life is full!

the art i have created daily can be seen on 

instagram.  this a collaged and painted teabag.

an acrylic abstract painted on a page of a large book.

rust dyed papers done in a

weekend workshop with orly avineri.

atcs for my international group.

the them was to use a minimal number

of papers within less than 10 minutes.

i started with papers which were painted already.

and i hosted a birthday party for a 

dear dear friend.  i broke my own boundary by singing 

'you're the tops.'... and i cannot sing!

this week i tried using extra large images.

what do you think?  too big?

it rained in southern california! yay!  it has been a 

very long time since i head the sound of water on my rooftop.

it was like music to my ears.

last night the rain spoke to me

by mary oliver

last night 

the rain 

spoke to me

slowly, saying,

what joy

to come falling

out of the brisk cloud,

to be happy again

in a new way

on the earth!

that's what it said

as it dropped,

smelling of iron,

and vanished

like a dream of the ocean

into the branches

and the grass below.

then it was over.

the sky cleared.

i was standing

under a tree

the tree was a tree 

with happy leaves,

and i was myself,

and there were stars in the sky

that were also themselves

at the moment

at which moment

my right hand 

was holding my left hand

which was holding the tree

which was filled with stars 

and the soft rain-

imagine! imagine!

the long and wondrous journeys

still to be ours.

X O X O X O

posting with paint party friday, 

a weekly online party of creatives 

hosted by eva and kristen.  

altering photographs is a loose and unpredictable process

requiring few complicated or special supplies.  for this reason 

i find it freeing and a good warm up exercise 

before i begin painting or drawing.

i use two small plastic containers that will hold 4 x 6 photo.

one holds water and the other a mixture of water and bleach.

other supplies are photos of course, you can use up those photos 

that you can't throw away but pile up and never seem to have a place,

steel wool, an awl or nail or pen without ink, anything to scratch into 

the surface once it has been softened by water, stencils, lace, doily,

styrofoam container or any other type of texture you can think of.

lots of rags, newspaper and paper towels to sop up the mess.

maybe gloves too. 

the first step is to dip the photo into water.  you can dip a portion of the 

photo or the whole thing.  wait a few seconds for the emulsion to soften.

then use one of the tools, for example the steel wool

and start scraping.  there are no rules for how to proceed.  

work on the photo until you feel finished.  you can always 

go back in and do more later.  set it aside to dry.

another process is to dip a portion of the photo or the whole

photo into the water/bleach mixture.  you need to experiment 

with the amount of time to let it sit in the bleach.  try a few 

seconds first.  

from here you can experiment more with 

scratching and altering the photo or you can let it change colors on 

its own.  oil pastels, watercolor, acrylic can also be used,

you can dip it immediately into the water bath  to stop the bleaching process, 

blot the liquid or  let the colors drip into each other.  you will do well to 

change the water mixture frequently.  the bleach 

mixture will hold out through many photos. 

once the photo has dried, you can use it as a part of collage 

or even it frame it.  

wishing you a lovely weekend.  i will be participating 

in a journaling workshop with orly avineri and am 

looking forward to a reunion with my journaling buddies. 

posting with the artists at paint party friday.  

i am spending the weekend journaling in redondo beach with

katie kendrick and orly avineri.  we are integrating portraits.

when i showed them this sweet photo at the end of the day,

they both turned to me and kissed me on each of my cheeks :)

i started these yesterday with katie's lessons.  today

i will continue to work on them through orly's guidance.

i saw this on Tracey's blog who saw it  Marji's blogs 

and decided to jump in.  How about you?

* Pay It Forward Art-making Project for 2014 *

I promise to make a small work of art for the first five people who comment on this post and say "YES, I want in". A 'like' alone is not enough of a commitment, nor is a comment about thinking Pay It Forward is a great idea.

You must in turn post this as your status update and make something for the first five who comment on your status.

The rules are simple:
– It has to be your work, made by you, and the recipient must receive it before 2014 ends.
– It can be anything art-based: a drawing/illustration or a conceptual work of art, a photograph, a knitted item, cross-stitch, paper maché – or anything in between.

I'm paying this forward thanks to Jack Oudyn.  Yes, you can be on each other's pay it forward lists.

First five, GO!

PS. It doesn't matter if you aren't an artist, try something out, google/ YouTube how to make stuff, step out of those boundaries.

 Step 1Copy&Paste this (see below) as your latest entry on your favourite social website (in my case, its this blog) 

 
Step 2For the first five people who comment on your blog entry saying they want to participate, you will do an art trade with them that must be completed by December 31st 2014. I would count as the first person so technically you only need another four. If you find your friends are keen you can do as many as you want. 


Step 3All forms of art count including creative writing , photography, digital anything goes!

i have already received this beautiful folded piece from marji.

there is lovely sewing details, wax, painted flowers.  

thank you so much, marji for paying it forward.