, how could I possibly resist?

Another Filled Journal

My most recent completed journal. This is the one I'd bring with me to my favorite Tuesday night journal spot so it took longer to fill than most!