NOW: So give this some thought….when you are snapping photos on Christmas, or your family get-together for a holiday event, move in front of the camera. Pass over the control and make sure you are in a few pictures. Simple. Important. Even if you don't participate on our street team, I hope you'll at least consider the challenge of CRUSADE No. 58, and get caught on film.
COMING SOON: less than a week….
Obviously I'm a little slow to the scene for this one as it's been hit over 4 million times. In case you haven't seen it either, I'll share here. I was just thinking I may own too many scarves….between Fallon and I we must have, well,….not telling….because I don't want to be put on the *don't send her anymore scarves* list. On the contrary, I love scarves and will never stop collecting. Would you ever admit how many you have? *wink* This video is informative, but also very very clever and mesmerizing. I'm not just impressed with the 25 ways to tie a scarf, I can't imagine what it took to put this clip together. Wow.
I updated the Home Improvement page with sample pages of my Alice book. Click HERE to see, or start the tour by clicking on the right sidebar button. More kits will be listed on ETSY this week.
Last week I posted Crusade No. 57. FIVE years of hosting the Street Team blog! Sheesh, times flies.
Come on over and play with us. We make new friends every month, and love to build connections through creativity.
Obviously I'm a little slow to the scene for this one as it's been hit over 4 million times. In case you haven't seen it either, I'll share here. I was just thinking I may own too many scarves….between Fallon and I we must have, well,….not telling….because I don't want to be put on the *don't send her anymore scarves* list. On the contrary, I love scarves and will never stop collecting. Would you ever admit how many you have? *wink* This video is informative, but also very very clever and mesmerizing. I'm not just impressed with the 25 ways to tie a scarf, I can't imagine what it took to put this clip together. Wow.
I updated the Home Improvement page with sample pages of my Alice book. Click HERE to see, or start the tour by clicking on the right sidebar button. More kits will be listed on ETSY this week.
Last week I posted Crusade No. 57. FIVE years of hosting the Street Team blog! Sheesh, times flies.
Come on over and play with us. We make new friends every month, and love to build connections through creativity.
This was the first project we did at Valley Ridge. Cool, huh? The point: it was a great ice-breaker to begin class, and to illustrate the point that we all need to march to our own drummer – especially in a workshop. Find your pace, then stretch it a little. Each artist made an awesome set of sticks…I wish I had taken a group photo! Drats.
I was a little late this month getting the new crusade posted. The challenge is to put into words how you feel about creativity being part of your life. And then, so we get to know one another better, I invite you to tell us about the different kinds of art you make. Isn't true we never really fit into one category? The umbrella term 'mixed media' seems to be a label many use…but I have never really liked it. Too vague. Be more specific…I am a painter, a book artist, a visual journaler, a found object manipulater, a constructivist, an amateur jewelry maker, a polymer clay player, an aerosol artist, a stamp, stencil, and graphic designer…like that. Gives you a better picture, right? Anyway, come play…Crusade No. 56 (warning: if you are at work, turn down your speakers before visiting the street team site.)
This was the first project we did at Valley Ridge. Cool, huh? The point: it was a great ice-breaker to begin class, and to illustrate the point that we all need to march to our own drummer – especially in a workshop. Find your pace, then stretch it a little. Each artist made an awesome set of sticks…I wish I had taken a group photo! Drats.
I was a little late this month getting the new crusade posted. The challenge is to put into words how you feel about creativity being part of your life. And then, so we get to know one another better, I invite you to tell us about the different kinds of art you make. Isn't true we never really fit into one category? The umbrella term 'mixed media' seems to be a label many use…but I have never really liked it. Too vague. Be more specific…I am a painter, a book artist, a visual journaler, a found object manipulater, a constructivist, an amateur jewelry maker, a polymer clay player, an aerosol artist, a stamp, stencil, and graphic designer…like that. Gives you a better picture, right? Anyway, come play…Crusade No. 56 (warning: if you are at work, turn down your speakers before visiting the street team site.)
Back to the Table Scraps Journal…..
Thanks again for all the terrific feedback about the new stencils. I'm such of a fan of Mary Beth's, and it is a thrill to be on her design team for Stencil Girl Products. Your enthusiasm has made it even more fun! I can't wait for you to see the rest of the collection 🙂
The new Somerset Studio is on the shelves – lots of great stuff inside….
And Crusade No. 55 is posted on my Street Team site…..come play along!
Click on over to see what this is all about.
Have a great Labor Day! School starts Wednesday….bums me out to have the kids gone during the day 🙁
Back to the Table Scraps Journal…..
Thanks again for all the terrific feedback about the new stencils. I'm such of a fan of Mary Beth's, and it is a thrill to be on her design team for Stencil Girl Products. Your enthusiasm has made it even more fun! I can't wait for you to see the rest of the collection 🙂
The new Somerset Studio is on the shelves – lots of great stuff inside….
And Crusade No. 55 is posted on my Street Team site…..come play along!
Click on over to see what this is all about.
Have a great Labor Day! School starts Wednesday….bums me out to have the kids gone during the day 🙁
I've been working on some more summer shapes and will show you those later this week. I dug up some older ones, from 2009. I hope it inspires you to look around at the interesting profiles and silhouettes that come with the season.
Speaking of silhouettes – I read in the exhibition catalogue from the recent Alexander McQueen show that he preferred designing a garment from the side view.
"I design from the side, that way i get the worst angle of the body.
You've got all the lumps and bumps, the s-bend of the back, the bum.
That way I get a cut and proportion and silhouette that works all the
way round the body." Lee Alexander McQueen
Isn't that interesting? Gives a much different perspective to look at a figure from the side. We tend to notice fronts and backs – but side view is genius. It was an amazing show – well worth the five hour wait in the broiling sun. You may have heard about the outrageous lines to enter the museum….Fallon and I were two of the thousands baking in the heat to see the exhibit on the very last day.
I loved this one – on display, and with a video to illustrate the painting process. See that HERE. (Photos borrowed from Met site.)
We are continuing studying color and names with the current crusade. It's been a fun investigation to review this aspect of our creative process. Come see what we have been doing HERE.
I've been working on some more summer shapes and will show you those later this week. I dug up some older ones, from 2009. I hope it inspires you to look around at the interesting profiles and silhouettes that come with the season.
Speaking of silhouettes – I read in the exhibition catalogue from the recent Alexander McQueen show that he preferred designing a garment from the side view.
"I design from the side, that way i get the worst angle of the body.
You've got all the lumps and bumps, the s-bend of the back, the bum.
That way I get a cut and proportion and silhouette that works all the
way round the body." Lee Alexander McQueen
Isn't that interesting? Gives a much different perspective to look at a figure from the side. We tend to notice fronts and backs – but side view is genius. It was an amazing show – well worth the five hour wait in the broiling sun. You may have heard about the outrageous lines to enter the museum….Fallon and I were two of the thousands baking in the heat to see the exhibit on the very last day.
I loved this one – on display, and with a video to illustrate the painting process. See that HERE. (Photos borrowed from Met site.)
We are continuing studying color and names with the current crusade. It's been a fun investigation to review this aspect of our creative process. Come see what we have been doing HERE.
Over on the Street Team we are paying close attention to the mix that occurs when we work with paint. Sometimes you start with two colors but end up with a whole range in between. While we look at those blends we are also noting how much fun it can be to observe color naming, and will attempt to claim a few names of our own. Hop over and see the creative mess I made on the living room wall trying to find the right color, with supplies from my studio. Come over and play!
With color mixing on my brain I decided to pull out some old work – from college! I had this phenomenal teacher who taught me so much – not only about the properties of color, but of perception. It really was theory and practice*. She required that we mount our work on gray mat board, type the objective and analysis, insert all in plastic sleeves and present in a three-ring binder. It seemed like a pain at the time but I am so happy to have these past assignments. Thank you Ms. Fargo. She also made us use gauche vs. acrylic, and we had to purchase sable brushes ($$$ for a college student) so we would leave no evidence of strokes in the work. I appreciate having learned that discipline but love bending the rule now – the strokier the better! I want my work to look like a person made it, textures and all. Why try to make a perfectly smooth swatch of painted surface that could easily have been cut from colored paper?
Here are some of those assignments….This first one had a limitation that we choose a hue on the opposite side of the color wheel than our favorite. My old fave was red so I went with green. That began a new love affair with green. It lasted for nearly twenty years until I went back to red.
Then there was this one – created from magenta, yellow, cyan, white and black. You should have seen my work table. Hundreds of scraps of painted stripes of color and then heaps of cuttings and retired exacto blades.
And this…the Chroma Bridge…such a fascinating exercise to blend two hues to find all the middle steps.
I faked out the Chroma Bridge below with photoshop. A few steps of hitting gradation between two colors then isolating into rectangles. It is a quick cheat…but like I said earlier, I really appreciate that I had the opportunity to learn the rules the real way first.
I have to name 2 through 8 for Crusade No, 53. Any suggestions? Take a stab at it.
Thanks for all the kinds words regarding my articles in Art Journaling and Somerset Studio. I will be talking more about it soon – so stay tuned. Have a good weekend.
* in theory and practice may sound familiar….it's part of the subtitle of the recent HIM album 😉