Two steps forward...

...one step back.
the path to success is not always a straight line of steady improvement toward a goal, particularly as an artist. Sometimes it is a meandering path, and a climb up a steep hill, and as lot of twists and turns, and that is how I am feeling about my artistic journey right now. My first painting this month was bad and messy, but I expected that, as I got my feet (and brush) wet after a long hiatus from paintbrush and canvas. I felt that my second and third paintings were improvements in shading and detail over the first, but this fourth painting looks a bit flat to me and I think I rushed it a bit. Painting is teaching me patience, among other things, which I need.

And today, in spite of the fact that it is going to be a glorious sunny 70-ish afternoon, and a perfect day for fall clean up gardening, I am going to make a pot of soup (tortellini and white bean with sausage - my current favorite) - and sit in my sunny art room painting. I may regret this decision when the winds start to blow and I am out in 40 degree weather cleaning up my yard, but today, I will live in the moment and enjoy it!

My crush of the month...

Todd "Figaro" Minnick, of The Velmas
This month, my crush is a guy I just discovered recently. I've actually met him several times over the years, and I thought he was just a mild-mannered insurance executive with the patience of a saint, (he's my sister's boss), but it turns out he has this totally other life as bassist in a band that is named after my maternal grandmother -- so he's got this artsy side that I knew nothing about AND a stable job with health benefits. How cool is that? Plus, he's going to give my sister a HUGE bonus, so that she can fly "the girls" all to Hawaii for our next female bonding weekend - so what's not to like?? (C'mon Figaro, just take it out of the team-building account!)

I must confess that as I write this, I have yet to hear a single note of "Velmas" music, but I am not terribly hip in the music department, and they seem to be.

Okay, I must confess, that I am also hoping to become an honorary member of the Velmas street team, which qualifies me for all kinds of cool Velmas merchandise.


Disclaimer: I am in no way trying to meet, stalk or otherwise pursue the subjects mentioned in my monthly "crush." I just think it's a fun way to highlight someone who piques my interest each month.

Pencil sketches

While trying to improve my painting skills this month, I decided that it would help to get back to basics - like drawing - to improve my painting. I always begin my paintings with a basic pencil outline, so this seemed to be a good way to practice improving the bones of my paintings. It's also something that I can do on a whim -- while watching tv or waiting for an appointment, or when I am too tired to pull out my paints at the end of a long day. These are a some images from one of my little sketchbooks.

Experimenting with acrylic and oil pastel

While vigorously neglecting my lawn and yard this weekend, I have been experimenting with acrylics and oil pastels. So far, I think my painting is a bit derivative of others whose paintings I gravitate toward, but I am just letting it flow and seeing what happens. I am hoping that if I can paint one or two a week (and more when time allows), a style will emerge that is all my own. These two are a combination of acrylics, oil pastels, and rubber stamps for texture.

I am also experimenting with different facial shapes and trying to improve my shading and general brush skills. It does not come easily for me, which is good. If I catch on too quickly, I tend to undervalue the skill and lose interest.

I luv me mum(s)

It has been a truly beautiful fall. The weather has been mild, with cool mornings and evenings and warm, sunny days... and mums, one of many reasons I love the fall...(oh, and pumpkins too!)




My friend Ali tipped me off to West Shaker Farm, where they sell 3 pots for $14!!! Needless to say, I bought lots of mums this year.

My September ta da list...

Almost every month, as I write this list of creative accomplishments for myself, I am usually surprised at the length of the list when I get done -- proof that I need this monthly reminder that I am moving forward creatively -- even if the progress is slow at times. Well, this month the list was almost non-existent until Saturday, but fortunately I was able to dive back in over the weekend, ignoring dustbunnies and piles of unfolded laundry in pursuit of art...

So this month, I...
Read 1,000 days in Venice by Marlena De Blasi (true story, wonderful - colorful - visual);
Made ATCs for monthly swap (the theme was favorite foods - mine is takeout chinese, so I made miniature place settings complete with chopsticks - unfortunately they do not photograph well at all, so I am not featuring them here);
Worked with my event planner friend to design the program for a fundraising luncheon;
Refreshed my polymer clay skills to teach a fall class using polymer clay tiles to make bracelets;
Found some little polymer clay faces I made a year ago and turned them into a Christmas ornament project (I'll show them here closer to the holidays);
made a pot of tortellini and white bean soup w sausage (yum, I love soup-making when the weather gets cool)!!;
Started painting - Here is my first attempt at acrylics on canvas with no collage - just my primitive style and a rubber stamp to add texture - I've had a major urge to paint lately, so I am going to run with it. I am not at all happy with the results -- too messy, primitive, not enough facial shading -- but that's why I am bravely sharing it. I hope that each attempt shows improvement and that I can see progress at the end of the month;

and finally, this curious discovery...
Over labor day weeiekd I had finally moved into the larger, brighter spare bedroom that I've coveted for the past three years, but something was wrong. I could not pinpoint it, but the room felt "off" and it wasn't inviting me, in spite of the fact that I've wanted to be in this larger, light-filled space for such a long time. This weekend, I finally had time to actually sit down and create, and within the first hour, I figured it out. My art table was in a left-hand corner. This may sound ridiculous and trivial, but I am left-handed, and not at all dainty in my movements, and my movements were just too constricted (or my mind was) with my table in this placement. I need to have my left side 'open.' It's amazing that this has never occurred to me before, as I've been re-arranging my art spaces for years, but I think that by some coincidence, I always made sure that my table was open on the left until now. So a quick turn of the table onto an opposite wall, and I could move!!! Of course, now my back is to the door, which I think violates some basic feng shui principle, (right Sisser?) but I can counteract the bad chi with a mirror or something.

Damn, this traffic jam...

how I hate to be late
hurts my motor to go so slow
damn
this traffic jam
time I get home
my supper'l be cold
damn
this traffic jam

well I left my job about five o'clock
took fifteen minutes to go three blocks...
just in time to stand in line
with the freeway lookin like a parking lot
-James Taylor

I was stuck in traffic about a week ago on my way home from work, and I decided to take a side road -- but so did everyone else, so I was still stuck in traffic,so I took out my digital camera to capture some scenes along my slow ride home...




The one with the car was a complete accident that I think turned out pretty cool. The car wasn't there when I focused on the tree in someone's yard, but by the time the shutter depressed, it zoomed by. Of course, I was just getting to enjoy this project and traffic started moving again so this was the extent of it.

Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Elvira, and...

my sister Jennifer, all know the truth.
We were meeting a friend for dinner last night, and my sister arrived at my door in black pants, black tank, black shoes, and black accessories. Since I had the air conditioner set to sub-zero to compensate for my latest hormonal rebellion, Jennifer decided that she might be cold at dinner, (in fact she was already freezing), and asked to borrow a sweater. I handed her a black one, but then offered one in a color, so she wouldn't be completely shrouded in black. My sister's immediate reply as she snatched the black sweater was "You can never wear too much black."




In spite of the fact that I'm an artist, and I love color (just look at that blog header), I have to agree. In clothing, black has so many positive attributes. It's slimming (halleluja), it matches everything, (if for some strange reason you want to wear it with a color), and you can find just about every type of clothing and accessory in black - shoes, panties, pantyhose, pants, skirts, shirts, belts, scarves, and jewelry, to name a few. And it's a fact -- most people just look cooler in black. (Not all people - black is just a color, not a miracle worker -- and okay -- black is not really a color either, it's really the shade of objects that do not reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum, but I digress.)
In fact, the only bad thing about black is its mortal enemy - WHITE - as in pet hair, lint, deodorant, powder, etc. So now I have to go up to my attic and take down my fall-winter clothes, which are about 75% black, 15% gray and 10% other colors, for when I'm feeling mischievous!!

Autumn with Abigail

...the Argiope Aurantia

In spite of her frightening appearance, this femme fetale is harmless to humans (though I did not sit her on my shoulder to see). Abigail has taken up residence on my front porch, where she wove this stunning web between an arborvitae and a boxwood. She is often referred to as a garden spider, for her tendency to set up house in gardens, and though harmless to us, you do not want to fly in her midst if you happen to be a bug or butterfly (and I would not want to find her cozying up to me on the sofa!). I'm hoping she hangs around until Halloween. She's such an authentic decoration, don't you think?

If you've noticed an absence of art on my blog lately (as well as an absence of blogging generally), it's because it is my crazy season at work, which will end blissfully at about 10 am tomorrow morning, when my colleagues drive off in a rented minivan for our annual convention in Atlantic City. As the graphic artist, I spend the month of September designing and overseeing RUSH printing jobs for books, fliers, brochures, buttons, stickers, giveaways, cds, and display units. The RUSH part happens because everyone enjoys the last warm, lazy days of summer until Labor Day, and then they panic when September arrives and they've not given a thought to their convention projects. I've become accustomed to this panic, which sets in immediately on Tuesday morning after labor day, when the rested and suntanned return from vacations at the Shore and on the Cape. My voicemail and email boxes are full of exclamations and exclamation points stressing how urgent their projects are, even though they were not given a thought just a day earlier.

So after 10 am tomorrow, I will take a deep breath, a sip of my diet Pepsi, and hopefully get back to a regular pace at work, which allows my mind to wander in creative ways so that when I return home, I can blog and make art again.

New blog topic - My crush of the month...

Now and then, when I listen to a new cd or read a good book, or watch tv, I think hmmmm, I like that guy. So once a month, or not, since I make the rules on this blog, and I can do whatever I want, (so there) - I will share my crush of the month, whether or not you care.

This month it's Vern Yip, whose current claim to fame is as a judge on HGTV's Design Star show, and a new show called 'Deserving Design' which is on too late for me to stay awake for, so I'll have to catch it during the week in reruns. You may also remember him as one of the designers on Trading Spaces in its early days (when it was good). He was the one who made the participants cry with joy, unlike Hilde and Doug, who put fur on the walls and pissed everyone off.

Anyway, isn't he just cute? Plus, he decorates really well. And I love take-out Chinese food, so I think we may already have something in common. (What, you didn't expect this to be very deep, with that title, did you?)

And I know what you're thinking. He's a designer, he's neat, he's single.... he's gay.
I googled him, and of course, he's evasive about his plans for the future, (except that he'd like to have children,) which means, I know... he's gay.

But what do I care? Actually, I do care. Even if I can't have him, I think it's a shame that so many guys with his stats end up on the other team. It's just not fair.

But, I know. Life's not fair.
Feel free to share you comments on this new blog topic, or just tell me who your crush of the month is...

I've moved!!!

I didn't relocate under a toad stool as this photo might suggest, although my husband wouldn't have minded moving all of my art supplies there. I just saw this singular 'shroom in the middle of our lawn and wanted to snap a picture. I will post with a picture of the room once I take one!!!

I've moved - Nope! not my blog, and not my house, but my art room!!! I moved one room to the right, to the brightest room in the house. I have been wanting to do this almost since we bought the house. When we moved in, I chose the smallest room for my studio, not realizing it was also the darkest, and really, way too small for all of my stuff.

I had to swap what was in my new room (mostly my husband's tools and ebay hobby), with my room -- which was a monumental task. I wanted to do it right, i.e., empty a room, spackle, paint, install new shelving and furniture, etc., but I am nowhere near ready for that, and I just got tired of waiting.

My husband and I have lost a number of friends and an elderly family member this summer, which always forces one to reevaluate one's life and goals. In my case, one of my reactions was to say - do it now!! You never know if there will be a tomorrow!!! Another great motivator was the fact that this is my last long weekend for awhile. So while my husband (for whom moving creates great anxiety) was at work on Friday, I summoned Herculean strength to swap two enormous oak armoires and all of our "stuff" from room to room. Max is utterly perplexed, and followed me back and forth about 200 times on Friday, not resting at all and not helping at all, I should add, but he's slowly getting used to it. The room is a bit bigger, and very bright, which will be particularly welcoming in the fall and winter.

My August Ta Da List...

My greeting card designs - in Take Ten Magazine, Autumn 07
Well, it's that time of the month again - no, I don't have cramps, just my monthly "ta da" list. I have really been in a bit of a funk this month, for a variety of reasons, some of which really don't exist. I don't like myself when I get mopey and self-pitying, which only makes it worse. But I am trying to drag myself, kicking and screaming, out of my bad mood, and reminding myself of my creative accomplishments does help.

I gave my blog a face lift;
I made and mailed some handmade wire-wrapped rings to Cindy Dean for a jewelry swap;
I planned a class to teach wire-wrapped rings;
I designed a brochure for my father-in-law's new business - he makes pet coffins and cremation boxes, which are truly lovely - please inquire if you need a handmade resting place for a treasured pet;
I participated in Art Connection's monthly ATC swap - the theme was fairy tales, and since I am jaded and don't believe in them, I wrote my own satirical mini version of the frog prince;
I did a lot of sitting around and reading: Paint it Black by Janet Fitch; Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult; and The Pact by Jodi Picoult - here's a tip - don't read depressing books with lots of depressing characters when you're already in a funk!
Worked with my event planner friend to design a freelance invitation project;

And another of my art projects was published... in this issue of Take Ten magazine, which is one of my favorite's for inspiring and quick greeting card designs. In this issue, my work appears on pages 33-35 - I made a greeting card using dried berries, and they solicited me to make more cards with natural elements. One of my first loves is making simple, elegant greeting cards, and I loved working with nature on this project. Because I was asked to do this in February, when all of nature in Upstate New York was either frozen or buried in snow, I found natural elements in dried flower arrangements and potpourri at local stores.

This is the last of my published works until January, as the creative magazines plan their stories many months in advance of pubication.

Acrylic and collage exploration...

Experimenting with acrylics and collage on canvas board

An unsent letter...

On August 4, 2007, my sister's friend Jodi passed away unexpectedly, after complications following surgery. Jodi was also a friend of the family, and had just recently celebrated her 50th birthday. This is the letter which I now wish I had written to Jodi for her birthday, but I did not, because I thought I had plenty of time to tell her how special she was to all of us whose lives she touched.

Dear Jodi,
Happy 50th! It's been an incredible pleasure knowing you these past ten years. There is hardly a conversation that my sister has about work that doesn't include you, and your friendship and humor. You have been such an important part of her life that I felt like you were family from the first moment I met you. Thank you for making her laugh, for taking care of her, for offering advice, and for knowing when not to! I also want to thank you for all of the ways in which you embraced my family with your generosity and talents. Somehow, you knew that our family would appreciate bashing a peppermint candy pig into smitherines with a hammer more than most families, and we awaited your Christmas Eve call each year so that we could share our enthusiasm with you. Thank you, too, for the beautiful, artistic cakes you made to help us celebrate family milestones, and for everytime I asked for a helping hand on behalf of Jennifer, and you always said yes. I hope that your 50th birthday is the beginning of a wonderful new time of life for you and I look forward to sharing many more memories with you. Love, Kerri

I choose to believe that Jodi can see this message and knows how much she is loved and missed, and I will do my part to keep her here in memory and spirit.

Ride with the tide and go with the flow...

(Sorry about that. I made my husband look up JT and Carly last night on You-Tube and I have Mockingbird on the brain.)

I am in a creative lull this week, and I'm just riding it out, because I know it's necessary to have down time, to let ideas germinate, to fill the well. I am reading a good book, which does compete with my limited free time for art, but that's only part of it. When I go into my art room, I am just not moved to sit down and create. Usually, I can't wait, but every now and then, I come to a screeching halt...and that's where I'm at right now. So I'm thinking art, and I still scribble ideas in my journals and notebooks, but I am not forcing the process.

Two hours later...
I do believe that it is important to do all of the things I mentioned above, and that creativity is a flow that should not be forced, but sometimes, it's just a matter of switching gears. I am not in a tactile art mood this week, but I decided to do a quick digital makeover, and this was the result...

On the left is a greeting card that I made... actually several years ago. I don't even have the card anymore, but I used to scan a lot of my card designs so that I could remember them if I wanted to use the ideas again later. Instead, I decided to open the scan, and alter it in Photoshop. The result is the collage on the right. I'm pretty satisfied with the transformation, though I may still take it a bit further.

One great thing about digital art is the way you can re-invent previous works. I don't have to start with a blank canvas. I can start with something I've already created, and turn it into something fresh.

Blog makeover in progress...

If you are a regular visitor to my blog, you will notice that I've made some changes today. Blogger kept prompting me to update my template, because they improved things and made them more user-friendly, but they also warned that I might lose my links and other items that I've customized on my old blog.

Fortunately, I wanted to give my header a face lift anyway, so it was no biggie to replace it...and most of my links at the right remained intact. My old header is at the right. Not a drastic change, just a little more texture and color.

My next goal is to set up an etsy shop and also to figure out how to make a cute little flickr button at the right, like I see on so many blogs. I also want little thumbnails of the publications I'm in, but one thing at a time, I guess!

It's a Blog Party!!!!

I was invited by Kari (aka artsymama) to join her blogger party today, in celebration of Artful Blogging magazine and to generally celebrate artful bloggers everywhere. Kari suggested that we post a technique or tutorial if possible - or any kind of artful inspiration. I didn't have time to pull together a step by step photo tutorial, so instead, I'm featuring a few pages from my one of my art journals, along with some tips for creating quick easy journal backgrounds...

Visit Kari's blog to join the party!!!



Backgrounds...
Experimenting with background techniques is a great way to get the creative juices flowing. One thing will lead to another, and before you know it you’ve filled page after page with color and texture. A few you you might try...

Apply ink pads directly to pages, creating blocks of color. Use 3-5 colors and overlap them in spots. Paint a light glaze over the top with Lumiere paints or any translucent glaze.

Scribble circles or lines or lines with watercolor pencils. Add water to make the color move. Then add a light glaze of Lumiere paint in a translucent color (same as above.) — or add some embossing ink and a translucent embossing powder over the entire surface.

Mask off sections of a journal page with removable tape. Stipple chalk inks. Move masks and layouer colors. Add pattern or word stamps in a contrasting color to create texture.

Scribble or doodle shapes onto a page with colored pencils. Fill in with regular crayons. Add embossing ink and a translucent embossing powder, which will melt the crayons and blend all of the colors together.

Mask off sections of a journal page with removable tape. Use re-inkersi nspray bottles to apply color. Move masks to layer. spots of Krylon pen for some shimmer.

Mix artist's cement with reinkers and paint a thick coat onto a page. Coat a large, not-too-detailed stamp with embossing ink and stamp into the paste. Sprinkle with glitter & let dry.

Take a kids set of plastic magnetic letters and numbers and toss them onto a page. Spritz around them with watered down acrylics in a spray bottle. When dry, remove letters.

"Heart song"

Beeswax collage on canvas paper - mosaic wall hanging
I decided to try my hand at beeswax collage recently, and this is my first finished piece. My friend Debbie showed me some techniques months ago, and I was particularly intrigued by the way the wax saturates papers and makes them translucent. Although I've seen wax manipulated with a heat tool, I really liked using a quilting iron to make the surface smooth. I deliberately selected old music book pages and thin handmade papers that would become translucent when coated with wax. I decided to make small mosaic squares, so that if I did something irreparable, I could just toss the square and start over. One of the best features of beeswax is that it's almost impossible to do something irreparable -- just reheat the wax, and items can be moved or eliminated from the collage. The wax also serves to preserve the papers beneath, so it requires no additional fixative. I also love the texture that the beeswax leaves behind when pressed with the quilting iron. I will definitely continue to explore this collage medium. I was also pleased with the simple, colorful graphic nature of the piece.



To construct the wall hanging, I punched tiny holes in each of the squares, and used parts of round black paper clips (clipiolas) as jump rings to hang them. The piece looks particularly striking when hanging in a window, where the musical backing shines through to the front, and the hearts glow a fiery red.

This piece is dedicated to our friend Jodi Pitcheralle, 1957-2007 - I will dedicate a whole post to Jodi in the future, but I can't right now.

My mom was the costume design consultant for Flashdance

...okay, she never got paid for it... but I'm sure that years ago, the wardrobe spies spotted my mother in a hacked off turtleneck and thought of Jennifer Beals. Alright, not totally likely either, but I can tell you that long before Flashdance, my mom INVENTED cutting up sweatshirts and tees, particularly removing necklines, sleeves, and hems. I know. I watched her, and I've inherited the compulsion (I could have called it desire, need, etc, but it appears to be a spontaneous urge to hack the crap out of inexpensive tees, etc. that just don't fit quite right, so it's more of a compulsion, I think)... I've also inherited a number of other traits from my mom, but we'll save those for another time. (Excuse me while I pick little pieces of lint off the rug that I just vacuumed.)

Why did this become today's blog topic? It's not like a Flashdance reunion weekend, and to my knowledge, Jennifer B. and her co-stars didn't die in a freak plane crash. (although my mentioning it will make that happen now, just watch!!)

It came to me last night while I was hacking away at a "Hanes for Her" t-shirt -- in this extreme NY summer heat and humidity - the need to find a shirt with minimal fabric drove me to grab scissors and tee. While I was cutting so confidently to make the crew neck wider & cooler, I thought of my mom and started to laugh. She always insists she's not creative. And I knew that she was wrong. And that so many people don't recognize all of the ways in which they are creative.

... I thought of her again, a half-hour later, when I took my dog out for his evening walk, and the new, larger neckline kept falling off my shoulders, to reveal the straps of my sport bra.

So go out there and create!!!!

You're "a maniac, maniac..."

My July Ta Da list...

For those of you who stop by regularly, you already know why I do this, but I can't stress enough how it has helped me and why everyone should keep some kind of record of their important achievements -- even small ones! Maybe it's just that I suffer from extremely poor short- and long-term memory, but as the months go by, I frequently feel like all I've gotten done was the mundane... the laundry, groceries, yardwork and housework, over and over again, and I feel as if I'm spinning my wheels artistically. The crazy part is that it's not true, but my mind minimizes my creative accomplishments -- which are so important to me -- and maximizes the drudgery and chores. I don't know why that is, and this list is helping me to strike a balance and to remind myself of all the goals that I actually achieve -- even little ones, as long as they fill a creative purpose in my life.

We are what we think - so think good, happy, creative, powerful thoughts!!!

So without further ado...

I was published in first edition of Artful Blogging magazine (p 20 -23)
I was published in Somerset Home, Volume II (p42)
I helped coordinate and promote a huge rubber stamp sale at Art Connection which was very successful!!
I devoted time in my art room to beeswax collage techniques - I have a half-finished piece that I will post very soon!!
I spent a wonderful half day with my friend Marilyn to teach her Photoshop techniques for her new website & other creative ventures!!
I participated in Art Connection's monthly ATC swap - this month's theme was Bastille Day
I read two books: Mercy by Jodi Piccoult, and Rescue, by Elizabeth Richards
Inspired by a wire-wrapped ring that my sister purchased on Martha's Vineyard, I taught myself some wire-wrapping techniques and made some rings -- pictured- they are much prettier in person, if I do say so myself - particularly the ones made with mother of pearl buttons
I also have a few other art & writing projects in the works, but I'm keeping them under wraps until they're finished!!!

...and in order to do all of these things, I let the house get quite messy, and my lawn really needs mowing, and that's okay!! (alright, it's driving me a little crazy, but it will all wait for me!!)