East meets West

This piece is on an 8x16 canvas with pictures by Itkupilli. I've used them before but separately on 5x7 canvases. I really like these two ladies, so I thought I'd give them a chance to do a duet.

Now I know the title is misleading. It isn't really east meets west, but for some reason when I was trying to come up with a name, that's what entered my mind first, and I liked it. It's art, it doesn't need to make sense right?

I'm especially fond of this piece too. I really like the colors and how certain areas came out.

As usual my favorites are very problematic pieces to begin with, and this was no exception. The last half of creation on this one had me completely stumped, nothing would situate properly, and I felt I would never get it right.

But finally with a lot of persistence (working til 3:30 in the morning) things finally clicked. At least I think so. :)

Right now, I'm working on another problem child. Same kind of situation. I'm almost done, but it's not coming together. Something is missing, but I don't know what.

In this case, I'm trying out my new Kelly Rae techniques, so I'm in unfamiliar territory. I've been taking pictures of the process all along the way, and I admit that I have been pleased up until now with how things are going.

I sure hope I can fix this one, it was such a cool idea. And pretty too!

Fabulous Fifties

I was shopping around the other day for collage supplies, when my eyes landed on these cardboard ladies. Now most of you probably don't know this, but I'm a secret wannabee fifties housewife.

You would never know this if you knew me, because it's not like I clean, cook, and sew all day, but for some reason the "idea" appeals to me. I can't seem to put it into practice, so I'll just let it be a fantasy for now.

Anyway, I could not pass these gals up, and had to pay a little tribute to the fabulous fifties with this collage.

It's an 8x24 canvas, and I wish I had more, because I really like this size. I'll have to wait though, because I've been banned from buying any more canvases. If you saw the plethora of new canvases strewn about my art room you would understand why. Better get busy painting!

Under the Sea

Ooooh, I'm in love with this piece! I don't normally gush about my own art, but I really love this. I just love how the colors turned out.

I also really like the size and shape of the canvas. For some reason right now I'm into the long skinny canvases, and this is a cool in between version.

I'm supposed to take this in to the coffee shop to sell, but honestly I am not ready to part with it just yet. In fact I made five canvases this week, and they are all supposed to go to the cafe, but I just started filling my walls again, and I don't want to go blank again so soon. Still, it must be done. Guess I just have to keep making more!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I'm over on Deviant Art now where you can go and buy prints, cards, mouse pads, magnets, postcards, mugs, even puzzles of my art.

I'm giving this site a shot, since a fellow art friend highly recommended it to me. I've been meaning to set up an Etsy site like everyone else, but this was so much faster and easier. Yep, I can be lazy like that.

Anyway, if anyone is so inclined, Go on and check it out over here ....

Red Fairy

No more 3x3's right now, though I am working on an ATC sized Alice in Wonderland canvas. It's pretty cool, but I need to find a couple of tiny Alice-y embellishments to stick on. I didn't realize I had almost nothing to add to it, when I started it last night. Gives me another reason to shop!

Anyway, this picture is a 5x7 canvas. It's actually the first old style piece I did after my little hiatus from art last year. I liked it enough that I just kept going to make the 3x3's and a couple more pieces that will be revealed next week after I get pictures taken of them. One of them I adore, and can not wait to show off. I think it might be my new favorite.

Right now I've got 4 pieces going at once if you include the Katherine Howard mess that I put away earlier last week. I have to admit, when I walk past it now, I don't cringe nearly as much, and I am starting to think it might actually have possibilities.

I wish I could say the same for the collage I started in December and am still trying to finish. I tried working on it again last night. I can't figure out what is wrong, because the picture I used is really cool, and it has all my favorite colors, yet no matter what I do it will not come together. Anything I try to add to it, looks terrible.

I'm at a total loss, and seriously think I should paint over the whole thing and start again fresh. Yesterday I added more paint and color to it, and now it looks like a preschool. Very frustrating. Thank goodness I have a new one to work on with a theme I love. Think I'll go work on that right now!

Lounge Lizard

Okay working backwards, this is the first 3x3 canvas I did. By the way, all these inchie pictures are from Itkupilli.

As you can see this is a lot more simple than the others. It also seems kinda of clumsy, but hey it's my first time working so small, so I'm giving myself a bit of a break. :)

I do love the colors though!

Oh yeah! I got my new Somerset Studio magazine today (can't wait to read that!) and no, my Alice in Wonderland piece didn't make it. I am bummed, but I understand. I really didn't have time to make it like I wanted.

I'm pretty sure if I was able to submit that first one it would have gone in, but unfortunately I didn't think about copyright issues until nearly the deadline, so I didn't have a whole lot of time to come up with something new. Oh well. Live and learn right? I am submitting for the Halloween piece though. Maybe I'll make it then.

Right now, I need to get off my butt, and into the studio. I spent all day yesterday and today shopping for art supplies, so I have tons of new toys to play with. Plus, I'm in desperate need of creating about 20 more pieces so my walls don't look like someone broke in and robbed us. I can't believe what a difference it makes in the atmosphere to have blank walls now that all my art is gone and living elsewhere. It's so lonely here. Time to fill it back up!

Another 15 minutes of Fame!

Here it is! My own "exhibit" at the local coffee shop.

The owner is super cool, and let me put my stuff up wherever I wanted, which means I had 4 walls to play with! I only used three, and now that everything is hung, I realize how small my work is. It's really hard to see in the pictures. Guess that means I'll be making bigger pieces in the near future. :)





Those are all my pieces in the back, except for the one on the very left, that looks like a peacock.

This wall especially needs larger work. These pieces are pretty hard to see, but hey it's all exposure right?

Oh and please excuse the photos. This day is very cloudy and the shop wasn't very bright at all. It looks much nicer on sunny days.




This shows my largest piece which was in the gallery last year. I really still like it so it's the only one that is not for sale. Someday I'll let it go, but it was such a project and my biggest accomplishment that I can't bear to part with it just yet.


That's it for now!

Blueberry

Well here is the 2nd 3x3 canvas. The one I posted yesterday was actually the 3rd one I did, and I think you can tell, because it is a lot more detailed and put together than the first two.

For some reason, I'm posting them backwards. Once you see the first one, you will see that this one, is a little bit better than the first with details, and paper/paint placement. Then by the 3rd (Pink Lady), I think I'm finding my groove with these tiny pieces.

The more I look at this one, the less impressed I am with it, but I don't think I'll change it. It's kind of fun seeing the progression of each canvas as I go.

Though I do wish I posted them in order... Ooops!

Little Pink Lady

I mean LITTLE. This canvas is 3x3 inches! The smallest I've done so far, and probably the smallest I'll ever do. It's loads of fun, but man working that small and finding teeny tiny embellishments isn't easy.

Since I've done my Om piece, I have manged to do 4 new collages in my regular style. I haven't done one since Christmas for my mom. I finally want to do them again. Very cool.

I found these 3x3 canvases by accident in an art store one day, and since they were so darn cute, I had to buy 5. Now I wish I bought more, because I have a whole sheet of these inchies that I want to use for the canvases. I'm going to make them all, and then maybe hang them together like a quilt.

I'm still working on my other techniques that I'm learning from my Kelly Rae book, but to be honest I got quite fed up with a particular piece, and switched over to my old stand by's.

The problem piece is my Katherine Howard collage. I'm trying to redo it, to make up the one I did last year, which came out terrible. I'm trying it again, using the new techniques, but unfortunately I chose a very difficult palette to work with, and I'm having a devil of a time getting the colors to flow together.

I'll take it out again, but right now I need to concentrate on these other pieces. Why? Well I'll tell you. It just so happens that ALL my art will be showing in a coffee shop here in my town! I'm know! I can't stop shrieking!

I'm setting it up later this week, and I'm super excited, because this will give me way more exposure than the gallery. Everyone goes to a coffee shop right? Plus I can put up all my pieces, and I get all the commission if anything sells. Eeeek! Keep your fingers crossed for me, I sure hope someone likes something I did, It would be neat to sell at least one thing.

Thank you Kelly Rae!!

I'm a little shy about posting this, since I haven't been around a loooooong time. I'm not exactly sure what happened to me, but somehow my creative juices dried up completely.

For 3 months, I had no desire to make art. At all. Even looking at my collages on the walls, left me feeling blah.

This was totally weird, because I was just getting into my groove art wise, and then all of a sudden it was like someone turned off a faucet, and left me dry. I beat myself up and felt guilty about this for quite awhile. Not surprisingly that didn't help me create anything new.

Thankfully a couple weeks ago, I found myself wandering the aisles of Michael's when I spotted a book, that changed everything.

It was Kelly Rae Robert's "Taking Flight" book. I picked it up and started flipping through the pages, and all of a sudden I felt the familiar stirrings of excitement running through me. The more I looked at the book, the more excited I became at the thought of trying a new project and new techniques. I couldn't put the book down, and decided to buy it right away.

When I got home, I immediately made for my new art studio upstairs (mold free!!), and got to work.

This is what I produced following her patchwork collage technique. A totally new concept for me, but totally fun. Right now I'm working on three more projects out of her book, and I can't thank her enough for publishing this gem, and giving me some inspiration again!

This piece is titled "OM'. I've been wanting to do a spiritual/budda piece for a while now, and so I'm super excited about this one. It has a place already picked out on my wall near my meditation area in my studio. Thankfully I have orange walls so it will fit right in. :)

Fairytales

Oh my goodness. I feel so ashamed. I can't believe how long it's been since I posted, and even worse since I did any art.

I don't know what got into me, but right after finishing that large gallery piece and the painting for my mom, I kinda checked out of the art world.

In fact, I can't seem to get back in. I have zero motivation, and It's really weird, because it seems like things were just starting to go well for me art wise, and for some reason, the fire went out.

Does this sound familar at all to anyone? I keep feeling so guilty for not wanting to go and create, which of course makes things worse. I even try flipping through magazines, for inspiration, but it doesn't help.

I think this whole thing started with my teeth. I know that sounds weird, but the day after my mom's painting was done, I came down with some serious tooth pain, which led me to seek a dentist, and find out I need a root canal. Well money isn't flowing that easily, so I decided to wait a bit.

I went for two weeks of serious agony, where the only thing I could do was stare at my computer screen, and watch my screen saver bubbles. Meds wouldn't touch the pain, and I seriously considered more than a few times, of pulling the tooth out with pliers.

Luckily after two weeks, the pain disappeared and I've pretty much been fine ever since. But the problem is, even though I feel better, I have no desire to do my art now. Arggggh! It's frustrating.

In fact, I've been addicted to the food channel lately, and I all I can think about is cooking now. Btw this is not a good addiction to have, as now I find I'm about 4 times as hungry as usual watching these shows. Crazy!

Anyway, this picture you see now, is a 5x7 collage on canvas I did right before Halloween. It's actually hanging in the gallery now with 6 other 5x7's for their Gift of Art show, but honestly I don't know that I really want to sell it.

I priced all my pieces high partly because of the commission the gallery takes, and partly because I won't be at all sad, If I get to bring it back home at the end of the month. I mean really, the wall looks kinda empty without it. This kind of attitude gives me pause. What kind of artist am I anyway? Isn't selling your work, supposed to be something we all strive for?

Okay so you can see, I'm in a serious rut here, and I need to get out fast. I do not want to stop creating my art, because I know how much I love it when I do it, but I just can't seem to pick up that darn paint brush. Help!! Please tell me this is normal....

Zen

Just when I thought I would have time to roam around and blog hop, I remembered I needed to make a piece for my mom's birthday. This is what I came up with.

Something new and different. It all started when I read the new issue of Cloth Paper Scissors and saw the article on Zentangles.

Boy did those look like fun, and they reminded me a bit of Hundertwasser's art, which I love. Needless to say I was totally intrigued to try some. I made one that night, and then another the next night which is the one I made for my mom.

This drawing was originally made on a square piece of paper, about 4x4, and then I took our handy dandy art projector and projected that bad boy onto a 10x10 canvas. I traced as best I could in pencil, and then set about to painting it.

What a change to be painting again! A lot more detail work that's for sure! But it was fun and it was meditative which was nice. I have another one in the works, which is more Hundertwasser-y I think, but I'm guessing it will take awhile to make. I definitely can't bust 6 of these out a night that's for sure!

Soooo, now I think I'm ready to finally catch up on blogs. I feel really bad, I've been neglecting everyone out there, but I hope to remedy that real soon!

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.