Comments

I made a few changes to the comments - you are now free to leave a comment without having to log into blogger or have a google/blogger id. I had no idea it was set this way until someone told me they'd forgotten their password. That being said, I did set them to moderated. You never know who might get a wild hair up you know where and post something inappropriate.
So, if you don't see your comment right away, it just means I haven't made it over here in a few days.

Self Portrait

I've been working on a new logo for my Etsy store. I haven't put anything for sale on there in quite a while, but very soon I'm hoping to get new stuff listed. I wanted something bigger (bigger is allowed now!) and more reflective of my art. Oh yeah, and a chance to play with my Intuos tablet a tad more ;)
Turns out, this is way too big to look reasonable on Etsy, but I really like it anyhow. I used a vintage picture from my collection and various "art media" in Painter.

One more digital collage

This one looks a lot more like my regular mixed media pieces ...and yet, it too is digital !

Digital Collage

Today I got a new Wacom Intuos tablet. My old one wouldn't work on my new computer due to it having a serial connection (if that tells you anything...I had it for a long time !!). I've started playing with some of my own digital photography, vintage scans, and the brushes that come with Painter Essentials. It's always good for a creative fix to use it when you're sick of cleaning brushes, cutting things out and the inevitable cleaning up that I dread.

The text on this means "be always on the move".

Valentine's Candy

Today I got some of those candy hearts- they seemed to have serious printing issues and I think only 2 or 3 actually were legible. So, I made my own on the computer :

Here's a site to go make your own Acme Heart Maker

I have some great heart shaped Altoid tins with the paint burnt off that I think I'll be working on this weekend.

if only I could return to India

Today an Indian recruiter called me for a job (at the place where I already work - this happens all the time, I don't understand why recruiters can't seem to actually READ the resume's they have before calling you). I let him ramble on because I just wanted to hear him talk....

let me explain...

a few years ago I worked at a company and built a whole team of people in India from no one to over 225 people in less than two years. Since I'd had the team from the beginning and being that I love to learn about other cultures, my relationship with the managers there grew to be personal enough that we'd send packages, birthday greetings, and such. I was thrilled to actually be able to go there to train them on new project management software in person. I got to see the "real India" - their homes, meet their family's, be taken sight seeing. Then, I sadly became one of those stories you read about where someone grows a team and trains them and then gets laid off. Worked myself right out of a job. The ironic part is that the company was too stupid to figure out where the teams loyalty was after all that time - 9 of the 11 managers had left w/in six months of them letting me go. I still email and talk to a few of them - it's always wonderful when they call me.

I very much miss India. I loved it there and if it weren't for my kids, I probably would have stayed there much longer.

You've never had a mango until you've had one in India during mango season...fresh mango juice for breakfast every day for nearly a month- yummmm.

and with that, I'm adding my India-inspired art which was also published in Somerset Studio(the background is from one of the papers I'd read every day with breakfast, there's an actual stamp one of my team members saved for me, and part of my customs slip too).

AJC - Debby's Pink

Artistic Journey in Color continues...

I finished Debby's Pink page for her Pink and Orange Journal since I had to take today off from work. I'm really pleased with how the page came out - almost exactly what I had in my head. I need more doll arm images! The page is actually slightly bigger than it shows, but it won't all fit on my scanner.

It has many, many layers for the background including paint and alcohol inks....so you can see them, I'm posting a closeup as well.

Now I just need to work on the Orange page.....

I'm published ! Somerset Studio 10th Anniversary

I'm published not once, but twice in the newest (10th anniversary) edition of Somerset Studio magazine. The first piece is part of a collaborative 4x4" fat book(s) project which the lovely and talented Theresa Martin organized with a group of us in the Altered Art Swap Yahoo group.

The second piece is on the very first page of the Expressions section of the magazine. This has all of the "call to art" for Sommerset's 10th Anniversary (hence the 10 theme). Mine is the one with the sign language hands.


I was shocked to be in the magazine twice. I've been published before, but that first rejected piece (now off, hidden in a drawer) still haunts me. I used to go to Border's and drink Berry Mocha's and just oggle all of the eye candy in the magazine. It still astounds me that I'm actually in there !

Ode to Post Secret

For this 5x7" on canvas board, I used an actual vintage image from an old magazine. Normally I make laser copies of images so as not to destroy a bit of history, but this one just called out to me. I'd glued her onto the pink, stamped background a while ago and there she sat...mocking me...saying "are you going to finish me?". Yesterday I found the perfect phrase in one of the vintage books I keep performing surgery on. I love Post Secret and read it every Sunday morning. I think this is a little too big to send in, but perhaps I'll make a print of it and see if it ends up on the site.

Romance...

4x4" wrapped canvas (the design flows over the edges). I transferred the vintage image onto the canvas with Golden Gel Medium and added the stamping and vintage text. I really like these canvases, but I bought the only 3 there were. Hopefully I can find more!

Zest of life

This is a 4x4" (art squared) that I put together while sorting through my piles of papers. I have a habit of cutting text out of vintage books and I must have cut this out for something else and decided it didn't really "fit" - I really like the soft color combination.

Why not?

This piece is on a 4x6" canvas. The edges are wrapped in decorative paper. It has my usual texture, but I was trying out some colors I don't make a practice of combining (orange with turquoise?!). I wasn't too thrilled with it until I added the arrows. It reminds me a bit of my favorite artist-Miro.

Your Spin !

Inspired by the bingo card, I went hunting for my stash of vintage game pieces and came across this spinner I saved with no idea what I'd do to it. It looks a little more "rusty" in person. It's approximately 5x5". I am going to add a hanger to it, but it's so much easier to scan it first than count on a good digital photo.

Bingo Girly

A vintage bingo card became my canvas. I love this image from Paper Whimsy (that the fabulous Bev sent me in my Christmas secret sister package). The card is about 6x8". The detail picture shows the gorgeous colors and textures that are lacking from the full scan.

On with the art !

ah the elusive Patience... not one of my virtues. This piece is on 5x7" canvas board. Layers of paint over texture medium, stamping, vintage image.... the usual mixed media stuff.

I've decided to upload the images one by one rather than fighting with the html to get them to display as I'd like ! (yeah, that patience thing)

What I did on vacation

Normal people go somewhere on vacation. I am not one of those normal people. I unfortunately work a contract job which requires that I work a whole year until I can get a whopping 1 week of vacation time. This is still hard to take after being laid off from a job where I had 3wks vacation, personal days, sick time (not that I took any) and a much more flexible (though I worked many,many more hours than 40wk) schedule.



I spent the first days of my vacation on a mission to get new curtains for my living room after giving up on making them. My windows are not a normal size and I really need at least 95" curtains - times 3 windows makes for pretty pricey and hard to find window "treatments". I got gorgeous brown velvet ones that will require some altering (for length). Why 2 days? The ones I bought said "curtains" when there really was only 1 panel....and the store was out of any more brown, so I had to go to the one in Syracuse. Bored with this tale yet? I am - which is why no alterations have been done yet.

Wednesday I cleaned out my studio. Somewhat. For a house as huge as mine, it's very old and laid out horribly. My studio is the smallest room in the house and packed with stuff. I should count how many fake tupperware containers I got and organized - and it's still not enough, but it is a start. Now for a label maker ! There are piles of papers, vintage photos, and other goodies.... some sorted, some not so much. I can at least see my floor. I can't create if I can't *see* something. This makes no sense to anyone who isn't creative.

I have a terrible habit of stacking everything on the desk and working on my lap instead. Perhaps this should be a new resolution - stop that !

Still a bit more organizing to do with the papers. You could see the counter top at one point. I don't know why I buy them - I would much rather create a painted background 90% of the time. Some are just too gorgeous to pass up. They are (except the ones on the counter) all sorted by color and type. I had to stop attempting to organize them when I couldn't figure out what to do with a bunch of them....sorting by color doesn't work when there are multiple colors. I do have all of my cabinet cards sorted by type as well - that is something!

I may just make a box of "miscellaneous" and sort through it later. The clean countertop was much nicer.

And now it's Friday and I'm all out of "let's clean up this studio" motivation. I did get some things actually created - I'll be posting those next.