Friday, September 18, 2009

Here she is, pretty well done. There are some bits of whitecap on the ocean. Seagulls in the background. I have to varnish it. I like her.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Submitted Gretchen...

That's what I like to call my Rusty Spring Doll. She's winging her way to Art Doll Quarterly for their consideration for an issue next spring featuring re-using/recycling things in a new way. I hope they like her. :-)

ATC made at my desk....

I made this using things found at my desk. The woman in the lower left corner is my high school senior picture!

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Nearly Done

She's nearly done, a lot of her arm detail and such is lost in the photo. I have to mount the big pearl in her hand so she can quit look like she's popped up to wave. The little things in the background are seagulls.
I've been working on an Asian Stuffed Mermaid...you can see some detail in her tail. You also can see my helper, Sadie. I moved her 3 or 4 times, you see how successful I was!!! The Found Art girl, is inspired by Sally Jean Alexander's work. It's a mattress spring, pulled up to make it stand up so I could put in the antique vanilla bottle in it as the body and old keys for arms. I used Ranger Alcohol Inks inside to give it some color. Then I hung various found rusty things that I found and some things that weren't rusty so I patinaed them so they would look it. That's an antique clock face for her face w/new hands on it. I want to submit this to Art Doll Quarterly for their "recycled" doll edition. The guidelines seemed to indicate using old clothing, but at the end said or anything else recycled, and I think this qualifies. Will have to pack her today so can mail on Tuesday.

Asian Mermaid Doll & Rusty Spring doll













She's not done, this is her basic face w/o color. The bodytail has tiny pearls sewn on it, in the tail itself has freshwater pearls, Asian coins, sea glass, nautical charms, little broken china cup, etc. Things a mermaids tail would gather along the sea bottom.


Friday, September 4, 2009

More Progress

The flash on my phone camera makes the tail appear a lot shinier than it is in real life. I used Golden's Clear Granular to give the tail texture but so you could still see the layers of color under the texture. I went over some of my definition lines w/my finepoint Sharpie. Using almost entirely Derwent watercolor pencils, I kept losing the definition. There's shading that the phone isn't really picking up, but I hope to be using the digital camera when I finish.


Thursday, September 3, 2009

Lack of Detail....I don't like that...

I have some of my favorite mixed media pieces that I want to photograph w/our digital camera for better detail...just have to remember how to get the pix from the camera to the blog. In an effort to make my current works more "lifelike", I haven't been making the shading/shadowing as obvious, and using my phone to take the pix isn't capturing it, leaving my work looking rather 1 demensional. :-(

Friday, August 21, 2009

Must use "real" camera...

I've been using my cell phone to take pix of my work. While I'm getting a reflection...I see that much of my subtle detail is lost, making my works look less defined than they are in real life. I do have some where it's more obvious as that's how I wanted it to look, on these works I was going for a softer effect, sadly it seems to be lost in the photographing.

Imagination

Yes, it's me as a butterfly. :-) Jewels on the wings, layers of paint and final layer of background color is Olivine pigment glaze.

Sampler

I was trying out different "types" of mermaids. Seahorse, Eel, Butterfly (yes, I know there are no butterflies under the sea.....), etc. I was an experiment w/different body types.

Letters

I have a treasure collection of cards and letters from my dear friends over the years. I LOVE to see ALL of my stuff. I truly do. I decided the best way to do that and honor the items was to turn them into art. I tore and cut up many items and used them as background. Yes, I like to think that's me...any time you see a brown-skinned woman w/brown eyes and a beauty mark above her lip...it's me. Ok, in reality, I'm a "bit" fuller in figure, but in my mind's eye, this is an EXACT likeness! HAHAHAH I did myself on #140 watercolor paper...drawn painted, glazed...my eyes are a blend of pigments w/glaze. I finished it off w/a found art rusty hinge on my dress.

3 Faces

Well, I made what I thought was a pretty good likeness of 3 generations of women in my family. My mother is offended that she looks old and mad...she's 81...what did she expect? and frankly, I thought I was generous w/the facial expression. Steffanie thinks she looks like an alien. I thought about trimming the side of the face a bit...but then hey, this is how I felt when I was doing it! I'm on the left, Steffanie in the middle and mother on the right. The background has about 5 or 6 layers, then some tissue that I had stamped on added using Golden's soft gel...I was able to scrunch the tissue getting a textured look. The faces are raised by using cut pieces of sponge to mount them onto the canvas.

Recent Work











Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Moving right along...

I'm going to mount a large pearl in the hand that appears to be waving. I have laid down the first layer of paint on the cheesecloth. I want to texturize the tail more than just w/color.

moving right along




I don't know what it is lately, but all my women are bald. HAHAHHAH Will post more progress. I have her nearly completed, below her is done w/cheesecloth & reg Golden's gel. I think I want her on a rock when all is said and done. I'll also glaze her tail. As of late last night, the sky is lightly Derwent Kingfisher Blue Watercolor Penciled in, but not totally done.

watercolor pencil mermaid in progress




Sunday, August 16, 2009

A while back, I had the privelege of being part of a 4 woman exhibit in Chicago. This violin was my main piece. It's covered w/beautiful images that I downloaded as angel art. I also made mermaids using polymer clay. One of them I could not get her face to come out right, so I made her w/just the body sticking out. hahaha The one on the upper left w/a vintage rhinestone shoe clip across her chest has my daughter's face on it. There's a tiny mermaid on the lower right that I was trying to capture in the picture, it has my youngest grandaughter's face, and originally yellow butterfly wings. Since they were real, they deteriorated off, but I'll be replacing them as soon as I can figure out how to keep them natural but preserved.

Mermaid Violin
















Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Marilyn Monroe Dom

I made this for my daughter-in-law Felicia. The face is stamped on a flattened pop top, the body on a domino, the skirt is a scrap bit of chiffon and the legs are boots stamped on cork.
It's embellished further and sits atop a small tin.