Yesterday

When we were young we used to say

That you only hear the music

when your heart begins to break

Now we are the kids from yesterday...

from "The Kids From Yesterday"

by My Chemical Romance

This started out as a journal page. Then as I painted the sketch I started to like it more. I added the art papers I made from my CitraSolv stash and then added paint to those and really liked where this was going. So now I have this in my art journal and may do another one on canvas.  :o)

I bought the CD by My Chemical Romance over the weekend and really like a lot of the songs on it. Among them was the one I quote from here. Another one I just can't get out of my head is "Scarecrow". I'm going to have to do an art piece on that one; it keeps calling my name. I'll be blasting this CD all the way to Columbus this weekend, I can already tell.

This piece just makes me happy. It reminds me of myself, both as I am now and as I was younger. Escaping into music when things get to be too much. And the sunglasses just make me happy! I used to always have lots of pairs of sunglasses in the car. They were kind of like purses: I could never have too many! ;)

I worked on this collage all evening while watching football with hubby. I had the art journal spread out in front of me and all of my papers, paints, gel medium, etc. It was relaxing and brought back a lot of memories. It was funny, though, because I was listening to the iPod as I worked on it, too! I guess some things never DO change! ;)

It's been a low key weekend and today was a nice ending to it. I hope you all had a safe and happy holiday weekend. I'm really looking forward to next Sunday. Another trip to Columbus for a week. I have to get a lot done around here this week before my trip but I hope to post at least once or twice more before I leave. I'll have computer access while I'm there so all is not lost!  ;)  Stay tuned...

Permission To Dance

This is my latest encaustic: "Permission To Dance". It's 9" x 12" encaustic on wood panel. I think it's interesting that I'm into this pink/yellow/green mode with my color choices now. These aren't the colors I'm normally drawn to. But looking over the work I've done this past couple of weeks, my Muse seems to want to play with them.

This piece was a totally new departure. It's painted entirely in layers of Pan Pastels and encaustic medium. The incised lines and dots are filled in with oil paint. I read on Linda Womack's blog (love her encaustics!) about her experiments with the Pan Pastels. She said she wanted to try an entire painting using them. So did I after seeing her results.

I recently ordered a bunch of new colors and decided to see how they would do with the encaustic medium. Dreamy!! Plus, it saves on the cost of encaustic paints if I can alternate between the two. This opens up a whole new world of possibilities! I will definitely be playing more with the Pan Pastels in my future ecaustic work.

On another note, in Monica Zuniga's "Inspire Me" workshop I did this painting on watercolor paper. I call it "Roses For A Blue Lady".

Again with the color palette! But I enjoyed playing with watercolors for this piece! This portrait was painted entirely in watercolors, white acrylic paint and watercolor pencils. Loving the results I get with that combination. Then I just added some collage material, napkins, stencils and acrylic paints in the background. I LOVED her last lesson and she just posted another one for drawing/painting dolls. Anyone who knows me knows I have a BIG soft spot for anything to do with dolls. So my attempt at that may be coming soon.

That's it for today. Just finished the encaustic piece. Hours fly by when I'm playing with these! The whole afternoon is gone but I love the results.

Submerged

This is another mixed media collage I made using the monoprints I posted earlier. I have changed this one so many times. I think it's finished now. I didn't really have a "water" theme in mind when I made this one. It's still part of the series I'm working on called "Finding My Way Home".

The image of the little girl is one of the Digital Grounds images I had made using molding paste and pearl mica flake. This particular image was "ruined" when I tried to seal it with the sealers that came in the Digital Grounds kit. After I had applied the sealer the image turned a shade of green. I was not happy! But I kept it thinking I could maybe use it for an experiment later. I had worked so hard to get that molding paste/mica flake base just right for printing the images! All of the images from that particular sheet of molding paste turned a green hue. Lesson learned: DO NOT SEAL molding paste!!

Anyway, after making the background with the monoprints I noticed that it resembled being underwater. I looked at the little girl image again and decided she would fit perfectly since she has that look, too. If you look real closely at her image you may be able to see that I added a couple of pieces of mica tile: one jagged piece on the top and one on the bottom. This gave her a shattered glass look. I liked the effect. Here is a closeup:

What was also interesting was when I added the mica tiles I noticed that she now looked like she was crying. There was a little stream running from one of her eyes; probably from where I adhered the mica. Even more perfect!

This ties into the theme very well. I did feel submerged in grief, loss, anger, the whole thing when I learned of my mother's death. Like the little girl I was drowning in it all. The "5" represents five years since she died and "94" was the year she died. All of this is just part of the work I'm doing trying to FIND MY WAY BACK HOME.

No Tears In Heaven

This is a mixed media collage that I made using a set of the monoprints I mentioned in my last post. The canvas is 5" x 5" and is part of a series I'm working on called, "Finding My Way Home". This is very personal artwork dealing with the death of my mother and coming to terms with my grief.

If you look real closely you'll see a face in the lower left corner. That is from the Digital Grounds images I made a while back. That is one of the faces I printed out onto tulle. I loved how the colors of the papers under the tulle were perfect for the face when I placed it there. I have already finished another canvas and I'll post that one soon. I still want to live with a day or so before I decide if it's really finished. ;)

I'm thinking about incorporating all of these little canvases onto a larger work when they are finished. It just depends on how many I end up making! Or, I guess I could choose my favorites and use those. For right now I'll just work as the Muse guides me.

By the way, I think I found the perfect piece to add to the woven-fabric collage. I'm working with it right now and hope to finish that one soon.

Fabric Weaving: A Work In Progress

I have been intrigued by a piece of work I saw recently in the online Quilting Arts Newsletter called, Embellishments. It showcased a collage that was done on a fabric-woven background. It was really cool! I've been thinking about that piece ever since; mulling over how I could do something similar. Their weaving was done loosely and tied off at the ends. It was intended to be kind of haphazard; definitely NOT a perfect square. That's one of the reasons I was so drawn to the piece in the first place! ;)

In my piece I've incorporated two of the Digital Grounds images I've made: the first is the image of a door printed onto two layers of molding paste with silver mica flakes embedded in it. The second is an image of me as a little girl printed onto three layers of Golden's soft gel medium. The shiny areas of the image are the overhead light's reflection off of the gel medium. The image itself is totally transparent. Clicking on the photos gives a much larger view.

So I've got this started. Nothing is sewn down or glued into place yet. The only "finished" part is the fabric weaving that will be the background. This first photo is the overall view and the bottom photo is a closer view.

Right now I have it backed with white felt and laying on a stretched canvas. I'm still thinking about how to mount it when it's finished. I'm planning on adding some more fibers, weaving those through the cloth and adding some other embellishments.

I have a working title of "Finding My Way Home". This is just the rough beginning. I've got a lot of other things I want to incorporate into it. I'm going to think about it for awhile.