swap-bot ATCs

I've discovered Swap-bot and have been having a ton of fun swapping art. I like having a focus for creative projects, and a dead-line for completion. It keeps me trying new things, and keeps me from getting bogged down in "what to do next?"


Here are some of the things I've created for recent ATC trades. Each trade had a specific theme which I've noted in the caption.

Arch ATC

Famous Duos ATC #1

Famous Duos ATC #2 (front of card)

Famous Duos ATC #2 (back of card)

Heartbreak ATC (quote from The Royal Tennenbaums)

Things that go bump in the night ATC #1

Things that go bump in the night ATC #2

Things that go bump in the night ATC #3

F@#&! ATC

Color Themed ATC - Green

Getting out (of my own way)

Yesterday I spent the afternoon playing with the lovely Corrine at Sparkle Days Studio. I signed up for her "Collage Combustion" class and was honored to help christen her brand new studio space. If you live anywhere near Amesbury Massachusetts I highly recommend you sign up for one of her sessions. I had SO much fun.

Part of why I signed up for the class was so I could practice making art in front of other people. I've only ever taken on-line classes, and it's a little intimidating to think about creating in a room full of other artists. Corrine's class description said "we are all about the process, joy and expansion, not the product. We are building a community without judgement so we do not comment on the paintings to create a safe space for free expression". Sounded perfect. Plus I love collage, but can really get caught up in over-thinking it.

It turned out that I was the only participant in the class, but that was just fine! Corrine played along with me, and we chatted and ripped, and glued, and scribbled and painted. The studio space is lovely and well-stocked. Corrine is supportive, encouraging, helpful and fun to talk to. I found that being in a social setting, rather than making me self-conscious, really took my head and critic out of the process. I was playing freely with materials and because I was also engaged in conversation it locked the critic out of the room. I wasn't thinking and judging every step, I was just having fun.

It was great to have so much space to work in, and great to not worry about the mess. I started out working on the table top, and ended up tacking my collages to the walls and flinging paint all over them. My studio at home just isn't set up for that kind of fun.















I came home with 2 gloriously messy, chaotic collages. I will most likely cut them up and use them for mail art or backgrounds for journal pages.

Right before bed, when I could barely keep my eyes open, I remembered I hadn't made an index card. I cut a 1 inch strip from my new collage, cut the strip into little squares, dropped them on a freshly painted index card, and stuck them down with gel medium. Went to bed tired, messy and happy (as the card says).

Whew

After 14 weeks of neurotic obsession and anxiety over a work situation, I got good news today.

Index card love

We're more than a month into the index-card-a-day summer challenge and I absolutely love it. Every once in a while I think "I'm too tired to make a card". But then I remind myself ANYTHING GOES - even a scribble on a white card that says "I'm too tired to make a card". So I sit down to dash something off, and immediately find myself absorbed and energized and I usually end up making something far better than I expected.

The size of the card is so perfect for me. Big pages are intimidating. I love to paint backgrounds, but then what? how to fill them? I don't do a lot of writing in my journals so after a few words and images I'm stuck with "what now?" Never a problem with the index card.

But ohmygod, on the other hand - the inchie? Have you ever tried something that small? I thought I was going to love it because I'm drawn to miniature. Boy was I wrong. I find it nearly impossible to make a piece of art that small. I'm very comfortable making a bigger piece and cutting it into one inch squares, but that's cheating. Creating an original piece of art in that small space just isn't happening. But the index card! ah...the index card. It's just right. Big enough to collage, big enough for a decent background painting, big enough for SOME text. But no cavernous empty spaces. Not as much oddly placed, disjointed images and me scratching my head wondering how to integrate them into a whole.

And it's just stiff enough to withstand globs of paint and glue and layers of paper. But so cheap that if I totally mess it up I have no qualms about pitching it and starting over. And no worries about measuring and cutting to precise sizes (I refuse to pay for those pre-packaged ATCs because really - how hard is it to run some water color paper through the paper trimmer? except it IS kind of a pain in the neck and just one more step to go through before I can actually make something). I love that there's a whole package of them just sitting there on my worktable. If I'm having so much fun with one, I can grab another, and another. No waiting, no measuring, no cutting, no "saving my good paper for something really special"- grab and go.

I love the community of fellow ICADers. The flickr pool is so much fun. Amazing work, huge variety, loads of inspiration and support.

Some cards mean something, some cards don't. Some days it just feels good to smoosh the paint around. Some days it's a full day of stress packed into 3x5 inches. Every day it feels good to take a few minutes to create.

Even the cards that don't mean anything capture a time and a place. They reflect my interests and skills as an artist. I know that I will look back on this collection and have powerful memories of the summer of 2011.

Huge shout out and thanks to Tammy at Daisy Yellow for challenging us, inspiring us, and cheering us on. I'm so glad I'm playing along!

Just need to get this off my chest

Thanks. I feel better now.

Busy campers

My summer camp program started this week. (I'm the director of a school-age child care program).
I've forgotten both how much I LOVE camp, and how much camp exhausts me. Most of my time during the school year is spent at a quiet desk doing administrative tasks and talking on the phone. Maybe an hour a day with the kids - 2 at the most. I manage 3 different sites during the school year, but in the summer we all consolidate to a single site, and I move my "office" to a small room adjoining the camp room. It's non-stop activity, noise, and stimulation. I'm much more hands on with the kids. The atmosphere is both HIGH ENERGY and totally laid back. We laugh a lot and do great art projects and craft activities. But there is NO DOWN TIME. Especially week one.

So Monday's index card was in part a response to Daisy Yellow's challenge to write the alphabet in block letters today. Plus I really really love black gesso. And the souffle pens on the black look like the chalk drawings that are now covering the basketball court outside of camp! Hooray for summer.

The busyness of Monday and Tuesday and the total exhaustion that came with it made for my first totally art-free day of the month on Tuesday. (though I did go into Boston to see live music so I don't feel too bad about not making time for art). I woke up Wednesday and pulled out one of my "bonus" cards that I'd made but not posted. Here's my Wednesday card. Feels like cheating.

and Wednesday night I had time and energy for art, but got focused on a few swap-bot projects and forgot to make a card, so I'm cashing in another bonus card from my stash.

I've sent and received a bunch of great mail art and swaps lately that I hope to get around to posting over the weekend.

no-thinking collages

It's my mission for the summer to improve my collage skills. I enjoy collage, but don't usually like my results. I always want to be clever and make it mean something and have my images connect in some way, but then that becomes too much pressure and I get all cerebral and overthink everything. I need to practice, practice, practice and not get all hung up on whether I like it or not. I can sit and stare and push scraps around all night long and get all balled up with self-consciousness and not do a damn thing with it, or I can just slap stuff down and leave it there and do it all again tomorrow. I'm going to focus my index cards on this for a while.

my rules for the past 2 days:
make it in less than 15 minutes
use only things within arms reach
don't think, just do

I used up a variety of scraps, experiments and aborted projects. Plus I threw in some staples because it was one of Tammy's prompts this week.

TODAY:

YESTERDAY: