Incredible Women

Today I found this incredible photograph of Victorian Women Friends on Karen's blog the Graphics Fairy. I just had to share it with you. The photo just makes you want to smile! If you don't know about Karen's blog you have to go visit. She offers daily wonderful clip art images for your personal use.

Steampunk Doll Head

I am taking a Steampunk Doll class from Chaska Peacock with her Creative Sparks Group.
Georgina Diaz is the guest teacher who designed the doll from which the class was created.
The photo is my doll head which I have created from polymer clay. The lips are painted with Golden acrylics. The horns are embellished with silver wire and watch parts. Stay tuned for more photos as I continue making the doll.

June ATC

This is the Artist Trading Card I created for the June swap with The Latest Trends in Mixed Media Yahoo Group. The theme for this month is the sea. My ATC is about the second "Cliff House" in San Francisco that was a major tourist attraction in the late 1800's.

Fashioned after a French chateau, the second Cliff House opened in February of 1896 and boasted eight stories, four spires, and an observation tower 200 feet above sea level. Though never a hotel, it served as an elegant site for dining, dancing, and entertainment. The third floor held a photo gallery, reception room, and multiple parlors with beautiful panoramic views. The second floor held 20 private lunchrooms, an art gallery, and a gem exhibit. At ground level, there was a large dining room, parlor, bar, numerous private dining rooms, and the kitchens. This exquisite building had survived the 1906 earthquake only to succumb to a raging fire that destroyed it in less than two hours.

Birds & Zentangle ATC

This is the ATC I created for the May Gothic Arch swap for my Latest Trends Group. I had a lot of fun creating this ATC. I did Zentangles with my high school students the last week of school. This inspired me to create the Gothic Arch Frame for my ATC. Then I used bird scrapbook papers for the background and the colored cut out birds glued to the frame. The black and white birds were clip art from The Vintage Moth and The Graphics Fairy. The string in the bird's beak was made by coloring cardstock with markers and cutting a thin strip with an x-acto knife. I tried thread but could not get the effect I wanted. The cardstock curled as I cut it which was neat.

Paintings by My Students

These are some paintings in the style of famous artists that some of my high school art students created as an advanced project on ceiling tiles this year. I think they did a superb job! They laid out the main background shapes in pencil first. Then they painted the background colors in tempera paint. Layers of colors were built up until the correct depth was created. Finally the details were painted.

Flowers for Mother's Day

These are the incredible roses my son, Nate, and my husband, John, sent me for Mother's Day! I was so surprised. I received two dozen of them in so many beautiful colors. I divided them up and had one vase of just roses and another vase with my peonies and roses.

My Garden

The first two weeks in May my garden was gorgeous! The photos are the fruits of my many labors years ago. I have two peony bushes that gave me about a dozen incredible blooms this year. As they opened I cut them and brought them into the house to enjoy. The other photos are of verbena and pink salvia bush.

Camille

In April my husband, John, and I got a wonderful new dog, Camille! We call her Cami. We were so blessed to find Cami on Craig's List. Her family was moving and could not take her with them. After 11 wonderful years our other Great Pyrenees, Bianca, had to be put asleep last July. We had missed her so much this year. Cami is a delight and brings us so much joy each day!

Egg ATC's

I know last Sunday was Easter, but it is still April! I made all of these egg ATC's except the last one for a swap with Latest Trends in Mixed Media. I have never worked in any other shape format for an ATC before. It was a lot of fun! Thanks Sherre for hosting this swap and sparking my creativity in a different way! I also want to give credit to Karen from the Graphics Fairy for the many free images I used in these ATC's. Karen shares wonderful free images on her site that are to die for. I am so grateful to her. In addition, my new blog background is thanks to Kathy from her site Background Fairy.

Bird ATC's

As you can see I have a lot to share about the Women's Gathering I attended. An added bonus to the retreat was a gift from Julia to stay an extra night, Sunday, if we wished. Five of us stayed and had more wonderful time relaxing, visiting, more eating, reading, napping & creating art. Kathy Frost, another very good friend, art educator & artist was also on the retreat. This was a wonderful surprise because I did not know she would be there in advance. Kathy brought some incredible paste papers and dyed textured rice papers which she shared with me. The oranges in the 1st ATC & the blue and rust in the 2nd one are Kathy's papers. Aren't they gorgeous! I gave the 1st ATC to Kathy as a gift to thank for sharing.

My Archetype Collages

On the Women's Gathering that I wrote about in the previous post, I created 3 collages based on Archetypal Companions that spoke to me during our growth work sessions Friday night and Saturday morning. Collage #1 represents the Warrior Companion Archetype. The definition of an Archetype (from Wikipedia) is a model of a person, personality, or behavior. The use of archetypes to illuminate personality and literature was advanced by Carl Jung early in the 20th century.

Friday night we all received an archetype companion card. Mine was the Warrior. Each archetype has a positive & negative side. You can find many enlightenments about yourself in both sides. Part of this session was to brainstorm & write down what popped into our minds about our archetype card. I wrote that my card was right on target because I am a fighter. I clench my teeth. I grab hold & never let go. Everything is all or nothing. I want to win or be right. (I have mellowed out a lot on this one) I warrior to teach my students. I feel that we are in a constant state of battle & much of the time I feel like I am beating my head against a brick wall. Warriors are usually very loyal which I am. I associate warriors with the color red-blood & tears.

In the background of my warrior collage is an atomic bomb and bombed ships in Pearl Harbour. The falcon represents strength, power, & agility. The images of a female tribal warrior, Queen Elizabeth and an Amazon warrior represent me.

My 2nd collage represents the Crone companion archetype. Most people think of a crone as a wrinkled, incapacitated old lady or a witch. In archetypes the crone is the stage of womanhood which is honored & revered as a role model, a mentor and a having great wisdom. My collage has images of women from all walks of life, involved in different activities that are important, entergetic and vital. The colors also reflect life and energy.

My 3rd collage honors the crone again but specifically Georgia O'Keeffe, my favorite artist and woman in history.

Women's Gathering

April 3-6th I attended a Women's Gathering in Blue Ridge, Ga. This is the 3rd retreat that I have attended facilitated by my very good friend, Julia Speer. She is an incredible artist & art educator. Julia has an extensive

background in Women's Issues. Her site is well worth a visit. The focus for our weekend was "Mask as Metaphor-Accessing Your Companion Archetypes." Nine wonderful women,
including myself, spent the weekend on growth work and creating art. We created plaster gauze masks and collaged or painted them based on our personal experience with Archetypes. I made my plaster base mask, but chose to work on
Archetypal
collages Saturday. I am including many photos which show us creating, eating, socializing and connecting. An added bonus are photos of "Deja View" the fantastic house which Julia rented for our retreat.