Pages 10/18/12

I've been busy! My blog is neglected. What can I say? I am spending alot more time posting things on FaceBook these days and am wondering if this blog will stay active much longer. Anyway - here's what I've been up to the last couple of months. I've been making alot of pottery to prepare for my show in November. These are in the kiln today and I am excited to get home and look and see if they all survived! :-)

Pages 08/15/12

Thought I'd share some pages out of my ideas sketchbook. Sometimes I randomly doodle and alot of times I plan out projects or jot down ideas for future things I want to make. Bottom shows some pendants I am trying to put together out of clay and the glaze colors I'm thinking of using. I also try to work out what kind of extras I'll add to it, such as chain, charms, wire, etc.

Pages 7/31/12

A few things I've been working on. Some altered images I paint, doodle and stamp on. I'll use those in journal spreads, like the one above. I'm also working on some pottery too, trying to build up my stock before the big show in November. It's hard getting back into clay after many months off, but I'm trying. ;-)

Pages 7/19/12

I haven't been blogging much this past month. Work has been busy and prepping for the workshop also kept me busy. Here's my piece I made at the Amy McDonald workshop this past Saturday and Sunday. It was a blast! I'll post some more photos soon! Collage on canvas board with painted laser print out. This is based on a photo of my Mum.

Pages 6/27/12

It's been busy! I've been working on some pages over the past few weeks and I am posting a bunch of items for you guys to look at. Some incorporate some of my prints and others incorporate a new technique I've been playing with using packing tape.

Pages 6/8/12

Aren't these super cool? These are the self portrait books that Jen Worden put together. Each of us did a self portrait and sent it to Jen. She made these fabulous handmade books for each of us. Inside there are pages with copies of the other artist's self portraits. We also filled in a questionnaire and we got a copy of each person's answers. Awesome. Thanks Jen!

Artists are: Jen Worden, Maripat-Luna Doyle Oberg, AMy McDonald, Judah Sleep, Me and Karen Isaacson.

Pages 6/6/12

It's been a busy few weeks! I'm posting a few pics of what I've been working on in the evenings after work. Three of these are designs for a round robin journal swap I am in right now. A  couple of them aren't quite done yet. I'll post the finished pieces when they are done. The canvases are primed and ready for me to add a painting or collage. The top journal pages utilizes some of the lino block stamps I made a few months ago. It was fun to use them because they fit PERFECTLY in this journal.

That's about it! I'm so tired I don't have much more to say today! Enjoy the pics and ignore my boring words today. lol.

Pages 5/25/12

Here are a few journal pages I did in a friend's journal recently. Kind of cheeky. lol. They turned out pretty cool. I used a variety of paints, and pens as well as collage and other mixed media objects.

Pages 5/7/12

Detail of the right spread.

Detail of the left spread.

Here are a few altered book spreads I did over the weekend. Mixed media, painting and collage on an old yearbook. This book is BIG. I am a little overwhelmed working large and filling the space, but it's been fun. The scary baby one, yeah it's scary. lol. I was just really drawn to the weird image.

Pages 5/3/12

Not too much going on in the studio right now. I've posted a page I am working on in an old journal. I'm working on priming some pages in a brand new book. This is the boring part, right? I have a couple more pages to prime and then I'll stitch them all together. That's when the fun starts. ;-)

Pages 05/1/12

"Big Hair Day" by Cindy Couling

A few months ago I was approached by an author to use a photo of one of my ceramic pieces on her book cover. I thought, well, that's cool! I sent her an image to use. Yesterday, I got a copy of the book in the mail. It was a nice surprise. The book is called 'Good Hair, Bad Hair", by Carmen L. Montañez. My piece is call 'Big Hair Day', so it fits nicely.

Congrats on your book Carmen! I wish you success. ;-)

Pages 4/30/12

Self portrait collage for a swap I am in. Size is 4X6. The person hosting this swap is going to mount it on a 5X7 book. We also had to answer a bunch of questions about ourselves. I'll post what I get back if you guys are interested. ;-)

Pages 4/28/12

Here are the test prints colorized with Prismacolor Markers. It's pretty cool testing out different color palettes. With the stamps, you can print alot, play alot and not worry about screwing something up. It helps push you outside of your color comfort zone. These are alos ATC size, so I can make these tests into ATC trades.

Pages 4/27/12

Carved this face out of soft kut linoleum last night. I had a small peice on my art table forever and since I wanted to busy my hands, I carved this. I'm trying to do more thinner lines that print black. I find it really hard to not just cut out the 'outline' and go with that instead of cutting out the negative space. I'm a lazy carver. ;-)

Pages 4/23/12

A couple more finished visual journal pages. Both for a round robin I am in. Not sure now, looking at the 'Secret' pages if I need to go back and do a bot more. Hmm. Some open spaces I think might need 'something'. I'll sit on it a night or two. ;-) The 'Secret Family Recipe' spread was inspired, believe it or not, by the label on a can of Bush's Baked Beans.

Pages 4/20/12

Been working on some round robin journal spreads this week. Top design is for the 'Malice in Wonderland' themed altered book. It's been fun messing around with a darker theme. Bottom is for an open themed journal. I've used those handy dandy carved lino stamps I did awhile ago and then painted the girl with a variety of acrylics, gel pen and pastels.

Pages 4/16/12

Here's a finished spread in my personal art visual journal. It's the last one to finish before I do the cover. Top image is closest to the true colors in the book. The second I included because I loved the colors the Hipstamatic photograph put on it. It really enhanced the blues.