post card number 2

Happy September and Paper towels for all

As a teacher, I've evolved into really considering September as my new year. With some job uncertainty, I was worried that this September was the first one in a long time that I'd be without a classroom. Opportunity knocked and my prayers were answered. It is not absolutely perfect, but very few jobs are, and the first week has been quite wonderful. With a separate part time job and an graduate class coming up, things are going to get quite busy. But I want to take time to make art! So here are some post cards I made with some fusion dyed paper towels. See Traci Bautista's Collage Unleashed for instructions on these. Her book is really fun; losts of techniques to play with. Play being the operative word.

journal pages from workshop

Fabulous workshop with Kelly Kilmer at a nearby stamp store. What a wonderful teacher and a wonderful group of ladies. Kelly is a great teacher; she encouraged us that "there was no wrong way to do it," and shared her own paints, paper, collage images, and stamps. Here is a journal page from that workshop.

atc with dress form

ATCs galore

I made several while watching the movie Definitely Maybe - fabulous feel good film. Some of these have a background of diluted water colors sprits on paper and other various paint marks, others are "intuitive water colors" with Dr. Ph Martin's watercolors. I received my sunflower atcs from 3 other great artists, but I still need to scan those in. They are lovely.

mosaic

I may come back to black and white. They are really very classy looking. Here's a mosaic with buttons I played with for a yahoo group challenge. I had a spiral thing in mind when I started. I think it's ok, but I will probably try again and mix buttons and beads in a more definite pattern. I may also do some stamped polymer clay tiles - I have soooo much polymer clay. But it was fun to do this and see how easy it was, especially with Golden's molding paste. I like have a textured background showing in between mosaic pieces. Maybe doing a mosaic mixed with some stamping into the molding paste. Hmmm. . . . I'm still job searching, but it does allow me a lot of time to play, which I am enjoying.

more black and white

Tag art #2

black and white

Sometimes things are just black and white . . . and sometimes they're not. I've been job searching all summer and had several interviews, even been close once . . . but nothin'. As a teacher this is starting to flip me out a bit as school is fast approaching (insert several angry conversations with God) and I find myself feeling like just a big fat loser. The hiring process is far from transparent and it seems nothing is black and white in my job search. Friends (thank God for them!) and art have helped me stave off the sinking into despair. Here's some black and white tag art that I'm considering sending to Somerset Studio. It was challenging but fun to confine myself to a limited color palette.