Space, Again

"Space" seems to keep coming up on these collages that I've been making. Today, instead of outer space, it's something a bit closer to home. Actually, I guess it is home, in a wonderland sort of way. Only instead of a Cheshire Cat, there is a Funky Gull.  

 

The blue medallion on the right is a piece of wallpaper that I'm using in my redo of the Oldest's room. It's textured, and white, and made to be painted. In her room, that should happen tomorrow.I couldn't resist playing with a scrap of it today. If everything goes as planned, I should have some pictures of the real thing for you to see tomorrow evening.

Two For The Price Of One

I never posted yesterday's collage, so today you get to see two. The first is yesterday's, which got it's start when I asked my husband to pick an image. He found an image of a possible moon settlement. I may still go back in and put astronaut helmets on the girl and dog. Do you think that's a good idea?

 

Today's collage started with the dancer. The quote between the dancer and heron is from Emma Goldman, an early feminist/anarchist/social activist. She must have been quite a force, and some of her ideas and methods were a bit over the top. From what I can gather, the quote was in answer to people who wondered if she could be sincere in her cause(s) if she still partook of fun activities.

 

There are several versions of the quote, so she either used it a lot, saying it differently each time, or it was never accurately recorded in the first place. This is the version I used:

"A revolution without dancing is not a revolution worth having."

Out Of This World

Remember Pigs In Space from the Muppets? Today I give you Percherons In Space.
I started out thinking about the Oldest. In a box of stuff to donate that she left behind when she headed south, was a horse breed poster. It actually had been mine when I was a kid. That's where I got the horse.

From there, the collage got far out. Literally. I added the space photo. And then it spiralled farther out, with the words, including the found poem at the bottom. This was a fun one, hope you like it.

 

Can you imagine the luggage charge for a horse on a commercial space ship? Or I guess you'd just have to get them their own seat...

A Work In Progress

Today was one of those days. You know the kind I mean. Too much to do, and everything takes longer than you expect. I worked on today's collage project in between other commitments, but didn't get it finished. This is what I have so far.

 

My work is on the right, my palette on the left. Actually, the palette's looking pretty good. Better than the red apple. My husband came home after playing basketball tonight, looked at this, and said "Nice job on that tomato". That's the most he's said about any of these collages. And he's right. Should have been paying more attention when I drew my shapes.  Like I said, it was one of those days.

 

Hope your week is going well. See you back tomorrow.

 

(Special note to my darling nephew Speedy. I haven't forgotten. I'm hoping to get to it on Friday, as long as the rest of the week is sane. Nose bonks, Little One.)

Pulp Fiction

That's what this collage reminds me of.  The type of book, not the movie. When I was making it, I was thinking about dreaming.

 

 

When the subject turns to dreams, the question about dreaming in color always comes up. Until I was in college, I didn't know that some people didn't dream in color. I mean, if you are seeing life in color every day, why would your dreams be in black and white? Unless maybe you had been watching way too much black and white TV?  The brain is truly a mysterious place.

 

So, do you dream in black and white?  Or in color? Or maybe infrared? Wouldn't that be cool???



It's Getting Weird(er) Around Here

[This post edited, because I finally figured out my scanner problem! So this is new, improved, now with less blurry pictures!]

Today's art project took a weird turn. I was sitting on the couch, trying to figure out what to do for my collage, when I felt a nip on my ankle. I looked down, and saw a little blue and pink creature, looking up at me with big eyes. She's been hanging around the house since the kids were little, but I never saw this coming.

She very sweetly informed me that her name was Minerva Aphrodite, and now that there are no rabbits around to disapprove, she would like to come out and play. She insisted that I put her in to my collage, and then settled down on the couch to watch the National Geographic Channel.

 

Unfortunately, the collage today isn't my favorite. You know how sometimes you have an idea, but when you start to create, whether you are writing, drawing, cooking, or whatever, it just doesn't go the way you want it to? And the more you try to force it into the mold you have in mind, the more it goes awry? That's how I feel about this.

I do like it better with PSE's glowing edges applied. Isn't it funky?

What do you do when this happens to you with a project?

 

Oh, well. Tomorrow is another day. I intend to go at the next collage with a more open mind, and take advantage of whatever ideas show up.

 

Oh, one more thing. Minerva Aphrodite wants to know if Speedy would be willing to play with her, even though she's imaginary. I think she has a crush on him....

Celebrating Veterans

I want to say "thank you" to all the Veterans for their service to our country. This includes my Dad, who served in Korea. And another "thank you" goes out to all the people who work hard to take care of our Veterans, both family members, and professionals.

 

My parents were married on a Veteran's Day, many years ago. So, I also want to say "Happy Anniversary" to them.They are avid bikers, and last year my brothers and I got them new bikes for their anniversary. Happily, they've gotten a lot of use out of the bikes. When they make it to 60 years, they're probably going to want skateboards. Or hang gliders. Or maybe Jet Skis. I can see it now....

Apologies To Elizabeth Warren

Today's piece of artwork took an unexpected direction. I started with strips of paper from the index of an old atlas, and then added the blue rectangle, and splashed on some paint. The rectangle already had some doodling on it, and I extended the bottom half into a bouquet, and added color. The top half made me think owl, so that goofy little guy made his way in. Don't you just want to squeeze him?

From there, I started thinking about tarot cards (i am constantly amazed by the art work on them), and sketched the wine glass/ace of cups.

There was still a lot of blank space. My husband had left the newspaper open on the opposite side of the table, and my gaze fell on a photo of Elizabeth Warren, our new Senator. I decided to draw her in. And that's where the apology comes in. I'm sorry, Elizabeth, that I messed with your face. I did my best, but I am certainly no portrait artist. Would you have known it was her if I hadn't told you? Probably not.  Oh, well. You don't learn if you don't try, right?

Ms. Warren is our first female Senator from Massachusetts. Considering how liberal we are supposed to be here, I find that utterly amazing. Better late than never, hmm?

***Thank you for all the encouraging comments that you have been leaving for me lately. I know that I'm behind on answering them. My husband brought a wonderful bunch of cold germs home, and my head has felt like it wants to explode for the last three days. I promise to catch up as soon as I start to feel better. A lot of people around here are coughing. Seems pretty early in the season for this to be starting. I hope everyone reading this is feeling well.***

Nobody Here But Us Chickens

This morning when I was reading, I came across a poem by William Carlos Williams called The Red Wheelbarrow. It's simple, but beautiful in it's simplicity. It got me thinking about my Dad's wheelbarrow, which is also red. When we were little, he would give us rides in it. When my brothers and I got older, we wheeled each other around. Our house was on a flat spot in between two hills. We were much less careful pushing each other than my Dad was. We would get going pretty fast on the hills. If we hit a bump, the wheelbarrow would sometimes tip over sideways, spilling us out.

The poem and the memories inspired today's collage.

 

The chickens got in there because there are white chickens in the poem, and we had chickens, too. Ours were mostly Rhode Island Reds.

 

Yes, that's me and my brothers in the wheelbarrow. I guess we'd have a hard time fitting in there now! And, can you imagine my Dad's face if we asked him to push us around in the wheelbarrow???

 

I might need to try that, just to watch him sputter! Have a great weekend, everyone. See you back here again tomorrow.

 

The Struggle Was Not In The Creating

Instead, it was in the scanning. I could not get a sharp scan of today's collage. Photoshop helped me sharpen up the image some, but the image you see is not exactly what it looks like in real life.

 

The horse is a gel transfer. First, the image was printed onto a transparency. Then gel medium was smeared onto the collage, and the image was placed face down on the gel medium. After some firm rubbing with the back of the spoon, most of the image had transferred. I did go back in with pastels, to add some extra strength (!) to the image.

Now, about that scanning problem. The only difference between today's collage, and the previous ones, was that I sprayed fixative on today's work. I used more pastels in this one, and there was smearing issues. So now I'm wondering, is there something about the coating of fixative that could have affected the scanning? What do you think?

Day 7 of AED, With No Idea

My mind was as blank as my paper when I sat down to create today. I decided to rip a random page out of the old dictionary, and see if it could give me any ideas.

 

Let's see what I found....

 

No, Bunny People (and Bunnies). I decided that wasn't great for a wider audience! Farther down the page, I found this.

 

I decided to make a piece about the time a couple of winters ago when a flock of Cedar Waxwings showed up in our yard, to feast on the red berries of the Maple Leaf Viburnums. They arrived on the Oldest Ones birthday, and stayed for three days. It was a little bit of magic.

 

I started the collage by writing about that event with a gray marker. Then, I daubed on some thinned-out paints in wintry colors. Over that, I drew rough images of the shrubs, and the neighbors nearby pine tree with pastels.

 

Next, I printed out some of my photos from that time. As you can see, my printer was running low on ink. After thinking about it, I decided to use them anyway. 

 

In addition to the photos, I used some painted papers, and a quote from Thoreau. It may be sacrilegious as a New Englander, but he's not my favorite read. This quote seemed to work, though.

 

Finally, back in with pastel pencils to add detail to the images, and a little extra blue paint around the edges, and it was done.

 

Not bad for starting out blank! Here is the quote:

"Live in each season as it passes;

breathe the air, drink the drink,

taste the fruit, and resign yourself

to the influences of each."

-Henry David Thoreau

One World

I really have to start posting earlier in the day. If you get some funny non-words, it's because my head has hit the keyboard, and I'm asleep!

Today's collage started with a dictionary page, which happened to contain the words oneness, oneself, and on the flip side, omnipresence. Also omnivorous, but that's a whole other story. The words suggested a "take care of the earth theme" to me. probably because I've been thinking a lot about global warming this week following the hurricane.

Somehow I managed to find the Gaia stamp that I had carved a couple of years ago (someone really needs to organize this place), and that became the focus. I also added the seedling stamp that I had carved around the same time. (Note to the Curly One- Not copying you. I drew it first!) A cutout flower, that looked like the sun, some paint and pastels and it was mostly done.

The final step was to write below the flower. I copied the sentence that the dictionary had  as a usage example for "oneself". It says, "One must take a certain amount of initiative oneself". A good idea generally, but especially so when talking about the environment. What do you think?

(In my sidebar are links to other posts for Art Everyday Month, and NaBlopoMo. Check them out for some interesting reading and viewing.)

Art Every Day Month Begins

November is a month of projects. Some of us are busily creating things for holiday gifts, or to keep up with the seasonal rush of small businesses. Some of us are writing novels as part of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I thought about that, but it seemed like too large a mountain.

Instead, I decided to try  the Art Every Day Month Challenge  being run by Leah over at Creative Every Day.  The rules of the challenge leave the choice of what you do pretty wide open. I've decided to put some limits on myself, and do a collage for each day of the month. I'm hoping to get over my reluctance to cover up layers. I tend to get a little too attached to early parts of a project, sort of like a writer becoming attached to a sentence, and trying to force the story to work around it!

This is today's creation. First, I wrote all over the page about what was on my mind, then with pastels, I drew a variety of symbols. Then, some paint, followed by some strips of paper that I had painted, and a couple of magazine pictures. Since this is just an exercise for myself, I felt it was OK to use the magazine bits. Of course if this were going out of my house, I wouldn't use copyrighted material. Then, I added more paint, cut out words, more pictures, more pastel, more paint (with stamps). I finished as I began, with writing. Whew! That was a lot of layers.

 

 

I'm pretty happy with the results, but it was almost a disaster. I started making this in an old sketchbook that I hadn't ever used very much. Apparently, I had only used that paper for dry mediums in the past, because the paper started to disintegrate when I added the paint! Once I realized this I stopped and let the paper dry. I got a book of watercolor paper, and sewed the first paper to the watercolor paper before continuing. Project rescued, and the horizontal stitching lines add a nice touch.

 

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Over the last month, I have been taking an on-line class in Photoshop 10 through the local community college. The class has been quite time consuming, but I really enjoyed it. This is a Photoshop collage that I made early in the class. I have since learned how to fit things together more smoothly. In this image is a passage and statue on the Chatham University campus, and some trim from one of their buildings. Also, a pillow from the oldest one's apartment, fireworks from the Fourth of July, and both my girls. And the Neighborhood Lion, can't forget him!

 



This first series of classes focused on the basic mechanics of using Photoshop. I've had one version or another of the program for several years, and only learned how to use a few of the tools, so this was useful for me. I'm much less intimidated by the program now. It doesn't feel quite so much like a foreign language. Has software ever given you that feeling?

Since Weasley crossed the bridge, I've had a hard time getting back into blogging. So in addition to AED, I'm going to try BlogHer's NaBloPoMo (National Blog Post  Month), and attempt to post every day in November. Have you heard the saying that it takes 30 days to form a new habit? November has 30 days, so I guess we'll see if it works. Is anyone else working on one of these November projects? If you are, I'm rooting for you. Stay focused, and have fun!