Soul Humming

Work, work, work

I'm working like a little elf over here, trying to finish some gifties for Mother's Day. A piece of equipment I bought for such purposes ended up being the wrong sort of equipment. But I spent two days trying to make it work which resulted in learning a thing or two but being much later with my progress than I would like. Hence no new insightful blog posts.

Instead, I'll give you day two of the shopping extravaganza that was Maija's visit. These images are from a most delicious shop, Paris to the Moon, in Costa Mesa, CA. All the photos are from the front shop. There is also a deliriously dark and supremely scrumptious shop, Paris Underground, which is behind the front store. It is right up my alley with Gorey books and posters, religious icons, and all sorts of gothic goodness. I was too distracted by the amazing pieces to take photos there. Maybe next time...

this crystal covered tree was breathtaking! and they have individual branches that you can buy to hang your treasures from.

i really, really want this chandelier for my studio! isn't it just the best?!

i think these are fabulous. i think the big mushroom is a table. they also had a slew of wildly busy little gnomes. there was even a fabulous welcome mat with a gnome pushing a wheelbarrow. it had the words "marcel and his wheelbarrow" written in French. it gave me a laughing fit i loved it so.

maija and kerri judd (one of the fab authors of Crowns and Tiaras) who helps run the store. notice those Ice Cream glasses behind the girls. wouldn't those be awesome for a birthday party?

this was definitely one of my favorite discoveries of the day. danyell (the other fab author of Crowns and Tiara's) and her husband had rescued this baby squirrel. his name is Chip and he is so, so precious!

back to work! have a good one, people!

BFF Alert!

look what the cat dragged in...

my sweet friend, maija! she was in l.a. for an extra-special crafty, girlie retreat. from the tales i heard it was heavenly! so, last minute she decided to head south and stay an extra day and some at my house for quality girl time. so a couple girls hit the monthly antique flea market...

that's kristen, me, maija, mary, ruth, pilar, and down in front, that handsome little fellow is kristen's son, connor.

maija and her art retreat roomie, jessi. what a doll!

we spent a couple hours shopping at the market and taking in a beautiful day. the weather was sublime. it was in the mid-60s with a sweet breeze. most luckily, it seemed as if everyone found something special. i found several gorgeous, super shiny vintage rhinestone bracelets and necklaces for excellent prices. hurrah! mary found a beautiful big round tray with a painting of a hot air balloon at a ridiculously low price. we were happy girls!

but the day just kept getting better. next up, we headed to fullerton to visit Gilding the Lily. i can't even begin to tell you how fabulously nancy treated us! she pulled out all the stops (and all the heavenly prizes)! just look at the spectacular treasures waiting for a girl to take them home as her own...

i can't wait to see what ruth makes with her trinkets and baubles and trims

1920s showgirl headpiece - Spectacular!

a little sewing fairy high above us all

Swoon!

this hat was pure confection! the photo does not do it justice whatsoever. i wanted to wear it and never, ever take it off! perhaps that's why i look rather deranged. i've been hat hypnotized...

mary is deep on the treasure hunt

does this give you any idea how high the walls of ribbons are?

i am truly not a big shopper. so i was delighted that nancy's precious friend linda came over with a delicious bottle of white wine for us. i perched myself in a corner on the floor with my glass in hand to sort through drawer upon drawer of vintage Parisian feathers, boxes of mysterious old photos, and seemingly infinite shiny sparkling findings, earrings, and precious bijoux.

THANK YOU, NANCY! i tell you people, you need to go to this breathtaking haven of loveliness! you will be so delighted that you did! the addy is 305 N. Harbor Blvd. Suite 101, in Fullerton, CA

after we dragged ourselves away from The Lily, we headed out into the courtyard for lunch...

this is the same place i had lunch when i was here with ruth a while ago. and again i cannot remember the name of the place! but their tomato basil bisque is the best darn tomato soup i've ever had in my entire life. every single girl at our table had it and every single one kept saying over and over how fabulous it was. oh now i'm getting hungry...

this fig tree was magical. it was so tall and even had figs springing right from the dirt.

is she not just the prettiest blue-eyed girl? oh, i love you miss maija you crazy devil, you! i am going to miss you something fierce. who will i watch dexter in the dark with? no one will watch it with me here at home. i'm so glad you could come visit but it was much too quick. just keep the door open for mary and me. we'll surprise you soon enough!

i'm off to bed friends. my sister tells me she misses my long posts when i actually write something. ha! if she knew how long it took me to resize and post all these photos she would understand. and after all this girl time everything has fallen by the wayside (mom! i don't have any socks!). i have not one but two (sort of three) Pay It Forward posts to share with you as soon as i can grab a minute.

be well, friends. be happy.

 

Awake, My Soul

Give me of the true
Whose ample leaves and tendrils curled

Among the silver hills of heaven,
Draw everlasting dew

Digesting

"The men of experiment are like the ant; they only collect and use. But the bee...gathers its materials from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own." - Leonardo da Vinci

I started working on a 14" x 18" canvas yesterday. I was itching to play with these Golden mediums I got at the workshop the other day. So here's how it is going along...

first, i drew in the face and hair with a good ole' number 2 pencil. i don't know what i'll do to the background yet.

then i added a long stripe of the coarse molding paste. i decided each section of her hair would get a different texture.

popkin thought this sounded like a fantastic idea. she even added some of her hair to the painting. don't tell her but i took it out.

while letting the paste dry i was wandering around the house and ran across a BIG old world atlas that i have. i especially liked the colors and symbols from these canadian pages. so they are going to be the basis for the background. i love the city names (elbow, peacock, peace, peerless, pelican, mystery lake) and tore little bits of them out and added them all around to entertain myself.

i layered the map pages and bits of flotsam and jetsam i found on my desk with soft gel medium in gloss.

i added regular molding paste to the second stripe of her hair. i tried pushing a rubber stamp into it but i think it was still too wet. but it gave it some texture so i left it that way. the last stripe is covered in a fiber paste. it was my favorite of the three. it is exceptionally thick and has fabulous texture going on. but it is fairly dry and was a little tricky to get onto the brush and apply just the right way. i can imagine a lot of uses for this stuff. i also added it to her eyebrows and painted on some titan buff for her skin. i decided that i would let her have normal skin color. i usually change the skin color to yellow or blue or green. but she's apparently canadian and i think my neighbors to the north are not blue skinned (wink, wink).

so i started laying in some color and shadow. i'm undecided about the background and her hair. i am thinking i will add paint to the background and possibly a medium that has glass beads to give it a highly reflective look. i like her white eyebrows but i don't want her hair to be white. i just don't know what color i want to make her hair. originally i thought about entwining butterflies in it. now i'm not so sure. i'll keep playing and see where i end up.

this is where she is now. i have to add some more map to the bottom left corner. and i need to keep working on her shadows. the tones are off. the ear contrast is too high. i couldn't find the right small brush (i didn't clean them well and they were all stiff. bad me. geez, i guess i'll have to go get a couple new brushes...and look at other Golden mediums!). so i am having fun being inspired by these products. i'm playing and finding out what i can do with them. i'll keep you posted as this piece progresses. now get out of here and go Play!

Golden Paints Workshop

 "i am inhabited by that which awakens me

but does not reveal itself."

yesterday i was fortunate to attend a workshop given by Golden Paints' artist Chris Cozen at the offices of Stampington. Chris is the author of a new book Altered Surfaces which goes into much detail on how to use Golden's products. she updated us on the newest products from Golden and showed us many ways to use the variety of amazing mediums which they produce. as Golden paints are by far my favorite, i was delighted to take part.

one new product she introduced to us is coarse molding paste. it produces a texture like fine sandpaper but has a subtle crystalline quality in the surface that reflects light. chris gave us a piece of board with the product painted onto it with the color indian yellow. while there i used a transparent green and a more opaque green to see how each worked over this medium. once home i continued to paint this quick self-portrait.

here's a close up so you can see the texture and quality of the coarse molding paste.

another hands-on exercise chris led us in was mixing the Golden paints with a plastic palette knife directly onto black paper. she has a favorite palette knife which can be found at dick blick in a five piece set (we used the top one of the five). chris loves using the interference paints on black paper then tearing bits off to use as collage elements. here's a bit of mine...

chris teaches a variety of wonderful classes in southern california. if you would like to learn more about working with Golden products, check out her schedule here.

De-slumping

So I had mentioned that I was having a slump. I knew why I was having the slump but I was struggling with the crawling out of the slump part. My slump was mostly with painting. And I knew that I was having it because I haven't been painting. Pretty obvious, aye? I talked to Ruth about it and she said that she has always had a tough time switching between fabric arts and jewelry. They come from completely different places for me. The only way I knew to describe it to her was that making jewelry is cold and painting is hot. I know that isn't really obvious or clear on the surface of things, but it makes perfect sense to me.

The jewelry I make is often inspired by the metal and by the stones. I am not adding to these for the most part. They already exist. I may create a link or a focal point but overall the pieces have come from the earth (cold) and I merely bring them together.

With a painting, I take paints and canvas and create what is inside of me. I breathe into it (hot) and it becomes something completely different than it was before.

But I am getting off track. I finally had a burst of de-slumping. This past week I went to Hoag Hospital for the Creative Expressions art session led by Carole Akins for cancer patients and survivors. I haven't been able to attend for a while as my jewelry class was on the same night. And this group only meets once every three or four months. So I was extremely excited to be able to take part.

One thing that is remarkable about my large desire to go is that in the past I have been hit face first with CANCER when I got there. Before going I would forget completely about cancer and anything to do with it. But when I walked into the auditorium I remembered everything and with remembering fear came along for the ride. For the first few minutes I would have to have a little talk with myself to calm down and get to work.

But this week I realized how excited I was to be there. I realized that I was okay to have cancer show up. I wasn't very interested in anything cancer had to say to me. I was going to Paint and I was excited about it. Cancer wasn't going to scare me! And it didn't.

This week the first thing I noticed upon walking into the room were the two piles of HUGE canvases. We were going to work on 24" x 22" canvases!! YAY!! There's nothing like working big to force you out of a slump!

Upon arriving and finding a place to sit down, each artist already has everything needed at their spot. The wonderful women from Hoag have already gone around to every seat and supplied an apron, a palette full of paints, brushes, a container of water (which they change for you throughout the night without even having to be asked), matte medium, and scissors. Up front there are pastels, conte crayons in black, decorative papers, stickers, and detail brushes. So all you have to bring is yourself. And did I mention that this is all Free? Well, there's is the cancer part. You have to either have it or have had it to participate. Ha, ha. Maybe I would rather have paid cash?

For this session, Carole wanted us to create a piece that focused on our heroes. She had run across this beautifully illustrated children's book which inspired her for this workshop's theme.

and she created this fabulously colored creation for us to be further inspired

forgive the flash! i love how carole paints faces. she comes up with the best characters.

so as i sat and looked at the enormous white canvas i had not an inch of slump left. there were no voices! hurrah! hurrah! all that was in me was an absolute love of life, an embracing of the gorgeous colors on the palette, and an excitement to PLAY surrounded by these strong men and women.

the entire class from beginning to end (which includes carol's instruction, drying time, and clean up) is only two hours. so i had to work FAST. when it comes to heroes, after having cancer, I AM MY OWN HERO. that may sound full of myself but i have to honor myself in the fight because it was my battle for my life. my faith, my family, and my friends are all part of my heart and helped me but for this piece i wanted to bring it all together. so here's my Big Canvas...

there were two things that we didn't have that i really wanted. one was black paint. can you imagine painting without black? there was a very, very dark violet so i'm sure i could have made black but i didn't want to spend time mixing paints when i had such a big canvas to cover. i did use oil pastels and there was a black in there. but it was difficult to get the eyes the way i wanted them with the fat pastels. so the second thing i didn't have was a tiny detail brush. anyway, this was my piece and it FELT WONDERFUL TO MAKE IT!! which for me was the de-slumping. to paint and paint and not worry, not over-think it, not question it felt like heaven on earth. it needs a bit more work but i have to say that i was just so happy to have accomplished so much in such a short time. it felt fabulous.

and i met this super girl, too...

she was her own hero, too. and the day of the class was her birthday. she had never been to the art therapy session before. as i talked to her we really hit it off. isn't her painting amazing? we started talking about different artists and then realized that we're born in the same year, just two months apart. she has breast cancer and recently finished chemo. i hope i get to see her again at the session in august. prayers for zoe.

Brenda Pinnick

Brenda Pinnick is a wonderful artist who makes beautiful, colorful, whimsical paintings. She even has a line of cards and scrapbooking materials that sell on QVC! How cool is that? She's one smart and talented cookie! And guess what! When Bernie was having the big fundraiser for A Place to Bark, I won a painting from Brenda, a painting that she made just for me!! You could have knocked me down I was so surprised to win something.

So, I sent a picture of my dog and cat to Brenda and she made the most adorable, happy, vibrant piece loosely based on the Big Dog and Popkin. It is titled Saturday in the Park. Check it out...

I LOVE this joyful piece. It makes me smile from ear to ear whenever I look at it. Thank you, thank you, Brenda! You are awesome!

Be sure to visit Brenda's blog. She is currently having a give-away for another painting (!!!) as she is celebrating her 100th blog posting. Happy blog party, Brenda!

the Key is Love...

"I find You, Lord, in all Things and in all
my fellow creatures, pulsing with Your life;
as a tiny seed You sleep in what is small
and in the vast You vastly yield yourself.

The wondrous game that power plays with Things
is to move in such submission through the world:
groping in roots and growing thick in trunks
and in treetops like a rising from the dead." -Rilke

Double Green

i'm still talking about all things green hence the title of this post Double Green. below are just a few sites where things are being repurposed. when i see the amazing creations made from what would otherwise be garbage i am very inspired. i hope you will be too!

did you get your reusable market bags yet? i found some nice ones at this etsy site: limabeanhome.etsy.com and she's having a great sale in honor of earth day. if you buy any two resuable market bags she will give you two resuable produce bags for Free! check it out.

and how cool is this?

"BaZura Bags is working with a women’s co-op in the Philippines that set up a Livelihood Project assisted by the local village council. With almost no capital, the women found a very clever way to support themselves. 

Every day, children from the local schools collect over 50,000 used drink containers,   called doy packs, then sell them to the co-op. The packs are sanitized and the women sew them together into attractive, durable bags.      

We estimate that millions of these containers get thrown in the trash everyday in the Philippines. Until we find a way to recycle them, or stop using this material altogether, we would like to reuse as many empty drink containers as possible and, in the process, support fair trade." - taken from the Bazura Bags website.

they have an enormous variety of bag styles (even coolers!). please do give them a look.

 

tonic - and this site has excellent graphic tees with profits going to buy shoes for children in haiti, clean water in Bangladesh and Honduras, or malaria nets in Africa depending on which shirt you purchase.

schimmel - this site is from an amazing artist creating mosiac portraits from junk mail. they are really quite extraordinary.

a little hut - here you will find a fun blog by a woman named patricia, who is a wonderful paper artist. the link will lead you to a cool project using newspaper fliers that invade most mailboxes. she also is working on a paper craft book and offers many projects at her site.

Stained Glass Stone Angels

“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.” - Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

i'm still working each month in a journal round robin with the theme of Stone Angels. these two pages are for my friend, caryl. she mentioned that she liked stained glass windows and the artists have added pages with their take on them. so these are mine...

this piece has some cool texture which doesn't show up in the photo. i wanted to give an extra layer to the piece that would boost the stained glass effect. as i am forever buying and quickly losing mica sheets, i coated the entire surface with several layers of clear embossing powder. it gave the piece great shiny texture, sort of like a beeswax collage without the worry of dents and bumps or dust. there's also a bit of a vintage matchbox label, twine, and a wish ticket (which i gleefully wadded up, wet, painted, and eventually set on fire).

i love this one-breasted woman with the cicada rising out of her head. good mojo here. this page has a big strip of embossed wallpaper that i painted with metallic silver before adding several layers of color. i also used a large stamp to add more of the clear embossing. you can see the design on the figure's throat. this same design is on the whole page but only shows up if you turn it a certain way.

it certainly was wonderful to work on these. i had some terrible critical voices ranting at me at first but finally they realized no one was paying any attention so they ran out to play in the street.