Stacked Calligraphy

                                           Judi Hurwitt © "Graffiti-esque"

In my search to find artists whose works, I believed, were inspired or reminiscent of Cy Twombly, I stumbled onto this super blog, Approachable-Art, by mixed-media and textile artist, Judi Hurwitt.  Judi’s art is not only reminiscent of Cy Twombly, but also of the early and possibly the original, American ‘calligraphic’ abstract expressionist artist, Jackson Pollock .

Judi has labeled her work as ‘stacked journaling’. The layers of paint she says are “graffiti-esque” in style. I call them eye candy for those of us who enjoy this style of art.

Another favorite artist in this genre is Alex Echo and this painting.

Alex Echo © "Mozart The Soul of Genius"   (detail)

It appears that Alex pulled his writing tool through the layers of paint, resulting in a wonderful woven tapestry effect. This is only a detail of the original and there is no reference to the complete size. However, judging from Alex’s other work I am guessing it is quite large.

I am very aware that there are many who do not consider abstract expressionism and other contemporary art as “real” art. There is a lively discussion about this in the ‘Art Discussions’ group on Gary Reef’s Ning site, Lovingmixedmedia.com This is a great site to join if you enjoy 'outsider art' and would like to push the envelope and create outside the box. If you decide to join, I would appreciate you mentioning that I recommended it. I want Gary to know I appreciate all his hard work and free tutorials.Thanks.

One of the contributors to the Lovingmixedmedia ‘Art Discussions’ group posted this quote, which I think, gives food for thought:

"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance." ~ Aristotle

Also a quote that I use on my web site, etc., is that we are;

 “Making visual what, without the artist, might perhaps never have been seen”                                  ~ R.Bresson

Betty Ford and Cy Twombly

Two great people passed this month.  A hero for all women, Betty Ford, brought awareness to the disease of breast cancer and addiction. She championed women’s rights. Standing and fighting for what she believed, even if it meant opposing the President of the United States, her husband, Gerald Ford. Some may feel she was a bit too candid, but she was my kind of woman, and her husband loved her. I wish I could have been her friend.

                                                 III Notes From Salalah (Note II), 2005-2007 Cy Twombly ©

Cy Twombly

Twombly’s work has influenced many of today’s artists. His works are usually large-scale. Often they are calligraphic scribbles on backgrounds of mostly gray, tan, or off-white colors much like graffiti. According to Wikipedia , In the late 60’s Twombly made this work using an unusual technique: he sat on the shoulders of a friend, who shuttled back and forth along the length of the canvas, thus allowing the artist to create his fluid, continuous lines.

The layered or stacked drawing/ paintings are my favorite. The gestured marks remind me so much of the calligraphic ink writing of my Japanese sensei that I painted with when I was a young girl living in Japan.

Later I hope to write about some of today’s artists influenced by Twombly, but today I wanted to take the time to pay tribute to Cy Twombly and Betty Ford.

Anne Bagby Inspired Collage

                                      'Kimono'   "12 x12"  mixed media collage     Eva Macie ©

My gift boxes arrived from Creative Catalyst Productions and I was thrilled with all the goodies in them. There were Golden fluid acrylics, paint applicators, Creatology foam sheets, Lineco Tissues, deli wax papers, a Moo carving block, alphabet stencils, a 12"x 12" streched canvas and a Shirley Trevena’s DVD to replace the Anne Bagby DVD that I had previously purchased. Wow! Like the boxes, that was a sentence full! Needles to say, I was eager to start using my new products, but I wanted some of Anne’s instructions to guide me. I immediately reviewed Anne’s wonderful DVDs, ‘Collage: Paper, Patterns & Glazing’ and ‘Pattern & Form: Advanced Collage Techniques’.

I decided to create a 12" x 12" foam stamp using the craft adhesive backed foam sheets. One cut into the buttery foam and I was hooked! I spent hours, totally mesmerized, cutting little shapes and sticking them onto a chipboard backing. Anne used canvas board, which would have been a better choice because the adhesive pieces may have easier to reposition. In addition, it also may have warped less with all of the wet paint applications. I mixed all of my paint as Anne suggested, cut and ironed a stack of tissue paper and began pulling prints.

After looking at the variety of prints I pulled from my foam stamp, I chose one with a circle shape that I blocked out on the stamp . It looked Asian to me so I decided use kimono as my theme. I applied a glaze I made, similar to Golden’s asphaltum, to the printed tissue and then I stenciled the words ’KIMONO’. I created the kimono from one of my Citra Solv papers, which I printed on a label and collaged this to the tissue print.

For some reason the pictures I took did not come out well. The colors were totally off. I tried to correct this in Photoshop, but only made them worse. Honestly, the actual print looks much richer. I will mount this either on the canvas I received or rag board, then coat it with a satin acrylic varnish.

You can see the techniques I used in the free preview at  Creative Catalyst Productions

Citra Solv Altered Box Book

A Citra Solv altered box book? That is a mouthful and really sounds odd so I will explain what I mean by this. I have been in an altered book class instructed by Gary Reef. Most of the lessons have really been more of a non-traditional way of altering of books. Gary’s forte is assemblage and this is the approach he used altering old books. To be more precise the covers of old books as he guts out the book and uses the covers to house his unique assemblages.

It took me forever to make my book. I decided not to use a real book. We only have a few places near me to buy used books and the only ones I found were either too nice to cut up or not interesting at all. One of the books I bought was an old copy of Anne Morrow Lindbergh's book, 'Gift from the Sea'. Not wanting to cut it up, I was inspired to make my own. Mine is titled "A Gift from the Sea'

I constructed the book box from chipboard. A scroll design cut from mat broad and then glued to left edge of the chipboard cover served to create an embossed look. I scanned a Citra Solve page and printed it on label paper to cover the chipboard. Next, a book scanned on its side with rough pages to get the page effect. I printed this on label paper and applied it around the edges of the book. The frame around the opening is mat board. Inside the book is a scanned page from Anne's book, some shells and a small plaster bust from a mold I made for a mermaid doll. I sprayed it with copper and used turquoise acrylic to antique it. I did not glued the cover shut because hopefully I will finish the inside adding some more interesting shells that I love. At this point, I am tired of working with it!

Gary had four projects, but if I do another one, it will be a major surprise as these are labor-intensive projects. His energy and imagination are unbelievable. If I were a much, much younger woman, I would be in creative heaven knocking out all sorts of altered books and boxes.

Bamboozled Again!

It’s that time of year again when the bamboo tries to take over everything in sight, and I try again to forgive my neighbor for talking me into to letting her plant it. It has now invaded my other neighbor’s yard and I know she hates me for it. Having my son here to cut it back is super, as I can no longer do it. I worry that there will come a time when he will not be able to. He is not as diligent about it as I was, so now it seems to be getting out of hand. Add to that the heat and threat of tornadoes, I feel like the little dog in the Travelers Insurance® commercial. Worry, worry, worry has become my mantra. In fact, I did call my insurance company to see if my coverage was enough.

My escape is Photoshop and my current fascination with Citra Solv®. I wish I could pour it on the bamboo and dissolve it like the ink in National Geographic® magazines. The best I can do is to combine my dissolved ink images with a photo I took of the bamboo.

Unbelievable!

It is unbelievable and wonderful that Anne Bagby has released another great video,’ PATTERN & FORM: Advanced Collage Techniques’  Even more unbelievable is that I won one and other goodies in the Creative Catalyst Productions® drawing. I rarely win anything, and to win again after recieving a Citra Solv® honorable mention is almost unnerving. Maybe I should buy a lotto ticket. Okay, that would be pushing it and besides I would have to buy the ticket, which would constitute gambling. The most gambling I do is to put my blog and images out ‘there’ hoping that they will resonate with someone.

Anne’s new video is just as enjoyable to watch as her first one. Anne’s work is so intricate and layered with patterns that one would never guess she ever made a mistake, but she lets everything fly and does not mind showing her mishaps. She gives away all of her techniques for creating an amazing collage. Anne’s first video, ’Collage: Paper, Patterns & Glazing’ is also a 'must have' if you love Anne’s work as much as I do.  I am happy that I now own both and I have some new ideas to combine with my Citra Solv® creations.

Journal Extensions

Last week Roz’s assignment in the Strathmore Visual Workshop Course was to add extensions to our pages. I decided to continue with the pear theme. I started with spraying the background with watercolor and using stencils for the circles. I cut the page in half and hinged the loose edge with invisible tape to the page below it. I painted the pear with opaque watercolor and collaged the strips and print. The inside background is a combination of all the techniques mentioned above.

The assignment this week is ‘plein air’. This is not really my cup of tea. I may sketch something sitting on my porch sheltered from the sun and onlookers.

Art Journal Workshop

I am not a journalist so I have been taking the Strathmore Visual Journal Workshop Series. I have many old sketchbooks with notes and ideas, but they were precursors to paintings. The idea of putting so much work in a journal seemed unrealistic, since I needed to put that energy into my paintings. However, since I quit doing shows the art journal has become more appealing. Unfortunately, I discovered I do not have the casual mindset to dive in and start creating in my new journal. It is like a blank canvas that intimidates me. I need to think and plan what is going in it. The first workshop with Pam Carriker was easier for me because I was not involved with another project and was eager to get started. I loved the idea that she used her computer and scanner a lot. She had a definite motif of faces, which gave me a starting point. The second workshop was with Linda Blinn and she taught ideas for enhancing the journal with extension pages, pockets, stenciling and spraying. The current instructor is Roz Stendahl. Roz is a fantastic graphic designer and artist. Her attention to detail and organization is over the top, which awes even a fussy Virgo like me. As a result, she is a wonderful teacher. Right there to answer any question asked, Roz goes beyond what is expected with suggestions and advice.

I recently went to Whole Foods and sampled the most delicious and expensive pear I have ever tasted. I bought one and when I got it home, I could not bring myself to eat it without trying to paint it. I have been struggling with an idea for a subject for my first journal pages. A painting of this pear seemed like the perfect solution.

I created my background with the watercolor spray and stencil techniques we used in Linda’s workshop then painted the pears with opaque watercolor. Roz’s lesson included using collage. So I created my collage pieces on the computer (ala, Pam) and printed them out on clear labels, (I could have used vellum) and pasted them in my journal. Of course, the writing was also computer generated. It is far too intimidating for me to write on a page that I put so much work in.

One of my favorite followers is Robin Samiljan, who recently asked me if I still paint or do I only use my computer now for my art. Her question really made me aware how long it has been, since I have used a real brush to paint. Creating these journal images were a small reminder how much I love to do that. Thanks Robin.

Confused Anxiety

'Back To Square One Again'   4"x 4"                                   Eva Macie©

The weather is great today! I am so grateful for all the good in my life and having a son here to help me, but as the song goes, “every form of refuge has its price”. I should be outside pulling the weeds and pruning back the shrubs and ivy that has vigorously grown in this glorious weather. However, a word that I use much too often, I am glued to the computer that my son just tuned up and upgraded to Windows7. I am back to square one trying to adjust to this new platform. To top it off the Serif desktop publishing program I have been using has gone wacky and will not save all the work I have done this past month! A nice person from Germany, which I met on the Serif forum, has helped me a lot and suggests I upgrade to the newest program. (The devil in me wonders if in the updates includes a bug comes so you have to upgrade??). My son insists that I should switch and buy an upgrade of InDesign. I have a very old 2002 one that I have never used and I do not want to deal with outdated programs again. I downloaded a trial copy and the learning curve is something else! Needless to say, I am tired, confused and full of anxiety!  I believe the digital collage I created from some of my mix media images reflects my state of mine. I think I will turn off this computer, go pull weeds and meditate on it.

Realistic Abstracts

I just received a book I ordered form Amazon.com titled ‘Realistic Abstracts” by Kees van Aalst. The title is a bit of a contradiction in terms, but it is a lovely little book with a wonderful section on design. As a southern American, I have a little difficulty with Kees wording, but as a reader of images, I manage to understand what he is saying when I compare the illustrations with the words.

I am eager to play with some of Kees suggestions, but they will have to wait for now. I have a writing project that is joyfully consuming all of my time. I have been told (I know “have been” is a passive voice, is there anything wrong with that?) not to mention my project to anyone, as it will take the steam out of my sails. I hope that I have not said too much as it is, but I wanted to offer my excuse for not posting that often.

Yupo Revisited

'Mending'  watercolor on Yupo  15"x 24" Eva Macie ©  

At the risk of becoming a bore about my eye surgery, I will update you about it. In brief, I am mending, but because of some issues I am unhappy with, such as flickering, reflections and a change in the appearance of my eye, I cancelled the surgery on the other one. I have an appointment in July to reevaluate my decision.

I do not have any new art to post so I am showing an older painting I did on Yupo which I recently made some minor revisions. Maybe it is my state of mind, but the colors are not very pleasing to me. I desaturated the color in Photoshop and I think I prefer the grayscale version better. At least the values and the composition work for me. Artists today are so fortunate to be able to use software to do this. In my younger days, the only option we had to view the painting in gray scale was with red and green cellophane (acetate) to see the values or take a picture and wait a week for it to be developed! I cannot imagine where I would be as an artist today if I had all the tools I have now or even the materials such as Yupo.

Beautiful day today and I have errands to do. There is another big storm headed our way, which always upsets me. We have so many big trees next to the house and I have had two fall since I’ve been here. Not sure, what all of the awful recent natural catastrophes are all about, but maybe the Aztecs knew something when their calendar ended in 2012. *0*


                                                                                    

Renewal?

Renewal        4"x5"                    ©Eva Macie

I had cataract surgery on my right eye Thursday and although it’s too soon to really judge, I’m not pleased with the results I have now. The doctor warned me that being an artist I may find the color change a bit unsettling at first. It seems as I aged the eye lens yellowed and became more opaque. When my old lens was replaced with a new clear lens, the cool brightness was unnerving! Not only that, for awhile everything was blurred! I was expecting fantastic vision as soon as the protective shield was removed. Needless to say I was shocked and upset when it wasn't. I’m feeling a little better about it today as the dilatation is returning to normal and my vision is improving. I’m praying that it will continue to improve.  I created a digital image from my Citra-Solv papers, which probably was not the best choice, but I’m still hooked on the stuff. I wanted to show the difference in the temperature change in my eyes. The top is my interpretation of the right eye vision with the new clear lens and the bottom represents my left eye vision.  Depending on the how much my vision continues to improve, I am scheduled to have the left eye done April 22. If it doesn’t, I may opt out for now.

Citra-Solv Tea Ceremony

Tea Ceremony          6.5" x 6.5"                         © Eva Macie

The ongoing disaster in a country that is near and dear to my heart, Japan, and the wonderful Japanese people have been on my mind. Looking through my Citra-Solv papers I discovered what I perceived to be a figure of a Geisha. With few added brush marks I was able to bring the ghostly image forward.
 

Please Help The Victims Of The Quake

                                                     ©  msnbc.com

I captured this haunting image of these precious children from the NBC nightly News. I hope it will inspire you to donate at least $10. to your favorite organization that is helping these people. You can find them at this link HELP.  On behalf of these wonderful people I thank you!

Citra-Solv Collage

                                                   'Wanderer'                                              ©Eva Macie
The comforting sound of pots and pans rattling in the kitchen makes me proud of some of my accomplishments in life. This one is my son, John Allan, who is living with me now. He is a trained chef and is busy making vegetarian lasagna from scratch. I mean pasta and all! The sink is full of freshly wash vegetables that he bought at the farmers market and the counter is heaped with all sorts of goodies and a pasta machine.

The reason for all of this wonderful prep is that my grandson is coming for a visit. Branden has been interning at a Buddhist meditation retreat. We thought he would bring a friend along, but there has been a change of plans. After a few days in Atlanta, Branden will be on his way to work at an organic farm in Tennessee. He really has become a wanderer. I hope he finds the fulfillment that he is looking for. I created the above digital college from one of my Citra-Solv pages and I thought it was a fitting illustration for the current situation.

Steampunk Digital Collage

"Better to see you with, My Dear"                                © Eva Macie

Because of my upcoming cataract surgery I have had eyes on my mind. The digital collage above that I created obviously reflects this. As I blogged earlier I took an online digital collage class to brush up on my skills. It was a Photoshop Elements class and since I use Photoshop CS5 there were some things I wanted to know about this program. Although it was strictly a PDF class and the focus was exclusively on extraction, I learned a lot and enjoyed it.

I decided to use ‘steampunk’ as my subject matter. It is very popular now and I love the idea of recycled parts and vintage elements to create something new. I used a model from a magazine so I guess this is the only place I dare show this. As for the goggles I was given permission to use them by their creator, a super craftsman and artist, Nicolas Chambon. You can see these and his other fantastic goggles and creations at his website atomefabrik.com. Be prepared for a treat if you like steampunk.

Overload, Magic Jack and Citra-Solv

                                              'Overload'                                           © Eva Macie

This has been one of those weeks when everything has happened at once. I’m taking another online workshop to brush up on my Photoshop skills. I’m also trying to get my tax information together and deal with the State of Georgia’s new online filing system that doesn’t work any better than the employees. No one knows what they are doing so they just seem to make up stuff. Then they say they can’t understand why they are flooded with calls. This explains the sixty minute wait and longer on the phone. Thank goodness for Magic Jack! For $20.00 a year I have unlimited calling minutes and it doesn’t tie up my other phone. My son also has one so now we both have a private line. It was a bit tricky to install and if my son wasn’t here I’m not sure I could have done it myself. To add to the overload one of my email accounts has become un-assessable. I have spent hours in online Yahoo tech chats trying to solve it and no one knows what the problem is. (Apparently Georgia isn’t the only place that incompetency rules!) It looks like I may have to abandon it and try to notify those who contact me at that address. Ugggh!

The above Citra-Solv image really illustrates my state of mind. Overload! I was fascinated by the graphic elements and the distressed lettering. I could have digitally cleaned this image up but decided not to for now. The only manipulation I did to add a touch of clarity to the image, was to add the number 15 to an area that looked like a tag. I may have to take a break from my Citra-Solv fun as I have a full schedule ahead of me and looks like I’ll remain in ‘overload’ for awhile. I have discovered so many things that I can and not do with Citra-Solv that I think I could teach a course on the subject. Hummm.... another thing I could add to my overloaded schedule?

The Peekaboo Principle

Robert Genn, painter and author of ‘The Painter Keys’, on February 10, 2011 wrote a great post about "The Peekaboo Principle”. This principle term was coined by V.S. Ramachandran, who is a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, San Diego. Ramachandran, looking into various brains, including the brains of people who look at art, came to the conclusion that things are better when they are less visible. According to Ramachandran, concealment works because we are hardwired to solve puzzles. People get turned on by problem solving.

A friend of mine and wonderful artist, Susan Faircloth said “I've always loved mystery in a painting. It keeps me coming back to look for more in it. If it's all spelled out from corner to corner, I get bored looking at it really fast”. She also said it was the reason she enjoyed looking at my abstract designs. Thanks Susan, my goal of intrigue has been accomplished. Hopefully my above digital collage ‘Celestial Runner’ meets this standard.

You can read the entire Robert Genn "The Peekaboo Principle” post by clicking here.

Citra-Solv Collage

After all of the excitement of playing with Citra-Solv, I came down with the worst cold I have had in years. I usually use Zicam nose swabs when I feel a cold coming on and it would nip it in the bud. Unfortunately there were a lot of bad reports this past year about people losing their sense of taste and smell from using them. Needless to say I threw away the remainder of the package I had. After three days of a painful sore throat and cough, I surrendered to the Zicam Cold Remedy Tablets. They helped my throat, but the cold had taken over my system so I’ve had to deal with it.

Confined to my room with my box of tissues and herbal tea, I decided to play with the Citra-Solv decorative papers I had previously scanned into my computer. Photoshop is my angel in times like these. I have had a great time creating digital collages with the scans. Inspired by the many circular shape in the transfers, I made a couple of an organic circle brushes to add to my brush collection. I went a little overboard with the new brushes as I put circles in every image! Above is one of the first images I created. There is no meaning behind it, just a collage of textures and shapes. I’m looking forward to the end of this cold and being able to venture back into my cold basement studio to do some actual collages.

Citrasolv Fixation ~ Affixation

I became aware of National Geographic's image manipulation with Citrasolv last year. I had about a half a bottle that I had purchased several years ago. Remembering that it was difficult to find and that it was expensive, I sparingly painted a few of the pages. Nothing happened! After several tries I gave up and forgot about doing it. A friend of mine emailed me that she was hooked into creating Citrasolv pages for her collages. When I saw her wonderful collages I knew I had to try to master this technique. I went to the Citrasolv site and found some technique videos. One of the videos is by mixed media artist, Gary Reef. Gary has a great Ning site, Loving Mixed Media and I've been a member for a few years. Gary made me aware of what I was doing wrong. I wasn't saturating the page with enough Citrasolv. Too bad I didn't heed his warning about doing this outside. I love the orange smell of the product and thought it would be a great way to freshen my studio. It did that and more, it went through my return air ducts and took over my house! I woke up with a sore throat and my son had nightmares all night. My other warning is when you pull the saturated pages apart and see the results you become addicted! It is the most magical thing I have done in a long time.

Gary points out that if you are going to use these as a final piece of art, avoid using any with recognizable images as they are copyrighted. I have no idea how much of any image or type you can use, but I haven't heard of any law suits resulting from the thousands of pages all the artists have used doing this or other collages. I plan to use mine in my journals and as inspiration for paintings so I'm not concerned. Try it (outside) and you'll be hooked too. If you can't find it locally you can purchase it at Amazon.

Artists Journals & Sketchbooks

As you know I have been consumed by a workshop I’m taking for creating visual journals. Everything has been put on hold since I started and continues to be the reason why I have not posted lately or visited anyone’s blogs. I am enjoying this course, but I have not created a page I care to show the world. I have given myself permission to create anything that occurs to me no matter how silly or lack of artistic taste it is. As a result I have created some awful naive images. I even tore two pages out of my journal because they were so trite they embarrassed me! With encouragement from the other students I glued them back in with the idea of returning to them at a later date and reworking them.


My dream journal would be like the ones found in the above book by Lynne Perrella, titled ‘Artist’s Journals & Sketchbooks’. You can explore and purchase it at Amazon.com. This book may not be for absolute beginners, as it is not a recipe or a step by step instruction book, but anyone who is familiar with mixed media techniques will benefit from the mini instructions and suggestions. I like this book not only for the well organized instructions and examples, but also that it covers everything from creating the pages to the cover and bindings. The showcase of other visual journalists creations are absolute eye candy. After I finish the Strathmore series of three workshops that I signed up for, I hope I will not be too burned out to utilize the ideas presented in Lynne’s book.

Anything Is Possible

                                              
There is a wonderful art series on PBS titled ‘Art21’, which focuses exclusively on contemporary visual art and artists throughout the world. The series includes the Peabody Award-winning biennial series "Art in the Twenty-First Century." You will be able to observe the artists at work, and hear their thoughts as they deal with the physical and visual challenges of achieving their goal.... If you are not busy starting off 2011 creating new art, maybe this series will inspire you. Visit the ART:21 website


I am involved in the Strathmore Visual Journal Online Workshop Series which I wrote about in an earlier post. Journaling in this manner is relatively new to me. I have lots of sketch books filled with notes a few sketches, etc, but I would not consider them visual journals. This workshop is going a little slow as the lessons are posted once a week and we are just working on one page or two pages. There is no input from the instructor, except for the video, so we are at a loss as to what to expect or how far to take our pages. I am having trouble with the supplies we are using, i.e. oil pastels (mine are old) and covering my images with a light coat of gesso. I didn’t thin the gesso down enough and it killed my work. Someone said, “start another one, it’s just paper”…. What??? After all the work I put into it? I wonder if they would say that to Picasso? I don’t put myself in his class, but I do know that I worked very hard on this one and a do over would not be the same. The energy is lost. I’m hoping that the next step will salvage my pages, and as William Kentridge said, “Anything is possible”.

After Thought

It occurred to me that my last post may have sounded like I was boasting, about the sales I had before Christmas. That was not my intention. I was meanly trying to illustrate, what I believe is, the importance of consistency if one is trying to build a reputation. I have had some budding artist ask me to look at their site and I am often amazed at the variety of styles. Although they obviously have talent, it appears they are trying to cover every market and taste. This may work for some artists, but I’ve never been that successful with it. Choose something you love to do, do it well, and then market, market, market! Do shows, get an agent, send slides to a gallery that features your style and by all means get a website with your name or business name, and dedicate it to your specialty. Forget about my sales, they are just a drop in the bucket as to what you can do!

Advice from an Old Paint Slinger

                                   'Moving On'    12"x12" acrylic on canvas                              © Eva Macie

The sudden flurry of sales the past couple months of my paintings and prints was a reminder how important it is to stay true to one’s style. I have dabbled in just about everything since I retired from the art circuit and will continue to do so. However, it has been the work that I created and made my living with that continues to sell. If there is any advice that I could give to budding artists it would be to find you niche and grow with it. The above painting, ‘Moving On’ is a small 12”x12” painting that I painted earlier this year and is typical of the work I have created over the years . It has been sitting in my studio waiting to be signed, while I’ve been playing around with other things. I spotted it the other day and said to myself, “you need to get those acrylics out again and return to your easel”…Self said, “Huh?” It remains to be seen if I follow my own advice. Not having show and commission deadlines to pressure me I tend to paint when the mood hits. This is certainly not what an aspiring professional artist should do. I have proof that years of hustle and bustle and sticking to your style, will continue to pay off down the road.

Exhausted

The last greeting card went out today and I am exhausted! I always say next year I will start earlier and I did this year, but I had no idea I would run into so many problems and interruptions. I wrote about some of them in my last post so I won't go into them again. One pleasant interruption was my grandson's graduation from college last Wednesday. I was very proud as they recognized him for being the first to graduate (with honors) from Kennesaw State's new Interdisciplinary Studies. He majored in Environmental Policy. When they asked the students who had a cell phone and was texting and also who was on Facebook, he was one of a few who didn't raise his hand. He is a very quiet, sort of a New Age hippy. No computer, cell phone or any other electronic gadgets. He loves to meditate, paint and garden. He plans to be an organic farmer. Needless to say I'm pretty partial to him. He loves coming here to paint and talk about meditation. He plans to travel a lot. I will miss him when he takes off on his own.

If you are looking for a new project to kick off the New Year, Nancy Standee, a super artist and blogger, wrote about an upcoming free online journal workshop. It is sponsored by Strathmore journals and the first one starts January 1st. I signed up for the one that starts in March as I need to recoup!

Have a Merry Christmas or enjoy your traditional Holiday celebration.
Peace and Love,
Eva

Christmas Cards

Every year I try to do something creative for my Christmas greeting. The past few years I have created a video, posted it on YouTube then emailed the link to friends and family. This year I did not feel up to the challenge and decided to return to the traditional way of sending cards.The image above is not my card. It's a copy of a Dover stain glass coloring book image. In the middle of creating my own cards, I switched gears as usual, and came up with an idea of making some Christmas ornaments using some old shrink plastic from my John Campbell Folk School workshop days. What a challenge that became! I guess the stuff is meant for small charms and jewelry because large pieces warp and fold on themselves when shrinking. Fun, but frustrating to watch my hard work shrink into odd balls of plastic. Then I tried Fimo polymer clay. I do not know why, but I have never been able to get that stuff to a pliable consistency and I have a pasta machine that I purchased solely for that purpose. I bought some soft Fimo and that was difficult to knead also. As a last resort, I am using air-dry clay. It is not waterproof and a bit fragile, but I tell myself that hand painted glass decorations are fragile too. I am still not sure they will fly, as I have not finished them. I am still in the experimenting stage. I may get this done by Christmas! Along with more Christmas shopping, house to clean and decorate, this is a busy, busy time so I may not be blogging for a while. Happy holidays everyone!

Autumn Walk With Me

                          



The last days few days of autumn in Atlanta have been beautiful. I decided to take my camera along  on my walk to record the leaves before they returned to the soil. The video is a little bouncy, but I did not have a rolling movie cart to make the trip a smooth one. Our little neighborhood park is one of the joys of this the area. I told my son to spread my ashes here because it is where I have always found peace. Unfortunately, we live near the county airport and the planes seem to get louder every year. Along with the nearby traffic, peace is becoming harder to find.


The image at the end of the video is another Photoshop CS5 creation. When I am not out walking, I am deep into a stack of books by my recliner and working on the computer. I will be back in my studio next week to create some Christmas cards and gifts. In the meantime, I am wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Reality or Illusion

Sudoku is not my excuse this time for my absence. I have been reading and studying spirituality and quantum physics. I still do not understand much of what I am reading, but I am definitely fascinated. I am not going to defend or try to start a religious discussion, as I think everyone is entitled to believe as they chose, including myself. However, it brought up in my mind the illusion of art. I do not remember which artist, maybe Picasso, when a critic said his portrait did not look anything like a woman, replied, “That is because it is not a woman, it is a painting.” Even if the artist painted a photorealist image of a woman or took a photo of her, it is all an illusion.


Since one of my computers is next to my recliner, I took a break from reading to refocus my mind and for some reason I found myself creating a Photoshop image that was a first for me. I opened a file of a Yupo painting I did earlier in the year to see if it needed any further editing. I will post it in another post. After I played with it awhile, for some reason I added a new layer, filled it with white and began to erase areas with different brushes, some of which I created. Intrigued, I started cloning and painting new shapes. I am excited about the possibilities this opened up. My mind then associated all of this to what I have been reading, reality vs illusion. What I did was manipulate pixels, not paint, which are a tiny dots of light that are the basic unit from which images appear on the computer. For more information click HERE All of which, to my limited knowledge, consist of a binary code made up of 0’s and 1’s. I know someone reading this will say I don’t know what I’m talking about and they would be right. However, this much I do know; it is not acrylic or watercolor paint. Other artists, like Vik Muniz, who is using things like sugar and chocolate syrup to create images, and mosaic artist Ken Knowlton , who create portraits form various materials based on the pixels he generates in his computer, are masters of this art of illusion. A great book, which features these and other great artist, is Masters of Deception: Escher, Dali & the Artists of Optical Illusion.


Back to my books and disappearing into the world of words.
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Sudoku

I have noticed as I age that my memory is slipping. Every time I hear or read about something recommended for memory loss I check it out. In one of the Real Age newsletters that I receive, the game of Sudoku was their latest recommendation. I went to their online game site and let me tell you I was shocked at how something that appears to be so simple was such a brain drain! It is like a Rubik’s cube with numbers! Not to be defeated I have spent days trying to master this thing. I finally was able to beat the beginner’s level and I stopped, since everything has been on hold since I started. I have not picked up a brush, or pasted a piece of paper. I decided to do a digital collage of the game to justify all the left-brain stuff that has held me hostage. If you are interested in escaping for a few hours, or like me, days, you can find the game here. Enjoy!

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