Cactus Flower

I never remember to photograph this 24-hour bloom that a rather mundane cactus produces a couple of times a year. In the mail today was a nifty 5-inch Vanguard tripod I ordered a couple of days ago. It helps to steady the digital camera for close-ups!! The top two photos were taken with the digital and the bottom one with my mini digital toy camera! I couldn't resist a key chain camera when I saw it advertised on Overstock.com a couple of months ago. If you love the uncertainity, playful, arty-type photos that toy, Lomo or Holgas take then an Innovage is for you! You might get a sharp image like the flower, but more often than not there will be some uncontrollable vignetting and peculiar lighting.

I had considered purchasing one of the Polariod toy-type cameras, but I love the frugality of non-film cameras! Though, this little camera does eat up the AAA batteries!

San Juan Bautista

Under the distressed transparency there is a chicken on the lower right corner. I couldn't resist putting the chicken into this piece, after all the chicken modeled for me! No matter how many times I photograph the Mission at San Juan Bautista I end up with something new.

I'm not sure that I like this piece as it looks derivative . . .

Crow Response!

This photo is my take on the glut of crow images in mixed media work! It's like the dunce caps, crowns and wings on people; I wonder when this craze will end. I also wonder if imitation is always flattering? Do people really need to soar with wings on them? Do they really need caps and crowns on their heads? Crows aren't all that exciting, are they? This one is a thief who often flies off with items from my front yard. He loves nothing better than to sit on the chimney and wait for me to go indoors so he can steal again. Mmmmm, well maybe crows do symbolize something in an odd and curious way . . . This thief did sneak his way into my work a few posts ago!

Two days later from Robert Genn's "Twice Weekley Letter." "Work in series so paintings come out of themselves. Cruise your work-in-progress for new motifs or designs. Name and claim your particular methods and touches." And, "Original styles start with understanding that art is not necessarily what is seen--but what is to be seen."

New motifs and designs!

A Glimpse of Venice

Every summer my thoughts fly off to Europe! Memories of sitting at the Cafe Florian in the Piazza San Marco as the setting sun cast shadows on the Basicila was one of the grandest moments . . .

Details: the background is a Citra-solv paper with layers of monoprinting, embossed metal and a transparency of an image of the Basicila.

Embossed Metal ATC's

2 embossed metal ATC's for trade. The one on the left, with a rubber stamp image in the center, is an abstract and the one on the right is a village, in case you couldn't figure out what they are! The background paper is the infamous Citra-solv technique.

I'm feeling a bit introspective.

"When we set goals, we are looking for a particular event to occur. That is, we have defined a specific outcome we are looking to achieve…When you are not looking for a specific outcome (Goal-Free Living), but instead are open to any outcome that could be of interest, the likelihood of a synchronistic event happening is very high.”
Stephen Shapiro

Stephen's blog:

http://www.goalfree.com/

When my energy levels are at minus zilch I love to go blogging!

Sarah Fishburn http://ragtagsf.blogspot.com/
Karen Michel http://alteredimagery.blogspot.com/
Kris Hendersonhttp://brain-bubbles.blogspot.com/
Lesley Riley http://myartheart.blogspot.com/
http://www.kerismith.com/blog/
Nina Bagleyhttp://ornamental.typepad.com/
http://birdinthehand.typepad.com/

The Perfect Pose!

The perfect pose! I was photographing a window in San Juan Bautista when my friend said, "I think that chicken wants you to take a photo." The chicken stood perfectly posed for an entire minute and then strutted off to the deep shade of tree as if to say, "You nearly missed my greatness!"

Even though San Juan Bautista is less than an hours drive from home, psychologically it's a vacation!

Metal Weaving #2

I liked the first metal weaving (March 13) so much that I created another one. This one has an embossed tag in the center. The image is a rubber stamp of the Eiffel Tower. I've been dreaming about standing below it again! Twice wasn't enough.

Paris

This piece is "loosely" based on the Texture Background Technique in "Cloth Paper Scissors" issue #7. The altered image of a mannequin reminded me of some I had seen in windows in Paris. Other than acrylic paints
the only other medium used was rubber stamps.

Links

These ought to keep everyone busy for awhile!

http://whipup.net/
http://www.m-roberts.com/home.html
http://lafeecoriandre.blogspot.com/
http://artwordsclan.blogspot.com/
http://drawdaily.blogspot.com/
http://www.durochers.org/journal/
http://lindart.blogspot.com/
http://www.almastoller.blogspot.com/

Faux Tintype

Faux tintype, metal fragment, tissue paper fragment on a color wash tissue background. The tintype was published along with my article on "Faux Tintypes" in the Spring issue of "Artitude," #20.

Plum Crazy

I'm feeling "Plum Crazy" right now! I have no idea why I agreed to do a garage sale with my landlady! The next 3 weeks will be taken up with sorting, cleaning out and getting ready for it! And then once it's over I know that it will take at least a week to recuperate; stress like this takes a toll on my health, so I usually guard against doing things like this.

"Plum Crazy" is one of my latest P-Gian replicas. I will be posting about the P-Gian's of Sea Wind Country, a mythical place, soon . . .

Later: it's up:
http://p-gians.blogspot.com/

Found Object Assemblage

Assemblage made from items found around my house and in my stash! The wood is an old roof shingle, the leaf is one I dried last year, the oak twig and moss floated into my yard during a storm, and the cast polymer clay face is set on recycled metal. The assemblage was photographed on moss covered bricks just outside the front door.

Weather Report

Weather Report - Rain, rain and more rain!
I photographed a crow on the fence near my front door who was attempting to look un- interested in the cat food I leave by the door. An abandoned cat has adopted us. Knowing that the background was going to be unsightly I also photographed the outdoor thermometer. With a little manipulation, viola!

Assemblages

Assemblages.
Cast polymer faces, distressed and embossed metal on canvas boards.

Q. P-Gian

Newly listed on my picturetrail.
Update 3/24: "Q. P-Gian." Sold.

Faux Tintypes

New collage elements listed on etsy.com. Manipulated photos on distressed recycled metal.
(The one on the left sold on etsy and the right one sold on my Picture Trail.)

Acetone transfers

Acetone transfers. On the left a map was aged with paint staining, coffee and chalk pastels before the image was transferred.

Paint stained, rubber stamped newspaper was prepared before the application of the transfer.

Dreamer

Dreamer is created from polymer clay in colors of turquoise, bronze, yellow and gold and is adhered to recycled metal. The background is one of many techniques I'm currently working on.
(Sold.)

Metal Weaving

Metal weaving on a new background technique I'm working on. I like the uneveness of the metal strips.

Leaf Study

Digital close-up of a leaf on distressed metal. Detail embossed.

Blue Ice

Blue ice or frozen pond or blue tree? I can't decide, but it does look like some kind of winter-scape. This is what happens when the tiniest bit of blue paint drips off of one surface and lands on another; a new technique is born! Sounds good, but what really happened is that I can't stand to waste paint so I grabbed the first piece of paper that was sitting on my counter and allowed the paint to dribble from a sheet of painted metal onto it. The paint ran in all directions and when I helped it along I decided that this piece of scrap paper was the highlight of the day! The metal turned out fair. Reminder: don't throw away scraps of paper! This one had a blue watercolor wash on it along with dry brushed gesso.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Some fun facts including a short video about St. Patrick's Day check out:

http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/stpatricksday/

Lists of ideas for keeping a visual journal

http://www.busywomen.com.au/visual_journal.htm

A 2 Z Project.

My brain occasionally goes into over-drive! I needed another project like I need a root canal! But when Lynne Perrella's book, "al.pha.bet.i.ca" arrived I couldn't help myself! My work was already leaning in the direction of using alphabet letters and words on the pages in my journal, so why not do an in-depth exploration? After all I'm already working on a self-portrait journal along with a Paris one, plus my work-in-progress art journal and lest I forget, two RR type journals so why not fit in another project? Who needs to be sane?

"Decay" (collage above) doesn't seem to stand on its own as well as it plays off of the page to the left of it. Copyright rules being what they are I can't post that journal page.There are a lot of techniques and ideas on this journal page but I'll only comment on a few. The surface is a foreign text page with gesso over water color crayon. Newspaper words and text. Transparency of eyes. The main focus is fat chunky foam letters that were traced onto the center of the page. GPG, is a play on my initials and the town I live in which is often referred to simply as PG. The letters were traced with a pen and filled-in with oil pastels. I wasn't happy with the result so a layer of metallic wax was used to soften the harsh colors, but that wasn't pleasing either so I used a paper towel to scrap off the wax and to my delight some of the oil pastels scraped off of the paper allowing some of the foreign text to show through. Newspaper text was torn and glued over the hole in the "P."

Climbing out of the "precious mode."

I'm particularly fond of this print lift created from an image taken at a car museum on Cape Cod. I have a "copy" of it; the original now resides in France. One of the benefits of photo manipulated images is that there are endless possibilities for using them.

I'm at odds with myself! While I tend to use some of the same images over-and-over I'm attempting to climb out the "precious mode" phobia. Keeping ephemera in boxes tends to put limits on collages or other work that could benefit from releasing them into the light of day! A stash is a good thing to build up, but not horde! Originals, given away freely will create space for more!

Blogs of interest

Visual Chronicles
http://visualchronicles.typepad.com/

Zura's
http://blogging.spiritimagination.com/

Sonji - mostly fabric
http://sonjisays.blogspot.com/

Ginger - one of the first members of ExpressionVillage!
http://gingerfied.blogspot.com/

Penny - another member of EV who joined in the early days!
http://backvalleyseasons.blogspot.com/

Susan - another long-time member of EV!
http://aqg.bravejournal.com/index.php

Mum's Place

Mum's Place is a furniture store just off of the main street in Pacific Grove where I purchased a couch and a chair about 6 years ago.The cats immediately claimed the chair as theirs! Who is going to argue with two large furkids that leave behind a large amount of their gorgeous fur as a reminder that they have dibs on the chair? Anyone who sits in the chair ends up with their backside covered with cat hair.

I was driving past Mum's Place this afternoon on my way to the yarn shop is search of green fibers when out of the corner of my eye I saw deep strong shadows on the side of the building. Happily I had my digital with me! Of course I had to manipulate the image a little bit. Everyone driving down the street couldn't figure out why I was standing between parked cars taking photos of the tree; one car nearly rear-ended another one trying to figure it out. Their loss!

Self-portrait series

SP Study - Photoshop brushes created from photographs. An image of a birdhouse my father built about a decade ago was manipulated using numerous filters as a basis for the background.

Matthew

Matthew - 3 days old. I absolutely can't leave a photograph alone without manipulating it in some way! Even when I worked in black-and-white I'd spend hours in the darkroom playing with alternative processes!

I kind of like how his mouth runs right into his shoulder line; makes the photo more interesting to me. One of his hands always manages to snake its way into a sleeve.