Thank you for visiting my art blog! I am an artist in southern California, and this blog is about my journey into art. My art is mixed media original art, and very often my vehicle for sharing is a greeting card. I paint and ink and stamp and rip and shred and glue and emboss, but no designer paper is harmed in the making of my collages. It all starts with blank paper.

May 23, 2012

Focus on Joy

Finally--I have depth of field!  I am so excited to be using a new Nikon SLR to take my photos instead of my iPhone or a point-and-shoot.  (Granted, the iPhone did a pretty nice job, considering it was a phone.)  I am still learning how to use the new camera, and experimenting with backdrops that I did not consider before because I could not throw the background out of focus.  And my purple nightshade is blossoming. :)

This card is one that I have hesitated putting up for sale.  I decided not to, because it is the first of the series of grungy textured cards that I have been making lately, and my favorite.  But my mother suggested I send it to her to use as a birthday card for my husband.  Spread the joy, but keep the card in the family.  I'm liking that idea. 

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May 13, 2012

Send Us Your Spirit

The confirmation of my daughter and her dear friends offered the opportunity for this personal project.  I made three cards depicting the Holy Spirit with a dove on a red background, and other symbols of faith.  (I got a little help from clip art on this one, since I was not offering it up as completely original artwork.)

I'm enjoying a masking goo that I have been using which, when stamped, does not allow ink to penetrate.  That is how I was able to get the effect of the words on the dove.

It was a beautiful evening for our children, one which I will never forget.

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Pick of the Day

With always the eye out for the budding artist to promote, I would like to share my son's artwork which was gifted to me for Mother's Day.  While it may seem like a simple picture, he made it completely out of guitar picks that he punched using his pick punch.  Über cool.

Now that's mixed media at its best.

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May 12, 2012

Artful Prayer

A dear friend commissioned me to make her a piece of art using two prayers that meant a lot to her.  She did not specify anything else, so I had complete freedom.  What I enjoyed most was putting symbolism throughout, of both our faith and our personal connection at church. For example, the scallop shell is a symbol of St. James the Greater, patron of our parish.  I included a letter on the back describing the symbolism.  My friend's husband presented it to her for Mother's Day, and she loved it.

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April 27, 2012

Aw, Can I Keep It?

One of my best customers (okay, my mom) mentioned that she has a hard time giving away my cards.  Join the club!  Sometimes I miss my work when I give it away or sell it.  I have to keep reminding myself that spreading the joy is the whole point, right?

This card (that I want to keep) is for one of my BFF's Peg whose birthday is today, and no, I didn't spell her name wrong.  I ran into her yesterday at the art store, where I run into her once a week it seems, and we got to talking about our names for some reason.  I told her I didn't like seeing Pam in writing, preferring Pamela, and she said she much preferred Meg to Peg.  So there you go, custom work at its best.  (And I am appreciative of my own procrastination in not getting her card done until last night.)

And I am still lamenting a large custom work that I just delivered the other day.  (Where is it?!  It's been on the table for so long!)  I will be posting an image of it soon, but it has to be gifted first for Mother's Day.  Wouldn't want to spoil the surprise...

Oh, and happy birthday, Megasus!  (Just doesn't have the same effect.)

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April 6, 2012

Dreaming of Sunflowers


I had to wait until after my sister's birthday to post this card.  The gift I gave her had sunflowers on it, her favorite flower, so I wanted to continue the theme.  Fortunately, it was pretty easy since I happened to have a bouquet of the flowers at my kitchen sink to photograph.  A little high-def manipulation, and I had the perfect photo for her card.

This one was tough to part with, but it went to a good home.  Happy birthday, dear sister!

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April 1, 2012

Lofty Dreams

My dream artist studio is a loft of some kind, with wooden floors, large paned windows with sheer curtains flowing in the breeze, and a counter-top and cabinets encircling the room.  I would do the Alex P. Keaton rendition of the office chair flying across the floor as I went from one station to another.

I would no longer hate glitter.  The glitter station would have a permanent embargo on interaction with any other station.  The powder embossing station would have similar restrictions.  The inking station would no longer sully the backs of newly folded cards, and paintbrushes would not be glued to scraps from the paper cutter.  Yes, it would be harmony, chastity and calm.

At first I thought I had to wait until my daughter went off to college to reclaim her room.  But I have been informed in no uncertain terms that her room is to be preserved for posterity (n., time at which said daughter is no longer returning on break or on weekends or when sick, i.e., several years post-college graduation).  So, unless I want to set up a cot in my dream studio and bear her wrath, I think I need to be content with what I have.

Which isn't so bad.  I mean, so my living room (you know, the one right by the front door) is taken up about a third full of supplies and embellishments, and half-finished projects.  It's not so bad when I clean it up for company.  It's just that I dream of having all my supplies out and available, and not making hanky panky with each other.  I would love to pick up scissors not coated with a fine white powder.  I would love to use my paper cutter without pulling it out of the cabinet and watching that stupid (never used) multi-color ink pad fall, hoping it won't open up and stamp the carpet.  The same carpet which has opened up and swallowed countless beads, brads, rhinestones, and eyelets, never to be heard from again--until the Dyson makes its way over there.

But at least I am not alone.  My art teacher described her work area as shrinking during the course of a project until she was working on an 8"x8" square.  That made me literally laugh out loud (spelled out, no less).  And just maybe one of these days I'll toss that stupid multi-color ink pad that I never use.

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March 23, 2012

No Mallard Ducks Here

This card sold right away from my shop, which makes me wonder if I should try my hand at a few more steampunk cards.  It really is a departure from what I have done, mostly because it is silver.  (For some reason, even though I only wear silver and white gold jewelry, I only work in warm metallic tones like gold and copper.)  I love the screw brads; they really were the only way to get that aluminum sheeting attached securely anyway.

This was the first time I embossed on metal sheets (like foil, but thicker).  I cut the edges with fancy scissors to make it look torn, and then distressed it a bit.  The checkerboard backing has several top-secret techniques applied to it, but if I told you, I would have to shoot you.  So let's just leave it at maybe I'll do more of this in the future.  It's a manly card without the mallard duck, and there are so few out there that do not include fowl of some kind.  Or a moose.

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March 17, 2012

March Kids M-Power Workshop!

Well, the rain drove us into the garage.  I had the honor of being the guest artist at this month's Kids M-Power workshop, but the pouring rain kept us from enjoying the outdoor garden at our beautiful venue of The Center for a Healthy Lifestyle in Solana Beach.  No matter, we still had a great time learning about mixed media and getting our fingers full of paint.  Our budding artists were junior high school level, and even their moms pushed up their sleeves.

We made art for use as greeting cards to sell for children's causes.  Mary Windisch, a high-schooler with the spirit of a true humanitarian, explained the two current causes.  One is an international program called Mary's Meals (no relation to our Mary!)  It is a global movement that sets up school feeding projects in some of the world’s poorest communities, where hunger and poverty prevent children from gaining an education.  The other program is local, called North County Solutions for Change, an outreach program committed to solving family homelessness in North County San Diego.

Kids reaching out to kids!

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March 5, 2012

Music to my Ears

Click photo to enlarge
What do you get when you cross bad art with a pasta maker?  Apparently something that looks nice on the piano.  This piece started as a card gone wrong.  I had a pretty nice card painted Greek blue that just needed a little extra.  Of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone so I started messing with it.  I completely ruined the card, but I don't know how to throw art away so I just kept covering it over with sheet music, gold paper, and stringy paper--and loads of matte medium.  Then I had this soupy mess that was too thick to use for much of anything.  So always thinking, I put it between wax paper and squashed it through my pasta maker tool.  What came out was better than ravioli.  I loved the way it squished and moved the musical notes and pretty much tore it to shreds.  And I also love how you can still see a hint of the Greek blue.

I'm not always a "theme" person.  I love it when art has a theme, but I think that the bringing together of disparate objects into an aesthetically pleasing creation is enough.  But this time I went with the theme.  I added a gramophone rub-on, and another that happened to say gramophone (love it when that happens).  Then I took some jewelry head-pins and my old rusty round pliers and fashioned a treble clef and a bass clef.  (My musical daughter loves the bling on the bass clef.)  Then the notes just started coming from me like a songbird.  I started to fill the little bottle with musical notes.

"But Mom, you can't tell they are musical notes."

"I don't care; I know they are musical notes."

So I'm not sure if I am going to sell this one--it sure looks nice on the piano.

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