Creative Exchange

A girlfriend of mine from grad school who now works in Ohio has been into knitting. I knew she did this in grad school during classes as she has ADD and it helps her to focus, but over the years she's gotten insanely talented at knitting. I've seen her work on Facebook and one day saw that she had made a knitted tablet case. I thought this was pretty cool and sense my tablet case just recently broke I suggested we do an art exchange.  She liked my paintings and so we exchanged a painting for a knitted tablet case.  This was a very fun exchange utilizing our creative selves.

I'm in the Mood to Paint!

Throughout the month of December and into the New Year I finally had time to paint!  I'd purchased some canvases a while back and had some ideas of what I wanted to paint but finding the time was key.


First, I started with a little birdie collection of 4 small 5x7 pieces.  Materials used was acrylic paint, charcoal pencil, stamps, and canvas.  One painting also had joint compound involved so that I could play around with some more texture.  I posted on Facebook and I had two people that wanted one each. So I'm down to two and have no idea what I will do with them. I actually really enjoyed working small and would love to create a little birdie series. No idea what I would do with them though.

Then I started on a larger long canvas. I got this idea from a couple of hotel paintings I saw in my room when I went did the Kiawah 1/2 marathon.  This was all acrylic no other mixed media involved.  Each circle involved a lot of layering so it took longer than expected to complete the piece.  I also forgot how tedious creating branches can be.  I posted this on Facebook and immediately had a friend went it. I hadn't even completed the matching piece yet.  So, I went on spent another 3 days completing a similar but not exact matching piece with the intent that they be hung side by side.  Once my friend sends me a pic of them side by side I'll add it to this post.  They look a little different below only because one was a horrible picture I took at night (I should have known better) and the other was taken in my fluorescent light office.  They are actually the same colors and same design.

Mixed Media The Journey of the Bike

I was commissioned by a friend in my book club to create a large piece of art to replace an outdated photo in one of her rooms.  I was inspired by an image she posted on Facebook of a new yellow bike she purchased.  When talking with her she shared that she wasn't sure about getting a banana colored bike at her age but she felt the yearning to as she had one when she was a little girl.


Using that yellow bike as inspiration and a favorite quote of hers I created the painting below.  It took about 4.5-5 hours to complete and I did it in pretty much one sitting.  Well, I can't say I sat as the canvas was so large I had to stand the entire time and move around the canvas when painting it.  I've been finding it thrilling to add texture to my pieces and so I used joint compound on the lower half of the painting and worked my way up to a smooth piece of canvas as the colors reached the top.  Other materials used were stencils and a black charcoal pencil beyond acrylic paints.  I was very pleased with the results and posted it on Facebook for feedback which ended up being very positive.  Most importantly my friend loved the piece!

The Sketchbook Project

In my search for more global art exchange projects I came across the Sketchbook Project based out of Brooklyn. Love love love the concept of this project and what's even cooler is that they have quite a few other global art exchange initiatives.

Here's a link to the main site: http://www.sketchbookproject.com/sketchbookproject. And here's a short description of the project taken from the site.
"The Sketchbook Project is a global, crowd-sourced art project and interactive, traveling exhibition of handmade books. Our mission is to allow anyone to be able to participate in art and to create a collection of work that represents the current state of artists worldwide."

There is a main library of over 26,000 sketchbooks in Brooklyn. Would love to actually go to the library someday. An online library of sketchbooks and there is a traveling exhibit around the US.  I would love to have this project exhibited in Rochester! hint hint!

I waited impatiently for my sketchbook to arrive (which didn't take long at all) and then excitedly got started on it this week. So the sketchbooks are fairly small by sketchbook standards and paper is moderately thick (made from recycled paper). There is about 16 pages or 32 if you use both sides. A person has a year I believe to fill their sketchbook and then you return it in the mail. It has a barcode on the back which identifies you.

The hardest part for me when creating is taking the time to pull out all of my art supplies. A long time ago I use to primarily work in pencil and color pencil which is easy and portable to use. However; over the years I've progressed to using more mixed media materials which makes it more difficult and time consuming when I want to create. This is mostly because I'm a bit OCD and my office/studio has to be tidy and neat which means every time I want to create I have to pull everything out and then put everything back when I'm done.  So, I've made an executive decision to give myself permission to leave my supplies out and ready for when I'm in the mood and want to work on my sketchbook. My thought is that this will help me to actually create instead of being deterred from the prospect of having to pull everything out and return it all each time.

I put on some celtic tunes and went to town this week creating in my sketchbook. It felt intimidating to make those first marks but once started I just wanted to keep creating. Below are some pics from my sketchbook.  The one challenge I'm finding is that it's difficult to work in mixed media material and try to work on both sides of the paper. Not just because of drying time but because the mediums I'm using (watercolor, paint, permanent marker) are seeping through to the other side. This is frustrating when I finish a piece, work on the other side, and then go back and see that something seeped through. I've just been working through it so far having to adapt and rework the images sometimes and yet other times it's the perfect in the imperfect in that I like what effect the seeping through had. As always I'm finding this project a work in progress but like myself...

Part of my studio with supplies left out.

Recognize the cover?

If you want to be a part of this project go to the site listed above and purchase a sketchbook. I found a promo code at Maker Mama Blog; http://www.makermama.com/2013/02/the-sketchbook-project.html. The code was supposedly out of date but it worked.

**Happy Creating!

Finally Some Art Work

It's definitely been difficult this fall to find time to create art. Between work, grad classes, running in races and having fun there has been a limited time to create.  I've spent most of my creative energy on art therapy groups and workshops at the college.  I've been to Stampin Up a couple of times and because I'm missing creating art I decided to splurge and signed up for an art class at the Creative Workshop through the Memorial Art Gallery.  It's once a week for three weeks in November and it is a Mixed Media Fibers: Fundamentally Felting class. I know how to basic felt and how to incorporate some other materials in but I think this class will teach me some other techniques in felting so I'm pretty excited about it.  Perhaps I'll make some Christmas gifts!

Anyway, below are a couple of pictures I've recently made. I still maintain that I need to take a writing styles class if I ever find one!

Mandala- Tree of Life

In the art therapy group I facilitate for college students this week's directive was to think of stressors in your life that are holding you back from living the life you want/or to be the person you want to. They were told they could use any form of art medium, colors, lines, shapes, images and so on to depict this directive. 

Above was what I worked on while they were creating. I try to work on something relatively simple that is easy for me not to invest in so that I can observe the group members while they are creating. It's also interesting to see which groups ask the facilitators about what they created. I also try to create something that is more of a metaphor to the directive and use it to tie into the theme.  I ended up creating this mandala. I used watercolor paper and watercolor in the background. Then started making a flower with embroidery thread and a needle, then another flower, then some sprouts, then some roots. In the end I poked some holes through the yellow (sun) portion of the mandala so that if you hold it up in the air or adhere it to a window the sun will shine through.  This is the first thing I've created in a while since I've been back to work full time and taking night classes. It felt great to create!

Growth Means Change- Mixed Media Collage

I originally saw something like this (the yarn for flowers) on a post on pinterest a while ago but couldn't find it again to give credit. I was facilitating a group this past week where the directive was to think of a past regret and then consider your thoughts and feelings about that regret currently after time may have passed. Group members were asked to create an image of their current thoughts and feelings.

I began to create this image and finished later in the week. My thought process was that while I may have regretted a situation or how I've handled it in the past I still believe I can learn from those regrets and in the future I can perhaps handle things differently to avoid a future regret.

I used very watered down watercolors on canvas as the base. Then used yarn and vintage buttons to create the flower. Then I took a very old book and ripped up a pieces for the stems and wrapped embroidery thread around the stems. I chose to use a foam stamp of leaves and watercolors to create the grass/leaves on the image. I took glitter glue and dabbed it on a paintbrush and spread in between and around the flowers. Finally a permanent marker to write the quote on the top half.

Wishes

So, I've always had a thing about when I catch a glimpse of a clock where the time is all the same numbers, like 3:33 or 11:11 and I've always heard you should make a wish when you see the time is the same before it turns over to the next minute. I know...I know...whatever. Most recently I keep looking up and catching the time being the same numbers quite frequently. I've had a lot on my mind lately and I created this piece to represent not only all of those wishes I've attempted to make recently but my feelings behind the wishes.

The materials I used were water color paper, black fine tip permanent marker, colored pencils and water color over top followed by modge podge and a scattering of tea grains with a final coat of acrylic spray.

Collaged Girl- An experimentation in extreme mixed media (well for me that is)

This is one of the experiments I tried while at Saturday afternoon art with Cindi and Leslie. I want to get better at mixed media work. Someday's my efforts are better than others. This one ended up turning out particularly well compared to how it started out.

First I started out with an interesting size/shape sheet of watercolor paper. I then put all kinds of scrap paper designs on the paper. My goal was at this point was experimenting with getting more texture so I have tons of different textured paper on this project. Then I used water color crayons on the exposed water color paper (simply because I couldn't resist trying those materials for the first time). I then used acrylic paint in shades of blue, purple, green, brown and white and smeared them around randomly. (I used a blow dryer in between coats because patience is a virtue I'm always trying to work on but never quite get there.) Oh, I also used a textured clear paint that is basically like adding sand to your picture. I wanted to put an image on the picture but I tend to stay away from actual images of people because I tend to stink at them. Leslie showed me how she goes about making a face and this art work shows my attempt following her instructions. Way better than I usually do. I added vintage music paper strips for the hair and circles for the dress.

Overall I am pretty pleased with this experiment with art materials. I pushed myself to try new things and the outcome is pretty darn good. Things I learned; make sure to use permanent ink for stamping which I thought I was but turned out not to be when I attempted to mod podge over the finished product. Also I'm not 100% sure if I adore the flowers on the hair but I did this part at home and my materials were more limited. Any thoughts?