Wednesday Mashup & Gratitude

Think how snug it'll be underneath our flannel;
When it's just you and me and the English Channel!
In our cozy retreat kept all neat and tidy,
We'll have chums over ev'ry Friday!
By the sea!
Don'tcha love the weather?
By the sea!
We'll grow old together!
By the seaside,
Hoo, hoo!
By the beautiful sea!

I had the song "By The Sea" from Sweeney Todd stuck in my head (here's the track on You Tube) as I sat down at my table on Wednesday.  I have had a set of 4 6x6 canvasses from Michael's for months, and decided I had to use them.  It's a little scarey for me to actually commit to a canvas, but what are Wednesday Mashups for?  I stared at them for a while.  They were so white and pretty.  I didn't want to mess them up....  But then, I jumped in, covering them with matte medium and tearing off pieces of paper that were left over from other projects and gluing them on.  On the upper and lower left hand squares are pieces of paper from the modeling paste experiment a few weeks ago, and on the lower right square, some paper on which I tried out some reverse stenciling techniques with spray mists.  The mists I had used were green and blue, and that tinted my water turquoise, and the squares began to take on a sea like color.  BY THE SEA!!

 

I decided to go with that theme, and squirted on blue, light blue and green paint:

 

and spread it around with a credit card.

 and grabbed whatever stencils were handy (you'll recognize Balzer Designs' leaves), as well as some bubble wrap and the plastic mesh from yesterday's bag of clementines, and laid down darker versions of those colors. 

Then I cut some whales, anchors, lobsters, and fish out of card stock. ( I've had in my mind the beautiful graphic image Julie Fei-Fan Balzer posted of a lobster sign she saw in Provincetown.)

 I sprayed and painted the cardstock shapes over some newspaper (and saved it for a future project), and also glued down some shells and beads I've been saving, and here is my collage of paintings!

and some close ups:

I'm so happy with them!!  And to illustrate my happiness (and to use up the leftover paint I had on my pallete, I painted some more! I had a background in my journal that I hadn't known what to do with.  It looked like this - yuck.  But inspired by the challenge to use lavender and lace over at Anything Goes, I added a lavender vase, stenciled it using a lace doily (apologies to my grandma...), and paint-doodled some flowers and letters to spell out "Oh Happy Day!" to celebrate my good mood.  (Obviously, I still have those Wild n' Reckless sherbert colors in my head from Summer of Color!)  Because the sentiment is the main focus here, I will enter this happy design in Moving Along With the Times' challenge to make it sentimental, and of course all the work will visit Paint Party Friday!

On a personal note, as some of you know, my dad has been dealing with some health issues.  He seems to have a handle on them and is back to playing tennis and enjoying life.  Still, it has been a sobering experience and a reminder of how easy it is to take life for granted.  And all around me, the parents of my dear friends are struggling with some much more serious health issues, like strokes, alzheimer's and heart disease.  So I am dedicating my work today to sending out love for our parents.  If you're so moved, please stop and take a moment to be grateful for the people in your lives, like parents and other teachers, who have given you so much love and support, and who have taught you so much.  If you would like some inspiration, here is a video by Lama Marut about gratitude:

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Wednesday Mashup and Vacation Week!

Saturday:  Jersey Shore, Here We Come


Bright and early Saturday morning, we loaded up the car and headed off for our July 4th vacation.  First stop, Jersey Shore. Unsurprisingly, it was slow going in traffic, which gave me the chance to sketch the back of the car in front of us -- thus illustrating the fact that every moment is an opportunity for art!)
We spent a beautiful day at the beach in Spring Lake, where I actually went into the ocean!  Then we drove back home, picked up our dog Boots, and headed to Westchester to our cabin in Pine Lake, which is my idea of heaven on earth.   Sunday was a lovely day with swimming in the lake, and hanging with my girls.

Monday: If You Don't Have Something Nice to Say, Speak As Little As Possible.

On Monday, Samy and I headed to Bob's Furniture store in Yonkers to buy a couch.  We quickly picked one.  (I HATE SHOPPING and always want to get it over with as quickly as possible. So no comparison shopping for me.  Pick it and get it over with is my motto)  We looked forward to paying up, getting back to the bungalow, and enjoying a day at the lake.  However, our salesman was new, and every step of the process took exceedingly long.   Finally, I (discreetly) asked another salesman if he could help, and after 2 1/2 hours (I joke not), we were finally on our way.  I have to admit that throughout the process I was internally impatient, annoyed, and resentful.  But, I have to state that I was outwardly as gracious and patient as possible.  In fact, the salesman thanked me for my kindness when we were leaving!  Even though I did not FEEL patient, I guess I appeared patient.  After all, everyone starts out as a beginner.  Lesson: if you don't feel patient, be silent! 

Tuesday:  I Finally Get to Paint!

I have limited supplies at the bungalow, but I couldn't wait to dig in.  Here's what I created.  I was inspired by the Diva Challenge this week, which was to use a beautiful tangle called Fiore de Pietro, or Peter's Flower.  Rho Densmore created this pattern as a memorial to her brother-in-law, who died unexpectedly in June.  I thought that the words from the song inspiration at Scrapping the Music went beautifully with Rho's tribute to her brother.  The song is "Freedom," and the lyrics are about living each moment to the fullest, because "life is very short; we're here and then we're gone."  Of course, Rho has permission to use this as she sees fit.  The color inspiration is from Summer of Color, week four:  Lemon yellow and strawberry pink.  

Wednesday: Mashup Time!


I have limited supplies in the bungalow (and no scanner, so all these images are from my iphone).  Here's my table and what's on it:  

some Gel pens, watercolor pencils, glue stick, matte medium, gesso, punchhinella, a doily, last summer's magazines, and acrylic outdoor paints I had left over from painting some flower pots.  Here goes:

1.  Scrape on gess over punchinella and doily to create texture.  Glue down some book pages.  Scrape on lime green and turqoise paint and throw down some bits of magazine scraps.  This made me think of... 

  

an elephant!  So I glued in more book pages to make the shape, added some doodling, and here's my happy elephant!

I had cut out this great picture of Janet Jackson while I was going through the old magazines.  I glued it on the other side of the page, and gessoed over it.  

And Janet became this colorful lady!

I will be sending the elephant and my fearless lady to Paint Party Friday, Artists in Blogland and Creative Every Day -- please go visit all the fabulous art on those sites.  

Wednesday Night - Fireworks! 

Wednesday night we went to Peekskill for the fireworks.  A storm was approaching, and Mother Nature vied with the fireworks for attention.  I caught some of it in this video.  It was SO COOL!

Hope you had a great 4th of July.  


And ... before I forget ... drum roll please... I was Inspiration Avenue's showcase winner last week!  I will be adding the badge to my blog, but you can read all about it here! 


Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Wednesday Mashup & Updates

Wednesday Mashup:  Welcome to Wednesday Mashup, where I make something out of whatever is on my table from the days before.  No thinking, no planning, just clean up by creating.

   Here's what was on my table yesterday:  Lots of medium, scraps of papers, and a playbill from Once on this Island, which we saw at the Papermill last Saturday.  (Yes, there is also deodorant on my desk -- why, you ask?  I don't know.  It's not an art supply!  But ... I am truly showing you what was actually on my desk yesterday morning -- and the deodorant is back in the bathroom.)   We always bring home too many playbills; most end up in the recycling.  But...what if I make a journal out of the playbill?

 

First, glue and staple a bunch of the pages together to thicken them, and then tape the inside seams:

Second, randomly glue down pieces of reclaimed book pages, scraps, old paint experiments -- whatever is on the desk!  Knock back with gesso, and dry thoroughly.

Add paint, stencils, stamps -- whatever is in easy reach.  No planning, just go.  Experiment with color combinations.  Use scraps that didn't fit into anything else.  And voila, a ready to go journal with NO BLANK PAGES. 

 

Don't know yet what I'll use this for, and the cover is still blank, but I will show you when I finish it.  It was fast, furious and fun, and now I know what to do with extra playbills, magazines, etc.!  If you've "up-cycled" something like this, please link to it to share.  And if you know an arty use for deodorant, I'd love to hear it!

30 DAYS IN MY JOURNAL UPDATE:  It's hard to believe that June is almost over.  I'm going to miss the prompts from Run With Scissors so much.  It's been so great to get to know the other artists participating.  The prompt for day 25 was "my wish for you is..." Since school let out, it has been so relaxing for my daughter Samy, age 11, not to have to get up and out the door in a rush.  She has really spread out and been relaxing -- reading a lot, drawing, playing with friends.  She has no schedule until July 17, when she goes to sleep-away camp for 3 weeks.  So I my wish for her was the joy of endless summer.  

I remember well the feeling of the school year ending and the stretch of 2 magical months before the next school year.  That feeling that I could reinvent myself out of the grind of school days.  I could go to camp and morph from a caterpillar into a butterfly before September!  I call this the "power of the pause" -- and even though we are not school kids anymore, it's important to find those pauses -- between sleeping and waking, being in the studio and closing the door/turning off the light to step into other parts of our lives, etc.  Just a moment to stop, take a breath, and remember that we can emerge at any point and at any moment.  

Day 25's prompt continued into day 26 for me.  I took Samy to get a mani/pedi, and had a pedicure myself.  (my hands are a lost cause!)  While on the chair, I drew my feet to memorialize the moment.  They're not the best feet, but they get me where I want to go!  I'm going to link this to Summer of Color and Paint Party Friday too.  Please go check out the amazing art on those two sites!

Second Floor Challenge: Every few weeks, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Nathalie Kalbach challenge you to go beyond your usual limits.  This week's challenge was to use a pencil - whatever that means to you and however that inspires you.  Hmmm - I had already sketched my feet, and honestly, a pencil doesn't do much for me.  It creates marks that I then want to cover over in paint.  But I just bought some cool looking woodless graphite pencils that could be used on their sides for broad strokes, and with the sharp points for detail.  I had started a page with these egg shapes I had cut out of prior experiments.  My initial thought was to turn them into cake pops, or lollipop flowers... but while I was at the town pool,  I started doodling and stroking with the pencils.  I HATED EVERYTHING I DID!  So when I got home, I painted over a lot of it, and the result is at right.  I have a lot to learn about pencil work!  My first thought was to write "Perfection is overrated."  But I like to try to put things in the positive, not negative.  And then I thought that perfection is not something to strive for or aim toward.  It is right here in this moment.  Right here, right now.  And so that's what I wrote!  As always, messy mistakes can lead to magical moments.  So thank you Julie and Nathalie.  In the end, I like my page!

LICENSING NEWS:

I just completed the designs for a new line of "Nibbles n' Nosh"® plates and bowls for Aviv Judaica.  Here are the plates.  Hopefully they will soon be in a store near you!   And... Aviv is re-releasing a latke chef line I designed, which will be available for Hannukah!.  One of the greeting card companies I license to has asked me for some Easter themed designs.  So if you have any inspiration you're willing to share, please let me know!

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.