shared visions art

I’m so proud to have won an Honorable Mention for “Wash Us Clean” in the latest SoMMA (Society of Mixed Media Artists) show. Called “Rebirth” it is hanging at the Jewish Community Alliance in Jacksonville, FL. It will also be available for viewing on line soon. This is a reworking of a piece that use to have a school of fish within the wave. It was rejected from one show. This kind of thing is not unusual.

It’s very odd that I chose to do a piece that requires so much patience after my unproductive period of these past 6 months. I’ve had to do tons of tweaks on this one. If you are not thorough and careful in pressing the tape down you will get leaks. Since I am not a patient person, that means I move faster than I should. Often that means correcting mistakes you shouldn’t have made. A part of me knows that it’s much easier to do it right the first time, than to do it “the easy way”. The “easy way” often gets you in trouble. It makes for slow progress.

This piece was also an odd choice since it uses a technique I’m not very familiar with – adding texture and dimension with gel. It’s a good thing I’m liking them so far!

Making time and space for creativity is half the battle for many of us creatives. I am fortunate that I have a room in my house for my studio. However, it is in my house. That means I’m at the beck and call of all the creatures I live with – human and otherwise. Not to mention the house itself berating me for not sweepIng it’s filthy floors or taking care of a multitude of other chores. Again, Iam a very lucky woman, to have a small cottage to escape to. Here I will be able to set my own schedule for EVERYTHING; mostly for meals and painting. No distractions, no demands – except creative ones! I’ll be busting butt to finish these two pieces and one other for the “ColorFall” show receiving next Wednesday.

I have to give thanks to Cindy C again, for helping me get back into a creative groove. I not only did the piece at our play date last week, but I’m working on three more for the “ColorFall” show at Wehner’s. I hope I can get them all done and framed in time. I think I can.

My studio isn’t the neatest place, but it is fairly organized – not that anyone else looking at it would thinks so. Still, the other day I spent an hour and a half looking for leaf shaped paper punch! I finally found it in my paper making supplies. That makes sense because I often embed paper shapes into my home made paper. I just “Assumed” it was some place else…actually two other places. Some good came of it. My paper making supplies need some organization and so did my printmaking supplies. Both tasks got done while I was searching. I smashed through!

And another thing…I still hate how much it takes to do a mixed media piece sometimes.

I’ve been very unmotivated since shortly after lockdown. The first month I got a lot done and then went into a dry spell, feeling lethargic and uninspired. I did play with watercolors at our college, doing a landscape or two.

I’m finally coming out of it, in part thanks to my fellow artist Cindy Csalovszki at Studio “C”. She had a project she thought I would enjoy. She was right! She walked me through wait she remembered of the process and this is what I ended up with:

These are three that Cindy did:

It still fascinates me that two people can use the same materials and techniques and come out with very different looking pieces.

No work of art is done until it is in a form that can be presented and shared. For a lot of paintings that means framing. And that’s what I’ve been up to the past few months. Granted that doesn’t explain all the time I’ve spent away from my website. For some of it I just wasn’t in the mood to paint. That happens. I never panic about it.  If I’m not painting or creating mixed media I usually find some other form of creativity that fits my mood. Like cooking or gardening or framing. Framing is an art form in and of itself. I hate it! Ugh! However, I also hate spending the money to have some one else do. Every time I frame things, though, I realize WHY they get so much money for it. This is approximately 55 pieces of art. That tall stack is 27” tall. Not all of them are mine, but the majority are. I use to frame a piece as I finished it, but getting all the tools ready for one piece is kind of a waste -ugh. Plus, invariably I’d stick it in a frame and then see something I had to fix. That’s a big UGH! Even some of these pieces that have sat for a while need some tweaks. Ugh. Back to work.

I received some art supplies for Christmas. It’s often hard for non-artists to buy for an artist. Lucky for my friends and family I am a mixed media artist as well as a watercolor St. That means anything goes! Even dead lizards (as my oldest grandson learned quickly). I tried out the Tombow markers I got, last Friday. I’ve known for a while that I need to improve my drawing skills and using these brought it home. The first piece is totally out of my head so it’s primitive. I’ll not be doing solo pieces with theses, but I will love to use them in my mixed medium pieces. 

The other items I received are some watercolor brush markers. If I tried to use these to do anything over 9×7, I would have quite a learning curve. They don’t behave like watercolor pigment with brushes, but they are beautiful. I can definitely see me using these for studies for large pieces and for small Plein air pieces. It seems to take them a while to “recharge”. I can also definitely see myself using these for detailed work in my regular watercolors. As I was experimenting I used some new watercolor brushes I received to blend the markers and it was helpful. For those out there who might be embarking on experimentation with these, I highly recommend a wet surface. This began our of my head, but I referenced a photo from the Carribean as well.

Just gotta say the whole banana duct taped to the wall, selling for a $120,000 really pisses me off. It’s the kinda of thing that not only gives us all a bad name, but confounds the public and demeans art WAY more than my low prices (which many of my local art friends complain about).

What a week for me and my art! I won First Place in the Art Guild of Orange Park’s  show “Creative Spark”. I have to admit this is one of my latest “favorite babies”. (There was actually one more piece added and few touches after this image was taken.) I’m very gratified by my past two prizes because it means I’m making progress in being consistent with my mixed media pieces. I’m also way excited given the fabulous work that my fellow artists entered.

Funny thing…the show chair had called people to tell them they won a prize but didn’t say which. When they got to announcing Third Place, I thought “Oh dear, they must have phoned me in error”. I prepared myself for disappointed. And was blown away when they announced my win.