Jacqueline Sullivan Classes

I don't have computer access at home right now, so I haven't been able to post as soon as I would like. I had a wonderful time taking 2 classes with Jacqueline Sullivan. It was a lot of fun and I learned some new techniques. The green collage is pretty good size, but I was determined to alter these paper-mache half-hearts. I used family photos on that piece. Hope you like them!

Mad Alchemist Cabinet

I rarely ever post a picture of an unfinished piece LOL But I am breaking traditon ...

Michael de Meng brought replicas of the old fashioned printer trays with him for us to alter in this class. This is more of what I consider a collection-box type piece, which is outside my comfort zone. We did quite a bit of construction though ... more so than I have done on other pieces.

I'm a very outside-the-box type gal, so the thought of being restrained by boxes was very intimidating to start with. We did remove some sections to widen the areas though ... and I brought this huge and very ornate mirror to mount my piece on. This was one of those classic 70s ornamental mirrors ... heavy plastic ... and very brown and blase. I think I perked it up a bit though LOL

I took photos inside and could not get good light, so the top is very difficult to see. This is a collection of artifacts from Edgar Allan Poe's stories. There is an ornate P and E on the top, but it is shiny and doesn't show up in the photo due to the glare. I felt the clock in the middle could stand for the O. I have more pieces to add ... text ... some more blending and antiquing to do.

I think I will need a few more red items for the left, as it feels unbalanced to me right now and I think maybe a whitish piece toward the bottom to mirror the effect with the angel on top. It is still a work in progress.

Guess what? Mixed Media Monday has a prompt called Time -- and my piece has a clock in it --- wooo hooo!

Muerte de Medusa

Yeah!! Another project not destined for my UFO (UnFinished Object) pile LOL

I was a little nervous about the time on this. I signed up for Michael de Meng's Found Object Alchemy class. Half a day was spent hitting antique stores in search of objects to alter. I figured I'd be coming home with a half-finished projct ... but whew! I got about 95% done in class ... that' pretty good for me LOL

I had a bit of a headstart on mine. Part of my assemblage was fashioned from an old lamp I found in the rust pile at my Aunt's house posted a few weeks earlier. It was a major feat to get the roof and base removed, so it's good that I had this done ahead of time.

The base is made from an ornate metal jewelry box I gutted. I had it in my head to do something with a Greco-Roman feel, but it turned out quite differnt. Michael pointed out the colors has a Latin American feel and the vines and medallion on the front gave me a feeling of Medusa, so I am calling this Death of Medusa.

I'm also posting the back, which seemed to be Michael's favorite part LOL I just hate velvet. It was covered in black velvet and I knew I wouldn't have time to do anything elaborate to get rid of that look, so I just gessoed and painted it and I ended up with a faux rust look.

Iron Heart

This is a bit ironic LOL -- but the challenge on Inspire Me Thursday this week is to push your boundaries and what timing. I push the boundaries with a lot of my art, but some pieces are harder than others. 3-D work has been a challenge, but also the most rewarding for me.

I couldn't find my large paper mache heart and the thought of trying to form my own heart shape seemed daunting, but I tried an experiment. This is actually the central piece for a window screen assemblage I am outting together and I plan on entering it in a juried show -- another scary thought LOL

I cut out a heart shape from brown paper bag, stitched, and stuffed before treating with texture mediums and iron paint.

Dark Souls

I've been working on this project on and off for a while. I altered a box to store loose pages in for a round robin with a dark theme. It took me a while to pinpoint amore specific theme, but I came up with Dark Souls -- I am hoping to do something with Phantom of the Opera -- and maybe one more page about another dark soul -- but we'll see LOL

I loaded a picture of the top of the box, but there are a lot more views in my webshots album. I put quite a bit of time into mixed media techniques on this.

Broken

This is a challenge peice I did for the Artist's Nook in Fort Collins. The body form seemed alarmingly flimsy and I had some lite cracking before I even got started, so I reinforced the form with metal tape before painting and texturing.

I did not have a clear idea of what I was doing. I started with the metal tape and it just developed from there. It looks a bit like a swamp creature if you see it up close. The texture is rather crusty looking, which is not evident from the photos.

I used that medium that looks like cracked glass in my frames. I am loving this stuff!

My 15 Minutes ...

Well here's my Toot Toot! Who knows when I'll get another 15 minutes LOL

I submitted 3 assemblages for a juried at show at the Core New Art Space Gallery and they were all accepted! Ginger from my local book arts group also had 2 pieces accepted, so we are on cloud 9!

I wasn't sure what to expect. The people at the gallery were really nice. The lady checking my pieces in didn't seem that interested at first ... then she looked at them and had this look of surprise and awe on her face. I wasn't sure if that meant she wasn't really that knowledgable about art and didn't know any better LOL Or if she did know art and just thought my pieces were unique.

Not sure how I feel about the artist reception being on Friday the 13th LOL

Here are some thumbnails of the pieces accepted. The third piece you can view in an old blog post.

Circus Trials and Tribulations

Here are thumbnails of my circus shrine photos ... you can click on them to go to larger view.

I made this Saturday in Claudia Roulier's circus shrine class. Well I made most of it on Saturday ... because I can't do simple, I had to finish assembling some things at home.

I am not mechanically inclined ... putting the legs on took me half a day LOL The game box I used for the main shrine was very hard wood ... and it did not like nails nor screws LOL After the leg and copper tag fiasco I couldn' bear the thought of using yet another nail or screw, so I used a staple gun to attach the mica ... and that worked like a dream ... now if I could inly figure out how to staple on legs LOL

The topper was like a shrine in itself ... although much simpler construction wise. I recently saw an article by Lou McCulloch in Kaleidoscope that became my inspiration for my shrine topper.

We had a blast in this class ... and Claudia is a fabulous teacher, so go sign up for a class with Claudia if you ever get the chance!

Lizard Lair

I took a birdhouse assemblage class from Leighanna Light this weekend. What fun class ... and Leighanna is really fun and inspiring, so do take a class with her if you get a chance!

I started out with a solid black birdhouse and collaged papers in random areas and rubbed on some opaque sea green paint and got a whole different look.

I must have had the circle prompt from Inspire Me Thursday in the back of mind, because I ended up using several circular elements in my assemblage.

Secrets

I've been working on this piece for a while. I decided this would be a good piece for the secrets prompt on Inspire Me Thursday.

This really is about secrets ... about that secret hiding place in my heart for people who are special to me ... a way to lock those special memories and feelings away in order to let go a little.

This will be a sister heart shrine to the Spiritus Vocus shrine I did last year. I started out with a paper mache hert again, but cut a door in it, covered with paper casting spirals, and added some assemblage type stuff inside the heart.

Beauty Assemblage Screen

Here is an assemblage screen I made for a charity auction a few weeks go. The photo isn't the best, but the others were unusable ... eeekkk! The base piece is made from a vintage book cover from my dear friend Angie!!