Award and Give-away!

Thought I'd give you all a break from Italy! Rather than completely follow the rules as provided below, nominating 7 blogs to receive this award, consider yourself Kreative because you are! and simply list 7 things on your blog about yourself that others might find interesting. Post a link back to this blog and leave me a comment on any of the posts about Italy. Why? Anyone who leaves a comment will be given a chance to receive something from me. Right now I have no idea what that might be, but it could be a small quiltie with imagery from Italy. Deadline to do this is the last day of July.

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award - You will love Marilyn's inspiring blog!

Thank you Marilyn for this honor, I'm touched!

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog (and it's okay to brag).
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award. (that would be me, Gail, ExpressionStudio)

4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.

1. In the 80's I took aerial photos of the Montery Peninsula for publication in

the Pine Cone. (I got terribly airsick; it took hours to walk it off. But, because

the photos were published I reconnected with my oldest cousin who was passing

through Carmel.)

2. Interviewed Clint Eastwood in the mid 80's when he ran for mayor of Carmel.

Three friends and I were thinking about writing a book on creativity. Clint was

gracious, funny, and flirty. (the book idea fell apart.)

3. I've been a passenger on a Harley.

4. I've seen some of the greatest sights in Europe, but have never been to the Grand

Canyon which is practically in my own back-yard!

5. Over the years I've been to 4 Neil Diamond concerts and 2 Celtic Woman and am

hoping to see Cher and Lord of the Dance before the end of the year.

6. I lived in a rustic cabin in the Big Sur area for nearly 5 years. Chopped wood for

heat and had a large vegetable garden. We didn't have TV or radio and needed to

drive 1/2 a mile on a dirt road to get to the main canyon road and then 4 miles to

Highway 1. It was a 30 minute drive to Carmel so if you ran out of something you

made do! (Now I can't live without AC, the Internet, and multiple TV channels!)

7. If it isn't obvious - I teach myself everything I want to know about!

5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers (you're all nominated!)
6. Post links to the 7 blogs your nominate. (post your link when you leave a comment

letting me know that you've posted 7 interesting things about yourself.)
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs, letting them know they have been nominated.

(feel free to either list blogs, #5, or create your own give-away.)

Note: if you don't have a blog you can list the 7 things in under my comments. Also, if

you need directions on how to copy and paste the logo and award info to your blog

feel free to email me: Mizriley2003@yahoo.com

Have fun with this! I look forward to reading your posts!! And remember the give-away!

Cinque Terre

Click here for info about Cinque Terre There are five villages hanging to the some of the steepest hills imaginable. The terrain is magical but I can't imagine anyone having the tenacity it took to terrace the land and make it habitable. In 1998 Cinque Terre became a national park and accessible by train or buses; only residents can drive into the villages. Just as we feared Riomaggiore was packed solid with parking only available on the steep hill making for at least a two mile hike; goats we aren't. The second steep road didn't look promising so we tried the third turn-off and found a space to park the car. The parking attendant told us that it shouldn't take us long to reach Vernazza. Long meaning what? A mile straight downhill but the road was definitely more interesting than the twisty road had been down to Riomaggiore. The air was citrus scented, a stream ran alongside the road and s0me of the dwellings seem staged for tourists. (above, left middle and bottom are two examples.) Click on photos to enlarge.

At the end of the cobbled street, Via Roma, the village met the sea and enthralled found seats in an outdoor restaurant. The meal and view from our table are below. The pesto was made from basil and pine nuts grown locally and was outstanding, even better than my recipe! A hint of lemon?

When I think about Cinque Terre it's with mixed emotions. It's definitely touristy and over-run with people even if it's difficult to reach, but Vernazza was the Italy we'd been hoping for. Peeling paint and plaster, laundry hung to dry from windows, the scent of citrus, church bells ringing, and terraced hills threatening to crumble; our trip to Italy had finally begun!

Quote: A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it." –- John Steinbeck

Night in Recco

Just a quick post about Recco. Top photos were taken from the window of Hotel Elena as seen in their brochure, the top windows with iron railings.

The other photos were taken on the veranda we had breakfast on. Woke to stormy skies and puzzlement over how we'd ended up in Recco. The guidebook says: Allied bombing in 1944 virtually destroyed Recco, and the town that has sprung up in its place is unremarkable except for a grey concrete flyover that hurdles the centre. People come here for the restaurants." Surely not, as we discovere, not for the hotels of which we nearly didn't find one. We circled the same area four times before parking the car, crossing the street to a Pizzeria and collapsing into chairs. The host who spoke English told us how to get to a hotel so we relaxed and ate.

"Yes, we have room, queen bed, AC, and a view of the ocean, that's about it." sounded perfect to us especially at midnight. We couldn't see the ocean but the waves lulled us to sleep.

Living here in the desert I was intrigued by the view from above of the the palm tree with the ocean as a background.

You probably can't see it, but there is train on the bridge in the left middle photo. (click on the photos to enlarge.)

Enough of Recco, next stop Cinque Terre on the coast.

Quote: One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." –- Henry Miller

Day 1, part 2

We thought we'd check out Portofina and imagined it to be similar to the French Riviera, Wrong! The Italian Riviera, or at least Portofina was a bit disappointing. The village presents itself quickly and all at once leaving nothing to the imagination. We arrived around 6pm at what looked to be high tide. More about Portofino here. (Notice how tiny the village is in the panorama)

The main area was mostly deserted, though, there were people eating in the restaurants in this photo.

Delightful colors and wouldn't the village seem drab without them?

I was fascinated by this castle-like structure. Home to? There were 3 yachts in the harbor that we found out belonged to a group or corporation out of Genoa. People were taking tours on them, but jumping from the dock to the yachts looked too risky for most. We thought that the hugeness of the yachts detracted from the intimacy of the village. There was also an artist opening of paintings right on the waterfront, red carpet and all. Invited guests were mingling; most were dressed in what only the rich would wear on a balmy evening. Yep, we felt like paupers walking past them on the way to the WC.

Were we glad that we had a less than two hour visit in Portofino? Yes, it was lovely to experience the quaint village especially at sunset when the lighting was soft.

Quote: Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -- Mark Twain

More photos on my other blog.

Day 1

I find that one of the most difficult things to do while traveling is to find images that not everyone has in their travel journals. This one and the next one aren't typical as I can't imagine that a lot of people find their way to Hotel Villa Stanley.

We landed in Florence at 6:30 on June 5th and got directions to Hotel Villa Stanley from a very helpful gal at the airport information counter. She went out of her way and even called the hotel for detailed instructions. "When you get to Ikea get off of the autostrada and make a right turn and continue on. You'll come to two roundabouts . . ." Good directions! Beautiful building and the largest hotel room imaginable! We could have thrown a party for fifty.
Take a look here and check out the photo gallery especially the camere section where there is a shot of the room we had. The view only shows half of the room

The first photo above is the view out of the window. The one directly above was taken through the window of the green house. Lots of items were stored inside and this is the only one I took. Was I nuts? I should have made a series!

On Sat. June 6th after a delicious breakfast at the hotel were I became reacquainted with Nutella spread (the Italians love it and have small containers of it amongst the jams and jellies. Hazelnut and cocoa spread of which a jar is now in our pantry.) we drove south to Pisa. I have no idea what I was expecting, but it didn't disappoint! It's theatrical, enchanting, and might have been a caricature of itself if not for the stormy sky that softened the impact. Just outside the entrance, in the photo above, there are souvenir stands and the first of numerous hawkers selling fake original watches, purses, belts, and hats! Yikes! Too touristy! Inside the entrance there are way too many stalls with vendors selling Leaning Tower imitations in plastic, metal, etc that we didn't succumb to. Postcards, yes, knick-knacks, no.

For lots of fun facts go here.

My own shot of the bell tower and cathedral. and yes, I have a shot of me trying to push it back up. After Roger took a photo of me a few tourists asked him to take one of each of them. After four he begged off. I guess that he looked trustworthy enough to hold their cameras.

A black and white image of "eyes" on the bell tower. It's one of those images that surprised me.

I saw it but didn't think that I got it being that it had started to rain, the wind was strong and my hat flew off!

The fairytale quality of Pisa with the ridiculous numbers of street hawkers made me think of this quote: Always make the audience suffer as much as possible. - Alfred Hitchcock

(more Pisa here on my other blog)

Sometimes you just know!

We were leaving the village of Orvieto when I yelled, "stop." There it was, my cypress shot! We didn't have time to see Tuscany so this will have to do. (I have a better version, but am saving that one for myself!) While I was photographing the driver got a tip from a villager who told him to turn left rather than go straight, "better road." As it turns out he was right. Orvieto is the kind of village that you're positive you shouldn't be driving where the signs point. If anyone walks out their front door they'd end up being a hood ornament.

I thought I was going to die in Pompei; hot, dusty and miles and miles of ruins to get lost in. It's hard to believe that all of this was buried in 79 AD when Vesuvius blew its top. Work uncovering the city started in 1594 and continues today. Okay, I'm impressed, but the swollen feet weren't. I confess though, that I got some amazing photographs and when I caught this out of the corner of my eye while trailing behind a group of German tourists who looked like they wanted to kill their guide I knew that I had a winner. None of them stopped to photograph it. My biggest complaints, besides my feet, were that there are too many sites to take in, plus, unless you have a tour guide or rent an audio tour you have have no idea what you're looking at. I must have shot about 100 images of the ruins and I don't think I did it justice. I love to eavesdrop when I hear an English speaking guide; I always need to rest nearby, so I do hear a lot of facts that way. The cheap tour! (we did have audio and personal guides in Rome at the Coliseum and St. Peters.) Would I go back to Pompei? Only on a cool day.

More photos etc. at: http://g-photosi.blogspot.com/

Quote: No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. ~Lin Yutang

Fighting re-entry!

Fighting re-entry. Can you blame me? We were in Positano on June 10-11th. I could have happily stayed there . . . . The road is treacherous, but the views and village are so alive that I felt a sense of peace. I sat on this balcony at 11pm after walking back from dinner. The breeze was warm and soft and the lights on the sailboat were sparkling jewels. I cried with happiness.

Not every moment in Positano was great such as when the driver parked the car in the first parking lot he saw. What was he thinking? The blue arrow, center right side, is near the beach and shops. We had already gone down hill quite a distance when I took this photo.

Getting closer, but about a gazillion steps left to go. The beginnings of swollen feet and blisters. Worth it, but!

The blue arrows indicate some of the road. I took this shot while we were driving, thus the blurred bushes on the lower right corner. I would have been happy seeing all of this from the car and parking at the bottom where, yes, there were a few parking lots! My feet were screaming by the time we got to the bottom! Happily, there was a bus available to get us back to the parking garage. Though, the driver decided to get off early which as it turned out was a good idea, not for my feet, but we found Hotel Pastea which also had a spot for the car! Not easy to find hotels with parking. (we always have great luck when we travel. No plans, just winging it, and we always end up with a room for the night, though, sometimes it happens later than we'd like.)

The manager told us that we "had" to eat at Fornillo and tell the owner Margherita who sent us; we would be seated at a table with a view of bay. Of course the restaurant was downhill. The table was indeed overlooking the Mediterranean with the sparkling lights of the village to the left. What wasn't mentioned was that cars nearly joined us for dinner while maneuvering the curve the restaurant was perched on. One slip of the pedal and who knows where we might have landed. I love adventures and this certainly was one. A perfect meal was served to us and we closed down Fornillo along with a table of locals. Positano, a plate of divine gnocchi followed by tiramisu and a bottle of unbelievable Italian wine! Does it get any better?

Quote: Positano bites deep. It is a dream place that isn't quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you have gone. John Steinbeck, 1953

Back!

The 12 hour flight from Florence via Frankfurt landed at 5:30 at LAX on Sunday. We got to my daughter's house a mere thirty minutes from LAX and crashed. It looks like it's going to take me awhile to get over the jet-lag, sore muscles from walking about 20 miles, blisters and other traveling maladies. Sounds awful doesn't it? That's the downside of traveling. The upside is that we had a marvelous time with adventures galore. Met a lot of great people along the way and once I download the 1500+ photos the memories will begin. Right now everything is a blur; seven days isn't nearly enough time to see what we did. Pisa, Cinque Terr, Portofino, Amalfi and Positano, Pompei, Rome, Orvieto, and a little of Florence.

These photos were taken in Orvieto in the Umbria area in route to Florence. This is one town we'd love to spend more time in. We arrived on Saturday around 11am and parked quite a distance from the center much to my dismay! Swollen feet with more blisters than I care to think about. The pain was worth the long walk! There were photo opportunities about every foot or so.

I'm never sure whether it's my lousy eye-sight or the hilly streets, but most of the photos seem to be crooked. It must be the slant of the ground at least that's my story. Besides, Italy is mostly built on hills and cliffs. What's with that? The entire country slants unevenly, so much so that I never felt balanced.

Little touches of whimsy everywhere.

We wandered into a restaurant around 1pm and when we came out the entire village had closed it's doors. When we arrived the streets were crowded with open shops, side-walk vendors, tourists, and locals sharing stories. We hadn't received the memo with the siesta schedule so it's a good thing we had purchased the souvenirs before lunch.

Quote: A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. Lao Tzu

Parting shots

In 2000 we arrived in Venice hot and tired and made our way to the famous Piazza San Marco. I was thinner then and two weeks ago I whacked off my hair; I have no idea if we'll make it to Venice this time, but by Friday night we'll be in Florence.

Years later this photograph remains my favorite one of Venice. Chat with you all after June 15th!!!

Exciting and disappointing

Exciting being included in a book, disappointing that the credit lines aren't accurate. pg. 57 "work on opposite page by Gail Pierce and Val Foster." This implies that my journal pages are the top ones; not! Mine are on the bottom of this beautifully printed book, "Collaborative Art Journals" by L.K. Ludwig. I wonder if there are other mistakes? The book is great eye candy, but I doubt it will be off of my bookshelf very often.
(click on photo to enlarge.)

Seven new photos on http://g-photosi.blogspot.com/ It's time to stop production in the wet studio; the intense heat has struck! Hard for me to believe that so many in the country live in areas where the temps are so low that heaters are required. The AC has been on for months and the temps in the garage even with a portable AC aimed at me are unbearable. I do have a nice small stash of dyed and screen printed fabric to experiment with over the summer and into the fall. The plan is to concentrate on FME and create hand-made stamps and other tools to use on fabric.

Quote about travel: The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. St. Augustine. (I'm off to Italy in less than a week!)

#35 of 52 projects

Glue resist on screen. The purple is textile paint. Being that this piece doesn't look like much I thought I'd show the first layer. What to do with all of the white? Some of the prints look like batik while others are lifeless.

Components: textile paint screened print, watercolor crayons, dyed cheesecloth hand-stitched

on, edge-stitched.

Mosey on over to g-photos to see why I'm in a rush to get more dyeing and screen printing done!

http://g-photosi.blogspot.com/

Quote: And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know that I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me. Lee Greenwood. (In honor of Memorial Day weekend.)

#34 of 52 projects

Grids seem to have replaced circles, guess I'll go where the muse leads me.

Components: glue resist on muslin. Handmade grid stamps, buttons attached with orange-red thread. Probably the only thing that remotely saved this piece is the blue and white grid. One of my rules for a 52 project is that I have to finish a piece regardless . . .

Quote for Memorial Day weekend: When we say "War is over if you want it," we mean that if everyone demanded peace instead of another TV set we'd have peace. John Lennon

#33 of 52 projects

Interesting, didn't I just post that I had moved on from hearts? While I was trolling through scraps looking for something useful to create for #33 I discovered this one. I think that I meant it be #29.

Components: handmade stamps on hand dyed fabric for base. Screen printed purple and ochre hearts, textile paint plus cookie cutters used as stamps.

Quote: Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely. Rodin

#32 of 52 projects

Do you ever find the perfect button? I rarely do especially in my collection. I wasn't even thinking button when I found this one mixed in with junk jewelry.

Components: hand dyed fabric scraps. The blue was needle punched, #29, and the piece across the width of this 4x6 inch piece was scrunch dyed.

Quote: The mind that is anxious about future events is miserable. Seneca (sounds like something you'd find in a fortune cookie.)

#31 of 52. More grids plus circles.

As mentioned, I thought that it might be time to return to circles after working in the land-of-heart-motifs but I wasn't expecting grids to sneak their way in. All of the stamps in this piece are from my recent stamp making session. I'm sure that most will figure out the grids, but for now I'm tight-lipped regarding how I've done them. Thanks for the comments and emails!

Components: I had cut off the bottom of a larger piece done on unbleached muslin and the remaining section only had one and half grayish circles on it. Oops, I didn't create the swirly background stamp, in yellow and blue. That background stamp is barely visible. Grids, circles and a design stamp in blues and red textile paint brought the piece to life. Machine stitching, feather stitch in red and edge stitching finished this 4x6 inch piece. (click on the photo to enlarge.)

Quote: New York . . . is a city of geometric heights, a petrified desert of grids and lattices, an inferno of greenish abstraction under a flat sky, a real Metropolis from which man is absent by his very accumulation. Roland Barthes - French Critic 1915-1980

#30 of 52 projects

Grids, oh how I love them.

Components: background is hand dyed palomino gold bleached muslin. Hand made stamp, grid, stamped in blue and white on blue green dyed unbleached muslin; raw frayed edges. The blue muslin was machine stitched in red onto the gold fabric and finally edge stitched. Confusing.

Basically, it's two pieces of hand dyed fabric, one stamped and sewn onto the base fabric and machine stitched. (click on photo to enlarge)

Quote:The secret of a grids success is not so much its structure as the imagination with which it is used. Allen Hurlburt

#29 of 52 projects

(click on photo to enlarge)
Being that I veered off track with #27 and #28 I took a break to see if I could get back on course. I think that I have. The two lutradur pieces didn't exactly follow the guidelines I gave myself. During the last 6 weeks I've been dyeing fabric along with creating oodles of screen prints. I've learned a lot including that I take lousy notes! The rush is on to get as much done in the garage studio as I can before the nights stay as hot as the days are, 102 degrees today, because then I won't be able to work in the garage. When it cools down at night the portable AC unit works. Today the AC unit was stuck at 92 degrees, which seems unbearable, but the air blasting out of it aimed directly at me is doable.

Components: Rust dyed fabric that was over-dyed with turquoise dye. Bits and pieces of scraps including threads were needle punched onto the muslin. A purple painted strip of lutradur was sliced down the middle leaving about an inch at the heat. The strip was heat distressed and machine sewn onto the 4x6 inch piece.

Notes: muslin doesn't hold up when needle punches excessively in on area. To trap the scraps I placed a piece of netting over the entire surface but the needles kept pulling up the scraps anyway so I ended up needle punching the backside.

Quote: She would be half a planet away, floating in a turquoise sea, dancing by moonlight to flamenco guitar. Janet Fitch - White Oleander

Disintegration - moving on

This papers looked untouched, but they were out in the elements since Feb. I made three bundles of them and pulled away some debris in the compost bin and in they went. What am I expecting? Worms to gnaw on the paper, stains from garden clippings and/or vegetable waste from the kitchen. Time frame: July 1, or later. I need enough time to create a piece. I'm moving on to more fabric dyeing and returning to the 52 projects.

Quote: Moving on is a simple thing, what it leaves behind is hard. Dave Mustaine
Sometimes the cards we are dealt are not always fair. However we must keeping smiling and moving on. Tom Jackson.

More Disintegration

The photos that I posted about earlier today needed to dry before I could scan them. This is one that started to transfer onto a piece of paper. Great possibilities for photos that refuse to print properly. Another reason to "save everything!"

More photos can be seen here:

Disintegration Project unveiling

A cloud covering here in the desert isn't typical, but it's lovely for the unveiling of the bundles; the lighting is soft, perfect for photographing. I tied my bundles to the pergola post where grape vines are doing their Jack-in-the-beanstalk thing. My bundles have been out in the elements since Feb. 14 and can be seen here.

This bundle slid down the post last month during a monsoonal storm. Underneath of the bundle mold started to develop, see the last photo.

Epson DuraBrite printed photographs. So much for being smudge, water and fade resistant! They did what I wanted them to do! A few of the images even transferred to the backs of scrapbook paper as shown in the middle of this example. Eureka!

An interesting design started developing on the copper, another example of a photo, and the corrugated cardboard that will now go into another bundle that I'm considering popping into the compost pile for awhile. The cardboard didn't do much.

One sheet of paper to be saved for later use. The rest will be bundled up again.

Some mold action. I'll probably seal it with a spray coat of clear something. I had hoped that the twine would decay some, it has before when we've used it to stake plants; I'll most likely use it to tie the bundles with again.

I'm definitely fascinated by intentional disintegration and plan to do more of it. Thanks Seth!

Quote: Disintegration -- I'm taking it in stride. Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho)

Celebrating Earth Day

Screen print.

Celebrate Earth day:

Quotes: Every day is earth day. Anonymous

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. Native American Proverb

I'm not an environmentalist. I'm an Earth Warrior. Darryl Cherney - Smithsonion, April 1990

Published!

I was visiting this blog (check out the barbed wire stitch tutorial) when I saw that a book that two friends and I had sent some work to for consideration will be out June 1. Being very curious I went to Amazon and checked out the index, yep, Circles Journal. Put my name in "search" and hit the mother lode! Starting on page 56 are a couple of pages of our collaborative. Seeing how we never heard, even after numerous emails, anything about our submission we're all thrilled. It was Darlene's initiative that landed us in the book.

The upper right spread is the one that seems to have published in LK Ludwig's newest book. Good thing seeing how the top left is bloody awful. What was I thinking?

Last night while mixing up dye I decided to move from using hearts in my work to circles, oddly enough. So, last year a quilt was in a traveling QA exhibit and so far this year published. Not bad for someone who isn't overly productive.

Quote: A circle is the reflection of eternity. It has no beginning and it has no end - and if you put several circles over each other, then you get a spiral. Maynard James Keenan

To brighten a day

This should make any ones day a little brighter. Turn your speakers on.

By now I think that everyone knows about Susan Boyle. Her story seems to be stirring up a lot of conversations about aspirations and broken dreams. What a gift she has! Success is often all about timing, I hope this is her time.

Graffiti Hearts

Hearts, hearts, and hearts.

Rust dyed fabric base. Red fabric heart, patina copper heart, stamped hearts, fabric fragments, acrylic paint, coffee dyed, machine stitched, thread tails. 10x10 inches. (click to enlarge)

Quote: Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Week #28

It seems that I should be on week #30. I simply haven't been up to dealing with the unfriendly computer that doesn't seem to "recognize" me! Confirm this, wrong password that, slllllooow downloads and uploads so much so that I want to toss the tired thing out the into the desert. Lately, I haven't to be in the mood to deal with all of the idiosyncrasies that the internet and or computer software is tossing my way. Nope, I'd rather be creating!

Learned: hand made paper can be fused to lutradur. I used stitch witchery that I purchase by the bolt. Easy light-weight fusible.

Components: handmade paper, patina laden copper, heat distressed painted lutradur not yet attached to black backing. I can't decide how much black border to leave around the piece. Not enough of a border and I wouldn't be able to frame this 5x7 inch piece.

Quote: You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. Franklin P. Jones (substitute computer for children!!)

Color on Fabric

A deconstructed screen print from a series of four. This one is the second in the series and started with purple dye on the screen, dried and printed with ochre. I wish I had taken better notes but, I'm pretty sure that the design is rubber bands. The process is messy and time consuming so I'm not sure if this is something I will do very often.

I have no idea why this pic looks like there is a swirly design running through it, there isn't. I'm still in love with Dye-na-flow paint for a quick way to get color onto fabric. This piece is muslin that was fan folded and painted with blue, dried, re-folded and painted with yellow. Interesting, I seem to be using a lot of yellow lately.

I ran across a link to this site and am seriously considering ordering some gel medium and colorants. Input is appreciated. The idea of earth friendly products appeals to me.

Quote: Faith is a bird that feels dawn breaking and sings while it is still dark. Scandinavian

Saying

Week #27

I feel a lot better about this one. #26 still bothers me.

Components: Hand-made paper casting, painted and heat distressed lutradur, junk jewelry (broken) with black fabric backing. The paper fragment was stitched onto the painted lutradur. The lutradur was stitched to the black fabric backing that has been glued to mat board.

Size: 5x7 inches

The jewelry piece was way to shiny for this piece so I knocked it down with black paint. The earring, that I can't imagine wearing, is a broken one that was included in an ebay purchase.

All 27 of the projects can be view on Picture Trail here:

Quote: No matter how long winter is, spring is sure to follow. Proverb (Happy Spring!)

Tagged!

Darlene tagged me and I decided to take the challenge, after all it involves photos. I posted the challenge photo along with others on my G-photos blog. (March 18)

After some PSE filtering this image turned out to be my favorite. This lighthouse photo was shot during a trip to Cape Cod in 2005.

Quote: Anythin' for a quiet life, as the man said when he took the situation at the lighthouse. Charles Dickens

Circles

Just a little one, 4x6 inches that I started many months ago. I realized yesterday, St. Patrick's Day, that I rarely use green in my work. Even with the tangle of circles and flow of blues this pieces is soothing, at least it is for me.

Components: gesso and fluid acrylics.

Quote: Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it you need to start young. Fred Astaire

Cirque re-visited

Not sure about this one yet, but it's getting closer. I posted a version of this one last year; it was on view for awhile then I put it away when I couldn't figure out how to improve it. I've added 3 paper cast swirls but that's the problem, they look added on! I like the swirl on the left, but the right side is just bloody awful! Maybe if I tone it down some . . .

I should have posted something green in honor of St. Patrick's Day.

Quote: It is not the years in your life, but the life in your years that counts. Adlai Stevenson