The Passage of Time

Although it's been nearly a year since my last post, I've been anything but idle. In October, I took a cruise with my husband and was inspired by the colors of the water at the beach in St. Thomas and the colorful fabrics and jewelry hanging in the little stalls on the French side of St. Maarten. In December we traveled to Memphis, TN to walk a 5K with friends to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where I was inspired by the life-giving work they are doing. In January, I accompanied some wonderfully talented friends to an art retreat in Oberlin, Ohio where I took a watercolor class, a class in clay, and a great techniques class using Tim Holtz designs. I've been spending lots of time with friends & family, going to the theater, reading and working in bursts in my little art studio. Since the cruise, I've been concentrating on my first altered book, titled "FantaSea". Only now does it not sound strange to read an artist's words, "I worked on this altered book for two years". I hate to admit that I like the instant gratification of working on something for 1 or 2 hours from start to finish... but when you have a number of pages to fill, the ideas don't come all at once. You create, and as you move through your days and nights, you get new ideas, or see items that you can use in the construction. Working on the altered book has been a very liberating experience - especially since I've been using lots of different media and techniques. I've been less afraid to experiment, and I've been very pleased with some of the results. I got a new digital camera & have been lax in seeing if it is compatible with my old, old computer that runs on a now-defunct version of Windows. An even better reason to speed up getting that new computer. Perhaps by then, I'll be ready to share complete pages from FantaSea.

Paper Dolls

Until I started putting together whimsical figures and playing with paper shapes, I had forgotten how much I enjoyed playing with paper dolls as a child. I could spend hours fastening the little paper tabs over the cardboard figures and changing outfits over and over again before putting them away in their folders. How I wish I still had some of them today. I continue to love clothes and fashion and can lose myself for hours in the pages of Vogue admiring the colors, styles and accessories on display in its glossy layouts. I recently came across an article where a woman was creating fashionable hats for her "face" stamps, and I was so intrigued, I decided to give it a try. I really enjoy working with things that are limited only by your imagination. You will recognize the same stamps, but using different "fashions" creates different "personalities". No materials are off limits. I used doilies to create a virginal bride and a Balinese Princess. The same serene bride becomes a flapper, and using plastic egg cutouts from Easter confetti, I created a headdress. On another I created a turban with flowers, almost reminiscent of 1950's bathng caps. My favorite is the hat with the black flower and stamped plume; she's so elegant. This new technique will keep me occupied for some time!

Doodling

Do you ever have a creative spark, but know you don't have enough time to really throw yourself into a project? 40 min. of precious free time, and by the time you pull out the perfect canvas & set up your paints, you have time to make one brush stroke before having to put everything away... Don't get me wrong - a brush stroke IS a start, but it doesn't give me enough gratification for the time allotted. Just as I keep a stack of plain white index cards for cartooning, I also keep an assortment of pre-folded cardstock and a handful of fine point pens such as Stabilo or Sharpie in an array of colors, and I make what I call "doodle cards". I just let my imagination run wild making curves and swirls and lines and shading them however it feels right to come up with some intricate designs. Each one is unique and can be a simple as a black & white design that is retro-inspired to a tri-color design that has faces of friends & family incorporated into them. One of my friends recently suggested that I do small ones on scrap paper that can be used in collage or as backgrounds for card-making. Lest I mislead you, doodle cards can take several hours - but the neat thing about them is that you can start & stop them, then pick the design back up again easily - and you can do them practically anywhere. It's a great stress-reliever, too. After several difficult months, I am leaving for Las Vegas tomorrow with family and friends for a celebration; I think I may take some supplies & make some doodle cards on the 4+ hour flight!