I've Moved!

This is just a reminder, in case you're still following me on the blogger feed, that I have moved to a new website and blog. I hope you will follow me on over there and read my new blog posts! The latest one: 

Vintage Ephemera: Persistence is about a new collage piece, and some of the vintage and antique ephemera I use as materials in my work. Please join me!

New Work: Temple

Temple, 17.5 x 11 inches, mixed media

ingredients: vintage book cover, monotype, vintage maps and engineering drawings, other vintage ephemera, metallic ink, found objects, brads, brass wire, acrylic paint, artist pens, feathers

So will I build my altar in the fields,
And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be,
And the sweet fragrance that the wild flower yields
Shall be the incense I will yield to thee.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 "Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life."                                                                                                                              - Hermann Hesse

Trials and Tribulations, and New Work on the Way

I have several pieces that have been laying around my studio that haven't been shared due to the fact that I didn't have a decent, fully functional camera. After much research and thought, I finally bought a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1000. It was more than I really wanted to spend, but I needed something that would take excellent artwork photos, and a DSLR costs that much just for the body; then, in addition, you have to buy various expensive lenses for different purposes. Another point against a DSLR is that I realized that I didn't want to be bothered with lugging around a bunch of lenses, which I would have to be changing all the time, so a high-end fixed-lens camera seemed like the perfect choice.

So now, if the weather cooperates, I will be able to photograph those pieces, along with everything that needs to be re-photographed because I originally used my cell phone, and the photos are seriously lacking in quality. Especially since I'm going to be building a new website, I want the image quality to be as high as it can. I don't really want to upload my current photos, and then have to go back and replace them.

But now I have a new problem; setting up the new camera is somewhat (read: a lot) daunting. I'm afraid it's going to take a while. It has so many features, I'm not even sure what some of them mean! So in the meantime, I'll have to keep using my phone, unless they are flat and can fit on my scanner. Sheesh!

Anyway, I'm finally taking time from my technical studies to make some art! Here are a few sneak peaks of what's happening in the studio. Taken, of course, with my cellphone.

Materials used: vintage book cover, vintage maps, antique engineering drawing, monotype, book pages.  This one has a ways to go, but so far I'm satisfied with it.

I hope you are all having a great weekend, and making some art! Namaste, my friends.

New Mixed Media: Map IV

Map IV

ingredients: vintage maps, vintage book pages, vintage stamps, acrylic ink, metallic pen, watercolor pencils, image transfers, stitching  (7 x 7 inches)


This piece has come together slowly, originally starting with two fragments of pieces that didn't work out, and then building on from there. I am pretty happy with the way it turned out, though some parts were ripped up more than once, as you may be able to tell. It just goes to show you that you shouldn't necessarily throw away the pieces you consider failures; you may be able to recycle them into something else. Does anyone else do this? I find it often works out well for me.

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.                           ~ Alan Cohen

Palimpsest: Words

Palimpsest: Words

ingredients: vintage book cover, vintage book pages, image transfers, found objects, rice paper, vintage mail scraps, bamboo, vintage dress pattern, stitching



palimpsest -
 :  writing material (as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased

:  something having usually diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath the surface

I'm not sure how I came across the word 'palimpsest', but since I love to layer things in my art, I found it to be inspiring. So much like life - things covered up but still barely visible underneath.  Events, emotions - anything that has affected us is still there beneath the surface, though it may be hard to see. I began to see the word as a metaphor for our lives, particularly where it concerns communication. So much is hidden beneath our words.




“There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when you are so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts. Inside you they work their magic.”
― Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale



“Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

New Work: Lost II

Lost II

ingredients: vintage book covers, vintage ledger paper, lace, acrylic ink, Caran d'Ache crayons, watercolor pencils, image transfer, cloth, stitching




I write about the power of trying, because I want to be okay with failing. I write about generosity because I battle selfishness. I write about joy because I know sorrow. I write about faith because I almost lost mine, and I know what it is to be broken and in need of redemption. I write about gratitude because I am thankful - for all of it.
                                                                                                               ~ Kristin Armstrong

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

                                                                                                          ~ Henry David Thoreau

To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.
                                                                                                                          ~ Pema Chodron

Lost I

Lost I

ingredients: vintage book covers, vintage maps, vintage book pages, image transfer, watercolor pencils, vintage cloth, vintage stamp. stitching, feather



I may explain more about this piece if I'm able to work up the courage to talk about it. For now, suffice it to say that this is how I've been feeling.  Life brings us strange changes sometimes, and it can be difficult to know how to cope.

Essence?

I finished this piece over a month ago, but have had some issues with getting things photographed due to my camera not working and the weather not cooperating (to say the least!). It's hard for me to describe what this piece is about, so I'll just say it's about essence. I was going to title it Between the Veils, but maybe Essence would be a better title.

ingredients: vintage book cover, pages, and spine; image transfer, drawing, collage, stitching, feathers, watercolor pencils



Bone
by Mary Oliver

1.

Understand, I am always trying to figure out

what the soul is,

and where hidden,

and what shape

and so, last week,

when I found on the beach

the ear bone

of a pilot whale that may have died

hundreds of years ago, I thought

maybe I was close

to discovering something

for the ear bone

2.

is the portion that lasts longest

in any of us, man or whale; shaped

like a squat spoon

with a pink scoop where

once, in the lively swimmer's head,

it joined its two sisters

in the house of hearing,

it was only

two inches long

and thought: the soul

might be like this

so hard, so necessary

3.

yet almost nothing.

Beside me

the gray sea

was opening and shutting its wave-doors,

unfolding over and over

its time-ridiculing roar;

I looked but I couldn't see anything

through its dark-knit glare;

yet don't we all know, the golden sand

is there at the bottom,

though our eyes have never seen it,

nor can our hands ever catch it

4.

lest we would sift it down

into fractions, and facts

certainties

and what the soul is, also

I believe I will never quite know.

Though I play at the edges of knowing,

truly I know

our part is not knowing,

but looking, and touching, and loving,

which is the way I walked on,

softly,

through the pale-pink morning light.

New Work in Progress

With the prospect of the beginning of a new school year in just a few days hanging over my head, my goal has been to finish, or at least get a decent start on, my next altered book cover before school starts.  I'm feeling pretty good about where this piece is going (if not quite as good about where I'm going), in spite of some struggles with problems that I've hopefully remedied.  Here is the left side of the piece as it stands now:

The book page and end paper are from a vintage book of Longfellow's poetry and other writings, and the plant with roots as well as the petunia are image transfers of illustrations from a vintage botany textbook.  I don't know if you can see the little map scrap at the top right; it says, 'Old Davidsonville State Park'.  (You can probably read it if you click on the image.)  The odd thing about this is that it just showed up on my drafting table, and is not from the map I was using for this piece (which is now mostly torn off and underneath several layers of other stuff).  I just happened to look down, and there it was- and I took no notice of it really, until I realized there was a familiar name on it.  I guess it must have been in among some other things I pulled out of one of my scrap drawers.  I have no idea where this park is; if you do, I hope you'll let me know.

I apologize for the poor quality of the photo; I just quickly stuck this on the scanner, and it's not entirely flat, so some of it doesn't show up well.  I'll be posting better photos of further progress in the next day or two, and also explaining some of the meaning behind this piece.  

Just so you know, blogger is not always letting me leave comments on others' posts, and I'm having great difficulty uploading photos; once uploaded, it sometimes won't allow me to add them to my post.  What's up with that?  Maybe I shouldn't have made that comment about blogger and I not being on friendly terms... should I apologize?

On the Easel

I've been working on this piece off and on for a couple of weeks.  It's one of those that started out to be something completely different, but seemed to take on a life of its own, and evolve into whatever it wanted to be.  When my original idea didn't work, I tore off the top layer I didn't like, and expanded the underneath layer into a more finished piece.  Of course, other layers were added along the way.  I'm hoping to finish it tomorrow, along with Transformation 41.  A girl's got to have goals, right?

Art on Demand (RecyclingTime)

I've been trying (I emphasize trying, here) to work on something for a woman who bought two pieces from my ongoing Transformations Series back in the Fall.  She had originally wanted three, but when she went back to get them, someone had come in and bought the one she wanted.  She didn't like the pieces that were left in the gallery, so the gallery owner put her in touch with me.  I sent her photos of the remaining pieces I had, but none of them were really what she was looking for, and didn't go well with the ones she bought.  So I told her I'd come up some things that might fit the bill, send her some more photos, and hopefully she'd choose one of them.  No problem, right?  Wrong.

I'm finding it more of a challenge than I'd imagined.  For one thing, I usually just make whatever strikes me at the moment, with no particular goal in mind except to make something.  If it fits into the series, fine; if not, fine.  But now I have to limit myself to a specific size, color scheme, and subject matter. She wants something with plants, and the colors need to coordinate well with the other two pieces.

Here are the ones she has:

        Transformation 12

          Transformation 22

So I fiddled around with some things for a couple of weeks, but nothing came of it except some wasted time and considerable frustration.  What to do, what to do?  Time to recycle!  I had some old monotypes in my "scrap works" drawer that I'd been avoiding cutting up for collage, probably because I had harbored some subconscious notion that I'd be able to "fix them", and maybe shouldn't give up on them just yet.  But, being uninspired, and running low on good collage material, I finally said "what the hell" and threw them into the bathtub on Friday.  Yes, I did say the bathtub.  My old pieces have various  mixed media layered onto the monotype surface, and much of it is water based.  I can't get everything off, but after it has soaked for a while, I wipe off as much as I can.

I've come up with one new piece so far; here it is:

    Transformation 41

I think it could use more work, but this is what I have so far.  I have two questions.  One, what else does it need?  And two, does it "go with" the other two?  Thanks, in advance, for your help!