Last Blast of Summer

We’ve had our heat wave (hopefully) the last couple weeks and now have some cooler temps, which hint of the coming fall. With that, I thought I would give a last blast to summer with these summery aceo’s. They’ll be available later tonight on etsy.

I’ve wanted to start using paints more in backgrounds of my art. I picked up a couple new acrylic paints recently (I only have mostly old colors from when I was painting my wood crafts and they are country colors, like pine green, and heartland blue, yuk.) So picked up some pretty blue colors. I love this new (for me) blue called Tahiti blue and with paint in hand and no idea what I wanted to do, and already out of my comfort zone just thinking about painting, I dove in. I thought I could always just throw it away and no one will ever know.

I picked a few scraps lying around my desk and divided them up on three cards. I randomly layered them along with painting the blue on the background and/over the papers. I didn’t like them at that stage. I then stamped French script with white paint. Seemed a little better. Then I went to my images. I had no idea what, but I decided to go with a type of image I’ve never used before, so I picked a couple nudes and bathing beauties and moved them around to find what background I like them on. Ok, getting better. Looking at the nude lying down, she didn’t fit on the card and when I looked at her I decided that she should be a mermaid. I’ve never done a mermaid in my life and always shied away from them. But I found a piece of paper that was a copy of a famous painting and thought it would look great as the tail part. I drew a tail section and cut it out, added some glitter, a few white acrylic paint squiggles and called it done. The other one of the nude looking in the mirror, I added a stamped crown done in the same blue paint. I added some cut pieces of white fine netting and tinted some gel medium with the paint and layered the netting pieces with the gel medium to add some texture. I then added some “spots” of glitter, and some tiny wings. The last one of the bathing suit beauty, I didn’t do anything special, but I did add some tinted gel medium to simulate the water under the pier. I’m pretty pleased how they turned out and they actually came together quickly, even though I used elements and mediums I’d never used before.

Creative Weekend

So now that you know a little about me from my previous posts…I have to say I'm now obsessed with creating. Every spare second is spent at my desk trying to create. I’ve had some dry spells when nothing is there in my mind and other times I just can’t create something fast enough. I think my art has “grown” since starting my first atc’s last year at this time. I have more confidence in my ability to create collages. I can kind of “feel” what works and what doesn’t with my atc’s. But now I want to create bigger pieces and experiment with painting.

I don’t want to have one “style” of art that I just make over and over, I want to experiment with all kinds of art mediums. There are so many artists out there that I admire and they make it look so effortless. But although I’ve painted years ago it was always closely following a photograph. I want to create freely, “from the heart” as many say, or from the mind, is what comes to mind, lol. I’m not an overly demonstrative person, and I tend to keep my most personal feelings inside. But I want to be passionate in my creating; I want to be able to paint with a flourish (and have it actually look like something). I hope that time will come. It’s even hard for me to blog about my feelings, but it’s also easy in a way, i.e. hiding behind a computer. I don’t get much support of my art from my family; they are pretty flippant (except for my dad and step-mom they are supportive) about the whole thing. My family is of the mind “get a real job” and make some real money. They’re probably right, but for the time being I want to take this road and see where it leads me. I know I won’t ever be famous, but something inside me has changed since I found art. I’m happier in a sense (but maybe that’s just the meds talking, lol). I’m not like jumping for joy kind of happy, but just content with myself right now. I’m not thinking the “dark thoughts” like I was this time last year. I’m excited to get up in the morning or the evening, depending on my sleep pattern at the time. I do my best work when I’m up at night, its quiet, and no disturbances.

I don’t have the money to take classes or go to those awesome ‘fests, so I’m surfing the ‘net and self-teaching by trial and error (there’s a heck of a lot of “error” too.) I’m so thankful for those artists who take the time to post tutorials and how-to’s. Below is a piece I did this weekend (this was a good creative weekend for me). Although the style is not something I would think of doing on my own, it was fun and the inspiration was from a lady whose art I really like, Debra of mtjoyschool. I'll be keeping this one for myself. The A3 is a little hidden meaning, all three of my kids' names begin with "A". Pretty clever eh? Well ttfn off to drive my rounds to pick up my two kids from school.

My Humble Arty Beginnings...(cont.)

My senior year I moved out on my own, so I was too busy trying to stay alive to do much art. Then after high school I was too busy working and I don’t remember doing anything arty. Then at 24 I became a mom. I remember sewing all her crib bedding, purple and yellow did sew all her bedding and made some her clothes (which was practical as a single mom). I just entrusted my oldest daughter with some of those keepsakes and her old quilt, that I had stored away in boxes.

At one point baby and I, moved back in w/ my dad and brother after my mom passed away and started woodworking, which I had always been interested in. My dad had an awesome Shopsmith and he also did some woodworking. We both had our items in a consignment shop in the Napa wine country for a time. I kept up with the woodworking through my marriage and 2nd and 3rd kids. After I moved to No. Calif. I put some items in a consignment shop here, but didn’t do too well. So the wood crafting went by the wayside…but I still have some of them stored in boxes.

Then I got too busy raising kids to do anything crafty. A few years back, I wanted to make some Christmas items my country look home, so I made a few soft ornaments, like snowmen and santas. I also have several unfinished holiday cross-stitch things stored somewhere. Since then my décor has changed dozens of times and I no longer use those ornaments, but I still have them stored in boxes. (I'm seeing a trend here...).

Next came trying my hand at quilting and sewing. I inherited a box of awesome vintage fabric and quilt pieces from my grandmother when she passed away. So I was jazzed to learn how to quilt so I could use these fabrics and pieces. I had learned how to sew in high school in a home economics class, which was a great thing for young people back then. I wish they still offered something like this for kids nowadays. None of my kids knows how to sew and they don’t want to learn. So anyway, I've always sewn when the need arose, i.e. new curtains for the new house, pillows for the couch, some baby/kids clothes, “letting out” clothes that seem to have shrunk while hanging in the back of a dark closet. You get the picture.

I started buying fabric and fabric and more fabric. I now have several storage boxes full of fabric. I started several quilts, but found out I just couldn't get seams to line up very well, and everything turn out crooked. (I did manage to finish a pretty quilt for my granddaughter before she was born.) I’m still promising my daughter I’ll finish her quilt (that I have stored in a box).

Then I thought I could make some of those cute boutique baby clothes I saw for big bucks on ebay, (after I got used to the idea that my daughter was having a baby). I made several outfits and didn't get a very warm reception from baby's mom! I was pretty bummed. She would rather her new baby have those cute store bought clothes. So there went that, and the clothes went up on ebay.

A couple of the items I made for my granddaughter that ended up on ebay.

About that time I found myself going into a deep depression (deeper than my usual deep), and I talked to my dad a lot during this time. One day while we were talking, he said to me “I don’t know why you never kept up with your art and painting”. We talked some more and about it and I went home and soon it was like they say “a light went on” and I knew I had to start creating art. I don’t remember that I was specifically looking for anything on ebay, but I found some art called ATC’s. I did some more research on the Internet and knew this was what I had to do.

Seems like I’ve come full circle and found art again after all these years.

My first atc, now that I look back at it, it sure reflects my state of mind at the time.