Art Frenzy

4 Generations

2012-01-03T22:12:00.001-05:00

We in Ohio have been blessed with really good weather for a change. We have not had much snow at all, other than a tiny dusting here and there - that is - until today. Today I think we got nearly 10" and there is supposed to be a little more on the way. It is January after all. But somehow I had this irrational hope that it would hold off until, oh, say...about APRIL! And then, be SPRING! Ha-ha!

I've had a lot of little changes in my life this fall and have had to come to terms with some health issues, but overall, I'm a very lucky lady. And I even found a little time to make some art before Christmas - most of which was gifted to others. I did the little 8" x 8" painting here - done in acrylics and mixed media. I gave it to my sister Carrie (who is a writer) and while it isn't an accurate snapshot of the women in our family, it is perhaps more "representational" of them. I really love that primitive, flat-dimensioned look of the paintings done in the early 1800's so was going for that sort of look, but they were meant to depict, L-R, back row - my mom Patricia Louise Strachan Ryman, her mom, Mildred Elizabeth Irvin Strachan and HER mom, Carrie Minerva Mitchell Irvin. The front row is, L-R - my sisters, Cynthia Lea Ryman Newsome and Carrie Ann Ryman and me, Diana Louise Ryman. It was a lot of fun to work on and I think my sweet sis really liked it.

In 2012 I'm hoping to focus on more de-cluttering of my art stash, painting a room or two in the house and the more fun type of painting - on canvas. I've always admired the looser, more "painterly" style some artists such as Mystele and Sharon Tomlinson, achieve. So I plan to teach myself how to paint this way too. I feel like my work is too up-tight and controlled. One of my friends, Jean Field, recently suggested that I "use a larger brush" to help me achieve this look, so I'll start there. Sounds so simple, doesn't it? Ha! Wish me luck!

Enough is enough!

2011-11-01T19:30:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had to have "the talk" with yourself? No - not the S-E-X talk. The S-T-U-F-F talk is what I mean. That's when you have to tell yourself (sometimes repeatedly) that you have enough STUFF already and you don't need another pencil, pen, tube of paint, bit of ephemera, or whatever the stuff happens to be at the moment. I've had this talk with myself over and over this year. Expenses are higher, income is smaller (lost my PT income). But the real breaking point for me is there is just no more space to put the stuff I keep bringing into this house! And I live alone in a 3 BR house with a huge attic and full basement so there just is no excuse for this. Also driving this new clarity for me is that I've been working all year, a little at a time, on cleaning out parts of my parents home in preparation for selling it. I'm seeing the detritus of 50+ years in one home and while I'm tickled to find things my mom saved, like our letters to Santa, written 40 yrs or more ago, there are things that I'm wading through that just didn't have to be saved all these years. Like every bill they ever paid. Like every old DayTimer filler from 30 yrs. of business calendaring. All this sorting through the bits of a lifetime is making me take a long hard look at my own home and the things I choose to save. And, as I discovered this afternoon, when I removed the cartoon-y band aid from the site of my flu shot, and I thought - "hmmm - I should use this in a journal layout - it would be cool to have this little bit of my DNA immortalized along with my thoughts for the day" - then I realized, ok kid, you definitely have gone OVER the edge if you are thinking about keeping a used band aid as fodder for artwork! Yes, I know - EVERYTHING can be recycled or upcycled and everything is fair game for our artistic creations. But enough is enough! So tonight I am having "the talk" with myself, yet again. Sigh. I'd be interested in hearing how (or where) you draw the line on the "stuff" you choose to keep for your art.

Come join the fun! New Directory of Artists

2011-08-30T22:42:00.000-04:00

Sadly, Artsee Bloggers, an innovative concept to gather art bloggers together in one place with links to all our various art blogs, is closing down tomorrow due to the need for the wonderful creator, Geri Centonze, to attend to family matters. I know what that is like and how those things can pop up with little or no notice. Seems like so many more of my friends are dealing with parent-related care needs every year. It's the age we have reached, I suspect. Which translates to a certain age of our parents. Anyway, a big thanks to Geri for coming up with this great idea and many good thoughts and prayers are sent her way! The good news is that another artist, Marcia Beckett, has taken up the idea and begun another directory of the same nature. It is called Artists in Blogland. I haven't seen a "had matter" yet, but it's early days! Tea party anyone? Gosh I'm silly tonight! If you'd like to list your art blog on the directory - or if you'd just like a cool place to scope out a bunch of amazing art blogs check it out!

Been Painting Again...

2011-06-27T21:12:00.000-04:00

June 2011 - 8 x 8 canvas

I started this little canvas about 2 months ago and didn't get time to touch it again until this last weekend. I really had a nice weekend and enjoyed the relaxation of no tv, no computer, just hours and hours of painting in a couple of sessions. I was inspired by a painting I watched artist Sharon Tomlinson paint. She does such a good job with faces and mine sure need some work. I followed her method of applying text from a book as a base, then gluing down pics of flowers from gardening catalogs to surround the central area. Then I sketched in the woman shown. Everything, including the flowers are painted over with acrylic paints. Not too sure my flowers look like they did originally, but having a picture to start with gives you a range of colors and some placement. If you get time, go watch some of Sharon's YouTube videos on "Morning Art". She has a gentle voice and does a great job of showing her process step by step.

Some Time Ago....

2011-06-27T20:02:00.002-04:00


Prompt - Shine

Prompt - Portals

Prompt - Fairies

Prompt - Haiku

Prompt - Hearts

....my Ohio art group "Art Gang Ohio" decided to do a project. This was for 2010. We decided we'd each create a piece of art based upon a word prompt for that month. There were supposed to be 10 in all and I think I made it through about 5 of them before LIFE interfered. We had also decided that we'd try to get our group project published, so toward that end, we agreed not to post any of our pieces until the project was complete since the magazines, etc. don't like for your work to have been seen online or anywhere else before they publish it themselves. One of our awesome members, Lou McCulloch did indeed get us published - a group picture of a number of our creations in an issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors! This was a fun project and I'm sorry I didn't finish all the months of it. But it did remind me that I don't do my best work when I have to produce on a schedule or along someone else's themes. I have enough structure in my life otherwise and find I really love the freedom that I have in making art - in just starting out with perhaps a color or a piece of something or other that inspires me. And then letting the work take me where it will. Anyway - I've wanted to get my completed projects posted here to my own blog. Hope you see something that maybe inspires you too!

CPS - Muse Flash - Art Gang Ohio Projects

March Journal Spread

2011-03-11T22:56:00.001-05:00

Yea! This is the last spread in this journal. It only took me 3 years and 2 months to finish! I do jump around a lot - trying a little of this and a little of that, so I get to experience different types and formats of art along the way, but it is hell when it comes to actually FINISHING things! So other than doing the covers for this journal, which I like to leave for last - this book is done.

This is another "a la Teesha" spread. Lots of fun to do and all the pen work is very relaxing.
I am not a very laid back artist - guess I'm wound too tightly for that - but I admire the fun and freedom that comes through in Teesha's work. Check her out here.

February Journal Pages

2011-03-11T22:28:00.000-05:00

It's been quite a while since I've posted. Much going on with my father and he has just recently moved into an assisted living facility. Lots of changes but he is doing very well with it all and accepting everything with a lot of grace. Thankfully.

I have squeezed in a little bit of art - much of it a few minutes at a time on my lunch hours - sitting in the car - listening to a book on tape.

I started this little journal in January 2008 and this set of pages is the next to last ones in the book. As you can see, I'm enamored of the Teesha Moore style of journaling right now so just had to try my hand at some pages. I love the bright, funky colors and the sort of humorous and edgy way of depicting things, but most of all I love the use of pens for writing, lettering, drawing and doodling.

Art at KSU

2010-10-01T17:53:00.001-04:00

I just had to share this. KSU has a brand new performing arts theatre that will have it's grand opening later in October. In the lobby of the theatre is currently being installed, a commissioned work from Cleveland artist, Olga Ziemska. I think I read that the funding came from an Ohio arts grant. You just have to look at her blog - Olga Ziemska - and see the pictures - most from her studio - of this work in progress this summer. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page because there are some "other" posts in the middle. This artist worked with dance & theatre students here at Kent State to pose for the outlines of the figures. She is using some gorgeous pictures of Northern Lights as her inspiration for movement and color. Each figure is cut from a sheet of clear acrylic. She evidently raided our KSU photo archive for the pictures our photographers have taken over the years of students, plays, dance performances, events around the campus, and anything else she found that was colorful and depicted life and art at the university. Ziemska is using five sizes of clear acrylic cabochons and adhering pieces of the photographs to the flat sides of each cab. Then the acrylic figures are filled with waves of the colorful cabachons to complete each piece. The figures will be laid out along a wall in the lobby of the theatre. It's hard to tell from the photos, but I suspect she is going to use some sort of suspension system and maybe, I hope, back lighting. It will be interesting to see how this artist completes this installation. I can't believe that those figures would just be screwed to the yellow wall, but that's just me. I may go over to the theatre on my lunch hour Monday to see the progress of the installation. Our dept. photographers are taking pictures of the process too. For some reason, this work is just speaking to me and I can't wait to see it finished. Of course, all those luscious blues and greens and purples are right up my alley! Enjoy!

A little Journaling

2010-09-12T00:57:00.000-04:00

Wow - it's been quite a while since I posted anything. Busy, busy. Plus any art I've had time to do has pretty much been for an art group project we have going this year that is sort of secret for now. More on that in a few months....

I did take some time recently to work on the last two pages in a little art journal - altered book that I'd started two years ago and never quite finished. I really enjoy the style of journaling that Teesha Moore teaches so thought I'd give that a try on these pages. It really is a relaxing way of working - no planning ahead of time. Just brushing on some acrylic paint for the background and when that's dry, adding some strips cut from various magazine pages to make the border. Add a little shading with some of the newish Pan Pastels and a focal figure - made up of several different pictures from magazines. I added a saying I'm fond of and a lot of doodling with my milky pens to add the finishing touches. I really like the result and think I'll try another page or two or three...what do you think?

Assemblage gift

2010-02-17T19:10:00.000-05:00

My first try at some assemblage. I'd had this in mind as a gift for a special friend for some time - and had laid out the various pieces on my desk in the basement studio, but just never got around to completeing it. My friend Gina's 30th birthday this month was the prod I needed to get it done. And my fledgling experience recently with making cold connection rivets with copper wire helped me assemble it. You need to know about some of the components - the antique brass stencil G, the metal stamped "IRON" and the 20 and 15 that are part of the ruler "arms" are a nod to Gina's blog IronG 2015. Gina is a triathalete and is in training for the 2015 Ironman. Whoa! Pretty big goal - and I have no doubt that she will make it! Back to the assemblage - see her crown? It is supposed to be a cupcake. Yeah - hard to believe that a hardcore athlete like Gina has a cupcake addiction, but she does! But she is really good and after eating the cupcakes (unlike me) SHE goes out and runs it off! The little legs are from a computer board scavenged for me by a friend at work and cut on my bandsaw. I'm betting Craftsman never thought their saw would be used for some of the whacky things that I cut with it! Anyway, it was lots of fun to make and Gina got a kick out of it so I'm a happy camper. Hmmm....I have a bunch of those brass stencils......

What a nice way to start the New Year!

2010-01-05T13:18:00.000-05:00

My friend Dawn (from Art Girl Designs) and I played with some metalsmithing on New Year's Day and we each finished one pendant. What a fun time to be able to relax, visit, experiment and learn from one another as we worked on this new medium. We'd both been collecting tools, sheets of metal and all the other bits and bobs needed. We'd each invested in a good DVD to get us started and took our time watching and reviewing before getting started. I'll let Dawn show you her beautiful pendant on her blog.

The sort of oval pendant in the photo here, that has the vintage picture, was my first piece. I learned some things I wanted to try: making rivets with a piece of copper wire, texturing the metal, and cutting a frame using the jeweler's saw. The most valuable lesson though was the one hardest earned - if you want to add a chemical patina, that should probably be done before you start to rivet the layers together! Duh! It makes it tough to do once a photograph is in place, but I did manage to add a bit of liver of sulfer using a Q-tip.

The second, more rectangular necklace is one I did a day later, on my own, but still using some of the same techniques. On Dawn's advice I bought some hardware cloth - the one used was the 1/8" grid - and by pounding, was able to create a nice gridded texture on the copper. I played with the metal letter stamps I've had for years and never used once (adhering nicely to my New Year's resolution to begin using stuff I already own!) to create the word "LIVE" on the little brass piece. Then held the copper and brass layers together with copper wire rivets. I decided I wanted to add some more brass, so drilled holes and inserted the tiny little brass hardware I had bought from Volcano Arts some time ago. I can't wait to play some more!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-03T18:53:00.005-05:00

Yes, I know. I'm a couple days late. Oh well, better late than never, I say. I started this little painting two weeks before the holiday with the intent of making it into a print for cards for family and friends. But circumstances changed and I invited the whole family to my place for Trick or Treating. It suddenly hit me that that meant I'd best get my butt in gear and CLEAN my house - not to mention finishing some projects outside before the cold weather sets in. So my little paint got set aside and wasn't finished until Nov. 1 after all the festivities were but a memory. It was a sketch first, then I washed the background with watercolor and finished all the details with acrylic paints. Every one of these little paintings teaches me a thing or two about how the paint works, and about how to control it better. Also I still need to learn a lot more about shading. But I'm getting better each time, I think. Guess I'll be ready for Halloween next year! It was fun to do it and am now thinking of images I can draw and paint for a little Christmas scene.

Doodle Bug Squirrel

2009-09-27T20:47:00.004-04:00

Yes, I'm still squirrely! Kent State University's 100 year anniversary will be kicked off at homecoming on October 10 this year. For anyone who's been around the Kent, Ohio campus, you'll know that black squirrels are a beloved icon there. So we've mounted a squirrel decorating contest to help celebrate. There are two sizes of squirrels - 30" and 8". My contribution - "doodlebug squirrel" is one of the smaller size. It was doodled using a fine point enamel paint pen. I just had to get my ladybugs in there somehow. Can't wait to see the other entries! If you're in the area, be sure to stop by Tailgate Alley at the Dix Stadium from 1 pm - 5 pm on October 10 and vote for your favorite designs in each category!

Funky Furniture

2009-09-27T20:31:00.005-04:00

Painting some funky, fun furniture pieces is my new "thing". I bought this small white set of drawers at a friend's yard sale this summer. It was white and painted in a nice little country scene. I had seen some funky painted stuff on the Web and just had to try my hand at it with this piece. It was a lot of fun to do. I did the front first and as you can see, I got a little too "detailed" with it. Those that know me, know that is my normal state of being. Ha-ha! I decided if I wanted to finish this any time soon, I'd need to lighten up on the sides and top, so they are a little less intense. And I have to say - I really like them the best. Good lesson for me. Less detail - good thing. Next I'm tackling 4 of those old metal patio chairs that have the tubular, curved legs that let you sort of bounce when you're sitting. I think they are from the 40's and 50's.....good winter project!

Journaling (cont. 4)

2009-05-28T19:03:00.003-04:00

Well these are some of my latest pages. Anyone who knows me knows I love the Wizard of Oz and now all the prequels to that story written by Gregory Maguire, like "Wicked", "Son of a Witch" and "A Lion Among Men". So of course, I had to have an "Oz" page in my journal. Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West is my favorite character....

The whole swine flu outbreak and the concern over it becoming a pandemic has had me really worried, so doing a spread on it helped me deal. The middle set of pages are a blatant plagarism (or is that only when it is the written word?) of a Zettiology artist/goddess - Teesha Moore, art work. I'm not intending to sell it or anything, so hopefully my "copying" won't be frowned upon. I really just admired her style and wanted to try my hand at it. I'm also NOT a fan of orange, so that seemed the perfect color for me to force myself to use. I really like how it turned out. Of course I had to do a bunch of doodling in the dresses and in the edge borders, but that is just me. Any chance to doodle.... Trying this taught me a number of different things and I love, love, love, her style of writing in her journal pages. So fun and interesting.

Art Journaling (cont. 3)

2009-05-28T18:51:00.004-04:00

The copper cobweb page is a tip in. Something I had never tried, but had admired in other artist's journals. The delphiniums are from my garden and yes - they were really that blue Decided to try painting some on the reverse of the pages. I also tried my hand at a crackle technique on these pages too. See the yellow peeking through the navy, night sky? On the pages with the painted flowers, you can see, (if you click on the picture to see the larger size) that I glued down some tiny blue/green and copper round bits. Those bits are actually the waste left over from computer boards being created and holes punched. My sister Cindy, and BIL Kelly, kindly brought these (and other types) to me after learning that I used all sorts of leftovers to create art. They told me that what looks like copper is, in some cases, actually GOLD. Whoo hoo! Maybe I should insure my book..... :-) The lime green page is one I did after my baby sister, Carrie, told me she was considering becoming a Druid. So of course I had to investigate it and learn what I could about it. Sounds like a perfect type of religion for her. It reveres all that is of the earth - wind, sky, water, trees, animals. And it's primary tenet seems to be doing good things for and to one another. Be the good example you want others to be. Very interesting.

Art Journaling (cont. 2)

2009-05-28T18:43:00.002-04:00

I had to journal at least one page about Obama. I had admired him for several years ever since seeing him on a talk show. He just made so much sense and was very unlike the normal "politician" that we are all sick of. Was so tickled when he actually decided to run for President and even more thrilled when he won! Hope that he keeps his word now and helps our country get back to being the highly esteemed nation it once was. The page with the lady in blue with the waving hair is my attempt at doing the style of art journaling that I've seen Susan Shie do on her journal quilts. I knew I'd never do a whole quilt like she does, so took her style to my art journal pages instead. It was fun, but (and I know my friends won't believe this of me) way more detailed and intense than I normally like to do! Give me a mindless doodle any day!

Art Journaling

2009-05-28T18:36:00.003-04:00

I've been working on this art journal for more than two years. It started out to be a journal that I'd use for my art group and the monthly prompts we'd agreed on. That went out the window pretty quickly for me and it turned into the place that I captured cool quotes and sayings and practiced different techniques and looks that I admire from other artists. I only need to finish one more spread and then the covers so decided I'd get some of the pages scanned and shared here now. See what you think.

Susie art

2009-04-23T17:06:00.005-04:00

Have you ever seen the wonderful, folksy quilts created by
Ohio artist, Susan Shie? She calls her art "outsider" and boy does she have a definitive style all her own! She has been "out there" and way ahead of the pack for as many years as I've been quilting (25+ oh my!) When I was doing all the traditional quilting stuff, Susie was making some fabulous pieces with super heavy quilting, thick battings, and lots and lots of embroidery, beading and mirrors. Now that I'm into some of the more "artsy" quilts, Susie has moved on ahead again and is creating huge narrative journals on her quilts. They are still very folksy in form with whimsical figures and pictures all over them. And Susie's painting them with the use of an airpen, which is similar to an airbrush, but with far more control. Anyway, I just love her journal quilts but know I don't want to invest in the equipment or time to do it her way, so I sort of improvised and created a small 8 x 10 size piece on card stock. It was my friend's birthday so I decided to do it using all the "aging" quotes I could find and turned it into a birthday card for her by scanning and reducing it to a card size afterwards. It was a lot of fun to try.

Sample Art

2009-04-23T16:51:00.010-04:00

Here is a samples I did using some of the new rubber stamps from

Art Girl Designs. The stamps are deeply etched red rubber and come on sheets

that are 6" x 9" or there abouts.

New Stamp Designs

2009-04-22T18:17:00.010-04:00

I'm so proud to announce that my good friend, Dawn Burrows, who is a talented graphic designer by day and an equally awesome mixed media artist by night, has just produced her first two sheets of rubber stamps! She's selling them via her Etsy site so please go check them out! Some parts of these designs began life as her family photos, but they then underwent a lot of tweaking and fluffing to get them just right. LOVE the little girl reaching for the star and the little boy sitting on the building blocks. There are some great architectural pieces too that will make for some really great ATC's as well as greeting cards. I'll be posting some pics in the next day or two of what I'm doing so far with these stamps.

Gone Squirrely!

2008-09-24T17:07:00.004-04:00

Yes, I've finally gone over the edge now with the "doodling" stuff! Actually the squirrel on the left is the first example I did for the Kent State University (Kent, Ohio, USA) Centennial Squirrel contest. (click on the picture to see more detail). I'm co-chair of this project and we are "unveiling" them tomorrow at a town and gown breakfast. We needed one sample that gives the people in attendance an idea of some of the things that can be done with these squirrels for the contest. They are created initially in a nice weight, black resin and if you're not of a mind to do some art on one, you could also just dress them up. Or do nothing and just put him on your desk as is.

If you're not familiar with KSU - we have tons of black squirrels all around the campus. They aren't our official mascot, that's "Flash" a golden eagle, but our little furry squirrels are near and dear to everyone's hearts. These replicas (designed by David Knox of our Tuscarawrus campus) are being sold in an 8" size and also in a whopping 30" size! Our hope is to hold a friendly, viewer's choice competition in October 2009 for both sizes. And there will be lots of fabulous prizes too! More info on that to be announced soon!

We have tons of artists around the Kent State campuses and the greater community and also many alums all around the country who might also want to get into the action. If you're interested, go check out the KSU Centennial Web site and click on the link for the Squirrels. It may not be active until the week of Sept. 29 though, as the site is currently being built, but there's lots of Centennial stuff to check out in the meantime. Hope some of my artiste friends in Ohio (and elsewhere) will want to join us for this fun competition.

My Fall List

2008-09-19T18:06:00.003-04:00

I love Fall. The cooler weather, the crisp nights, the awe inspiring colors of the trees and most of all, I love, love, love - HALLOWEEN! Especially the witches! But Fall for me brings a long list of projects I need to complete before the first Saturday in December (Dec. 6 this year).

That is the date that, with my dear friend, Dawn Burrows, we hold our annual Christmas Open House. So all fall we are both in "full production mode", designing and creating new items to sell at the open house. Right now I'm working on Santas. I found a pattern I really love for a German Santa at the Country Cupboard in Berlin, OH (right in the heart of Amish country). It is made with a wool coat and hat/hood, trimmed with faux fur. He is holding a bag of polymer clay "oranges" and a sprig of evergreen topped with a tiny, red, glass bead. See what you think. Right now all my energy goes into the stock for the open house, but right after Dec. 6, any of the extras I make will be posted to my Etsy shop.

Check out these pics. The bodies with heads are done and awaiting clothes and beards, so they are all lined up on my table and they are STARING at me! It really is an odd feeling to look over and see all of them...."sew faster! we need clothes! no gifts for you, you bad girl!"

I finished one and took it to Dawn's to do a cat test. Two years ago I made the mistake of using wool from a friend of a friend, who had sheep, for the Santa's beards. The cats ripped off beards and scattered the Santas from one end of the house to the other! And other people who bought them had similar situations with their pets too. It had to be that the wool beard material hadn't been cleaned enough (it looked and smelled fine to ME) to get a scent out that only another animal could smell. I replaced beards on a number of Santas that year. Now I cat test if I'm using anything that hasn't been commercially processed. This year's Santa sports a curly, silky beard of Border Leicester wool and I just love how it looks. The cat's sniffed it once and walked away, so we're good to go!

I've been hitting all the rummage sales buying up old coats and skirts, then cutting them up and felting them for the Santa's coats and hoods. So far I'll have some in dk. red, dk. green, gold, brown and maybe some in a cream too. I'd still like to find a nice medium or country blue too.

Rainbow Swirls - Hand Dyed Paper

2008-08-05T18:41:00.013-04:00

Finally! I managed to work out the details and technique to something that I can consistently reproduce and have begun selling this beautiful, rainbow swirled paper in my Etsy shop! It's been a long haul and one of the biggest lessons was figuring out that not all glossy cardstocks are created equal. After much trial and error I've found a brand that lets me turn out some of the most vivid and luscious colors you'll find. I've packaged them in packs of 5 sheets - 8-1/2" x 11" as that seems to be the most frequently requested size. Check it out. And let me know what you think. I'd really like to hear your thoughts on this paper! And if you buy some, I'd REALLY love to see what you do with it! I think it will be great in cards, ATC's,

journals, book covers, scrapbooking, you name it. Now if only I can bring myself to cut into it!

Weekend Painting Job

2008-07-07T18:06:00.006-04:00

I've been wanting to try my hand at these little landscapes taught by Karyn Gartel for some time. A friend took her class and was kind enough to show me how to do it too. They were a lot of fun and I love how they are so whimsical and folk artsy. I was most amazed that you could actually paint on canvas using the inexpensive sort of craft acrylic paint you buy at the hobby stores. I notice now that I'm seeing both the day and night versions side by side, that I made a few errors - the hills in the night one are brighter and lighter in color than the daytime one and it really should be the other way around, shouldn't it? Maybe I should go back in and paint a big cloud obscuring the sun! And don't tell, but I have my light source coming from the left on the day time piece, but my shadows for the trees and houses go the opposite direction! Duh! I don't care. I'm still happy with them as I've never painted on real canvases before and now, having done this, I'm not so intimidated so may try some other things later on. If you'd like to see Karyn Gartel's site and the classes she offers, check out her workshop blog.

Bandana Prints

2008-07-07T17:08:00.007-04:00

These were a natural next step with the "doodling" I've been doing for
some time now. Saw the technique online at: PearlEsq a blog by Robin Beam, who is the
education director for Ranger Industries. I guess I'm behind the times because she has been doing this for some time now it appears! Oh well, better late than never! I've been having fun with this technique making backgrounds for cards, etc. and even did an envelope on a momentary whim last week. I love sending a little bit of art in the mail to perk up someone's day. Just wish I had more time for that! The technique in a shortened version is:

1. rub Distress Ink pads (or any dye ink pads) on a teflon sheet - don't overlap colors or they will muddy

2. spritz inked sheet with water - pretty heavily

3. drag a piece of watercolor paper through the wet dye once, then dab here and there into remaining wet dye to cover entire piece (easier to work with 1/4 sheets or so) of w/c paper

4. I found you can go back direct to paper with the ink pads adding a dab of ink here and there, then spritz the area with some more water to make it run and blend with the existing colors.

5. set aside to dry and do some more backgrounds

6. when background is dry (can speed with heat gun), stamp flourishes or any stamps you want to fill in a random pattern. Robin recommends the black acrylic paint dabber by Ranger. I tried it and preferred the Stazon black pad for clear, crisper images.

7. high light here and there alongside the stamped black images using a good, opaque, white pen. Here again, I prefer the Signo pen, but my friend Dawn let me try her new Extra fine white waterproof Sharpie marker and it is pretty great too!

8. I added some random dots here and there, but that is just me and I never know when to stop doodling!

Thanks Robin for another great technique!

Sally Jean Style

2008-06-02T17:23:00.006-04:00

I seem to be in a "learn the styles of others" phase. We had a play night recently and a good friend showed us how to make the most wonderful "Sally Jean Alexander" style altered pages. What fun! I love the way these come out and think its a combination of subtle, toned down color on the page plus only black and white or sepia imagery. And then the thing that really pops it off the page is the use of charcoal pencils to outline the images and sort of grunge it up here and there. I did this piece first and since, have done a bunch of ATC's too - which I promptly traded away to my friends in the Art Gang Ohio group this last weekend!

Attempt at acrylic painting

2008-06-02T17:11:00.005-04:00

Well, I went and fell in love with Misty Mawn's style

of painting and am trying my hand at it. Not the greatest initial results, but I'm progressing a bit. This is my third one. I think what I love most about her style is the ghostly, eerie skin tones and for some reason I just cannot seem to get them right. Since taking a class with her anytime soon is out of the question financially, I'll just continue to muddle through. It is fun to do though. The background of this piece started out as a great collaged background paper that my friend, Lill Mederak created and traded with me a couple months ago. Thanks Lill!

ATC's for Lill

2008-03-05T16:56:00.004-05:00

This is the second set of ATC's I've exchanged with Lill Mederak in Canada. I waited to post these until I knew she'd have received her package so as not to spoil the fun. I do love this little format - both for it's ease and quickness to complete and for it's tradeability too. I just organized all my ATC's in a three ring notebook with those clear vinyl baseball card sleeves and arranged them in groups - lots of eraser carved ones from my early days with the Carving Consortium and then later groups in various swaps. I also have enough from a few dear friends to make a whole page of work by that one artist, which is fun to see. My style has certainly changed and I think, improved too, over the years.

Dyed Papers

2008-02-27T13:28:00.005-05:00

My latest creations. Dyed papers. Aren't they 'purty'? Lots of fun too. And the pictures don't do them justice really. I am doing some more experimenting, but if all goes well will be offering these for sale on my etsy site. Stay tuned!

Tribal Inspiration

2008-02-10T13:48:00.001-05:00

Isn't it fun to get inspiration for something you love to do from the most unexpected places? I was recently looking at some lamp worked beads on line and came across some that are done using various aboriginal designs. No - I'm NOT going to try my hand at lampworking on top of everything else I can't seem to say no to! But the swirls and circles and undulating snake-like shapes really spoke to me so I just had to doodle with them. Here's my first attempt. This was done on white watercolor paper using the Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens in both the brush size and the S size for the tinier detail stuff. I think I'll have to play more with these sort of designs and I think I really want to try doing it on top of some of my hand dyed watercolor paper too.

Been Doodling Some More...

2008-02-05T11:57:00.000-05:00

As you might know, I've been doodling for a year or more now and always on the lookout for more "patterns" to use. So when the "Zentangles" Web site became popular a couple months ago, I started playing with some of the shapes and patterns I found there.

I decided I needed (I'll admit to being a bit obsessive and detail-oriented!) a "library" of patterns I like to use repeatedly when doing my doodling in journals and ATC's etc. I did these little rounded-corner squares in my journal and thought you might enjoy seeing them too to give you some additional patterns to use as you do your own doodling.

Those Zentangle people are right - doodling is so relaxing and "zen" like. I lose all track of time when doing these repetitive, mindless patterns.

I've also been experimenting with a variety of pens to see what I like best. My favorite is the Pentel EnerGel liquid gel ink pen with a very fine needle tip. But alas, it isn't permanent, so when I want to have permanency for either archival purposes or because I'm going to add color over the patterns I've drawn, I have to use something with waterproof ink.

My favorite in the permanent category is the Staedtler .01 Permanent pen. It actually comes in some other sizes too finer and broader both if you want a variety. These are a little pricey though and for me not terribly easy to find.

And a friend, Colleen, who works for Faber Castell here in Ohio, gave me some of their permanent ink pens to try. The Pitt Artist pen by Faber Castell is the nicest in my opinion. Good permanent, black India ink in an "S" size works well for these doodles, but was a tiny bit too broad for me because I tend to have a heavy hand and they are felt tipped so they sort of smoosh out a bit and get even broader than designed.

But, good news!, Colleen recently told me that they have a brand new pen coming out very soon and it is available in an even finer tip! She let me write with her one and only sample and it will be a great substitute for the harder to find and more expensive Staedtler pen. Can't wait till they're on the market!

Art from the Heart - New Book - and a chance to win!

2008-02-03T11:30:00.000-05:00

If you haven't already heard about this awesome opportunity, it's not too late!

Artist, Catherine Matthews-Scanlon is giving away two copies of her new book, Art from the Heart and YOU could be the lucky winner. But you only have one day yet to enter the drawing so don't delay!

If you are interested in winning a copy, all you have to do is post about her give away on your blog and you'll be entered to win one of the two copies of this new book, which by all accounts sounds like it will be a huge hit! You'll also need to post a comment on Catherine's blog so she knows you're playing along and should be entered into the drawing. She'll be checking your blog to be sure you've posted about the book and giveaway.

Aren't artists fun people?! And so smart too! Best of luck with your book Catherine!

Pocket Calendars

2007-12-08T15:34:00.000-05:00

This was a new item for me this year - pocket calendars with artsy mixed media covers. My friend Jean gave me a big hunk of primed canvas about a year ago and as so many things do, it just sat. I decided to do something with it and came up with the idea of a little book cover for pocket calendars. This way, you can buy an inexpensive calendar at the store and have a fun cover for it that will continue to work year after year. I did these by first cutting out the pieces of the cover, then transferred laser copies of images that I'd first manipulated, colorized and added words to in Photoshop. I used Golden's acrylic medium to do the transfer - brushed a liberal layer all over the face of the image, then flipped it medium side down onto the cover canvas piece and brayered it to smooth it out and make sure there was no air under it. I let that dry, then used a piece of wet (water) cotton fabric over the end of my finger to rub, rub, rub all the paper backing off the image. I then made some scratches, etc. in the image to "grunge" it up a bit. Next I applied Golden's acrylics - both heavy bodied and fluid types - to add color all over the edges and rest of the cover peices. I used rubber stamps with Stazon inks to add some additional embellishment plus bits of gold foil here and there. I sewed the covers together by machine and included a funky fiber bookmark, with little beads on the ends. Add a pocket calendar and voila! Art for your purse! I posted the few I had left to my Etsy shop, if you want to check it out!

Advent Santa

2007-12-08T15:22:00.000-05:00

This is my new 2007 Santa. I saw a pattern for one that was similar online, but I decided to design my own pattern and think it turned out pretty well. I love his long hat, embellished with a tarnished bell. These are weighted with cinnamon scented rice to make them stand (and smell) nice. I've posted some to my Etsy store for sale if you want to look. For those of you who know me, Santas have been a big part of my life for about 20 years or so. I've made a new Santa of some sort for almost every year and hope to continue doing so. I lean toward the more primitive look in Santas and sometimes use a commercial pattern, but often just design one of my own. I take inspiration from a lot of places - the internet, my collection of Santas, and whatever art mediums I happen to be involved in at the time. But I do tend to do more in fabric because of my sewing and quilting background. Hope you like them!

Star Santa

2007-12-08T15:12:00.001-05:00

Here's the Star Santa that I made last year. I sold a few last year, but this year the shoppers nearly cleaned me out! I only have 4 left from a total of 20! I just love this little guy - I think I relate to his fat tummy! Ho-ho-ho! Oh that reminds me - have you heard about how a big store recently instructed their store Santas to not say "ho-ho-ho" anymore!? Evidently it isn't now considered PC and might offend some ethnic groups! Santa is now supposed to say instead..."ha-ha-ha"! This really frosts me and I think, is just ridiculous. Are people really spending their precious time trying to figure out what words we've used for generations that now are not PC any longer? Give me a break! MY Santa is still going to say "HO-HO-HO!" - so there!

Christmas Projects

2007-12-08T15:04:00.000-05:00

I've been working all fall it seems to create items to sell at the annual Open House I do each December with my good friend Dawn. We both put a lot of time and effort in coming up with new and hopefully unique items to offer. The Open House was last Saturday and as in past years, was very successful. I find it is hard to know what will sell and what will not. And this year I noticed that some items that didn't sell at all the previous year and which I offered again this year "on sale" at a slightly reduced price, now SOLD OUT completely! So I'm guessing that means my price was too high last year? Or do tastes just change from one year to the next? I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on this if you've ever done anything like this. Anyway, I've posted some new items in my Etsy shop if you'd like to look and will try to post some here on the blog too.

Doodle, doodles, everywhere!

2007-09-06T18:49:00.000-04:00

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Are you sick of seeing my doodles yet? Too bad! Because I'm having way too much fun with these! My close friends know that I love Halloween, hence the witch ATC! And along with that goes a love of the "Wizard of Oz" and now the "Wicked" series. These book pages are a great place to house some of the great quotes I've been collecting on scraps of paper for years. The black spread here started with the quote, then sort of evolved into an Oz spread. I hadn't intended it to have any color at all, but when I thought I was finished, I just had to add the red glitter to Dorothy's shoes! And I'm not a big fan of glitter, but how else do you get ruby slippers to sparkle?!

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Oh - I should tell you about the pens I've been using so far...I'm in love with this gel pen made by Pentel, called EnerGel. It goes on so smoothly and is a dream to even just write with. But alas, it isn't waterproof so when I'm going to add color over top of it, I have to resort to the more expensive but waterproof, Staedtler or Micron pens. I do like the really fine lines I get with these pens though. The Pentel is a .5 mm pen, while the other two come in a variety of sizes and I like the .01 the best. Really, really tiny lines and doodles are possible with them!

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Then of course, I had to do more bugs! I hope you can see these close up to see all the little doodling going on inside the bug shapes.

A fellow artist and new friend, Colleen McGinty, works for Faber-Castell and she kindly sent me a couple sets of their markers to try for my doodling, so they will be used for my next doodles. I'll let you know how they work! Right after I get done soldering some new pins I have in progress...are you starting to see why I called this blog "Art Frenzy"? LOL!

Doodle ATC's

2007-09-06T18:42:00.000-04:00

Here are some of the ATC's I've been doing in spare moments. I do these in the car at lunchtime while listening to books on my MP3 player. I even keep a few blank ATC sized cards next to the phone at work for those times when I'm on perpetual hold! Now my boss won't have to wade through my doodles on the sides of all the invoices we pay! The eyes may look a bit odd and truly are not my normal thing to draw, but I saw another artist drawing eyes and thought what a good way to build your skill at drawing parts of the body...and DOODLING at the same time! The colored ATC's here were done with more of the ColorBox Cat's Eye pigment ink pads. I did find though that if I put the colored ink on last, it sort of greys out the nice black gel pens I'm using. And if you put it on the card first, you have to give it a few days to dry really, really well, or the gel pens don't want to write over it.

More doodling

2007-09-06T18:29:00.000-04:00

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A couple more pages from my "doodle book". The leaves page is actually the first one I tried. I gessoed the page first. I like that you can see a ghost of the original type in the background. I am not great at freehand drawing, so on scrap paper, I sketched a couple leaf shapes, then cut them out and used them as templates to draw around. Then I sectioned off the inside of each leaf and started filling in the sections with doodles. Lines, dots, circles, stars, wavy lines, spirals, you name it! After the leaves were all doodled to death, I used ColorBox Cat's Eye pigment ink pads to smear on color, using a separate makeup sponge to move and blend the color to my satisfaction. The black page is just black gesso (I'm now in LOVE with black gesso! so rich and dark!) with white gel pens for the smaller lines and the bigger stuff is done with one of the pen-type correction pens for great coverage. I have to give credit here for the little "bug" shapes. A totally awesome artist - Ingrid Djikers - is where I saw these little bug shapes the first time. I've since seen them in a number of artists work, so evidently I wasn't the only one who fell in love with them! Ingrid does some amazing things with her bugs using collage, but I saw them as perfect little shapes for more...you guessed it!....DOODLING!

Doodling.....

2007-09-06T18:02:00.000-04:00

Oh boy - don't read this if you don't want to become addicted to doodling like I have! If you love details this will be right up your alley! One of my friends, Lou McCulloch shared her book "The Humument" with our club some time ago. I fell in love with this book and all the lovely "doodling" that the author, Tom Phillips did over top of the pages of an old Victorian novel ("The Human Element"). I was inspired to try my own hand at "found text" and "found poetry" - obliterating most of what was on the pages originally and only leaving some (or sometimes none) of the original text while adding my own art on top and around it. I enjoyed playing with trying to make a free-form poem out of the original text, but for me, the big draw to this genre of art, is the doodling. I feel that I am primarily a left brained, organized, toe-the-line sort of person. I work with numbers and facts all day in my job and that organizational bent of mine follows me into my personal life as well. When I'm doing any sort of art, I feel like the right brained part of me kicks in goes to war with my left brained, tightly organized self, trying to burst free of the "rules" I impose on myself. This doodle art, as I've come to call it, allows both parts of me to meld nicely and feel right at home! And the tiny little patterns I draw on the pages is very relaxing and stress-free and sort of....well....mindless! I'm definitely addicted to this and have even taken to carrying ATC sized cardstock in my purse to "doodle" on. I'll post some of those here too for you to see. Hope you're inspired to give this a try too!

Autumn Fire

2007-09-04T19:13:00.000-04:00

One of my silk scarves - I just love doing this silk dyeing. It is so rewarding to apply the dyes and watch them blend and move on their own, then I can add my own touches with alcohol, chemical water or salt to move the dyes even more. There is just something so scrumptious about the colors and the sheen of the silk, once the dye has been steam set and rinsed and dried is without compare! I took a class at the university where I work from a great teacher - Joann Giordano and I'm eternally grateful to her kind tutelage for getting me started working with this medium.

Room Boxes

2007-09-04T18:59:00.000-04:00

As much as we all hate to think about it, Christmas is less than 4 months away. And for those of you who like to make gifts, I thought I'd share one that I've done in the past and which has been fairly well received by friends and family. It looks like a gift box from the outside. It is covered in some beautiful fabric of your choosing. And when you lift off the lid, two of the box sides drop down to lay flat on the table. Inside the remaining two standing sides of the box I put a small Christmas tree - decorated however you like with gifts underneath and any other bits and pieces you want to add. The two sides that drop down flat can each hold a small vignette of furnishings - cupboards, chairs, rugs, whatever suits your fancy. I usually try to coordinate some of the details of each room box to the person it will be given to: a quilting or fabric them for a friend who loves to sew, a music room for a friend with a penchant for the tunes, etc. I've created some instructions - by trial and error for these boxes and will post them here in a day or two, so check back if you're interested in making one of these fun gifts!

Digital Collage

2007-09-02T21:24:00.000-04:00

I know people who do digital collage almost exclusively, but I must admit I've always thought that if I did it, I'd somehow be "cheating". Well, I finally gave it a try and it was fun! And what I love about it is that now that I've done the work, I have a digital file of this image that I can use repeatedly. I can sell cards with this image, or just make some fun art for my own use or for gifts. I think it took me a bit longer than doing actual collage, but then the return on that investment of time is larger and longer lasting, so it is definitely worth it. I did this in Photoshop and as I'm still learning all the different bells and whistles of that program, I'll likely get faster as I use it more. This little girl only had a left arm showing and I took a copy of that arm and flipped it to use as a right arm. And I did use some ink and stamps to sort of "finish" it - see the dots, spirals and numbers? I just had to do some stamping on it! And I added a bit of that gold foil here and there after layering up the image with the brown and blue cardstock panels. I don't think this will ever replace my love of working with diffferent mediums and materials, but it was FUN and I'll for sure try it again sometime!! If you haven't tried digital collage yet - go ahead - give it a go!

Oh So Charming Swap - continued

2007-01-28T18:31:00.000-05:00

Before mailing off my charms for the Oh So Charming Swap I took pics of the whole bunch of charms. They just seemso much cooler all together for some reason! Forgot to take a pic of the little tag I included with my "Fly Away Home" charms though. It was done in a similar fashion to the one shown with my "Blue Moon" charms. I've seen some wonderful charms in the postings for this swap so far and can't wait to get them all in my hands to ooh and aah over. It seems that a lot of charms are done using recycled or "found" items. Wish I had thought of that too, but we'll have a nice mix this way.

Wire-Worked Bracelets

2007-01-25T14:17:00.000-05:00

Well now that I've made a bunch of charms and
will be getting a bunch in the swaps I'm in, I
figured I better have a bracelet on which to hang
them. Also, my group of close friends in the
"Radish Ladies" wanted me to demo how to make a wire bracelet for THEIR charm swap. So I set to work playing with copper wire to see what sort of linked bracelets I could find to make.

I admit to finding link designs all over the internet and I reproduced them to make my own bracelets. Some were harder than others. Two were free-formed using just chain nose and round nose pliers. The one with heart links and the one with a sort of "S" link were formed using a Thing a Ma Jig with little pegs to bend the wire around - and pliers too.

Oh So Charming Swap

2007-01-25T13:49:00.000-05:00

I just had to try my hand at some of the very cool
hand made charms I've seen posted on the 'net. So
I joined the art-e-zine sponsored "Oh So Charming"
Charm Swap that is hosted by Dawn Sellers. What
fun! And of course, I can't ever seem to just do
something "a little bit" - I had to make TWO sets
of 25 charms! Now two of my other (face to face)
groups are also doing charm swaps within their
memberships.

My first charms - "Blue Moon" were made with
some little cobalt blue glass mosaic pieces I found
at the craft store - wrapped with 18 ga. copper wire.
I added a little dangly with more copper wire and
some extra beads and added an extra jump ring for
hanging on the bracelets.

The second batch of charms - "Fly Away Home"
were made with a purchased polymer clay,
flower-caned bead that I found in the 25 cents a
pack aisle - whoo-hoo! - at the craft store. I used
antiqued brass wire for this one and made two spirals
for the top and bottom of the bead, plus a loop at the
top and added a dangly with a ladybug and another
little antique brass bead, all hung off another big jump
ring.

If you get the chance to participate in a charm swap,
I highly recommend it. Even 25 charms don't take
huge investments of time or money and with a little
warning, you can even be on the lookout for "found"
objects to incorporate. Can't wait to get my swap
outs back and see everyone elses handiwork!

Bookbinding - another love....

2006-05-26T20:36:00.000-04:00

This is a soft leather journal I created in a class with Lisa Ohmer at the recent Artiscape weekend. She is a superb teacher - very patient - and gives excellent directions. I think I'll be trekking south to Columbus whenever I can for more classes with her at European Papers.

Quilting

2006-05-26T20:31:00.000-04:00

Speaking of returning to my roots - this is one of the quilted wallhangings I've done. I'll try to post more in the coming days. Once I figure out how to get decent shots of them. It is hard to get good detail in a flash picture I'm finding....

This piece is called "Quilting Friendships" and was a statement on how the shared love of quilting can help to bridge gaps - in race or otherwise - and provide a basis for some wonderful friendships at the same time.

You can also alter fabric...

2006-05-26T20:20:00.000-04:00

This is my first attempt at doing anything altered with fabric. I started out my crafting life as a quilter, so this was a natural return to my roots. Many thanks to my friend, Linda Koch for showing us how to bead, embellish, etc. on fabric and for sharing the inspiration of her gorgeous pieces with our Art Gang Ohio group!

I am also an avid reader and a book - generally a good mystery is never far from hand. So making book covers with my embellished fabric was the perfect place for these fun techniques. The hardest thing for me was remembering that unlike regular hand quilting, in this case you WANT the stitches to be big and irregular!!!! I've got several more of these book covers in progress that I will be offering for sale on eBay in the next week or so.

More beeswax collage

2006-05-26T20:15:00.000-04:00

I love beeswax! This piece was done on two 6" x 6" canvases, hinged together. I began by layering and collaging various papers, stamps, pigment inks (direct to paper), images and other ephemera - gluing it all down with a polymer medium. Then coated all with the beewax. It wasn't until weeks later that I learned you can actually apply the papers, etc. with the beeswax and leave off the polymer medium all together.

Beeswax Collage

2006-05-23T18:27:00.000-04:00

This is my first try at beeswax collage, but oh, what fun! And the smell is heavenly. After creating the first two pieces one evening, I left them in the studio - and when I returned the next morning, it was like walking into a honeypot! Yum! The beeswax (I get it from a friend who raises bees) leaves a nice texture too - one that you can make thick or thin to suit yourself.

Another cigar box purse

2006-05-23T18:18:00.000-04:00

This collaged cigar box purse really was right up my alley - besides being paper artsy, it is also of a historical nature. Did I mention my love for genealogy and history? But alas, it sold to a nice lady in Iowa in one of my recent eBay auctions....

Collaged Cigar Box Purses

2006-05-23T17:56:00.000-04:00

Yet another of my obsessions - one never knows how these will look when starting out....at the end of the journey through inks and paints and ephemera you (hopefully) end up with something fun and interesting. I love using the beautiful wooden cigar boxes to create a very chic purse! And they're selling fairly well on eBay too!

More Secret Gardens

2006-05-23T17:47:00.000-04:00

This black, silver, white and grey Secret Garden bracelet weighs a ton! I love how these bracelets showcase really special beads and you never know what you're going to find in there!

Beaded

2006-05-23T17:37:00.000-04:00

Secret Garden bracelet - it is so much fun to wear! See what I mean about being stuck in a rut color-wise? At least, this one is for sale (I won't mention that I have a similar one already!) by me on eBay. See link below if you're interested in seeing my auctions. http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZladibugged

More beaded pieces

2006-05-23T17:33:00.000-04:00

This is a spiral wrap (spring wire) bracelet I made and wear often. These are my favorite colors. I really am in a rut and must broaden my color palette....

2006-05-23T17:25:00.000-04:00

This is a watch band I made after seeing one a friend bought at an art fair. My first foray into bead embroidery.

Beading, beading and more beading....

2006-05-23T17:14:00.000-04:00

I've been in a beading frenzy lately....making pieces for fun, for family and a few to sell on eBay too...if you're interested in seeing my auctions my seller name is ladibugged....go figure! I really love doing bead embroidery and keep finding more things I can do with it, like this goddess pin.