NY Resolution 2010: Think Outside The Box

I'm working (and salvaging at the same time, teehee) an 8 x 10 mixed media canvas. During drying times and brainstorming, waiting for an idea, truth be told, I played around with 2 ATC's. Since I'm not ready to share my canvas, I'll share these 2 "out of the box" for me ATC's. I collect rubber stamps, I love them because I can't draw. I under utilize them and decided to bring em out and shake things up. There are so many inks, powders, paints, and all kinds of techniques that are available to make that stamped image your own individual piece of art. Here is what I came up with, "Black Gold":
I used the back of an old paperback as the substrate, and tried that ink swish method. ie use a non stick craft sheet, dab inks on it mist with water, then lay the card down and swish or smoosh it around. Yeah, it looked like crap, wiped that off. Tim Holz uses this technique a lot. I have no swish skills. sigh. So I just took a make up sponge dabbed the ink pad and dabbed the ink around on the card. I used a sage green, a goldish, and a burgundy. Then I stamped in black the flourish and embossed it with black embossing powders. ohh ahhh. shiney. I took a square of my handmade paper and inked the flower image, its one of Fred B Mulletts stamps. I took a piece of black paper I bought and gold embossed a leaf on it, but it didn't turn out very shiny. Wrapped some thread around card and taped on a flower charm. Sharpie'd the edges and layered with gold and then black paper. I did this quickly, rummaged around my paper scraps box. I tried to use this as an exercise to stretch out of "my style" and see what happens. Not using words, or having a sarcastic, or humorous, or R rated slant to my work is definitely out of the box for me. I was really kind of surprised with what I came up with. I may be spending some time forcing myself to work differently in order to refresh. I think that is a lovely New Year's Resolution, don't you?

I also really like the artist's who add stitching and fabric to their art. My friend PB, of Barn Owl Studios told me about an artist I never heard of before, Rebecca Sower, who utilizes fabric in her work, quite beautifully. Another artist, along similar lines, Ruth Rae, does gorgeous work I have admired for a long time. I have mentioned before that sewing on a sewing machine for me would be like driving a space shuttle. I have one gathering dust, but I am afraid of it. So I bought one of those hand held wheel thingys that pokes even holes when you roll it across paper and filled the holes with thread. Yeah, I bought it like two years ago and just took it out of the packaging. I should be a third generation quilter, my grandmother and mother are unsurpassed in their quilting skills. They tried to teach me. See that picture up there with my two brokn arms??? How do you think that happened? you guessed it, sewing lessons. teehee. not really tho. So instead of using fabric, altho I have several tubs of it from my mom, I used a napkin and mulberry paper on this one called "Buried in Trees":

You probably don't believe me, but those words are taken from "Wuthering Heights". Anything that is worthy in life can be taken from "Wuthering Heights". teehee. So the black card stock has a bit of the stem from Fred B. Mulletts Teasel stamp, that I bleached stamped. I used the German scrap bird, layered the papers, rolled that hole making thing, and filled those holes with red and a gold/black glittery thread from my cross stitching days. Dabbed a bit of ink on the blk and white napkin. So there you have it. This is a lot of writing about 2 average and humble ATC's. What makes them special, to me anyway, is that I tried to think intuitively and quickly, force myself to think outside of the box. They are a beginning only, and I'm hoping my findings from these exercises will help my "personal style" of art making evolve. How do you challenge yourself to keep your art work evolving? Please share your process, I'd love to hear. xoSusan

Woefully Ill Read ATC

This ATC starts with a page from "Wuthering Height's" left over from the "All Things Books Swap" I posted about previously. The phrase is from Zoe Heller's "Notes On A Scandal". And you thought I was this witty all by myself!! Nope, my inspiration comes from the written word and from Awesome Blues Lyrics. For example, how about "I'd rather be sloppy drunk than anything else I know". How funny is that, I can't make up this stuff. So here it is:

Notice he's reading a book titled "Love 101". yeah. I went there. teehee. xoSusan

All Things Books

I'm working on a set of ATC's for my arttechniquesATC's group. The subject is "All things Books". You could go in sooooo many directions with this one. I was gonna "do" sarcastic and use a man with a book, LOL, but decided against it. "Men With Books" will come later. Much later.Like Never. teehee.
I am really enjoying participating in swaps this year. It's a creative stretch to work with subjects another artist has chosen. My apologies, I made that sound way too much like exercise, teehee. Anyhoo, I covered both sides of cardboard with text from "Wuthering Heights". I had a very old copy, from my youth, completely falling apart. Did a couple washes of paint. Found an ornate book cover from a purchased collage sheet. (can't remember where, sorry)Printed it to transparency. Did a transfer using Purell, and had success. This was my first transfer using this technique. Lay down some Purell, lay down the transfer, Here is the Trick I learned from Many Failed Attempts, Do Not Move IT, Do NOT BURNISH. Let the Purell suck the ink onto the page. One or two minutes later lift off the transparency. Done. The Purell works far better for me than using an alcohol spray. I'm a convert now. I love how distressed it looks, see for yourself:
Wow, my work surface is about a 6" space. Here is what is left on the transp after transferring. Because I am a total pack rat, I will keep these to use as a layering device on another project.

I used a gold pen for the edges:

Here is the image focal point. I googled people reading or something like that and found her. I chalked her and used a fixative spray.
I have A Lot of copper and black corners. But I want Gold. So I embossed them:
I'm gonna add words. This is far as I got. I decided I couldn't work like this anymore:
What was once Madness and Mayhem,

Becomes clean and orderly.

Pay no attention to that BEER at my computer station.......

Wow, You can actually see the floor!! I give it two weeks. Now what did I do with my BEER?

xoSusan