Rejected

My rejected entry for the SCRAP recycled-repurposed art show. Not everything an artist enters is accepted in a juried show.  So many things are involved from the jurors; their personal ideas, thoughts and likes and what they think the show should exhibit.  Many disappointments and many triumphs that one cannot take as the final judgment.  It is just one show and certain judges.  From rejection, one learns humility and lessons to not give up the desire to create.  One show does not define you.
A well known writer was rejected six times before being accepted to publish and it became one of the most sold books in the world.  So, I will try again and make more art. 
This piece I made from a few of the many discarded National Geographic Magazines donated to SCRAP.  The background map of San Francisco was also found at SCRAP as well as the frame and backing boards.  The only part that was not found at SCRAP were the special pins for taxonomy bought at Paxton Gates.  The mod podge, acrylic paints and glues were also from SCRAP.

FINAL PIECE

The title was made from the following the rules of taxonomy...country of origin, state, city, longitude and latitude, species, genius,  name of insect..I named this geonatgami c2s,  then the date and founder.....geonat for national geographic, gami - word for paper in japanese and part of origami, c2s for double sided gloss paper.

Close up of the spacers surrounding the piece made from the spines of the discarded National Geographic Magazines.

Each of the pages were marbelized with Citrasol, then mod podged to give them strength.  I also added paint for some of the backings to highlight the finished folds of the  pieces.  I then cut them into squares or rectangles depending on the origami fold I planned to do.  The origami folds are all different versions of the butterfly.

Transformed Treasures

The Salvation Army fund raiser - vouchers were given to participants to buy from the Salvation Army stores and transform what they bought to raise funds at an auction to sell these treasures.
I bought an old wool sweater that had gone through the wash..not completely shrunk.  I washed it again and found a few holes.  I was going to line it with a cotton T shirt and make a jacket but, because of the small holes, decided against it.  The following photos of my transformation of the sweater.

I felted this sweater by washing twice and drying in a hot dryer.

In work...making the necklace..punching circles

closeup of the brooch and necklace.

Finished three pieces, neck warmer that I finished with a crochet edge, a necklace and a brooch.

Marin Museum of Contemporary Art Altered Book Show Piece

After spending hours thinking about this project and working the how to and what to to accomplish my idea, I finally began and then had to start again.  My first loom didn't work and I had to figure out how to make another.  Here are photos of the piece as it was being made.  I forgot to photo the weaving of the gold thread alone between the words.  The most difficult was attaching the piece to the backing and making sure the weave was floating above the book below.  The phrase I wrote took the longest to make and I wrote dozens of versions before I selected the final.  The piece won an Honorable Mention from 150 entries.

Sew a thread of golden words on weft and warp of a paper loom, then stitch a yarn to weave a tapestry of collected memories.  Final piece with added backing for hanging to display...

cutting out words from an old dictionary, aged patina....after mod podge brushed and dry....

my first loom to weave...was not working

New loom of board

Here is the new loom and also the small book I used... I found the page to be opened ...beginning of a new chapter and new scene....

weaving the words and definitions of principal words to my phrase.

finished weaving words and gold metallic thread...

stitching the words with needle and gold metallic thread to surround the weaving and book

close up of stitching...

close up of finished piece with a support on each side of the woven tapestry to float above the open book..

The Moving Line of Roman Cursive, a workshop of Massimo Polello

The charming Italian came all the way from Turin to give Friends of Calligraphy a workshop.  I was fortunate in being in this class.  The first papers of a copy of an old Roman cursive writing was given to us.  It looked like gibberish until Massimo lead us through the forms.  After attempts of understanding the form and how it was written, we were challenged to be free to do variations of it and how we could use these forms to create art.  Like a dance, know the basic steps and make your own body movement to the music.  The following photos are of the book I made of my exercises and practice. I think this is a good way to reference what Massimo tried to teach.  I just need a lot more practice...lots more.

Front cover,  all pages are half lengthwise of Canson Mi Tientes. Some were cut down to accommodate W book form and stitched with a simple pamphlet stitch.

The back of the stitched book.  I did not photo all pages...

Cards, cards, cards.....

I created three thank you cards this week. I tried a few things I had never done before.  Here are the results.  All were influenced because it is Valentine's day on Friday.  All were done with love.

Embossed name of Elena, cut out frame for hand cut heart of base card.

Inside of base card sewn with red thread, gold painted heart inside of red cutout square.

The front of the card tied with red string with name of recipient

Untied and opened to accordian alphabet cut in Milton Glazer like Baby Teeth font.  This accordian alphabet was inspired by Takako Tokugawa who had done one with Neuland.  Thank you Takako.

Another shot with card held open with a box of vintage pen nibs. The accordian was heavy vellum paper.

Back of card with cutout red heart from previous card.....

Again an embossed name with cut out and then added a red piece with a heart cut out.

The inside of the card with the saved red heart and U written with a pen.  Additional sentiments below red envelope.

Happy New Year!

I had fun making a few New Year cards using Adobe Illustrator.  The challenge was to make them 'mine' and not too commercial....Oh well, these are the results:  I used heavy letterpress paper.

Funny how they photoed in different colors....

Trivial Pursuits XXVI

It happened again for the 26th time.  I have had fun coordinating this event for the last three years.  Six teachers and 40 students plus two volunteers have a day long event.  Each teacher teaches five times with 50 minute classes.  Check out my past blog with the flyer notice.  I wanted to make a colorful banner this time since our theme was 'RED'.  This is what I came up with and used for the first time water soluble artists' crayons.  I really liked how they performed.

In the works, I randomly colored Strathmore 400 drawing paper.  I then cut out letters to spell out Trivial Pursuits XXVI.  I then glued then on plain paper and cut a halo around them.

I place them on red paper to see how they would look against the red.

Close-up of the banner

The finished banner....photoed in my hall.

Wonderful gift bags were prepared for everyone.  I made these nametags to identify each persons bag using a letterform inspired by Garth Colgan.