Unmasking ME!!

Wow -- It feels like forever since I have psoted! I've had a mountain of homework, but also got caught up in the whole self-portrait thing going around LOL I'm not one to stick with just a drawing, so mine is incorporated into my journal page. I drew my image by looking in the mirror without looking at the paper -- mostly without looking at the paper LOL I was supposed to do without lifting the pencil, but I did cheat a but and lift the pencil.

My brother didn't care for the fact that I did'nt finish the eyes, but it seemed importatnt to keep them hollow and let the background show through. I couldn't figure it out until I sectioned off my page and started journaling, but it seems to represent a mask.

I am going to call this my face book LOL Every page will have a large face -- or maybe a collection of faces -- not sure there yet. Last year I saw this supersize wooden photo album at the thrift store that looked like it was straight out of the 70s; I couldn't pass it up. I want to get a few pages done before I figure out what I want to do to the cover. This had those magnetic film pages with cardbaord inserts. I peeled all the film off and am using the cardboard pages as my bases. They are large -- almost 12X14". I meant for my faces to cover the whole page almost, but so far they are ending up a bit smaller than I anticipated -- so I improvised with all the writing. This is new for me too. Almnsot almy journaling has been in one font mor or less -- so I tried mixing up some styles here.

This is also inspired by the "Taking Flight" book. I am so loving the whole patchwork paper background thing -- although I ended up covering a lot of it up here ...

Collage Art

Wow ... I can't tell you when the last time was that I did a real collage on canvas LOL This was a stressful holiday, as my Dad was suddenly diagnosed with a terminal illness and not expected to make it much longer. My sister is doing in-home hospice care for him and he made it out on Christmas Eve to be with his family, but is basically an invalid for the remainder of his days.

We were all fried between his hospital stay, last-minute preparations to bring him home, and all the normal holiday rush ... so we had a couple art nights to de-stress ... and this was the third of my pieces. The first one was a painting of my parents for my Dad's xmas gift, but no one had a camera to take a photo ... so I don't have a photo of that one right now.

The background was done with scrapbook papers and paint ... Kelly Rae Roberts style. The painted face was inspired by DJ Pettitt, but I did a little different painting technique and I really like the look ... so I hope you guys do too :)

This seems to fit in with several prompts, so I am posting it on Arty Girlz, Mixed Media Monday, and Wednesday Stamper.

The photo is not particularly good, so I also scanned as much as I could squeeze on my scanner bed for a better shot of the face I painted.

Discontent at the North Pole

Well this is a little dysfunctional LOL This was inspired by one of the collage sheets from Collage Play with Crowabout. This man immediately reminded me of misfit elf Hermey from the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer special I used to watchwithout fail every year. I wonder if Hermey/Herbie ever found happiness LOL

I'm cheating by amending this, so I can include Wednesday Stamper LOL This week's theme is shoes. This is a bit of a stretch, but I do have a line of text about Prancer's shoes in this LOL

Also ... a bit of trivia about this piece. I started to write somnething about mrs C buying shoes for Blitzen and Prancer ... but then I started thinking about Mr Claus golfing while she was working and before you know it, I wrote that she had got blitzed instead LOL This is also another entry in my funky junk mail journal -- love that book!

Christmas Doodle Page

I was determined to get these doodle apges finishe I've been working on for while. I was really tired when I drew the first elf and I realized he was upside down the next morning LOL -- so he is now dangling from the top tangled in some Xmas lites LOL

I used souffle pens and a black gelly roll pen to do my doodling.

What I'm Working On

Geez ... I can't believe I haven't been back to my blog in a month LOL

1. An assemblage collage I hoped to submit to Somerset -- did not get finished LOL -- will repurpose that into something a little different now I think. I got hung up, because I envisoned crackle paste and could find not find crackle paste to save my life ... sigh ... I also couldn't find a box big enough to hold the dimension, so I kind of gave up on the idea -- so off to my UFO (UnFinished Object) pile it goes!
2. Went through a gazillion ideas for the cover of a metal book I am hosting with the Altered Guild group -- most of which weren't working for me. I finally went back to a revised Plan A. I heated and sooted copper peices, stamped into it, and applied a gazillion layers of sealer to protect the soot, and then embossed the images. I have to get the inside part done, so I weight it down ... and then add my embossed stuff --- but I am determined to get this step on the first cover done this week, so I can submit for Wednesday Stamper since they are doing a metal prompt.
3. I have various journal pages for Soul Journal and Collage Play started --- no progress there LOL
4. I've done a little collaging on mail art envies
5. I've done homework out the wazoo for college -- and am really struggling to keep up, but I am getting near the end of this term. I had big plans to get art things wrapped up over my long Thanksgiving weekend -- and I ended up doing homework almsot the whole weekend :(
6. I decided to call my Lynne Perella collage from August fit into -- because I can't find the rest of the journaling I was going to write on there LOL I took pics and they were terrible, so I will have to try and photograph again. I had sunglare last time. It's cloudy, so maybe now is the time.
7. And --- this weekend, I've been trying to get well. I caught some kind of viral infection and sleeping 14 hours a day is pretty much what I've been doing. I feel a little better today, so now I have to cram for my homework LOL

Still Kickin'

Not sure how long since I posted ... but a while I am guessing LOL This has been a tough semester at school -- perhaps I should have stuck with a part-time schedule ... but I really like my classmates and I'm trying to keep up with them so we can keep taking classes together.

One of my classes net term is a hybrid, which means one day in class and the rest is online work. Sometimes the hybrid end up being more work in the end ... but I sure hope this one doesn't LOL I miss my art time :(

This coming week is our mid-terms and I am hoping it will get a bit easier. My body is soooo fatigued :(

Halloween Doodle

This is a doodle page I did in response to a Soul Journaling prompt. I didn't set out with the intention of doing a Halloween page, but I couldn't shake the Halloween feeling with my orange background LOL I wish I could take credit for thinking up the skinny man ... but I used an image from Dover clip-art for my inspiration. My section dividers are pieces of embossed wallpaper.

The nervous prompt on Inspire Me Thursday seemed appropriate for Halloween too, so I also worked that in. This wasn't the most soulful journaling, but it was way fun ... and I needed easy after the crazy schedule I signed up for at school LOL

Junk Mail Journal

I altered a little 3-ring binder to store my junk mail journal pages. I had lots of leftover images from previous collage sheets from the Collage Play with Crowabout group, so I used those on my cover.

This is also an anything-goes entry for the Rainbow Lady's Challenge.

Sublime Junk Mail

Ha ha! I started a new journal using junk mail. I never knew what fun backgrounds they could make. I got tired of the inundation of Obama and McCain flyers and postcards in my mailbox ... so I made some into art LOL This one had some nice big words, so I sanded to distress and added a gesso wash before adding some color.

This is my entry for the week for Collage Play with Crowabout. There were some fun images to play with and I got to use one of my new Marie Antoinette stamps from CatherineMoore ... although Marie lost her head :)

This is also a color combo using brown, so it works for my Wednesday Stamper entry too. I'm a little fuzzy on what colors I combined ... Deep Turqouise and Vandyke Red Hue I think. The Vandyle red is my favorite color right now; it has a brownish tinge.

Lost And Found

This is my page for the Lost and Found Soul Journaling prompt. It is well disguised, but I used part of a drink coaster from a restaurant ... I used snippets from advertisements ... the thing at the bottom with the holes is a wrist band from an event of some kind (rubberstamping convention most likely LOL) ... acorn caps ... lots of random postage stamps ... pieces of embossed wallaper ... some kind of white paper mesh used for packing paper ... a label off of a bolt (found object LOL) ... and a few pieces of negative film strip.

My page looks pretty busy LOL But it is radically different from my others and I like that. I have not yet uncovered the true meaning of my page, but perhaps that will come in time.

Growth

Here is another page in my Heart Speak journal. I felt truly compelled to do this page ... in honor of my friends for encouraging me to do something I was terrified to do :)

Happiness

This page is pretty different for me -- not my usual style

And boy was it hard to photograph LOL

I don't what kind of dog this -- looks a bit like a Weimeraner -- that was the next dog I wanted ...

Secret Yearning

I designed this page for the weekly challenge on the Collage Play with Crowabout group, but since it goes in my heart journal ... I decided to cheat and also use it as a prompt for The Altered Heart -- if there are any readers left over there. Vale and I haven't posted any prompts for quite a while, so hopefully someone will wander over there LOL

Lady Liberty

This is my first journal page in response to Nancy Baumiller's Collage Play with Crowabout. I feel like I have so many journals started now -- and everyone a different style LOL I decided to do this page in my Heart Speak journal. I cut the binder down to an unsual shape (just seemed like the thing to do LOL) and my requirement for this journal is the pages must all be personal to me and they all must have a heart on them.

I had a tough time figuring out what to do, but it seemed to me that she resembled the Statue of Liberty a bit and I was able to draw a parallel with something currently happening.

I seldom use magazine images, so these should be interesting challenges!

Ravaged Heart

I'm a little late, but this is what I did in response to Sarah Whitmire's taped page soul journaling prompt. I'd like to try it again with the tape laid out in more of grid. It was a neat background for sure, but it didn't feel done until I put some writing and images on top ... so I did one of my hearts. This heart felt a little naked; I'm used to gunking a lot more mediums on top. I found a good use for some of my rusty nail collection though!

This is also my entry for Inspire Me Thursday. I didn't really plan it this way, but it includes lots of opposites ... dark and light ... hard and soft ... vulnerable and tough.

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.

Under the Sea

This swap was announced right before my first term at college ended. I figured I could get the bulk of my pages done on my 2-week break if I recycled some previous drawings I did for DJ's class. The longest part was getting my backgrounds done. I collaged various papers onto cardstock and painted in purple and turquoise tones.

Everything beyond the background was stitched on. It felt so good to put the glue away LOL I hope everyone in this book likes them. These are possibly my favorite chunky pages I've done so far -- and I think the pages have such a cool texture between the papers, molding paste, and tulle!

Wild Kingdom

My road trip to Kansas was quite the adventure! I live in the big city and I am quite used to pigeons and what-not, but I have missed all the wild life small-town and rural life offers. I must say my preference is not to meet up with wildlife along the road where they can dart out however.

Here is a little inventory in all the animals I encountered on my trip:

5 Deer (I met up with 3 contemplating suicide on my midnight drive home -- eeek!)
2 Wild Turkeys (admittedly one got smooshed trying to cross the road -- but not by me LOL -- and no I wasn’t drinking!)
2 Rabbits (them babies run across the highway in no time flat!)
6 Buzzards (these guys were circling my Aunt’s property looking for dead animals presumably -- quite intimidating when you see that many together)
1 Owl in flight
3 Hawks (this was shocking -- I usually see more lie a dozen on my trip)
2 Rooster Pheasants
2 Field Mice (crossing the highway -- wonder which animals were chasing them LOL)
2 Bob Cats (This gave me the creeps! There were 3 dead animals that got smooshed in the highway … then a Bob Cat with glittering eyes laying in wait on the left side of the highway … and a second Bob Cat laying in wait on the right side of the highway less than 1000 feet down. I assume they were trying to tag team it and catch some innocent animal trying to cross there since this was a popular crossing zone. What menacing characters!)
2 Foxes
1 Coyote
1 Raccoon
2 Prairie Dogs
3 Blue Jays
1 Domestic Goat (he was wandering around a country road)

Basically, I saw everything except a partridge in a pear tree LOL

July 4 Art

We'll call this my art for July 4th LOL

Scavenging for Assemblage Stuff

Yippeeee! This was good timing. I am visiting my cousins and Aunt in Kansas. My Uncle was an avid collector of forgotten timeless treasures, junk, and you name it. My Uncle passed away a few years ago and my Aunt and cousin were cleaning up some things lying around. There was a huge pile of rusty stuff outside and they let me scavenge for what I wanted before everything else gets melted down.

I have cool ideas for shrines and assemblage just rolling around in my head now :)