Wooo Hoo!

Finally! It's done! Now I can get back to normal and start visiting everyone again. I know I've missed a lot of cool art out there, so I have tons of catching up to do.

I'm off to submit it to the gallery now, I hope it makes the show.

P.S. Please excuse the photography, no matter how hard I try I cannot get a real good picture. There is too much detail to try to capture for my amature photography skills, and the piece is 30x30.

P.P.S. it's really a lot brighter in person. :)

Boo!

Halloween is right around the corner, so I thought I'd post another seasonal collage.

Now I have no idea what my pictures look like on your screens, but on mine they are always dull, (the photographs are excellent), but they look washed out on my computer.

Therefore I usually end up fussing with the colors a bit, but then it dawned on me that other people may be seeing some pretty crazy looking saturated photos on their own screens. I really hope this isn't the case, but if it is, I'm sorry.

On another note, things here are bit crazy at the moment. I'm getting ready to submit my next piece to the gallery next week, and since it needs to be huge, it's taking me sometime to finish. I can't wait until it's done so I can show you all, I think it's going to turn out really cool.

You should see my house though, it's turned upside down for this project. Since I don't have a worktable big enough in my studio, the kitchen has now become a temporary art headquarters, everything had to be moved upstairs, and my pantry is stocked full of supplies, to keep away from the inquisitive furry occupants of my home. It's a little disconcerting when I open the doors to grab a snack, and find a mountain of ribbon instead.

Anyway, now you know what's been keeping me away from talking to folks, blog and flickr hoping and even hanging out in my Ning groups. This will all be over in a week, and then things should get back to normal.

Mushroom Land!

Here's another piece I made recently. This one is 10x10 on canvas.

This one was a hard one, and believe it or not nearly the whole original piece was covered up in pink and yellow paint.

Nothing I did worked for this originally. I usually use bits of paper in my collages, and many of them have designs. Well no matter what I did, almost all the designs clashed or were too busy with the mushroom house. I usually work with images of girls so they are a bit easier to place with backgrounds I guess.

This piece ended up working once I got rid of the busy-ness of the background and used more solid colors.

It's a fun piece, and definitely one I could see hanging in a little girls room someday.

In other news, I'm getting ready to start my piece for the next gallery show next month. Who knows if it will be accepted, but I sure hope it is. And this one is a biggie. At least for me. The minimum measurements allowed for the show is 30x30. So that's what I got, because honestly trying to fill anything larger than that with the way I work, is gonna take my whole stock of supplies!

Also I really wanted to thank everyone, who has commented on my work and congratulated me on the gallery show. I love receiving your comments, and try to get back to everyone, but lately I have fallen grossly behind and I'm very embarrassed. :") A few things have gotten in the way of having me attend to my blog duties lately, so please know that I do appreciate each and every comment and am trying hard to reply back as soon as I can.

Oh and one more thing, I desperately need help finding a name for myself. I'm trying to open an esty store, and in the process of getting cards made to hopefully sell in stores etc. I need a name for myself now, and somehow the Cat's Pajama's doesn't quite convey an art image does it?

I was thinking somewhere along the lines of Pixie something or other, stuidos or gallery. I like fairies a lot, and thought it would be fun to have that in my name. Unfortunately Pixiedust Studios is already taken.

But what about Pixiemadison Studios? Or Pixie Madison Studios? Madison was going to be the name of my child if I had a girl. I've had that name picked out since I was like 12, so I really like it. But it never happened, soooooo I'm thinking of using it for me! For some strange reason those two words sound good together. Or so I think.

Then again, I could always try to use my real name and something with Mixed media in the title. But somehow, Michele's Mixed Media Madness seems a bit much don't you think?

So, does anyone have any ideas?

Magic Carpet Ride

So this is the piece I was talking about last night. It was such a troublemaker in the beginning, but I love it now. I think it's the sixties look to it. Plus, the colors are my favorites, and it just looks so fun.

My very favorite bits are the candy looking necklace at the top, and the bits of fringe on the door. The door by the way is a picture I took in San Francisco. I altered the colors in Photoshop, to be more exciting, because the original brown just wouldn't cut it for me. The canvas is 11x14. I really seem to like that size. So much so , that I just received my shipment of 10 more today.

When ever I get my new shipments, I always feel a little overwhelmed looking, at all those blank canvases and thinking, holy cow, now I have to fill all those! Then before I know it, they are all used up, and I'm ordering more.

Oh yeah, I finally sent my Alice piece off to Somerset today, so I guess I find out in March if it made the magazine or not. That would be so cool if it does!

Have a great weekend everyone, I'm off to the annual Artists Open Studios tour tomorrow. I was too late to sign up this year, but hopefully next year I'll get in.

My 15 minutes of fame!

I went by the gallery that is showing my work today, and just had to take a picture to capture this monumental occasion.

Then because I'm still so excited about being in this show, I thought I'd post it! Tee-hee.

So back to business. First of all I finished my Alice in Wonderland piece for Somerset, it will be shipped out tomorrow and I'm so keeping my fingers crossed that it will be published.

I'm still bummed I couldn't enter my original one, but with the Disney characters on it, I guess it would be kinda stupid to send it in. I totally didn't think about copyright issues, until someone brought it to my attention. Whooops! I have learned my lesson though, no more Disney characters for me!

I also finished two other pieces tonight, and one that I hated in the beginning is now one of my very favorites, I cannot wait to post it, it's so much fun.

Unfortunately the one I'm working on now, is a bit of nightmare. I had to leave it be for the night, because we just weren't getting along. Pooh.

Other than that, I need to play catch up on blog hopping, and emaiing, and I'm trying so hard to find a place to get prints made of my work. I really want to try to sell stuff in Etsy, and I do not want to rely on my printer as I don't trust it.

For any of you out there that sell on Etsy or anywhere really, can you tell me how you get your prints? Are you running down to Kinko's every time you get an order, or is there a good place online to go?

Someday Her Prince Will Come

This is one I finished last night. A little something different. She is another sketch I drew, and then pasted onto the finished collage.

Now this character started out on sketch paper, and then was glued to watercolor paper. Originally I was going to make my own book filled with characters like this. Diamond Lady was also one.

But, I can't seem to stay away from using canvas. And while she looked pretty and really cool on her watercolor journal page, I couldn't help but wonder what she would look like in a collage. The problem was I like the idea of making a book, and the journal page looked really good. But I think I may not have the patience to do it. I like to see results pretty quickly, and the book would take me forever to do. Hmmm...still it sounds like fun.

Anyhoo, I made the background on the canvas thinking there is no harm in doing that. I didn't have to put the picture on it after all.

I started out slopping on some gesso and heavy gel, like I usually do, but I stopped mid swipe with the palette knife, and thought, hmm I wonder what it would be like if I tried to duplicate the journal page? So I left the blobs of gesso and gel where they were and started experimenting with stamped and designed tissue paper.

Oh my goodness, I found a new friend. I love tissue paper for collages!! Especially the ones I stamped, so many new possibilities there.

I eventually ended up smearing around the blobs of goo, and added paint, and well the whole thing just took off from there. Tons of fun to make, and I need to sit my butt down and draw another character, so I can do more of these collages.

On a side note, I will never use watercolor paper in collage again. I could not for anything get it to glue down. Not only that, it was two pages glued together so it was extra thick. It was so hard to rip from the journal page. I actually tried setting it on fire, but the darn stuff wouldn't even burn! Ugh.

Pumpkin Surprise!

I know it's not even October yet, but I've been in the Halloween spirit, for about a month now, so I thought I've give the fall season a little kick start with this collage.

I found the pumpkin image on Flickr, and I'm almost positive it was from Suzie Q. She has a lot of good vintage Halloween pics for using in art, so I'm pretty sure it was her. If it wasn't I'm really sorry. Sometimes I download so many pictures at once, and occasionally get the owners mixed up.

This piece is an 11x14 collage on canvas. I have to admit, I really like this one, and surprisingly it has become a favorite of my family. Usually my collages look better in person, because they are filled with sparkles, embellishments, etc, but this piece looks awesome as a print. I love it!

My grandfather has been taking professional pictures of all my artwork, and he prints out copies of each one, well this one looks so darn cool, if I ever get my Etsy site up and running, I'm selling it for sure.

Oh yeah, and before I completely forget -though I can't see how I would really, as I can't stop smiling for the last 24 hours- is that I actually made it into a local gallery!! I'm so excited with myself for actually following through on something and making this happen. The show goes for 1 month, and who knows someone might actually buy and or like my work, and if I never get shown in a gallery again, at least I knew I did it once. Whooo hooo!!

Diamond Lady

Well! Here is something completely different. This is the one I was talking about the other day. I drew the girl on sketch paper, colored her in with colored pencil, pen, paint and glitter,and then added her to the painting/collage at the end. I love her hair!

It came out totally different than what I was going for, but I'm still happy with the results.

I tried doing tons of texture in the background, and the houses were scrapped out of gesso in the first layer.

I liked the result, but as I was wrapping up dinner in tin foil, I noticed how lovely and silver it was, and wouldn't that look good in my collage! So I made the houses out of it. Fun!

The only thing I'm really bummed about on this piece is the lips, which I assure you, looked good until I put that string gel over it, and the ink from the pen ran. Ooops!

I'm finishing another one today, which came out pretty cool too. My new favorite tool, is stamped tissue paper, love it!!

Dreamy

I made Dreamy about a month ago. This started out as a problem child, but I'm really warming up to it now. I think it turned out alright after all. It certainly was a challenge color wise!

This canvas is 11x14, and the image is from Lisa Kettell. Now I'm not sure how it looks on your computer screens, but on mine, the colors seem off. I assure you it's really bright in real life, as are all my collages. :)

Oh, and thanks for those of you who posted helpful comments to my gel dilemma. I'm still trying to figure out what went wrong, it has me so perplexed because the product worked so well, until last week.

I think now I'll try some of the products you guys use, just so I don't have a repeat offense, it has ruined two collages now.

On another note, I made a collage last night, that is totally different from what I normally do. I've been creating little characters and drawing them on sketch paper, then placing them in my painting. It came out pretty cool I think, I even used tin foil in it! Hopefully it will be dry soon, and I can post a picture of it soon. I hope to make more of them, and eventually learn to draw the character and do the background all in one piece.

Beautiful Dreamer

I did this one so long ago! It's another 5x7 with images by Itkupilli. I'm a little bummed as the image is somewhat cloudy from the gel I put on, I think it mixed with white paint, so It didn't dry completely clear.

Speaking of that gel, I'm totally dumbfounded right now. I can't figure this out. I've been using string gel by Liquitex to cover my collages from day one. I've always had beautiful results.

Until now.

The other day, I decided to to do a second coat of gel on one of the collages I just finished. Well I went downstairs to collect it the next day and the image was gone!!! I'm not kidding it completely disappeared. In it's place were a bunch of cracked lines.

The only thing I could think of was that the second coat must have somehow messed with the inks. So I used it again on a collage I finished yesterday, only using one coat. It did the same thing!! But only on half. See, that particular collage I had printed two pages of inchies, and it only ruined one of the pages.

So naturally, I thought it was the paper. I had used different papers to print the images, and maybe that was the issue. To experiment I took one of each paper, printed out an image and coated it with the string gel. I let it dry overnight and guess what?

Nothing happened!!! The pictures are perfect. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!! I don't know what to do now. It was such a good product, it sealed everything, enhanced the colors and dried perfectly clear, but now I'm afraid to use it for fear of ruining even more collages.

Has anyone ever had this happen to them, or do you know of any good varnishes/sealers, that don't ruin your photos??

Sassy!

Oh my goodness, I've got so many collages to show you all, that I can't seem to keep up. I've done five more in the last couple days too which doesn't help matters.

Sassy I did so long ago, and I really like this one, though it started out a bit rough. I know you won't believe this, but the image is not by Itkupilli. Did I just hear a gasp?

Well as shocking as this may seem, it's actually by Lisa Kettell, and if you don't know about her yet, you have to check her stuff out. It is so much fun to look around her magical faerie world. Plus she has this awesome set of images on flickr to use for free in your artwork . I think you have to friend her first, but believe me when you see her art, you will want to.

Anyhoo, I'm off to go finish some more pieces, I'm totally on a roll right now. OH yeah and I just signed up for one of Monica Zuniga's classes over at her Hands and Heart Ning site. I'm super excited about this, she's another artist to check out if you don't know who she is yet.

Now, I'm off to paint!

Oooh La La!

Time for a new collage! And no it's not the purple disaster I've been talking about. I can't post that yet, because I've somehow lost my brush that I use for applying the string gel to my collages as a final touch. I can't figure out where it went, but I do have my suspects. One furry black one in particular.

Anyway today I will go on a massive hunt for it, and hopefully be able to coat that darn picture, so I can show you all what I've been complaining about for the past two weeks.

Anyhoo, this collage to my left is titled Oooh La La, and I really like how this one came out. Somehow it all seemed to come together so perfectly to me. I really liked playing with this color palate. Lots of fun.

She is another 5x7, and yes the main image is from Itkupilli. One of these days I'm going to shock everybody and do one without one of her pictures. In fact I might do it today, because the Halloween bug has hit me, and I may not be able to contain myself once I get down to my studio.

With that in mind, I'm off to paint!

Dancing Girls

One of my latest creations. I actually have about 10 or so that are done and hanging on walls, that need to be photographed so I can upload them to the blog and Flickr. I feel so behind, but at the same time I have plenty of material to post about.

Anyway Dancing Girls is an 8x24 mixed media on canvas, with images provided by the lovely Itkupilli. One of these days, I'll have to use someone else's pictures, but right now I can't get enough of her stuff.

This one was a challenge, as I'm not used to this size canvas, nor did I have a lot of supplies in the right colors. As you can see, I had to seriously improvise with the glass rocks at the top and bottom of the canvas. I didn't have anything else that would look good there. However, that isn't necessarily a bad thing, because it forces me to stretch my creative boundaries, which is something I need to do on a frequent basis.

In other news I finally finished the purple disaster which turned out not to be that purple. Feeew! It didn't come out that great, but I think it's okay. It just needs a layer of string gel and it will be ready for photographing. In fact I think I'll post it next just to see what other people think of it. Maybe I'm crazy, but it is one of my least favorites right now.

Alright I'm off to have dinner and read me some Somerset magazine. Have a good night everyone!

La Vie En Rose

Collage number 5! It's a 5x7 mixed media collage on canvas. Another lovely image from Itkupilli.

This is the one that I rubbed the face off of while trying to wipe paint off. I had to wait until my new printer ink came, so I could print another photo and finish it.

Finally here she is, in all her pink and brown glory. I do like this one a lot. It's weird to for me not to make it all bright and colorful, but it's also a challenge to explore new color combos. So it all works out good. I can't make ultrabright rainbow collages all the time right?

So I'm still working on my purple disaster. In fact I haven't really touched it since that first night, but I did make a run to Michael's today and grabbed some new purple paints and a few other lovely items, so maybe I'll be able to finish it this weekend.

In other news, I set up a new art station upstairs in my writing room. I'm beyond excited about this, because truthfully, I really don't like going downstairs to the real studio. I have a very nice space set up there, and it does look out on some beautiful nature, but I can't stand the mustiness. It stinks to high heaven, of dirt and mold. Our house is on stilts on a mountain side, so part of the downstairs is underground and all I can say is peee ew!

Originally I wanted to set up the whole shebang upstairs in my little room. I measured everything, and though a very tight squeeze, it all would fit. When I told the Mr. about this new plan, he was somewhat bent of out shape. You see he likes to be able to do art together (this is some dream of his) , and we have desks that sit side by side. He likes the fact that we go and create together, and feels that if I move upstairs that would be too much separation.

It's pretty sweet, but I still don't like going down there much. So I compromised. I kept all major stuff, for painting and collage making downstairs, and upstairs I moved an old art desk and very minimal supplies. I plan to use this space mostly for art journaling, drawing and stamping. Stuff that wouldn't be too crazy messy, but I can still go to, and create if I/we don't feel like breathing mold spores. Plus it's close to the kitchen. Never a bad thing.

Wonderland

This is one of my newer collages. Just finished it the other day. I really like how this turned out. Once again it was a complete accident.

I knew I was going to use the window and originally I was thinking of a theme along the lines of something deep, such as the window to my soul kinda thing.

I pretty much had this collage done (or so I thought), when I ran across the Alice in Wonderland stickers.

Seeing how the Cheshire Cat matched the decor, I put him at the top of the window. Well I liked what I saw, but he didn't really fit with my theme so I took him off. I was still hunting around for a couple more pieces, but couldn't really find anything.

Just for giggles I stuck Alice on. As soon as I did that, I knew it would be a Wonderland theme. Besides the mushrooms totally matched too. How could I not do it? As a fan of the movie and the story, it just seemed right. In fact the decorating of our house was very much influenced by it. It's sort of Alice in Wonderland, meets Tim Burton, and they go to Disneyland.

After the stickers were in place, I went crazy embellishing. The little square blocks with letters on them spell out "curiouser and curiouser". I have to say, the cat dangling the clock on a string was my husbands idea (he always comes up with good ideas) I wish I could take credit for it .

I can take credit for the window though. It is a picture I took in San Francisco a few weeks ago. I enhanced the color in Photoshop. I have a slight obsession with windows and doors now, so you may start seeing them in more of my art.

In the meantime though I'm working on a disaster. I don't know what's happening, but it just isn't working out. Part of the problem is I don't have the right colors. For some weird unexplainable reason I don't have much of anything with purple in it. And I really like that color! I can't figure it out. Obviously I will have to remedy that problem, but for now, I'm trying to use what I have, and it is giving me a ton of problems.

I think I'll stop for the night, because only time will fix this collage. I did however make a really cool one tonight, that won't be ready for public viewing for another few days (it needs to dry). Plus I still need to finish showing you the last 3 of the six I made that one night. I'm really behind on getting pictures taken and up on the web.

The good news is I now have 2 weeks worth of blog material. I should probably post more frequently huh?

Pretty In Pink

This is collage number 4! It's another 5x7. Image once again from Itkupilli, and scraps of paper from K&Company.

There are going to be at least 6 of these 5x7's as I'm using images from a collage sheet I bought. There are 8 ladies altogether, and I will most likely do them all, but I'm not sure yet.

This one was interesting to do. Like the black and white one I did, I was a little daunted at first with the all pink image. I'm so used to many colors, that this was a bit of a challenge for me.

It was actually fun to do though, and I like how it turned out. It's very "soft". Naturally, this one is titled "Pretty In Pink".

Girls Just Want To Have Fun!

Alright here's the 3rd collage out of the 6 from my very productive art day last week.

This is an 8x10 mixed media collage on canvas. The picture once again is from Itkupilli, and the papers and some stickers are from K&Company. They have the best papers don't they? I know they are for scrap booking, but I find so many cool ones, that I just buy those big books. I love them!

This one is called "Girls Just Want To Have Fun", because for some weird reason the girl reminds me of Cyndi Lauper, and all the bright colors make me think of fun and happy times, so naturally I thought of her song, which in turn reminds me of my childhood, and this collage is very childlike to me. Strange how thoughts go round in your head isn't it?

That's it for now. Right now I'm taking a break from painting to eat dinner. I've got 3 collages finished today, and a fourth one waiting to be finished. Not bad. Those 5x7's go fast though and I made two of those tonight.

Just when I thought I was in a slump too. All this week I've been sort eh about creating anything. It was fine to roam around everyone else's blogs and look at their art, but me? Nah. Didn't feel like it.

So, inspired by a show that's coming up at our local gallery I wandered downstairs and picked up an image I wanted to use in a collage. The next thing I knew I had completed three of them! Love it when that happens!!

Some Like it Hot (This one's for you Tony!!)

This piece is one of the 6 collages I did the other day. Maybe I made enough for the week, because the last two days I haven't been all that inspired. Weird. Tomorrow is my Friday, so hopefully my creative juices will start flowing again on my days off.

Anyway, this piece is inspired by the movie Some Like it Hot. My all time favorite film. I had this image from...can you guess? Yes that's right Itkupilli. It came on one of the collage sheets I purchased. I always loved the photo, but the fact that it was in black in white threw me a bit.

At first I was thinking what the heck can I do with this? Is has no color! Ahhhh... then a light turned on over my head. Let's make it a black and white collage! That will be something different!

In fact I always thought it looked just a bit like Jack Lemmon's character in Some Like it Hot. The face does anyway. :)

I am a HUGE fan of classic Hollywood. All the old films, the actors and actresses, the era, everything! This piece reminds me of that, and the whole time I was making it, thoughts from Some Like it Hot and Tony Curtis's recent illness (did you know he's an artist) were "Running Wild" in my head. So even though there are no actual images from the movie, it was definitely my muse for this collage. Hope you get better soon Tony!!

Joyful!

So yesterday I had a seriously productive day! This doesn't happen often. Believe me. I was lucky enough to be able to spend pretty much the whole day in my studio, and I finished 6 collages!! I have one more that partially done, so that will be a total of 7. Not too shabby.

Before you think I'm some kind of artistic/creative genius (snicker), I must admit that the canvases in question were pretty small. 3 5x7's and 4 8x10's. So it wasn't that hard to finish them. I kind of got on a roll and just kept pumping them out.

It helped that I had a ton of cool images from Itkupilli who does an amazing job manipulating images and then lets people use them! How can I not love that? You'll be seeing her name a lot as I've used her images in almost everything I've done lately. Except for today's picture actually. The image of the dancing lady is from Lisa Kettell who has a very fun blog over here. If you don't already know her, check her out, you could get lost in her magical world.

This painting came about in a funny way. I had the image forever, and never got around to using it. Well one day I finally fooled around with it in photoshop to change some colors and decided I would use it in my next collage.

Well! Those darn colors! Believe it or not, I didn't have the right shades. I tried so many different things to create those colors, mixing paint, pretty papers, beads, etc. Nothing worked. I was so disgusted, that I gessoed over almost the entire collage.

What I created totally grossed me out. I let it sit for a few days, and in the meantime made sure to purchase the correct color paints.

What a difference that muted yellow makes! Man, when I started again, the collage just flew together. I just kept adding piece after piece. All of a sudden so many things went with it, where before I couldn't find anything to complement it.

Long story short, it is now one of my favorite pieces. It reminds me of Christmas! I guess it's the colors. I just really like this one a lot. It sure came a long way from the disgusting mess I made earlier!

Goth Lady

Please excuse the really bad photography. I am not and probably never will claim to be a photographer. I know what button to push to take a picture and how to turn off the flash. That's about it.

Anyhoo, this is my newest. 5x7 mixed media on canvas. Image credit goes once again to Itkupilli

Love her stuff so much! Also the background papers are mostly from K&Company. Love them too!

This one was fun, as it is the tiniest piece I've ever done. I bought a collage sheet from Itkupilli and it had 8 ladies on it and I plan to do a series of these 5x7's with those images.

Since it is so small it sure is quick to make, I think I'll bust out a few today. If I ever get downstairs. I keep lolligagging on everyone else's art blogs, now the afternoon is almost gone, and I've yet to put paint to canvas.

Oh and I'm so excited because I just recieved my shimpment of canvases I ordered online. Yea! It's like Christmas in August. Plus a few days ago I hit up Michael's and Joann Fabrics and they are having huge sales right now and I got even more canvas, paints, and fun papers to use! I can't wait to create.

I better get my butt downstairs.