Gee it's nice to have a professional photographer in the family!! *S*

This afternoon I drove down to IL to see the daughter's new studio... the company she is assistant manager/photographer for moved a couple of doors down from where they were to a studio that is more than double in size...and it's FANTASTIC!! So many sets and cool gadgets, lighting, lots of fancy, schmancy stuff, great dressing rooms, conference rooms, lobby area... it's first class!


So, as long as I was going down to see Kasey and the studio, I asked if I could bring some of my assemblages and have some photos taken... I loaded a bunch in the car, put the torsos in the seats, and belted them (had some funny looks from people driving on the highway there too! *L*)..and Kasey took some great pics for me.

Then we headed to a really good restaurant for some Indian food, .. lots of new things I'd never had before, and it was pretty good too!
Thanks for taking the pics Kasey, your studio is terrific!! Love you! xoxoxox

"The Annunciation" Assemblage

Luke 1:26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. 28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”
29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.

This full size (small framed) torso is decoupaged with brown paper bag material, which was ripped, crumpled, then mod-podged on. The angel-faced bust is actually a wall hanging which I attached to the torso. The "womb" is a rusty iron pan, inserted into the torso.
The embryo in the womb is a drawing done by Leonardo DaVinci, which I doctored a bit in photoshop, and 3-D'd it, adding a brass crown and rhinestones around the baby.
It is covered with a domed glass piece surrounded by brass tack edging and a few metal leaves for decorations. It has 7 coats of polycrylic on the torso (hence the glare and light reflection which makes the color look a bit different than what it really is.)

Featured in Episcopal Life (June 2008)

This is pretty awesome... I am honored to have a picture of my "Portrait of the Self" assemblage in the June edition of Episcopal Life, the national Episcopal Church newspaper. Part of my artist statement is featured on one of the continued pages...but here is the center spread and a small picture of a part of the piece is there... thank you to those responsible for including it! I hope that people, who know me, will know it IS me, my last name was spelled wrong, but it's still exciting to see my art acknowledged!

Rain, Rain, GO AWAY.....

Rain, rain, go away...come again some other day... or better yet, go to California where they really need it!!

We are lucky to be dry here at our home, so far... all around there are flooded farmer fields however, rivers way over flood stage, roads closed...
2 hours north lakes are no more, and some people's homes are no more either... More rain is coming... off and on this afternoon, and severe storms they say too.. just in time for the DDHS graduation ceremonies tonite.. ugh!

Good thing I'm married to a builder... we can make our OWN ark at least if needed.

Jazz in the Park & Auctioning of Cheeseboxes... among other things today...

"The time has come," the walrus said, "to talk of many things: of shoes - and ships - and sealing wax - of cabbages - and kings." So, today I have all these unrelated ideas...some say to combine unrelated ideas is at the very heart of creative thinking.... if so, I must be some really, really GREAT creative thinker! *L* BUT, how to combine some of these ideas is the question!

I have no new art to show, too bad I can't get pictures from my imagination/brain and post them here for everyone to see, I have so many ideas floating around that I've taken to writing them down more and more so I don't forget them as they get lost in the rest of the stuff that floats around in my mind lately....
I can't get these ideas organized in my mind either... they seem to be as un-orderly as the bins of cool stuff/found objects I have stored in my basement for future art assemblages.
Hmmm, and just now another idea comes to my mind in reference to what I just typed..*L*
Anyway... I'm elocuting here .... and not getting any concrete things done....

This afternoon is the Jazz in the Park event where they will auction off the 60+ altered, decorated, transformed cheeseboxes that were done by area artists. I donated two of them to the cause... to benefit the Friends of the Visual & Performing Arts. It looks like it may be a rainy stormy day here... guess that means it may be held in the school gym instead of in the new band shell at the park...too bad.. wonder if there is AC in that gym? It's gonna be muggy and hot and miserable if not.. ugh!

Soooo... guess my rambling has gone on long enough... time to get to some of those ideas floating around in my head... or wait, I just saw the neighbor put out a rummage sale sign.... another place to look for more junk to put into my already full unorganized basement!..*L*
I know, I know...I'm just walking around the ideas in that brain of mine now when I should be grabbing them and running....
I'll do that after I run to this one rummage sale... (well, maybe I'll hit a couple)...

More to come later.....

Pedestal...the continuing saga...

So, I have been sitting looking at the pedestal that I added some hands to about a month or more ago... it's been sitting here decked out in white gesso just waiting for me to do something to it. I was going to add some kind of decoupage tissue paper, or paper bag material to it, but thought that the detail on the hands wouldn't come out as well if they were covered up with even thin tissue paper. So, I was looking at spray paint the other day and saw some of that "hammered look" kind, so I bought a couple of cans and thought I'd see what it would look like.

So, here it is ...
I don't really like it, too plain, plus you can see the patch job I did to fill in the places I had to cut away to add the hands. It's a smoother texture in those areas and is too noticeable... sooo, it's back to staring at it again for inspired ideas. I'm thinking maybe I'll leave the hands this color, and decoupage the rest of it with something? Hmmm, still thinking on that... any ideas? I'd be glad for ANY from anyone.

Cool Idea,... FANS

So, here's what I did today instead of planting my flowers and plants that have been sitting on my porch waiting for the frosts to stop... (well, that's my excuse as to why I haven't finished my planting anyway). *S*

I found this old cardboard hand fan at (where else) Good Will, it had advertising on the back for a funeral home, and the front was the picture of "Christ at Twelve". I had made hand held fans from card stock before, advertising our church and activities for the last few years, and thought this picture was something cool to use... not to mention the fact that I had just had another hot-flash during the service this morning (you'd think after 6 years of hot-flashes that I'd be done with that, wouldn't ya? sheeesh), anyway, I decided it was time to start making more of those fans for people to use this summer at church.

So, I incorporated the picture into our church info...and VOILA! Here are the results....These are just SOME of them, I am making about 75 of these...30 down, 45 more to go.


I like it because they look old fashioned... I scanned the picture, added the scripture passage on the front, the service information on the reverse, cut them out, glued them together with a large tongue depressor/Popsicle type stick in between, sprayed glossy acrylic on them, added a ribbon tied on the handle, and they are ready to cool off many a parishioner or guest..and ME! *S*
Feel free to use the idea at your church or business. I had a girlfriend who used it for a tea/fashion show she was hosting... she made them and personalized them for her business and event, they went over well there too.