Birds of Sadness

I puttered with this canvas today, adding embellishments to the bird and the words. My heart is very sad today, because of issues with my Heart. Nuff said, back to Art.

Am debating whether to add UTEE in an iridescent color around the words. Thoughts?

His Heart Ache was Real- Revised

I used my artistic license to revise the finished version of this cabinet card. I kept looking at it, thinking, something is not right.....and with the addition of a few more threads, it looks just right now.

Working on the yellow Bird canvas next....

His Heart Ache Was Real completed

Worked a half day at work today, shopped for a birthday present, came home to lay down for a "minute" and yup, just woke up at 9pm. Decided to put the finishing touches on "His Heartache was Real" and share them. I cut little roses out of scrapbook paper, distressed them, used UTEE on the heart, ripped it. And after a wash of gesso, some glitter glue, (Stickles) Voila, finished.

I love my japenese screw punch. It works wonders on these thick cabinet cards.
Hope you like him!!!

"Yankees Collage" Continued - *Spoiler Alert*

Moving right along with my Yankees collage. I'm loving the creative process and the results, so I'm going to do a series of 3 collages. Below are the results of : cutting several pieces of acid free tissue 8 1/2 x 11, glue sticking the edges of card stock, laying the tissue on top, and running it thru my printer. There was a tiny bit of running on the red logo, but nothing that won't be hidden under several more layers of paint, anyway. I cut out the logos, and used Golden Soft Gel to adhere to the canvas. I edged them with some Paynes Gray to blend.

Printed Lou out on an Apollo Ink jet printer Transparency. Painted the back of his face and neck with Titan Buff. He's not glued on yet, I still have numbers and words and I'm thinking of having another player standing on his shoulder.
Let me know what you think!!

KoKo Taylor- QUEEN of the BLUES

I spent the best part of this weekend at the Riverfront Blues Festival in Wilmington, Delaware.
I was thrilled to get the opportunity to see the Blues Legend, KoKo Taylor perform.
But First!!!
We jammed to the Larry McCray Band.

Ok, I'm cheating, this photo is not from the concert, but we were right in front of the band and I didn't want to lose my place because of course I left my camera back at the chairs. duh. He is a great guitarist. On his website you can hear cuts from his new CD. Of course, my favorite song is called "Big Black Hole" (where once was a heart).Gotta have it!

Then: Li'l Ed and the Blues Imperials.

OMG Li'l Ed is totally and completely amazing. He plays to the crowd, is Majorly charismatic and an amazing guitarist. Again, I didn't have my camera so the photo below is from his website. He wears a fez, is about 5 foot 5 inches tall, but is so full of energy you won't believe it. He dances on his toes too. Great voice.

We were bummed to have missed Micheal Burks, who went on stage before we arrived. Lucky for us, Li'l Ed called Michael out on stage and they jammed together. Michael was the greatest guitar talent of the day, IMHO.

Now for the QUEEN!!!! KOKO TAYLOR!!!

KoKo is 80 years old and appears very fragile. She needed assistance on and off the stage. BUT, then she got the mic in her hand and HOLY HELL BATMAN she WAS the BLUES.

Here's the Proof:

These photo's were taken by my Heart, as we stood up to the very front of the stage. oh yeah.
KoKo's husband hovered around on stage with hanky's for her to mop up with, and water to keep hydrated. She also had another assistant watching her from the sidelines who made sure the Blues did not overpower the Queen. KoKo was so sweet, expressing her gratitude and love for the audience, and we gave it back to her tenfold. You would not believe the power that comes out of this 80 year old Legend.
We were also very fortunate to get to hear a duet between Sharrie Williams and KoKo.
For an encore KoKo did "Wang Dang Doodle" .

It just doesn't get any better than that.
Keep the Blues Alive.

His Heart Ache Was Real

I'm having a great time altering Cabinet Cards. I love it. This one is a work in progress. I've used Sharpies, Portfolio water soluable oil pastels, plastic corners, white gel pen, little roses cut from scrapbook paper and a heart stamp from B-Line Designs. I was fortunate to take a "Metals" class from Beverly, the talented owner of this company, at my local scrapbook store, The Scrapbook Station". We pounded wire, used 10 Seconds studios tools, played with duct tape and mesh. It was a great class. I stamped this image during class and brought it home with me. Beverly ran out of the stamps before I had a chance to purchase one. The stamp is called Torn Heart duo, and some day I will buy it!! More to come on this one.....

New York Yankees Collage *Spoiler Alert*

For my next ACT: A collage in honor of the closing of Yankee Stadium. I am a baseball plebe, and can only hope I do the Yank's proud.
Using an 8x10 stretched canvas, started out with some Goldens Hansa Yellow Medium Acrylic.

Added acid free tissue for texture and washes of G's Transparent Oxide Red/orange etc.
  Yankee's ticket sales brochure in which I found the poem and dated image of Yankee Stadium. Sanded the image and did a wash of Payne's Gray.

Printed out a pic of Lou Gehrig with Babe Ruth onto a transparency. Cut it out close and gel mediumed that sucker on. I like the way the texture and colors show thru.
Added more paint and a photo of Lou Gehrig with some other Yank's.
The focal point is going to be a gel transfer or painted transparency of a very young Lou Gehrig. Lou happens to be my favorite Yankee.
Stay tuned.......

New Header

How do you like it?? I'm an HTML dummie. If I wasn't, the title would be centered on the photo. sigh. Anyhoo the header photo is a collage I did for an envelope round robin. Our group was called Thingmakers, hosted by Leighanna Light. Our group met during Leighanna's "Ultimate Passion Book" class at Art and Soul in Virginia. Lots of great work. Scroll back in time to my old post and read all about the class and see my finished envelope! I just saw Leighanna's "King, and "Queen of the Lopes" artwork that was inspired by our project in LK Ludwig's new book, "True Vision: Authentic Art Journaling." Can't wait for my next Border's Rewards Coupon!