Grunge Art Play

My newest inspiration is Alisa Burke http://alisaburke.com/. I've had her book, Canvas Remix for a while and have been wading through prior commitments so I could try some of her wonderful techniques. I'm anxiously awaiting the start of her online class: Grafitti Chic.
In the meantime...
Yesterday I got to play in the studio - and I do mean PLAY - I actually ended up eventually using my hands to smear the paint! I can't begin to tell you how much fun that was and so liberating and free. At first I was stifled and trying to make it "perfect". It didn't look anything like I was picturing in my head. I was frustrated and didn't want to get up AGAIN to clean brushes so I globbed paint on my finger and patted around daintily. The next thing I knew I had a kalidescope of colors on my hands - both of them - and messy and finger painting and smearing. Not only was it a lot faster and freer - I think it was more of an open expression and made for good art. Isn't that what our Creative Muses keep trying to tell us? Don't over think it - just DO it?

So I did. Try it. It was FUN FUN FUN. Yes, it may look like a horrible mess and accident gone awry, but it was the very look I was trying to express. The first doll body above was not gessoed first; I think if I'd have had a neat print fabric for a base, it would work. But I stopped at this point because I'm going to gesso over it. See the second doll body picture? That is the first doll body I did, but I gesso'ed it before I started adding paint. The colors are more vibrant and it has more of a canvas texture for the paint to adhere to. I thought maybe the gesso would make the doll body too stiff, but it's not - still quite pliable. I think this is the beginning of a new generation of Flutterbugartgirl Spirit Dolls.

The Cougars on Passion Island

First I'm going to show you what I made my mom-in-law for Mother's Day - a wallhanging of her and two of her girlfriends from work. They went on a cruise (Mom O's second!) this spring. They had this photo taken at Passion Island. My m-i-l Joy is on the far right. (She said they teased her about her vacation hat - said she looked like Gilligan from Gilligan's Island!) I took the photo and scanned it on t-shirt transfer, transferred it on to fabric and went to work with paints, stamps, markers, etc. I wanted a sweet yet humorous piece that played on the Gilligan theme but also the three "Cougars" at Passion Island. My Inner Critic wavered at the final result, but Cowboy previewed it and said his mama would love it! He was right. She got a kick out of it and so did the girls. She let me borrow it back to photograph, and I had trouble getting a good one since I had finished it with a shiny finish. My artpal Heather (who is also a photographer I've found out among many OTHER artful talents) gave me a tip on how to cut the glare. Not the quality she would produce, I'm sure, but it's good enough to see so I'm posting it! *smile* Fun, yes?!?

Studio Redeux 2

I'm still playing with this (blog) and not sure how to post more pictures in the same blog entry. I need more practice here! I'm sure there's a way but my pics keep migrating to the top. So hang in here with me...
Well at least this one did end up to the side instead of at the top like all the rest I've been attempting to publish... Now you can see ALL the junk I still have. Do you think I need ANOTHER go through and toss out more? If you have any ideas or suggestions to improve this little space PLEASE share with me!!! All ideas welcomed.

Why on Earth has this project taken forever?? Junk I'm telling you - junk. Well ok, maybe not junk to me, but I MAY have had to personally touch a whole bunch of it before letting it go... and then there's the stacking and restacking, and taking it from one pile to another and second thoughts and trying to stay focused, and let's not talk about all the interruptions that happen with life and work and friends and family and am I trying to point the finger to everyone but ME? OK. Busted. It's just so hard to let go! (Do the whiney voice thing here I don't do that so well unless you ask the Cowboy but he's not allowed to weigh in on this topic at the moment, okay? (*grins*)...

But the ARTDOG now... he approves of everything I do. He's so sweet and generous and loving. I let him sit in my chair if he wants. I make his bed up on the table when he's sleepy. Now if I could just get him to drag off some of this extra stuff.... hmmmmm....

Studio Redeux

It seems like it has taken me forever to "hoe" out my art room. First it was the spare bedroom, then the sewing room, art room, and now art studio. That "s" word is a big word, but we're trying it on for size. It's getting easier to say out loud. *smile* I can't believe all the junk I had stuffed into that little room. Here are some pictures of how it looks now....


You might be wondering where the "before" pictures are...hehehehe.... nope I'm not posting them. It's too embarrassing or maybe really you'd be impressed with how much stuff I was actually able to cram in to such a small space. Ha! Regardless, here's the end results. I think I need to sew a skirt around the tables to hide the storage underneath. What do you think? At first I was toying with the idea of using vinyl table cloth material but then realized the lime green stuff went out with the first round of tossed out stuff. So I might buy a pretty fabric that I just love. Did I say BUY fabric??? Well don't tell Cowboy - he'll croak!! I don't happen to have enough yardage of one pattern to make a skirt. I'm estimating I need 4-3/4 yards at 29" to match the height of both tables (the brown one is slightly taller than the smaller white table. I'm so glad to have the tables cleared off and everything in it's place. Now I can create to my abandon!!

There's the little issue of a few piles still in the living room/dining room area... left over after the "give aways", the garbage, more stuff I'm still mulling over tossing out or keeping or even going through and looking at to decide. Yes I'm probably a classic hoarder. I "might" use this, oh! I "might" use that... I see potential in so many things, but will I actually use it? The REAL question is: Will I actually be able to find it again in my piles? Gosh the truth hurts sometimes! But I have to tell you I feel so relieved to be in my neat and tidy space. If I could hire someone (is that Cowboy volunteering in the back there??) to just gather up what's left over and get rid of it and not tell me what's in there, I'd probably be just fine without it. Know what I mean?

Published in Quilting Arts!!

So here it is: "my" page in the current issue of Quilting Arts Magazine. My "Imagine" or "John Lennon" art quilt on page 72 in case I didn't mention that a hundred times already! I'm still excited about it, I look at it a little less now (it was every single day there for a while) and I was almost stopping strangers on the street to say, "See this? This is mine." Or maybe just a simple "I did THIS." Strange but true. My 15 seconds of "fame". Well I love it that my quilt made it onto those hallowed pages of QA. I know I must move on. But I can't. Just yet...

What will really be neat is when I get it back and can hold it in my hands again. I've had a couple offers to buy it but I'm not so sure I want to sell it. This piece of art is a first, a first of a kind and I'm not sure I can really part with it. Maybe I can make a replica or two. I'll toy with the idea for a while, I've got some time.

Besides that, I've been very AWOL in the blog department. July so far has been quite busy with obligations, family visiting, and work. Everything has seemed to have picked up pace in the last month. So much swirling. The "lazy days of summer" have been anything but. We did get away with my brother who was visiting from Oregon. We took a road trip that ended up being not so much on the road as it was in air conditioned hotel rooms. It has been a scorching hot summer and Steve was thinking about maybe retiring here one day. Scratch that thought. We nicknamed him "The Snowman" as he thought he was going to melt. We had to coax him to walk on the beach at 6:30 in the morning, and threaten him to get him out of the room and into the truck so we could take him out to experience a little Cajun cafe called "Crawdaddy's" in Corpus Christi. Never mind that he ordered the spicy Cajun crawfish platter. He only thought he was hot until he started in on that pile of crawfish... We actually found a snow globe in a gift shop that was made just for him: inside the globe was a snowman sitting in a lawn chair in the snow, underneath a palm tree with an "umbrella drink" in one hand. (I think there were Christmas lights strung in the palm tree too). It was the perfect "official" souvenir for him to take back to Oregon. And to remind him, in case he gets the crazy idea again that he might want to move to Texas.

So that's it in a nutshell for me the past few weeks. Juggling everything and spending not as much time making art as I intended. Life tends to interfere if we let it. I did actually sketch a bit while we were gone and have a few projects in the works. I'm hoping to spend at least part of tomorrow and all of Friday in my art realm. Instead of "hoping" I ought to be determined. Otherwise I think there will always be something trying to take up my time. Prioritize. Do what's important and what makes you smile. Even for a bit. A little "Katie-1st" going on. Maybe I'll gather everything up I've been working on and snap a pick -- it'll be a pathetic pile of doll bodies with heads rolling around, half-done drawings and a few "I-wonder-just-what-it-is-I'm-trying-to-make" pieces. I figure a bad start is a start, nonetheless. Better than staring at a blank piece of paper.

Hey, I just learned today I can blog without posting a picture. Ha ha! Seriously, I will get my routine down and blog by Tuesdays, picture ready or not. That will be my goal. There I said it out loud and in print. So it's got to be.

And one more thing before I sign off -- I heard that Heather's jewelry is selling like hotcakes!! Congratulations Heather!! Click on her link over to the right or her website here: www.heathercraigstudios.com. She also has an Etsy store. Isn't that what we artists hope for? Can you imagine not being able to keep up with demand??!!! Let's happy dance for her on our way out shall we?!! Happy Arful Day til later ~~

TWIDDLED WITH THE GADGETS

I did find the "Followers" gadget and published it over there ---------> per your request. Along with a couple others I'm playing with. I'm learning... slowly.... a thousand excuses for not having time, not having pics to post etc. Over in the "LINKS" section are some great new artists as I mentioned in the previous post and also added Holly's felted purses/bags - they are gorgeous. This talented artist just opened shop on Etsy not too long ago. Of course I'm leaning toward the hippie girl bags, don't you think? Which one is your favorite? The bigger one reminds me of the Julia Roberts bag that was so popular last year (was it last year or the year before???)... anyway Holly packs a similar one around with her lately as her go-to bag of everything. It could almost be an overnight bag. Depending on how many art projects you take.... *smile*

FRIDAY FRIDAY

It has felt like a week (or two) of Mondays! Did you feel it too? There have been so many obstacles to art it seems like sabotage! ha! Today nothing will get in my way. I have some photos to upload later and I was up early this morning overflowing with ideas. Projects on the burner included an art doll collage swap with Heather and grunge jacket project, organizing and getting a place for my sacred art sisters to gather and play. Here are a four of my favorite inspirations:
http://lindaedkinswyatt.blogspot.com/
http://sonjahagemanndesigns.blogspot.com/
http://artquilter.blogspot.com/
http://josephineedge.blogspot.com/

This is the current issue of Quilting Arts - and I am soooo proud and excited to have my art quilt featured on page 72!

My John Lennon art quilt entitled "Imagine" is there in living color. I'm still pinching myself and recuperating from doing cartwheels and happy dancing non-stop. I am honored and humbled and wanting to scream at the top of my lungs all at once!
It is my first entry to one of QA's reader challenges. It took a lot of courage and self-talk to convince myself to enter it, to even slide it into a padded mailer and let it go. It feels good to share my art, scary and exciting all at once - and I think the mind set of "sharing my art" rather than the concept that "my art will be judged worthy or not" is a much healthier mindset. And probably a lot more accurate. Even if something doesn't "make the cut" that doesn't render it unworthy. It just didn't fit the criteria at the moment. But the art was shared. That's what's important: to get our art out there and share it with others. So perhaps the goal each day will be to not only Make a Little Art Everyday.... but also to Share a little Art Everyday. Even with just one other person. Art is in the eye of the beholder, it is to be shared. Art is eyecandy, pass it around and share it with one other person every day.

Have You Hugged Your Pet Today?

Here's a picture of Sancho exploring outside the day I was trying out fabric dye/painting. I have several projects in progress and none of them ready to show you. So you get to see my sweet artdog. :)

First though, I want to "Toot my own Horn" as my friend Edz would say. I am so excited that one of my art quilts is published in the next issue of Quilting Arts magazine!! Yay! (Insert Happy Dance here, and y'all join me!)... Page 72 if you are interested... you are, right??!! Having said that, let me get back to the topic at hand. Maybe we'll revist this topic when the actual shock wears off. *grins*

I've got ATC's in progress, a postcard swap winding up (yes Mama Hen Jo, I'm almost finished!), an art doll swap taking shape with my artpal Heather, my inner critic is nagging me and my muse is finding her zen place. Art-zen master Hula-girl Sonja is always keeping me on my toes. Next month I'm going to work on finishing up what I have undone (Girl Undone sounds like an artdoll to me)... and I'm going to squeeze as much art time as I can in between work and a week out of town and my big brother is coming to spend some time with us (he's a hoot!).

I've been trying to wend my way around facebook now and then (sorry Heather I'm a slooooow learner huh?) and mostly hanging out at the new Quilting Arts Community sight: www.quiltingarts.com Have you checked it out yet? There's so much information and new friends and inspiration to be found there. You will be so inspired by the galleries of artwork, and I hope to see yours there soon.

Have you hugged your pet today? If not, take a minute right now and do that. Do it twice. Then get into the art studio even for ten minutes. As I told a friend a little bit ago, a little art does a soul good.

A Lot of Inspiration from Marsha

I needed a little inspiration today. I'm working on a project and I'm stuck, baffled, not sure where to go with it. Everything I try doesn't seem to do the trick. Is it time to let go, toss it out and start again, or am I just needing to get over the hump?

Rolling my eyes, fidgeting in my chair, chewing on my pencil and trying to force myself to rescue what I'm working on, I look desperately all around the room. Searching... stalling. Then my eyes see it. I began to remember, the wheels begin to turn and, well.. here is it's story:

The picture to the left shows a beautiful hand felted piece made by one of my wonderful friends, Marsha, who lives in Oregon. Marsha and I met in our writing group and we instantly bonded. We lived in the same small town on the Central Oregon Coast and we've had so many crazy adventures, I wouldn't know where to start with the stories. Marsha is one of those forever lifetime friends - it doesn't matter whether you live next door or 2000 miles away six states over -- when you hear each other's voice you pick up where you left off. She's always just a phone call or airplane ticket away. So whatever Marsha bestows upon me, is really, really sacred. This particular piece of felted fabric was what she called a "left over" but she thought I'd like to play with it and make something. (She actually used the words "left over" in describing this beautiful textile I was in awe of). Of course I'm enamored by it's beauty but also that it's handmade by my dear friend. I had it hanging as is on my wall for a while and then pretty soon as my little art "studio" became more and more cluttered (I mean FILLED!) it found its way into a drawer, essentially lost and forgotten.

It was the class at Quilt University that required us to find a piece of fabric or fiber that we dearly loved. To USE in a project. You know the feeling; you can't possibly force yourself to cut into that lovely fabric you just love so instead of using it and displaying it in a work of art, it's hidden, folded, forgotten until you stumble across it sometime. You can see what I came up with in the next photo on the right. I used her piece as the mountain and as the colorful stream bed below it. I absolutely love my wallhanging that features Marsha's felting. But it WAS one of the hardest things I had to do: make that first cut. What if I ruined it? What if it's hideous and I've wasted Marsha the artist's precious time and material? What if my friend is disappointed that I ruined her gift? What if? What if? What if it turns out to be a work of inspiration? A work of love? What if it makes me smile and inspires me everytime I look at it?

What if I head back into the studio and re-think my project at hand and ask, "What if?"

More Fabric Dye Day Photos

I really didn't picture myself spending the time or energy dyeing my own fabric. I was surprised at how easy and fun it was and I do think I'll spend more time doing this after all. I was always envious of artists who would take the time to dye their own fabric. Who knows where this will lead? Not bad for a first timer, eh?

Fabric Dye Day

Yesterday I was able to spend a big chunk of the day experimenting with dyeing fabric. Annie and Wallie from our Studio 105 design group were dyeing fabric on Monday during our group meet. The fabrics they made were so delicious! I gave it a try and I had some great results too. I tried using rock salt on a few but I didn't do something quite right as I didn't have much result with that. I need to check back with Annie and Wallie and see what I omitted! Still, it was great fun.

One More Show and Tell

This is one of my journal pages from my monthly art journal 2008. She's printed on vellum and one of my favorites. The colors, the layering, everything turned out exactly as it was in my head.

Here's a couple more pictures of dolls I've made. The first one shows dolls made with patterns by Patti Medaris Culea. I love her dolls and patterns. The three dolls are a series. Together I call them "The Slumber Party". The slumber party doll on the right is named Orgazma. The doll on the far right is an angel named Angelica. It just occurred to me she appears to be praying for Orgazma. Ha! Orgazma was given away as a gift. I let a friend pick which doll she wanted knowing she would pick Angelica. To my surprise, she grabbed up Orgazma. Go figure!

The other photo is a doll called Me, Myself, and I from an elinor peace bailey pattern (with the same name)for a class of hers we attended in Houston. My friend Marsha flew out from Oregon and we went together. She'd attended a couple of elinor's classes before and knew we would have a blast. elinor drew the face on my doll for me (it's supposed to be my face). Her body is psychedelic and reminds me of my first experience with the menopausal years. I left her naked because I loved all the colors; it seemed a shame to hide them beneath clothing.

SPIRIT DOLLS

I was wondering what I was going to write about today and I thought nothing better than to share My Spirit Dolls with you. I started making them a couple years ago and as you can see, there's still a few bodies waiting to have heads and become true Spirit Dolls for someone. In honor of my beloved Art Dog Sanchie, she has a cute doggie on her front - from the Laurel Burch Kindred Spirits line. I love anything Laurel Burch! My Spirit Doll has travelled with me to various places and especially if I'm flying: Oregon, California, Arizona are a few of the places she's been. Usually I have her peeking up out of my carry on bag full of magazines and goodies, or tucked gently in the outside pocket looking out at all the hustle-bustle. She has Spirit Sisters in Hawaii, New York, Oregon and Texas. Then there's their baby sister, Little Spirit Doll who is a necklace. I must take her picture and post soon. You can tell from Spirit Doll that she has a simple-drawn face and that she was part of my early exploration into faces. I love her so. She is simple and yet so magical; beautiful and comforting and soulful. I think she works in sync with my guardian angel, I am so lucky!

I AM THE MOON OF MANY HARVESTS

This piece is a self-portrait I did in a Quilt University class enitled "Self Expressions" taught by Myrna Giesbrecht. It was a wonderful class that taught me much.

The challenge was to find the colors, shapes and textures that represented YOU in the final project. I love this piece as it moved me to step outside my safe zone and work in a new concept that stretched my imagination and my being. I find such peace, tranquility and familiariarity in this art quilt and the space it occupies in my house.

I AM the Moon of Many Harvests in so many ways both literally and figuratively.