It occurs to me that I still haven’t posted the quilt I made in the Ana Buzzalino workshop that set me off on my current explorations.

And since it’s the Spring Blogger’s Quilt Festival, this is the perfect opportunity to share.  So do hop off  over there and vote for your favourites.  This is in the art quilt category and is 12 inches wide and 39-1/2 long.

And on the topic of voting … I put a poll which is just two posts back from this one, requesting artistic feedback, so please feel free to vote on that and help with a current project too.

Ana is a very encouraging teacher who brought many of her pieces to the workshop where we could study her techniques as we went along.  There were several examples of the Birds on a Wire that we made in the workshop, also others using the technique of piecing mixed fabrics straight onto foundation, batting and backing and then overdyeing the whole piece.

Mine includes white on white prints, black and white cotton, broderie anglaise, upholstery fabric, heavy cotton that feels like wool, assorted trims, and seersucker.  Some of these were fabrics I never thought I’d really be able to use.

beading, assorted b/w prints, eyelet trim at top

I mixed peach and tangerine fibre reactive dye powders from Dharma to achieve my colour.  It’s fascinating to see how each fabric dyes differently, yet everything goes well together.

This detail shows dupioni silk, a strip of hook tape which I bought for the workshop because it’s polyester cotton blend so I knew it would take some dye.

It also demonstrates Ana’s saying that there’s always a fix for everything.  A hook fell right at the edge and I had to snip it out to be able to sew the binding down.  This left an ugly hole because of the way the hooks are sewn into the tape.  I found a couple of beads and covered the hole with a trim.  There’s a row of seed beads towards the bottom of the piece (below the sitting birds) but sewing through all those layers was quite tough so I left it at one row.

Bell pepper flower

Pen and colored pencil sketch

Pen and colored pencil sketch

Pen sketch

Playing around with flowers for this month’s theme for Creative Every Day Challenge.

I’ve been on a roll with work. Here’s a small piece I finally got around to doing for myself. .

(the more conspicuous example of course)

a potent heat-trapping effect

abuse of medication

a yen for guns,

a homeless veteran

the smell of body odor,

the rumbling of a hungry stomach, the creaking

from a nightmare,

The pigs ate anything

farmers

church leaders

Two musicians—

young women

school children

the little blobs

humanity

millions of people

are being turned out

on the street

my doing it—is not the killing

in jail since his arrest

self-esteem of the details

an oxymoron;

his apology through Twitter.

Original Mixed-Media Piece

As part of Lakewood’s cultural programming for June, this second annual show from 40 West Arts should be fairly exciting. The show opens Friday, June 7th, from 4-7 p.m. and will run for three consecutive weekends: June 8-9, 15-16, and 22-23 from 12-4 p.m. The show will include a range of media including painting, 3-D, digital video, photography, mixed media and textiles.

Should be fun!

I thought as my previous post showed some examples of my crotched beaded jewellery – that this post should show some examples of my Art…

So, without further ado…here you go!

“All Eyes” – Mixed Media on canvas, 2007

From “Transience I” Photography Series, 2005

From “Just Nipped Out”  Photography Series, 2008

“A Hoot” Mixed Media on Paper, July 2011

“Golden Goose” Mixed Media on Canvas,  May 2011

“Push On Through” Mixed Media on Canvas, May 2010

 ”Turtley” Mixed Media on Paper, July 2011

Hope you like it!

Maya xoxo

“LISTEN to the color of your dreams.”

-THE BEATLES

In a world where we are constantly told to be more efficient. more logical, more clean – I sometimes wonder why?  Why do we have to make the best use of our time?  Why do we have to do things smart?  At least why do we have to do it all the time-

I say make mistakes.  Take the long way around. Make a mess of things.  Fall down.  Then do it all again.

Dream in color.  It’s the messy moments that are the ones we will remember.

These canvas backgrounds were created from 6×6 paper pads color-coordinated with the paints to create it’s own individual color theme, much like a rainbow of colors. After our 2-day workshop, I packed the mini canvases up in a Bath & Body Works gingham handle bag and put them in the color of my work area. Last weekend, I organized my work area and came across the bag of 8 and decided it was time to finish this project. The rainbow theme brought to mind a couple who had been begging, this had gone beyond subtle suggestions, for their own canvas art from me. With them in mind, and my recent re-reading of don Miguel Ruiz’ The Four Agreements, I went to work creating a piece to represent these four wonderful guidelines for life: Be impeccable with your word, Don’t take anything personally, Don’t make assumptions and Always do your best. Simple, straight-forward, yet they definitely take some work to follow consistently. I, personally, struggle with the second one: Don’t take anything personally. Working for a large defense company, it’s best to follow this guideline and remember you’re just another cog in the wheel, easily replaced and forgotten. The third agreement parallels one of my mantras – come from a point of inquiry. If we stop making assumptions, which are more often than not off base, and ask questions, we can prevent so many of the communication conflicts that occur in our relationships with others.

Here’s the final collage:

The Four Agreements Collage – eight various sized canvases working together

The Yellow Canvas

The Red Canvas

The Brown Canvas

The Orange Canvas

The Green Canvas – No. 82 plaquette with brads (Tim Holtz idea-ology), and “enjoy” canvas tag

The Blue Canvas – metal music notes, paper butterflies (Prima), and collage arrow

The Olive/Brown Canvas with Wood Button, collage chipboard arrow, Love Key (Tim Holtz idea-ology Word Keys), and burlap butterfly (Hope Chest by pinkpaislee)

Close up of die cut coi (Anna Griffin), paper butterfly with rhinestone center (Prima flowers), and Wood Button (Prima)

The Four Agreements Collage

Close up of glitter spoon embellishment

Close up of key

Close up of brown embellished butterfly (jenni bowlin studio), road trip car (Making Memories Panorama rub-on) and wood embellishment watch (Prima)

Close up of flower with leaf die cut (Anna Griffin diecut embellishments – Konoka Collection)

Close up of red square tile (Prima tiles… I LOVE PRIMA TILES!) and cursive “together” dye-able plastic word (pinkpaislee Artisan Words)

Close up of Hello wood veneer die-cut (Studio Calico) and tape measure

Close up of dog tile

Not much of a photographer am I! Close up of $1 charm (Tim Holtz idea-ology Cash Keys), stars in circles stamp (4ArtbyArt wooden rubber stamp) and wavy corrugated cardboard heart

Close up of rub-on stamp and key

Vacation anyone?

Trying out a new collage style here…..

To see more of my artwork go to http://thecsweet.deviantart.com/gallery/

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all thanks to a fearless leader, an incredible team of volunteers, talented artists, sunshine and my most favourite community

a few highlights i was able to catch during my awesome busy day…

Lisa Dennis & Jasmine Vesque – “Chinadoll” yarn being bombed!

a minute inside “Thenwedieatron”

it was a pleasure to connect with Natali Leduc & Matthew Gorgol

my kiddies collaboARTing with Daniel Martelock

the finished work

burlesque feather lady was enchanting!

mesmerizing live projection art by Stefan Thompson

really enjoyed rounding out the night with Silkken Laumann

a big thank you to Chinadoll for her sway at karaoke

and MY girls who came out to lend a hand

you rock ladies

thank you Chinatown Re-mixed!

it was a blast!

it feels good to feel at home

heARTbeatgal

Mixed media 9″ x 7″ x 2″ (2007) price $350 title “Venus Adrift”

I used recylced paper for that initial experiment  and being pretty pleased with the results, decided to be a bit more daring with my next foray into making paper.

A few months ago some tree trimming was carried out by the council along the front of our property – due to trees growing into power lines and the bushfire danger in Australia. As I live on a ten acre property, and we try to grow our own vegetables we asked that the mulch be left with us for our garden. As a result I was left with a huge mound of eucalyptus mulch – perfect for making paper!

I used eucalyptus leaves, bark and twigs for the paper, and when using plant materials caustic coda is used to boil the fibres into pulp – that was a bit scary, but as long as gloves and goggles are used everything is fine.

Boiling the eucalyptus pulp

The eucalyptus pulp

I boiled the pulp for about two hours, and then rinsed and rinsed – the caustic soda must all be rinsed away before any attempt to make paper is made.

I still had some recycled paper pulp left from the last project, so I made some sheets of paper using pure eucalyptus, and some using a mixture of paper and eucalyptus.

100 % eucalyptus paper

Freshly made paper – eucalyptus and recycled paper pulp

Overall, I was again happy with the results. Though I could have boiled the eucalyptus longer if I wanted smoother paper, the sculptural results of this paper was very exciting, and I intend to experiment more with this idea.

100% eucalyptus paper

Detail: Eucalyptus pulp, recycled paper pulp and embroidery cotton

Eucalyptus pulp, recycled paper pulp and embroidery cotton

These works are mixed media. They are portraits of the individual in a way, not literal portraits, but I choose something that belongs to the subject which I feel is representative of them. Sort of how religious objects have come to represent the Masters of that faith. I then surround the object with a halo and markings that are meant to have vibrational energy qualities to them. I’m not sure where all the color comes from, I meditate daily and try to paint from the subconscious mind as much as possible. I jokingly refer to my works as rainbowlishish because of the bright colors.

Both of the subjects of these paintings came from humble beginnings. If you were to judge how their lives were to proceed when they were the age of 21 you would most likely have guessed a horrible future for both. Each of these men rose above their challenges to succeed beyond belief with what skills they had. Both are perfectionists at their crafts and do beautiful work. Helcio moved to the States from Brazil, he was an officer in the army and left illegally, at the time. He worked very hard as a handyman to bring his wife and two children over several years later. He sent his wife and two daughters to college. He has another daughter and his own business. James was exposed to drinking and drugs as a kid. He was a troubled kid to say the least and was constantly getting into trouble. Working as a barber is what got James through his addiction to alcohol. Today he is married with a child. He owns a house, two condos, and he works for himself.

(All work & images © Catherine Cronin)

Richard Vergez, Loose Canon

Richard Vergez, Five Fragments

Richard Vergez, Electro-Romantic

Richard Vergez

Richard Vergez

Richard Vergez

Richard Vergez

Richard Vergez, Pineapple Lady

Richard Vergez, Splash

Richard Vergez, Exhalation

Richard Vergez, An Emphasis on Composition

Photo Credit: Richard Vergez

At the beginning of the year I signed up for a project called ‘Paint & Pass’ on The Glitterhood art network (previously known as Wild Soul Arts). The idea is that we would all buy or make an art journal and send it to the next person on a list of about eight people.  They then create a spread, before sending it on to the next person. At the end of the year we’ll get our journal back, and they’ll be filled with lots of exciting arty goodies.

I absolutely couldn’t wait to get started, I think this is such a great idea. And because everybody approaches art journaling in such a different way, I’m expecting to soak up lots of inspiration along the way!

When the first journal arrived I fell in love. It was a Strathmore Series 200 book and the paper was so thick and smooth I just wanted to keep it forever (but I didn’t, I promise). The owner of the journal wrote a little welcome note on the first page and asked us to ‘sign in’ by adding a butterfly to her painting. This is mine:

The main page I created was a complete experiment… I love the background but the face looks kind of… creepy. The colours are cool but she seems a bit zombie-like… maybe she’s just high!

Like I always say, I’m not too fussed if I don’t love the end result… the process is the part that I find fun. Having said that, the good part about doing the ‘Paint & Pass’ is that after I mail it off, I don’t have the option of going back to it and obsessing over it (which I tend to do!)

This is the first time I’ve actually ‘got rid’ of something I’ve made, and I’m quite surprised I was so ok with it… maybe it’s because the page was so imperfect?

How about you? Do you get massively attached to the things you create or are you fine with giving them away?

D x

I am not happy with King Neptune’s face – I redrew it and gessoed it out a dozen times so it will just have to stay as it is.

I used a HEAP of mediums and techniques to create this page. The background was created using Neocolor II’s – in LOVE with them right now. Watercolour and Prismacolor pencils, Tombow markers, Copics, Acrylic dabber paints, Gesso (clear and white) and Matt Medium. Techniques used included a tissue transfer technique that I learnt in an online class with Jane Davenport and Teesha Moore. I also hand-carved my own fish stamps as I needed to create the fish “shadows” but didn’t want to hand paint each and everyone of them.

The mermaid and Neptune are both my original art pieces – and since it is the very first time I have painted a male I am very happy with him (except the face – really need to work on male faces).

The sea life at the bottom is a mixture of my drawings and some clipart images.

Well that is about it…. what do you think?

Thanks for dropping by.

Hugs

Vicky

#358, to Courteney, CA

“more than a meager”

collage on drugstore print

1990s/2013

A Random Acts of Mail Art Postcard