Altered E Art

2012 - fresh!

2012-01-10T17:40:00.000-05:00

I was fortunate enough to begin the new year in Ocean Beach - a funky beach town in San Diego. So nice to set the tone of 2012 with a touch into a laid-back, funky, artsy vibe. Murals, street art and the quirky abound. All that and the famous Dog Beach where pooches run free and frolic. Nothing like immersing yourself in dog joy every day.

e shoes

Garage Art

Street Shoes

She was often gripped with the desire to be elsewhere

2011-12-06T17:40:00.001-05:00

Travel - just love it and am fortunate to have it in my life. But when I'm not traveling my art often expresses it in one way or another. 'She was often gripped with the desire to be elsewhere' came to me on a postcard from my friend Francine which she sent to me in 1982. I came across it this year, altered it with amped-up color, and it has inspired several pieces and the image and sentiment has become part of my repeated image repertoire. The black&white photo on the original postcard is credited to photographer Marcia Resnick, who I was most pleased to discover anew on the web.

This assemblage includes many of my repeated features - collage, doll heads and parts, tiny globes & compasses, alpha blocks and the usual this and that. Big Ben and a replica vintage box camera make an appearance. And the vintage travel posters and luggage stickers in the collage naturally include many places I have actually traveled to. You might note that Audrey Hepburn is traveling along on the wonderful Vespa she made famous in the 1953 film, Roman Holiday, with Gregory Peck. In this piece, Gregory makes his appearance with Audrey on the Vespa on the side.

I don't know when I actually saw Roman Holiday for the first time - probably on television - but I definitely remember coveting a Vespa thereafter. Not to mention thinking of my own trip to Rome one day. Audrey on that Vespa was truly an icon of the free spirit to me.

Gripped with the Desire To Be Elsewhere
Assemblage

Inside View

Back View

Audrey & Gregory zip on the Vespa

Address Is Approximate

2011-11-26T12:21:00.000-05:00

I hope you as enchanted as I was by this tender, lovely very short stop-motion animated film by director Tom Jenkins - Robots! Cars! Google maps!

Address Is Approximate from The Theory on Vimeo.

The video arrived in my inbox today from one of my favorite blogs - Freakoutville Xpress - accompanied by this most appropos quote -

FreakoutVille Xpress

'I think that the ideal space must contain elements of magic, serenity,sorcery and mystery.' - Luis Barragan, Architect

Thanksgiving - happy & grateful

2011-11-24T11:46:00.001-05:00

I'm grateful that this is in the world and equally grateful that it's not directly in my world. Enjoy life, kiddos.

Chinese Oldster Chorus covers Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance'. Maybe they'll be special guests on her Thanksgiving TV special tonight.

Those Girls Again

2011-11-22T15:24:00.000-05:00

So the other day I was looking at the dolls I use in many of my assemblages, and thought I should photograph them and use the images as design elements in collage. These 6-7" porcelain dolls just speak to me. The seem to carry some essence of 'beingness' that says something, but I really don't know what. And I don't mind a bit that I don't really know.

Pieces involving the Girls pop up pretty regularly. After stamping the dolls in the first piece with letters, I continued that theme - trading off with numbers or letters - thus they became the Alpha & Numeral girls. The dolls in the collage sport punctuation marks instead of letters & numbers. There's always a rebel in the bunch.

The Alpha & Numeral Girls

Retro

2011-11-19T12:10:00.000-05:00

Retro images just speak to me. I love old advertising and vintage commercial design. Fashion backward. So maybe it's childhood or classic movies. Maybe is brainwashing by the ad industry. Whatever it is - retro images capture something that I want to express.

Retro

We Are A We

Vintage dolls represent the many - and sometimes conflicting - aspects that make up the collective we each are.

Art Dream

2011-11-09T11:42:00.003-05:00

Art Dream is a collage that emerged from just what is says - a dream about art.

The evening of the dream I had watched two television programs about artists on Halogen tv - a quirky little network on cable and online http://halogentv.com. They have programs with a contemporary flare and a line of shows about art and artists - Aperture, Art In Progress, Desination Art and more.

This particular night featured Tim Nobel and Sue Webster, 2 uber-contemporary artists. http://www.timnobleandsuewebster.com/ I was especially struck by Nobel & Webster's Dirty White Trash, an assemblage of trash arranged precisely to cast a shadow of the couple themselves.

Dirty White Trash _ Tim Nobel & Sue Webster

The other program featured Laurie Simons http://www.lauriesimmons.net. Laurie uses ventriloquist dummies, puppets, paper cut-outs, miniatures and more to create amazing photographs and films.

The Music of Regret stars Meryl Streep [!] with Laurie's creations and songs.

The dream began with a video scene of me saying that I was going to use everything in my studio to make an on-going assemblage. The first thing I did was create a tower of shoes - using some completed shoe art and all the shoes I had on hand for future pieces. I then spent a lot of time searching in second-hand stores for a large cabinet. Back in the studio I then began adding to it and gluing on it everything at hand. The dream then moved on to some old fantasy projects I've enjoyed musing about for years - making an ongoing assemblage out of a wooden storage building, a vintage gas station and a retro diner.

The collage itself includes mini-collages of each of the design elements. Details within the collages include some of my favorite retro images - a Nash Metropolitan, vintage toys, mannequins, a Kit Kat clock, as always, dolls & doll parts and so on.

I like to think of this collage as a sketch-book - holding the promise of future work.

Art Dream

To Thine Own Self Be True

2011-10-04T18:23:00.000-04:00

And why not?? 'Be yourself as everyone else is taken'. Oscar Wilde

Be True Shoes

Zombies & Bots

2011-09-29T17:39:00.004-04:00

Recently David Eagleman's Incognito - the Secret Life of the Brain inspired some new lingo to my vocabulary - zombies and bots [as in robots]. In my art, I often explore the patterns, reactions, old hurts and wounds that sometimes [ha- often!] get 'the keys to the car' and take me down a highway I didn't intend. Zombies and Bots refer to these unconscious things that are wired in the brain and often direct traffic when we're not looking [can't get away from those driving metaphors today]. Kids, we're just not in control the way we like to think we are.

Zombies & Bots

Don't Take Anything Personally

2011-09-12T18:35:00.000-04:00

Years ago I read a seemingly simple but profound book called The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. I later got the opportunity to meet him personally and spend some time with him. His energy was unique and aspects of his philosophy have stayed with me.

Many times one of these axioms arises to the surface to be considered again, as in something that led to my most recent collage. The theme is quite obvious and self-titled! Maybe it will speak to you as well.

The Ceramic Wonders of Pam Stern

2011-09-08T10:23:00.002-04:00

I was googling the other day for images related to a personal collage. One of the ways I search is to put in key-words relevant to the collage and see what comes up. As you can imagine, I often find treasures I'm not looking for and of course, I invite the idea of 'coming across' wonders in this way. My personal 'StumbleUpon'.

The other day I found Pam Stern. Her work is complex and strong, evocative and full of mystery. It truly spoke to me and I hope it speaks to you.

All about Pam at http://www.pamsternart.com/

Seeker by Pam Stern

Trust yourself

2011-08-29T10:21:00.000-04:00

Reminder!

2011-08-20T16:05:00.000-04:00

Numeral Girls in Portland

2011-08-18T17:58:00.006-04:00

Portland, Oregon is such a vibrant place and, as you know, one of our favorite cities. So naturally the Numeral Girls want to bring their unique energy to Portland, too. They're such copy-kats! All the images are from my own Portland photos. The inside of the lid is the great Portland group, All The Apparatus and they just capture that Portland vibe. The little red 'imp' on one side of the box is street art I found painted on a wall of a derelict building. There's a close-up below. And should you doubt, the 'Keep Portland Weird' slogan on the other side is a image of an actual and very popular bumper-sticker.

Numeral Girls in Portland

Close-up of 'Red Imp' from Portland street art

Stressful times

2011-08-17T17:05:00.001-04:00

Sometimes art is the only answer to these stressful times we live in.

This collage was my response to 'too much info', especially too much info that I can't do a damn thing about.

Barrage

Other times, my own life meets the general stress and I just feel trapped.

Contained

Art is the only way to run away without having to leave home.”
- Twyla Tharp

Sometimes the work is just for fun

2011-08-16T14:21:00.000-04:00

One of the Art Girls brought these lovely hand-made Italian shoes to the studio. I used one before in the original white of the shoe. My friend had an idea to paint her shoe red but in the end it didn't please her, so she passed the shoe along to me. I sprayed a high glaze on the red shoe, which gave it a ceramic-like finish and changed the character of the shoe. The porcelain hand fit perfectly - in size, texture and that little off-kilter touch I like. Red roses, flowers tipped with black, black chain and the mirror base completes the hard-glaze vibe.

Red Italia

Inner Work Collages

2011-08-08T17:44:00.002-04:00

Sometimes the work is just introspective. These collages all use found images. When working on trying to express an emotional arena, I often find images by googling the topic I am trying to explore, like fear or anger. The synchronicity of the found images never ceases to amaze me. I love the feeling of the Multi-verse joining me through the Web.

Strength

Anger

Fears

Integrating Crow Woman

Having Fun In the Summertime - except for tech issues!

2011-07-26T14:38:00.000-04:00

Well, folks the only solution I found for my blog problem was to use Goggle Chrome as the browser for working on my blog. Aaargh. I do wish compatibility was the norm. Perhaps I'll come love Google Chrome but for now I'm feeling a bit manipulated by the whole thing. But hey, on to art....much more fun.

So sometimes I have to do a little customizing before I can do a piece. A couple of my continuing themes are crows and doll heads - which if you know my work at all, you have probably noticed by now. Here I am hand-painting little white plastic doves that are meant for bridal decorations and thus, transforming them in my totem crows.

Doves Into Crows

Another special technique of mine is altering dolls heads, doll arms, legs and all sorts of other items into bisque white objects, giving them a kind of plaster effect. I achieve this by dipping the item into white ceiling paint. Ceiling paint is the magic ingredient as it is designed to cling to the ceiling and drip less. I tried to add color to the ceiling paint but it effects the 'staying' quality and doesn't produce the matte bisque effect.

Dipped Heads

Supplies on-hand, here's what emerged.

Easy-Chair Crow Girl

Caged Crow Girl

No Crows here, but a 'dipped' doll arm anchors one's attention and yes, they are real boxes of candy cigarettes - a very non-PC item I found in bulk at a end-of-lot discount store.

Candy Cigarettes on TV

My friend Helen and I collaborated on this piece. The white demon faces represent one's inner judges. Although they are matte bisque white, they are not made by dipping, but by using an white air-dry clay in a rubber molds of - you got it - demon faces! Really, you can find anything you need out there on the Web.

Essence Emerging From The Judges

And to follow-up from my last post - here are some pix of the exuberant All The Apparatus from Portland. Check out their animation/music video in my sidebar and go to AllTheApparatus.com

TWO Accordians!

AAARGH!!! Can't post images on Blogger!!!

2011-07-25T15:23:00.001-04:00

Ah my friends, Google and Blogger are letting me down. I've been trying to share new images but for reasons I've been unable to ascertain and still without a fix, images are a no-go. A quick search on the Web shows I am not alone with the problem, but alas, answers are not yet forthcoming. But naturally, tenacious as a French Bull Dog, I'm working away at it. Stay tuned.

Had a grand time on a recent trip to the wonderful city of Portland, Oregon. Came across a fantastic group - ALL THE APPARATUS playing at the famous Portland Saturday Market. And that is a very appropos band name since they include trumpets, violins, chimes and an accordian!!

Would love to show you a pix, but for now you can check them out through live performance video at this link: http://youtu.be/d77WHWAVhNg.

Go to their website at, naturally, AllTheApparatus.com http://alltheapparatus.com/index.html

Featured Artist on ArtsyShark.com

2011-05-18T14:54:00.002-04:00

I received a wonderful surprise in my inbox the other day - notice that I'm a featured artist on ArtsyShark - the website showcasing emerging artists! I'm happy to join my dear friend Deb Booth [see post of March 21, 2011] as part of the ArtsyShark collection.

ArtsyShark is the creation of Carolyn Edlund. She's spent 20 years running her own production studio, designing and making handmade ceramic jewelry and later worked as an artist rep. ArtsyShark includes hundreds of interviews in all fields of arts and crafts, now including. my art.

Follow this link to my 'Featured Artist' page and then explore and enjoy the rest of ArtsyShark.com and subscribe to keep interesting people and art coming into your inbox.

The Furniture of Your Mind

2011-05-13T16:03:00.001-04:00

I recently had a great conversation with my son, Alexander. In the course of it, he said, 'Mom, sometimes you just have to remember to change the furniture of your mind.' This was so germane to what we were discussing that it just broke open the inner wall I was struggling with. This digital collage just flowed from that experience.

I love this enhanced photo of Alexander.

Remember to rearrange the furniture of your mind

Art Quotes & FreekOutVilleXpress & Elizabeth Taylor

2011-04-14T17:10:00.000-04:00

I was bouncing around the Web the other day and came across some clever images with art/inspirationquotes included. I enjoyed them so much, I then went searching for more. Now it's time to share. If you have a favorite you'd like to pass one, please do so!

Looking for another image, I discovered the wonderfulness of FreekOutVilleXpress... a fantastic art blog, combing art, music and quotes. The intro description sets the tone as well as this zippy freeky cat logo.

I make art. You look at it. ‘Kay? Hey Everybody! Or those of you who have somehow accidentally stumbled upon this page. Welcome to Freakoutville Xpress. What’s happening here is a whole lot of art work and occasional short compositions about stuff. It’s not like I have a master plan… yet

Check it out at http://freakoutville.wordpress.com

And finally, Goodbyes & Memories to Elizabeth Taylor a grand dame, a regular gal and a tough cookie, who lived out loud.

“I adore wearing gems, but not because they are mine. You can’t possess radiance, you can only admire it.” -Elizabeth Taylor

above quote & Image from freekoutville Xpress - click on the quote to go to Freeoutville

Fini

Deb Booth is a featured artist at ArtsyShark.com

2011-03-21T13:58:00.000-04:00

My dear friend Deb Booth of DifferentLightStudio.com has been chosen as a featured artist at ArtsyShark, a website for emerging artists. Follow this link to see her art and to read how she shares about her work.

Visit Deb's website or catch a one of her lovely, meditative videos on YouTube to see more.

Deb also is a featured artist during March and April 2011 at Oasis Gallery in Harrisonburg, Virginia during March and April 2011. You will be delighted.

Cool Old-School Animation

2011-03-02T10:52:00.000-05:00

I used to be an active animation fan. This is way before Animae & CGI, when animation was hand-drawn and filmed on cells, one at a time. Perry Fitzhugh aka JP Folly @ FollyProductions.com and I attended many an showing of obscure films and film festivals. Our friend Sam Kessler created wonderful short films in this genre, most notably Creepy Blues -which you can see below.

I came across Stephen Meer's animation through using his wonderful, ecletic and unique rubberr stamps - hand-drawn. See more of Stephen at meerimage.com

SO - enjoy Stephen Meer's Salmon Deadly Sins - Gluttony

AND Sam' Kessler's Creepy Blues

Shoes!

2011-01-27T17:13:00.000-05:00

Sometimes you just go with the flow - and these shoes came in just that way. One of the 'Art Girls' walked into the studio awhile ago with a pair of fantastic, white fabric shoes from Italy. Her friend was a cellist and had these as 'stage' shoes, but changed-up her outfits often, so these beauties got to become art, since fortunately no one else could wear them! I was totally inspired.
This piece came together in a flash. Her lovely head appeared from a stash of baby doll heads- her lovely woman countenance the only one in the group. White roses emerged from the flower baskets and the pearls appeared from the bottom of the glitter basket instead of the jewelry basket where they should have been. Everything just came to hand and she's become a favorite.

Pearlized Rose - altered shoe

The lovely brown peau de soie shoe emerged from the top of a cabinet while I was looking for something else. Brown - hmmm, not my usual color. But brown led the day. Velvety leaves revealed themselves hiding behind stems of flowers. The doll head's abundant hair seemed to just flow over the shoe and so atypically, the hair stayed. I found the doll face a little too 'girlish' but painting her lips dark brown and masking her eyes seemed to change things enough. The sheer golden brown ribbon, though, was the final touch - linking everything together and adding a touch of mystery as it also masks the 'girl' energy.

Copper Estelle -altered shoe

Happiest Holidays kiddos!

2010-12-24T13:56:00.000-05:00

Grant Wood - a Re-Disovered Appreciation

2010-12-12T12:05:00.000-05:00

I recently read a NY Times book review of a new biography of Grant Wood, most famously known for [and perhaps limited by] his iconic portrait of a farm couple, American Gothic.

I was surprised to learn that in his own time he was denigrated as a 'regionalist' and a ' progragandist for conservative values.' He was, to me absurdly, 'accused of fostering a shrill nationalism that was actually compared to the unalloyed evil of the Third Reich. After the war, the art historian H. W. Janson asserted that “the Regionalist credo could be matched more or less verbatim from the writings of Nazi experts on art.” In 1962, when Janson published his now classic textbook on the history of Western art, he made no mention of Wood.'

In all this, I got book of Grant Wood from the library, [Grant Wood - The Regionalist Vision, Wanda Corn] and was astounded to discover many instances of art that, to me, moved far from the categories of 'regionalist' and 'representational' to a wonderfully skewed, and at times surreal touch. Some of which I'd like to share here.

January

Return from Bohemia - did the clan haunt him and call him home?

My favorite, Death on Ridge Road

Plaid Sweater - I love his truculent expression

His sister, NanWood - I love the Chicken & Egg touch

Woman with Plants

The reviewer quoted Grant Wood as saying, 'All the really good ideas I've ever had came to me while was milking a cow.' The reviewer stated this as 'somewhat goofily, Wood's most famous statement.' I thought that the reviewer probably has never milked a cow, because I could readily see how in the rhythm and focus of milking, the 'back processor' is free to roam and yes, 'really good ideas' could easily emerge.

The Mermaid Project....

2010-12-03T15:59:00.000-05:00

My dear friend Perry Fitzhugh aka Folly Productions turned me on to the work of his great buddy, Russell Richards.

Russell is a most interesting artist and is now working on a feature film - an avante-garde 'horror' film around the dark side [the real side?] of Mermaids. Do check out the video on the sidebar. You can actually contribute to the film through the neat organization Kickstart.org, which helps individuals and groups raise capital for projects. With Russell's project just $25 will reward you with a poster of the wonderful mermaid drawing you can see at the opening of the video. Lucky me - one will come my way.

Go directly to Russell's website at www.russellrichards.com

So what have I been doing?

2010-10-05T16:29:00.001-04:00

Rightfully, I'm not a very good blogger, as blogs are meant to be. It's been pointed out to me that months between postings isn't in the true spirit of blogging, but this seems to be my rhythm. So perhaps I shall call this my Altered E Art Bulletin Board or Postcard or Hey, Here I Am Again. In any event, if anyone is out there, I hope you enjoy my occasional postings.

Awhile ago I found some wonderful wire torsos that were meant for decor in and of themselves. Naturally, they called out to me to hang things on them, to festoon them, glue them and who knows what else.

Mimi in Metal was inspired by and was for my heart-daughter Mimi. It evokes things she is interested in, travel, sewing and things I just liked and hope she would do. She's does have her own metallic edge and I thought she's appreciate the whole things.

I liked her piece so much that I went torso-seeking again and found found one for myself. In the process of working on this piece I rediscovered an craft-thing from my childhood - Shrinky Dinks. Back in the day, you could draw on the special plastic, bake it and get little 'tokens' of your drawing. Today you can print images from your PC with your ink-jet printer, bake it and get an array of plastic images. I had a delightful time creating tokens from my vintage doll-head images. The ShrinkyDink really shrinks down and I found that 4" square images became 1" doll heads. But I love how they hang within and decorate this torso. Shrinky Dinks are now a new tool in the studio. Nice use of my collection of doll arms too.

And while I was having fun with these metal art items, I found
this wonderful cup, which presented itself as the perfect foil for a gift for my dear friend, Helen at her 81st birthday - A Cup of Possibilities.

Travel and Tattoos

2010-06-27T11:15:00.000-04:00

I've been traveling and planning to travel, so my attention has been elsewhere. But travel is a vital interest of mine and this suitcase assemblage is a tiny homage to travel. The piece is entitled 'She was often gripped with the desire to be elsewhere' which is the tag-line of the postcard that inspired this box.

Recently, I came across the post card which had been sent to me by my dear friend Francine in 1982. She knew it would speak to me and it has spoken to me again, 28 years later.

I scanned in the original postcard and as you can see, I colorized and amped it up. The box uses a motif of vintage travel stamps, as well as a vintage toy car, a billboard, a cup & saucer for all those wonderful roadside diners and an enigmatic traveler. The postcard on the car is a copy of the writing on the original card. Words from Francine past to future.

This Kat shoe was a serendipitous piece. I found the doll in my local Goodwill and realized that she really looked like the extraordinary tattoo artist, Kat VonD. So this shoe was inspired by and a bit of a homage to Kat. The metal star under her left eye holds the energy of the star tattoos the real Kat has on her face, the beading on her shoulder does the same. The back of the shoe is decorated with a chain and beads, also echoing Kat VonD's metallic edge.

I often have pieces in the studio 'under construction' for periods of time. But in between pieces, I enjoy doing collages - old-school paper collage and digital collage. I especially like making -digital mini-collages as cards for friends. I find it interesting to hold that person in mind and create an image that holds elements of what they have shared with me. I always hope my sense of what I've understood will speak to them too.

ART SHOW Memorial Day Weekend in Charlottesville, VA

2010-05-26T13:58:00.000-04:00

My dear friend Perry Fitzhugh is offering a most interesting art showing this weekend. You'll find paintings, photography, pottery and more. All in the unique setting of a home.

315 10th Street NW
Charlottesville, VA
or by appointment
540-406-7189

Art All The Time @
www.follyproductions.com

This is the last weekend of this one-time only event. If you're in the area, do check it out.

Winters travel to Florida

2010-03-02T13:38:00.000-05:00

This has been such a long, intense Winter, I was really looking forward to a February trip to Florida. We like the Gulf Coast near St Petersburg, where we've visited once before. This time we were going to stay at the beach. We found a wonderful interesting unique cottage, Casa Des Gatos, in Madeira Beach, which has the lovely walkable little village of John's Pass a couple of blocks down the road and were set for sun and shore.

Alas, it wasn't a fully wonderful trip. An overnight and half a morning delay at the airport before we even left Virgina. Rain, radically cold Florida weather - never got even into the 50's! - gray days and end with my husband getting a flu-like virus which totally knocked him out for 2 days! Arrrgh.

Our little cottage was lovely, even if we barely got to appreciate the wonderful gardens, but we did appreciate the cottage cats. And we spent one of the few sunny days with my old friend Donna, sitting in our cottage, drinking a lovely wine, eating area delights like a fish pate and sharing and talking and talking.

Still, St Petersburg is the home of the Salvador Dali Art Museum and we got to spend a wonderful morning there. Downtown St Petersburg also hosts a fabulous Saturday Morning Market and is there I found a wonderful Mermaid tile, which I have used an element from in my Mermaid torso here. Naturally, all the shells I found are in the piece as well. So I now have a wonderful personal evocation of the trip and the sea.

You can see the original tile and much more at How to Be A Wild Woma n. The website is a collaboration of three friends, Julie, Lore and E'Layne under the guise of 3HipChics. You can't go wrong with a website that says, " We believe in wonder, magic and the power of dreaming big."

As my usual, I did a small collage journal of the trip. I like the collecting and gleaning part of these travel journals and sometimes I include images just because they like them even if they are not reminders of any specific experience. My motto is 'If I find it there, it can go in the journal.' Of course, I am not opposed to including most anything I am drawn to in most anything I create. I hold very limited rules in art.
torso back

I'm still working have on the book design for my friend, Jerry Boyd. Shift Happens - A Novel of Awak enings, is a tale of other worldly connections, meetings and understandings with a personal discovery embedded within it.

And lastly, my dear friend, Perry Fitzhugh has debuted his website of images, links and more at Folly Productions.com, dedicated to encouraging the production of folly. Folly - that which is at first perceived as foolish but in time, is seen as valuable.

Perry shares his quirky photos and unique take on things with me regularly by email and I'm so pleased he's finally on the web. His links page has some good people to check out as well. His site is a work-in-progress, so it's worth checking back to see what's next.

It’s February, waaay too much snow, but I’ve been busy

2010-02-02T17:17:00.000-05:00

Wow, I can’t believe I haven’t been here for a whole month! But life definitely gets that way. I did have some fun at the Holidays, creating a few impromptu gifts for some special people and making a raft of mini-collage cards. Here’s a few. The tea cup is for my son and since he truly appreciated it, you can see it must be a family trait. His friend Rachel enjoyed her snake-accented jewelry torso as well, so good matching sensibility between them too.

My current project, which came about in a synchronistic way, is helping my dear friend Jerry Boyd, launch his website and get his wonderful but with that lovely touch of weird I treasure novel published. One of my other hat’s is Synchronicity Press, and I do enjoy the design element of publishing. Jerry’s cartoons are pun-filled, fantastical, whimsical and delightfully odd – all of which are great traits as far as I’m concerned.

Check out all of Jerry at ThatJerryBoyd.com. And there’s more to come too.

Holidays! Vintage! More Glue talk!

2009-12-22T10:32:00.000-05:00

I’m wishing you all a most lovely holiday time – Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, Saturnalia and we can all join in together for Happy New Year. We’ve just come through a blizzard here and today we are finally dug out but not yet on the road. Snow and/or icy rain is predicted for Christmas Eve and Day, so perhaps our celebration get-together will find another day besides the 25^th to come into being. I wasn’t going to make gifts this year but got inspired to make one and – not too surprisingly – found myself making several. Now, of course, I can’t reveal any of these treasures today, but they might show up next time.

I did, though, complete the last two pieces of my vintage mood pieces. The Woolworth box is a kind of companion to the diner box. The box is decoupaged with images of vintage Woolworths. The image inside the lid is a Woolworth lunch counter. A old-time Woolworth lunch menu adorns one side. The luncheonette sign on the other. I was very pleased when I found the 7” Coke bottle. It went so well with the ‘Irvin’ doll, who I found on ebay and was actually listed as an Irvin doll, which pleased me immensely. By the way, if you are drawn to vintage 5&10 toys and dolls, check out The Old Curiosity Shop on ebay They are a husband and wife e-store that caters to the lovers of unusual and fun items that tend to bring back memories of days gone by. They have items such as old novelty toys, toys comics, books to who knows what and I’ve bought several batches of dolls from them.

Mz Kodak is an altered doll with a wonderful porcelain miniature camera teapot as her head. The photos embellishing her skirt are vintage photos, including those of my family and friends, printed onto fabric. I used the Vintage Workshop printable linen fabric sheets for inject printers. Their website offers supplies, images and how-to’s.

I especially liked the roll of film on the base. I’ve been digital for years now, I wasn’t sure you could just go and buy film at the drug store anymore. But you can and Kodak still uses the wonderful bright yellow can. Film strips also adorn the skirt and pops out of the head with flowers.

I got some nice feedback on my glue hints. Thanks especially to Deborah. Here’s another specialty glue that is an essential in my studio. It’s Judikin’s Diamond Glaze glue. This is a dimensional adhesive that dries to a clear glass-like finish. It securely holds embossed plastic, glass, beads, glitter, Vellum and many other mediums. It can be used directly over artwork for a raised finish or thinned with water for a lacquer-like finish. Unlike other clear adhesive it is mixable with dye-base inks, watercolors and pearlescent pigments to create custom colors. I find the best deal on this glue online at Create For Less, a trove of all sorts of supplies.

I use Diamond Glaze primarily in two ways. The applicator has a nice narrow tip. I drawn ‘lines’ of glue and then sprinkle micro-beads or glitter to make details. The beaded detail on Mz Kodak’s left shoulder uses this technique. This gives you a lot of control with your beading and the glue really grips the beads. Keep the piece flat until it begins to dry or the glue will continue to flow. Of course, these ‘mistakes’ may give you an effect you like. If you really don’t like it, you can wipe it off and repaint the area.

The second way is to use it as a high-glaze decoupage finish. I typically pour the Diamond Glaze over the area I want to glaze, using enough glue and tilting the piece so the glue flows. I am doing this to avoid brush strokes in the ‘glaze’. Sometimes air bubbles appear, which I simply piece with a toothpick or straight pin. You can lightly brush an area to help the flow, but I find it works best with the pour and flow technique. The Crystalline torso here is a great example of this technique. Here I also used the Diamond Glaze to hold the ‘crystals’ on the crown of the image, which are actually pieces of windshield glass. Windshield glass, by the way, makes wonderful crystal-like embellishments. I have a cache I found in the street [fortunately, not my accident]. But you could check out places who replace windshields to get a supply. I’m sure they’ll get a kick out of helping an artist.

And one last gluing technique. When using Liquid Nails, to apply pressure to insure a solid adhesion, I use medium weight removable painters masking tape. This works on flat and vertical surfaces, such as gluing on a teapot for a head. If the item is heavy, like the teapot, I usually will brace it from behind with a taller object or against the wall etc. When I glue something on an unusual surface, I often place a one pound bag of rice over the object. Yes, rice! The rice conforms to the shape and the weight ads pressure. You can also use the bag of rice to brace things.

Merry Merry. Happy Happy. Bye now.

emails!

2009-12-08T17:10:00.000-05:00

Recently I had some emails in my in-box. One was a wonderful shout-out from Heart Woman who not only shared that she liked the work on Altered E but connected with how the sensibility of the work that I feel. My little city in the Shenandoah Valley is not a very congruent place for my altered art, so I’ve made my home on the web and it’s always special when someone ‘out there’ finds and appreciates and takes the time to share.

Another email came from an assemblage artist asking my recommendation for glue. As you can imagine GLUE is a big factor in bringing together and keeping together all the odds and ends of an assemblage. I’ve tried a slew of glues over time.

My essential and singular glue now and for the past 5 years is Liquid Nails Small Project glue. There are many other Liquid Nails, including construction grade glues but verifying that it’s ‘small project’ is important because it dries clear. Oddly, I have yet to find this glue at craft stores. I buy it at Home Depot, Lowes or WalMart. I not only use this for all the assemblage pieces but have used it to add embellishments to fabric, canvas board and more.

Small dabs will hold well. This is not a fast drying glue. Position and leave it alone. It will do a first ‘set’ in an hour or so but be sure to let the piece ‘cure’ over-night for the fullest adhesion. Typically, I glue all the pieces I can [those which can easily fit next to and with each other] in one sitting. Then I either work on another piece or go away. Yep, I often have to just get myself out of the studio so I don’t touch the work.

If you get the glue on your fingers or on the piece where you don’t want it, regular petroleum jelly will remove it. On a piece, I usually apply a bit with a q-tip and then use the other side of the q-tip to remove the glue or a piece of paper towel. On your hands, rub it on and wipe off with a paper towel.

For paper collage, decoupage and paper embellishments, my other essential glue is actually not designated as a glue. I use artist-quality acrylic Super Heavy Gel Medium. This product is meant to be used with acrylic paints to add body. I use it for that at times, but I primarily use this as my main paper glue. It’s great on flat paper as in collage but equally great in adding paper to a curved box, such as the diner box. I apply with a brush.

On flat surfaces, you can ‘burnish’ the applied piece by placing a sheet of paper over it and rubbing with a popsicle stick. You can buy paper burnishing tools. I use a wooden clay tool to burnish and I use the waxed paper from used label sheets to put over the image. Wax paper also works well, Clean up with water like other acrylic paints.

Thanks for the inspiration to talk on glue. I haven’t shared techniques much in the blog but am most happy to reply to your emails and share in a post.

2009-11-19T13:42:00.000-05:00

I came across these wonderful dotted suitcases quite a while ago. Here Mz. Vintage Dot dances with her 30’s ceramic cat and her classic T-bird. Her dancing shoes are filled with polka dots. To get just the right size ‘dot’ for the shoes, I hand-painted some berries from fabric flowers.

The diner box is decoupaged with images from vintage diners. The wonderful odd doll comes from a lot I purchased of old 5&10 store stock. A row of red-vinyl diner stool images are decoupaged to the interior wall of the box. The large white ball and smaller balls add a dissonant texture. I call this Diner Visitation because my friend Helen said the white balls and the odd figure looked like aliens that had been dropped down into the diner. That wasn’t in my conscious mind but I loved the association.

The lovely lady is Sybil. When we look closer we see her eyes are darked, empty – a darkness perhaps open to the unseen and unknown. Does she know the other side? Were her eyes opened to know more than can be seen in the usual way. What secrets do her night black lips hint at?

Her once beautiful dress suggests dark travels. It is embellished with faded flowers, mossy tendrils and earthy tints. Black crystal beads wind her neck and a large black faceted stone adorns her bodice. A black feather adorns her blonde locks.

My son saw this doll about to be thrown away because her eyes were missing. He asked if he could have it because his mother makes things with dolls and would love her. The people found it odd that I would want an eyeless doll, but of course, it was a perfect gift for me.

People often ask me about the meaning of my assemblage pieces. Unlike my more ‘aspect art’ pieces, these are free-flowing and seem to me to dance among images and found objects that hold some kind of archetypal energy for me but they 'why' of the image appeal it is often not clear to me. The dolls are always expressing potential and all the varied aspects of being human. Or so I think!

Murals of Ocean Beach

2009-11-07T12:13:00.000-05:00

One of the great features of Ocean Beach was it’s fabulous murals. They were in great abundance. Thought I’d share a few.

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Ocean Beach Travel Collage

2009-11-05T17:34:00.000-05:00

Recently I was fortunate enough to spend 9 days at Ocean Beach, outside of San Diego. Ocean Beach is an ‘old school’ beach town – low-scale cottage architecture, surfing, heaps of restaurants and some very interesting and comfortable bars as well. We enjoyed going to the beach every day, catching the glorious sunset every evening and just wandering about the town. Ocean Beach also is know for it’s very special dog beach – a section of beach where dogs can run free. We enjoyed touching into unbridled dog joy watching them run and play with each other, with mad dashes into the ocean as well.

Whenever I travel I like to do collage work. I have a little ‘collage kit’ that I take with me which includes glue sticks, colored pencils, airplane-permitted round tip scissors, a popsicle stick for burnishing the images, stick-on letters and a stencil for letters.

I then buy an inexpensive journal for each trip.

As I travel, the hunt begins. I collect ‘memorabilia’ of the place - business cards, menus, bar coasters, printed restaurant napkins, maps, advertisements about from guide books and newspapers and so on. I use bits and pieces from newspapers, magazines and other printed matter for more general images, text and the colored scraps that I use as design elements. And it’s especially fun to add found object paper to the mix – such as this ‘Biker’s For Jesus’ flyer I found on the street.

I love to wind down the day working on my collage book. It’s a wonderful distillation of my experiences and I the remembrance quality of the books – capturing favorite moments and places, elements of the place I am spending time in and exploring.

These books are much more about the ‘doing’ for me than the final art of the project. I really get into the focus and transformation energy that occurs as you take elements from one aspect and capture them in another form. This is a free-form collage in the structure of the trip. I love it all.

I’ve got three pieces coming to completion in the studio and I look forward to sharing them soon.

Traveling Assemblage Girls

2009-10-02T15:52:00.001-04:00

So where did September go?? An impromptu trip to Virginia Beach, a day in the studio with the Art Girls, this and that and studio time for me.

My assemblage ‘girls’ have been traveling and I find like the travel theme for my boxes. A conversation with my childhood best friend Jan, brought up so many memories of our summertime haunt – Wildwood, N.J. So naturally, I sent the Alpha Girls to Wildwood, using vintage images of Wildwood and other summer motifs.

The Numeral girls traveled to St. Petersburg, Florida, which I discovered last winter. My husband found a super cheap airfare to St. Pete, so we bopped down for 5 days. It’s the home of the Salvador Dali museum, among other things, so I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed and we weren’t. Typically people hit the beaches, but we spent our entire time in the downtown area, with his wonderful parks and walks along the bay and a lot of galleries and fun restaurants. The colorful image on the inside and outside lid of the Numeral girls is an altered photograph of a display of metal work I took at a street market. The piece also uses vintage postcard images.

I’m in a vintage mode. Currently I’m working on two pieces. One will evoke an old-time diner and the other a vintage Woolworths. I’m also working on a ‘dark doll’ in the cool October All Hallows vibe.

Till next time.

The Surgery Journey Journal

2009-08-24T16:19:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned, my friend Katherine created a wonderful journal for me. I found it very powerful to work in this medium. I prepared by copying excerpts from the many emails into a document and printed it on colored paper.

I used images of the pieces I created during this time, including the Warrior torso and the small Warrior doll, who was meant for the torso but in the end, was her own piece.

I gathered my crow motifs, crow feathers gathered on my evening 'recovery walks' with Dennis, ribbons from the flowers I received and so on. I used rubber stamps for text, chalks for highlighting and other images that spoke to me.

The journal was designed with 'pockets' where I placed all the cards I received during this time.

I added my own signifier images to the covers and in the end, had a full gathering of my experience.

Happy to be blogging again

2009-08-18T16:56:00.000-04:00

I had surgery about a month ago. The scary part was that cancer cells were discovered in a routine test and the surgery could resolve the situation in and of itself or could reveal that the surgery was only the beginning treatment. Most fortunately, the cells turned out to be precursor cells and the surgery was all that was needed. But I must say, the two weeks between the words ‘malignant cells’ in the biopsy and the surgery certainly took me to some emotional depths.

My totem torsos [see July 7 entry] did me in good stead, as well as the many calls, cards and emails from my friends. So many good vibes, blessings, affirmations, prayer circles, rituals, and so on came my way that I can be most sure they are a good part of my good news and recovery.

My dear friend Katherine made the wonderful accordion journal you see here. This Friday we have convened a meeting of the ‘Art Girls’ and I plan to create a book of this journey, including those cards & excerpts from the emails, and ribbons from the flowers and so on. Look for it in the next post.

The last thing I did before surgery was upload the final version of Aspect Art – Art As the Soul’s Journey to Amazon.com. It was a perfect moment of completion as I stepped into the unknown. Just click this link to check it out.

Reviews are most welcome!

And I’ve revamped my website to a sleeker look. There are new images, an excerpt from the book and other things. And if you find a typo or broken link, please do let me know. www.alterede.com

And the last new thing I’ve done in the past two weeks as my energy came back, is my new shop at Ecrater –alteredEart.ecrater.com. I’m not on Etsy or Ebay right now, but this little site has a few goodies.

All is good.

Shifts, Challenges and I'll Be Off-the-Grid for Awhile

2009-07-07T12:04:00.000-04:00

It's been an interesting time indeed. And life's interesting times can also evoke art. Since April I've reached a new place about diet, health and the body.Of course, work that seems to focus on the outer, always begins with work on the inner. And in that I got in touch with another aspect of my inner strength and wisdom. I think of it as 'aligned will'. So this piece is Shouting Out Will and Wisdom and has served has a strong totem for me.

But life continues to ask us to be fluid. When one thing comes into alignment, another may shift and still more alignments need to evolve. I have a challenge in my life right now that calls for my attention, my willingness to be in life just as it is, my capacity to listen within and be present. All of that came to me as a kind of fierceness, a Warrior energy - warrior as a great protector, one who faces all challenges, one asks, 'What does this moment require?' and listens to what may come as the answer.

She may be fierce in her focus. She may carry a sword to cut through illusion and fear. But she is surrounded with earth energies. Crystals of many sorts, holding the energies of compassion, balance, grounding and transformation. Her feathers hold the energy of the Crow Clan and other spirit animals. She sits upon rock and even carries shards of ancient pottery to remember that we are all of an ancient clan.

So life has grabbed my attention and I'll be off-the-grid from typical things and literally off-line for awhile.

Minimal sales but maximum magnificent people!

2009-06-15T16:37:00.001-04:00

Tea Cup Miss spoke deeply to the beautiful spirit of Kathleen who took her home.

Well, I had an interesting two days high atop Afton Mountain on the grounds of the Swannanoa Palace, an 1900's Italianate mansion. My best buddy Deb, of DifferentLightStudio, got me into this and it wouldn't be half as much fun - or any! - without her. She is so outgoing and generous and just is on sparkle all the time. She was even game for an impromptu juggling lesson.

This was also the first time I have put my OrionWisdom spiritual work in the same venue as my art, so it was a bit of a coming out party too.

Dennis put together a great display and people were mostly intrigued and a couple of pieces even found new homes. My opening line was 'A little bit different, isn't it?.

There was lots of good conversation and I made some great connections with other vendors.

Night More sells magickal jewelry and things. She has two sites on Etsy. One for her jewlery and art and the other for supplies for you to create your jewelry and art! Check out Night at BellaBohemian and The Moon and The Se a

Pam Roland explores fine art and whimsy. Her whimsy are the delightful Joybelz - wonderful little beings that dance with caring, uplifting sentiments. Pam is sharp and bright and delightful herself.

In another vein, the lovely Christina Kramer wears many hats, Reiki Master, healer and channeler of Mother Mary. She's developing her web presence but if you'd like to know more, just email me and I'll pass it along.

When my Elves and Fairies started to come to me they each brought their name and story. I included these stories in my Ebay listings and soon found that I created 'back stories' for all the pieces. I include these stories when I ship a piece. At this event, there wasn't room for each piece to have their story, but I chose one story of each type of piece. I found it so interesting that people seemed to read every story. It seemed that they found a way to connect to the art through their stories.

This little Elf is Elandor and she also found a new home at the show.

My son, Alexander, suggested that next time I be sure to have note cards available of the pieces with their stories on the back. Good idea!

We'll have to just wait and see how 'next time' presents itself!

Art & Spirituality Meet Up This Weekend

2009-06-12T12:49:00.000-04:00

When I'm not here much, you know I've been busy. This weekend my best buddy Deb has gotten me to join her to be vendors at the OneHeart group's spiritual homecoming this weekend here in Waynesboro.

This will be a first for me in a couple of ways. It's the first time my art has been on display other than the internet and secondly, it's the first time my spiritual work has been in the same mileau as my art.

So I'll be sharing about the OrionWisdom work and having a lot of art for sale too, especially the Goddess/Wisewoman torsos and the Fairy/Elf series.

Deb and I have a double booth, so I'll be with her wonderful flowers and abstracts, and of course, all the OrionWisdom cards and art she created. In any event, we can't go wrong being together for the weekend and who knows who we will meet and greet.

It's been interesting getting things together and I feel like I'm now 'aligned' for something, even though it may not actually be this specific event.

The Aspect Art book still has a few technical issues I have to resolve and it's the focus of my attention for next week. Helen and I did a piece we really liked, so we added two pages to the book after our first proof copy. I do hope we're available at Amazon.com by the end of the month. The book really wants to fly but, of course, the devil continues to be in the details.

I look forward to having an interesting report from the weekend, high atop Afton Mountain on the grounds of lovely old Swannanoa Palace. Find out more at Wikipedia

Collage, Comics and Books

2009-05-15T17:46:00.001-04:00

My friend Benn recently commented that I don’t post very often to this blog. Absolutely true! Thinking about it, I can see that I tend to post after I’ve completed some work. Lately, I’ve been working at the PC and in collage.

I spent a day in the studio with my friend Laura who was visiting. We did collages. Laura had a theme she wanted to explore. I worked free-form from magazines in the moment, with just a few ‘on hand’ images. I like to do this every now and then, working without concept and responding to the images as they arise. This collage includes the iconic portrait from National Geographic. The abstract detail pieces are torn from photos of Mayan stone walls.

Following that flow at last month’s Art Girrls Day, I also worked in collage. This time I used a flawed proof copy of a photo book I worked with Helen on that we created with her son’s photography. It was a perfect background for another free-form collage. This time I used more ‘on-hand’ images from my ongoing pile, with a few in-the-moment magazine entries as well.

I then made a fun graphic novel comic book for my son Alexander’s birthday. A friend told me about a super, easy-to-use software that takes your images and gives you comic-style layouts and many super comic effects. I took a slew of pictures at my son’s house of all his collections and strange art. The story in the comic was centered on how all the things in his house speak to him, but he’s not sure what they say. It was a great, fun project. You can try the software free for 30 days. www.plasq.com

And just this morning, I ordered the proof copy of what I hope is the final version of Aspect Art – Art As the Soul’s Journey. This book is about my work with my friend Helen on what we call Aspect Art – exploring the facets or ‘aspects’ of your life through art. We actually began the book last year but after a bit and the first layout, I just hit a creative stall. Message from the universe – put this aside for awhile. Just recently I simply woke up ready to get back to the book after several months of hiatus. I had been having technical problems with the color saturation of the page backgrounds, when Dennis said, ‘Well, why don’t you just try a white background and just let the art be the color?’ Well, of course, that was the needed element to move things and everything just came together. It aligned so well, that after I submitted the first final version, Helen sent some pictures of recent work and I realized this just had to be included in the book. So pages were added, things updated and the 2^nd ‘final’ version was uploaded to Amazon.

By the way, Amazon’s program, Createspace, is a great way to produce quality print-on-demand product and sell it on Amazon.com I use Lulu for my initial production and then switch to Createspace. If you want any print-on-demand mentoring, just email and I’ll be happy to share my experiences. Aspect art has it’s own mini-web site as www.aspexart.com

So when I’m not here, blogging, you know I’m out there 'doing'.

Ebay, TV, Fun

2009-04-13T14:00:00.000-04:00

Hey, Just sold my first Ebay piece - the Alpha Girls you see here. I admit it was a nice feeling. I’m inspired now to list more things and make my Ebay gallery come more alive. Perhaps our fears about the economy are lightening a little and we can let ourselves please ourselves a bit, like buying art. Alpha Girls is one of my favorite boxes. I love these little dolls and along they way mark them as either Alpha Girls or Numeral Girls. The letters and numbers are enigmatic even to me, but I like the idea that they hold a hidden identity.

Another favorite of mine is this doll who is a homage the Abby character on the popular tv show, NCIS. She’s goth, she’s really smart and competent, a genius at computers and science, her decidedly own person. I was inspired to do create this homage when I found this doll who just reminded me of Abby. She was my first doll whose head isn’t altered in a major way. I get a kick out of her.

Follow this link to Altered E Art [alteredeart] on Ebay

Elves, Hobs and Fairies

2009-03-17T11:24:00.000-04:00

I’ve wanted to work with sculpting some faces for my altered dolls, but alas, this talent escapes me. A bit ago, I had a dream where I altered a dolls face using air dry clay. In the dream, I created a little woodland leaf elf named Dunton. I woke up jazzed with energy and sure enough, found two dolls I had not deconstructed because originally I didn’t like their shape. Of course, they were perfect for elves.

Since then the elf energy has been flowing. They seem to come to me with names and stories. The ‘boys’ have emerged with a bit of tough energy, so I think they have a touch of the hobgoblin too. Next emerged fairies. Rix, with his striped socks and chain collar, seems to be carrying a bit of the Goth fairy. In these challenging times, my art spirit seems to enjoy traveling to these other realms.

DEconstruct-Reconstruct

2009-02-04T10:47:00.001-05:00

I love this photo of a de-construction day. I love these elegant heads – you can see them peering from my altered shoes and emerging from a clay mask. I purchase these wholesale as MardiGras décor.

I keep all the fabric bits and pieces which show up as collage clothing on my altered dolls, bits in collages and so forth. I also tend to remove the eyebrows from the faces, which had a nice element of mystery and distortion.

Sometimes the work is very personal

2008-12-30T19:27:00.000-05:00

There are times when my art is really a vehicle to support myself emotionally, a way to understand an inner dynamic and in that, to create an icon of that understanding that can stand outside of myself, reminding me of what I have come to know. I call this working in ‘aspect art’.

My husband and I seemed to again and again get into a dynamic of communication where it was as if weren’t really hearing each other. We would end up feeling defensive and soon we wouldn’t know what we were actually arguing about but we both felt hurt.

My sister is an astrologer and showed me on our over-laid charts two squares. She said we each had a square in our place of communication and in astrology, this is a ‘fixed-boxed’ quality. Knowing about it leads you to understand that in certain situations you will always experience this sense of being blocked. She then show me how our individual squares met up, as it were, in the house of early childhood. So, she said at those times when you feel these loops of tense communication you are really reacting to old patterns from childhood. It’s as if one’s internalized ‘mother’ is meeting the other’s internalized mother and old conflicts are in play. Her advice was to be aware and to break the pattern by simply stopping the conversation. She said when you find yourselves repeating or confronting each other and only feeling hurt, not in touch with the originating point, just stop. Say to yourself, “We’re in these boxes of communication.” Stop. Go away. Wait until the emotional circuitry stops looping and start again. This information really resonated with me and I found I was able to ‘stop’, even sometimes when my husband did not.

This piece came to me fully in a dream. The gold figure is the male. Silver the female. In astrology Sun [gold] is male and Moon [silver] is female. The front square has individual vintage pictures of our mothers. The other 3 sides have pictures of us with our mother. The ‘boxes’ were originally votive holders. The figures were not only glued into the boxes, but I poured resin into the boxes to represent the feeling being bound and stuck by the patterns of the past. This pieces serves me very effectively as a reminder to pause, to stop, to wait for the past to stop reverberating, to stay present. The boxes are 3” square and the figures are painted 5” porcelain dolls.

Image name: Boxed Communication

Check out my sister’s website at www.jacquimenkes.com

Thankfulness & Art Girrls

2008-11-30T18:01:00.000-05:00

November has been a time of new visions, new possibilities, opening to paradigm shifts and more. It’s always interesting, exciting and bit scary when we find the joy of change dancing with its eternal partner of chaos and destruction. Assemblage artists know that destruction is really only de-construction and it can lead to RE-construction in new and wonderful ways.

As part of this Thankful time, my ‘Art Girrls’ – Kathryn, Nora & Xenia - who join me in the studio once a month, came together to make collages to donate to ZNE’s wonderful Live Pink program. The program donates inspiring art to hospitals and centers helping individuals dealing with cancer and their families. We found it moving to work on pieces with support and caring in mind, wanting to bring a touch of beauty and a moment of joy to someone struggling with such a challenge.

My good friend Deb Booth donated supplies and many images to our project. You can explore her beautiful images from flowers to fractals at www.differentlightstudio.com.

Hope, Renewal & Ethiopia

2008-11-19T10:49:00.000-05:00

I've been enjoying the sense of hope and possibilities of renewal that have been present. Into this energy, comes the news that my daughter's adoption has finally been approved.

Her search for her soul's child took her across the world to Ethiopia and soon, she will be 'winging' her precious daughter home. I sent her this card to celebrate the event.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T13:59:00.001-04:00

Halloween - costume, celebration and all rooted in the mysteries of the 'other side' and the unknown has always held inspiration for me. These two pieces were particularly inspired by Halloween decor I came upon.

The doll is Dark Guardian. Her altered black rose head includes a reaching arm holding a golden ball of possible futures. She stands guard over Dear One and is aided by her trusty gargoyle companion.

The Raven Dancer shoe holds a wise Raven, also a guardian of the dark passage. Mirror shards and jeweled chain add tension to the mystery of dancing between realms.

ZNE Network - Mixed Media & Indie Artists Connected

2008-10-25T18:17:00.000-04:00

I recently joined a wonderful online artist group - the ZNE Network. ZNE comes from the Italian word for variation - variaZioNE. This has been my first experience at online networking and it has been just fantastic. How exciting it was to post my images and begin to receive thoughtful, caring, fun comments from other artists. In the Land of ZNE I feel like I entered a magic-filled consciousness of support and people who can see in a similar bent. There’s a lot to explore on ZNE and I hope you do.

Follow-this link to my ZNE home page and be sure to check out all the ‘friends’ shown on My Page. Each of them is a unique artist and several are on Etsy.com – Your Place to Buy and Sell All things Handmade - where you can purchase some special art to have with you.

The image here is Esme. This lovely dancer, with her shoe filled with crytalline beads, is about 9" tall.

Lawrence Welk & James Brown Adventure

2008-10-05T17:26:00.000-04:00

Friday evening I had a delightful evening in Richmond, VA at the Broad St 1st Friday art gallery openings. The weather was most pleasant and people were out and about, traveling from gallery to gallery, as these things go. Finally we came upon an installation that caught my eye. Through an open door I saw a large screen with dancers cavorting. It drew me in and up close, I realized the film was of vintage Lawrence Welk - Bobby & Cissy cavorting and other dancers and singers. The film was silent but music was playing in the room through a boom box. Fabulous classic James Brown. Then in a serendipitous way, the dancing and the music came into synch and the Lawrence Welk performers were doing all their routines – perfectly –to James Brown. It was a laugh-out-loud delight. I was captured by it and hung around the space for quite awhile, watching other people discover that moment of synchronization and also laughing out loud in delight. I searched the space for a clue to the artist, to no avail. My brother-in-law Barry observed that the building housed a recording outfit and we speculated that the bit had been put together by them.

I visited another gallery, but returned to the dance and music. I began a chat with a woman outside the space, shared my delight and the recording company idea and my desire to find the artist. She laughed and said it wasn’t the recording company but actually, her and her husband, who also did the other found-object installations in the space.

She shared that the whole thing had started when they were actually watching old Lawrence Welk shows on the Richmond PBS station. They turned off the television sound and turned on a James Brown CD and yes, voila – in time it all came into synch!

So thanks to Tara and husband for sharing their serendipitous experience and making it become an art moment. They don’t have a website, so I can only share this tale of their work with you.

Images: Tara the artist & the installation

Website Launched

2008-09-21T12:07:00.001-04:00

My website alterede.com has been launched. Creating the site was a pretty intense focus recently and quite a learning curve, but again, I just followed the energy, that sense of 'do this now'. Websites, blogs are all a bit in the tradition of casting a bottle into the ocean, but I like the optimism that flows with that.

The image here is Crystalline, one of the goddess torsos. She is crowned with quartz crystals, crystal beads and crystalized broken windshield glass. she is about 10" tall.

Beginnings

2008-09-18T10:22:00.000-04:00

I've been in such an energy flow to create this blog and my still-under-construction website. I've been creating in the Studio for years, was part of a co-op gallery for awhile, but mostly worked for myself, collaborating here and there. But now the need has emerged to share and so I'm saying hello and dancing on the web.

There is another work in my life which has been more prominent with my art always as the balancing point. It's still present, still prominent but for now, the art flow is what is speaking, singing, dancing and has captured my focus and energy.

I live in a beautiful small city near the Blue Ridge mountains, which feeds and supports many aspects of my life. But not my art. So I am casting my DEconstructed/REconstructed beings, with their secret inner stories out into the world.

These Alpha Girls gather together in their colorful boxed world, carrying secrets of the letters of life. The box is about 6"wide by 8" tall.