Friday, July 31, 2009

The Disintegration Deadline

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I don't think the 'muses' are familiar with earthly time and that's why tomorrow's deadline for the Disintegration Project will come and go without a finished project from yours truly. Although I have began to deconstruct the pieces you see photographed above, I'm thinking it may be a few more days or a week before I grab hold of the appropriate creative idea to finish this off. Here is my original piece in various stages of 'weather and wind.'
In the meantime, I'll be enjoying visiting all of the links Seth will have up at The Altered Page of the many other artists who participated in this funky project. The BIG REVEAL is tomorrow!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

And the winner of the June "Surprise Bag" is

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My apologies for the delay in making this draw. I completely forgot about it. The winner is....Tammy..... ! Congrats Tammy - I'll be mailing it out to you as soon as I confirm your address. Stay tuned in for the next giveaway..... :0)

Saturday, July 25, 2009

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2 Original ATC's below by Michele Jackson

Apart from beginning a major clean up in my garage studio this week, I also finished a few projects for The Recollection Parlor and received some great mail. First off, the beautiful ATC's posted above arrived from Michele Jackson of Digital Dissonance. I ordered them through her Etsy site of the same name. Michele's artwork is always impeccably executed, and in the case of reproductions, they are glicee-like quality. Such a treat to have these to add to my collection.

Below is a group of ATC's that arrived on Wednesday from 8 of the artists I joined in a 5 day course I took entitled "Edges, Seams, Rivers and Dreams" taught by Laurie Doctor. They are all croppings from larger pieces of abstract mixed media paintings completed during the week. Aren't they too cool for the pool? I love the textural mixes created through the use of lettering.

I've always had a 'thing' about boxes, especially little boxes. Laurie Doctor teaches a very easy method for creating any size of box. I have several that are 'in progress' but I completed one on Thursday and stuffed it full of eight miniaturized copies of the Major Arcana tarot cards I've recently completed. I've included a couple of printer scans below. This little 'deck' is about 2 x 2.5 inches. I mounted the tarot cards onto cardstock and then laminated them. It'll be off to one of my wonderful art friends next week.

And Lorraine Stobie from Creative Daily sent me a photo to announce the arrival of her Moo cards. I've been working together with Lorraine on a blog makeover during the past month or so and designed these cards to coordinate with her blog background and banner. I'm happy with how close the finished cards were in color and sizing to the original submissions. Lorraine is offering VIDEO mixed media classes ON-LINE. Check out her blog (linked above) for more info! Registration is on-going.
If you like these and you'd like to have some of your own funky 'calling cards' and never seem to find the time to create them, drop me a line. I can create these as part of a blog banner or background package/makeover or seperately.

Thanks Lorraine for sending the photo along.

Finally, the "Citizen ATC Challenge" at The Recollection Parlor is near completion with the exception of one artist whose cards went missing in the mail. Here's a poster illustrating all of the submissions. We had every country represented in this challenge, making it particularly special and as you can see, the work is amazing! You can see each card posted individual if you visit The Recollection Parlor.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Backing up and Cataloguing: ATC's from 2007-2009

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Do you ever have the concern that your computer might crash and you might lose all of your beloved photographs? Or, worse, as was the case with me about 2 years ago, it gets stolen? I lost some documentation and photos that were very dear to me. So, over the past couple of months, apart from backing up my work to a seperate drive, I have also catologued all of the ATC's I have made and traded since 2007 - I am up to 110 and still searching my databases for others I know exist. Although this may sound like a rather tedious task, it is interesting to consider how your art has evolved over time. If you haven't backed up your work or made a CD, perhaps it is something you may want to consider scheduling...soon!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

....The End....is here!

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Rodney Smith is one of my favorite photographers. Many of you may recognize his work as "Mr. Byron" - the subject of several projects on this blog and with the artists in The Recollection Parlor. Mr. Smith was generous enough to provide me with the permission to use "Byron" who I named based on a poem by Lord Byron. So, without surprise, I have developed quite an affection for Mr. Byron as have several other artists. I still receive requests from otherwise anonymous bloggers to send his jpg image for them to utilize in their work.
Now, you have to have a fairly deep pockets to indulge in his latest Limited Edition (1000) publication "The End" as the price tag is set at $600.00 pre-release plus S& H. But if you are a collector of ART Books, then I would think this may be worth at least a surf over to view some of the images!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

I can relate.

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Monday, July 20, 2009

54 ATC's looking for the right wall!

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My studio seems to grow ATC's at the speed of bunny! Above is a very unprofessional and pieced together photo of 52! from various swaps and trades over the past 3 years. It measures 52.5 x 15 inches. I'm clearing out some wall space in my studio this week to get them up and hopefully capture a better photo of them. Even though the actual frames aren't precisely 2.5 x 3.5 the combination of cost and ease of framing is the best I've found. I welcome other suggestions!
Here's the list of Awesome Artists, many of whom I have been lucky enough to collaborate with over the years. If they have a blog, you'll find their link on the right side panel here. If they don't, or I don't have it listed, I've added their last name.
Michele
Misty
Sija
Red
Marion
Ruth Rae
Yogi Grunwald
Viola
Cynthia Couch
Hermine
Ank de Bak
Ron Huxley
Beth Atkins
Karen Kunz
Rini
Sybil Govan
Debby
Debbie
This also seems like a great time to express my appreciation for all of the friendships and creative 'kinship' I've been fortunate enough to develop with so many artists since I left my hometown in 2006. Thanks for that.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

New Blog Package - "Phrenology"

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Available on Etsy.

Final Round of the Byron Magical Mystery Tour

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Accordian Book of Days

I'm keeping the inside of the book a secret until she receives it.
The artists at the Recollection Parlor are now on the final round of our Byron Envelope Project with the final due date where all the work will be returned - September 1st, 2009. This last envelope is for Abby, or "Layla" as she goes by in her Kingdom of Girrelygog. Her request was cultural graffitti. Today I started on her envelope by applying a thick coat of Golden molding paste and then writing into it while it was still wet. After that I layered on various Twinkling H20 watercolors to both the front and back of the envelope along with some Liquitex Ink in Burnt Sienna and glued some handmade Asian paper to the inside flap. Although far from finished, below is the start of the background -

Above is what will eventually become a bookmark. The paper is Arches Text Woven which is 100% cotton and incredible to work with. Laurie Doctor introduced me to it at the workshop last week and it is already a favorite. As far as paper goes, it is so sturdy and as she pointed out - very similar to cloth. I tested one piece by soaking it under the sink in hot water, crumpling it up and then drying it. It showed very little sign of transformation....the TIMEX of paper! The poem is by Pablo Naruda. I used the same watercolors as in the envelope. If you look at it closely and large, you'll see an outline of Mr. Byron. :0)

Oilseed Rape Field - East of Granum, Alberta

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I love how the various textures of land, sky and mountains converge in this photograph.

Home Again

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I'm looking forward to reviewing the many inspirations gathered from Laurie Doctor during her course last week entitled: Edges and Seams, Rivers and Dreams. But today, I chose to enjoy the company of my wonderful partner, the warm weather and the beautiful scenery in and around Alberta. I'd never appreciated the fragrance of clover as much as I did setting up this photograph taken about 40 miles from home.

Thursday, July 09, 2009

The Emperor - 1st Draft

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Wednesday, July 08, 2009

The Moon - This morning's tarot - Draft 1

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Monday, July 06, 2009

The Hierophant - 1st and 2nd Drafts

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Sunday, July 05, 2009

The Empress - First and Second Drafts

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Saturday, July 04, 2009

Judgement Tarot - 1st and 2nd Drafts

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I haven't yet researched the symbolism behind the Judgement Tarot card - so this collage is my own personal symbolism related to Judgement....

Friday, July 03, 2009

This week's MUSEsssss

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Michele of Digital Dissonance is just finalizing the specifications for her Summer Tarot Project over at the Recollection Parlor. I've been given the High Priestess and Judgement as my two cards in the Major Arcana. Steep learning curve, but I'm loving the richness of symbolism in the classical decks left open to my interpretation. If you haven't tried a tarot card - it's amazing how much history is involved within!
Final High Priestess
First, Second and Third Efforts
Not only have I caught the tarot bug (I hear it's contagious too) I also came down with the well ....the cloth ATC bug. Viola's gorgeous Cloth ATC's arrived in the mail earlier this week and I have to say, the texture in her work is second to none. Thank you so much Viola!! Of course, Lorraine's beautiful images of her recent cloth collages put the nail in the coffin and I was soon off to Value Village to load up on DOILIES...shaking my head all the while asking myself - Did you ever think you'd be buying used doilies Trudi? No. Not ever. Never.
Cloth Artist Trading Cards
And at about the same time I was coming down with the DOILY VIRUS, Marion invited me to participate in her annual ATC exchange - this year - ZETTI. So, I decided to complete some DOILY ZETTI's (yup - it's English).