I hope you all had a great holiday season. Seems like the wind had been lost from my sails for a bit. Hopefully, I am refreshed and ready to start creating again! I did get some new art supplies from Santa (which is always a good thing). Now there is a bit of a learning curve with the new Chameleon markers given to me but, on the flip side, it renewed my instrest in the copics I already have. Of course, I had to go and ask for some things that are going to take some time away from painting and drawing but, it is still being creative... Metal Stamping!! I already partially made one bracelet but, I will wait to share it until I get the last few pieces I ordered for it on it..... annnneeee dayeeee now!
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As a kid, I had to share a room with my sister, until I was almost 15 (not as lucky as some of you to have my own space but maybe luckier than some who shared with more siblings). Now, it is amazing how we come from the same home and are completely different not just in mannerisms, attitude, clothing but also music. The first album I bought was by "Tears for Fears"... "Songs from the Big Chair" hers?.... "Madonna"... you guessed it... "Like a Virgin". Seriously, for me, it was torture to have to listen to her records when she had a turn at the player but, WAYYYYYYYYY.... WAAYYYYY before we split in our likes there was a precious time when we both liked the Beatles and the Monkees. We would laugh and giggle while we adjusted the speeds on one Monkees song in particular, "I'm gonna buy me a dog". I am really not sure why we liked it so much, maybe because they were so silly while singing it (in case you need a refresher https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=the+monkees+gonna+buy+me+a+dog&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001) No matter the reason it is one of the few moments when my sister and I were not trying to kill one another lol. In tribute to the dog song, I thought, I am gonna MAKE me a dog.... and so here we go......  I do not normally like to have someone give me a subject to create art from. I, in general, like to just put my pencil to paper and see who or what emerges. Today, I had someone request that I do Wednesday Addams in my style for a trade. At first, I thought nahhhh, maybe I will just shy away but, I decided to do it anyway and I am happy with the results... enough so that I may make a second for myself. I kinda think she should have freckles... not sure why lol. If I do manage to make another later I will share it. Happy Creating!  I am having trouble on this site with people being able to follow me so.... I am going to try out a new Bloggity blog.... so for a bit, I will update there, if it goes poorly, I will come back here. I mean, I am paying for this site lol.
http://thefruitfulfox.blogspot.com/ A few months back I submitted a postcard for an upcoming exhibit in California for pink week. I am so excited to see now that the card is on display at The Warehouse Artist Lofts (WAL) in Sacramento, California along with many other artist's postcards from around the world. If you live out there and get a chance to see it let me know. This is a link to pinterest to see my submission , along with the others. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/32088216074908586/ Below is the image they took my post card. I will have to look around to see if I have a better one of it. I think it held up pretty well for traveling from NC to California!  I have so many wine bottles to paint... Like, I really should be embarrassed how many are in the pantry floor. In my defense, I ask friends for them and just a few days ago I brought home two cool new liquor bottles. If I ever decided to do nothing but paint the bottles I have, I am pretty sure I would be a shut in with no time to do anything else. I also would likely run out of paint... amazing how much paint it takes to cover these critters. I did find time to paint this one and I really like how it turned out. Happy Creating! Good Day Peoples.... not too long ago I got wrapped up in the idea of making a few Halloween Pocket letters. Through a few comedic errors, I did finally get my first one finished. I had this great idea to add shakers to the mix which in theory was great, until... I left the "fusing" tool on my desk while I thought and thought about what to put in my shaker.... I got up opened doors, cabinets, went through tubs then came back to find a hole burned into the Pocket letter I was working on. I was so frustrated. I mean, yes, I knew it was hot but.... when my mind gets busy, things happen. Like a little later when I forgot that the hot glue gun was still plugged in... Apparently, I have a hard time with "hot" tools lol. Luckily, I burned nothing down and some how I managed not to burn myself BUT, the hot glue gun leaked hot glue onto some things and ruined them... BLEH, Pattoey. I swear, I need an art assistant just to keep me safe from myself. The end result is nice and I managed to make 2 more for trade. They went a lot more smoothly yea!! Anyone wondering what Pocket Letters are?? They are a fun new way to write to a pen pal. Using a baseball card plastic protector sheet, choose a theme and make 9 ATC for the front and fill each of the backs with goodies, tea bags, a personal letter written by you about your day, hobbies or whatever tickles your fancy. They can get pretty detailed. I did not put tea in mine (I prefer beer and wine over tea lol, and I can not send that) but I did add a lot of what us swappers call extras (like stickers, stamped images or other embellishments). Here are some photos of the completed Halloween Pocket Letters. Happy Creating Everyone! Still re-organizing some things in my art room (I simply can not function or be creative at all when in a messy space).... and as I lifted up some old paper, I saw it... another one of my first drawings. This one was done with colored pencil and KERPLOW... It temporarily blinded me. So, I snatched it up (once my eyes could focus again) and decided to re-vamp it (every time I see or say Vamp I think of True Blood and people saying vamp..ers. Gosh, I miss that series). I applied a clear coat of Gesso and went to work. Although right now, I am really down ( kinda like.... well, "Down Town-Julie Brown" with her love of music... but, obviously mine is art supplies) with water-color, I needed to use acrylics to cover what was underneath. For your viewing pleasure.... here is the before (wear some sunglasses or a welding mask before viewing) and the after. Happy Creating! Tada....! I am baaaackkk.... Too much going on in my life at times for me to get into my art room. I think I need a maid, a dog walker, an in house nail care-giver, a flunkie and a chef.... then I can get some stuff done. A few days ago I met some ladies to color a midget pumpkin with sharpies. It was a pretty good time but I did not finish mine... I am too purposeful and I need time to think about what I want to do. I may gesso over it and start again but.... yesterday, I took a bit to reorganize my art room and I came across a piece of art that I keep hiding from myself (it is fugly.... seriously.) When I first started doing mixed media girls I thought "Man ohhhhh man, she is a materpiece" and my Art will bring all the boys to the yard (well, you know the song just replace most of the milk shake words with things like stencils, Dylusions paints etc... you get the idea). Every time I see her now, I squeak and quickly hide her again.... Not any more. I decided to re-vamp her in my current style and then see if someone wanted her in trade and to my delight someone did. I like her a lot now but, it is time she finds a new home. When I have time, likely tomorrow, I will post a video of some of my process and you will get to see the before and after of this boomerang piece. Happy Creating every one!!! Hello Peoples... boy, it has been a while since I have been on here. So much to do and so little time... I often think there needs to be more hours in a day but... if there were, I likely would still want more. Weird how that works. Seems that when I was a kid and when we got those terrible progress reports in elementary school I often got a big fat "U" in "uses time wisely". Now that I look back it, maybe I was using it wisely.... I was using my spare time for what was important to me and and not to the teacher (she should have encouraged me to doodle shame on her, I mean I got my work done). Many times in my life I have bucked the system, not to be naughty but, well, because if no one every questions why or how, will anything improve? I can remember my dad asking me, "If everyone else jumped off a bridge would you do it?" LOL. Used to drive me bonkerlicious when he would ask that. But he was right, in his own way, he was trying to say do not be like the herd. Whether or not I mean to, I certainly do not moo cow my way through life, I cause ripples and waves, I am ok if someone gets mad... It is a lonely world at times to have what my best friend, Eddie calls "A Sheriff Personality" but, I am who I am (say that like "pop-eye"). So, where is this whole conversation going? I do not know to be honest, except to say, when I first started doing Art by way of ATC, I was driven to learn to draw female faces... why? Because that is a lot of what people wanted to trade for. I got super duper good at it and then one day realized... yeap, I was a moo cow. I was not really doing much that was original, I had become a person who was following a popular trend, VERY un-KD like. So, here I am reverting back to a style I was trying to develop a long time ago. So like it or lump it...maybe it seems weird to you or maybe it is not your cup of soup (tea is way over rated and I love me some broccoli & cheese soup) but it is what I like and what I feel best represents me. I challenge you, if your stuck in the herd to break out! Do you.... there are not enough individuals out there. Be a Chief.... not an Indian.... (I can say that, I have some Native American blood... so do not get all sensitive on me). I spent part of my morning yesterday working on new ATC cards. One I owe in a trade, the monster (now I do not know how this happened, I just let my mind wander) I am calling "A 3 toed, spotted Froggarabbyizard Ant. HAAAAA, seriously, makes me giggle. Hope it gives you a laugh too. The other few are just a revamp of my old style. Happy Creating Peoples! Mail ART!!! Recently, I agreed to a swap with a friend and of course got busy helping Jeff, plus trying to be available to him... in case he needed me no matter what time. SO.... bottom line, I still have not mailed out my exchange. Today, I had enough energy to try and make up for the delay by decorating her package. I really like how it turned out, I hope I can get it in the mail tomorrow :) To keep the art safe, I had to cover it in clear packing tape which, as a bonus, makes the art indestructible but on the down side... well, it is a bit shiny (not disco ball shiny but, shiny). I have not made a video in a while and this is one is way less detailed than normal... just fyi, I had already drawn the face before painting over it with the flesh tone, then drew it back later... but here ya go! You know when something bad happened, back when you were a kid... you went for something to comfort you, like your favorite blanket, a doll, maybe a pet or parent. I think I was always one who went to find whatever pet we had at the time and love the heck out of it. Recently, there have been a few major changes in our (Sams Family) lives that have made me wonder.... How do I self soothe as an adult? Best answer I can find is art. My mind drifts away to only being concerned about colors and lines, allowing all else, to temporarily fall away. I have sketched a lot of really interesting people in my art journal since Wed. Not many of them have I painted and the one I was working on when I got the call that my Father in Law had passed suddenly... I have yet to even look at again. I need to finish it. I realized I have so many unfinished art journal pieces started and if tomorrow as my last day... I would be mad as hell watching people look through my books at half-assed stuff, making comments like, "wonder what she was doing here", "Man, this would have been so cool if it was finished". So, I am not going to draw anything new, I am going to finish what I started. Every single page (ummm, that is a lot really. I am the Queen of WIP and I kinda have art ADD). I know... I normally have something overly giggly and funny to say and I am sure I will return back to my normal Goofy self soon enough but for tonight I want to say, RIP Donald Lee "Lucky" Cothran, you will always be loved and remembered, never ever forgotten. Now, some how in the midst of thinking about Lucky and how much of an individual he was, a Dr. Seuss quote came to me and I added it in. That Dr. Seuss Guy.... he was pretty awesome but so was my father in law.  Truth, I do not really remember how to play poker but, one of the few things I kinda remember was being told to Ante Up. Yet, here I am playing APC poker lol. The rules are different, there is no money exchanged but, there is a sweet prize for the person with the best hand. So.... instead of doing to the 50-trillon other things I needed to do today, I made 3 more APC cards. Not my recent style, sometimes, a girl just has to change things up to keep life interesting. I like to keep people guessing I suppose. Hopefully soon I will be inspired enough to work on my next big piece. We will see, life seems to keep getting in the way... like the 3 hour nap I took today out of the blue... it snuck up on me like a ninja... crazy. Happy Arting! Balloon Animals... Now, I must say that I never really thought balloon animals could go wrong but two nights ago when we went out for dinner. The place was covered in them. I was taking photos of the ones that I thought were cute... when I picked up what I thought was a pig, a feller who worked there begged me to take it home, said.... "it was not kid friendly... it and the bear..." so of course, I asked why... so he flipped it over. I almost peed my lularoes (my foxyroes at that) laughing.... The under carriage had the cutest little piggy and bear butt cheeks. I mean, to me that is not a serious offense but I am sure some wacky parent out there is still hiding the fact that their kid has a hiney and that we use it to pooh AND sit on... Whatevs... to each their own but, ( he he) one day your child is gonna learn he or she has one.... seems like this is a missed opportunity to me lol. I took a few photos of the offending parts so if you are afraid of balloon animals OR your your parents never filled you in on what a butt is.... you may not want to look at the images. The thought of an adult crying about their mysterious sitter is too much for me to bare (get it? HAAAA).... Just to make sure I get some of my own art in... there is also a photo of an APC (Altered playing card) with the value hidden of course :)  Where in the heck did the month of August go? WOW. Today I had an MRI on my knee and lucky for me that meant I was not completely inside of the machine (confine me and I get a bit Tasmanian Devilish). So, I laid there with earphones on (I kinda freaked when she put them on my ears. I mean, who knows if they were cleaned between me and the last person). I have never had ear fleas and I really do not know if they exist but my dad used to tell me all the time I was going to get "Cauliflower Ear" if I did not stop talking on the phone as a kid (which is actually a real thing but not caused by over telephone use lol). I made the best of the situation by making up names for weird skin to earphone to skin diseases like, the dreaded Kanagroo flu (causes people to hop about a lot and possibly box people when they are mad or frightened), the rare spitting disease caused by the praying mantis virus... the most annoying of all may be the klucking bug caused by chicken mites (this one is really bad since it causes unpredictable crowing and clucking so, sales people may need to stay home for a few days). Ok, also, I was again not sure if I needed to have underoos, panties or what ever you young whipper snappers call them these days (wonder woman was my favorite back in the day) and I was unable to locate the baggie that has the packed pair from last time in it... (I am some what afraid I took them out in Jeff's SUV before a baseball game lol boy won't that be a surprise if one of his clients find them under the seat). So, I bravely just grabbed a pair and stuffed them in my purse. Seemed less creepy if they were just in there willy-nilly and not folded and sealed like evidence lol. Again, I did not need them but, I just know. the one time I do not take a pair... it is gonna be a moment no one forgets for a while. Bonus was I had time before and after to work in my art journal trying to decided just what I want to paint next on a large scale. I will share some of my recent WIP..... no photos of my purse with my roos shoved in them so do not look for that to happen anytime soon. There are times when I would like to slap up the internet, today is one of those days. I had typed up quite a long entry and the meanie pants "internet character gobbler" ate all my words. So let me try again. Yesterday I took a silk scarf dying class. Seriously, I was so excited to try this. The lady who makes them has some tremendously lovely scarves. I arrived all ready to learn every bit of info she could spare and pick her brain even more. Once everything was set up I listened to all her instructions and warnings. She gave me a small handkerchief to practice on where.... I did everything she said (I can be very studious) but then... I got my 8" x 72" silk scarf and I threw the baby out with the bath water. See, I am a mixed media people, we do not color inside of the lines ... we are more a mad scientist people type with our supplies... experimenting with many mediums just to see how they react to one another (and hoping we do not make mud or an explosion lol). So the sweet lady turns us loose, I pick some colors and get to work. She comes around to check on me and with horror on her face and in her voice, says, "oh no, this is what I was warning you about"... (now I can see how she may be upset I mean, it was quite the blood bath, bleeding every where) I calmly explained to her that she is a great instructor but mixed media people are different and I did it on purpose. I am still not sure she really understands what I am doing but she smiled and allowed me my freedom. I hope she did not take it personally. So, on a side note. Yes for some of you this will be TMI, so stop reading here <----------- (If you keep reading this your reaction is all on you) but for some of you who personally know me, this is just another thing I have done because, I am, well, KD. I had an appt about my knees Wed and I wore some lularoe leggings (yes. I am still hung up on them and I may be a lularoe zombie). The leggings are great but I have been panty free since '93 (or some where around there). I will not wear bloomers under leggings, I have seen too many times how this can go wrong. I mean, have you seen the poor ladies who bend over and half their roos are gone because their Kraken was hungry? I will not be hiding in a corner fighting the almighty roo muncher for what is rightfully mine! Back to the story, so, knowing I may have to take off my pants, I brought some roos in a zip lock bag (I mean I can not have them all willy nilly in my purse). Luckily the facility gave me shorts to put on (kinda gross really but oh well) so I never had to break the bad boys out of the baggie. So fast forward to yesterday in the silk dying class,... "KD, would you like to order some lunch with us?". Of course I would.... I go to my purse to get my wallet and what do I pull out by mistake (kinda got stuck to my wallet some how)... you got it!!! A ziplock bag of roos. Now, I hope no one saw them but if they did, I can only imagine the reasons they may have come up with for the discovery. 1. I am just weird 2. I am saving them like Monica Lewinsky saved her dress 3. I had an accident and they are soiled 4. I may have an accident and my current ones may get soiled 5. Maybe I am going to use them in an art project 6. I am taking them to have them tailored None of these reasons are really any where near the truth so lets just hope they all were talking and never saw them lol. Ok, now that my mind diarrhea is out, I will show you the handkerchief I was practicing on & the WIP scarf. I obviously stopped on the feller with the moon.... But I like the direction he is headed. Shazow! I finally got a Molotow marker. I have been stink-eyeing them for a while and when I was at binders the other day, I could not resist ( I also could not resist convincing Mrs. Audrey to get a few things for herself because I am secretly plotting to get her into mixed media journaling) plopping one in my basket (.....Let me also just go off topic and suggest the idea of getting Audrey into the mixed media stuff may be slight pay pack for making me a lularoe zombie... he he). Aneeawayahoo... I have little knowledge of these markers but here is a partial description... "Flowmaster pump marker system includes exchangeable tips and refillable markers for long-lasting use". Now, I do not feel that I should need to watch a youtube video on a marker but, now I am rethinking that lol. I was in a hurry (as I always am) and I shook the marker, I may or may not have started from above my head (probably over kill now that I look back at it) and ended at my chest level (I mean I was trying to "pump it real good") all of course with the intention that more delightful white ink would delicately appear and it KINDA did.... but in the form of paint freckles all over my body.. on my face, arm, shoulder, hair and shirt.... I was a little surprised at the instant acrylic deposit but I also had to laugh... only me. So instead of showing the art I was working on.... here is a photo of my new freckles. I may leave them. They make me feel unique. Also, I may need to invest in science goggles.  My my my my, my Poker face nah nah nah nah........ So I agreed to be in a type of Art Poker game where we paint the suit side of the card leaving the corner value exposed. We put them up for trade with the value hidden under washi tape so.... your picking your card on art only (the value is a total mystery). When all are done we will each then take the best 5 cards we got in trade and see who has the best hand. So much fun. Below I will show you the cards I offered up for trade. No WHAMMMY..... No whammy (for when I get mine lol). I have got to take a break from these addictive critters and get some house work done. I also need to do some yard work but the humidity outside is just a mean beastie... I swear it will melt your eye mascara off heartlessly and leave you looking like a racoon. Happy arting my friends! I have been totally side tracked... my friend Audrey has gotten me all bamboozled up with these darn Lularoe leggings. Now, I normally do not go out of my way to wear super bright colors or draw attention to my bootay but darn it, these stupid things are crazy comfortable AND are super fun. So... instead of using my time to be arty farty (yes, we already have covered why that is funny) I have been looking all day at set after set of leggings. So, now that I have ordered 3 (yes three) pairs of these freaking naked leggings (well, they do kinda feel like your naked when you wear them) maybe I can get back to my paints and such. I did spend some time yesterday at a brewery working on a dog painting in my journal... It is far from done but for the sake of needing color in our lives I will share the very beginning.   Most everyone knows that I love making ATC . They go pretty quickly and are easy to store once traded or purchased. I am in an upcoming swap with a group of ladies and I decided to try this new style I am obsessed with.... to make a mermaid... merman... unimaid... who cares. IT has fins/tail... It also has some cool mica flakes added for fun. Hope your finding your creative muse today. Apparently mine is all hyper and crap because I already have made two things today lol.....  I totally dig this bottle. Fung-eyes..... they make me giggle. Who knows how many more of these I will make before my art ADD kicks in. The good news is that my finger is not as ouchy and I can angrily point it at the squirrels in the yard again... (that is super important when it comes to asking the Kdogs to chase them away from the bird feeder... I mean, hello squirrels... BIRD feeder... not SQUIRREL feeder). There was an old lady (I am not THAT old really) who lived in a shoe (obviously I do not live in a shoe but let's go with it) and she had so many wine bottles she did not know what to do so she painted and painted them until her fingers turned blue.... then took a crap ton of photos just to show them to you! I find painting wine bottles is a super fun (but, little frustrating too since they are super not flat) way to spend the day. I have been playing around with facial expressions a little and let me tell you I am really enjoying what is happening with them lol. Luckily, I did this bottle before finger-gate 2016. My finger still hurts and I am a wee pout-ity about it. I do a lot of things with my left hand except writing, bowling (although one season I did because I broke my right wrist), painting and few other minor things. So, I feel like I have a clipped wing WAHHH... Also, it is amazing how often I smack it on things... I am pretty sure that is a party foul. Good Lordt! Peeling labels off of these wine bottles is pretty un-fun! Earlier today I got on line to look up ways to remove the critters without so much effort. I read and idea of soaking the bottles over night in a bucket with hot water and a drop or 27 ( ok, maybe not that much, I am an over-achiever at times lol) of Dawn. There are a few labels I really wanted to keep and add to my art journal hopefully they will survive. Of course, now I have I will survive playing in my head.... Funny how my brain does that. Gloria Gaynor was pretty brilliant with those lyrics and I love her voice. Gosh, I hope that song does not ear worm me but likely it will.... dang it. Whoops... Now, let me tell you, I am saving you all from the photos I took of my left index finger. I cut the beeghezzus out of it with my new Tim Holtz snips. I need stitches not that many, maybe 4.... or 5 possibly but.... I have some steri-strips about and after some irrigation.... I closed it up... Scars are schmexy.... right (I need to come up with a better story than I was cutting the wraps off wine bottles)? Oh.... maybe I will tell people the scar came from me saving a baby turtle from a rabid alligator with one eye.... and the alligator's tooth got me just as its mouth closed, after realizing I had snagged the wee helpless baby turtle away.... these things happen during vacations all the time. Hmmm, I need to give this some more thought. Here are some photos of the bottles after a 24 soak job and I later scrubbed them with a brillo pad to take the rest of the glue off. I even got to save a few of my favorite labels! YEA..... Wine-AHOY... well, wine bottles anyway! I have been saving wine bottles for years now, thinking, one day I will do something with them. Now, I normally am a go get'em type but, for some reason, with these bottles, I just have not had any motivation so finally, I AWAYED..... to Pinterest.... and by golly after a few hours (ok maybe days) of looking at wine bottles, I finally took the label off one and painted it up (thankfully... because the Hoarders show I think was considering a visit to our home... now if you are reading this and you are really a true hoarder, sorry to poke fun). I really spent a whole day on this bottle. I prepped it with some gesso and started drawing and drawing... and drawing... why, oh why, did I not start with the smallest bottle? I mean, I like a good challenge but sheesh. Painting the bottle was.... a whole other struggle. I thought since it is a clear bottle and clear gesso I could maybe get away with water colors. This simply did not work well. I could not even begin to tell you what all I used on this fella. Let us just say... the painting is VERY mixed media. Right now I have several more bottles soaking so I can take the labels off and get cracking on some more. Truly, I have put A LOTTA wine down the hatch based on the number of bottles we have..... CHEERS! |
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