Butterfly Ballet, mixed media collage, 6x6

Keeping with my buggy alliteration theme, I give you this new little collage. For the moment I have no more terpsichorean insects; I promise.

Tomorrow; however, is the first day of a new month when I always give my blog a new look. So stay tuned.

Dragonfly Dance

Mixed Media Collage on Gallery Profile Wrapped Canvas 6x6

So this is today's offering. Do you recognize some of the scrap collage from my "Shakin' It Loose" post? These are some of my favorite colors and I love the way these papers reacted to the varnish. Their colors became even richer and more lush when the varnish was applied.

I received a very touching email yesterday. I didn't recognize the name when I received it, but the sender was a young lady for whom I was commissioned to do a wedding invitation collage by one of the guests at her wedding a couple of years ago. She wrote me to tell me that the collage was her favorite wedding gift and that now she'd like me to do the same for the birth announcement for her daughter using some of the fabrics from her daughter's nursery.

I was so excited to see this message. I don't know at this point whether or not I'll actually get the commission, but I'm delighted that she liked her wedding collage so much. Things like that definitely give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

The Collection

Mixed Media Collage, 6x6, on Gallery Profile Wrapped Canvas

Sorry, I had a difficult time getting either a good scan (because of the 3D elements) or good photo (poor light today) of this one. I may try for a better one later.

Thinking Of June

Mixed Media Collage on Gallery Profile Wrapped Canvas - 6x6

Shakin' It Loose

After last week's task at organization I found it difficult to switch gears this week. Once I get into the left side of my brain I find it difficult to leave. In addition to organizing I was also working on taxes so I was very far into the left side. So, in order to ease myself back into the right side of my brain I decided to make another scrap collage. To me, it's a lot like shaking out after an intense physical exercise session.

As you know, this is not a finished piece of work. This will later be cut up and used in future collage pieces. But what makes it so wonderful to work on when I'm transitioning is that I can work intuitively. Although I know all the color "rules", color is my strength and I don't have to think a lot about it when I'm working. I just dove into my box of scraps and pulled up pieces whose colors appealed to me and went together.

Composition and making strong focal points is where I tend to be weaker and with this exercise I don't have to think about those things. Color, only, and little bit of balance. Now I'm ready to rock and roll!

Organization

My work in the studio this week has been more about organization than creation. OK. The truth. It's been all about organization and nothing about creation. I've been trying to decide which 32 pieces of art to take to Yellow Springs next month. Yes, it's a month away, but they need all the artwork information by March 31st in order to make all their labels before the artists descend upon them with their "stuff". And, of course, I almost never leave anything to the last minute because that's sure to court disaster.

So I made all the decisions from my computer. I have spreadsheets showing me my art inventory by gallery so I know what pieces are where. I also have digital files arranged by gallery so I can actually "see" which artwork is where. After I made my decisions I then had to create a new spreadsheet and digital image file for Yellow Springs. Then I had to physically round up the artwork. Of course the bigger pieces were newly created and still in my studio. Still, Thistles Gallery took the biggest hit, but they were gracious about it. I also left them with some new artwork in exchange for the pieces I pulled. It wasn't one for one, but at least it was a "piece" offering. (Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.)

Then, I felt compelled to make a new page on my website to give my customers a preview of the 32 pieces that will be displayed at Yellow Springs. It was a lot of work to squeeze so much information on one page. It fits on my laptop screen, but I'd be interested in knowing if everyone else can see the whole page. If you have time to look at it, I'd appreciate your feedback before I email it to my customers.

So, that was my work week. I'm hoping to get back to creating next week. I need to make some new work for an upcoming fine crafts show and I have an illustration project that I'm dying to sink my teeth into.

Victoriana

Victoriana - Mixed Media Collage - 10x20

This is the last of the blank 10x20 canvases. And now I can move onto other things.

Work In Progress

Remember that stack of five canvases I showed you in my February 3 post titled "Blank Canvases"? This is the last one. It's coming along but has a ways to go. Hopefully before the weekend I'll have it finished.

Studio 432

When I delivered my collaged Easter eggs on Thursday, I took them to Studio 432, which is located at 432 Aiken Avenue in historic Perryville, Maryland. This beautiful little fine arts and crafts gallery is located in a converted church building and is the dream child of artist, Sue Eyet. It was also featured a few years back on the House and Garden channel.

The next photo is taken from the main gallery floor looking up into the loft. Sue, and her husband, Jerry, planned the renovation and did much of the work themselves.

The bold interior colors are very engaging and supply the perfect backdrop for the colorful artworks of the various artisans, most of whom are local and regional artists.

The following photo is of the stairs leading to the loft. Right now this area features lovely handmade scarves and handbags among other tempting items.

And the following photo is a view from the loft. I happened to snap this one at Christmas time, hence the Christmas decorations you see. Sue always hosts a very popular Christmas open house the first weekend of December. The place is chock full of great gifts and she serves marvelous refreshments at this event.

The door on the right hand side of the photo above leads to the front room of Studio 432. This room is used for classes and workshops and currently features the amazing works of artist Susan Webster. Please take a moment to visit Susan's website at this link: Susan Webster Art. Believe me you won't be sorry.

Below you can see my little corner of the gallery. I love this blue wall and how it enhances the colors in my collages.

The following two photos depict more of my collages, which are sitting on display shelves in the middle of the gallery.



And of course every great shop positions tempting impulse buys at the check out counter.


Last, but not least, a photo of the lovely proprietress, herself, Sue Eyet. She is an amazing artist and visionary and just a beautiful soul.

To see more about Studio 432, be sure to visit the website at this link: Studio 432

TAGG (The Artsy Girls Guild)

Sketch of TAGG logo by Pam Goffinet

You know how much I love my art girlfriends. It's been a tough winter and I haven't seen any of them since December. So when we got together for our regular monthly meeting last night it was a warm reunion.

From left to right in this photo are Jay, me, Susan, Dee, Pam, Annie & Lorraine. Although our waitress did her best she only managed to get 7 out of the 10 of us in this shot.

We debated on where to meet last night. Susan had proposed Aruba and if he could have swung it I'm sure we'd have all met there. So the warmest sounding place we could come up with was a Mexican restaurant in Newark, Delaware called Santa Fe. It was a new experience for all of us.

In this photo are Pam and Lynn.

Newark is the home of the University of Delaware and I think we were the only patrons in the restaurant over the age of 25 and the place was packed. I thought the hostess was going to walk off the job when I arrived 20 minutes ahead of our meeting time and told her I needed a table for 9 and we didn't have a reservation. Fortunately, at 5 minutes to 6:00 a large table of young ladies at the front of the restaurant cleared out just in time for our group to be seated and we ended up being 10.

And this is a photo of Judy and Jay.

The food was good and our waitress very attentive. But it was noisy and a little dark, but we made the best of things and had a great time.

This is Annie and her friend, Bernie, who was visiting from Ireland. We always love visitors to our meetings. One of our favorite parts of our meetings is Show & Tell. Whenever someone has created something new, they bring it to share with the others.

Pam, who is a fiber artist, has 26 pieces in a show in Oxford, Pennsylvania which opens tonight. Her item for Show & Tell was this postcard announcing the show and featuring one of her works; the woven map of Australia on the left.



Lorraine, who is an accomplished oil painter, has lately been woodburning dried gourds to great effect and has been selling her gourd designs through a company known as Meadowbrooke Gourds and she was even featured in one of their recent catalogs.

These are absolutely magnificent and I loved how the lids fit so nicely onto the base of the gourds. Here is a link to the website: Meadowbrooke Gourds

Jay is a jewelry designer and brought a number of her pieces to show us. We drooled over them.





Because the lighting in the restaurant was so dim, someone in the group volunteered a small flashlight, which was passed around with the Show & Tell items so that we could see them better. Here Annie is holding the flashlight in her right hand to illuminate Jay's necklaces.

Susan is the ceramic artist in the group. She has been miserable with the wretched weather we've experienced this winter and she vowed to only make pieces of art which would make her laugh. She brought two of those pieces to share with us.

This whimsical bird in its nest is part of a continuing series of birds that Susan calls raku-ku's. (I hope I'm spelling that right.) Anyone familiar with raku will appreciate the pun.

And lastly is a creature which sprung up as an offshoot of Susan's mermaid series. She calls it, naturally enough, a catfish.

It was a wonderful evening and I'm pretty sure a good time was had by all. When we stepped out into the night air after dinner, it actually felt almost balmy. I'm sure it's just because we all felt warm inside from being able to be together again. I miss these gals already and can't wait until next month!

Easter Eggs, Part 2

I finished the Easter eggs which I talked about in my blog post last Sunday and they are ready for delivery today. Below are photos of the individual eggs.



I've had way too much fun with these things. Not only did I take the time to decorate them all, but then I had to shop for a basket, excelsior and ribbon for display purposes and then make a price tag.

At this price you can see what I mean about having way too much fun. Especially since I'll only see 50% of the sale price. This is what is known in merchandising terms as a "loss leader." Sometimes you just have to do something like this to draw attention to the art that is intended to make the artist money.

At any rate, I hope they bring as much joy to someone else as they brought me in the making.

It's March

It's a new month so it's time for a new banner for the blog. I think I love creating banners as much as I love creating new artwork, which is one of the reasons I change my banner almost every month.

Of course March is the season for kites and the way the wind is blowing out there right now, it would be a perfect day for flying kites. Personally, though, I'm not real crazy about March. There's the promise of spring, but mostly it just still feels like winter. It's kind of a cruel trick.

Anyway, the new banner was created from a piece I did awhile back when I was doing my "Dune" series. The 8x10 collage below is titled "Dunes (G-12)."
Enjoy the new month!