Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Moving on to other projects.

I have resumed work on the Shakespeare/food poisoning book. You'll get it when it's ready to show! Don't worry, I haven't lost my mind yet! LOL

TodayI went to lunch with art friends and we brought "show and tell", mostly paintings and the paper dolls we had all received from a swap earlier this month. It was so much fun to see the ones the other gals got - no two were alike. We had a whole table full of them to study. Rosemary brought her new book on making crowns and tiaras. We are all getting together next week one day to make some to wear to Art and Soul in Asilomar in April. We are so noisy with fun and laughter wherever we go, the other patrons in restaurants stare and wonder what's going on. Especially if we dig out some glitter and glue and start making something right there!

When I got home I tried to find the directions on how to construct a little house made of playing cards. Since playing cards are the same size as ATCs I wanted to use that size. I could not find instructions anywhere, and I tried all kinds of online sources. I had promised to teach the Mixed Media Group how to do them when I first saw one online. That was months ago and this is the month I volunteered to do it. I didn't find my notes, or the source name, or even a photo - so I had to wing it. The one I had seen had stitched sides. When I laid out the pieces (I figured this out in the middle of the night - when I was still in bed) I started to see how it could be constructed in an easier way for the demo. As I started to make it this afternoon, I decided that I'd rather have it folded and not stitched, so the inside could be a book or a journal, or a photo album. What I did, was to take some pages from a poetry book that my art-pal Jackie gave me, and glued them in and then used the "found text" technique to pick out words and phrases that I liked. Then I cut some words out for the outside. I covered the outside with fabric I glued on. Here are the pics of the inside, the outer side laid out, and then folded. Isn't it cute?

It was a much better day today. I'm feeling more myself. My friends were all worried and calling to check if I was getting morbidly depressed. I think all artists are somewhat prey to depression. I think we have rather fragile psyches and are very susceptible to our environments and emotional ups and downs. And, I was down - but not broken. I'm working through this and expect it will pass soon. But for the moment, I will concentrate on getting out, getting fresh air, exercise, good food, and doing art that doesn't take me down. I'll probably be doing bird things! LOL They are uplifting!

No comments: