Abswaxtes Bild

Last month I had the pleasure to spend two-plus weeks traveling through the Pacific Northwest, teaching workshops, exhibiting my work, and meeting many of my online art friends. It was an unforgettable adventure and I am just now beginning to sort through all my photos and memorabilia. 

I already posted here about my collaborative exhibition with Roxanne Evans Stout at Illahe Studios and Gallery in Ashland, Oregon. Since the exhibition closed, Roxanne has officially become a gallery artist and I am happy to report that Illahe is also continuing to exhibit several pieces of our collaborative work. If you are in the area, feel free to have a look.

I stayed in Southern Oregon for several extra days and spent time both exploring and arting with Roxanne. One memorable day was spent in her garden, working with encaustics. This was my first time playing with wax and I have to say, Roxanne was a great teacher. I made three pieces on rough hewn-wood, including this one...

Abswaxtes Bild

In spending a bit of time with this piece since I have been home, I realized that I may have been unconsciously channeling one of my favorite artists: Gerhard Richter. He is a contemporary German artist whose wide-ranging style runs from photorealism to colorful abstract oils. I sense a connection between the piece I made and some of the pieces in his series Abstraktes Bild (translation: Abstract Picture/Image). Do you see it as well?

Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter

The above piece from Richter, btw, was sold last year at auction by Eric Clapton for $34 million!

I really enjoyed working with encaustics and hope to again at some point in the future. For now, I can be satisfied with the memories of the materials and the process.

Abswaxtes Bild

After arting, Roxanne took me on a tour of the area. So many beautiful places and fun stops. My favorite, hands down though, was a visit to the Antique Warehouse in Klamath Falls.

Those of you who visit my Facebook Page may remember the following picture...

This is truly just one tiny section of what just might be the best spot on earth. My finds from there traveled with me back to NYC and are beginning to become part of new artwork, which will no doubt find itself in a future post.

Time Will Tell

This piece and today's tutorial was inspired by the concept of passing time. We are in the middle of hot and sticky days in NYC -- and it is still only June. It always strikes me as funny how in the hot NYC summers people are often complaining about the heat and wishing it were winter. And equally in the freezing days of January, people are often wishing for a hot August day. Some recent experiences have showed me that we would all do better to be in the present and make the most of what we have at any one moment. 

That being said, icy colors and imagery rules the roost in this time piece.

I started out with a 4" x 4" cradled wood panel.

To this I added a coat of black gesso and some silver ice details care of a favorite clear stamp and my silver Encore ink pad from Tsukineko -- which I have to say is by far the best metallic ink I have ever used.

My winter wonderland continued with a slice of Precious Metal foil from Spellbinders and their Crackle texture plate, which reminds me of cracked surface of a frozen lake.

Look at the deep emboss that this texture plate makes in the foil...

...made even more icy by lightly sanding the raised surface with a sanding block.

Time for the details. It all started with this vintage watch face, which I paired with a die cut silver foil shape.

I dug into my stash of Spellbinders dies to find more circular shapes, applied to different foils and card stock -- and graded in size.

I couldn't leave out a bit of metal and rubber sourced from the hardware store -- definitely one of my most favorite places to find mixed media supplies.

To complete the piece, I adhered the Crackle foil to the surface of the panel and started stacking - from large to small diameter. In time, my ode to the cold weather came together. 

-------------------------------------

Supply List

Spellbinders Paper Art Supplies:

GC-001 Spellbinders^TM Grand Caibur® Machine

MT1-004 Spellbinders^TM Media Mixage Texture Plates Crackle

F-012 Spellbinders^TM  Precious Metals Premium Craft Foils Assortment 

S4-390 Spellbinders^TM Nestabilities® Imperial Gold Majestic Elements Gold Circles One

S4-302 Spellbinders^TM Nestabilities®  Decorative Elements Crown Circles

S5-048 Spellbinders^TM Shapeabilities® Sprightly Sprockets 

Preferred Promotional Partners: Tsukineko Encore Ink Pad

Other: cradled wood panel, gesso, paint brush, clear stamp and mount, card stock, hardware, sanding block, adhesive, vintage clock face 

Imagine

Today's project and tutorial was inspired by a tag. While completing the background pages for a journal quite a long time ago, I painted this tag as a way to use up the extra paint on my palette. It had been lost in one of my many piles but today was the day for it to take center stage. I embellished it with some stickers, fabric and a bead and was ready to go...   

I started by completing the tag using the usual suspects: hand painted paper cut to size, rub-ons, stickers, rubber stamps, and a very cool arrow cut from Spellbinders You Are Here die cut set.

My next step was to make a pocket with a viewfinder for the tag. After all those months stuck in the middle of a pile, I thought this tag had earned a proper home. I started with some hand-painted paper from my stash.

I cut two pieces, approximately 5" x 3.75", using Spellbinders Distressed Edges die cut set.

Next I cut a "window" into one of the pieces using another die from the same Distressed Edges set. The area that was cut out was strategically picked based on the design on my tag.

Using my tag as a guide, I placed three strips of double-sided tape on the back side of the uncut piece of paper as a way to create a pocket for the tag.

Following that, I removed the backing from the tape and pressed both piece of paper together to form the pocket to hold the tag.

To embellish my pocket, I started by inking the edges of the pocket and the window to add a bit of contrast. I then continued by using a hoop that I created using hand painted paper and two dies from Spellbinders, one from Standard Circles Large and one from Standard Circles Small.

My next embellishment, which I cut down the middle, was from Spellbinders Botanical Swirls and Accents die cut set. It was made with more hand painted paper and centered on the pocket on either side of the window.

I wanted to keep the pocket on the simple side, so that the focal point was the view of the tag through the window. To that end, I ended a few additional rub-on designs to complete my project.

Supply List

Spellbinders Paper Art Supplies:

GC-001 Spellbinders^TM Grand Calibur® Machine
S5-174 Spellbinders^TM Nestabilities® A2 Distressed Edges
S5-396 Spellbinders^TM Shapeabilities® You Are Here
S4-114 Spellbinders^TM Nestabilities® Standard Circles Large
S4-116 Spellbinders^TM Nestabilities® Standard Circles Small

Preferred Promotional Partners: Tsukineko StazOn ink pad

Other: watercolor paper, acrylic paint, acrylic medium, paint brush, pan pastels, sponge, spray ink, pencil, rubber stamps, rub-ons, stickers, fabric stamp, bead, adhesive, scissors, double-stick tape

Mixed Media Bloopers

Who doesn't love a good blooper? 

When I filmed my video on dimensional stenciling for the June issue of Art Lessons from Cloth Paper Scissors, the first take was...well, let's just say a blooper was born. And here it is. Eight seconds that didn't make the cut:

Sending thanks to Michele Luxenberg for both filming this video and laughing at with me during take #1!

Still Talking

My 2-day, collaborative workshop with Orly Avineri called 'If Walls Could Talk' scheduled in Los Angeles, CA from 2/8 to 2/9/14 has filled up. 

We have decided to offer this workshop a second time, earlier that same week, in San Diego from 2/4 to 2/5/14. Please consider signing up early if you are interested.

Join us on a two-day, texture-making, art-journaling, book-binding experience...

In this workshop, we will start by creating pages of walls, reflecting our histories, as we build up these solid surfaces with layers, textures, colors, and marks. This will be followed by each of us adding to the pages our own personal narrative, which will surface through the addition of words and images. By the end of day 2, we will be ready to literally tie our individual stories together as we each bind our own books, thereby creating the most intimate of personal dossiers.

Space is limited.

For information and to sign up please contact Orly:

orlyavineri@gmail.com

Update 2/15/13: San Diego workshop is full

If Walls Could Talk

We can all be found somewhere on the same dirt road, kicking up dust, gradually revealing, feverishly working toward finding new ways to form and mature. We build substrates from which we obtain our creative nourishment and the courage to inscribe our visual stories...constantly seeking where everything outside of us ends and where we begin.

Join us on a two-day, texture-making, art-journaling, book-binding experience...

In this workshop, we will start by creating pages of walls, reflecting our histories, as we build up these solid surfaces with layers, textures, colors, and marks. This will be followed by each of us adding to the pages our own personal narrative, which will surface through the addition of words and images. By the end of day 2, we will be ready to literally tie our individual stories together as we each bind our own books, thereby creating the most intimate of personal dossiers.

Space is limited.

For information and to sign up please contact Orly:

orlyavineri@gmail.com

Update 2/14/13: Redondo Beach workshop is full

Digging for Gold

Digging for gold! This post is my own contribution to the Buried Treasure collaboration. Links to each and every participating artist can be found in the previous post on my blog.

This online collaborative process has been held on my blog since 2009. If you want to see what I "dug up" in prior years, you can follow these links:

2009

Revolution

2010

Handbook

2011

As Night Falls

2012

Billboard

---------------------------

My choice of post for 2013 was not easy. And in the end, breaking my own rules, I have chosen to link to one post and to re-post a second. Artist prerogative! The thread that links these two posts is community...

First, a link back to a post that first went live on in March 2009. I asked the question that I think is always on the minds of bloggers: just who is it that visits our blogs? The post itself was very brief. The beauty is in the response: 75+ comments answering the question. Well worth a read or a re-read. Wonder if these comments would still hold true today?

---------------------------

My re-post focuses on collaboration, something near and dear to my heart. I chose one of my many collaborative art projects that I completed in 2011 with Bridgette Guerzon Mills and Jen Worden.  Called Contexture, it stills reflects my art aesthetic. And I love the fact that I used these pages to experiment and have noticed that several different "techniques" have found their way into artwork that I have completed since.

Front Cover

Back Cover

Sign in page

Bridgette

Jen

Seth

Bridgette

Jen

Seth

Bridgette

Seth

Seth

Seth

Seth

Seth