It's Time for a Fresh Start...

As the title says, it's time for a fresh start so I've begun a new blog to display my art and vintage interests.  I hope you will join me as I become active again in the blogging world.  I have been lurking in the shadows and taking in all of the beautiful art you all have been creating as I have quietly been creating some of my own.  I'm glad to be back and invite you to continue to follow me as I heal through my art.  You can find me at my Art by Marianna blog at the following address:

http://artandvintagelove.blogspot.com/

 

I Hope to See You All There!

WHY I HAVE BEEN MISSING IN ACTION LATELY

On March 21st, my only child died.  I have been trying to go on without him and luckily I have a great husband and friends who have been helping me through this nightmare.  My son, like most mothers out there, was one of the largest parts my life and losing him has left a large hole in my heart.  I hope to be back soon once life settles down.  Your thoughts and prayers would be most appreciated at this time.

Thank you,

Marianna Larew

If you are interested, there are great pictures of Andrew on my Facebook page.

Andrew W. Bryant 1987-2012

March 21, 2012

WARREN - Andrew Wesley Bryant, 24, died Monday morning, March 19, 2012, at a friend's home in Brookfield.

He was born Oct. 6, 1987, in Warren, the son of Wesley L. Bryant and Marianna L. Keller Larew.

Andrew was a 2006 graduate of Warren G. Harding High School, where he played trombone in the band and played football. He attended Bolindale Christian Church. He had worked for PSC Metals in Cleveland and was working in recent years as a heavy equipment operator for Southside Environmental.

He was an avid fisherman and an avid bowler, being a member of the U.S. Bowling Congress and bowled on several area leagues, mostly at Crest Lanes in Warren.

Andrew is survived by his mother, Marianna L. (Dean) Larew of Warren; his father, Wesley L. (Dianna Cetar) Bryant of Howland; and one aunt, Tracie Keller, and two uncles, Bill Keller and John (Valerie) Keller, all of Warren. Several cousins and his best and closest friend, Justin Simmons, also survive.

One brother, Zachary Bryant, preceded him in death in infancy in 1986, and all of his grandparents, including Grandma Lois Keller, with whom he was very close, preceded him in death.

The funeral service will be at 7 p.m. Thursday at Lane Family Funeral Homes, Roberts-Clark Chapel, in Warren, where the family will receive friends from 5 to 7 p.m. prior to the service.

Online condolences may be made to the family and the obituary viewed at www.robertsclarkchapel. com.

Fun with Dick and Jane

(Shame on me.)

Free Vintage Children's Books Images

These are for use in your own art but not for resale as images because of copyright laws.  If you use them in your own art, please send me a picture.  I would love to see what you can do with them.

Tomorrow I will show you what I have done with some of them. 

"Fairy Dust"

I don't usually do 'cutesy' stuff but I couldn't  help myself.  Vintage salt and pepper shakers, vintage costume jewelry, and some fine glitter make for some cute Fairy Dust Shakers. 

AND THE WINNERS ARE.......

Prize #1

IZZY of http://www.izzycreations.blogspot.com/

and

Prize #2

RITA from http://atomicwarbride.blogspot.com/

Congratulations to you both!  I hope you like your prizes. 

This was my first time participating in OWOH and I had a great time.  I just wish I had had more time to visit all of the participating blogs but, nevertheless, I have lots of new followers and new blogs for me to follow.  I never realized just how many people there are out there who love creating as much as I do.  You all have left such kind words for me and it is so nice to hear the artists I admire for their talent freely giving praise and encouragement to little ole me.  It's truly touching! 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!
marianna

One World One Heart Blog event

I'ts time for the One World One Heart Blog Event which has been going on now for five years even though this is the first that I have participated. It figures that this is the final year and I am just now participating.  What is that saying, "A Day Late and a Dollar Short." 

A wonderful artist by the name of Lisa Swifka has hosted this World Wide event all by herself for the past five years. Talk about a strong woman!  Kudos to you Lisa, may I be as creative and industrious as you some day.  Lisa started the event as an opportunity for an artist to meet some of their peers. It's also a great way to win some great swag.  To find the list of all the bloggers taking part stop by A Whimsical Bohemian

But first I hope you take a look at my art and leave a comment to win one of two prizes I have to offer you.

The first is a set of three books to help you in your quest to create:

And the second is for those who love to stamp:

Remember, all you have to do is leave a comment with your contact information and let me know which of the two prizes would be your first choice.  On February 17th I will randomly choose a winner who will receive their first choice of the prizes, the second winner will win the remaining prize. 

Thanks for visiting and I hope you return....

have fun on your trip around the world and Good Luck!

Marianna

Go Big or Go Home

I have an addiction to vintage ads as they give me great burst of creativity.  This picture started as a hairspray ad in a magazine from the early 60's.  This is the door to my art room and the idea is when I walk through that door I will be inspired. 
When I see the picture of the models in the vintage magazines I imagine that what they would be saying or thinking something other than the ad suggests.  Like this one...

Yeah, there's a little bit of smarmy (read smart ass) added.  I guess that's just my own sense of humor. 

My photography is a bit lacking but this mother is teaching her daughter how to handle her man.  It's my commentary on how our parents teach us how to handle life and those in it.  While this may be a humoristic look at how it really works, I guess my point is that we learn from those we look up to...even the things we shouldn't be taught.  As we grow up we, hopefully, learn to take what was taught to us and weigh that against reality.  I remember when I realized that I didn't grow up in the perfect family even though until my late teens/early 20's I thought we were the most normal people/family.  What is normal anyway?

Check out the little girl laying on the car, like she rarely sees it.  Her mother can't wait to drop the children off at the sitters.  How often does that happen?  More often than we might like to admit.  But seriously, this was an ad for a car but the vintage illustration spoke more to me about the people and what they were up to rather than the car.  Would my husband agree with me?  I think that his initial focus would be on that car.  It's a guy thing. 

Who Doesn't Love Tim?

Like most people I know from the art world, we love Tim Holtz products and I have been adding to my supplies on a regular basis.   I now have too many Distress ink pads to leave just laying on my work space and have recycled a Christmas themed gift box that a bottle of wine came in.  I think I bought the box at the Goodwill for less than a dollar some months back and it just happened to be the perfect size to hold the ink pads. 

I used lots of Tim's other papers, inks, and tissue tape when creating the box and I have a bunch of vintage rip-off tickets that I used on the inside edge of the front cover.  I think they fit in will with the overall theme.  There are two holes in the top that used to have a rope going through them to use as a handle, but I have asked my husband to put in a couple of long screws that will stick up through the top that I can use to hold my tissue tape rolls.  This should help to clean up part of my workbench.  

IT'S TIME!!!!

Thanks for shakin me up Elizabeth of Alteredbooklover.blogspot.com. 
I'm still here and have been working on various projects like the clock shown here.  Anyone who knows me knows that I love vintage images, especially from the 50's.  I took some of those images and collaged a background on canvas for this one of a kind clock that is hanging in my art room.  My favorite part of this piece is the second hand which is actually a picture of a woman's legs covered in fishnet stockings.  What could be more kitchy I ask you...well, glad you asked. 
This background collage sheet was compiled using various vintage ads and pictures.  Feel free to take a copy and use it in your own work.  I would LOVE to see what you create with it so please send it on.
I would have more images, lot's more, of the pieces I have been working on, but alas, my six year old digital camera fails to cooperate.  Just what is the life span of a digital camera these days anyway???  When I get another camera I will post many pics of these projects I am either working on or have finished:  Cross made with numerous vintage religious medals, more Taintor-esque pieces, altered dominoes and charms (this was new for me), and the biggest project is a shadowbox depicting the life of a school marm which includes a frame covered in antique book spines.  Sound intriguing?  I hope so. 

They say that whatever you are doing at the beginning of the New Year is what you will be doing for the remainder of the year so I plan to spend lots of time in the next few days working on art projects. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Favorite Fall Colors

This picture shows my favorite fall color palette.  While I love the fall colors of the changing leaves, these "weed" colors from the gold, dark reds, various shades of brown and green, and especially the purple are so beautiful to me.  Hopefully soon I will create some pieces using this palette.

Another Handbag

I am also including a picture of a couple of my handbags that are for sale at Gifts From The Cottage in downtown Warren.  The owner of the shop, Wendy, has a natural talent for display and hung two of the handbags inside a vintage frame and displayed them in the front window of the shop.  Within a day of Wendy placing them like this they both sold!  Thanks Wendy. (sorry for the flash reflection in the picture)

 

Pearls Of Wisdom

Made with vintage bingo card and vintage images from old encyclopedia. 

Any suggestions for this ATC? 

I was thinking about, "She showed signs of an Exhibitionist early on."

VINTAGE HANDBAG WALL ART

Score!  I see crowns in my near future.

Made this last week and plan on making more.

My version of the Cloth Paper Scissors May/June 2010 front cover art.

More Bottle Art

More altered bottles I created this past weekend. 
I love making these!

I've also started making charms and included my Barbie hand holding the crystal ball. (sure wish I had one of these)  I also used power tools and cut, drilled, and sanded some vintage rulers to make charms with them.  I'll add some pics of those later.  I stayed up until 2am last night making a new collage background by using all the scraps of papers that were laying all over my work table and the floor.  I used gel medium to attach them to a piece of cardboard and then colored it with chalk paints, stamped, and then cut out shapes for use in ATC's, tags, future collages.  A lot of the colors reminded me of Halloween so I will probably use a bunch of them to get some early Halloween pieces done. 

Somehow amongst all of my art play, I managed to clean the house and do laundry since the temperature was below sweltering; but I hear that is going to change by tomorrow.  We don't have central air in our house and only our bedroom and my artroom have window air conditioners so unfortunately (yeah, right!) I can only stay in the art room or bedroom on those days/nights when it is hotter than Hell outside.  Guess I'll have to spend all my time at home this week in the art room.  tee hee

Here are the pictures of my scrap background before and after adding color and stamping:

The only thing I forgot to do was to make a copy of the sheet before I cut into it.  I have always thought that if I make one of these background sheets that I should make a copy so I can use it again in the future but that never seems to work out.  I get so excited about the process that I always forget to make the copy first.  Well, at least I really enjoy making these and if I don't copy them then I can say that they are truly one-of-a-kind. 

Hope you have a good week!

marianna

"Another Saturday Morning" or "Work of Art" or "Free Image and It's Story"

(I couldn't decide on the title of this post so I added all three)

Yeah, here I am again.  I promised myself I would get up early today and go outside and pull those weeds before it got too hot and I really had an excuse but...I...just...can't...seem...to...pull...myself away...from art blog surfing. 
Yesterday I went to one of our local vintage resale shops and was speaking to the owner who is interested in seeing/selling/buying some of my work.  Uh Oh, there is that word, "work."  My fear is that my art will become work so I have vowed to make sure that if I sell my art that I will not make promises that I don't want to keep.  You know the type, "Sure, I can have 12 of those ready for you next week."  Or, "Yeah, I can make some of those with your Aunt Martha's picture in them in time for her birthday...this weekend."  I just don't want to take my love of creating and turn it into just another job so I vow to
1)  Still continue to make one of a kinds.
2)  Only make items that my heart urges me to make, not to try and simply please others.
3)  Create at a MY pace. 
You see, I've been there before.  I enjoyed making art and had so much of it that I began selling my pieces and then it turned into a Production Line with deadlines.  Never Again will I make this mistake.  Besides, the greatest artists created for creation's sake.  Not simply to fill a gallery right? 
If I can stick to these rules, this should be a great experience.  I would be interested to know what others feel when they see my art.  Do they "feel" it enough to purchase it and display it in their own home? 

Stay tuned...

marianna

Oh, in the meantime, here is a photo that you can add to your image file for use in your art.  I have to tell you that I found this photo in a pile of vintage papers that I bought at a garage sale.  Going through all the papers a story unfolded.  A young guy in Ohio who attended high school during the 50's was interested in photography, theater, and opening his own photography shop when he finished school.  Within all of his personal papers, I found his test scores from his classes, his reviews from plays he acted in, and a few photos of his friends that he took while honing his craft.  This is one of those photos and it seems that the girl in the photo was a friend/love interest of his.  He circled her name in all of the reviews of the plays they were both in.  I don't know if he ever got together with her, but he did finally open that photography studio somewhere in Cleveland Ohio.  In all of the shots of her, she seems to be posing as if her future dreams were to be a Hollywood star.  In one of the photos she actually gives the photographer a shot of her panites peeking out from under her dress.  I imagine that she might have actually ended up in a Playboy magazine or something. LOL.
I used this same photo in a recent piece that I made for my Year Long Workshop group.  I've added a few images of that assemblage as well.  Have fun with the picture and, as always, please send me an email and photos of what you have created with the images I offer you.  I would LOVE to see them.

Well, now I MUST get up and see about those weeds.

marianna

This is the stupidist tea party I ever saw!

Hey, I didn't say it...this is actual text from a vintage book I have that includes the Alice In Wonderland story.  I personally never liked Alice and the story but when I got this little teapot (for free) at a garage sale, I knew that it had Alice's name written all over it.  I found the line in the Alice book and the rest is history as they say. 

I have been looking to alter little objects for a quick create fix since I just finished my altered box for the Yearlong Workshop group I am in.  So, what better way then to dress up some vintage bottles of which I have many.  Here is the first bottle I made.  It's entitled "fly" and I used vintage paper from a music book, a cutout of a swallow from a vintage bird book, and I made the nest with some wire and blue beads.  I had seen a lot of examples lately of artists making their own bird nests using wire and so I tried my hand at my own.  Here is how it turned out...

A few more bottles I've done recently and one I am currently working on.  It is an inkwell and I am using an old barrette to decorate the front of the bottle.  It's in progress, but will post the pictures when it is done.  Oh, I also thought I would include a picture of all my bling.  I just love these old costume jewelry pieces and digging through the old jewelry box gives me inspiration when I feel like I have none.