Blue Flower Post Cards

Blue and gold acrylic paint stamped with a large rubber stamp made the backgrounds for collage which included strips with stenciled patterns, postage stamps, snippet-petal flowers and Magic Mesh. (If you put the Magic Mesh on a cardstock backing before you punch out it out, it won't get stuck inside the punch.  Paper backing may be removed afterwards if you don't want it.)

Nature Muse

In the realm of nature, 

there are oft unseen layers 

of fibers, facets, integral components.

Autumn's colorful leaves trace down 

to veins and stems and their individual cells.

Bird plumage that flashes brilliant colors

relies upon the single strands of each feather,

as pigments pick up cues from the sunlight.

A shiny fish may have small or large scales

which function as mirrors of any available light.

And the gossamer of dragonflies

reduces to small cells in a stretch of sheer wings.

How wonderful the details and cunning handiwork

of the Master Designer

September 2015

I am grateful for eyes to see, and for all that is lovely in the natural world which surrounds me.

Poetic Digression

Someone has said, "There's the first day of Spring, and then there's the first Spring-like Day," or something to that effect.  I am sorry that the source eludes me at the moment.

I can relate to that with snow on the ground today.  But it is a time of new beginnings, new life, fresh starts, as the butterflies know so well.

Tennessee Beauty (Mourning Cloak?)

BREAKING OUT

Cocoon:
Comforting
Familiar
Snug
Secure

Stirrings:
Imprisoned
Confined
Restless
Compelled

Breaching:
Pushing
Extending
Splitting
Escaping

Strengthened:
Drying
Stretching
Unfolding
Enlivened

Aloft:
Fanning
Lifting
Fluttering
Soaring

FREE!
3/9/2013

ICAD's - #1 - #7

This swap with an MMSA pal proved to be very fun and interesting.  I seized it as an opportunity to experiment using the 3" x 5" format.  Visual prompts were all around me:  snippets, supplies, previous projects.  I began on March 15th.

 A pile of foreign postage stamps in the purple family gave me a start.  Purple ink dragged a swath across the background.  Washi tape jumped in after the stamp placement.

Magic Mesh wanted to play on Day #2, so I pressed small green and blue ink pads onto the card, then covered it with Magic Mesh triangles.

 On St. Patrick's Day, I rescued a rye bread wrapper from recycling.  It took food coloring gels dripped onto the card and smooshed with another card a while to dry before I could glue on the plastic shamrock, stripes and color register.

Day #4 was my chance to try punch-outs.  Circles cut in black paper made an overlay for the imported hand-made papers background.   A gold marker added dot details.

Gray and silver images begged to play together on Day #5, with this collage resulting.

I painted this background with acrylic paint to compliment the focus piece, also painted a strip of drywall joint tape, and layered.

On Day #7 I used an idea gathered from You-Tube.  After stripping one layer off a corrugated box flap,  I cut it into squares.  Glued the squares side-by-side onto my file card.  Coated with white Gesso.  Drizzled rubber stamp inks from one edge to the other (tilting the card so they dripped down).  Then glued on an image, and- it was finished.

More to follow...

First Flowers of Spring

The crocus opened when the warm temperatures arrived, although with yesterday's snow they closed up.

Mixed Media Collage

Yes, I know, I've told mail art pals that I don't usually incorporate ephemera which other people send me into my art.  But this is an exception.  Someone sent me a dictionary page stenciled with acrylic paint.  I was ignoring it, but it started demanding attention.  The result?  The post card below.

 After adding smudges of gold acrylic paint for accents, I glued on the main focal piece and a butterfly.  Next I pushed white paint through areas of a sequin waste "stencil."  A white paint pen gave me dots inside the circles.  Finally, I added a piece of gel-medium-reinforced tissue paper, a postage stamp, a word, and a home-made border sticker to finish my project.   Now out it goes!

Not Quite Digital ATC's

Some of my mail art pals like to swap ATC's.  Inspired by a new MMSA-er, I double-printed mostly vintage images and added details. Although I didn't integrate the artwork online or with a PhotoShop program, I'm relatively satisfied with the results:

 Edges are ink smudged for a distressed look.

 Watercolor pencils and clear embossing powder add shimmer to the dragonfly's wings.

The background is from a photograph of an area creek wall.

 The bee and the feather rubber stamped images are clear-embossed. Watercolor pencils added color to the black and white flower image and the bee.

Clear embossing powder over the eyes adds a realistic effect.