Stuck in the Middle Again...

I have been steadily working whenever I get a chance.  In the past, there were far too many times when I'd get 'stuck' while working on a piece - just couldn't figure out what to do next to save my life.  I would waste time fighting with it, trying this or that idea, and hating them all.  A good solution, I thought, would be to work on more than one piece at a time, so that I could let one rest while I attended to another, thus lessening the frustration as well as giving it time to percolate in the back of my mind. This also keeps me from wasting time, which is at a premium. I'm sure many of you do this, and it's generally a very good strategy.

However, I have now reached this impasse with 2 pieces at once.  Story of My Life, which I showed you at an earlier stage of unfinished-ness, has come a little further, but then ground to a halt again.

The other one I'm currently working on is this, with the working title Doors of Perception:

The problem with mixed media is that you may not have exactly the right 'thingamajig' or 'whatchamacallit' you need in order to complete the piece to your satisfaction. One thing that helps when doing this type of work is to have a wide variety of materials available. The more stuff you have to choose from, the greater the odds that you'll have the perfect object or material in your studio.  Unless you have so much that you can't find anything, which is a whole other sack of potatoes. The other drawback is that you may be regarded as a hoarder.  My kids are not shy about telling me this; other people are probably thinking it, but are too polite to say so.


So, in the meantime, what do I do? Start on another?  Make pesto?

Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen's New Gallery

Wednesday, I drove to Berea, Kentucky to volunteer at the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen's new gallery. According to their website, KGAC was established in 1961, and is "a dynamic membership organization comprised of the finest artists, craftsmen, collectors, galleries, interested individuals and businesses in Kentucky and surrounding states." The Guild works to "preserve and promote the rich heritage and exciting future of art and craft. The KGAC headquarters is located in Berea, Kentucky, officially designated as the "Art and Craft Capital" of Kentucky."

 Log cabin outside the tourism center.

Here are a few of the galleries and shops in the Old Town Artisan Village.

This newly renovated building, located at 116 North Broadway Street, is the first permanent home of the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen.

 Enjoy a bit of a virtual tour of the spacious and beautiful gallery:

As you can see, there is a lot to look at - even more gorgeous, high-quality work than I was able to show here. I'm very proud to be a member of this wonderful group of talented professionals.


If you'd like to see more of beautiful Berea, take a look at one of my previous posts, here.

Moving Along with WIP

I'm amazed that it's already summer solstice! Summer officially starts today, and time keeps moving along- what's that they say about time flying when we're having fun? Somehow, time always seems to move faster than I do, but I'm still moving along with my art at my human pace, trying to take advantage of the free time (ha!) I have now to get things done.

I thought I'd share my progress with one of the pieces I showed you in this post.  It's called "Story of My Life", which I took from the title of the lovely vintage book cover I'm using as a substrate. It's hard to resist a ready-made idea like that, right? The book is actually about the life of William Taylor, an evangelist missionary who was Bishop of Africa during the 1800's.

These are 2 of the many configurations I've tried as I continuously rearrange, ad, and subtract various elements, in search of the best composition I can come up with.  I should have taken more photos, and intended to, but I get carried away when I'm working and forget, or just can't stop long enough. They help me to remember where I placed everything, which can be really helpful.  Oh well.  I hope to be able to post the finished version of it soon.


Also, I should announce that I have a piece in the National Collage Society's Annual Postcard Collage Exhibition.

The exhibit will be on display at Kent State University until July 20; subsequently, you can view it online at the National Collage Society website.

Happy Solstice, everyone!  Have a wonderful summer!

Seed Story IV

Seed Story IV

ingredients: acetate, monotype, acrylic ink, cheesecloth, watercolor crayons, stitching, vintage book page

You may have noticed that I skipped Seed Story III. There is one, but I had to send it off to the curator of the traveling show just as I was getting ready to leave for vacation, so I didn't have a chance to photograph it. Instead, I've posted Seed Story IV, a piece which I decided not to put in the exhibit. Eventually, when Seed Story III returns from its journey, I will be sure to post it here.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Seed Story II

 Seed Story II

ingredients: monotype, acrylic ink, watercolor pencils, stitching

Two down, one to go!

Seed Story I

Seed Story I
ingredients: monotype, watercolor pencils, metallic gel pens, stitching

This is the first of three pieces I'm going to have in a traveling exhibit curated by multi-talented artist and Northern Kentucky University instructor Paige Wideman.  You'll probably want to check out Paige's website; she does some very cool work in a wide variety of media.

All of the pieces in the show have to be no more than 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches.  This was kind of challenging for me- you know how much stuff I usually put in my work - but I learned a lot.  I'll let you know the when's and where's of the exhibit as soon as I get the info.

And stay tuned- Seed Stories II and III will be posted soon!

New Work: Vernal Equinox

I have finished one of the pieces from my "Work in Progress" post, and wanted to show you what it looks like in its final incarnation.

The title of the piece is Vernal Equinox, partly because I started working on it around that time, but also because these were the pathways around which my mind traveled as I made it. According to Wikipedia, an equinox occurs "... when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth's equator."

 illustration from Wikipedia

  There are two equinoxes, one around March 20th (vernal), and the other on or near September 22nd (autumnal). On these two days, the length of the day and night are equal- hence, equinox. Originally the festival of the pagan fertility goddess Ostara (Oestre), the date of Easter is calculated as the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. From the equinox until the solstice, the days lengthen; it is the day that "light overcomes the darkness".  Since it was the first new work I had begun since sometime before Christmas, and the spring equinox signifies renewal and rebirth, it seemed a fitting title.



Usually, I simply list the ingredients of the piece underneath the photo, but I thought that this time, it would be fun to do a pictorial list instead.  As you can see, I'm easily amused!

 I suppose this could be categorized as either a material and/or a technique- decollage is exactly what it sounds like. First, you collage; then, you de-collage- also known as tearing off what you just glued on. It seems like this would just be a slow way of getting nowhere, but it can create some interesting textural effects that you couldn't get any other way. In the case of this piece, I took some of the ripped-off pieces and glued them onto my substrate. Upside-down, actually- I used the back side of the papers as the front. I hope that wasn't too confusing?

Found objects: here are some of the objects in one of my drawers marked, "metal things". 

Soft pastels: I used a mixture of reds to get that reddish-salmon color for the background of the upper part of the piece.

Embroidery floss was used for the stitching. I keep buying more colors, so now there's not enough room for all of them in the box; consequently, it's a mess.  Time to get a bigger box.

Metallic pens: I originally bought these Pentel Slicci pens to use with the guest book for my daughter's wedding. They write very smoothly, and seem to resist drying out.

Gold paint crayon- It's very hard to find these any more, but I just bought this one on etsy!

Vintage map (not this exact one)

Maple seeds from my yard. Photo by Laura Bell.

 Acrylic gel medium- you can never have too much, right?

Brass mini-brads- not even I am pathetic enough to get excited about a photo of brads.



Well, the pictorial list was a lot more work than the usual way, but I kind of like it! What do you think?  Now that school is out, I hope to be posting a bit more regularly.  A demain!