Exercises In Collage

We often hear the phrase 'Art for art's sake', but how can we relate that concept to our everyday lives? When we actually have the experience of creating art ourselves, without any actual purpose in mind, we come to find that we've learned far more than any formal training can provide.  I once had an art professor, George Kokis at the University Of Oregon, who, against the conventions of academia, advocated for just such a thing: "It's not about the product, it's about the process."

My favorite art collage process involves the use of small canvases, in sizes ranging from 3x4 inches to 4x6 inches.  Each of the three pieces in this post are 4x4 inches and began as a 12x12 inch piece of cardboard which I cut down and applied several coats of gesso to.  They are the perfect bases for those times when I just want to experiment with paints and papers.

This first work above has images that I carefully cut and placed around the canvas after having laid in some Cerulean Blue and Sap Green acrylic on the background.  I saved the cuttings from that vase-like shape to use on the other two canvases.  Some touches of dry-brushed gold, around and between the images as well as around the outside edges, gives it some highlight.  Lastly I utilized a technique called mark-making, which means to draw with a black pen around the perimeter of each image to give the work some dimension.  The secret to this technique is to smear the ink after a few minutes to make it blend into the background.

For this second piece I started with a layer of Iridescent Gold Deep acrylic, then ran a coat of Sap Green over that.  Next I carefully laid the left over pieces of the vase-like image down and painted the inside with Cerulean Blue to get the negative shape of that image.  I also painted the positive portion of the cut out for use on the third piece.  While the shape was still on the canvas I colored around the perimeter of it with some Iridescent Gold Deep.  Next, I painted red lines around the border, and finally, placed the images of the cherries and the bird and drew some mark-making on those.

This third work reuses the vase-like image negative, adhered to the surface after preparing the canvas with a coat of Sap Green mixed with Iridescent Gold Deep paint.  Next I added another border of the Iridescent Gold Deep around the vase-like image, then added some gold around the outside edges, followed by purple lines around the border.  Finally, cutouts of the stylized Thunderbird and a few tiny nude figures on the left, were adhered, again with some mark-making around the perimeter of each image.

Having a library of images cut and ready to go makes this sort of collage exercise easy to do.  I spent the better part of a year carrying a variety of magazines around with me, and every chance I got I would flip through one and just keep my eye flowing around looking for pictures that appealed to me.  The result is several file folders full of images that are a joy for me to look through whenever I have the desire to make my small works of art.  And the best part is that the overall cost of the materials is very low.

I hope you also will consider trying your hand at collage.  Once you begin the process of doing art for art's sake, you'll want to experience it again and again.

Welcome To My Autumn Garden

    Seasonal changes are alive here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.  As Mother Nature shifts from late summer to early fall, I am reminded of how much joy my garden gave me last year at this time.  Recently, I made this layout to commemorate the small pleasures of my garden in Autumn: changing colors, birds that flit in and out of my yard, and the beginning of the rainy season.  What seasonal changes are you welcoming right now?  

Summer Garden: Dahlias

    As autumn approaches here in the Northwest U.S., I thought it would be fun to have a last hurrah, or a sort of showcase of my very favorite summer flower - the dahlia.  I'm thinking this is my garden's summer swan song as it begins to fade and the signs of autumn creep in, and maybe perhaps the new acquaintances I'm beginning to meet on Instagram will have some inspiration for their summer gardens yet to come. 

One of my main goals in the garden from the beginning about three years ago was to curate flowers which have an Asian aesthetic; those that are known not only for their beauty, but for qualities such as peace, quiet, and calm.  Lilies definitely fit that description, and when our family visited the Portland Japanese Garden a couple of years ago, I saw a few hydrangeas there and decided those would go in my garden as well.  

As for the dahlias, most of the time when I've seen them used in Asian inspired floral design, I usually see those that are completely round and ball or pompom shaped, so I started with that type.  A funny thing happened however - after I started growing them, I began to notice how incredibly popular dahlias are right here in my town.  There is a Lane County Dahlia Society that shows and sells these beauties, and dahlia lovers also sell their bulbs at the Oregon Plant Fair.  Suddenly I found myself fascinated with these lovely flowers in all their infinite variety.  

I don't know the names of all of the dahlias in my garden, but for starters the red one at the top of this post and the orange one below are from a package called 'Dazzling Dreams Blend'.  The package card stock shows three varieties, but so far only these two have grown.

This second orange ball-like one looks very much like the first, however I purchased this bulb at one of the local plant fairs:
 

This next variety, which is known in general as the cactus dahlia, has become my most treasured for its spiny, spiky petals that resemble a sea urchin, of all things!  Notice the various combinations of color: yellow-orange, yellow, orange-yellow, pink-yellow. Delightful!

Also of the cactus-type variety is this 'Dutch Explosion' (shown below), with its shaggy appearance and bright fuchsia color.  I actually planted this bulb about two years ago and it never came up - until this year.

Unfortunately I don't know the type or name of this next one, but I can say that I chose it for its lovely orange color:

I don't want to forget these last dahlias, which are an annual variety called a Collerette, because I purchased them at the very beginning of my gardening days, and even though they were labeled as annuals, every year a few still come back:
  

Are you crazy for dahlias?  Share a story with me!

Pocket Scrapbooking

    I've been scrapbooking for about ten years now, but I've really been a memory keeper for as long as I can remember.  I've always enjoyed collecting things;  from a cigar box with a few treasures in it during my childhood, to cards, letters, and memorabilia from my teen years on.  It was also while I was a teenager that I became interested in photography, and I've been taking photos ever since.  It only seemed natural then, that I would gravitate towards scrapbooking.  

I enjoy making traditional layouts, which for me, has been the 12x12 inch size, but in my search for a way to more fully document our family's day to day lives and still have a creative way to express those lives, I've started to utilize the 6x8 inch pocket albums.  The beauty of this format, besides its ease and how quickly pages come together, is its versatility.  I can work on any pages I want, in any order I want, and because it's a ringed binder, I can add things, move pages around, move individual photos or cards around - and it all remains a seamless story.

Here are three page spreads from my current album.  I've recently joined Studio Calico's Project Life monthly kit club.  It comes with a selection of both 4x6 and 3x4 cards, and several embellishments such as labels and alphabet stickers.  The garden layout above was made using my first kit, which is called Sandlot. 

I love to showcase my garden, and you may recognize the enlarged photo on the right from last weeks post about my lilies.  I knew that lily would be one I would also like to emphasize in my album, and chose it for this spread.  Once I had my photos chosen and printed, it was as easy as slipping the 4x6 photo into that bottom left pocket, and mounting the enlargement onto card stock.  Then, I chose those two 3x4 cards for the top left pockets, did a bit of embellishing, and I was done. 

This second spread is my way of thanking my kids for indulging me in a photo shoot on Mother's Day and was also made using the Sandlot kit.  This is a similar layout to the first one above, but this time I've used three 4x6 photos.  Another couple of 3x4 cards embellished with letter stickers, wood veneer and some ink stamping slipped into the top left pockets finished off this page.  

This layout of my step-daughter Kaede's wedding is actually in three parts, of which I've finished only this introductory page. For this spread, I utilized some leftover papers I had from having made a 12x12 layout for my family album.  The floral paper on the left was cut from a 12x12 sheet of patterned paper, then mounted onto white cardstock.  The 4x6 photo was also mounted onto white cardstock.  On the right side I mounted a 3x4 card (not from the Studio Calico kit) on top of paper I cut to 4x6, then fussy cut a couple of flowers from more leftovers.  A few brads are securing those sequin flowers on the left.  Since Kaede's wedding was such a big event, I found that the 2x2 Instagram photos worked very well to fill in all the details of this beautiful story.

I hope you've enjoyed viewing these pages; I've enjoyed sharing them!

Summer Garden: Lilies

    Recently I talked about the splashes of color in my garden when some early summer lilies bloomed (link here), and now, before the summer completely slips away, I would like to share more of these favorite flowers of mine.  The blooming time for each of these three varieties shown is very short - just a few weeks from bursting buds to fragrant blooms to a faded memory.  One reason why I am passionate about photography is because things can change so fast, and it's nice to have a record of those changes.  
 
The Calla Lily above is one that I purchased as a potted start, and it has been growing slowly, yet steadily, for three years.  The cluster of leaves that grow out of the ground has definitely gotten bigger, and I see one or two flower blooms every summer. 

These two Oriental Summer Wine blooms, below, came from a variety package I planted last year, and I am happy to report that all six not only managed to grow, but bloomed as well. And although they are fragrant, their scent is no comparison to the Star Gazer Lily. 

The Star Gazer, below, another of the Oriental-type lilies, has that wonderful scent that I've come to think of as a quintessential fragrance of summer, along with the Night Blooming Jasmine that my mother had in her garden when I was young.  So, if you're looking to add a romantic fragrance to your garden, look no further than this beauty.  If you look very closely, you can also see the spider that surprised me by its ability to mimic this flower; you can read about that experience here.

Thanks for stopping by!  My plans for upcoming posts include Pocket Scrapbooking, Summer Garden: Dahlias, and Exercises In Collage.  See you again soon! 

Weekend Life: Family Reunion

Don't you just love it when all the pieces fall into place, and an event that you've planned and worked so hard to make happen, actually works out?  Our family reunion this weekend was just that kind of thing; a culmination of emails, arrangements being made, and effort large and small on the part of so many. 

My step daughter Kaede and her new husband Joey drove down from Seattle for an overnight visit.   I wrote about Kaede last spring when we attended her beautiful wedding here. They brought along their puppy Louie, who is a Miniature Pinscher and Terrier mix.  Although it was a short, quick visit, we managed to squeeze in a lot of conversation, catching up on what's been happening in our lives, and listening to her dad Jimmy tell some of the interesting stories of his life. 

Here are a few photos I managed to catch during the event:

Our daughter Audrey loves party planning and is very good at it.  We had  decided that our main evening meal would be a simple hardwood barbecued salmon, and her choice of items for our appetizers, the meal itself, and the pairing of the wine, all reflected her eclectic taste, yet was easy to prepare.  An apple pie that I made early Saturday morning rounded out the evenings fare, and I think it's safe to say that everyone enjoyed the meal and had a good time - even Louie.

Kaede and Joey left for home on Sunday morning.  We were sad to see them go.  We all agreed that we would see eachother again after the new year.  

Thanks Kaede and Joey (and Louie!) for brightening our lives for this very short time. See you soon!

Backyard Friends: Woodpeckers

    The natural world is full of surprises.  Take woodpeckers for example; I would have never known that these two very different looking birds, the Downy Woodpecker (above) and the Red Shafted Flicker (below), are actually related.  They both belong to the family Picidae, which means tree dwelling and insect eating; they each have "zygodactyl" feet (two toes facing front and two facing rear), strong sharp bills for digging into trees, and sticky tongues for eating wood-boring insects.  Many Picidae have patches of red and yellow on their heads and bellies and their stiff tail is used as a prop.  Their distinct flight is deeply undulating; as they fly from tree to tree, they will drop towards the ground, and then, with a few quick beats of their wings, swoop back up again.  

This Red Shafted Flicker is about 12 inches in length and has a red moustache patch on its face.  Whenever I see this bird come to my feeders it is always solitary and never stays very long.  

The Downy Woodpecker is only about 6 or 7 inches long and its red patch is on the back of its head.  Similar to the Flicker, this little bird is also solitary, but it does seem to hang around a bit longer.  It's a bit comical watching the Downy as it climbs straight up the support beam to the feeder because as it hops upward its head bops from side to side as if it is peeking around each side.  So funny!

I'm glad though that these birds are opportunistic feeders and enjoy eating the suet cakes I keep in my backyard, allowing me the opportunity to see them out my kitchen window, and take a few pictures of them as well.