Finding Your Muchness...

Sometimes it seems like making art is all about the journey. I am constantly being inspired and influenced by some new style or technique. I am all over the board, trying to find a look that I can grow with. I realize that, as I mature as an artist, I will need to settle into something that works for me. Something that gives me the chance to create the impression I want, to invoke the feelings I want, yet still have the essential ME for all to see. This is difficult to do, as a new artist. Learning is copying, to some extent, it must be at first. But after you learn, you must go on to find the YOU inside the new style or technique.

                                     “You used to be much more..."muchier." You've lost your muchness.” 

― Lewis Carroll 

Sometimes life gets in the way of this discovery. It is a rare person indeed, who can spend their days discovering their unique self and doing nothing else. There are children, jobs, housework, gardens and other responsibilities. They draw us away from the search, and use up our passions and creativity. I am trying to stop that, trying to rearrange my life to make my art a priority. It isn't easy, and it would help if I could be more than one person. But I am just me and this isn't Wonderland. Time keeps moving along at a steady pace, pretty much in a forward motion, with no sympathy for my inability to organize my day.

“The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.” 

― Lewis Carroll

I have never been good with schedules, and it seems my life is chock full of parallel priorities. But I am working on it, and I am finding my muchness again...and this time, I'm not letting it go...

The art work above is a new technique for me. It is a page from the play Romeo and Juliet printed in German. This I bonded to a sheet of watercolor paper, then applied acrylic paint with a brayer. After this was dry, I sketched the details, then painted them in with more acrylic paints. I highlighted the sketching using a permanent pen...I think I love this new look! I used a snippet of this background to create my twig inchie as well...

The theme for Every Inchie Monday this week is "twig";

to see the others, please click here!

 

A little stolen time in my studio...

The massive whirlwind that is the holiday season is in full rush around here, and even though I swore to sit this one out, it does tend to catch me up and toss me about, now and again. Short of holing up in a storm cellar, I just have to go along with it for now, and try not to instigate any additional breezes. All this to say, I have been away from my studio for a few days, and it is starting to show. I start to get antsy, and my hands get too clean. That probably explains this little project;

In a large bundle of mail, along with the ads, bills, and various generic greeting cards from local businesses, I got a decent sized magnet. You know the kind, the insurance guy, and plumber send a business card sized one every year. Well, this one was big, about 4" X 6" and was advertising a little boutique I went to last summer. It had a calendar on it, with numbers too tiny for me to read...I hated to waste it, to just throw it away, so I decided that, since I am a collage artist, and any surface is fair game, then hey! I need a new magnet for my fridge. The days of my children's art adorning my fridge are long gone, so I decided to make my own grown up version.
    I cut a piece of background scrapbook paper, and used Mod Podge and a brayer to smooth it down. I then added a strip of text from an old poetry book, I found thrown out at the thrift store because the spine was missing. Images were stamped randomly over all, using my StaZon ink pad, and then more embellishments and words. I coated everything with another layer of Mod Podge, then did a little detail drawing with a copper metallic Sharpie pen. It looks good in my kitchen, and reminds me to find my grace, during this frantic time of the year. Enjoy...