New Work Update #1

Well, yesterday being a wet day - me not being able to do much except clean the house up - I thought to dive in and start on my main piece of collage work when the piano tuner arrived.  Instead of waiting for him, I just began organising the work into piles after cleaning off the piano and moving the furniture for him.

Soon enough, he called and I met him at the gate and he was doing his work and I was doing mine.  I had already done the background up with pages from an old Tom Clancy book (like I did with a smaller one) and so I began working words that had 'idea' and 'inspiration' in the wording and began gluing it along the bottom right with some small book reviews and other things like bookmarks and smaller pictures hidden behind it.  The idea of it is that the idea is at the bottom of the pile and book is what blooms at the top.  Then, I got stuck and I worked on the other book

cover one for a bit.
Before going to sleep last night, I found out what I needed to do to kick it along.  I needed some real books to glue onto the top and paint so that I could mould them onto the canvas; and then make it work into the piece... make it look like it's a part of the piece already.

New Lot of Work in Progress

As you may have been noticing, I've taken a great interest in collage and using paint in the process.  So, I've decided to start a new lot of works in collage; thus a new exhibition.  I don't have a name for it yet, but I will keep you all in the loop with its progress until I do.  
This time, I will be trying to get myself into a proper gallery; namely the one I work in.  The pieces will be for sale and I'll be trying out to get myself into better places as I move forward with my art.  So, keep your eyes on this space, I'm working on plenty of things.

Traffic Control Art

I love looking at outsider art; no matter what kind of work it is.  And while at Garden City yesterday, I found one that was out of this world.

I'm sure you've all seen this kind of work on traffic control boxes at numerous intersections all over this great country of ours (if not, well, here in Queensland, they're doing it; and it's quite a lot of fun).  And this one jumped out at me, so I took a photo of it just because it reminded me of the author Isaac Asimov and a few other authors of sci-fi.

Pretty cool, eh?  So, is there any outsider art around your area you've see and would like to share with us?  If so, let us know the url through the comments below and I'll have a look and see if I can put it into the links on sidebar.

A Collage In Progress.

Slowly but surely, I've been working on a collage.  It began about a month ago when I took apart a Tom Clancy book which was falling apart and glued some of the pages to a stretched canvas.  Then, I left it alone; not knowing quite what to do with it.

Then, after I got into a workshop late last month, I got the best idea and raided a thrift shop of its books that were falling apart and were unreadable to complete the project.  I took the covers and spines off where I could and worked on what I could yesterday.  

And thus far it looks wonderful!  I've glued on 'A Time to Kill' and 'Interview With The Vampire' both about death and destruction... however, I'll be adding in a book or two of romance; so that when I end up painting the edges of the pages red, the colour will mean two different things.  Pretty cool, eh?  Well, I'll keep you up to date about when it'll be finished and post a photo of the finished product once I'm done with it.

A Quick Note

This is about something which is beyond my control.  I have noticed that Blogger has changed things around in how photos are uploaded to my posts on all my blogs.  If the writing on my posts seem all over the place, it's not my doing.  It's how the photos have been reacting to the text and vise versa.  

If you have any problems on how it looks, please lodge all complains with Blogger.  

Thank you.

Art Workshop at the Logan Art Gallery

Yesterday afternoon, Mum and I took off to the Logan Art Gallery to take part in a workshop to make our own book covers.  The great thing was that the artist who was showing there was also giving the class.  So, we got to talk to her.  Sandy Johnson told us how she was inspired to work with mixed media and an old set of books her children could no longer use thanks to the internet.

Then, we had our chance to have a go at doing this great artistic fun ourselves.  She showed us how to make our piece of calico into a 4-layered backdrop of what would turn into our book cover, wall-hanging or whatever we thought it would be.  But instead of making us wait for two days for it to cure/dry, she had some ready-made ones for us to finish off.  And we all had our own idea of how

things were supposed to look.  

My phase one (piece of calico with the 4-layered backdrop) looked really great until I put some tissue paper on it.  For some reason it looked very gooey and messy after that.  Otherwise, I was thrilled with my phase two piece that I simply put some bookcrossing notes, ribbon and stamps on; and then to finish it off, I gave it a light blue wash.  Very nice.  I look forward to using it on a journal at some point.  However, I'm still trying to figure out what can be done about the first phase piece I've got still drying downstairs which looks like it's falling apart; but it may not yet.

I'll keep you posted about it and if it's a failure, I'll see what I can do about it; and see if I can improve upon it and make it better.  If not, well, Sandy might be doing something differently to what we did yesterday.

Hand-painted Gift for Kalman

On Bookcrossing, there's been an exchange of gifts in memory of one of the Bookcrosser's sons. A lot of us took part and I received a gift from a wonderful person in Western Australia; and so, seeing she send me wonderful, brand new books wrapped in gorgeous paper, I thought to hand-paint something just for her.
Here I have an old box I've had sitting around the house from another art thing I did years ago. It was actually a gift box I used to use for a friend of mine to store souvenirs for when I needed ideas. Now, I've decided to paint it up and give it away filled with goodies to another. I just hope she enjoys it as much as I did painting it.
Some years ago, I designed a style of four-petaled flower that was simplistic and lovely in its own way; however, not everyone liked it... not even me. But, once in a while I'll add it into my paintings as a quirky little thing that is an original fingerprint to make it my own. And I'm glad I have. So, I I thought to cover this small box with these lovely flowers and had a great idea of gluing silk leaves all over it to give it a textured look. However, seeing it didn't work (and I didn't have a hot glue gun), I decided to paint them on instead; and did it work a treat! I also painted the inside too.
Now, all I have to do is stick some felt to the bottom, sign my work and give it all a good spray with varnish and it's all done. I've already bought some lovely little things my Kalman Exchange person can use in her arty exploits; as well as her life.

Is there anything you've designed for others you'd like to show off? If so, let us know your website through the comments box below. I'd love to hear from you. Until my next post, keep knitting and keep creating!

An Update on Old Work.

For those who have been with me from the start, if you remember, I began this site to track where I attached my knitted trees projects. Well, I didn't get very far with it because my area isn't all that safe. But I did fill you in on what I've been doing artistically in my other pursuits; and this has been rather successful.

However, yesterday, while I was on my way to the bus stop, I decided to see what became of one of my first knitted tree projects from a few years back. And what do you know? It's still attached to the tree in Kookaburra Park on Park Road and it's still looking good! There's no tag on it (not that I'd expect it to be there), but it was worthwhile choosing a fully-grown tree to stitch it to! And just look at the pictures that I managed to get before bus came! Doesn't it look good; and after all that rain we've had here in Brisbane too!

Well, until my next post. Keep knitting and keep creating.

All At Once

I've had a couple of projects on the run all at the same time; and it caught up with me last night. I copped myself eye strain in my left eye! Haven't had that for a long time, and don't wish to get it again. So, I gave myself the night off from knitting a part of a square for the blanket, painting anything or cutting up magazines... and did I feel useless! I have gotten so used to making sure my hands are doing something that when I stopped them from doing anything, I felt unproductive. Doesn't that feel horrible?

As well as the above projects that are being worked on all at the same time, I'm also taking part in 365 Project which has a lot to do with creative photography. Next week there's a colour theme from Sunday to Saturday. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue Indigo and Violet. I hope I can get the last two colours right; they'll be hard.

Anyway, I've been working on getting rid of the magazines I don't need... and slowly but surely I'm getting there. I'm also practicing a lot of piano - even though it sounds terribly out of tune - and also I'm still working on the main second painting I chose to work on. Yep, my art life is going well. Slowly, but well. Until next time, keep knitting and keep creating.

New Farm Park

While I was out and about on Sunday afternoon with friends, we went to the Powerhouse Museum at New Farm Park to see an exhibition of photographs of singers and bands in concert. It was brilliant and I loved it. Afterward, we took a walk around place and out near the Brisbane River where we found a very original flood marker that showed how high the 1974 floods rose to around the area. For years, I thought this particular piece of outsider artwork was just that until I read the plaque between the first and second letter. These red letters stand around 5ft tall on the taller letters and that's where the waters rose to. And being only 5ft myself, I felt very small against all this metal. Then, you had to add on the remaining level of the river before it reached these markers; and it shows this was a bad flood. But a remarkably good way of showing where it came to.

In New Farm Park itself, there's other outsider art around the place and these two ladies in steel were just two of them. I found them eye-catching and beautiful in their own way; and they were set apart by only a few metres. Even though they don't really have any names on them, they make the rose garden nearby look lovely. I tend to think they may be the guardians of the rose garden seeing that both of them are holding a flower each; and New Farm Park has a large rose garden which makes it a wonderful backdrop for weddings.

So, there are the two pieces of artworks I've seen recently that I thought to share with you all. Stay tuned and I'll keep you up to date with more photos of outsider art from Logan City and the Brisbane Metro Area. There really are some wonderful artists out there.