Best Shot Monday

Coming Soon:

I am signing up to be part of My Best Shot Monday, or BSM {Best Shot Monday} with Tracey Clark ... http://traceyclark.squarespace.com/best-shot-monday/

Watch here for my first BSM photo, and more details.

-- Princess Magpie

Tweeting with Twitter

Not sure exactly WHY this is necessary, or if it IS at all necessary, but I just set up an account on the latest social networking site, twitter.

Yes, they spell it with a small "t".

Check me out here: http://twitter.com/DHMagpie ... from there, you can elect to set up your own twitter account, and if you do, you can elect to "follow" me.

Call me crazy ... this could just become one more "must do" {read: time waster ???} that gets annoying over time. But just ONE special update from a fellow twitter friend, and it could be worth it. We'll see.

-- Princess Magpie

I love a Good Tutorial ...

... especially one that inspires me to try something new!


As an art form, or medium, ALCOHOL INK may not be "new", but it's NEW to me ...

Until I saw this video clip yesterday, I was always a little uncertain about the whole Alcohol Ink adventure ... in this case, ignorance is NOT bliss, but DISCOVERY of a new method sure is !!! :-)

Check it out ... {okay, so for THREE STRAIGHT DAYS I have tried to upload the tutorial clip of Tim Holtz of RANGER working with alcohol ink ... it won't work ... I promise I'll find a LINK, instead, so you can see what I saw that inspired this post!}

ADDED LATER: Here, friends - try this link ... it SHOULD take you to Tim's website/blog and an entire page chock-full of tutorial / demo clips -- what fun!

http://timholtz.com/demos.html

Anyone want to give art with alcohol inks a try?! I do, I do ...

-- Princess Magpie

Heart-Speak

"Let your heart

speak to

others' hearts."

-- Yogi Tea wisdom

Here at Quail Oaks, we are hoping that our HEART-felt wish that the Western Bluebirds will return to the Lane will be enough to attract them.

With an open, welcoming HEART, we start each day this Spring ...

-- Princess Magpie

Inspiration comes in all kinds of Packages

Take a look at this ...

I recently ordered some items at ETSY from Piddix, and when Corinna mailed me the flat items, they arrived in this envelope:

I was immediately drawn to all those amazing POSTAGE STAMPS ... what I noticed within a nanosecond was that the post office failed to 'cancel' every last one of them. I will not re-use them, however, I want to re-cycle the envelope, postage and all, into the background for a collage. Won't that be fun?!

-- Princess Magpie, aka Davielle

Sweet Pea/s/ce

A long time ago, a girlfriend said to me, "it's no wonder you like Sweet Peas ... it sounds like Sweet PEACE." I'll never forget that ... and every time I see a sweet pea in bloom, I think of Peace. Lovely.

sweet peas in front of blooming Cerces

So the last few days, as we come up our driveway, we're treated to plenty of sweet PEACE ... in the form of sweet peas in bloom, that have 'volunteered' down near last year's pumpkin patch ... the birds are SUCH helpful garden assistants !!!

sweet peas in front of an old Eucalyptus stump ..

Ah, bliss. PURE INSPIRATION for your ...

-- Princess Magpie

My Artistic Journey, in a Nutshell

Long overdue, this posting is ...

On Saturday March 7 and Sunday March 8, I attended two full days of workshops with Golden working artist CHRIS COZEN ... and all I can say is ... who knew?!

I used to have one of those {because I didn't know any better, OBVIOUSLY} attitudes about ACRYLIC paints ... like, 'that's for children', OR 'that's cheesy', or, well, you get the idea.

I have many people to thank for my awakening:

FIRST, my friend ANN DEAKERS, who first (re) turned me to local artist JANE LA FAZIO. I say "re-turned", because I first met Jane some years ago at a Pampered Chef party ... and then she invited me to her home to do another one! I then ran into Jane at an event at Quail Botanical Gardens, where I bought some of her lovely painted cards.

SO when Ann told me about Jane's WATERCOLOR JOURNALING workshop, I signed up with friend Cynthia (Fall 2007) and away we went. It was challenging, it was eye-opening, it was incredible. But that was only the beginning!

NEXT, friend Ann forwarded me a link to the blog of artist KELLY RAE ROBERTS. Wow, what a find. I ordered a few of KRR's art prints {which are still waiting for frames - one's a gift for my daughter Kristina, although she doesn't know it ... yet!} and over the months, I became so enamored of KRR's work and her blog-style, I couldn't resist ordering her first book: Taking Flight: Inspiration And Techniques To Give Your Creative Spirit Wings {which you can purchase thru Amazon, or Barnes & Noble, or directly from Kelly Rae, which will include her autograph}. When her book arrived, WOW. I was so enchanted. But what were all these materials and mediums she was talking about? Her supply list was all-encompassing, and I didn't know what 75% of those things were / were for ... Talk about intimidating !!!

SO then, as my Scrapbooking and Stamping / CardMaking SUPPLIES began to expand to include materials for COLLAGE WORK, I began my quest. The quest to discover "life beyond ModPodge" {as a young girl, Mom would plop me down at a TV tray, with a box of paper and ribbon scraps, and some glitter, and a bottle of glue - or Mod Podge - and I'd create collages to my little heart's content}. And by the way, ModPodge is alive & well, folks, and easily adapted to your art projects.

OKAY, so then PAPER SOURCE opened up right here at The Forum, in Carlsbad, a mere 6 minutes door to door {dangerous stuff, that} ... and it was there that I picked up a beautiful book by mother-daughter duo Sunny and MaryJo KOCH.

Vintage Collage-Works: Artful Ideas with Antique Ephemera is the title, and I was again ENCHANTED by the possibilities lying within those pages. Wow, wow, wow. But again - an extensive list of supplies & materials, and me, ignorant about what most of them are, or how they're used, or what they're used for.

And thus began my journey. I googled "mixed media art class san diego" and I came up with - get this - the name Jane LaFazio. At the top of the list! So I sent Jane a quick e-mail, asking her what this MIXED MEDIA term really meant, and she said I should sign up for her upcoming 6-week class through the La Jolla Athanaeum.

I jumped in, feet first, and the rest is blogging history! {if you haven't seen my blog before, the entire six weeks was 'journaled' herein, complete with photographs}

I learned so much, but mostly what I learned was that there is SO MUCH MORE to be learned!

But instead of being intimidated, now I am INSPIRED and INTRIGUED and EXCITED.

Thanks to Yvonne, who was in my first 6-week MIXED MEDIA with Jane LaFazio, I sought out workshops with Golden working-artist CHRIS COZEN ... because the idea of learning how to do IMAGE TRANSFERs was so exciting to me.

a smattering of the work I did in the Chris Cozen {Golden product} workshops, March 2009

Thanks to STAMPING DETAILS in Poway, California, for hosting 5 workshops with Chris earlier this month {of which I attended four}. More eye-opening, more stretching, more possibilities opening up. You might say that I'm no longer "on the fence" about art and it's place in my life :-) ...

"On The Fence" {a tribute to my mother, Edith} - this piece was made, start to finish, during the Chris Cozen weekend at Stamping Details in Poway, March '09

Big sigh. Contented sigh.

-- Princess Magpie

the WOW factor

Okay, so there was some sharing at Class Six on Monday that went beyond ... shall we say ... class projects.

Michaelanne, a most talented woman {that my husband just happened to go all through school with}, had these amazing art quilts to share:

This is from another workshop she took, and it's a SELF PORTRAIT ... titled "Mental Gypsy", it is absolutely charming and full of personal meaning for her.

here you can just see her elementary-school photo

and look at the detail on the other side ...

This is a pieced quilt she did with a photograph of a neighbor's Elephant Ear plant as inspiration:

And this, her piece de resistance ... her Rooster Greeting the Sun {that's MY name for it, not hers - I think she calls this 'Pico de Gallo' .. Spanish for 'rooster's beak' - and he is hot, hot, hot}:

voted HOTTEST ROOSTER IN THE HENHOUSE

your ever-so-humbled

-- Princess Magpie

Parting is SUCH Sweet Sorrow, aka MIXED MEDIA CLASS SIX

As with most things in life, the BACKSTORY is often what makes something come "alive" for us. Our resident former-set-designer walked us through a piece of her past with this as the visual guide ... wow. I can't even describe the impact it had on me.

So on my drive to University Heights on Monday morning, I'm listening to the 101.5 {FM} on the radio, and they're talking about Shakespeare. They kept getting it backwards -- the whole Juliet-fakes-her-death scene -- they kept saying Romeo faked HIS death, and upon finding him, SHE killed herself {first} ... when we all clearly know that SHE faked HER death, he found her and, not knowing, killed HIMSELF; upon awakening, she finds HIM well & truly dead, and then - plunges that dagger into her own belly. YIKES.

But the general mood at the end of our Mixed Media with Paper & Cloth, a la Jane LaFazio class that same day ... was SUCH a "parting is such sweet sorrow" snapshot.

We had all thoroughly enjoyed the lessons, the instructor, and each other {that was the SWEET part}. Yet it was now over, and there was a real sadness {that would be the SORROW part} to the morning.

come on ... do tell ... can YOUR art teacher do this?! Bravo, Jane!

JULIET
Sweet, so would I: Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing. Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

In keeping with today's Shakespeare theme {I just love the serendipity of it all}, I give you Marti's Rose - her "folk art rose" -

"What's in a name?

that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet;

So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,

Retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title." {Juliet speaks again)

Everybody loves a clown ...

especially Noel's creative "circles project" clown series !!!

One of our classmates, Althea Brimm, has an upcoming exhibition at the "home" of our beloved La Jolla Athenauem, which is the entity we took THIS class through:

LA JOLLA ATHENAEUM, at 1008 Wall St (between Girard Ave & Herschel Ave) in La Jolla, CA 92037 (858) 454-5872
www.ljathenaeum.org

Rotunda Gallery: Althea Brimm: Keep This Coupon

April 3-May 9

Reception THURSDAY, April 2 6:30-8:30 PM

Althea Brimm's recent collages are made up of ephemera, “exquisitely rusted and stained by time.” Ephemera, by definition, is something that lasts only one day. So, Althea tells us, she is proud to say this work has lasted more than one day—and counting. Althea lives in La Jolla, and her work has appeared in The Athenaeum Biennial Artists' Books Exhibitions. She has also exhibited at the Santa Ysabel Art Gallery. Her work has spanned many mediums. She graduated from the University of Rochester in New York and moved to La Jolla in 1961.

Althea, left; and Liz, explaining what this class has meant to her

And classmate YVONNE has invited all of us to participate in the local ATC group that meets the first Friday of each month down at Liberty Station ... what is an ATC, you might ask? ATC = Artist's Trading Card. It's a miniature "original" {usually, although not always} in 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" format -- that one TRADES with other artists.

Yvonne, always sharing good information with us

SAN DIEGO ATC GROUP meets First Friday of the month, 6-8 pm at the Expressive Arts Institute, 2820 Roosevelt Road, Suite 204 {upstairs}, in the D'Arrigo ARTS Building, San Diego CA 92106.

So what else did we do on our last class date this week? We laughed, and we shared, and we were inspired & encouraged by all the work done by our roomful of fellow artists / artisans.

Howard & Lauren chat at the art class version of an office water cooler;

the collage scrap box !!!

Kenneth & His Harem - Photoshop 101 :-)

{spot those socks - I think he borrowed 'em from Jane, maybe?!}

Reggie sharing one of her fabulous collage pieces ...

Jean's FRUIT series -- done with actual apples, oranges, etc ... I was so intrigued with these ...

And Nancy just "knew" there was a BUNNY on this collage backround ...

Sure enough, there's her LOP ...

So until we meet again in another class, another workshop, on the street, in a cafe -- my artistic friends, I bid you adieu ...

-- Princess Magpie

P.S. and PLEASE consider signing up for Jane's next 6-week session, Mixed Media with Paper & Cloth - again, through the La Jolla Athanaeum ... I did !!!

Coffee with Attitude from HEART'S DELIGHT

Friend ANN has the cutest "coffee cozy" on her blogspot, Heart's Delight:

http://ann-heartsdelight.blogspot.com

and this little darling can be purchased through Ann's ETSY shop, too.

Can't wait to get mine on order ...

-- Princess