Transform

Once upon a time there was a little girl imprisoned in a beautiful butterfly house. She was lonely and sad because she was all alone. Her fairy godmothers from the Enchanted World of Blog flew by and unlocked her chains. They gave her wings and flowers and magic swirls to set her free. The little butterfly girl was transformed and flew from her butterfly house into a beautiful sunset sky to spread the magic and joy and inspiration that she had been given. (For Sunday Postcard Art)

TGIF: Curiouser and Curiouser

Sandy from Thank God It's Friday asked me to be the guest designer for "Feathers," the new stamping project there this week. I was actually just finishing this journal page when I got Sandy's email. When Ava saw it it, she said it looked difficult, but it wasn't at all. Typicallly, I labor over a page for at least half a day, but this page evolved over the course of about a week, while I was working on two other journal pages. I just doodled on it a little bit every day, not ever really concentrating on it, but working from intuition. I started with a color magazine picture that I converted to black and white in Photoshop Elements. I used only one layer of green acrylic paint because I knew I wanted the background to have a sort of a rough, grainy effect like the photo. Next, I glued on the photo and dry-brushed swipes of violet, red, and yellow paint around the edges. I didn't really have a vision for what I wanted the theme of this page to be, but by the third day, the look on the girl's face told me she was a modern-day Alice in Wonderland, and I knew then I wanted the page to be about curiosity. So, I painted on the hearts and used a white gel pen to scribble on some images and journal with a white gel pen. Then, I cut out some wings and wrote two quotes about curiosity on them. The very last step was to stamp the title on with some foam stamps. This was one of the most intuitive pieces I've ever done and quite a lot of fun to make. Thank you, Sandy, for challenging me this week. The rest of you should fly on over to TGIF and see all my other fine feathered friends there.

Dans Ma Maison, L'Art Transforme Mon Ame

"In My House Art Transforms My Soul." I made this house in response for several prompts this week: Arty Girlz Butterfly Challenge, Crazy Amigo's Faces Challenge, Ma Maison's Bijou Challenge ( I promise there is a jewel in the compass center; it just didn't show up well in the scan)and for One Powerful Hour's Architecture Challenge, and I'm not sure that I'm entirely pleased with it. If you click on the image or change your zoom, you can see the details better. I enjoyed the process, especially the texturing, and I like the theme, the colors, and the symbols. All the negative space around the house bothers me, though. Maybe I'm just a gaudy woman, but I've I've always subscribed to the theory that too much is never enough. I must study it for a while and see if I need to alter it in some way. This morning, probably due to the copious amounts of coffee I drank, I had a minor (but happy) cropping accident, which I will post later when I get home from school. Anyway, try to picture this: lop off the house part of this piece and enlarge the butterfly girl, making it a long horizontal image. I like that composition so much better,and I think it will become a painting someday. Please leave a comment and tell me what you think I should do about this page. I think a bit of collaboration would help.

Love,
Alberta


(Later)Okay, here's what she looks like cropped. I think she would make a great blog banner. I wish I knew how to make a banner that would extend all the way across my blog, Anyone, anyone?

Ava Was Overjoyed When She Won the Swimsuit Competition

for Saturday Surprise and Step Outside Your Box Saturdays

IF: Survival Instinct

I read once that to be happy one needs three things: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. It has always been my instinct to hope, perhaps because I am interested in so many things and can always find something to do. I've never understood people who said they were bored. My head is usually filled with impulses and visions of things I want to create. My husband often asks what I'm thinking, and I have to admit that, frequently, my response is that I'm not thinking at all, I'm imagining. This journal page is my response to the words of Van Gogh "The best way to know God is to love many things." My Jardin d'Espair is a list of the things I love, not all, mind you; there wasn't enough room for everything, silly. Today my wish for you is that you have something to do, something to love and something to hope for.

"Once you choose hope, anything's possible." Christopher Reeve

Love,
Alberta

Illustration Friday

Mystic Krewe

For Crazy Amigo's Color Challenge

It's definitely a mystery, but apparently Roc and I are the mothers of twins! If you don't believe, me just go here, and see. Twins do run in my family, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Evidently, Roc and I were working on these at the exact same time and just look at the obvious similarities: composition, color, and subject. Great minds??? I hope so!

Celebrating Phenomenal Women

You've been on my mind a lot lately, but then I tend to get sappy around Valentines Day. Since Mother Henna's hosting a heART Party, I wanted to make a little Saturday Surprise to Share the Love (One Powerful Hour) Recently I've been given some very lovely awards, but I haven't been able to put in the time to share these awards on as I should. You know how important you are to me, though, so I hope that all of you comment, cheerlead, or visit me here, will copy this award and post it on your blog because you are phenomenal women, all. (Illustration Friday) Happy Valentines Day!

Love,
Alberta

The Community of Creativity

I admit it. I have a big blog monkey on my back. For the last two weeks, I've been in major blog withdrawal while my computer usage has been so limited. I'm waiting, waiting, waiting for my new laptop, so I can resume my maniacal art posting. My favorite thing to do every morning, when I first awaken, is to sneak a peek at my blog to see a new comment or piece of art from one of you. Almost a year ago, when I first started my blog, I would never have thought that a little thing like an on-line journal would change my life so much. I never thought that having a blog would make me an artist, but it did. Inexplicably. Every time I made a card or a journal page, I showed it to you, and you responded. You made me want to do another and another, and, when I looked at your art, I learned how to do new things. Your work made me want to stretch and learn, and I did. We talked and shared and encouraged each other and, suddenly, I felt like what I had always wanted to be: an artist in a community of other artists. You me helped me make a life as an artist by giving to me and allowing me to give to you in return. So many of you shared your techniques and enabled other people to try to do what you had done. You weren't threatened or worried that someone would copy you. I followed your steps and imitated you, and, because of your generosity, the doubt and secret fears that had stifled me were gone. I learned so much because of your generosity, and I have the courage now to paint intuitively and boldly (like you see in the painting below, Creative Therapy). Unlike the competitive students I'd met in my college commercial art program, you cheered me on; you wanted me to succeed. You weren't the least bit afraid I would steal your thunder or get the recognition you deserved. I became a part of an ever-growing web of sharing and creating that grows and nurtures and makes the world more beautiful. My world has a whole new dimension now, and what was missing now fills me and makes me whole.

"Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." (Norman MacEwan)

Love,
Alberta

Peek a Boo

I've been working on a big project since Saturday, and although I'm not yet finished, I though I would give you a few peeks. I've missed blogging so much, but I discovered that a painting takes a great deal more time than a journal page or an ATC does. This is a painting I'm doing for my husband's birthday, and, since he was a child of the sixties, it's going to be called "Flower Child." (Arty Girlz Flowers Challenge). I started with a 24 X 30 inch canvas added gesso, textured papers, silk flowers, tagboard cutouts and molding paste. At first I used a palette knife for the paste, but mooshing it on with my fingers was so much more fun.

After the modeling paste dried, I started layering on paint using everything from sponge to brushes to my fingers again for application.
When I had most of the paint on the large areas completed, I rubbed over the surface with walnut and black ink pads to bingout the testure. Then, I handpainted flowers onto watercolor paper and carefully cut those out. I did this so I could move them around the compostion and see which arrangement works best. When my art buddy Jann came over Saturday, she suggessted that I photograph the painted tin butterfly hanging in my studio and use it somewhere in this painting. So, I 'll definitely give that a try.

Here's what I've done so far. I have a lot more details to add. Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think. I always loved group projects when I was in school, so help me out and make some suggestions!

Rosalind's Dream

It's felt strange not to have posted anything in six days, but I've been working on two paintings for the last week. And I'm still having major computer problems. I finally broke down Saturday and, after talking to a Dell representative on the phone for almost two hours, I broke down and ordered my first very own computer: a Dell Studio 15. I'm so excited. The computer I've been using is one I inherited from my son. We bought it for him when he was fourteen, and now he's twenty, so that tells you what kind of condition it's in. Whenever I've finished a piece of art and want to scan it and blog it, it takes me about 15 minutes just to log on. My Windows connection mysteriously disappeared, but, if I curse loudly enough, Ava will come to my rescue and connect me with the Internet, using her mysterious powers. She won't tell me how to do it myself because she wants me to owe her big time.

This past weekend was heavenly. Because I was fighting a migraine (doesn't seem to fit with my previous sentence, I know, but read on) I mostly stayed home and pampered myself. I went up to the art attic, even before my coffee was ready, and added texture with modeling paste to the dancing girl on the big canvas I've been working on. While that was drying, I got back in bed and lazed around, re-watching Kevin Bacon, the new love of my life, in "Stir of Echoes" until about noon. I also read all my favorite blogs and caught up on my comments and e-mails. Thank goodness for migraine medication, which kept the worst of the headache at bay. After a lovely omelet for brunch, I dragged myself out of bed, got dressed, and went back up to my studio. I started flinging paint at my canvas and achieved a certain 80's effect, which I liked, around the edges. I got stuck because then because I'm not sure what colors I want to use on her hair. should it be a golden-brown halo of light or should it be a little funkier, perhaps antique book pages or white with ink curlicues? I have to ponder that awhile, so I picked a small canvas up that I'd started on Wednesday. So far, I had a pink and green background textured with paste, silk flowers, and old handwritten pages. I added more texture with a homemade paper maiche of tissue and gesso layered over pages from Shakespeare and a book of fairy tale. I hurried the dry time with my blow dryer and added more color with deeper pink and red inks and different shades of green acrylic, over which I layered some walnut distressing ink. Exhausted by all this flurry of rather physical creativity, I took a nap and awoke refreshed and ready for dinner and a movie with Mr. Al. We had decided to try to see as many Oscar nominees as possible before the big event, so "Revolutionary Road" was on the agenda for the evening. We ran some errands and ate dinner at Bonefish Grill. It was so crowded, though, that we had to wait nearly an hour for a table, and, after all the stupor-inducing wine and candlelight, we decided to forgo the theater and just head home and watch "Burn After Reading" on Pay Per View. I know....we're old!

Sunday was much the same: a late breakfast, painting in the attic, napping in front of the fire. Hey, I know how to enjoy a convalesence. I finished the small painting for TGIF, Step Outside Your Box Saturdays Spirituality Challenge and Saturday Suprise Photograph Challenge, and Created By Hand Love Quotes Challenge with Ava and Amarylis and Magenta making encouraging suggestions, like "Add some more of those big flowers up in that corner," and "I think you need some more butterflies, Aunt Alberta." Thank you, Doodlebugs; you were absolutely right on all counts. The gesso resist technique I used came from the newest Saturday Workout challenge and my friend Jean from Bluebirds Living in the Meadow suggested the use of tissue paper as a texturing material. When I thought I was finished, I stepped back, and the whole thing looked too light, so I fingerpainted on liberal amounts of black ink and drybrushed some burgundy acrylic in strategic areas. Then, I was finished! It's funny how you know when a piece is done, when one more thing would be one thing too many, but I always get a feeling of completion at a certain point. So, here it is, my first mixed media painting with textures. Finis.