Crooked River Studio

The Passage of Time

2010-05-03T16:43:00.004-04:00

Although it's been nearly a year since my last post, I've been anything but idle. In October, I took a cruise with my husband and was inspired by the colors of the water at the beach in St. Thomas and the colorful fabrics and jewelry hanging in the little stalls on the French side of St. Maarten. In December we traveled to Memphis, TN to walk a 5K with friends to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where I was inspired by the life-giving work they are doing. In January, I accompanied some wonderfully talented friends to an art retreat in Oberlin, Ohio where I took a watercolor class, a class in clay, and a great techniques class using Tim Holtz designs. I've been spending lots of time with friends & family, going to the theater, reading and working in bursts in my little art studio. Since the cruise, I've been concentrating on my first altered book, titled "FantaSea". Only now does it not sound strange to read an artist's words, "I worked on this altered book for two years". I hate to admit that I like the instant gratification of working on something for 1 or 2 hours from start to finish... but when you have a number of pages to fill, the ideas don't come all at once. You create, and as you move through your days and nights, you get new ideas, or see items that you can use in the construction. Working on the altered book has been a very liberating experience - especially since I've been using lots of different media and techniques. I've been less afraid to experiment, and I've been very pleased with some of the results. I got a new digital camera & have been lax in seeing if it is compatible with my old, old computer that runs on a now-defunct version of Windows. An even better reason to speed up getting that new computer. Perhaps by then, I'll be ready to share complete pages from FantaSea.

Paper Dolls

2009-07-16T22:30:00.009-04:00

Until I started putting together whimsical figures and playing with paper shapes, I had forgotten how much I enjoyed playing with paper dolls as a child. I could spend hours fastening the little paper tabs over the cardboard figures and changing outfits over and over again before putting them away in their folders. How I wish I still had some of them today. I continue to love clothes and fashion and can lose myself for hours in the pages of Vogue admiring the colors, styles and accessories on display in its glossy layouts. I recently came across an article where a woman was creating fashionable hats for her "face" stamps, and I was so intrigued, I decided to give it a try. I really enjoy working with things that are limited only by your imagination. You will recognize the same stamps, but using different "fashions" creates different "personalities". No materials are off limits. I used doilies to create a virginal bride and a Balinese Princess. The same serene bride becomes a flapper, and using plastic egg cutouts from Easter confetti, I created a headdress. On another I created a turban with flowers, almost reminiscent of 1950's bathng caps. My favorite is the hat with the black flower and stamped plume; she's so elegant. This new technique will keep me occupied for some time!

Doodling

2009-05-24T15:20:00.008-04:00

Do you ever have a creative spark, but know you don't have enough time to really throw yourself into a project? 40 min. of precious free time, and by the time you pull out the perfect canvas & set up your paints, you have time to make one brush stroke before having to put everything away... Don't get me wrong - a brush stroke IS a start, but it doesn't give me enough gratification for the time allotted. Just as I keep a stack of plain white index cards for cartooning, I also keep an assortment of pre-folded cardstock and a handful of fine point pens such as Stabilo or Sharpie in an array of colors, and I make what I call "doodle cards". I just let my imagination run wild making curves and swirls and lines and shading them however it feels right to come up with some intricate designs. Each one is unique and can be a simple as a black & white design that is retro-inspired to a tri-color design that has faces of friends & family incorporated into them. One of my friends recently suggested that I do small ones on scrap paper that can be used in collage or as backgrounds for card-making. Lest I mislead you, doodle cards can take several hours - but the neat thing about them is that you can start & stop them, then pick the design back up again easily - and you can do them practically anywhere. It's a great stress-reliever, too. After several difficult months, I am leaving for Las Vegas tomorrow with family and friends for a celebration; I think I may take some supplies & make some doodle cards on the 4+ hour flight!

Cartooning

2009-05-02T21:06:00.007-04:00

High School art class stifled me creatively. I branded myself as "not in the least artistic" because I held myself to the standards of the precise. Drawings demonstrating perspective - railroad tracks disappearing in the distance & roads that evaporated into the horizon; sketches of buildings that were all right angles and straight lines. I don't remember the art teacher's name, but I can still see him, short and bald and extremely...exact. We did not explore the abstract, nor impressionism. A tree looked like a tree & a portrait was no place to express personality. At least (to be fair to the teacher) that's the way I remember it. I do recall, however, that he was a huge fan of Charles Schulz and Snoopy, & any kid who drew a Snoopy got extra credit. I thought this was incredibly lame, because to me, that was the most UNoriginal thing you could possibly do. Heck, there was already a guy who was famous for drawing Snoopy, so you were, in essence, copying - DUH! *grin*

Fast forward @ 20 years to find me having dinner with friends (one of whom attended high school with me) who were taking art lessons at the home of a teacher who happened to live in my area. Intrigued, I inquired as to whether the teacher might consider taking on another student. It was the start of a whole new world for me. Our teacher, Mary France, was (is still) a beautiful young woman inside & out with a gentle way of instructing - and the class was very free-wheeling. We could bring whatever we wanted to work on, & Mary would spend time with each of us individually, guiding us, giving us suggestions, & dispensing lessons about composition, color & light. At one time or another any of us could be working with pastels, oils, watercolor, colored pencil, etc.

Mary understood that I would never do a painting that contained straight lines. Once when I said, "I like painting landscapes, because there are so few straight lines in nature!" She replied, "Landscapes are more forgiving." It drew laughter from me... I loved that about Mary - she acknowledged that I wasn't a "precise" person - I didn't have that kind of eye, nor that kind of ability - yet she made me feel as though I had qualities that lent themselves just as well to other aspects of art, & encouraged me to build on those strengths.

I no longer fear drawing. I've sketched scenes from travels, peacocks with plumage on full display, and yes, even landscapes. Lately, I've taken to drawing cartoon/caricatures. When I'm feeling creative but pressed for time, I pull out a large, blank index card, a pen or marker, & just start to draw shapes that eventually come together to form not just a face, but a personality. I'm considering embellishing their clothing & jewelry - maybe even naming them - & making them into note cards.

Creative Fellowship

2009-04-28T22:12:00.007-04:00

This past Sunday, I joined a group of lovely and creative women at a fundraising event called a "Souper Scrap". The price of admission was $10, an appetizer or dessert, and a 2-liter bottle of soda. Large round tables were placed around a beautiful and light-filled church community room, with two places at each table. We were invited to bring whatever we wanted to work on, and the majority of the group chose scrapbooking (hence, the "Scrap" part of the theme). The "Souper" part was a play on words, as the main course of our meal was a delicious homemade Italian Wedding Soup.

My plans for the day were grandiose. Knowing we had 6 entire hours to work (the event was from 2-8 p.m.) I took several items from my "idea files" and enough art supplies to last a month... I ended up making postcards, 2 of which are pictured above.

This trend (working independently within a large group) is relatively new to me, as most of the time I am working alone in my studio space, listening to music or the Food Network (cooking is also a creative passion of mine) surrounded by all my "treasures" in the form of art supplies & found objects. But I find that being in the company of other creative women is inspirational in a number of ways. We share - techniques, ideas, successes and disappointments - and the fellowship of kindred spirits puts a special kind of energy into the air.

High Fiber

2009-04-25T13:18:00.002-04:00

After the Holidays, when the gray skies and snow flurries made it seem as though winter in the Cleveland/Akron area would never end, I was having lunch with my office mate, Diane, who described how her nephew had knit a scarf for his girlfriend for Christmas using a loom-type contraption called the "Knifty Knitter". I was vaguely familiar with the item, as my niece, Claudia, had asked for one as a gift the previous year. I kept wanting her to show me how it worked, but we never seemed to find the time.

I have long admired the talents of those ladies who could take a ball of yarn and with needles or hooks turn it into a piece of art. More than once I tried to learn to knit or crochet, but could never seem to get the hang of it, so with Diane's reassurance that it was easy, and her offer to walk me through the basics, I slipped into my boots, pulled the hood of my new red wool coat over my head and trudged down to the Jo-Ann store located at the end of our office complex to buy myself a Knifty Knitter.

I won't lie - in the back of my mind, I wondered if this would be yet another project that "seemed like a good idea at the time" but would wind up abandoned in the corner with my multitude other bright ideas (like the box of 25 clip boards in my studio - but I digress). One Knifty Knitter and ball of multicolored feathery-looking yarn later, I was hooked (no pun intended). Using the loom was easy, and relaxing. At the end of a long day, I could sit & listen to music, a book on tape, or even a television program, and knit a few rows. The best part was being introduced to an entirely new world where I could experiment with different color, texture and finish combinations to come up with some unique and fashionable pieces. Even as the weather gets warmer, I still find some space within my week to wind beautiful yarns through the pegs of my loom.

I am by no means a knitter..... In the face of those accomplished, amazing artists I'm a fraud - but I'm nevertheless pleased with my creations. I'm going one step further to try embellishing some of the scarves with sequins & beads. Hopefully toward autumn, I'll have a fair number of them to sell in order to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital through a group founded with friends called "Steps for St. Jude".

Winter Weekend Art Retreat

2009-01-12T14:16:00.001-05:00

This weekend (1/17 - 1/18) I will attend an art retreat with friends in Oberlin, Ohio where we will attend classes and also have an opportunity to work independently on our own projects after setting up individual studio space. Many of the attendees are cardmakers and scrapbookers. The retreat was a gift to me from a very dear and talented friend who makes the most beautiful cards. I'm very excited about rolling up my sleeves and freeing my creative spirit. I'm not sure what to take with me to work on during studio time; I'm used to having all my things around me so that I can reach for them at will, and I can't take the contents of my entire studio with me. Should I take the scrapbooking project from my recent vacation? Should I cut a stack of cardstock and work on ATC's? Should I take some small canvas boards, paints, stamps and other various odds & ends and create some collage art? Should I make some cards? I have so many ideas floating around in my head for projects I want to begin... collaged clipboards, altered books, jewelry, embellished fashions... It is one of the reasons I started this blog - so I would be motivated in the new year to make time for my creative pursuits. I thought if I had a place to share them and my thoughts about them, I wouldn't have my artwork always be the "If I have time" item on my agenda... Perhaps this retreat will be just the kick-start I need.

"Poster Art"

2008-11-28T10:58:00.002-05:00

My sister, Becky Boyd, is a talented blues singer who is well-known in the Greater Cleveland area, having performed solo and in various bands (currently, Becky Boyd & Real Life) for over 30 years. I created this collage to resemble a 70's style rock poster, but also to serve as a bit of a retrospective - incorporating items such as articles written about her, notes on awards, and promo pics with past bandmates, as well as a cherished photo of her with blues legend Robert Lockwood, Jr. The base of the canvas is acrylic paint. "NOW APPEARING" across the top and "BECKY BOYD" down the side are composed of distressed chipboard. The guitar strings are textured paint and the fret is studded with gemstones. I cropped a copy of an old promo photo to create a head shot & enlarged it in black & white until it had a grainy appearance. I then duplicated it in succession for a "movie reel" feel & used stamping inks to shade each frame for a Warhol effect. I opted to keep the lower border of copied photographs as they were originally, to match the published articles & to contrast the other colors in the piece. The entire work is coated with several layers of gel medium. While all of my artwork is a labor of love, this project was especially gratifying because my sister has a big talent and a big heart, and she is one of the most incredible treasures in my life. Even if she wasn't a stellar performer, she'd still be a rock star.