Tag Time

I've been tagged by my generous and lovely ART buddy, Arlene.
Here are the rules. Feel free to adjust them. Or not. Your call.

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Here are 7 facts about me ...

1. I collect old game pieces, pigs, glass paper weights, salt & pepper shakers, box cameras, advertising art, old glass Christmas ornaments and ....
2. Calvin and Hobbes is my all time favourite comic ~ but I also have a very soft spot for the Peanuts strip. My nickname as a teenager was Woodstock.
3. Weird movies I enjoy: Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, The gods must be Crazy and Napoleon Dynamite.
4. I've written two books, a Children's Book and a Chick Lit book. Neither one has been published ~ yet.
5. Quote from my Grade One report card: "I find Dawn is quite artistic."
6. I don't have the need to visit New York City.
7. I spell the Canadian way (ie., colour, flavour, centre etc), but usually not when I'm writing to Americans.


I'm tagging ...
1) Sherri

2) Stacie

3) Nicolette

4) Deirdra Doan

5) Maija

6) Deryn

7) Em!

Painting & Posse news

Part of the fun of presenting the Wide-eyed Portraits I paint is seeing people's expressions when they receive them! Here's my friend Gloria with hers. I added bright yellow Rick Rack around the frame and red pom poms at the bottom just to gussy up the painting a bit. The frame was just too blasé for my liking.

The snow is melting (for now) so garage sale season can't be too far off in the future. I can't wait to get more old framed paintings that I can paint over! It's so cool to reuse and create stuff using things destined for the landfill.

In other news, the Pointy Hat ART Posse meetin' is tonight so I'm sure I'll have plenty of artsy inspiration to share with ya'll in the coming days. Nicolette is doing a workshop tonight on backgrounds (mostly art journals I think). Should be fun to play with the Posse ~ we haven't met since November because of Christmas holidays and inclement weather in January. Stayed tuned folks.

Wide-eyed Portraits

Every child is an artist.
It's a challenge to remain an artist when you grow up.

~ Pablo Picasso

Lately I've been having so much fun, just letting loose and creating these quirky wide-eyed portraits. I'm throwing caution to the wind, or maybe more precisely ~ throwing art rules to the wind. Just trying to regain some of the joy of making art. All the paintings are different sizes, and most of them are old paintings which I've painted over. I reuse and recycle, and am very happy when I can do that in my art too.

And who are these lovely ladies pictured here? On the top , "Bea in Blue" is of someone you'll find here. Middle: a friend of mine who is a framer (entitled "Glory Be!") and on the bottom, is someone related to me who got married this past weekend. This one's entitled "House of Love".

Wedding photo

It was a really nice wedding. I told my sister, Madeline that I would be her slave in the days leading up to the wedding. Even though we were running all over the place finishing off the last few details before the big day, it was great to spend time together. The afternoon before, we decorated the club house (is that the correct name?) for the wedding and reception. And just hours before the ceremony, I finished off the bouquets, corsages and boutonnières. She looked beautiful, he looked handsome. The ceremony was touching and the reception was a lot of fun! It is so great to see my sister happy!!

Madeline & Ian Crozier
February 16th 2008

While I was away ...

The goodies came in the mail like this ... Arlene and I opened our treasures together, thus Zoot's chair in the photo.


Here are all the gifts laid out after opening them. Everything is so pretty!!



Here is the treasure map heart which explained all the gifts included in the box.

I was away in Langley, BC at my sister's wedding this past weekend, and as a result, it's taken me this long to post photos of the cool stuff that Debra sent me for the 2008 Getting to Know You Valentine Swap.

We have a WINNER!

The winner of my giveaway is Deirdra Doan. Congratulations Deirda! Please contact me so I can mail off your altered light switch plate to you! Thank you to everyone else who stopped in to leave a comment ~ hope you'll come by again soon!

My first ever GIVEAWAY! Draw on Thursday!!

I've decided to join in on the 2nd annual One World- One Heart (OWOH) giveaway event that's going on right now in Blogdom. Sounds like a fun way to find new and interesting blogs for me, and a way of you having a chance to win a the altered light switch plate (see photo below). Yay! It's a win-win situation, folks! All you need to do to qualify to win is leave a comment on this post ~ simple as that. You don't even have to be a doing a giveaway on your blog. Just leave a comment. If you go to the OWOH site, there are many, many other blogs you can go to, as well, and enter even more giveaways.

Altered light switch plate incorporates collage, paint, lace and beeswax. I'll announce the winner of the random draw on Valentine's Day, February 14th! Wheee!!

Everyone should have a Birthday Week

My friend Shelly is having her birthday on February 15th, so I decided to paint a portrait of her and give it to her before I leave for B.C.



Shelly with the portrait at the shopping centre where she opened it.



Close up detail of the bottom of the painting, entitled "Mended Heart".

When I get back, we will continue to celebrate her "birthday week" ~ everyone should have a birthday week, don'tcha think? Oh, by the way, I'll be adding glasses to the painting as soon as she gets her new pair :)

The Chair ~ Part 2

Earlier this week, Zachary and I ventured off down the road to L.A. (Leduc, Alberta) to work on Arlene's, er ... Zoot's chair once again. I do apologize for the quality of the photos here. They were taken with my little throw-in-the-purse digital.

I'm waiting to get better pictures from Arlene. But she's got a big issue with her computer at the moment ~ it crashed. Nasty! So, anyway now she is actively trying to find someone a computer geek to retrieve/save her data from her computer (including like two years of digital photos which she hasn't backed up and a special project that she and I have been working hard on in the past little while.

On Wednesday, I hope to head back to do another part of the chair before heading off to Langley to my sister's wedding next weekend.

Painting a painted painting

This is the painting that I found at the ReUse Centre. It was framed and everything. I brought it home and did the the natural thing to it. I covered up with white gesso. Then I had to decide what to replace the city scape with. What did I paint?
A self portrait of course!

Lots of glitter, lots of colour, lots of words. It's all very Dawn-ish.