Nothing is Simple - photo

Elephant Ear

When you look at a leaf - really look, you will see just how complex it is!  All those highways that bring oxygen, nutrients, sunlight and water to the main rib.  Then look up and see that our world is covered in leaves - they are amazing!

Saving for a Rainy Day vs. Greed

Saving for a Rainy Day - paper collage

I am always intrigued with how I use imagery that I like, and then sometimes I "repackage" it and use it in a totally different way.  This paper collage is a little composition and my fear of running out of money leaked into it.  Funny how I have the coin dropping into a martini glass!

Greed - Collagraph

But later I had an assignment to make the Seven Deadly sins and I wanted to make a collagraph out of each sin.  So I took the imagery and reinterpreted it into greed.  It has a totally different feel to it.  A collagraph is made by gluing shapes of different papers onto a piece of cardboard and smooshing ink on them and wiping off the ink except in the cracks and crevices and printing them on a press.

Squiffed Stitches - Artist Book

Squiffed Stitches (sold)

This piece is an Artist Book made out of plexi glass.  I was fascinated by the luminosity you could get from "backlighting" the clear plastic.  It positively glowed!  But - I didn't want the color to be perfect - so I used layers of "art" tissue paper and allowed the pieces to overlap and introduce some depth into it. Still - there wasn't enough "action" going on for my taste, so I drilled a million holes and stitched with surgeon suture thread in a casual way to create another layer of interest.   

Time-tress - FAB Collage

Time-tress

This piece was created when I was totally fascinated with Photoshop and all of its layers.  I joined an online digital collage group and every Friday a member would upload 10 images. Our assignment was to use at least 2 of the images to make a collage.  It was a great discipline - I would pour myself a glass of wine and get lost in many layers for hours!  

I always challenged myself to use nine out of 10 of the images (there was always one loser I just couldn't get to work!).  This always pushed me - using all of my new learned tools and forcing me to look at each image in a creative way.  

Sometimes I would like the imagery enough to print it out on white fabric to be used further in a FAB Collage.  The portrait is of Sarah Bernhardt and she was originally wearing a helmet.  Somehow I thought another snapshot of the actress was a perfect hat for her.  I was always disappointed that I could not get fully saturated colors to print on cloth, so I learned to develop the FAB Collages with bright cloth, so you didn't notice the lack of color in some of the elements.

Armory Square - A deconstructed print

Armory Square

This weekend I went to the Print Council of New Jersey's Juried Member Show.  Armory Square had been accepted and it is always a treat to see my work hanging in a professional gallery.  This organization is one of my favorite, all the people are so nice and supportive. 

The print was made using the deconstruction process, but rather than printed on fabric, it was printed on printmaking paper.  I like the fact that this print has sharp edges, lost edges and depth.  

The Beginning of the End

The Beginning of the End

Somehow, Blogger wouldn't let me upload this weekend.  I wondered if I had loaded my blog up with too much, but how could that be!  Now it looks like its back to "normal".  

I am uploading a piece I did in a Fran Skiles class at Quilting By the Lake.  It is a mixed media piece since it has canvas, silk, and paper in it.  The effort and concentration it takes to develop a piece like this is amazing. I lose all sense of time and all I can see and think of is the work.  

Sometimes a piece calls for fully saturated colors and at other times I just want to go subtle.  There is color in this piece, but soft notes.