Nature & Junk and Fall is Here ~ A Walk Around the Neighborhood

Assemblage

A ready made composition

Where does the shoe end and moss begin?

Eyelet

Cranberry season

The fungus abides

the contrasts of autumn

Love the crackle

tidepool of the woods

The seasons turn so quickly here in the northland, a glimpse of fall and then winter comes.
The woods redolent with rot and mold and fungus. Crimson blooming in cranberries, fireweed leaves and undergrowth. Yellow leaves gleaming against gray skies. The clouds have changed too.

Kwee Zine

Last summer I was inspired to do a collaboration with my family that had gathered for a summer visit at our Shady Nook camp in Maine. Since we are all into cooking it became the "Kwee Zine" (cuisine for you non word- play types)

I had been to the Chicken Barn near Ellsworth that is a day trip in itself with a plethora of used books  housed in the two story former chicken barn.

I had barely made it through the front door to the "bah-gain" bin. (Maine accent inserted here) and picked out a vintage physics book to plunder for inspiration.

An old cookbook from my grandmother's collection was sacrificed.

She was  the one that infused a love of cooking for all of us.

We had so much fun with this project it was suggested that we do a family zine every time we congregate!

My brother Dan that lives in Bali added some recipes with the help of his wife, Sri.

As you can see my brother  Dan and I share a certain off-beat humor.

My son, Cassidy joined in.

My niece Joyana who happens to be studying scientific illustration

My mom whose passion is cooking.

Our local lobsterman gives them all of the peekie-toe crabs from his lobster pots.

My mom and dad will sit and pick the meat out for hours. 16 crabs yield a pound of crabmeat but it's free!

A vintage coloring book to plunder for images.

My grandmother's cookbooks were nearby. I love penuche!

My big sister Robin made this pie for us.

More of Dan's imagination at play here.

Fuel for the zine.

Feel free to copy any or all of these pages  for a reproduction of the zine.

Three New Things

Coconut Marshmallow

Artist Trading Cards on canvas

Today I did three things that were different for me.  I found some of those coconut marshmallows that we used to find back east. I've never noticed them for sale here in Alaska but the local IGA in Delta was carrying them. I binged on half a dozen or so... quite unusual for me but the package does say "For Munching"

I called my folks on the phone which isn't unusual at all, I do several times a week, they're so far away. But after I hung up I remembered a tidbit of conversation I wanted to share with my mother so I wrote her a letter... very unusual or me. I'm thinking of applying myself to the task more in hopes of making a sort of journal with some interview questions for her and we can send pieces back and forth.

The third new thing was painting on canvas. I had prepared some old pieces of heavy canvas for later use. I dropped alcohol ink droplets on acrylic and faux glaze paint, scratching designs and applying texture to the ATC sized  mini canvases. I really haven't done much with paint or canvas in my artistic adventures.

What new things have you done this week?

More Transfers- Fabric, Paint and Gesso

I got the horse image from some deteriorating fabric that was on a box spring that we had been using as a door for our greenhouse. It was sheer and fragile so I glued it to some canvas that I found in the garage of the house I had bought back in the 90's. I'm talking serious reuse here!

The wooden door-like image was made using a skin transfer technique that I learned in Caterina Giglio's online class (which is still going on if you would like to participate)

This is an ATC (Artist trading card- 2.5 " x 3.5") on gessoed canvas.

The image is a window from a photo I took in Havana.

Practicing some new techniques here.

I allowed a little of the reverse side of this vintage magazine image to remain.

You're looking at two pictures  from the same page against a vintage  physics book page. (the girl on the swing and part of a wicker basket)

This is what happens when your newly purchased special paint spills. You try to use it up on some of your paper that is nearby.

The image from a vintage Grey's Anatomy book also is showing both sides of one page. The text is from one side and the diagram is from the other....magic!

I had a stack of gessoed pages from an old ring bound cookbook. I sewed them together when I realized that the gesso curled the thin pages horribly.

From my trip to Angkor Wat.

 Against muslin with some sparkly paint to enhance.

I'm enjoying pairing this windmill pic that I took in Douglas, Arizona with other images.

The buddha photo was most likely taken on one of my Thailand trips.

This photo was taken in Burma and the piece here is the result of a failure that worked to my advantage. (which I guess isn't a failure after all!)

I've been making some great messes in the studio with my newly learned techniques.
It's always been a part of my process which is to do things in a hurry and go at  my projects with a fury which results in an explosive mess. Just ask my mother or my husband what the kitchen looks like when I'm in the food production zone! I'm fast though, really fast. I recall that being remarked upon when I took my printmaking class back in the nineties as well.


You can view more of my recent transfers here  at La Dolce Vita's blog. 

Transfer Love~ A Big Win!

I was fortunate to have entered Caterina Giglio's giveaway at La Dolce Vita because she was giving away an invite to her "Transfer Love" class which is about image transfers not the transfer site which is in fact a worthwhile venture as well if you're a serious junker.

Image transfer quite simply put, is the lifting of images from one medium to affix to another.

As you can see on Caterina's blog she's made magic with the techniques with her artwork.

I had been wanting to take the class but was holding out for when I had a higher speed connection than my current dial-up. But since it was a giveaway I threw my fate to the wind and was announced the winner much to my surprise.

I shouldn't have mentioned throwing my fate to the wind however because the first try at an image transfer technique had me so impatient for the results. It was a vintage photo of a woman against a page of German calligraphic script. It seemed to be successful but I wanted to dry it out quickly on the deck in the sun which I soon forgot about. Later on our legendary Delta wind picked it up and scattered it to wilderness so I never did get to admire the finished product.

I have been able to view Caterina's videos and upload the instructions with a few visits to the local library.

A few of these pictures were taken from my husband's ancestors photo album which I had scanned previously. Why buy cabinet photos when there's a whole album of them in the next room? The rest of the photos are my own from various travels and scans.

One of the benefits of image transfer as opposed to straight up collage-ing of images is the transparency of the images allowing your background to peek through.

My main goal was to familiarize myself with the process and technique and produce a stack of usable pieces for other creations. I may only use parts of some of these pages to put with other images or designs.

From my husband's family archives

"She Was a Force of Nature"

My photo taken at Ayuttaya, Thailand and vintage Grey's Anatomy

Torch Time

I'm going to count this as one of my mandalas.

These beads have already been paired and made into earrings and are the result of listening to the Cure and Chris Isaak at the same sitting.

Out of ConTEXT

Laugh With Me

But I don't know Jack! 

(text added by me on this one)

For Most of Us

No Drag

(this text was from a car wax ad 

 image from a sewing book on alterations)

We Say

Moon Is There

There Is Joy

Warning!

The fence that hems him in.

(This is a larger piece that can be clicked on for detail.)

More Space

(This is more of a bookmark sized piece.)

Make the cat black
(Also a larger piece)

I've been making some more atc's  and a few larger pieces with images from vintage books.

I like to use text that takes on a different meaning out of context. Some of this text is from a typing lessons book.