In the Name of Art

Spoiler for TV from the Past: ATC Exchange

The substrate is an 18x12 card with all kinds of TV (circa late 50s) stuff going on and the rest are graphics and words cut from Popular Mechanics. I have the original benday dot cards from my junior high library but I'm clueless how any class could use large photos of Lucille Ball or the Father Knows Best cast. In any case I've got 15 of them and this is the first to go into art.

For the Pattern Exchange

The pattern was one part of the work and the other was the tattered state of the materials. I incorporated both concepts into this collage. This is part of Katherine's package now and I hope it fits her emphasis on the Japanese concept of "boro".  

Emily's Message

Three versions of this month's ACEO exchange and the theme is poetry, I only have 2 poems I've completely memorized and this is one of them. By Emily Dickenson of course. It occured to me that I could live with this as a tatoo.....

Printmaking, hand drawn pattern marks 2.

This one made it to the exchange binder for Anne. Printmaking, collage and marking with markers. The substrate (the orange) is a paper I made during the Summit Artspace workshop with John Sokol and has mustard, spices, motor oil and watercolor on it. The blue side pieces are strips of notebook paper with number combinations on them made by Brenda's late uncle. I could go on and on, each piece has a history but the whole story would make your eyes glaze over.

Printmaking, hand drawn pattern marks.

One of my secret loves is printmaking. Anne Bagby's binder for the pattern exchange had a theme of small handmade marks (to make pattern) with some beautiful examples of carved prints that looked as though the artist hadn't started with a sketch, they were very rough. It was all the excuse I needed. I printed several of my hand-carved prints onto a page of the phone book but this one didn't make the cut and ended up in my journal instead. I'll post the one that did tomorrow.

For Lesley, Indian Inspired

Indian inspired or no, I'm thinking of scribbling on this somewhere. It's just too perfect. It's for an ethnic pattern exchange and Lesley's notebook is devoted to Indian art with an emphasis on woodblock carving. So there is some carving (woodblock on the blue, tendrily rectangle in the background, that's a wooden batik tool and some of my own carving but that's eraser). Hmmmmm, to scribble or not to scribble?

The Exchange for Myth

Most of the relationship to myth is in the text here, but images didn't seem to work for these. I have a serious addiction to myth, it's been with me since the 4th grade when we were the lucky ones to study the Greek myths,with a textbook no less! These just grew with the papers available. 

A Heart, a Rose, a Smiling Skull

Entry for Bonnie's amazing binder for the pattern exchange. The theme for this is Mexican pattern with a bit of poetic license. The pattern on the ground is Bonnie's signature pattern printing (incredible stuff). The rest involves a great deal of collage, some chine colle with papel picado and a photo from the graves in Michaocan (that's also incredible stuff, if you're interested there's a file of photos on this blog listed on the right under Michaocan). The butterfly is a symbol for spirit.

Haven in the Bay

The latest edition for the Heaven exchange. This went into Joan's binder. Hers had a more grounded feeling than some of the others so I stuck with a heaven on earth subject: the day in Sanibel on the causeway that I nearly followed a couple of dophins out to sea. Warm weather, palm trees, a silvery ocean and a slight case of boundary issues made for a heady, and yet, heavenly experience. I really wanted to swim away with them and part of my heart was ready to leave the humanly behind. And that's the story. This one is collage, gesso, watercolor, marker, acrylic and color pencil.

Heaven in a Stitched Sleeve

Another piece in the "Heaven" exchange....Syd sent along a book about a particular angel (I don't want to be a spoiler, not that the folks who are in this thing wait with bated breath for my entries) and a request for particular stuff. This isn't anything like the other stuff in her package but I knew exactly what I wanted to do after reading her little book. All pieces and parts relate to childhood preoccupations so I'm on solid ground.....I think. I'll be posting a bit more since I put on a Valentine workshop last night, lots of hearts going on.