Journalling: outside my comfort zone

Sarah Whitmire has been been inspiring artists in the past 18 days to work on a ART Journal Project. Although it has been going on for a while, I decided to jump in (yesterday) and try to catch up with "the rest of the class" so to speak. Check out the project's link above ~ perhaps you'll want to join in too. Above is my first spread where I "claim" my journal.


Just a little info on what I did last weekend at PHAP Farm.


This spread is for my Inner ART Critic. I think he might look like the Incredible Hulk. Even though I have pasted his pink slip on the right page, he keeps trying to dissuade me from this messy journalling thing.


This was an interesting assignment. We were to write: I forgot to tell you. Then, we were to write something very personal. This "from the gut" writing is why a lot of people resist journalling. But no worries here, because after writing the stuff on the page, we were to tape it up with all sorts of different kinds of tape, then sand, gesso and paint over it. I still know what I wrote, but no else will.


This page was fun. It was a magazine scavenger hunt.

I'll add more pages as I do them. Hope you enjoyed looking at them so far, make sure you drop by again, and take the time to check some of my other stuff on my blog. This is so good for me artistically because I'm out of my element here. Time to make a mess, do some writing and playing with my art materials! The next assignment has something to do with houses ... stay tuned.

PHAPulous PHun on the Farm

Oh the fun we had, Saturday afternoon. The Pointy Hat ART Posse threw its first annual (we hope!) PHAP Farm in LA (Leduc, Alberta). Twenty-some artists, wannabe artists and newbie artists gathered at Arlene's house to play. After signing a "Permission to make Mistakes" (or is it Misteaks?), everyone set out for the grand adventure of an afternoon of creative PHun.


Some folks created ATC masterpieces, some bound super unique ART journals, others sketched in the flower garden, while a few fashioned pointy hats, and still others altered clothing.


Sam working on his one-of-a-kind shirt


Dumpster Diva and the CEO (Creative Eccentric One), instigators of PHAP Farm 2008 busy whipping up some one-of-a-kind couture!



Showing off PHAPulous pointy hats


Faux Gogh chair was unveiled for the first time, showing the final panel which is an impressionist portrait of Vincent Van Gogh.


Some people created and bound ART journals, others made Artist Trading Cards, sketched in the flower garden, fashioned pointy hats, and others created one-of-a-kind couture!

Everyone generously shared their yummy picnic-y food with each other which we nibbled on throughout the afternoon, and absolutely no one left hungry. Thankfully, the weather also cooperated splendidly, so we were able do all the activities outside in the sunshine. By the end of the day, everyone took home at least one finished art project (or two), and most were fortunate enough to snag a precious door prize as well. Now, it's only 364 more days until PHAP Farm 2009!

MOO

9 different pieces of ART on MOO cards

My MOO cards have arrived! You can use up to 100 different full colour photos or designs on these mini cards. On the flip side, you can print all your important contact info. I spent a couple hours a while back, looking through all the photos of my art on my computer, uploaded them to MOO and voila in about 10 days they were sitting in my mailbox! Check MOO (based in London, England) out here. By the way, you can also buy business cards, stickers, postcards, greeting cards and note cards with your very own art on em. How cool is that?!

Painting again

Here's a painting I created for my friend entitled "Peace and Joy for Valli". It's smaller than many of the Wide Eyed Portraits at 8x10, but Valli likes little things (maybe it's because she's such a shorty!). I think this painting looks like a very warm summer day in Alberta. What do you think?

Faux Goghing: telephone & internet

Our telephone and internet service was out for the past 24 hours. What a drag. I wanted to show you the latest installment of the Faux Gogh chair. Earlier this week, I had a chance to go to Arlene's to paint "the" chair.

Blossom time in Alberta

I thought I'd share this photo of Greg with his mom under the blossoms of the apple tree that I took a couple weeks ago. Greg had just got back from landscaping his brother's yard when I got this shot. The tree was just bursting forth with an abundance of blossoms this year. Looks like there'll be plenty of crab apples this summer.

My definition of cute

My great-niece Soraya came over this week. First we played with PlayDoh. I rolled it out and she formed the letters of her name. Didn't she do a awesome job? I also made her a bunny which she was very pleased with.


Then she played some tunes on the piano.


... and miniature bells ...
Spending time with a three year old is sooo much fun!

An excuse for my tardy posting ...

It's time for spring cleaning and (re)decorating. Since we live in such a little house and I am a collector (some people call it being a packrat!), I decided to rearrange the place just a bit.

I figured that if we just organized the bathroom like this, we could have all sorts of space to spare.
For you very literal folks out there ~ I'm kidding, okay?! This is a shot of the bathroom the day they came to re-do the floors. Our house has been turned upside down for a week, but it seems to slowly be getting back into "liveable" shape. I will take "after" shots soon. Aren't renovations fun?

And now for something completely different for Show & Tell Friday

This may come under the category of What was I thinking?! but I thought I'd share this painting with you on Show & Tell Friday. First I will tell you that in my continued effort to reuse/recycle as much as possible in my artwork, I actually used a piece of cardboard to paint this one. Originally, it was going to be a straightforward Wide-eyed family portrait. Then, when I started painting and saw that the corrogated cardboard was showing through. Hmm .. should I continue with the painting or give it up? I decided to just let loose and try something a little different. And thus, we have this 24"x35.5" painting entitled Birds of a Feather. This is my family, left to right: David Robin, Dawn Canary, Greg Sparrow, Zach Bluebird.

Show & Tell 3 ~ Tweet!

Sorry I didn't post for Show and Tell Friday last week. I will make up for it by posting two things this week, how's that? The beautiful painting shown here, "Empty Thought Balloon" was painted by my very talented brother-in-law, Nick Supina III. This painting hangs on my gallery wall in my livingroom. The colour of the reproduction here is a little dull compared to the actual painting. I love paintings that feature bright, happy colours!
Since I believe spring has finally sprung around here, I have some birdies for your viewing pleasure today. The silver set on the right are salt and pepper shakers that my mom and dad received as a wedding present in 1948. The fat little birds on the left are a pair of salt and pepper shakers ReUse Centre treasures and the bird house with its attached birds was a gift from one of my nieces.

What a difference a week makes

Most of the snow has melted (again). The weatherman says today's high is going to be 18 degrees Celsius (64.4 Fahrenheit). The birds are just singing outside like crazy. I haven't seen my first robin, but my hubby said he saw several the other day. Things are looking up.

The sad, sad truth

Issued by Environment Canada : 5.00 AM MDT Monday 21 April 2008
Winter storm warning in effect.
Today
Day: Periods of snow. Amount 5 cm. Blowing snow giving poor visibility at times. Wind northwest 30 km/h gusting to 50. High minus 6. Night: Flurries. Blowing snow giving poor visibility at times this evening. Wind northwest 30 km/h gusting to 50 becoming light near midnight. Low minus 10.

Tuesday
Cloudy. 60 percent chance of flurries in the morning and afternoon. Wind northwest 30 km/h becoming light in the evening. High minus 4.

Wednesday
Sunny. Low minus 14. High minus 2.

Thursday
Sunny. Low minus 17. High zero.

Friday
A mix of sun and cloud. Low minus 8. High plus 5.

Normals for this time of year:
Max:
14°C
Min:
-1°C

Look at the photo I took a few minutes ago. The car's all nice and clear, it must not be too bad out there. Uh, no. I went to work this morning that's why it's cleared off. Can you see my sidewalk? Neither can I! According to the Edmonton Journal, this blizzard's the worst April storm to hit city in nearly 20 years. Don'tcha wish you lived here?

Today I shall stay put and maybe do some Spring Cleaning. Now that's an ironic thought, eh?

Show & Tell Friday ~ Old Fashioned Bubblegum Machine

For Show and Tell Friday today, I've decided to show you my super cool bubble gum machine. I bought it a few years ago at a 2nd hand shop. It reminded me of the bubble gum machines from my childhood. The first day I spotted it at the store, I couldn't find a price on it, so I asked the store clerk how much it was. She made up a price on the spot which I didn't like. So, reluctantly, I decided to pass on it. The next time I was in the shop, I saw it still sitting on the shelf. I noticed that a price had been put on it, so out of curiosity, I checked the price. I was excited when I saw that someone had priced it at $3. I scooped it up, purchased it and happily brought it home. I bought gumballs to fill the bubble gum machine, but my two sons made the gum disappear in a only a couple of days. I gave up buying gum balls, but decided that if I put glass marbles in their place, the gum enthusiasts would leave my toy alone.

Speaking of gum ~ I have a fun story to share with you. When I was young, my parents had some friends who owned a gas station/general store/restaurant. I would often go visit these folks with my dad. One day when we stopped in to see our friends, my father gave me a penny to buy a bubble gum. Hoping I would get a favourite coloured bubblegum, I turned the dial. For some odd reason, the machine started spewing bubblegum after bubblegum at me. I put out my hands to try to stop the onslaught to no avail. Soon there were gumballs rolling down onto the floor. Seeing my awkward dilemma, the owner finally stepped in and was able to make the bubblegum machine behave itself. I looked up at the adults. I must have had an I-didn't-mean-to-break-the-bubblegum-machine look on my face because they all burst out laughing. What happened next could only be called a child's dream come true. I was told that I could have each and every gum that had covered the floor. I had gum for a week!

Day at the Farm delivered

Today I was finally able to give Susan the Wide-eye Portrait I painted for her entitled Day at the Farm. Yay! It's always so much fun to see people's expressions when they see their paintings for the first time.

Show & Tell Friday #1

In my blog-hopping escapades, I came upon a blog which had Show & Tell Friday featured on it. This fun little activity is where Bloggers simply show & tell about some item in their home on their blog. It's the brain child of Kelli of There is no place like home (where you can find a list of all the Bloggers who have Show & Tell Friday on their blogs). I'm going to try this out and we'll see how it goes.

The first thing I will show you is a little iron plaque that hangs above my stove. This treasure I found many years ago while garage saling. At first glance, I think my guests think it's going to say something like The Kitchen Prayer (read below) or have some such equally super-spiritual message. Everyone seems to get a chuckle out of it.

The Kitchen Prayer
God bless my little kitchen
I love its every nook
And bless me as I do my work
Wash pots and pans and cook.
And may the meals that I prepare
Be seasoned from above
With Thy great blessing and Thy grace
But most of all Thy love.
As we partake our earthly food
The table before us spread
We'll not forget to thank Thee, Lord
Who gives us daily bread.
So bless my little kitchen, Lord
And those who enter in
May they find naught but joy and peace
And happiness therein.

Tag ... I'm it!

Caren has tagged me in a Book Tag.

Here are the rules :
Pick up a book of at least 123 pages.
Open the book
to page 123.
Find the fifth sentence.
Then post the next three sentences.
Finally, tag five people to do the same.

The book I chose is Sholom Aleichhem's Tevye's Daughters, the novel that Fiddler on the Roof was loosely based on.

Quote:
"Said Pessie, "You must have quite a few enemies."
"I have enough, God be thanked," countered Sossie.
"May they be planted in great numbers and fail to come up."
"Soince when have you become such a shrew?" asked Pessie.

Now it's my turn to tag the following folks. I hope they'll wanna play too!

Charlotte at Alice Overground
Josh at Running With Scissors
Ruth at My Creative Soul
Cindy at The Joyful Artist
Arlene at ART De Me

Painting elephant?

You MUST check out the following link!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LHoyB81LnE


A Bug Flew Up My Trunk is a painting done by Edmonton's very own elephant, Lucy. For a mere $650.00 it could be yours!
Original: 20x24 inches

Christmas in April

Can't remember where I saw the first bulb wreath, but I started collecting old Christmas tree bulbs at the ReUse Centre soon after with the hope of collecting enough to make one. Well I did collect enough and here is the result ~ my first Christmas Bulb Wreath.

This one measures about 17 inches in diameter. Once I collect more bulbs, I think I'll make a couple more for Christmas gifts. The only thing is, is that these babies are going to be difficult to store. Perhaps I'll make some wreaths with newer, non-breakable bulbs. Also if I want to hang one on my door, I'll have to make it entirely out of non-breakables.

Blogoversary winning portrait

Caren Mcnee was the very first person to leave a comment on my 3rd Blogoversary post and was the name pulled out of the pointy party hat draw ~ I'm sure that doesn't happen very often. Anyhoo, I finished her portrait yesterday and here it is. I'm not terribly happy with the colour reproduction of this photograph, (it's much richer in person) but you can get an idea of what the painting looks like. I've added a little photo of Caren with the portrait here, so you can check out the uncanny resemblance between Caren and her portrait. Hehee!

I'm hoping that when the portrait arrives at Caren's house, that she'll have her photo taken holding the portrait as I am trying to collect photos of people with their Wide-eyed Portraits for my files.

Kiwi Caren measures 12 inches x 16 inches. You may want to start looking for a frame, Caren. Let's hope the Canada Post's canoe paddles your painting to you quickly!

Finally, I can post this photo ...

When I was in Langley for my sister, Madeline's wedding, I had a chance to have a great visit with my niece Carla. We stayed up to the wee hours of the morning ~ let's put it to you this way ... when her little guy woke up in the middle of the night, she didn't have to wake up to tend to him ... she was already (or I should say STILL awake). Anyway, I was telling her about these quirky portraits that I was creating, and she said she'd love to have one. So as a "thank you" for her hospitality, I painted a Wide-eyed Portrait entitled "Carla's World of Colour" and sent it home with Madeline when she was out in Alberta recently. Carla finally received the painting tonight, so I can safely post it on my blog. This painting's a little different than the previous portraits because it is a night time scene. Ya, I know, have a little of the Faux Gogh going here.

Well, it's getting late for me, cuz I have to be up by 5 a.m., so I'll say ta-ta for now. But please come back tomorrow as I plan to post the portrait that I just finished of Caren, that she won in the Blogoversary draw.