Another View...

...of Sue's exhibit

If you have the time or are traveling down the Columbia Gorge. Take a side trip to walk through a bit of history and see some inspiring and intriguing art books.

Gadzooks!

What a great name for a show! Actually the full name is - Gadzooks! Amazing Books by Northwest Artists. It's open now until November 15th at the Maryhill Museum of Art in Washington. It was a wonderful opening and fabulous artist books from 15 different artists.

Here is my friend, Sue Allen, with her books of Japanese lanterns through the seasons. She is a screen printer and made the box to hold the books in, too. A very talented artist!

Art Books and Art Doll

This week I have decided to enter one of my art dolls in the Oregon State Fair. It is a piece I made, a year ago last winter, for another show with the theme of Contrasts. She is named Both Sides of the Soul. She is made of white and black linen, a glow-in-the-dark polymer clay face, an inkjet iron transfer, lots and lots of beads and a Tinker Toy base. The back of this piece is the inspiration for the Yin/Yang necklace. Now...off I go to the fair website, download the info, print out the form and fill it all out. Whatever happened to a paperless society?

After a busy week of housecleaning,(I hate housecleaning!) playing art with my friend, Sherrie, and then take down and rehanging of my guild's theme show, I'm tired. Tomorrow another guild member and I will go up to Maryhill Museum of Art to see the show, Gadzooks! Amazing Books by Northwest Artists. www.maryhillmuseum.org Sue Allen is part of this show of some very creative artists and the books they have made. I volunteered to go with her, not only because I want to see the show, but it's a long drive and it's nice to have company on the way. If I can remember to take my camera, I'll try to take some pics of the books, if the museum will let me. It looks to be a fun time!

Mona's Rooster in progress

Here is the promised pic of Mona's Rooster. I will be adhering this picture to a larger canvas to make framing easier. Even though I'm not a big collector of chickens and roosters, I like the idea of adding at least one to my painted art. I think I may need to go shopping for chicken images. Oh! The things we do for our art!

I've been remiss....

...in getting to my blog. I've been having a great time working in my new workshop. First are two pages that I experimented with, using a technique that I saw in the current Cloth-Paper-Scissors by Chrysti Hydeck. Very cool backgrounds and a trove of ideas have popped into my mind on how and what to use them for. While working on the pages and waiting for them to dry, I started another piece. The piece, "Mona's Rooster", was my attempt at remembering how to play with my acrylic paints from a class by Suzie Wolfer at Paperdoll, (www.paperdoll-co.com). AND...while waiting for that to dry, I worked on an art doll/shrine that I call a Guardian. He has been waiting for me to get to him for some time. He is made from recycled bits and is for a swap. I like the way he is coming together and while working on him, a brother popped up in my creative design center, aka my brain. It seems I may have to make a number of these Guardians.

Oh bother, I forgot to download the pictures from my camera. I'll have to do that tomorrow. I do have a pic of the picture I worked on, in my class with Suzie, and have put that up instead. I named it Rosa's Chickens.

Z'annes Bazaar Workshop.....

and All Around Busy Place. Here are the pics from Phase II of bench building. It went up very quickly and I now have TONS of space to work on a number of projects. Next comes more clearing of the garage and arranging of tables and shelves. I'll be moving my embossing materials out to the workshop. This way I'll have more ventilation and easier clean up of the powders. HB bought me some mats, from Harbor Freight, to lay on the floor in front of the benches. This is very helpful for legs and backs, because standing on concrete is not all that good for the body. Once this nasty heat goes away, I'll be able to get out there and work on those projects that are piling up in my head.

New Workshop

I've been wanting and waiting to build an outdoor studio for years. This week it's coming true! I commandeered the garage last fall and got it cleaned out. (A major project in itself!) Had an area set up with shelves to hold all my 3D art supply objects and than waited for better weather. Finally the time was right. HB and I set about constructing a work bench made from sawhorses and plywood. Finished up the wall to the laundry room, attached the bench and put up the cupboard I had taken down from the kitchen. (I "papered" the inset of the cupboard doors with decorative paper, can't be staring at boring doors, can we?) With a leftover piece of plywood, I made a shelf under the saw horses. Can't have enough storage! We just finished up building the second bench and I'm waiting for the paint to dry. I am SO psyched!
Here are a few pics of the first bench going up. I'll get the rest of the pics up tonight or tomorrow.