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.)

Blue, With A Moon

Not quite the same as a blue moon. An initial layer of this collage was giant upright shoes, ripped from a catalog. I have no idea why they grabbed me, but they made me think of standing stones. I had a used color catcher that I had almost thrown out, because it was kind of boring. Turns out it was perfect for creating standing stones.

I pulled the word "confidence" out of a pile of clippings, which brought a tiger image to mind. After all, what creature could be more confident and strong than a tiger? My tiger is sketched on tea bag paper with  pastels,  Now that I look at him again, he looks a little worried. Maybe he needs to draw some strength and confidence from the stones?

Just One More Thing

I've been reading the Friday posts over at The Qi Papers with amazement lately. She has been doing this thing called Fiday Flash 55, which is organized (not really sure that is the right word) by the G-Man

What it is, is a very short story, in 55 words. It's amazing to see how much some of the writers can pack into 55 words. I decided to give it a try this week, and found out that it's very hard to edit down to 55 words! So here is my attempt, inspired by this weeks weather.

 

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My Very First Friday Flash 55

 

Hoffman hit the trail in August, when the weather was dry. Now in November, it was warm, humid, and there was a strange stillness in the air. The rain began. He dashed under a rocky overhang. Hoffman hoped the storm wouldn’t last long. Two hundred miles away, the hurricane warning flags whipped in the wind.

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Got it in just under the wire!

Speedy Inspiraton

I was thinking today about the funk I've been in lately. It's time that I started pushing negative thoughts aside, and begin replacing them with positive thoughts. This may take a lot of practice. Then I thought, "who is the most positive person I know?"

Instantly, an image of Speedy popped into my mind. OK, I know he's not a human person, but we all know that lagomorphs are the superior species, so.... And really, he's such a positive little big guy, that he's almost risking his Rabbit ID card. (Not to worry, though. Mr. Mick disapproves enough for two!)

That is why Speedy made it into today's collage. I hope his Mom isn't upset that I stole borrowed his picture from his blog. Don't you just want to beep that nose?

 

I think maybe every rainbow should have a Speedy at the end of it!

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!