4 Art Girlz - Etsy!

Our monthly marketing group, Art Girlz,
has opened an Etsy shop! 

  Featuring Margot & Destiny's Two of a Kind pendants, and

Debra's gorgeous jewelry creations (coming soon).

 My paper and 3D ephemera paks.  

Lots more to come as we get further listings put up.  

Life on the Coast

Weekend sunset with Rock and heron - Morro Bay Harbor.

From the Bookshelf

I first saw this book on Nick Bantock's coffee table when I was there for a weekend workshop several years ago. I found it fascinating and purchased my own copy.  Nick is well-known for his "altered" postcards and many of the ones in the book are similar to those he's used in his art.  "The Lure of Distant Lands" is an apt subtitle for this collection of turn of the (last) century photographs from Africa, the Middle and Far East.
They still seem exotic now over 100 years later, their impact on the Europeans and Americans of the day must have been stunning.  This makes a wonderful reference volume, and provides a tantalizing glimpse to a lost era.

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.

The 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month

98  years have passed since this "war to end all wars"began.  And 94 since the first Armistice Day.  Now celebrated as Veterans' Day in America and Remembrance Day or Poppy Day (for the poppies of Flanders Field) in the UK.  Heartfelt thanks to those who have given the ultimate sacrifice to keep us safe.

Suitcase Saturday -Pinterest Style

ths.gardenweb.com

These are delicious shots I've saved on my Pinterest board.    

fineartamerica.com

It seems there are a lot of suitcase fanatics out there!

suitcase files

It's nice to have company. And fun to find so many cool suitcases to drool over!                                                 

Front and Back

At the workshop with Anne Bagby she told us it's always a great idea to collage the backs of your small canvas boards and use a small detail brush to paint the sides black. This gives the work a wonderful "finished" look.

 There wasn't time to do this at the workshop   

 but I have done so now that I'm back home again.

 Here are two of the 5x7" collages I did
with their now collaged back sides.

Anne said she often puts a bunch of these in a basket at a show and people love to go through them - enjoying both sides.  A great idea for my next studio sale.

I'm In CPS Studios!

 Altered by the Sea Studio is in the
Winter Issue of Cloth Paper Scissors Studios

 magazine that went on sale yesterday at newsstands.

I'm quite pleased with the article, they

 did very little editing to what I sent in.

My younger daughter Jenny did  a 

beautiful job with the photography, 

this is her first photo credit in a national magazine!

At the beginning of January I set myself a goal of submitting my studio (getting the pictures taken, writing the submission paragraphs, etc.) and hopefully seeing it in the magazine by year's end.  It feels quite good to have accomplished this!

Life on a Different Coast

Lobster buoys at rest in the Cape Cod autumn sunshine.

From the Book Shelf

Here's one for this Halloween week.  An over sized tome all about gargoyles.  With text by that master of "things that go bump in the night" Stephen King and stunningly fantastic photography by f-stop Fitzgerald.
For some reason there are several used copies of this for less than $2.00 on Amazon.  I picked mine up at a library book sale.  The timing was perfect so soon after my Perrella/Bagby workshop where we concentrated on working with faces - lot of wonderful and disturbing inspiration in here. Well put together - the combination of articulate text and Fitzgerald's stellar photos make this a winner.