1) Where have I been?
Well, not here in blogland, obviously. This is the busiest time of the year at work, trying to write new IEP's and get all the paperwork together for my eighth-graders' high school transition meetings. But I promise, I'll be around to visit everyone's blogs soon. That's all I'm going to say about that; otherwise, you might have to call me a wahmbulance.
2) Why can't I leave well enough alone?
I think I've addressed this before. If I'm not quite satisfied with a piece, I will sometimes just keep messing with it until I've overworked it into the ground, if you know what I mean. I hope that's not the case with Don't Forget to Breathe. While it looked alright before, it was really pretty boring. Nicely boring- but still, boring. After giving it way too much thought, I decided that the problem was "a failure to communicate". Art, at its most fundamental level, is an attempt to visually 'say' something, whether it includes actual written words or not. To see the earlier version and read the accompanying text, go here. To me, it just didn't 'feel' the way I felt when I made the piece. I considered a few different possibilities, and decided to add water.
After I did that, I realized the blue of the water was too bright and cheery, so I covered it with mica, and stitching... I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it now, but I refuse to do anything further. I do, really...
3) Can I use raw, un-melted beeswax in artwork - and if so, how?
Sadly, my husband's bees died. He took the wax out of the frames and threw it away, but I quickly rescued it from the trash, because... there must must something I can do with it, right?
4) If you change the name of your blog will the search engines be confused? Or is it better to retain the old name for official purposes, but just leave it off the header? I know the url will still go to the same place, but are there any problems I should know about?
I received an email from Seth apter saying that "your response to the question 'what is the one thing that you know now that
you would have liked to have known when you first started to create art?' will
be highlighted in my blog post on Sunday, February 24th as part of the series Tell All. In case you do not remember,
this is part of the series of questions you answered for this project way back
in June 2011." Since I don't remember my response, I'm curious to find out what I said. I hope you're curious, too; just click on the 'Tell All' banner above.
And don't worry- if you're waiting for 'Dressing Up, part 2', I haven't forgotten; it will be posted soon!
I have photographed my stacks for Seth Apter's Stacks Project, and here they are. These are my stacks of vintage books, which seem to be growing.ever taller. I'm kind of obsessed with collecting them. Some of them will be used for mixed media and altered book projects, and others I just love to marvel at.
Who doesn't have stacks of stuff sitting around? If you're an artist, you're bound to have at least one- it must be some kind of rule, or law. Or is it that we're all messy, or hoarders? Anyway, we might as well admit it. Seth's gone so far as to embrace it, and put links to all the hoarders'- uh, I mean- artists' photos on his blog, the Altered Page. Check them out here.
And don't forget to sign up for my give away! All you have to do is leave a comment on the previous post.
Hello all! You may or may not have noticed my absence lately, but I wanted to explain.... There are several things keeping me away from blogland, but the biggest culprit is the increased workload at my job; the beginning of the school year has been overwhelming, taking up most of my "art-making" time. Also, I've had computer problems, not least of which is the apparent comatose state of my printer, which means I cannot print out images for transfers, nor can I scan anything, which is how I usually get images of my smaller pieces, which is all I have time to make right now. (whew! did you follow that?) On top of all that, my mouse was working only intermittently, and not without much coaxing and cursing. The mouse seems to be all better now, but the printer, alas, must undergo more tests and possibly a hospital stay, if I can find someone to fix it. OK, blah. blah, blah, whine, whine, whine- enough about that.
Now for the good news: I've wanted to do a give-away for a while now, so this seemed like an opportune time. I so appreciate the wonderful people of this online community; your support and encouraging messages have meant so much to me, and always lift my spirits. Whenever I ask for your opinions or advice, you invariably come through with insightful and practical ideas. As my 8th-graders would say: you guys are BEAST! As a thank-you, I'll be giving away one of my small collages, But Still (shown below),
But Still
as well as a package of decorative papers and vintage book pages (examples shown below).
So, this is how it will work: Leave a comment on this post, and your name will be included in the drawing. You don't have to be a follower, just a commenter. If you "like" my facebook business page, your name will be put in twice. Then, on Spetember 30, I'll toss all the names on the floor, and one of my goofy dogs (whichever one is handy) will "sniff out" the winner.
Arlo (left), Scout (center), and Sunny (right)
(cuter when they're asleep)
FYI, I'll be participating in Seth Apter's "Paper Stacks" fun on Wednesday, September 21 at The Altered Page. Be sure to check it out!
* I came upon this re-post of two of my favorite blog posts while I was looking for copy for my new website. While I no longer work a day job, everything I said about time still applies, except that now I don't have time to make art because I'm busy with the business of trying to get my art out there - and maybe even make some money. And yes, I'm aware of how lucky I am. And of the irony. Go figure.
In choosing my re-post for Seth Apter's Buried Treasure collaboration, I looked back through my posts with an eye to 1) what seemed to resonate with my readers, and 2) what still resonated most with me. In the end, I chose 2 posts which address questions about the importance of art from the artist's perspective; in other words, why do we do it, and is it worth it? I hope you like them.
What is Art Good For?(9/16/10)
This isn't really a philosophical discussion, as much as just my own personal opinion and perspective. I mean, I guess philosophy and opinions could be related, as in, "How many angels do you think can dance on the head of a pin?", but that's neither here nor there. For some reason this has been spinning around in my head lately, so I'll just throw it out there, because- frankly- I need the room in my head for other things.
Fossil Memory
It's hard to know where to start, so I guess in the middle would be as good a place as any. When I began working as a special education teacher, I was also going to school to obtain my master's degree, as a condition of keeping my job. The lack of time, two kids to support, and a SO (significant other) who put all my art stuff into the attic made it all but impossible for me to make art. I rationalized it to myself this way: "What good is art, anyway? It doesn't bring in any money, and I'm completely broke. It doesn't mean a thing to most people, except maybe as a way to decorate their living rooms." I told myself, " It doesn't help anyone; no one needs art."
I was almost able to convince myself that this was the truth; after all, the idea was founded on perfectly sound logic. I believed I didn't need it either, that I could satisfy my creative drive in other ways, such as by building a log house. That helped, but didn't quite get to the heart of the matter, and as time went on I felt as if my heart had a hole in it- an empty place where art-making used to be.
How had I so quickly forgotten the lessons of the past? Looking back on it now, I can remember many times when art literally saved my life, or at least my sanity (yes, I still had some at one time!). When I was teaching art in an elementary school -without an art room, I had to carry my supplies from room to room- and my kids were still quite young, I would come home totally exhausted. So, instead of working on any large, planned piece, I would relax at night by painting these completely spontaneous, quick little watercolors.
Gently swishing the paint around with the soft brush helped me to relax and unwind. It functioned as a form of meditation...
...allowing some of the day's stress to melt away, and reassuring me that I could still make art, even if it was only a little.
And, when my first marriage was failing, and I felt I would surely lose my mind if I didn't find a job...
Against the Tide
Waiting for the Storm
... painting these pieces allowed me to channel my emotions in a constructive way, helped me to work through some of the scary twists and turns my life was taking...
The Speed of Darkness
... and basically kept me from freaking out completely or jumping off a bridge.
So, for me, this is one of the things art is good for.
Here's How It Is (2/7/11)
Well, here's how it is: I am a bad blogger. At least, that's how I feel sometimes- not guilty, really- just kind of disappointed that I've been unable to keep all the balls in the air.
"Jugglers at the Cirque Fernando" by Renoir
I can't post every day, or even every other day. Right now, I'm lucky if I can post once a week. I feel bad when I don't have enough time to leave witty and insightful comments on all of my friends' posts, if I even get a chance to look at them. Admittedly, I feel at times like I'm seeing them the way one sees the gorgeously tantalizing flowers in the neighbor's garden from the window of a speeding car.
I feel inadequate, but all I can say in my own defense is that even the best juggler (which I certainly am not) can get caught up in trying to juggle more balls than he/she can handle without the addition of some extra appendages. (Yes, I realize I'm mixing my metaphors again; it's like a big ol' metaphor soup up in here.)
"The Egyptian Juggler" by Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema
So, I've been wracking my brain about how I could resolve this problem. It came to me like a bolt of lightening out of the sky (no, that's a simile!)- there really is no way to solve this conundrum short of somehow bending time.
This may be possible in theory, but not even Einstein had the slightest inkling how to apply it to our every day lives.
But then I was reading a post on Rice Freeman-Zachery's wonderful blog, Notes from the Voodoo Cafe, that made me feel a bit better about the whole thing. She says this about working artists:
"You try to get in touch with them, and they don't respond, and you think, scornfully, "Diva!" But that's most often not it (sometimes that's it, but not very often). Usually it's because they have a certain day of the week in which they respond to email because the other days are a flurry of all the various things they have to do to try to stay afloat in an economy that bites and a culture that doesn't value working artists."
She goes on to say that most of us have to decide what we're going to give up in order to make art a priority, such as TV and the internet (except for blogging, of course). I have to agree; it's all about prioritizing. I rarely watch TV, except for the news and a couple of other shows. I don't have a social life, and my house probably isn't the cleanest, if you know what I mean. My husband graciously does most of the cooking. I try to answer emails, but sometimes it takes me a while. Sometimes I forget to respond to comments on my blog posts, but that's due to the age of my brain, and is not at all intentional.
I used to try to accept the fact that I didn't have the time to make art, but I failed in that effort, because I was miserable. I came to realize that I would have to make that time by deciding not to spend it on other things, like watching TV, or going out for drinks. If I have to cook, I'm probably not going to make something that takes three hours to prepare, and I made a deal with the dust bunnies that if they don't look at me, I won't look at them. If I have to work a full time job, then shouldn't part of the reward for that be that I get to spend my off-time doing something I love?
The Traveler's Tale: Balance
It's a balancing act, without a doubt- full time job, making art, marketing the art, etc.- but it's something I have to keep trying to work out as best I can. We may not be able to adjust time, but we can adjust our thinking. It really is, ultimately, all in how we look at it.
I added this to the end, because I think it expresses these ideas in a very creative and unique way. I saw this somewhere a long time ago, then recently again on C. Wright's Art Gallery blog.
Music Video for Tanya Davis's Song Art, by Andrea Dorfman
Seth Apter, collaborative maestro extraordinaire, is doing his Buried Treasure feature again this year, and I'm going to play. All the participating artists will re-post their favorite posts from the past year, and Seth will post the links at his blog, The Altered Page. Follow the link above or below for more information, and be sure to visit his blog tomorrow to find all the Buried Treasure!
Last Saturday I attended a fun and fascinating workshop given by printmaker and mixed media artist Radha Chandrashekaran. She taught three separate techniques: acrylic gel image transfers, kalamkari fabric painting, and takuhon stone rubbing.
Kalamkari is the ancient art of decorating cloth using a kalam (pen) to draw patterns; the tradition dates back to at least 3,000 B.C.E. Above, Radha demonstrates how to make the kalam by winding woolen cloth around a bamboo stick, then wrapping the cloth in yarn or thread.
A piece of kalamkari- decorated cloth from India.
Radha demonstrates drawing with the kalam. The wool reservoir holds enough ink to make a long line without "re-dipping" the pen.
Participants get to try it out...
and see what happens...
Here Radha explains takuhon, a traditional stone rubbing technique invented in China about 1900 years ago. Rice paper is sprayed with water and placed over the surface to be printed,
then rubbed with a seed-filled cloth dipped in ink.
Workshop participant Kathleen Piercefield working on one of her pieces.
This was so much fun that I got quite involved, and didn't take too many photos from this point on. It's not that easy to participate in a workshop and photograph it at the same time!
A couple of the rubbings I did using Radha's laser-cut wood blocks.
This is a piece Radha was using to demonstrate gel medium transfers. Please visit her website and take a look at her gorgeous work.
BA-BOOM, BA-BOOM... No, it's not the sound of fireworks (good guess, though). Nope! Guess again...
It's the sound of a PULSE! More precisely, the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- "a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community [masterminded by Seth Apter of The Altered Page]. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals." What could be cooler than that? Get on over there and check it out!
The art teacher and I sponsor an after-school art club at the middle school where I teach. I thought the kids might like to make butterflies for the Butterfly Project, an online art collaboration organized by Trudi Sisson of Two Dresses Studio. All of the butterflies sent to her will be displayed on Trudi's blog, so the students were pretty excited about the prospect of getting to see their creations on the internet. They couldn't believe their work would someday be on display in the Holocaust Museum in Houston.
We gave them a wide range of media choices, lots of materials, and let them go at it. All they had to provide was the creativity, and there was certainly no shortage of that!
Here are their creations, ready to send to the Butterfly Project. How cool is that? I'm so proud of them!
If you want to join, click "Butterfly Project" above, or you can click the icon on my side bar. Happy flying!
I was just notified by Seth Apter of The Altered Page that my entry will be featured in today's posting of Collector's Edition: Chapter 7. This is part of a huge ongoing series of collaborative online art projects that Seth dreamed up and has been coordinating for some time now, called The Pulse: The State of the Art. I'm so grateful to be a part of this amazing project, as well as a part of the online art community it chronicles. There is lots of cool artists' stuff featured today, so get on over there and check it out!
