Collaborative House Book



Cover by Yolanda




This is the latest collaborative effort from my Altered Artists group.  We each designed house pages and swapped to create a book with everyone's ideas.  I love the house shape and use it a lot in my work. And I also love that the ladies were brave enough to get involved with my obsession!  It is awesome to see the results to the challenge! 
Thanks Girls!

Page spread by Maryo and Diana

Below, loose pages before binding by Scarlett, Bonnie, Elaine, Jo, Maryo, Linda, and me!





page spread by Linda and Karen



Page spread my me and Jo



b is for birds, books and bliss

I had fun this weekend playing art in my friend Diana's awesome

newly organized studio space.  Above, is the result, a double layered collage

canvas with lots of favorite stuff from my collections and some from my friend Jo's. 

Jo was inspired by an article in a recent Somerset Studio magazine.

She was then inspired to inspire me to create my own canvas! 

I love this idea and am crazed to make more...but I am running out of wall space, Yikes!

A Starry Night's Inspiration



The Original "Starry Night" by Vincent Van Gogh



I love to use Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night as inspiration for student work.       His colors and compositions are just the thing to get students to "think outside the box"    Here are some 8th grade examples that were enlarged from an 8 by 10 inch copy to a 16 by 20 inch paper using a 1:2 ratio.

After working with partners to enlarge the work, students used tempera paint and thier imaginations to come up with new color schemes for the painting, creating different moods for the piece.

Starry Night Collaboration- Students were asked to
stay close to the original colors and brush strokes.



These are 6th grade interpretations of Starry Night. Students worked with a partner and used oil pastels as they were inspired by Van Gogh's work.  It is interesting to see the variety in the responses to the challenge! 



...and this is my own interpretation!



more winged things



I use so many winged things as a motif for my art...

just thought I would show off a few more!

collaborative guiltie created with my artful friend Suzie



papier mache bust with wings and button bracelet/belt

Above, Christmas birds, angel girl, and maniquin form, below, altered bird wall hanging.

These are a few examples of the "stamples"

I create for Mrs. O'Leary's art store using the

Artful Illusions line of stamps. 

Above, the outside of a papier mache hinged box, below, the surprise inside! 

Butterfly Art

stenciled and stamped swirls and butterflies

 One of my many motifs that I use in my own art is my love of "winged things." 

Birds, dragonflies, fairies, butterflies to name a few...

Here are some butterfly themed works to get you inspired for spring!

collaged butterfly housemaid

Butterfly house book in a box

collaged butterfly house pages

screen printed stamp design by The Queen's Dresser Drawers
sewn with quilted piece, trims, and buttons

WHAT'S BUGGING YOU?

colorful cut paper notan design

It is that time of the year again...for the creepy crawlies to come out...just in time for some fun bug art!  I like to use bugs as a motif because there are so many things you can do with them.  In addition to drawing them realistically, you can simplify and abstract them or design your own.  You can use them to teach symmetry, shading, color theory, and much more!  Here are a few buggy ideas! 

design your own with 4 color rotation and shading

design your own with watercolor and sharpie



realistically drawn with shading and 4 color limit





design your own, popcorn layout, positive/negative b/w



design your own, popcorn layout, shading/blending



design your own snowflake cut paper



design your own, overlap and fill the page, shading/blending



more artful nests

 My sister found an old quilt my grandmother had stashed away.  Most of it has started to deteriorate, so is no longer usable as a working quilt.  But there are a few 12 by 12 inch panels that are perfect for art making!  I made this first one for my sister for Christmas to hang in her new studio space.  I cut out the panel to 15 by 15 in., wrapped it around a 12 by 12 inch canvas, and embellished away!

Of course, I had to include a house, as I do in most of my art, and I also incorporated an artful nest designed with my sister's 4 children in mind (hence the 4 eggs).  The tag says CHERISH and also has the number 2240 on it, which just so happens to be our address number for our childhood home!  It all came together pretty awesomely... and I can't wait to make more!

 This is my latest altered book.  I made it as part of a challenge for my Altered Artists group.  The challenge was to take a heart tin that once held jewelry and alter it.  So I had to incorporate it into an altered book, cause that is what I do!   The cover of the book was covered in torn up paper bags from my many purchases at my favorite art store (Mrs. O'leary's in Wichita, KS http://www.mrsolearysart.com/ ).

Then I layered a key, a punched out bird, a felt heart, a copper painted feather, some hand made paper and my favorite woven burlap ribbon.  I then found the words "everything she knew" from my stash of words cut from books.

On the inside of the book, I glued the top and bottom of the pages together to create a block of pages.  Then I traced the shape of the heart and carved it out with an exacto knife and a lot of determination!  I covered the tin with a gold paper and added some fun packing paper to the inside.  I created a house shape from a box lid, covered it with the handmade paper and included an artful nest.  After covering the inside cover and first page with some decorative paper, I layered the gold paper, the handmade paper, some left over bits from the burlap ribbon and a few words to finish the piece.