Holy Rose Shrine

This shrine was made for Inspire Me Thursday Holes challenge, My Artistic Life's Turquoise challenge and Illustration Friday's Modify challenge. It was constructed from a tray I modified with acrylic paint, beads, paper, found objects, a hand-sculpted rose, and sacred heart. Now that I've made three shrines, does this make me a Shriner? If so, then I want a fez!

More Inspirational People

For days I’ve been planning this post because the incredibly poetic and gifted artist Lumilyon has blessed me with a special award. Receiving an award from someone like Lumi, who has the ability to create the most magical, beautiful art, is such an honor. I rremember when Lumi first started her blog and was so unsure about the whole thing, and now she inspires people all over the world with her stories and her art, and she always takes the time to encourage, teach and support others . “If you only do what you know you can do- you never do very much.” Tom Krause. Than you so much, Lumii, for daring to do something you didn't know you could do and making such a difference to so many.




I wanted to pass it on in the same lovely way she honored me. So here it goes to:



Shelly at Blue Ridge Lady for your sunny disposition, your extravagantly generous spirit, your beautiful garden photos, and your happy, candy-colored collages and kaleidescopes. “A true friend sees the good in everything, and brings out the best in the worst of things.” (Sasha Azevedo) Thank you BBFF, for inspiring me and for always seeing the best in me.




Nancy at Crowabout for your fabulous Flickr group and your unconditional support of my every new venture. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” (John Quincy Adams) Thank you, Nancy, for making me dream more.



Cathy at Reflections of a Ramblin Girl for, your willingness to take on a cause and your scrumptious quilts and collages.“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” (Mahatma Gandhi). Thank you, Cathy, for your compassion and for always reaching out.




Courtney at Quiet Girl for your deep sensitivity, your spirituality, and your powerful healing art. “Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be.” (Karen Ravn). Thank you for making me reach higher and look deeper.




Kim at Queen of Arts for your friendship, your raw honesty, and just for being the Rock Fairy. "Art does not solve problems but makes us aware of their existence. It opens our eyes to see and our brain to imagine." (Magdalena Abakanowicz). Kim, you've not only opened my eyes, but my heart, and you've encouraged me to imagine much more than I ever thought possible.



Ann at Taluula’s for your incredible digital creations and for co-hosting a fun new art challenge blog: The Three Muses "Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day." (Dalai Lama). Thank you, Ann, for being my muse and my friend and for giving me the opportunity to make so many more new friends.

So, now ladies, please take this award and give it to five other bloggers that make you happy. (I know, I know, I gave it to six, but I never could follow the rules!) and please take the time to visit each of the others, as well as Lumilyon and leave them a comment. You will be so glad you visited these lovely blogs and got to know the artists.

Little Altars Everywhere

"My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness." Dalai Lama


Finally! My Internet has been down all day, and I wanted to get this posted first thing this morning for Mixed Media Monday's Charming Junk challenge. I was so inspired by this prompt last week that I haunted the flea markets nearby to find plenty of charming junk for this shrine. Then, I noticed that the new challenge at The Three Muses is about people who have inspired you, and Crazy Amigos has a free theme this week, so I was glad this post was a little delayed because my little altar will work for all three. Frankly, I cannot begin to articulate my own religious beliefs, but, as we say here in the South, I am a "praying woman." Although, as an adult, my spiritual beliefs have become somewhat more eclectic, as I've studied from the Buddhist and Hindu readings, I grew up going to Sunday school every week of my lfe and took muy own children, in turn. I do devoutly believe that one can never go wrong following the gentle, unselfish, humanitarian teachings of Jesus. This "Jesus is Just Alright With Me" shrine is about 7" X 13," and the base is an upside down wall bracket, which, along with the tin heart nut dish and cross, came from the aforementioned flea markets; the portrait came from a piece of packing tape, and the rose I hand-sculpted and painted last night. The red box is very special to me, as it was given to me by my dear friend Abby. Neither the box nor the rose is affixed to the shrine because I plan to change these pieces out seasonally, especially on Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, when I will decorate my little altar to honor someone beloved who has passed away. Below you can see more of the happy mess I made in the Art Attic today.



Lately I just don't seem to want to be anywhere but here. School starts in a week and a half, and I want to make the most of my time in my sweet little room at the top of the house.



Here I'm surrounded by color and books and shelves and shelves of treasures. I can escape up to my Attic to paint all day in my nightie or just sit and dream to my heart's delight.

Sacred Hearts Shrine

It's Sacred Hearts Sunday here in the the Art Attic. Inspired by the new challenge at Saturday's Workout, I've had great fun this weekend, working on a series of small shrines made of found objects, tin boxes, paper, beads, and wood. The Loving Kindness shrine is constructed on canvas and is approximately 8" X 13". if you are interested in it, please e-mail me at katherinemccullen@yahoo.com.

As you can see I definitely do not subscribe to the "Less is more" school of thought. In fact, I believe that too much is never enough! I thrive on visual stimulation and noise.




I love harlequin



and houndstooth



antique toys, tins, and mason jars



flea market finds



and color. Lots and lots of color. Look for more finished shrines tomorrow. I hope this week finds your heart filled with joy and loving kindness and your imagination with color and energy.

Love,
Alberta

Zabar's Incredible Journey

I've been waiting for the right opportunity to share my New York pictures with you, and since the The Three Muses' new challenge is about journeys, I thought I would let Zabar the Amazing Tour Guide, seen on the journal page above, take you on an Incredible Journey of the city, starting with Central Park, continuing through the Upper East and West Sides, Greenwich Village, Soho, Harlem, and ending with a view from the Top of the Rock. I made this page in about an hour (One Powerful Hour) before the trip and journaled about the highpoints of the trip on the ride home.

Crazy Amigo Challenge

If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head almost nothing.

-Marc Chagall

I was in the Art Attic by 8:00, didn't even walk my three miles this morning, haven't taken a bath, but I did finish two new journal pages, frame a Daphne Covington print, rearrange paint shelves, hang two of Mary Ann Wakeley's gorgeous abstracts, and a print from the Queen of Arts, rework the blue on the big painting, and read the new issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissor's Studio. Talk about a perfect day!

Insomnia: My Greatest Inspiration

woke up at 3:00 a,m, and couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided might as well go up to the Art Attic and have a little Creative Therapy




I made a lot of progress and finally figured out what to do in that bottom right corner. You'll see more tomorrow.

Much later: okay, I thought I knew what I was going to do with that corner, but now I realize that the black and white checkerboard I planed to paint there will fight with the black and white border on the right side. What should I do? I need help. Suggestions please!

A Piece From Heaven

This page is for TGIF and was the first page that I created using the extreme visual journaling techniques from Juliana Cole's "Empty Raw Creations" booklet. This is actually just the warm-up activity, but I took it a few steps further, adding extra ephemera at the end, simply because it was hard to stop! Today I'm going to spend the entire day in my studio for my own Extreme Journaling Retreat. I hope to finish several pages, and I also want to get a lot of work done on a big painting I'm doing for my son. I've planned to spend a day alone painting all week, but I've had so many unexpected errands, trying to get caught up after our trip, things to select and pick up for the house we're renovating, but today is going to be all mine!

New Journal Page: New Dreams

created using Juliana Cole's Extreme Visual Journaling method, for The Three Muses. Wednesday Stamper and Creative Therapy. "Sometimes on the way to our dreams, we get lost and find an even better one." I can't recall where I first read these words, but I've remembered them often.

When I went to college, all set to major in commercial art, I was a teeny tiny fish in a vast ocean of "art majors." My first professor, a Mr. Jan Weber, was not impressed with my daily submissions for Design I. He always had some withering, witty comment about my efforts. I was nowhere near avante-garde enough for him. I didn't wear all black; I didn't wander dazedly into class, reeking of patchouli oil; my hair was clean; I wore L'Air De Temps, for heaven's sake. I was...what's that awful word? perky! Something about my placement of triangles and cylinders infuriated Mr. Weber, but, in my dorm's dimly lit lobby, I'd work all night, trying desperately for something original to present for his approval. I could only imagine so many ways to configure geometric shapes on a 12x16 page, but I gave it everything I had. I made a C-in his class. I only endured one more semester in the art department, through Freehand Drawing I. In May I fled to the counseling department for a barrage of aptitude tests. According to the results, I had aptitude, it seemed, for the ministry, special education, and social work. Since I was enjoying all evils of college life, being a minister was out of the question, and I pretty much flipped a coin between the other two choices. Special education won, and it was during that time that I experienced the single enjoyable artistic endeavor of my entire college career: making a sandpaper alphabet for my Teaching of Reading class. On the back of each index card, I did an illustration for that particular letter of the alphabet. I got the highest grade in my whole class. Finally, somebody appreciated my art! More importantly, though, I found a vocation. I've been a special education teacher for twenty eight years, and I love what I do more every year, I had never considered becoming a teacher before I gave up on my dream of being a commercial artist, but a teacher is who I became, and the reality of that has been a dream come true.

"There are as many different worlds as there are perceivers or Beings or
individuals. You are not here to create one world where everyone is the
same, wanting and getting the same. You are here to be that which you want
to be, while you allow all others to be that which they want to be." Abraham-Hicks

Gothic Arches and MMM

This is the first gothic arch I've created in some time, but I couldn't help but be inspired and play with the Rose theme at Gothic Arches this week. The flower-headed lady was created on our trip out of two images I got from a Flickr group called Collage Images (Not For Posting Art). The actual arch was made using techniques I learned from an Extreme Journaling workbook by Juliana Coles. This is by no means "extreme journaling," but I decided to play with what I learned from her workshop booklet "Empty Raw Creations, and I found that her techniques can be used for almost any mixed media project. Here's what I did: I prepared a piece of heavy watercolor paper with molding pasted, stamping it before it dried with a paisley-shaped rubber stamp from Walmart. When the paste dried I painted the entire arch with cheap aqua acrylic paint, and when that was dry, I drybrushed magenta paint on the textured areas. I let the paint set for a minute or two and then began wiping and reapplying the magenta until I was pleased with the result, and then I did the same with yellow paint. I added a little mediuum pink paint for highlights and then glued Madame Rose and flower cutouts from Artful Blogging onto the arch. I brushed around the edges of the cutouts with magenta, aqua, and yellow to make them seem more a part of the arch, and I used my new favorite art tool, Baby Wipes, to remove paint as needed. I continued adding and removing various shades until I liked what I saw. It's important to use a new Baby wipe when one gets covered with paint or you will muddy your surface. When all the paint was dry, I rubbed a black ink pad over the textured areas and used a flourish stamp in some of the bare areas. Again, I used a Baby Wipe to make the stamps less distinct. Next, I added two butterflies from my vintage butterfly book that Ava gave me last year, overpainting them with magenta and yellow arcylic, and I went back around the outside of the arch while I still had paint on my brush. The last thing I did was use my black stamp pad on the edges of the arch and voila!

Become a wing, a torch, a promise

Good advice from George Bernard Shaw: "This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one: being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no 'brief candle' to me. It is a sort of splendid torch that I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which comes to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which comes to me as blossom, goes on as fruit." (for Creative Therapy)

The journal page above was nothing but play. It was created, as the last several I osted were, in the care on the way to New York. Well, I'd actually painted most of the background prior to the trip, but I added the deatails and the headless gardener while traveling. The stamping was done with bubble wrap last night.

SWO: Circle It

In the summertime, when I have little to do and no excuse to be tired, I seem to go into full couch potato mode and want to sit around and watch back to back SVU episodes. But when I'm away from my studio and can't create, I'm often flooded with ideas and anxious to get home and bring them to life. Of course, once home, I often lose my momentum, plop down on the sofa with a bowl of chocolate mint ice cream and start watching Snapped on the Sleuth Network. So while we were driving through the very beautiful state of West Virginia last week, I made a little note to self, on this journal page, of all the projects I want to finish before I go back to school in August. Today I've managed to steer clear of the devil t.v., and I've spent most of this afternoon in my studio finishing some travel journal pages and beginning Juliana Cole's Empty Raw Creations workshop booklet. More about that later, I promise

Big ETSY Sale:

I am forcing myself to do a cleanup in my studio and closing my ETSY shop, so I am putting all items on sale for half of their listed prices. If you are interested in anything, you can contact me on ETSY or leave me comment here. In addition, there a number of journal pages available that I have not put in my ETSY shop, and, if you'd like to purchase one of those, just let me know which one, and I'll check the availability. They are also priced at 15.00 plus shipping. You can find a ready-made black frame/white mat combination at Walmart, and it will fits most of these pages. My friend Susan has about eight of my journal pages framed in a mass display on her office wall, and they give the room a very colorful, happy atmosphere. Happy shopping!





Django Acrylic on canvas 12" X 12"

There's No Place Like Home

This page is for One Powerful Hour's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" challenge, My Time To Craft's "Music" challenge, and My Artistic Life's "Pink & Blue" challenge. It was completed in record time: 45 minutes, while driving through Virginia on our way to New York City. My supplies were limited to what I had in my portable journaling backpack, so I started with a page of text from Vogue magazine for the background, and I glued on a bit of a Juicy Couture ad and an image from Collage Images Not For Posting. Color was added using ink pads, and lettering was done by hand with a black brush marker. Stamps were added this morning after I got home.

We actually arrived about 11:00 last night; Mr. Al drove the 18 hours from upstate New York to Atlanta, so we could wake up in our own beds this morning, and it was divine to be able to have my coffee and blogs. I visited many of my favorite blogs and to see what lovlies you all had posted while I was on vacation. Imagine my delight when, I discovered on Shelly's blog the Blue Ridge Lady and on Nancy's blog, CrowAbout, that Amusing Muses had been given this award. These two ladies have been with me since my earliest blogging days: cheering me on, inspiring me, teaching me, so from them, this means a lot.
Along with the award came the instructions to tell 7 random things about myself, so here goes:

I have a learning disability in math. I barely passed Algebra II and Chemistry, but made an A in Geometry. Go figure. Guess the right side of my brain kicked in.

Although I am a very non-violent person and pacifist, I am strangely fascinated with serial killers; I love movies and television shows about them. The one about Ted Bundy, "The Stranger Beside Me" is my favorite. It might have something to do with Mark Harmon.

I've always been really good at taking tests, I think because I read so much.

I'm a sucker for any man who can dance but especially a big man who can dance. Think John Goodman, Chris Farley, Vince Vaughn, Brian Dennehey, Frankenstein...

I asked my husband out on our first date, and, at dinner that night, we decided to get married. And we've been married 26 years.

I make the best spaghetti sauce in the world, if I do say so myself. Mr. Al plants about 35 tomato plants every year, and, when the tomatoes come in, I spend days making sauce and freezing it, so we can have it once a week until the next summer. I'm pretty sure that the secret to my successful marriage is simply that I won't give Mr. Al my recipe.

I'm horribly neurotic about losing things. I rarely lose anything, however, but that may just be because my loved ones would rather drop everything and search, instead of watching me wring my hands or listening to me rant obsessively until the lost object is found.

I'd like to pass this award on to some other very special artists:
Lumilyon
Queen Of Arts
Allison's Heart Sings
Danford Designs
Groggy Froggy
Taluula's Art Blog
Reflections of a Ramblin' Girl
Joyful Ploys


Please treat yourself and visit their blogs. You eyes and hearts will certainly thank you. I'll be posting more pages I created on the road, as the week continues. Until then, I'm going to spend some more time catching up on what you've done in the last week.