Mixed Media Monday - Maps

The current theme for Mixed Media Monday is maps, so here is a page I did in an altered book a while back (for Heather Crossley) - well I have been away so that is my excuse!!

I love incorporating black and white images in collages - to me they are very graphic and create a strong contrast to the muted background. And I love those Ma Vinci stamped numbers!! So big and beautiful!

A Flotsam Post...Emphasis on May's Take it Further Challenge

This is today's effort to remember some of what I learnt in Misty's class only 10 days ago! Gosh it is scary how quickly you (or should that be "I") forget!! I enjoyed myself though...this is using a background I made in the class. Unfortunately I have covered up my gel medium transfer - Misty has no compunction (is that really a word?) about painting over or SANDING over work she has done but it is a big step for me!! Once again it is based on a magazine image of a face which is saned, painted over, altered and then repainted (sort-of!)... I am going to keep on practicing before I forget it all!

And now for something completely different - Sharon's challenge for May over at "Take it Further" was for us to consider what we called ourselves in terms of our art. She was, I think, focusing on our identification and potential labelling as artists versus crafters etc but I just can't get motivated to turn this theme into anything! I have never been a big one for labels and who cares what I call myself anyway? And do I care what someone else labels me? Well probably I do, at least at night when I can't sleep...

So that leaves me with the colour palette for this month and six days in which to make something that "takes me further". Needless to say I am pondering that one as the palette is quite out of my normal range, pretty, but very soft and pastel. Perhaps taking it further will just be me using different colours! Hmmm, thinking cap is on.

Think Monday Think ATC - Women in ART

I am just catching up on some of the weekly challenges and the current Think Monday Think ATC has a great theme - Women in Art. The link takes you to a terrific YouTube of women in art - well worth watching - I was mesmerized! Very clever!

So to celebrate this theme - here is an ATC sized version of a canvas I did some time back for my wonderful (and only!) niece Jasmine - this one incorporates one of my all time favourite painted images - oh to paint like this!! Can you imagine...

A few photos & the results of Traci's Workshop

A photo of my Traci Bautista Fibre Fusion Journal
(with late afternoon shadows for extra impact!!)

A scan of my journal front - the photo colours are more accurate. Look at all that glitter!!!

A scan of the back of the journal showing all the uneven length pages - so freeing!

The fibre fusion spine of the journal - threads, fabrics, beads, fibres, ribbons etc

A photo showing the woven spine between two of the signatures -
I love the way the journal lies flat - much easier to work in.
And yes this was a piece of manila folder that was my work surface - too colourful to waste!

I have finally got myself fully unpacked and can see my desk (or at least that little portion of it that is my "usual" work surface)! Yesterday I was really out of it so didn't force myself to be creative - I just caught up on some blog reading and read a novel (Bel Canto) my friend Jude lent me when I stayed with her in Perth on my way home.

Last night and today I have finished off my fibre fusion journal from Traci Bautista's workshop. Traci was a fabulous tutor, encouraging us all to just have fun and to splash the paint around, to make our own marks and to see the journal as just that - something that will be written in and worked on as we use it on a daily (or whatever) basis. It really was a fun class, lots of fast free work with very little conscious thought in the preparation stage. Traci got us to tear all our papers rather than use scissors and to use a wide range of papers - it is a good way to be at least a little bit green and extend the usefulness of all the junk paper that comes our way. Manila folders featured heavily and I used ones I had recycled from work.

The binding and weaving parts of the class were fun as well and I was able to finish my journal in class except for doing a little collage on the front so that is what I have now done, using some of my own doodles and scraps of papers from tje workshop. I also gave some more of my journal pages a wash of paint as I wanted my journal to be a very colourful surface in which to write. Next time I will sew around my collage before binding the book but I couldn't for this one as I had constructed pockets on the inside covers, plus it is hard to manipulate around the sewing machine once the book is bound.

And here are some photos of my trip - as I said yesterday, I took very few so it is slim pickings considering all the opportunities I had over the 11 days!

Creative tree pruning - noticed on a walk in Prahran

Sweet little place in Sassafras

Miss Marples Tearooms in Sassafras

One side of Miss Marples Tearooms - loved the Virginia Creeper and autumn colours
(we don't get much of that in Kalgoorlie where deciduous trees are rare)

Jo Wholohan and Kasha Rolley resting on a street-side bench in between purchases!

Yes I'm back but not fully functioning yet!

Well I am home safe and sound from my travels (4600 kilometres of flying) and I had a wonderful time. Exhausting, stimulating, eye-opening and wonderful all at the same time. Quite apart from the pure bliss of time spent with one of my sisters and my son, the whole art retreat experience was a terrific experience - I learnt so much - about people, about myself and of course about art! Misty Mawn, Traci Bautista and Nina Bagley were all just fantastic and I can't really express how much I enjoyed my workshops with each of them. They were all so different and I can feel myself getting ready to go down different paths as a result.

Keron Lee very generously hosted four of us interstaters for several days and my thanks again Keron for providing us all with such a wonderful opportunity (and also for taking us on such an incredible shopping spree!!) May the blue bird of happiness sit on your shoulder evermore. It was terrific to finally meet Keron after a year's planning, to meet Jo Wholohan after years of art exchanges and to catch up again with Gaye Todd and Kasha Rolley, both of whom I had met on previous art related trips to Queensland a few years back. We all had a lot of fun together! As I live in a fairly remote location the vast majority of my contact with other Australians artists comes from these at-best annual excursions around Australia so I really try and make the most of them! I caught up (all too briefly) with other friends too - Jen Crossley, Coralee Barker; Ruth Kelly; Karin Hutchinson (don't forget to email me your blog address!!), Danielle D'Onofrio, Stephanie Grant plus lots more and met lots of other wonderful people - Abby, Nadine, Jacky, Dot, Shirley, Kirsty, Mandy x 2 plus lots more.

Thanks to Jo & Jacky from Artistic Journey for their second ever Art Retreat! I know you guys learnt heaps from this one and I am sure there must have been some awful "organisational" moments for you - not an easy task to organise so far from home and on such a scale! It was a fabulous three days and I am so grateful that you took the gamble a second year running and bought us such wonderful overseas artists as tutors. I'm looking forward to 2009 already!!

At the moment I have stuff everywhere - there are art supplies that I decided at the last minute not to pack (space considerations more than anything!), stuff I took, stuff I bought, etc etc and I really want to get to my desk and do some creating but I really need to get everything into some sort of order (or at least off the family room floor and dining room table!) So that is what I am trying to do but I think I'm still coming down from the "high" and I just can't settle at anything!!

(me and Jen)

I tend to be an "in the moment" sort of person so I took very few photos but there are heaps on other people's blogs so I don't feel too bad about that aspect. The picture just above is of Jen Crossley (we could be sisters hey?) and myself in Nina's Sunday class - thanks for sending me the photo Jen.

The picture at the top of this post is my main piece from Friday's workshop with the incredible Misty Mawn. There is an unfinished snap of it on Jo's blog and as you can see from my scan below, the finished piece now needs some retouching as a result of damage on the way home (nothing quite like a bit of dampness to make things stick where they shouldn't - she really isn't meant to have white and blue specks on her face and in her hair!!) This workshop was a real stretch for me (and I think a lot of others as we don't tend to paint faces even though we all love using paint) but I really enjoyed it and learnt so much. I need to practice while I remember some of it!

And now for something completely different!

Look what came in the mail yesterday - two very funky ATC trades from
the blogless Laurence Rocher in France!
Such fun!! Thanks Laurence.

PS Yes, I am in panic mode (it's official) - too much to do today and last night I did "something" to my knee so I am hobbling around the place, cursing myself for leaving so much to the last minute!

Mixed Media Monday - Paint!

Natalie is the guest artist for this week at Mixed Media Monday and she has challenged us all to post art that incorporates paint in some way. I'm posting a piece I had published some time ago in Stamping & Papercraft - it uses some lovely asian paper as a background and I have stamped the oriental poppy image on a page torn from an asian book (I have several especially for collage purposes). The poppy and border are painted with wonderful Twinkling H2O paints - they have a lovely gleam that doesn't show up very well in the scan. I love using water brushes when I am using these paints.

So a little "Melbourne Art Retreat Preparation" update for anyone that is interested - I leave in less than 48 hours and will be gone for eleven days in total (two days are just travel though). I am doing three day long workshops with Misty Mawn, Traci Bautista and Nina Bagley - just in case anyone reading my blog has managed to miss that bit! I am staying in three different places while I am gone. I am catching four planes. I have not packed yet. The weather is completely different in Melbourne at this time of year (significantly cooler than here - we are expecting a warm 30 degrees today whereas Melb is only expecting 19!) Consequently I haven't worked out what to pack yet. I haven't sorted out my workshop supplies and equipment yet (and that is a big task as it all has to fit in my case and be leak proof and within airline limits). But I have had a few very relaxing days doing art and floating around. Good, hey? You would not want to be here by tonight though when the panic sets in.