12 Dec
2011

Posted in: Art
By moonlit studio    No Comments

Creating Vintage Inspired Snowmen

I’ve been away sooo long from my blog. I’ve been busy making things and rarely come up for air. I need to learn to balance my time better. Wonder if that will ever happen? Anyway, I was hoping to share some of my latest creations. I love vintage style Christmas items and I love snowmen. Whenever it snows I’m outside ready to build a snow person to guard my door or just hang out, but since it doesn’t snow enough for me here in Asheville, I’ve decided to make paper mache sculpted snowpeople. It’s a lot warmer sculpting these little guys and I can drink hot chocolate and watch holiday movies while I’m creating them. Maybe now I might not miss the snow as much.

Here are a a few of them, I’ll post more of them soon.

14 Jan
2011

Posted in: Musings
By moonlit studio    2 Comments

Scorpio or Virgo? Personality Crisis Averted

After last night’s brouhaha over revised astrological charts and an additional new zodiac sign with a challenging pronunciation, I found myself a little peevish over the loss of my Scorpio sign. “But…I’ve been a Scorpio for as long as, hmmm–how long exactly? Oh yea, since I was born!” I thought to myself, “now what? Can I even live up to the Virgo sign?” The very thought of creating neat ordered lists and organizing everything in my life made me seriously doubt it.

Well, it appears that the confusion was short-lived. It turns out that this newest revision apparently is not the zodiac most of us actually follow here in the US. The media was just having its way with us. Imagine. Apparently, after doing a little research I found that we follow a Western tropical zodiac as opposed to the Eastern sidereal zodiac. Since the Western chart follow the equinoxes there are no new changes. The Eastern zodiac follows the constellations and changes with planetary shifts; therefore they gain the new sign. Thankfully, for those of us who are set in our ways and follow the Western Zodiac, no worries, we retain our current zodiac status.

Phew, that was a close one, no need to change my personality after all –and I was just starting to make a list.

17 Oct
2010

Posted in: Art, creativity, Musings
By moonlit studio    No Comments

Creative is a Verb

I have art in Patti Digh’s newest book, Creative Is A Verb. I am over the moon with joy. It is truly a dream come true for me. Thank you, Patti and Mary Norris, Patti’s wonderful editor at Globe Pequot Press.

I love this book! It is full of beautiful essays with creative applications to real life challenges, intertwined with ideas and prompts to live a more creative life,  and brimming with an inspiring well of creative challenges and exercises. Creative is a Verb is a guidebook for the creative soul that lives inside each and every one of us.

I’d like to share my creative process of illustrating the two essays I was assigned, in a later post. It was a great experience, and one that I’d love to do more often. But, for now, I just wanted to share my news.

Check it out…and look for my art on pages 165 and 111.

22 Sep
2010

Posted in: Art, creativity, Musings, Uncategorized, Works in Progress
By moonlit studio    2 Comments

Musings on polymer clay

I have begun a new creative endeavor that has me hooked. It all began because I had sketchbooks full of designs that I had hoped to create in ceramic and pmc. However, my budget just isn’t allowing for that right now. So after sitting on these ideas way too long, I thought about trying polymer clay. This isn’t my first venture with this medium. I mostly used it previously to sculpt out faces and objects to incorporate into mixed media work. When I was a kid, I used it to create food and objects for my dollhouse. That was in the ’70s, when I only had white sculpey. But you know what…some of those items are still intact, albeit crudely made by my 10 year old hands.

Well, after realizing that this may be a way to actually bring my designs to fruition, (at least temporarily, until I can afford the kiln that would allow me to create the ceramic and pmc pieces) I am finding myself completely enchanted with this lovely medium. The versatility and range  of polymer clay is exceeding my expectations. I am creating all sorts of designs in the clay, and having success. The ideas are flowing.

Here is a small sampling of what I have started to play with, I’m learning how to make molds out of my sculptures,  The pods are fashioned after my pod people paintings. I can’t wait to finish these.

9 Sep
2010

Posted in: Art, Musings
By moonlit studio    2 Comments

Published in Four Word Self Help

Here is a glimpse of my art that is included in Patti Digh’s new book; Four-Word Self-Help: Simple Wisdom for Complex Lives. I am so excited to have my artwork in her  book. This is such a fabulous book, with essays and simple four word phrases that really resonate with my heart and inspire my soul.  It is such an honor to be among so many talented artists too. Each four word phrase is illustrated by a different artist. How cool is that?!

Since I was very young, I have always wanted to be an artist and illustrator. I was a voracious reader when I was little, and when I finished a book, I would illustrate it.  Always.  I remember the day when I read my first book without illustrations. I was so disappointed,  but quickly figured out that I could keep doing my own illustrations without having another artist as a guide, It was really quite a good exercise for strengthening my drawing skills. I didn’t do it so much once I got to high school and by the time I started working, I got involved in the family restaurant business and fed my creativity by cooking. I put aside my dream of doing art for a living aside for awhile. I still created art, but did it just for myself. Now, I am trying to make the leap, and have immersed myself in my work. This is the first time my work has been published.  I am so very grateful to Patti, for giving me the opportunity to submit my art and give me courage to do more.

27 Dec
2009

Posted in: Musings
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Winter Wonderland and the Motley Snowman

It has been a busy holiday season. First, I decided to organize the house right before Christmas. I couldn’t stand the clutter anymore. Boxes and boxes of stuff  were given to Goodwill. Next, I had the bright idea to make Christmas presents as funds are very tight this year, but we had lots of company. This made it hard to get into the studio to create. Finally, when things seemed to settle down and I had the whole weekend to prepare for the holidays, guess what? A snowstorm happens, and we lost power! No sewing…no baking…no soldering…no photoshop. But, I am so happy. We never get snow, and at Christmas time. What a bonus. So, the presents are going to be a little late…it’s all good. I had a snowman in my front yard.

21 Sep
2009

Posted in: Art, Musings
By moonlit studio    3 Comments

art finds its way out of the studio

With much trepidation I finally put my art in an actual art show that the public comes to see. While this does not sound like a huge deal, for an extremely introverted artist who thinks that her art is her voice, this was so scary. I never like to talk about myself, which appearing in one of these shows requires, but I do find talking about the process of art quite enjoyable. Maybe there is hope for me yet. Anyway, I thought I would share some of the pieces that I put in the show.

mockingbird

grow

girlie girl 1

growth

3 Aug
2009

Posted in: Art, creativity
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Painting away

I’ve been painting away in my little studio. Everything is starting to come together, but still unfinished as you see. It’s sometimes hard to stay in the studio when it’s summer time and the tease of picnics and other wondrous outdoor activities taunt the reasoning for doing such. Luckily for me and Asheville, it has been raining almost every day, so my desire to be in a cozy little studio overtakes my yearning for summer activities.

I’ve been working for while on this painting.  I painted her face and then I became stuck. I have an specific idea for the background. But then I panic, and wonder if it will be too much? I guess I just need to be brave and go for it. I can always paint over everything! The swirling elements coming from her hat are just placed. not too sure about those yet.

Here is the preliminary sketch I did for this painting. I created it quite awhile ago. I’m happy to finally have some progress on it. I really enjoyed painting her face and seeing her start to  “come to life.”  after living for so long in my imagination.

Have a great day!

17 Apr
2009

Posted in: Art, creativity, Uncategorized
By moonlit studio    3 Comments

sketches, ideas, in progress

Goodness, It has been difficult getting time to post  here. I have been hard at work sketching, recording new ideas in my sketchbook (never leave home without a notebook or sketchbook, ideas are everwhere) and practicing new (old) techniques.

a little bird told me...

Here are some images of sketches and works in progress. I’ve been relearning acrylic painting techniques. I’ve been doing drawing and watercolors for so long  I’ve gotten rusty painting acrylics! I’m enjoying every minute of it though, I usually can’t wait to get back into the studio to play some more.

in progress...

watercolor

guardian

15 Mar
2009

Posted in: Art, Uncategorized
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The Past Revisited…

I was a lucky kid, my parents recognized my need to be artistic and often found various ways to satiate my desire to create things. When I was 12 in the 70s, we lived in Atlanta, down the street from Chastain Park. Chastain Park offered art classes, and I took a few of them. One was a collage class. We would use india ink and transparent tape to make a little cottage and cut up old magazines to make the gardens that surrounded it. That was such a fun class. I think I made quite a few of those, unfortunately I saved only one, and it wasn’t my best.  I think that class is why I save magazines. I see potential subjet matter in them all. Another class used a faux encaustic technique. We used melted crayons to achieve a painterly effect. I took a leather class and made an overly embellished bracelet and wallet. My favorite class employed a specific transfer technique. We used tracing paper, graphite, fixative and a coated Xerox paper. The image above is the work that I created when I was 12, Three Faces. One of the most incredible things about those clases is that they were not geared towards children. I took most of those classes with adults. I think that there were only one or two other kids in any of these classes. It was an amazing experience for me to take these as a kid,  it’s part of the layers of who I am as an artist.