The Other Side of Somewhere

The Second First 30

Here are the first 30 atcs (Artist Trading Cards) in the second half of my year-long art project.  Hee, hee.  Is that hard to follow?

Which one's your favorite?

You can see all the cards (from the beginning) here.

If you would like to follow along daily, you can use a blog reader such as Bloglines or Google to subscribe to the feed by copying the following link into your reader: http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=72157605356610868&nsid=84767708@N00&lang=en-us

Month 2

Month 2: Daily ATCs (Artist Trading Cards)

I found this harder to do this second month, not because I was sad or brooding or anything like that, just that I was busier and less patient with the practice; it often got in the way of the work I really wanted/needed to do. 

Which one is your favorite?

My favorites this time (I have 2): Illustration Friday (Stitch) and Illustration Friday (Plain).  This gal with the ribbon in her hair is still a compelling muse ... I think she will be the subject for every card in Month 4.  If you missed it, I'm doing something special in Month 3, which kicks off tomorrow.

Enjoy!

Illustration Friday (Plain)

Illustration Friday (Plain)

Artist Trading Card (2 1/2" x 3 1/2").  Collage, Neo-color II crayons.

Like last week, this week's artwork also counts towards my year long art project, Operation Marking Time (this is #51 if you're following along).

Previous Illustration Friday offerings: Stitch, 100%, Soar, 2006 Retrospective.

Illustration Friday (Stitch)

Illustration Friday (Stitch)

Artist Trading Card measures 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", and features layered sewing pattern tissue, gesso, charcoal pencil, and stitching done on a sewing machine. 

Like last week, this week's artwork also counts towards my year long art project, Operation Marking Time (#44 if you're following along).

Previous Illustration Friday offerings: 100%, Soar, 2006 Retrospective.

Thank you!

Today was the first day since I started Operation Marking Time that I almost forgot to do this and, when I remembered, considered skipping it.  But, I didn't.  I am determined to honor my commitment to this project and keep it real.

Thus, #38. 

Sometimes these old photos (this one is from Paper Whimsy) are so beautiful it is difficult to improve on them; they are breathtaking as is.  I like the swirl though ... it looks like a Mardi Gras mask, which sparked an idea that is now percolating on the back burner of my brain.  (I love when that happens!).

Thank you to everyone who came out to The Red Thread Studio this afternoon for the collage demo!  It was such a fun time!  Particular thanks to: Jill, Lynne, Catherine, Jen, Matt, and Linda.  And thank you to Angelia for coordinating everything.

If we missed you today, please note that I will be teaching a mixed media collage class on Saturday, February 23rd from 10:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. at The Red Thread Studio.  The cost is $40 and includes all materials (well, almost all!  You'll need to bring scissors, a magazine, and an old shirt or apron to protect your clothing from paint and glue).  We'll be learning basics about adhesives and mediums, how to make exciting backgrounds, basic design principles, packing tape transfers, and we'll do a lot of fun exercises to get that creative energy revved up!  To sign up, please call Angelia at (757) 923-9832.

Illustration Friday (100%)

Artist Trading Card (2 1/2" x 3 1/2").  Cut and paste collage, charcoal pencil, found text, scanned then digitally altered for color/light.

This piece serves as my offering for Illustration Friday AND my year-long art project which means I've met 100% of my artistic commitments for the day. 

100%?  Get it? Get it?

(It's a stretch I know, but when I saw 100% as today's topic all I could think of was a pie chart and that isn't very inspiring!).

Previous Illustration Friday offerings: Soar, 2006 Retrospective.

To Collage or Not to Collage ...

ATC #36 (left) and ATC #35 (right)

One of the interesting aspects of this daily project of mine is making discoveries about process, theme, and media. 

The last couple of weeks I've had to force myself to sit down and put together the card for the day.  I am cranky about the process of sifting through what seems like six tons of collage and paper ephemera looking for a spark or trying to find materials to match a specific idea I wish to express. (Six tons of collage fodder and paper ephemera not exactly in synch with my intent to reduce clutter and waste in my life).

Yesterday's card was a pleasure to do. I enjoyed sitting down to a piece of watercolor paper and doodling with a pencil and pen, then filling in with colored pencil blended with mineral spirits and a blending stump.  I didn't use any glue.  I didn't use any paper.  The finished piece wasn't all that, but the process was immensely satisfying.

With 329 cards to go (!) I'm going to have to explore different ways of working that don't involve paper or glue (unless I want to continue slapping things together with no meaning or emotional involvement). 

Digital collage is one area I would like to play around with.  For some reason, for this particular project, I am surprised to find a prejudice towards digital collage, that somehow it would be cheating!  Not sure where that came from, but working digitally would be a great way to do collage for this project and learn something new.  The individual cards could still be printed (it is important to me to have something to hold in my hands at the end of the project).

I also really want to learn how to draw or at least elevate my doodles a bit.  Drawing is one of those skills that seems outside my scope on many different levels (I'm not very patient, for example), but the idea of sitting down at my table with one sheet of paper, a pencil, colored pencils, and my imagination, is very appealing.

Easy Habit or Personal Style?

(Pictured: ATC #32)

Doing these every day for the past 32 days I notice I repeat the same elements and I wonder: am I repeating these elements because they are part of my personal style or is it an easy, unconscious habit to reach for the turquoise glaze, the torn ledger page, the smudged charcoal pencil, and the found text in a poetry book?

Earlier this year I wrote about wanting to stop using halos and stars in my work and a wise friend said if halos and stars make me happy, I should continue using them.  She's a smart girl, this friend!

The truth is stars and halos DO make me very happy.  Although I haven't used those elements on this particular card, I like to use halos and stars over the heads of figures to suggest something else going on inside the figure on the card, something deeper than just the look on the figure's face.  Without getting too artsy-woo-woo here, when I do collage work I feel pulled to give the focal figure (and there is almost always a figure) a bigger life beyond what is seen at first glance.  I feel that way about life too and the people I meet and interact with.  I don't like skimming surfaces ... I like to dig deeper. 

As I continue with this project one of the things I'll be challenging myself with is determining which elements are truly authentic to my work and which ones I employ because they are easy. 

Although some days I find this daily practice tedious, I am excited about what I might discover and what conclusions I might draw from the experience at its close.  CraftyPod's most recent podcast is an interview with an artist who has almost finished an amazing year-long art project ... I highly recommend a listen and a look at the entire project - it's pretty impressive to see from beginning to end and everything in between.

With the new year approaching, I have a feeling it's going to be quite chatty around here the next couple of days as I tie up loose ends and share what's shaking in the new year ...

The First 30

Today I completed my 30th artist trading card ("atc") in my year-long art project. 

30 atcs = 30 days = 1 month since Mr. P's departure for points far far east. 

The time has both flown by and dragged on, yes, both of these.  I am pleasantly surprised at just how comforting it is to visualize time through these little 2 1/2" x 3" atcs.  This has so much more impact than crossing off the days on the grids of a paper calendar.  The time feels more purposeful instead of something to slog through.  There is, of course, much slogging, but this creative practice is really helping me.

Sitting down to do these each day is not always fun and I'm not always in the mood to create.  But I look at this mosaic of the first 30 and I'm glad I met my commitment and see that even the bad ones contribute to the completed collection.  Hmmm ...I'm fairly certain there is a life lesson here!

I can see that continuing with 335 more of these (or 336 as 2008 is a leap year) is going to require challenging myself to mix it up a bit, make it interesting, stretch myself, and try new things with my collage work and so I'm already thinking of actual challenges, such as: 30 days using one focal image, 30 days using just pen and ink, 30 days exploring one theme, 30 days of digital collage ... you get the idea.  I might even throw it open to those of you following along and let you determine my challenge for a 30 day period (suggestions welcome!).

If you want to see my progress unfold, I post these each day as I finish them, both on my flickr photostream and now in a photo album to be found on the right sidebar of my blog.

Just for fun, I've created a little poll (behind the cut below) to determine your favorite of the first 30 (I have a favorite ... I'll share mine with you next week).  Each card is numbered on both flickr and the typepad photo album (or count in the grid above, from L-R, with #1 being the top left square and #30 being the bottom right square).  Just click on the one you like to find the corresponding number and vote.  Enjoy!

Fifty Cent Dreams and Stuff

The last few months I've had vivid and interesting dreams featuring symbols that repeat themselves (not exact repetitions, more like variations on a theme).  Symbols like elevators, escalators, and skyscrapers, and one unusual dream involving, er, melted butter. 

Being naturally curious, I decided to start keeping track of these dreams and try to divine what, if anything, they might mean.  Dreams remind me of poetry in that they both deal in metaphor.  I love that!

I've been paging through modern dream interpretation books and tomes that include page after page of boring Freudian dream philosophy and Jungian archetype dream philosophy, and not finding a reference anywhere to elevators, escalators, skyscrapers, and, ahem, the melted butter, so imagine my amusement when I found this book at the thrift store today for fifty cents!  Written in 1952 it addresses all of my symbols except for skyscrapers.  Inside is a handwritten dedication in blue ink reading: "to my Darling little Dreamer, Christmas 1952, Your loving husband."

Such a perfect and serendipitous find!  Not only may it possibly help me discover patterns and meanings in my dreams, but will be great for collage work as well!

* * *

On the creative front, I am still plugging along with my day/week/month project.  You can follow along on flickr.  At the 30 day mark I have a few things planned, so stay tuned for that.  I'm only on Day 21, but I'm already learning a lot through this process. 

Today, I went out to swap-bot; I hadn't been there in awhile.  Swap-bot is a wonderment of swapping goodness!  People swap everything from themed CDs, to zines and artist trading cards to postcard and holiday themed projects.  So much fun!  I signed up for these: A cupcake atc swap and flickr favorites swap (which requires no sending of anything and is so easy its ridiculous!). 

Go forth and swap!  It's good for you!

* * *

If you are here looking for the All About Blythe page, I've temporarily removed it from my blog.  I am trying to decide if the Blythe stuff needs its own blog.  I hesitate to do that because I don't like the idea of breaking my interests down into six gazillion blogs, but I want to keep a balance of things here (it's not all Blythe, it's not all art, it's a lot of everything).  I'll figure it out; in the meantime I've removed the page.

However, Blythe aficionados, do not despair!  I am hosting a Blythe photo swap via swap-bot!  You can check out all the details and sign up via the link.

Finally, whether you are Blythe collector or not, you might appreciate this article profiling the designer of the original Blythe doll in 1972 and the revival of the doll in the last many years.

Enjoy!