The Notebook

Yvonne’s project up at Limberlost was making a notebook with Sara Binder envelopes and paper. We had initials to put on the front. But by the time I’d decorated the cover with some black stippling and a flourish stamp I borrowed from Bev, the letters didn’t seem to fit in. I ended up using a tiny mirror instead because I decided that looking into it would let me know that the notebook belonged to me.
Now I just have to figure out what to use it for. I’m thinking it might be a good place to list all those art supplies I’ve amassed but haven’t got to yet. On second thought, I’ll probably have to add a whole pile of new pages.

Inspiration

Terry Garrett sent me this collage—Flight Over Atlantis—earlier in the week, and I can’t stop looking at it. I must have studied it a hundred times in the last few days trying to figure out why I’m so drawn to his piece.
I can come up with certain reasons why it speaks to me, of course—the colors Terry used, his subject matter and the composition, but in the end, it’s all about how everything fits together and the effect it has on me.
I find I respond strongly to a work of art when it sheds light on something inside me that I didn’t know was there, and there’s always a feeling of excitement when this happens. Sometimes I respond visually, but in this case, I’m thinking that Flight Over Atlantis is the illustration for a story I haven’t written yet—so thank you for that unexpected gift, too, Terry.

Moo Challenge #27

I had a great idea for wings, this week’s Make a Moo or Two theme, but I couldn’t find the wings in question even though I looked everywhere for them. That’s one of the problems of having too much raw material. You may know what you have, but it remains theoretical until you can actually get your hands on it. Obviously I need a better filing system, but the thought of reorganizing everything is daunting. One of these days though…In the end, I managed to find a small enough image of wings and a couple of other stamps that worked. Then I scanned everything—along with some scrapbooking paper—and created a virtual moo in Photoshop. Not as satisfying as the hands-on variety, but making art is always an experiment, isn’t it?

Serendipity

Sometimes what you’re looking for is right under your nose. I was chatting to my next-door neighbor, Dave, the other day and he asked me about my David. I explained that David had a glass art show going on in West Virginia, and that he was working on a contract building kilns and fabricating panels for another glass artist.
“So have you ever made glass yourself?” Dave asked.
“No,” I replied “To be honest with you, I’ve always been more interested in working with Plexiglas. I have several ideas about how I could use it, if only I knew how.”
At this point Dave started grinning.
“I know, I know,” I said sheepishly. “It sounds kind of cheesy being attracted by plastic rather than glass.”
“Oh, I get your fascination with it all right,” laughed Dave. Turns out he has a Plexiglas fabrication and vacuum forming company. He’s worked with artists before and says he will teach me anything I want to know.

Recovering

Three days of eating, laughing and art marking up at Limberlost really took the wind out of my sails. But in a good way.
Normally I come home with everything half done because I insist on nit picking over the finishing details. However, this time I decided I would complete my projects no matter what. This involved staying up late for a couple of nights with the other die hards: Carin, Bev and Yvonne. (When my energy level picks up, I’ll recharge my camera battery, and take some pictures of my favorite projects to post here).
One of the things Marg did with us was faux postage, which I really enjoyed. I’ve done a lot of it in the past, and I’d forgotten how much fun it is. The others made cards from theirs, but I knew what I’d done would work better in my journal. I do most of my stamping there, and since we were trading our images around with each other, I was able to add some new ones to play with. I usually stamp these images randomly and then use them as a starting point when I’m writing an entry.
Not that I did any journaling while I was there. It’s a private pursuit and we were all feeding off the group energy. At one point I was stuck on a project and Yvonne came along, picked up a tiny piece of paper and said: “Add this.” So I did and everything fell into place.

Limberlost Project

When I took a photo of my project that we’ll be making up at Limberlost this weekend, the black frame didn’t turn out, so I cropped the picture to show you what the image inside it will look like.
I started with a frame from the dollar store, removed the glass and used the particleboard backing as my template cutting out a rectangle from textured paper. The stamp I chose is one from Catherine Moore’s French Laundry series, which I ordered from Jennifer Pearson Vanier.
I stamped on patterned scrapbooking paper, glued it on thin foam and then cut the image out so it would look dimensional. To finish everything off, I added more scrapbooking paper, chirogami, a postage stamp and flower, and a piece of Mary’s lace along the bottom.
Framing stamped images is something I’ve been planning to experiment with for a while, and I really enjoyed putting this prototype together. Hopefully my stamping buddies will have fun with the project too.

It’s Official!

We all went to Roy Thompson Hall yesterday to see Emma called to the bar. My dad was able to make it, and we were thrilled about that. Right in the middle of the ceremony my mother leaned over and said to me: “You know, you were smart enough to be a lawyer too.” For some reason, she's had this idea in her head for years, so I couldn't resist whispering back: “Well, it didn’t work for me so I had to force Emma to get with the program, Mum.” Seriously, though, I think Emma ended up becoming a lawyer because we “let” her do exactly what she wanted to do.

Moo Challenge #26

Autumn is in the air—and it’s also the theme of this week’s Make a Moo or Two challenge. To prepare, I dug out my favorite leaf stamp, some pigment inks and markers, and indulged in a little embossing. It was embossing that got me hooked on stamping in the first place, and as any stamper will tell you, it never really loses its magic.

The TV Thing...

I can’t wait to watch Project Runway and the next rerun of Lost tonight. We’re several weeks behind the U.S. with Project Runway, but so far I’ve resisted checking out who’s in, or—in Heidi’s words—who’s “auf.”
Over the years I’ve become more comfortable with my TV addiction mainly because I’m also obsessed with reading, writing, Photoshop-ing and making art—more virtuous activities that offset my predication to sit in front of the electronic altar 24/7. (Fortunately there aren’t enough good programs on to tempt me to do that.)
One of the earliest memories I have is of watching TV with my cousin Ann, and I still remember the first cartoon I ever saw. Pluto encounters a drowning kitten and for some reason (probably because he’s a dog) can’t decide whether or nor not to save her. There’s a confrontation between a devil and an angel, who keeps crying: “Pluto, save the kitty.” I’m pretty sure the angel won out or else I would have been scarred for life.
I put my fascination with TV down to fact that we didn’t have our own set until I was in the eighth grade. We christened it by watching an episode of Alfred Hitchcock’s Thriller that was so scary my brother Robin and I spent the whole show with our arms wrapped tightly around each other. Come to think of it, Robbie loves his TV too. Guess we’re both just making up for lost time.

Back on Track

For the past few days our Internet has been up and down (down mainly), but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we’re back on track now.
Otherwise it’s been a good week. Towards the end of August I made the decision to go Artfest in 2009, and I received my confirmation package on Wednesday which was exciting for me because I was fortunate to get all my first workshop choices: an encaustic wax class with Judy Wise, Lynne Perrella ‘s A Face in the Crowd, and last but not least, Spontaneous Intent Clayboard with Mary Beth Shaw. Now all I have to do is to start saving up for the plane trip to Seattle, and figure out how to stuff so many art supplies into my suitcase.
I also had another piece of good news on Wednesday. I heard that I’m going to be having a solo art show at The Whitney Gallery in Brampton from October 8th to November 15th, 2009. It’s small but pretty gallery, which is part of the Peel Heritage Complex, the location of our regional art gallery and museum.
On Thursday night I went to an opening there and saw some great photos of dolls taken by Fausta Facciponte. After experiencing her work, I really got the itch to work larger. Hmmm …guess I have a real incentive now to experiment with something new and to see what happens.

Moo Challenge #25

The theme for the Make a Moo or Two challenge this week? European Cities. When I think of places I’d like to visit in Europe, Florence, London, Paris, Amsterdam and Barcelona immediately come to mind. But I choose Haarlem in The Netherlands instead. Why? Well, for one thing, it gave me an excuse to play with some vintage photos of the city I’d scanned a few months ago. And for another, Haarlem is known as the flower city, which is what Brampton—the city where I live in Canada— calls itself, too ...although anyone checking out my garden would understand immediately that I’m not keeping up with my civic duty.
I don’t know how these moos will look on your monitor because they have a lot of black. But hopefully I’ve done Haarlem justice. The moo on the right shows The Grote Kerk (Great Church), and the one on the left, Groot Heiligland, a street in Haarlem that has buildings dating from the fifteenth century.

Reading for Inspiration

I was thrilled when David gave me one of my favorite books for my birthday: Parallel Visions: Modern Artists and Outsider Art. It’s out of print but John used to get it for me from the U. of T. library and now I finally have a copy of my own.
If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know I’m interested in outsider art, and Parallel Visions discusses how artists outside the mainstream have influenced “professionals” like Jim Dine, Jean Dubuffet, Max Ernst and Niki de Saint Phalle.
What captivates me about outsider artists is their sense of destiny and compulsion when it comes to their work. They don’t let age, social status, so-called sanity, poverty or lack of skill get in the way of expressing their art. This is fortunate because many of them are old, poor, uneducated, eccentric, and even in some cases—certifiably insane!
When you’re overburdened by the feeling that you should be creating amazing stuff—or not doing anything at all—think of them. Outsider artists don’t worry about their self-confidence or their niche in the marketplace, they just express themselves through their art and trust that it will take them where it wants them to go.

An Artful Weekend

The weekend got off to a good start with our ATC meeting Friday night. The circus was this month’s theme and even though I didn’t have time to make trades, Daniza, Shirley and Sandy each gave me a card (see above).
As usual we had a great time. I had a wonderful heart-to-heart with Sandy, scored a fab stash of vintage lace from Mary, looked at Colette’s inspiring nature journal, chatted with Martha about Artfest and made plans to go to the Creative Festival in October with Daniza. Then on the way home, Susan and I discussed our love of painting and how we’d like to do more of it—and work larger too.
On Saturday I spent most of the day figuring out my group project for the Red Hat stamping weekend on the 26th. Usually I do something that involves measuring, cutting and folding: i.e. a portfolio one year and an ATC box the next. This time I thought I’d try a mixed media project and finally got it all together about three in the morning. I hope they enjoy doing it.
Today I worked on assemblages off and on all day. It’s interesting working on several things at once. When I spread my energies out like this, I don’t feel the pressure to finish anything or to make it perfect. It’s a very pleasurable way of spending time because you lose all sense of it.

In Praise of Cupcakes

Pictures of delectable treats online always prompt me to make a beeline for the kitchen. Ronna and Lenore often share photos of food they’ve enjoyed, prepared or have come across on their blogs, and this morning Leslie posted a picture of her birthday cupcakes. (Many happy returns of the day, girlfriend).
While I was reading Leslie’s blog, it occurred to me that cupcakes and desserts in general are aesthetic objects …a joy to look at, to hold and to taste. The assemblage artist Joseph Cornell was addicted to sweets. From what I’ve read about him, desserts compromised the main part of his diet. When he was working late at night on his art at the kitchen table, he’d stop to gorge himself on pastries. And if he was feeling cold, he would turn his oven on low and stick his head and shoulders inside to warm up. Not that this has anything to do with his addiction to desserts, but it was apparently the only baking he ever did.
Wayne Theibaud is another artist who was inspired by sweets. He did a whole series of paintings based on cakes, sundaes and pies. If you’re interested, you can check one of them out here.

Moo Challenge #24

This week’s theme over at Make a Moo or Two is pumpkins. I always associate them with Halloween, but since that celebration is a few weeks away I decided to go psychedelic. I found a free image of pumpkins on Wikipedia, and then layered it with some of my own images using different Photoshop blending modes.
Pumpkins remind me of my dad too. When we were children, he would buy the biggest pumpkin available around Halloween, and then spend hours carving it. But instead of cutting the eyes, nose and mouth right out, Dad would carefully remove the skin and leave the second layer intact. Once he’d put the light inside, the pumpkin face would have an eerie, appealing glow. My mother also got in on the action. There were delicious pumpkin pies and toasted seeds for us to munch on after the carving was complete even though all we basically did was watch my dad exercise his creativity …i.e. every year he designed a different face.

That Doll Thing

Last night as I was dropping off to sleep, I was thinking about dolls—specifically, what it is about them that fascinates me so. This is almost a primal attachment because it's has been with me ever since I can remember.
In many of the pictures of me as a little girl, I’m holding a carefully wrapped doll, and somewhere in the Bastille that our crawl space has become, I have three of my favorites packed away—Posey, Miss Canada and Elaine. Sometime I must unearth them and take photos.
But in the meantime, I’m ruminating about why I love dolls. I don’t think it’s an extension of the female baby barometer. I mean, I like babies but I don’t get all squooshy inside when I see one. And I was never a girly girl who kept her dolls in pristine condition; mine were always well used.
So what is it then? I’ve come to the semi-conclusion that dolls must be iconic for me because they seem to be the expression of something inside me. Now—if I could just figure out what that something actually is …

Subscribing

I’m not one of those people who subscribe to popular magazines like US Weekly and Vanity Fair, although I admit to flipping through them when I’m in the checkout line at the supermarket. I do subscribe to special interest magazines and zines like RubberStampMadness, ATC Quarterly and Art & Life though. It’s my way of keeping in touch with the rest of the world when it comes to art that inspires me.
But why subscribe? Well, I remember something I read in Poets and Writers about ten years ago. The editor of a prestigious poetry quarterly was being interviewed about the thousands of submissions his publication received every year. He remarked that most of the people sending him poems weren’t subscribers, and added that a subscription would cost them about the same as a case of beer. Even though I had no idea what a case of beer cost, this comparison has always stuck in my mind.
As a writer, I know that magazines and zines depend on subscribers to keep them going—whether the publication is a labor of love, a business or both. And much as I love trolling the Internet for news and information, there’s nothing quite like curling up in bed after a hard day with one of my favorite mags. It’s a form of tangible, low-tech grazing that I don’t think will ever go out of style.

Moo Challenge #23

Butterflies—the Make a Moo or Two theme this week—remind me of Emma. When she was about eight or nine, a monarch butterfly landed on her lip and stayed there for ages. Animals like her too. Just last week, a sleek marmalade cat followed her home from the bus and meowed outside her bedroom window for about an hour.
I’m not sure what this combination of butterflies and Emma will look like on your browser, though, because I haven’t calibrated my monitor to my new computer yet. It’s not a job I’m forward to because I’m so picky about how the color onscreen matches my print out. But since it’s now or never for this week’s moos, I took a stab at it anyway. Then it turned out that one of my moos was the wrong size, so I had to start over again. Mistakes like this always seem to happen when I’m over-tired, but if I only did things when I felt fresh and vibrant, there are a lot of things that would never get done.

Old and New

After reading about Jennifer’s round robin opposites journal on her blog the other day, I kept thinking about the theme she chose: old and new. For some reason it really appealed to me, so I decided to play with an istock scan of an antique photo album, an old map, a watercolor painting and a diagram of computer circuits.
I had to get the circuits in there because I’ve spent the last couple of days adding programs and peripherals to my new computer. Can’t say I’m sorry to see the old one go though. It had been lumbering along for weeks and Photoshop was getting slower and slower. But being a digital keener meant I just kept forging ahead trying to apply first aid until …well, all I can say is that it’s a relief to have speed and more space.

Changes

Emma moved into her new place this weekend and it was one of those bittersweet life passages—for me at least. Sweet because we now have more space in the house, which has been topsy turvy with her stuff for the last couple of weeks. But mostly it’s sad to see her go because we’ve had so much fun together over the summer. She starts work full time as a corporate lawyer on September 8th and it’s unlikely that she will ever be coming home again to live.
I know I won’t be seeing as much of Emma in the future either because of her job, and I shed more than a few tears when I walked into her empty bedroom after the moving van left. I guess now is the perfect time to ease that empty spot in my heart by doing some art.

Moo Challenge #22

Well, it’s Make a Moo or Two time again …or in this case, make three. It’s surprising what a challenge it is to work on such a small scale. I would like to use rubber stamps more than I do, but even though I have a ton of them, I often don’t have ones that will fit.
This week the theme is flowers which I really enjoyed, and I used Dover clip art for for my images with scrapbooking paper as a background. I know I’ve mentioned this before on my blog, but it’s worth noting again. If you sign up for Dover's weekly newsletter, there are always free samples you can download. It’s smart advertising on Dover’s part because you can’t resist buying some of the books they’re promoting.

Whew!

I was invited to submit a portfolio to a gallery for a possible show next year, and I’ve finally finished putting it together. I knew it was going to take a lot of work, but I didn’t realize exactly how much. Because I make most of my income from writing, I’m always organized in that area. When it comes to art though, it’s a free-for-all. I have stuff everywhere and anywhere.
Trying to decide what to include was the worst part—well, not quite as bad as my computer/printer problems—but bad enough. I felt that I should include everything I’ve ever done in case just one piece might sway the board in my favor. In the end, I had to go with what fit the pages of my portfolio—that, or spend weeks obsessing about it. The piece shown is an assemblage made from a large light switch that we had to alter for Carmi’s Extraordinary and Exceptional Society of Mixed Up Media Artists. In all we had 25 challenges and this was number three.
Sadly, Carmi is too busy with the One of a Kind Show and other projects to continue organizing and running the club. But I for one am grateful to have been a part of it. Thank you for everything Carmi. You really pushed me to grow and develop as an artist, as well as providing me with friendships that will last a lifetime.

What does a geranium smell like?

I’ve never had a good sense of smell. The odd time an odor penetrates my awareness, a color immediately springs to mind …i.e. bananas remind me of purple, and purple smells like a banana.
For this reason, I’m mystified when one odor is used to describe another. I mean if you say something smells like a skunk, I certainly get that because I’ve de-skunked my dog a couple of times. But on the whole, I’d have to say that smell is uncharted territory for me; when I was trying to figure how to describe the odor of a geranium, all I could come up with was something visual.

Fun with Mary

I finally got a chance to spend a few days with Mary at her boat this week and had a fantastic time. I was surprised by how large the boat is. There’s a kitchen, a bathroom with shower, a bedroom and a living room/dining room. It was wonderful to fall asleep looking at the stars and full moon with the boat gently rocking.
During the day we were busy boating around the area, and going antiquing and junk shopping. We both picked up some nifty bargains. My favorite find? Three old cigar boxes for assemblage and two rolls of player piano paper. Mary zeroed in on some great stuff as well, including a couple of big bags of brass shell casings in different sizes. She could hardly believe her luck, and when we got back to the boat, she promptly started amputating Barbie hands and feet to add to them (see below). Being in on the action meant I got some of her stash, but fortunately she has enough left over to add to her Etsy store.

In every way it was the ideal get-away for me. Beautiful surroundings, great food and plenty of time spent chatting and making art. Mary worked on her jewelry and I mainly concentrated on assemblage, although I did try Ludgera’s wallpaper technique using black gesso. (Not that it turned out the way hers did, but I live in hopes).

The experience of retreating from the cares of everyday life, and focusing on art and friendship was really rejuvenating for both of us. I’ve come away from it all convinced we can have more fun and find more meaning in our lives if we make a pact with ourselves to live in the now.

Moo Challenge #21

Because I only have one image with wheels (the Make a Moo or Two theme this week), it was easy to decide what to go with. I’d already used this Tim Holtz stamp in my journal recently, but I had to cut it up and reassemble things so it would fit into the moo format. Even though it ended up looking busy, I like the combination of elements. There’s something appealing about an old map, a ticket, a tape measure and a vintage car.

To be or not to be

A couple of days ago I took this picture of a bee on Lily’s dog towel. The bee stayed there for ages and let me get close enough to take a good look at his wings (which looked a little chewed up in places to me). I thought he might have been injured, but after a long nap he got it together and flew away.

Argh...

I’m in an argh-ish kind of mood lately because I’m in the middle of a number of projects where there’s no end in sight. Not good for a closure-centric person like me. Have you ever noticed that what appears to be simple will inevitably become complicated? I remember writing an article a few years ago back that should have been straightforward but rapidly deteriorated. I started keeping track of all the phone calls I was forced to make and ended up with a total of 101, which has given me an aversion to anything containing 1-0-1 …i.e. Decluttering Your House 101. (Yeah, sure).

Moo Challenge #20

I’ve been doing the Make a Moo or Two challenge for five months now, but I was tempted to forgo this one: Schooldays—because I couldn’t seem to come up with something that wasn’t generic. Then I thought I’d try something based on the traditional school picture. I wasn’t that happy with what evolved from this idea. However, it did revive my dormant interest in designing my own line of rubber stamps.

Venus & the Streetlight

I’ve never had the knack of taking good pictures on any kind of consistent basis. Percentage-wise I probably get one decent shot out of twenty. That’s why I prefer working with other people’s images rather than my own.
John, on the other hand, takes plenty of great photos. I liked the ones he took of a blue sky with a streetlight and my plaster copy of the Venus de Milo, so I decided to blend them in Photoshop and add a map. Now John says we have to have a discussion about copyright issues.

Mother Nature

Tonight is our ATC meeting and the theme is nature. Even though I thought I was organized well in advance with my cards, after I’d cut everything out, things fell apart visually. None of my stamps seemed to work and the colors looked limp. So it was back to the drawing board for me.
I ended up scanning a Victorian postcard of Mary’s and then used an istock image for the face. Incorporating this really challenged my Photoshop skills, but I was pleased with the result.
After I’d printed out my ATCs, I decorated them with a glitter pen and added a jewel. To get around the fact that the effect is slick rather than organic, I decided to call my card “Mother Nature.” I usually think of her as middle-aged and voluptuous, but who says she can’t be young and sleek?

David's Opening

Tonight is the opening of Threshold Awareness, David’s art show at the Museum of American Glass in Weston, West Virginia, and we’re so excited for him! Emma drove down with David on Tuesday to deliver 29 of his glass bricks and to help him with the installation.
He is the first contemporary artist who has been invited to show at the museum, which has a 12,000 square foot space devoted to the history and display of factory glass in America. My grandfather was a factory glass artist—and David originally thought of being one too—so it’s interesting that this should be the venue of his first solo U.S. show.
For more information on the show and how David makes his bricks, check out the press release on his website.

Moo Challenge #19

I wasn’t sure what I could do with music, the Make a Moo or Two theme this week (mainly because I have so few musical images). But I do like this Rossetti painting called Veronica Veronese and decided to use it as the basis for a trio of moos.
I spent quite a bit of time playing with the image in Photoshop, and in the end changed very little—just recolored the background, highlighted the bird and added some handwriting of Verdi’s. Not very creative when I think about it. Still, the process of examining the painting was enjoyable.
Rossetti’s women always seem to be striking a pose, but they’re also strangely appealing and mysterious—like this particular model, for instance. Is she preparing to play her violin, wishing she knew how or distracted by the canary singing in its cage? I wish I knew.

Getting Organized

Whenever I make a serious attempt to get organized, something usually happens to derail me. This time it was my digital rodent—i.e. my mouse. Let me tell you, there’s been a lot of cursing about cursors going on around here. It’s always sobering to recognize just how dependent you are on your equipment, and the fact that it’s a long weekend doesn’t help any either.
I’ve been trying to figure out why things like this tend to occur at the wrong time, and I’ve come to the conclusion this happens when I’m taking myself too seriously.

Moo Challenge #18

What is your favorite theme? That’s the challenge at Make a Moo or Two this week. I had trouble making up my mind because there are so many images I like …postal stuff, numbers, words, faces, science diagrams, maps etc. In the end I decided to just rummage through some of my stamps and go with what appealed to me at the moment.
The theme that immediately presented itself was Sisters. I am very close to my sister Pam, and my friends feel like sisters to me too. Although, now that I think of it, I have several male friends and two brothers I adore, so I could just as easily chosen Brothers. Oh well, maybe next time.

Field Trip

It’s been months since Mary and I went to Active Surplus and Above Ground, so we rendezvoused after work to stock up on nifty bits and pieces. The first thing Mary did was open her trunk to show me all the amazing assemblages and figurines she’s been creating recently. I felt like climbing right in there with them. Can you alter a living person? Now that would be interesting.
At Above Ground I came across a display of Copic Markers. I’d heard of them of course—Debbie Olsen and Teesha Moore swear by them—but it was the first time I’d seen them here in Canada. There was a young guy beside me stocking up on them, so I asked his opinion. “I’m in love,” he said fervently. (I’m assuming with Copic Markers). But I resisted buying any because they’re pricey. I have the feeling that I’ll eventually cave on this one though. When I was a layout artist, I used markers all the time and I can see how much fun it would be to use them in my journal.
Then, at Active Surplus, Mary and I trolled the aisles searching for interesting objects to use in our assemblages and we didn't come away empty-handed. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with that door peephole, the temperature gauge and those old television tubes, but it makes me feel good just knowing I have them.

Celebrating

Why spend just one day celebrating your birthday when you can squander several? That’s what I decided to do this year, and I've been so busy partying that I've been too busy to blog.
People have told me in the past that they miss the birthdays they had as children, but I don’t. Having a birthday in the middle of the summer meant my friends were either on vacation, or I was. Celebrating is more fun now because nearly everyone is around.
Take the weekend for example. Carmi organized an art get-together at the Zion Cultural Centre in Toronto. Formerly a church, the space has fantastic lighting and plenty of room for everyone to have their own art table. After several weeks of family obligations, it was an opportunity to start working on some new art projects.
One of the highlights was watching Carmi creating felt embellishments. (Note to self: you will NOT become involved in fabric art until you’ve made serious inroads into all that paper you have).
Another highpoint for me—and Karen too—was being presented with a birthday cake and a bezel from each member of our art club (see above). This was a total surprise and now I have several new treasures to add to my art collection. I’m also thinking my new philosophy of life should be that every day is my birthday—and celebrate accordingly!
P.S. You can check out Karen’s bezels and the felting extravaganza on Carmi’s blog.

Watching Le Tour

Like Jen Worden, this time of year always finds me parked in front of the TV watching Le Tour de France. John and I have been fans for the last eight years, and I think this is the most exciting Tour yet because we don’t know who will win—the race is that close.
For the first time since 1997, there is a Canadian involved in the Tour: Ryder Hesjedal from Victoria, B.C. Out of 150 riders, Hesjedal is number 54, which I think is great, especially when you consider it’s his first year on the Tour.
Today was the seventeenth stage and featured the highest climb of the race: L’Alpe-d’Huez. Since I don’t have a photo, I thought I’d feature Cascade Mountain in Alberta just to give this post a Canadian flavour. Wouldn’t it be fun to see the world’s best cyclists zipping down Main Street in Banff?

Will's Children

It’s been a while since I’ve done an ATC so I decided to play with an old photo tonight to see what I could come up with. It’s a picture of Great Uncle Will’s children in front of their house in downtown Toronto.
About half of my grandmother’s twelve siblings immigrated to Canada from England in the early 1900s, and Nana and her parents were the last to arrive in 1909. That’s almost a hundred years ago and I wonder how she must have felt leaving what was familiar to her to come to a new country.
Somehow I doubt that Nana was homesick for long though. She soon met my grandfather and had her first child at the age of eighteen. Judging by the size of Will’s family, I’m guessing Nana had plenty of cousins to socialize with too. She told me they would go for a walk after dinner and then listen to music at the park. Apparently the musicians weren’t formally organized into a band. They would just show up with their instruments and start jamming. I wish I could have seen (and heard) that.

Moo Challenge #17

Mona Lisa (and friends) is this week’s theme at Make a Moo or Two. Did Mona have friends? She must have of course, but since we really don’t know much about her, I buddied up Mona with a couple of Lorenzo de Medici’s mistresses. (Hope she doesn’t mind).
I know there are children with imaginary playmates, but I don’t recall having any myself—though I do remember pretending that I was adopted at one point.
My real name was Cordelia, not Susan, and I had nine beautiful brothers and sisters. We all lived happily in a huge mansion with a greenhouse and private lake before we were cruelly separated from each other. The most fun about this imaginary world was drawing the elaborate floor plans. I even had my own sunken bathtub with solid gold faucets, and a separate suite for all of my dolls.

The problem of time

One day when I was at the hospital visiting my dad, he told me that I was “relentlessly positive.” I asked if he thought this was a bad thing, and he said: “Not at all.”
What I didn’t say to him was that I have to work at being positive with any number of things. Like time, for instance. There never seems to be enough of it; I always seem to be worrying about the way I use it, and what I have to show for it.Then again, I usually find it helpful to be positive about the negative—to reverse it in other words. So the good thing about time is that it forces you to consider what your real priorities are and to act on them in the best way that you can.

Reassessment

Recently I came across this mini assemblage I’d done in an Altoids tin a few years ago. When I haven’t looked at a piece for a while, I usually react in one of two ways: “Yes, I still like it,” or “If I had it to do over again, I’d change X or Y.”
With this assemblage, I experienced both feelings simultaneously. What bugs me about it is that the arm should be coming from the right, not the left hand side. However, since a piece of art also has a memory, I remember that I only had one doll’s arm at the time, so I had a choice: either wait until I found one that worked or just finish it, which is exactly what I chose to do.

Moo Challenge #16

Instead of having an early night, I got my second wind back (as I so often do), and I decided to stamp this week’s moos. Obviously the Make a Moo or Two theme is birds—and it’s a wonderful subject in my opinion.
As I was stamping away, I thought about how rich in symbolism birds are. Eggs represent possibilities; life’s endless potential just waiting to burst forth. And of course a nest stands for protection and a place to be nurtured. But above all, birds mean freedom to me …the ability to soar above the cares of life and explore the beauty of spirit.

Intentions

I had high hopes that I’d be able to start on a mixed media piece I want to do today, but once again life seemed to get in the way. All I had time for was playing in Photoshop with these stamped images while I talked on the phone with my sister-in-law Sherri.
The frustrating thing is that I have everything organized and ready to go. My art space hasn’t looked this orderly, pristine and inviting since I don’t know when. But I can’t seem to make a start because I’m so bushed. I think this has got to be one of those nights when I get into bed with an armload of my favorite art books and just fantasize—or as I like to refer to it: refuel.

Which Way to the Beach?

It's our ATC Beach trade tonight, but I can't go because Dad is home from the hospital and I'm on board to fluff pillows, tell jokes, do the dishes, make the Saturday morning tea etc.
Even though I haven't had time to make my ATCs, I thought the least I could do was to create something digital. Not that it turned out the way I wanted it to.
Because I always get a kick out of Sandy’s Blythe doll adventures, I thought I’d play with what a doll might do at the beach. Unfortunately, all I had at hand was a head, and the more I worked on it, the stranger it became.
In the end, I had to leave it as is because I’d run out of time. But there’s something to be said about feeling accountable to your blog. It’s gets you doing things you’d almost certainly put off when you’re pressed for time in your life like I am.

Moo Challenge #15

I’d say about half the work I do is in black and white so I really enjoyed the Make a Moo or Two challenge this week. I don’t often post black and white images here, though, because I tend to think color when I’m doing my blog.
The stamps I used are from Catherine Moore’s Character Constructions. I find her images very seductive …i.e. I wish I’d designed them myself! I ordered these stamps from Jennifer Pearson Vanier who owns the Milkhouse Gallery in Prescott, Ontario. Jennifer has some amazing stuff for collage, assemblage and stamping at very reasonable prices. You can check out her blog for more information, and see a selection of stamp sheets too.

Writing

Emma and I finally managed to fit in our Mother/Daughter writing pod this week. Because we hadn’t had one for a while, I think we were both feeling a little guilty. And when you’re away from anything for a while, you feel you should throw yourself back into it full tilt. But you’re not sure you’ll be able to.
This can be a real challenge when you’re dealing with a major project like a novel. Your intention looms like a skyscraper. What floor should you get off at? Or even: which elevator to take?
As much as we both wanted to, we couldn’t make up for lost time and finish our novels in an afternoon. We knew we needed a way in—a trail of breadcrumbs that would put us on the path to grandma’s house …i.e. something to help us focus and keep our minds on the moment.
What we ended up doing was choosing an image from my deck of ATCs, and then writing about it. Emma picked a doll, and I went for an anatomy diagram. This visual quick start was just what we needed because we got back into the writing groove more easily than we thought we would.

Remembering Betty

Linda and I went to our friend Betty’s funeral today, and it was a sad day for both of us. We all met at a creative writing class I taught almost twenty years ago, and it was the beginning of a wonderful friendship. Up until 2004, we got together almost weekly to write, talk about books and swap stories about our lives.
This morning I remembered something Betty once told me. As a child she had diphtheria and stopped breathing for several minutes. When this happened, she realized she was actually in heaven. Her grandmother—holding one of Betty’s cousins who had died as an infant—came walking towards her through a meadow filled with spring flowers. She told Betty that it wasn’t her time yet, and she had to go back. Betty said this experience removed any fear of death from her mind, and she was only five years old. So I’m thinking of her now writing poetry, tending to a garden and reading her beloved mysteries somewhere really, really special.

Moo Challenge #14

The theme this week at Make a Moo or Two is Asian, and once again I was faced with the challenge of not having any stamps that would work. I’d been hoping I could download some of Emma’s amazing photos of her trip to use, but we have to find her camera software first.
Since I’m a big fan of Hokusai, I decided I’d use a couple of his famous landscape woodcuts as backgrounds. Then I wondered if I was being sacreligious. Was it wrong to tamper with the works of a master? But Hokusai apparently had a great sense of humor. He was also influenced by French and Dutch engravings, went by thirty different names during his career and his daughter Oyei became an artist too.
I like to think Hokusai would find it amusing that 150 years later someone half way around the world was altering his work on a computer.

Digital Stamping

I don’t usually Photoshop my stamped images because rubber is organic, and the digital is more like thinking made visible. But I made an exception here because I wanted to reverse the numbers. Because I didn’t have any white ink, I worked with a scan of this Stamp in the Hand image and colored it in using Photoshop. I also scanned the Stampendous background (which is one of my favorites) and then added a gradient.
This piece appears in We’ve Got Your Numbers by Karen Sweeny-Justice in the latest issue of RubberStampMadness. Twelve different stamp artists gave their take on the theme, and it was cool to see that everyone did something completely different.