Some of my art history.

I am participating in a local event here in Ames called Art Walk on Friday from 5 to 8 pm. I was looking around for pieces other than my numerous ATC's, to give people a look at what else I do. By looking into that I found a few pieces from further back in my life, a few pieces from before high school even. I thought people might be interested in seeing them, so I'm posting a few photos today, and will continue to post a couple more.
As usual the pictures are backwards. This first one is a close up of part of the 2nd one. This is a piece of matboard covered with ultra thick embossing enamel until it became even thickness throughout, then colored with a blue sparkly embossing powder, and stamped into with a woman's face stamp with black ink.

When I was a senior in high school I took a class called British Literature. After reading something by William Wordsworth, we had to do a project about him (I'm sure there were more requirements, but hell if I know what they were). Anyway, I chose to illustrate the poem The Reverie of Poor Susan.

The Reverie of Poor Susan by William Wordsworth

At the corner of Wood Street, when daylight appears,
Hangs a Thrush that sings loud, it has sung for three years:
Poor Susan has passed by the spot, and has heard
In the silence of morning the song of the Bird.

Tis a note of enchantment; what ails her? She sees
A mountain ascending, a vision of trees;
Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide,
And a river flows on through the vale of Cheapsie.

Green pastures she views in the midst of the dale,
Down which she so often has tripped with her pail;
And a single small cottage, a nest like a dove's,
The one only dwelling on earth that she loves.

She looks, and her heart is in heaven: but they fade,
The mist and the river, the hill and the shade:
The stream will not flow, the hill will not rise,
And the colours have all passed away from her eyes!

If you click on the picture, it should enlarge for you. I cut a picture frame out of matboard, placed a typed version of the poem inside and decorated the frame. In the left hand corner is a stamped image in some ultra thick embossing enamel, she's looking up a sign post that says Wood St with a bird sitting on top. There are white circles going from Susan's head up to some stamped mountains, like a thought in her head. On the right side of the frame is a stamped cottage with a "river" traveling up to it. The river is made out of paper. I honestly have no idea what I received on the project, but I want to say it was a B or above. That could be wishful thinking, but I remember my teacher loving my art work.

This next one is also from my senior year of high school when I took a 2D art class and we made paper.

Originally I had this piece as a card with a couple windows cut out of it. But, if you look at it closely, you can see how thin the sides are. My teacher suggested I leave it folded up and mount it so it wouldn't come apart. This first picture is a close up.

I have layered the back page with mulberry paper and an Asian character stamped image mounted on it. The window in the second layer of the piece has mulberry paper around the cutout and covered with a piece of acetate, so it looks like a window. On the front of that piece I have mounted a face stamped in brown glued onto a piece of white mulberry paper. You can't see it very well, but there is a ticket on the corner of this piece with a stamped image on it, I don't remember what it was and I can't tell without taking apart the frame and I'm not doing that. On the front piece, there's a flower punched image on the top and on the bottom there is a bow tied in a reddish yarn.I entered this piece in my senior art show and won first place for best in show in mixed media I believe.

I also entered it into art at my county fair and it won a purple rosette to go to state fair where it won a blue ribbon.
Somewhere in there, most likely before I entered it in my county fair, and after my high school art show, I had it framed in a really nice green frame that really brings out the green mulberry paper in the back of the card.

The last one is just a random piece of artwork.

I also used the matboard/Ultra thick embossing enamel process on this one. The top layer is colored with a lavender embossing powder with silver and peach mixed in. The image is of a line drawing of a leaf stamped in silver. It is layered on brown and white mulberry paper on top of black paper. It's nicely matted in a mat that's had silver ink sponged on top of white matboard and then framed.

Dedicated to those who serve

The American Revolution
The War of 1812
The Mexican-American War
The Civil War
The Spanish-American War
World War I
World War II
The Korean War
The Vietnam War
Desert Storm
Operation Enduring Freedom
Iraqi Freedom

Soldiers have fought and are fighting around the world for us to be free to think, say, do, believe what ever we want, however we want.

Memorial Day is a day to remember all the people who fought for our freedom from 1792 until now. Please take a moment sometime in your day and think of them, thank them for what they have done and are doing for us.

I know lots of people are all excited because they get a 3-day weekend, time to grill outside and get together because you get the day off from work and get to hang out with your family. I'd think some time in this 3 day weekend you could think about those soldiers who are fighting for your freedom, attend your city's Memorial Day parade/ceremony, go to your local cemetary and find the veteran's graves, go to your local veteran's memorial, or even just stop a moment and say a silent thank you. Do something to remember them.

Turn the car around

For the followers of my blog, if anyone is in the Ames area on June 5th, I'm participating in the Art Walk in the Downtown area. I will be in the Ames Historical Society's building showing my ATC's and maybe some of my other art.
This is from the Ames Convention and Vistor's Bureau website:
"A dazzling array of art will impress all who participate! ArtWalk includes music, food and fun. Coordinated with The Octagon Center for the Arts, downtown business and organizations will host local artists & their work. Miscellaneous talents will perform on stage in Tom Evans Park (next to Luccullan's)"

So come to Ames and see my artwork in person. Plus you'll get to see other local artists from the Ames area.

It's Black February

I'm sorry, I'm a little slow. These are my ATC's from February's swap. The swap color being black.
Starting with the one on the left, I used the black ribbon; the black seed beads, the button in the middle of the flower.

Left to right: I used the circle underneath the child's face, the star in the middle of the spider web.

Starting on the left, I used: the feather, fiber at the bottom of the card, the cowboy boots.

I also used a common background for these cards. The pictures don't show it as nice as they really are, but they're all slightly marbled.

I took an art class at a local artist's center here where we got to marble paper, print paper, paint on paper, use bleach on paper, make designs with rubber cement on paper and make a paste paper (that's where you put a paste substance on the paper and then use tools to take part of the paste off). It was pretty cool.

I've been meaning to do this for awhile...

I always planned on listing some of my favorites from Etsy, that was one of the plans when I started this blog. So, today, I'm doing a couple posts on some of my favorites:
These are in no particular order.
This is bearsbakedgoods' Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies. She has all these yummy looking goodies and I decided the cheesecake brownies were the best looking (as my tastes go), who can resist a brownie mixed with cheesecake, it's the best of both worlds.

I love these tags by packratdiva, these in particular are called Jungle Fever Gift Tags. She has so many different things in her shop, but I think of tags (because all my favorites from her are tags), I especially like the ones that are "dressed up", I think that adds a little extra charm, plus it's like paper dolls.

This gorgeous photo by janmoralesphoto, is called Pod. Very simple, I love how the blue seeds (?) just pop out of the green pod, but the pod itself doesn't blend into the background. It's beautiful. She has so many other exquisite photos from flowers to landscapes to animals. Go check her out.

And ending with another yummy looking dessert. These cupcakes look so moist and full flavor, I am in particular love with the Grown and Sexy Red Velvet Sundae Cupcake, but there are other great looking ones plus she has sundae cups that look intriguing as well. Check out DelectableDelights.

I don't have time at the moment, but check back later today or tomorrow for another post on some of my favorite items, or just check them out here.

My latest ATC's

As I've said before, most of my work now is Artist Trading Cards (ATC's), and these are the ones I made for my collageatcs group for December. The theme this month was blue, so everyone was given a packet of blue items and they had to use at least one item on each card.
Starting in the top left hand corner and going clockwise, the items I used from the packet: the foot paperclip, blue denim trim (second strip on card), silver strip from snowflake ribbon (on another card); the blue rectangle on the bottom; the large blue circle and the letter "R"; swirly vellum piece and blue brad in corner.

Starting in the top left hand corner and going clockwise, the items I used from the packet: crepe paper; "NATURE" and blue beads; snowflake ribbon and blue jewel; worm, raindrop jewels and blue piece worm is "walking" through.

Starting on the left, the items I used from the packet: Blue square; safety pin, blue paper tag and denim tag.

Heads up

Heads up for everyone, I've begun a full time job for the next two weeks (this week and next), so I won't have anything artsy up for awhile.