the Art Blog of Sharon Kennick

The Death Star Punkin, Gingered Brushes and a New Book

Happy Halloween to all my blog friends! I just love Halloween - the costumes, the fun decorations, the trick-or-treaters, candy corn and those delicious little pumpkin shaped candies...I think it's my favorite holiday of all! When I was a kid, even more than the candy, I loved Halloween because it was such a creative holiday. There were hand-made and sometimes just thrown together costumes - the very best kind - and Mom always made these orange-tinted popcorn balls...and better still, there was pumpkin carving! What fun, and every year I seem love it more! Here is this year's offering to The Great Pumpkin:

It's the "Death Star" Jack o' Lantern! After several hours of focused planning and carving, and a whole lot of detailed shaving and boring and cutting, I'm very happy with the way it turned out, and can't wait to see the faces of the trick-or-treaters!

Y'all should have seen me working on it at the kitchen table. I become very, very focused in "art mode." Time stands still. I have no awareness whatsoever of anything that may be happening around me, and barely come up for air. So, while carving yesterday, I'd jump up to rummage through a drawer for, say, a lemon zester or a potato peeler or an exacto knife, or whatever tool might produce the shape or cutting edge I wanted, race back to the pumpkin, carve madly, then just drop it on the table when I was done, with punkin slivers flying everywhere...It feels like I'm channeling an old cartoon character; remember the "Tasmanian Devil?" Yes, that's exactly what it's like!

Which leads me to the next photo...Kris saw this on the kitchen counter when she came home last Saturday and doubled over, howling with laughter.

Yup. That's a hunk of fresh ginger standing in a glass measuring cup along with, yup,  several drying paintbrushes. Did I mention that I become v-e-r-y focused in "art mode?" A bit of a Tasmanian Devil? Well, from this picture you may have gathered that I also become pretty focused while cooking. That day it was Indian food, so "plunk" down goes the measuring cup, and a few minutes later "chunk" goes the ginger...Later that day I started working on recycled water bottle flowers (pictures soon) and needed to very quickly get some brushes rinsed and get back into the studio while maintaining a line of thought. So "clink,"  unthinking hands just tossed the clean brushes into the most immediately available container, the measuring cup. With the ginger. Where they sat for two days...Thank goodness the Muse prefers things a little bit messy, in both the studio AND in the kitchen...

A dear friend of mine came to visit this morning. A reference librarian, she keeps an eye open for publications that might be of interest to me, and over tea and conversation showed me a fabulous new release titled "re-bound: creating handmade books from recycled and repurposed materials" by Jeannine Stein. Which is right up my alley. A sampling of chapter headings includes: "Hunting Buried Treasure: Flea Markets and Thrift Stores," "From Mundane to Marvelous: Hardware, Home Supply and Office Supply Stores," "Dive In: The Art of Dumpster Diving," and "The Best Things in Bookbinding Are Free." It's a well written book with good illustrations and clear instructions. We ordered a copy of our own on the spot! Sound Intriguing? Here's a link: re-bound

Well, I'm off to decorate the porch! May the Great Pumpkin bless us, every one!

Thanks for visiting! Come again soon!

Homecoming, New Tools, and a Birthday Surprise!

I picked Kris up at the airport yesterday, after TWO WHOLE weeks just outside of Washington, D.C. Every few months she has to fly back for face-to-face meetings and to reassure all the new hires that she really IS a living breathing person. It's hard on both of us when she has to go away, BUT a small price to pay for her being able to work from home in an Arizona paradise...and since her home office and my studio are one and the same, it gives ME a chance to work on presents for her in secrecy...

As I posted on Friday, we had decided to postpone her birthday celebration until she came back from D.C., which was yesterday. Oh, and it was awesome! She likes to have this German-ish apple cake/pastry thing instead of birthday cake (for me it's cupcakes - with lots of icing), so I baked in the morning, and made a hearty beef vegetable soup (a homecoming tradition) for lunch, AND I put the finishing touches on her birthday present. The glue even had time to dry before I drove out to bring her home! LOL!

So here's the mystery present that I couldn't post about because she checks in with the blog while she's away. It's one of my circle books, and an A-Z primer of the things I appreciate about her:

Yodie is her nickname...short for Coyote...it's an inside joke. When we're on the road at shows and such, she becomes "Yodie the Roadie," schlepping boxes of art around and helping set up and take down the display...lifting the things I really shouldn't and scolding me when I try to anyway...I need to have a t-shirt made for her with the DivineShe logo and "Yodie the Roadie" printed on it!

These first two photos are of pages in the early stages of the process, as is the third one, really. First they're decorated and collaged, then glued and layered and cut out...the paper is taken from the text block of an old discarded Reader's Digest Condensed book. Hmmm...all the pages I photographed turn out to be stamped and drawn by hand. Isn't that odd? Well, some, in fact ALOT of the pages are collaged, as well.

Twenty-six pages folded and assembled form a beautiful, colorful book that splays out into a circle...

I love that part! And here's the finished piece, with covers attached and closures.

The covers are scrap mat board covered with a Thai specialty textured paper and embellished with cardboard, gold paint pen, and buttons. These are SO totally a labor of love! It was the first thing she unwrapped, and before she'd read beyond the first page, "A," the waterworks had started, and didn't let up until well after she started unwrapping her other gifts. And soon I was declared the hands down winner of this year's "most amazing birthday gift" competition...

It's so good to have her home! And she always brings fun things back! Here in Flagstaff, our art and mixed media shopping options are, well, pretty sparse. We have a great junk/salvage yard for ephemera and assemblage, and a great little scrapbook store and an art store, but (while they have a great selection of cool stuff) they just can't keep ALL the merchandise we're looking for on hand, so Kris found a great little shop in the D.C. area called "The Queen's Ink." The staff thinks we're a hoot! Kris shows up, puts her headset on, calls me back home and then wanders around the store until her phone runs out of battery, describing all the cool stuff she sees. Meanwhile, I'm on my own headset and online looking up all this fabulous merchandise, and telling her what I'd like to have. It's hilarious! I've been dubbed "the mystery shopper" by the staff. They've expressed an interest in having me come East to teach at their shop (on the heels of Tim Holtz, no less!), so I'm sure we'll have a chance to meet in the next year...stay tuned on that!

Anyhow, here's some of the great stuff she brought back! First, some stamps. These first two are from the Tim Holtz collection:

 

And these two are Judi-Kins stamps:

Way cool! And just in time to start thinking about holiday greetings...

Kris also discovered some new marker/pen/brush thingys called "Copic Markers." I'd never heard of them, but apparently they're catching on fast, and now that she's brought some home I see why! They're refillable alcohol ink markers with interchangeable nibs - fine point nibs, calligraphic tips, brush tips, and many, many vibrant colors to choose from. Being alcohol ink, they're blend-able, and unlike many marker pens, they're stable under wet media. I LOVE them! I was pretty excited when Ranger came out with a fillable alcohol marker, and Kris brought one of those home, too...but I have to say, the Copic markers take the cake! Can you tell that I'm a tools and toys junkie?  Here's what I did, playing with them:

The brush tip is super easy to control, and I LOVE being able to change the nibs! I also like that the markers aren't round, meaning that they stay where you put them, and won't roll off the table...Here's a link to the website: Copic Markers. Over three hundred colors?! OMG! Can't wait to try them in my art journals! Need more colors...

So...have you acquired any new toys lately? Made a present that made someone cry? Love to hear about it!

Thanks for visiting, and come again soon!

 
    

Stay Tuned...

Almost another week has passed without an art posting! And while I have been working on finishing up the house before Kris comes home, mostly I've been working on her birthday presents; I can't post photos because she's been checking in with the blog, and I don't want to spoil the surprise. Such a dilemma! Anyhow, she comes home tomorrow, and although her actual birthday was the day before she flew out, what with kamikaze house painting and packing and general mayhem, we decided to celebrate once she's home. Tomorrow!

So stay tuned!

Of Butterflies and Backhoes

There's an old wag that goes something like this...The Pope goes into the Cistine Chapel, peers up into the scaffolding and, finding Michelangelo, asks when he's going to finally be done painting the mural on the ceiling. Without skipping a brush stroke Michelangelo says, "When it's finished."

The house is almost finished. All the masonry has been scraped off (you don't want to see my knuckles), primer and two coats of paint applied, the eaves are painted, all the big time-consuming, time sensitive work is finished and I'm returning the rented extension ladder this afternoon. All that's left is detail work and some touch up (you know, paint spatters and drips) which can be accomplished anytime before it snows, SO the big painting crush of 2009 is over! Party at my place with Happy Dancing! Finally! While it isn't the Cistine Chapel, it will definitely be done when it's finished.

I LOVE - LOVE - LOVE the new color scheme - so bright and cheery! I wanted colors that would make us smile anytime we pull into the driveway, and I think we've got it. Here's a photo of the back entryway:

 

The colors are buttercream, chili pepper, and juniper. It was tough to choose between the juniper and maybe an avocado or a deep lime, but I'm very happy with the way it's turned out, and will gladly defer considering a different color to, say, five years or so down the road. Did you see the icky dull brown the house used to be, there behind the ladder?  *shivers* The neighbors seem to like the change, too.

Soooo...Just in time for my mother's birthday, I have time for art again! One of my favorite classes at Art Unraveled this year was Kelly Kilmer's "Going Postal," where we learned fun techniques for making art postcards. Here's what I put together this morning for Mom (also fondly referred to as Gigi Mota, from the acronym for Great Grand Mother of Us All).

This is the front...the colors are bolder and brighter in person:

 

And this is the back, where the addresses will go...

The base layer is scrap mat board, although you could use anything stiff enough to go through the mail, even cardboard (which I must try sometime - I love finding things to do with cardboard). First, I applied two different colored coats of acrylic paint blended with liquid gel medium on both sides of the mat board, scrunching and lifting paint off the top layer with a wet wipe to achieve a soft yummy scrumbled effect. Then I applied more paint with stamps and bubble wrap (which is always unpredictable fun) collaged paper and images, and printed self-adhesive tape. Clouds are white acrylic paint on a sea sponge,  and then everything was outlined with a wet stabilo pencil (thanks going out to Judy Wise for that). Finally, the "Mumbo Gumbo Girls" were applied as a gel medium lifted transfer. Oh - and the hand lettering. Wahlah! As soon as everything dries it's off to the Post Office! Then I can finish up with that awesome trade I mentioned in an earlier post...

If, like most of us,  you happen to be uncomfortable using your own handwriting in art or on your scrapbook pages, Heidi Swapp has a fabulous book titled, "Learning to Love Your Handwriting." It offers exercises, lettering tips and tricks, LOADS of encouragement, and is a fabulous tool for developing and getting comfortable with your own hand lettering style. It's a great resource, and I highly reccommend it for nudging back the borders of your comfort zone.

And speaking of comfort zones...painting the house gave us plenty of opportunity to push back the borders! Here's me. On the roof. With a caulk gun. I haven't been on a roof in thirty years!

 

I managed to get comfortable up there pretty quickly - maybe too comfortable. Later that afternoon while lying on my back painting the underside of that eave, I laid my head down in the paint pan and became a redhead for a few days... which totally felt like something from "I Love Lucy!" How funny is that? We howled!

Another boundary pushing triumph involved repairs. And power tools. In the course of prepping we discovered that the plywood up under the roof line had rotted out badly enough to need replacement (no wonder the back of the house has been so cold in the winter...). We tossed ideas around, weighed and considered the options; to call or not call a carpenter, which could take weeks, or a handyman which would be days, all the while our painting window grows ever smaller...in the end, we opted to do the work ourselves.  And here it is:

Kris did most of the labor, while I applied myself to figuring out the easy way to do it all - stuff like drilling and pre-setting the nails in the plywood panel, and how to perform a long rip over our sawhorses using a circular saw. The neighbors shake their heads, wondering what "those independent wacky girls" are up to now. Here's Kris up on a ladder, nailing overhead. Git'r'done!

A small triumph, but things like this are so empowering.

Suddenly, I'm remembering a bumper sticker I saw years ago, back East, which read "Uppity Woman on Board." Which, in the non-linear and circular way my brain meanders along, brings me back around full circle to GiGi Mota. Like her rattlesnake-killing, overalls-wearing mother, GiGi is another amazing woman. Among her many talents, my mother can drive a backhoe! Hmmm...maybe not so much with the butterflies on her birthday card? You know, there's a time for butterflies and a time for backhoes, and sometimes, time for both! It's her birthday, so butterflies it is! And just in case you're looking, Mom - Happy Birthday!

Thanks for visiting! be in touch! Come again soon!

Oh My Gosh!

I can hardly believe it's been a week since I last posted, and wish I could say that I've been absorbed in a creative art frenzy...but I haven't been. Durn! I wish I had been...

We've been painting the house. The exterior. It's a big house. And it's pretty old as houses go, built in the early sixties, which makes the prep kind of...interesting. And it's been painted three times that I can tell. Well, in some places. And the masonry wasn't sealed or primed before it was painted the first time, which means we get to remove all those icky blistery unadhered paint bubbles or there will be big trouble down the road. And there's a lot of masonry...Not complainin', just explainin'. So, what it boils down to is that painting the house has suddenly become a bigger job that we originally anticipated...

Anyhow, we're in a crush to get it done before the first snowfall which, in Flagstaff, should be here in about two weeks. Yikes! Two weeks! Seven thousand feet above sea level puts us above the Sonora desert and into deep snow country. One hundred eight inches a year on average, starting in mid-October, which is suddenly just around the corner!

So...here's me, painting the house.

More like body art, do you suppose? I am a messy painter, both as an artist and a house painter...and frequently look like this at work in the studio.

Hey! I found a cool new use for an embossing heat tool. If you hold it up real close to the masonry the paint gets elastic and scrapes off in a solid sheet! Sweet, huh?

Sooooo, thanks for hanging in there with me! The prep is almost done and we're painting! With luck and if the weather holds I'll be back in the studio getting creative in about a week. Any ideas for a mural for the back patio? :)

Come again soon!

Recycled Bounty

For some time now, as many of you are aware, one of my passions in creating art has been to use as much recycled material as possible in both substrate and construction materials, and to be aware of the environmental effect of various media on the environment.

Disposable paper palettes are okay, I suppose, as the leftover dribs and smears of paint wind up in the earth... but I've never felt very good about using them, so, some time ago I started scrounging around for an alternative to paper or formed plastic palettes and found LOADS of reusable, recyclable and functional items to substitute! Those white plastic lids...they're on everything, from coffee cans to cottage cheese containers, awesome! While the lighter weight ones aren't terribly durable, they'll serve pretty well until they start to degrade, at which time they can be wiped off and tossed in the recycle bin; coffee can lids seem to last forever. Woo-hoo!

The other day at Goodwill I hit on the ultimate paint palette score! Tart pans! Kinda like muffin tins, but more shallow. Found two of them, with nine roomy indentations apiece, perfect for times when you're working with several colors at once and don't want a slew of little white lids lying around cluttering up your work space!

Pretty cool, huh? And at the end of a project, you just wipe it off, rinse, dry and put it away!

Here's a shot of what I was working on, custom art papers for a trade with a friend...

I hope she likes them...I can't wait to send them to her!

Today is for finishing up with a few other recycled papers, making an art journal, catching up on email and then cleaning up the yard following last night's massive wind storm...Can you believe that Kris got up in the middle of the night and took down the canopy on the patio by herself? It had walked all over the yard and knocked some things over by the time the noise woke her up...

Anyhow, back on topic...You never know where recycled tools and materials will turn up! Have an environmentally friendly tip to share? A recycled alternative to environmentally destructive practices or tools? Let us know, I'd love to hear what you're doing to help make your art environmentally sustainable!

Come again soon!

Let There Be Art!

How wonderful it is to have time for art play! At Art Unraveled this year I had the immense pleasure of taking an art journaling class with Judy Wise (blog link on the left sidebar), and became positively enthralled with art journaling. Try as I would, I just could never get in the habit of keeping a written journal, even once I acquired a computer, but art journaling has opened a whole new world.

Being a book binding fiend, I made my first art journal as soon as I got home from the retreat. Here's a scan of the cover:

The covers are from a discarded encyclopedia, which makes the journal nice and roomy, and the pages are made of 140 lb. watercolor paper, two sheets per signature, coptic bound, so that the book opens flat. Nine signatures give me a total of 72 pages to play in before I need to make another. Of course, I'll probably construct a new one long before the old one is full. Did I mention that I love bookbinding? Here's the first entry:

One of the things I love about art journaling is that it's art "just-for-me." It's not for sale, it doesn't have to impress anyone or have a purpose, I don't have to angst over it or make it perfect. It is what it is, and it's all good! What a great medium!

Are you an art journaler? Share, please?

Thanks for visiting! Come again soon!

Ready to Roll

I've been tied up the last couple of weeks writing proposals to teach at "Art Unraveled 2010," and am SO happy to report that they're DONE! I only submitted two, but it's a meticulous, time consuming process that used up a fair chunk of time, and precluded any semblance of art play. Now that it's done, I'm simply amazed at the amount of free time there is in a day...which means that soon there will be new art to show you! It IS an art blog, after all. :)

Here are the class projects I submitted.

First up, and the one that was most in demand at my AU booth, is the Circle Book:

 

I call it the Circle Book because each page is origami folded to open out as a circle. It's almost entirely recycled rescued-from-the-dumpster materials, and the possibilities for decorating the pages are endless...

Next is "Recycled Reflections - A Meandering Journal:"

 

Another recycled wonder! The one in the picture is made from cardboard scraps, scrap card stock, and pages torn from a discarded art book. You can use just about anything, cereal boxes, magazines, even junk mail! Dress it up or grunge it out, it's fun and easy to construct.

Art Unraveled is a week long art retreat held annually in Phoenix, generally in early August. Nationally recognized artists and students from all over the country converge on the Embassy Suites for a week of classes, a shopping extravaganza, swaps, a banquet, meeting up with artsy friends and having a scrumptious artsy time. I love it!

Registration opens in February and Linda, the producer, will be letting instructors know who's made the schedule for next year sometime toward the end of October.

I love-love-love to teach! So keep your fingers crossed for me okay?

Oh - Now that I have all this time on my hands, I want to give you a heads up. I'll be putting together my studio schedule of classes in the next couple of weeks, and you'll also begin seeing tutorials go up in the sidebars. So stay tuned!

Sometimes I Just Smile and Shake My Head

All right. This is too funny to not share with everyone! There's a bit of a story...

A couple of weeks ago I lost an earring. Ordinarily it just wouldn't have been a big deal, but these were special earrings. My very favorites. I wear them all the time. They're my go-to accessory, yes? So, I did what any of us would do; I looked high and low. I started by going through the laundry, and sweeping the floors. I carefully checked the washer and dryer, and in desperation, carefully poked through the trash can in the bathroom (eeeew!). Nowhere to be found.

I combed through the piles of accumulated ephemera, paper scraps, palettes, paints, glue bottles, books, fibers and lace on my work table in the studio, scanned the floor around it, then extended the search into the livingroom, in and around the recliner where most of my knitting gets done. No dice.

I sadly concluded that maybe it had slid down the sink and into the drain when I wasn't paying attention one night; it was gone forever. With great reluctance I surrendered the hunt. I did keep the remaining earring. Lots of people throw away good ephemera. Not me...and the studio is chaotic testimony!

I  put the earring incident behind me, and moved on, hoping that someday my second favorite pair would magically transition into my new favorite. Limited short term success there, but over time, well, maybe I could adjust. *sigh*

The other day, I was out early in the morning picking beans, with the sun juuuust at the right angle, and there it was. My wayward earring, hooked around a bean stalk, twinkling in the sun.

Hooting and howling quietly, so's to not wake the neighbors (you don't want to know how early I go out to pick beans - truly), I ran inside to grab a camera. This one definitely gets saved for posterity...Oh, BTW, I've quit trying to figure out how and when it ended up in the garden gracing the foliage of a lovely, lush bean plant. Sometimes the best we can do is smile, shake our head, and be grateful for moments like these. Sharon and the Magical Mystery Beans...what a hoot!

A Day of Remembrance

On September 11, 2001, I was still living back East in a suburb of Washington, D.C., experiencing the chaos and terror of that day "up close and personal," as they say. Amid the chaotic and conflicting news reports, I reassured a friend by saying that if "they" had nukes they would have already been deployed. I remember securing a water supply by filling the bathtub, making contingency plans for evacuation (if need be), and being glued to the radio and television for updates. My daughter's Crystal City office window overlooked the wall of the Pentagon. I held her hand and talked her down from hysteria. In the following weeks PTSD forced her to leave that job; routine landings and takeoffs along the adjacent Potomac River at Reagan International Airport brought flashbacks and severe panic attacks. We smelled the smoke. We saw the flames. We heard the fated jet, flying far too low over the Potomac.

And we all wept for the fallen - janitors, stockbrokers, firefighters, rescue personnel, police, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, heroes in a field in Pennsylvania, ordinary men and women. "Fanfare for the Common Man" still makes me cry and probably always will.

Yet I also I remember how, for a few weeks afterward, we came together in our shock and grief. People lined up for city blocks to donate blood. We treated one another gently, politely. There were no strangers.

Hoping to shore up a plunging stock market, President Bush exhorted us to get on with "business as usual," to "go out and shop." Senator McCain encouraged us us to find ways to volunteer and serve in our community. And in April of this year, President Obama signed a bill making Sept. 11th a National Day of Service.

I devoutly hope that Sept. 11th does not go the way of Veterans Day. Do we remember that Veterans Day is in memory of the Armistice? How many of us buy a poppy from an old man in uniform outside the grocery store without understanding the significance?

As painful as remembrance is, I hope that we can honor the fallen of this day by finding a way to serve, if only with a smile, or by holding the door for a stranger,  by remembering that for a few weeks in Sept. 2001 we were all walking wounded, and that today, despite our differences, we are still one.

I'd love to receive comments telling us all what you did today to serve...