MADONNA & CHILD (SOLD - Paul & Angela Bierdeman, Brandon, MS)
Here is another collage on canvas. I found this print of the Madonna & Child at a dollar store. I scorched the edges. I prepared the canvas with colors to coordinate in sort of a glorious shining pattern. I painted the crosses to coordinate and applied a healthy dose of glitter. I used real silver beads to make the middles in the bead and wire flowers. The ribbon on the edge is actually vellum stickers and so are the butterflies. The halo came from my old flea market stash.

For Mawmaw

The sky today is overcast
Bare trees silhouette against rippling glass.
Grey, grey is the day
The ducks and geese have flown away.
And by the afternoons dim light
You yourself have taken flight.
Fly on sweet Grace
Take your place in the sky;
To behold there the angels we've heard on high.

COMMUNICATION

This is another collage on canvas. The centerpiece is a postalette that I tore and cut up. I used some of the stamps from a collection of canceled stamps from around the world that I purchased at an antique store last week; a fantastic find for a collage artist! The red stamp on the right is from Venezuela and the cancel stamp date is 1938! The collection had several pieces that were cut from post cards and envelopes and the sender's handwriting is on snippets throughout.

I used a mirror, an old watch, some broken jewelry and beads, along with some stickers and a holographic star to complete the arrangement. The snippet that reads "8846 London, W. 13" was also in the stamp collection. The blue stamp on the left is from Italy. The piece is all trimmed up with gold leaf pen on the edges of the canvas. On a final note, there is something I like about the number 36 and it seemed to fit good with the red background.

I think I am progressing some! I'm pretty happy with this piece. Maybe I really am an artist? One can dream :-)

THIS CHRISTMAS GIVE LOVE
One of the girls on my team at work gave these gorgeous Christmas cards out. When I opened it I knew I had to do something with it.

For art time with Tara on Saturday, this is what I did; a snowy acrylic background on a stretched canvas, with the angel centered inside a glittery frame cut from yet another Christmas card. I painted the wooden stars, silver-leafed the edges and put a healthy dose of glitter atop each one. The roses are stickers and the little tree came from a catalog ad.



















I took a chance and did rubber stamping on the sides with the swirlie stems on the roses and the wording. The top "Believe in Miracles" is also a rubber stamp.

Again, this one looks better in person. Sorry once more for the crappy image.

THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION OF THE UNIVERSE
If you've read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy" then you know that the answer to that question is 42. That's what this collage is all about. I'm sorry to present such a poor picture. My scanner sucks and my camera is not much better.

This is another collage on canvas. I used a card I cut up for the butterfly wings. The man in the collage is Jackie Earle Haley who was a kid in the movie "The Bad News Bears" back in 1976. He's aged a bit since then.

I painted the stars and the canvas to match colors in the butterfly wings, dusted them with a fine glitter and sprayed it all with Krylon. Next I attached it all with the gel medium and sprinkled on some more glitter. The result looks better in person. I know it's a bit weird but I think there is something cool about it. It's what came of one brief creative moment when I opened up the mailbox number package and out fell the number 42.

SET THEM FREE

Here is the experiment I spoke of before I left for Cleveland earlier this month. It's a collage on a stretched canvas. It did not turn out quite as nice as I'd hoped, but I think it's a good first try at doing this sort of thing.


















I used a card done by Anahata Joy Katkin that I'd been saving for quite some time to do something special with. I started out by painting the canvas with a background that coordinates with the colors in the card Then I sprayed it with Krylon top coat. While it was still wet with Krylon I sprinkled a tad of glitter across the surface. Then let it dry.

I scorched the edges of the card and affixed it with acrylic gel medium to the canvas. I painted the wooden stars to match up with the canvas and card and then used a gold leaf pen to edge them. I used rubber stamp letters for the stars. The heart is one I made from Sculpey PVC clay and painted to match the piece writing "Love" on it. I also used little mirrors from the craft store, a leather frame, a metal frame (turquoise), old broken jewelry (crosses) and an old button from my flea market stash, a few fake jewels, and metal cut out leaves. Every piece is attached with the acrylic gel medium and I found it to work quite well.

The blue button in the lower right corner is one I've had for many years. I got it when I worked at the Record Bar music store back in the 80's. It's a promotional button for Sting's "The Dream of The Blue Turtles" album; so it makes this piece a bit of a collectible.

SANTA'S GIRL

The Christmas season would not be complete without a holiday brag photo of my baby girl. Here she is after her band Christmas program at Byram Middle School. So pretty if I do say so myself!

ANOTHER FOLK-ARTSY HOME

I snapped this photo on the way to the airport as I headed home from Cleveland yesterday. For some reason I find these types of homes appealing. I suppose it's because A.) Whoever's house it is - they got the idea to paint it like that, and B.) They had the gumption to actually carry out their plan.



















Methinks it's really quite cute. Certainly not something you see everyday. I'll bet it's one of a kind. And I'd also bet there's an interesting story behind it; but I don't know what it is ;-)

SOME DOORS ARE BETTER LEFT CLOSED

This is so true. In my life, there have been many doors that I've closed and never opened up again. Here's a little tribute to my life being better for it.

This is another small collage made from magazine clippings, stickers and rubber stamping. I did this one this evening after a day of Christmas gift wrapping with that spouse of mine.

CLEVELAND ROCKS

Here I am at Hyland Software in their Lobby, pretending to play this giant guitar that was in the "Guitars on the Move" exhibition in Cleveland. Hyland is a total nerd city. On the nerd scale of 1-10, I'm about a 4. So I could never work at this place, but it is a really cool place to work. The people there all seem to love it there. They treat their customers nice too.


















The Hyland headquarters building is two stories and very nice. They have their own diner, daycare center and barber shop on premises. The building sports two slides from the second floor to the first, so if you don't want to take the stairs down, you just take the "Silver Bullet" or the red swirlie one in the atrium.

CHRISTMAS COLLAGED ORNAMENTS

I'd like to share some collaged ornaments I made several years ago from Victorian paper ornaments and items I collected from flea markets. I've photographed them here against a patterned Christmas runner (perhaps a bit too busy). These have been around for several years and I've used them well over the years in my home decorating. They are a tad worn, but I still love them.

I used tiny glass and faux pearl beads to accent these. Most of the items used are antique, but some of it is modern too. I have some Victorian snow angels I did too, but I'll save them to post later since I have yet to run across them. Years ago I spent lots of time at flea markets digging through bin after bin of tiny items like old buttons and broken jewelry. It was very time consuming. Fortunately I collected enough that I still have lots of the tiny treasures tucked away in an old Christmas card box.

DRAWING IN CLEVELAND, OHIO

There was not much to do in a place where I knew few; so I drew (at least on Tuesday night). It was difficult to find anything for a still life. It was freezing-a$$ cold, thus looking outdoors was short-lived. I grabbed an orange from the breakfast area in the hotel gatehouse and found a leaf outside on the way back to my room and viola, a little still -life. Once again on the recycled paper. The rind took a lot of time to detail. I was not thinking of that when I grabbed it, but it was good practice regardless. Besides, I had all night to draw! Yippee!

White & Nerdy

"Weird Al" Yankovic's music video from his new album "Straight Outta Lynwood" (in stores Sept. 26)

HOLIDAY COLLAGE 2006

This has become a tradition for me; the holiday collage. Here it is in all it's overdone glory. I should have stopped before the glitter and stamps. Here for your viewing is a fantastic example of going way too far. Don't try this at home.

WONDERS

One last mini to post here; unless I have some time today in between packing to go to Cleveland, OH for all of next week - brrrrr! I had another smaller image of the curious child from the earlier collage and wanted to use it as a centerpiece again. I went with a little more use of color on this one. It's smaller than a postcard and I had to enlarge the image in Photoshop to make it more viewable online.

I'm looking forward to getting back from Ohio so I can create some more collages. Hmmm...I hope that when I get back from Ohio my city won't be gone. That's a pun in case you don't get it; a play on the song by the Pretenders ;-) OK, I'm sorry. Sometimes, really most times, I just can't help my silly self.

I'm going to try something even more different when I get back home this Friday. Wish me luck on that because I really don't know how to do what I'm planning. Hopefully I'll have some research time in the evenings next week between nerdy studies of system administration and expeditions into the blue part of my brain; that ultra-nerdy area in my left brain that I normally shy away from. Wish me luck on that too! Really, I've got to work on my "whole brain thinking" some time or another. Next week will be good for me although I'll miss being in my preferred yellow area very much.

TEA FOR TWO

I found this clipping of a burly man getting a hairdo from an obviously pink-loving hairdresser. It made me giggle and I knew I had to use it in a collage! So here's another mini that's simple in composition and media. I used the clipping, some stickers and a scrap of fancy paper.

TURNING THE TIDE

I'm really digging on creating mini-collages since the "Snow Dream" piece. Less surface seems to be working for me. I love the image of this curious child kneeling by a stream. The overall composition of this little piece is very simple and clean. The media is simple as well; decorative paper, a magazine clipping and stickers. I experimented with scorching the edges of the clipping a bit to round out the bottom corners.

This one took very little time yet I think I like it more than anything I've done lately. I'm thinking that the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) method may be working well for me.

SNOW DREAMS

In about the time it takes for snow to fall, melt and wash away in Mississippi, I completed this collage. It's small, about the size of a postcard.

The snowman is dreaming of flying as represented by his wings and the airplane snow globe. He also would like to have his photo taken with The Beatles.

Here's another recycled paper drawing. This one is an angel statue that I got a couple of years ago around Christmas. It's sure nice to have a little time off and to be in the mood for drawing.

THANKSGIVING DOODLES

I always take some pencils and a sketch journal with me to family gatherings. It helps to pass the time in a creative way. I like to doodle while chatting (especially in meetings at work ;-) I just drew a couple of items that were laying on the table while waiting for dinner to be ready and chatting with my sis-in-law...in between helping out a little here and there as well.

I recently got a new sketch journal made from recycled paper. The fibers in the paper add a lot of character to the sketches. I like the way sketches look drawn on this surface so I wanted to share.

AT LEAST I DID NOT HAVE TO THROW IT AWAY
This is an experiment. I had to work a bit to salvage it. It's done with glue and acrylic paint on canvas. I used glue to make the letters and large swirlies so they would stick up and have texture when I painted it. I'm not sure I like it much, but I could not see my way to throw it in the trash. Double click to enlarge and it looks mo'betta.

FINE FOLK ART

This is the Chapel of Reverend Dennis on North Washington Street in Vicksburg, MS. Reverend Dennis promised his wife he'd build her a castle. This one is built around a mobile home. I can't help but love this place. It's folk art at it's finest.

MYTHICAL CRUSH
Mermaid loves Superhero; I don't know how it came to this. It did not start out this way. She's a bit wrinkled in spots. Glue stick no worky on Twinkling H2O's; rubber cement no worky too good either. Oooohhh! The bubbles...hand drawn little scoundrels. I think the ocean floor be lookin' perty good, but the shark...wooo...now he looks super groovy.

ROCK & ROLL HEAVEN

Sunday afternoon art time turned out this collage of some of my favorite departed rockers. I think I like it ok. I was inspired to do something like this after doing some reading about Kurt Cobain on Wikipedia. The line "Ain't got no how whatchamacallit" comes from that Wikipedia article, where they tell about how Cobain was arrested in Seattle for spraypainting the phrase on a local bank. What did it mean? Something mystical? The world may never know.

St. Louis, Missouri - October 2006

I had to go to St. Louis to attend a training class for work, so there was very little time to see any sights. Luckily, class released early enough on the last day of my visit that I was able to have a couple of hours to get out of the building. Fortunately, the Jefferson Memorial Expansion Park was directly across the street from my hotel. I went to sleep each night that week looking at the Gateway arch from the window of my room. It is absolutely awesome.

Different View of Arch
(I laid down on a park bench to get this shot)

VEGAS - SEPTEMBER 2006

I won 777 cents during my trip to Vegas! Woo hoo! My friend said this was an omen and that I should gamble some more. I believe in a bird in the hand. So I took my 777 cents to the bank. Shown below are photos I took of the some of the casinos; MGM, Excalibur, New York, New York, Mandalay Bay and Luxor.

This is an experiment I did last Saturday. For several months now I've had a tendency for doing art literally with my hands. I don't know why. Possibly it's that I simply appreciate my hands and all the things they do for me.

This time I wanted to try something with texture, so I painted my canvas a background of blue with a big double ended yellow swirl. Next, I splattered it with lots of color and black and white.

After the background work was done and had dried, I took it outside and produced a photo of my paint splattered feet against the splattery background. Messy stuff that splattering. The grass outside is still colorful ;-) Then I took it inside and I put in the hands and stars with Sharpie.

Another art night yields two more collages. This time I tried out some of Tara's materials from her goody box. I love the mica watercolors. I must have some. The watercolor paper makes a great surface for the background. These are very random creations with very little planning going into them.

POP CULTURE (SOLD - Amy Berrong, Byram, MS)
That white dress with the Gonzo Muppett is just plain wierd, therefore, I absolutely had to use it. I really like the bunny with his musical instruments...there's just something about bunnies that's cool.

Woo! Another collage...I started this last night while having creative time with Tara. I did not feel good. I've had a toothache, then I had a headache and toothache. I feel better today so I finished up the collage earlier. I think I could have used the Mona Lisa in a better way, but this is how it turned out. Mabye I can find another Mona Lisa and do something different, and better. Oh well. Everything can't turn out perfect.

This is Lori (top photo). She is training me at my new job. She is very smart and very good to work with. She's been with the company 23 years! So I'm learning from the best! Below is the front of the Vicksburg office, located in the Port of Vicksburg, where I work part of the week so I can spend time doing OJT with Lori.

I finally had time for an art evening with Tara last night. The new job has kept me busy and driving back and forth to Vicksburg and from the traffic in Flowood, I don't get home very early and by the time I do I'm tired. We kept it simple last night and did collages. I've been wanting to use the chinese menu from our local buffet in Byram as a background for an Asian themed piece. Tara provided the cute, laughing Bhudda. We like to share our materials when we find something nice that we think the other would like, or if we see that the other could use something we have in our stash on their project.

I've been saving my fortunes and fortune cookie wrappers for this project. It was real simple since the menu provided such a rich background. All I had to do was strategically add the laughing Bhudda, the big butterfly, the shoes, the moon, the fortune cookie wrapper, and fortune. Tara gave me the fans and I had the rub on words and the love and flower stickers. Tara gave me the bowling alley ticket too; it does not exactly fit the theme but it added a nice shot of purple that I think adds a lot to the piece.

My daughter loves this one, so I will give it to her. She has an Asian theme going in her room, so she really liked this.

Here is the chipmunk's hole, landscaped. I may add a gnome, just for fun. If I do, I'll post a photo. I hope Ringo likes the new decorative touches on the place.

This photo here is a tiny place in the world. It's where I got the idea for my blog name. This little place is in my backyard. It's a chipmunk's hole. The hole has a convenient little exit outside our fence adjacent to the chipmunk's little domain. It's quite homey looking with a little sweetgum tree that is growing over the top of it. I should landscape it! I just had this thought. I'll do that and take another photo and post. Heehee!

I figure there are a few of them that use this little tunnel. I see one or more of them from time to time, especially on sunny days. You don't see a lot of chipmunks in Mississippi, but they are natives. I'm just really, really lucky to have these little critters hanging at my place and calling it home. They are so fun to watch and way cute.

They are fast as lightning too. If you say to someone, "Hey, there goes the chipmunk" by the time you get the words out of your mouth, the critter is long gone. If I could pin down a way to distinguish how many there are and which is which, I'd give them all names. But for now, I just call them all "Ringo."

I felt the need to be creative this evening. But geesh! My creativiy has been very absent of late! Sometimes the muse just is not there.

I often do collage to try and break out of that mode during those times when I just can't seem to squeeze out a drop of artistry. It was so bad this evening that I had a tough time finishing this piece. At one point I actually shoved it into the trash can and began to put away my materials. Something made me go grab it out of the trash a few minutes later, and try to salvage it. I'm just not a quitter. Heehee...maybe I should learn to be one though ;-)

Here is my latest creative effort. It's a collage I've done for my friend Tammy Allen who is the owner of a local coffeehouse near my home. I've been helping her with some creative issues for the new location that will open soon. She thought a collage would be cool for a menu cover and this is what I've come up with. I don't know what, if anything, that she will do with it; but whatever she wants is fine with me.

Tammy's husband Larry is a collector of antiques and the coffeehouse theme is retro, thus the name Flashbacks. Tammy and Larry change out the furniture and other decorative items periodically. You never know what it will look like inside! This makes it a very interesting place to visit, plus the food is great.

The Vanilla Wafers play the last Saturday of each month at Flashbacks. We are looking forward to the grand re-opening so we can get back to playing live music. We have several new songs to perform once we get back to it.

Here is an art doll I made some years ago. I will post another soon. This one's head is made from fat pine that happened to look like a native american head dress to me. With a little trimming and some paint he has a very distinguished profile. That's real rabbit fur I found at a leather shop, and some suede. The moons and stars on the necklace are real turquoise and black onyx. He's stuffed with Spanish moss that I snagged from a tree.

Check out this cool looking mushroom. Looks like the faeries danced holes in the top of this one. I found it out in my little wood recently.