BWO!!

Yeah! Thanks to Connie(Altered Route) and her May 17th post with the link to BWO - I'd been wanting to put it on my site, and her link to Tiffini (Tartx) who has an awesome blog and webpage, finally gave me the push to do it! Thanks!!!

Progress on artwork

We're leaving for Washington DC on Wed. at 7AM -
I am trying to finish up these two pieces tonight. Listening to Coldplay... kids made me listen and now I really like them! I have so many details to finish up but nothing is dry!!

Carol, I'm sending these to you too so you know I'm working!!














This is almost finished. I have copper pieces to go underneath the eyes. I have to glue the heads down and the gears, but I'm not quite done with the gears. The 'stitching' is posterboard strips, but I'm not sure if I'll use them or something else...I am very happy with the border, it is IKEA paper yardsticks colored with oil paint sticks and 'distressed' and they look cool. Outside those is more collage on a medium tan mat board. I needed more room for the heads. I still have to trim it on 2 sides, but it is just about done!!

The next piece is about 1/2 done.













Needs all the collage, and transparencies, but it is
going very well. All the dark colored squares are 100 grit sandpaper, in case you're wondering. It's perfect with the copper paint I'm using. None of it is glued down, just wanted to see what it was going to look like!














The color is off - yellowed- it's the lighting and the camera, and I didn't have time to put the picture into Photoshop, sorry! I'll upload it to Arttechniques when we get back to Texas. Click on the pictures and they blow up huge so you can see the texture in the pattern pieces - they'll get the 'stitching later, and all the backgrounds and the squares will be FUN - I'm going to play around with my flower stamp and embossing powders - when I get back!

New Work in Progress

Here's the original sketch -
















After several long days, I worked out the background, and some of the foreground - I had a drawing as you can see, but the difference between a sketch and making it happen on canvas or whatever - wow - a million miles sometimes. I can see it, almost touch it, but when I reach for it in my mind it dissolves like a mist - and when I back away from it, it materializes again...dang...so I'm hanging in a limbo but, little by little, it is becoming a reality.

This piece is a representation of the 'meeting of minds' and the way that people come to a discussion or participate in a relationship bringing all their baggage with them - 'patterns' of behavior, 'scripts', maps for mapping out our reactions...

Anyway, here are some of the parts - who knows how they will turn out in the end. I do have some cool stuff to add to it when I'm farther along, and I have this GREAT piece(the one with the single gear)that I intended to cut up, but I like it too much, so now it's got to be something on its own. It has such pretty color and texture in it, and the gear is cloudy, almost under a layer of gauze, but it's just turp-y paper towel and rubber gloves over very wet oil paint stick and oil pastel - the gear was drawn with dark colors that stained the paper, so it still shows up - almost like encaustics or glazes...cool...


I don't know exactly what I'm going to do now, the head with collage around it is me - the other one will be my mom. I've copied several old letters to her from my Dad when they were first married, pictures of her parents, her journals, etc. for her collage.













I love the heads, but the faces are still blank, I'll see what the 'muse' says tomorrow, I was listening to Coldplay today, maybe I'll listen to Leigh Nash tomorrow- hmmm, my gear there looks a little flat on the bottom...

Any ideas?????

Think I'm Finished??

Classwork status-
I worked more on this yesterday - changed the colors in the 'balls' by rubbing gray and/or coral soft pastel over them and rubbed it with my fingers - there's so much texture in those areas(used the end of a paint brush to scratch back into the still soft oil pastel/paint sticks) so the under colors still show, and the color is dulled by the pastel. I added the stitching on the pattern pieces and across the kimono - it's oil pastel also, scratched back out nearly with an xacto knife. Added a little more collage on several flower petals, and just over all cleaned it up. I didn't want to loose some of the original color or the multicolor edges of some areas, I personally like some of the unfinished look, but I do fuss over things too. But I THINK I'm done. My friend Laree and I are going to Alpine on Monday to let our instructor(talented watercolor artist college instructor Carol Fairlie) see what we've been doing for our class. Have to be finished in 2 weeks!!! YIKES!!!

Collage ramblings-
I also took pictures of some old work - 2 oil pastels on roofing paper and a c. pastel on newsprint. I'm going to use these in the newbie ATC's as background papers - I'll probably make them b/w and hand color them, or turn them into 'colorbook' drawings and handcolor them....or something. Old sketchbooks make awesome 'stuff' for backgounds, xeroxed on cool papers. I have an hp 1210xi all in one, and I have yet to find any paper or cardstock thickness paper I couldn't run through it - I have run painted papers and watercolor paper and of course my pattern tissue. Forgive me if everyone already knows all this!! I feel I have 'discovered' all this on my own - but of course - great minds think alike, so many of you may be doing the same thing!
I am trying to only use only my own images and family photos, I LOVE collage, I like to xerox until the detail is nearly gone, then xerox onto weird papers, old stuff, maps, etc. Also, I do like to make my own stamps. If you haven't tried the blue stuff - made by Penscore - you need to - you can make and remake your own stamps, using old medals, jewelry, words written with hotglue, cardboard letters, etc. the stuff is only 3X5ish, but you can overlap and connect in 100 ways!
Misc. stuff-
Thanks to whoever recommended Blogarithm.com - it is awesome!!! Several of you posted to your blogs yesterday and I got this handy little email with a direct link to your new entry! Fantastic!!!
Have a great weekend!!! Deb

Almost done with this one - only have 4 to go...

I'm almost finished with the mixed media piece I started( there's a picture of it with just the kimono done yesterday) It just needs some cleaning up now - it's oil pastels, oil paint sticks, chalk pastels and collage. I'll clean up the edges of every shape with a tiny brush and turpentine tomorrow, and then use matt medium on the collage, and I'm done.

That was yesterday, now I am almost done - I think...

When you look at things small, like on this page, you can see where something is catching your eye, and that's maybe not your intention. Good way to self critique! The reddish outline that's on the right is demanding WAY too much attention, so I'll soften it... the two 'balls' in the upper left are bugging me too, they need some work. I may mat it to the right and leave most of the far left one out, or lighten the color of one or both, I'll color a few pieces to put over the shapes and see what I like best - the 'creative' part is over, now it's the 'analytical' part - does this work, is this color it too close to the same color as that one, where's the center of interest, is it still where I wanted it, etc.... now I'm in my teacher mode(or self critic) or whatever you want to call it - This is where I feel like I have the most control over what happens in my head - I step back and become very objective - it's all about the elements and principles of design now - the creative me isn't hurt by this, she is shutting up now - she's in the corner, hair all askew, margarita in one hand....yeah!!

There's some cool textures in the pinkish areas and on the greenish greyish band on the kimono. If you click on it, you can look at the collage, I tried to crop it , but they came out blurry for some reason. I LOVE the collage, there is a picture of me in there, part of a letter from my mom that says 'with all my heart, Mom', and the word 'daughter' and other parts of the letter... it's been weird looking at her handwriting and knowing that that's it - no more, so familiar I could pick it out in 1000 handwritings, but what I have is all I have...

I used the new camera to take pictures and they are turned out better. I'm going to upload these to arttechniques also. It'll be the first time I've uploaded anything. I've uploaded my journal cover too - it's a pretty good picture of it. I like yellow ochres and browns and those colors tend to look all the same in a photo( the table is the same color too, I just realized that, next time I'll put white paper under things!

See you later, I have really enjoyed all your comments folks! THANK YOU!!!! Deb

Working in my artroom at school today -

I am working on my classwork (for SulRoss) today- collaging bits and pieces of xeroxed pictures, Japanese newspapers and maps, crossword puzzles, a kimono linoleum I copied onto old pattern tissue, and the definitions of daughter, journal and journey(Bought a very old dictionary at the library, but only ended up with A-K half of it, so no 'traveler, seeker, pattern, etc!!)...and xeroxed all of it on old pattern tissue - I like the transparency of it. I've tried elmers, matt medium, and now glue sticks - any other suggestions for working with flimsy paper - it is layered on my finger tips, I had to quit, because it was a loosing battle between me and the paper - more on me than on my 'flowers'.

I forgot to bring Dan's camera over here today - I want to see if I can get truer color - the pictures I took the other day were awful...incorrect color and too light or too dark. This room has tons of fluourescent lighting, but not right for photos.

I also printed on an 8X10 transparency, an old picture of my parents and me - I don't know what to do with it yet, but it's cool. I also have a small picture of me at about 1 1/2 yrs. and I want to make a pin with it, but it needs light colors behind it because the face except for the features, is blank - no shading at all...just found a card my mom sent me that has the word daughter written in it and it fits on my shirt...hmmm...
I went to Barnes and Noble and bought a japanese-english dictionary, I made a stamp that says 'pattern' like sewing or design for something. I made 2 more stamps too, two designs in the kimono linoleum blown up to about 3X4 each. Yesterday,I sat around and designed a dozen more, I'll take the stuff home to cut them out tonite. I don't know what I want to do with them yet, but it was fun!

I need to go home, but I can't work there yet, studio isn't done. It's a true dilemma - my classroom which I have 24/7 access to 365 days a year, is 30'X60' with 16' ceilings and I can spread out everywhere all summer...and I love the openness and size, but I need to move my self to a much smaller place-10X20, my studio that's in my backyard so I don't have to put everything away every day when school starts - I'll need to get the absolute most efficient storage for all my stuff - and room for a computer and copier/printer. A TV set to watch all the how to videos I've purchased...but first I need a new floor!
I need help - wonder what my art kids are doing this week??? ^_^

Corpus Christi, TX 2007

What a beautiful place - HOT and muggy during the middle of the day, but in the morning, and in the evening, wow - gorgeous. We stayed at the Best Western Grand Marina, room 912 - great room, $89.00 +ttl per night, on Shoreline Blvd., fabulous ocean view, deck pool, laundry(!!), 11th floor continental brkfst in huge room with walls of windows on 3 sides, unbelievable. Great place to stay! We took a sunset triple decker boat trip in the CC bay for $12.00 pp for 1 1/2 hours, had sodas and snacks(beer,wine and mixed drinks too) very nice. I LOVE Galveston, but Corpus is quieter, the water is calmer, the beaches cleaner, and it's more of a real town, than just a tourist trap. We want to fly into Houston and drive down the coast and check out all the other little beach towns along the Texas coast, I think it's still very posible to get a little piece of heaven for a reasonable price! I have pictures!! You can rent a skidoo or paddle boat or a little sail boat 30 feet from where you park your car. I'm sure on holidays it's crazy busy, but we were there Sat - Wed. and it was active and there were people, but there weren't lines, the freeways were SO calm, even at 4:30 during the week. Lots of shopping, cute restaurants, things to see and do, kid friendly, artsy, just fun. Good place for a vacation. This page has a virtual tour, but we got a rate $20.00 a night less than what they quote on this page(Dan gets on line and hunts for rooms, he is great at finding the very best rate!)

http://book.bestwestern.com/bestwestern/productInfo.do;jsessionid=C9DB9453AFAD27C4CC493E4871F8F0E0?propertyCode=44500

Joe's Crab Shack(love that coconut shrimp!), sunset over the Corpus skyline - taken from the Flagship, and the Flagship - wouldn't it be a great house???

New Art Room Blog!!

Well, I did it!! I made a blog for my artroom - I'd like a different profile and picture for it, does anyone know how I can do that? Do I need a different email address?

http://ahs-artroom.blogspot.com/

Anyway, I'll email it to my upper level art kids so they can check it out! I got email addresses and cellphone numbers before school was out - it'll be fun. I'm happy, thanks again to everyone who has given me suggestions, pointed me in the right direction, and most of all for the encouraging comments and emails. You are the BEST!! Art Techniques folks, do you mind me linking your blogs and/or webpages to my blog??? Let me know! PATA (posted on Art Tecniques Also) Gotta pack and do more laundry for the trip! I'll ahve to check at least one suitcase so I can bring ocean water back from CC - Have a great weekend!!
I love the new save feature, I thought I'd lost this!!!!

Blogger Help Group

Went there to get all my posts to show on the page, so for at least a while all my carefully chosen words will show! I'm so proud of myself!!
I also found several art teachers who use the blog as a class webpage...what a cool idea for those of us with no knowledge of these things! And those I've seen have LOTS of pictures and info - eventually, I want an interactive webpage, with printable assignments and rubrics, syllabus(syllabii?) for every level, etc...but I don't know how to do it myself, and don't really want to learn either, I just want to know what I need to know to change or update it, FOR FREE of course! Art $$$ don't stretch far enough, I am always using my own money for things. Tech people say 'someday', and computer/multimedia teachers don't have time for it either. This is the most fun I have had in a long time - thanks for all the help out there!

Still having some problems

I lowered the cookie thing for blogger.com, so it would allow me to have add ons, like links - but it still takes FOREVER, to look at comments on my blog. It usually doesn't load the page at all. We have Norton Antivirus, and I can hear the popup blocker thing, very faintly, but it's catching some kind of 'poo' - we put it up higher since my little girl(19) has MySpace, and all that stuff, so we have had to do the hp recovery thing several times in the last 6 months - lost LOTS of stuff last time, but the computer was completely down, and that's all we could do...my little girl is also an artist, and taking classes at our local community college - her skills are so much better than mine were at her age, I can only imagine where she'll be when she graduates. I'm so proud of her. She is amazing.
We are leaving at 6AM tomorrow for Corpus, I can't wait! Have a great weekend out there folks!