Harvest Time and Family Gatherings...

I have been a little lax in posting these last two weeks, so here is my chance to catch up.

  We traveled in our RV to our annual family reunion over Labor Day weekend, an event we haven't missed now for 20 years. Our numbers are a little bit down, we are at that in between stage where all the cousins that were small children together are all graduated and building lives for themselves. Now it is mostly all us empty-nesters and the grand parents. This is a natural ebb and flow, soon these young adults will find their mates and start families of their own, ( not too soon, I hope), and the campground will begin to fill up again.

  I did bring my art kit along on the camp out, but I didn't once crack it open. I just spent my time talking around the camp fire, yard-saling and exploring the farmers market. As you can imagine after 20 years, there are a lot of traditions that have developed and so many stories to tell  and retell of gatherings past...

  I think the thing that amazes me the most is how, even though we don't see some of these people more than this one time a year, there is really no awkwardness in our connections. We just pick up where we left off, with more fodder for our storytelling. I have teased Mr. How2, telling him that becoming part of his amazing and huge family was the best reason I had for marrying him. Don't worry, his ego can take the hit!

One of the traditions is to go yard-saling in and around the town of Twisp. Because I am still determined to eradicate all the extra clutter from my life, I only picked up a couple things, a spice wrack to hold my small bottles of paint, and this little Chinese Calligraphy kit for $1.00. I am intrigued by this art form, and am looking forward to giving it a try. The Twisp Farmers Market is another place we go, and on Labor Day weekend they always host the library book sale. I scored a couple novels for Mr. How2, and a small book written entirely in Chinese, which i plan to use in my art. I had so much fun with the book of German poetry and the a copy of Romeo and Juliet in Russian that I bought at the book sale last year, I just couldn't resist it.

   I finished my "harvest" ATCs this week, about the only art I was able to get to, and will be sending them off tomorrow. Here is a look at them...

I made five this time, our exchange is usually send three, get three back, and most of us make and extra for the hostess to keep. This month, the granddaughter of one of or members asked if she could participate, so one is for her. We again decided to include an inchie, and here is mine...

Lets hear it for an autumn filled with beauty, bounty and warm family gatherings! Until next time...enjoy!
 

 

  

March Shoe Shot Blog Hop

When this blog hop was suggested, I immediately knew I what I would write about. You see, we just got home from a very sunny place, in fact, we spent the winter there, basking and exploring and shopping. I wore these sandals the whole time, and except for some evenings, and a couple rougher hikes, they were perfect! I already have tan lines on my feet in a kind of arrow shape...It was wonderful, but it had to end. I insisted on coming home the beginning of March, much against the advice of the veteran snow-birders we were visiting with.

 "Wait until April!" 

"It's still cold back home." 

"You will run into bad weather, it's dangerous!"

I heard all the arguments. But I insisted, after all, we are not yet retired, and things had been on hold long enough. So home we came, into the cold, wet and yes...snow! Every morning, Mr. How2 looks out the window and if there is anything but sunshine and blue skies, he grumbles, gives me an accusing glare, and stalks off to make the coffee. He can only be appeased with promises to go again next year. 

So here is my Shoe Shot, standing out in our cold, dead yard among last years leaves. My poor little freezing toes are still sporting the remnants of the pretty copper orange nail polish that was so much more appropriate in warmer weather. But no worries, the sun pops up now and again, the tulips are already poking out through their winter cover, and the roads are clear of ice. The worst is over, and that was our plan all along. Until next time...enjoy!

To see the other posts in the blog hop, please click here;

Art Journal Page and tiny, tiny art...

Soon after we return to Washington, I have a couple of classes to teach at our local Community Schools. One of these classes is on Art Journaling. The problem is, I forgot to bring my journal along on this trip! So no new pages to show as examples... Since I didn't want to go into the class with only older work to show, and because I wanted to show my students alternative journal choices, I picked up this old Readers Digest book.

and covered it with this paper,

and started painting, tearing and pasting into it...

Isn't this little guy adorable? Makes me grin every time I see the ad he is pulled from. The quote reads;

"Today I bent the truth to be kind, 

and I have no regret. 

For I am far surer of what is kind,

 than I am of what is true."

-Robert Brault

 I decided the subject of this journal will be simply, "Things That Make Me Happy". I plan to fill it only with images, memories, art and words that make me smile. I think it will be the perfect place to practice my doodling lessons, and store my favorite quotes.

Since this is Monday, and I have been out of the loop with Every Inchie Monday, AND I finally have a decent WiFi connection, I also uploaded my latest inchie, the subject this week was "flyer", which was just too easy considering my connection to Flytribe! :) I finally got a chance to watch the last two videos in Strathmore's Online Workshop, and they were the best ones by far! I am really going to love playing with random mark making in my new journal. Until next time...enjoy!

Learning to Leverage my Art...

I first heard this phrase while watching an art tutorial video online, in which the artist was explaining how you can get more mileage out of your art work.As I understand the meaning, after creating a piece of art, on canvas, paper or even cardboard, you can then scan, copy or photograph that work, and print it out. This gives you an unending supply of your own original work, to tear, crumple, paint, tint, layer and paste to your hearts content. I find the concept intriguing. I decided to give it a try;

This piece will eventually become a background image for some of the tiny art I am currently working on for the Art-o-mat project. I have been learning my way around Pinterest, and got caught up in some posts using paint chips as art components, so this influence has made an appearance here.

 I am also just finishing up Traci Bautistas Doodles Unleashed Strathmore Online Workshop, so the colors and the free style are also making themselves known. What I didn't realize while working on this one, is how much it was also influenced by my current location, out in the Arizona desert. Mr. How2 took one look and said he loved my cactus picture! I never even noticed, but it does rather resemble a desert garden, doesn't it?
I guess you could say my mind is a bit like a crowded attic, the last thing dumped in there, is the first thing you see when you open it up!

Back to leveraging your art; I also came across this video, and the concept really started to come together for me while I watched it, thank you to the artist Zorana!
 When I get back to civilization, and can plug into an actual outlet, instead of a cactus, I will scan these backgrounds into my computer. From that point, I can print them out in pieces, in their entirety, in different colorways or intensities, and use them in a variety of ways. I wouldn't want to overuse the same art, but I can certainly do much more with it than just one painting. I am currently working on a full page of faces, and another of birds and flowers to use with these to create mixed media collage art.
So go ahead and look at your art again, but look in a different way. You may find a whole new world of art in there! Until next time, enjoy...

One Word Blog Hop...

Recently my wonderful group of fellow fliers, alumni from the Summer 2011 Flying Lessons course with Kelly Rae Roberts, decided to do a Blog Hop as a way of ringing in the New Year. This is my first time participating in a hop, and I have had tons of things to learn and questions to ask. Fortunately we have some amazing, and tech savvy artists in our group, and they have spent hours of their time talking the tech-challenged majority through this process. Ladies, you know who you are, sincerely and profoundly, thank you...

On the surface, I get the appeal of doing New Years resolutions. It makes sense really, who doesn't spend time  at the end of the year, after the holiday whirlwind has calmed and the dust has settled, to examine, not only the previous year, but our personal goals and path. But, lets face it, New Years resolutions are a cliche, breaking them is so common, no one really puts any credence to them when they hear them. I had at least three little cartoons posted to my Facebook page comically depicting the concept...
So this year I was interested to hear about the "one word" idea. Instead of a to-do list of unobtainable goals, (and lets face it, if we were going to do these things, we would be doing them, right?) you choose an word, one single word, and try, throughout the year, to focus on that word and bring it's benefits into your life.
  What word you choose is entirely up to you, I have heard examples such as; create, de-clutter, soar, heal, and peace. How you honor your commitment to this word is also entirely up to you. Some are making signs, creating jewelry, or producing a piece of art, as a reminder to embrace their word, and incorporate it into their everyday lives.

 I have chosen the word "moment". I have spent entirely too many years of my life, waiting for the right moment. Thinking only of the future, and the responsibilities I have to everyone around me. I am the ant, in the ant and the grasshopper tale. Raising my children, making the sacrifices, the tough choices, saving, scrimping, doing the right thing, and going without. Always, somewhere in the future, I would have time to do my thing, create my art, start my own business...someday.

"We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine." - HL Mencken

  My kids are grown and gone, and yet I am still holding out, waiting for them to get their feet on the ground, ready to catch their foul balls, still setting the good example and trying to guide them into responsible adulthood. But really, I am done. Oh, they may still need me, in a strictly advisory capacity and for unconditional love, but they don't actually listen if they, indeed, ever did. They are off and running with the bit in their teeth, and other than being a touchstone, when the world gets scary, I am left behind to rediscover who I am, and what I want.

"Rejoice in the things that are present, all else is beyond thee..." Mantaigne

    I struggle with worry, as if I stand a chance of warding off tragedy by trying to second guess destiny or fate. But the truth is, when I stop to really think about it, worry is just a waste of energy, it has no actual effect on what will be. I need to stop wasting my precious time, and focus on the things I can do to make my life what I want it to be. So learning to, not only live in the moment, but to live without fear and actually move forward into that big scary world again, now, not at some vague future date, is my goal and moment is my word to remind me of that.

 "This is the time, now is the moment." 

Until next time...enjoy.

To read other artists blog about their "one word" experiences, please go to this site. 

Gadabout Artist Days 18 - 20

So, Mr. How2 and I spent three days wandering around Quartzsite, seeing what there is to see, and getting a feel for the place. I mean, what a crazy concept, right? All this activity springing out of the middle of the desert. But you do find, as you move from one tent to the next, there is a repetition to it all. We would walk into a space, look around and ask each other if we had been here already. No, that was on the other side of town. Weird...
  We spent three evenings camping out in the desert too. That was beautiful at night, and cooled down considerably. We needed the extra blanket from the first part of our journey! We were quite comfortable, and had plenty of food and water and soaked up the peace and quiet and not moving! We eventually came up with a plan, we decided the best thing to do was to explore a few days, then head to Tucson to visit our family, which is where we are now.

We plan to stay here for a few days, helping out with some home improvement projects around their new home. I will not go into my rant about lousy contractors that take advantage of unsuspecting home owners right here, but lets just say there were some very hinky goings on when they put this place together, and there is no excuse for many of them. Just pure laziness and shoddy workmanship...
  Mr. How2 is dancing a jig, he is so in his element doing this kind of work for the people he loves. I actually caught him singing to himself as he traced down a mysteriously disconnected wire and figured out why three wall switches seemed to have no effect on anything in the house. I knew he wouldn't last long just doing nothing, looks like his limit was 20 days...

  As for art, I mentioned in a previous post that I was taking an online course, with new lessons every Monday for four weeks. I have been playing some more with the techniques from the first lesson, and here are my creations.

 This one is done on watercolor paper, and I think it might make nice background paper for a collage, maybe even cut down to fit the art I am doing for the Art-o-mat project. This is 6" x 6" and I can get at least four out of it...

These last two I tried on small canvas board, not the best choice. A big part of the technique is the use of oil pastels, and though they go on nice and creamy over the watercolor paper, they look choppy and unfinished on canvas...Duh, I should have guessed that! The cutesy, free-form designs are outside my comfort zone, not really sure if I like them as finished pieces, but I will keep playing around to see what develops. I did figure out one neat trick. When you want to add more paint or pen work after you have added the oil pastel, you have to be careful because it sticks to your pens, or acts like a resist to your paints. The pastels stay tacky, and can smear. However, if you add the oil pastels, then seal them with a coat of Mod Podge or Gel Medium, then let it dry completely, you are free to add as many more layers as you wish, the pastels are firmly set and will not smear. I didn't know this would work before I tried it, but fortune favors the bold and I figured it was worth the risk...

  Tomorrow we are being escorted to a swap meet by my lovely niece, and I will let you know what treasures we find! Until then...enjoy!

Gadabout Artist Days 15-17: Quartzsite and Camping in the Desert

The 15th day out was almost all about travel, we drove south from Ash Fork, way up a mountain, topping off at 6100' and a slow, very slow winding down the other side, into the lowlands. It was a nerve wracking drive, the down side was so steep and so winding, we hardly breathed, and crawled along at 30 miles an hour. Mark that route off the list for next year, there has got to be a better way...

  We got into Quartzsite in the early afternoon on New Years Day, so of course, everything was closed. It was a nice quiet evening, we got full hookups and showered, cooked and went for a stroll down the street. We spent a few hours reading up on all the craft shows and rock and gem shows, and generally making plans for the following day. I also started a four week online class with Traci Bautista, called Creative Doodling, and I am having a lot of fun exploring this free spirited way of making art. Here is my first week "assignment"...

 I had to work with a few substitutions, and on a much smaller scale than the lesson intended, but I am happy with the results. I think it would make a great background for either ATCs or a collage canvas...


 It is difficult to describe this town. It starts with about 2000 permanent residents, and swells to around 150,000 in January and February, all in RVs. Every inch of space is packed cheek to jowl with motorhomes, campers, trailers, trucks and vans, and everyone of them has a tent set up and is selling something!

 We have walked around town now for two days, and still there is no end in sight. Believe it or not, this is just the beginning! The "real shows" haven't really begun, they are scheduled for this week end and for every week from here until the end of February, and just a bit into March. Right now there are a couple of Gem and Mineral shows happening, and I am having a very hard time resisting the BEADS! Every color, shape and size you can imagine!

The prices vary from wholesale, to retail, to sky high to dirt cheap, with no rhyme or reason to them, other than what the market will bear.

Then there is the camping...you can choose to stay in a RV park, if you book the previous year, or you can "dry" camp, or "boondock" out on the surrounding BLM lands which are vast and free of charge. There is also a middle ground, called LTVAs and there you can stay for a ridiculously small price for months at a time. You have to drive into town now and again for water and a sewer dump, or there are clever resourceful souls, that truck these services right out to you. We are only staying one more night here, so we chose the short term site. Then we are off to Tucson to visit my niece and nephew, and my new little grand niece! Until next time...enjoy!

Gadabout Artist: Day 3

We had a somewhat restless night at the truck stop. There was a lot of traffic, and the truckers parked next to us got up at midnight, and, I kid you not, pulled out at 1am! He didn't make a lot of noise, but we were sleeping pretty light, just trying to adjust to life in the RV, and every little sound woke us up.

 I spent part of the evening working on these little pieces, the larger one, a 5" x 7" already had the gears and the Davinci sketch, I just wasn't sure which way I wanted to go with it. As I was working on the other, little cards, I realized I was unhappy with the canvas because it was so dark. So I added the same bright papers, and much more pleased with the piece. I am not done with any of these, but I am close.

Today, after leaving The Dalles, and driving along I-84 we ended up going into Portland. This was not the plan. We should have stayed on I-84 until we hit I-205, then around the south of Portland, and up I-405 to the exit towards the coast. But I had set the gps for "shortest" route earlier in our trip, and forgot to change it back. So "Jack", (that's what we call our gps, as in, "shut up, Jack!") led us astray...The shortest route, was NOT the easiest route, and we ended up driving through downtown Portland! Help! It was very bad! It would have been tough in a car, but in a 26' RV? A very bad idea...Mr. How2 was pretty stressed out. It was such a relief to clear all the traffic and start climbing up into the green forest again. We headed straight for the coastline, and into Tillamook, in time to have a little lunch and tour the Cheese Factory. Yum! We dropped by Debbie D's for cured meats. Very good, small batch smoked meats, and a perfect compliment to the variety of cheeses we bought at the factory. Can you guess what we had for dinner? :)
 We then headed west on highway 6 towards the actual coastline, and we got our first view of the ocean this trip. It is beautiful!

 Now, I am a flat-lander, born and raised in Minnesota, so the thrill of seeing the ocean never ceases for me. Mr. How2 grew up over here, so he is a little less awed than I...which is a good thing, since he was driving and these are narrow, twisty roads indeed...
We are parked now for the night, at Cape Lookout Campgrounds, and I can still hear the roar of the ocean, even tucked up here near the RV hookups. I cannot wait to explore it more in daylight, we only had a brief time on the beach before darkness fell, about 4:30, for crying out load...
As for the hook ups, this is kinda nice. This is the first time we have been at an official campground, and the cost of a dry camp was $15 and one with water, sewer and electricity was only $5 more, so we went for it. So we have hot showers, lots of lights and all the power we need for my computer and printer. . Nice to do it this way now and again, feels more like home. I almost wish we brought a movie to watch, it would be like date night! Here are a couple more pics...

I can't wait to use these new images in my art, I wonder what I will come up with? Enjoy...

*Thing I miss: A bathroom that I can turn around in. The one in our little RV is just big enough to sit down in and have my knees touch the wall...

*Things I love: The sound of the surf as I lie cozy in our bed...

Gadabout Artist: Days 1-2...

We left on our first RV trip yesterday, at noon. Yep, that's right, it took us most of the day just to finish the last minute stuff, and say goodbye to the family. We only made it as far as Wenatchee, WA, and since it was getting dark, we decided to stop for the night in the parking lot of Walmart. Not a very auspicious ending to our first day out, but very convenient for all the little things we needed to finish turning our little RV into our new home. I must say there is a very friendly group of people working at the Wenatchee Walmart, they were just super, and didn't need to be, nice huh? We turned in early, and woke to a few more delays. There was a fine freezing drizzle, and our wiper blades decided to stop wiping... So we waited for the auto parts store to open, had some breakfast, and I worked on this little 4"x4" canvas;

My goal on this trip will be to do one small canvas a day, and post it here for you to see, and to finally spend sometime remembering how to crochet, and make myself a shawl. I didn't get very far on the shawl, still trying different patterns, but I will show my progress as I go.
 Here is Mr. How2, driving;

The rest of the day was gloomy and overcast, and atone point, and solid pea soup fog. We climbed up and over Satus Pass, into the clear evening sky, then dropped down into it again. Until we passed Goldendale, WA and cleared the Oregon border, things were getting pretty dicey. Visibility was nearly zero. Then we broke down under the fog, and headed west along I-84, and it was clear sailing all the way to The Dalles, OR. We are stopped now for the night at a truck stop, and will continue west in the morning. At this point we have pretty much decided to head south along the coast, Hwy 101, and avoid as many passes as we can. Looks like the coast is supposed to be clear weather for the next week, we will see...

*Things I miss; my kitten snuggling up with me at night.

*Things I love; the fact that as soon as we stop, we are home, no looking for a restaurant or hotel.

Small projects...

   I have been working very small lately. For some reason the universe is throwing very strong hints my direction, and I am forever trying to turn them into something I can understand. Lately they have been about small. Small canvases, small art, small space. Mr. How2 and I are planning to travel this winter, this will be our first attempt at snow-birding. I am not sure how long it will last, but for now, I am trying to think small. I do not want to be away from my art for the duration of the trip, and I am the kind of person that needs a reason for doing things.        

   I am working on a set of ATCs for an online exchange with my Flygirls ATC Group. This is also turning into a learning experience for me, since I have been asked to teach a class about ATCs in the spring. So I am trying to document my process, so I can explain it to my students.
  I also recently rediscovered a interesting project on the internet called Art-o-mat; (go to this website to learn more about it);

 http://www.artomat.org/home.html 

a group that gathers small pieces of art from artists all over the world. They place the art in refurbished cigarette machines throughout the country, and make them available to the public for only $5 a piece. It looks like a fascinating program, and I am working on samples to send them now. If I am accepted, and I hope I am, they will ask me to make up 50- 2 1/8" x 3 1/4" pieces of art. Again, a great size to work on in the RV. I will keep you posted as on my progress, in the mean time, check out their website, and see if they have a machine near you...Enjoy!