Lost Aussie on the loose

A Little Bead Magic

I picked up Ruth Rae's new book - Layered, tattered and stitched the other day.  A lovely little tome, particularly if you are a fabric junkie of any kind (which I am!)

Her book inspired me to make a start on some of my handmade holiday gifts - so the other day I got down to dyeing, painting and stamping some plain muslin, which I then cut into star shapes.  From there my adherence to the book's principles took a rapid left turn as I decided to machine felt and quilt some backgrounds for the stars, which I wanted to make into mini hanging Holiday Cards.

Not quite the ephemeral and whimsical pastel treasures that Ruth features in her book - but hey....I did use Beads!  Oh yeah, lots and lots of beads!

While Blog Surfing

I found this while Blog surfing this afternoon and thought it was worth sharing!

.......When a book comes to life.....this is fabulous!

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing all my American friends, both near and far, a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday!!

What No Glue?

DH is down in Australia right now, gone to visit with the Boys and sort them out for the end of the school year.  While I was waiting for him to check in on Skype I spent a little time doodling in Photoshop - have to say there is way less MESS with digital collage and for me the enjoyment factor is actually greater!  Go figure!

Paint or Pixels

A while ago I signed up to do a painting workshop with my friend Misty Mawn. Now if you know me well, then you know that painting is really 'not' my thing, but having been in a bit of an art funk of late - a little painting seemed like a good idea.  So far I have just watched the videos and slurped up all of the goodwill that abounds on her class blog, facebook and flickr.

Tonight however I decided to put into practice some of Misty's good instructions and had a play with my paints (kind of grungy and dried up as they were!), collaged a little, made marks and generally had a bit of fun!

By contrast, last night I collaged and painted backgrounds for a digital project that I have been working on. These days I am not content with just 'printing' my digital creations on plain paper but like to add dimension, colour and depth by creating custom substrates -  makes each image unique and interesting and gives the whole piece a much more "mixed media' feel!
I think I know where my forte lies, but there's no harm in playing....right?

Chelsea Wanderings

DH and I decided to make the most of the sunshine and balmy day and headed into the City to do a little "gallery" crawling.

On the way to what was supposed to be our destination (W 26th and 10th Ave) we happened upon an interesting little sign on the sidewalk on 27th St, advertising a gallery show.  The board outside was a good teaser and we were not disappointed - in fact seems that we decided in a rapid concert that we 'needed' a piece of the ARtist's work in lieu of hunting for a Christmas present for each other.
I can't tell you if it was the tantalising smell of Beeswax that convinced me, or the quaint and quirky subject matter - who knows - but I'd highly recommend catching Jenny's show if you have a moment!
Jenny Keith-Hughes, the Prince George Gallery at  15 E. 27th Street
And "An Epic of Missing" 36x36" will be coming home with us in December when the show closes!

After our enjoyment of Jenny's work the rest of the day seemed to be a mixed bag.  We traipsed through most of the the galleries in the Wolf building on 26th - saw minimalistic collage and basic printmaking; some very intriguing TINY journals filled with exquisite watercolor paintings by Charles Ritchie; odd and depressing black and white photographs, blown up to almost billboard proportions - which made them REALLY depressing; lovely glass sculptures that only made sense if you were willing to pay more for the sculpture that you did for your house; some extremely BEASTLY scultpure/installation work by Claire Oliver -UGH! (adult content in the link btw); and some extremely clever and complicated work by Robert Williams - his sense of humour and use of satire was very well done.

All in all, a pleasant and enlightening day.....topped off with the obligatory stop at Dick Blick and then dinner at our fave Aussie Pub!

If you want more links and info about what we saw you can find it over on DH's blog - he's better with the details than I am :-))

Custom Love

I have had a lightbulb moment over the last few days - for better or for worse, realising that I am a "purpose driven" artist and not one the creates ART 'for art's sake'!

If I have a goal in mind, an exhibition theme or a wish to create a 'certain something' then I find it can be done.

This week I wanted to sew, so I did, I had an exhibition deadline, so I created a piece of artwork to conform to the requirements, Christmas cards to design - which are done and off to the printer...and my friend Carla wanted a wonderful and unusual door wreath for her Holiday Home - so I made one.

I don't know if this is a good way to operate as an Artist?  I do know that I struggle with creating canvas after picture after journal/blog/encaustic/book/painting blah blah blah only to have a pile of nonsense rest in my basement and get dusty over time.

At least in the case of the Fabulous Door Wreath (no the picture does not quite do it justice) it will go to a good home, be appreciated and some small snippet of me will live with the recipient long after the gesture has been made.

I guess at the end of the day, the context/content does not really matter - so long as the fulfillment is there.

Happy Holidays Carla, My Friend....... Love YOU!

Stroked Borders - Photoshop Tutorial

My friend Christine in Germany wrote to me and asked me to explain how to do the thin stroked borders that I put on some of my Blog pictures ....so you can either click on the picture or follow the LINK - to watch another Photoshop Tutorial!

Enjoy!

Sew Colourful

With all the rain we had last week the basement seemed like a warm and cozy place to hide.  My fabric stash beckoned and I got to work whipping up a few of these cute little totes.  The bright and lovely colours were fun to work with given the gray skies we were having!

Available for sale in my ETSY Store!

How Do I Count Thee?

It's been an odd kind of day.....I persuaded DH to help me clean out the garage today in preparation for Winter....you know, clean out the dust bunnies, reorganise stuff and exchange the lawnmower for the snowblower...that kind of thing.  90% done and Hubby says - "Where are my golf clubs"?...........Hmmmm says I, no idea, but if they are not in the garage then they must be in the house!  Large amounts of scrupulous searching ensues.......and sure enuff, golf clubs are no-where to be found - not behind doors, not in the basement, not decorating the desk in his study.........

Best guess is that one of our recent tradesmen, meter readers or some other "person" of interest has 'lifted" them from the garage.  How sad!  They are definitely gone, gone gone.

Irons aside, there are two important gifts amongst the Clubs.  Both from my husband's time at DuPont and both with significant memories attached.

All I hope is that whoever has them REALLY enjoys them - or got enough money for them to pay for something special and important.

Tomorrow we will be checking out the local pawn shops to see if they turn up there.  Really horrid to think that people will steal from you while your personal spaces are open and available for work.

Beware the 'folk' you let roam around your home is all I can say!

As an aside, the above piece is created from some new found ephemera and various overlays and textures that will soon be available as part of a tutorial that I am getting ready.
I've also had requests for some simple but easily done Photoshop videos and hope to get them posted in the next day or so.
Lots of the tips and treats for creating the digital images like these will be covered in my Art and Soul workshop next year - Lovely Layers and Magical Masks and my workshop Surface Magic has ONLY TWO spaces left...so don't miss out!