The Jar Project

Here are a couple of pics of my finished piece for Art House Co-op's Jar Project.

My piece is titled "Dreamer" and has a man laying on his back, with a book on his chest, staring up at the clouds. I made the clouds from invisible thread, cotton balls and glitter and attached them to the jar lid with a combo of glue and wax. Three of my favorite dream quotes and the label on top were made using an image transfer technique I learned at the Art & Soul retreat. The quotes were attached to the inside of the jar using an invisible glue. The miniature man is laying on real moss which was attached using a spray adhesive. I painted the lid with light blue and dabbed white clouds on with a cotton ball before attaching the titled label. It turned out just like I pictured in my head! Yay!  Next up for Art House is The Map Project and The 4x4 Self Portrait Project!

Gathering Knowledge at the Art & Soul

I just returned from a long trip to Virginia and North Carolina. Here's a tip: Don't take a late flight on the night of the time change. It's really messed with my sleep rhythms!

The purpose of the trip was to attend the 2012 Art & Soul Retreat in Virginia Beach. I went with my friend and fellow artist, Phoebe Ford Reid. We took different classes, meeting for lunch and taking peeks in on each other to see what each was learning. Since I am so far behind on my blog, I'm just posting a snippet of what I learned from two of my favorite classes.

I had so much fun in Wabi-Sabi Wax taught by Serena Barton. She was a great teacher and the class was full of really fun personalities. We learned how to paint with Encaustic medium...beeswax mixed with oil paint:

 Memoirs of Japan

Mixed media on wood

Preservation of Nature

Mixed media with natural elements on wood

Another class I enjoyed and totally fell in love with was Cathy Taylor's class "Finding Your Creative Spirits" where we learned to make our own background papers using the pages of old National Geographic magazines. Once dry, we could then paint on top of them with FW Acrylic Inks (love these inks!) or collage them onto mixed media pieces. Here are some of my results, taken into Photoshop and enhanced with additional elements:

 Forest Tree in Winter

 Left Afloat

Seabed

And a mixed media piece I did after I returned home using one of my big-eyed dolly drawings:

Promise
Mixed media on paper

Of course, there was plenty of time for Phoebe and I to enjoy photography as well! We went to Colonial Williamsburg and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I've posted all my pictures on Storie which you can see here:
 
I've come back completely exhausted but excited about having the whole Spring and Summer ahead to indulge in all my crafty and artsy pursuits! I'm ready to tackle it all: Digital Painting, Photography, Mixed Media, Watercolors, Sewing, Gardening and even getting back to working on my miniatures.  The whole world of art awaits and I've got my wings on ready to fly!

Exploration #23:How to Uncover a Mystery

Exploration #23: How to Uncover a Mystery


It's been a long time since I've done an Exploration task from my book "How to be an Explorer of the World". I've been in Virginia for the last week on an artist retreat and I worked in days when I would be able to go out and do some shooting. I've always wanted to try Geo-caching and since I was going to be walking around taking pics, I thought I would try my hand at it. I ended up loving the mystery and adventure!

How to Uncover a Mystery:
1.) Find the general location of your cache and using your GPS follow the trail, snapping pics of landmarks and interesting things along the way.

Statue at the Chrysler Museum of Art

2.) Find the street the cache is on:

Grace & Yarmouth

3.) Meet interesting people along the way:

Gentleman Reading the Morning Paper in Ghent

4.) Find the location of the cache:

The Tree Marks the Spot

5.) Find the hiding spot:

Beneath the Rock

6.) And finally, find the cache, remove, sign the log and replace for the next adventurer to find!

Aragona Project & Log Scroll

What did I learn from this Exploration task? That I ♥ Geo-caching and can't wait to do it again! :)