Saturday Mornings Are Great!

I love Saturday mornings. 
Sitting here on my bed amongst the dirty clothes, half-empty glasses and the overflowing ashtray on the bedside table I plan my day, update my blog, think about what I can make today as I reach over to kiss and talk to my always loving lab Molly.  It is a great day when I don't have to jump out of bed and get ready to leave for the workday.  I am reviewing in my head the treasures that I bought at the garage sales I went to Thursday and Friday.  I got some great stuff and should post a picture of the kitchy Jesus night light from the 60's, the old 50lb typewriter I practically stole for only $5, the Easy Bake Oven with the beautiful blue-green color that invokes the 50's, and vintage stamped brass tags I found in the bottom of a shoe box full of other beautiful rusted objects from someone's past that will now get a new life.  I also hit the jackpot at a garage sale that was selling the remains of the art pencils and inks owned by a local artist who created the Schwebel's logo.  I grabbed an old bandaid box full of grungy calligraphy pen nibs and ink bottles and a few boxes of charcol and colored pencils from the 60's.  Great stuff! Maybe I can channel the artistic creativeness of the previous owner as I use them.   The small old German Bible I found for only a couple of dollars will get to spread its message again but this time as a background for my next ATC. 
 I also have had a fixation on letters and numbers picking up any metal numbers I run across.  The older and more beat up the better.  While walking by the dumpster at work a few days ago, I happened to look down and find five or six round discs that had numbers printed all around the edge.  They were obviously from some type of counter that was on machinery and I grabbed them all and kept looking around the ground finding some great rusty metal, gears, and even an old registration plate from a piece of manufacturing equipment and have will make it a point to take a walk around that dumpster at least once a week looking for more of these wonderful stragglers of the past.   Yeah, anyone who sees me picking up this 'junk' thinks I'm crazy, but where they see only junk, I see one of a kind artistic elements that tell a story and call out to me.  Finding and picking up these pieces destined for the dump is like finding a stray diamond laying in the dirt.  How could I just leave it laying there?  
Now that I have a plan, or many plans for the day, I'll get up and get moving.  
Maybe.  Or maybe I'll just blog surf at my favorite art blogs for a bit. 
That's the beauty of Saturday mornings.  

  

Here are more pictures of pieces I created at Artiscape. 

New Book and Year Long Workshop

I am a member of the Yahoo Group The Latest Trends in Mixed Media Art.  They have a new book and with the purchase you can participate in a year long workshop for free!  I have the book and am signed up for the workshop.  One of the classes is taught by Lesley Venable (one of my favs).  Check it out and consider participating as it promises to be a great learning opportunity. Just click on the link for more information.
marianna

Back from Artiscape 2010

I can't believe it is over already.  Last weekend was a whirlwind of art that left me exhausted yet fulfilled at the same time.  I had scheduled to take five classes in three days.  I think that next time I will try to focus on only three classes if I can resist. These are the classes that I took:
Creative Composition-The Layering Effect with Lesley Venable
Crossings with Sharon Andrews
Artistic Soldering for Beginners with Paula Hardesty
Triptych with Sharon Andrews
Journaling in Wax with Patricia Seggebruch

I loved every class but really excelled in the class by Lesley Venable and the soldering with Paula Hardesty.  I think it is no accident that I did better in these because they were both held in the morning and because I really connected with both of these instructors.  They were great.  I seem to do my best work when I have the class in the morning and when I sit as close to the instructor as possible.  (note to self)
The venue was great but very jam packed thus tiring - for me anyway. 

One great part of the whole experience was meeting with other artists.  For me this was great because, as I have stated in prior posts, most of my friends and family members just don't "get" my art and I don't have any art buddies that live close to me.  I met some great and talented people and also participated in some swapping.  I was a bit disappointed by the lack of swapping that was going on but still came home with some great stuff. 

I also participated in a silent auction to benefit the Susan G. Kohmen Breast Cancer Fund.  I was delighted to find out that my piece brought in $45!  This was one of the higher amounts that were raised per auction item and I luckily took some pictures of the piece before I left for the weekend which is pictured above this post.  It all started with an old metal downspout strainer.  The theme of the weekend was based on the book/movie Enchanted April and I made sure that I watched the movie prior to creating the piece.

The pieces that I made and my swaps are also pictured here. (working on this)  I have a lot of creative ideas now and just need to find time to CREATE create CREATE!  I hope to add posts more often now so check back soon.
Marianna    

"Family Legacy"

I bought this vintage picture at a garage sale last summer.  I love how each family member, even though touching another, seems so uncomfortable and staged.  While working with the photo, I imagined that they rarely physically or emotionally connected which is why it looks so forced in the photo.  If you look at each of them individually, you can easily imagine that each could have been posing for a picture alone rather than as part of a family.  My mind then wonders if this was a family in which emotions were not considered an important or valuable aspect of life and that this disconnect was a legacy that was passed down from generation to generation. 
Even though I understand that during the time in which this picture was taken getting photographed was an occasion and most didn't smile for these serious portraits, this particular picture still tells me a story.

I have a friend who won't touch or look at any of my art that is made from these old photographs.  She thinks that the spirit of the person in the photo might come back and haunt those who 'defiled' their likeness.  Shoot, I hope that if someone finds a picture of me in a hundred years that they make something fun/artistic out of it.  I'll be sure to smile kindly on them, not haunt them.
Till Soon,
Marianna

As Promised, "The Curse"

This is one of my first assemblage pieces that began with the Midol tin.  I didn't want to make it vulgar, but did want to capture the feeling of what has been called The Curse, Your Time, etc.  I'm one of those persons who doesn't usually make 'cutesy' art but rather would focus on the subjects that others would probably never even touch.  My pictures are obviously not professional, and the glass makes it difficult to see inside the shadowbox so I included a picture of the inside of the box before I put it together.  This was one of those projects where you have to say STOP because I could have just kept adding more embellishments on the outside of the box but I didn't want to take all of the focus away from the picture and objects inside. 
This started with a Dollar Store shadowbox that I think I paid 50 cents for and the Midol tin that I picked up at a vintage/antique store for a buck.  I couldn't resist that tin because I remember taking those things and they sure didn't work for me, but my mind and creativity just took off from there.  As a woman who doesn't have to deal with The Curse any longer (thankyou Doctor!), I guess I can just laugh at what really was a nightmare for me for most of my life.  For me this was great fun to put together because I got to paint.  I love to paint which I think goes back to my ceramics phase that I went through in the late 80's. 
What are your thoughts about the subject matter of this piece?  Do you enjoy the dark humor, or do you feel it is just plain wrong?  What would you have done different with this piece?  Would you have taken it a step further or would you have thrown it in the garbage deeming it innapropriate?  I would love to know your thoughts.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas.  My family was here at our home for Christmas Eve as is tradition, but it was bittersweet as our Mother was not with us this year as she passed away last April from ovarian cancer.  As a tribute to her, I made a pendant for each of my siblings from some of her vintage jewelry.  I got the idea as I was going through some of her old jewelry (lots of Sarah Coventry-yum!) and spotted her charm bracelet that I always remember her wearing when I was a child. 
The bracelet had a silhouette of each of her children with our names and birthdates engraved and I got the idea that each of us should have their silhouette.  So I took the bracelet apart and created a new pendant for each of us by adding other charms, a pearl from another of her pieces, and hung them from a large hoop earring so the silhouette hung exactly in the middle of the earring.  For one of my brothers though, I used a vintage key instead of the earring.  This key is from our Uncle Joe's house in Brooklyn before he died in 1975.  I didn't take any pictures of my creations but once I finish mine I will add a picture of it so you can get the idea of how they all looked.

On a much lighter note, you probably notice that my blog looks a bit different and my pics are all missing.  I had time this evening to 'tweak' my blog and managed to delete the pictures.  "Good Intentions" right?  I should have all of them back up in a day or so. 
Till soon!

New ATC's

Well Christmas is sneaking up on us and I haven't even had time to do much in the way of Holiday art though, as usual, I have lots of ideas and plans that just haven't come to fruition.  These ATC's were made by me in the past year.  I love the one that uses the vintage picture negative that allows the heart to show through. The second reminds me of an old teacher that I had as a child who had absolutely no sense of humor.  And the last is a Japenese Maple leaf over a playing card that is partially covered in dictionary pages.  These are some of my favorites and I hope you like them. 
I was in Joanne's not too long ago and saw that they were selling packs of different types of paper that were already cut for ATC's.  I picked up packs of vellum, watercolor, and another type of paper (the name escapes me at the moment) that these were made of.  I hope that the ATC craze continues as it is a quick and easy way to get that burst of artistic need out and on a piece of paper even when pressed for time. 

Speaking of pressed for time, I will be uploading pictures of my latest mixed media altered shadow box that all women will "get" as it is called "The Curse."  Can you guess what it is about???? 
Till Soon! Marianna