Gourd Mask

I've been attending a gourd art retreat at the Midnight Art Ranch.

One of the classes from Bonnie Gibson was on masks.

I LOVE masks. I've been involved with theatrical role playing groups and have done some costuming for Fantasy/Sci-Fi convention activities- mainly for hall costumes. I've had a lot of fun with masks.

I suspect some of the serious gourd art people at this retreat had to try not to look askance at my mask. ;) I think they see gourd masks as a traditional type of art.

I just saw the gourd as an interesting new surface to do the type of fantasy mask I prefer to work on.

I LOVE my mask. It isn't finished. It will need a lot of beading - and possibly some wire wrapping and....hmmm...with any luck I will be able to restrain myself after that point.....

I was very happy with the Fantasy Film and Radiant Rain and Memory Mist sprays on this. And the micaceous iron oxide worked great. :)

Gourds are a fun surface to play with.

Another visit to Zorg

Click here to see other versions.

Ink sketch manipulated in Photoshop.

Visit the planet Zorg

Check out the post on the Zorgian website

Smoke Watching

I've been playing around with some photographs of smoke.
Getting good photographs of smoke was a bit of a challenge. I need to give this another try using a tripod.

I did have a lot of fun manipulating these images in Photoshop though...

Looking at photos of smoke is much like watching clouds. You start to see all sorts of odd images emerging.
Click on the links after each pic to see some of the variations.



I think I see a mystical rabbit in this.
I have more variations on this image up as a slide show.



This one ended up with some interesting textures.



More variations.




I like this alien dancer. ;)

Playing with smoke. Less dangerous than playing with fire. :)

Beer Eyes

Uh-oh! The Easter Bunny made a mistake

I think the Easter Bunny raided a dragon's nest by accident.
Bunnies aren't the brightest creatures, they must be easily confused.

Fantasy Film

Hey- I am featured on the Art Glitter Institute webpage for some of my Fantasy Film work!
How fun!

They have some wonderful artists doing all sorts of things with Fantasy Film and other glitzy products.

Another class with Jessica

I'm taking another class from Jessica at Cre8it. I LOVE her classes.

I always find so much inspiration and learn so many fun new techniques.

This is the from Guerrilla Photography class. :)
I'm having waaay too much fun.

WIP

This piece is a work in progress (WIP). It was inspired by many different things, many different artists, and includes a number of different techniques.
I will not be "crediting" anyone with anything.

None of us can be sure of what sparks an idea when we are expressing something through our artwork.
If we have to pay attention to when, where and how we came up with the ideas it only serves to hamper our creative expression.

I recently posted some artwork I had done and credited a good friend with sparking the idea for the project. It was something simple and fairly basic she had shown me.

Another friend thought it was very similar to something she had done in the past. Her feelings were hurt.
I never connected the two projects.
I was just trying to be polite and conform to the current netiquette for this sort of thing.

Second friend expressed her hurt feelings on her blog. First friend was shocked to find that she was being accused of stealing an idea- even though she had never claimed credit for anything. I was the one who named her as showing me the technique.

So my reward for trying to do the right thing and saying who gave me an idea just ended up with my hurting two people that I love and admire.

I'm not going to do that again.

I think we, as artists who post work on the web, in public forums, need to get away from all of this. It hurts the whole community. It generates more bad feelings than it does positive sharing and support.

Ideas don't belong to anyone in a legal sense. If no one shared ideas we would all be working in a sterile void.
I don't think this is what anyone wants.

If this contentious atmosphere prevails I think we will see less and less of people posting anything new or innovative.
Either through fear of being "copied" or through fear of being accused of copying.

It doesn't matter who came up with a technique or who made it popular.
What matters is what YOU do with the technique.

Your work is your own- no matter who inspired you.

This isn't supposed to be about techniques. It should be about how we express ourselves through our art.

My artwork will stand on its own merits.
If you think I copied something from you- feel proud that you contributed by helping another artist find their way on their own path.

If you take something away from what I show and use it in your own artwork. YAY!! That has been my whole point in posting stuff to this blog in the first place. Please do not feel any need to give me credit for your artwork.
Your artwork is your own. I neither deserve, nor want, any credit for it.

Another bottle - not beer on the wall

One more bottle down.
This one has encaustic wax on the front panel. I spritzed the wax layers with Radiant Rain mists while they were still molten. Gave an interesting texture.
The main body of the bottle is done with Golden's micaceous Iron Oxide and Lumiere paints.
The lip of the bottle is covered with a scrap of textured wallpaper colored with Radiant Rain and Memory Mist sprays highlighted with metallic buffing waxes.

After the holidays

I don't know about other people- but around here there are always a lot of empty bottles around after the holiday season is over. Many of them are very nice bottles. Too nice to just toss.



I though this one had a lovely shape.
Plus, I still had Fantasy Film scraps to use up. :)



You can get a LOT of dimension using clear gel mediums and Glossy Accents over the Fantasy Film.



I LOVE the textures and colors with this!

Clip Art and Photoshop

If you need a card in a hurry- Photoshop and clip art can come to your rescue. Quick results!