N Bion - Mixed Media Collage - 6x6

Finally I'm finishing up the pieces I started last week just before Thanksgiving. I stole moments all weekend long between holiday festivities to add bits and pieces and layers of varnish. This is the first of six new images.

Back at Work

Even if I don't have a plan when I walk into my studio, I know that I can sit down, start playing with my art supplies, even if it's just in my journal, and soon an idea will come to me and I'll be creating art again.

Last week; however, I just couldn't do it. I'd go into the studio, sit in my chair, look over my supplies and just sigh. I didn't have the energy either physical or mental. So I ended up taking a week long mental health break.

Today, though, I was back in the studio having fun and it felt great. I generally work on about a half-dozen things at once since I have to allow for drying time between certain stages of the work; that way I can work on another piece when one is drying. When I left my studio at 4:00 today I had the makings of six new pieces and had even dabbled in my journal a bit. With Thanksgiving coming up, who knows when I'll get the chance to spend any more time in my studio; but it feels good knowing that there's something for me to work on when I get the chance.

Photography and Mixed Media Collage

Midsummer Night Sky - 4x10

I've not been able to get anything done in my studio this week, nor have I gone on any great photo outings that I could share so I was searching for something to write about. Then I remembered a recent conversation I had with a friend regarding my obsession with altering photos on Photoshop. It's an activity in which I can become absorbed for hours on end and from time to time I'll use the results in my artwork. This piece, which I created this past summer, is a case in point.

It actually started as a photograph of a small fountain on my Mother's back deck of her home. The following is a visual step by step process of the alterations that the photo went through before I turned it 90 degrees, added some collage elements and then cropped it. Then come back and look at the finished piece and you can make out some frog faces.

Spirals

Mixed Media Collage - 6x6

This is the last of the neutral toned pieces that I created last week. I packed up 16 new collages and delivered them to Thistles Gallery in Lewes, Delaware. We're all keeping our fingers crossed for a prosperous holiday season.

Just In Time For Christmas

Star Gathering - Mixed Media Collage - 11x14

This is an image that I created two years ago to hang in a two-artist exhibit that was called "Femme Fatale". One of my collectors asked me this evening if I'd please use this image to create a travel mug in my online shop, "shop crabulous!" I was only too happy to comply. I created not only a travel mug but several styles of T-shirts, posters, a tote bag and note cards.

So, if you're looking for something unique in the way of a Christmas gift, please visit "shop crabulous!" You can click on the direct link in the left hand column of this blog, or if you're reading this on Facebook, the website is: http://www.cafepress.com/shopcrabulous

Tobacco & Leather

Mixed Media Collage 6x6

Another piece in neutral colors. The colors remind me of tobacco and leather; thus the name. I organize all my papers by whether they are warm, cool or neutral. The paper you see in the upper left and lower right hand corners is a grayed green and I had a hard time deciding whether to keep it with the cools (where my green papers are) or the neutrals. It's a banana paper and the color is called "mesquite" but it reminds me of tobacco leaves.

One Copper Leaf

Mixed Media Collage 5x7

The week started out on a very "high chroma" note, but suddenly, like a mood swing, everything went neutral. It might have to do with the nor'easter that we're experiencing, but I find these pieces in the neutral shades to be rather soothing after all the high intensity color. This is the first of several.

French Curves

5 x 7 Mixed Media Collage

Nine years ago I took a design class at the local college. I had the idea that it would be interesting and easy; perhaps mostly a slide show. In reality it was the most difficult course I have ever taken in my life and I am a much better artist for it. And it was the result of one of the assignments of this class that got me thinking about collage as a medium.

There was a very long list of supplies that we had to purchase for this class and among those supplies was a set of French curves. We never used the French curves in any of our assignments and I've never understood how or when to properly use them; but I've turned them into stencils which I've incorporated in my artwork. In the past I've cut French curve shapes out of my scrap collages, but in this instance I used some of the palette paper I spoke of in earlier posts.

Wild About Color

It's been a productive week in the studio and I couldn't wait to share these two little mixed media collage pieces. Note that in both of these collages I have used pieces of the scrap collage that I made and posted on October 18. And I didn't just use circles, I also used semi-circles!

The first piece is called "Puzzled Pieces" and the second one is titled "Keeping It All Together". I like how the "puzzle pieces" in this second collage look a little like band-aids trying to keep the world glued together; but even as they try to keep it all together, the world is still askew. I guess we're all feeling a little that way these days.

We Have a New Name!

You may remember from my September 5 post entitled, "Girlfriends," that my group of artist friends was trying to find a new name for ourselves. We had been going by the name of the "Women's Art Club" almost by default and we just weren't crazy about it; it sounded way too stuffy.

After months of tossing ideas around and then rejecting them, we finally arrived with our new moniker, "The Artsy Girls Guild" or "TAGG". It happened almost by accident. My sister had emailed me one evening asking me if my artsy girl group had ever come up with a name and from that innocent question we were inspired. You never know where the next good idea will come from.

Thank you, Cindy, and congratulations to the Artsy Girls!

Beach Still Lifes

After last week's rain it was too tempting to enjoy the sunshine today. I left the studio, but I took my artistic eye with me and captured these "still lifes." I hope you enjoy them!