The Art Tribe Exhibit Is Open

Finally, it's up and a very interesting show at the Gallery Uptown.  Seven of us did collaborative pieces for the show.  This is mine...

Each of us started one and then it went around to the rest of the tribe, Margaret Benefiel, Carol Cousineau, Bette DelVecchio, Barb Fugazzotto, Sandy Meyer and Annie Morgan.  Each piece is different and interesting. Putting the last minute touches on the opening kept me busy which is why I haven't posted in a couple weeks.  It was worth the time it took. If you are able, go see it.  

I still managed to do my 100 flowers, not in 100 days but I got them done.  The last bunch were done in my morning journal.  Here are a few of those --

And yesterday I met my dear friend Terry in Portland where we meet to sketch and catch up with what's going on in our lives.  She lives on the other side of the state.  This is the sketch I did, love the flowers, the stone wall -- not so much.

 

And now looking forward to another of my friend Karen's Remission Picnics.  I'm not sure what number this is but I'm guessing at least 20.

Hooray! I Don't Have To Learn A New Blog

Welcome to my blog. I write about my journey as an artist.  I'll be posting about my process, why I paint, what I paint, my art journals and things that get my attention.  Along the way I'll also post about different artists that I like and show you some of their work.  I hope you find it interesting.

This isn't a new blog as I had been planning. My blogging nightmare finally ended. Blogger kept telling me I wasn't me so I finally gave up and thought I'd start a new blog to go along with the website I'm working on.  Problem is the website is slow going as is a new blog.  I suppose you can teach an old dog new tricks but it's harder.

Interestingly Blogger wasn't the only one that seemed to not recognize me and after several tries, a few chats and a couple phone calls to one of those other sites I got a suggestion to try changing browsers.  Thank you WSJWine for finally coming up with something that worked.  I changed and now can get in to all three that I had been locked out of. This old dog is so happy for that.  Still slow going on the website but I don't need to reinvent the blog.

There's been a lot going on since my last post before Christmas. The Ukraine is the biggest. This little sketch is in memory of my Ukrainian friend Chrystyna and prayers for her home country.

There has been so much more happening in my studio.  First, #100daychallenge is on again and  every day I've been working on a huge pile of pieces that I never finished.  I vowed to finish them.  So far I've been happy with some -- here are two of them. The ones I end up not liking I'll gesso over and start again.

                             

I also took a 5 day workshop on bookmaking.  I've made a lot of books but have always just figured out a way to do it. When I saw this workshop available on line I decided to try learning a correct way of doing it and I did. These are the ones I did in the workshop and I tried out one of them.

 My first attempts are not the best but I learned a lot and will make more. 

There's been a lot more going on but I think this is enough for now.  It's good to be back

Sketches, A Doll and Other Stuff

The Tuesday Painters group has been at a friend’s cottage overlooking Lake Michigan.  We’ve gone two weeks in a row and may go again this week…. If she’ll have us.  The cottage was her sister’s, another friend who lost her battle with cancer a few years back.  Four sisters had cottages on the ridge,  When Elaine died the other sisters fixed up her cottage and use it as a rental or for friends.  

There are great views of the lake, the beach and the pier from there and in this between season it’s an ideal place to paint and sketch.  It’s too cold to be outside and though the cottage has no heat we are protected from the elements and we dress warm.  We are taking advantage of it while we can; it will be closed up once winter comes.  

Last week I showed you the start of my Catrina for the Day of the Dead exhibit coming to the Gallery Uptown in November.  Here she is… finished and ready to be delivered.

And I got a few more of the small boiled paper pieces done.  These are fun little pieces to do and I still haven't decided what to do with them.

They make nice little gift tags but could also look nice as a little framed piece, or on a note card.  Does anyone have any other thoughts?

A Good Start On 2019

This year instead of major goals I'm making small weekly goals.  This week it's clear out the clutter in front of the pie-safe in my studio and reorganize.  Among the things I found, some long forgotten felting needles and the remains of a pair of felt slippers.

The slippers reminded me of a fun day when my friend Betty Kammeraad Dobie was teaching us to make felt slippers... we were lousy students but we laughed a lot... a whole lot!  Synchronicity, one of the friends who was with us that day is heading to California for a month or so.  She is dealing with macular degeneration and the early stages of alzhiemer's so is afraid her sons are moving her permanently.  That isn't the plan but she knows more about her condition than they do which causes her to worry.

Since I found the mangled slipper and the needles I decided to make her a doll out of the felt.  The scarf is some scrap yarn but the rest is from the slippers.. That's my art sketch for today. I think she'll remember the time we did the slippers but I'll have to remind her that the last time she saw the felt it was an oversize slipper.

And the rearranging of the pie-safe is coming along.  That project should be done by the end of the week. My next door neighbor sells wool for felting along with felting supplies.  Now that the doll is done the needles are going there.  Felting is not one of the things I plan to do in 2019, it's one of the things I had to try.... several years back.... and the materials just resurfaced.  Time to go.

Trying Tack Down Collage

I've been reading blogs by collage artists and found Laura Lein-Svencner.  She does tack-down collage using gloss polymer varnish and a tack iron.  I don't have a tack iron but I do have a small travel iron in my studio.  I also had this mono-type that I had intended to paint but instead dug out collage papers in some colors that might work.

The first step was to add a coat of the polymer to the print and the collage papers, then cut the papers and iron them on.  It works beautifully.  Then I dug out a cradle to mount the piece on, added a coat of gesso, some rice paper and after everything dried, a coat of the polymer varnish.  Hooray, that worked as well.

It's not as messy as glue but not sure it will work with some of the things I add to my current 4x4 series.  I am going to try it but those are on hold for a little while.  The Holiday Show at the Gallery is coming up soon and I need to get more Wonky Angels finished for that.

Doing A Daily For A Month

I've challenged myself to a daily collage for this month using some of the parts I've accumulated from the deconstructing I've been doing.  Since most of my day has been clearing clutter from the studio I want to stay with that but want to keep making art as well.

I started July 5, this is the first one.  By the end of the month there will be 37 and hopefully some of them will be good enough to mount on a 4x4 cradle.  I'm not giving a lot of thought to the work, just getting something down.
This is Day 2 finished this morning.

Now back to the clutter clearing.... a huge bag of trash went to the curb this morning!

Finished the Series of 4x4s

The small series is finished, the one above is #15, the one below is #16. It's been fun and I'm learning more about non-representational art which has been a challenge.  I think I will do more.   I haven't set a number goal, thinking I'll just play until I get tired of this and then move on to something else

And this week I finished one from the wetcanvas.com Weekend Drawing Event.  I've been saving teabags just 'cause the tea leaves interesting stains.  One of the images on the WDE was a village and the colors in a recently saved teabag was just right.  This is pen and ink, the color is mango tea.  I'm not a fan of flavored coffee because I like coffee.  I am a fan of flavored tea because I don't like tea. This is a postcard, the teabag was pressed, then mat medium was used to attach it to the postcard, then the drawing. Fun.

The other thing that has occupied my time this past few weeks is a Memoir Writing Class.  I have thought about writing my family stories for a long time but never did anything more than a lot of geneology research.  I learned about this class at Calvin College and decided I may as well jump in.  It's been fun, I have a few stories done and a list of ideas for more.  I don't know if I will share any here.... depends on the story.  Some are only for family.

Lots of Starts and a great weekend

This one is ready to go to the gallery.  I have a few more started, the monotype part is done; next I add collage.

I got these done today and not being one to waste paint or ink, I cleaned up the plate with paper to add to my collage stash.

Yesterday was productive too.  I don't know if these are done or not, I have to live with them for awhile before I decide.

And the weekend.... I come from a very small family, two sisters are the only one's who had children. I have 4 cousins and they all got together near me this weekend along with some of their children. Here is the gang... and this is only part of their side of the family plus me.

And here I am with cousins and their spouses. I'm in white with the white hair the other two sitting on my left are the other two elders; behind them in hot pink and in grey are their younger siblings.  We don't see each other often as no one lives close but when we were growing up we did everything together since we only lived a block apart.... that and our mothers were very close.

It was fun seeing everyone, celebrating a graduation from UofM Law School, an engagement and a retirement.  Lots of reminiscing, lots of laughing.  We're getting to an age where we need to do it again every year.

Inspired

Inspired is the exhibit opening at the Gallery Uptown, Friday, May 5. I'm part of the exhibit and thinking about what inspires me. So many things... other artists, old boats, textured walls, sidewalk cracks, colorful gardens, old structures, garden statuary, other art, even by things I’m working on at any given moment.

There are so many things that inspire me that it is difficult to zero in on one.  Different inspirations mean I produce different works. 

For this exhibit it’s a combination of techniques I've learned from other artists, texture, sidewalk cracks and a challenge from yet another artist.

When using acrylics I frequently pick up some of the paint on a piece of drawing paper.  At the end of a session I also pick up paint that’s left on my palette on drawing paper.  That paper I use for collage or to make into sketchbooks.  I used some of those sketchbooks for a few challenges a couple years ago and while I was working on the series of sidewalk cracks a friend remembered the challenges and wanted to see the sketchbooks so I got them out.

For the sidewalk cracks I start by putting down several colors of acrylic, some colors over another.  Looking at my sketchbook it occurred to me that I could use a better quality paper to pick up that paint and do a realistic drawing or painting on that paper.  That has started a whole new series.

As for the sidewalk cracks, watching another artist cover a piece covered in red with a couple coats of white and then scratching shapes with an exacto knife produced an interesting look.  For years I have collected photos of sidewalk cracks and the idea of scratching through a layer of paint to get the color underneath made me think of them, and thanks to a niece who gave me her hygienists tools, I had something to do some serious scratching with.  That and Leonard Cohen’s “There’s a crack in everything, it’s how the light gets in.”

Trying Some Freeform Crochet... And A Bit Of Mixed Media work

I learned basic crochet from my grandmother, embroidery too, but didn't really take to either of them as a child.  I preferred knitting and needlepoint.  Many years later when my aunt and I had a Knit shop we both taught knitting, she taught crochet.  I still wasn't to taken with it though I did have her give me some lessons so I could help customers who had a problem.

A few years ago I saw a piece of freeform crochet and thought that was something I would like to do, definately not my grandmother's crocheting.  However, I didn't do anything about it since my skill was limited. I could do your basic single, double, triple and make a granny square.  In fact I have a lovely ruana that I made back when we had the shop and I still love it.  I've also made a couple granny square lap robes and given them away.  

Recently I saw a class on the internet.... Freeform Crochet.  Guess it was time to learn  I was suppose to get all the same yarn in 5 or 6 colors.  I think I once posted about giving up sewing but still buying fabric.  Well I still have a stash of yarn too even though I no longer knit anything more than a scarf. So I'm using what I have and already knowing I like doing this and I have some ideas for other things.  What we are suppose to be working toward now is a purse.  I've also discovered that crocheting doesn't cause my hand to go numb as knitting did.  The numbness is the reason I quit knitting.  The pieces I've done so far aren't blocked because I still plan to add more color and stitches to some of them. 

A plus to taking up something new... again. This time I really don't have to go out and buy all of the equipment.  I already have most of what I need.

I've also been doing a bit more in my studio.  In the process of clearning piles I came across some monoprints that were waiting for me to go in with the collage elements.  This one is a start.  I don't like the dark blue and I think I'd like more green, partly in the bush on the left.

 Photoshop lets me play a bit and see what would happen if I lighten and add... here is that version

Now I need to see if I can do it on the actual piece.

Today, An Experiment & Perhaps A Valentine

My first coat of paint was a variety of reds and oranges.  You can't see them but they are there.  I let them dry and then a coat of white paint covered all of the red.  I let that dry.  Next I got out a single edge razor blade, an exacto knife and some rubbing alcohol.  I watched a Jane Davies video where she did this and decided to give it a try.  I squirted the piece with the alcohol, scratched with my exacto knife and scraped with my single edge blade.  Fun and I think it can work for a Valentines Day card.