Smarty Arty Summit (SAS)

Okay - back to the travel log of November.

I got back from Charleston one evening, unpacked, did laundry, repacked and flew out to Colorado the next morning (I'm sensing a trend here).

The beginnings of a journal page

I met a new friend at the airport - Kim Rae Nugent.
We were picked up by my buddy Liz Kettle, who drove us to Jill Berry's house.
Team assembled.
We arrived there, unpacked and then repacked all of our belongings (I still can't believe that Liz got all of that stuff into her Subaru!).

(Wait, haven't I typed "unpacked and repacked" more than once or twice in the last two blog posts??!?)

We were going to use the trip to introduce one new thing to each person  there as well as work on what we wanted to work on.
I had my "group project" ready and plenty of book pages ready to capture what held my gaze (if anything did).


One of the fun things about staying in a cabin at Estes Park near the Rocky Mountain State Park with three other wild and crazy artists friends (well, maybe all of them are not as wild and crazy as me but fun none the less!) was that there were no outside forces compelling us to do anything except what we wanted to do.
Yeah.
Read that again.
We got to do what we wanted to!

This is the view that we had from our back door.

This is NOT a postcard!
It is the actual view from the back porch of  our cabin.

We created art, journaled, painted, stenciled, drew and ate for four days straight!

Oh, we went outside as well.
Here we are at the Rocky Mountain State Park.
It was ccccold that day!
The background is a portion of a map from the brochure from the YMCA Estes Park
facility that we stayed at.

Well, this isn't finished yet (obviously).
Did I mention that we got VERY goofy
and that we had a  very tiny convertible car too?!

Another one of my journal pages.
I have collaged a piece of the Estes Park brochure map
onto my sketchbook page, added a tiny photo from Jill's printer
(name escapes me right now) (pogo?) (I want one though!).
Then I roughed up the edge of the photo
with a bit of graphite. Needs more but that will have to wait... 

We saw elk in our front yard (and above the fireplace) and snowy mountain tops in our back yard.
We got up in the mornings when we wanted to, ate chocolate before breakfast (well I did) and went to bed when we could no longer hold our heads up.
We laughed, joked, talked, ranted and passed love, tenderness and strength between the four of us.
It was truly a bonding experience for all of us.

Bernardo the Elk.
We added the chic red scarf to his neck.
He really needed it.
Notice the cozy fire that our Fire Master (Jill) built.
Forever to be known as "the fire that Jill built".

My drawing of Bernardo the Elk.
Sans scarf.

We managed to have one "sit down" meal at the dining room table
before our art supplies took it over...we were relegated to
the coffee table to eat after that.

Notice the floor lamp in the middle of the dining room table...
lack of good light to work by will drive you to do
many odd things indeed.

The art supplies begin to reproduce and take over
the floor space around the "work table". 

And behind it to the small table as well...

If you have the opportunity - heck, just TAKE the opportunity to invite a few friends together for a "girls only" ("Art Summit") (whatever) few days - then, by all means, just DO IT.
We had a wonderful, awesome, fantastic, unforgettable time.
I hope that my name is already on the guest list for next year...


One last photo.
This is a sculpture at the main office at the YMCA office there at Estes Park.

What an awesome backdrop for a sculpture!

December Already?!

Really, is it already December??
November was a blur of activity for me.
It seemed that I had just got back from New York (to open the "8 That Create" group show) and it was time to fly to Colorado for a couple of fun happenings.

Oh wait - I forgot the week that I spent in Charleston between the two events...

Okay so I got back from New York,  unpacked my things, did laundry and repacked to travel to Charleston SC - where the weather was much different than upstate NY (thank goodness).

My husband and I spent several days riding our bikes around the city, visiting favorite restaurants,  wandering around at semi-secret coastal estates and visiting our favorite galleries (look at this place - Robert Lange Studios) (there is a reason that it was voted Charleston's Favorite Gallery several years in a row!).
I love the gallery director Carrie.
Every time we go there, she walks around with us, talking about each artist and their work. This makes each piece so much more meaningful - knowing the stories behind each one.
I love all the artists there.
I would love to have my art work hanging in that studio one day.
I'd love a solo show there (that's for you, Universe).

We went to Botany Bay (Edisto Island wildlife preserve).
If you're ever close to this place, you should take the time to go there.
Take your camera too.
It's a visual feast for sure.

It is a beautiful section of land that is being preserved for future generations by the state of South Carolina.
It is truly spectacular.

Stay tuned for more November adventure stories soon.

Prints on Silk

More samples of eco printing on silk fabric.

a variety of leaves

bolder colors from these leaves

you can get some really cool "ghost" prints as well

beautiful, beautiful prints on silk

Eco Monoprinting on Cloth

If you're spent any time reading my blog, then you know that I love paper and cloth almost equally.
I use them almost interchangeably in my work.
The last few blog posts are evidence of that.

I shared a few photos of a few of those prints (on cloth and paper) but I created a stack of them that I haven't shared.
Here's a few of them on cloth.

cotton fabric

cotton fabric 

cotton fabric with leaves from a neighbor's yard...

Silk fabric dyed with Goldenrod (a weed  around here in SC).
I think that the black areas came from a mold (or something like that) that
began growing in my little bundle.

Silk dyed with yellow and red (or purple) onions.
Notice the lines form the string that I tied the bundle with.

Silk fabric dyed/monoprinted with yellow onion and some weed
from a local pasture. A common weed here (green, no flowers)
that is every where in upstate SC. Also has a few
Oak leaves wrapped in the bundle.

Walnut tree stem with various other leaves
in bundle. Soaked in walnut "juice".

Eco Prints/Monoprinting

I have fallen in love with natural dyeing...perhaps the printing to be exact.
I have always picked up leaves, pressed them between pages of a book or tacked them onto my inspiration board. I often use them in my artwork (check this out).
I can almost remember where each one came from, what I was doing the day I picked it up and who I was with.
I love trees, rocks and moss...all of this is evidenced by the amount of these natural items in my studio (and car, and patio, and my husband's vehicle, and in the kayak...).
Now I have another way to use it in my artwork!

I tried several different ways to print the leaves of a local eucalyptus tree. They grow well in my area and are able to live quite well through the winter.
Even though I don't have one in my yard, there is a huge tree not to far from my house...
a steady supply of leaves to play with!

This is a "ghost" print on a piece of previously dyed cotton fabric.
Notice the green fern monoprint in the upper right hand corner.

Here is a close up of the fern monoprint (an unexpected  extra!).

Look at the awesome color! (silk)

True. Love.
(on silk)

Eco Prints

I've been experimenting with natural dyeing and eco printing.
What a ton of work but man-oh-man, when it begins to work the way you envisioned it, it is beautiful.
It is addictive.
It is all consuming.

Or maybe I am a bit OCD and once I find something I really like, I jump in with both feet.
Both hands.
Silk fabric.
Cotton fabric.
Organza.
Watercolor paper.
Handmade paper.
Bristol Vellum paper.

(you get the picture??)

Here are a few pieces that I ooh'ed and ahhh'ed over when they came out of my caldron.

300 lb hot press watercolor paper

300 lb hot press watercolor paper

110 lb Exact Index paper with beautiful muted colors
and embossed areas from the thicker leaves.

110 lb Exact Index paper with the same muted colors
and embossed areas.

 The paper really accepts the color from the monoprint much better than fabric.
Well -except eucalyptus...silk fabric not only accepts the color from the eucalyptus, it revels in the marriage of the two.
The first few times that I tried dyeing or printing with eucalyptus were disappointing.
Only pale yellows, maybe a hint of green.
The following one is on linen. While I do like the pale colors, I was really looking for the bold orange-ish color that I had seen other natural dyers obtain.

Then I began to break away from what I was reading and started doing things the way that I usually do...
the mad scientist way.
I combined a bit of information from this book, or this book, a little from a variety of blogs that I found, threw in a dash of (my) logic and the colors began changing a little bit.

Look! Look! I see a little bit of color change going on!

I'll end here but will do a post later this week showing the rest of my "experiments".

Autumn News

Wow, what a month or two!
I've created seven new pieces of art (five for a show, two for me), traveled to three different states to either open art shows, teach or visit family (not to mention eating a bunch of pumpkin foods).
Now I am home again, ready to rest a day or two (while I plan the next trip).

I made my first trip to upstate NY this month.
Love, love, love it up there!
The lakes, the trails, the trees and the animals-I love it all.
The people are so friendly, especially the folks that my friends and I stayed with (thank you Claire and Richard!).
I suppose my opinion might change during the snow season, hmmm?
I am tired after days of travel but it is a pleasant "job well done" type of tired.

While I have been away from home, I had projects "cooking" for me.
A fairly new obsession, I mean a technique that is new to me, is eco dyeing.
Dyeing with natural items- plant material or woody tree materials.
I love unrolling my little bundles and seeing what serendipitous surprises await me!
Here is the one that I unrolled this morning after a week or two of cooking.
It's silk fabric with goldenrod rolled into it, dipped into old tea leaves (tied up with cotton string).

I love the subtle variations in the color.
I can see yellow areas from the goldenrod, the beautiful tans of the tea leaves as well as a pale salmon-ish color from somewhere.
I also love the lines from the shibori type resist of the pearl cotton thread.
Like the wandering lines of lives that intersect along the way, much like "The Family Circle" comic depicted.
Much the way that I am in art making - so easily distracted by this or that - yet always returning to what moves me or enables me to impart the message that I am charged with.
I have many small bundles just waiting their turn at the miraculous unveiling, not to mention a few jars full of colored liquid and chopped vegetation.

But for now, I am content to unpack slowly, move about my comfy home with a thankful heart.
I'm just happy to be among my own treasures for a week or two before embarking on yet another adventure.
I hope that your heart is happy - filled to the brim with thankful thoughts as well as love for your fellow man (and woman!).

Curiosities

Over at the "Sketchbook Challenge" Judy Coates Perez is the theme picker...
True to form, Judy gave us an interesting and multi-layered one, "Cabinet of Curiosities".

Through the magic of the internet (and my photo saving program), I'll share one of my posts on that theme.

I love Judy's theme this month!

When my family went to the museums in Washington a few years ago, the Museum of Natural History was my favorite place. I loved all of the skeletons and odd little things that building houses and really didn't realize until that day just how much I love skeletons.
Since most "Cabinets of Curiosities  have at least one skeleton in them, I'll share one of my sketches that I did this summer from a magazine ad.
My husband and I were doing some volunteer work and I found myself stuck in an (almost) empty college apartment with nothing to do.
Thank goodness I had a sketchbook, pen & pencil and a promotional magazine from Western North Carolina (I live very close to the SC/NC line). (edit "The Laurel of Asheville" July 2012)
Just goes to show you that you need to carry a sketchbook with you every where you go!
I had already drawn everything in the room (my chair, the desk, my camera and my sewing machine) so it was time to find something else to draw to pass the time.
So I opened the magazine.
Hmmm...several possibilities as I flipped through it rather quickly.
But then I saw it - a beautiful tiny little ad about fossils (Cornerstone Minerals) that had a photo of a dinosaur skull in it.
Bingo! I grabbed my pencil, pen, travel watercolors and went to work.

I usually draw straight to paper with a pen but this time I sketched a bit in pencil then outlined that in pen.
I don't have any step by step photos so I'll just share the  final sketchbook page (regular readers of my blog have seen this already).

This would probably fit right in if I had a "Cabinet of Curiosities" in my home.

Oh wait - I DO have a tiny version of this already (my morbid curiosity with skeletons)!

A friend of mine sent me an owl pellet (don't ask).
I opened it up and found  a bunch of teeny tiny bones.
I put all of them in a small corked bottle (it's about one inch tall).
I was waiting to use it on a piece of artwork but maybe I'll have to find me a cabinet to put it in...