Thursday, December 28, 2006

Artifacts



This is a Paper Traders project hosted by my sister Cheryl.

From her description:
Tip in pages must be 5 by 5.5 inches. Please create two pages (Like a spread in a journal) in increments of 4. For example, you may decide you'd like 12 pages to complete your book, so submit 24 tip in pages, 2 for each participant who receives your work. These 2 page spreads can be all the same or each one different.... "Artifacts": think ancient, mysterious, maybe indecipherable, maybe a found precious object...

I used bits of circuit boards as "relics" as a concept. I started by painting Bristol board paper with raw umber acrylic mixed with a glaze medium. Then I patted plastic wrap over it to create texture. When that was dry I added texture with different kinds of paper, rice paper, tissue, and such. I also tore up a very old 1963 newspaper article sent to me by a Paper Trader friend, that was about about the very beginning of computer dating...a couple who met with the help of an IBM machine. I stained, distressed and reworked the dried pieces. Then with a 5x5.5 window, I chose the most interesting compositions. (Something I learned from my years cropping photos, a good crop can make an ordinary photo a great photo. ;-) ) Then I added the bit of circuit board mounted on a painted chipboard, finished with a bit of rubber stamping and Bam! LOL!

Here are more of them.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Happy Holidays to All!


This time of year is so frenzied I don't think I'll be posting for a while. Just wanted to say Happy Holidays to everyone! May your days be merry and bright! xoxoxo
Charlene

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Saint Me

Okay, another spread for my family's traveling art journal project. This one is for my sister Suze's, "What will you be in your next life?"

My response is that "I will be a saint and the Virgin Mary will appear to me and tell me secrets that will save all mankind. And the angels will rejoice."

I know, "whacked!" LOL!

I morphed my face into a Madonna and child painting with Photoshop. I guess that would be Madonna, Madonna's Mother Ann, and child.



The left side is a shrine that opens up. The angels are rejoicing. Spiritus is a rubber stamp.
It has a little brass embellishment. Ahhhhh...you can almost smell the frankincense. :-)

Can you tell I was raised Catholic? 12 years of Catholic school, 4 years of Latin, and many years of catechism instruction. Tantum ergo sacramentum...tu tu oh.




Here is the open shrine. The "saint" is me morphed into photos of Bernadette of Lourdes. I actually DID want to become a saint as a child. I spent many summer nights searching the skies for apparitions. Alas and Alack...She stood me up. Ha! I also knelt on the pews in the Church on the Ladies side waiting for the statue to cry, or give milk, ore something! (...churches are divided betweeen the Mary side and Joseph side. )

A holy card...inserted into the book.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Lost in Wonderland


This is a spread in my neice Rachel's travelling journal. Her theme is "In a Faraway Land." I used the same Lewis Carol quote from my Nonsense piece from a previous post. I used two cardboard ornaments of Alice and the White Rabbit. The clock is made from a rubber stamp , gold embossing powder, a brad to hold the hands in place, and mounted on chipboard.
The background is a Basic Grey paper. I like the way the flow of the text mimics the wave of pink behind it. You can't really do justice to a spread like this with a scan. It looks flat and dull. Maybe I'll ask my husband to photograph it tomorrow.

Here's a detail of the rubber stamping. I used colored pencils and chalk pencils to color them in. Theres a lot of gold paint dotting the pattern. It creates a great texture. I think I'm going to work with this techniques some more. I love the tapestry look.