Wordless Wednesday

Spend 5 minutes at your worktable

Today's art prompt seemed easy enough: allow yourself to sit at your worktable for five minutes. I looked around and immediately saw my half finished octopus which HAS to be finished ASAP! He still needs eyes, shaping and attaching to the Sea Maiden project.

I continued to sit for the remainder of 5 minutes. As I sat and surveyed the rest of my studio I started to feel guilty; started to feel my Irish. I felt a confession coming on. Forgive me father, for I have sinned.  It has been 3 months since I cleaned my studio and 2 months and 4 days since I fully completed a large project. Oh, the guilt! I saw unframed works, half finished paintings, encaustic wax, driftwood, fabric and yarns strewn about. Me... with 11 art shows this year and a studio tour breathing down my neck!

This is the prefect time to embrace your inner nerd. Get out your art journal and prepare to organize and make lists. Here are some of the things I do to help prioritize and organize my various art projects:

1. Make a checklist of all the art shows I wish to participate in order of deadlines for submission.

2. Make a list of all the major pieces I need to make and give each project a deadline.

3.Make a list of frames needed with sizes. Start framing pieces as they are completed. I hate doing things at the last minute!

4.Create an inventory of all my works of art, including prices and locations of where they are showing.

5. Plan on spending a couple of hours a day on my art and at least 1-2 full days.

6. Hang completed pieces on the wall with prices, for those in between dop in visitors. That way you won't have to scramble to pull out your artwork.

I keep a master binder (nerd!) that has a section for each major art show or studio tour I participate in. I keep all the minutes to every meeting, every receipt, updated inventories, every article that has ever been written on me, and every brochure or poster to these art shows. It all helps to keep me organized, so that when I find myself just sitting at my desk, looking at all the stuff I still need to do, I can keep from feeling overwhelmed.





Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Teeny Tiny Collage

This week's art prompt is to take small scraps of paper and create a small paper collage with it.

Step 1: Gather your papers. I've already admitted to having a horde of stash yarns and fabric scraps.  So I'll go there with you. Yes, I also have a stash of paper scraps. Surprise surprise. More specifically, I have a stash of maps.  I pick up old street maps and atlases at garage sales and swap meets whenever I can. I love painting on maps and incorporating maps into mixed media collages.

Step 2: Locate your muse. Mine goes two speeds: "couch potato" and "fully bully". There isn't much in between.



Step 3: Start collaging. Using a gel medium, glue small torn pieces of the maps down. For this piece I used blue ocean maps and green park maps.  Add any painted details and found objects on top of the map collage. I used scrabble tiles and adhered them to the painting with gel medium.

Step 4: Now that your background is done, you can add your foreground image. I cut out a drawing of Frankie from an atlas glossary page.  After I painted most of it white, I went over the cut out with a sculpting medium to give the dog a 3-D effect. When the dog was dry I used gel medium to adhere the dog to the collage painting. Small whimsical bones were added later with sculpting medium.

I measure studio time in cups of tea. This small piece took only two cups of tea to complete. A small collage like this is a quick and satisfying way to kick start a weekend of working in your studio. 







Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Patchwork Prompt

I loved this week's prompt: to sew strips of fabric together and make something out of it.

 I loved it because I have an entire cabinet full of fabric scraps.  It's not called hoarding when you're an artist; it's gathering.  Fabric prints are the gathering of color and inspiration. I use fabric prints in my paintings, fabric scraps in my mixed media works and fabric scraps for sewing little things.  I used to sew baby clothes when my guys were little, but now I sew laptop bags and cell phone cases; pajamas for Christmas morning.

This morning I went to my fabric cabinet, pulled out a random sampling of blue batiks, and began to sew strips of fabric together.

By the end of the day I had a funky messenger bag assembled, complete with a felted wool flap that I decorated with needle felting.

Lots of pockets inside and out hold all of your nerdy girl essentials.

My 11 year old son loves to sew alongside me. He's been sewing things since he was about 4 years old and my sewing machine was the first piece of machinery he ever used. Here is a little mouse he recently made by sewing fabric strips together to make stripey legs.

"Edward" by Mason Menzies

Making things from strips of scrap fabric is a great stash busting exercise! With any luck, this could lead to a quilting obsession.

Carve a Little Stamp

This week's art prompt: carve a stamp. Okay, check. Now what?

Lately, I've been wanting to paint some Artist Trading Cards. I thought my newly carved stamp might be perfect for this.  I began by stamping out 10 cards.

 Artist trading cards are miniature pieces af art (2.5" x 3.5") that can be traded with other artists. You can also buy ATC's online at places like Etsy or EBay. I've been painting all day and I've managed to create 5 hand painted cards so far. I'm calling this set " Take Up Space and Live Out Loud!"

Oh, cheeky me!  This one's my favorite!

I had a lot of fun carving a stamp and I can see that I'll be doing more of this. Stamps for gift bags, stamps for studio bags and tags, Christmas cards....

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