Last week in our Wednesday art group we each suggested one word.  The assignment for the day was to do a collage using that word as inspiration.  Our four words were bohemia, rain, ecstacy and natural.  We are going to continue working on these next week, but here are four finished ones from this week.

Sharon's work on Rain

Sharon's work on Bohemia

Karol's work on Bohemia
Bohemian Beauty

 

Karol's work on Natural

Natural Beauty

 

Eyes postcard challenge

We have worked on another round of postcard challenges. I made nearly identical cards and mailed one to each of 3 friends. The original card front looked like the one below - and there was a pair of sunglasses on the other side.  Normarie and I did only the front side.  Sharon and Connie did both sides.  What fun to see what sparked each of our imaginations.

Here is what Normarie worked out.

Here is Sharon's

 

 

Sharon said this was supposed to be me.

 

 

Here is Connie's

  



 

 

 

Here is mine.

 

 

Mail Art

My sister and an art friend of hers, Normarie, my friend Sharon and I are starting to create collaborative mail art.  Here's how we do it.  I create 3 identical (as identical as I can) postcards with a minimum of elements.  Then I mail one to each of them and they finish the card and mail it back to me.  It is very interesting to see how we all create our own versions.  Below is the original and our finished cards.

It's lots of fun - try it with a friend!


Original card

 

  

My sister's card

 

Sharon's card

My card

 

Sharon and I are doing some collaborative work as I noted a few days ago.  This week she gave me back the one she had worked on (below).  Now it is my turn.  I am mulling.

Here is my continuing evolution of this piece. 

 

Sharon's Forest
She also gave me her project from this week to do some work on.  Our theme was trees and she is seeing fairies in this forest.  I am mulling.


Sharon's Forest

Below is what I added to Sharon's forest. Besides adding people in the forest, I sewed on twigs and then sewed the picture to a backing frame.  Are we looking into the forest, or are we standing in the forest looking out?  Is the rabbit showing us a path into the forest or our way out?  Do the people know each other?



The recent project in our newly formed art group was to create a collage using the following process:  1) cover the surface with pieces of paper, cardboard, whatever, to create texture background, 2) glaze over the entire surface so that underlayer is obscured but still shows through as texture, 3) glaze and collage more on top of this using a theme of trees.  There are 5 people in our group and, as you can guess, everyone produced such different works.  Below are the 3 I began, plus one I had started at home.    I am continuing to work on all of them.



I began this first one just like the rest, but I didn't like what was happening so I used a credit card to scrape aqua paint over the top. Now I have a new beginning!

I am thinking about adding a glaze of gold paint over this one and the one below to give them a patina.

I think the leaf needs to be more defined, or maybe not?   This is the joy of collage, you explore the possibilities.  Mistakes are not necessarily mistakes.

 

I began this one at home in the same way as the others.   On all of these I like the background texture.

Flower for Zeke

Last year I worked on a collage in an open painting class at Clark College.  I had sewn the picture onto a background and had it on my bulletin board for several months.  At Christmas, Kristin had an open house for some of her friends here and Zeke was one of them.  When he saw the picture, he seemed to like it.  Kristin suggested the frame color, Zane glued it to a wooden back board which I had prepared and we are going to give it to him for his new house. 

Back at it!

Hello again!  Although I have not posted here for a almost a year, I have been active in art.  My most recent activity is to start a collage group with some other people in the Vancouver/Portland area.  Since I have had the most experience with collage, I suggested the first couple projects. 

The first one was to use the technique by Jane Davies called scribble painting.  Our group worked on one of these in class.  At the end of the class, Sharon and I decided to exchange our pieces, work on each other's and bring them back to class tomorrow.  Here is Sharon's before and after I worked on it.  I sewed on it and added organza in places on the surface and covered a back frame with organza and sewed it to the picture.  In the photo below, the organza looks more gray than it really is; it is more the same green as in Sharon's original.  This was a fun project to work on; to try to keep the style and feel of Sharon's work with my embellishment.  Tomorrow I will see what Sharon added to my original -what fun!

Michael's Tulips

Regaining my painting focus is difficult.  I don't have a driving passion about what I want to paint right now.  I have signed up for an open studio paint class and I am hoping that will help me get back in the groove of painting/creating each day.  Yesterday I did work on a painting.  I started with a canvas board support on which I had previously collaged prepared papers.  The colors were lime/olive and black.  I set up a vase with 3 tulips in it.  This is what I ended up with.  There is lots of texture because of the collaged surface underneath.  I used acrylic and some watercolor crayons.

Flower Garden quilt

Michaela's Flower Garden quilt

City Streets quilt

Kasey's City Streets quilt

Wonky Quilt

Here is the first quilt I made here at home. It was LOTS of fun. I machine quilted each block differently.

Summer windows quilt

Here is one of the quilt tops I made for our Quilting from the Heart group. We give all of our quilts away and we use donated fabrics. I started from the donated colorful blocks inside the window frames.

Christmas mats

We are making Christmas table mats for a Christmas PW luncheon in December. The program will be about the Quilting From The Heart group. Here are two mats that I have made.

I have been working in a quilt group that makes quilts to give away. Here is the first quilt that I have ever produced. We work with donated fabrics. This one was made with 10-minute blocks. Although the picture doesn't show it very well, the base color is two shades of blue, one a denim color, the other a grayer blue.

Here is the envelope for the card.

Here is the back page of my card. The wreath pulls up and there is a continuation of the letter on that number 2 sheet.

Since this is an art journal, not just good, finished projects, I am posting the get-well card I made for my cousin who had open heart surgery in February. (Keep her in your prayers). I used pictures from our family, ones I hope will bring her a smile and some comfort in her recovery.

Apple Altered Book 1

I am taking an altered book classes through the local school district community education program. My book is titled "Apple a Day. " Here is the beginning of the book. The book cover (pix 1) is a start. I have not added the title yet. Pix 2 is the inside cover spread. I made these from the original with the white background below. Pix 3 is an apple collage. I am not sure how I will use it yet, but look for it later in the book.

Yesterday, Zane asked me to put together a graphic for the cover of a lenten devotional booklet he is publishing for the congregation. So, my art yesterday was mainly working on this.

Apple a Day

This week I will be going to my first altered book class. I am considering "an apple a day" as my focus, but I am leaving myself open to see what intuitive creative ideas come my way when I get to the class. Here are two apple-a-day pix I worked on tonight to get the juices flowing.