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.

Aging Experiments

My old liver of sulphur (LOS) went into the trash ... for whatever reason it lots potency. The new LOS more than makes up for it LOL I cut more copper mesh and wanted to go for a mottled effect for more copper mesh pockets for my Melange book for MHBA.

I took this first photo horizontally, but decided I needed to turn it upright, as I got this neat ink-blot effect and it looks like a cross-section of an insect LOL

Doesn't that second one look like a big pair of creepy eyes?

The bottom piece was crumpled up and dipped, but I didn't get my crevices pinched close tightly enough and didn't get as many bright spots. I splattered on some blue patina.

Torching Copper

I was green with envy when I saw the cool torched copper Debbie from my local art group brought in. We are maing copper mesh pockets for Nina Bagley inspired book we are calling Melange Books Reconstructed. We are gutting some encyclopedias Debbie donated and making new pages out of an assortment of materials and adding all kinds of goodies.

My little torch attachment for my soldering gun wasn't cutting it, so I got a larger torch and this is what I got when I torched my copper. I'll be using some of this for a pocket for my book, but also want to try aging some as well.

Happy 4th!!

Here is a page in Vale's calendar journal for the 4th of July.

Subluxations

I had to find a new chioropractor this week and I had a 2-hour appointment that conisted of a consultation and a bunch of tests. My back is a lot worse off than I imagined and a lot of my health issues were explained, so this chiropractor was a good choice for me. His name is Dr. Cartwright, but there are two chiropractors in the office; they are brothers and I call them the Cartwright Brothers LOL

One of the docors wrote down a bunch of notes for me and drew some diagrams, so I made a copy and used on a journal page over top of some skeletal drawings I added to Vale's Leonardo calendar.

Bossy

This was another one of those pages that happened out of sheer desperation to get finished at 1am LOL I was just gluing down papers with no rhyme or reason with no idea of how to make them work. I couldn't think of what to put on there, so I opened a magazine and decided I would use the first image I opened the book to ... and there was Bossy! Of course now it occurs to me that maybe her name should be spelled with an "ie" ... but perhaps this spelling better suits her personality LOL

Blues Song

I saw this quote in the calendar somewhere and just had to use it. My idea didn't quite work on that page, so I tore down another page and did a double page spread. Thanks for the awesome image, Tracey!!

Van Gogh Revisited

I started this page weeks ago actually. I gessoed the calendar page and used Color Mists on them. I wasn't going for bright and funky, but didn't intend for it to be quite so dark either. It's going to take me some practice with these. I'm not real good at color mixing. Some combinations seem to work and some don't.

I thought the brush marks would look neat, but it seemed strange afterward. I was looking for some images and found an old Van Gogh calendar I had and that type of image seemed appropriate for the background.

I Am She

I am breaking with tradition and posting my Wednesday Stamper piece early instead of the last possible minute LOL It just happened that the piece I was working on had a hat ... and this is my favorite kind of hat!

765 Blue

Well ... I didn't quite the look I had first envisioned, but I think it's interesting. I used a portion of a map page for the background and applied crackle glaze over that and sealed. Then I did the peeling paint technique, but I applied vaseline over too much surface area and didn't get quite enough of the paint to stick.

Hatch

This is my entry for this week's Wednesday Stamper. Rather than go for a bird I decided to show a dinosaur egg.

Eye Orbit and Snappy Ed

Here are the last two pages from Kelly's class I completed. The idea behind the first one is that your eye is automatically drawn to the eye. I'm not entirely sure the other page is complete ... it doesn't feel completely done yet.

Egyptian Sun and Sunflower Musings

Here are a couple more pages from my Kelly Kilmer collage classes. We used wax pastels to blend in our backgrounds and get a neat variegated rainbow kinda look ... and boy do I love these wax pastels!

Wistful and Doughboy

These are my two favorite pages I did this weekend! I felt the map piece on my Wistful page needed a bit more of something, so it gave me an opportunity to use my new rubberstamps!

On the Charlie Chaplin page I wanted to try something with only black-and-white. Interesting patterns seemed to be the way to go here.

Vamp & the Gift

For this first one I started out with a fashion illustration. I thought she was a bit scary looking LOL And this type of image is very uncharacteristic of me. This was a fun technique though ... we learned how to change the clothes on illustrated people or photos!

Dames

Here are a couple more collage pages from Kelly's classes. One has a simplistic approach using only 3 papers and an image ... the other is more complex using several papers in the background, plus all different papers in a contrasting piece adhered over top plus an image.

Flying Aces and Cinderella

I had this huge post and tons of photos uploaded and everything went awry, so I'm trying to break it into smaller posts LOL

I had a weekend full of art and took several Kelly Kilmer classes. I had a great time ... lots of laughter LOL I always have fun at Kelly's classes, but I appreciated these classes even more. Kelly was focusing on collage composition. I've learned lot about collage by practice, but I've never really read any books on collage design nor had any classes.

She encouraged us to use whatever paper we grabbed and solve problems by finding a way to make the collage work. I've been doing collage work long enough now my hand automatically goes for combinations of papers that are complimentary or similar. It would have been interesting to see what we had come up with if we had our partner pick out our paper instead where we lose that control.

We played around with different ways of creating line, challenging designs, ways to connect unlike elements, etc. I came back with some very different looking work for me ... and I used some modern imagery ... something I've always strayed from. We had a blast cutting and pasting!

Sweet Revenge

For this page I was altering an existing photo in a calendar journal. I thought this baby was a bit on the obnoxious side and I couldn't stop thinking about how fun it would be to teach him or her a lesson LOL Not sure people can tell ... but this was my doodly-attempt at a venus flytrap.

Do Not Adjust Your Monitor ...

... she is supposed to be upside down LOL

This event didn't happen here, but I heard about it on the radio and I got a neat visual, so I decided to do a page on it.

These poor people were hanging upside down for the roller coaster for 30 minutes. Not many people know this, but my first job was working at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, MO. The first summer I was a groundskeeper sweeping up trash LOL I started out in the Scandinavia section and got to listen to polka music and smell funnel cakes all day LOL

They later moved me to the Orient section ... at least the music was better LOL The main attraction was the Orient Express roller coaster. I discovered people are fools when it comes to roller coasters. One day it broke down at the hightest point naturally and people had to climb down several stories. People waited over an hour in line on a rainy day to get back on a roller coaster that had just broke down LOL

Oh yeah ... and my uniform was a little pair of kelly green short overalls and a green plaid shirt. I had fun working there, but I do not miss those barfy uniforms ... it's hard to look cute wearing something like that LOL

Blossom Page

Originally I had hoped to get this done in time for Wednesday Stamper's flower prompt ... but I had things going on and missed it ... sigh ...

Mosty I just wanted to use this paper. I found a whole package of this stuff at the thrift store. I haven't use this since the 3rd grade ... I love it!

My Blog-Thing Personality Quiz Results

You Are An ISFJ

The Nurturer You have a strong need to belong, and you very loyal. A good listener, you excel at helping others in practical ways. In your spare time, you enjoy engaging your senses through art, cooking, and music. You find it easy to be devoted to one person, who you do special things for. In love, you express your emotions through actions. Taking care of someone is how you love them. And you do it well! At work, you do well in a structured environment. You complete tasks well and on time. You would make a good interior designer, chef, or child psychologist. How you see yourself: Competent, dependable, and detail oriented When other people don't get you, they see you as: Boring, dominant, and stuck in a rut

What's Your Personality Type?

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!

Memorial Day Brigade

I had originally intended this page for my copycat prompt on Inspire Me Thursday, but I was running behind in the execution. I used an old photo of my Dad. His feet seemed to be missing, so I drew him shoes ... and seems someone scribbled on the photo when they were five ... probably me LOL

Medieval Maiden

The background on this turned out a little different than I had anticiapated. I was finishing it up at 4am and grabbed the wrong crackle product and ended up dry brushing some paint over it instead of waiting for a 2nd crackle batch to dry.

Circus Juggler

I bought a cool vintage circus image CD from Divas D' Este a few weeks ago in preparation for Claudia Roulier's circus shrine class. I was too eager to wait for the shrine class, so I used one of my images in Andi's journal.

Blue Rhapsody

It seems blue was the color of choice for me this month in the calendar journals. I haven't used this much blue in a while LOL This may be my fall-back color when I am stressed or wanting to stay in my safe box.

I was running a bit short on time for this one too LOL I had already prepped the page with black gesso and collaged some scrap papers down, so I decided to see if I could recreate a similar look to the one I got on my Lizard Lair birdhouse. I added a little black spray webbing for drama, but decided to leave the more abstract look rather than figure out a focal image.

Leonardo the Inventor

Here's another altered picture from the Leonardo journal. This is a much cleaner and simple look for me ... who knew finishing up under the wire was all it took LOL

The page started out as sepia tones, but I used some fluid chalk inks to add hints of color and edge the page.

My Stab at Inchies

Blogger friend Michelle Remy had inspired me earlier this year with this inchie journal page and also with this one. I have a real tough time working in miniature, but she made it look so easy LOL

I finally gave it a try ... although I could not manage to get 5 across like Michelle did. Finding things small enough to go on these was a challenge!

Leonardo Revolt

Oh boy ... I had a real focus problem this week. I started several different journal pages in a calendar journal RR, but I had several to finish up at the last minute. I was trying to force myself into the vintage box, because this was a Leonardo da Vinci's Notebook calendar ... but my imagination was screaming no. Some pages eventually took a different turn.

This was my least favorite. The original picture seemd a little too light to support the peeling paint technique, as it wants to fade out. In retrospect, I should have altered the image colors a bit before sealing and going onto the painting.

Postcard Try #2

Wooo hooo! This postcard actually made it to the post office without getting lost LOL I used the same weathered metal technique.

Missing Postcard

Well pooh! I made this altered postcard for a swap and it came up missing in action before I made it to the post office LOL I used a weathered metal technique using metal foil tape and fluid chalk inks.