2016 Winding Down

Well this has been quite the year.  I hope to be better about posting in 2017.  My friend John Arbuckle is an inspiration- He posted over 300 days this year. I will share some journal spreads here to end out the year.   I wish you all a Happy New year.
I also want to share this quote that my friend  Marsha Salyer Jorgenson shared on a post. This is to my dear friends.

"When you find yourself tipped over by the gusts of life;
when you fall to the floor and shatter.
There are those who will walk around your pieces,
lest they cut themselves upon the scatter.
But others will pick up your broken bits,
they'll cherish all they can gather.
These are the ones to whom you must hold on forever -
not those who forsook you -
but the ones who glued you back together"

--- Shakieb Orgunwall

I think we will all need to have plenty of glue handy for each other. Thank you for looking at my art and for your supportive comments.

This is inspired by a song by Active Child.  The song is

Evening Ceremony. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3xmMjoUweo

 

 

 

 

Troubled Sleep

We will not be broken

 

Still Juggling Many Emotions

Well 2 spreads in 2 days- it was a very gloomy day and has been and will be for the next week- this time of year is so challenging for me- I have S.A.D. I use one of the blue lights- helps some but I spiral down sometimes in this. Not sure what to say about this- dealing with letting go of some things- well a lot of things really- The three figures are like my past self present self and my future self. As we head towards the end of the year I tend to get retrospective and reflective. I am sure many of you do as well. The burning of the paper with what I want to be done with or are done with was powerful for me today. The spread is called Stages of Release. This is the opposite of yesterday's as it's big for me the spread is 12 x 18.  The one below the first one is smaller-

Yesterday I carved a moon stamp and finally got to it today. I also found some stamps I had carved at least 20 years ago. They are the trees you can see in the spread- I like how they are there but not jumping out at you- Sometimes I do title my spreads- This is titled: Dark Forest Moon. The strip with the nude man is from a Muybridge motion study.Like many of us after the election are feeling very vulnerable - the house in the lower left was the first house my husband and I ever bought- many years ago- this history of connection is my foundation.  I did this spread in my sidekick journal- so the spread is small 6" x 9". Small for me. The second photo is of the stamps.

Lost

I have not posted in a long time.  Things have been so emotional of late- My opening was last Friday the 4th- Lots of people lots of nice things said about my work and sold a piece. Thank you for all the comments about this work and for the comments about the opening photos- I  posted those on my Facebook wall if that's what you still call it. So going from the opening to the nightmare that happened Tuesday. Did 2 journal spreads in the last couple of days- the first one is in my journal.  The second is in the journal of one of the artist in a round robin.

Part 5- last of the new work for now

These last three messengers are large...well for me they are.  I have included a woman in this set as there were several in the set of photographs and children- yes the had committed crimes as well. These are framed in 20 inch square shadow box frames.  Working this large certainly has its challenges.  I made good use of my printer as I can print up to 13" x 19" and I did a lot of that for these three.  For these three instead of quotes I made dioramas.  They are scenes telling stories- stories for you to imagine. All three of the dioramas have hearts- Are they fleeing hearts?- soaring hearts? Broken hearts? ...You get to decide.  Thank you for your positive comments on the work for my show.  They mean a lot to me.

Messenger Richard S.

 

Messenger Mabel S.

 

Messenger Walter S.

 

This gives an idea of scale- the small one is one of

the 9" squares.

 

 

 

New Work Part 4

The last 7 pieces are different from the rest.  I will show four today. These assemblages
are in shadowbox frames that are nine inches square.  The old wooden rulers I used to frame each piece are from my husband's father. We found them when we were cleaning out his garage when he died.  The photographs for these are not so good as the 3D nature of these makes it hard to photograph.  The first piece here explains what these are about.

Messenger James W.

 

Messenger Robert J.

 

Messenger John R.

 

Messenger John R.

yes same name and last initial

 

 

 

New Work Part 3

This series of five are matted and in frames 12 x 16.  I realize that much of this work is not "happy" or joyful. I do not have a dour outlook on life but when I started to make the work for this coming show this is what came out.  I do think part of that is it being Fall-always an emotional season for me.  The monoprints in this series really had a landscape feel so I went with that.  I wanted to have few elements to have the background really be an important part. These five here for some will seem sad perhaps but for me they are comforting.

Quiet Ride

Prairie Wind

Borrowed Truck

Leaving

Escape Route

New Work Part 2

These three collages are larger- matted and framed they are 16 x 20.  Once again these have monoprint backgrounds. Thanks for the comments on the first post of this new work.

Neighborhood Wish

 

 Wistful Departure

 

Family Ties

 

 

New Work

Well it has been a busy time and here it is almost October!!!  I have a show at the MacRostie Art Center- a regional art center about an hour from where I live. http://macrostieartcenter.org/ 
The show will be for the month of November.  It's been a while since I have made work for a large show.  I am happy to report that I am done with the work already- Everything is framed even-  So I will do  some blog posts showing the new work.  The work I am showing today is around 8" x 10".  Framed the pieces are 11" x 14".  The backgrounds of these collages are monoprints I did using acrylic paint.

Indecision

 

 Adrift

 

Disapproval

 

Tribunal

 

 

 

 

 

Lyrical: A New Online Class I am Taking

I am taking an online class called lyrical.  Roxanne Cobble is teaching it. http://bybun.com/  The journal spread we do are based on lyrics to songs we pick for ourselves.  I have music on in the studio all the time so I was all over this.  She taught several different techniques and I used several of them in the spreads.

This is my first spread for the class. The song is Words Underlined by Jesse Marchant.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jXlEn-wBHg

This is the second spread.  This one is using the song Paradise by City and Colour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsSdcilH2Ek

This is the third spread.  The song is Adrift by Jesse Marchant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTA6_bc5Y3s

Design Challenge

This post is about a project i did for a company called Stencil Girl.  http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/ They sell stencils that are designed by artists and designers. I was asked to be a part of their Voices- where they ask artists to try out new stencils for those in their stencil club.  I received the stencils in advance and then came up with this project a carousel book. The stencils for August were designed by Mary Nasser.http://www.marycnasser.com/  She used subway maps as her source for these very cool stencils. I don't often do this sort of thing but this has been very fun and I liked the challenge.  I used my eBrush- this is an airbrush system that uses artist markers instead of paint.  The first photo is of the stencils. Then the front of the book  the back of the book and the inside of the opened book.  The black Silhouettes I cut out of black cardstock and are not stencils.

Collage Collaboration

I just finished part of a collage collaboration with Scott Hatt http://scotthatt.tumblr.com/.  Scott started 6  4 x 6 inch collages and sent them to me to finish and I started 6 for him to finish and mailed off those today.  I finished Scott's starts today. I will share Scott's finsihes to my starts when he completes them.

Scott's first 3 starts

My finishes

The next three are these three finishes shown Separately.

 

Here are Scott's next three starts

 

 

Below is are my finishes

 

Below are my finishes shown apart