HappyDayArt!

Thought I should work on something

I'm in my studio today, since I spent the month of January resting on my laurels. I really did not do much last month in the way of art except maybe a birthday card, and a necklace. Orders for bracelets are coming in now, and I suppose I should get back to work. I have to admit that sometimes I wait for the last possible moment to start a project because I'm still thinking about the details. The picture I have posted here is a detail from the birthday card for my friend Jackie. I scanned it after it was done and altered it in Photoshop with my favorite filter called "posterize". Sometimes I like to add another called "ink outlines". I love plain line drawings and ones with color too. The way I started this picture was by cutting out hearts and using acrylic medium to glue them over a beautiful piece of a fancy art design bag. Then adding it to a card made of torn and folded watercolor paper. I gessoed the top of the card, because I didn''t want any color to bleed through. I really had fun adding red acrylic paint and lace, feathers, and more paint. It really was an experiment because I have never done this before. I really like the way it turned out, and since I only have this detail I am posting here, it is really just digital. The painting was very different. Here is another spot on it. Click on it for a larger photo.
Oh, here is the original. I like them all. I had so much fun! Happy Birthday Jackie!

This is the dog outside my front door

It welcomes our friends when they come to our house. I can pull the head up and out, since the neck is a slot and turn its face the opposite way. My kids do that every time someone leaves. The head is then turned to say goodbye.

Yesterday I got some Copic markers. They are awesome! great for journaling and making cards and artstamps. I got a big pack of 72 and two small packs of 12. One of the 12-packs is toner greys and blacks so that I can touch up copy machine transfers when I need to. My husband gave them to me for my birthday (don't worry, it isn't till March) he just gave them to me now because I have wanted them and the idea came to me when a friend was bragging about her new birthday present.

Here is a picture I love. It was a photo of a rose. But then I made extreme adjustments to the color in iphoto. Then I took it into Photoshop and double posterized it. I want to make a pendant out of this.

I am going to Artfest again this year. It will be my third in a row. I am so excited! I'm taking an acrylic painting class from Diane Culhane called "Between Speech and Silence" on the first day. Then, on the second day I am in a class called "Beyond the Unexpected" with Claudine Hellmuth doing collage. On the third day I have a fancy lettering class called "Funky Fresh" with Lisa Engelbrecht. My favorite night is Vendor Night. It is a huge shopping bonanza where you can buy your teachers' artworks and see what all these artists are making. I can hardly wait to see what Nina Bagley and LK Ludwig will have at their tables.

Every year I leave Artfest, I feel tired and a bit drained. I've seen and done so much by the time I leave that honestly I don't think I could keep up that pace for very long. I get up around 7 am and don't go to bed/sleep till around 2 am. By Sunday at 11, which is checkout time I'm so happy to be in the car driving down the quiet rural highway, I don't even turn on the radio. Images flash in my mind and I love to meditate on what I've seen, heard and created. Every year, after Artfest, my art changes, evolves and morphs into a new thing. I love what's happening to me. I feel more inspired and able to go with the flow of where my ideas take me than I ever have. I recreated my studio/work area because of it. I added new media to work in as well. I've met so many new people who love what I love, to make art and I don't feel like I'm in it all alone.

Check out this thing. It is an amazing and unusual experience!

I've been experimenting with...

I've been experimenting with watercolor, collage and pen and ink. I'm into it. Aside from buying my 30th black ink felt pen, cause I'm crazy about the different widths and I've had to get a set for my purse, my workshop downstairs, a travel art kit, oh, and upstairs too. I am cutting out little pictures, I have a big pile. The collage part is fun, I just have to steel myself every day, because I am wanting to horde all the little cutouts. Is that crazy? It's like they are scarce or something. They are now to me like my beads, or metal or yarn, paints...an art supply that has unlimited potential. Now if I could just decide.

I started this to do something I've not done before. This is the year I will explore things, activities, art styles I haven't tried before or have rejected in the past. In a way, all the experience I have gotten up till now makes me capable, but what's in it for me? I want to do something fun now!

And the next thing I want to figure out here is how to attach a link in my text, so I can send you all somewhere I want you to go to check out something interesting. I'll get back to you on that...

Happy New Year!

I was sitting up late last night making some artstamps. I like to stick them to the cards I attach to my pieces of jewelry. I thought January 1st was a good time for some new ones. Here is another. I have been thinking of marigolds, so I found this picture and scanned it and set the letters and other information with Photoshop.

I also loaded a bunch of photos of work I have done in the last 4 months, jewelry and ceramics, and a set of photos of my studio in the house since I reorganized it this fall. Check out my albums. I love this new tool Typepad! Here is another version: