Be Yourself

"To help yourself, you must be yourself. Be the best that you can be. When you make a mistake, learn from it, pick yourself up and move on."

Dave Pelzer

I named the piece "Be Yourself" in honor of the one little fish going it's own way, against the flow so to speak. Sometimes art has little stories to tell quite on their own accord as if they have their own voice and like the current of the ocean I float along with their story that unfolds before me.

The current is similar to an undertow which drags me along, influencing my emotions with thoughts of how I can bring out it's message? How to further it's cause? I came up with the idea (at least I think it was me and not the fish) to stamp "It is what it is" and "Imagine" around the edges of the frame. I juxtaposed the sayings to show how the statements relate to each other. 

The same and not the same.

I just love these brightly colored handmade Boho fish made by Gwen. They truly brighten up the panels with their own one of a kind art, accented with sari scraps, fibers, trims, rhinestones and stenciled designs.

 Each one is a piece of art on it's own accord.

 Even the dangly bits of the Kuchi trims are a joy as they really helped add movement to the seaweed. I love the assortment of colors and how much texture they created, definitely making their own unique mark in my art.

November Product Spotlight

It doesn't matter...

Another collage piece using the "fan artist" Netflix envelope, if you look closely you can see that it's the head I grabbed from the flyer and then added the mermaid body to it with matching grey paint. I did add some glitter to her hair cause a mermaid just has to sparkle somehow! lol

I had a couple pieces left over from a sea themed gel print using my Gel Press® plate so I added them to the corner of the page, so glad I hang on to little bits and bobs like these.

I really don't like the grey coloring but she really does stand out from the background which was made from left over paint on my brayer from mono-printing. 

Netflix artist: Cris Hamilton

The "occassional sidestepping" journey of art

Have you ever had? then lost it? then regained it? in your art? 

I can see some of you nodding your heads and saying
"oh yeah"...

I know I am not alone. 

The "art" to this process is sometimes walking away ( sometimes for a LONG time, like weeks ) but, and this is the hard part...never giving up!

Here is the finished journal cover

The journey

Several weeks..OK, maybe more like several months ago I began working on a cover for my current art journal. I had a pretty good first layer and then I had the bright idea to see if I could drop some alcohol inks on top of the first layer and I liked the results for the most part but it seemed unfinished...and I was regretting the alcohol inks...yet I liked it too....lol

Then I thought I would take this piece of text paper and do a collage around the outside edge of the cover and this is where I go off in the little art abyss where I know I am in trouble but I cannot stop myself. ( kinda like wiggling your legs in quicksand, you know your making it worse, but you just do it anyway! ) I began covering up all the stuff that I really liked....wth? ( insert big sigh here ) and this is where I should have walked away...should have, should have...oh why didn't I?

But noooooo...well, I messed up big, BIG time. I used way too much alcohol ink and it just made a super big YUCK over everything!

I frantically spritzed the cover with alcohol and tried to wipe everything off as best that I could considering the frame of mind I was in by now, and then I very calmly walked away from it. Cleaned up my work space and admitted that I was defeated...for now. 

Then after months of glancing at the disaster every time I opened up my journal to work in it: the idea resurfaced...and it all started with last night's dream

 ( which was really weird and I wish I could remember all of it, hence the words ) 

 So while my dream flitted around in my head...( segway into the afternoon ) 

I was sitting on the couch opening my mail and sorting it into piles...what to keep, what to pay, and lastly my favorite, what to re-cycle into handmade paper when I came across some "fan art" that Netflix ran a contest for ( and which I sadly didn't enter ) big regret now, but oh well...I immediately cut the image out and laid her on top of the journal cover and it just fit...and I knew I wanted to use it along with the words above...very simpatico! 

Netflix artist: Alice Malone

Sometimes the journey in art is a straight path, and sometimes it is the long, winding backroad that you get lost on...and when it's all over it doesn't seem so painful and ridden with angst...it seems to be just something you had to go through to get where you are.

Would you pay to be judged?

It's that time of year again where I give away money to be judged. 

::the sound of silence, crickets chirping::

It's a scary thing, entering a juried show...I feel like shouting: "Hey judges, here is my heart art, please like it"...then whispering "and can I have my money back if you reject it?" OK, so I know it's non-refundable, but hey, it's my blog and I'll make absurd wishes if I want to. 

BUT, I rarely do juried shows except for this one because it supports The Arts Council of Henderson County which benefit from the entry fee. 

So there, I am a contributing member to the arts.

This is one of my pieces I will be entering, it took me a year to finish it...not because it was that difficult but because it's a little  a LOT tedious. I had to be "in the mood" to sit down and tear thousand of little tiny strips of paper from magazines that I had to sort by colors. LOTS of sorting and LOTS of tearing.

 Did I mention how tedious this process is?

Even the sides of the canvas are covered in strips of magazine pages. I use text on the sides. I do that so they ( the people looking at my art and ya know those judges busy judging my art ) know it's from magazines, not just cardstock which would be a heck of a lot easier to work with. A LOT easier.

I also try and do some feathering in each one of my pieces for the birds. This is done by cutting out the tiny feathers with tiny scissors and then attaching them with tweezers. I will note that my work doesn't go unappreciated, the other 2 bird collages sold...so yay me!.. it is worth doing, but I am in no way cranking them out. One a year seems to be my pace.

I used 3 types of magazines for this piece:

Outdoor Photographer (for the greens, grays, and browns)

Sundance (for all the pastel and red colors)

Birds and Blooms (for the text for the upper ½ of the canvas)

Yes, I hoard magazines for certain colors.

Will they understand that when I die and they come remove me from my place, that my hoarding was done for the sake of my art?

Wish me luck...on both accounts!

Tangled Mountains

I admit I am not much for the art of Zen tangling, it just hurts my hand, I guess I grip my pen too tightly but it's uncomfortable to say the least. However I was asked to do it for our blog hop and if you want to join in and go through the designer's blogs you might win a Petite set of plates from Gel Press™. I am entering my mixed media piece in 

ColourArte's Monthly challenge to use warm colors.

I did try out something new on my plate, ColourArte's Silks, and Gelatos...

Yummy prints!

Just shut up Sandee

I can remember the first time I had a story printed about me in the local newspaper and being so excited and then totally dismayed at the picture they posted of me, or the time they wrote another newspaper story about me and thinking...seriously, that is a little exaggerated! My feelings for being put in print have diminished over time because now, my first thoughts are...

what are they going to do to it? 

Now, don't get me wrong, I still have kept every article, every story ever written because it is exciting, it is an ego boost to have you memorialized in print.

But it just makes me wary nowadays.

My latest publication is a feature article written about me and about the upcoming Artists Studio Expo show coming up on July 25th in the Bold Life magazine. If you would like to read the article then you can go here. 

Now I am NOT trying to be sour grapes and all, and I AM appreciate of being featured in the magazine but sometimes I just say "huh?" when I see what they do, in this case it's the picture they put up on the page next to the article. If you go read the article you will see that the picture below doesn't correspond as well to the article as the one I sent to them, which was Night Watch...sigh...oh well, as one of my fellow artist from the Art MoB pointed out to me, any publicity is good publicity.

If you want to see the "how to" behind the Laced in Copper canvas, feel free to check out the Helmar blog post... as it has nothing to do with the article..smh

***update 7 - 19 - 15 ***
( Guess I cannot complain too much because since I published this post, this canvas has sold )

Laced in Copper- $175.00 12x24" mixed media canvas - acrylic, hand stitching, metallic floss, beads with acrylic skins

This is the one that I sent in to the magazine for them to publish with the article, which correlates to the questions that they asked me :) Although they didn't use it in the printed magazine they at least used it in the online piece!

12x36 "Night Watch" Mixed Media Magazine Collage canvas $225.00

I am always amazed that they write anything about me, so I need to just shut up, huh?

Anyway, check back on Sunday to see how the show turned out!

Give me some skin!

Recently I took a self paced workshop sponsored by Strathmore. I love their classes and they always have great instructors like Traci Bausta. In lesson 3 she did a study in making acrylic skins, which I have previously done ( by accident? ) every time I used my acrylic paints! lol Explanation needed? Probably so...:)

When I use my paints I pour them out on top of a plastic lid, when they dry they become a skin which you can peel off. I love peeling off the thick globs of paint, like a kid eating glue. OK, I'm strange, I'll admit it to you! I've only used the skins in my art once before when I made "Alice has a cup of tea" canvas. The tea cup is made from skins from left over paint. 

Here is a picture of the canvas. ( sold )

So this is the background to my DT post over on the Helmar blog today, and only you, my faithful blog reader will know that when I made my canvas I was using left over dried blobs of paint in my art. Honestly I didn't even know that skins were considered an art form at that time, I was just being me, using up weird and unusual things! lol

I did make another canvas using my newly made skins...you can see it over on the Helmar blog :) but here is a sneaky peek!

Silhouette style canvas

Well, here I go again. :)

I have an upcoming show scheduled at the Art MoB Studios and Gallery on Dec. 5th ( time is yet to be scheduled for the opening ).

They loved my "Wildlife Silhouette series" and I'm so excited that they do!

All the canvases are painted with ink backgrounds with acrylic silhouettes.

The following 3 silhouettes are painted with the same ink background and DecoArts Black Tie Multi-Surface Satin Acrylic paint, with the only difference in adding DecoArts Interference from their Media Fluid Acrylics line. I wish I could take better pictures to get the true effect because if you look at the paintings from head on you cannot see the Interference paint, but one the light hits it from an angle, the paint really pops. It's quite a cool effect. It also shows up better on dark colors, hence "Flight" shows the effect better and the other 2 are more subtle, but still lovely.

"Flight"

with Interference Gold

"Family"

 with Interference Magenta

"Heat"

showing Interference Magenta

"Patience"

showing Interference Gold

Here are more from the Wildlife Silhouette series, but these are without the DecoArt Interference paints.

"Searching"

"Waiting"

"Wanderlust "

"Falling"

"Nevermore"

Now I just need to come up with a name for the show, not sure if "Wildlife Silhouettes" is enough? I feel like it needs a little oomph. I have enjoyed naming each piece though as they have all "spoken" to me as I created them.

And framing, this series will all be framed in black.

Remembering 9-11-01

This is my journal page after I had gently ripped off some netting that I had glued down with my Helmar Collage Paste. After removing the netting I was left with some very textured surface which I then covered over with the left over paint from my brayer. I always keep my journal open to pages that I had messed up when I am playing with my gelli plate, so no paint gets wasted!

Sometimes from mistakes, you get cool textures. Both pages pretty much had the same overall effect of leftover collage paste, glitter and netting imprint. I REALLY liked it and never would have been able to achieve this effect if I had wanted to....even if I had tried really hard! lol

So these pages were left open while I made my Gelli prints, rolling the left over paint that was on the brayer onto the pages. After I made my prints, I was then left with this mess on my Gelli plate:

One of the easiest ways to clean off a dried Gelli plate is by removing the paint with packing tape. Lay it across your plate, rub it, and pull it off to reveal an almost perfectly clean plate.

Of course, then you have all these lovely translucent strips of tape to play with so I did what any creative person would do....used them! I adhered them onto the journal with my Helmars Decoupage Paste and I really liked how they looked. They are the same colors but more intense looking when over laid across the painted pages of the journal book. You can see where I marked them to be cut so I would have an even border around them leaving the texture visible.

I used my Helmar Decoupage and Craft Paste to adhere the strips of painted packing tape to the page. Once that was done I used Sharpie marker to sketch out a skyline and the Statue of Liberty onto the packing tape for my layout design.

Over on the Helmar blog today I made stencils for Gelli printing by using the Foam Glue. I hope you hop over there and check it out, so much better than using a hot glue gun!