My First Digital Mandala

I just whipped up this digital mandala from one of my ATC images. I thought it turned out pretty good for my first try (with two kids going bonkers in the room to boot). I sometimes find digital manipulation too...cerebral to really feel like art to me, but it's a nice change of pace once in a while when I'm feeling stuck or burnt out. (Stuck being the issue today.) It helps to do something out of the ordinary while I let the issue that's bothering me work itself out.

I've done some other pieces this week as well, but without a scanner I can't post a lot of what I've been doing. Even the little crocheted basket I made won't show up well on the digital camera because it's a tad too small. I liked the way it turned out though. It has a sort of Southwestern/Native American pottery look to it. It is primarily turquoise and was crocheted with four different weights and textures of yarn at once. It's begging for beads though, so when I find the right ones I want to bead the rim. Don't know how I'm going to ever post it though if I can't get a good picture of it!

Hmmm...I just noticed that this mandala has a rather Southwestern/Native American feel to it as well. It's funny how what I've been reading about, talking about and looking at has an effect on my art whether I mean for it to or not. I've been reading and talking about alternative healing techniques and shamanism in various cultures, and I've been looking at a lot of Hopi and Mexican art. Can ya' tell?

Spider Web Inklin

I did a double duty inklin/devotion this morning. It's the only artsy thing I've managed to do all day, so I decided to consider it both my Daily Devotion for the day and my inklin for the challenge on that list this month.

When I saw that the inklin challenge this time was spider webs I thought back to when I was walking the dog a couple of mornings ago. While I'm standing there freezing my butt off waiting for the dog to do her business I start to notice little things - leaves in the gutter with interesting patterns, cracks in the sidewalk that look like faces. I actually like that time of day for that reason. I like being up and outside that early in the morning, even in winter. It's quiet and peaceful and it feels like the possiblities for the day are endless. We have yet to hit the fast paced frenzy of activity that our days usually consist of, so I still have time to notice the little things that I'll miss later on in the day. That particular morning it was an old spider web with frost on it that caught my attention. The sun was just starting to come up over the treeline and the frost on the web was beginning to melt into little droplets. With the sun shining through the drops it looked like the spider's web was all decked out in Christmas lights! As I was finishing the inklin my 2 year old insisted it needed a spider so, silly me, I tried to put it in the middle of the web. I should have hung it off one branch or the other cause it looks all cramped and shriveled up in there, like a too big drop of water or a blob of ink. Oh well. It seems like there's always something I wish I could do over. (It was done in silver ink on black drawing paper btw.)

Daisy Ditty Bag

I haven't really done much painting the last few days. Instead I've made several of these little bags. All of the ones I've made so far are blue for the simple fact that I have lots of blue yarn lying around. I don't tend to use blue much for myself. I think blue is used so much that it's almost a neutral color anymore. Think about it...most people consider blue jeans a "basic" and blue is the color most often chosen my people when they just want to blend in. Any medium blue tends to not be noticed.

But I digress. The bags are based on Dots Ditty Bag : http://bythehook.blogdrive.com/archive/163.html

I just love this pattern! It works up so quickly and easily. As you can see, I've been adding flowers to some of them to make them a little more "girly" for my daughter. She's absconded with all of the ones I've made so far and filled them an assortment of toys and goodies. Now I need to make one that's a little more "me". Hot pink is more my style.

I must be on another crochet kick because over the last couple of days I also made a new dishcloth and started a crocheting a swiffer style cloth, both out of cotton. The thing that got me started on that was this potholder stitch:

http://tinyurl.com/ygrw26

I also made the "fuzzy hat" in the other pic for my daughter this morning. It's a soft orange, fuschia and black little thing that took exactly one skein of yarn. She wore it around the house (completely naked otherwise, as potty training 2 year olds will do) most of the morning and as I'm udpading this she's doing so again. She's sitting on the floor playing with her most treasured posessions - her Littlest Petshop Pets that she got for Yule - in her hat and her birthday suit.

Dirty Little Words

I can't post a picture with this, but I had to post about it anyway. My husband has declared some of my newfound art groups "just plain weird" and he's right...but they suit me and my tastes to a T. Just when I'm feeling bored with the same old themes on the rest of my groups, one of these lists will come up with some outrageous, off the wall idea that makes me want to go rushing to my art area. My favorite groups all do swaps geared toward the odd, the unusual, and even the "distasteful". They often cause me to take the crass, the moronic, the ugly, the gross - the things we often try to hide - and see them in a new light.

The latest in my odd swaps was a mini ATC swap using swear words...but not just ANY swear words, mind you. These had to be glittery, sparkly, FUN swear words. Take your favorite 4-letter words and turn them into ART! It sounds totally goofy, I know, but it was just the sort of release I needed after a difficult last few weeks. Just seeing my favorite cuss words (and some of my least favorites as well) all decked out in glitter and rhinestones was a sight to behold. Wish I could scan them and show you all, but it's still broken and my camera can't take pictures of things that are quite that tiny (1.5"x2.5"). Then again, I know some people have read this blog with their kids, so maybe it's a good thing I can't post them!

I was sitting there looking at one of the finished pieces and thought to myself "I could make a big painting of one of these words to go in my new house!" I can just see people's faces when they walk into my home and see a big, glittery, bejeweled "F" word on the wall above the fireplace. LOL That would just crack me up! Primarily because so many people think I don't cuss. (Ha!)

Daily Devotions

I've been on a list for artists called Daily Devotions for a while, but with the New Year I've finally made the commitment to follow up on it. Basically it is just a commitment to create every day for a year. It doesn't matter what you create as long as you do something to further yourself. I'm hoping that two things will come of this. One, that the need to create something EVERY day will push me to do more art than I am currently doing. And two, that it will cause a shift in my perception and I will recognize creativity while it's happening, especially when I'm not doing something "artistic". Creativity happens all the time, not just when I'm painting or drawing, but I sometimes forget that. I get so caught up in "life" that I don't notice the magic, the creativity, going on around me. So, here's my post for day one of my Year of Art. I did this last night while the kids were pulling another all nighter. It's a crayon batik but I haven't ironed it yet, so it's still in a rather crumpled stage. I'm not terribly happy with this one. I did another one before it that I liked much better. The colors were much more vibrant and the paint more bold, but the paper I used completely dissolved while I was washing it. That's what I get for using cheap paper. Oh well, live and learn. I did this one on watercolor paper, but I don't like the look as much as I do with thinner paper. Maybe I need to get some thinner watercolor paper and try that. Anyway, this one tore in a couple of places, so I'll probably find that areas that I like and crop them into ATCs. I saved the first one as well and put the pieces that were left onto a flexible cutting board (my all-purpose art mats) to dry. It actually looks pretty cool - like a fractured rainbow. I want to add those pieces to a future painting.