Poetry and Journals

I am one of those singularly useless college graduates in this day and age - I have a double B.A. in English and history, subjects not much valued by the modern business world where one must basically have a 'trade'.  I've never regretted my choice of majoring in liberal arts, and I'm celebrating that choice today in a way, by using one of my favorite poems by one of my favorite poets on a journal page.

The poem is "The Stolen Child," by Irish poet William Butler Yeats.  You can find the full text of the poem here. The poem is basically acknowledging the legends about fairies stealing children from their human families, which I think may still be used as a benign threat in the British Isles ("watch out or the fairies will get you", that sort of thing).  But it's done in a beautiful way that I love, and Yeats is a master of using language to create images that stick with you.  Many people are familiar with him as a writer of poems about the Irish conflicts, rather than the more mythological work.  

Several musical artists have set the poem to music, including the Waterboys and Loreena McKennitt.  I like McKennitt's version but really prefer the Waterboys, which you can find here.  It's from their album "Fisherman's Blues."

Enough of the lecture.

I started the page with my usual covering up with scraps of vintage paper.  One reason I do this, if I'm going to paint a page, is to strengthen the page itself.  I then attempted to use one of my malfunctioning paint sprayers to start a yellow layer, which didn't quite work.   This would be Primary Yellow.

I then added various layers of other colors, a light Cobalt Blue, Permanent Rose, and Titanium White (I use traditional acrylic and water colors, by the way - not paint that comes in little bottles).  The stencils are from a set I found at a discount store, which I think work quite well, and I also used a strip of stencil waste (punchinella).  

And there it sat for a couple of days.  Then for some reason I decided to add a green border (Soho Urban's Forest Green) around the edge of the pages.

And I liked it.  I thought it added some definition.  By this time I had decided that the theme would indeed be "The Stolen Child," and I found some images I could use on Etsy, as well as clip art sheets from Lunagirl's shop, fairy wings in particular.  

The mother and child image was pretty much all white and I decided to color it in with pencil to give it more color.  I imagined the child was dressed in some semblance of Scottish tartan but I've no clue of the clan that's supposed to be represented.  I added wings to the woman, implying that she's a fairy come to take the child away.  I also added some other embellishments

Here's a closeup of the woman so you can perhaps see the penciled in color a bit better.

And finally, the finished piece with a quote from the poem.  The font used is Chiller, not sure where I got it from but it's a free download, virus-free.

What do you think?

later,

lin

I still do art journals

At least I'm still doing the art journal exchange with my friend Lisa Busch of Collagestuff.com.  If you do any kind of mixed media art or collage art, you need to check out her site.  Seriously.  I buy from her at least once a month if I can.  In fact, the stencils I use come from her shop.

As I was saying, Lisa and I exchange journals about every two weeks and I want to show you what I did with one of the spreads.  Actually what we do is send both journals at once to each other, then the other sends them back.

I started out by covering a set of pages in my journal with various papers.

After doing that, I had intended to simply add images and 3D embellishments, but then I decided to go back to using paint, which I'd not been doing out of frustration with not being able to use stencils properly (too much paint, blurred images, etc).  This time I decided to try spraying the paint on and not care if I used too much paint.  This is something I've wanted to do with one of the new collages I'm working on, so I figured I'd experiment first in the journal.

I mixed 3 different paint colors with water in spray bottles - an off white, red oxide, and a metallic gold.  And spray I did

I used three stencils - swirls, letters, and diagonal lines, and just poured on the paint, with 2 of the stencils looking something like this, and I then decided to drip the excess paint onto the pages.  It took a little while afterwards to clean them in soapy water, which I did before the paint dried too much.

I decided to stop the painting at this stage.  But I wasn't sure what to do next, then I looked again at Lisa's journal page.  She'd done a, I think, lightheaded look at monsters.

My answer:

I used a quote by Stephen King that I'd heard at the end of a "Criminal Minds" episode (they do a quote at the beginning and end of each episode that applies to the story), which I verified elsewhere:  

"Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too.  

           They live inside us, and sometimes, they win."

Quite honestly, when I'd heard the quote recited on that episode it had a great impact as I deal with internal ghosts and monsters daily.  I've long wanted to use it in an art piece, and this seemed to be a good opportunity.

After adding the words, using 24 point Poor Richard as a font, the pages looked a bit empty, so I simply added buttons as an accent.  Red on each side.  I still thought it needed an added punch and I decided to use a contrasting color, an olive green, in the corners.

And I was satisfied.

What do you think?

later,
lin

I Suppose I Should Write a Real Post About Art

Well, I do write about my work in progress, but life issues have a large role to play too.

What I wanted to share today, though, are some journal pages I've done as part of the project my friend Lisa Busch and I have been doing - exchanging art journals and working in each.  I'm just about at the end of Lisa's journal, and I myself started a new one.  I just wanted to share some of our pages.  

First, I'd like to show Lisa's because I have learned a lot from her work and she has given me so much wise advice over the years.  She may be gritting her teeth as she writes some of it in her emails because so much of it is encouraging me to play more in my work while I whine about not being able to play.  There are no titles, so I'm just showing them as a group.

Lisa works with paint and marker quite a lot, then layers paper and 3D items on top of the painted surface.  She works often with a Gelli Plate and is really good at it.  I have one, but haven't used it much.

 I really like her work.  It has so many dimensions to it, and she uses a lot of inspirational sayings, which is something that I don't do much. 

My work is mostly paper based on the foundation, while I add my layers on top of the paper.  Lisa tends to do the opposite.  I've been told, in a not so complimentary way, that what I do is essentially scrapbooking, which is not what I do at all.  Once, when I dropped off some canvases to be framed at a place that shall remain nameless but it's a national chain that begins with "J" and I don't mean Joann's (where I've gotten stuff framed beautifully), the clerk wrote "scrapbooking" as a description and I've never had my stuff framed by them since.  Too bad, since they do good work at a good price. 

But I digress.  Here are some of my pages, some which may have been posted here before.  I wanted to share the ones with the wire binding because I won't see them again after I post Lisa's journal (waaah) back to her.

With this one I started with pages painted a sort of deep pink, to which I added orange (not sure why, even though the color combo works for Dunkin Donuts - which reminds me that I need a strawberry Coolatta), and then blue squiggles.  I wasn't at all happy.
In the meantime I was experimenting with paper weaving for my continuing self-portrait project, and decided to use two of my practice pieces.  Made with vintage book pages, I then stamped all over them.  The bird images are from Lisa, and I colored them with marker, gluing them on top of the woven paper.  I'm not sure where the quote - if it is a quote - comes from.  It was something I remembered and wanted to add since it seemed appropriate.

The final set of pages I'm sharing from Lisa's book is a little more visceral.  I'd done them at a time when I was feeling particularly unhappy with life.  The knight in armor represents me hiding behind barriers and not letting people see the real me, while the other page's emotion really dates back to a realization I'd had 5 years ago after almost dying from an asthma attack, that I'd wasted so much of my life just existing - at least that's what I thought.  In a way I do feel I've wasted a lot of time, but am trying to think of this as a journey.

 And art is a journey of self-discovery, after all.  At least the best art is.

later,
lin

P.S.  Whenever I mention Lisa, I like to also mention that she owns a particularly great online shop for mixed media and collage artists with lots of cool vintage ephemera and also new items from Tim Holtz, Dina Wakely, and others.  It's at http://www.collagestuff.com, and I urge you to visit.  I've gotten myself broke shopping there.  In a very happy way.

Making More Process

A lot of the work I've been doing lately has been hit or miss, not really with any aim to it, but I have tried to be creatively active.  And with the stresses of technology bailing on me, I'm finding that I have to start creating more to deal with pressure.  There's also been a few medical and psychiatric ups and downs over the past few weeks that have done their best to interfere.

That said, I wanted to share the process of creating a collage that may or may not be for sale.  Not sure yet what I want to do with it.

This particular piece is an update of something I did several years ago that was, quite frankly, bad. And yet I decided to show it in an exhibition featuring work that was 10x10 inches in size.  When I visited the show and saw that piece in the company of others, I wanted to take it right off the wall so that no one else would see it.  I didn't even go to the reception or tell anyone I knew when the reception would happen because I didn't want them to see how bad it was.

Of course I am my own worst critic.  But trust me - it was BAD.  And of course I took it apart as soon as I got it back in my hot little hands.

Of course some may think this one isn't so hot, but I like it.

And so we begin.

This canvas was originally a piece honoring my home city.  But I realized that it was a disaster, and destroyed it, and eventually decided to use this 11x14 canvas for something else.  I covered it with dark blue banana paper because there were remnants of the previous collage still affixed to the canvas.  And it sat for a bit because I didn't know what I wanted to do.  Then I picked it up and started affixing the papers you see in the photo.  I didn't like the look of the banana paper, you see.

I then took some clips from vintage Catholic newspapers that I'd found on Etsy and Ebay, and added those, plus strips of gold foil Dresden scrap.  

I put the little Catholic scapular piece in the lower right corner, not sure if it was going to stay there, then added more pieces, including an old rosary, a photo from my First Communion.

On the left you can see a closeup of the rosary - which I think is probably meant to be a child's rosary.  On the right is a Virgin Mary medal that I purchased from collagestuff.com.

And I also added a tiny little figurine of the Virgin Mary

And here's a closeup of that photo.  I am the third little girl and am looking at the camera held by my father, probably.  Behind me is my then best friend Laurie.  And of course the nun in old habit - this was 1967 and the order that taught in our school had not yet converted to a modern habit.

So, because the nun in the photo is in the old habit, I chose for my main character a Victorian etching of a nun.  I do like how she's looking down and has a enigmatic expression on her face.

Both this collage, and the one that I thought was really bad, are homages to my ever present struggle with Catholicism.  I still consider myself to be most comfortable worshipping as a Catholic, but like many others of my age group I do have issues with certain aspects of Church doctrine.

In any event, I meant the piece to be a quiet commentary on Catholicism, and it's personally meaningful to me.  Which is why I'm not sure I'll ever offer it for sale.

If you are a religious person, does your faith find its way into your work?

later

lin

Making Like a Bunny Rabbit

I'm starting the first official Rhodyart Blog Hop

I follow a number of blogs I really like, and most of them, of course, are mixed media or art blogs.  Some don't publish enough for my taste.  Others can get annoying if I see posts from them constantly.

One of my real favorites is by a guy I've mentioned several times before on my Facebook and Twitter feed - not sure I've mentioned him here.  His name is Seth Apter, and he's an outstanding mixed media artist.  

He publishes a daily blog both about his adventures in art making, but also about art in general, and he loves to write about the classes he teaches and show off his students' work.  You can find Seth's blog here at The Altered Page

Another blog I started subscribing to recently is by Quinn McDonald.  I had actually learned of her way back when I was still subscribing to Somerset Studio, a very popular and long running magazine about mixed media art.

Quinn's blog is about the process of doing art and the impact it's had in her life.  She also talks about life events that really resonate with her readers.  I've come to really look forward to seeing her posts in my mailbox.  You can find it here at Quinn Creative

 A blog that doesn't publish nearly enough is Where is Paperwoman? by the company Paper Conection.  Obviously it is all about paper art, and it's about fine papers.  The company is local to Providence and also has a local base.  The papers she sells are amazing, and I hope to be able to buy some soon.  

Another blog that doesn't publish often is The Art of Collage by Nancy Egol Nikkal.  She writes about the classes she teaches, about collage artists, and about collage art.  I wish I could afford to take one of her classes.  

Last, but definitely not least, is another favorite that I always read when I see posts.   The blog is First Night Design and its owner Sarah Vernon writes lots of interesting items that range in topic.  Her Twitter feed is also hugely active.  You can find the blog here.  

That is it for now.  I hope you'll check out these great blogs, and see why I think they're great and fun.  

later,
lin

Back to Process

I haven't been doing a lot of collage work that I plan to offer for sale, but I thought you might still be interested in hearing how I made one of my recent pieces that I have hanging in a small show.

This piece is called "What Are You Looking At?" and it's one that I like quite a lot.  

As always I start with a more or less blank canvas, this one has been covered with a goldish-black paper that I quite like.  It's wrinkly but stretchable and has a nice texture to it.  Though it's going to get covered up, it's good to know that good paper forms the foundation of this piece.

I then start adding things.  As I said, I tend now to cover up the foundation.  My reason for including the paper is to make sure the sides of the canvas are covered.  Lately I've been using wider edged canvases that I don't frame and I really dislike seeing blank white canvas sides on a piece.

 I really enjoy the process of moving things around and picking and choosing what images I want to use as the focal point.  At first I wanted to use a character I haven't worked with for a while

I love this guy, but I decided to once again go with a female character

I chose this one because I love the expression her face, plus there's a hint of sensuality with the clothing a bit low cut.  Usually my ladies are dressed to a T, but there's just something about this woman that I love.

After deciding on which character to use, I decide on additional elements to add such as this key

And I make sure the sides are covered

And this is the piece completed, hanging in the gallery.  One thing I'd done was to lightly color in the woman's cheeks with a pink watercolor pencil.  It's not at all obvious but I like the hint of pink, and I think I might do this again, color in parts of the character's image.

 I hope you like this piece, and that you've enjoyed this journey through my creating a collage

later
lin

The Big Reveal

One of my Facebook buddies recently invited me to exhibit some of my work in an upcoming exhibition he's running.  (Thanks Ricky Gagnon!)

I decided to do four small pieces that could be sold individually or as a set.  And I decided that it would be fun to recreate (sort of) a set of note cards I have for sale in my shop (here).

I've been moving away from using canvases with narrower edges, opting instead for wide gallery style like this (it's not the edge of these canvases but just an example of what I mean by wide)

 I just think they look better.  Which does create a bit of a problem for me since most of my small collages have that narrower edge, and most are too small to be framed in a ready made frame.  But I digress.

So anyway, I decided upon using wide edged 5x7 canvases to sort of mimic the note cards' size.  I also decided to use a variety of Italian Florentine papers that I was able to get from a shop called 32 North Supplies on Etsy, which sells a huge variety of fancy papers, Dresden foil scrap, and other great items.  The designs are all gold/ivory based.  I also decided to use gold foil paper which I think I bought at the Rhode Island School of Design store.  

I worked very quickly on these and didn't take any process photos, but I just wanted to share what they look like.  I still haven't decided on the captions to include - or if I should even include them.  I think I will, though, because I do want them to be amusing pieces rather than just vintage style mood pieces.

Unless they sell at the show, these pieces will eventually end up in the shop, or on Fine Art America where I am going to be listing many of my pieces.  

So what do you think of them?

later,
lin

If You Never Try, You'll Never Know

My apologies to Coldplay for stealing this line from their song "Speed of Sound."  As I'm writing this post, I've got my Coldplay playlist humming along and the song just came on, and it seems appropriate.

I've never considered myself any kind of painter, but in the past couple of years I've been gingerly dipping my toe into the paint, with the encouragement of several of my friends and my cousin Jan Lawson, a watercolor and acrylic painter.  

Lisa Busch, owner of the online shop Collage Stuff has encouraged me to spread my wings and start using stencils in paintings to add texture.  This has been a lot of fun, although I'm not always sure of the results.

But I'm trying, which is the most important thing, right?

Here's one of my recent creations - 

To create this piece, I painted over a previous attempt at painting, and used a mix of carmine and white paints, using watercolor and acrylic, to create the background.

You can still see some of the swirls and blue paint from the previous painting.  Instead of painting them over, I decided to keep them.

I then painted white streaks to add a little bit of interest

Then I mixed another batch of paint, using the carmine and white, but now adding magenta to create what I thought was a cool color, and used stencils to spread that color over the painting, the finished version above.

When looking at the painting, my cousin suggested extending parts of the painting over the edges, should I decide to not frame it.

I posted it to the Art Challenge group and got good reviews.  Being the unconfident person I am, I'm still not sure if it's any good.  But I am encouraged by my experiments in painting and plan to continue playing with pain.

After all, if you never try you'll never know. (thanks Chris Martin)

Would love to hear what you think of this painting.

later,

lin