Monday, August 27, 2012

Picking Portraits


This is a page from my book with a composite photo from work in the book by (from top to bottom) Danny Gregory, Pam Carriker, and Orly Avineri.

I have teamed up with CreateMixedMedia.com and North Light Books to sponsor a contest and I hope you decide to play along.

As you may already know, one artist is highlighted each week on CMM in their feature The Week as Art. That artist creates a "calendar of art" highlighting the dates of that week in an artful way. You can see the entire 2012 calendar here and even submit to be the artist of the week yourself here.

CMM is mixing things up this week. If you head on over to their home page, you will see that the current Week as Art has been designed by seven different artists using their self-portraits from my book The Pulse of Mixed Media: Secrets and Passions of 100 Artists Revealed. Or should I say...portions of their self-portraits.

So on to the contest. head on over to CMM and try to identify as many of the artists included in The Week as Art. Come back to this blog post and leave a comment with your guesses. One week from today, I will select all the comments that have included the correct answers for all 7 artists and those commenters will be entered into a drawing. I will then randomly select one to win the prize of their choice of any book from the North Light Shop.

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Four new survey questions have been posted on my sidebar. Head on over and speak your mind!

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Playing Favorites: Chapter 2


Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.

Style File, Techniques & Tools, Master Class, and It's Still Life were the first four projects posted and links to all these posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The fifth project, Playing Favorites, continues now...


Participants were asked to: share a picture of a favorite piece of art that you have created and explain its meaning to you...
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Loryn Spangler-Jones
"Ecstasy. This piece was incredibly transforming for me. A self-portrait in a sense of me coming out of my shell creatively and really breaking down walls."

Anne Bagby
"I rather like this piece because it sat around my studio and I just layered and layered onto it. It started out as a Lynne Perrella inspired, but unused, piece for a magazine article. Then Kari Holbrook sent me a package of bits and pieces and I stuck them on and painted over everything. Then her husband, Mike,  showed me how to cut the 'frame' and it became a shadow box. In New York I picked up some more pieces and added them. THEN I pulled off the top layers and started over. I added more and glazed over them. By the time I stopped I was rather fond of this queen."

Adrienne "Dree" Berry
"Fire. I did this with a gathering of women. I had been encouraged to paint in front of these women but was too scared. But this one time I finally got the courage to do it and this is what came forth."

Theresa Plas
"This piece is from a class taught by Pam Carriker at Art and Soul in Hampton, VA. It represents the first art retreat I participated in. I drove solo in my white pick up truck from Southeast FL to VA and experienced so many wonderful things along the way as well as superb classes."

Nelda Ream
"I named this piece Sister Bird because I was meditating on how connected we are to nature. The 'nest' of hair on the woman points out how much we are all universally alike (I hope)."

Cathy Minerva
"Haze is one of my favorite pieces as it evolved on a rainy day in Georgia. Having all afternoon to myself and finishing a piece in one session is huge to me. I love the texture and movement of this piece as well as the melancholy feeling of a rainy day."

Donna Louise Rodgers
"In Life I am using colour to express volume but it was the pose that really moved me. Men are often portrayed as strong and somehow overbearing to women - which I find distressing. Here you can see the masculine strength but the pose expresses tenderness and vulnerability. I was hugely flattered that the model said that he recognized himself in the image, not just in the likeness of the physical reproduction of the seen object but in the mood too. That's what does it for me - capturing the person as well as what they look like."

Marie Otero

"This piece is a digital composition created using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. It was born as a response to some rather troublesome issues I was dealing with at that time and at the end of the day this was my reaction to what I was thinking and feeling. It expresses the conclusions I had reached by the time I had sorted everything out in my head."

Jane Royal
"I started sketching portraits in May of 2007. It took a while but this piece was the first to be an accurate likeness of the model. It was a 'breakthrough' piece for me and a big confidence booster."

AnTonia Griva
"Almost Steady Going Nowhere is one of my favorites and it is actually a picture of one of my moments in tranquility time."

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Next "Playing Favorites" will be posted on Sunday, September 2nd.


Wednesday, August 22, 2012

I've Got The Blues

Perspective

Artist Eric Adama from the blog Cerulean is holding an online exhibition called Ode to Blue. In 5 parts, presented in 5 consecutive blog posts, he is showcasing the work of more than 60 artists -- all in the most beautiful hues of blue. Thank you Eric for this opportunity to see such a wide range of work from so many different artists. And thank you too for including Perspective in the mix.

Monday, August 20, 2012

News from The Altered Page


Every Monday for at least the next several months I will be posting a series of survey questions on my sidebar, the results of which will be published in my next book, to be released by North Light Books in December 2013. All responses are anonymous and the poll is open to everybody. So pull back the curtain and turn the lever. It is time to vote.....


Tomorrow night, Tuesday 8/21, I will be hosting a Twitter Party from 9-10pm EST. Join me for a live discussion with many of your favorite artists and bloggers. Based on the last Twitter Party, the Tweets will be flying. And for this party, you do not need to worry about parking! For directions, click here.


My eNewsletter for August hits the virtual newsstand very soon. If you would like one in your inbox, be sure to sign up for my mailing list.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Playing Favorites: Chapter 1


Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.

Style File, Techniques & Tools, Master Class, and It's Still Life were the first four projects posted and links to all these posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The fifth project, Playing Favorites, starts now...


Participants were asked to: share a picture of a favorite piece of art that you have created and explain its meaning to you...
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Holly Dean
"The title of this painting, ARCANUM, means 'a profound secret or mystery'. This dream-like piece suggests to me an ethereal fantasy world in which the observer can lose him or herself. As the creator, I am blown away by the fact that this painting has the same effect on me. That is not something that happens very often, I find."

Jacqueline Auvigne
"This painted collage marks a huge leap of faith in practice - life and art. I took a Nick Bantock workshop that changed my life. Nick knew how to push, encourage and challenge me to get out of my own way and let the inner brilliance out."

Jessica Walthall
"This is a mixed media piece I did in 2010 simply titled Kenilworth Castle. Much of the time, when a piece is finished, I'm left feeling like I've yet to make the art that I see in my head, that I just missed the mark somehow, but not with this piece. There's nothing I'd change, and it came out even better than I envisioned. This piece represents me more as an artist than maybe anything else I've done."

Bonnie Clark
"Decay 1 is a chine colle print created using a solarplate created from a photograph taken in Chinatown of a graffiti covered wall, Akua printmaking inks, and Chinese joss paper. It reminds me that beauty and meaning often lie beneath the surface and aren't always recognizable to everyone."

Jodi Ohl
"Evolve...this piece really speaks to the direction I want to go in with my art, more abstract, lots of layers but with funky contemporary colors. It is what I am...evolving."

Wen Redmond
"My favorite pieces usually represent a turning point for me - sometimes before I even realize it. The 'ah-ha' now I can do this! I created Tender Revelations in 2004 during some major life events. I was returning from a session at the Haystack School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine and was listening to the book tape After the Ecstasy, the Laundry by Jack Kornfield. Tender Revelations was inspired from this quote: 'What can we expect when we enter the forest? To listen more deeply to the quiet. The first steps bring us amazements of tender revelations.'"

Keron Lee (aka The Colourguru)
"Of all the art I have created over the last 10 years - this piece stands out as symbolic. Many of the great loves of my soul and spirit are expressed here - a key of discovery, meaningful words and the use of text, red slippers - for when 'heel clicking' is needed, pared back Gothic arches (one of my favourite forms), Italian art, pears (my other favourite form)...and of course angel's wings. Interestingly that only glimpses of my signature colors are in this composition - but I still feel that it is significant and quintessentially me."

Lisa Scadron
"Other Words III, a mixed media painting, is a unification of three styles I love creating: collage, works of color with metallic leaf, and highly layered and textured canvases. The title of Other Worlds refers to a personal and naturally occurring creative process I experience. I was inspired by the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk's words, 'Other worlds are the best consolations," in reference to his process of living and writing. His observation perfectly captured my internal formation of ideas, which is akin to watching film fragments of an undiscovered story or world and fleeting color images in my mind."

Crystal Neubauer
"This collage is from a series called Utterings which I regard as a form of worship. I turn off all distractions and allow my thoughts and feelings to flow freely. At the same time I meditate on scripture or thoughts of what God is working on in my life and each collage then becomes a symbolic prayer. The process for me is based in scripture that says when we don't have the words to pray, the Holy Spirit will pray for us in words and utterances known only to God."

Eric Adama
"lost white is one of my favorite pieces. It has everything that I wanted to express: texture, subdued colors, some graffiti, some straight color and I am satisfied about the composition. In a certain way it's a key work."

Evie Zaccardelli
"This is a mixed media piece on wood of The Owl and the Pussycat. Layers of vibrant color laid down with scraping back in places gives it its distressed quality which I love."
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Next "Playing Favorites" will be posted on Sunday, August 26th.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Teaching Text Tiles


On Friday, September 7th from 6-9pm I will be teaching my workshop Text Tiles at Little Bird Creations in NYC. 

Text Tiles
Learn to work small with a big impact. In this workshop we will create mixed media paintings on a small scale using 4 x4 and 6x6 cradled wood panels. Even though this class is project-based, the emphasis will be on technique. You will learn a series of approaches to make layered and textured surfaces, which can be applied to an endless number of projects. We will be using text as the main foreground component of each painting, so you will be expressing yourself both in words and visual design.


Little Bird Creations is a new studio space in Manhattan opened by Michele Luxenberg. Upcoming workshops are being taught by Ingrid Dijkers, Dawn Devries Sokol, and other mixed media and scrapbooking artists. In order to view information about and register for workshops at Little Bird Creations, you have to go through their site on Meetup and sign up as a meetup member.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Industrial Chic

I am part of a blog hop celebrating the launch of Susan Lenart Kazmer's website Industrial Chic.


Industrial Chic is a found object jewelry component collection designed by mixed media artist Susan Lenart Kazmer, and manufactured by Horizon Group USA. Industrial Chic was created for jewelry designers of all levels. Pendants, charms, findings, and chain are available in several finishes to mix and match to create your own individual style. The collection is available exclusively at Michaels.

When Susan asked me to be a part of the blog hop I happily joined in, although I am not a jewelry designer at all. I don't even wear a watch! But the project sounded fun as I would receive a random mix of pieces from the line and had to use them to create anything. I thought this would be a good challenge and signed on!

This is what I received...

I decided to put the ice resin aside for another, future project. Although we were allowed to add any other supplies to our creation, I decided to make it an even bigger challenge and use only the Industrial Chic materials I was sent and to use every single piece. 

I took the materials apart and let them speak to me. And in the end, Orbit was born!





There are many bloggers participating in this blog hop, each of whom received a different random set of materials. You can check out their creations at the following links:

8/12  Cindi Bisson
8/17  Seth Apter - You Are Here Now!
8/19  Tami Bayer
8/23  Jen Crossley
8/24  Eileen Hull
8/25  Pam Carriker
8/26  Sandy Martin

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Memoire


Memoire: An Artist Book




















Art allows you to travel without ever leaving home...