Work on Display @ Discovery Cafe

Works on display at Discovery Cafe, 6 Discovery Street, Victoria (how's that for a cool address!)

They will be up for another week or so. The staff were so friendly and helpful and did all the climbing on ladders, thankfully sparing me, thanks Kathleen!

Clockwise from top left: Hundertwasser Light, Purple Millenium, and Ballerina, my newest piece. The bottom is intentionally not parallel with the top, this is not just the angle of the photo.

Marbling - quick and dirty

This is a piece of silk I marbled in a Color Hues session at Satin Moon. Color Hues is a new dye product developed by a Seattle woman. It dyes protein based fabrics, i.e. silk and wool but not cotton (although my dyeing t-shirt kept some splashes!) It is very easy to use and the fabric seems to suck the colour out of the water, unlike Procion dyes where you can rinse and rinse and see wonderful bright colour running down the drain. Also no need to heat set and no powdery chemicals so safer to use in a home setting.

Does blogging about being productive count as BEING productive? If so I could add a half hour onto my time for today.

1. Day one: 4 hours 15 minutes
2. Day two: (today) 5 hours 40 minutes

And spent more time painting color swatches for my next piece - yesterday I used EZ-TintZ and watercolor crayon pencils to get close to what I thought I wanted to do, and today I took that swatch to Michael's to buy acrylics in the colors I picked. Still need to get freezer paper and get a template enlarged -- the printer here won't take a big enough piece of paper so I'll have to go to Staples I guess.

Resolution / Time Management

Taking stock of last year, which in some ways seems like an amnesiac blur, I decided that my slogan/watchword for 2009 is to be

The Time Is Now!!!

and I had what seems like a flash of inspiration, to define productivity as work/art and aim at 8 productive hours per day. Deadlines will doubtless continue to define which takes precedence at any given moment, as well as that annoying need to eat and finance my art habit, but hopefully this will take away the guilt about doing art and help me define it to myself as a serious pursuit.

The photo shows fabric discharged with a powerful fresh bleach pen, from the workshop.

Dyeing Workshop

No longer having a place at home where I can be messy (and I am!) I took a workshop at Satin Moon with Susan Purney Marks where we had days to dye fabrics and permission to be experimental.

Resolution even though it's not New Year

woah Nelly!

I can't believe it's been so long since I blogged, and a lot has happened personally and artistically.

Now I've relocated I need to post more pix of my work.

My resolutions ought to give me pause too, because needless to say I didn't keep up with them ... just showing up and doing SOMETHING is so important and I need to stay focused and not be sidetracked and constrained by circumstances or things will never get done.

Inspired by Hundertwasser

This is stiffened fabric that was used as a stencil for monoprinting with Lumiere paints. Behind the cut outs is a small fabric collage with Lumiere paint brayered onto commercial fabric with a sheer fabric appliqueed on with metallic thread. To the right is the same sheer fabric with journaling text on it in Fabrico marker, with no backing fabric.

The irregular rows of squares and funky colors makes me think of Hundertwasser. Here is an image of the Hundertwasser House in Vienna.

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hundertwasser/hundertwasser_house.jpg.html




This is a scanned close up view which better shows that there is text on the sheer fabric behind the window.

The journaling is the transformative aspect of this piece. I still need to trim around the edges and somehow make them more finished.

Everything in the Garden

A wall hanging work in progress using fusible web (YAY for Steam-A-Seam 2!), assorted commercial fabrics, and Fabrico marker for the faces on the masks.

When in Thailand in Chiang Mai, I ventured out alone to the market area where the fabric shops are and that's where I found the hibiscus print. The blue body is a lightning design -- it works even better than I thought it would. The blue head is from a tiny scrap of commercial fabric. The rest of it doesn't look like faces, just abstract marks, but every time I looked at the bit I used here, I could only see a face.

One figure is frozen, static, unchanging, the other is alive and amazing transformations are taking place within her. Yet both hold the same mask ready to use.

Force Field

Force Field is my second contribution to the challenge. It's fused applique, regular applique, and acrylic paint on fusible web.

The symbolism is an exploration in progress -- EIP

Doesn't that sound better than work in Progress!

The wedjet eye is a symbol that has been with me for years. Before we moved across the continent from central Canada to the SW US I had an image of a wedjet carved into a wooden picnic table that came to me while I was having acupuncture treatment.

The dots and bright colors remind me of Mexican folk art. I usually stay away from natural/neutral tones but this batik is so beautiful that I bought a pack of fat quarters last time I was at JoAnne's.

Up to now I have not used human figures much in my art -- I sense this may change. The force field around the main figure resembles a Picasso-style head in profile, this was unintended but I could see it even before I fused the paint onto the fabric.

One down, 99 to go!

My first mixed media piece for the challenge. It's a door hanger, one side says

DISCOVER POSITIVE ENERGY

and the reverse says

RECHARGE YOUR BATTERIES

RELAX!

I hope to set a positive tone for this challenge and use the appropriate side of the hanger as needed.

Wooden door hanger, acrylic paints, commercial stickers and tag, oil pastels.

Did not buy anything for this one (the hanger has been hanging around for about 3 years!) and it's Wednesday today, not that that matters, but now I have until Sunday to create my next piece.

The 100 Challenge

I'm an avid reader of Astarte Mega-Zine and also one who loves a challenge.

See www.myartself.com or read Stacey's 100 Art Dolls Challenge article in the Feb issue (#5) of Astarte, which is published online.

Taking the important aspects, I'm challenging myself to create 100 mixed media pieces, giving myself the time frame of 1 year + 1 month + 1 day.

That's 366+30+1 = 397 days, or 1 piece every 4 days. I need to pick two days in the week that are the "check" days, to either have created a piece by or get on with it and create something. Sunday is a good day and perhaps I should make Wednesday the other one. Hmm, tomorrow is Wednesday.

The important thing too is to reflect on the healing and transformative aspects of the art, not to fling into production mode.

I'm starting to know what art feels like when it truly comes from within as opposed to being a technique, a doodle, a whim, a clever concept.

OTOH I need to let go of my perfectionism or the time will go by with very little started and even less "finished."

Countdown! Is there a counter I can put on here to count down to March 6, 2009? And hopefully to note how many pieces there are to go.

Like Stacey and Arrigo, I'm all in favor of using the stash and recycled materials WHERE POSSIBLE. i.e. I'm not going to turn that into a fetish, but I have plenty of materials of all kinds. Although I will probably end up buying Tyvek at some point. Perhaps that will be my birthday present to myself, or to celebrate some other occasion.

Visual Journaling in Movie

I'm one of those frugal people who waits for movies to come out on video, and in pre-Netflix days I would even wait for them to go off the new releases list so they would be even less expensive.

So it was that I watched The Manchurian Candidate the other night. I'm talking about the 2004 version, not the 1963(?) original with Lawrence Harvey and Angela Lansbury. Two things struck me:

one - it avoids the "obvious" enemy and still seems plausible
two - the visual journaling shown where one of the characters is trying to come to terms with being brainwashed

There! I've said what I wanted to say without giving away any surprises.

Am I the only one to notice?

Okay, so how do you use the scissors if you don't already have scissors to cut the plastic loop that's holding them all together?

typoGenerator

This is the program that generates "posters" by taking your text, matching it to images found through Google Images, and randomly generating typography and colors and background.



typoGenerator

This should take you to the program and to the piece I just created, "whatever it takes" which is a hopefully inspirational phrase I put into a paper poster this morning which is taped to my wall. But it needs work, as in art or color, to be finished.

The real me???

You Are An INFP

The Idealist You are creative with a great imagination, living in your own inner world.Open minded and accepting, you strive for harmony in your important relationships.It takes a long time for people to get to know you. You are hesitant to let people get close.But once you care for someone, you do everything you can to help them grow and develop. In love, you tend to have high (and often unrealistic) standards.You are very sensitive. You tend to have intense feelings. At work, you need to do something that expresses your personal values.You would make an excellent writer, psychologist, or artist. How you see yourself: Unselfish, empathetic, and spiritual When other people don't get you, they see you as: Unrealistic, naive, and weak

What's" Your Personality Type?

1 + 1 + 1

Read about Kal Barteski's 1 + 1 + 1 challenge in her own words here:


http://lovelife.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/one_and_one_and.html

I have actually got on and done this. Of course, looking back at her blog I started second guessing myself -- I'm actually quite pleased with the art part, but I don't think I've done a terribly good job of visualizing my future. But then OTOH I realized today that if I keep revising and revisiting a year, a month, and a day could go by and I'd still be tinkering!

So my letter is sealed up inside the artwork. It's wearable art, which means it's NOT wearable, or at least not washable until July 3, 2008, because of the letter. And it's almost like one of my morning pages, I started jotting thoughts yesterday, was interrupted, and from yesterday to today various things happened which could possibly affect my future. Life as a recycled teenager can be exhausting!

Weird, funny

This is a page from my gluebook, done yesterday! The map is a genuine result from Yahoo maps which I think was trying to tell me something about venturing into the wilds of north Scottsdale. It comes complete with the little caveat about doing a reality check and making sure the road is still there. I knew it was a good idea to save that page -- certainly a better idea than using it to navigate.

Maps fascinate me and I'm working on a larger mixed media spread with maps which will have to be photographed since it's too big for the scanner.

Today I worked on the 1+1+1 challenge. That needs a few finishing touches and to be photographed also.

Open virtues -- not always easy!

I've been using the Virtues project cards to pick a virtue for each day and week. Out of 100 virtues, the 11 in the lower drawing appealed to me as being open and expansive -- others are self-discipline, perseverance, orderliness, which are more of a struggle for me. But even the "open" or right-brain virtues don't equate to a free pass to goof off. I found it remarkably hard, even depressing, the first time I pulled the joyfulness card. I felt guilty that I'm not more appreciative of the truly great things I have in my life, and guilty that I'm not more on top of things so that I could afford to relax and be joyful.

This may all sound very New Age-ish, but really it isn't. The author of A Pace of Grace, who started the Virtues Project with her husband and brother, takes care to relate her thinking to various faith traditions. I pick a virtue each day for that day, and it is remarkable how they relate to what is going on in my life. And they are all virtues, so practising any one of them couldn't be harmful.

Distrust Straight Borders!

This is an imaginary colonized continent whose rulers have been busy ruling by drawing straight lines with no understanding of what is on the ground, where the rivers run, which groups live where, whether travel is possible. Maps with too many straight lines should not be trusted; those who ruled the lines are imposing themselves on the land.

At long last, a Chameleon appears!

The chameleon is one of my personal symbols because the chameleon can fit in anywhere. Okay, I realize the reality is not as dramatic as the art, but that's artistic license, folks!

Fitting in anywhere has been one of the guiding principles of my life and it's a family trait that goes back over at least 4 generations -- in the branch of the family that has one ancestress from Greenland who married an English whaler and moved to the east coast of England -- so perhaps that trait even goes back hundreds of years.

Pet Food Paranoia

Our cats (Cookie above and Chloe, left) are doing so well that the vet asked what we feed them -- the friend who could no longer keep Chloe turned us on to Eagle Pack and they started on the kitten food and moved up to the adult cat formula, supplemented with Feline Greenies and occasional treats like chicken, crab, or tuna (never a whole meal though!)

These cats are healthy and also well behaved, unlike other cats in my past who would push wrapped food off the table to check out if it might just be cat food, even if it was chocolate cake! I think it's because they are not missing any trace elements.

As the current news story grew in the media and more and more companies were recalling their products, I checked out both Eagle Pack http://www.eaglepack.com/ and www.FelineGreenies.com, neither of them have been recalled.

My firstborn, ever the marketer, is going "Where's their press releases? Why aren't they getting the good news out?"

The man at Tempe Feed & Tack said none of the products they carry have been recalled, which is pretty impressive.

This reminded me of the two months I spent in England in 2005. No, I wasn't eating cat food! But there was a scare re Sudan One red dye in chili powder that had been imported and sold to food processors, where it proceeded to turn up in Worcester sauce, baked beans, frozen shepher's pie, and hundreds of other goodies, you name it! I mean, how many times do we see "spices and flavorings" at the tail end of the ingredient list.

We just found out that Fritos and Doritos contain pork enzymes in the cheese flavored products. I have a nasty suspicion that other brands would too but we just KNOW about Fritos and we don't know about the others.

Then there's the cheery message on the Japanese pickled ginger we were inhaling with the sushi an enterprising family member made by hand:

"Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharine which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals."

And saccharine is the second ingredient, after ginger and before water!

Well, at least the cats stuck with the crab. Wonder how hard it would be to pickle our own ginger?