Tag Archives: art

Haunting Weather

I wish I could say I made this video! It is sad to see the devastation of this flood at work, but juxtaposed with the natural beauty of life happening regardless along with the haunting music, this is a work of art! Reminds me of the type of films I was trying to make in college.

Found at See Diva Run, who lives in the area. I am thankful to have been far enough away from the flooding.

First Art of the Year

I started with this photo taken a couple of years ago.

DSC06138

Then I played with some filters in photoshop…
sidewayscutout    sidewayscutoutfindedges

Then I layered some sheer white fabric over some printed white, along with some other sheer colored fabrics in places. I began the free-motion sewing to thread paint the lines.

img023

This is what I have so far and I am not totally happy with it yet, so I will continue to play with it until I feel like it is done. Then add a border and backing.

It will also include my focus word of the year, which is ~drumroll please~

Vibrancy!

But for now, my doggie is upset that I have been in the studio for so long, so I must tend to him.

HAppy New Year!

EBSQ and my Artsy Year in Review

In December 2007, I made the goal to: create at least one NEW artwork (in any medium of my choice as is fitting for the theme) per month to enter into EBSQ Shows.

The shows that I planned to enter vs the art that I actually completed: 

sheba three

  • March: I did not end up creating for the Childhood Show instead put in a couple of OLD pieces in Vice. Drama Queen and Foot Fetish. In fact, it appears that I did a whole bunch of nothing during March. But in reality, I had some major family issues happening, I attended and presented at a professional conference and I was participating actively in Flickr Photo Scavenger Hunts.

Floor Cloth

  • May: The Unmentionables Show was in the plan, but still recuperating from the intensity of Artfest, I wasn’t making very much art. However, I did find the energy to participate in another of Jen’s Challenges. I also started getting heavily into my triathlon training, so days of swimming, running and cycling took a bit out of art time.

 Experiment #2 fabric weaving

  • June: I did not enter the Creation Myths, but instead entered a photograph in Art of the Fan. It was a great month for experimenting in fabric  for a return to Jen’s Challenges.
  • August:  My Triathlon was this month, so all my focus was on fitness, but I did start thinking about the Beaded Journal Project. All plans of participating in shows were put on hold.

BJP_prototype with pages side by side and open

  • October: Why did I plan to enter the Bat Show? I guess because I do like Halloween. Although I did not manage that, I did make a lot of new art for ArtSoMoFo. I also worked on the next month of BJP.
  • November: Another show planned and another show missed… although the election was a top priority on my mind, it did not inspire any art for On the Trail. I celebrated my doggie’s birthday and created my BJP in his honor. The school year is in full swing and the rainy season has begun, so art and fitness seems to have fallen a bit by the wayside. I will need to think of how I can improve being creative during these busy months.

blue fairy

  • December: I made tons of ornaments in past years so it made sense to enter Ornamental. But nothing new was made to enter the show, so I entered a couple of my old cute doggie ornaments. The year ended with a lot of SNOW and fun. I spent most of my creative energy making fun doll clothes for my nieces.

 I love looking back to see what I planned and what I accomplished. It does help me see the cycles and patterns to my creative life. Now on to better planning my 2009 show entries.

What’s in a Word?

As I reflect over the past year and make my goals for the next year, I have discovered a few people summing up their year in a single word. This seems like such a great way to focus on my goals, to have one over-arching word of significance to guide my actions. I always include text into my artwork already, but to have a given word to almost become a signature for the year sounds so freeing and exciting.

“A single word can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything.”

Many of my online artist friends have been declaring their words. Dale Anne selected Explore for her word, so I decided to explore  more about choosing a word for myself. Christine Kane describes the process in “Resolution Revolution“. In fact, I remember reading this post last year, and I looked into some words, but for whatever reason I didn’t pick a word. (Although I did set some art goals.) Now she has a month of posts about people that selected a word and had a year of success focused on that word. It is exciting to read about people that picked their words from deep emotional places like transition, or ones that pick their word with humor, like chicken. Courageseems to be a popular word, and in this world, it seems we all need a little courage just to get through the day. Another blogger, Ali, not only has a list of word suggestions, she also has a little contest/giveaway for those setting words as a focus.

So far I am looking at the following words:

  • Action: the process or state of acting or of being active
  • Immersion: concentrating on one course of instruction, subject, or project to the exclusion of all others for several days or weeks; intensive, state of being deeply engaged or involved; absorption
  • Journey: a traveling from one place to another, passage or progress from one stage to another
  • Vibrancy: pulsating with life, vigor, or activity; exciting; stimulating; lively

The words on the longer list included challenge, energy, achieve, active, accomplish, strive, release, discipline, but most of them felt to final or had a negative feeling to me. I know that this year will not be the end of my projects and goals, nor are they the beginning. It is important that my word encompasses my fitness goals as well as my art, relationship and professional goals.

 

I am leaning towards Vibrancy… but I am going to let it sit today and see how it looks in the morning. Then I will print out the one I will focus on and put it in my studio and my home gym so I won’t forget!

 

what word do you think I should pick?

Dolly Dress Form

Based on some instructions for making a duct tape dress form, I used Enchy’s doll to make a mini doll dress form.

American Girl doll duct tape dress form

Here’s how I made it.

  1. First, I wrapped the naked doll in plastic wrap.
  2. Then I covered it with a piece of fabric. This was to represent the t-shirt that is used in the sample instructions.
  3. Next using masking tape I did one layer of tape around the fabric. Mostly I used this type of tape because I knew I would not have enough duct tape and because I thought it would be more flexible for this small dress form. Next was a couple layers of duct tape, I added some partial sleeves at this point.
  4. Now I had to carefully cut the tape off the doll without damaging the doll. I cut up the front and up one sleeve. The other sleeve came off without cutting once I had enough give to pull it off.
  5. I taped the cut lines closed.
  6. I had some old candle sticks that I never use that I realized were the perfect size to be a stand. yippiee! I cleaned off the wax and dust, clipped off the leaves and put it up the middle of the duct tape form.
  7. I stuffed the form with recycled stuffing that I get from Charger’s destroyed toys.
  8. I taped up the bottom and I am done!

I was thinking about covering it with some nice fabric, but that will add more bulk, which will make the dress fitting less accurate. At this size mere fractions of inches will throw off all the measurments. The layers of tape and fabric already make the fitting a little different from the actual doll. It doesn’t need to be pretty… Perhaps when the girls don’t need doll clothes made for them anymore I will cover it and make it an artsy dress form sculpture that is not meant for the fitting function.

November Beaded Journal Project Begins

november BJP 2008 b4

November 2003 is when I became a dog lover, when I was completely won over by my first BIG dog. So this month’s page will honor Charger and his big stupid grin. This is the fabric quilt prior to beading. I have some scrabble letters to spell out the word “love” and then plan to bead some borders, bones and his hat and scarf. Not sure what other beading I will do, this one will probably be pretty simple.

See my other month’s pages here (plus theflickr album) and more about Charger here (plus HIS flickr album) .

I had contemplated doing something election oriented but decided that at this point, Charger is more of an influence… perhaps January will be about our new President.

BJP October in Progress…


My October page in progress, originally uploaded by Charger’s Mommy.

I still have more work to do but got a lot done yesterday and will do a little more tonight. The dress and jacket are done, but I want to do the hat and more on the white swirls area.

Already thinking about November’s page. Which will be something about Charger, since we got him in November.

Something This Way…

I love Halloween and perhaps I even like Fall. Actually, I do love the smell of fall leaves, wood burning stoves filling the crisp air and the colors of bright reds and oranges that fill the trees and skies. But I hate the dark, cold and wet, which is what fall mostly is around here. I have always loved Halloween because I love making costumes, becoming someone else for a short time. I love dark stories and poems. Like Poe and King NOT Saw and chop them up type movies.

This Fall has been a roller coaster of ups and downs for me… The teaching has been going so well, but physically I have been suffering from an endless cold for almost a month now. It has been hard with the increasing bad weather to get in the needed healthy exercise and nutrition (don’t you just crave those comfort foods that are oh so bad for you when its cold?)

What is your favorite season? What do you like about Fall?

Today’s Mandala is about Fall. Photos are some creative commons photos (one, two) altered in Adobe Photoshop Elements along with some of my own. I have a really simple mandala tutorial that my students use to create this type of digital art. If you are interested in giving it a try yourself. be sure to share the results!