Vinyl Art

Whenever I find old vinyl records that are no longer usable, I keep them for painting. I kind of went mad for a while with spin art :)







 but lately I love them for free art friday. Easy to paint, easy to hang, or stick up (lightweight)


When I was driving by this graffiti in town I thought, wow





 this is where the FAF piece has to go.






Free Art Friday stencil of Claire

Happy Accidents in Art

Artist Peter Max said, " Don't worry about mistakes. Making things out of mistakes, that's creativity"  or another way to look at is Embracing Creative Failure:Cultivating Happy Accidents.









Well at least I think it's a happy accident :)  and see some potential for further use in a variety of ways. It started off as a gone wrong stencil in my sketchbook (don't try and use a cardstock

5 hours later AND Gender Fluidity with Linda Stein

Painted Bone by Jan Jackson, one of the original Jafa's before she moved away, and it has NOTHING to do with my blog entry, except for the word NOTHING.

Full of excitement, rushing into the studio 9am, and 5 hours later, NOTHING!  Well, that's a fib, I got a little something, but arg!!!!!!!!  As a friend reminded me, "studio time  also includes solving, puzzling,experimenting, finding

Studio Shots: Textile Works in Progress

WIP

As usual I wanted to see if I could do a hand embroidery version of the stencil I did for free art friday.I tea stained linen, spray painted a stencil background and the girl(my daughter) is long and short stitch.



Working on a flower

for an upcoming exhibit Women's Voices Out Loud in Yellow Springs, Ohio

I was inspired by a link about The Project a local pal sent me.




Also working

Getting to the root of it

photograph (by moi), acrylic paint, ink, glaze 

I always gravitate towards taking photographs of trees, roots, bark. There is the "dragon tree", the "owl face tree", and bark.







Tree bark in Glen Helen



LINKS

Tree Worship wiki entry

I had fun visiting Tree Whispers Blog

National Geographic Speaker discusses human connection with trees. 



Controversy but really just Mistaken 

Nesting Instinct

As in staying home and snuggling (not cleaning and organizing ahem) in AND creating a nest.


Rag Watercolour Paper, Stencil/spray paint, ink drawing, feather, stitched down loose threads for nest, french knots on flower.




So I finally got around to doing some of my online class work (with Victoria at Freedom of Stitch). 




Sparking Controversy or is it a conversation, General Franco in a

Sketchbook: Watching Trees and Photographing your work

acrylic, ink, brush on glaze

 photo of Autumn tree in Yellow Springs, Ohio




I part the out thrusting branches

and come in beneath

the blessed and the blessing trees.

Thought I am silent

there is singing around me.

Though I am darke is vision arod me.

Though I  am heavy

there is flight around me.



Woods by Activist Wendell Berry








Importance of Taking GOOD photographs

FOOD PORN

I thought I would give this recipe I saw on Robin Ellis' blog a try. No I am not a diabetic but you don't need to be to enjoy his recipes, they are so simple and delicious. This Winter Salad has fennel (my new love) and a combination of ingredients I would not have thought to put together. I would love to brag that I eat healthy ALL the time, but erm, well my brit pal Karen and I came home in

Little Things Please Little Minds is meant

to be a put down, to imply one indulges in trivial childish things

BUT

Old Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills for children, and health benefits for adults. 

Okay, so I'm suddenly smitten with drips and blobs on watercolour paper and it doesn't look like much.



 It's a little thing really that pleases me so, BUT it's firing my imagination (and my dreams). Next to it is a tea stained linen

Flexing Your Drawing Skills

 It's good now and again to get out of your comfort zone, your safe place at home where nobody is watching you, and take a little workshop. I went to listen to a talk by artist in residence Patricia Cole at Antioch College a couple of weeks ago and signed up for her charcoal drawing workshop.


 



18"x 24" drawing paper, charcoal and conte crayon

We had to bring an item to draw that meant

Cutting out your own Stencil

Can be a royal pain, especially when it's small, but it's worth it. I spent quite a few hours creating a stencil based on a painting I did of my daughter a few years ago.






Experimented in my sketchbook (the flower is a pressed flower I had glued in earlier). Lesson I learned after I managed to do a few nice ones on cardboard is never use a spray can that has gotten clogged up. From now on I