More Valentines

This valentine heart is edged using one of Beryl Taylor's inventive techniques - hot glue painted with gold leafing pen. I am a huge fan of her work and highly recommend her book, Mixed Media Explorations.

My friend and Shake Rag cohort, Cheryl Smeja, is a retired leather crafter with a myriad of skills in a wide variety of arts and crafts, among them fiber. She gave me a pile of paper towels she had used to clean up after doing some fabric dyeing. Vibrant, rich colors...the perfect background for these two valentines:

Another paper towel background, this time with a heart cut from freezer paper palette.

Two fabric paper hearts on more palette paper with other collaged papers:

Valentines

Been having a blast making valentines for the annual Shake Rag Sweetheart Art & Valentine Sale coming up at the end of the month. No idea why valentines are so much fun to make but they are.

The heart on this one is made from craft foam impressed with a rubber stamp. The original heart was one of those stick-on precut shapes sold in craft sections...no doubt meant for kid's crafts. It was bright pink so did a wash of black acrylic, then highlighted the raised parts with a metallic rub-ons and coated it with acrylic varnish so the rub-ons wouldn't rub off (which they like to do). I love these stamped craft foam things - they actually do look like metal. The background is paper I made using a technique from the DVD Collage - Paper, Pattern & Glazing by the amazing Anne Bagby. I "aged" it a bit around the edges with black and brown watercolor pencil.

I call this one my "grunge" valentine. The background is a piece of used palette paper. I use freezer paper to protect my work table and as a paint palette. After lots of use, this work surface often turns out to be really interesting so I started saving them. Sometimes I scan them and print them to use as collage papers. I wish I had done that with this one. I really like the black. The valentine almost looks like a painting...which I guess it kind of is since that is actually globby paint in the background. The heart is cut from some fabric paper.

WRAP Exhibit & Workshop at Shake Rag Alley

I'm really delighted to announce that we are going to have another WRAP show at Shake Rag! And that Pam Callahan will be the show judge and workshop presenter. Pam is a painter, co-owner of Otter Creek Arts Studio in Highland, WI, and former associate director of Woman Made Gallery in Chicago. The workshop topic will focus on Pam's recent transition from entirely figurative work to explorations with abstract painting and will include hands-on exercises for experimenting with abstraction. 


WRAP exhibits are co-sponsored by a local arts organization and UW-Madison Dept of Liberal Studies and the Arst.

• In the Cabinet Shop at Shake Rag Alley.
• Open for public viewing Mon, Feb 21 thru Sat, Feb 26. 
• Workshop on Sun, Feb 27 for participating artists.
• Entry forms due Feb 14 (limit 2 works).

Complete announcement & guidelines here.
Entry form here.

Mixed Media Workshops, Spring 2011

Check out my Workshops page for descriptions of classes I'll be teaching at Shake Rag Alley this spring. I'm scheduled for four workshops. Teaching schedule in the left panel with links to register.

Mixed Media Paint Layering

Handmade Bead Bracelet

Altered Mint Tins

Rusty Stuff





Cloth Paper Scissors Reader Challenge - Mother Earth Doll

In celebration of Earth Day, Cloth Paper Scissors challenged readers to create their own interpretation of Mother Earth in the form of a Mother Earth Doll.

While I do not consider myself a doll artist, I thought that perhaps one of my figurative assemblages could be used to interpret the theme of this challenge...and I was right! My piece was one of the nine finalists selected to appear in the March/April 2010 issue of the magazine.

Mother Earth Doll

 If a challenge should push you out of your comfort zone then this project definitely succeeded with me. When I make assemblage sculptures from disparate objects I rely on layers of acrylic paint to pull it all together. But I thought Mother Earth should have a more organic look. So I put my acrylic paints away and instead tea stained the cheesecloth robe and incorporated some natural elements. The face is a detail from one of my drawings that seemed to capture Mother Earth’s kindly spirit. But I also gave her a metal breastplate because while she may be nurturing, I suspect that sometimes Mother Earth has to do battle and could use a little armor.  

Welcome to my blog

Hi! You've found my blog.

I'm totally new to this worldwide soapbox thing so I'm inching my way along and still trying to figure the whole thing out. So if this looks a little sparse...or possibly a little wonky... please consider this blog under construction and return later when I'll hopefully have it a little more together.