A Little Flamingo in My Life

A few weeks ago I attended a local church's giant garage sale.  There was used merchandise from all its parishioners strewn all over the lot, but inside, was a room full of used books.  I was in heaven!  One book that caught my eye was this giant Audobon's Encyclopedia of North American Birds.  $5!  It had photos, drawings and descriptions of every bird imaginable in it and it begged to come home with me.

A few days ago, one of my art students says, "Ms. P, can we do some paper mache?" and an idea was born.  I haven't done paper mache for pleasure for ages, and this bird book was the perfect inspiration for the project.  I made a batch of flour & water paste and ripped up some newspaper, then put together this flamingo I shall call "Percy."

Pink Flamingos aren't something I normally think about, but when I saw it in the book, I couldn't turn the page.  It seemed to want to come alive, and so I did my best.  Painting it was an adventure as well.  I went into painting thinking I was going to go as life-like as I could, and then my brush took over and next thing you know, we've got swirls, stripes and dots going on.  It happens.

Soccer Ball Painting Dares to Leave my Garage

Whatever activity my kids are involved in, I try and help out in any way I can. Madi's new soccer team is having a fundraiser, so I painted this soccer ball for their auction.  I used acrylics and molding paste for texture, painted on a 12X12' canvas.  


As an artist, I find it scary to put myself out there.  Few of my paintings find themselves outside the garage simply because I am always scared that everyone will think I'm a terrible artist.  I'm always telling my students to embrace their unique artistic style, and I really have difficulty trusting in my own.  Having this soccer ball go out to the public and have people silently bidding on it is "ballsy" stuff for me, and I'm hoping SOMEONE will want it!!!

Bottom line, I wanted to give back to the organization, and I am hoping this gift will be well received, and maybe a baby step for me to start being more confident in my art.

Drawing fast and furious

Every time I go to a teacher's training seminar, I leave inspired and eager to try new things.  At the last one at CSMA, one of the art teachers was modeling a class in line art drawing.  She gave each of us a photograph, and asked us to quickly sketch the outline in pencil, then work the details in black sharpie -- and there was only about 10 minutes left!  My life is about rushing around half the time, so I relished the challenge, and drew this seal within out time constraints.  It felt so good to be drawing again, and I am definitely going to not only try this again myself, but pass this lesson on to my students.

A distressed tile makes an interesting plaque.

I went to one of my favorite art venues, A Work of Heart, in San Jose. It's a wonderful shop stocked top to bottom with craft supplies, papers, stamps, glues, ribbons, cutters, paints etc. and has tables in the middle to do your favorite projects.  My daughter chose to make a textured mug and necklace, and I made a pretty glass pendant and this old-looking tile.  The stone tile is beige and pitted, and to give it a design, I stamped onto white tissue paper, then used a white paste over the tile and then the tissue paper to make it translucent.  Finishing touches included clear acrylic spray, and a ribbon held on the back with a two-part glue.  Not sure where I'm going to put it, but it'll find a home soon, as it's growing on me.

Jewelry display a true art form

I am blessed to have such creative friends.  My friend Sherie works full time, runs a big house and still manages to find time to create the most beautiful things.  For my birthday, she made this beautiful shadow box jewelry display for some of my necklaces and earrings.  It's such a piece of art, and I'm proud to hang it on the wall for my favorite pieces, many of which I made with Sherie in previous years!

She tells me she was inspired by some she saw in a high-end shop in Santa Cruz, and then she went about rummaging for hooks, vintage jewels and a shadow box and drawer pull from Ikea, and special paper from a specialty store.  More photos will follow of the other gorgeous boxes she made, but in the meantime, I will proudly show you my gift and hope you are inspired as well.

Doodling on Rocks

This craft reminds me of beach-lazy days of summer, and it's so easy and fun, I thought I'd pass it on. Take some beautiful rocks collected from the beach, give them a quick spritz with white spray paint, and use a thin Sharpy marker to do your doodles.  For my daughter's birthday, I left some spray painted river rocks and a marker out on the table for her friends to write on, and now she has a pretty plateful of messages and doodles as memories of her special day.

Encaustic Playdate results in Waxy layers of Whimsy

When you were a child,  you called your friend to arrange an immediate playdate and fun was ensuing within the hour.  As an adult, I find my friends to be as busy as I am, and sometimes our playdates are made weeks, even months in advance.  This is the case with my friend Pat with whom I first played with encaustic medium.  I went over to her house, and we watched a "how to" video on encaustic, laughing at the presenter's obvious need for getting things exact and keeping things clean.  It was hilarious, as one of the things Pat and I have in common is a fearlessness in getting down and dirty in our artwork.  The video, however, gave us the push and inspiration we needed to get to work on our new piece. This latest artwork is much larger and I was much more confident and relaxed in making it.  I layered the pattern papers, self-made watercolor paper and homemade flower paper on the canvas, spreading wax on as I went.  This time, I finally felt I was master of the heat gun in making the wax flow!  Stay tuned as I learn to improve my technique with this waxy medium!

"Yarn Bombing" is my kind of creative statement!

I'm always on the lookout for ideas for art projects, and although I've never really taken to knitting, I am now scheming to try this "yarn bombing" idea. Very "Christo" like.

Creating Jewelry with Silver Metal Clay - Kath's Daily Bling Fix

Up to the time I moved to the U.S. and had kids, I loved metal-smithing.  It gave me a creative outlet as well as allowed me to make jewelry quickly and often.  I admit I wore far more than I sold, but I have always loved creating my own silver jewelry.  Recently, my friend Pat introduced me to silver metal clay which allowed me once more to create silver jewelry a different way.  Silver metal clay reminds me of a gray Fimo or Sculpey dough, but it's really silver grounds mixed with an organic binder and it's sooo easy to work with.  I just rolled out a small bit, stamped it and shaped it into whatever I wanted.  After that, it's fired overnight and tumbled to make it shiny, and ready to wear within 24 hours!  Here are two pieces I made earlier in the week: one is a pair of triangular earrings I stamped with a bubble-shaped texture, then cut and dried over a folded piece of cardboard.  The necklace, I LOVE!  I used liver of sulfur on top of the bird to make it contrast more with the silver background, then shined it up.  Can't wait to create more bling soon!

Graduates Celebrate a Year in Art

For the past year and a half, I've enjoyed teaching at a school for teens who are trying to get their lives back together; they've dropped out of school, done drugs, got into gangs or any number of things that got them kicked out of the school system.  My job is to teach them art every week while they try and get back into school.  It's my favorite job, and the kids really work hard for me to open up and let their creative juices flow.  This week was the graduation of 11 of the teens, and a bittersweet time for me as a teacher.  It's hard to see these kids blossom over time and then fly away to different schools and different lives.  Here is some of the art they created over the year, as well as our reward recipient -- a young artist who really worked hard and put his own twist on everything he did.

Bottle Bird Feeder Gives Me Bird Fix

We've been enjoying our finch feeder for some time now.  At any given time, there are a few yellow, green or red beauties out there nibbling.  The problem is, the little buggers go through a bag of bird seed every three weeks.  This last time, my husband offered to buy a bag and got wild bird seed which the finches don't seem to like.  Haven't seen a bird in four days.  From 20 an hour to nada.  So today, I scrounged around in my recycling box and got myself a guava juice container to use as a different kind of bird feeder that MAY just attract different birds.  I must admit, I got a lot of satisfaction from carving out the holes on each side with a knife -- must be holding in some stress there...be warned!  Stuck a couple of chopsticks in, and viola!  a make-shift feeder to get rid of this giant bag of seed!  Looking forward to seeing what comes a-feeding.

Poppies Spring Up From an Unexpected Hour

I find this blog is really great for reminding me to nourish myself artistically.  It is so true, as the poet Maya Angelo says, "you can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."  I find that the more I paint or craft or sew, the better my work tends to get and the better I feel about it.

Yesterday, I brought my car in for an oil change, and had expected to stay at the dealership for the hour it takes and read.  I was surprised when I was told that it would take over two hours, and they offered to drive me home right away and pick me up when it was done.  This meant two hours of unexpected time spent at home, and I had no intention of using it to pay bills or clean!  I took the opportunity to break out my watercolors and paper and try something springy and bright.  I saw something similar to this on a website that inspired me, and I was excited to translate it, using a different medium and a little salt for effect.

So Many Possibilities to Create in a Candle Holder!

 

I ordered this candleholder from Partylite because it had so many possibilities.  I picked up some pebbles from Ikea for this look, and at Marshall's, found a big back of seaglass for another look.  I can totally see myself changing this with the seasons, the holidays and frankly, anytime I need a little change of surroundings.  

Something Bold and Blue: A Skateboard Top Inspired By Haring

One of the artists I have long admired is Keith Haring.  Before he died of AIDS in his early 30's, he was known as a street artist, a young man who was energized by the New York street and subway scene.  He painted on street walls with his brush and spray can, and his work was always bold, his characters without much detail.  Haring's work has pop influences, with the bold colors he used and the black outlining he often did to give his work a distinct cartoon-like appearance.  My skateboard painting is a nod to Haring, and I'm really liking the bright colors and movement of my piece -- something a little different for me!

Folk Art Bird

Seems I've got a thing about birds lately.  It seems to be cropping up in a lot of my artwork, and the other day I even bought a finch feeder.  I have always been fascinated by folk art, so it was very natural for me to choose a bird as my subject for this piece.  Folk art has it's roots with the common people.  It's usually decorative, and done with recycled, found materials by locals with no fine art training.  The bird is cut out of cardboard that I pulled out of recycling, and all the pieces are from bits that I found around the house.  I placed an old skewer to hold it up, and stuck it on a block of wood that I found outside.  To give it an older, distressed look, I used white, dry paint with my favorite fan brush, which is usually put aside specially for painting clouds.  When I showed the kids this particular brush, they were so excited -- it looks so different from their usual brushes, and they each wanted a chance to try out the dry brush technique.

Ted Harrison Inspires me with the Sunset

One of my inspirations this week is Canadian artist Ted Harrison.  Harrison is best known for his colorful works that involve curvy lines, white or black lines separating each color, and his depictions of life in the Yukon.  When I was working with my younger students, I challenged them to try a Harrison-inspired work and I was thrilled by where their swirls took them!   

Pinterest Peaks My Interest

Like many of you, I have many blogs and websites that I check-in with, for creative ideas that will spur one of my own, for art lessons for my classes, for personal inspiration.  My uber-creative crafty friend Pat just turned me on to another site that I am sure to check out on a regular basis.  It's called www.pinterest.com, and everytime I've checked it since I heard about it, I have the overwhelming urge to run to the garage and start some creative project!

 

Check out these adoreable umbrellas in a wreath.  I happen to have a whole box of these left over from a party a couple of years back....you can bet next time I'm heading to Michael's, coupon in hand, I'm going to head over to the foamy section and get a wreath to do this fun project.  Hanging on a door, I think it says, "you are heading into the fun zone." Poifect for my next wild shindig!

A LittleWine with my Resin to Celebrate my Birthday

“A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are.”

I had a group of my girlfriends over last night to celebrate my birthday with margaritas, a party-lite presentation and a craft.  I really enjoy working with resin, so I designed a basic necklace using bezels, beads and images cut from my mountains of magazines.  The bezels, and leather cord were from Michaels, and the beads are from an Indian importer that I purchase by the 6' string. Can't believe how the necklaces turned out!  I was soooo proud to have such a creative group of girlfriends, and how blessed  am I to have spent the evening with my favorite people, doing my favorite activity.

Watercolor on unusual surfaces

 

My sister Dee knows my really well.  My birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and when I flew up to visit my family, she gifted me with a course we could take together.  It was called, "watercolor on unusual surfaces."  We took blocks of wood and smeared them with a sandy acrylic compound, and another with  thick, gooey, modeling paste.  When they were dried, we painted on them with basic watercolors and wonderful chinese bamboo brushes.  What a wonderful time to spend both with my sister, and doing something I love.  Neither of us have much experience in watercolor, but it was fun to try something new, and we both decided to try our hand at trees for this particular piece. 

Ancient Egypt Canopic Jar....for guts or in my case, extra change!

 

In ancient Egypt, the lungs, liver, kidneys and stomach were placed in canopic jars right before the embalmers began the mummification process.  I thought it would be a fun project for my class of Goth teenage boys to try with clay.  Usually the Egyptians chose to recreate the head of the dead to put on top, but they also put in other protectors such as the cow, ram or hawk.  I chose a cow head, which I'm sure will look much better once I've painted it.  Not a true work of art, but I really had fun, and I know the boys really enjoyed making these jars too.  Looking forward to getting these fired painted...think I'll use mine to hold spare change that I find in my jeans occasionally.