Publishing Happiness.

It's been a good year for me on the publishing front. I am always giddy when I receive my comp issues of magazines my work appears in and these two fine issues were no exception. In the new Belle Armoire you can read a little Q&A about my packaging and how important I believe how you present your work is. In the July CPS you can see my art bag in the muse flash section and as an added bonus my fabulous art friend Sue is the cover girl! Go Sue go Sue. So pick up these issues and support the mixed media art world!

Board Books.

I got a bag full of tiny board books a few weeks ago from Vinnie's. I looked at one of them the other day and decided to tackle it. I started by giving it a coat of primer. I just used the primer from our walls instead of buying gesso. Works just as well. I let that dry and then added a coat of yellow acrylic. I stuck the pages together while they were wet and then pulled them apart to give the inside pages a cool veined effect. See it in the corner of this picture...Then I came up with a theme. I decided to go with follow your heart you'll love where it takes you. It just so happened there were just enough pages to fit a word a page. I started layering papers, stamps, labels, paint, oil pastels, ink and whatever else I grabbed. I got lost in this project and didn't want it to end. After I got the ephemera and art just so I drilled a few holes to add charms and such. I put some yarn in the spine...using leftover pieces from crochet projects...never throw anything away...and hung all different fun things from the ends.

I could have kept going but decided to stop and call it done. It was lots and lots of fun and I can't wait to make more!

A BIG new piece.

I got a new Mary Engelbreight's Home Companion and was very inspired. In Mary's new home she had a big painting of a vase of flowers. I looked at I and thought how cool would it be to build a floral arrangement out of paper flowers? It brought me back to my days as a florist. I miss that sometimes and I think that is why I love gardening and also why I enjoyed doing this mixed media piece so much as well. I started by painting some pages of an old music book with fun colors. Then I cut out flower shapes and stems and leaves. I painted a big canvas black and started by layering the tablecloth. Then I cut out the vase and then started building my arrangement flower by flower just like a real floral arrangement. Each flower has it's own stem. I then accented the whole thing with black paint and high gloss gel medium. I really like it and actually am thinking of keeping it? Aw heck maybe I will just make a bunch more.

Oh and another cool thing about this months Home Companion...my friend Amanda is in it at her little booth at the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago. So cool. She is super talented and has an etsy shop called Smarmy Pants. Check it out!

A bluebird and a hangover.

Life is so hectic right now. I know I am totally neglecting my blog but with all this stuff something has got to get put aside. I did find some time to make a few things the other day one of which is this lovely little birdie mixed media painting....

It was a lot of fun. Lots of layers on this one. I started with a canvas painted turquoise. Then I added a layer of gel medium and transferred some old sheet music to the canvas. I added the yellow using alcohol inks and then created a bird out of sheet music too. I painted the bird and then used distressing ink around it to make it pop a little. I used markers to add the wording and little swirls and called it done.

On another note I had to give up caffeine this week. I was having major heart palpitations and a little more anxiety than normal. It is funny because it has only been a few days and already those things have gone away. Stupidly though today I stopped at Subway to get a sandwich for lunch and decided to get a caffeine free diet coke. I haven't drank soda for about 8 months now and I feel like a big pile of poop. Taught me a lesson I guess. So I will just go now and suffer with my diet coke hangover. Man getting old sucks.

Stuck Behind Glass

So I am almost finished putting together everything for my upcoming show at Stumpjack. The theme is stuck behind glass so I created about 30 little jar fairies, my crazy shadowboxes and I took my pendants to the next level when creating these little beach find necklaces. They have been so fun! It was one of those things I made that made me realize that a simple process like soldering can be taken in a completely different direction. I am really excited to play with it more today!

It is my very first solo show and will be at Stumpjack starting with an opening on Friday March 28th at 7pm and on display until Mayish. I am very excited send a big thanks to my friends David and Kim for giving me this opportunity! So I would love to see you at the opening! My friend Greg Pagel will be playing some groovy backround music and like always there will be wonderful coffee, wine and atmosphere at Stumpjack!

Oh and by the way I am playing hookie tomorrow so......
don't come to Persimmons on Friday!
My husband has a day off and we really need some time together so thanks for understanding!