Senses Collage

I thought that I was done doing this type of collage (color theme on soul collage format), but I guess I have more in me. I find the constraints that I've imposed somewhat freeing. I was writing in my journal the other day that when I have an idea (in words) and begin to add images to the words then I find that I'm way too literal. Starting instead with one aspect of image (color) and going from there brings me to composition and theme and eventually a message emerges. So I found this to be a great creative exercise.

Echo Outhouse

This is the first and only watercolor I've ever done. I think that I needed the inspiration of a good subject. I don't know if I'll ever be so inspired again!

Adele's Bag

I haven't been particularly creative lately, but I did make this bag for my daughter.

Sarah's Birthday Quilt

I made this patchwork wallhanging for my sister-law, Sarah's birthday present. It is 27 inches square, pieced with batik fabric in my own design.

Sexing lemons

It's not always easy to determine gender in the plant kingdom, but these lemons are pretty obvious!

Poem: Locker Room

Locker Room

Preening women
Lined at the mirror
Makeup strewn about
Impatience flares
I just want
My spot at the beauty trough

Finally my turn
A quick blow, a quick comb
I've done all I can
Ah presbyopia!
No glasses? No problem
No gray hairs, no wrinkles
Kate Markey

I'm the one who wants to get away sometimes

This is a soulcollage I've been thinking about for awhile. As soon as I saw her I knew that she had to be in this collage. But her background has undergone many transformations. Her spacesuit was white originally, but I wanted it purple. To get it that way I used pencils, but they gave a mottled look. Finally I used ink with a Qtip; wish I 'd done that to begin with.

Web2.0 workshop

I escaped from work today by attending an Infopeople workshop on Web 2.0. I'm learning some cool stuff.

Journal page: Me in the Past

When I was looking at some old pictures of myself I could barely remember being the person who was in the picture. It's hard to capture with a photograph or even a memory the essence of a moment, but some photos just "clicked" and I was right back there when it was taken.
I've intended to start a journal with some of my old photos for a long time to see where it would lead me. This one is a little too much like a formulaic scrapbook page for my taste, but I'm hoping that I'll break away from that soon.

I am the one who tries to make sense of things

This is the hardest and most time-consuming soulcollage I've done yet. I futzed and futzed, not quite sure what I wanted to say or do. I had so many images that I'd been saving and it was hard to eliminate ones that I liked but that didn't quite fit with the theme or aesthetics. I think I need to break from these for awhile.

I am the one who dances alone

I'm getting into this soul collage stuff. I knew I wanted to do a dance collage so I've been looking for images for awhile. In keeping with my "color" schemes, this gold one emerged.

I am the one who emerged from a farm

I've been wanting to do this collage for a long time. I did come from a farm and I love farm images. I suspect I will return to farms frequently, figuratively if not literally.

Skiing

The weekend before last I escaped by visiting my sister in Seattle and making art. This holiday weekend I went with my family to our cabin in the Sierras. Spent a lot of time skiing and digging out the cabin. It was beautiful and fun, but not particularly relaxing.

We are the ones who know

I've been pretty intimidated about doing soul collage (or soulless collage as my sister and I like to joke) so this is only my second one. At first I was just inspired by the color theme of burnt sienna, but then I found another theme emerging just like the books said would happen!

Acrylic background

I made this background by smushing acrylic paint on cardstock. I dragged combs and blotched with baby wipes, a technique I read about in Mixed Media Nature Journals. I hope to use this background in my art journal soon.

Ceattitudes

I Feeling angry and pessimistic, I abandoned the Beattitudes and created the Ceattitudes. But I'll soon be more positive and count my blessings again.

Mermaid Book

I began this mermaid book years ago when I first began stamping. I added new pages as I learned new techniques so it's almost like a sampler. About halfway through I added the text from T. S. Eliot as a way to structure it. I finished it in a hurry in order to put it in a one-day show at the Library. I was especially pleased with the way the cover turned out. The mermaid on the cover was from an old cigar box. I downloaded the image and printed it onto a transparency. Then I transferred the image to fabric and pieced fabric around it to fit the board book.

Sharon"s Fabric Birthday Card

I was inspired to make Sharon's birthday card by the colors in our house in Honduras. I had no intentions as to dimensions; I was going to make it as big as it needed to be. It turned out looking like a potholder so I added a hanger and it became Sharon's "fake potholder" card. Originally I was going to use a mixture of paper and fabric, but after I made the heart out of paper I only used fabric because I loved the scraps that I had gotten from Diane.