New work, new face, new mix-up

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I’ve just finished work for the Fotoseptiembre show at Northwest Vista College – it’s called Mixing It Up. These two pieces are indeed a mix-up of media – heat phototransfer on fabric with encaustic and mixed media over stretched canvas. My model, Ellis, is a good friend’s daughter whom I’ve known since she was a baby – what a wonderful face. She did a half-hour photo session with me and I was inspired by her expressive eyes to create this duo called “Bound” and “Determined.” (I borrowed the dove in the second piece from my friend, Ramesh, a fantastic photographer who is now on a safari shoot in Africa – I steal only from the best 🙂) This exhibit opens on September 18th, but there will be a celebration of art through photography all over the city. Viva Fotoseptiembre USA! And now, to the Friday Freebie winner . . .


Dani Wildason was the randomly drawn winner of the five-pack TerraSkin mixed-media stone paper. Dani, let me know how you’d like to claim your prize – hope you’ll drop by the Studio and say hi! Speaking of claiming Friday Freebies, Rob in Australia, I owe you a Studio t-shirt! Your name was drawn way back in January – check the end of this post!

Friday Freebie: Rock Paper . . . . .

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Were you gonna say “scissors”? Nope, this is about Rock Paper! I got this email from my uber-talented pal, Sherrill Kahn, right before I went Boston – “You have to try Terra Skin—paper made from stones.  I bought a lot of it. It is really amazing.  I think you would love it.” So I ordered some. It came while I was gone, and I played with it this morning. It’s very cool! The Terra Skin surface reminds me of Yupo, but it’s totally fiber-free and mineral based (no trees were killed). Here are some of my first test scribbles (I labelled them with Photoshop):

stonepaper

You might want to give this stuff a try – it says the surface is appropriate for mixed media, acrylics, graphite and inks, and oils – doesn’t say anything about wax, but hey – why not? And if you need ideas, check out the TerraSkin blog, titled (appropriately), GET STONED. Love it.

OK, so the Friday Freebie is a five-sheet package of TerraSkin paper – I’ll mail it to you if you’re out of town, or you can pick it up at the Studio if you’re nearby. There are two rules for winning the random drawing – ONE, you have to be a SHARDS subscriber by Sunday at midnight (just enter your email on the blog homepage at the top right) and TWO, you have to give us a report on how you like using it and what you did with your very own Terra Skin rock paper. Off to the Studio, happy to be home – happy weekend, everyone!

Painting with Ellen Rolli – unchain my art

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I spent three hours yesterday talking and painting with abstract artist Ellen Rolli at her SoWa studio in Boston. It was a pretty transformative experience – Ellen has a fearless relationship with her work that is contagious (see her website). I am so grateful for a chance to work with her, and am still processing a lot of what I learned, but thought I’d share a few photos and a book recommendation from Ellen. Yesterday’s objective was not to produce a finished painting, but to work in a more intuitive and liberating process with the paint. It was cool.


I learned to trust the painting process a lot more. That is the title of a book that Ellen recommended for me which I’ve already ordered:

trust

 

 

And I’ll leave ya with a quote from Hans Hoffman that I found on Ellen’s website –
“Every successful canvas has been painted from the point of view of a student, for a great painter is always a student.”
Thank you, Ellen! Hope to see you on my next visit.

First Friday, Boston-style

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Boston has a thriving arts district on Harrison Avenue, south of Washington (SoWa). I got to check out their First Friday, and came back with a huge stash of new ideas. There was *lots* of exciting encaustic work. We were particularly impressed with Robin Luciano Beaty‘s work with wax, mixed media and found objects:

Refuge No. 24-29 Encaustic, m/m and found objects 42 x 24″

 Even more exciting was getting to meet Ellen Rolli, a Boston abstract painter whose work I love – and I’m going to have a private painting session with her on Sunday! I had contacted her by email, and the timing worked out – will send a report. Here’s a sample of her work – it’s energetic and mysterious and totally engaging:

Glimpses acrylic and mixed media 36″x 36

There were lots and lots of photographic mixed media works – here’s one I liked a lot by artist Melody Postma:

Slightly shifting the subject to using photographs in your own art work, here’s *sort* of a Friday Freebie – Cloth Paper Scissors magazine just send me a link to a free eBook with four tutorials on digital artmaking. They have a lot of good free tutorials, but this is one of the best if you’re wanting to know more about digital processes and aren’t an expert (who is??). Here’s the link:

http://www.clothpaperscissors.com/Digital-Art-Tutorials/

You can download it and even print it out.You do have to sign up for an account if you don’t have one, but there are no strings attached and you can access a lot more of their good information if you do.

That’s it for now – gotta rest up for the Red Sox/Yankees game today at Fenway!  More soon from your roving arts and sports reporter in Boston . . . . have a great weekend.

Kids, collage, and creativity

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Several weeks ago, a dear friend asked if her grandchildren (seven of them, ranging in age from 18 months to 11) could come to the Studio to do an art project while they were in town for a visit. And yesterday, they came!kidscrop
I was curious to see whether their inexperienced little hands could possibly manage the collage project we’d been doing in my workshops during July, using altered papers created with Citra-solv to make landscape collages.

Holy cow! These kids took it to a new level. The four-year-old said, “If I put markers over this crazy paper, it turns it green.” Hey, YEAH – layering transparent marker over the altered paper gives spectacular results! Who would have thought?? Then there was the eight-year old who added a marbled sun with torn flames all around it. And the 11-year-old who layered her glue and gold leaf to make a dimensional metallic ridge. And on and on. These kids had no fear when it came to making art and jumping off the Directions Page. Not one of them asked “Is this right??“ I wish I had thought to ask permission to show photos of their faces as they worked – total immersion and concentration. Guess who re-learned a big lesson? Me, and I will strive to make art like a kid, fearlessly and with great joy. Juice packs and graham crackers seem to help . . . .

And now, for your viewing pleasure, here are some of the wonderful collages that were created in this month’s workshops by the grownups (who obviously channeled their creative inner child!):

 

 

Cheesy video, great afternoon!

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Darn it! If only I had remembered to take my video camera to yesterday’s Show and Tell at the Studio – it was the best ever. But I did make a little sampler of some of the presenters with my iPhone – unfortunately, you will have to put up with the “black bands” on the sides and the goofy volume. But it was a blast (see first segment). Thanks to everyone who came, and especially to the diversely talented show-and-tellers – we’ll do it again next month (probably Saturday, Aug. 23rd).

Simple altars and luminous objects

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The completed piece

“The Guardian of the Golden Bough” – Altar Assemblage, Lyn Belisie, 2013

Celebration Circle’s “One People, Many Paths: Sacred Art of Altars” exhibit opens on September 1st, and I am ready! Last year, when I was invited to participate in this wonderful event, I struggled with several ideas, including putting a Spirit Doll inside the box, which, unfortunately, made it look like a coffin. Yikes. My (finally) finished altar from last year was called The Guardian of the Golden Bough (left). It was a good solution and popular with the silent auction bidders.

This year’s altar, “Luminosity,” came together almost all by itself – I found a small branch in the driveway as I was bringing in the bare altar box and propped it against the side. Perfect – and after that, everything just came together, including the quote mounted on plexiglass which says, “It is when the ordinary becomes luminous that we are transformed.” The altar is white, simple and luminous, made from ordinary objects.  Simple is good. I am happy!

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“Luminosity” – Altar Assemblage, Lyn Belisle 2014

But I often wonder why some pieces, such as last year’s altar, are such a struggle to make, and others, like this year’s, seem to fly into your hands as if they knew they were supposed to be there. It’s a mystery. Let me know if you have the answer.

DSCN3240PS – No Friday Freebie this week, but if you are around, don’t miss tomorrow’s Show and Tell at the Studio from 2-4 – it’s definitely free, and you’ll get all kinds of free tips and techniques from the participating artists. The resident chef will be there, too, to show you a cool culinary trick. Hope to see you at Show and Tell!

Workshop wowsers with household cleaner

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That Citra-Solv stuff just keeps on giving – it cleans up cat barf (personal experience), it’s organic and smells good, and it goofs up old magazine pages and turns them into art paper. I learned about it when artists Bonnie Davis and Rosemary Uchniat demo’d it at the first Studio Show and Tell (the next one is this Saturday, 2-4, so be there). Two workshops later, we’re having a great time combining Citra-solved paper with impeccable composition and inspired vision and turning it into lovely small artwork. Here’s a short video from yesterday’s collage workshop – look what these guys did!

If the altered paper process intrigues you, here’s a great tutorial from good old Cheap Joe featuring Cathy Taylor, who really specializes in collage with Citra-solv papers. It’s a lot of fun to play around with.

Franni and me and tea . . .

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It would be nigh impossible to pry my hand from my Diet Dr. Pepper, but my artist friend Franni Farishon may be changing all that – she visited me at the Studio a couple of days ago, and boy, did I learn a lot about the Joys of Tea. The Good Kind. Franni brought some mind-blowing loose tea samples from Discover Teas in Virginia (which is owned by her daughter Chris) to share. Here’s a delightful picture that Franni drew of our tea-for-two party.

_frannitea

Drawing by Frances Farishon

Some things that surprised me – first, you can brew a fabulous cup of tea in just three to five minutes – and you don’t have to use boiling water. We had a delicate Cream Earl Grey that tasted like vanilla bergamot blossoms and brewed in practically no time – it was fun to watch it steep, and it really did taste creamy and silky without anything added. I also learned about Puerh. It’s a fermented tea that can be steeped over and over again all day long, and will yield new and different flavor notes with each steep. Wow. Finally, the aromas of the different teas are practically hypnotic.

So I ordered some teas from Discover Teas along with a Tea Press (who knew?) and when they arrived, quick as lightning, I brewed up a cup of Tropic of Jasmine – swoon. The cup came from Franni, who asked her daughter to include in the package it as a gift for me. Tea drinkers are so nice! So, OK, all you tea drinkers out there in SHARDS Land – why didn’t you tell me what I’d been missing?? This stuff is amazing! Thanks, Franni and Chris!

Here are some more photos of Franni’s Tea Tutorial (she brought cookies, too- yay!):

PS – speaking of SHARDS Land, the winner of the Friday Freebie gift certificate to Mulberry Paper and More and a Lotus Book kit goes by the email of  “clayartist@cox.net” – congratulations! I don’t recognize your name by your email, but thanks for subscribing and I’ll send along your prize as soon as you are kind enough to send me your name and address. Thanks, and happy Monday to all!

 

 

Friday Freebie – pretty paper prizes

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You know how sometimes you recommend sources just because you like their stuff? That’s the way I feel about Mulberry Papers and More – I’ve been ordering from them for a long time and have their link on my sidebar. Here’s an example of the kinds of papers you can order from them for about $5 – a giant (2’x3′) sheet of Marbled Momi Paper.

 

Anyway, I got a nice email from the president of the company saying they’d gotten some traffic from SHARDS and were sending a $5 gift card that I could use as a Friday Freebie. Pretty cool!

That’s half of this week’s Freebie, and the other half is from me – a kit to make your own Lotus Book (with directions, of course). So one lucky SHARDS subscriber, new or old, good or bad, will be in a drawing for a $5 gift card to Mulberry Papers and More plus a Lotus Book Kit from yours truly. Thanks, as always, for subscribing to SHARDS and supporting what goes on at the Studio. Good luck, and happy weekend!

Lotus Book with pop-out pages

Lotus Book with pop-out pages