Testing the waters

Have dried and pressed flowers and natural materials I grew in my garden for years. Through the years, moved from just pasting them in to a Pressed Flower journal to actually painting with them - some...
Here is a slide show stored in my web albums of the pages I am currently trying to develop. Unfinished work, publicly shown, is normally be a real no no for an artist, but am doing this so to LOOK at them in a different manner and perhaps figure out where they want me to take them.
Had captions on each too but just found one has to save each caption as it is written so lost them all! Hope to add them back in tonight. In general, you can see how they started as just 'records of pressed flowers' and moved through time to start to be 'painting materials" - again a toast to some like Keri Smith who suggest use everything! Flowers as Paintings

In Toast to Keri Smith

I noticed within the last few days a blog entry from Keri Smith regarding grids and her fondness of them. A pic of one of her net grocery bags as example. As a "commercial artist" for a million years, grids and their use for commercial art and publishing are rather boring - to be honest.
I have been stuck to grids and graph paper art for too long, but it does not really bother me too much. Gives me a sense of comfort and familiarity actually. I am NOT dishing Keri Smith here - heaven forbid! I love her work and she has inspired me many times. I just thought it a tad strange to see her bringing up grids. I would have thought she also was as tired of them as I was! However, the path is many and the rivers wide and all of that... perhaps BECAUSE she has not done "commercial art" for a million years she has not had to be part of GRIDS!!! hahahaha.
In honor of that, today, while I was working on my own project "views from my windows", I took a picture I really like with the screen in place over a very close up macro pic of my terrace garden. Here it is. I took it with the thought of making a Photoshop color sample or filter or 'something' but then later was remembering Keri's post yesterday and wanted to post this as a reflection of that.
I currently have so many of those shopping bag nets around my collection of Altered Book stores, I don't know what to do with them - but this "screen" shot was rather cool I thought!
I do have several more pics of this shoot with the door screen in place that I think turned out fabulous, but you will have to wait until I decide what to do with them. Right now I have to go finish cleaning the bathroom and take a shower ;-)

A Walking Artist Date

Went to a local arboretum yesterday. If you know me, you know, the last few years I have not been much of a "walker". I have bad knees and it is hard to walk far. Yet, it used to be one of my favorite past times. Nature walking, hiking, plein air drawing and painting - taking pics...
Anyhow, I HAD to get out yesterday and wanted to see what this place was about. My goodness, it is a nature artist's lover paradise. The smells alone, on an early summer day, slightly cloudy with a hint of rain in the air, mixed with the closeness of the large lake odors near by, was intoxicating.
(and the landscape views were not too shabby either!)
So, here is a link to the web album I stored them in. If you want to leave a comment, I would love it, but don't tell me how I *NEED* to turn off the date feature in my camera. My cousin, the real photographer in the family, already did ;-)
I know he is right but it is a leftover from showing handmade art. They always wanted to know the date you did something so they *knew* you were a working artist!

Artists "ART"

Thanks for stopping by Owen and leaving a little comment about my blog objective.
Yep - you are right, "If writer's write, artists *art.*"Thanks for reminding me.
Funny how one can go up and down with attitudes, or around and back again. I've spent time with creative building programs like the Artist's Way and Eric Maisel, then programs with meditation and affirmations, then, just like that, in one little blog post in a split second, that rhythm can all be forgotten and I post like a wanna be instead of an I AM...
So, you got me to go into my studio and play for a bit last night after work rather than watch bad TV. I just "did it." It was nice, not planned, not forced. Been messing with the dried leaves and flower bits from my previous garden life. I glue them into micro landscapes of themselves, the garden they came from, like they are my paints. Need to get a pic up here sometime soon...
Also, I just had to look up "internet 1996" as the comment about being an old-timer around here got me thinking, "WAS it that long?" Am I remembering right? I don't want to exaggerate!" I found, yes I was right! Whew - memories of AOL accounts, listserv and ARPNet as the bigshots, screeching modem in my ears, only subscribing to newsgroups. Graphics were a BIG no no. No pics unless you were someone special. Does AOL still keep their subscribers off the full www?
I used to wonder "Why am I doing this, being a visual artist, when they won't let me add pics!" Ha, it was addicting, even just the text only writing... and here we are today.
Again, thanks for stirring me up and stopping by here. I don't really advertise this place yet, or tell anyone I am here, but you found me and got me going some again... alrighty now ;-)

Disappointed but OK

Have had a big disappointment in my creative life the last week. But it is OK. Not the first and, as we all know, not the last. Was going to be featured in an article for a large online magazine but job made a stink about a "professional conflict of interests" and now I can not do it.
Must find something in the next couple days to perk me up and get me going again!
Would normally just ride it out or take time to go out into nature, however, also have two huge books to compose and behind schedule.
Hope to come back to this more a bit later when can take time to process more, but still getting used to coming here and writing regularly. Have had many ideas and longings for posts the last week but then go do something else. That seems to be the hardest - this is almost like Morning Pages and Artist Dates - just showing up and making it routine!
Ahhh, how about a share of one of my swan pics! I have these swans that have taken up residence near me and they have a nest in the reeds. First is of the one feeding and hanging out in the Bay near by. Second, is the one sitting on the nest. Interesting I can not tell the male from female or which one is sitting on nest or out feeding! Sometimes I think it would be nice for humans to be more like that.... Soon, the nest will be totally hidden by the cattails they are in. I hope in the summer to see the babies!