A Birthday and A Wedding - A Story of Two Bards

Birthday Bard

No, that's not a typo.  A 'bard' is what I call a canvas board/greeting card. 

Yes, as a student of Shakespeare in college, I do know the true definition of bard  (a poet or storyteller).  But what can I say, I make up random words and/or definitions.  Take my word for it, or ... don't ;)

This is my third attempt at mixed media, and I was anxious to take a crack at crackle paste. My base of the 'bard' is crackle paste and modeling paste through a brick stencil.  Next up:  a glue frenzy with flowers and beads, lace and various other findings followed by acrylic paint and ink.  I distress-inked and embossed a line of musical notes off-canvas and added that next.  Highlighting was done with metallic pigments and sparkle spray. 

Threads in the Magic Garden

I would like to share a creation I made for my friend Leesa.   Leesa excels at random acts of kindness and I wanted to thank her for a special gift she made for me.  Since she also is a beautiful quilter, I decide to do a mixed media piece that had a quilting/sewing theme.  This is the result: Threads in the Magic Garden.

After my black gesso background had dried, I used stencils and modeling paste for texture. I just had to rip a side off of a piece of cardboard (which I had stitched around with yarn) and add it to the canvas along with a zipper, 'recycling' the inspiration from my first mixed media piece A R T.  I should add a side note about the zippers I've been using.  They were orange.  I mean really orange from a really, really orange down, puffy vest.  Yikes!  I wore that many years ago.  Why? I cant answer that and prefer not to dwell on it!  

Next, I began adhering my embellishments: paper flowers that I had cut out of cardstock , thread, beads, gears, a bobbin, snaps, tiny scissors, etc.  I embossed the butterflies and the word Magic and set those aside.

Acrylic paint and ink was applied next in garden greens and shades of blue and purple.  I rubbed a tarnished gold pigment on the metal embellishments and the center of the flowers. Any guesses on what I made the flower centers from?  Heads of Q-Tips!

The spool of thread, the embossed butterflies and the word Magic were added next.  And my final touch was running string around the gears and through the sewing needle.  One butterfly is 'sewing' and the other, snipping the threads.  See?  It's magic!

A*R*T My First Mixed Media Project

This piece is simple titled A*R*T and it was my first try at Mixed Media.  Oh my goodness, I HAD SO MUCH FUN! (And yes, I know all caps means I'm yelling... BECAUSE I AM!).

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It all started one evening after work when I met my husband at one of our favorite, little hangouts; a relaxed wine bar downtown.  His co-worker and good friend was also there and we shared a bottle of cabernet savignon, a cheese platter and a wonderful time.  I do not remember how the dialogue got started, but soon my husband was being shamed into remodeling an unused corner of our basement into a craft-room for me.  As the evening festivities continued, the description mutated into Art Studio - what can I say, wine was consumed.

Short story shorter, that weekend my husband started gutting the abandoned corner of the basement, carving a little niche into his man cave for me!  

Insert HUGE SHOUT OUT to Wayne (the aforementioned friend of my husband) here!

It is huge undertaking and it will take a long time as my husband can only work on it on the weekends.  And that's ok, I have my kitchen after all! Good things come to those who wait.

So, I decided to create a mixed media canvas to hang in my someday creative studio. I wanted to use two types of components: supplies from my forays from past hobbies and supplies from the basement corner where my future wonderland will be.  After applying black gesso and texture paste, I started building dimension by adhering beads, gears, paint brushes, an old tube of oil paint, paper, dry wall tape, copper wire and an old bent nail my husband plucked from a ceiling beam in the basement corner.  On the middle panel, I included an old phano pencil I found in a box of my father's things.

Below are the raw beginnings.  My husband had called me from his work to see if we had dinner plans...Ummm, "I am painting a wall hanging," I replied, skirting his 'cooking dinner' hint.  That distracted him as he was pleased to hear that all of his hard labor in the dark recesses of the cellar/future art emporium were/are not in vain. "Take a picture and text it to me," he said enthusiastically.   So I texted the photo of the two panels pictured below.  His reply, "...Anyway, do we have dinner plans."

Clearly, he doesn't see my vision...

                                          The not-so-pretty early stages of the A and R panels. 

After another coat of black gesso, I started playing with acrylic paint, inks and powdered pigments.  When I was little, my grandfather would critique my coloring book; pointing out all the places where I 'went out of the lines'.  So here I am, many years later, and boy oh boy am I going out of the lines!  :)

I would like to enter my project A*R*T into the Mixed Media Main Challenge for June in the Dimension category - MMMC #23.

Mixed Media Main Challenge for June

Where In The World Am I?

So, I hear it's 2016...and now here I am, my kids grew up and I didn't. That's right, I love to fingerpaint and color and play with clay and be silly!  

But even though I feel like a little kid inside, I of course live in the grown-up world of stress, bad drivers, deadlines and daylight-savings-time (that really annoys me, but more on that later).  I have found that creating Altered Art and Mixed Media is my prescription for being a happy-go-lucky little kid again.  In the spirit of sharing my love for art, I will write a blog...once I figure out whatever that is!

So, let's look it up on the Mirriam Webster dictionary site http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blog

Full Definition of blog

:  a Web site that contains online personal reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer; also :  the contents of such a site

Simple enough...except for that word 'hyperlink'.  I'm thinking that may somehow be connected to the old Star Trek phrase "Scotty, beam me up". Which also leads me to wonder, if Scotty had a day off, does anyone else have the 'beam up (or hyperlink) training?   But I digress...back to the definition, I see after the logo Mirriam Webster it says from 1928.  Hmmm, should I be looking at a more present day, trendy definition? How does Urban Dictionary define blog?

Top Definition of blog

: short for weblog.

A meandering, blatantly uninteresting online diary that gives the author the illusion that people are interested in their stupid, pathetic life. Consists of such riveting entries as "homework sucks" and "I slept until noon today."

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=blog&utm_source=search-action

Okay!  Now I have a starting point:  I excel at meandering AND I'm uninteresting!  Thanks Urban Dictionary.

UPDATE:  I researched the word 'hyperlink' with this result -

hy·per·link

:a link from a hypertext file or document to another location or file, typically activated by clicking on a highlighted word or image on the screen.

So, I was right after all!  Scotty, if you are working today, BEAM ME UP!

(Don't be misled by the Star Trek references; I know very little about that show other than I like the idea of being beamed up. In case you haven't noticed, I also know not one single thing about writing a blog, so please bear with me.)

“Where in the world am I???”

Kitchen Table Artistry?

My name is Leslie. I am passionate about artistic adventures and... I can't believe I'm writing a blog! I am married to an amazing man; my soulmate, my hero.  We have 2 wonderful young adults, a son and a daughter, 3 crazy dogs and 2 spoiled granddogs.  During the weekdays I am a 'not-so-mild-mannered' 8-5 office manager, but when the weekend arrives...my kitchen table is covered with paint, ink, paper, glue, etcetera, etcetera!

Looking back on my childhood, I can't remember a time when I wasn't creating something, but it wasn't until just recently that I put it all together into Assemblage Art/Mixed Media, and I am OBSESSED!  My husband has discovered that when there is a pasta machine, a grater, a garlic press and an iron on the kitchen counter, it does NOT mean I've an urge for domesticity, but rather an artsy mission of some sort!  I do not have an Art Studio or a Craft Room, so my kitchen is my Creative Space.  Therefore, borrowing from a beef ad slogan from years ago, welcome to my blog:

ART:  It's What's For Dinner!