Storms Outside & Within

Well hello folks...
What a day what a day indeed. Work was grueling and rather busy...typically makes the time go by faster but feeling that feeling...you know the kind where you know things inside are changing? The way you see your future...the things you long most for...a quiet assessment of where you have been and where you are going...it can feel rather unsettling and anxious and at the same time...creates some adrenalin...
Trying to get myself back in the habit of blogging on a more regular basis. Can be a challenge when you have work, kids, house work, art projects and life's have too's. Sometimes the day just gets away from me...time passes and keeps passing and really..it waits for no one. Looking forward to one more day passing cause I am feeling like I need a day to do the things I want and relax. Yes, calm the storm....
Longing for Spring / Summer. Warm heat on my face, some heartfelt healing...some deeper medication. the sun does something magnificent to me. Not the kind of heat that is unbearable. But the kind of sun that you can just stand in the morning in...and close your eyes and feel it penetrate you.  I need that. Instead, I am hearing yet more snow to come...in fact 6-10 inches by the time the weekend is over and its been gloomy, foggy and raining for days now. If this rain had been snow I would be buried to the neck with it.
Don't have much to offer in the way of visual stimulation....just my words today...and that is all.
Have a peaceful, restful night and good day tomorrow.

Where does the time go....

Places like this...a visual week.

Anton Art Center Mt. Clemens MI..wonderful art no name on any of them makes me nuts

 Cool work of art...it moves the skeleton bangs his staph against the chimes which trigger a series of events causing gears you can see below him to rotate and move causing the record looking thing with symbols on it to turn...like a record...really loved this a lot but not so sure I';d want it in my home just saw the movie possession and it would be just my luck something would come out of it and try to get me...lol

Another cool work with NO name...come on Anton Art Center get with it...lame.

Ancient ATC's?

Made this blanket  with Sam last night! :) She is warm tonight for sure!

Cupcakes for kicka** co workers!

a flat tire that turned into a 210.00 price tag...not happy.

Book I'm working on tonight

My mini me lol

 Digital zine #2 not for sale just making for personal use and fun..love the process

little things make me so happy..this is one of them tiny colorful beads!

And there you have folks makes me tired just looking at it all..its been a busy week with a few series of unfortunate events but that is life no one ever said it would be fair or perfect right? Roll with the punches all bad things pass see a rainbow...every time it rains or in this case...SNOWS! YIKES we are getting hit with some snow tonight folks here in MI. Off to bed for me soon feeling my eyes start to fight with me. Have a lovely night...Will try to get much better about posting more often! Promise...

Update on Billie Holiday :)

Worked on her last night for 5.5 hours and again for 3.5 hours...

she has been a challenge at best folks. 

Not Led Free

Worked for over 5 hours on this tonight. Portraits use to come fairly easy for me..

Then I found mixed media art and put it down...trying to get back some of those old skills I had with drawing...clearly I need some refresher courses but started this tonight. I was asked to enter a Black History Art Contest at the college I work for...being the gluten for punishment that I am sometimes..I agreed for the challenge and figured no time like the present to get back to drawing and put down the digital stuff and the collaging for a minute...

Here she is ...Billie Holiday..she is only about half way done at this point. 

Time for bed...my pillow is calling me zzz

My First Zine! Inspired by KarenAnn Young!

Happy Sunday evening folks...Hope it finds you doing well.

Past couple of days have been loaded with some busy artful things..putting together Valentine packages..did a live chat with April Cole today and made a super cute stuffed paper heart..wills hare that image in a bit...and today I was so incredibly happy to take my first ever zine to print! Pleased with the outcome...While I have no desire at this point in my life to try to sell zines..I do have a strong desire to give credit for this to two people really first my sister who introduced me to Zines many moons ago..she had one she kept up with regularly and it was amazing..her collage and art work were incredible but at the time I was a full-time mom and full time college student and that made for very little time do make a Zine and figure out its layout and not only that but I didn't have the money it would have required at that time in my life to print in full color which is what I thought I had to do...and then..one of my very BEST friends in the world and fellow multifaceted Ms. Karen Ann Young sent me a small zine she made and it blew me away not only was it just eye catching from the second I opened it...it was just amazing...her collage work surpasses much I've seen out there and she is so good at doing things like layouts and figuring out measurements and such I love her!! So Karen Ann thank you so much for inspiring me and sharing you fantastic work with me. She made me see that a black and white one CAN be intriguing and pleasing to the eye..hope mine is to yours as hers was to mine! I love you Karen! 

Please check out her blog and work online!

http://karenannyoung.blogspot.com/ 

Here is my work in progress..

Not the best photo but an image of me working on this design digitally

I have mixed feelings about the whole had done opposed to making one digitally.

Both to me have their qualities/ advantages and disadvantages.

Some include but are certainly not limited to:

Hand Made: 

A lot of work to cut out and collage bits and pieces together.

Takes a great deal of patience and imagination.

Limited in ability to manipulate cause everything is glued down. 

Harder to fix errors.

Takes a very creative talented person to make an effective interesting hand made Zine.

Digital:

Have to have the programs and knowledge of using them to do it.

Measurements have to be exact a mistake could ruin it all.

As I found out last night, after 4.5 hours of non-stop work on mine my computer crashed and I lost the entire thing. You would think I've learned the lesson of saving work often but noooo...apparently not. This was a huge reminder. Digital is not easier, less messy, and has a great deal of possibilities for speed, variety in brushes, textures, shapes, font and the like...but it can be gone if something happens to your computer.

Feel free to add to this list I'm sure I am not getting to every aspect of advantages and disadvantages to both methods.

This was my half way point...may have made many changes to this in the final version...

 Flattened and saved as a PDF for print...here is the final layout for this one page booklet Zine.

I love the cover so much which is rare...I am my own worst critic..i saved a copy of just it for print.

Final print on matte cardstock...VERY happy with the printed copy..

Final prints and fold..

 

so with this...my only intention was to make sure I really could pull one off and the prints will be for friends and certainly Karen Ann who inspired it to begin with! :) Keep an eye out on the snail mail friend..and we will see if I am moved to make more in the future. 

Tonight I joined a live chat with April Cole as previously mentioned. Thank you April for the super big fun chatting, sharing and learning..we made stuffed paper bag hearts and it was a blast she got me to step outside of my comfort one with color and paint..I tend to be a child of darkness and stick far more so to earth tones and black lol i do love color and use it, but when it comes to paint it is just not my fote but this little sucker came out super cute! Thank you my dear friend..I love you as well and am ALWAYS inspired by you too!! 

April Cole is also a best friend and mixed media artist and her blog is lots of fun too! Check her out here! http://aprilmariecole.blogspot.com/
And here is a link to April Cole's Facebook Art Group April Cole's The Studio A Thriving Artist Community where she does some great challenges and live chat sessions!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheStudioAprilCole/ 

Here is my stuffed heart I made with her today!

Cute right!!?? Love it...

And also on my art table some goodies for my pals for Valentine's Day...epic find on pinterest that I added my own mojo to...

And so you can see I making progress artistically with my days off..and just think I'm off tomorrow..

witchy giggle lol 

I think I can get use to my new schedule of Monday's off...Saturday's are an exchange for that but they are short days and not too grueling..

catch you tomorrow with some more goodies! Tata for now cherrios! 

Make ART not WAR

New.

Working today but come 4 o'clock I'm off until Tuesday! Lots of work to share but here is a little eye candy until then!

Have a great day today!

Inspiration

Work today then to my moms for dinner and to see my brother Bill who will be there. Really looking forward to that don't get to see him too often..

A busy day ahead a meeting and then a few tutoring appointments...

Here is some inspiration from my day yesterday!

 Monday I was off so we drove downtown Detroit and while the nation hates our city and it is falling to ruin...it is so unfortunate because I love this city and its thick rich history. We made an appointment with Old St. Mary's church in Greek-town for taking some photos. The place was built in 1845 and it is just amazing been serving in the Metro Detroit area for over 177 years...wow right? The stained glass in this church is breathtaking and its a very peaceful place. So before I head out today wanted to share the downtown and church photos with you all...hope you enjoy! 

You know it

Yes..I traced around every flag...probably missed a few and made many mistakes this was a pain really. lol

I love fire escapes..probably cause I never had to use one lol

GM headquarters formerly known as the Renaissance Center

I often wonder what is behind those windows

Says it all...what a  waste of what was once a  beautiful city...

one of my favorite spots...love the variation of architecture in the city...

 Despite the appearance that this is from the Heidelberg project that is not confirmed. These two photos were taken in a completely different part part of the city than where the Heidelberg Project is located but it sure does resemble Tyree's work doesn't it? For those of you who do not know what it is the Heidelberg project is an urban Detroit neighborhood where artist Tyree lives and he got tired of seeing his city go to garbage with burned down homes, vacant buildings and drug infested. He started collecting items and garbage virtually and has turned the neighborhood into somewhat of a museum of ruin...people come from all over the world and while the city wanted to tare it all down, the crime in the neighborhood has stopped, people in the community get involved and people travel to this location from all over the world. The Detroit Institute of Arts bought a portion of the property so that the city could not tare it down which is pretty amazing...While in the city Don and I came across a few different areas where it seems others are following suit. Better than looking at what it really is...total ruin. Here is a link to the Heidelberg Project...which is making its way into art lessons and history books on art a must see...

http://www.heidelberg.org/

And here is a link to the DIA Detroit Institute of Arts which I believe with its new renovations is currently the WORLDS 3rd largest art museum...in itself...a reason to travel to Detroit...and I'm really not kidding we go there possibly 5-9 times a year...thinking about going this coming weekend! 

http://www.dia.org/

There is far more to this city that petty crimes and poverty. art is on the rise in this city. artists are taking over abandoned buildings and turning them into studios and shops for local artist to sell their goods..here is an interesting video there are three parts to this video...its worthy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joMysMDHdb4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvKevvGnGt4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCxC5ozQ7hQ

If you are an artist and like documentaries you will appreciate these videos...

a lot of great history information about Detroit here too.

 

When you have very little....you learn to find beauty in everything. 

A drawing someone did of the outside of the church..perfect drawing!