I'm baaack!

I'm back from ArtFest and nearly caught up on life at home. Rob reminded me tonight that I should post something soon. (Guess who's caught the blogging bug?)

ArtFest at Port Townsend was another great experience. This was the third year for my group to attend. We added a couple of newbies to the crowd, a few of whom I knew and had a super time catching up with in the evenings over glasses of wine and whiskey. I also got to spend extra time in North Bend on either end of the trip which was an added bonus.

How about some pictures of the art I created? I'm only going to post a few of them, the ones I like best, of course!

This one was created in two phases, day 1 - environmentally friendly paint making with Karen Michel*, and day 2 - an encaustic class with Judy Wise **. My friend, Elisabeth, had taken a similar encaustic class on day 1 and when she saw this piece, she highly recommended that I take it with me on day 2 for the beeswax treatment. I think it really finishes the piece. Now, where to hang it...

* I bought a couple of prints from her, too, at the vendor night. Delicious.
** You can see more pictures from her classes on her blog that I've linked to.

This collage was created in the day 1 class. I loved the rich red background and the flower seemed like a good compliment to it. I had then glued down the squares along the edge. From there I knew I wanted to attach the charm in the middle and asked Karen for her advice. She made a suggestion and I went with it. Nice, eh?

This was the first piece I started in the day 2 class. I ended up working on 3-4 pieces simultaneously in this class. In part this happened to allow the wax to harden a bit. I was also facing a bit of a creative block and switching among various layouts helps me get past them. I ended up liking this one quite a bit.

And this lovely item is from my day 3 class. I was a bit stressed about this day. Thankfully, I had two art buddies, Joanne and Sue, by my side. Their support got me through and I had a better day than I thought I would.

You may not be able to tell but this is an altered cigar box. Not just any cigar box but one procured for me by my delightful Gretchen. =) Thank you dear, it was just perfect. Can't wait to show you in person.

And this is the inside of the above box. The guts aren't quite complete. Come to think of it, neither is the outside. There's my project to putter on during the summer. In spite of my fears of this class, I am pleased with the outcome.

I've posted some other photos I took during the weekend if you're interested in seeing them, click here.

That about wraps it up for ArtFest 2009. It was certainly an event to remember. Can't wait to see what unfolds for next year...

happy belated valentine's day

This year I have a wish, a wish to be a little bit closer to the ones I love. I began feeling this desire back around Christmas. It grew until I knew I needed to do something, to act on this urge.

Out of my desire, I chose to create Valentines for you (my family and close friends who are like family to me). Each one is unique, like my relationships with each of you. I struggled with what I wanted to write on these missives of love. Everything I wanted to say seemed too big for that little card. I landed on simple, "From my heart to yours". There is more behind that five word phrase. I want to explain.

I have long believed, though not necessarily spoken this belief aloud, that little things lead to big things. The smallest grain of sand is an integral part of the largest castle, one resting on top of another, accumulating to create something more grand than any one grain could be by itself. I think this is true of all aspects of life, from relationships to goals to spirituality. Each little burst of energy establishes a firmer hold, brings me closer to what I want to create.

Now, all of this can be true and lead to something less than beautiful if the energy is used to construct, say, a dungeon. I acknowledge this and choose to focus on what I want rather than what I fear. What I hope for in sending these Valentines, is that they can be grains of sand in a bridge to bring me closer to each of you. The essence I choose to keep close is this: I believe small things lead to big things, and every small, sweet act of love builds upon another to create something greater.

My heart holds each of you tenderly and I am grateful for you. Thank you

(The two images I've included here are the Valentine's Rob and I chose from the batch that I created. The first one is his and the second one is mine. I'm not entirely happy with the scans that resulted. Hopefully they look better on your screen than they do on mine!)

art day

Today has been a good day. I've spent most of it in creative endeavors from cooking my first leg of lamb (for Rob, I don't care for the stuff) to puttering in my art space the rest of the day. I'd show you the piece I created as well as the journal but it will simply have to wait. I'm too tired to take pictures. Suffice it to say, I'm happy with both.

I also watched A Beautiful Mind with Russell Crowe. What a great movie and what an amazing wife! It was better than I expected. If you haven't seen it, I'd recommend it.

Now it's about time to wind down and hit the sheets. Tomorrow will pretty much be all chores, all day.

Sunday, Sunday

Today is opening day for hunting so Rob is out in the woods, looking for an elk or deer to bring home. I've got hunting of other sorts to do today. Actually, I'm planning on tackling my long list of things that have been bugging me. One of which was checking to see if a generous gift was going to work.

The gift? A Brother laser printer!! When they were packing up after the conference earlier this month, it was decided they didn't want this baby. I happened to be the only one from my organization around at that time so the business manager asked if I wanted it.

"For me?!"

She said, "sure".

I was on it even though we weren't sure it was still in working order after being stored for the last year. It has been sitting on the porch ever since. I finally brought it in this morning, cleared a space for it and set 'er up. Woo hoo! It works. Now I just need to remember how to do laser printer transfers for my art projects...

Now, it's time to take Tiika out for a morning hike. She didn't get any exercise yesterday and is missing her Pop for the second day in a row. She's a bit on the antsy side so off we go.

spiral floor cloth

This is the picture I've been promising of the floorcloth I made at ArtFest this year. Cool, huh? I really like it and can't wait to have a space to put it where I can admire it on a regular basis.

In case you can't read the quote, it says: "Moment to moment, surrender is the choice to open up to what is actually going on inside us and around us. It is the most profound form of alignment with reality -- and it opens us to love."

I got a chance to do some art this afternoon. It is to be a gift for one of my AOE teammates. I'm 90% done with it. I think she's going to like it. I'm liking it at this point. I wanted to get started on it right away so that I could put it in the mail to my team coach before next Saturday's meeting. I'll try to remember to scan it before I mail it off.

Rob's making a quick chili for dinner tonight. It smells divine. I think I'll go offer him a beer for his troubles and keep him company in the kitchen.

weekend slipping away

I can't believe how this weekend is slipping right by me! I made some progress on an ArtFest project yesterday but it took a long time. I think everything is dry now so I can at least stack 'em up and move on to something else. I also finished a gift that now needs to be wrapped and packaged for shipping.

I still have a couple of gifts to make in preparation for next weekend's trip to Oregon. Neither of them are started except in my mind. However, I have cleared out some correspondence that has been bugging me so this is a good thing. Lots to do including laundry. Oh, joy!

I recently heard a couple of songs that I really like and wanted to share with you. I tried to buy the cd but found out it won't be available* in the US until mid-March. Dang! I'll have to make do with these two pieces for now. The artist is an Israeli woman named Yael Naim.

The first one you may have heard on a tv ad. Apple is using it for one of their new products. I like it anyway. It is called New Soul.




The lyrics of the second one really resonate with me. Especially these two:

"How can you stay outside?
There's a beautiful mess inside."

The song is called Far Far.




Listen to the clips and let me know what you think.

*It appears to be available now on iTunes but sometimes I just want the physical cd. I like iTunes more for when I just want one or two songs from a cd.

I'm off to tackle my list of "to do's". It will be good to keep myself busy, too. I am looking forward to hearing from Rob tonight. He's been away in Seattle for the follow up course to the one he took last month. I'm eager to hear how it's gone for him...

ArtFest trades

These are the inchies I've made to trade* at ArtFest this year. As the name implies, each of them measure 1" square. They have been fun to make though more time consuming than I originally thought they would be. I have 19 of them finished, and another 64 in process. Of those in process, 20ish are half done and the rest a third done.

Last year I made way too many charms (or perhaps I didn't trade enough!). I still have a bunch of them left. I just don't know what to do with them. If I have these inchies left over I feel much more confident that I will use them after ArtFest in my journals or something.

* So what is this "trade" thing? It's an informal activity at ArtFest as a way to share our art, communicate our loves and meet people. At least that's the way I interpret it. There seems to be a vast movement among this type of artist to make things and share/exchange/swap them with each other. I was nervous about it last year and I probably will be again at first this year. However, after approaching a few people and being warmly greeted, I started to get the buzz and enjoyed myself quite a bit.

Wild Me

You simply have to check out this interactive website: Build Your Wild Self. It is great fun for kids and adults. This was my result from the first time around:


Cool, huh? And there was also a bit about the parts I chose. I don't want to show them here so you can try it without bias. Go for it! I want to do another, more wild child one.

9_29_07 journal page

This is the first page in a new art journal I started. Last year at work, one of the printers we do business with sent us a bunch of calendars. After everyone had what they wanted or could use, there were still some monthly ones laying around. I grabbed one with the thought that maybe I could use it in my art.

It had been sitting in a stack with other possible materials until I got the bug to start an altered book-art journal while Rob was out of town. The idea of taking a whole book (novel-size) was a bit overwhelming. When I saw this in my pile I was struck with how perfect it was for my mood. It measures approximately 8" x 9.5" and has probably less than 20 pages. I haven't actually counted them but there is a spread for each month and some extra information pages so it's in that ballpark. A nice number to complete over a reasonable amount of time. The spiral binding ought to allow me to add things to my pages without worrying about whether it will still close or not.

I spent an afternoon putting gesso on each of the pages, letting them dry and then putting down some color in the form of acrylic paint. It really helps the process of creating a page if I have some color to get me started. As the afternoon wore on, I got a little bit impatient waiting for the pages to dry so put waxed paper between damp pages. I ended up getting some cool effects that way.

I really like how this turned out as a booklet. The different colored tabs are fun and draw me in. I can imagine doing a little doodle or number or something on them. I will certainly be watching for extra calendars like this as the new year approaches. You can see them on the right-hand edge of the scan.

For this first page, I was pretty excited about my findings of the day and was drawn to a red page. The style of the page is similar to lots of pages I have seen. I began by gluing down some scraps of my good news and a little tree I had drawn. From there, I had the phrase "crazy good" in my mind so I lettered it on boldly. After that, I knew I wanted to write some narrative about the day so put in lines for writing on. I wrote my piece using a couple of different colored pens. The last step was embellishing the gaps. I'm really into swirls and have started adding length to them, connecting them in various ways, just playing with them. I also used my little bee stamp and some other doodles to fill the space as well as further emphasizing the bold letters. I really like how the white dots turned out on CRAZY.

There you have it!

a little bit crafty

I've not been too productive in my arts and crafts making projects lately. I've got a few ideas perking and probably a half a dozen pages languishing. Next week. I think I'll work on them next week.

In the meantime, I finished my Moleskine journal that I was using so needed to find a new one. I discovered a stash of journals I bought quite some time ago so there was no need to buy new one. Only problem was that I had become addicted to a couple of the features on my Moleskine: the pocket in the back and the elastic to keep it closed.

Never fear. I have the skill. I modified one of the journals that has been collecting dust on my shelves from earlier bargain hunting episodes.


I attached the button onto the front cover so I would have a place to run the elastic through. On the Moleskin, the elastic ends were glued under the pocket and I didn't trust my gluing skills to make that happen. I think it works well with the button. It is also set up so that when the elastic is loosened, the button slides away from the cover so I can open the journal all the way and write on the left-hand page without a button bump. However, for the first half of the journal I will have to navigate around a small hole I punched through the pages while making holes to sew the button on. No biggie. Maybe it will become a mark of interest on some pages.

The pocket is fabric attached to some wrapping paper (recognize it Mandy A.?) with gel medium to give it body and strength. The journal itself doesn't have too many pages so it doesn't have to be bulletproof. Oh, I also put little pleats of fabric on the sides so I can put more stuff in the pocket.

Not too bad, huh? I am pretty impressed with myself. I took a $2.50 journal and spiffed it up nicely to suit my needs.

couple of doodles

Just a couple of small pieces of art work. The first is from my journal that I carry with me pretty much all the time. You never know when a thought or idea will need immediate expressing. It's almost full so I have to take a look at my stash soon and pick a new one. It's done in pencil so not all of it came through in the scan.

The second is a piece I've been playing with for a while now, off and on. I haven't been very happy with it so decided I would just doodle on it and see if it got any better. I think it did. You can't tell in the scan, but a few layers back I used some of that really cool iridescent paint that is one color (green) until you angle it a little and then it becomes another (lavender). (Thanks Elisabeth!) My favorite part is the whirly-gig that I ended up sewing on because the medium wasn't holding it well enough.

It was a nice way to spend some time last night. It was dang hot again so I wasn't sure I was going to follow through on the ideas from my air conditioned office. I'm glad I made the effort.

This morning the wind seems to have shifted and the smoke it pretty thick. I think I saw ash in the air as I walked Tiika. Yuck!

got some sleep

We got mostly unpacked last night and hit the hay early. Not early enough to completely offset the deficit but enough to function somewhere near normal today. Tonight is laundry and another goal of getting to bed early. I also intend to work on the photos from the week so I can post a few of them and tell a story or two. =)

I am very close to having my ArtFest classes chosen, too. Yipee!! I'm starting to feel anxious about getting back to creating and am looking forward to the cool hours of Saturday morning to play in my art space.

card #4

The fourth and final card of the series was also done on a paper sample. The book of samples I was using had perforations on each page and on this card I used them to my full advantage.

The image I scanned is of the card opened fully. It is intended to be folded in half with the two stripes as the front of the card. The stripes are placed such that they can be carefully ripped off and used as bookmarks.

The papers I used over the paper stock are ones I made at ArtFest in my Diva Fairies class. The really vibrant background is a dyed paper towel. The yellow-y bits are truly golden in real life. The stripes were created from a dyed paper towel and some stamping with acrylics layered over that image.

It was great fun to do the paper towel dyeing. I'd like to set aside an afternoon to make a bunch more. It takes a fair amount of space to do it right. At least more space than I have readily available. The resulting papers are so worth it though. Unique and wholly mine.

card #3

The third card in the series is also done on a paper sample. I had a particular color theme I was going for here. Black, red and asian. I think I achieved it. I just dug through my scraps until I found a combination I liked. I really like how the busy pattern shows through the handmade paper on the top layer. It's a little bit fuzzy, too so there is a nice texture to it.

card #2

This is the second card in the series. The butterfly is what was left from transferring the image via water process onto another page (a dictionary page). I then altered it with a stamp and ink, some watered down acrylic paint to soften and sort of age it and tie the elements together.

I also tried to use my glaze pens to highlight things on the butterfly. The surface of the paper didn't take it as well as I would have liked so I stopped. The edge is from a stamp I made with a white eraser. Again, the background stock is from a paper sample book.

card #1

This is the first in a series of cards I've made over the last two weeks. I came across some paper samples and used them as a base for my images.

I created this image via water transfer process onto a page from a dictionary. I did it at ArtFest in my Naturalist Sketchbook class. Then I trimmed the image with funky edging scissors and stamped the word.

I really like the way the words from the dictionary show through the image. It is a process I intend to play with more.

thinking about

I'm thinking about using this image for the back of my contact cards. I have to decide very soon. Comments?

edit: I've been working on the type for the back of these cards, using the official ArtFest logo as well. I didn't realize until I had them side by side how similar my girl figure is to the logo. Especially odd since I didn't even see the girl in my piece until I had scanned it. It scanned lighter than it is in real life. In its beginnings, this was a totally random piece.