One finished piece a year- I'm on a roll! 'Eye Piece'

Just getting started

To show scale, I used my little asistant

Progress Pic

Final piece!

At the show- BCCC. 

A few years ago, I started taking classes at the local community college- (Bucks County Community College). I only take about once class a semester, and sometimes none at all. I've taken film, metalsmithing, and then last year took it into my head to take an Introduction to Sculpture class . I knew that 3-d appealed to me, since I have taken several assemblage workshops with  Michael de Meng - I love taking workshops- they inspire me, I learn a LOT, yet I rarely finish my project.  With a studio class at the college, I get a lot more time- plus the motivation of a definite due date- something I don't seem to be able complete a piece without.
 Last year I finished three pieces, including the spaceship from my previous post. This year I took a 3-d Materials and Modeling class- again completing three pieces- this one being my favorite. For the wood carving part of the class we could choose any body part- internal or external. The carving was a real challenge- apparently the subtractive method is not my forte!  , but I got to build a base- Apoxie Clay to the rescue!, and added a faux rust finish - building the base and finishing it honestly felt like a reward for carving the eye. Anyway, enough rambling- I mostly blog for myself to record my journey- I hope you like it, and if you've gotten this far,  thank you very much for reading!

Spaceship Sculpture 'Refuge'

I freely admit I am not a photographer, but here's my attempt to get a good shot in of the sculpture I finished last April, 'Refuge'.  I propped it on a card board box and set it up against a wall- probably not the best technique, but you get the idea. It's 17 inches long and 12 inches high. As  you can see, it would take quite a bit of tenacity to reach it as it is only able to be entered via a rather decrepit looking ladder. The propeller works - kind of - as one would expect from a ship make of bits of flotsam and jetsam. OR maybe the battery died ? Or my electrical skills need work ?

I honestly have to say that the legs on this are one of my favorite things, so I'm including a close up. 

Been busy- spaceships, etc.

Well, its been quite a while since I've written anything. I started this blog to document my creative journey as I tried different mediums and I've been up to quite a lot actually- ironically very little of my projects have made it onto this blog. Hmmmmmm.....

 There is an excellent community college close by - well I don't know about the whole college, but the art department is fantastic! - and in the past I have taken some metalsmithing and film classes there. Last fall semester I took an Introduction to Sculpture class- my first official 'Fine Art' class- a whole semester of sculpture! We made three pieces-  one using cast elements, one that incorporated metal and one made of wood. This sculpture is a spaceship.  I don't particularly like the photos I have so I'm just going to post some bits and pieces- close ups of some of the what I can only refer to as the hull? And inner workings. And hopefully will be back sooner rather than later with some pictures of the whole piece.

And one of the frame- shaped some wire and soldered the joints for stability- here I have one of my wire mesh panels secured.

If anyone but me reads my blog- thank you very much for stopping by! 

Jareth- a Labyrinth Collage

This is a large collage/painting that I made for my brother. I usually am way behind on posting pieces, but this is an exception- I just finished it last week. We both love sci-fi and fantasy movies, Jim Henson and Brian Froud (well, all of the Frouds actually- more on visiting their gallery show for another post- that wasback in 2011- wow! - where does the time go?)

Anyway, I'll keep it short- we decided to theme it based on the movie Labryinth, use Jareth (David Bowie's character) as the central image and to use favorite images and characters from the movie, including shots of Jim Henson and Brian Froud, for the collage. He gave me free reign to do whatever I wanted. My goal was to incorporate as much imagery as possible. The palette just evolved on its own- I don't even remember consciously making choices, although while glazing over Jim Henson's face, I thought it was fitting, as the creator of Kermit, that he was getting painted green. It may not always be easy being green, but I don't think he would have it any other way.

 Notice that Jim Henson is green! teehee

Marjie Kemper's Class at The Ink Pad

  I was just going through some photos and realized I am wayyyyy behind on blogging about classes I've attended in the past year.(actually I haven't blogged about hardly any classes, oops- So I'm starting with this fun and colorful one) Last February I attended a class tought by Marjie Kemper at the Ink Pad in New York. Here's a link to her blog post about the class- Sunday at the Ink Pad. If you scroll down to class photos, you can see me in the checkered apron. :) Her first class was a called Melt Art Madness, which looked fantastic, but unfortunately I was unable to make it. (I did however take a class from Suze Weinberg back in 2009 called Goddess Utee which was awesome, and by the way, the first class I EVER took at Art-is-You. What a way to start my journey! I never knew how much you could do with Utee )  I took the Demystifying Distress Stains and Dylusions Ink Spray Inks with Marjie. What I love about her work is the way she uses bright vibrant color and just the right touches of black to make the colors pop. She's a patient teacher, gives great demonstrations and was kind enough to share her large selection of rubber stamps and supplies. We had so much inky fun! I finished a lot of pages at the class, but had made so many backgrounds that I finished it at home with my little one as helper (studio assistant?)

Here's a pic of  Marjie's class samples- amazing- (used with Marjie's permission)

And here's a shot of all the class attendees- notice our smiles- I'm in front with the checkered apron. On the far left are Pamala and Karen- two regular Ink Pad class attendees and wonderful ladies and artists. 

And finally, one of me- hard at work- notice the amount of inks, stamps, sprays and who knows what else surrounding me- I'm in the zone here!  (Thanks Marjie for letting me use your pics!)

And here's my book- all done! Love looking at all the fun colors and textures.

With my 'studio assistant' at home.

Art Journal Page

I had a chance to meetup with some art journalists on Sunday, and this is what I made. I love getting together with artsy friends and working- its very motivating. Little by little I am filling up my good ol' moleskin that I started working on a few years ago.

Class with Finnabair

  In the time since I've last posted,  I've taken some wonderful inspiring classes with Jodi Ohl, at Create NJ last July, Catt Kerr  and Andrea Matus DeMeng at Art-is-You in Stamford last October,   Seth Apter in NY at Little Bird Creations in December, and Marjie Kemper at the Ink Pad in New York in February. Whew! And, being the stinker that I am- I haven't posted about a single one.  Anyway, since I haven't blogged about any of them, and I enjoyed each one of the classes a great deal, I thought I would start with Finnabair, a.k.a. Ania Dambrowska.  I have been following her blog for many years, so when I found out she would be teaching in New York last July, at Michelle Luxemburg's studio, I jumped at the chance.
  We spent the whole day playing, making the front and back covers of a hard covered journal, and several pages inside as well. I'm just going to post some pictures of the front cover for now- but it has everything I LOVE on it- color, texture, junk and a vintage print ( General Tom Thumb and his wife, in case you were wondering) . I had made a brooch back in 1990 with some broken jewelry and that image, and since I haven't worn it in years, I thought it would make an awesome focal point to the collage. I'm going to frame and put this up on a wall, rather than using it as a journal cover. If you want to read about his take on the experience, read Seth's Apter's post here.  He proved to be an excellent table mate.  (I'm the one on the bottom left, next to Marjie, who also wrote a wonderful blog post about the workshop)

Back of my Journal Cover

Hello there! Previously, I had decorated the front of my Moleskin journal and loved it- I loved having a colorful collage to inspire me every time I picked it up. But the back was still plain. I attempted to decorate it, and it was ok, but I love to re-do old pages- they often provide inspiration for a new piece. So here is the result.

 

 

 

   The quote is by James D. Finley and it says "Nothing encourages creativity like the chance to fall flat on ones face" - Love that! I am always learning new things and I have to frequently remind myself that its ok to experiment, and yes, fall flat on my face at times- as a matter of fact that is part of the process!

Hope everyone out there is doing well. I am going to attempt to blog more, but right now my main focus is going to be getting ready for Art-is-You in October. I often find myself in pre-retreat chaos gathering materials and stressing myself out. So, I figure if I make myself a checklist and start NOW, I might just be prepared in time this year!

 



July Calendar Page

Well, its been a while since I posted, but I managed to make a calendar journal page for this month, so I am just going to jump in where I left off. My scanner's on the blink (still! urgh) so here's a photo from my 'el cheapo' camera.

Here's a link to the calendar challenge on Kate Crane's blog.  Thanks for looking!

April Calendar Page

So....here's my calendar page for April. I am so happy that I've been able to keep up with this challenge so far and am loving seeing everybody's pages every month. So much inspiration. I thought I was going to keep it simple this month, but I think I got even more carried away than usual. I have resolved to not buy any more paper, or art supplies (well, not too much at least- I always pick up a few new markers or paint colors here or there- that doesn't count, right?) and I love using things I had forgotten I even had, like the Grungeboard letters and swirls. And some ancient rub-ons from 7 Gypsies. Thanks for looking! Check out everybody's work over at The Kathryn Wheel. And thanks again Kate for this awesome challenge- enjoying it so much!