So now, I bring you some art. Yes, I said art! I bet you thought this blogger had forgotten to do her art while she was away. Nope. It’s the only thing that kept me sane while I was on “hiatus”!

To the left is one of my more recent creations. It’s for Illustration Friday. The buzz prompt immediately made me think of the constant tinnitis that I have in my left ear. For those of you who don’t know, I have no hearing in my left ear due to an auto-immune disease. The only sound that is left in that ear is a buzzing or ringing sound. And this is my homage to my deaf and yet constantly buzzing ear! Ironic, eh?

I’ve noticed something about Illustration Friday – it seems to inspire me to pull out a Pigma micron (as I did here!) and just start drawing. No sketching or light pencil drawings – just jumping in. That’s not usually something I’ve done with drawing in the past, so this is a good and important challenge for me.

Some of you may recall the collages I did for my husband’s medical office. He really likes them and gets a lot of comments and questions about them! So husband likes the images in his office so much that he asked me to make some more collages for him that feature these 16th century anatomical images. And, of course, I’m happy to oblige!

So, here’s an 8″ x 10″ canvas I did for him. I used garnet gel to create the texture around the edges. Before adding that, though, I did my usual three or four miscellaneous layers. But this time I used liquid matte medium and my Caran d’ache Neocolors to create the color. The matte medium allowed me to layer the different colors on top of each other. Best of all, my DH really likes it. So it will go in his exam room along with some others I’m working on!

And there’s more! To keep myself sane during this time of no-computer, I did some more of my collaged/doodled backgrounds. It also happens to fit in really well with this week’s Artword, which is “graffiti”! I really find these quite soothing and fun to do while I’m sitting in front of the tv. I don’t feel quite as bad for letting my brain rot in front of the tube when I’m doing these. And, really, they’re done using some of my favorite products – Sakura’s Gelly Roll, Soufflé, and Permapaque pens. Since I don’t have to worry about the pen’s lightfastness, or whether it’s going to work, I am able to really enjoy the process.

To the left is a collage I created one day in December when I was looking back on the past year. I wanted to find positive words to describe myself. I think that at the end of a year, we’re always so self-critical. I’m think it’s important for us to think about the positive and good things that have happened. That’s what this collage represents for me. Words like, “brave”, “balanced”, “creative”, “happy” and “strong” are things that I found in myself in the past year. This is one of those collages that I will copy and put in other pieces of art, but it will also end up on the studio wall so I can see it when I hit those times of self-doubt all artists are prone to!

The collage to the right is not yet finished. The colors speak to me like a spring day – all positive and happy. I think it’s becoming an ode to my muse – Inspiration and Art. It is this muse that has helped me through my transitions this past year. I have some images that keep popping up in my mind for inside that center space, but I haven’t yet taken the time to work on that part. I will focus on that in the next few days, I think. But it all depends upon the muse as to whether it will come to me!

And yes, there is more, but I will save that for tomorrow! I need to photograph some larger paintings I’m working on. Those will be in tomorrow’s installment!

I have spent most of the day today and last evening learning how to get around my new Mac. Tomorrow, I will upload some of the journal pages I have been working on, an Illustration Friday drawing I did for the “buzz’ prompt, some other things. I have to say – i’m just happy to be back!

So I’ve been working on quite a few journal pages, taking my time with them, creating lots of fun backgrounds in-between. I was able to get the computer to recognize my card reader for a short time, so I was able to add this one photo for the blog. This is all made up of old journal pages and then I painted in the image of the woman. She’s not done, but she’s making her way there! I’m hoping to do more on this during the weekend. I’m taking my time with this one, watching it come to be what it wants when it wants…

Today I’ve been experimenting with my Caran d’ Ache Neocolor II’s and trying to find other ways to use them. I created some backgrounds with them, using liquid matte medium. It allowed me some of the flexibility that using water doesn’t allow. I can now layer the colors, creating more depth without adding a lot of bulk. I’m hoping to show this off soon. But again, the card reader is, shall we say, persnickity…

I hope you all have a happy New Year, in case I don’t get a chance to log on over the weekend. And I look forward to blogging with you all in 2007!

So, to say the least, I am not caught up on blogs. I am not feeling connected, scanning artwork is not an option right now. I can photograph things, and I hope to tonight or tomorrow morning. At the moment, nothing is complete enough to make it to that point.

I spent most of the weekend doing backgrounds and working on painting some fabric. I’m working on something for a friend ad I’m trying to figure out a marketing plan for 2007.

In the meantime, I’ll plug along and hope that I can get some artwork done in the next few days.

Happy New Year to all!

I spent most of yesterday re-installing all the programs (most of them), documents, music, and settings to my laptop, in-between my post-treatment naps. This week’s treatment was done more slowly – 2 hours instead of 1 – and it seems to have not hit me quite as hard. Less side-effects.

I’ve been terrible about reading blogs in the past two weeks. It’s not that I haven’t thought about all of you… It’s just that I’ve been focused on the holidays, getting ready for my treatment, and without a computer most days. Anyway, the blog entries are all sitting in Google Reader, awaiting my review. I will spend some time this weekend catching up, while you’re all drinking eggnog and spending time with your families.

I’ve done little art in the past week or so, but I’ve started to turn “She Dreams in Color” into an embroidered piece to use in the quilt journal for January. I think it’s probably time to stop adding the embroidery and I probably shouldn’t add the beading until after I sew it and quilt it. I’m wondering how the heck I could machine quilt without breaking beads, so I’m going to start picking fabrics from my little stash to start creating her.

Other than that, I’ve been doing quite a bit of organizing and I continue to purge things out of the studio. It’s really a good exercise. I’m finding that there are a lot of things I can get rid of.

And, after reading Lia’s blog, she may just have convinced me to play with some of these 1″ squares she’s pushing on all of us… Girlfriend, I may have to blame a potential new obsession on you…

I’ll post more tomorrow.  Have a good evening all and I hope you’ll all be doing lots of final preparations so you can enjoy your holiday weekend!

Yesterday, after taking my laptop to Best Buy (LOVE the Geek Squad!), I was near an antique mall I’ve wanted to go to for a long time. So, I went and wandered! I found some cool treasures. I found 20 antique photos that are perfect for artwork and altering! I also found what I thought was a big jar of buttons. When I dumped it out to see the treasures, I found that there was also a treasure trove of broken jewelry pieces, charms, and old earrings. I’m in heaven with my find! I’m doing Amber Dawn’s charm swap, so I can now start playing with the pieces I have to create my 21 charms! I can hardly contain the excitement!

I hope to have all the programs I need uploaded on DH’s computer this weekend so I can go ahead and do Manic Monday, so come back on Monday!

It appears that at some point on Thursday I broke the formatting of my blog. My web designer is aware of it, and she’s goign to get on it this weekend, but I just wanted you all to know that we are on it!

I’m headed to the Mesa Stamp Convention to helop a friend with her booth. Have an awesome Saturday!

Ta ta for now!