Words on Wings by Lila

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lilaTalented friends – dang – they are such a gift. Lila Walker cracks me up and makes me think, along with about a million other people. Lila came to the Studio on Thursday to do a presentation on her collage cards for the Amigas group, and she had us in stitches.

Lila is a hunter-gather of the best sort. She puts unlikely images with well-chosen quotes and collages them into greeting cards called Words on Wings. Here’s an example:

She cuts out every quote and arranges every image, goes to a local copy service to duplicate the collages in small numbers, then assembles the cards herself. It’s an inspired business of one.
This is Lila in a nutshell (no pun intended, Lila):“Lila Walker is a wife, mother, grandmother, animal rights advocate, loyal friend, good neighbor, retired teacher, artist, reader, gardener and docent at The McNay Museum of Art in San Antonio, Texas.”
You can buy her cards in San Antonio at the Twig Bookshop, the McNay, and Viva Bookstore, and you can visit her website for more locations across the country – and to order cards directly from her.. Click through her selections and I guarantee it will brighten this gray winter day.
I’d like to send the one below to Lila herself.

 

 

 

 

“boring tuna” is neither – web design help is here!

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btWouldn’t it be nice if there were someone who could help you get your art images digitized and up on the web? Someone who understands artists, maybe an artist/photographer? Then let me introduce my former student, now dear friend and tech adviser, Kevin Dome of Boring Tuna Photography and Web Design Services of San Antonio.

Kevin is as original as his company name. He’s that rare combination of art and tech (he worked for years at Rackspace) that all of us envy. He’s just taken the leap to full-time independent web designer for artists and other small businesses.

Last week, Kevin came to my studio for a photoshoot. I had not seen him work before, but it was impressive. His first concern is lighting the story. In 15 minutes, he had a complete professional photo setup in my studio and was ready to take some photos of ME! Take a look at the setup and results.

I love the photos Kevin took – they make me feel authentically artistic and happy. You can see more of his work in his online portfolio.

Kevin is a joy to work with – I am going to ask him to help me rework my own online portfolio. He hosts websites and is the most user-friendly tech person I’ve talked to in a long time. His fees are reasonable – he can digitize images for you and upload them to your own site for around $250 (Kevin can tell you more about what all of that includes). I’d like to say I taught him everything he knows, but that would be a big fat lie <grin>.

So get yourself some boring tuna before Kevin gets swamped with requests for artists’ websites! You can contact him at http://www.boringtuna.com/

8PS – the winner of Friday’s Freebies, the Shisk-ka-barbies, is brittdesign@cableone.net – if you’ll email me your info, these little creatures will be on their way to you!

Happy Monday, All – bundle up and keep warm.

 

Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘to do’ list

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8I shoulda posted yesterday’s Friday Freebie (the Shish-ka-barbie dolls, which you can win if you’re a subscriber by midnight Sunday) but I forgot – darn. OK, yet *another* New Year’s Resolution: start keeping a daily a “To-Do” list and follow it!!

While looking for ways to remember stuff better, I found out that Leonardo da Vinci wrote To-Do lists! And they are very cool – nothing like “post to blog” or “stop by HEB.”

Nope, his were more like, “obtain a skull, to get books on anatomy bound, observe the holes in the substance of the brain, describe the tongue of the woodpecker and the jaw of a crocodile, and give the measurement of a dead man using his finger as a unit.” And he illustrated his To-Do lists, meticulously and beautifully:

You can read more about his To-Do lists on Open Culture. I love this site – it’s so worth exploring, lots of free courses and images and ideas,  but make sure you don’t go down the Rabbit Hole of fascinating links and end up like I did, watching a free 1934 B Western John Wayne movie from their archives called The Lawless Frontier. (Don’t click that link – you’ve been warned).

I’ll announce the Friday Freebie winner on Monday – I’m putting it on my To-Do list.  Happy 2105, everyone!

(Note to self – rewrite resume . . . . . . . . . . .)

 

It’s the Shish-ka-barbies – – run away!

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What happens when I’m back home in the little studio on a cold, rainy day and I’m procrastinating about a jillion things, including making my New Year’s resolutions? I channel my inner Craft-Mama-Goddess and make Shish-ka-Barbie dolls instead!

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And I can hear you out there, saying, “Oh, Lyn – how can *I* make a Shish-ka-barbie of my own?” Never fear – one of my goals for the next year is to make more free tutorials, even if they do have a slightly Goofy Factor like this one. So here ya go –

But wait, there’s more – I’ll be giving away these guys as the first Friday Freebie of 2015, so stay tuned. Bye for now – hope you’re looking forward to a very Happy New Year!

 

A rainy train . . .

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Writing and rolling, on a train headed to Boston from New York’s Penn Station, gives me a unique perspective of a territory that’s unfamiliar in the first place, but darn near alien as it zips by at 80+ mph on a cold, rainy Christmas Eve day. The first time I tried to take a photo out of the window, it was blurry from the rain and the rail motion and speed. But – aha! – it was kind of impressionistic! I swear, there is beauty everywhere whether we notice it or not. Here are some accidentally arty iPhone photos that might just inspire some mixed-media work when I get back home to the Studio.

The train is getting close to Boston, so I’ll sign off for now, but not before wishing you a happy Christmas Eve (or a glorious December 24th if that suits you better) – I hope you are in a place that brings you comfort and joy.

‘Tis the season for walking the river (plus a bonus recipe)

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We decided on the spur of the moment  to drive downtown last night and walk along the San Antonio Riverwalk to see the bazillions of holiday lights hanging from the trees. The catch was the “drive downtown” part. I sometimes forget that San Antonio is the seventh largest city in the US, and it seemed like everybody had the same idea about going downtown. But we braved the snarling, honking traffic and, once below street level, were rewarded with a lovely stroll along a riverbank lined with lush vegetation and luminarias. And tourists, but they were nice tourists.

Here are some photos to put you in the holiday mood – I took them with my phone, so they are not exactly National Geographic quality, but you’ll get the idea. It’s the thought that counts:

So now that you’ve taken the Belisle Riverwalk Holiday Tour, you’re probably hungry, right? Well, never fear – here’s a wickedly good, super easy recipe from my friend PJ Valdez for Saltine Toffee. What does this have to do with the San Antonio Riverwalk? Not much, but it is good stuff after a walk in the cold. Besides, what’s not to like about chocolate, sugar and butter? ‘Tis the season, and man (or woman) cannot live on art alone!

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Hiss and myth

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OK, so I’m rather taken with cats. Or taken by cats. Whatever. But some of the most enjoyable small art pieces I’ve done lately are cat spirit figures – sorta like Spirit Dolls with cat heads. As part of this, I’ve been informally researching cats in mythology – they have been around a long time and have always been considered pretty weird and magical. For example, did you know that Ceridwen, the Welsh goddess of wisdom, was attended by white cats who carried out her orders on Earth? Or that, in Islam tradition, dogs are considered unclean, but cats – who frequently bury their own waste and rarely eat another animal’s feces – are not. I like that “rarely” part – I mean, a cat’s gonna do what a cat’s gonna do.

My new favorite cat story is about Freya, the Norse goddess of love and fertility and the wife of Odr (who disappeared right after they got married, but that’s another story). She rode in a chariot pulled by two Norwegian Forest Cats or Skogkatts. Here’s the photo to prove it, taken on the spot – Freyja_riding_with_her_cats_(1874)and the cats look pretty happy about the whole idea. No wonder it’s a myth.

I loved the idea of Freya’s cats, though, and my latest piece is called just that, Freya’s Cat. This is a powerful cat, rough-and-ready, able to pull chariots, leap tall buildings, or row boats (should Freya want to travel across a Fjord). This guy carries around a bunch of protective charms, just in case. I think he’s a pretty cool cat. Nice kitty!

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“Freya’s Cat” – Mixed Media Assemblage – Lyn Belisle – 2014

 

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“Freya’s Cat” (detail)

You light up my life?

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When I returned from my short trip to Colorado, Michael presented me with an early Christmas gift that he found at El Mercado, San Antonio’s Mexican Market. He said there was only one like it, and It’s definitely unique! It’s a mini-shrine to the Virgin Mary (I’m assuming) that is a concave image – but when the Christmas light bulb underneath the face is turned on, it appears three-dimensional. Check it out:vir2

When you look at the lighted image from the side, the eyes kind of follow you – it really does look rather eerie, but cool.vir1

But the *very* coolest part is that I can use it as a Face Shard mold. Strangely enough, the face that results from pressing into the shrine (below) doesn’t look a lot like the lighted image!vir4 Spooky.

Too bad, though, if you wanted a similar gift – I seem to have gotten the only Light-Up 3-D Illusion Virgin in the whole Mexican Market. You can, however, have a face made from this amazing object if you play your cards right.

 

Colorado ojo

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I’m in Coojolorado Springs visiting my dear friend and  long-time former studio partner, fiber artist Carol Mylar, whose yarn collection rivals pretty much anyone’s – complex textures and myriad colors and soft cords and strands of fur and glitz and homespun. It ‘s beautiful to behold.

While we were talking in her living room (and watching it get dark about 4:00 – yikes), I put together two twigs that I had found outside and began winding an Ojo de Dios, partly because I wanted to work with the yarns somehow, and partly because I’m giving a workshop on that subject later next year.

It’s a meditative process, turning and winding, tuning and winding – I had forgotten how nice it is to watch the “eye” grow in size and complexity. My little Ojo is not a thing of beauty, but it is a symbol of the woven, continuous threads of friendship and a reminder of a lovely Colorado afternoon.

 

Gilt trip

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Nothing like starting off the week with a really bad pun. Yesterday’s Gold Leaf and Walnut Ink workshop was a shining example of a perfect artful learning group! All nine participants (welcome, Ruthie from Poteet!) played beautifully together, encouraging each other and sharing ideas. This was a process workshop rather than a “product” one – we experimented and developed a slew of artistic options using only gesso, walnut ink and metal leaf. Take a look at the video and check out some of the beautiful results:

I’m excited about the upcoming 2015 workshops and am gradually getting everything linked. Beeswax Collage and Experimental Surface Design on Fabric are almost full, as is the new Spirit Dolls and the Sacred Traditions.

I’d love to have your feedback on workshops – send me an email if you have ideas! I’m headed to Colorado for a few days on Wednesday to see my dear former studio partner, Carol Mylar. A visit to her six years ago inspired me to get back into my art and to develop workshops. So, yay! Who knows what ideas I’ll come back with? Will send a report from cold Colorado Springs. Have a lovely Monday, and thanks for reading SHARDS.