Valentine's Day Cards

I think I signed up for a few too many V-day swaps! I felt like I did nothing but V-day cards this week and ended up hating most of them. These are a few that I did like though. Once I finally moved away from the pre-made Valentine stuff I had and started from scratch I enjoyed the process much more and these cards were the result.

I started out with the one on the bottom. I call it "Opposites Attract". When I started I wasn't thinking 'Valentine's Day', I was thinking 'what do I want for breakfast?' My husband had left a crushed styrofoam cup on top of the trash so I pulled it out and started doodling on it while thinking about the whole breakfast thing. The little spirals started turning into hearts here and there and I liked the way they looked so I cut up the cup, slathered it with red paint and used it to stamp on some card stock. The result was the background behind the black and white heart on "Opposites Attract" as well as the red background heart on the "LOVE" card. I liked the effect so much that I just kept playing with it. I started making those little doodle hearts and spirals on other scraps of paper. I especially like the way they looked in gold ink on the black rice paper, that's why there's so much of it. I never did get around to breakfast btw.

The first card is a leftover from the finger painting swap I participated in a few weeks ago. I cut up most of the leftovers from that process to use as backgrounds and shapes in other cards. (I don't think I ever throw out any scraps anymore!) I was feeling uninspired that day and bored with some of the cards I had made so I just started playing with the paint. I kept looking through the scrap bin and those finger painted cards kept calling my name. I had SO much fun with those! So I pulled one out and decided to throw a couple of ugly heart tags that I had lying around on it and spatter paint it. Several coats of red acrylic spatters later I had something that started to talk to me. When I pulled of the hearts I found that one of them had a black streak through it that I liked so I made more lines which made the hearts pop a little more. Then I noticed that the original fingerpainted background had a nice swooshy pattern that made the hearts look like they were going to crash. I used gold ink to play up the swooshy effect then couldn't decide if I liked it so I called it a day. The next day I decided that it looked like two hearts on a collision course. I found myself wondering if they'd actually collide or if it would be a near miss. I thought about how it kind of reminded me of fate. Maybe those two hearts were soul mates and were meant to collide so that they could fulfill their destiny. I decided I liked it and called it "Collision Course".

Gypsy's Soul Cards

My Gypsy's Soul cards are done. Some of them I love, some are just okay, but that's the way it goes. Like my former art teacher used to say...for every 100 works an artist does, there will be ONE that is "good enough". I've found that to be a good approximation of the truth time and time again.

I tried to stick with images of gypsies that most people would be familiar with for the images on these cards - music, dancing, fortune telling - while adding a little bit of lesser known stuff - mainly Romani phrases. I can't vouch for their accuracy since I know no Romani personally, but I liked the idea. I believe these phrases were Anglo-Romani and I found them on a web site after a little digging. I wrote some of the phrases down in my notes but didn't think I would use them so I didn't bookmark the page. If I find it again I'll update this post to give credit to the site. As I mentioned before, "Na bister 500,000" means "don't forget the 500,000" and is in reference to the number of Romani who died in Nazi Germany. Some of the other phrases I used were "Amaro baro them" (our ancestral homeland), "O manusha kheleran tut" (the people make you dance), and "Ashen Devlesa Rovale" (may you remain with God). "Sara la Kali" (Saint Sara/Black Sara) can be thought of as the patron saint of the Romani. Many Romani make a pilgrimage to Saintes Maries de la Mer in France every year to visit the crypt of Saint Sara.

This swap is for up to 9 cards and you will notice that there are 10 here. I made the Saint Sara card for myself to add to my growing collection of Divine Feminine cards. (If any other ATC artists want to trade cards of a Divine Feminine nature - Goddesses, Saints, etc., let me know!)

I've learned so much about the Romani peoples from researching this that it will probably be a recurring theme for me. There are so many ways that I could explore this theme besides collage.

A Few New ATCs

"The Cat Couple" and "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" are from a zettiology inspired swap that I just sent out. They were kind of fun, but I don't know if I'll do more like these or not. The Cat Couple came out kind of dark so it's difficult to tell that it says "We were made for each other" on it.

ATC #2 is from a "Gypsy's Soul" swap that I'm currently working on. the basic idea is to create images that a "gypsy" might think or dream of. It's the first in the series of 9 and I liked the way it turned out. The phrase "Na bister 500,000" is a Romani phrase the means "never forget the 500,000". It is in reference to the gypsies that were killed in Nazi Germany. I obviously have several more of these in the works and will post some of the ones I like on here. Some ATC artists make 9 of the same or similar cards for a large swap like this. I usually prefer to make 9 totally different cards to more fully explore the theme. Both ways are acceptable.

The last ATC is from a photo of my daughter sleeping. I turned it into a black and white line image on a computer photo program, colored it lightly with colored pencils, then layered it with a couple of layers of light green rice paper. I have several swaps coming up where I may trade this card. I have a children themed swap, a love themed swap and a mother themed swap coming up - any of which would be a possible avenue for trading this one. I liked this image of my daughter so much that I did print several of them and will probably make more with this same image.

A few of my ATCs

I finally got a few of my scanned ATCs to upload! I have tried several times and it would come up blank. These are but a few of the cards I've been making the first and second I traded in a private blind swap, the third was from a Sun, Moon & Star group swap and the last one was from a finger paint group swap.I actually give most of my cards titles so that I can find them in my files once I've swapped them out. The first is "Cherish Love" (a no-brainer), the second is "Parrot in Flight", the third is "Moon Face", and the last is "Ghosts". The last three are some of my absolute favorite cards. Too bad the scanned image doesn't do "Ghosts" justice.

ATCs, art and life in general

I started this blog primarily to keep a record of some of my art endeavors. After I started a blog for my Found Art I decided that I really wanted one for my other art, especially my ATCs. On this blog I hope to explore some of the different techniques I try as well as some of the things I learn about myself as I create .

I'm the mother of two kids who rightfully tend to take up the majority of my time. And since we are an unschooling family there will be no sending them off to school while I work! I must work with my kids in mind at all times. ATCs have been my saving grace. They have allowed me to regain some of my former life (and my former self) without sacrificing my time with my kids.

I haven't had a studio in quite some time. When I made the decision to give up my studio I expected to only be without it for a year or two. I was pregnant with my oldest child, who is now 9 (!), so I didn't figure I would be getting much art done during those couple of years anyway. But circumstances changed and I didn't end up being in a position to get another studio when I had hoped. When I realized that I had gone for almost a decade without doing anything I could seriously call art I freaked! It had been in the back of my mind for quite some time, but I kept pushing it away thinking that soon we would be settled and I could have a studio again. But all the while it still got to me. I had been going a little crazy from lack of creative outlets for quite some time. I was mildly depressed and getting snippy. I needed to do something creative but painting was still out due to lack of space, so I took up crocheting and knitting. Great fun, but not the same as pushing paint around on a canvas. ATCs to the rescue!

ATCs IMO are (to quote Mary Poppins) "practically perfect in every way". I can create them in a small amount of space. (Unfortunately that space is usually my dining room table!), and unlike large scale paintings which I tend to lose myself in for days at a time, ATCs have easily defined starting and stopping points. I don't get as "sucked in" to ATCs as I do large scale paintings - a definite plus with kids around 24/7. ATCs can be (notice I said CAN be) inexpensive and can make the most of found objects. They use only tiny bits of paint, papers, etc. Great when you're on a tight budget like we are. They are also just the right size to explore techniques without a large investment of time and money. And perhaps best of all, my son and I can do them together! So far, I can't find a single thing I don't like about them. That may change in the future when I get the urge to paint large again, but for the time being they are perfect. And when I do get to paint large again I will have explored lots of techniques and mediums that I may not have tried if I were painting solely on a large scale...or if I were sitting around doing no art and waiting for that studio that doesn't seem to be making an appearance any time soon.