Endings ... Beginnings ...

The semester's over. Grades are in. Graduation is tonight. Another year finished at last.

How endlessly it looms in August. How quickly it disappears come March.

There'll be no thoughts of school this summer until I have to start planning for the fall. Creative writing on campus (not online) for the first time in several years. Technical writing for the first time in over a decade. It should be fun.

But it's not time to think of it yet.

This summer's for traveling and writing and arting. What? You didn't know art was a verb? Why sure ... to art ... as in to draw, paint, collage, and digitize.

Speaking of which ... here's another teaser of the pieces (there are 4 now) I'm working on for a magazine. The earlier idea got thrown out as the collection of thematic articles shifted and grew. It's been a trial--combining ink-jet prints of their photos with the wet, messy techniques I usually use. New skills learned. Old skills developed.

Still, I prefer the real thing, especially old and faded. Is it any surprise they hold up better to scraping and stamping, too?

What's that camp song ... make new friends but keep the old ... one is silver, the other gold.

So true.

Collage Mania - Last Day!

Lucky me! I was able to snag my favorite fiber art piece from Collage Mania yesterday.

Bamboo Fence, by Gerrie Congdon

The fundraiser is still going on today, so hurry over to the Collage Mania site and look through the remaining wonderful collages and fiber art pieces. Just donate a minimum of $40.00 to the American Cancer Society (100% goes to the charity), and you get a wonderful piece of art, ready to be framed, and mailed to you by the artist. Couldn't be easier!

And, in case you're interested, one of my donated pieces is still available. But hurry! The fundraiser starts at 9:00 a.m.

Open Your Arms to Change, by Jennifer Black

Ready to look? Click here.

New Skills

As a kid, I used to trail behind my mom in fabric stores, content just to run my fingers along the bolts as I passed through the stacks. Now that I think of it, this tactile attraction is probably why I'm drawn to collage, especially with thick, crumbling, torn vintage papers.

Cloth, paper, glue, you name it. If it has texture, I'm going to touch it. So you can imagine I've never been much of one for digital collages.

But yesterday, working on a mock up of a design for a collage illustration job, I scanned a few old book pages to work with and decided it would be easier to manipulate them in Photoshop than to do all the printing, cutting, transferring, and gluing that's required in the actual collage.

Uh ... wrong.

I was at the computer for hours. And I have a new-found respect for digital collagists.

I can't show you the image for now, but these snippets give you an idea of my (simple) new skills. It was fun, frustrating, enraging, easy, confusing, hair-pullingly annoying, and interesting.

I'd never have gotten this far without my personal cheat sheet, i.e., several phone calls to my good friend, the multi-talented Tim, far away in St. Louis.

If my design gets approved, I'll create the actual collage by hand. I still love the weight of paper, the creation of shadow and relief.

But there's definitely more digital play in my future.

My Little Secret

My Little Secret--Photo Friday challenge for the week

Shhhhhhhh..... Don't tell anyone, but sometimes, when a bout of nostalgia takes over my senses, I pull out this oldie-goldie and transport myself to high school days.

I still remember the first time I heard it. It was the summer of 1970, and I was barely 17 years old, listening to the radio while I ironed my father's shirts. It was the heady years of FM radio--back in the days when the air waves weren't controlled by corporate cash machines but actually played--are you ready for this?--whole albums. Cult favs. Bands with weird names like King Crimson and Jethro Tull. Before Elton John discovered big glasses; before Jefferson Airplane begat the Starship; when we could all recite the parts of the Woodstock album about the hamburger guy whose stand burnt down.

So I'm ironing, and half-listening, and then "Fire and Rain" comes on. I was completely blown away. I called my friend Diane (still my friend lo these many years later) and practically barked into the receiver: "Turn on the radio. You're not going to believe this song." Turns out she was listening, too.

I don't listen to the CD very often. But sometimes, when an inexplicable mood comes over me, it's the perfect memory at the perfect time. Maybe someday you'll do the same.

To see others' little secrets, click here.

Blessing #18: A Painted Bunting

Last week, while reading on the deck in my friend Diane's backyard, I heard a loud flapping of wings. There was something about it that sounded cumbersome and unusual, so I looked up and tried to find the bird.

And there it was--some type of heron, I thought, large and completely out of place in a backyard in Georgetown, Texas.

Soon another flapped by with its impossibly large wings and landed on a tree nearby. Crazy.

When we got to our sewing class in Austin, we were talking about all kinds of things and somehow the birds came up.

"Oh, those are Yellow Crowned Night Herons," Kari said. "They hang around Austin in wet springs."

With the mystery solved (and oohed and ahhed over), we moved on to discussing other birds, favorites we'd seen--or not. The painted bunting was everyone's favorite. I'd only seen one once in person--in passing when driving in a rural area just beside a nearby lake. But what a sight it was.

And then ... my very own painted bunting appeared, as if by magic, the next afternoon. I tried to get photos of it the first day, but it flew too fast for me. I was more stealthy the next day, but the glare from the sun and the window made photographing difficult.

Still. A painted bunting. In the feeder on my patio. Every day this week.

With a good mix of house finches, Carolina Chickadees, cardinals, titmice, and wrens to boot. And even a raccoon and a squirrel to keep everyone on their toes. And a sudden, massive swarm of gnats.

Diversity in action.

Collage Mania Preview Week!

Grab your pencil and a sheet of paper ...

It's time to zip over to Collage Mania and browse through the 235 fiber art collages generously donated to help raise funds for the American Cancer Society. That's right; I'm talking about Virginia Spiegel's . . .

FIBERART FOR A CAUSE!

Here's a little preview to whet your appetite:

Contemplation, by Terri Stegmiller

The Shape of Cancer, Kara Klein

The Blue Crow, by Marjorie Lee Jin En DeQuincy

Memories of Kyrgyzstan, Karen Musgrave

Bamboo Fence, Gerrie Congdon

During Preview Week you get to browse through the fabulous artwork and plan out what you want to buy (for a minimum donation of $80 May 5 or $40 May 6). You can click on the links to read about many of the artists, too.

Collage Mania officially opens Monday, May 5 at 9 a.m. and continues May 6. And get this: 100% of the proceeds are donated directly to the American Cancer Society through Fiberart For A Cause.

P.S. You'll find two of my collages there, too.

joie de vivre

I don't remember how I found Kimberly Applegate's blog, featuring her paintings of iconic chairs and the Masters. But since she posts a new one every day, I am totally hooked.

Fabulous. Creative. Amazing.

If I'm lucky, one day one of them will be mine.