Notice, too, the rag rug pieces waiting to be completed and several mixed media works in progress. :~)
I'm not exactly sure what has made me resist writing these last two days for AEDM2013. I plan to do a wrap up post tomorrow and then rush right into posting for the Creative Every Day challenge.
Today I worked on functional art. Very very practical and for organization sake, I painted a simple shelf my friend, Stacy, gave me at a great price - free. I can always use places to put my stuff so I can see it, so I took the shelf and painted it a Winter Grey and then added some ballet slipper pink as well, speckles (and in some cases more than speckles - ooops!)
I stacked up the majority of my fabrics including a lot of vintage 70's as well as linens which I have been using for rag rugs and as accents on other pieces. I have a tendency to forget what I have. I find myself at a rummage sale or estate sale - where I purchase most of my fabrics, especially vintage - and I can't remember what I have on hand.
I figure this will help me a lot.
On the top of the shelf is a piece of iron from a building built in 1912 very close to my home that is getting demolished. I've been poking amidst the salvage (yes, you will see some other art there, too, that I actually create!) I have no idea what this piece of iron was, but it intrigues me and deserves to be out and admired.
Also on top are my book sculptures which people have been enjoying a lot. Yesterday I worked on an abstract and decided to do a series of abstracts inspired by the writers of Concord, Massachusetts. This first abstract (no photo yet) is named Louisa and Henry and Laurie and Jo. Little Women might catch the reference: Jo is Louisa and Laurie is reported to be none other than Henry David Thoreau.
Come back tomorrow for the wrap up... or at the latest, Monday. I must get over my resistance! This has been such a fruitful month with so many great people I've come to know - I want to be sure to memorialize it!
Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
This is yet another version than you will see in the collage below. It may, in fact, be my favorite. Which one speaks to you the most?
One of the lessons from Art Every Day Month I have learned this year is to look at my creations in different ways. I’ve been focusing on finishing and recycling my art projects as well.
I tend to do one of two things: start and not finish and stockpile unfinished gems OR finish gems and put them in a pile of finished yet unappreciated work.
I am in the middle of a mixed media work right now and I am not sure which direction it wants to be taken so instead of just setting it aside completely, I thought about what I might create with what I had.
1.Take photos of sections of the work of art, like cutting your work into pieces of cake.
2.Choose the “piece of cake" that tastes yummiest to you.
3. Playfully experiment with photo editing to consider and discover the many ways that particular art could become other art or serve other purposes both for you and also new products to bring to your art market.
In these examples, you will see how the same slice of my collage has been given three different makeovers.
I used pixlr. com, a very simple photo editing website, to revise my images. Each different one took literally less than a minute.
Once I had the main image the way I wanted it, the others were simply different filters. That's it.
Look at the variety of moods just from changing the filters:
I see the top image as the most conventional. It is romantic, feminine and probably the most favorable to conventional viewers.
The second image is using a newspaper style.
I wasn't wild about it at first and used it mostly to show contrast, but now that I look at it longer I see how well it would work under some circumstances.
It seems bleaker to me, more nebulous.
I can't see the clothing pattern as clearly so it seems more like mush that something creative. The dancer in the front looks sad, lonely, perhaps a bit lost.
There are some who may get the most excited from this particular image.
Do you see all the possibilities?
I like to think of the bottom image as perhaps the most interesting. I feel dizzy when I look at it, not unlike when I took dance lessons as a little girl and spun around before I learned how to eliminate that by strategic focus.
I also appreciate the more intense colors along with that dizzyness.
Looking at the complete ladder of images I also see how I could photo edit further by numbering each of the images - yes, actually adding a numeral - and some words right over each image.
I have heard wonderful reviews of PicMonkey but I have yet to use it. This weekend that is one of my goals. To check out PicMonkey and perhaps to begin using it.
Pixlr is so simple, I hope PicMonkey can match it. I used to use Picnik, which I heard is a lot like PicMonkey: another encouraging fact.
Between my use of instagram and pixlr and mixing them up together, I could play with images and create both digital art as well as 2D and 3D art probably all day long.
I know eventually a poem or an essay would come alongside me and slap me on the face to get my attention.... words are not ready to take "the mistress" position in my life. *Happy Smiles*
What simple image editing program do you most frequently use?
How could using one image in different ways spark your creativity both in your "play" and in your blogging and life work?
Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
The background is actually more pink than this, but the photo was taken in the early morning light under a tree, so it didn't pick it up very well.
This year of Art Every Day Month has been my favorite yet. I have incorporated new skills, adapted old ones, and stretched far beyond the artist I once was. I had a surgery in the midst of it and I kept going.
Because of the new techniques I am learning I have re-ignited my bug to take photos of unusual sights and very normal sights in different ways. This makes me more happy than I can say with words.
Today's work is perhaps my favorite mixed media work yet. It is small, 5 inches by 5 inches, on a tile that once had a cheapo reprint of Monet's Waterlilies. It was sold at a big box store and landed at my local thrift store where I picked it up for 45 cents.
I started with color - pink and light green and she grew from there. I used a variety of materials: lace, acrylic paint, photo transfer on tissue paper, spray dye, several pages from an old dictionary and a 1930's textbook. I even took a print of a fallen leaf from my beloved magnolia tree AND just to out do myself, tried out one of my new stencils. The pink had taken over most of the color, so I wanted to put in more green. The stencil painting took care of that "need". The photo transfer is a selfie I took in 2009 toward the end of Art Every Day Month. It is still one of my Google ID photos.
Yes, I took selfies long before they were such a big thing and before their name was the word of the year!
I tend to tell myself its not important if I like what I make or not.
Well, this time I am deeply in love with what I created.
Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
Watch this blog for more creativity (and inspiration for you) from these images & quotes.
We are smack dab in the middle of Art Every Day Month and y'all, I am tired. Seriously tired, wiped out, there are so many cool things I want to do but the thought of lifting my finger to create anything - even this silly blog post - feels beyond my means right now.
For quite a long time tonight I watched mixed-media artist's doing their thing and salivating over their supplies but while fun and future driven, it doesn't do anything for my art right this moment.
I just took the last half hour to do something about it. Tonight I am sharing two images I just made for upcoming "Inspiration for Your Blogging, Writing and Creativity" posts.
Here is basically how I did it:
This was from one of my first ever watercolor paintings called "Boom Boom Boom" - I have had several people interested in buying the final mixed media piece, but for now I am using it to repurpose old art into new.
I searched my Flickr photos for watercolor paintings I have done in the past and selected a couple I thought had promise as backgrounds. I put them into the pixlr.com photo editor. First, I cropped - I only wanted certain pieces of the images to appear.
On the quote that is by me - see my signature there? I wrote it, I painted it - it is mine... you are looking at the lower half of an abstract watercolor painting I created in 2008. You know I have been all into repurposing and upcycling? Well, here I go again!
I've also noticed, by the way, one of my very popular pins on pinterest is one in this series and the background is a slice of a recent mixed media piece. Well, the image does something or it is all Abigail Adams words doing something - what I do know it is working so I am testing to see how these work on replicating that success.
Another popular pin is one of my own quotes on a simple altered photo of clouds I took who knows when.
I really enjoy playing with images - and I don't linger over them at all.
It is more zip - zap - zoodle dee dee - and I'm done.
These images took me about 15 minutes from start to finish.
Feel free to ask me questions if this concept is new to you. I didn't think I could EVER figure this stuff out but hey, I have, and while I know there may be better or different programs, for now I'm content with Pixlr.com and my own photography and painting.
Oh, yes. It is Friday. This means over the weekend I can get myself dirty and covered with stuff as I begin making backgrounds, etc, for next week's art every day month posts.
Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
How to Create Art Upcycling & Repurposing "Leftovers" - which I don't believe in anymore.
On the other side of my blog both last month and this month is a series that was created to inspire reader’s blogging, writing & creative thinking. I didn’t realize how much I would come to love creating it. I love quotes – so they provide the foundation – and every day I include an image with a quote.
My most recent (and surprisingly favorite) collection of images is of Shopping Carts. I started photographing them last Winter and ever since I can’t stop myself. There are layers to this fascination.
Yesterday I mentioned briefly I have learned to love the silences within the writing.
This is what I have created via the Inspiration for Your Blogging, Writing & Creativity Series. I purposefully prompt readers to step back from their writing and let the non-language of the self conscious have space to be heard, even if it is only via sleep.
My shopping carts are like that. I can go weeks without finding any of note and then, in one day, I may find three. Here is an essay I wrote recently about my love for, and art I've created with, shopping carts. It will be quite different from much of my book art love, but the social justice side of me is pushing her way in and the only way to stop the pushing is to surrender and share.
Today, though – I want to share more whimsy.
This piece was made on some scrap wood I bought last Spring at a rummage sale. I bought nearly a shopping cart full of wood scraps that were just right for me to use as foundations for art.
I created this one in layers over several months time. The board itself was first primered and then I accidentally dripped some paint from an upcycling project on it. Well, I liked how it looked, so I dripped some more purple paint on it and swirled it and I liked it. Then I brought it with me to the Art and Spirituality Center and put a quote on there from Pema Chodron about sitting meditation. The “STAY!” you see is from her original quote.
I painted another layer – the pink – and added to the top of the paint a swirl from my intention chair – which is still in process. When I cut the swirl for that, I created a left over. I don’t believe in left overs anymore, so I knew it would find its way into another piece and here it it.
I wrote a few more quotes – which I wanted to be seen but not seen completely. Those words are from Agnes DeMille and Anne Sexton, a dancer-choreographer and a poet, respectively.
I appreciate the concept of leaving a question for people who look at the stuff I make, not me spoon feeding the meaning to them.
I dug through my scraps and found die cut flowers from – naturally – book pages.
I scattered them upon the wood and said, “YES!”
It is simply complex or complexly simple. I can’t wait to see what is happening in your world. I hope you will leave a comment so I may be sure to check you out, too.
What is happening along your adventures in Art Every Day land?
Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
I finished something! I finished something! I finished something!
Even as or even more exciting, I really like what I finished.
Perhaps AEDM has some sort of pixie dust involved, but this mixed media piece has been in peaces, waiting to be born, since the middle of last Summer. The wonky house was made when I was babysitting my favorite (and only) godson. I had a concept but not so sure about execution until last weekend, when I tore apart a decaying desk I salvaged and committed to reusing as much as possible in my art.
This piece of a drawer begged to be put to some use, any use and for whatever reason, “Wonky Art House!” cried out from its hiding place inside a vintage dictionary where I had slid a bunch of other cut-out-not-used-yet scraps.
I started painting last Saturday, little by little and today, I put the house, the swirly smoke and walking path in place.
The Wonky Art House was made from pages from an Art Text book from the 30’s which I find hilarious. The wisdom from professors was carefully honed back then and the writing voice shows up as pompous as a blown up balloon cartoon character.
The stone footsteps are vintage atlas and there are also little rocks along the grassy areas. Tiny scraps, tiny. The swirling smoke (because it couldn’t be a child-like Wonky Art House without the requisite smoke) is from a dictionary page. Someone from my Writing Playground did the initial paint on the page which I went over with metallic crayon.
It was all sealed with Krylon’s Triple Thick and yes, I love the combination. Perhaps too much?
What is happening along your adventures in Art Every Day land?
>> -----<<
Julie Jordan Scott is a writer,
performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art
will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield.
Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social
media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus
particularly enticing.
Obviously I haven’t been a DIY Queen for my kids much since
they were quite a bit younger. Their bedrooms aren’t decorated in any specific
color or theme. They’re hardly decorated at all, actually, but Emma got new
furniture this week and in her room we are completely starting from scratch.
Starting from scratch meant emptying her room of everything
that was crammed in there and only “inviting back” what we thought was best and
worthy to be in there.
In the process she found four pairs of “lost” sunglasses.
I knew her sunglasses would quickly get lost again if I
didn’t do something about it.
I had gone thrifting the other day (when do I not go
thrifting today or the other day?) and I had bought what was once a pink, glass
Teleflora vase for use in a project-to-be. It was still on my dish rack when I
took it and said, “Hey, pink…Hey! Pink sunglasses holder!!!”
I placed it on her dresser, put four pairs of my girl’s
inexpensive sun glasses in it and instantly, the case of the missing sunglasses
will never rise again, at least here for Emma’s sunglasses.
I sent her a photo during her lunch period and her friends
were ooohing and ahhhhing my “creation.” I instantly became a DIY rock star, the Mom of the Moment, the cool Mom who actually does stuff for her kids instead of micromanaging their every breath. Or so they think.
Now I’m starting a real DIY to hold her multitude of hair
bows, bobbie pins, elastic bands and other small accessory-ish things. If we
could help her get a hold on those in a cute, festive way – life would be
grand.
For now. I’m reveling in my meteoric rise to DIY fame.
The steps are simple:
1.Buy stuff at the thrift store you know you will
eventually use in a project.
2.Keep your mind open to new connections with your
storage of stuff.
3.Swoop in and repurpose an item without having to
do a thing to it!
4.Accept lavish praise for your creativity
5.Repeat. Often. Smile and feel satisfied!
~~~~~~~~~~
Julie
Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her
word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown
Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different
social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus
particularly enticing.
Two Ladder Shelves: $20 + a Little Motivation (Somehow!) and we got it done!
I am still a DIY rookie, yet once I saw an example of this project on Pinterest I knew I wanted to make it. I kept my eyes open at every yard sale I drove passed, looking up and down for wooden ladders that had seen better days. This project had all the makings of being truly wonderful
but unfortunately, I found myself stuck. Hopelessly.
Katherine and I were working on this together while she was
home from Smith College this Summer, but we lost motivation when we couldn’t find gold paint for
the shelves. The gold paint we tried was hideous and then we had a glitch with
getting everything level and then…. Katherine left and I almost went kaput,
even with this DIY project I adored!
Sure, I was incorporating upcycling and repurposing with
something practical that provided a solution in my home that was even green for
goodness sakes but I was also unwilling, for whatever reason, to continue. To
move forward. To go from not worth a darn to “oh mi gawsh I am in love with
this!”
I evn took the larger ladder on an early morning photo
shoot. Not very glamorous looking “in process” photo is it?
What pushed me over the edge to getting this poor, sad all alone shelf done?
First of all, my backyard studio was filled to the brim with
projects. I managed to get my hutch done yet it was still outside. I could only
stand working in the Bakersfield heat factory early early how early is early in
the morning or after the sun went down.
I had books stacked everywhere not only for reading and
sharing but for my art and I was so sick of not being able to find favorites
that one day I just pushed myself through. I finished priming the shelves after
Cameron had leveled everything. I painted them a gorgeous lavendarish purple I
created by mixing some of my recycled Kern County Waste Management
light-not-white-almost-a very-light-grey paint with the purple we also used on
the ladder.
I had just finished painting the smaller bookshelf using a
favorite technique of using lace as a stencil – this time, a lace tablecloth I
bought at an estate sale for $3. What I love about using lace tablecloths as
stencils is I can use them over and over again AND I can wrap anything up in
the fabric plus it just looks so ethereal.
The bookshelf behind it was finished the next day and the origami dress you see is made from a page of Emily Dickinson's handwriting.
You can see this lace effect on the smaller ladder shelf - I'm still working on what I want to actually put on the shelves. It will probably take time to figure that out, too.
Finally I schlepped my lovely ladders inside my house along
with the hutch and one of the bookshelves. You can see it next to the smaller
ladder.
I couldn’t be happier with the results.
How much did this cost, dollar wise?
Ladder - $5 from a yard sale. “How much do you want for the
ladder?” I asked. Man said, “How much do you want to pay?” I said, “I have five
dollars in my pocket” and he said SOLD! Lace was $3 but is a shared material so
I will call it a dollar. Paint was the biggest expense simply because we wanted
a specific purple for it, checking in at 11.95. The wood for the shelves was
scrap wood. Oh, and the primer paint (this wood was so dry before we coated it
three times!) was also from waste management, so it was free.
Basically, we got two very unique shelves for under
$20.I’ll take two cool, one-of-a-kind,
goes with my living room perfectly shelves any time.
Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and
mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First
Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to
follow her
on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find
the idea
of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
It’s the wildest thing. I can be
moving right along, happy as a creative flea on parade when I get this inkling
I ought to try… something. Like today, working on my bookshelves it happened
again. These bookshelves were each purchased for $5 from a sale at a now
defunct preschool, so I have much more time invested in them than money.
I have to admit, the paint color
wasn’t precisely Julie-esque. I do get most of my paint from the “ooops” jars
at nearby Lowe’s or from the free paint at the recycling center here at Kern
County Waste Management, so to start with my colors may be a bit – well, not
all that attractive.
This morning my shorter
bookshelf wanted a change. She had given me the idea for a finish yesterday
when I was sanding her, so I was a bit surprised she still had advice for her
main undercoating color. “Mix a light purple,” I got from her, “by mixing the
off whitish sorta pinkish recycled color with the deep purple from the ladder
shelves.”
She – my furniture projects tend
toward the girly so a feminine pronoun is absolutely necessary – told me to use
the ladder purple. My ladders are a deep, rich sort-of-like-eggplant-but-not
color.
I don’t make color using any
standard measurement, its more “put more paint than you need in this color and
mix with just enough color in that, stir and pray!”
Here is a larger photo with the new color. I put another work of art on top of the shelf for contrast. (Plus I love that little girl with the music, what can I say?)
As soon as I started stirring I knew
this was a color that is just about as Julie-esque as I can make without having
a professional do it. Even more exciting for me is it will go perfectly with my
living room décor.
My aim now is to get them
installed by Tuesday.
Monday would be great but I will
be gone for most of Saturday and Sunday so it doesn’t look like that will be
happening… I trust my furniture-girls will be telling me exactly what to do
next!
Rarely do the best DIY ideas come from my left brain alone.
Today I hit a block with my writing so I went to my backyard
studio to work on my bookshelves. I made forward progress on one, whose detail
is musical shelves. I was excited about how it was looking but my other shelf
stood there looking rather unloved. All she wanted was to be sanded. So I
did. The bookshelf seemed to let out a
sigh of relief. I smiled as I heard in my mind’s ear an idea of what to do with
her exterior.
I am new to the DIY/Upcycling world of taking a used and
not-so-lovely piece of furniture and turning it into individualized, functional
art. I like to use the upcycling concept in my small works of art – but when I
found myself running out of space to put both my art supplies, my books and my
works-in-progress, I knew something had to give.
I enjoyed the heck out of my first creation and I got lots
of praise for it.
Now I am working on a couple bookshelves for my living room
as well as just finishing up some ladder/shelves for both my home but also for
art shows. I see my ladders as a moveable, unique shelf system easily
transportable even if it is only me doing the moving around.
I do DIY projects because I enjoy them, but I certainly
don’t feel expert at it yet.
I have discovered, though, as I get more comfortable with
them they have started to “communicate” with me, as if they are letting me know
what might be the best finishing touches for them. This is actually my favorite
part of the process thus far.
This sort of thing has been going on in my writing for
years. You know, those moments of huffing and complaining about “nothing to
write about” when kablooey, my pencil gets pulled into the direction of a story
screaming, pleading and begging, “Write me!”
The momentum of letting go of my preconceptions and giving
the “canvas” more freedom also means I can’t wait to finish and show you (as
well as other friends) what I have been working on lately.
I have a feeling by the end of the weekend you’ll have more
furniture to look at, which is good, because there are other stacked up
projects waiting for my attention, too.
In what ways do you give your creative projects in control
of your process?
Recent Comments