Wanderings: Through the Hoops

"Through the Hoops" mixed media assemblage

I took a class over the past month at the Novato Arts Center. It was called "Rethinking 2-D" and was taught by Suzanne Stroebe. Suzanne has an investigative and experimental view of art. She firmly believes in the value of re-purposing materials and incorporating found items -- sometimes sustainable -- into your artistic endeavors. I would have never thought of using eucalyptus or lavender oil to make transfers from xerox/toner image copies. It smells so good and doesn't destroy your brain cells like xylene, turpentine, and even Citrasolve! I had fun returning to childhood crafts -- and adding them into a canvas or box assemblages.

I created the above little diorama from a shoe box, a discarded bristle brush rabbit, 3 gold hoops, and some junk photos. I wrote this text around the window: "She longed for green grass and a world where bunnies ran free..."  I enjoyed creating this assemblage -- it was made from miscellaneous items I had thrown into a paper bag and stuck in my barn.

CED 2010 Mexican Journal: The Truth Is

CED 2010 Mexican Journal: The Truth Is

From art journal described in this post.

CED 2010 Mexican Journal: Surf and Sand

CED 2010 Mexican Journal: Surf and Sand

Gesture drawings in pencil of beachcombers covered over with collage images. From art journal described in this post.

Mexican Journal 2010: Let It Bleed

Mexican Journal 2010: Let It Bleed

From art journal described in this post.

Sister Journals: Mexican Sunshine, Laughter and Love

Virginia's Mexican Journal 2010 (Cover)

Mary's Mexican Journal 2010 (Cover)

My sister Mary and I spent another enriching vacation in Mexico together this past month. We created art at all hours of the day and night, power walked the early morning streets of La Penita de Jaltemba, and drank cappuccinos seaside in the afternoons, watching my dolphin husband Munro body board in the Mexican surf. A glorious, healing, life-affirming seven days in which we renewed ourselves creatively and lovingly affirmed the importance of each other in our lives.

This year we created artist trading cards (ATCs) for one another (I'll post some of these later. I also brought two small Paperblank journals for us to alter. Mary's book is filled to the brim with positive, self-affirming pages that spill out from between the covers. My pages vary between self-reflective, playful, serious, wishful. I also tried to draw a bit and would often collage over some of my drawings. Both journals are soul-full, burst with color, and are a bit confrontive -- just like we are. I'll be posting more journal pages from that vacation as I get the time to upload them.

It's Your Gift (from Mary's Journal)

What's Next (from Virginia's Journal)

Collage: Catnip Dreams

Catnip Dreams

Mixed media collage in altered journal: ink markers, dye ink pads, stars, paper, pens

It's been a week since I've done any "real" art. My Kentucky girlfriends, Janet and Nancy, (who I've known since age 14) came in town for a rainy California visit and there wasn't any real me time. But that's OK, I loved being with them and showing them the sites. Yesterday I took them to the airport, came back home and was zoning out watching the tube. My cat Zeus was zoning out next to me on the couch. I grabbed some art tools and started sketching. I never know at this stage what's going to come out. Zeus opened his eyes from time to time, but didn't move -- such a good art model. He was dreaming of an Elvis mouse, I think. Anyway that's what I saw!

2010 Creative Every Day Challenge -- Day 2

Creative Every Day Challenge -- Day 2: I Sing the Body Electric!

OK, I'm doing a little backtracking here because reader koufax politely demanded it. Here was my submission for CED Day 2. I posted it in my Flickr set and sent it to the CED Flickr pool, but didn't post it here on my blog....mainly because I said in my Day 1 CED post here that there was no way that I was ever going to draw my thighs! Well, NEVER SAY NEVER!

When I saw Leah's CED post about body words, I thought of Walt Whitman's poem "I Sing the Body Electric". This is one of his twelve poems from Leaves of Grass. This is one of my favorite poems, because it's a celebration of the body, both male and female, of our physical humanity. And it contains some of the most incredible words about sexual love that was ever uttered by a man of the 19th century (written between 1847-1855). Move over D.H. Lawrence.

So, "I Sing the Body Electric" will be my words for this month, this year: to affirm, to act, to dance, to sing out, to paint, to create. And this mixed media collage came out of my musings, and yes, prompted me as I stood in front of the mirror, to pull down my jeans and draw what I saw! Is that too much information? Oh well, I was always a little bit of an exhibitionist! And I didn't say it would be a realistic drawing! Of course I had to embellish my grade school drawing to make it easier for me to submit it! LOL! So, koufax, you asked for it!

Creative Every Day 2010 Challenge -- Day 1

2010 Creative Every Day Challenge: Day 1 -- FAT!

I joined Leah Piken Kolidas' Art Every Day for a Month (November) and had such a positive experience with it, both in stimulating my creativity and belonging to an interesting artistic community. As a result I decided to join her Creative Every Day 2010 Challenge. This challenge encourages and supports you to create something -- art, word, photo, dance, music, etc., every day if possible and post your resulting creative piece on her site whenever possible.

As a result of my participation in November's challenge, I went out and found an art teacher (the mother of a close friend -- I will write about her later) to teach me how to draw. I have never had any art lessons, other than a week retreat of Betty Edward's Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. I learned that I could draw, but I hated it. I felt ready after November to o past these feelings and explore my abilities. I want to be able to draw and paint what I see and feel and I felt the Creative Ever Day Challenge would support me in exploring this.

"The Body" is this month's optional theme. So this is first entry is a contour drawing (more or less) of one of my legs. I have never loved my body. I am more comfortable with it now -- I see its beauty except there is still an uncomfortableness, a dislike, about my legs -- really my thighs. I have never liked them. But no way am I drawing my thighs! At least not yet, and I don't even know that I would share those drawings if I did. But here is my leg -- and boy did I draw it FAT. Diego Rivera FAT. Fernando Botero FAT. August Renoir FAT. I added the butterfly stickers so I wouldn't feel SO FAT!!!