Life Tree Painting

Life Tree is a multi-media painting, created with acrylic paint, paper mache, and natural materials. It was painted for my show in March of 2010 at the City of the World Art Gallery in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

I constructed the niches especially to contain treasures that reveal personal elements of nature and trees.  I love trees for their grace and beauty, for their life and connection to nature and God.

A "new" Altered Photo Collage

This one is entitled "Dedicated to Donna Jean" for the little girl in the picture. I decided her name was Donna Jean after looking through several other photographs. Her face is very pretty and reminds me of a doll.

Changing It Up

There's something about an old photo that makes us wonder about the people or place that someone took the time to preserve for all time.  I love looking at old photos of people and thinking about what special time they was meant to memorize.  I found some old photographs among my aunt's belongings. I did not know their true stories, but they were so endearing that I had to do something special with them.
   My Process:    These backgrounds are unpredictable because I just pour different colored walnut inks by Tsukineko over the canvas in different combinations. After this particular one dried,  I dabbed on some crackle medium here and there. Sorry I do not know exactly which crackle brand I used since I have a variety in the cupboard. Sometimes I just grab a bottle and spash it in certain spots experimenting with it.  I love experimenting in art. It's how new art is created.

After a light coat of white acrylic, a lovely crackle appeared in spots.  Now for the photo...altering process for the photo involved two things: scratching the photo in certain areas and dripping or spraying ink onto the photo.

And some strategic dabbing with paper towel to keep the ink from overpowering the image. Then I ripped the photo around the edges to age it some more.

To age the background  more I rubbed brown stamp pad ink a bit and added a lace stencil effect with white gesso. The lace trim was dyed with more walnut ink. I could not resist adding a rusty heart at the top, because it seemed to go with the story that I was creating.


This is entitled "Stories to Tell"  because one day someone took this photograph to remember their special house and to show others where their story took place.
 

Little bits of Art

While I am on the subject of this past Christmas, I'm going to post these pictures of the ATC's I made just this last December for  a Swap. The Swap theme was Santa and Angel. I made only one Santa ATC because I had only one Santa face to work with. But I had more little ladies to turn into angels, so I made five angel cards. For these cards I started with a watercolor and rubbing alcohol background. Then glued on the paper elements and dimensional touches.  The supply list included watercolors, rubbing alcohol, paper collage, Pure Glitz glitter, microbeads. wire, sequins, and  ribbon. As you can tell, the wings are made from vintage music sheets. I love using these and it seemed perfect to have music elements with angels.  Gluing on the microbeads was a problem, because they stick up and rub off easily. Maybe a different glue??Hmmmm....
I love making them into little hanging decorations, because then they have more than one use. Not just something to hold, but they can be displayed somewhere and enjoyed anywhere.

Just this Christmas

My favorite spot in the house this Christmas was in front of my little "handmades" tree in the family room.  It was only about three feet tall, but on it I hung the ATC's from the holiday swaps.  What a blast I had opening the mail on those days that I received some cards in the mail.

Here are some close ups of the marvelous cards I received from some creative ladies on the Milliande site.
I do need to give credit to that wonderful site, I know. I have received so much soul support from those in that community this past year.  I will definitely post something about them later.