Rauschenberg Reaction

I enjoy going to museums.  I enjoy looking at paintings, sculpture, etc. and reading the little plaques mounted nearby with information about the artist and the piece.  Depending on the museum and the exhibit I may be drawn in by the age of the piece, be it King Tut's sarcophagus or a Rembrandt, thinking historically about the materials and circumstances under which the art was able to come into being.

Often I am drawn to the texture of the mediums, a sense of and appreciation of which you just cannot get from seeing two-dimensional pictures of art in books or online.

Alfred Jensen "Reciprocal Relation, Per I, II and Per III, IV", 1969
Oil on canvas

I thought these were painted concrete.

I was so surprised that the texture was, in fact, paint!!

Ok, so--Museums.  Enjoy them, appreciate them, great way to spend an afternoon, right?  Well, NEVER IN MY LIFE have I been so emotionally struck by a piece of art than I was when I came upon this one by Robert Rauschenberg at the Los Angeles MOCA recently.

Robert Rauschenberg, "Interview", 1955

OMG!  How to describe it?? I entered the room.  The piece was on the wall straight ahead.  I can't say what it was in particular that spoke to me, but all of a sudden my hand moved from over my heart to over my mouth.  I flushed, took in a shaky breath, and pinched my nose to hold back a sob!  I slowly took in every inch of it from every angle.  I honestly do not know what my connection was to this piece, but it was so deep, and so strong.  My family, somewhat embarrassed, I think, speed-walked into the next gallery.  But I didn't want to leave.

I wanted to crawl inside.  I wanted to just sit in there and think about every element and detail.   Now I want to study him, get to know him better.  And maybe discover where this deep feeling of connectedness stems from.

How Funky is My Chicken?

Easter came and went.  The kids are older, well into High School.  The Easter Bunny's excitement at our house has devolved as this burnt out working rabbit's effort at "doing her best" has really, sadly, dwindled to the point where she doesn't even use Easter grass anymore, and the baskets were too hard to locate in the garage so oversized Tupperware made do.  And there weren't even jellybeans. Weren't.  Even.  Jellybeans.  Pretty lame.

The Easter Bunny, rather, spent some post-Easter energy doing a little Spring cleaning and purging, and came to the realization that she is in fact, an Easter Squirrel.  No, a Year-Round Squirrel. Tucked behind packages of expired microwave popcorn and a bag of fossilized miniature marshmallows were these two little rubber chicks, meant to be included in the baskets...er, bowls...this year (or possibly Easter 2009).

They were deflated, misshapen and could no longer stand on their own, but trash? No.  I diverted them into my squirreled stash of mark-making tools and objects, things I use to add texture to wet paint, gesso, or gelli prints.

ICAD was the perfect opportunity to experiment with them right away.  First I used them with Distress Inks to make this:

I just pounced those little fuzzy chicken heads right onto the ink pads and onto my card.

Pretty cool!  Then I thought, what if I could be more purposeful with shading and make a face?

I used three shades of Distress Ink:  Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, and Gathered Twigs.

Even though I tried to expand the illusion of the "canvas", I think using a larger format would be more successful.  I used pencil and black pen to define the features.


My Cocoa Daisy kit arrived the other day, and I was super excited because I purchased the Project Art add-on this month starring Dina Wakely's new line of acrylic paints and BLACK GESSO!!
I could not wait to (literally) get my fingers into their creaminess, grabbed an index card and smooshed and smoothed those vibrant colors all over it.  I used a chicken to stipple on some black gesso to add contrast, and wiped a tree trunk on with the left over I'd squeezed onto my work surface.

A few nearby additions including cuttings from a plastic tray insert from a box of Christmas cookies or chocolate, a worry doll and some dictionary page and my latest, most favoritest little piece of art was born!

Yes, I do love my alone time.  Especially when I'm feeling creative and go get lost in my art supplies.

How 'bout you?  What do you like to do with your alone time?

Thanks for stopping by!!
Have a great day!!

#bringbackourgirls: A Charity Art Auction

It has been one month since nearly 300 girls were kidnapped in Nigeria from their school by the terror group Boko Haram.  As of this writing, the girls have not yet been found, though it seems that 50 of them were able to escape.  The U.S. is flying drone planes over an area the size of West Virginia in an effort to help locate them.

Unable to sit still, artist Jessica Sporn stood up.  She stood up and asked other artists to stand up with her.  Her Call to Art has summoned more than 50 artists to donate works to an online auction beginning TODAY as an effort to raise monies and awareness of the importance of educating girls.

Girl Rising is a global campaign for girls' education; their mission is to change the way the world values the girl.  All proceeds from the auction will be donated to girlrising.com


I created two pieces for the auction.  The first I have titled Illumination.

As important as education is to bringing enlightenment to those in the classroom expecting to learn, my hope is that any group or individual who feels threatened by the idea of education for girls or women may be awakened and illuminated to the positive impact and societal depth they are denying their own selves by not allowing females the opportunity, the right of an education.

I punched around 300 holes in a piece of painted and inked patterned paper.
As I was collaging them on I was thinking about the girls wanting
an education, and their captors needing one.

Lots of texture and layers to create the elements.

I also created a small mixed media papier mache piece called Little Reminder.  It's important to remember that Change is Good.

I really enjoy making these little shadow box-ish hangings.
from constructing the bases from torn book pages to deciding who
will live in the recessed area.

I hope you will visit the auction site and check out the lovely mix of art items and jewelry up for bid.

Here is a list of blogs and websites of many of the other contributing artists.  You can find out more information about the particular pieces they've crafted and also get to know them and their style, too!

Jessica Sporn   http://jessicasporn.blogspot.com

Linda Kittmer  http://lindakittmer.blogspot.ca

Ronda Palazzari  http://rondapalazzari.typepad.com

Marjie Kemper   http://www.marjiekemper.com

Judy Shea   http://thekeytomyart.wordpress.com

Glenda Hoagland   http://pilgrimsthoughts.blogspot.com

Astrid Maclean  http://astridsartisticefforts.blogspot.com

Lisa Pace   http://lisapace.com

Jackie Neal   http://creatingwithoutcrayons-jackiepneal.com

Claudine Criner   http://claudinesartcorner.blogspot.com

France Papillon   http://www.france-papillon.com

Kristin Van Valkenburgh  http://TwinkleTwinkleLikeAStar.blogspot.com

Marcia Beckett  http://marciabeckett.blogspot.com

Ruth Levy   http://lerusho.wordpress.com/

Sally Lynn MacDonald   http://www.SallyLynnMacDonald.com

Renee Zarate   http://renee-boltonhouse.blogspot.com

Natasha May   http://natashamay.blogspot.com/

Carmen Whitehead   http://www.serendipitystudiobycw.blogspot.com/

Seth Apter   http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/

Marybeth Shaw   http://mbshaw.blogspot.com/

Amy Ingardia-Walker  http://creativelyquirkyathome.blogspot.com/

Kelly Warren  http://happyshackdesigns.blogspot.com

Julie Bernier http://juliebernierphotography.zenfolio.com/

Adrienne Hoban  http://www.allure-decor.com/

Krista van Tol   http://craftylittlepigtails.blogspot.com

Cheryl Grigsby http://cherylspaperartz.blogspot.com

Jill Meyer www.jillmeyer.com

Kerry C. Mitchell http://kerrycmitchell.com

Lizabeth Harrington http://www.craicarts.blogspot.com; www.facebook.com/craicarts.com

Barbara Lanza www.barbaralanza.com

Thank you SO very much!

Trend Setter

Los Angeles Times

January 19, 2014

Lisa Flaherty

November 26, 2013

Just sayin'….  ;)   

 Lol!

Maybe this is just the recognition I needed to post more often. 

Here's a look at something new from me to cleanse your eyes from seeing that crazy layout again (Jeremy, once again, horrified that it exists on the interwebs. #sorrynotsorry):

It is a collage I made at an awesome class taught by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer at Studio Crescendoh a couple weeks ago.  I'm finishing up another in a series, and will share more soon!  

Thanks for stopping by!