Be Glad

Glad is a funny word sort of short and blunt to describe an emotion that makes us feel good.

I struggled with this piece of art, wanting to use this napkin to it's fullest, it wouldn't come together, one part looked soft and other parts looked harsh, that happens when one tries too many techniques, has too many ideas, and tries to put them all in one piece of work. The experience really isn't work either it is pure enjoyment. A lot of thought, as I consider tossing it in the waste paper, or continueing. Continueing is usually the best. Sometimes I think this can't get any worse, frequently it starts to get better, the lesson is to keep going.

Envelopes, Napkins and Paint

You see the badge on the right, this is some of what we will be learning and are learning at Nora's. There is a lot more. You will look at napkins differently now. The same is true with the quilting, you look at recycled clothing differently as you think about the bit you could use for an art quilt.

I forgot to mention we are using the patterns from inside security envelopes.

I feel I am leaning toward spring, it is a long way to lean yet, have purchased some seeds already. This painting has a spring feel, I like that I could use the lattice from the napkin border in the work

The one photo is just the napkins not a collage.

I will post more collage of this nature in the days to come. Hope your having some spring thoughts.

New Work

Do you ever think that some of your old work looks better than your new work? I think that at times. Of course there is the fact I won't show some of the really old work, and I may not keep that promise either. I have intentions of looking at some of that past work today and working on some shading around the eyes, plus giving eyelids a second look plus work. I may think those paintings are better but I see they lack something also. You are aware that one can completely ruin work with reworking

This art work was done a couple days ago, it has more layering than I usually do, the small face has 5 layers in places and is not as smooth as I would like. A full napkin behind the larger face. I used the middle layer of the napkin as there was still light printing on it that I liked.

I have suddenly been struck by awareness, it is alarming.

Colorful woman

This has always been one of my favorite mixed media paintings, I did it last winter. Iused embossed wall paper as a stamping tool, also a bit of papers, plus other stamping tools on painted backgrounds. She looks like my Mother-in-law in the altered photo I believe was posted in January. There was no intention of this. You will see where to click on the title Altered wedding photo on the right.

Thank you for coming to visit the blog. Hope you had a nice vicit and will come again.

Layering and faces

I worked on that yesterday and today, paint, tissue, charcoal, papers, it is gratifying to see those layers in the background. Because I like a busy looking piece of art, this is fun for me. I also so appreciate a simpler form and look, but, find that harder ,I try those things also.

If you go to http://allnorasart/. blogspot.com/ you will see you can still register for a class in these fun techniques. You will meet fun people, you won't feel intimidated, you will just feel like your having fun.

I have a navy blue acrylic paint that I love mixed with gray and browns also white. That is what I used in these paintings.

A Day, Frustration

My head is rattleing, that is a good sign really, it means there is something there. Computer things, requirement things generated by internet systems often go wrong for me. They did today. Or when someone gives you a key and says this will work on this door, most often it doesn't. Or I get a card at a hotel that should open the door and it doesn't. It is the way it is.

Doors don't open today because I don't have the right thing.

Photo alterations have gone well, painting, layering has gone well. I am thankful.

Color Limits, and Expirments

This is a charcoal face, no experience with this medium at all. Also exercise in limiting colors.

It is a mix of papers, paint, charcoal, writing. I have always liked manilla paper. crayons, pastels, pencil, and charcoal adhear to it nicely. I did the face, cut around it added patchwork paper to the back and then the other papers. I did a little stenciling on her dress and a watery mix of paint behind her head. Black, white, yellow ochre and pale yellow craft acrylic paint were used.

Good Intentions

I had good intentions, I wanted simple, pretty but simple, a simple drawing with some charcoal, and I had noat done that. Not too much color, not too much going on. Then I got this story in my head and couldn't stop.

There is a story here of lost love, it just didn't work, perhaps it was her eye, or maybe he smoked too much, or it was her constant long face. I don't know, but they both remember.

The two photos show I was almost simple in design, and then forgot.

Altered painting

Just for fun, I am a little bit jangled today, it is because I can't do everything at once. I want to do everything at once. We had lots of white heavily frosted trees tis morning and I went out with the camera. I didn't realize it was only 14 degrees, got quite cold, and hungry. I just walked out the door and left a lot that had to be done. So now I want to get those photos on the computer, and work with some other photos, paint, plan dinner, clean up the floors a bit, read, plus play on the computer. I also want to try a transfer technique I read about, using a light colored permanent marker on the back of an inkjet photo to transfer the image. At this point I need a marker used for quilting that is white and vanishes, so I will have to risk a jaundice look on my tranfer because yellow is the lightest I have, maybe I have a pink.

The photo was not taken by me but by a good friend.

Since I am in the red/pink mood I will post this painting and a photo that I could do better with, then do some mundane things and calm down.

My first friend

My first friend that I remember, she is the daughter of my mother's friend in the 40's and '50's. This is a tiny little photo that has even been cut up by others. I couldn't resist tampering with it in my Print Shop. I am the one with the white scarf, in cold weather I still wear a scarf like that.

Not in public.

Quilt, plus

My title is deceiving, you might think it is a plus size quilt, actually it measures 3ft by 18 in.

The loons are on a necktie, the necktie was taken apart which explains the extra width. The face was painted on fabric, I used a recycled dress and other bits of fabric that were new and some ribbon. I search for neckties all the time, some have some nice abstract designs that work well in art quilts. I think the face is a little loon like, and she has taken great effort to dress for the occasion. I see the lighting was different for the full quilt photo. The parts, not the whole is accurate.

Fabric, paper, computer

The day is flying, amazing what a little of this and that can do to a day.

The face in this post was done on a very textured fabric, it was done with a palette type knife.

This explains the rather ruddy look, I the background you see was done on paper and is the bottom of another painting, I used a doily for a stencil and wallpaper that is embossed for a stamp. There is also hydrangea napkin in this background, I hope you can see the church with the steeple in the background. Enlargment helps.

Morning alterings

These are altered photos, one has my mother and her cousin in the 40s, well they are both in the 40s. My mother has on the fur coat, there are also things from the winter garden an angel face, and the green bits are a gazing ball on a iron post. added is an oak tree in negative form, and very faintly you see a design in the background.

The seond you see a shadow of my mother in the pines, that is a partial painting of mine, color altered, the lily photo is from my garden and a photo of an owl from a book.

What I like best about altering is the situation, how unlikely that would ever be yet there is someone you know in the creation. The original photos are here for you to see.

Inspite of all this altering, there is a pot of chili simmering, dishes done and put away, laundry done, outside tasks done. Things picked up. It would be complete if I had done a painting, never satisfied always want more.

Sort of strange

I did promise to work on hands, very hard for me. This is the outcome.

I can also see legs running so I accompished two things legs and hand,

not truely accomplished however.

Josie and Hermie

Thank you for coming by, certainly blogging can put a dent in your time. I just spent time

sizing and adjustments on photos of painting that may get posted in the future. I had to then spend time with dog and cat photos.

These photos of the pets are made transparent into the background fabric. You see tiny bits of green as Josie was a summer photo, I put a tiny border around Hermie so green would be in more places. This was easy as the pets have some of the same colors. I also have one of my paintings in the background, I removed the color from the painting digitally.

Hope to post painting later today, I have to fix the eyes on the face, they look so strange, if I wanted strange it would be different, I didn't. The morning is vanishing, I have done nothing

but basic things in the house and ponder plans. Five hours of this is too much, have you ever looked at 'Old World Artisians"? Those paintings stimulate all your artistic senses.

Hope that you can say, WOW it is still morning and look at all I have done.

Taking photos

I did that today, I saw these icicles on a church by great windows, I also have been watching the neighbors apple tree since fall at the first frost when the apples were yellow. They keep hanging on. Misty Mawn has been a huge inspiration to me with the photos. I did photos before and

give away journals that were all daughters. I learned quite a lot doing that, but have learned a little more. Just when you think you know something there is more, it is right there in the computer. One never know when someone else will say just the word you need to expand. I am not very good with directions that are written, pictures really say much more. I so appreciate that in these cold days, something new to learn, not so cold today except cold enough to have to hurry with the camera a bit. The camera is new also so I was very happy to see how the apple tree turned out, I was far away and could zoom.

Are you ever deeply thankful? I hope so, it makes the mundane things you have to do so much better. In the Book Sylvia's Farm the Author Sylvia Jorrin talks about creativity, it gave me such appreciation of what others do, it didn't have anything to do with paint, photos, writing, music, it had to do with everyday life, how you manipulate your time and effort in the most basic

task. I thought about parenting as I helped families with that, I liked that position as there was not a single right answer, it took creativity, there were several ways to do it right.

Enough I have too many words.

Emelda

That could of been my name, my mothers name is Zelda, so you see how that oculd of happened.

I could of said was Zelda, she is gone now but she still is Zelda.

I wanted wild hair and it is there, only....I saw this printed sheet in the Sunday Paper and had to use it and it covered the hair. That is how it goes sometimes in layers, a good layer can get obscured by another. There is some stamping with paint under some of that also. It is in a journal of just what ever I want to do.. I used the Folk Art acrylics on this, pencil, ink, and the newspaper. The page in the journal was tinted gesso.

Avoidance

That is my word for today, avoiding painting hands, avoiding shoveling, avoiding disciplining my cat. Hermie wants to sit on the table, and I didn't even chase him off, I cleared away things so he would have more room to sit comfortably. He left in a little bit tho as I put out his favorite toy and then I found the disinfectant wipes. I will go shovel in a bit, and I will finish the hand on the painting in the art room, good outcome or not I will show it, it is a small hand.

We have neighbors that give us a lot of fresh fish, summer and winter, they love ice fishing but it has been miserable cold so not lately. I did this painting as a thank you for all the great fresh, mild, flavorful fish.

I did bake bread, and I did clean out the cabinets that hold dry good and canned good, plus the pots and pans cabinet. I know, more avoidance. I had to look and see if avoidance had an A or an E. The A part of the dictionary is gone, or most of it except the Av's were there.

Hand journal

It is a hand journal, every painting or entry has to have a painted hand, overpainted or underpainted, drawing, suggestion, tiny or large. I have done 3, there are 60 pages, perhaps I should find the glue, make thicker pages. I won't work for continuity, some pages may have photos, clippings, words, however I decide or feel about the page. The cover will be last so that could be quite a long time from now. The goal is to have some freedom in subject matter, also it occured to me that legs and feet might fit into this also. Will I finish this? I am not so good at finishing journals and they shouldn't be hurried. Journal writing is difficult for me.

Altered Wedding Photo

This is a photo of my husband's parents, it was taken in Oct. of 1933. I have no other photos where they look this way. I admire them and the photo. Both are gone now.

There is a filet crochet in the background, the photo of them, and then a photo of my garden, that got sent to the back so that gives you the layering. I altered the color of crochet to match her dress, and I did the same to some extent to the garden photo. Working for coordination.

I found a great book today for hardly anything of old photos, I am excited to use them in some

mixed media. Remember I am suppose to be working on hands. I will, it is only 8:30 pm.

Winter Layering

That is what we do, layer in this cold, but we can do some on the computer also and feel confident with warm.

This is a watercolor winter scene of NW Wisconsin, I filled background with color, not a solid color but several colors, I added a photo of a sea fan, and layered it to the back so the colors would show through, I added my painting, cropped, copied, pasted, and layered several times,different sections of the painting. There are 4 sections of the painting plus the total painting. My program is Printshop 10. Not new at all, I have had it 6 years. I hate to admit this but have just learned more about it and how to use it. I got it to make cards and labels, I had no idea of the possibilities. I was thrilled to put artwork on my own on a card. In a way it is a great gift to not have known as something to be thrilled about makes for a good day.

I am working on my journal that each page has to have a hand, so far the hands have been pretty elementary, I so enjoy doing faces, I have to have one of those also on each page. I will show soon it takes a bit of courage. Create something today, have a good feeling.

Winter Has It's Way

I learned something today, a woman I know from a message board posted about layering with photography, something I didn't know I knew anything about, and didn't know or understand the option in my Print Shop Program. Misty Mawn does lovely layering and it is shown on her blog.

I have these photos of Wing River it is a river both my husband and I played in when we were kids, we loved that river as we lived in an area without lakes. my Sister-in-law sent me these photos a year ago .

I wonder frequently why it takes me so long to learn things, I did many pages of altered photos last year for gifts, and I didn't try this option or if I did I didn't do it in the right order. Undo

is a great feature, to be able to undo with a click would help me often in life. I still have more to learn but, in life I think it is important to be thrilled with what we learned so far.

They Can't Always Wear Mittens

I feel mixed media is still new to me, I want more, I want youth, I want hands, I want age, I want bodies to have shape sometimes, somtimes I just want pretty and a vague story that comes to mind in the viewing is OK. I feel disappointed when I get stiff looking work.

I always think the story is more important than how long it took me. Sometimes the labor is important when I have difficulty. It is hard to admit to difficulty. If it all came really easy would I be as interested? I think the challenge drives me.

My title is true I have to work on hands, find a style, be satisfied, and not fret the whole time I am doing a piece of art that the hands will give me trouble. I have done studies, taken information off the net on written tutorials that have helped.

I have also been thinking of teens I have seen or young girls wearing not warm enough clothing,

it has been 22 below here mornings and I see kids with not enough on. I hear conversations

that tell me some are not satisfied with Chrstmas. It was inspiration really, I remember doing the same, hating boots, wishing I had something else, it is just typical of that time of one's life.

The Red Mood

I have not lost my wanting red even with Christmas gone, I like it until hints of spring start to come then I get excited about spring colors, one thing tho the older I get the more I like red.

I had a red wool coat that was more cherry color and I still think of how I loved that coat. I was only 5, and I had red shoes also. Never stopped being partial to such things.

Christmas is picked up and put away I did take a photo of a chair near the entry, Such a nice old tin, fabric poinsettias, things to enjoy over Christmas. Procrastinated over the picking up and didn't paint either, sometimes if I don't do the shoulds I can't do the wants. I did the painting this fall. It was an expirment in using the rubbing plates, small expirment as the plates are sort of large and the painting was not. The plates have to be used with tissue paper, watercolor paper is too thick to be effective.