Phears and Phobias

This is the latest altered book I did. I'll post pics on my picturetrail gallery, so you can see more there. Here are a few pics.

mail art - coming and going

I've been remiss about posting mail art lately. Here are a few things ready to go out. One is the collaboration with Punwit. I put little green checks on the parts I just added. Now it goes back and we'll see if he thinks it's done, or if he returns it with more changes. One never knows....

Then there is the horizontal beachy one which is for a swap with the CA Art Girls. We were to use a word. Is La-di-da a real word? Apparently. I had not used this new rubber stamp yet, so was glad to put it to use.

The portrait style beachy one is for a Cloth Paper Studio swap, our challenge was to use masking or painters tape covering something. There is a cute post card underneath my collage. The recipient (Norma) can either peel it off or leave it as is.

Then there is a new card from Roberta, she was in a blue painterly day when this was done. Thanks Roberta. I love receiving your cards.

Sketching at the Haggin Museum

By special arrangement with docent John Carruthers, our senior group met at the Haggin today to have private time to sit and sketch to our hearts content. First we did a quick walk thru the various galleries open to us, and John gave us a little background on a few of the paintings. He asked us to do thumbnail sketches, focusing on the darks and lights. So, that is what I looked for. Then we each took a folding wood chair and found something that appealed to us for sketching. Frances ( who is a sculptor as well as a painter) of course looked for horses. A number of paintings of horses were there, but she was drawn to a sculpture. Down she plopped on her chair and we did not hear a word out of her for almost two hours. She was totally engrossed. Here is a very bad picture of the horse and her sketch. I had the flash off so it did not focus. But, I want to share it anyway.

Jean, Helen, John and Phyllis pretty much concentrated on the many beautiful landscape paintings by Bierdstadt, William Keith, etc. In fact they did quite a few quick sketches of a number of them. They didn't really concentrate on the lights and darks, but the overall compositions. They will probably paint from their sketches later as they really are landscape artists.

I found myself drawn to a priest looking at a globe. Whether it was the circular globe, or the lighting, I'm not sure why it appealed to me. Maybe it was the red robe. Here is the painting and my seat where I sat to draw. Then I moved into another room and was intrigued with the angles and perspective of looking through a hallway into the gallery where Frances was sketching so I drew that. Then I moved into a little area where there was an interesting portrait. Interesting because of the light around the head and shoulders of the subject. Here is the painting and my sketch.

We enjoyed our morning so much. Elizabeth and John took better pictures and will share them later. we plan to do this again in the fall. John and his wife travel a lot, so we will wait until they are back from their adventures. Thanks John, this was a great morning.

New challenges and Face Off

Today I met with the critique group in Sacramento, one that I've been a member of for many years. We opened our closed group to a new member for the first time ever. It was very nice to get new input and fresh new eyes to see the work that is shown. Roberta is our newest member. You see her work here occasionally and links back to her blog. This is a piece she did awhile back. She brought some of her newer paintings to show us today. One in particular she wanted feedback on how to improve it. I can't wait to see what she does next. And she has also just recently done her very first abstract pieces. Which is inspiring me to do abstracts again. I uncovered a pile of my older ones in the studio cleaning process, and loved seeing them again.

I was also inspired today by some of Susanne's books. It gives me a good idea of how to present a small poem I have used before in an assemblage. I have been wanting to use it again in a smaller format. Susanne does amazing work. She will have a one woman show next summer of her book arts at one of the downtown galleries in Sacramento. She does not have a web presence, so I can't post a link. We'll have to wait and see if the gallery puts up an online exhibit of her work.

The new season of Face Off started yesterday. Oh my! What a fun show! All these talented people visualizing and constructing the faces and characters that could easily be seen in a movie. Like a Tim Burton movie. Last night they invented new characters that would be suitable for a new version of the Star Wars saloon scene. A couple of them were so worthy it was hard for the judges to decide on the winner. It is on the Sci Fi channel. I recommend watching it if you have any interest in the creative process of mask making, character construction or costuming. I had no idea how masks are first sculpted over a model face form, set up, then latex poured and cured and then released and painted. The ways they apply the paints/make up is quite interesting as well. And the characters they can create from their own imaginations are awesome.

Tomorrow I meet with the Lodi Mixed Media group. we will be working in small art journals using watercolors of various types. This should be interesting. Sally and Trina will be leading our group tomorrow.

outgoing mail art

Here are more post cards going out in the mail. The overlaid collage is the collaboration with Suzanne. It's headed back to her once more. I wonder if it will return? I"m seeing her at a meeting in Sacramento next week, so maybe I'll find out then.


The out on bail card, I found amusing, but worried about how the recipient might feel, so I sent it to Sam and Pepe. I saw them at the gallery today and told them it was coming and not to be offended. They shared that they had made a piece of art recently be were afraid it would be offensive to some people, so had not put it in the gallery yet.

Pepe is in charge of the website for the gallery and made some recent changes that are really nice. Check out Lodi community Art Center to see what's new there.

The gallery was abuzz with people today, working on committees for the photography show, the spring show, and the unframed art show coming up in Sept.

It was a good day to work there and get to see everyone.

A little poem from a friend. RAKS

A very nice senior lady bought some of my things at the Senior Center Art Show last fall. I had her name on the check and added her to my mailing list, so periodically I send her a post card RAK. She called me after she received the first one and asked me what a RAK is. We have all asked that sometime before we learned it means Random Acts of Kindness - at least in altered art circles. Now she calls each time she gets one and we chat about a lot of things. She is a very interesting person, with interests so far from mine for the most part - like Poker - but we also like to talk about interesting places in California.

Here is the poem she mailed to me recently written in her very precise handwriting inside a lovely floral note card with a lace border. It is something I'll cherish.

Like angels from above
There are people overflowing with love.
And what are some of the things they do?
They look for ways to give to me and you,
And unexpectedly surprise us
with Random Acts of Kindness.
by Marcia Childress copyright 2012

Thank you Marcia.

August post cards

Just a few post cards have arrived since the beginning of August. Two are from group swaps. One uses tape transfers on a fabric card. It's from Sue Balchak.


The other fabric card is from Pam Crawford. Our challenge was to design and make a post card using inspiration from a postage stamp. These are great examples from experienced post card artists.


The third one is from Linda Giese, with whom I exchange cards several times a year. She chose to alter a card, disguising an Emile Nolde painting by adding layers and paints. I love all three of these wonderful cards. Thanks gals.