Collage of the Day

I made this post card for Lili using some shipping tape transfers (from the recent class I taught), an old border from some postage stamps (subject: dinosaurs, I think), part of a white pine branch printed from an old book, and some paper scraps. On the back of the card, I wrote her a note telling her how wonderful it is that she can get around now on all fours now like her brothers Milo and Charlie. (I don't think the fact that those two are cats matters to the three of them...)

Because of the continuing snow, the drawing class I planned to teach this morning was canceled. I used that time to get my Panama journal into shape for the trip. I don't exactly how I'm going to use it yet. It may get taken apart once we return home and reassembled in another format. For now, I like making a special cover for it, and it is filled with a nice light-weight watercolor paper that will be perfect for sketching, making bird lists, and collaging artifacts. 

Slow in the Snow

This was the view from the bedroom yesterday afternoon. By this morning, the snow-laden branch hung low over the bird feeder, covered by a thick blanket of white. Then the power went off. Luckily, the coffee had just finished brewing and was still hot, so we admired the 10 inch snowfall with eyes wide open. It really was spectaculor. After the Great Ice Storm of December 2008 when we were without power for four days, we knew what to do. So we did slow things doable without electricity, a furnace, and running water - reading, shoveling snow, sitting by the fire, napping, and packaging art work for mailing to Saranac Lake for submission to the 12th Annual Juried Show sponsored by the Adirondack Artists' Guild.

I always find photographing my work before sending it away very challenging, and today was no exception. A bit if serendipity interfered when I tried hanging the work on the front porch though, making the photos of the two little spring flower watercolor sketches into multi-layered images of winter giving forth to sweet growth and color.

The main piece I sent off was the collage of four little collage pieces that started with the botany illustrations. Working with plant images and terminology reminds me so much of my childhood experiences in the woods and fields where I grew up. One Spring while exploring the fields and woods around my grandmother's farm near Bath, NY I found a whole hillside covered with white trilliums. I was completely enthralled. Another Spring a few years later, I discovered intriguing sprouts pushing up through the leaf litter and dug some up so I could watch every bit of the progress made by the emerging plant. I planted the shoots (and their roots) in pots in my bedroom. Then I found branches with swelling buds and stuck them in jars of water on my shelves and desk. Then I watched. Again, I was enthralled and awestruck as the shoots sent up leaves and then jacks in their pulpits. The buds swelled to bursting, and maple catkins and oak leaves and black cherry flowers unfurled, shedding pollen and tiny larvae and little winged creatures across my homework pages and text books. I was in love with it all. And still am.

Some Elements of Botany

A few months ago I printed some scans from an old botany book (Elements of Botany) on butterscotchy-beige rayon. After some refreshing play sessions when I remembered how much I love free-motion sewing, I turned the four little fabric pieces into a set of four fabric, paint, and stitch collages. If you aren't familiar with free-motion sewing, it is simple - think about drawing with a sewing machine needle instead of a pencil. I used some scraps of upholstery fabric to enhance the illustrations, and I love the way it frayed like crazy - made me think of root hairs, so I left a lot of them. I am in the process of mounting all four on a piece of wood so I can enter the piece in an upcoming juried show.

The other project going on now is preparing for our trip to Panama - coming up soon. It started as one of our intensive group birding trips with a professional tour company and has turned into a an intensive birding trip with a pre-trip adventure on our own up in the mountains west of Panama City. We'll be there for awhile, and I am mulling over which art supplies to take. I nearly always take more than I can use - both the actual phyical materials and the ideas I have for journaling, painting, and drawing. I am building a blog that I hope to use for postings every few days. It will include bird sightings, my journals and drawings, our progress with Spanish (we are not really complete novices), and lots of photos. This plan depends, of course, on the accessibility of the servicio de internet in El Valle near our cottage and our lodges during the birding trip. That link coming soon...

Snowy January 2010

I was honored to be invited to show my new piece in the current show "Seeing in One" at the Adirondack Artists' Guild Gallery in Saranac Lake. I am experimenting with Lesley Riley's Transfer Artist Paper and used it with a watercolor underpainting for this work. The TAP was perfect for this because I ironed it right on the painted watercolor paper, and it didn't move the paint around at all. There is definitely a learning curve with this material though. For the media I used here, it was too easy to have the ink on the transfer squish out from under the edges of the cut-out image when I pressed too hard with the iron. I'm imagining lots of promising mixed media projects with it though.

Last week I closed NICHE Gallery with feelings of both sadness and excitement. I enjoyed being there so much, but a gallery-keeper I am not. I plan to teach art classes in Valatie (and other places, including Saranac Lake). I also want to develop my own art work and be able to travel (to Panama for month this Spring - look for a link later on to a blog from that trip).

Now I am up in the Frozen North at my little outpost near Saranac Lake for several days - seeing friends, snowshoeing, drawing, working, and pondering. The chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, and blue jays (previously uncommon in Fernville) have found the suet and seeds I put out on Friday afternoon and zoom around the cabin all day long. Last winter a Northern Shrike sat on a branch just 5 feet from my face at the bedroom window for a look at potential meals. Wondering if it will return. I filled up one of my blue water jugs today when I went to a friend's house for a delicious hot shower. There is something about being completely covered with warm water that is such an unappreciated luxury most of the time... I really manage very well without running water but I won't mind when I have it here - maybe next winter after a new well and an addition. Some lovely frost on the porch window when I arrived:This photo will make a wonderful background for a transfer. Feel free to borrow it.

The Lili Doll

Here she is!!! I realize in looking at the photo that she looks like she is wearing a crown. It's really some simple hair, make from cotton embroidery thread. Honestly - I haven't done enough serious sewing in so long that I made a bunch of silly mistakes. Luck I didn't sew my fingers together... Anyway, I like her - she makes me smile - and can't wait to give her to Lili next week. Maybe next I'll make her Mommy and Daddy dolls, a Grammy doll, a PopPop doll - this could get serious.

The sassafras grove out in the hedgerow was beautiful last week - shades of rose, lime, and lemon. The leaves seemed to fall off ALL the trees on one day recently, so along with the shorter days and watery sunlight it looks like the very beginning of deep autumn or early winter.

I signed up with the wonderful Leah's Art Every day Month project, and I 'll be posting my results here. There is alot of experimenting going on in NICHE Studio these days, and that is what alot of my work this month will be about.

For the first day of this challenge, I used my cool new Beast of a fabulous Printer to print a photo of my grand daughter on cotton so I can make a small doll for her. The last time I was with her, she was focusing so much on faces that i wondered how she might react over time to seeing her own face on a doll. At first, of course, she will just see it as Face. The color is a bit extreme but that might be good for this project.

I also took a basic collage class recently. The instructor, Jeanne, was great and got me going on some fun Rip and Glue collage projects. Here is the one I made using Jeanne's subject "Excitement." While working on the collages, I found plenty of images to use for my Soul Collage cards, which I am starting using Seena Frost's book. I'm looking for a local workshop that fits with my odd schedule! More on that later.

My Art Picnic

Creativity has been happening in fits and starts (not exactly every day) but my Art Picnic with Leah of Creative Every Day was really fun. We were driving back north from North Carolina that afternoon, and I sat in the back seat of the car surrounded by my limited art supplies. Leah's suggestion (via our conference call set-up) was to grab some materials that felt right and just start working. I had some wonderful hand-marbeled paper (thanks, Gail) that made me think of the amazing beach we had just left behind at my family's reunion. With that to start with and memories of a lovely week with 24 of closely-related women, men, and children I made this collage. It still needs some pelicans, gulls, and shorebirds.

For materials, I had a few pieces of interesting paper, a newspaper my sister brought from Virginia, some New Yorker magazines, some glue, some stamping ink, and a few other things. Later I added some photo transfers of some shells I brought home and some old crochet threads that reminded me of seaweed. The old photo from the newspaper was perfect - lots of funny-looking people who looked kind of jammed together - and they are about to be engulfed by a tidal wave!!!! All kinds of interesting connections to be made....