tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-187224852024-03-10T23:23:32.688-04:00Pull of the TidesA blog for creativity in all seasons.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-10170810202030046142016-01-03T14:41:00.000-05:002016-01-03T14:41:12.387-05:00Thank You to Those Artists Who Share, or, Where I'm Hanging Out These Days<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn6DCTXUrQlJvAgeNEGv2y9fZeFOU_4wDMXOVauDDpIiMwccO1OdIxekFtugyQDjSHQgx-t9zSA7prt7JqiXJ87J_Yii90fmoFOgf3dRPJTafXxGf-zjrJrgeFMYOD9-hC_opZ/s1600/IMG_5751.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn6DCTXUrQlJvAgeNEGv2y9fZeFOU_4wDMXOVauDDpIiMwccO1OdIxekFtugyQDjSHQgx-t9zSA7prt7JqiXJ87J_Yii90fmoFOgf3dRPJTafXxGf-zjrJrgeFMYOD9-hC_opZ/s320/IMG_5751.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tabs for my 2016 Art Journal</td></tr>
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<b>Pull of the Tides</b> has been on hiatus as a blog for some time now. That is because I am spending my creativity in ways other than writing these days. Namely, I have been making a lot of two-dimensional art on paper and taking tons of photographs. </div>
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My intention is to keep Pull of the Tides right here, where it is, while I pursue other avenues of creativity. I may ultimately come back to writing again. For the moment, I find that several microblogging apps suit my purpose, most especially <a href="http://www.instagram.com/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>. </div>
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To keep up with me on Instagram, browse here to <a href="http://www.instagram.com/runningwave/" target="_blank">my ~runningwave~ feed</a>.</h4>
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While I've been away, I have been taking some amazing art classes both online and in person. I have attended several artists events, visited galleries, and chatted with artists virtually and in the real world. Staying connected to creative communities is very important to me.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO7w71dAgOM1t87jieJpSKtTajmvc8x3DduM9XCil5UNHRkdL4STNoRlDXtUSI3YEECDPqGcRT4bp-PG7KlQvzOP_R7S3WpQ1l4JdFxrK4iWe9qLD9E6aOoGIFSU2Wva7Lqylm/s1600/IMG_5750.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO7w71dAgOM1t87jieJpSKtTajmvc8x3DduM9XCil5UNHRkdL4STNoRlDXtUSI3YEECDPqGcRT4bp-PG7KlQvzOP_R7S3WpQ1l4JdFxrK4iWe9qLD9E6aOoGIFSU2Wva7Lqylm/s320/IMG_5750.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beginning a new journal spread with stencils and ink.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicWkVTMtvw3K8P983D8i1sy-wQCD5MoFCVuBV7x8VgAjdEdm1ncS8HdQwzVFHWqsbcdwHPlpn31dy5hWKy7fCJ8U6nfQMO8WOGr2Y-rHOZQdMe6sY4i6_jjN3wwPo71C0tysCS/s1600/IMG_4082.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicWkVTMtvw3K8P983D8i1sy-wQCD5MoFCVuBV7x8VgAjdEdm1ncS8HdQwzVFHWqsbcdwHPlpn31dy5hWKy7fCJ8U6nfQMO8WOGr2Y-rHOZQdMe6sY4i6_jjN3wwPo71C0tysCS/s320/IMG_4082.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A beautiful background created during Seth Apter's Brick By Brick workshop<br /><br /></td></tr>
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Not all of my inspiration is coming from visual artists. Lately, I find myself fascinated by authors, musicians, actors, movie-makers, tv writers and video editors. When you can transmute ideas from one medium to another, that is good, artistic communication. There are so many people out their who are making good art. </div>
<a name='more'></a> And, yes, I mean that comment in reference to <a href="https://vimeo.com/42372767" target="_blank">Neil Gaiman's now legendary "Make Good Art" speech</a>. (If you haven't seen it, then you need to follow that vimeo hyperlink without delay! All creative people should watch this video.)<br />
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Most importantly, I have found that many like-minded souls are out there in the vast wildness of the Internet. Places like Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Wattpad, and other spaces make it possible for me to interact with people who share my ideas, humor, passions, and proclivities. It's truly making my life more rich to have connections with a larger creative world. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIsXAqVKCsCQ2cG2BptirmyJVrTmg1r4wgdtmOxFyJOmW99WzbIPVjK4jk9A4qOjRO0aC9cvTRs9OPceqp3ZoYEpD7jRmEhXWRo3wiVEUosaWbu9PpnkB1470IPuT4eYqFBOEd/s1600/IMG_4252.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIsXAqVKCsCQ2cG2BptirmyJVrTmg1r4wgdtmOxFyJOmW99WzbIPVjK4jk9A4qOjRO0aC9cvTRs9OPceqp3ZoYEpD7jRmEhXWRo3wiVEUosaWbu9PpnkB1470IPuT4eYqFBOEd/s640/IMG_4252.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of several maps that I made during a week-long workshop with Jill K. Berry on Whidbey Island, WA</td></tr>
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<br />Thanks especially to the following creative people who have been my art instructors this year:<div>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/sethapter/" target="_blank">Seth Apter, mixed media artist, NYC</a></div>
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<a href="http://jillberrydesign.com/" target="_blank">Jill K. Berry, mixed media artist, Colorado, USA</a><br /><a href="http://www.juliegibbons.com/" target="_blank">Julie Gibbons, Mandala artist, Scotland, UK</a></div>
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Laura Hummel, mixed media artist, Maryland, USA and teacher at <a href="http://www.queensink.com/Classes/index.html" target="_blank">the Queen's Ink</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.carlasonheim.com/" target="_blank">Carla Sonheim, painter and illustrator, Seattle, WA, USA</a></div>
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<a href="http://lynnwhipple.com/" target="_blank">Lynn Whipple, painter, Florida, USA</a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ1U11vQA2fgr9OwsvHR4VEzZNp__AJLzXSSLeP2yt7CCJ4eoHPDu0zEO-xyGtWf-mKKawkyr0cSgNf02VJmyc_XzBD3rd8vuKkrDT5lpHFHW9zLVI0nFE9mqbVQzbQmfJPrnW/s1600/IMG_5574.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ1U11vQA2fgr9OwsvHR4VEzZNp__AJLzXSSLeP2yt7CCJ4eoHPDu0zEO-xyGtWf-mKKawkyr0cSgNf02VJmyc_XzBD3rd8vuKkrDT5lpHFHW9zLVI0nFE9mqbVQzbQmfJPrnW/s400/IMG_5574.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flower of Life Mandala inspired by Julie Gibbons's Five Days Mandala Magic course</td></tr>
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I have a lot planned for 2016, and those artistic pursuits have taken on very specific form. I may not be sharing a lot in written form as I develop these ideas, but I am sure to give you sneak peeks if you follow my Instagram feed regularly. </div>
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For now I am signing off and wishing everyone a Happy, Healthy & Rewarding 2016.<br /><div style="text-align: right;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn6DCTXUrQlJvAgeNEGv2y9fZeFOU_4wDMXOVauDDpIiMwccO1OdIxekFtugyQDjSHQgx-t9zSA7prt7JqiXJ87J_Yii90fmoFOgf3dRPJTafXxGf-zjrJrgeFMYOD9-hC_opZ/s1600/IMG_5751.jpg" imageanchor="1"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO7w71dAgOM1t87jieJpSKtTajmvc8x3DduM9XCil5UNHRkdL4STNoRlDXtUSI3YEECDPqGcRT4bp-PG7KlQvzOP_R7S3WpQ1l4JdFxrK4iWe9qLD9E6aOoGIFSU2Wva7Lqylm/s1600/IMG_5750.JPG" imageanchor="1"></a><br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-17138646027735762072015-01-15T06:00:00.000-05:002015-01-15T06:22:21.680-05:00A Fresh Start & Pointing Toward North<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjole27r06ffSNCy-M3dif_wKBVnY17ueFQiAMSDdKG-10jq9AoaIlATjum2NfbJ5VqbF9qhFfjvStSlaN5HSkpqNtGJ8RacFd2-obOtIDDlt2Q0-eJfq44GkKAbzecAhwKyP7_/s1600/2015_year_zentang_sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjole27r06ffSNCy-M3dif_wKBVnY17ueFQiAMSDdKG-10jq9AoaIlATjum2NfbJ5VqbF9qhFfjvStSlaN5HSkpqNtGJ8RacFd2-obOtIDDlt2Q0-eJfq44GkKAbzecAhwKyP7_/s1600/2015_year_zentang_sm.jpg" height="263" width="400" /></a></div>
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Wow! Time flies. I still am adjusting to 2015.<br />
Between my day-job and the myriad activities that seem to happen every autumn, I had no energy to update this blog for quite a long while. If you are curious about what art I was creating in the past few months, check with me at the <a href="http://instagram.com/runningwave" target="_blank">~runningwave~ Instagram feed</a>.<br />
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Over the winter holidays, I worked on a new, exciting piece of art for <a href="http://jillberrydesign.com/" target="_blank">Jill K. Berry</a>'s <a href="http://jillberrydesign.com/map2015/" target="_blank">Map 2015 Challenge.</a> Here's a sneak peek; more later:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiJXb_LwhbncNVu4Fom1a6diKhxhyphenhyphenH78HUK5yQ93st3Jr5qs60lKzzg4Lcv2SbMjlJNLNx5T99h59dl8ss9V-wzEarfUNDTtrQDzWWyXzFwPWVPJwqq744msoy8yOTK2jKbb4I/s1600/IMG_4004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiJXb_LwhbncNVu4Fom1a6diKhxhyphenhyphenH78HUK5yQ93st3Jr5qs60lKzzg4Lcv2SbMjlJNLNx5T99h59dl8ss9V-wzEarfUNDTtrQDzWWyXzFwPWVPJwqq744msoy8yOTK2jKbb4I/s1600/IMG_4004.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A small glimpse of my 2015 Map Challenge artwork</td></tr>
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I finally stood up to all of the voices in my head that told me I can never be a cartographer, and made my own hand-drawn and painted map. I used this as an opportunity to test the skills I have been honing. I had been refining both watercolor and ink techniques last year.<br />
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As my new horizon stretches out ahead, I am finally beginning to see myself as a pen-and-ink, or draftsman, sort of artist. My art always tended to focus on color and three-dimensional art, but in the past year I have become more comfortable drawing on flat papers.<br />
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This map helped me to realize that. All the more so, because I was able to finish it in my parent's studio while I was spending an afternoon with my father. Their studio is always been a place of "serious art" in my world. To spend the day painting and drawing there was a real treat. Something that I had not done since childhood.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji3WRCYu7d6Z16NfUcxBhMIAaKasc2Ux95DEyYb9mPx3ja1BGBHBRYtjOyO4bJZ_QQwUdGZTtvhlZ4OynWi-UZhF_bAAWJ175SThKC_dYMba0G4-6Gjt4cIhhFFbzA32vK5B1A/s1600/MapChallenge2015_sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji3WRCYu7d6Z16NfUcxBhMIAaKasc2Ux95DEyYb9mPx3ja1BGBHBRYtjOyO4bJZ_QQwUdGZTtvhlZ4OynWi-UZhF_bAAWJ175SThKC_dYMba0G4-6Gjt4cIhhFFbzA32vK5B1A/s1600/MapChallenge2015_sm.jpg" height="416" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Travels of runningwave 2015</i>, watercolor and pen, 8" x 5.5" inches</td></tr>
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This map is a mind-map of sorts, following the trail of where I've been in my inner life and of where I hope to go throughout 2015. I am intentionally cryptic in naming my places on the map. I hope the map is a beautiful graphic work of art for the viewer, but the landmarks mean something symbolic to me. <br />
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I am aiming towards something that <i>The Artist's Way</i> author, Julia Cameron, calls "finding your True North." By "True North," I think she means that locating that direction within yourself that points to your dream, what you really want to accomplish in your life.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio4s30wRbJH73zxRkUBV3fs2gOnHjYFFKE2E6IsRJ-uRiqttIUpgXqoEBPnnJaCKJ1XolPpIhk7cGuswGjmTuHWRaWRSBbxVTVlpAvqRojfiLPIhUHIwIouW8n4awLbSHvqR93/s1600/IMG_4002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio4s30wRbJH73zxRkUBV3fs2gOnHjYFFKE2E6IsRJ-uRiqttIUpgXqoEBPnnJaCKJ1XolPpIhk7cGuswGjmTuHWRaWRSBbxVTVlpAvqRojfiLPIhUHIwIouW8n4awLbSHvqR93/s1600/IMG_4002.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Compass Rose</td></tr>
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Here are some more details and a couple of work-in-progress views of my 2015 map.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmjjHqU0WMXBanv_kDMQaiVCOM2j4cy6f2buvEw1Pj7L0YdCEIT5oP4jHShxj9Uo-vuIh2yRFu43vS0c8lzCktWCVupquCWMAHUGvI2pTC3vfqXy6vDiFbx-Xuej0YcRmCw_Zr/s1600/IMG_3992.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmjjHqU0WMXBanv_kDMQaiVCOM2j4cy6f2buvEw1Pj7L0YdCEIT5oP4jHShxj9Uo-vuIh2yRFu43vS0c8lzCktWCVupquCWMAHUGvI2pTC3vfqXy6vDiFbx-Xuej0YcRmCw_Zr/s1600/IMG_3992.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eidolon Mountains and village of Vacilla, in progress. No text yet.</td></tr>
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I don't know anyone who progresses through life in a straight line. All travels have crossroads. Some paths are better than others for safely arriving at your destination. Given that water and waves have so much meaning for me, it is only natural that my trek follows the course of a mountain stream, over a bridge and along a river that widens as it reaches a forest and plain.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX_av64B40XRtkd53FJb4XZ8W_sq249ev4F0YujECl4H_RSUAiXoBSjq6tgkgWs2JqZUrK5sg5yjQKxgh4c-sLyo8lAjmEf_PFmoov31VE8OC88zSHQk1hDkgUfsGsxYmsmRX5/s1600/IMG_4001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX_av64B40XRtkd53FJb4XZ8W_sq249ev4F0YujECl4H_RSUAiXoBSjq6tgkgWs2JqZUrK5sg5yjQKxgh4c-sLyo8lAjmEf_PFmoov31VE8OC88zSHQk1hDkgUfsGsxYmsmRX5/s1600/IMG_4001.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail, Sailing from the metropolis of Kaleidos.<br />
I took the name from "kaleidoscope," from the Greek, beautiful + form</td></tr>
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I happen to find the shapes of islands on maps pleasing, so I felt like coming to the great city was a good place to launch out into the waves by sail. The Isle of Gracia took its name from "Gratitude," a state which I am actively trying to cultivate.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfSH-fRkNTTWQ2kfdxlHKMA0ddaCQrcCw6Jt41QDDs4iYLMDrYIKI5o46igazrACZOR31XlGVIgu7kGBxgzK9IEU18iZ6SUzSOeejHUYbezp-btU28cwuWA-vJ6HI8eYsXTchx/s1600/IMG_3999.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfSH-fRkNTTWQ2kfdxlHKMA0ddaCQrcCw6Jt41QDDs4iYLMDrYIKI5o46igazrACZOR31XlGVIgu7kGBxgzK9IEU18iZ6SUzSOeejHUYbezp-btU28cwuWA-vJ6HI8eYsXTchx/s1600/IMG_3999.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail featuring Isle of Gracia, representing one my goals</td></tr>
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2015 is going to be -- I hope -- a different kind of year for me creatively. I am starting from the get-go by participating in a community called <a href="http://www.carlasonheim.com/yearofthespark/" target="_blank">Year of the Spark!</a> mentored by two amazing artists: Carla Sonheim and Lynn Whipple.<br />
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I will be sharing more of my discoveries and work created for that community later.<br />
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Thank you for viewing. I welcome and encourage comments.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-67684633903871808922014-09-23T07:35:00.002-04:002014-09-23T07:35:48.885-04:00Art in Trade<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ZkV2TH8mzwPHKB9CABC7pL15wb340ElispyeI4tQILQ_OyqmF4OwR2U-rWIMvy1cmup4TKTWzbr3fZPFh9tphJR77Glc14y3weO-56vfVjEQlT02vuMsuPe5Ceg_gmw_Ds-2/s1600/IMG_2592.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ZkV2TH8mzwPHKB9CABC7pL15wb340ElispyeI4tQILQ_OyqmF4OwR2U-rWIMvy1cmup4TKTWzbr3fZPFh9tphJR77Glc14y3weO-56vfVjEQlT02vuMsuPe5Ceg_gmw_Ds-2/s1600/IMG_2592.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I Believe in Magic" Artist Trading Card, 2.5" x 3.5"</td></tr>
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A grand welcome to the harvest season of Autumn!<br />
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While I did love the unusually mild weather this Summer, I am very pleased that Fall is here. It is always my most favorite season of the year.<br />
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Since the beginning of Summer I have spent a lot of time contemplating what I will "do" with my art. I have been engaged in asking myself, "What form of art do I want to send out into the world?" It's not any easy question to answer. I love making art, but for the most part I have made it to give as gifts to friends or for my own simple pleasure of manifesting an idea into reality.<br />
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In late August, I decided to join several art swapping groups with other mixed media artists. One of them is a closed group on Facebook, to which I was invited, the Artful Mail Groupies. You can join, but they have certain rules to help keep the group active and friendly. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Note: Send me a personal message if you are desperate to learn more about this group.) </span><br />
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The other swap group is part of an online artist community that I joined in 2013 run by the amazing artist-extraordinaire <a href="http://www.willowing-arts.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Tamara Laporte</a> over at <a href="http://willowing.org./">willowing.org.</a> Tam is the originator of the amazing year-long online art course <a href="http://www.willowing.org/life-book-2015/" target="_blank">Life Book</a>.<br />
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I love these online communities of artists. They inspire and amaze me everyday. I really find a lot of solace and comfort sharing my process of becoming an artist with these wonderful people.<br />
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The Art Swaps are a great way to send your work out into the world and get another person's art in trade.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu_f1Z-ayBd8pMiofFJ3NvGcNMOzvhAnyQWepajvZbTNA9m89xacE-NAdxgKp7-4CjiWbttP6CdFAxuBvP72pKZ-SPy7Oh1DhuiGlO-nE8RkAq-PfBnFhnUZu7k8AH-cSjkxuO/s1600/IMG_2591.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu_f1Z-ayBd8pMiofFJ3NvGcNMOzvhAnyQWepajvZbTNA9m89xacE-NAdxgKp7-4CjiWbttP6CdFAxuBvP72pKZ-SPy7Oh1DhuiGlO-nE8RkAq-PfBnFhnUZu7k8AH-cSjkxuO/s1600/IMG_2591.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Autumn Moon Artist Trading Cards made for Artful Mail Groupies Swap</td></tr>
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One way that many artists are sharing these days is to create very small-scaled art works -- the size of a baseball or playing card: 2.5" by 3.5". The small size makes projects easier to complete although there is a real art to using a tiny space well. I have been learning from some talented people. I decided that I am ready to throw my art out into the unknown and receive other art and feedback in exchange. Plus, receiving mail from a person far away is fun! (I always enjoyed having pen pals in other countries as a kid.)<br />
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My first swap was the Autumn Moon ATC (ATC = Artist Trading Card) swap with the Artful Mail Groupies on Facebook. I had so much fun inventing a way to use the Martha Stewart silhouettes of owls, ravens and spooky things for my moonlight purpose. I wanted to create a Harvest Moon shining behind each silhouette. I created all of the moons from cardstock or hand-painted (by me) papers. I added some additional collage elements.<br />
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The second way that I'm exploring for spreading my art out into the world is that I'm trying to find a way to make art books that are not so labor-intensive as professional book-binding. I have several friends who are paper conservators and book-binders for a living, so I know very well just how much time and energy goes into creating most books that are bound by hand.</div>
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I recently took a workshop at the <a href="http://www.queensink.com/" target="_blank">Queen's Ink </a>with artist Terry Quinn on printing techniques for the <a href="http://www.gelliarts.com/" target="_blank">Gelli Arts monoprinting plate</a>. The class is taught periodically and called "50 Shades of Play." Terry took the guesswork out of the workshop by selecting your pattern tools and colors for you, so that our minds were free to play and explore. She taught me that there is no such thing as an ugly monoprint because you can always add another layer if you don't particularly like the color or design that you used. That is a really significant lesson to learn.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpkYYT00_F9DBkBUc6RyGfiWXTV_5paCPhoMveZJgSI2Pv5_nAgOtDSwuPz7sdpQ5-X_BPuMkYjpVYg7geKk60wN9dcWxMQmROhOVeSvr8yPhyCthbjtJyLc3UOjRID3_KnvxB/s1600/IMG_2634.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpkYYT00_F9DBkBUc6RyGfiWXTV_5paCPhoMveZJgSI2Pv5_nAgOtDSwuPz7sdpQ5-X_BPuMkYjpVYg7geKk60wN9dcWxMQmROhOVeSvr8yPhyCthbjtJyLc3UOjRID3_KnvxB/s1600/IMG_2634.jpg" height="640" title="" width="478" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Monoprinted Index Card book that I made in Terry Quinn's "50 Shades of Play" workshop</td></tr>
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I was able to produce two sets of monoprinted index cards in the class which will become tiny books. Not sure what I will put on the pages yet because I like the patterns and colors so much just as they are. Each page is unique, and that was true of the 50 pages that each of the students made in the workshop also.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw8bA85YwFqaDviLIFfMgTTOyj9T5wbqmcT7-mgb0jGcpcWderwI1IvyMix54yOrEZ_8QwvPD4d3GUgTTp1TvJV_HVv9Iz1HhTDKSPKGo34Wbkg33wWWviJ8x00i-x-fXpag4_/s1600/IMG_2637.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw8bA85YwFqaDviLIFfMgTTOyj9T5wbqmcT7-mgb0jGcpcWderwI1IvyMix54yOrEZ_8QwvPD4d3GUgTTp1TvJV_HVv9Iz1HhTDKSPKGo34Wbkg33wWWviJ8x00i-x-fXpag4_/s1600/IMG_2637.JPG" height="400" title="" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail, front cover, monoprinted book from "50 Shades of Play"</td></tr>
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I discovered, for example, that my new favorite color is called Gunmetal Gray; it offsets bright colors like these golds and oranges so well. I wouldn't have known that if I wasn't limited to a palette within that session of Terry's workshop. Don't you think this mini-book cover turned out pretty well? The book measures only 2.5" by 3" -- one half the size of a folded 3x5 index card.</div>
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I cannot wait to put my second book together and experiment in collage on these pages! Promise that I'll share.</div>
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Wishing you joy in this season of harvest! (Or of new life if you are living in the Southern Hemisphere!)</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-89480947362386483932014-09-16T07:28:00.000-04:002014-09-16T07:28:03.548-04:00A Drawing In<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh268m7wgYwOGkUSJhyUO7z7jLmFRAXcNYeIwc-4u7Gfg1ZAsAb_Zwc9hkgknXcCwpaPE1Qn7I3RMWtweat7FddZvkWzLHnI-R9n8XZtSo9tEL0KowGpITw6cl33x5M37Kkp42T/s1600/IMG_2650.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh268m7wgYwOGkUSJhyUO7z7jLmFRAXcNYeIwc-4u7Gfg1ZAsAb_Zwc9hkgknXcCwpaPE1Qn7I3RMWtweat7FddZvkWzLHnI-R9n8XZtSo9tEL0KowGpITw6cl33x5M37Kkp42T/s1600/IMG_2650.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Summer Fades</td></tr>
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I love summer most as it is fading away. There is a pause like the hush of an audience before a stage curtain lifts waiting for the magic to appear on stage. I was blessed a full evening this past weekend surrounded by peaceful countryside, allowing me the opportunity to watch the sun slowly set on the final days of the season. In contrast, the previous day had been a sauna of summer heat and humidity as you come to expect when you live near the Chesapeake Bay. </div>
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This day, somehow, had a sudden crispness to the air with breezes finding their strength. The sunlight had a palette not quite golden, but certainly warmer in hue. The billowing clouds helped to create the atmosphere. We drove well around Baltimore City to avoid the giant blow-out festival in the Inner Harbor celebrating the 200th anniversary of the British attempt to blast their way around <a href="http://www.nps.gov/fomc/index.htm" target="_blank">Fort McHenry</a>. Instead we opted for winding roads and retro 1980s tunes, as we drove northward and away from the urbs and suburbs to tranquil farmland. The stated purpose of our mission was to attend a fundraiser dinner for the <a href="http://www.creativealliance.org/" target="_blank">Creative Alliance</a>, but I had only the urge to be surrounded by Summer's full bounty on my mind. </div>
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And there is no time like the present, because the seasons are changing. . .</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcc3kjLqVT9oyRgD94p_hJa5H09VY_tSvFbFzksbX03fRjW75DL4WgE8BhjB15p71PIFTAA580M1CwaORptPsmFYol7svkhLzJ4HqB-CH4hdK7H6ZoWoAWGROdkZwTI5OiL-gG/s1600/IMG_2652.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcc3kjLqVT9oyRgD94p_hJa5H09VY_tSvFbFzksbX03fRjW75DL4WgE8BhjB15p71PIFTAA580M1CwaORptPsmFYol7svkhLzJ4HqB-CH4hdK7H6ZoWoAWGROdkZwTI5OiL-gG/s1600/IMG_2652.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></div>
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I think of this moment between Summer and Autumn as a time of Drawing In.<br />
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It is a lull in the seasons to pause and cherish all of the energetic growth and ecstatic wildness of the warmest months of the year. Even though I am not a farmer as my hosts are, the harvest that I see spread before me is all of the activities and accomplishments of my creative endeavors. You do not have to work on the land in order to appreciate the importance of harvest time. <br />
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My host expressed a similar thought when he sat at his dining table. For him, the idea behind hosting a party immediately before the Fall of the year is a conscious choice. He knows that he has a lot of work in store for the harvests and preparations for winter, but this is his time to kick<br />
back and reward himself for all of the labor of the year. The food served at the table came from his land and his wife's amazing feast.<br />
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Here then are some of my impressions of the landscape that I saw during this enchanted evening.<br />
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In the farm yard.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz8ZGAyuSNCyB10DnkQ0vl2U5hD2IEVVaVge_i0c80OVjoSHLyOlJFhQb6dhfz1D42YcD6Z_la5TeJnoO3exSb6rm4epYofg-eKQuVzFRcm_pmfVo6eq_1FqPpwo4Y8zQ271nU/s1600/IMG_2644.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz8ZGAyuSNCyB10DnkQ0vl2U5hD2IEVVaVge_i0c80OVjoSHLyOlJFhQb6dhfz1D42YcD6Z_la5TeJnoO3exSb6rm4epYofg-eKQuVzFRcm_pmfVo6eq_1FqPpwo4Y8zQ271nU/s1600/IMG_2644.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baby Turkeys!</td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAPbhKrNPPr2OAedgfRfm3PascANRB402ztRFAAngo22NoEPJqoMQdKirk7hWvFE6BE-aj5OGjzjT8256Ut-XZDc5XqtaO8SlMw9HtlTCi5jhmIMPuUV91VZYb4D4BWAHRM6Cu/s1600/IMG_2645.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAPbhKrNPPr2OAedgfRfm3PascANRB402ztRFAAngo22NoEPJqoMQdKirk7hWvFE6BE-aj5OGjzjT8256Ut-XZDc5XqtaO8SlMw9HtlTCi5jhmIMPuUV91VZYb4D4BWAHRM6Cu/s1600/IMG_2645.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Big, bad turkey!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiO2swKOBjQlLmVeCEjkOHqKvOB7YrovUWq9OeZp18jqv-ucCfOXrPRAerho-bGM4S0l5So-WeX9lEk4e46yYCT7QLoBvgEbE_sYDwi589-de7mu_w19_eSI_AmdR25R6ECo57/s1600/IMG_2661.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiO2swKOBjQlLmVeCEjkOHqKvOB7YrovUWq9OeZp18jqv-ucCfOXrPRAerho-bGM4S0l5So-WeX9lEk4e46yYCT7QLoBvgEbE_sYDwi589-de7mu_w19_eSI_AmdR25R6ECo57/s1600/IMG_2661.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Honey, the Herder</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-5J-HMcUbgSQmMCKNUFTJZj9K3kAa9lBbG5jzXtEroojC4x09LG0015rEU1WF4CZ0iQYVstYv9vmOv9aRBO5ciBd9DkAxqBlZ9WVYWYCic2W0jdOXiFl047EuC2lpwcq3m3Ek/s1600/IMG_2649.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-5J-HMcUbgSQmMCKNUFTJZj9K3kAa9lBbG5jzXtEroojC4x09LG0015rEU1WF4CZ0iQYVstYv9vmOv9aRBO5ciBd9DkAxqBlZ9WVYWYCic2W0jdOXiFl047EuC2lpwcq3m3Ek/s1600/IMG_2649.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgofHfj9djH5IgHvF5CP63Jxoc82RCWbN5aESERXJ5dUB4uOMVj7X2Ws5g9-NnSItRlQgCmL3h81F22TX1fdMRQIfvSM9xuKhqhniDmm1njd_Zy2K18WwkUPELwcFM3sFpGmo75/s1600/IMG_2664.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgofHfj9djH5IgHvF5CP63Jxoc82RCWbN5aESERXJ5dUB4uOMVj7X2Ws5g9-NnSItRlQgCmL3h81F22TX1fdMRQIfvSM9xuKhqhniDmm1njd_Zy2K18WwkUPELwcFM3sFpGmo75/s1600/IMG_2664.jpg" height="200" width="149" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil7qABe8jxQTSaTTnSHbNPTyYiUpPQpI2Wp7bS-aIX47rn3gstOrIGnf-rdGQAKrLUIMeIau-QmCr2-yaL8_prDk_9Vc-j6WYtrDJiBARlJGivsANGP4UoL-NEc2y_ezJXbHYE/s1600/IMG_2662.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil7qABe8jxQTSaTTnSHbNPTyYiUpPQpI2Wp7bS-aIX47rn3gstOrIGnf-rdGQAKrLUIMeIau-QmCr2-yaL8_prDk_9Vc-j6WYtrDJiBARlJGivsANGP4UoL-NEc2y_ezJXbHYE/s1600/IMG_2662.jpg" height="200" width="149" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHIMDRibZjPtMxfThTwVy43S3SDVCYPJCGaX2k0fFcSAdLJZ5qps8_jqWskSRsyZslf7l1ZOBilS-kmI2zSfstfPKmKuQI_-ovoMhAxOJ3w6MANh7NTnJAX0_EuMlGorPPZqKo/s1600/IMG_2663.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHIMDRibZjPtMxfThTwVy43S3SDVCYPJCGaX2k0fFcSAdLJZ5qps8_jqWskSRsyZslf7l1ZOBilS-kmI2zSfstfPKmKuQI_-ovoMhAxOJ3w6MANh7NTnJAX0_EuMlGorPPZqKo/s1600/IMG_2663.jpg" height="200" width="149" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRBRX4bxiiaXTajistVaZhOtb5gYHcql89UXjfiLaoLe4lkO223j15plQVwelUSEAxcg7I6y8aoVM5b18vvdP3txjHShyphenhyphenKzsXBsUZQxqfVP0WhQ9t23tYAWx5B4rA8un3niJja/s1600/IMG_2672.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRBRX4bxiiaXTajistVaZhOtb5gYHcql89UXjfiLaoLe4lkO223j15plQVwelUSEAxcg7I6y8aoVM5b18vvdP3txjHShyphenhyphenKzsXBsUZQxqfVP0WhQ9t23tYAWx5B4rA8un3niJja/s1600/IMG_2672.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Trickster Goats</td></tr>
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In the nearby woodlands. </div>
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There are mists rising even as the daylight begins to fade. The Jewelweed has grown so tall and bushy. It's orange blooms stand out like flags in the twilight.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jewelweed Glowing in Twilight</td></tr>
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-52470953070694037512014-09-08T22:35:00.001-04:002014-09-08T22:35:38.567-04:00Summer Siren<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Summer Siren by ~runningwave~</td></tr>
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I have finished my first work of mixed media art on canvas. Woot! I finally did it. She's turned out quite lovely. I am so new to all of this painting-figures-on-canvas thing, but I am loving it. The mermaid was inspired by a lesson taught by my art guru, <a href="http://effywild.com/" target="_blank">Effy Wild</a> in her year-long online Moonshine 2014 course. This was a pretty intense lesson. Here are some photographs showing the creation of this piece.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw9B5VAoib5zZlNZVn8VgqnJgj9QFUD-SDvhdcUIHg8PB7qob_KWK3Q1t1mWhwdXFLWiom2Mu6h96uEwvUCaoyEmD3XhXYaRhId-CHTGGsVEQ6z-CrQ7d9v9pQCmJ4OBQ9Svnn/s1600/IMG_2519.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw9B5VAoib5zZlNZVn8VgqnJgj9QFUD-SDvhdcUIHg8PB7qob_KWK3Q1t1mWhwdXFLWiom2Mu6h96uEwvUCaoyEmD3XhXYaRhId-CHTGGsVEQ6z-CrQ7d9v9pQCmJ4OBQ9Svnn/s1600/IMG_2519.jpg" height="254" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Step 1, paint the mermaid in acrylic colors</td></tr>
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I drew the figure on a 12 by 9 inch canvas board, outlining first in pencil. I intended her to look like she was floating peacefully in her aquatic home, carried by the currents. Once I had painted the general shape of the mermaid and added in her facial features I let the whole canvas dry. Effy's lesson called for three-dimensional hair. She chose cheesecloth to approximate the look of seaweed-like hair. I love the effect she achieved so it was off to the grocery for me.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCIvNkRd6ieX49LwhaGxcz82EjCkMldxyVaqo402AdlKZR8NXQIJQkR-YY_ulobgWYFvQ3_3gc4469CjnMtOKvAXnNmshKWQ8643wAQT5TB5_Jsx9ig2BfXK96nuu48R7iGcZF/s1600/IMG_2525.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCIvNkRd6ieX49LwhaGxcz82EjCkMldxyVaqo402AdlKZR8NXQIJQkR-YY_ulobgWYFvQ3_3gc4469CjnMtOKvAXnNmshKWQ8643wAQT5TB5_Jsx9ig2BfXK96nuu48R7iGcZF/s1600/IMG_2525.JPG" height="291" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Step 2, glue cheesecloth hair onto the canvas</td></tr>
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Here's what the canvas looked like after I glued layers of cheesecloth onto it using artist's matte medium. This turned out beautifully. I wanted her tresses to look like they were floating in a radial spray from her head in the waves.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil8CMqIsEFw2Tx5l01zfW1YjKzEWSzbNSKufOtFZIdU7-vWaKUOnAl7ZqyykRIlaOthdIrd8FFp5L8b9xNNgJEhPv_JNaKDmx_FxxpkXXnS-AIaKlljCk7MeqD9IQH4ITRVr66/s1600/IMG_2526.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil8CMqIsEFw2Tx5l01zfW1YjKzEWSzbNSKufOtFZIdU7-vWaKUOnAl7ZqyykRIlaOthdIrd8FFp5L8b9xNNgJEhPv_JNaKDmx_FxxpkXXnS-AIaKlljCk7MeqD9IQH4ITRVr66/s1600/IMG_2526.JPG" height="320" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail of the face and hair in step 2.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjctDm3QvQWD_ZFjZd_HbUU1MIPa-pY5q7bddRnw9guXke1n19dSmUkBzLhlUfbXLGY1JyDv6fpm-EJUdvrn0FtpVRohZ77rHONWUsCsyNqYNC6eqPXWO59tUn5HuYsuDayLvHP/s1600/IMG_2598.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjctDm3QvQWD_ZFjZd_HbUU1MIPa-pY5q7bddRnw9guXke1n19dSmUkBzLhlUfbXLGY1JyDv6fpm-EJUdvrn0FtpVRohZ77rHONWUsCsyNqYNC6eqPXWO59tUn5HuYsuDayLvHP/s1600/IMG_2598.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Step 3, Detail of the face, mostly complete.</td></tr>
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To paint color in her hair I mixed <a href="http://www.jacquardproducts.com/pearl-ex-pigments.html" target="_blank">PearlEx metallic powders</a> with my acrylic Titanium White paint. The Sea Green colored powder worked best for the palette. My experiments with the PearlEx resulted in some very pleasing colors and I intend to keep playing with them. I had purchased them years ago to use as embossing colors for rubber stamping, but their effect when mixed with acrylic paints is stunning.<br />
You will notice the detail of eye lashes in Sakura Gelly Roll metallic blue Glaze. Her lips and necklace were painted with <a href="http://www.jacquardproducts.com/lumiere.html" target="_blank">Jacquard Copper Lumiere acrylic</a>. The necklace got some finishing contours added in a dimensional ink brand called irRESISTible Pico Embellisher by Tsukineko.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI3JTX_7B4HGjmhyphenhyphenuGSgVs1QNJbqSROH9UCHqoK-yLeSziIa7wX7DvuyNGe_h53hJbQ3U8AhnVDL6TL-pBJ7UTvbpf38F5vmn2FAXz5MtSJ8VsqKUnbscEEtXI1DJZCzW2PZBh/s1600/IMG_2599.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI3JTX_7B4HGjmhyphenhyphenuGSgVs1QNJbqSROH9UCHqoK-yLeSziIa7wX7DvuyNGe_h53hJbQ3U8AhnVDL6TL-pBJ7UTvbpf38F5vmn2FAXz5MtSJ8VsqKUnbscEEtXI1DJZCzW2PZBh/s1600/IMG_2599.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail. Completed mermaid tail under the hair.</td></tr>
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There are more coppery details on her fishtail and also in the shadow on the left side of the canvas to counterbalance the visual "weight" of the tail and out-of-control hair.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYTJJV6wW5BEEqM_QcQ0JVd7hpB71HlaKQ6f2EJ6fb9lAxKZ9b6O0IV7__j9K3xUSwhyphenhyphenZC05OACuJYYLHW46DzakwoyDl2NOU8rWdWCL2PTDH_hF34sti4nX273Cc1G4EAFZu_/s1600/IMG_2603.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYTJJV6wW5BEEqM_QcQ0JVd7hpB71HlaKQ6f2EJ6fb9lAxKZ9b6O0IV7__j9K3xUSwhyphenhyphenZC05OACuJYYLHW46DzakwoyDl2NOU8rWdWCL2PTDH_hF34sti4nX273Cc1G4EAFZu_/s1600/IMG_2603.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Summer Siren, completed September 6, 2014.</td></tr>
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I think there are three very important lessons that I learned from this exercise. One: I'm perfectly capable of creating fine art on canvas. Two: I can, in fact, paint faces. Three: This was a LOT of FUN and I want to paint more canvases with mixed media.</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-13920934894431732712014-08-22T07:00:00.000-04:002014-08-22T07:00:02.370-04:00Growth Happens . . .<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Oak Moon art journal spread</td></tr>
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This abstract oak tree is the result of an art journaling exercise facilitated by <a href="http://effywild.com/" target="_blank">Effy Wild's Moonshine 2014</a> course. We are making art inspired by the seasons and cycles of the moon all year long. She provided the course content in June, but it took me a while to get started. And then it took me weeks to finish. This is the most intricate art journal spread I've ever undertaken, but I'm really pleased with my results.<br />
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While I was working on it, I never thought it would look cohesive. There are many layers to this page. The very first is a background layer of color painted onto the paper with Gelato pigments, giving the whole page a softer, nearly pastel feel.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipKvt6Gq-28aOQ4eQYjUvVmmcPPOZ51no13jCPrANDbNMkOJWt7a5qOKW353rPklYMrm47Vo0j5wTw6l2wUg4N5LU4zrUZig0HdH06z28z6v-FQ8V5HnXGl9ko2momM0s1jxdF/s1600/NewOakMoon2014-01+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipKvt6Gq-28aOQ4eQYjUvVmmcPPOZ51no13jCPrANDbNMkOJWt7a5qOKW353rPklYMrm47Vo0j5wTw6l2wUg4N5LU4zrUZig0HdH06z28z6v-FQ8V5HnXGl9ko2momM0s1jxdF/s1600/NewOakMoon2014-01+detail.jpg" height="314" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Oak Moon - detail</td></tr>
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Effy's lesson recommended a collage layer next that would create a mosaic feel. I was skeptical about how mine would turn out, but there are enough greens and earth tones to off-set that energetic paint layer with Summer colors of oranges and reds. Next came the tree, painted in acrylic and then detailed with "bark" lines of Black Pitt pen and Sakura metallic gold ink. Then I drew in each oak leaf and filled them in with various gel inks. The metallic just jump off the page. Finally, I used a paint pen to make all of the green circles with the final touch of outlines around them in black ink. <br />
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I worked on this piece off and on between other projects over a period of three weeks. I had to practice drawing the tree a number of times to get a trunk and branches that I liked. I also had to teach myself to draw abstract oak leaves, so I filled an entire sketchbook page with them drawing slow at first and then speeding up. It was time-consuming to create all of tree's detail, but the detail is what brought together the living-tree shape.<br />
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I used to prefer to keep backgrounds very simple if the main focus of the piece was going to be an illustration (rather than pure abstract collage). But now I think that this tree would look very different on a plain background. The effect was worth the effort.<br />
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In the meantime, I have devised several ways to recycle my own art.<br />
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<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com/2014/08/training-for-big-leagues.html" target="_blank">I shared a page of watercolor lines in my last blog post.</a> I have several of these pages of watercolor lines because I practiced the same blending exercise several times. I took giant hole punches yesterday and punched out 2" inch and 1 3/4" inch circles from one of the practice pages. It's very likely that these circles will begin to appear in different collage pieces I create in the near future.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVUHnkmeTee-eFhzrVozvXO0BM6_RxGfmraGL094-B6znCaL8nFAf1LfSglkmrZTemdsHsERVuDinuYXHbiganis4s_1q99nKNEPu5t-4FwK4SyM-qoYbBljsd5IKaXezuAxfA/s1600/IMG_2493.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVUHnkmeTee-eFhzrVozvXO0BM6_RxGfmraGL094-B6znCaL8nFAf1LfSglkmrZTemdsHsERVuDinuYXHbiganis4s_1q99nKNEPu5t-4FwK4SyM-qoYbBljsd5IKaXezuAxfA/s1600/IMG_2493.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Collage circles punched out from a watercolor practice page.</td></tr>
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Each circle has its own character. I like how some have more curvy lines than others. The colors (even in the page made with cheap watercolor paints from a classroom set) are cheery and take on a whole new appearance when they are liberated from the rectangular parent-page.<br />
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Finally, I had been debating what to do about the cover for my recently-begun art journal. The book is an 11 3/8" inch by 8 1/4" inch bound <a href="http://rangerink.com/?product=dylusions-journal" target="_blank">Dylusions journal book</a> specifically made for mixed media creating. I love the size of it and the fact that the pages are bound to open completely flat, making painting and drawing easier. The cover is just craft-paper brown, and it kept staring at me asking, "when are you going to cover me with art?" But I could not decide what to do.<br />
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I debated for days. Maybe I should just paint it a color so it's not blank. No, maybe I should collage it. Then it hit me, I had a favorite 4x6 index card piece of the full moon in July.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYkT9bVr0FSChSa2eXSogXsUXIsL5Wk0iGAKmfgb9ApCX4lrv7-NwKnvRwB5HQ0uLWwTvjRnfGkcTEwfWeO541ioLiNvSAmPjboz-FQxoo0GJeU3MSwPwJXzPz0VnxnSKlCb1u/s1600/supermoon_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYkT9bVr0FSChSa2eXSogXsUXIsL5Wk0iGAKmfgb9ApCX4lrv7-NwKnvRwB5HQ0uLWwTvjRnfGkcTEwfWeO541ioLiNvSAmPjboz-FQxoo0GJeU3MSwPwJXzPz0VnxnSKlCb1u/s1600/supermoon_cover.jpg" height="640" width="473" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brand new cover for my art journal.</td></tr>
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I used the book cover as a frame for my index card art, by painting around it in acrylic and ink layers. I taped a starry-night washi tape border along the book's spine so that it matched the night sky theme. And I glued on mylar stars surrounding the picture and an arrow with my title and the date to remind me of when I created the hand-moon picture.<br />
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Now it is happily situated on the front cover of my journal so that I can look at it and let it inspire me all of the time.<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-11952785300391312562014-08-11T21:53:00.000-04:002014-08-11T21:53:46.390-04:00Training for the Big Leagues<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Blend" experiment from Tammy Garcia's "Watercolor Playground" Class</td></tr>
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I've had some wonderful opportunities lately to learn art techniques from different teachers. I recently decided that I wanted to focus on art journaling. I am becoming fairly comfortable with acrylic paining, but my watercolor technique is fairly amateurish. Watercolor -- for those of you who have not played with it since art class in a K-12 environment -- is a very difficult medium. Just how much water to use or not use is always tricky. And you cannot truly control watercolor, so you have to practice to understand its limitations and benefits. This I know from my brief Intro to Art 101 in college where I got to experiment with new art media every two weeks. I really want to get to know watercolor at a whole new level, so I chose to enroll in <a href="http://daisyyellowart.com/" target="_blank">Tammy Garcia</a>'s online course called <a href="http://daisyyellowart.com/workshop-directory/" target="_blank">Watercolor Playground</a>. </div>
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My first project was Blend, or an experiment in blending pigments painted adjacent to each other in a whole page of lines. I am posting the most successful of my Blend painting so far. This one was done with my very first set of professional grade watercolors which I purchased for taking this class. It was amazing to me how vivid these paints are, after years of using a cheap set that can be bought at any craft store for under $10. You really get what you pay for when purchasing paints. While I can see that I still need more practice with blending, I'm definitely improving. I plan to cut up the practice pages for collages or backgrounds for other artwork.</div>
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I also had the good fortune to take a live class taught by <a href="http://www.kasshall.com/" target="_blank">Kass Hall</a>, who is an amazing art journal guru hailing from Down Under. What a treat to take two workshops in a day from an artist who lives on the other side of the Globe at my favorite local paper-obsession store, <a href="http://queensink.com/" target="_blank">The Queen's Ink</a>. Truly a privilege. What I loved most about taking Kass' workshops is that she did not dictate what the final product should be. She gave us some very good layering techniques to build an effective art journal spread and taught us her secrets of making legible lettering.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8sFohD_t1sFs5mgVJqir2QGQarAxaUfT2LkEULdzmd6KQJ-_vxaske5J_3RaUXuiIW4T11QZcquX4fpJ5FRW2D-KEQmO2uTlIHGedLUrrp6OwNb_oCscuRBwYcdfz5RAZVPtr/s1600/IMG_2377.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8sFohD_t1sFs5mgVJqir2QGQarAxaUfT2LkEULdzmd6KQJ-_vxaske5J_3RaUXuiIW4T11QZcquX4fpJ5FRW2D-KEQmO2uTlIHGedLUrrp6OwNb_oCscuRBwYcdfz5RAZVPtr/s1600/IMG_2377.JPG" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Desert Rose, left page, made in Kass Hall's "Lyrically Speaking" class</td></tr>
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Kass asked the class to find lyrics to a song or lines from a poem that really inspired us for the first workshop of the day. I chose Sting's "Desert Rose," because it's a favorite of mine and also because Sting's words evoke so many images for me. I brought some collage papers with me that I knew I would want to use, and found elements among those Kass passed out -- clip art from websites and swatches from her own art journal pages scanned at high res. I am pretty pleased with how these turned out.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfnK-V6rf6VBvpeCRZo0EdJ2J5u_UhLlSWj03m0QP83jV-mD3AANdkcyg1Fc8uzRPgBQZrSgkTtqBUY5NtzR-jEuXMg9wJuWrr6tSdICwJ4k832_pnmYcXGrnnhvqCT_iHy3S4/s1600/IMG_2375.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfnK-V6rf6VBvpeCRZo0EdJ2J5u_UhLlSWj03m0QP83jV-mD3AANdkcyg1Fc8uzRPgBQZrSgkTtqBUY5NtzR-jEuXMg9wJuWrr6tSdICwJ4k832_pnmYcXGrnnhvqCT_iHy3S4/s1600/IMG_2375.JPG" height="400" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Desert Rose, right page, made in Kass Hall's "Lyrically Speaking" class<br /></td></tr>
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I also took an afternoon workshop with Kass, where she included her technique for drawing faces. I am still working on that spread and will post photos when I feel it's in a more finished state. I am so pleased with my results. I had been avoiding painting in an art journal in favor of separate pages, concerned that I'd mess up a page. I am beginning to feel more confident about what I'm doing after a whole year of concentrated mixed media practice. And if I come up with really ugly pages, I'll just paint over them. I'm okay with that.<br />
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So now I have an art journal that will travel with me throughout the next phase of my artistic journey. I hope that it becomes a more frequent practice. I am making plans to incorporate my journaling into my daily life, so stay tuned for more.<br />
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Even when I'm away from home, I am still thinking about art. My husband and I visited New York City last weekend to catch the <a href="http://exhibitions.guggenheim.org/futurism/" target="_blank">fabulous exhibition on the Italian Futurists at the Guggenheim</a>. I admired the brash and colorful Futurist paintings when I was taking art history classes, but I had never heard about women being involved in the Futurist movement. In fact the <a href="http://www.italianfuturism.org/manifestos/foundingmanifesto/" target="_blank">Futurist Manifesto of 1909</a> is decidedly anti-feminist. Apparently that did not deter Italian women artists from participating in the movement. Benedetta Cappa's work is featured in the Guggenheim's exhibit, and her massive mural scheme for a Post Office in Palermo, Sicily (1933-1934) was the capstone of the whole exhibit. There's a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/arts/design/guggenheim-is-to-show-rare-murals-by-a-futurist.html?_r=0" target="_blank">New York Times article interviewing the show's curator</a> who talks about the work of this amazing artist.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Studio of Andrew Wyeth, Chadd's Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum</td></tr>
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Then, in contrast, we switched from the bombastic Futurist expressions to the more pastoral scenes of days of yore and country life painted by the various artists of the Wyeth family in their studios near Chadd's Ford, PA. The <a href="http://www.brandywine.org/" target="_blank">Brandywine River Museum</a> preserves the homes and studios of the Wyeths and offers guided tours. Given how spartan Andrew Wyeth's paintings often are, I was amazed by the chaos in which he enjoyed working. The museum has recreated the whole ambiance with copies. I'm including a photograph of his studio that I took since our tour guide allowed us to take photographs. Apparently he drew many sketches for major works, but then let them fall to the floor of his studio and did not consult them much while he was working. He had already drawn the subject, you see, so the drawings were only the means to his end product.<br />
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His father's, N.C. Wyeth's studio was filled with props befitting a practitioner of swashbuckling illustration art: canoes, costumes, marble busts, weaponry and arms, helmets, etc. There is a copy of his final, unfinished illustration of George Washington on his easel, much has he must have left it on the day he died in 1945. I loved N.C. Wyeth's study for a mural of his whole family that the Museum is featuring in the Wyeths' large parlor. It must have been a small space for such a large family, but given how many creative people lived and were raised there it could not have been too distracting.<br />
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It is always so interesting to see how other artists work. Studios are a product of the individual who works in them.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-92167140858915826852014-08-01T00:52:00.003-04:002014-08-01T00:52:22.608-04:00Grand Finale!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWnNGlQBwqiI6BBBTPOBXnuBGGWfmEjdtivLK5XryN-madJmY37w5aOXDJwVkuVa8LOBDC1yNLKHo2xQpB0AFBljjP5LXsdNFVie50wkxmA7DsQ1-1n6ALrnV75nUu3CSpgKXJ/s1600/IMG_2217.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWnNGlQBwqiI6BBBTPOBXnuBGGWfmEjdtivLK5XryN-madJmY37w5aOXDJwVkuVa8LOBDC1yNLKHo2xQpB0AFBljjP5LXsdNFVie50wkxmA7DsQ1-1n6ALrnV75nUu3CSpgKXJ/s1600/IMG_2217.jpg" height="400" title="Solstice Heat by Runningwave" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Solstice Heat, June 21, 2014<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am very nostalgic and emotional</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> about fireworks. I associate them with happy memories of Summer evenings.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you know that moment in a fireworks display when you can hear the the swizzle sound of many rockets rising into the sky at once?</span></span><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is excitement, yes, anticipation, but also a nanosecond of wistfulness. Because you know you've reached the final minute of the display. Soon it will be over. </span></span><br />
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am feeling a bit that way tonight. Sixty-one days of thinking about and making art as part of <a href="http://daisyyellowart.com/vividlife/tiny-canvas-big-heart.html" target="_blank">Tammy Garcia's ICAD 2014 challenge</a> are drawing to a close. I am looking back on the small, yet powerful set index cards that I've drawn on, painted on, glued on, and experimented on during the past two months.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I really made some serious attempts to use the challenge as an opportunity to try new things. I tested the waters on some new media. At the beginning, I worked very hard to stay on the daily prompt. After a while, I made up my own prompts or more often found sources of inspiration out around me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I created something that I thought was ugly or messy or not what was in my head, I tried to rework it or recycle it into something I did like.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqZ1fhf8ACg-nUA4UOFYp__pUdWBVf1jRB6mKHyPqEMELRGU3iAWUipR2sEH0mGYTBJ4m7fC6cAfLZ-qKYcKYRe8oxxjcJEhDlys31o3RW3S4w2I-Nu_BgIN_g2lUhP5ga1xT4/s1600/IMG_2316.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqZ1fhf8ACg-nUA4UOFYp__pUdWBVf1jRB6mKHyPqEMELRGU3iAWUipR2sEH0mGYTBJ4m7fC6cAfLZ-qKYcKYRe8oxxjcJEhDlys31o3RW3S4w2I-Nu_BgIN_g2lUhP5ga1xT4/s1600/IMG_2316.JPG" height="320" width="280" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Super Moon, July 11, 2014</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My Super Moon card turned out exactly the way I had intended, but getting the ink spray background right took quite a few tries. My first few spray ink attempts were downright ugly. One of my glimmer misters doesn't seem to be working the way it should and the ink comes out in giant drips. I kept the card anyway thinking that I would eventually cut it apart for collage.</span><div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Turquoise Dragonflies, July 27, 2014</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Later in the challenge, I found that the messy glimmer mist drips card actually made the perfect "landscape" for my dragonflies. I gessoed over the ink to tone down the background. The other collage elements are glued on top of the gesso layer.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicnaFksgYVZLBbpfTtpFf4lCUsO06wkEDUnVKFzMJhf2DVFr9kfsDCRwfcCWWEnlXL3HBO9MAauKndg1bBTKc8D5E-GnClQ7DP7RfWCF_e_mVYw05o3yOwCHXxawkjEojpjjbz/s1600/IMG_2354.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicnaFksgYVZLBbpfTtpFf4lCUsO06wkEDUnVKFzMJhf2DVFr9kfsDCRwfcCWWEnlXL3HBO9MAauKndg1bBTKc8D5E-GnClQ7DP7RfWCF_e_mVYw05o3yOwCHXxawkjEojpjjbz/s1600/IMG_2354.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Golden Mushroom, stamp on Gelli plate print, July 23, 2013</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The challenge also encouraged me to attempt some media that I had been admiring for a while. I first learned about <a href="http://www.gelliarts.com/" target="_blank">Gelli Arts plates</a> last year, and saw videos of the technique back in the Spring. I kept meaning to get the supplies and try it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally, I bought myself a 5 x 7 Gelli plate and began printing acrylic backgrounds. My Golden Mushroom card made use of monoprints for the background and frame. The rubber stamp (embellished with ink) is one that I traced from a printed design and cut myself with a carving tool and Speedball printing plate. I hadn't carved my own stamp since I was a teenager!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGVNaJ8khy687EpihF6onwVSj-thhEaF3IH1rf95OHyVJQbraRm8NAyXdcjSVBH3rq7gn2RHTrNsitfL4D1R6oVKy4Y2cMImTOzNxrsZ4RrxvsL_FHHeVlZRyzvgp519QhPlSN/s1600/IMG_2291.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGVNaJ8khy687EpihF6onwVSj-thhEaF3IH1rf95OHyVJQbraRm8NAyXdcjSVBH3rq7gn2RHTrNsitfL4D1R6oVKy4Y2cMImTOzNxrsZ4RrxvsL_FHHeVlZRyzvgp519QhPlSN/s1600/IMG_2291.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Any Route Permitted July 8, 2014</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I love the layering effects that you can easily obtain by printing more than one Gelli plate background. I know this is a media that I will work on again and again, and I've only printed in two sessions with my plate. I made a dozen different layered prints each time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other days, I enjoyed recycling bits of ephemera from my trip to England this summer. I could not help including tickets, cut-outs from Time Out Magazine and other papers in my daily collages.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now the ICAD 2014 Challenge is drawing to a close, but the effects are lingering. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am grateful for the support of other artists out there like me who are part of the <a href="http://daisyyellowart.com/" target="_blank">Daisy Yellow</a> community. I was inspired by your work and I hope you found something interesting about mine in exchange. It's wonderful to send a tiny bit of art out into the world and receive a trickle of "likes" and comments almost instantaneously. It's nice to know that I'm not alone in wanting to make art a part of my busy life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, the last crackles and shimmers of fireworks are fading away tonight. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tomorrow's a new day. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm feeling motivated and excited. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have a number of other art classes and projects out there waiting for me just over the horizon. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL-NA9e7W1vnEcaxASAWmoEyf1cvaF2ZQbjMWVI6jwUKOC6y4b4Cq1rpHugsQr_78e3vRCIqrDf_CYomRgmk_W7Ozdv7-I_F7GG8blZaJjSF60jnwbOGypbvgKfXHNZvFwJMpL/s1600/grand_finale_Instagram.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL-NA9e7W1vnEcaxASAWmoEyf1cvaF2ZQbjMWVI6jwUKOC6y4b4Cq1rpHugsQr_78e3vRCIqrDf_CYomRgmk_W7Ozdv7-I_F7GG8blZaJjSF60jnwbOGypbvgKfXHNZvFwJMpL/s1600/grand_finale_Instagram.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grand Finale, July 31, 2014, sari silk, collage, and ink on paper</td></tr>
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<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-59953804687371259692014-06-07T14:32:00.002-04:002014-06-07T14:32:16.202-04:00Practicing with an Index Card Challenge<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZlLupHelyy8jR8DzbbLNEco5Lr6IaHvH4oFktqFs6kux3TrhKhFIMcgfATMe_aKZSd32OtlqWK3bc6w59_w0gBN5VbLT6WyNz9nUlE9M1_YAfgIaghvZ93alcz01NBl3AZBHv/s1600/IMG_2085.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZlLupHelyy8jR8DzbbLNEco5Lr6IaHvH4oFktqFs6kux3TrhKhFIMcgfATMe_aKZSd32OtlqWK3bc6w59_w0gBN5VbLT6WyNz9nUlE9M1_YAfgIaghvZ93alcz01NBl3AZBHv/s1600/IMG_2085.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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I've been very productive this week, making small 4 x 6 inch pieces everyday for the past seven days.<br />
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June 1 is the beginning of an annual challenge for artists called <a href="http://daisyyellowart.com/icad/icad-faq.html" target="_blank">ICAD = Index Card A Day</a>. The Mistress of Ceremonies is <a href="http://daisyyellowart.com/aboutme/" target="_blank">Tammy Garcia over at Daisy Yellow</a>.<br />
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Tammy is a-mazing at watercolor and drawing techniques and her index card challenge is so simple that children can follow along -- just find an index card and paint, draw, glitter, sew or do whatever visual art you do on it's surface. Just one card each day from June 1 to the end of July, or 61 cards.<br />
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There are prompts for each day and weekly themes if you need inspiration. Sometimes I'll use them and sometimes I may go off on my own.<br />
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I am still trying to discover if I have a "style" or what makes my particular art unique.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An abstract watercolor background becomes the sun and a beach.</td></tr>
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I have been dabbling in rubber stamping, collage, drawing with pen and pencil for several years. More recently, I've explored acrylic paint and tried to be more serious about watercolors. Now I'm trying to figure out which techniques work best for me. The only way to do that is practice.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYK6Sv4Mo-VshpR-Fw8Mhs2Fg80c8cDgkVCD-I-BcHKHsdKC5PzMAdgYGLbGMQliyUlBfnmN2f08McEH5haDWs6dVOEaYjWUXTwK9pox77CS5QXKX_2eezaZIpHLFTWD1L1lK1/s1600/IMG_2099.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYK6Sv4Mo-VshpR-Fw8Mhs2Fg80c8cDgkVCD-I-BcHKHsdKC5PzMAdgYGLbGMQliyUlBfnmN2f08McEH5haDWs6dVOEaYjWUXTwK9pox77CS5QXKX_2eezaZIpHLFTWD1L1lK1/s1600/IMG_2099.JPG" height="640" width="425" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My favorite ICAD that I've made so far. Prompts: Text + Puzzle. India ink, pen and watercolor over a page from an illustrated edition of The Arabian Nights. I decorated first, then cut up the paper into puzzle pieces and arranged them so that you could see the spaces in between just a bit.</td></tr>
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The idea with this art challenge is not to make "finished" works of art, but just to make art. I am working on figuring out how to make the idea in my mind manifest on the paper. If this ends up being messy: fine. If this results in something that looks good: great!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOP9DdLtNff9Hg51j05k69v7nT8PnTRQTPEJkLkEtTpatRzvYa9iWcNiy0qjwa22gBcLFfomNZv2uF38hiprewxVVGM0O-kE2qYWqsqVVaqYI-Km-jKc2y7FlDv_EjeYQ5unX1/s1600/IMG_2103.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOP9DdLtNff9Hg51j05k69v7nT8PnTRQTPEJkLkEtTpatRzvYa9iWcNiy0qjwa22gBcLFfomNZv2uF38hiprewxVVGM0O-kE2qYWqsqVVaqYI-Km-jKc2y7FlDv_EjeYQ5unX1/s1600/IMG_2103.JPG" height="400" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prompts: Text + Galaxy. I made dots and circles on this card, way before I thought of turning them into planets. When I got to the prompt "galaxy" I thought of a watercolor resist painting that I made a few years ago.</td></tr>
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-54225919152725622372014-06-01T11:37:00.000-04:002014-06-01T11:37:29.425-04:00Turning My Face Towards the Light<br />
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Last winter was a long and cold season. I had to fight hard in order to keep the winter blues away. I am now fully aware that I experience a dramatic shift in mood and energy once autumn rolls around. It has been a struggle to educate myself on how to deal with this mental roller coaster. <br />
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I bought a blue light box in late November and began using it every morning at the recommendation of a medical practitioner. I reminded myself to take walks outside in the sunlight on my lunch breaks whenever the weather wasn't too bitter. I sat near any windows I found. My daily routine included opening the shades in my apartment early every morning (I know, it seems obvious that the shades should be open, but I like it in my cave when my winter mood is upon me.)<br />
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The one fully-realized painting I did was of a sleeping girl and her guardian wolf in the winter woods. I was actually quite pleased with how the vision in my head was realized on the page. The painting is actually proof that I managed to gather some energy for art-making even in the darkest month. Too late, I realized that I had already planned another project to distract myself again from art-making.<br />
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Fearing the mental stagnation that I felt during the winter 2013, I had enrolled myself in an intellectually challenging, paralegal class that began in January. It was a test, really, to figure out if I wanted to expand my career horizons. I worked hard all semester, and did well in the course, and the information will be useful. I also learned that I don't want to go in that career direction. A useful thing to learn. I had a sinking suspicion that as easy as it is for me to do well in a field where brain-power is key, focusing on adding facts to my brain at this point in my life is kind of like running on a treadmill. True, it is good exercise, but it is at odds with a need to expand and vary my training. Especially, if I have a goal to think beyond the boundaries of my life as it has been until now. Taking the law class helped me to decide that making art is what I need to be doing with my spare time.<br />
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I recognized this because as I began the climb back out into the full light of day, my mind and my mood cleared again. Slowly I was able to push the cobwebs away. I discovered that I <i>wanted</i> to be outside. I wanted to do something more <i>active</i>. The old me would have found engaging in class work productive, but studying did not give me the same feeling of satisfaction as painting or mixed-media creating. While being engaged mentally in a class did help me mentally, it dawned on me that I was craving something not purely about filling my mind with facts.<br />
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April rolled around and I was using my weekend time to draft legal briefs and memoranda, when there was something inside me nearly bursting to create visual art. Just as soon as my class began to wind down, began to include painting in my routine again.<br />
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I am part of a year-long group working with artist <a href="http://effywild.com/" target="_blank">Effy Wild</a> on imagery relating to the lunar cycles. I'm very glad that I chose to begin working again on journal paintings on her May flower-themed prompts. I learned a great method for creating idealized feminine faces from Effy's online tutorials. I find faces so difficult, but when the prompt came, I took the plunge and worked in acrylics to create this Forest Sprite surrounded by blooming flowers, with inspiration from the iconic gold backgrounds with spirals and halos of blossoms favored by Gustav Klimt. <br />
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I look at her and still see all of the problems, the lines that didn't quite go where my mind willed them. I am trying to also see that my practice is leading somewhere, I only I am brave enough to continue trying to draw and paint. The violet tucked behind her elfin ear, just felt right to me. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0_LMJFC-SGk-JpARKr4yJFczuxWA7XCbPlAcqCwrDEi0lqKKCvXLYW8ET68Iz_ERsXF8ORwS4UdDZNcswvlrewFZrt-XxcnEcQy-HG3yVGYSRTSgVmlIsyR0UAznpFhjl4-Mw/s1600/IMG_2048.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0_LMJFC-SGk-JpARKr4yJFczuxWA7XCbPlAcqCwrDEi0lqKKCvXLYW8ET68Iz_ERsXF8ORwS4UdDZNcswvlrewFZrt-XxcnEcQy-HG3yVGYSRTSgVmlIsyR0UAznpFhjl4-Mw/s1600/IMG_2048.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a><br />
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It is clear to me now that the work I am doing in attempt to be more balanced and creative year-around is slowly happening. I have no idea how I am going to keep my creative juices flowing during the darker months later in the year, but I realize now it is the path I'm on.<br />
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I don't have any difficulty with it at all in the warm months, and now the height of summer is coming. And now my face is turned like a flower to soak up those sunbeams.<div>
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<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-59043999575235761002013-10-16T07:07:00.001-04:002013-10-16T07:08:56.661-04:00Stirring the Cauldron<span style="color: #274e13;"><b>Have you heard the rising wind?</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><b>Have you seen the rays of golden light?</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><b>Can you smell the musky smell of wet leaves and earth?</b></span><br />
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Whenever Autumn rolls around to the Chesapeake Bay, I get pictures in my head of magical things, mysterious and not always dark. Sometimes the pictures are of the light.<br />
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There was an image of a cauldron in my head but a month ago that would not leave my head. Cauldrons are old-fashioned cooking vessels, but popular culture has vilified a humble, peasant's kitchen instrument into something that it is not.<br />
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Or, <i>is</i> it?<br />
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Cauldrons also appear in myths, in tales of magic and the supernatural from around the world. Legends told and re-told across the ages of humankind.<br />
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Those Cauldrons are there in our ancestral memories for a reason.<br />
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The studio table beckoned that morning and my original intent was to practice drawing patterns on colored background. I <i>never</i> make *<b>anything</b>* simple. That blank page was just <i>too</i> blank, if you know what I mean.<br />
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I thought to myself, "Okay, I need a shape. Then the designs will come naturally and I'll color them in. Hmmmm. What shape to draw."<br />
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My cauldron -- the one that emerged from that moment at the precipice, was not what I had intended to draw at all.<br />
I was ready to dive into this drawing, but that Cauldron would not stop bugging me until it was starring back at my from a page. I knew one thing about it, and one thing only. "It is not Black." I knew that because, as my fingers drew the gentle swell of its belly, the Dream Cauldron piped up, "Oh no, you don't! Put that black marker <i>down</i>! I am a <i>magical</i> Cauldron. I am not plain, nor am I black at all."<br />
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And so it was. And colorful bands decorated with patterns came to be.<br />
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I am very happy with it.<br />
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Even more surprising to me was how echoes of my Dream Cauldron rippled into my reality only a week after I made this drawing.<br />
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For several years in late September, I have gone on spiritual retreat with a gathering of friends from around the Eastern half of the US. It's at a picturesque, private camp nestled in the Pocono Mountains not far from the Delaware Water Gap. This year, one of our guests was an English artist, <a href="http://www.cerrilee.com/" target="_blank">Cerri Lee</a>, who is a ceramic sculptor and, generally, a wise woman. Cerri has made long study of Celtic legend and people, and her sensual clay figures reference symbols and beings drawn from mythic lore.<br />
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Cerri's entire workshop centered around the image of the cauldron in culture and history of the British Isles. In the space of an hour, she conveyed more about the symbolism of cauldrons than I had ever heard in the last four decades. I found my jaw dropping when she described the Welsh poet, <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Taliesin</span></span>'s tale of the <i><a href="http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/preiddeu-annwn" target="_blank">Spoils of Annwn</a></i>, which features strange encounters of King Arthur in the Otherworld. This story can be found in <a href="http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=bookoftaliesinpeniarthms2" target="_blank">The Book of Taliesin</a>, a poem written down during the first half of the fourteenth century (although its content is an oral traditions much older, from around AD/CE 900). In the <i>Spoils of Annwn,</i> the Bard recounts a scene where he envisions Nine Maidens standing around their cauldron - the women's fingernails pearl-white, holding the rim.<br />
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Here <a href="http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/preiddeu-annwn" target="_blank">from The Camelot Project are the Middle Welsh and Modern English translations from <i>Preiddeu Annwn: The Spoils of Annwn</i></a>:<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #323232; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 1em 0px; text-align: left; width: auto;"><tbody style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-style: none;">
<tr rowspan="2"><td style="padding: 0px;">13. <em>yg <a href="http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/preiddeu-annwn#kenneir" style="color: #2261be; text-decoration: none;">kenneir</a><br /> or <a href="http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/preiddeu-annwn#peir" style="color: #2261be; text-decoration: none;">peir</a><br /> pan leferit.</em></td><td style="padding: 0px;">13. My <a href="http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/preiddeu-annwn#kenneir" style="color: #2261be; text-decoration: none;">poetry,</a><br />
from the <a href="http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/preiddeu-annwn#peir" style="color: #2261be; text-decoration: none;">cauldron</a><br />
it was uttered.</td></tr>
<tr rowspan="2"><td style="padding: 0px;">14. <em>Oanadyl naw morwyn<br /> gochyneuit.</em></td><td style="padding: 0px;"> 14. From the breath of nine maidens<br />
it was kindled.</td></tr>
<tr rowspan="2"><td style="padding: 0px;">15. <em>Neu peir pen annwfyn <br /> pwy y vynut.</em></td><td style="padding: 0px;">15. The cauldron of the chief of Annwfyn:<br />
what is its fashion?</td></tr>
<tr rowspan="2"><td style="padding: 0px;">16. <em>gwrym am yoror<br /> amererit.</em></td><td style="padding: 0px;">16. A dark ridge around its border<br />
and pearls.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCb6IvFcRoepls52MJvAXHLo7FY5vrIURKX06CJFy5t-T372Pq-dEy4RpkywerX1bkqYUVcGMPv3zSMBYEzK-eEqJK8KUfRBm4ziMdDaETuriM6sTDRTOfun-aOMGvPVHRdWpt/s1600/cauldronofinspiration_rim_detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCb6IvFcRoepls52MJvAXHLo7FY5vrIURKX06CJFy5t-T372Pq-dEy4RpkywerX1bkqYUVcGMPv3zSMBYEzK-eEqJK8KUfRBm4ziMdDaETuriM6sTDRTOfun-aOMGvPVHRdWpt/s400/cauldronofinspiration_rim_detail.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail, rim, Cauldron of Inspiration by ~runningwave~</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Look closely at the cauldron which I drew from pure fancy only a week before this workshop, and you may recognize what it is that amazed me so. When I drew it, my Cauldron of Inspiration decided that swirls of white lines and roses could be seen all the way around its dark rim.</div>
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Although I did know of Taliesin and his bardic tales before, and had even heard of the <i>Spoils of Annwn</i>, I could not in September have described to you anything so specific. Yet there is something in my painting of the Cauldron that well-illustrates the lines of poetry. Coincidence to be sure, but fascinating nonetheless. </div>
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After years of studying Celtic lore, and of loving its poetry and mystery, after imbibing across disciplines of books, music, poetry, and movies, I have begun to create my own visual language. </div>
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I am finding my way slowly towards making art that is truly my own. </div>
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This is all just a bit scary, I mean, to go it on your own as an artist. I've relied very heavily on the talent and encouragement of others for years. And yet, and yet, there's a voice now in my head that wants to express itself and that voice is something new, bold. It's daring me to stare down at blank pages and to fill them with color and line. It's prodding me to finally tell my own tales. </div>
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My Cauldron of Inspiration is boiling. </div>
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High time to dive in and taste the hardy brew it's offering me. </div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-86194893427553678172013-09-01T06:56:00.001-04:002013-09-03T07:08:46.938-04:00Challenge: Remember what it was like to be a photographer<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs6dNvAaenvgklwgUxt6avzTROdGhD7HimWh0egj2MYUH8VRLprMl1yJT-BHnzVKd4YLwLz2IJQp-MNEpdFhOcSK4ysVNo510Wp8rBnRl7RgYuRjSEmEhPbFWMcNm81JsxXWpq/s640/blogger-image-831713475.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs6dNvAaenvgklwgUxt6avzTROdGhD7HimWh0egj2MYUH8VRLprMl1yJT-BHnzVKd4YLwLz2IJQp-MNEpdFhOcSK4ysVNo510Wp8rBnRl7RgYuRjSEmEhPbFWMcNm81JsxXWpq/s640/blogger-image-831713475.jpg" /></a></div>
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20 years. Two decades. Half a life ago.</div>
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That's how long it has been since I thought of myself as a photographer. I had just graduated from Art School then, and had decided I needed the intellectual challenge of an academic discipline to counterbalance the associate's degree from a technical college. So I left my "first profession" photography behind and moved to Indiana and art history.</div>
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Fast forward a generation. > > > > > </div>
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Most people I know carry a camera with them everywhere, a smart phone that does as much or more than those fictional Tricorders that Doctor McCoy and Spock used to carry around while exploring the universe. <span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Some people use their mobile phones to play games. Some just tweet to their peeps. My dearest Mr. S uses his phone to learn Chinese characters with a sophisticated flash card language learning software. Me, I can't stop taking pictures. </span></div>
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Through an artistically-minded yoga instructor friend I found <a href="http://instagram.com/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>. Instagram is an amazing community of artists and an app that lets you do extraordinary things with simple and mundane photos. For me it's like candy. </div>
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My phone is a camera that would have been sci-fi to the Midwestern art chic I was in the 1990s. What I wouldn't have given for the opportunity to have an ultra-lightweight device that takes and stores high-res photos and could instantly share them with friends or publish them to the whole planet. Now that's the power I hold in my little hand.</div>
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Some of the fine artists who I follow on Instagram participate in a challenge begun by a photographer in Australia. <a href="http://fatmumslim.com.au/how-to-play/" target="_blank">Fat Mum Slim issues a challenge of one idea per day</a>. Your goal is to find that image in your day and snap it. Upload it and hashtag it #FMSphotoaday and you are in.</div>
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Today is September the First and I'm going to give this a try. <span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); font-family: '.HelveticaNeueUI'; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; white-space: nowrap;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);"><a href="http://fatmumslim.com.au/september-photo-a-day-the-challenge-list-created-by-the-community" target="_blank">Fat Mum Slim has posted her September prompts</a> inspired by members of the <a href="http://fatmumslim.com.au/fmsphotoaday-photos/" target="_blank">#FMSphotoaday</a> community. Those who want to follow my progress may want to check <a href="http://instagram.com/runningwave" target="_blank">my runningwave Instagram feed</a>, since I won't be blogging here at Pull of the Tides. </span></div>
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To kick off my photography challenge, however, I will share with you a journey to a quiet, cultured small town in the Blue Ridge. Staunton, Virginia is a picturesque town of that Main Street gentle Victoriana mode. Chock full of elegant buildings, upscale cafes, and antiquey-boutiquey shops, it is a Twenty-first century city of a bygone-era. It's also home to a repertoire theatre (and I mean theatre and not theater) company that is nationally-acclaimed with some good reason: actors of the American Shakespeare Center will knock your socks off.</div>
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Here's a photo essay recap of my recent foray. Enjoy!</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">I won't bog down Pull of the Tides with daily photo posts. I do promise, although, to post my photo-a-day results at the beginning of October. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);">Until then, I will keep sharing my mixed media explorations here where the Tide comes in. I have several art journaling pieces and tags on my studio table in progress at the moment that you'll be seeing soon.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875);"><b>I *love* comments, so if you are stopping by, please drop me a line, or even just a few characters. Thanks so much for reading. Cheers, ~runningwave~ @ Pull of the Tides management.</b></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-85890567660144274152013-08-24T07:12:00.000-04:002013-08-24T07:12:03.219-04:00Beating the Demon: My Survival Story<br />
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<i>An open letter to the amazingly creative gang on <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/" target="_blank">Fantastical Crafters Ravelry</a> discussion group.</i></div>
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<i>Reader Be Forewarned</i></div>
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<i>This story contains mentions of demons and demon hunters. If the thought of reading about supernatural creatures or tangled skeins disturbs you, read no further for your own safety. </i></div>
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<i>If Buffy the Vampire Slayer were here, surely she would cheer on the many of us who arm </i></div>
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<i>ourselves with (knitting) needles and (crochet) hooks. </i></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Zt90-LrwD6HDUJl_OkQhaIlEXYRNRMhtQY_E4pC8j_T2Qti_h8oJf7PIfKxftwSnPteByqucHh2WKRIxT5A2AHZgk6NJBiqoDZoame3d8bpty48E8SF3EC3siw_uvx1sAOUF/s1600/alterego2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Zt90-LrwD6HDUJl_OkQhaIlEXYRNRMhtQY_E4pC8j_T2Qti_h8oJf7PIfKxftwSnPteByqucHh2WKRIxT5A2AHZgk6NJBiqoDZoame3d8bpty48E8SF3EC3siw_uvx1sAOUF/s320/alterego2.jpeg" title="Copyright Maria Day, August 2013. All Rights Reserved." width="275" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stick 'em with the pointy end! </td></tr>
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<span class="s1">Greetings, Fantastical People!</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I've been less active on this board and on <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/" target="_blank">Ravelry.com</a> in general during the past year. But now, <i>I'm Baaack!</i> I am so happy to be here again.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I've just survived a crafter's nightmare. A Demon came and crawled into my wrists. He would not let go. I armed myself with every weapon available, and yet still he came. Every time I thought that I had vanquished him, freeing me from my chains, he came back again with a vengeance.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Every day I would get home from work and I wanted to cry because the burning, aching sensation would not stop. I would lie in bed every night with my arms throbbing and pounding. It was only after three months when the Demon's visits became unbearable, that I hauled myself off to get some medical help. Sure enough, that Demon Pain was none other than the terrible <a href="http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/carpal_tunnel/detail_carpal_tunnel.htm#236423049" target="_blank">Carpal Tunnel Syndrome</a>. I battled with him daily for almost of year and a half. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Even on the weekends I battled him. I would begin to chase my Demon away with the help of rest and ice packs, but surely as the sun rises in the East, back he would crawl every Monday like clockwork. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Meanwhile, my knitting needles and crochet hooks started gathering dust. (I had just learned to crochet the year before this began.) Small armies of mice asked if they could take up residence in my project bag, since I wasn't using it 'n all. My <a href="http://www.etsy.com/listing/11614826/stash-weasel" target="_blank">Stashweasel</a> started complaining bitterly about my yarn pile going untouched and she moaned that she was unloved. My heart was breaking. How could I neglect such an important part of my existence? I had to destroy this vile creature, no matter what it took.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">My work was suffering too. My day job involves a lot of typing. I am an archivist in charge of historic collections in high demand, so I couldn't just slack off at work to save my soul for Aran and Mohair. While I was off battling my Demon, I wasn't very communicative online in my personal time because I was trying to avoid the pain by not typing. Occasionally, my Demon would allow me a spare moment's rest to craft something tiny. In fact, the only </span>FO* I knitted in the past year was <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/runningwave/grog-the-raven" target="_blank">the item I made for our Bag of Holding Swap</a>. Even bringing this little critter to life was precious time to me. </div>
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<span class="s1">To win this epic fight, I had a lot of help. For knowledge, I went to a genius chiropractor-scientist, Mr. Schwartz, who taught me the benefits of certain training exercises and a clever trick with a rubber band that worked like a charm. Demon-Pain Hunter (and massage therapist) Bobbie was often at my side, offering me support, advice, and back-up. I could not have been more fortunate than having divine interventions -- often at just the right moment -- from my Super-Wonder-Goddess acupuncturist Tracy. I am convinced that only She, with her magic needle can set my internal wiring straight after battle.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Whew! It's been a long haul. The Demon is dust, and it's rare now that I even glimpse a pixie-demon-spawn lurking. I am back, baby! I really cannot thank my medical team enough. I have finally conquered this, and learned the importance of using arm rests and buying ergonomic furniture and along the way.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I know that after reading this you might think: This sort of creature always afflicts <i>"old"</i> people. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Let this be a warning to crafters reading this: I am only in my mid-Forties. There were warning signs of this Demon's presence in my life that I should have paid attention to even earlier. The twinges and creaks haunted my body during my Thirties, but I blew them off as no big deal. “I'm a tough girl. I can stand up to you, Mr. Pain,” I told myself. In fact, my very first evidence of this Demon trying to steal my handwork away was when I was typing my Master's Thesis in my mid-Twenties.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>Public Service Announcement:</b> If you <i>love</i> to knit, crochet, or even just to write things out longhand, please, please learn from my mistake. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">PS. I'm happy to post what I've learned for the benefit of others, so such Demons as Carpal Tunnel will not be able to walk our streets again.</span><br />
<span class="s1"><br /></span><span class="s1">*FO = Finished Object</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1">© </span><span class="s2">Maria Day, 21 August, 2013. All rights reserved.</span><span class="s1">Author's note: This work of autobiographical satire is posted by the author for your </span>edification and reading pleasure. Please do not reproduce, copy, or borrow portions of this story or illustrations without her express written consent. Thank you! ~runningwave~ @ Pull of the Tides management</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-24951886475783794672013-08-16T06:40:00.001-04:002013-08-20T06:51:23.468-04:00Burning Bright<h1 class="quoteText" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />“The flame that burns Twice as bright burns half as long.”</h1>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">― </span><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2622245.Lao_Tzu" style="background-color: white; color: #666600; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">Lao Tzu</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">, </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/100074" style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none;">Te Tao Ching</a></i></div>
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The work on my studio table has tended to be bright and loud, like a symphony orchestra. </div>
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I think it's happening because I am so energetic during the heat of the year. The summer months feed me and drive me to do - do - do. It can be exhausting, but it's always exhilarating. I guess I am making up for my lethargy and sluggishness during the dark, winter months.</div>
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In August it's almost inevitable. Sometimes I find myself burning my candle at both ends. I sleep less and hop out of bed in the morning -- the opposite of what I do in, say, January when I'm cranky, tired, and in a mental torpor.</div>
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Summer is with me now. And what a <i>summer </i>it is! The Mid-Atlantic coast has had unbelievable dry, pleasant, and balmy weather since early July. It hardly feels like Chesapeake weather at all. It is so blissfully perfect. I find that this unexpected and positive mini-climate change feeds my desire to be up and making and seizing the hours. This morning is no exception. I am up long before the sun. I am reviewing my amazing sprint of creativity this past week.</div>
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I finished an art journaling page that is a lesson taken from my <a href="http://www.willowing.org/life-book-2013/">online journaling course, Life Book 2013</a>. This exercise was created by <a href="http://artsyville.blogspot.com/">Aimee of Artsyville</a>, who is a wonderful woman of doodling and a color genius. I am doing the course exercises in random order based upon whim and mood. This one seemed right for me at the peak of my frenzy. I used the loudest colors of stamping ink I owned and plopped them down on regular printer paper to get the brilliant background tones you see here:<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxNGaUZTR3BDZhbFje06vgGGbaX_YQNdA1FRawOsw542CbmxL5m1hBFFetLT5kjqCIu5EAKcSYYiNVeD_qIGrFJ-AJNZGW_e3HOhgkiRVFRgzg8wXT0prgXH_SE5m5jCmiRUen/s1600/LifeBookWeek16_finish.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxNGaUZTR3BDZhbFje06vgGGbaX_YQNdA1FRawOsw542CbmxL5m1hBFFetLT5kjqCIu5EAKcSYYiNVeD_qIGrFJ-AJNZGW_e3HOhgkiRVFRgzg8wXT0prgXH_SE5m5jCmiRUen/s320/LifeBookWeek16_finish.jpeg" width="252" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Things I Can Control - art journaling page by ~runningwave~</td></tr>
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Following Aimee's guidance I then cut out a "ground" and a bunch of smaller shapes, regular and irregular. I did some detail-work in pen on the shapes. I selected my favorites and jotted or wrote or collaged pieces onto the shapes that relate to my theme, Things I Can Control. The lock and key motives just sort of happened. The printed and stamped quotations that I discovered while making this project suited my tastes, so I adapted them to fit the pieces. Once everything was glued down nicely and dry, I went over everything with some Sakura markers. <a href="http://www.sakuraofamerica.com/gelpen">Sakura gel, glitter, and glaze pens</a> are my new favorite art tools.</div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrNJ0aNFfnuri21JuJQWxy5dAyRejeAk6ddGcB25ZoACFmqnYiUvHEGGSiXKyj_22wkEJMdeuCYyRiVorG3NBmD-PP-96HVZhrcTfFUbZl9rCBUmOlHjWKFaWNDcdSaMWPdwRx/s1600/IMG_1005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrNJ0aNFfnuri21JuJQWxy5dAyRejeAk6ddGcB25ZoACFmqnYiUvHEGGSiXKyj_22wkEJMdeuCYyRiVorG3NBmD-PP-96HVZhrcTfFUbZl9rCBUmOlHjWKFaWNDcdSaMWPdwRx/s320/IMG_1005.JPG" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Thank you gift tag</td></tr>
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I've also been using my talents to send gifts. The "<span style="text-align: center;">Thank you" gift tag went to my co-workers in the tech department at the endgame of a major project and the completion of the summer internships. Those folks have been working hard and I've been a demanding customer, but I am so pleased with the results. I made sure that the tag arrived on a box of <a href="http://www.sweetheartspatisserie.com/">French macaroons</a> just because they have been so extra helpful.</span></div>
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I am also preparing a gift - *shhhh* - for a friend of mine who'll be visiting town soon. I am not showing the gift, but I can reveal the envelope. She's an astrophysicist and a really amazing friend. I am celebrating her success; she just received a major promotion. This accomplishment is a validation of hard work that she's been slaving over for years. It's a big deal and she should be proud of herself. </div>
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Lesson to artists: Never leave a white envelope un-decorated.</div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7C7-Ja33V6s0axddkTEnEMhiwYid9LTrgGIjILnBLC4vJVHznHEsg1ugEXlo1j7M8WEX_kNQGjWwwbLQCbZKMzINCYk2aPBP8zQZ56FTvF44JI-JvQmnAaU545W29jsydJHwe/s1600/IMG_1024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7C7-Ja33V6s0axddkTEnEMhiwYid9LTrgGIjILnBLC4vJVHznHEsg1ugEXlo1j7M8WEX_kNQGjWwwbLQCbZKMzINCYk2aPBP8zQZ56FTvF44JI-JvQmnAaU545W29jsydJHwe/s320/IMG_1024.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Envelope painting for my astrophysicist friend who just received tenure</td></tr>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-58489424907804293972013-08-01T13:31:00.002-04:002013-08-01T13:32:37.299-04:00 A Post from Big Sky Country<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you bring a camera out to Wyoming and Montana, it is very difficult to be a bad photographer. Still, I am grateful for my commercial photography background when I head out on a trip as spectacular as this one was. In full disclosure, my husband is the photographer of a couple of these images and even without a degree in photography he did an awesome job too!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have been hanging on to these images for a while, trying to sort out which ones to share with you here at <i>Pull of the Tides</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I settled on a group of images that showcase the spectacular, sweeping landscapes in the Greater Yellowstone region, as well as a sample of the striking moments when my husband and I came face-to-face with a few of the wild creatures who call this Big Sky paradise home.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5ZRKAXV-4_5WipMP7cdlY2yF56KQ-g2nILR33Bn35GediCfaJ9IHbkJEst-RsHSSEl8oUm_6d1dIr66MX7_sS2x0xWuPe6EGZ4s-775_ztNj8pamNulEDQZj6ukfy_zzPF0sU/s1600/IMG_1063.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5ZRKAXV-4_5WipMP7cdlY2yF56KQ-g2nILR33Bn35GediCfaJ9IHbkJEst-RsHSSEl8oUm_6d1dIr66MX7_sS2x0xWuPe6EGZ4s-775_ztNj8pamNulEDQZj6ukfy_zzPF0sU/s320/IMG_1063.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You are on board "Red Devil" here, called so because his ears remind the cowboys of devil's horns.<br />
In reality, even a total horse novice had no difficulty with riding him -- although it *was* hard to<br />
prevent him from munching on wild grasses and flowers. Red Devil loves lupines.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmIwKUJ_wpuVxYK63ZprUi5qvWNqjwcvY9i0gb3kXOWypWzagNEk_cxJLlqXgEik6rAecZWQy09Nwda_azw0AZXDaKcO2B23HJYhVWG_zM7l9uy1STPgRMpabyzgiIQ7YpmjPi/s1600/IMG_1064.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmIwKUJ_wpuVxYK63ZprUi5qvWNqjwcvY9i0gb3kXOWypWzagNEk_cxJLlqXgEik6rAecZWQy09Nwda_azw0AZXDaKcO2B23HJYhVWG_zM7l9uy1STPgRMpabyzgiIQ7YpmjPi/s320/IMG_1064.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I keep hearing Howard Shore's soundtrack to <i>The Two Towers </i>here. <br />
Especially the part when they get to the scenes in Rohan. <br />
It's really like this in Montana.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFP7zwTqCwfOcOOe-TwVLMYdtl_cnNSTg6vciD6K8USGdc6qxUmJ55n2pcs4r3O3X6wvr1e3JMcZM_UhuiRsDrXQV2FGjH1mW0b_pTceAw2IFrLwYwQHG9Sty1UhRYR3GKxmw/s1600/IMG_0849.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFP7zwTqCwfOcOOe-TwVLMYdtl_cnNSTg6vciD6K8USGdc6qxUmJ55n2pcs4r3O3X6wvr1e3JMcZM_UhuiRsDrXQV2FGjH1mW0b_pTceAw2IFrLwYwQHG9Sty1UhRYR3GKxmw/s320/IMG_0849.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunrise at Antelope Flats.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhJLqJesk7xje1JvSwIxVgneJ4z_POQVFSFYloUkuj_1VzyS-phWpeTWWcrTSxoUEWnh4sYD5p0FrclQT6TktRuq1peD6d1ry0kcsEhqGux5wuZFUgairFoJ-EdfmKTIx7cp9Z/s1600/IMG_1086.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhJLqJesk7xje1JvSwIxVgneJ4z_POQVFSFYloUkuj_1VzyS-phWpeTWWcrTSxoUEWnh4sYD5p0FrclQT6TktRuq1peD6d1ry0kcsEhqGux5wuZFUgairFoJ-EdfmKTIx7cp9Z/s320/IMG_1086.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cascade Canyon.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSGlJjOwMKl_SK5LO4eYffMZOr4iW6vGzmaJzb2R5ttgo0W6_TDn-Yun6RUMSKWNCLicNTwN-LERfIPA-3OfABOkMMr4MJ7EhlSjC-N8ukFKiu_3iVCG2VeCHjoouJYHx-qwy3/s1600/IMG_0786.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSGlJjOwMKl_SK5LO4eYffMZOr4iW6vGzmaJzb2R5ttgo0W6_TDn-Yun6RUMSKWNCLicNTwN-LERfIPA-3OfABOkMMr4MJ7EhlSjC-N8ukFKiu_3iVCG2VeCHjoouJYHx-qwy3/s320/IMG_0786.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Red Devil would have loved this glade. More lupines!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYxwW7r3g5rOqFSkZyjYkPtoDaCxDAdhlkokiOnDPpvE7UANSmw6OzlZJs4AByxVC_NSTZF9AOh7UhjvFga1jfmBq1379URbIR_oSfWadbUBmlR0IMrP46xSlpIYuPY80ifZwL/s1600/IMG_0815.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYxwW7r3g5rOqFSkZyjYkPtoDaCxDAdhlkokiOnDPpvE7UANSmw6OzlZJs4AByxVC_NSTZF9AOh7UhjvFga1jfmBq1379URbIR_oSfWadbUBmlR0IMrP46xSlpIYuPY80ifZwL/s320/IMG_0815.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ground squirrel, digging up a cache?</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHO8hwqSboQn68Kgm2j9AfxXWX4G8UtreNPHrZcdrjtHSrmVJCxm4NxGEn4aquSIC8th1KcTcn0vA_qRbfRVGdTeLUNh3zxXP3II8eaEKbwTuKD2P7CC1_sPQoiivw9_-zxrjT/s1600/IMG_0882.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHO8hwqSboQn68Kgm2j9AfxXWX4G8UtreNPHrZcdrjtHSrmVJCxm4NxGEn4aquSIC8th1KcTcn0vA_qRbfRVGdTeLUNh3zxXP3II8eaEKbwTuKD2P7CC1_sPQoiivw9_-zxrjT/s320/IMG_0882.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fledgling woodpecker waiting for breakfast. <br />
It's Mamma came right after this.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiytCCX1FsHpYEFqeXyr6D4NFS3UP7yJrxmPby3xbi-3LfIC1NhNGvtv71MsfHZEOjQs9VVpYlO2MI1HzTA1r1QyVFxzKjWTz6y0ZyHh4J3DOauNbse4pQK30aDqcmJE80lGPHE/s1600/IMG_1007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiytCCX1FsHpYEFqeXyr6D4NFS3UP7yJrxmPby3xbi-3LfIC1NhNGvtv71MsfHZEOjQs9VVpYlO2MI1HzTA1r1QyVFxzKjWTz6y0ZyHh4J3DOauNbse4pQK30aDqcmJE80lGPHE/s320/IMG_1007.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">River otter pup swimming around Trout Lake. <br />
We saw his mother and sibling all together.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaRZ1jFRGxQIacm6pu9E-aJ-dVCk53UNnr5xdE3krmN8ZvNNZz3kxzoufQCnFwX0RMoeDFTcVvB_aJHnGW-EdmKrcWirg9toyc5DUGLew3DFZk0ZYmeyP99BTQYLpnY7TsFu0t/s1600/IMG_0807.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaRZ1jFRGxQIacm6pu9E-aJ-dVCk53UNnr5xdE3krmN8ZvNNZz3kxzoufQCnFwX0RMoeDFTcVvB_aJHnGW-EdmKrcWirg9toyc5DUGLew3DFZk0ZYmeyP99BTQYLpnY7TsFu0t/s320/IMG_0807.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mr. Bison is not to be trifled with.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijAEzYOT_21C7lPQCFuIw0NP3-5qhiQDpOMbv11hzDiMJdGLuD9bzcw-bBc-czbE0hUYZgUU2rZMrhuHYzmIPbkwLvNkrjUJm1zuconPWxcj73JaA1I-o0TkxA_-I3FcFUJkWP/s1600/IMG_0820.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijAEzYOT_21C7lPQCFuIw0NP3-5qhiQDpOMbv11hzDiMJdGLuD9bzcw-bBc-czbE0hUYZgUU2rZMrhuHYzmIPbkwLvNkrjUJm1zuconPWxcj73JaA1I-o0TkxA_-I3FcFUJkWP/s320/IMG_0820.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our naturalist guide took us to an amazing place. We spent hours just watching the landscape, and then this lovely young lady came to visit us. She was curious, and not as flighty as I would have imagined a pronghorn being.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheSa0Q9Xu59rcX_Chiqxvy7oGOFKNR9dFSj5FIQH9T-NVBHN3WM3iZzV0girTd6JCpH52ahTqh7ujmX4wpL4XtJqlyoRiF3bTktIPq5aN-4giOpBBzCeXxijBKMgO5NYfc-mdn/s1600/IMG_1046.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheSa0Q9Xu59rcX_Chiqxvy7oGOFKNR9dFSj5FIQH9T-NVBHN3WM3iZzV0girTd6JCpH52ahTqh7ujmX4wpL4XtJqlyoRiF3bTktIPq5aN-4giOpBBzCeXxijBKMgO5NYfc-mdn/s320/IMG_1046.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hungry black bear looking for lunch.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Ib4NQtKiARoTi3ugjPkejzbgYnutQA_SCpoq6bpw9oKgXPFuKbBddV4nyH8x8j_kSPMV5-6h-4siuJ54FE9d9pTP5zsTy0wROjDdBFLrKwWUwwdjx_C0-auUieWUb0lQaWac/s1600/IMG_0955.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Ib4NQtKiARoTi3ugjPkejzbgYnutQA_SCpoq6bpw9oKgXPFuKbBddV4nyH8x8j_kSPMV5-6h-4siuJ54FE9d9pTP5zsTy0wROjDdBFLrKwWUwwdjx_C0-auUieWUb0lQaWac/s320/IMG_0955.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Does Montana have rainbows every night, or were we just fortunate?</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgam9MWtyVAExutExuVcnz0t8SSBxIAMfYF8cfSv9XXk_z0nhp25Gc6CNkTnut5bS_jWdma9xIGRQHhRBrWTXUTlf8thpG1XOn-EGAyqU0T3WdJIfLSgHB9cw3iNQCRdTOukk4l/s1600/IMG_0891.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgam9MWtyVAExutExuVcnz0t8SSBxIAMfYF8cfSv9XXk_z0nhp25Gc6CNkTnut5bS_jWdma9xIGRQHhRBrWTXUTlf8thpG1XOn-EGAyqU0T3WdJIfLSgHB9cw3iNQCRdTOukk4l/s320/IMG_0891.JPG" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My watercolor sketch of Mount Moran.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGBpKCQp-60MOsOk5XohNfY7fnPjF6JUjOIfEP7xN_Zmn-KYoV_osjnafZnwKqJ5CrGlv1ICThQvDnXgeYzOikTOTClFe58RYl92laSRLYRTUEIPUZNQU6jkNHWRAl738fJ7z0/s1600/IMG_0894.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGBpKCQp-60MOsOk5XohNfY7fnPjF6JUjOIfEP7xN_Zmn-KYoV_osjnafZnwKqJ5CrGlv1ICThQvDnXgeYzOikTOTClFe58RYl92laSRLYRTUEIPUZNQU6jkNHWRAl738fJ7z0/s320/IMG_0894.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And here's Mount Moran, as it actually looked right before sunset.</td></tr>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-45481323843684785432013-07-23T07:19:00.000-04:002013-07-23T08:05:50.342-04:00Tricks of the Trade<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwFJ1a77Yxcb7HShn6OWR1HA2P_Yo9lgr7BD4IyAcvey9CtrWo5_TBk1K51KwYeHjlnMby13m3iB_SuEm5AhyphenhyphenMW8ZQZ82Zrv7VZCH7CN1adcaDfGbcsnvGyIbE2A0Fzcq8CL_3/s320/IMG_0938.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="239"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aspen tree stencil applied in gesso <br>with green spray ink.</td></tr>
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I've been having a lot of fun making & discussing art socially in the past week, in addition to making art on my own. I have some very talented friends who are a constant source of energy boosts and support and I want to use this opportunity to give a shout-out to thank them all for being there. I *really* mean it!</div>
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<a href="http://pocketsizestudios.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Ms. PocketSize</a>, who blogs regularly these days on her incredible adventure with "arting" has been <a href="http://pocketsizestudios.blogspot.com/2013/07/thursday-theme-medieval-sauce.html" target="_blank">posting some examples of her work with stencils and gesso</a>. I wanted to learn this art, since I'm rather limited in my stencil repertoire. Fortunately, I know Ms. PocketSize IRL, so she generously agreed to include a gesso with stencils demo into our randomly-scheduled art-nites at <a href="http://zingalasworkshop.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">her mother's</a> gorgeous and well-equipped mixed media studio (<a href="http://zingalasworkshop.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Zingala</a> has another studio just for her textile art. Wow! Two art studios.)<br>
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The gesso stencil technique is rather fiddly, but I got the hang of it fairly quickly. I started with several stencils from TheCraftersWorkshop.com and then went for gold and used my <a href="http://artistcellar.com/stampstencil/stencilproduct.html" target="_blank">artistcellar</a> <a href="http://artistcellar.com/stampstencil/acSignatureSeries.html" target="_blank">TEXTure Rivermap stencil by Jill K. Berry</a>. The results were uneven, but I'll share my best efforts.<br>
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I made several great impressions of each stencil eventually. Ms. PocketSize encouraged me to try turning the stencil over on a blank page after I've pushed the gesso through the "positive" side of the stencil. The results of the "negative" stencil of the gears was rather steampunky, especially when I sprayed ink over it using my Glimmer Mist in <i>chalkboard</i> by Tattered Angels. Another successful attempt was the aspen tree stencil with a medium green ink spray overlay (see above). The best of the bunch was definitely the <a href="http://artistcellar.com/stampstencil/acSignatureSeries.html" target="_blank">Rivermap stencil</a>. Not only is <a href="http://jillberrydesign.com/" target="_blank">Jill K. Berry</a>'s font so awesome-looking, but I used red and green spray inks blended together, meeting in the middle.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimUJD9LdzRF5fhNAh27DQcYYVtsq33AJghGIOcxiB8bLJ3e-wCQgg79SdGW8lFOFQb76xVisY-4mYMY8CaFrtmn5TKABmvC_3DZ_Jio2yF8npLli2tNSBWxJSUV4SAVSXUSMBe/s1600/IMG_0940.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimUJD9LdzRF5fhNAh27DQcYYVtsq33AJghGIOcxiB8bLJ3e-wCQgg79SdGW8lFOFQb76xVisY-4mYMY8CaFrtmn5TKABmvC_3DZ_Jio2yF8npLli2tNSBWxJSUV4SAVSXUSMBe/s400/IMG_0940.jpg" width="298"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gessoed Rivermap stamp by J.K. Berry with spray ink.</td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRkVcMJnA30SCkkWx1Dj2jtzZSD7FLoJeyoETF7JPCou1PBc_byGVpfBjRIKOaARUVZZvK7GsRXL_89UPo3FSLSchAzgtSE_kXAlsOtj7L_rBixBiqYPBPjF5nwRx3AlwRyctI/s1600/IMG_0939.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRkVcMJnA30SCkkWx1Dj2jtzZSD7FLoJeyoETF7JPCou1PBc_byGVpfBjRIKOaARUVZZvK7GsRXL_89UPo3FSLSchAzgtSE_kXAlsOtj7L_rBixBiqYPBPjF5nwRx3AlwRyctI/s400/IMG_0939.jpg" width="298"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The result of flipping the gear stencil over <br>while it was covered with gesso. Chalkboard mist.</td></tr>
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Art adventure number two, was an impromptu opportunity at work. Several friends in my day-job world are paper conservators. I love to watch them carefully sew books back together, reattach their covers, and glue down marbled end papers whenever I walk through the conservation lab. They are all artists. Really, you have to be to do what they do everyday. You not only put things together, but often you have to take them apart, remove layers of nasty tape and other ickiness. It's a kind of magic to me.<br>
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The other day, <a href="http://www.custommade.com/by/vicki2lee/" target="_blank">Vicki Lee</a> was demonstrating for the benefit of her summer interns, how simple folded calendar books are made. The calendar books are based upon surviving examples of late medieval and renaissance books in the <a href="http://pinterest.com/gbertholet/books-vade-mecum/" target="_blank">Vade Museum</a>. Vicki learned how to make these at a workshop, so now she was sharing the techniques. <br>
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No greater thing is there in life but to learn something and then share it with others. Spread the love, I say. I want to try and make a fold-out art book using a binding technique like this.<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizz5xS-SAh-7qo2pVt8udd7TVPNoeAM6tvPaXzEiKE9bTkMD34C3sVbJ8hOs9bQRKk43EFj8nhy4Ld7nCa-QULozqCX9bO0zoTET9xK6kO2Q220vba-a-hh7JV7psvseCdMMg1/s1600/IMG_0919.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizz5xS-SAh-7qo2pVt8udd7TVPNoeAM6tvPaXzEiKE9bTkMD34C3sVbJ8hOs9bQRKk43EFj8nhy4Ld7nCa-QULozqCX9bO0zoTET9xK6kO2Q220vba-a-hh7JV7psvseCdMMg1/s400/IMG_0919.JPG" width="298"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Folding Calendar binding, <br>based upon historical sample</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Wtiujz1jJrDFk-PqYw3TtRQBYIF3Uo30SnoqO26u1Dn0Ki5RdV_rNXfX-IBi7ExiVcpIKoXKEMLNO8scTBJ4hkTct-uwflObfc0s7c2pF5u7KZ4R3_HDZoH_IpKNH71RShA-/s1600/IMG_0922.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Wtiujz1jJrDFk-PqYw3TtRQBYIF3Uo30SnoqO26u1Dn0Ki5RdV_rNXfX-IBi7ExiVcpIKoXKEMLNO8scTBJ4hkTct-uwflObfc0s7c2pF5u7KZ4R3_HDZoH_IpKNH71RShA-/s320/IMG_0922.jpg" width="239"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Take Me Along" binding showing where <br>the pages will be sewn together</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYGGLaLLRrJPDKXe3YPtFgHmMVZL7dCWfcRPmZEXyuL0QZTPOHRHVdks8UWZhH8Pfl39MozymDaImuy1fOU8GCtwh8c8-cn6APb0J4gHfo6aARIvYCjR4wpu4YbZeFGizKSk0C/s1600/IMG_0921.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYGGLaLLRrJPDKXe3YPtFgHmMVZL7dCWfcRPmZEXyuL0QZTPOHRHVdks8UWZhH8Pfl39MozymDaImuy1fOU8GCtwh8c8-cn6APb0J4gHfo6aARIvYCjR4wpu4YbZeFGizKSk0C/s320/IMG_0921.jpg" width="239"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Take Me Along" binding page laid out open</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<br>
<br>
Working alongside other artists and creative types is the surest way for me to continue to practice and grow as an artist. My other collaboration of the week was formed from a need to reconnect with a friend and to beat the heat wave we've been experiencing. <br>
<br>
My friend is herself a budding multi-media artist. She's taking classes in a variety of techniques and working out through practice how she can best express herself. In other words, she and I are on a parallel path. We spent more time just catching up on each other's lives and gabbing than we did on making art itself, but the process of talking about the art you're making is almost as important as the art-making part.<br>
<br>
We tried out a "artful shamanism" guided journey technique that I've learned from artist <a href="http://effywild.com/about-effy-wild/" target="_blank">Effy Wild</a> as one of the mixed media lessons in <a href="http://www.willowing.org/life-book-2013/" target="_blank">Life Book 2013</a>. If that sounds too <i>out there,</i> think of it purely as mediation like you might do in a Buddhist monastery or during a yoga class. Anyway, let's just say that the process, or journey, enabled each of us to find a powerful symbol to use in a creative way.<br>
<br>
The symbol that I imagined is becoming a work of art. Since the resulting visual image is still in progress, you'll have to wait for the next edition of <i><a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Pull of the Tides</a></i> to learn more.<br>
<br>
Stay tuned to this channel.<br>
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Until then, get off your duff and do something, anything, creative!<br>
<br>
<br>
<div>
<br></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-78748331064682940632013-06-29T15:34:00.000-04:002013-06-29T15:36:56.569-04:00Game on!<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibIaGFP-o0SNtFQb0nxgxxaGhNKH2nq-opBklubbtIOUIll28PIUPcVRVsHSqU5x1czz3NBRsL6f3Yhde2grKJHHbfOxwIYSQhNxcOkQOvOf8lUC6rR8dI_c9YXZoZlpiy0b8s/s640/blogger-image--1911403005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibIaGFP-o0SNtFQb0nxgxxaGhNKH2nq-opBklubbtIOUIll28PIUPcVRVsHSqU5x1czz3NBRsL6f3Yhde2grKJHHbfOxwIYSQhNxcOkQOvOf8lUC6rR8dI_c9YXZoZlpiy0b8s/s640/blogger-image--1911403005.jpg"></a></div><br></div><br></div></div>I managed to finish a complex project. My game board was created as an art journal page, inspired by an assignment presented by mixed media artist <a href="http://http://kellyhoernig.webs.com/mixedmediaart.htm">Kelly Hoernig</a>. Kelly is one of an array of instructors who are teaching as part of <a href="http://http://www.willowing.org/life-book-2013/">Life Book 2013</a> - a yearlong odyssey of mixed media goodness guided by Tamara Laporte.<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqpsiKemq2grFtefYo3YRqSB5Fgp3csLRSFaqr30aQepC_yvzHHRjAhZqGJZuZezqk1pZP42a5JiQaZA6oVn4PBLKjw96B9fqwLZ1juJKXcx8TCRC2_bt1PWz7TuRmOIdhsufJ/s640/blogger-image--129063236.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqpsiKemq2grFtefYo3YRqSB5Fgp3csLRSFaqr30aQepC_yvzHHRjAhZqGJZuZezqk1pZP42a5JiQaZA6oVn4PBLKjw96B9fqwLZ1juJKXcx8TCRC2_bt1PWz7TuRmOIdhsufJ/s640/blogger-image--129063236.jpg"></a></div></div><div><br>
I really wanted to do this assignment earlier in the year when it was first posted. But I could not seem to gather the energy to create anything. The course was just not gelling for me in January. Now that I find myself back in my groove, the ideas flowed easily. Kelly laid out the step-by-step procedures and I modified them just a bit to suit my style. The assignment was to create an art journal page with the theme of Let the Games Begin, which was Kelly's take on "Celebration and Journey" (the monthly Life Book theme).<br>
I drew my own streamlined 1930s style roadster for my vehicle. Kelly invited us to choose a word to set the tone for the journey you are on, and mine is "practice". She recommended a map background, and you might be able to make out the highway map of my region under the layers of gesso and paint. My background colors are watercolors.<br>
The pocket at the bottom left holds five altered playing cards which match some of the important ideas of encouragement that I hope will influence my art in the next year. There is also a card with the definition of "practice" written out on the back.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTUh8O6spc2QWI-Pqv5NOcY_rQqgvMibhvixmhyphenhyphen0sVwohf8q65s4VXnt_ZzlUryjO7xMiXqlxT_bDvVIO_z6ymljZtr65QWc6KQ4G38TIy7U3R544lBKWzkM-xhZb3l5HKiSyX/s640/blogger-image--852841705.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTUh8O6spc2QWI-Pqv5NOcY_rQqgvMibhvixmhyphenhyphen0sVwohf8q65s4VXnt_ZzlUryjO7xMiXqlxT_bDvVIO_z6ymljZtr65QWc6KQ4G38TIy7U3R544lBKWzkM-xhZb3l5HKiSyX/s640/blogger-image--852841705.jpg"></a></div></div><div><p>
It took me two weeks on and off other projects to make this game, mostly because I spent a lot of time layering with paint, gesso, and collage bits. I am happy with the results, even though not everything I tried worked. (For example, my attempts to practice Kelly's method of color wash spray to outline the game board did not meet with satisfactory results, so I used Distress Ink instead.) In sum, I learned a lot and gained some confidence with several mixed media techniques. That is what counts.<br>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiL-3QVOMP2EmSqEDoqGwoL_fruzfVyGZGWoSCoBGg11jpUJGsUuHJoeIii29H5bd4EEB1InKsQrsa2guB5f-LUAYs5x9RMqMmG9FMcCkqO1tJvp9I09TrPqbDcAzhpyimr084/s640/blogger-image-1940059618.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiL-3QVOMP2EmSqEDoqGwoL_fruzfVyGZGWoSCoBGg11jpUJGsUuHJoeIii29H5bd4EEB1InKsQrsa2guB5f-LUAYs5x9RMqMmG9FMcCkqO1tJvp9I09TrPqbDcAzhpyimr084/s640/blogger-image-1940059618.jpg"></a></div><br>
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<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-15766639294050271992013-06-22T14:49:00.002-04:002013-06-22T14:49:40.993-04:00High Tide"A young girl, transfigured by Italy! And why shouldn't she be transfigured? It happened to the Goths!"<br />
-E.M. Forester, <i>A Room With A View</i><br />
<br />
I have been busy this week. Lots of scattered collage bits and paints on my table. I feel energetic with the pulse of Summer Solstice and the incredible <a href="http://earthsky.org/tonight/is-biggest-and-closest-full-moon-on-june-23-2013-a-supermoon">"supermoon"</a> that's out there waxing, no less powerful than the Sun.
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Can you feel it drawing you? She will be full tonight.<br />
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The mixed media projects on my table are part experiments, and part goal-driven pieces. My main project is still in progress so I'll share one of the former exercises for now.<br />
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My "Letter from Venice" tag has an <a href="http://www.artistcellar.com/stampstencil/acStencilLarge.html">Artist Cellar</a> Venice map stencil as the background. I am taking some baby steps with lettering with an actual calligraphy pen like <a href="http://jillberrydesign.com/blog/"> Jill K. Berry</a> taught me at a workshop in February. (Shout out to you lovely <a href="http://www.paperworks.info/"> Paperworks</a> artists in Tucson.)<br />
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Once I laid out the map, I knew I had to dig out some ephemera with Italian words and the whole letter-writing theme is a serendipity. The color palate that I worked with is earth, ochre, and aqua. I can just picture an afternoon in late June with the sun beating down on the canals. It could be a pleasant afternoon sitting at a cafe sipping coffee, reading a good book or a letter from home. Ah, the life of the expat in Italy.<br />
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For the curious artists: I stenciled the street map and masked off that lower section. The stencil is done with tea dye Distress Stain over gesso. The bottom third is colored with cantaloupe dye ink and the accent lines are yellow ochre Golden Glaze.<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-57329515334251326192013-06-15T12:58:00.001-04:002014-10-22T19:31:59.296-04:00It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got that SpringI know, I know. It has been far too long since I last posted. I hit a mental road block late last fall, and found myself unmotivated to create during the winter. <br />
<br />
This is a regular, seasonal pattern for me. I am excited to make art in the late spring & summer, and even feel the drive in the bustle of autumn. Then, I find myself pulling off the road by the time the leaves fall off the trees and the sun sets at 5 o'clock. <br />
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*sigh* Despite best intentions, I was on the wrong side of the creative train tracks all winter.<br />
<br />
Until May. It was a vibrant, bright month. I saw Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, got my hair bobbed, and downloaded Bryan Ferry's classy vintage jazz album.<br />
<br />
While we were on vacation, my husband took me to see a hot jazz band touring south of the Mason Dixon from New York City. The Hot Sardines, they're called. They have a half-French chanteuse and belt out numbers complete with a living and breathing tap dancer as instrument.<br />
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Suddenly my head is full of art moderne motor cars, streamlined movie palaces, and flappers in elegant cloche hats. All the things I loved in college and why I obsessed about the 1920s are back briefly in vogue and life is wonderful.<br />
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I am driven to dust off my studio table and decoupage again. To celebrate joie de vivre, I used a charity auction certificate and invited my friends to a wine taste in the rolling Blue Ridge foothills.<br />
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In these heady, madcap days close to summer, I am enjoying the flow of inspiration and the joy of making. <br />
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I have several projects going, but the mini-piece I display on this post is my new iPhone cover. I took my background from a magazine, glued tissue over it with a star and a quote from Fitzgerald's book. The champagne bottle is a sticker. Everything got a coat or dab of picket fence shade Distress Ink.<br />
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I'm also posting my sketch of a torpedo-car that goes along with the Deco art I am pinning on my Pinterest boards.<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-50894438017571602782012-11-16T06:42:00.000-05:002012-11-16T06:42:05.788-05:00November 15: Family ProjectI spent the better part of my free time yesterday working in support of a family project, instead of my own. <br />
In this case, I am happy to be supporting a very worthy project, about to be launched.<br />
Adding it up, I have spent at least four hours each week since the end of August helping my parents with digital graphics and technical advice, such as I can give.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieDZYXa04raa_So6-hBLqsUed0R-9U8D17JCNA2JQXD2nVessPSlR9AqJ6WWKtgzU6xp5WutsFt0gKNhDrxbZw3WRGGcanxK6xuvLeO1TlFPmhC1fc32Y4d5PN5ckeuwreiYQ1/s640/blogger-image-1496413824.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieDZYXa04raa_So6-hBLqsUed0R-9U8D17JCNA2JQXD2nVessPSlR9AqJ6WWKtgzU6xp5WutsFt0gKNhDrxbZw3WRGGcanxK6xuvLeO1TlFPmhC1fc32Y4d5PN5ckeuwreiYQ1/s640/blogger-image-1496413824.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Artwork for Vanishing Cincinnati Drawing Series by David and Barbara Day</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My parents are artists. They have created a beautiful book which represents their careers as designers in business together and their favorite subject: their city, Cincinnati, Ohio. (If you've never been there, you are really missing out. Cincinnati has charm, culture, and multicultural history in abundance.)<br />
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My parents have a long standing relationship with the history, architecture, and cultural vibrance of their city. Their lives and work are inseparable from its visual culture. So much so, that the detailed drawings that are included in the forthcoming book are embedded with their passion, as much as with factual renderings of the city as it is, or as it was in memory.<br />
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So I am dedicating this post to my parents and their book, which is a celebration equivalent to a lifetime achievement award and testiment to family collaboration. I am also grateful to the many people who have given their time, energy, and resources to bring this book to life. <br />
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<i>Vanishing Cincinnati,</i> by David and Barbara Day will be officially <a href="http://www.orangefrazer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=OFPI&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=9781933197951">released on December 1, 2012, published by Orange Frazer Press, Wilmington, OH.</a><br />
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<a href="http://ddaydesigner.com/vanishing_cincinnati.htm">You can see more of my parents' illustration work online here.</a>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wESbKVBmYpG-xaqt2biwBdvLve1QX7Y0p-AcQxirj3XB4L8h6wvTwRoP3_6YW5tFKd_VJ30J_thSxf7QcSTsUSSN2iP0RHsQ8kTRkv70XHAhTQpuRX-pMjty8ZPZR334pfBw/s640/blogger-image-1323914529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wESbKVBmYpG-xaqt2biwBdvLve1QX7Y0p-AcQxirj3XB4L8h6wvTwRoP3_6YW5tFKd_VJ30J_thSxf7QcSTsUSSN2iP0RHsQ8kTRkv70XHAhTQpuRX-pMjty8ZPZR334pfBw/s640/blogger-image-1323914529.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Book Cover Preliminary Drawing, Vanishing Cincinnati by David and Barbara Day</td></tr>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-45042243526473079032012-11-14T21:27:00.001-05:002012-11-14T21:27:24.088-05:00November 14: Second AutumnYou know how Hobbits talk of having Second Breakfast in Lord of the Rings? Lately we seem to be having a Second Autumn here along the Chesapeake. <br />
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I thought that Hurricane Sandy would cause all the remaining leaves to blow away, but some trees held on. There were a lot of them still green at the end of October. This week I have observed stunning reds, yellows, and a few oranges where there was dull green last week. What a spectacular autumn we've had this year!<div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdzzoG2RA3uUHdmHmpgOwtAKqtNGIrtQ7_pedvmV1NTqJNjYOk57sXRh13AvDsB-GzO2wonymOYUY1xzf6lXtVj_NGK-Pghgvaw6Zmd0cZ_qaP_n-NnV0TPgRX09KtJOEkggTD/s640/blogger-image--92830603.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdzzoG2RA3uUHdmHmpgOwtAKqtNGIrtQ7_pedvmV1NTqJNjYOk57sXRh13AvDsB-GzO2wonymOYUY1xzf6lXtVj_NGK-Pghgvaw6Zmd0cZ_qaP_n-NnV0TPgRX09KtJOEkggTD/s640/blogger-image--92830603.jpg" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-56838383983917789492012-11-13T21:16:00.001-05:002012-11-13T21:17:42.339-05:00November 13: Reindeer GamesToday I was itching to play with inks. Winter is coming and I wanted to see what gesso over ink could do for making snowy landscapes.<br />
I pulled out a stack of glossy card stock and put down some inks. Then a layer of gesso. I took a pointed needle and scratched several sgraffito stars. I let it dry then stamped an evergreen tree with a hand-made stamp. I added the cocoa-colored reindeer last, an old stamp from All Night Media that I still love. <br />
This experiment is not finished yet, but it seems like I might be on to something. Thinning the gesso leaves some colors visible.<div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyYOGOswbc1WsXeGiZTe2egOv-XYKn2QDJies6EX3eBOZDjhEHT-2bYXeJ7ZBMQ2I_ApLUoNrSWPw2KWUvNpgToqsf1IQKhXchKGZTgRdgZFrEZAUAxxnNud2Psz7TBMlggxp/s640/blogger-image--1141413552.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyYOGOswbc1WsXeGiZTe2egOv-XYKn2QDJies6EX3eBOZDjhEHT-2bYXeJ7ZBMQ2I_ApLUoNrSWPw2KWUvNpgToqsf1IQKhXchKGZTgRdgZFrEZAUAxxnNud2Psz7TBMlggxp/s640/blogger-image--1141413552.jpg" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-52055827542608940322012-11-12T21:31:00.001-05:002012-11-12T21:31:29.498-05:00November 12: Variations on a ThemeMy sketchbook class assignment is to take a thumbnail sketch I made a couple of weeks ago as the basis for further art. I made one replica in paint. Another one, I created as a negative space, using a mask to block the shapes from a background. Then I made one more using collage pieces from my gesture paintings.<div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7A5pYMXt6n0gcnHB5WBFtcClise3seQh5wkF0SfBl7DHmc1PK4r9fbQTaHgoJYMuo7BhxMCMCG1Qp1jyU67hie0uWfmO9Rkxbl2LrcbB98Tln8yg7M17SlJhHCtIkStx56shk/s640/blogger-image--684337016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7A5pYMXt6n0gcnHB5WBFtcClise3seQh5wkF0SfBl7DHmc1PK4r9fbQTaHgoJYMuo7BhxMCMCG1Qp1jyU67hie0uWfmO9Rkxbl2LrcbB98Tln8yg7M17SlJhHCtIkStx56shk/s640/blogger-image--684337016.jpg" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-60692949531015928022012-11-11T19:39:00.001-05:002012-11-11T19:39:02.456-05:00November 11: Air MailThis is one of the paint wash + collage pieces that I am working on for my sketchbook class. I started with the 7x7 in. watercolor paper painted last week with an acrylic wash. I added the collage element from an envelope with canceled UK stamps. Then I drew the blue and red border design that reminds me of airmail packaging.<div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnphWkKHMwibUkHIQ6UcWtc_9ZLjT4EBxJbFZlqepJu9CIiaL0HbFda5Th0En-TOktYdBnPZqrKEu3YbntBqrl5UWzw-ctXQfuRlRJW1mIa2W6lJre8yg5LYWzClLaISFV2tOW/s640/blogger-image--1539325717.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnphWkKHMwibUkHIQ6UcWtc_9ZLjT4EBxJbFZlqepJu9CIiaL0HbFda5Th0En-TOktYdBnPZqrKEu3YbntBqrl5UWzw-ctXQfuRlRJW1mIa2W6lJre8yg5LYWzClLaISFV2tOW/s640/blogger-image--1539325717.jpg" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18722485.post-41923508763271199442012-11-10T19:32:00.001-05:002012-11-10T19:32:37.735-05:00November 10: In the Realm of Make-BelieveToday I went to the Faerie Con with my friends, a gathering of unconventional, artistic, and dramatic people. The theme, of course, is stories from the myths and legends, but there is a cross-over somewhere (no doubt by way of Victorian literature) to steampunk gadgetry and gears.<br />
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My entry today is a Steampunk Crow, that I made from a pattern by artist Molly Stanton. Molly teaches a great workshop. We started with a pile of black sculpy clay and findings. We ended with a 5" in long pendent in the fully-formed crow shape, feathers, beak, wings, and the mechanical gears and rivets that give him steampunk flavor. In just under 2 1/2 hours! Such a fun workshop.<br />
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Enjoyed my time in the realm of the fey immensely. I ended up deciding my half-formed costume could wait for a later debut in favor of my leaf-covered dress and a few bits of bling I have picked up at various shops.<div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOJiAiuAAm7szqz2CeTpi9W-PQ6KboU7TOtDvMXl_FeqUKXlWcGG-WeP4z7XHSDUSTpj8_GIVaupre4uVv2_w8Xz9GkksEkbpRTCD43KDCsBQJ2y83bE6k2IC3s9D_c40CcC8d/s640/blogger-image-1575750862.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOJiAiuAAm7szqz2CeTpi9W-PQ6KboU7TOtDvMXl_FeqUKXlWcGG-WeP4z7XHSDUSTpj8_GIVaupre4uVv2_w8Xz9GkksEkbpRTCD43KDCsBQJ2y83bE6k2IC3s9D_c40CcC8d/s640/blogger-image-1575750862.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieUpygRlff6V4WsD9mDs97SihzyGVWKeoS0YBqHqQBdKIZIwVSyl5tnpK398GML4_Au9kt6ugdHn4u3Ba1O6QZnOAEAwLLrTWcIuBS1QxGv8OloBMkytgmzft_aydGy8qEf7GO/s640/blogger-image--1392392677.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieUpygRlff6V4WsD9mDs97SihzyGVWKeoS0YBqHqQBdKIZIwVSyl5tnpK398GML4_Au9kt6ugdHn4u3Ba1O6QZnOAEAwLLrTWcIuBS1QxGv8OloBMkytgmzft_aydGy8qEf7GO/s640/blogger-image--1392392677.jpg" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><font color="blue"><b>Pull of the Tides</b> a blog for creativity in all seasons.</font>
<a href="http://runningwave.blogspot.com">http://runningwave.blogspot.com</a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05656793660129979011noreply@blogger.com1