the Art Blog of Sharon Kennick

Art Journal Page on Break

Hi blog friends! I'm taking a break today from making origami tiffany balls and getting ready for the Christmas shows...making time to play with art again, and to catch up on art journaling. Saturday's overnight low was forecast at 14 degrees chilly Fahrenheit, my friends. We heat with wood, and the house was still nice and toasty Sunday morning, but when I let the dogs out the cold hit me like a ton of bricks. Until I noticed the quality of the light. And the hundreds of birds perched high in the trees, singing and warming themselves in the early morning sunlight. Blue sky, golden grass, dried leaves catching the yellow dawn, birdsong, warming my fingers on a hot coffee cup. Morning perfection. So, here's Sunday's page, finished this morning.

This is the first time I've played with silhouette imaging, and I think I like it. The image is from a photo of me taken on vacation several years ago, sailing off the Florida keys. Cropped, reversed, grayscaled, blown up big, then printed on regular text weight paper. Cut out, painted black, then glued down with liquid gel medium - after setting down the base colors of the page, of course. "Wonder" is written with a Sharpie paint pen (if you can find them, buy as many as you can! They're being discontinued...). I applied an aureole around the silhouette with a white stabilo pencil (wet), then outlined the silhouette with gold. Must say I'm very pleased with the overall effect...So, you'll probably be seeing alot more pages featuring this image!

Seems like I learn something new every time I make a journal page, and this one is no different. I've historically had alot of trouble writing on the finished page - the texture and composition of the paint seemed to interfere with the smooth application of any and all of my pens. Go figure. On this piece, I applied a thin layer of gel medium over the finished page. Problem solved. Sweet.

Are you an art journaler? Have a sweet trick to share? Post it!

Thanks for visiting. Come again soon.

Playing with Origami

There's a high school craft fair here in Flagstaff that I've participated in for several years. Sinagua (pronounced "sin-ah-wha") is the last local event of the season, and I love vending there. It really is a craft fair, too, and not an art venue at all. People come from all over Northern Arizona looking for handmade Christmas presents - small, creative affordable gifts. And since there are people who look for me there every year (the organizers even give me the same location), it's tradition that, for about month ahead of time, I'm in the studio playing with new ideas and having loads of fun figuring out what new and fun presents to offer this year. Recycled art and origami both go over pretty well with the folk who come through, so I thought I'd focus on that first. Here's what I've come up with - a Tiffany ball ornament made of colored advertising newspaper inserts.

First, you make five of these:

 

And glue them together to make this:

 

Once you've assembled 12 flowers, you start gluing them together:

 

Until you have assembled two modules of six flowers each:

 

Add a ribbon hanger, a few beads, some bling, glue the two halves together, and *walah*:

 

A cool holiday ornament! And the bulk of it would have been thrown away...I love it!

Here's another one, made from color coordinated scrapbook papers, sans bling:

They're fairly labor intensive, but I'll be making several for the show, and a few extra for the family. The family...every year they can't wait to see what crazy repurposed/recycled newspaper thing I've come up with. And I just can't wait to set these out at my booth!

I'm seriously considering writing this project up as a three hour class. What do you think?

More to come soon...Thanks for visiting!

Recycled Flowers

Goodness! With a title like that one would almost expect to read an article on composting, or maybe confusion at the florist's, or good love gone bad, or maybe roses from the wrong man...Having tried pretty hard to come up with a better title, "recycled flowers" it remains.

The first time I saw these recycled plastic flowers I fell in love. They were a junior high school entry in Flagstaff's recycled art show, an annual art show and competition sponsored jointly by the Flagstaff Artists Coalition and Flagstaff Cultural Partners. The kids had made hundreds of them, and they were so beautiful that I came straight home and started playing with design.

Here's the process I came up with. First, you take an empty water bottle and cut off the top somewhere below the curve. The bottom goes back in the recycle bin, and the top (with the lid on) gets paint splattered and dripped and drizzled and puddled all over the inside. Inexpensive craft paint is fine...

Once the paint dries, cut petal shapes in the plastic using craft scissors (I also experimented with a large hole punch -  excellent results), then embellish the petals with paint markers or alcohol markers - whatever. Hmmm...I think deckling scissors might look pretty cool, too! Next time!

The centers are formed by wadding up textured yarns then stuffing the resulting ball down into the neck of the bottle. Next, loosen the cap a bit, wrap a piece of floral wire around the neck, and re-tighten the cap firmly over the wire. Twist the ends together, and walah! Recycled flowers...

Aren't they beautiful?

The possibilities are endless...

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!

 
    

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!

What Goes Up...Is Flying

I took a "Mommy Break," today. My oldest, a daughter, has had a tough summer. You see, in June her second pregnancy ended in stillbirth. She and her husband were devastated, and she has struggled emotionally ever since. Which is normal, I know. I hadn't heard from her for a couple of weeks, and checked in this morning for a Mom-ly chat and to hover a bit. Predictably, she was feeling blue and struggling to get through her days - but she'd had a great weekend camping with friends. She has a lot to be grateful for, she says, and wishes she could focus more on the positive things in her life. I spooned heartfelt mommy-wisdom and chicken soup into the phone, wishing I could kiss her boo-boo and make it better, and offered to send her a hand-made journal of gratitudes. Would I, she asks. That's SO cool! Thanks Mom!

So...out came the tools and the toys, and I became a Mom on a Mission, complete with cape and tights. Listening for the voice of the Muse I hear...static. No inspiration, no light bulb going off over my head, just silence. So I coax and cajole and fret until, unbidden, up from childhood memory floats the phrase, "What goes up must come down."

I have always felt an aversion to that adage, especially when applied to the curve-balls life tosses our way. "What goes up must come down." You see, implicit in that statement is the thought that our natural state is down, that up is a mere temporary aberration subject to the laws of gravitational physics. It doesn't leave room for the thought that we might bounce, or that what goes up might go up higher, or that on the way down we might wind up in the ocean and travel the Gulf Stream and wash up in some exotic place on a bed of beach glass and starfish. Life is fluid and elastic, it ebbs and flows, and...we bounce, we float, we swim, sometimes we are carried by friends, sometimes we flounder, sometimes we fly. 

So I pondered those things for awhile, until (finally) came the Promptings of the Muse. "The poor child needs a journal of balances," says She, "not book of platitudinous gratitudes. BALANCE! Something to give her perspective. Get it?"

"Yes Ma'am," humbly says I. "And thanks. Again."

Returning to the tools and toys with appropriate intention, I removed the cape and tights and made this:

 

A chunky "Journal of Balances," which has this on each page:

I made it using one of my favorite toys, the Zutter Bind-It-All. It is a uni-tasker, yes, and all it does is bind things, but the things you can make with it! Easy to use, well built, lightweight and small enough to store on a counter in the studio. Here's a picture:

 

I highly recommend them. BTW - Y'all please overlook the chaotic studio, okay? The Muse likes it a little bit messy...

I'm off to the Post Office! Come again soon!