The Recollection Parlor "Digital Boomerangs" in Somerset Digital Studio Spring 2010

Now on the newstands,  Somerset Digital Studio featured a five  page article  on The Recollection Parlor's "Digital Boomerangs".  These collages  began as  a relatively spontaneous collaborative  project  last summer   similar to the "Exquisite Corpse" notion, but digitally.  Participants were Michele Jackson, Abby Lazar, Red Scott, Sija Tejelier, Debbie Mihalick, Debby Harriettha, Deirdre Abbotts and myself (please reference the right side bar here for links to their individual websites.)    In a nutshell,   one artist began the collage by sending out an image attached in an email, and one by one, each person added to it.

Pictured below,  is one of the collages that wasn't published completed by the artists mentioned above.   

The Recollection Parlor's "Die-namic"

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Submitting to my Muse - Visual Collage Journal continued

"The wALLfLoWeRs"

Oh, I think my Muse decided she was longing for Spring too so,  ....slowly.....the colors crept in....but pastels?  ...did she have Easter Eggs on her mind???

I wonder where she will take me next? 

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Procrastination and On-going Visual Journal

Below, I've posted a beginning to a visual journal I've started.   My plan is to add to it when I am brainstorming ideas digitally or when I'm feeling stuck.  I have so many creative ideas rushing around in my head since my return that I've ended up thinking a lot and accomplishing little with the exception of completing some obligations I had already made.

Because the creative elements and decisions  to these projects (eg) steampunk, were already complete, this ended up being largely a process much like that of an assembly line.  I'm not complaining but I questioned myself as I constructed each mail out  about what goals I wanted to set for myself artistically.  So much of what I was doing would not fall into that category. 

Much of this collage was bits of things I had cut out by hand and then reassembled and scanned.  It may end up being nothing more than an exercise in creative angst or it may unlock my muse and assist me in getting back into a flow that satisfies my thirst to create more sustainable pieces.  It is what it is and I had to remind myself, it's all in the playing.

I'm looking forward to working on some 3D pieces as I have been inspired by James Michael Star and Michael deMeng for quite some time now.  In fact, I did start working on one 3D piece this week  as I wait for the arrival of "Dusty Diablos" - Michael deMeng's newest book.  When I leafed through it in Mexico, it appeared to contain lots of detail surrounding techniques and I am optimistic it will  be very instructive.

I've begun to catch up on some of the blogs I enjoy visiting yet I've only scratched the surface.  A big THANK YOU to all of the bloggers that are so generous to post 'free' images on their blogs.  Terri Kahrs especially, who has such a big heart and an endless supply of images she posts regularly.  I almost think she's the REAL graphics fairy!  Thanks Terri!

And again,THANK YOU for reading and for the comments that you've left over the past week  and  to several new followers. I  returned home to the promises  of an early spring and am slowly readjusting  back to daily life.

Visual Journal - March 9 and 10

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FREEBIE Photo of a Door

This is one of the MANY photographs I took while I was in Mexico.  Unique doors are one of my favorite subjects.   Over the next few weeks I'll be uploading more of these images as I work through my files. 

Please help yourself if you're looking for a background for non-digital personal use.  Double click to enlarge it and then right click SAVE AS.

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More skinny page close ups...

I did take just a  few odds and ends with me on vacationm ( a small bag of embroidery thread, seed beads and some collages printed onto fabric).   I thought this would help pass the time in the air travelling.  However, we did spend a few evenings watching some of the Olympic events in Vancouver,so  I was happy to have them as I am not the type of person who can sit and watch TV without having something else 'on the go' - especially sports! 

So, most of these photos are just random close up images of pages in progress, the most ambitious of which was embroidering a chandelier...yup - just choked and squirmed in my chair as I typed that phrase out...What can I say?  I find it very relaxing...

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Intel's Core i7-980X Launches with a Bang

Intel's Core i7-980X Launches with a Bang

I don't normally blog about new technology, but rather occasionally complain

and whine about my personal crashes.  But, I thought for my blogger artist friends, and those with a need for a new CPU and a whack of disponsable income, here's the latest.   For now, I'll just dream of what it would be like to have a laptop with this much 'horsepower' and speed!

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New Collage - "one love one you""

The photo of the young boy is from Elizabeth Golden - The Last Door Down the Hall, (thanks Elizabeth!) the vintage book cover is my photograph, the flower - Kate Pertiet.

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It's good to be back home again...but I miss

the colors of Mexico - especially the flowers.

 Even though it is 15 above today (Celsius) or approx. 60 above F. - spring is not here colorwise.  So, to brighten up the kitchen, I bought a few flowers yesterday.  These are my favorite orchids.  I also bought a bunch of tulips - can't ever seem to get enough tulips this time of year - they are always so inexpensive....

I didn't do TOO much shopping in Mexico, a few things I'll post in the upcoming days...but I couldn't resist this wonderful little angel - he/she was very inexpensive and I thought would be a fun carving to hang somewhere in my studio... I doubt he/she will ever find a place in our home ANYWHERE other than my studio!

Doesn't he/she bring a smile to your face?

I'm almost finished my Steampunk Project.  I picked up the laser prints from the printer yesterday afternoon, cut them out and finished the edges last night and today began to add a few 'by hand' elements.  I found some tiny little 'screw' brads and added them over top of some black toile to mimic some torn screening.  I should have the 40 required finished early next week and ready to mail out to Red for this Capolan project.

Here's a few photos of the 'work in progress' and a close up of the 'screw and screening.'

Final 3.5 x 5 inch "SteamPunk" and

below a close up of the toile and "screw" brad

18 done, 22 to go!

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Newest Fabric Collage for Project - "Traveler"

This is a collage I completed today for an exchange I am participating in with 18 other artists.  It started out as a digital collage of a combination of public domain objects - The Louvre, Venus, the Eiffel Tower, etc.  I then printed it onto cotton, stitched it to a felt background and then added a layer of embossed organza over top of it, stitched around it again and then added the mask, a crystal and an antique optometrist lens to frame the quote by Robert Louis Stevenson - "There are no foreign lands.  It is the traveler who is foreign."

Fabric Page 4 x 8 inches "Traveler"

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Hacienda Mosaico

Several, and I mean s e v e r a l years ago, I had the incredible opportunity to view a Kandinsky painting through a virtual reality "multisensory interactive simulation" ... the technology then in its infancy. It was part of a series exploring tactile and visual manipulation in the arts through the Banff Centre for Arts at ( http://www.banffcentre.ca/), here in Alberta.   The experience was phenomenal and left me with a memory much richer than simply viewing a piece of art at a gallery or museum.

So, I was delighted  to take,  be it brief, a tour around Hacienda Mosaico, the 'venue' for the Michael deMeng workshop I blogged about a few days ago, during my recent trip to Mexico.  The owner, Sam, photographed below, is the owner of Hacienda Mosaico as well as the visionary and artist/gardener of this magical destination. 

Although I only had the opportunity to snap a few very quick photos during our visit, within 15 minutes I began to experience a feeling similar to the one  I had exploring that Kandinksy painting ions ago.  For Sam has created within her hacienda an  environment that in and of itself is a masterpiece and work of art. 

It would take days to capture the hundreds of different 'snapshots' of the artful surroundings that weave through the floors and walls, in furniture, carvings, mosaics, ceilings, from the gardens to the patios, inside and out - everywhere you look there is A R T.  

Unfortunately, the accomodations were occupied and so Sam was unable to show us these and therefore  I am unable to recommend Hacienda Mosaico as a destination other than to share with you what I've already commented on.  But, do yourself a favor and  visit her website at http://www.haciendamosiaco.com/ where more photographs , testimonials and a list of upcoming artist workshops is posted.

One of several brilliant red passion flowers along one of the paths....





A fountain wall of mosaics created by Sam....

Along the entrance of one of her  lovely garden paths -

This is an earlier photo  I borrowed of the same sculpture....with Sam and her feathered/furry friends...do you see any similarities ? :0)

Further along the path...

Oh hello - .....

And inside....

Back on the garden path ....in a secluded little corner....a place to contemplate....I loved all of the floating hearts.....

....magical...  Thanks Sam.

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