middle of somewhere

I thought I'd share my latest fine art piece that will be shown at the Seattle Art Museum Gallery. This is an acrylic and paper collage that measures 18" x 36". The framed size will be 27" x 45". I call it 'middle of somewhere' because people use the expression, 'in the middle of nowhere' to describe a place out in the country. This piece had a sense of a place that I would like to be, hence, middle of somewhere. I'm really loving light teal combined with a light mustard color palette. So fresh.

illustration friday - theme word - snap

This is my entry for Illustration Friday's theme word - Snap. When I first heard the word of the week, I thought of the obvious twig snapping or a PERSON SNAPPING! Then, I remembered making rice krispie treats with my daughter last week and there is actually a little guy called Snap with a couple of buddies named Crackle and Pop! I had to do something with Rice Krispie treats! I got Nikki to model for me, then altered her image in Photoshop, did some painting and drawing, then the rest is cut and paste, the old fashioned way! I had a blast making this, although Nikki was not too thrilled with the outcome of her photo shoot.
1. She would never wear her hair like this.
2. She would never wear a dress with a funky little collar like this.
3. Her crown would be a tiara, not one like this.
But, I am the artist and I get to choose, so here it is. Enjoy!

Hot dog!

I've been wanting to do something with a weiner dog for a loooong time, so I finally made this 16" x 20" just for fun piece of art. I'm still playing around with some background paint techniques form Claudine Hellmuth's book. On this piece I tried dishwasher rinse and painting over masking tape. Both techniques are very effective and pretty easy to do. I actually love the way this turned out, but I may just love the weiner dog! The shape of their bodies has such a distinct graphic design. He needs a name, so I'll call him Slinky.

Illustration Friday - theme word - I spy

Illustration Friday's theme this week is I Spy. I couldn't resist doing something with James Bond! I chose Roger Moore for a more retro feel. This is a true mixed media piece - I used digital, drawing and painting. For the text that makes up the inside of his suit, I used the titles of all Roger Moore's James Bond movies. This was a blast to make. I love creating a bunch of elements and then layering them all together in Photoshop. I still love the old fashioned way of all hand made, but the wonders of technology are pretty awesome!

what cats think about

I finished my tax prep (Yay!) and had a few hours to create. It was soooo much fun. I made this small piece on a 9" x 12" piece of unstretched canvas. I painted a fun background with yellow and stenciled orange polka dots over it. Then I streaked it a bit with a white wash. I added the decorative paper stripes at the bottom for a ground, then drew in the cat's body and crown with a black marker. I used a xerox copy of a photo of my cat Scout for the head of the cat. I glued that down, then added whiskers, thought bubbles and the fish and mouse. I used a little glitter glue to color in the dots above the crown. Gotta have that bling! These are 2 of Scout's favorite things - Tuna (or tuna flavored cat food) and playing with his little toy mouse. You know, the kind that are always lost because your cat keeps batting them under the furniture. Gotta go, Scout wants more tuna!

Illustration Friday - theme word - total

This is my first submission to Illustration Friday. The theme word of the week is Total. I thought this art was suited to the theme because drinking coffee and eating donuts gives you a TOTAL caffeine and sugar BUZZ! Illustration Friday is a site that has a weekly theme word, given out on - you guessed it, Fridays! Illustrators post their art that matches the theme word and it's all just for fun. Imagine that, something with no strings attached, just for fun! I probably won't enter every week, but it will be a kick to do it every once in a while and it's cool to see what other designers are doing.

finally, something to share!

I'm back! Finally! I have 2 good reasons for not blogging lately. Well, I could probably come up with a lot more, but the 2 biggies are -

1. I was sick again! This time with a MEGA cold. The kind that hits hard, then lingers on and on. I'm finally back to almost normal. Yay! It's so hard to even think when you've got a cold like that.

2. I've been busy designing for A Muse, nothing I can share yet, so sorry. We are working on Holiday 2007 designs. Can you believe it? Didn't we just have the holidays? I think so. It's always so weird to work on holidays so far in advance. I worked in Display for a major dept. store for many years and I was always so sick of Christmas decorations by the time Christmas actually came. It was all I could do to put a wreath on the door!

Anyway, I did want to share my 1st attempt at trying some of the techniques in Claudine's Hellmuth's book that I posted about recently. I did this on a 16" x 20" canvas paper. I used one of her painting techniques where I put saran wrap over wet paint to create a fun background. I incorporated a lot of hand drawn elements in the piece as well as collaged fabric and papers. You probably can't read the text, because it's so small. It says "a little birdie told me to sing". Not bad for my 1st try at this kind of thing. I can't wait to have some time to try more.

Next up on my agenda...sadly, tax prep!