day #6--my bucket list

i haven't seen the movie with morgan freeman and jack nicholson yet but i get the jist that it's about finding out you have a terminal illness and figuring out what you really wanna do before you kick the bucket...

on the way back from a hike with my friendy emily, i was spouting off something about something i'd like to do before i die... she sagely handed my a notepad and a pen and told me to write that bucket list....that moment has remained with me as a profound smashing up against my own mortality...

you'd think i was pretty aware of this for as an oncology nurse, i see people, well, get the word that they might just be leaving here soon... people who are just cruising along in their lives, making dinners, seeing kids and grands grow up, making plans and boom...arrrr...they get cancer and look ahead to weeks, months, years of chemo, nausea, doctors appointments....do they have bucket lists? well, i've never asked a patient this but i bet they have one at least at the back of their minds...

i'm gonna die one day, so i GET IT that i gotta make my dreams, plans and goals reality....sooooo, here's my first efforts toward one of my goals....in 2009, i want to have my art shown locally say in a coffee shop...this is the year to create the body of work to be shown...

so i bought a piece of mass produced art (i think it had gondoliers on it) at goodwill...i liked the shape, the plastic frame around it that makes it a deep canvas and it had a ready-made texture painted on it....i painted it with sophisticated finishes iron metallic surfacer on the canvas to ready it for the rusting solution... it comes out black/grey before you antique it...

you can see where i wiped it away to allow gluing the box with a found nest in it on the surface...


i added one of my "word salad" cut outs...


and collage papers...i love the one of the iridescent bottles found in a national geographic ( i find the best pix there)...




as the piece evolves i'll share it with you...questions? comments? constructive criticism? let me know.....

and now, for your viewing pleasure, not my art: day#5

while i wait for dear mr. pop pirate to bring back the camera from his job site (ehem!) in berthoud, i will share another fave artists, david wallace ...this time a collage artist that, again, uses minimalist aesthetics. What i enjoy is his use of vintage, fifties paper ephemera and at times color that pops....so much of today's collage work seems to use antique, senna colored victorian imagery....static and boring for me...

the piece below is a collaborative work that was sent back and forth a few times between artist rebecca trawick and himself. check out his site for interactive pictures that follow the evolution of a number of collaborations...


back next time with a larger piece i am working on...part of the " get to that list of things to do before i die" plan....

day #4 james michael starr

here is a peek at one of my fave assemblage artist, james michael starr... i love his simplicity, an almost stark approach to his art...i appreciate this as i'm not really into a lot of precious collage detris ...

happy day...

day #3 cook book art

last year i joined my second altered book swap...all of us came with a book decorated on the outside in a theme we chose...one was "forest lovers" another a vintage cookbook by erikia ghumm, famous for her paper crafts and collages....it was a three ring binder of better homes and gardens full of color saturated food pictures that almost looked inedible...we all have seen these pix that make the food look gross...

well i finally got around to (ehem) finishing mine (looks down at her feet in shame)...you cannot see the buttons, the recipes and the collages very well from the pictures i took but here they are...the section i selected was "pies"...i had snagged some of the cut out newspaper recipes her pack rat family member had squirreled away...helpful hints from helloise, newspaper articles about hugh hefner's business prowess (????) and a recipe for millionaire pie...

the above pix (sorry it's tipped on its side, i couldn't make my photo program run today..could bode ill for my future posts...) but this one is my fave...it has very rusty bottle caps...i rusted some vintage material...i learned the technique from an article in cloth, paper, scissors ...the fun old photo i cut from a national geographic mag of a class for immigrants to learn verbs related to cooking...thus, "cooking with verbs"...


off into the mail it goes...back to its rightful owner...arrrr

day #2 who knew ipods got cold...

montana my teen pirate, has an ipod nano that she has not sleeve for so i googled "ipod cozy" and came up with a few different ones including this cute hoodie ... i didn't feel like something so intricate so i jumped over here and started right in to the sweet pea cozy...felted wool to keep that little micro chip warm ... i had her pick from a number of cute large buttons for the i-cord loop to wrap around...there is even room for earbuds at the top...also, i love lamb's pride wool...felts up nice, feels good in the hand and is very inexpensive...
sorry for the shady yellowed pix...still working on the photography side of blogging ....also, my mom just sent me a new-to-me h.p. camera...fewer pixels but somehow better pix...aarrr...

28 days of art---day #1

hello my four readers! i have been on a blogging sabatical so to make up for the long absence i wanted to offer up 28 days of art and craft...i have been busy working on several projects, one for sale and others for fun...

art number one: beaded mirror candleabra...i saw something similar in a craft mag awhile ago but it involved buying a ready-made form...i thought it looked a lot like an old vanity tray, the mirrored ones ladies used to put their perfumes and makeup on...i am hoping to put this and another two mirrors (soon to be revealed) in an art sale that happens three or four times a year at my friend caterina giglio's home...


it's been placed on a white wraught iron candle pedestal and has three crystal tea light holders placed on top...the flames are amplified by the reflection in the mirror...pretty! you can see i've attached vintage millinary flowers as well as found objects like an old key and a vintage diamond ring...
i've beaded some draping pieces, added a few chandelier crystals and vintage necklaces to create what i think is a one-of-a-kind functional art piece...let me know what you think...

have a great day...it's 60 degrees today and just two days ago it was snowing...aarrr....