Blog Archives

May27

More Fun Stuff About Me!

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More Fun Stuff About Me!
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Cow

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week or so ago I posted a little about myself.  I reminisced, I laughed, I shared, and then I’d had enough, it was over!  Today I’m going to tell you a little more…

Well…

By now, you’ve probably guessed that I like to do a little of everything – being a Mixed Media artist and all.  You would be absolutely right!  I can get sidetracked so fast it makes even my head spin! My head spins a lot, not just from Mixed Media, but all the thoughts and ideas that run through at all hours of the day and night.  There aren’t any of my art friends that sleep well, we all wake up with ideas, and all night “the process” runs through our heads, along with solutions to anything we’ve been working on.  Sometimes I get up in the morning exhausted from working things out all night long.  Sound familiar?

Here it goes…..

Simple Journal

Simple Journal

I have boxes of old jewelry, bolts, washers, cardboard, metal, and more just sitting around (boxes neatly stacked) waiting for me to get inspiration.  When I do, maybe I’ll glue things down, or maybe I’ll sew it all together – who knows?  It’s all good, and that comes under the “Mixed Media” heading.

A friend of mine once said to me,  “Karen, if you don’t call yourself a Mixed Media artist, you wouldn’t have to save all that stuff.  Then you wouldn’t have all those  boxes!”  How true that is, but don’t we have to create what our heart is happiest creating?  I know my friend is happiest painting watercolors, and many of my friends do work in that medium.  At one time in my life, I did too.  But many of us have moved to something else we can learn to express ourselves with.  It’s all good as long as it makes us happy!  In the name of Mixed Media, I’ve created some amazing things.

Everything here is Mixed Media, and for me, it’s pretty interesting.  I have many journals with decorated covers.  All because I can’t seem to leave a surface bare even if it’s on a journal.  Maybe its just a great excuse to create one more little piece of the Karen puzzle!  Maybe I’m just trying to use up the über amounts of art supplies I have bought over the years, making myself feel like it has been money well spent.  Who knows, but it makes me happy!  Isn’t that all that counts?

Has anyone told you not to create like you do, and to do something else?  Do you follow their suggestions?  Do you think constructive criticism is constructive, or just plain criticism?

Your thoughts are important, please share them.

 

Oct30

The Magic of The Pumpkin

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With Halloween almost here, kids all around us are getting their pumpkins ready for the spookiest night of the year!  Some still have to be carved, and some await the night when they can be lit up, and take part in the scary evening called Halloween.  All the children are planning their costumes, some even make them as we did when we were kids.  Now-a-days all the stores have them,  and  in some ways they are a little bit disappointing!  Remember when we would plan an outfit for weeks, trying to think of the scariest costume possible, getting the make up ready, the bags or pillowcases ready, and then Mom would insist we put on a coat or jacket?  Well that ruined the everything didn’t it?  Somehow we got through it, and came home with copious amounts of candy that we’d have to hide from our siblings, and parents!

On Sunday, Papa and I went out to visit with two of our grandkids.  When we arrived the kitchen table was covered in brown paper, the pumpkins and carving equipment all around.  They had carefully been punctured in all the right places so the selected picture could be carved into the face of the pumpkin!  The kids did most of it, but when it came to the real detail, they eagerly handed all the tools over to their mother.  You should have seen the look on Mom’s face!  Of course, she knew she’d get to do all the “difficult carving!”  But carving a pumpkin is a messy venture, and does anyone look forward to slimy internal muck, and seeds?  The pictures the kids chose for the faces of their pumpkins were rather interesting, one being a cat, and the other the head of a wolf!  It wasn’t difficult to know who chose the kitty, and who chose an intimidating wolf face!  A girl – 6, and  boy – 8, exactly.   I always wanted to carve a pumpkin with something different from triangular eyes, nose, and jagged teeth in a wide smiley mouth!  Why didn’t I ever think to do that?   As the faces were finished, we all had to admit, they turned out pretty well, even though Mom had to do all the finishing up!  After the carvings were completed, pumpkins cleaned out, and lights put into the insides, they truly were going to add to a  ghoulish Halloween night!

But wait, there’s more!  As we looked around for the large bowl of guts, and seeds from the insides, they were nowhere to be found…….we looked everywhere,  nothing!  Finally, I knocked on my grandsons bedroom door, and upon being told I could enter, there  precisely in the middle of  his big double bed, was the bowl of pumpkin seeds and guts!”  Upon asking him why he had taken the bowl into his room,  he looked at me with eyes that said, “Grandma, don’t you know?”   and replied, “Room fragrance!”  Of course, what could I have been thinking!   Apparently there are more things than I realized for a pumpkin to do than just be scary, and  one of them is to  provide much-needed room fragrance for eight year old boys!

Oct15

Back From The Great State Of Texas

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Dallas! What can I say, and where do I begin? It’s quite a place, we didn’t realize how interesting it would be. I think we had the idea that it was dusty, dirty, and we would see a lot of longhorn steers, and oil wells! Maybe a cowboy or two! We were so wrong! I said I didn’t have any expectations, that was true but, I did have a misconception. Sorry Dallas, I was wrong! There was so much to see there, and of course we couldn’t begin to cover it all! But we did see the flavor of the city, and that was enough to make us realize everything, and everyone needs to have a chance. The tall buildings are an architects dream, and freeways confusing.

For starters, A Friday night service at the temple was new for me. This was a Conservative Jewish Temple, and we had never been in anything conservative! The service was long, and really interesting. The Hebrew chants, and mens choir were quite something. Saturday morning began the Bar Mitzvah, and almost three hours later we hobbled out exhausted and in awe. Again the entire service was in Hebrew, steeped in custom, and tradition, the mens choir was heavenly! It felt like we had stepped back in time, and were privileged to be part of this celebration. Let me not forget to mention, after every event came a banquet of food, drink, and quality time with friends and family! I said I didn’t have any expectations, that was true, but in my wildest imagination, I couldn’t have imagined a three-day Jewish food fest!

Mostly we enjoyed getting to know a wonderful young man who is so bright, well-mannered, and has a brilliant future ahead of him. Talking to him was a delight, and learning about his dreams, and ambitions was very special. The ability to visit and get to know both he and his brother whom we hadn’t seen in many years was heartwarming.

The sketches I was able to do, on this three-day event is Zentangle style, inspired by all the Yarmulkas! They were everywhere, with different designs, and colors! Two of the sketches were done on the iPad one in the airport being balanced on my knee! Let me not forget to add that we couldn’t leave Dallas without another Sunday morning Brunch…just another food fest for family and friends.  By Sunday afternoon, we rolled away from the family, feeling like we’d been stuffed like a turkey at a Thanksgiving Dinner!

Since we were in Dallas, a place neither of us had been prior to this trip, we decided to spend the entire Sunday afternoon at the Dallas Museum of Art. I loved it! This was a great museum, and I thank David Weiner, Les’ nephew for the recommendation. By the time we left, we were on our last leg. Every moment was worth while, and we may even return to this interesting place in Texas for a another visit, another time!

Oct10

What Makes a Mixed Media Artist?

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What Makes a Mixed Media Artist?

On October 3, I received an email from Cloth Paper Scissors with an article about, ” What Makes A Mixed Media Artist.”  As I read through the first page it came to me!  How true, and dead on those words were! It described me to a tee! What do you think makes up a mixed media artist, and how many of you consider yourselves that kind of artist? I always describe myself as a mixed media/abstract artist. Sometimes they are entirely two different things, and sometimes they clearly intertwine. I’m never sure exactly what to call myself, so mixed media seems to pretty much cover it. A friend of mine once said, “If you don’t call yourself a Mixed Media artist, you won’t have to save all that stuff!” Well that’s probably true, but what would I do if I didn’t have my stash to pull from in the name of creating art?

Here are the five things that describe a Mixed Media Artist from the email I received from Cloth Paper Scissors:

1. A love of variety. Most mixed-media artists I know find it almost impossible to stick with two or three tried-and-true media or techniques exclusively. A shiny new technique or product always catches their attention and if you ask them to name one medium that’s their favorite, they’ll say, “All of them.”

2. A willingness to get messy. It’s not that they don’t clean their paintbrushes or organize their stamp pads. It’s just that mixed-media artists on the whole don’t create art at arm’s length. They often use their fingertips to apply paint and gel medium, and you can tell what colors they’ve been using by looking at their sleeves.

3. As Dumbledore once said of Harry Potter, a certain disregard for the rules. You know the little voice inside most people’s heads that whispers, “You’re not supposed to do that”? Mixed-media artists don’t have one.

4. A passion for the sensory. Mixed-media artists love to touch, smell, and practically eat with their eyes. Even artwork that looks monochromatic on the surface, will, when scratched, usually reveal layers of paint, papers, and applied textures that work together to achieve a visual serenity.

5. An open mind. Mixed-media artists take all comers. No one is going to close the circle and say, “You’re not like us. You don’t make art the way we do.” Instead, mixed-media artists are more likely to throw open the studio doors and say, “Come join the party! Let’s teach each other.”

I’ve seen members of the mixed-media community reach out and help each other in many ways, from bucking up an artist whose muse has taken a powder to supporting a cause they feel passionate about.

What do you think? Does this pretty much describe you? I think it describes me to a tee!

Frequently I create journal pages that eventually work their way into a piece of art.  Sometimes, they turn out exactly like  envisioned, sometimes not!  Pre-sketches don’t  work for me, I always think of ideas, and the minute I start, whatever I’m working on takes on a life of its own, doing  its own thing, dragging me along in astonishment!    It starts with intention, & from there I haven’t any idea where it’s going, nor do I  have a clue as to what it will become!

This piece started with a few scraps of a torn painting, we can’t be throwing that away!  Once I started the weaving of trees, how could there not be a bird house, with  a funky bird on top?  This is another example of something that took on a life of its own!  I don’t think I’ve ever sketched a funky bird in anything!

Oct4

“Back In The Day…..”

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“Back In The Day…..”

Wednesday morning is trash day around our neighborhood, and we try to walk before the trucks get really active around here.  The noise, and fumes, not to mention the smell of the trash make it unpleasant to walk if they are in the immediate vicinity.  As we  walk around block after block,  we start to look at the trash bins, and wonder if they hold anything good?   Back in the day when you could put all your trash out curbside there was a much larger variety of goodies.  Now all that has changed!  They have big mechanical arms picking up the containers, and dumping them into the top of the truck, making it impossible to leave a table, chair  or other large items out to be picked up.  It wasn’t too long ago that we’d put things out to the curb knowing someone would be by about 10:30 at night to rummage through everything in hopes of finding a treasure, only to put it in a garage sale somewhere a mile away!  Years ago, my mother brought home a set of four bent wood chairs she found, thinking they would be perfect with my dining room table.   They did look great, and we used them for many years.  Someone was just  tired of the look, and left them for someone else to love, and enjoy.  That would be me!

Today as I walked around eyeing all the trash bins, I don’t get the feeling that inside a bin is a treasure waiting to be found.  Rarely are they stuffed to the point of being unable to close the top. Occasionally, as today there were a few with cardboard sticking out, but I’m not looking for cardboard, and digging through someones trash bin isn’t quite what makes me happy these days!  Maybe all the real treasures are now in thrift shops, garage sales, consignment shops, or even swap meets if they still have those!  I long for a genuine treasure that just pops out in front of me on a walk, or even a super fabulous “thing-a-ma-bob” at a garage sale that I could use in my artwork!   “Thing-a-ma-bobs”  are more difficult to find these days, and I wonder how many garage sales one needs to go to just to find them?  Is there a better area to go to, ’cause this one isn’t cutting it!

Once upon a time we use to talk of going to the wealthier neighborhoods for the treasures no one else would find, but that was back in the day when people would put things of value out on the sidewalk so people like us, the pickers, could discover them!  Where are your favorite places to find treasures?  Do you have a treasure trove right in your own back yard, or do you have to drive long distances to treasure hunt?

Every time I buy new furniture, or a new lamp, I’m never happy with it! They don’t have any character, and definitely no energy from a previous lifetime to bring with it into their new home.  So now my motto is to rescue things from wherever I find them !

Oct3

The Epitomy Of Collage!

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The Epitomy Of Collage!

When looking for something to sketch, so many things entered my mind.  Today, I went to an Escondido Art Talk meeting at the Escondido Municipal Gallery on Grand in Escondido.  We meet on the first Tuesday of each month, and the artists that attend usually bring whatever they’re working on to share. Today we had a wonderful mix of artwork, all different kinds of mixed media!  For a mixed media artist, this is heaven!  We are able to see art created with a different flair, all the while getting to know people we may not have met before.  New ideas, and creative energy is  abundantly  flowing!   Now that’s what I like, the sharing and mingling of creative minds!

Today we had  an artist there from Africa, who brought  some wonderful artwork with him.  We were all in awe as he showed off what he was working on.  Not one of us had ever thought of anything like this, and he was so incredibly talented, and humble!  As I drove home there were so many thoughts, and ideas in my head I probably wont sleep tonight!  That wouldn’t be good!  In my studio there are many pieces of unfinished artwork just sitting there  patiently waiting their turn to speak to me, but I just can’t get into them.  My guess is, they have nothing to say to me at the moment, and I’ll just have to wait for them to speak up.    Rather than beat my head against the wall, another piece  will be started, and older ones will just have to wait tin line!

Part of the  technique  I’m doing today is from this gentleman, and part is my spin on it.  We’ll see what happens…..

Meanwhile  starting this collage, it came to me that nothing was as easy as it looks!  This is ever so evident when you stand in front of an abstract painting, and exclaim,  “What’s the big deal, my three-year old could do that?  All you have to do is slap some paint on a canvas!”   Sure you could, just try it!  I’m here to tell you, it is monumentally more complicated than that.  Sure it’s easy to slap,  drip, and spatter paint around, just look at the work of Jackson Pollock!  But to make it work, is so much more complex than one can imagine.   Even Mr. Pollock had a plan, and if you take the time to read about him, it will become evident that he wasn’t just dripping paint, he really did know what he was doing!

Me, I’m a mixed media artist – everything is an experiment.  Sometimes I repeat the experiment, sometimes I’m over it in a flash!  We mixed media artists are a strange bunch of crazies, and most of us agree on this!  Digging through the shredder is oh so much fun!!!  You look for just the right piece of trash to create a one of a kind artwork!  This is exactly what I did, I went digging.  Shredding paper to  collage is extremely labor intense, this of course would be common sense, but apparently when I’m in my right brain, there isn’t any  common sense available!  Once my collage dried, the sketch began, but it wasn’t as simple as I’d expected.! Since the medium was slick, the graphite pencils wouldn’t show up very well.  This leaves the sketch rather bland, and mid to light range.  It becomes very difficult to lay any darks into this…...lesson learned!   I probably should have tried some Derwent Inktense Pencils.  These are great water-soluble pencils by the way, that dry permanent.  The colors are intense, and if  they aren’t in your studio my suggestion is to get a small pack.  In my opinion, there aren’t any mistakes, only opportunities to be more creative, or at the very least, learn from the experiment!

Today is a college of Daisy’s friend Chesley.  He and Daisy are both  mutskies (new word),  and they have fun running, and playing together in the yard.  I apologise to Chesley’s Mom because this really isn’t a very good render of her baby, however it’s been a great learning experience, and I may even use the collage of shredded paper again.

By the way, if anyone is interested in reading of the life of Jackson Pollock, this is a really interesting  book!

Recommended Book

Tom And Jack: The Intertwined Lives Of Thomas Hart Benton And Jackson Pollock By Henry Adams
Tom And Jack: The Intertwined Lives Of Thomas Hart Benton And Jackson Pollock By Henry Adams

The drip paintings of Jackson Pollock trailblazing the Abstract Expressionist movement appear to be the polar opposite of Thomas Hart Benton’s highly figurative Americana.