Works to be Included at Art Quilts Lowell, MA

My work's Soar Frost has been accepted into the Brush Art Gallery's Exhibit, "Tangled up in Blue", Art Quilts Lowell, MA.

 And Into the Silence was accepted at the Whistler Museum's exhibit "Whats My Line"

Tickled!
Always a great time in Lowell!

Mix iT Up! MiXed MeDia CoLLage! Workshop in NJ

 I will be teaching a workshop at Peters Valley Crafts Center  

from August 23-27

It would be a exciting mix of paper & fiber, collage and fun!

Mix iT Up! MiXed MeDia CoLLage!       

Embrace the unknown and unexpected using green/free/recycled materials! Using your newly created fabrics and painted papers, generate a paper and/or cloth collage/s.

Investigate layering techniques, mediums and many more exciting collage secrets. Explore a number of ways to create unique textured/distressed surfaces to include in your collages, paintings and fiber art.

For more information:

Peters Valley Crafts Center  

19 Kuhn Road, Layton, NJ 07851

(973) 948-5200

http://www.petersvalley.org/store/html/product.cfm?id=263

I hope you'll join me!

We Take to the Air

We take to the air,

sometimes,

in fits of ecstasy, unprovoked,

gleaned form a revelation,

an opening of the mind,

perhaps a chance meeting with an old friend,

a deep conversation,

viewing a piece of art that touches the soul,

or having a heron take off in full view!

Our flight extends to the beginning of the realization we have taken off at all.

when the thinking mind grasps us,

makes the experience conscious,

we fall

back to earth,

to resume whatever we were doing.

But lighter,

for having the air lift us at all.

images taken on monhegan island ME

and more, Color Block Mono-printing

Try color block mono-printing! Use my favorite mono-printing plate material, 4 ml painters plastic, thick acrylic paint and paper or fine textured cloth.

Try wrinkled cloth

 or ironed cloth

mono-printing over ironed cloth gives an almost exact replica of the plate - but allowing for variation is half the fun

  mono-printing over textured cloth, allows the wrinkles to create a secondary texture

 wrinkled cloth after it is ironed 

 same colors mono-printed onto a different color background- in this case a purple T-shirt 

 spray the plate lightly with water & ghost print on paper too

 use the paper to write with a simple nozzles scribble  

 then use the paper as the plate to mono-print

continue mono-printing with color blocks to create your own original painted fabric!

more this summer at my Media Mix Workshop at Peter's Valley in NJ

Info HERE!!

Collage Creation 3

a taste of my Media Mix Collage workshop in August at Peters Valley- info here
I decided to spray the turquoise to cover a larger area, then removed the mask over the bottom focal point.

I added some lights and darks to create more depth. I used bronze around the edges. I spread lines of cheapie tan acrylic paint and spread side to side using an old credit card. The inexpensive paint has more body and doesn't spread, just what I wanted here!

I wanted to add touches of orange, so I choose a bird stamp to repeat image on inkjet image.

 I use acrylic paint, paper towel & plastic to create a 'stamp pad'.

added 3 orange birds, some white 'script' and a gold/green circle with Golden acrylic paint- nice but...

I went even further, adding mono-printing, watercolor paper, hand painted string and stitching. 

Collage Creation 2

gathering my dried painted cotton duck to create a base

ripping and reassembling to jive up the marks and create a secondary texture.
added a 'backing' of black organza that had been sprayed lightly with gold Seta Color

adding paper to create a focal point- in this case, an ink jet copy of my work & joss paper

adding a 'square' of black organza

torn a free form piece of paper to add as a mask and sprayed with turquoise Dyna-Flow paint
some back to see what's next!
a taste of Media Mix Collage come in August at Peters Valley- info here

Collage Creation 1

In my Media Mix class we create several substrates with a variety of different materials and mediums.
I will post a series of 3 posts outlining the basic steps to the Cotton Duck Substrate. This is just one example of a direction you can go in with this particular substrate.

Starting with cotton duck, I tear into strips of any size. These are about 10x22 or so. I use slightly diluted black gesso in a nozzle bottle and free motion write/mark make. This should be unplanned and spontaneous, an concept I like to emphasis.

I spray sections of the gesso to create bleeding or what I call paint movement.

 I add at least 2 more colors after the gesso. Here I've used a diluted mixture of Dyna-Flow and water.

 Sometimes I'll spray this to create more movement and blurring or leave as is for strong edges.

 If you let this dry and then add your second colors, you'll great great layering and edges. Or, as I've done here, is add my second color right away. This encourages blending and a third color creation.

I do several of these in at one time. I like to work on multiple projects at the same time. They tend to 'feed' each other ideas!
I will be teaching this at Peters Vally Crafts School, NJ in August 2013 and have taught it, among other, at the Surface Design Conference 2011.

Journal Outside

Journal Theme Madness

 add a similar motif with pencil, paint, pastels, stencils, stamping or printing

Journal Madness

add torn or cut page inserts or signature covers

Textures

Find out how to these create textures in my Media Mix Collage Workshop this Summer at Peters Valley, NJ!
Guess what they are!

 A

 B

C

D
answers-
A- embedded grass in tissue paper
B- repeated mask resist fabric painting using acrylic paint and text print off
C- brayer painting on masa paper
D- handmade medium with a certain element, gesso & tissue paper.