Decoration Day

A House Divided  10x8"

Decoration Day received its name from the laying of flowers on the graves of the fallen soldiers during the Civil War.

In 1868 General John A.Logan issued a proclamation that "Decoration Day" should be observed nationwide. It was observed for the first time on May 30 of the same year; the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of a battle.
The northern states quickly adopted the holiday; Michigan made "Decoration Day" an official state holiday in 1871 and by 1890 every northern state followed suit.
The earliest Confederate Memorial Day celebrations were simple, somber occasions for veterans and their families to honor the day and attend to local cemeteries. At its Decoration Day on April 25, 1866, Columbus, Mississippi commemorated both the Union and Confederate casualties buried in its cemetery.
Following WWI, Decoration Day became Memorial Day and has been ever since a day to honour all those who have served in the military.

Happy Halloween!

 Just a few skulls and ravens...

on this Halloween.

A little Poe...

a few skeletons...

a gravestone or two.

Trick or Treat!

Ephemera - Yeah, We Got That!

 Dictionary and arithmetic pages from days gone by

Spent a day digging through boxes and bins

Scoop up vintage game pieces

 of ephemera, old books and rusty bits.

Pick a card, any card

Hunting and gathering for the up-coming

7 Gypsies Bracelet kits 

 Art Girlz in Autumn Show, September 22.

Retro kitchen utensils 

Finding things I'd forgotten I had,

Rusty old tools and hardware

and others that I'm ready to let go to a new home.

Vintage postcards, pamphlets and mags

There will be an entire section of the show devoted to 

45 Easy Pieces Ephemera Paks

wonderful vintage-y ephemeraticly retro

 mixed media art supplies!!

Renaissance Steampunk!

I first got the idea for these 5x7" panels last October  at a workshop with Anne Bagby.  We did clowns, but even at the time I thought it would be fun to try some with other themes.

The steampunk plan came to me a couple of months ago, and I figured on using Victorian line drawing faces as the substrata for the clusters of ephemera.  But after much searching, I didn't find anything that spoke to me.

Just last week, I had one of those lovely "A-ha!" moments and decided to use Renaissance portraits.  My all time favourite (I use her constantly) Raphael's La Fornarina", Leonardo's Ginevra Benci and the man with the unfortunate nose the Duke of Urbino by Piero della Francesca.

I printed out the pictures and then adhered them to the panels with matte medium.  I covered the backs with decorated paper and then rubbed the edges with rust coloured ink.  I then used a very small amount of gesso, dry brushing over the surfaces of the pictures to give them a softer look.  A length of Tim Holtz tissue tape was added to one side of each panel.

Then the fun began - delving into my stash and pulling out lots and lots of steampunkish embellishments, arranging and rearranging them on the pieces and finally affixing them all with heavy gel medium.

We all know that feeling when we've had a picture in our minds what a finished piece will look like and then it doesn't quite.  But we all also know how glorious it is when it turns out just the way we imagined.  This was one of those times and I couldn't be more pleased.

These will be available at the Paso Robles Festival of the Arts 

on May 25.  See you there!

The Last Time I Saw Paris

The Last Time I Saw Paris  16x20"

I love doing collages on these great frames I get from Michaels. They come in a couple of sizes and have a plastic back, a glass front and are held together with thin black plastic strips that run along all four sides.

This latest creation holds a handful of French memorabilia including old tickets, vintage maps and photos and an ombre ribbon in blue, white and red - the colours of the French flag.

It was fun to do (even with the extra helping "paw" I received from my cat Mouse.)  The piece will be available at the Paso Robles Festival of the Arts on May 25.

London 1896

 London 1896  15.5x20"

Here's the finished piece I was working on last weekend.

 As you can see I made a few changes, did some adding and subtracting.

 I'll be submitting it tomorrow for a juried show 

at the Allied Arts Gallery in Cambria.

Now this may be a bold move,
as most of their entries will be fairly traditional -

 seascapes, landscapes and still lives.

Are they likely to pick a mixed media steampunk piece?

I'll keep you posted!

Work in Progress

The flicker of an idea for this piece started when I found this wonderful 19th century map of London on Google images. I printed it out enlarging it 200% and used matte medium to affix it to an old composition board that I found lying around the garage studio.

 I used four stencils from Mary Beth Shaw's Stencil Girl -

 the 9x12 "Web" and the 6x6 "Web", "Gears" and "Rafters".

And one from Artistcellar's "Cathedral" series, 

I painted  with my palette of  Liquitex acrylics in 

Red Oxide, Unbleached Titanium and Noir Black.

A few squirts of Ranger's Adirondack Butterscoth Color Wash  gave a nice vintage feel. 

Once it was dry I began to play with positioning 

a few collage elements and embellishments,

 including this old CD that looks like a vintage clock,

and a handful of various gears. Not finished yet,

 but a promising start.  I'll keep you posted!

Baker's in Beacon

The Baker's Daughter - 24x36"

 For the third year in a row I've been accepted by the jurors of the Beacon Art Show.  This month long exhibition is sponsored by the United Methodist Church of San Luis Obispo and features work by artists in the county.

 My piece is The Baker's Daughter, a mixed media collage 

done on red rosin paper and mounted on canvas.

The exhibit opens on Friday March 1 6:00-9:00 pm as part of Arts Obispo's Art After Dark and runs through the end of the month Thursdays -Sunday 11:00-4:00.

Happy Christmas to All

A Jolly Old Elf 11x14"

"And I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight
"Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!'"

The best of the season to all of you from Altered by the Sea!

Just in Time for the Holidays!

I've added some new art to our Etsy Shop - 4ARTGIRLZ.

Eight delightful clown collages, on 5x7" canvas panels.

Even collaged on the back!

Check out the entire group here.  $25.00 each.

Complicated Paper a la Anne Bagby

 Spent a bit of time this past weekend making complicated paper,

all of these done on Linco tissue paper,

 a very thin, strong tissue used in book making.

 I raided my stash of paper scraps that I keep in 

several drawers surrounding my art table.

I'm looking forward to amassing quite a stack of these and 

then having them available to use in my future projects.