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.

Friday Friday

I found the other day when I was done trapsing around in the woods that I had picked up a few stragglers. I know you can't really see it but on this little guy the ends of his stickies are little tiny hooks. I read somewhere once that this is how the invention of velcro came from. A man noticed that the little hooks were keeping it attached to the loops in fabric. Hence .. the man stole the idea from nature. Pretty neat I think.

This week I have been getting over a cold so I haven't been posting as much.
But I have so many images I think I will just post a little each day.



Here is an experiment that I started to show in an earlier post. I try to show the progression here. Ok first on the left is an old shirt that I was going to take to the thrift store and decided I would see what I could do with this. I cut off a sleeve and then put it around a frame of wood and tied it up with string and then painted it with brown house paint. That is seen in the middle image and then to the right is the result of this after I took the sleeve off and cut the seam i like the bumpy texture of it. Below these three images are some designs that I added to the fabric with some Liquid Beads for gold leafing. I enjoy the added feature of the gold and am still not finished with this piece. I am going to add some embellishments .. maybe some old jewelry finds. Not sure yet. The two that I posted here are both the same, except one is taken inside with a flash and the other is taken outside in natural light.

 I thought I would add these little lovelies that I find outside when I am just walking around enjoying nature. The one on the left is a berry that I found in the woods. I did finally discover what it was after searching the internet. It is Hearts-a-bustin' . Strawberry Bush, Wahoo, or for the highly educated Euonymus americanus.  I thought that was pretty interesting. A mushroom in the middle and some lichen growing on a oak tree limb that fell off of my tree after a storm. Below is the inside of what is left of a seed pod. I love these things. They are natural looking pokers. I have found them in groups on a branch and they have a very fierce look to them. 

More walnut paintings below. I've enjoyed doing these alot and the second one below is a root system that is in town by a river. It's very popular to paint or draw because of all the detail that is in it exposed for all to see. This is my take on it. As always I enjoy hearing your comments on my work. Thanks for stopping by. :)

Monday Moody Madness

A fabric sunset of color and stripes. I love creating this kind of imagery.

Today it's raining and while I am very excited that the rain is adding to the earth to elicit growth I am stuck inside. My wrapped experiment will finally show some changes due to this volume of rain and I have another kind of wrapped experiment going on outside. I'm thinking I'll go out and unwrap it while there is still the expectation of more rain and let it work it's magic on the cloth.

Perhaps I'll use this time constructively. We'll see.
More wrapping experiments.  I'll show that evolution. here. Below is an old sheet faded yellow that I was discarding for whatever reason. I decided it would be a good candidate for something else. So I wrapped it around a part enamel part iron grate that was on an old oil heater. It's heavy and a good solid piece for wrapping. Then I stained it with some walnut stain and wrapped it in some laminate film and left it for a day. Perhaps I should try these and wrap and leave for a days or weeks. I might have much more dramatic results and it will be a lesson in patience.

I always love the discovery of what naturally occurs .. I love the discovery of what design is sort of haphazardly created and so the unwrapping is always something I look forward too. The photo of this cloth looks so much MORE interesting in person then how it appears in the photos. I'm still deciding how to proceed with this cloth now that I have it dried. No matter what .. I'm still grateful to have a visible record of my efforts. Over time perhaps there will be an evolution to the work.