Oh for that Sweet Madness!

“It’s what we call a dolce pazzia…a sweet madness. Once you feel it, you will never want to leave”. – "Juliet" by Anne Fortier

Travel and romance. To me the words are synonymous. I have wanted to use the photo of the woman with the dreamy expression from my collection of Victorian postcards in a project. At last I found a place she might call home.

I will soon be facilitating a collage workshop at a local library. We will use discarded book covers as a substrate.  I was given a deep blue cover to see how it would inspire my work. The map of the romantic city of Venice from the Old World Maps series was perfect for what I had in mind. I started my Design Team project by stenciling in a subdued colour palette of blues and aqua to allow the rest of the collage elements to pop. This is another reason why I love the Artistcellar collection of stencils. They can be bold and the focal point of your work. Or they can be subtle, but just as vital to your art. The inside book cover was smooth and didn’t drink up the acrylics. As I had hoped, there was very little shift in colour.

I have been experimenting lately with transfers on various types of paper. This time I transferred the photocopy of the woman and added it to a blank shipping tag covered with a layer of gesso. I was pleased with the finish and the way the colour complimented the background. I surrounded the tag with textured paper I received from the Netherlands in a paper swap. The gold foil was reclaimed from greeting cards. Cherry tree twigs blown into the yard with the last storm, wrapped in tea stained gauze, became part of the collage. It’s great that with this type of work trash can become a real treasure!

I usually have tiny jewelry tags on my table when I am working. They are a great place to try techniques or to deposit left over paint. I chose a few from this collection. After masking out parts of the Playful Pods and Quasicrystals stencils, I added glittering dots of colour to the design.

I am captivated by the woman’s wistful smile. Could she be thinking of a journey in the making? Or is she returning to her dolce pazzia…the sweet madness of a certain time and place?

We are fortunate that creating Art allows us the freedom to follow our inspiration wherever it may lead. The door is open just waiting for our ideas to burst through. Who is your muse today?

MATERIALS USED:

• ARTISTCELLAR STENCILS: PLAYFUL PODS SERIES (Bodacious Pods), OLD WORLD MAPS SERIES (Venice), QUAISCRYSTALS SERIES (Infra)
• LIQUITEX GESSO
• LIQUITEX MATTE MEDIUM
• PLAID ACRYLICS: Aquamarine, Blue Topaz, Pure Orange, Blue Sapphire, Amethyst
• DECOART: Splendid Gold, Blue Harbor, Peacock Pearl, Sea Glass
• DYLUSIONS PAINT: Vibrant Turquoise, Cut Grass, Fresh Lime, London Blue, Crushed Grape, Squeezed Orange, Bubblegum Pink, Postbox Red
• DYLUSIONS INK SPRAY: Bubblegum Pink
• REEVES: Bronze, Gold
• VIVA INKA Gold
• MEMENTO INK DYE: Tuxedo Black
• RUBBER STAMPS
• NATURAL SPONGE
• PAINTER’S TAPE
• TISSUE PAPER
• GOLD FOIL
• TEA BAGS
• STAINED GAUZE
• ORGANDY RIBBON
• CHERRY TREE TWIGS
• JEWELRY & SHIPPING TAGS
• VINTAGE PHOTO POSTCARD
• DISCARDED LIBRARY BOOK COVER

In The Realm of the Unconventional

“Knowledge is ultimately available to everyone. Only true intuition, jumping from knowledge to an idea, is yours and yours alone.” – Bill Bernbach

As artists are we naturally drawn to unconventional conduct? Are we guided by intuition to a life without limits? Are we passionate to share our experiences? Is there something in our makeup that emboldens us to reach further than we thought we ever could?

I started my collage with a photo. I have been looking for a place in my work for the image of the women reading. As a fellow bibliophile I recognise the bliss of total absorption in a book. For a background I flipped through a vintage book in my collection. After tearing out a couple of pages from the index I saw the words “Unconventional conduct”. Could the women be reading a work that would change their destiny? Why not?

My substrate is illustration board. I primed it with a coat of gesso. When dried I attached the book pages using matte medium and added one final coat of tinted Mod Podge. I gave the board twenty-four hours of drying time as the pages were especially thick and absorbent.

After framing the work with Rose Red acrylics, still embracing my messy side, I began the stencilling process with one of my favourites, the Halftone Dots series. The layers quickly built as I added a variety of stencil patterns to the collage finishing with the map of one of the most unconventional cities on the planet, Paris, from Artistcellar’s Old World Maps series. Although the stencil has many fine cut outs representing the meandering streets, clean up was easy with no damage at all, ready for many future projects.

To read, to seek, to know...this is the stuff that drives our creative spirit. And as an artist isn’t our calling to follow our intuition whenever it may lead? The realm of the unconventional is where our souls bloom. How will you release the magic of your imagination?

MATERIALS USED

• ARTISTCELLAR STENCILS: HALFTONE DOTS (Highlight, Midtone, Midtone 2, Shadow), BLOCKS SERIES (Open Work), OLD WORLD MAPS (Paris)
• STENCILGIRL PRODUCTS: Seth Apter Number Drips
• HAND CUT STENCIL: Diamonds
• PUNCHINELLA
• ILLUSTRATION BOARD
• MASKING TAPE
• LIQUITEX GESSO
• LIQUITEX MATTE MEDIUM
• VINTAGE BOOK PAGES AND PHOTO
• REEVES: Rose Red, Bronze
• PLAID ACRYLICS: Blue Sapphire, Pure Orange, Sunflower, Bright Red, Pure Gold
• DECOART: Splendid Gold, Peacock Pearl, Desert Turquoise
• DINA WAKLEY PAINTS: Lime
• DYLUSION SPRAY: Bubble Gum
• MOD PODGE: Sheer Orange

What Is The Best Part Of Your Voyage?

The Adventures of Madeline

"In an old house in Paris
That was covered in vines
Lived twelve little girls in two straight lines."

Do these opening lines hold as much affection for you as they do for me? Whenever I hear author and artist Ludwig Bemelmans' rhymes, I gladly enter his evocative world of Madeline.

I recently took part in a Tag Swap. "Share Your Favourite Book" was the theme.  I am a Bibliophile...with a capital B...and I'm not afraid to admit it! So this should have been a pretty easy decision. But which book to choose??!! Each title on my list was filled with special memories and meanings.

As my list of possible contenders grew, my eye kept coming back to one title...Madeline.

Madeline, the little girl who Bemelmans lovingly crafted his stories around, was self-sufficient, ingenious, and was fearless enough to travel into a part of the world I hoped I would someday discover on my own.

But more than the enchanting story lines, the exotic locations, and the character of Madeline herself, the series is a reminder of a cherished childhood. My Mom and I would make our daily trip to the Brooklyn Public Library and rush home to read the books together. And as we turned each page it was her constant reassurance that, with a little hard work, I could accomplish anything I wanted to in life. Like Madeline, I too could be self-sufficient, ingenious, and most of all, fearless.

The substrate for my Tag is illustration board. The background is a combination of various coloured Distress Inks. I scratched into the board to give it texture and applied rubber stamped swirls. Over the background is a selection of vintage images, Washi tape, handmade paper, a Bonne Maman label, and of course Ludwig Bemelmans' lovely illustration and text. I finished the Tag with stencilled acrylic paint.

But wherever my childhood dreams encouraged me to wander, Ludwig Bemelmans' words still ring true for me...

"The best part of a voyage

By plane,

By ship,

Or train

Is when the trip is over and you are

Home Again."

What is the best part of your Life Voyage? May you always find that delicious place you call Home.

Dreams Start Here...

Dreams Start Here ~ ATC

I couldn't stop thinking about the "Flood the Streets with Art" project. This Friday, Black Friday, artists around the world are making a piece of art to be left anywhere they wish it to be "found".  It is a gift to an anonymous recipient.

Everything about it captured my imagination...it was like a message in a bottle...mysterious, brimming with hope, anticipation to the extreme.  But, what to create...and where to "drop" it...that is where I let my Muse give me a nudge in the right direction.

 My local library, the Dillsburg Area Public Library, has an "adopt a shelf" programme under way. A small fee provides you with an engraved brass plate the Library places on a shelf for a year. You can have anything you wish on the plate, providing it fits within a set amount of characters.

My love of the Library and books goes back as far as I can remember. I was fortunate to have two very insightful parents who nurtured a love of learning in my brothers and me. My Mom and I would visit the Brooklyn Public Library every day, six days a week. It became a place of wonder for me...a place where the answer to anything and everything was possible if you were willing to discover it.

My brass plate is now on a shelf in the Junior Fiction section of the Library in Dillsburg. It is engraved with the words: "Dreams Start Here".  

The substrate for the  ATC is an old library card catalogue card. I altered it with Distress Inks, rubber stamped the word "Dreams",  and stencilled stars with metallic acrylic paint. I added pieces of hand coloured ephemera and handmade art paper...and finally the words "DREAMS START HERE".

I will be leaving this Artist Trading Card in a book on the shelf entitled The Dreamer by Pam Muñoz Ryan.  It is the story of a young boy who hears the call of his inner Muse and believes in himself enough to trust his vision.

I hope whoever find the card is inspired to dream…as big and as far as they can…and to let their own personal Muse lead them on a journey of discovery. And I hope that journey starts for them, as it did for me, at the local public Library.