Where Does Inspiration Come from?

 Is it inspiration or motivation that's the starting point for art?

A few weeks ago I attended an Art Journaling workshop with artist/designer/author, Dina Wakely. When not traveling, she usually has monthly workshops at one of our local stores, The Occasional Artist.

Sometimes I know what we'll be focusing on, but lately I show up with my basic kit and prepare to go with the flow. After years of participating in her workshops I know that I'll learn something new or get pushed outside my comfort zone. This evening was no different.

 

 We would be working with collagraphs. While some of my fellow art teachers had made them with their students, I didn't fully grasp how to make them successfully. Working with old folders, chip board and fun foam, we created our own collagraphs by cutting shapes and gluing them onto a substrate. Above is a collagraph plate using fun foam, (in red), made by one of the ladies in class.

Here's mine after a few prints have already been made. I used pieces of folder glued on chipboard.

The prints came out well but the white background made me crazy. This is my in studio set-up for spraying inks and color washes. I sprayed several pages.

The acrylic paint print with a wash of water based inks.

I signed up for a postcard swap with no idea what I was going to do for my cards. These prints were perfect.

I dug out one of my favorite rubber stamps. Gathered paper scraps and cut circles. Then it was time to add stitching on the sewing machine.

The card fronts.

The card backs. Another favorite stamp!

The finished cards.

The cards found new homes overseas and throughout the US. Exciting!

Marissa

Back to Making Art

I've been keeping these goodies to myself for a few weeks. Here are my chunky book pages for the recent Art Unraveled chunky page exchange.
A little background. Art Unraveled is a yearly, week long art retreat held each August in Phoenix. I've attended workshops with artists from all over the US for about 6 years. Attendees come from the US and abroad to join in the fun and art making. I've met some wonderful people and learned so much.
Part of the fun of learning is sharing our experience. We do this in a small way with a technique exchange. Those interested sign up to make chunky pages, a 4"x4" page, using techniques learned from recent AU workshops.

I had an idea in mind and then looked around the studio to see what I had on hand for the project. I knew I was going to have a window so I decided to use a punch and would cut 4"x8" pages to fold in half. I made some samples to make sure my tools would work with the thickness of the paper and with the aluminum tape I intended to use for a border.

 Next step: dig through my stamps. I was looking for stamps with text.

 The result-multiple stamped papers ready to paint on.

 

I did add one strip of paper torn from books to each paper for an added layer of text. Cut strips of aluminum tape.

My "spray booth." I've used sprays and gotten color all over my table unintentionally. I now use this box when spraying and have prevented further accidents. I use some paper scraps under my project to absorb excess color. I keep the scraps on hand and use them in collages.

 The painted pages.

Although I tried out all the tools and techniques ahead of time, I had difficulties and had to make some modifications along the way. The butterfly punch that worked well on the cardstock, did not work with the added book page. I had do dig out a die for the butterfly shaped windows.

The border punch didn't work multiple times on the aluminum tape. The adhesive gummed up the punch. I settled on punching the card stock and painting it silver. The "Plan B" silver paint was an adventure too. My favorite bottles were dried up!

The finished paged with a butterfly transparency sandwiched between the folded cardstock.

The techniques were inspired by two of the workshops I attended at Art Unraveled 2011, Ingrid Dijkers "Octopus' Garden" and Daniel Essig's "Window Sampler" workshop.

Marissa

New Chunky Pages

Been plodding along with my pieces for the Art Unraveled Technique Chunky Book pages. Other than following the steps from Alisa Burke's Graffiti Chic workshop from Art Unraveled last summer, I havn't had a plan for these pages. I did the first layer over Winter Break. Last week I took out the paints, some toys and added color and pattern.I did two things I don't normally do. I used more muted colors and I didn't completely cover the whole background. Once the fabric dried I tore it into 4"x 8" pieces.The dripping black paint looked a little extreme. Being only half way through the project I knew I had to trust that I would move along and bring everything together once I was done.I was using white paint and had a bunch left over. What to do? What to do? So I went hunting in my classrroom and pulled out one of my examples of a hand carved stamp that we use in a 5th grade project. This little house shape "fit" the best.With 40 plus pieces to complete for this swap, it's all about production mode. The paint is dry and the back is ready for me to write the workshop title and my name. The front still needs a few layers. I haven't decided what I'll collage on but I'm on the hunt and the sewing machine is going to come out too.
Marissa

Collages this week

Every evening I plan to go to bed at a reasonable hour and yet, i manage to get distracted and stay up late. Today Kelly Kilmer sent out all the prompts for this month of her "A Prompt a Day" online class. I only happened to peek at January 31st but nothing else between then and today. Ooh, the suspense!

There's no pressure to get the pages done in order or by a certain time. That's up to each participant. She's already taking registrations for February. Hmmmmmmm... I'm strongly leaning towards continuing. I've been challenged to go beyond my comfort zone, the group is creating cool work and our online community is great.
Color, movement and rhythm. I'm more self conscious now but I've always loved to dance. I've got the Latin hips even if I don't know all the dance steps! The other night I was dancing The Swim with the Chicklet as we listened to an old Monkees tune.Speaking of swimming...if we weren't at the local pool in the summer, we were heading out to the beach. My brother lived to surf. We used to make cracks that he had webbed feet. I went on to spend more time at the local pool with swim team and lifeguarding. I was spoiled to have an Olympic size pool in my backyard.
The Chicklet takes swim lessons every Summer. I tell her she's growing a fin on her back like her mom, lol.More water. Until I moved to Arizona I lived near water. Even if I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, the beach was a short drive away. Every trip to California is an opportunity to get my ocean fix. It doesn't happen often enough.
Does the picture look familiar? It's dated but I adore this shot of the Chicklet and I taken at the beach. We spent the afternoon on the beach with good friends. Last night's page. It's interesting where the prompts have lead. I've remembered things I hadn't thought of for years. My journaling is still hit or miss as far as being readable. I've created pockets between every two pages to slip the prompts in. I may rewrite the journaling and slip it in the pockets to make it easier for the Chicklet to read at some point. I have no qualms about letting the Chicklet read this journal YET.
Marissa

Sparkle and Sizzle

I mentioned that I took a great class with Mike P. at Mystic Paper last Sunday. It was his Shimmer and Shine class-Part 2. I'm not a huge fan of all the sparkly products out there but I was in the store Friday evening, saw the sample and signed up right away. I was especially attracted to the intense coloration and the embossed examples. My embossed pieces are above, Mike's were shiney, smooth, intense red....

I was one of the last to arrive for class which means I didn't get to sit at the big table with everyone else... My two table companions and I played well together and we had a blast. We weren't equally attentive ALL the time and had to help each other out with some of the steps. In the end we did a little extra here and there which Mr. Mike was cool with.Our end product was a sample booklet of a variety of techniques on flash cards. We started out with pearlescent powders and stamping with Perfect Pigment. Since I don't use these powders I know little about the differences between pigment powders, Twinkling H2Os, etc. Now I understand that Glimmer Mist is a liquefied pearlescent powder! I won't tell you how many bottles of Glimmer Mist I own but it's product I do love...
Next we moved on the embossing. The double layer of embossing looked like water, OOOOhhhh! I also liked the mottled look from only one layer of embossing powder. I sprayed one end with Glimmer Mist and it was absorbed into the exposed paper. I made a second tag with just that technique. It's the bottom one pictured above.From embossing we moved onto experimenting with color on grungeboard. Distress inks, pearlescent powders and Glimmer Mist were used. Every once in awhile I would run my grungeboard over an extra tag and the color and harlequin pattern transferred, (pictured below).
We tried out some more techniques including how to make our own glimmer mist from powders, comparing it with the pre-made product. I couldn't tell too much difference but know that I prefer to raid my stash and use what I have on hand rather than mess with powders and mixing, etc.

Lastly, we used Glimmer Mists and stencils on wrinkled tags, over stamped tags, as stencils and as stamps. FUN results. Now I wish I had taken Part One! Luckily, the "Best of.... "class will be offered in January.

I did take my tags home and played with them some more at home. I finished adding color to most of the tags before gluing the smaller examples on. It has been a slow week in the studio so far but my kitchen is a lot cleaner!
Marissa

Halloween Eye Candy

I'm at school and don't have the name of all the wonderfully talented artists who made these pages. Of the 33 or so pages made for the Halloween Swap these are just a few that I fell in love with. The above page uses painted embossed wallpaper for a background and layers of collage elements.
Simple and adorable. I love the kitty and especially the off kilter the "BOO" with buttons.
Funny! What a smile! The distressed painted background had us all oooohing and ahhhing!
Love the textures, love the shoes. I can hear kids singing,"Trick or treat, smell my feet...."
Rosie Posie's Trick AND Treat splendor!!!!!!! Amazing!!!! I'll have to check the Chicklet's candy real close for any of these kinds of goodies.

Marissa

Summer Break-Day 1

Boy, was I wiped out over the weekend. It's go, go, go that last week of school. Then all of a sudden that last bell rings, the kids get loaded onto their busses and it's all over. We usually ride the busses the first week and the last day of school but my wonderful partner in crime, Kelli, our grrrrrreat music teacher rode my bus for me while I finished the book above. Thank You, Kelli!

It was a gift for our principal, Angela, from our staff. Earlier this year, Angela was one of 8 school principals selected as finalists for the Rodel award. Four of the 8 were selected to be awarded $3000 and the opportunity to mentor other principals. Their profiles were in the newspaper and the winners would be announced in the paper as well. Unfortunately, Angela wasn't one of the Rodel winners but our staff knows we have the best principal ever.

In addition to the two schools I've worked at, I traveled to a couple of others and got a taste of other school climates. I feel very, very fortunate to have worked for Angela for 12 of my 13 years in this district. Many of us do. As a result we all wrote letters that were compiled into this book. Kelli presented Angela with her book on Friday at our end of the year BBQ. It was an unexpected surprise. Those are the best kind!

Since I'm on an aluminum tape kick, that's the technique used for the covers. The "A" stands for Angela and dolphins are her favorite. Tim Holtz's texture hammer was used on the dolphins and a, (sewing), marking wheel was used to add texture to the "A."Saturday was "Collage Day" with Sylvia Luna at Frenzy Stamper in Scottsdale. Look what we made!

Sylvia had us work in prescribed steps. It was different than I'm used to so it was great to learn another way to get started. First-layers of paper pieces. Then inks, then some gesso. At some point we were given a focal point to use. The pickings were slim so I used something I probably wouldn't have picked on my own. Another break from the usual. It's a good thing! Next paint was used or was it stamping? Then more paint. Above was my first effort. It's OK but not my favorite YET. It'll get reworked some more.#2-I like it! Again, we used the same steps. Glue some paper pieces down, include focal image(s), rub inks, dry brush gesso, stamp...tweak here, tweak there. I want to finish it off with some handstitching.

Sylvia had a container full of papers to rummage and pull from. There must have been some kind of medical/ailments dictionary or encyclopedia. The above image came from the "death, sudden" page. Creepy! Creepy-er when I added the words "Death, Sudden" above the male and female figures. I may not be in the best mind set to start dating again.....
#3- At this point everyone was buzzing along. I broke with Sylvia's steps and glued down a layer of the paper towel I'd been blotting with. My focal image was meant to be the dark shape to the left but my 4th piece influenced this one. The male silohuette came from the left over piece when I cut out this guy:
#4 is CREEPY but a pleasing kinda creeepy. This last collage came together in minutes. I took some scrapbook papers, tore them into strips and glued them down. The patterns on the papers were still visible but became richer with inked rubbed in. I skipped the gesso and stamping, although stamping would have added a bit more depth but I'm still really happy with this one.

The armor image was left by someone else as was the postage stamp of a mideivel figure. The scissors repeat the "X" of the armor as well as the idea of the cut away flesh.

All the papers and images are from Sylvia's stash. We didn't have to bring anything but scissors, an apron and an open mind.

Although, I hadn't planned on taking this class this weekend, I'm glad I moved the date up for it. It was perfect for my half dead state-of-mind. Being told what to do took some of the pressure off. When my brain woke up, I did my own thing and that was perfectly OK too. There 8 of us in the class and as always, it was fun to see how different everyone's pieces came out.

Sylvia's teaching this class in two weeks at Mystic Paper in Old Downtown Mesa. Sign -up!

Now that I'm home I can call the evap guy, the plumber and the handy man to get some much needed maintenance done on our "castle."

Happy Monday!