Art Dreams

You know almost everyone secretly if not openly wants to get published in one of "those" magazines!

 I told my self, at the beginning of this year, more as a growth in techniques inspiration, not a s a career maneuver, to submit art to them.  I put the words, "submit art" on my vision board.  So, because the words were posted and I saw them often, I did send in a few pictures.  I joined the black and white all over ornament challenge.  And now, I have just discovered, that one of the ornaments I made is published in the CPS Gifts edition!

Well, I had forgotten about sending them in... that was like way last May or so, until Deb over in mmartfriends group posted she had been published.  I got out my latest CPS and found the add for the CPS Gifts. And there it was, my ornie, on the tree!  I wrote to Deb and asked her to check if I was also included and she said "yes!"

I did not think this would be a big deal, considering where I live-way out in the boonies-and almost all my art connections are on line.  And as you know, I am a senior citizen delux.   I am not trying to start a career, nor am I trying to become one of the well known artists on the circuit of mixed media art.  But, it is a thrill to know that my art is appreciated enough to have it  happen and I guess that is what keeps artists sending in those art ideas and photos.  It's the idea of having your art valadated by "the professionals!"   If you haven't sent something in, and you want to, I say, just do it.  Do it now while it is fun.  Do it because you want to.  Just do it, lol.

The altered tins ornaments I sent...

This was the inside of the altoid tin...

And this was a tall thin tin...about four inches tall before alteration...

And here she is on the tree in the add selling the Gifts edition of the latest CPS...peeking out from behind an inset photo...she is kind of shy, just like me!

A bit closer look...

And the photo in the CPS Gifts is really nicely done... you will have to check it out if you get to a store that sells these magazines.


Today, I will be starting a new project on my newly cleaned art desk.
 My biggest car girl spend Sunday afternoon with me and she made a duck tape wallet, a duck tape rose, and some yo yo hair pins and helped me clean the studio.  I love it when the car girls come over to play.

And I love to see my art desk looking like this, but I love it more when it is covered up in bit and pieces of mixed media supplies, paint, wire...what ever!

The Wooly Birds Progress

I cut out a bunch of woolly birds.  I sewed their wings on each side.  I put the sides together.  I threw then in a little basket.  I gathered up my embroidery thread, and other decorative bits and pieces.  When ever I sit down in my chair...I pick one up and do a bit of stitching and decorating.  They are looking so pretty now...

Black wool, red wings... we have red winged black birds spend time in our yard so I had to make one!

I have not made birds of a color other than black before, but my black wool is almost gone so I thought "birds of color" might be interesting...

I had a face or two left over from making my "little darlings" dolls so I thought "why not..."

Old holey doilies cut to wing shapes are rather eye pleasing...

This was one of those doubled doilies to make a hot pad thingy, separated by scissors... 

Some velvet upholstery makes a nice soft touchy freely wing...

Another old hot pad recycled....

More upholster wings with other bits and pieces added... don't you just love the top knot?

The art dolls and the birds have kept me stitching for a while now...

All dressed up and ready to go to new homes... I really enjoyed my journey with these beauties...

So lovable... I hope someone else will give them love too!

And this is my table by my chair.  I actually took this picture because Seth, over at the Altered Page had  a challenge up...he wanted to see our stacks...This is my stack of "stuff" I use on the hand stitching birds and dolls...it looks chaotic but it is actually quite organized, he he, with floss in one bag, bric a brac in another, a little box (or two) of different colored beads, bits and pieces of felt and fabrics...thread, needles and pin cushion.. 

And, in the studio, I had to make some paper mask prototypes to take to the middle school for a mask making play time with my middle car girl's third grade class...

I think we will have fun with that on Friday...

Now I have to go get prepped for a journal making class at Gypsy Mama's on Saturday...I hope enough peeps signed up to have the class!

Last but not least, we woke up to snow falling and the wild turkey's dancing in the rain (er snow) this morning!

Breaking Out the Wool

Yep, I had to do it.  I dug into my felted wool scraps.  I have been playing with them for several days now and having so much fun.  I really started out to make some more wooly birds (photos of these later).  But I could not resist taking the cuttings from the birds and putting them together for some fun creations.
And at the YSM on Friday, I bought an old Brother sewing machine.  I had to see if it worked, it does, and I just sort of played around with it sewing some odd shapes.  These too became creations in the making.  Since I wanted to blog today, I thought I would show you some pictures of silly but so fun little stuffies.

My intentions for the wool was to make birds...

I found some of those old crochet hot pads at the YSM which I think will make very cute wings...

After cutting out the birds, I had bits and pieces of wool left...and since I really love the wool I picked up the pieces and started fitting them together to see what would emerge...

A cat of course...

But this guy was a great surprise...

She looks rather like an alien but I am waiting for her to tell me what to add to her to make her more lovable...

Cat wanted some beads and some whiskers...

And what emerged with playing with the new old sewing machine-maybe a body?

And a tube...

And my daughter said this reminded her of the story about the king with no clothes... he he

And a tube with legs-or maybe antennea...

And what the tube looks like now that I have played around with it for a bit...

And I just found this amongst my stuff and  it rather looked like a mask so I thought I would throw that in... lol

And now... I just added a cute little tail to the birdie thingy...

Do you have some fabric scraps to play with?  Just go sit at the machine and make funny shapes... stuff and embellish... too much fun!

Hunting

One thing I love about being the kind of artist I am is the hunt.
 Here, in Utah, it is the opening season week end for the deer hunt.  My family used to make the deer hunt an annual family reunion.  We always camped for ten days on the same mountain, in the cedars and junipers, below the quaking asp and pine level.  Our friends and relatives knew we would be there, and always welcome to come camp with us.  We always ate dutch oven cooking by my dad, then later the sons in laws and son and even I learned how to use the dutch ovens and had some of my own.  They are too heavy for me now, but boy do they make a good meal taste sensational!  My memories of the deer hunting camp outs are beautiful to me.
 Our family no longer camps together, which is sad, but I have moved on to other activities that are not as hard on an older, mature body, lol.  Namely art.  My art allows me to do a different kind of hunting...I hunt for treasures I can use in my art.  I travel from hunting ground to hunting ground (YSM, thrift shops, scratch and dent places, hardware stores, etc), searching for treasures I can incorporate into my mixed media art.  I continually find the unusual (hmmm wonder what I could do with this), the beautiful (I so love this-I must have it),  the "I can't turn this down" (I have no idea what this was or what I will do with it but the price is too good to turn down)  treasure.   I recently found a stack of postcards with old photos on them.  They are sepia colored and since I live on a reservation, they caught my eye.  The price was perfect so home with me they came.   I thought you might like to view them too.  I think they would be great printed on fabric, on a journal, in a collage...
 

Little Big Man

Red Cloud, Satana, Binito, Ar-ke-ke-tah

Annie Oakley, Young Man Afraid of His Horses, Rain In the Face, Buffalo Bill Cody

Frontier scouts, Broken Arm, American Horse, Washakie

Mescaleo Apache Camp, The Apache Kid, Homesteaders, Wagons Ho

Indian hunting party, Plains indian womem, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, , Frontier Trading post. (sorry about the orientation on this one).

The Apache Kid, Old Washee, Gayetenito and Wife, Quanah Parker

Gall, Rain in the Face, Low Dog, Showeway

Western Stagecoach, White Mountain Apaches, Apache Indian Scouts, Satanta

Don't you just love some of their names?

And for a change of pace, a painting by my littlest car girl who is age four.  What a fabulous abstract!

Leonardo Center

When we traveled to the city to see the Frida exhibit we also got to visit the Leonardo Center, which is located on Library Square next to the beautiful new City Library, where the Frida exhibit was.  The Leonardo Center is a new type of museum that mixes art, science, and technology exhibits in a hands on manner.  HRH and I had lots of fun playing with the exhibits.  I took a few pictures to show you.

One of the labs had art centers set up where you can set down and try your hand.  This is just a photo copy of butterflies.  What you do is cut the photo copy up into about 1 inch squares and put it back together like a puzzle onto a piece of drawing paper.  Then you pickup one square at a time, and draw just that square... 

Here is one in progress.  You just keep drawing a new square until you have your drawing complete.  Since I help out a bit with my middle car girls third grade class art activities, I thought this might be something to try with them.  I am actually going to try it myself just to see what kind of drawing I can do with this interesting method.

They had quite a few 3-D diorama assemblages made of cardboard.  The frame-everything made of cardboard... I loved them!  I most certainly will try this.

This is a close up of a paper cut that was on one of the walls next to another exhibit...

The paper cut was about eight foot tall!  The artist's name I did not write down, darn!

Well, I had to tell you, that at the trunk show last Saturday at Gypsy Mamas, who have embraced me and my art, I sold both of these dolls and more!  I am so thrilled that I finally have found an outlet to sell.  One of the Gypsy Mamas loves my art and talks about to customers lots, and the other Gypsy Mama (there are two of them, lol, ie the mamas) is an artist herself.  The trunk show was to celebrate the 1 year of business for them.

Big Ben was purchased by a native american older lady in a wheel chair.  She was very very quiet and didn't have much to say, but she loved Ben.  Her companion, who may have been her husband or a brother bought my Shrine to Aging Fears, if you remember it from an earlier post.  Interesting to see who buys the art...

This steam punk doll went to the vendor next to me.  He had lots of really old bric a brack, but he likes my work and actually took two pieces, the being one of four steam punk pictures I made last spring.  

I also sold a Marie Antoinette doll left over from a swap last winter I think,  to a very young girl, and the wire sculpture doll to a middle aged lady, and the empathy monster to a tween native american, and one of the little paper mache birds to a very young girl, and a couple of other things.

I am trying to decide if I want to do an annual fair the first of November.  Do I have enough inventory to do that?  I would if it was not at Gypsy Mamas, but since they have been the first to embrace my art, I am not taking items from there to do a show.  So, probably not.