Three More

Here are three products of Jane's Paper and Cloth classes. She teaches (at least) one new technique in every session which inspires me to use a unique approach and subject matter for each project.

The Little Mermaid wound up as the cover for a moleskine sketchbook. I photo'd the original collage, cut to size and glued it on with (what else?) matte medium.

The Cave Painter is paper collage on cloth, floating on a black gesso canvas textured with molding paste. I always have to explain my "back to the future" joke: if you look verry carefully (click to enlarge) you'll see the artist has painted the Mona Lisa on the cave wall. The murky figure in the background is his wife holding their kid. Keep looking...

The Scarecrow in the Cornfield with Pumpkins is sort of a "boo". I don't much care for it, but we were experimenting with gel transfers (the pumpkins) and I had to use 'em somehow. It's all fun!

Emerged Artists

I spent the weekend with two very creative grand-colleagues who go by their initials, POD and LAD.

POD emerged two and a half years ago and is shown here working on a secret project. When not busy (hardly ever) he can be persueded to smile (self-consciously) for the camera.

LAD, who emerged seven months ago, immediately chose plastic as his medium, as you can see below. He also does good work traveling with fuzzy fabric. Both artists appreciate my talent and refer to me as "the artist currently known as Grami".

Guess what?

Al Rodriguez (of paste paper teacher fame!) clued me in on how to put the "two dots over the 'e' ". For those interested, on a Mac you just press Option/u and the two dots appear. Then type whatever vowel you want to use. It works on 'o' and 'e' anyway. PC users, phone Bill.

But I think I'll keep the long version in my profile. (It's cute, so there.)

And Davielle, the Princess of Magpies, showed me how to put stuff on a blog's right sidebar. So as soon as I do that you will learn about the cool Art & Poetry workshop Al and Josie are doing in Italy next year!

Circus

I made the Clown-works in Jane's Mixed Media with Paper and Cloth class. Everybody oohed and aahed. Love it! That class is such a gift to cocooners.

Clown walks tightrope. Clown Falls. Clown Parachutes to safety. Yaay! and ta-daah!

They're framed in black, inset (clown is sorta 3-d - click and see a magnified image) and ready to hang in my grandsons' room.

Clown Triptych

Command Performance

...and the little baby bird sang, "You picked a fine time to lay me, Lucille". See, the elephant's friend is named Lucille, and one day they were out walking, and...

Whaddya Think?

Ric-Rac? No Ric-Rac? (Click to enlarge)

"The Chinese Magpie Cafe"

My Sketches

Sketchbook Journaling

For many years and many travels I was focused on photographing everything, both in order to remember and to show my peeps. I liked to travel quickly from place to place to see it all (in the USA, Europe, Greece & Turkey, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Central America) 'cause I knew I'd never go back again - too many places lie forward. I didn't feel I had time to sketch, let alone do it well. Then late in 2007 I took a UCSD Extension sketching class from France-Marie Hager and began carrying a sketchbook. It's almost full of San Diego scenes in pen and ink. Not much progress, but still...

The moment I saw Jane's enchanting bright watercolor renditions of everyday things I was captivated! Who'da thunk a salt shaker and an old shoe would move me to rapture? I'm hooked.

Here are some pics from Jane's workshop at Laura Hansen's gorgeous Art & Soul home/garden/studio. In my excitement I had ms. camera on the wrong setting so only a few shots were sharp enough to show. It was a great day, and I learned. Jane is my Teacher of Choice for many reasons, not the least of which are her "lovely students". (Thanks, Jeanne, for introducing me to your daughter, Stephanie. Now I will remember BOTH your names!)

You Bloggers, you know who you are!

Now, come on, Jane LaFazio, et al, what do you pay the Blog Fairy? Does she come in the night with Snow White's bird troupe and blow pixie dust on your computers? I heard you mention you "have a life", but how is this possible? Amid all the creating of art, photographing it, writing about it and posting it, I whirl. Just let me have my morning coffee, read the Sunday paper, watch CBS Sunday Morning, check my email, groom me... Aw, just gimme her URL. Is it blogfairy dot com? Then come back to find out about your swell Art Journal Workshop yesterday at the lovely Art & Soul Studio in Point Loma.

Soy Wax

Last weekend I was in a workshop learning the soy wax resist method of dying fabric. The teacher was Melly Testa who has a new book out on the subject. Many of the women I have met in other classes were there and the usual camaraderie. It's fun to be with them but I'm always having to tell myself it's okay to like their stuff better than mine. I admire the "real" artists who seem to produce truly gorgeous work as effortlessly as they relate to one another, while I jones for my cocoon - just a moth around the brights...okay, I'm a little kidding. Of course I'm going to be a superbutterfly some day!

People of Mer

MER

A couple of years ago I drew some mer-people for my beautiful grandaughter's birthday game: Pin the Tail on the Mermaid. Recently I fished them up for an art class where I learned to transfer images onto cloth in various ways, and made them into a child's cloth book. The pictures are here somewhere. I'm still learning how to furnish a bloghouse. It seems to read from bottom to top.

I have always been a sea-lover, a gift from my mother (one of many). And I 'fantasy' myself a mystical mermaid of sorts, diving into the waters of the unconscious fishing for pearls of wisdom. Flopping around on land currently with my legs stuck together in a relatively manless existence is another clue. (Remember, I said "relatively").

in my cocoon you will find me...

June Blog Flying

This is the first day of the rest of my blog, so it's green for GO. I'm still wandering around in here trying to figure out where to put my brush, pen, camera, etc. when I find them. You're Welcome! Please be seated.