Are Your Days Filled with Sunshine?

"Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows

Everything that's wonderful is what I feel when we're together…" 

Lesley Gore/Marvin Hamlisch, Composer

And who said crayons are just for kids?

Included in my most recent box of delight from Artistcellar was a set of Tim Holtz Distress Crayons.  And with names like Peacock Feathers, Twisted Citron, and especially Mermaid Lagoon I couldn’t wait to start using them.

I have long been a fan of the Tim Holtz line of Distress Inks. I love the wide range of colours and the deliciously descriptive names. The quality is always consistently high and I expected the same from the new line of Crayons. I was not disappointed.

Of late, I have been working with my metallic acrylics or watercolours. Receiving the Crayons was a good excuse to bring out the Distress Inks once again. Opening the box I keep them in was like opening a door and visiting with an old friend. The Tim Holtz line was my first purchase when I ventured into Mixed-Media. And what an adventure it has been!

A new addition to my supplies is a Strathmore Mixed-Media Journal – 300 Series. The compact size is perfect for working with my Artistcellar stencils. I am now well on my way to building a library of background images…all easy to find and in one place! Now if only I could get a Mineral Paper spiral bound notebook. That would be Nirvana!

I started my work on Strathmore Watercolour Artist Trading Cards. I chose to keep the colours warm and bright. I covered the card with a wash of Tim Holtz Spiced Marmalade Ink and flat Royal Langnickel watercolours using my Sakura Koi Waterbrush.  The waterbrush is a great tool to have in your collection. It saves time, can be taken on the road if you are an en plein air artist, and can give you everything from a swath of colour to a thin line. It’s great!

With Journal in hand I chose my favourite Artcellar stencil series: Halftone Dots and Seafoam. I wasn’t sure which applicator would best compliment the crayons. I applied the colour with a natural sponge, cosmetic sponge and the Tim Holtz Blending Tool. The crayons are soft and it’s easy to transfer colour to your applicator.  When pushed through the stencil the natural sponge gave a spotty textured effect. The Blending Tool and cosmetic sponge were equally successful, giving me the soft gradated look I was after…all sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows.

Getting out my Distress Inks was truly like visiting an old friend and reminiscing about happy times past at the start of my Mixed-Media journey.  This explains my choice of using this fashion photo from a 1950’s collage sheet. The women look so joyful…sharing a secret, spending time together, and capturing a moment that will stay with them forever. I am sure you have similar memories. Aren't we shaped and molded by the memories we hold closest to our hearts? And the friendships nurtured through the years are always the sweetest…like sunshine, lollipops and rainbows.

 MATERIALS USED:

ARTISTCELLAR HALFTONE DOTS SERIES STENCILS

ARTISTCELLAR SEAFOAM STENCILS

TIM HOLTZ® DISTRESS CRAYONS – SET #1

TIM HOLTZ® BLENDING TOOL

TIM HOLTZ® DISTRESS INKS

NATURAL SPONGE

MAKEUP SPONGE

ROYAL LANGNICKEL WATERCOLOURS – FLAT & PEARLESCENT

SAKURA KOI WATERBRUSH

STRATHMORE MIXED-MEDIA VISUAL JOURNAL 300 SERIES

STRATHMORE 400 Series Watercolor Artist Trading Cards

DIGITAL IMAGE – FASHION OF THE 1950’S

What is Essential to You?

Han's Richter's Dada XYZ 1948

As a creative person, what is essential to you?  "XYZ", an Artist Trading Card call from the Carlisle Arts Learning Center in Carlisle, PA. had me thinking. My Muse was on hiatus. I felt stranded when I opened my book on the Dada Movement, and received inspiration from Hugo Ball's Sound Poems.

It was what I needed to kick-start me into action. So it felt natural to explore the world of Dada through the eyes of other members. And what could be more appropriate than to read Hans Richter's "Dada XYZ".  The piece opens with: "I never understood Hugo Ball very well."

I photocopied the photo of Hans Richter and attached it to illustration board. The text in the background is Richter's thoughts written in 1948. It is published in Robert Motherwell's anthology of Dada writings, The Dada Painters and Poets. I finished the card with sponged metallic acrylic paint. At the end of the exhibit this card will also be traded.

Inspired by the Dadaists, not understanding is the essential quality I look for in Art and in Life. Not understanding keeps me thinking...keeps me investigating...keeps my lines to my Muse open. And when I do finally understand, even if not fully, it can lead me to some very interesting, unexpected and inspiring places.

My question to you is...what is Essential to You?

Keeps rainin' all the time.....

Ethel Sings ATC

I recently took part in another Artist Trading Card swap. The theme was "Stormy Weather".

In a way, this card is an homage to my Dad as much as it is to Ethel Waters and composers Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. My father was a great music aficionado. Jazz was his Muse. The voices of Ethel, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, and Peggy Lee flavoured my childhood. I loved hearing about the concerts in clubs in Manhattan that ran from Friday to Sunday with one band after another taking the stage. My heart skipped a beat hearing about Gene Krupa and his glow in the dark drum sticks. Swing, Big Band, Progressive Jazz, even Scat filled the rooms of our home.

So when I heard of the swap my thought was of the beautiful vocals of this song first performed by Ethel Waters in 1933 at the Cotton Club in Manhattan.

The substrate is illustration board. I dyed it using Bleeding Art Tissue. I enhanced the photo of Ethel with Iridescent Medium. I added metallic and distress inks. I altered the music with Glimmer Mist. The final touch was handmade paper using a variety of inks and acrylic paint.

Can a Muse be passed on from one generation to the next? In this case, I think it was.

At What Price Fashion...

"At What Price Fashion-Triangle Factory Fire"

Saturday, March 25, 1911. 4:40PM. Quitting time for the employees of The Triangle Waist Company. The factory occupied the eight, ninth, and tenth floors of the Asch Building at Greene Street and Washington Place in Manhattan.

Owners Max Blanck and Isaac Harris employed five hundred workers, mostly Italian and Jewish immigrant women, to produce blouses known as "shirtwaists". The style was "the" fashion statement of the day, popularised by artist Charles Dana Gibson's "Gibson Girl".

The employees worked nine hour shifts on weekdays and seven hours on Saturdays. At the close of business for the week a fire started under a cutting table in a scrap bin on the eight floor from either a match or discarded cigarette.  The fire spread rapidly across the wooden floors. A passerby saw smoking coming from the building and raised a fire alarm.

To prevent theft, the managers had the doors to the stairwells and exits locked. The practice was a common one at the time, but because of this the women could not escape the fire. Many jumped to their death, fell off faulty fire escapes, or died of smoke inhalation.

In total, 146 workers died. It remains as one of the deadliest disasters in New York history. The oldest victim was forty-three, the youngest fourteen. The Triangle Factory Fire prompted further legislation requiring factory safety standards. It also enabled the growth of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.

I have been interested in the Fire for many years now. I'm not sure why, but I have always had a fascination with the turn of the century Lower East Side history from the time I was a young girl. It always moved me deeply, in a way that I imagine people who believe in reincarnation feel.

I admire the work of the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition.This is our collective history. We should never forget the victims of such a horrific accident. We should never undervalue women's work.

The collage is a conventional piece. The photo is of the burning Asch building. Surrounding the photo of the women dressed in their "waists" are the names of all 146 workers who perished in the fire. I also added a Catholic and Jewish prayer for the dead.

The substrate is canvas. The papers are handmade, art, and sewing pattern paper. Images are from my collection of vintage photos and news clippings. I also used rubber stamped images, inks and dyes. I wanted to keep the piece monochromatic.

So, at what price fashion? We make the choice every time we shop.

Sunflowers...Sunshine in an envelope

Seven Sunflowers

I love sunflowers. I love to plant the seeds and see them grow. I love to drive past fields filled with their golden yellow brilliance. I love the way their heads follow the sun. I love to collect pictures and photos of sunflowers. Vincent van Gogh's Sunflower series has always been an inspiration to me.

But most of all I love to draw sunflowers.

It's been a while since I've sat down to do any drawing. When I was a commercial screen printer, I drew every day. I drew anything from a customer's product to a cat for my mail order catalogue. It was production of the highest degree.

Of course, before those years there was Art School at the York Academy of Arts. Drawing was our foundation. Your work was only as good as the drawing beneath it...whether the finished piece be a painting, a sculpture, a print. This now applies to digital work. A lack of drawing skills is amplified a hundred fold in the digital realm.

And before that I drew because I loved it.

So in a sense, The Doodle Swap Project has brought me full circle.

The Project is similar to trading ATC's but the main focus is doodling/drawing/illustration. The size requirement is the same as an ATC. After registration and the cards are complete, you send them off to the list of names and addresses provided. Mine are ready to go to Alabama, Maryland, Utah, Massachusetts, Washington, and Pennsylvania.

The substrate is a standard ATC card. I used a Ranger's Inkssentials manila card. I drew in pencil. I then used chalk pastels to colour the drawing. The center of the sunflower is Tim Holtz Distress Ink stamped with a piece of fibrefill I found.

As I have had years of production work under my belt, I did each card at the same time...building up the drawings on each card, layer by layer.

I am looking forward to getting my Sunflowers in the mail. I am also looking forward to receiving art in the mail.

Thanks again, Doodle Swap Project. You reminded me how much I really love to draw.

Winter...and "The Four Seasons Suite"

The Four Seasons Suite: Winter

Part of "The Four Seasons Suite" is Winter. 

I used a 5" x 7" canvas as the substrate. The handmade papers were altered using acrylic paint, alcohol, water, Ranger inks, and Perfect Pearls Mist. At the woman's eye level I attached a piece of metallic copper Polyester Organza fabric. Red Mulberry paper completes the top portion of the design.

Again, I found the image of the woman and the holly leaves in a Dover Publications book. My love of Victoriana finds a home with their large selection of art.

I love the quote by poet Edith Sitwell:

"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home."

The colours, the florals, the expectant look on the woman's face all say "Home"...and "Winter" to me.

Summer Is Just A Sigh Away...

"Four Seasons Suite - Summer" 5" x 7" COLLAGE

The collage is an homage to one of the best times of the year and is part of the "Four Seasons Suite" I have been working on.

I used a 5" x 7" canvas substrate. The handmade papers were altered using acrylic paint, alcohol, water, Ranger inks, and Perfect Pearls Mist. Tea dyed gauze crosses the canvas at the woman's eye level. Mulberry paper completes the top portion of the design.

I am crazy about Victoriana. The images from Dover books. In my opinion they have the best selection of all.

To quote Henry James: "Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language."

And Summer will be here before we know it!

Who Do You See...

Who Do You See When You Close Your Eyes?

Valentines come in all shapes, sizes...and with a varying degree emotion.

Keeping this in mind, I allowed my Muse to guide me through a selection of tissue and art papers.
The tissue from Starbucks was perfect! It had just the words I was looking for. Fascinated by logo design of all kinds, I have always been a fan of the graphics and marketing material the company has put together.  The Starbucks Siren  is iconic. And the mermaid set my mind adrift.

Is the love we have enough? Does Valentines Day give you a feeling of bliss or foreboding?  Are there questions you wish were answered? Do you feel, like the mermaid, that you are a mythical creature swimming in the uncharted waters of love?

The layout is the Bridge, which I have to admit is one of my favourites. I chose the colours in keeping with traditional Valentines. The substrate is a 5" x 5" canvas. Papers used are White Mulberry Paper, Printed tissue paper, handmade paper using acrylic paint and Ranger Inks inks, words from an old Dictionary, and tissue paper from Starbucks.

The rubber stamp of the woman's profile was just what I needed to tell the story of this Valentine.

"Who Do You See When You Close Your Eyes?". I wonder how often the question has been asked.