Design & Create Art

Stephanie's theme is so broad I really didn't know where to start!  I had the freedom to do a spread that showcased a favorite technique, but I could not decide what I wanted to do.  Then I remembered that I had leftover materials from a spread I had done in another AB.  Rather than let the extra materials go to waste, I decided to recycle them into my pages for Stephanie's book.  My pages are about the reasons why we design and create art.

For the previous AB spread, I had brainstormed to come up with the many things that art is to me.  I had printed these out on 5 different shades of green paper and cut them in the shape of blades of grass.  As I sifted through these leftover cuttings, I enjoyed re-reading the many ways that art impacts us.  What starts as a small idea often grows into something beautiful, something greater. Through my pages, I also wanted to show that even when art is viewed negatively, in the end, art allows us to grow through understanding, tolerance and community.  

What Makes Me Sing?

Debbie's book asks "What makes you sing?"  Oddly, the idea I had for this book had nothing to do with music.  One of the things I enjoy is spending my lunch hour shopping at my favorite thrift store, Savers.  Not only do they have weekly specials (25% off Mondays, 50% certain color tags), they also have specials just for Club Members! 

Inspired by Chocolate

So after a day of touring Asheville and seeing all of this CHOCOLATE, it's no wonder my spread in Monica's book turned out like this:

 My page pays tribute to both of our shared interests: art and chocolate!  I hope that every time she opens this pop-up spread, she is reminded of that day we visited Kilwin's, the Chocolate Fetish and Chocolate Gems together in Asheville.    

North Carolina Retreat: A Week of Friendship, Art and Fun!

After nearly 6 years, my on-line art group finally decided to get together and meet in person for the very first time!  We traveled from near and far (North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Missouri, Michigan, Ilinois, Colorado, California and Hawaii) and met up in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina just outside of Asheville for a week-long retreat!  There, we got to know each other, made art together and took in a little sightseeing on the side.  Here are some of the highlights of our week:

Making boiled books

CitraSolv pages using Artistcellar stencils

Macrame Friendship Bracelets

 Painted canvas to make portfolios

A tag for Teri's book

 My pages in Lori's book

Rainbow Jello

Ziplining The Gorge in Saluda

A chocolate tour of Asheville

A cool book store and bar

My Art Sisters

Until next time!!

Bash Bob--The Cheating Husband

With the completion of Anna's "Bash Bob--the Cheating Husband" book, my Dark Side AB RR is now officially over.  Although we were invited (encouraged even) to get as mean as we wanted with this book, I ended up doing something a little softer.

My spread begins with a black heart--broken, damaged and hurt.  The found text reads "A heart once brok-en..."  Open the black heart to reveal a red heart--vibrant, alive and full of love.  The text here reads "can (crossed out) will learn to love again."  So that is my simple message to Anna.  There is hope and light after the darkness.  There is love after the pain, hurt and betrayal.

  

Faerie Folk

I have not been arting as much lately and I was feeling a bit rusty as I sat down to work in Sue's "Faerie Folk" book this month.  I went through so many different ideas of what to do for Sue.  She likes dark themes (her instructions say "No Disney please"), so I wanted to feature a nymph or fairy that was more mysterious, haunting.

The other thing I did was to take Sue's name and run it through the Fairy Name Generator.  This is an on-line tool that creates your very own personalized fairy name.  Sue's name was Briar Beamfrost.  I immediately liked the images that this name brought to my mind.

I found this ethereal image of a fairy and knew she would be the perfect Briar Beamfrost!  When I found her, she only had one set of wings.  I had to fix that.  For my spread, I gave her four sets of transparent periwinkle wings!  Can a fairy ever have too many wings?

I chose to copy the image onto vellum before placing it into her book.  I love how the text shows through yet doesn't detract from the image.  My extra sets of wings are also printed and cut out from vellum to create a 3-D effect.  Glitter glue painted onto the vellum wings was the perfect addition.  I think her wings look so real--almost like a dragonfly! 

High Rise Adventures

When I first saw Darrell's "High Rise Adventures" book I was excited to work in the vertical format.  We had recently returned from a trip to wine country where we went on a hot air balloon ride.  That would be the inspiration for my pages in his book.

I took my first hot air balloon ride over twenty years ago in New Mexico.  Even though I am afraid of heights, I enjoyed the balloon ride.  The fact that we reached heights of 1500 feet did not really alarm me.  i was much more taken by how peaceful the ride is--once you get used to the deafening sound of the burners.  Since then, despite my on-going fear of heights, I have taken two flights in Napa Valley.
For my background, I used a map which I muted with gesso.  To honor my inaugural flight, I positioned the large balloon to take off from Albuquerque, New Mexico (revealing a picture taken on our recent balloon ride) and the smaller balloon originates in Napa.  I used a penny slide mechanism to mimic the movement of a balloon--up and across the page.

To complete this page, I gathered a few "fun facts" about hot air balloons which I thought Darrell would enjoy.  The page pops open to reveal the list of fun facts.