Three Muses

I love my studio--it's truly my sanctuary.

To the casual observer, it's just a room over the garage with a couple of windows and good light--but to me it's a warm, sunny place where I can do, think, feel, create and be whatever I want. Now how many places in life can you say that about?

The minute I walk thru the door my breathing slows and my heart rate drops. I become centered and very "in the moment" (yea, I tend to struggle with that) and I'm able to think clearly and honestly about the day-to-day stresses that fill up my mind.

And when I sit at my work table, I have three special muses who reside on the wall over my table and tirelessly gaze down on me, guiding me in my creative journey. My muses are very special to me--no doubt chosen because of their influence during my formative years. Each a gifted genius in their own genre, they inspire me daily because I know that they dreamed, aspired, reached, achieved and ultimately succeeded.

They were human--like me. They were mortal--like me.
They breathed, they bled, they cried.
Like me.

Every time I'm sitting at my work table and happen to look up, I see my muses, Al, John & Lucy, gazing back at me. They give me the courage to reveal a bit of myself thru my art. Of course, it never happens without fear--but with the encouragement of my muses, I find I am brave enough to keep on trying.

Peter, Peter, PummKin Prototype

So remember my trusty sketchbook that I blogged about some time ago? (see "The Mashed Potato Files" 1/12/09 post). Well, the other day I was perusing thru the pages looking for an idea to inspire me and came across some sketches that I did early last autumn. Of course, these sketches were very haphazard---I must have gotten a stroke of inspiration while waiting in the dentists office since they were doodled on the back of my daily "to do" list and then subsequently scotch-taped inside my sketchbook. No one will ever accuse me of being too organized.

Anyway, here is the sketch I started out with. As you can see, I started with the basic idea for the head and then added the body/limbs later as my idea evolved. I knew I wanted to use a combination of fabric and wool felt for this doll cuz I love texture--plus, I hand-dye most of my own wool felt so I get some really cool mottled colors.

After a couple attempts, here is the first prototype of my idea brought to life. The face is 3-dimensional--a machine-stitched trapunto technique that I stuff and then hand-paint with acrylics. He stands about 7" tall which includes the hand-painted wooden base.

I'm pretty happy with the results but I most likely will be tweaking some things. I didn't do the exact face as my original sketch, but probably will on the next one. I also want to try some different color combinations, maybe a slightly different body shape and perhaps elaborate a bit more on the costume.

It's still a work in progress.

New Year - New Day

Happy New Year!
It's a brand new year with new possibilities--and I'm always intrigued by what new and exciting chapters will be written during the next twelve months. I've never been a believer in making New Year's resolutions--big changes don't come easy and knowing myself the way I do, I'd probably be setting myself up to fail and who needs that. But I do like the idea of taking time to sit quietly with a cup of my favorite tea to reflect and dream about the possibilities.

Perhaps with a bit of courage and blind faith, I might even lean into my dreams and see what happens. Wish me luck!

Art Is.... continued

While at the Art Is...retreat last autumn, my friend Cate and I also took a mini-class during the evening on embellishing a beautiful piece of handmade felt. Well, it really wasn't a "class" since we didn't learn anything new--it was more like a "let's play" gathering. We each received a large ziploc bag that contained a thick, yummy piece of handmade felt, along with assorted art papers, fabric scraps, beads, wire, etc. We brought our own images, rubber stamps, thread, etc. and proceeded to play. My piece was inspired by the wispy image that Cate cut out of a newspaper.

I call it, "We are all thin Within"

En-Grose-d

Back in October, my friend Cate and I spent a fun weekend at the ARt Is... Retreat in Cromwell, CT. I took a painting class with the very talented Aussie artist, Pam Grose. We played around with some acrylic paint, inks & water droplets on canvas board which was fun. Here is my finished faerie painting---I didn't intend to make her a faerie but I wanted to try painting wings. Then I decided I wanted some texture to her dress, so I placed some crumpled tissue paper over the painted area with matte medium, then applied some silver Rub'N Buff over it. The added texture is great so will definitely play around with that some more.

Looking Back -- Going Forward

I've decided that instead of trying to explain away my deplorable lack of communicating for the past 6 months--which would bore both of us-- I'm just going to post some pics of the stuff I've created during that time.

As you may remember, I started taking art classes a year ago and have been learning to paint with soft pastels. As with anything that is challenging, I have days that I'm in love with the medium--everything makes sense and just works----and then there are days that I just want to flush my pastels down the toilet, run screaming from the room and hide in a corner somewhere and suck my thumb. It's definitely a hair-ripping challenge but I'm determined to persevere....

This portrait of our class model--I think her name was Marie--took me about 9 hours of class time. It is done with soft pastel on Wallis sanded paper. Portraits are my favorite thing to paint.

We also did a still life in the class but it was far from inspiring and I just couldn't get into it, so I came home, grabbed some stuff from my kitchen and set up my own in my studio. I like painting small still-life set-ups so I can really study the light & form of the objects without getting too overwhelmed.









I really struggle with backgrounds--but the ceramic vase was fun to do here.

The final assignment for the semester was to do a painting from a photo--or several photos and include at least two figures in the composition. I decided to use several photos taken during our vacation in Scotland last summer as my inspiration. There was no castle near the beach where we stayed, but since our family loves to peruse old castles, I took the artists perogative and put one in along with my family. I had it matted & framed and gave it to my hubby for Christmas. It now hangs in his office. He loves it. (ignore the bright white spots---just light reflection on the glass) Soft pastels on Wallis sanded paper. I tried something new here--started with an under-painting using watered-down pastel in bright tones and I love the vibrancy it gave it!

Now on to other stuff...

Re-Dressed

Yeah, I know. Once again, I've gotten embarrassingly behind in my posting. My only excuse (if you can call it that) is that life is happening with more gusto than usual at the moment and, it seems, time is not on my side. I do, however, solemnly swear to do my best for the next few weeks.

If you read my previous post "Dress Stress"--and learned of my quest to create the perfect prom dress for my DD--I thought you might like to see the final result. My DD was absolutely thrilled with it--it fit her like a glove (which DIDNT happen by accident, believe me!) and I think my greatest accomplishment was either finally mastering the art of inserting an invisible zipper (that skill has eluded me for years!)--or figuring out how to use the HotFix tool I bought to put on the crystals. Both went swimmingly and that made me a VERY happy camper.

The original pattern for this dress was Simplicity #4577 (View A) which was a fairly simple halter-dress. I did some fairly extensive alterations to the bodice to create the banded opening in the front and I completely redesigned the back to include the woven straps and the lacing since the original pattern was a simple halter that closed at the back of the neck. Also, instead of using a lining fabric under the skirt, I used the black satin which hung about 2" below the green print for a peek-a-boo effect. The best part is that I can remove the green over-skirt and she will have a completely different dress! We loved the funky, lime-green animal print! Oh, and I even made her a little quilted evening bag from the leftover fabric remnants. It's just big enough to hold her pocket camera and lipstick. Then I went nuts with the HotFix tool putting the leftover crystals all over it.

One can never have too much bling.