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.