Wild Women

I am just finishing up a fatbook swap on the theme of Wild Women. I must have been releasing my inner Andy Warhol as I worked on these pages! I picked several women, All Artists or Photographers. Amazing how many were considered cold, or harsh, or unfeeling because they devoted so much of themselves to the perfection of their art. Many of them married or associated with famous male artists or writers, who were consumed by their own craft, but were NOT considered cold or heartless. The men were considered devoted, or passionate, or gifted with an "artistic temperament". Now how fair was that?

I just LOVE this one! Usually I see photos of Frida where she is less than "delicate" looking with her fierce eyebrows. I created this inspired by her photo on the cover of Vogue magazine, and think she looks so haunting here!

Margaret Bourke White has always been a heroine of mine. She literally took every destructive thing men could throw at her, and still came out on top. She was an awesome photographer, and she got her start in Ohio!

I've adored Mary Cassatt's works since I was a child. She had such a tender style, really capturing the bonds of human love and friendship in paint. For her time, she was quite daring too. She bucked many of the social and political views of her day, and befriended many controversial artists in order to expand her own world view.

Altered Faces

Last month, I hostessed a fatbook on Altered Faces, and since all the players have received them, I can post my pages for viewing now. Many altered with paints, mosaics and collages. It was a small book but very mighty in the ideas and art that was in it. I altered all of mine on the computer, and enjoyed the challenge. I learn so much from these projects, and every time a book goes together, I am so surprised at the amount of inspiration it encourages.

These are the pages I contributed, with the original on top.

Artiscape Bound

Getting ready for Artiscape!


Carved rubber stamp

Rolled out clay

Clay pounced for texture, trimmed and adhered to cover

Clay stamped and baked

My grandfather passed away on the 4th of April. We had a wonderful celebration of his life and re-connected with old friends, and heard many stories that we will cherish always. It was difficult to go thru, but it was infinitely made easier by knowing Grandpa loved life, and lived it to the fullest and lived his life in a way he had no regrets. To have the assurance that he is rejoicing in Heaven with the Lord he dedicated his life to is a huge measure of peace.

Thru the sadness, I looked forward with eagerness to Artiscape. It was my 5th year to attend, and as always I was filled with new inspiration and ideas to the point of bursting. Mike and I left the morning after the funeral, the car loaded down with art supplies and snacks.

I loved getting to meet my dear online artist friends, and spend time with them all face to face. I enjoyed the creative energy and enthusiasim that engulfs the entire resort each year. I was thrilled to sit in classes with instructors of the highest caliber that I've admired for years, many of whom I own their books and videos. I so enjoyed getting to visit my favorite vendors and seeing all their goodies in real life, and re-stocking my ephemera and supplies. I reveled in the packing and re-packing just the right supplies to take (every year I always find stuff I forgot I had!) I was delighted to bring back armloads of finished projects each year!

This year it was held in Sandusky, at the Kalahari Resort. Artiscape is hostessed by Lisa Ohmer of European Papers fame. For more info on Artiscape be sure and visit her site here. http://www.europeanpapers.com/

In the wee hours of the night as my Grandparents rested, I was been busy binding our "Sisters of the Secret Fatbook Society" Artiscape 2008 Fatbooks so the "Sisters" could pick up the finished book at the event. We've worked ahead of time to have them swapped out and completed for the event. That left us free to make trades of other kinds like ATC's and charms! The theme for this year was 'An evening in Casablanca.' We donated a fatbook to the silent auction that helped a benefitted a special school in Mtaya, Zambia, and it sold for $125!

I was inspired by the following artists and carved my own rubber stamp of what I felt represented an area archway to make all the covers of the Fatbooks. I rolled out the clay, pounced it with a kitchen scrubbie for texture, and adhered a trimmed piece of clay to the matboard cover with liquid sculpey. I took the stamp, pressed it into the clay, and followed up with the Artiscape logo rubber stamp. I baked according to the clay manufacturer's instructions. After baking, I used an acrylic glaze to darken the crevices.

Anne Bagby http://www.annebagby.com/ (Dear Anne taught me the wonders of GLAZES!)

Michelle Ward http://michelleward.typepad.com/michelleward/2008/03/cut-it-out

Dawn Rice http://artistreborne.typepad.com/artist_reborne/2008/03/a-new-crusade.html


Jo Wholohan http://artheartstudio.blogspot.com/2008/03/gpp-street-team-18.html

Almost ready, just waiting to be trimmed!

Gratitude Journal Day 3

You know, I think it's working- this challenge. I realize it's only been 3 days, but somehow, knowing I have to write something down each day causes me to stop and think, "wow! that's something I could write on a future entry....". I seem to be feeling a bit more positive about things, as I want to be sure to have something to write in my journal. I also seem calmer. (Of course it could be because I assigned myself time to do a bit of art every day for this project, and because it's an "assignment" I don't feel guilty about spending the time doing it. And I don't feel guilty about the laundry piling up while I do it either!

Entry day 3:

I am so grateful for my friends and family. I am lucky to have a great family, great in-laws and a fabulous circle of friends. They enrich my life. Even with the quirks, it works for us. They support and strengthen me in ways I'm sure I don't even know. I've particularly been enjoying my online art friends these last couple of years. They have grown close and dear to my heart. They have challenged me, taught me, laughed with me and counseled me with immediate feedback and examples. I've swapped and shared and learned more than I could ever repay from them.

Here is a quick shot of the latest fatbook I hostessed with some of my online art friends. It was called the Senses of Christmas Fatbook. It contained music, fragrance of evergreens and cinnamon, lovely embossing, folded paper techniques, and fabrics for touching, recipes (with samples) for tasting along with the lovely feasts for the eyes! the second shot is the clear page I did, as I didn't want the sense of Beliving in the unseen forgotten!

Garage sale challenge

I hostessed a swap recently that was called the Garage Sale Challenge Fatbook. The artists had all summer to peruse garage sales, flea markets and dollar stores to find their materials. Anything already in their studio was fair game and could be used to create with as well.

I was excited to see the creative and resourceful pages they each came up with.

For the first set of pages I did, I spent a whopping 10 cents for a misc. baggie of sequins, beads and confetti. I love the shaker effect the little window makes. I used cancelled postage stamps, old pages from a book, a scrap of fun foam run thru my xyron, and scraps of scrapbooking papers. I traced the image on deli paper from one of my sketchbooks, and painted and watercolor penciled for softness.

The second set of pages were leftover pages from a book, that I had used to test out different colors of paint on. I then used rubber stamps and several layers of paint. More stamps, and a couple different layers of color misters, and sparkle misters. I had the butterflies left over from a class I taught earlier in the year.

Neither page was any great work of art, but it helped me to look thru things I already had with a new appreciation.

Final Flat Sissie Uploaded

Even more Flat Sissies

More Flat Sissies

Flat Sissies Fatbook Swap

Earlier this year, for the Sisters_of_the_Secret_Fatbook_Society yahoo group , I organized a fatbook swap called "Flat Sissies." I had in mind the best of both worlds, Paper Dolls and Fatbooks. Sixteen of the Sisters signed up, and I had them each mail their "character" in to be swapped and sent to the other players. Then each player dressed, and created scenes or adventures for everyone elses's character, as well as creating multiples of an intro page for their own character.

Now the pages have all come in, and the hullabaloo of swapping and binding has begun. The finished product is that each sister has an entire book of their own character, dressed by each of the other sisters, and a little story of what they did when they visited. They also have at the back of the book, a "friends" section, where a copy of each of the other players characters makes an appearance.

Each of the players did a wonderful job and took their "play" seriously. The resulting books are surprising, unique and wonderful.

The books are set to go in the mail on Monday morning, so I'm not spoiling any surprises by posting my pages today. These are the pages I created, starting with the intro page for my own character "Adelheid." I love old European advertising art, so each of my "sissies" I put into an ode to some of my favorite pieces. I tried to give the original artist credit by naming them or the title of the piece somewhere in the story. These are before I hand embellished them with glitter and jewelry and other bobeches.

I hope you enjoy!