A Few Vacation Days–

Took a couple of vacation days to recuperate from what I knew would be a horrific week without my co-worker and I was right. I was exhausted–but not enough not to create some art. I have been working on my studio/office space as well as creating some ATC’s and other work as well. Below are some of the most recent. –Only what I really liked when it was complete.- Hopefully later today I will take the pictures of the first 3 of a series I have started on 18/19th century American Writers/Poets. An earlier post showed my original version of the Whitman piece, which I have revised slightly. Anyway~~~ The first is a 5″X5″ piece that will eventually go into a shadow box frame-

I have been trying to incorporate some of Sally Jean’s creative process by altering most or all of the elements in my pieces using her some of her “Abracadabra Collage Technique” from her beautiful book “Pretty Little Things”. Below are a couple of the ATC’s–

Happy 4th of July-

9:55 pm, Central time-The official City fireworks display has just finished at the Stadium a few blocks from us. We watched it from our patio-There was also several neighbors who were putting on their own Fireworks display. These neighbors had fireworks that rivaled the ones we used to see at our town 4th of July celebration when we were kids-50’s/6o’s.

Today–prior to sundown-was so quiet. The kids went out of town to visit relatives and we were alone for the first time in ages. When I came downstairs this morning I could feel the absence of energy in the house. They are having a great time canoing and visiting their Great Grandfather on his birthday, but I miss them.

I have been working on my ATC’s and collage. I did a couple more 5X7 collages using some illustrations I found in a magazine, so I won’t put them up since they probably are copyrighted. I am uploading the newest smaller collage 4×6 below

.

Thank Heaven it’s Thursday

I feel like I live my life in two day increments. Monday and Tuesday I work at in the world-9/10 hours depending. Then on Wednesday I am off!!! and I do so look forward to it. Then Thrusday and Friday, back to work, then THE WEEKEND!!Yeah!!!. I work to be off. During the days at work I never feel really alive. Just having to go through the motions. When I am at home I can create, make my art, be with my kids and husband-which I love.
Below are a couple of my recent pieces-The large one is a foray into larger collage it is 5X7 inches. The smaller is an ATC of the Great Brando-I found the picture in a magazine and I knew I had to do something with it.
ONE MORE DAY TIL FRIDAY—

Hmmmm-ATC’s

I joined a couple more swaps and one was a Jester/joker theme-so I went traditional and found an illustration of a jester online and made my cards last night. Fairly simple and straight forward–
Here it is

A Few Days Off

I had a couple of vacation days that I needed to use or lose, so I have had a several days of creating -I joined a couple of swaps on one of my groups so I needed to… Here is one of the cards for a 40’s,50’s, 60″s style pinup swap..
This is not my usual type of card, but I liked the pic and she does look naughty.

Silly Royalty

I happened on this website that will generate a silly royal title for you –I am the Queen Bee after all–which got me to thinking and before I knew it I have started working on a series of Silly Royalty ATC’s

On a different note–went to the beauty salon/spa today. I never actually visit the spa but I like the word, I only get my hair cut. This time I got it really short-it took some time to convince my wonderful stylist, Trish to actually cut it SHORT. But I wanted it to be even more carefree than it has been this past year. I don’t think my husband likes it too much, but my daughter, Bri does. Anyway, it always feels so luxurious to have someone shampoo your hair, and Trish is such an artist in her own right-She’s the first and only stylist I have been to in my 60 yrs that I have felt”GOT” me and what I want and was able to interpret that into a hair cut/style that I was completely happy with. Yeah, Trish!!

Storm Clouds

I took this a few days ago when a storm was rolling in from the west–It was an awesome site, all those dark clouds with the sun above shining through the gigantic “opening” in the sky

ATC’s

I have recently become addicted to Art Trading Cards–ATC’s-Though I have only traded a couple. I hate to part with my babies-This one was chosen as the home page art for ATC Connection on Yahoo groups.I was so surprised as it was not a submission, it was an upload to my member file.

Below are a few of my Beauty queens that I have been working on–

The Artist–me

It was a long time before I was able to call myself and artist–but I finally did. Because I live to create and am forever making something. I have done it all, from decopage to crochet, fiber art to macrame, sewing, quilting, dollmaking, toll painting, folk art painting,dried flowers, soapmaking, herbal art, gardening, scrapbooking-along with my all time love photography.

I recently came across a new to me medium–ATC–Artist Trading Cards–which is really just a 2.5 inch by 3.5 inch size collage. I love it. I have been madly trying my hand at it using vintage photographs and other ephemera, new or old and I am having a great time. Below are a few of my most recent cards

I am an orphan now

In my previous post I said I was doing some catch up–Because my Mom has died. She passed away on Wednesday, March 26 in the early afternoon. My brother happened to get off work early and went over to the nursing home around noon. She had not been doing very well for several weeks and that week had been going downhill quickly. She was unresponsive-catatonic really for about 3 days prior. Anyway, Terry got there and she was obviously dying then, so my sister-in-law came over and the nursing staff all took turns coming in and saying their farewells, giving her a good bye kiss and there were prayers. She finally just gave up and died quietly with Terry there by her side. God bless him, he is such a good son.

We buried her next to my Dad in Pana, Il where she was born and raised. It is an old cemetery on a hill outside of town, my grandparents are buried there as is my baby brother. It was a small wake and funeral, but nice. Her pastor from Rantoul came and spoke-he did a nice job even if he did the “repent now” kind of thing –not quite as bad as when he spoke at Dad’s funeral. I was pretty upset for several days, but only feeling sorry for myself. I am really happy and relieved that she is finally at peace. I am sad for a lot of things but not that she died. The picture in this entry is one taken about 5-6 years ago at the very beginning of her journey into Alzheimers. I took the picture at my home and It is by far my favorite photo of her. This is how I remember her. Love you mom–