ALICE
I had this really cute photo of my daughter that I wanted to do something with. So I decided to do a small collage. She's an Alice in Wonderland fan, so I chose an Alice theme. Here's how it turned out.

CREATING IN THE STUDIO
Here's Skye being creative in the new studio. That's Wilson the bunny who lives in the studio in the last photo (cute ain't he?)

VIEWS OF MY NEW STUDIO
My husband built this studio for me at our home. It started out as a covered patio. He began it after Christmas and finished it in June. I completed the decorating this month. I love the room and am finally beginning to get creative in there (in ways other than the decorating). Hopefully I'll soon shake the creative drain I've felt from stress of late.

The brick art wall has mostly art that is done by family and friends, but some of it is my own art to fill in space. The goal is to have a family and friends gallery. Noel and I covered the old chairs that went with our antique pub table we brought down from the attic, and I stenciled a sparrow on the seat in turquoise blue. I use the old wardrobe in the corner to store art supplies, as well as the long-low yellow cabinet that Noel and I made together that once sat outside on the patio and was home to chipmunks.

We invested in one new piece of furniture for the room, a futon. With the addition of the futon, the studio serves as a nice extra room for guests, or for me to sleep in when the hubby occasionally gets to sawing logs too loudly ;-)

ATTEMPTING TO GET THE ARTISTIC PROCESS FLOWING
I've felt creatively drained lately. I decided to just do something, anything. There's not much to this piece at all, just some paper, stickers, rubber stamping, and gold leaf pen. Nothing fancy and it's a small piece too, only 5.5 inches x 5 inches. It's kinda cute though I guess.

CONCRETE BUNNY
I finally felt like doing a little art. I drew this little concrete bunny over Memorial Day weekend while over at my in-law's for a cookout. While they were inside playing pool, I nabbed the little bunny while sitting outside and drew him in my recycled paper sketch journal. I did not have time to complete him with all his details before we had to leave. He's cute though without them. He can't help it after all, 'cause he's a bunny.

My studio is coming along great. I will post some photos soon. The outside is completed and looks really nice. We are started on the inside now. We bought materials today to start the interior walls. I can't wait for it to be done. I am sure I'll be inspired to do art once it's completed!

It's been awhile since I posted because I have not done any art lately. I've been in the writing mood and I've been writing a lot of poetry. I've tried out some poems in a new style. I've got a few things I have not posted on my poetry site. So I thought I'd post one here. If you are reading this and you are not from the South, a "mess" is the same thing as a batch.

The Fetish
By Motherofthesky

Granny sent him down the road
To the tater shed to fetch a mess of taters.
Night came and went but he never came home;
And supper was ruined.
When he’d been missing long enough
For the law to give a big rat’s ass
The sheriff and his deputies went looking for him.
They looked for nine days running; combing the county and the countryside.
But all they found was his rabbit’s foot
Dyed green, like the ones they throw at the St. Paddy’s day parade.
It had some blood on it, and the deputies say it was human.
He had carried the fetish with him on his key chain for good luck.
It appears that the luck ran out.

BEAUTIFUL
After a week of training and study in Cleveland, it was good to get back home and have an art night. Although I was tired, and I had a headache that has plagued me since Wednesday of last week, I enjoyed the creative time.

This collage is done on a scrap of cardboard. I used tissue for the background. The black and white image is from a creative website offering such photos for creative use. I used catalog clippings for the flowers, and I cut up an old valentine for her tiara. I cut the wings from some scrapbook paper and used a metallic purple sharpie to detail them. I used confetti stars and stickers for the rest. The gel medium is what I put it all together with. Oh, and some rhinestones on the ta-tas, just to make her a tad more modest ;-)

THEY'RE BAAAAACK...
I put this together in haste for a valentine gift for my mother. It's Aunt Beth and company again. I thought mom would like this, but I'm not sure if she did. She and Aunt Beth have not gotten along well over the last several years, since Uncle John's death. But I hoped she'd gotten past that. Her enthusiasm over her gift seemed a bit lukewarm. Maybe she thought it was crappy work, maybe she did not like the photo I used. Dunno. But whatever the case; it was made with love, on canvas, with hand-painted accents, tissue paper, magazine clippings, a doily, jewels, and glitter.

HOW THEY ROCKED BACK THEN
Ok, I promise this is the last piece I'm going to post with the bronze and metallic purple color scheme. I really got hooked on that. I like it a lot. But enough is enough. I'm going to keep most of these and use them in my home. It's not often that I create something that will actually fit in here at my house. I think I'm going to do something colorful next. Or maybe I'll do metallic blue with silver. Ok, I'll surprise you.

This is the same technique as the ballerina (called Good) that I posted a few days ago, except that I added some confetti hearts to this piece and the other has none. Also different is the addition of a clipping of roses from an old calendar. The roses were ivory, but I used the purple metallic paint to accent them purple to better match everything else.

JOHNNY ANGEL
This is another piece to Aunt Beth's birthday present. The young boy in the photo is my uncle, John Paul Magness. He passed away about 5 years ago I believe it was. He and Aunt Beth were very close and she was devastated when he died. Then a family squabble ensued. It was a mess. He was her favorite and he left her everything. Long story short, some of the family got upset.

Her birthday gift would not be complete without John. So I dug out the only photo that I have of him. This is from February of 1960. It was a rare time when it actually snowed in Mississippi. In the photo, John is grabbing up some snow to make a snowball.

I did this to match the other collage with Aunt Beth, Uncle David, and Uncle Jim. On this one I added some confetti hearts. The moon is an old earring of mine. I hope she will really like them. I've gotten some nice easels to go with them.

BELIEVE
Here's another paper collage done last night. I found a pack of gold trimmed certificate paper recently that was really economically priced, and thought it would be good to go with gold star tissue paper. I made the wings and star by clipping up a magazine page. The photo of the little girl came from a creative Web site. It's finished off with confetti stars and a jewel star. The definition is a rub on.

AUNT BETH'S BIRTHDAY PRESENT
I did this collage on canvas for my Aunt Beth. That's her in the picture, on the left. The boy on the right is my Uncle Jim, and the baby is my Uncle David. I love this photo. I've had it for several years. Aunt Beth gave it to me. I copied it to use in the collage.

I did the same type of background with metallic paints as I did with the ballerina collage. I also did the same tissue paper with stars. I used a lace heart doily, a jewel clipped from a magazine and a strand of pearly beads. It's finished off with star confetti.

I think this is my favorite work so far. The photo is so classic and it's my family. Aunt Beth is the person in my family that I'm closest to. I will likely use the photo to make myself something similar as a keepsake.

GOOD
Here's a collage on canvas that I did last night. I used metallic paints to make the copper background. I used purple metallic paint to embellish the corners. I tore a circle of tissue printed with gold stars and put it in the middle. Then I cut out the ballerina and pasted her on top. I made her a little crown from magazine text that happened to have "good" printed on it. She's finished off with confetti stars. I really like this one. She's cute and I like the color combination.

HOPE
Another paper collage tonight. I suppose I'm feeling creatively fecund, at least. This one is torn tissue and scripted paper. I clipped the roses from an old Victorian calendar. I used silver lace stickers and confetti stars along with rub on words. The girl in the background is a copy from a vintage photo I got off a creative website. I finished it with a coat of gel medium.

ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL
Here's a paper collage I created in just a few minutes this evening. It's all magazine clippings and a snippet of scripted paper. So, it's an Abe with no ham. I just wanted to do something, so here it is. It's meant to be goofy and I hope a little humor comes across with it. I could not find a ham, but I did have butterflies.

INSPIRE
My daughter-in-law, Reannon, and her family came to visit today, and to spend the night with us. Reannon brought a scrapbook she'd made in memory of her mom, who passed away in December. It is a very nice piece of work. After supper tonight Reannon and I spent some creative time together.

This is my collage below called Inspire. It's all paper. I used cardboard backing with a tissue paper overlay. I cut the little girl from that same old retro calendar that the last piece came from. I made her wings and trimmed them with gold leaf pen. I used a paper lace heart doily, rub ons, stickers, and magazine clippings. It's finished off with gel medium and a sprinkling of gold glitter.



Here's Reannon's piece. I think it looks fantastic. It's her first paper collage, and she used the inspiration theme too. I like the way she did the scripted paper and torn tissue for the background. She used a copy of a photo that Tara gave me some time back, some stickers, magazine clippings, and pieces of some old calendars that I'd cut out previously. She finished it off with confetti stars, a bit of gold leaf, a medallion, and some gold, purple, and green glitters. She glazed it all together with the gel medium.

REMEMBER
Here's what I've been working on this week. It's another collage on canvas. I used clippings from magazines, and an old calendar with a retro theme. The little case of cokes came from my box-o-goodies from the antique store in Vicksburg; it says "Buddy L" on the bottom of it.

The frog with the rhinestones is an old pin that was a gag gift from a former friend- who turned out to be an underwear thief. I used stickers, sparkling star gems, and glitter to complete the piece.

WORLDS CUTEST WEENIE DOG
Right here he is. The World's Cutest Weenie Dog - all curled up like a little butterbean, in his favorite spot on the couch.

BONES
Here is my completed Sunday art project. This is a paper collage done on cardboard covered with heavy stock textured paper. I used magazine clippings, some stickers, and some confetti stars. The wings on the suited skeleton are from a card. Once again I've used a metal mailbox number.

I used the gel medium on this one instead of glue. It worked OK, however it was necessary to use it on front and back of all the pieces in order for it to stick properly. That worried me at first, but it turned out fine and left a nice finish on the piece. I picked 9 for "9 lives." I know it's not cat skeletons, but...

I put the finishing touches on while trying to watch Battlestar Gallactica. I think I did ok. Battlestar sort of sucked tonight anyway ;-)

GIRLY GIRLS
Here is a collage from some doodles I did this morning. I drew the little bouquets too. I cut the girls and bouquets out and glued them onto the background with gel medium. I used rub-on letters to add some verbiage. The highlights in their hair are gold leaf pen. The background is Twinkling H2O's on watercolor paper. The daisies and butterflies are stickers. I finished it with a spray of Krylon followed by a dusting of gold glitter. It looks nicer in person, I promise.