Saturday Sniffles and Stuff

Well it's been a while so I'm posting some new and some old things. I've been sick with a cold for the past several days. I don't like being sick because I don't feel like doing much while I'm sneezing and coughing. Today I had enough energy to make some home made fresh chicken soup. I did this with the help of my pressure cooker which I so love to use!!  Once all the dicing and cutting is done .. and the heat is up enough the time it takes to cook up is just 12 minutes!  I added a crusty piece of toasted bread and it was yummy!  And this I think does work miracles on my nose and head .. and it's great on a cold cold night like we are having here tonight!!  Brrrrrr-r-r.

Below is a work done in charcoal some years ago and it was a wood shelf with wood blocks on it. It makes me want to do more with charcoal. Next is a photograph of some roots and rocks on a nearby road.

To the right is a photo of my most current tree painting. This is done on watercolor paper and is painted with a layer of turquoise acrylic paint then the tree is painted with walnut ink and then filled in with white acrylic paint in lines and dots. this photo doesn't do the original justice.











On the left is aged book pages that are glued onto paper and then the drawing is done on the front with walnut ink and then the white acrylic is painted afterwards. It has a wintery feel to it even though there are no snowflakes in front of the big tree branches.

On the right is a tree that is done on paper also with walnut ink stained and then outlined in more walnut ink and white acrylic and white colored pencil and colors of pencil and dots of white and walnut. I like mixing stain with watercolor pencil pigments.









The work below is a collage of paint and different paintings and drawings that have been added at different times. I guess it's kind of an evolving work. There is a poem in this piece also.

Its very hard to see that the image to the right is on a book page of words. I love the color of this but it's not accurate as the photo was taken indoors at night under warm lights. So there is a more yellowish red cast to the lovely walnut ink there. 

Below are a series of images that are something that I like to do sometimes. I find a book that has an interesting title and I just paint on it and make it my book. I try to use it as a sketch book or journal of sorts. I use the words that are already there and use them to make new words or sentences. I remember the first time I tried this it was really difficult to allow myself to repurpose the book. Somehow it felt like it was so wrong that the book God's were going to strike me down like the keys on an old typewriter or something and I would have letters permanently embedded on my skin. I have done this in various books over time and recently I was going through some of my old books and found this one. Thought it would be fun to share here on my blog. Also on that same day of going through books and such I found another one that I did that I had no decoration to the front and completely forgot that I had altered some of the pages inside. It makes me wonder if I had inadvertently put it into the thrift store bin and then someone purchased it there and found my art in it.. would they be mad or excited about it. I think I would be fascinated by that if I found a book like that. Anyway .. it served it's purpose at the time that it was done. The sketches of people in these images below were of my daughter. The thoughts that were provoked in the writings were where I was in my head at that time. I'm grateful that life changes. Even though the future can bring difficulties there can also be acceptance of the difficulties that were or changes to the ones that had been and it feels better for a time until then next challenge arises. I am also so grateful to have an outlet for self creative expression. This will always give me great joy .. no matter what. 

You can click on any of the images to get a larger view of each image. 

The view on the right is a new sentence that says; 

Home is desired by following seven periods of reading following one or more sessions of an approved teacher within weeks of the 37230.

Don't ask me what it means .. i liken it to stream of consciousness writing. 

Below left is

Contents

Freedom

Glorious

Freedom

Freedom

Freedom

Freedom

Free

Freedom

Freedom

Below is my daughter and photocopy of broken glass that has been torn and glued onto the page and then written in between. 

Wednesday in the Wee Hours

Well .. I went out and had a nice visit and drank several cups of coffee so now I am wide awake in the wee hours of this morning. So .. after readin some of the blogs that I'm following I decided to post some old photos of art that I did some years ago .. just for the fun of it. It's not what I'm doing now but I have found that going back and looking at old work inspires me to create something of a similar style. Funny how that works.

 First for Gilly I am posting my self portrait that she saw on my thumbnail when I became a follower on her blog. I did this about five years ago so I have surely changed since this was done. My hair is however, still long haha. I did this for school. Yes I went back to college over 40. So .. there you have it.

It's funny to go back to the old work but also interesting.

The work to the right was pre college days when I was living in another state. I think what I find interesting is what I thought about myself and my ability at the time. Fortunately, I am so much less critical of myself today. It's a much better place to be.
When I was out in my studio going through a pile of work that I have accumulated over the years I found this little weaving of paper. And I couldn't help but get excited about the similarities to the Spirit Cloth weavings that I have seen here Jude's Work. And also the work of some of her followers as seen here; fabric weavings both of these are fantastic works. Love their blogs even. I was just excited that long before I ever happened on their sites I had done this weaving of paper. They were fun and make me want to do more. Its a great way of recycling works that I didnt like. Or felt they were not working for me.

 I am happy to share the work but I'm finding that it's similar to doing a show. It has a tendency to make one feel vulnerable. Ahh well .. I'm putting it out there. Below are also works done several years (5?) ago when I was in school. All figure studies which I really loved doing. There is a great value in studying the human figure. 

 So thanks to all of you who look and leave a word or two. I am doing what I can to move in a forward direction .. this is just a look back. Thanks for indulging me.

Thursday Bluesday

I haven't posted in a while. I did have fun writing the story and many nice comments were made. Since that time I have had lots going on and as with all things there are ebbs and flows of creativity of emotions, and some days it's like riding a sea of ideas, waves of creativity come crashing into my brain and other days I am overwhelmed by the reality of my life living in a shack in the woods. As with anything life has its ups and downs. I suppose I can just come here and post that. None the less, I have been creating inspite of myself. There are so many things pulling at me sometimes I just become stationary and unmovable. So here is my attempt at creating a forward moving enertia. The top photo here is a painting I did of my grandmother on a square of fabric. I am such a thrift store junky and its always a surprise what will capture my attention. I found this square and about 2-300 more of them with these wonderful swirls and i have thought of just sewing them together to make a quilt but that just seemed to easy. Not that quilting is easy at all .. it's quite amazing. But I have been doing a series of paintings from some old photos of my grandmother. This one is one from about five that I have done. Below that are some soft pastel drawings that I did with color. For some reason I had a color infusion into my trees. I have been really taken by trees lately and it will just get more interesting because all the trees here are losing their leaves with the fall and coming winter. The backgrounds were done with watercolor pencils and walnut dye. I love the mutedness that the walnut ink gives to the color and then there is a wonderful contrast to the straight pastel colors. I love the bright green and blueness of some of the trees. and the strokes are indicating the breeze or wind blowing around the trees that we can't see but we know that it's there. And again there is a little character.. i love them for some reason.

I have taken the photos on top of one of my walnut tree paintings. Below (bottom photo) you will see another tree painting with no color just walnut dye. This one I painted for my best friend and it is about 24 x 36 and will oddly enough be cut in half and put on either side of her fireplace in her beautiful living room. I also sold two of my other walnut tree paintings to another friend. It's nice to have friends that wish and have the means to support my artistic endeavors. All the color trees are small about 8 x 10 and smaller. I have just torn the paper.. i always love the torn edges. Kind of like enjoying the edges of fabrics that are stringy.

The last thing I have added here is a little bag that I had sitting around the house and it just seemed to call out to me to paint on it. So one morning I actually sat in bed and painted it before doing anything else.. haha. Funny how I do those things. I enjoyed so much the way that the paint sort of was sucked in by the fabric and left this kind of glow around each stroke .. so it has a very moody feel to me. I love it. The bag is about 4 x 5 inches. So cute!!  Not sure I'll be able to part with this one. Isn't it always the way ... ? I'll have to work on that.
Ok hope you've enjoyed having a peek into my creative week. and moody madness haha.. There will be more to come hopefully sooner rather than alot later.

My Wrapped Trees Story

This is a story that I wrote for the blog that I am participating in for Tree wrapping.. if you check my profile you can see the blog there and link to it. Hopefully you can read this and it's not too small and I'm no english major so hopefully you won't be expecting that haha.. just my story. Love to know what you think. Thanks for stopping by. : )As with all work on my blog this work is copywritten by me Oct. 2010.

Monday Moodness

Seems I always end up posting on Monday's and Fridays. I've been away dancing for three days .. such fun times to dance with good people and visit with good friends. I always leave in physical blissness... and inspite of laying in bed exhausted I still had this yearning to paint something. So I did another little illustration with a bit of a change. I'm enjoying the walnut ink in so many fun ways. She seems like she's standing in front of a big moon. In front of a harvest moon or this is looking through a key hole. I love how it feels to me. It's a bit mysterious.



Sometimes my life feels mysterious.

Also there are a few other walnut images that I have done earlier last week. Love them too.

Monday Monday

 Just a bit of the process. I boiled the walnuts for about an hour in a large pot with about 40-50 walnuts. I put the entire contents of the pot onto the wrapped tied canvas. Left it for about three days. Now for the unwrapping!! My favorite part. I am totally addicted to this rich brown color. The heavy canvas while it is wet with the stain has an almost leather texture to it. I get so excited when I unfold the wrapping to see the images. I can't tell you how much I love to see the way that the color seeps into the folds of the fabric and how it changes. I could do this all day!! Makes me want to create a dozen wraps at the beginning of each week and have an unveiling at the end of each week.

 I'm moved by the feeling that this evokes in me. I don't always understand it but I love it!! This is wet.

 This is the part enamel part iron grid that I used for this wrap. It's very heavy.
Below this photo is the final look of the fabric after it has dried. I love the folds in the fabric.. it makes me think of a quilt with folded blocks instead of stitched blocks. The dried rusted pattern in the center is interesting to look at.

 In the center is the dried cloth other side.. also interesting to view. I think the rust wins as the front I will use though.