Ponderings

I made this piece while in a reflective mood. My mother's birthday is coming up April 2 and the "anniversary" of her death five years ago will be April 4. That still boggles my mind. Five years have gone by so quickly that it doesn't seem real. Just seem to be reflecting on the subject of time and how fleeting it can be...

Serenity

This is how I'm feeling today: serene. I am finally caught up on all of the pending projects I wanted to complete by the end of the month. Whew! I love the different colors and textures of the photos I merged to make this digital collage. I'm learning some new techniques in Photoshop and have tried them out with this piece. I've only scratched the surface of that software but I do love it.

I received some good medical news and thought I would show my appreciation to the Universe for answering my prayers. I am truly blessed!

Cherish: A Tribute To My Mother

Here is the finished art doll I made from Joanna Pierrotti's class at Moss Hill Studios! I call her "Cherish: A Tribute To My Mother". Mom passed away five years ago in April and I wanted to have this doll completed by her birthday which would have been April 2. I think Mom would have really liked her! I LOVE her!! Here is a closeup:

JoAnna is a great teacher and her workshop was a lot of fun. Check out the link on the right sidebar for Moss Hill Studios. She has a lot of workshops available right now. I am so glad I finished this doll before Mom's birthday. Hope you like her as much as I do.

Dream...

I found some beautiful digital embellishments at ScrapArtist.com. The woman, the middle strip and the title all come from a kit is called "Art My Journal". They have some gorgeous art journal kits right now. This kit, I believe, is from HGD Designs. There are also some beautiful art journal kits by Fiddlette Designs. Check them out!

I'm putting finishing coats of glaze on my art doll and hope to have her dried and finished by tomorrow. I'm also taking two other doll classes: one for sculpting faces out of polymer clay by Nancye's Art Dolls and the other class is through Joggles.com called the "Gwendolyn" doll.

There are so many projects on my table right now! I like to work on multiple things at once. I DO eventually finish them!

Live In Color

This is an ATC I made for a recent swap. I've always loved Andy Warhol's use of color in his art. So I thought I would make just a little tribute to him. I'm working on my skinny book pages today. The theme is "Spring". I'm still searching for the perfect images. Pretty soon I'm just going to have to go with one of them and get these done!

Spring Fairy

Spring Fever is here! Friday will be the first day of Spring (finally) and I thought I'd make a little happy reminder. Now it seems my tastes have drifted to the pink palette. I'm still working on my various projects but have had setbacks due to health reasons. Things seem to be getting a little better so hopefully much more progress will be made in the coming days.

Coming Apart

This is a digital collage I put together that will be part of a larger work. I was glad to see that I am able to work in another color besides blue! I have ordered some Lutradur which is something I've wanted to work with for a long time. I also ordered Lesley Riley's new book that talks about different ways to use Lutradur. So, I'm looking forward to putting some of my digital works onto fabric and incorporating the Lutradur.

Grunge Beauty

I came across an art journal prompt that said, "find beauty in the unexpected". So I took an old rusty background and added various fibers, color and images and came up with this. How fun! On another note, I'm working feverishly on the two art dolls in progress. I will post photos of them when finished.

I Believe

OK, after stressing out about the deadlines I did take that deep breath and decided to make a little helper! She gave me just enough magic to put it all in perspective and reassured me that everything will go out on time and to my satisfaction!

Captive

I made this digital collage to show how I feel today. Time just keeps running out for me lately. I'm trying to get too many things done at once and end up not making much progress on any of it. Time for a deep breath! I'm definitely a captive of the ticking clock...

Broken

This is a digital collage I made the other day. I am continuing my love affair with blue, I see. I can't get away from using it, so this is my "blue period". ;) On another note, I think I've got a pretty good start to my game board (see previous posts) but I'm stumped for my "hero" character. It looks like some people are having the same problem from the looks in the message forum.

I have to make a batch of polymer clay faces for another project, so I'll just make something with every mold I have. Maybe one of those will speak to me and I can build my character from there. I can't think of a character name either. Barb Kobe (the facilitator in the Creative Journey) suggests naming your hero FIRST and then maybe an idea will emerge. So, I'm off to try and figure all of this out.

Home Movies

I posted this digital collage earlier today but I wasn't satisfied with it. So I changed it a little and now it's more like I envisioned. After going through some old family photos I realized I didn't have any of the house I grew up in. My sister still lives in the same town so I had her drive by and take a few photos. The place has really gone downhill in the 30-some odd years since I left, but after some tweaking Photoshop I was able to get the place looking more like it did back then.

Art Doll

This is an art doll I made using some of the techniques of doll artist Joanna Pierotti. There was a wonderful section about her dolls and her techniques in the book, Exhibition 36: Mixed Media Demonstrations & Explorations by Susan Tuttle.

You start with any plastic doll head and using her techniques you end up with a head that looks like an antique porcelain doll. Here are some closeups of the face:

I love the technique. The body gets wrapped in lace and fabric and then mounted on a piece of wood. So, not bad for my first try.

Preparing For The Creative Journey

I've been preparing my game board for The Creative Journey (see previous post). This is what I've got done so far. I used a sketch board that I found at Micheal's as my base. I just removed the hardware and that left a nice surface for collage. If you click on the photo you'll get a much better view of the board.

The board is divided into three sections of a circle. The top right portion is "Leaving Home". The bottom half of the board is "The Wilderness" and the top left portion is "Coming Home". You are given certain milestones along the journey and the images you put onto your board are what you consider your interpretations of the milestones. I'm almost finished with it. I'll be adding to it as the game starts and progresses, but this is almost ready for the first session of the class. We will have a teleconference on March 8 and you are to have your board finished, your Hero finished and given a name, and your Herald finished and given a name.

This will be fun. I'll post updates along my Journey to give you some idea of how the game works.