at the flea market

This morning we explored a nearby weekend flea market/swap meet/junk extravaganza...the Southern Man and I...we didn't feel like doing much of anything else...and left the yard work and the household chores for another day...here's a few glimpses from our stroll among the aisles...

channeling Georgia?

































I did manage to find a few things...this old surveyor's tape...I use the tape in my art collages...I've never seen the numbers this large...and such a great font...I love the leather case it's in...and wondering what I can do with it once I unwind/use up all of the tape...ideas?

and the large rusted metal spoon...already have an idea in mind for it...all told, $1.25

what did you find this weekend?  anything to spark your creativity?

Scavenger hunt

Its a little more than halfway through my year long online course, Beyond Layers...I've learned a thing or two about Photoshop and no longer approach it with trepidation...

Kim (that be kim klassen, our fearless leader/inspirer/grand cheerleader of creativity) has prodded us to explore other creative avenues as well...

This week, she provided a scavenger hunt...a prompt each day...to find an image that fit the suggestion...taken/processed with Instagram...

I've been busy all week, so I squeezed all five days into today...and then cheated (but just a little...)

I did take one original photo today - the prompt was "dreamy"

While out on the afternoon walk with Calvin, our golden retriever, I noticed one of the empty lots just bursting with sweet peas...which usually bloom much earlier...but since we have had such a cold, damp summer, they are blooming now...I snapped off a blossom to bring home...
Shot with my Android phone, I edited the photo with Instagram/Earlybird texture and used the horizontal blur option.

The rest of the images for the week's prompts were photos from my phone photo gallery...so at some point, I had taken them with my phone...just not this week.  I processed each photo with Instagram, using a different texture for each...all together, they make a nice arrangement...and the photo collage was created using PicMonkey...

The ability to capture life's moments has been a boost to my creative soul...and the prod to explore those moments has been a part of Beyond Layers...I look forward to the second half of our year's course...

The colors of summer

I love the combination of orange with teal/turquoise blue...it just says "summer!" to me...

There's been plenty of luscious berries and delectable apricots at the farmer's market...I've been stockpiling the teal blue cardboard containers since I have a plan for packaging up ephemera...

Orange & teal also influenced this last bit of my summer refresh at home...gathering up a selection of art that has the color orange in it holds the composition together even though the pieces are from different mediums (collage, encaustic, photography)...

The vintage book and the amber bottles amp up the orange while the Russel Wright pitcher and the giant teal scissors bring in the blue. 

The giant blue scissors are a recent gift from the Southern Man's daughter...she was in Eastern Europe on business and brought back gifts for us...when she saw the scissors, she just knew she had to get them for me...can't even imagine how she got them home...but she was right - they are perfect for me. Displaying them is another example of mixing 3-D objects along with framed art...all I did was tie a piece of jute around the handle and hung it from a brass pin...

To complete the vignette, I played up the sewing connection...the line running through the encaustic duo looks like a piece of thread...the collage pieces incorporate sewing into their construction...so I added a saucer full of thimbles and a few more old scissors...

The weathered trellis adds height and my wooden chair adds interest...now I just need to gather some summer flowers for the pitcher...so excuse me while I scout my back garden for a few fronds...

What have you done to bring summer into your home...I'd love to know...

Art at home

A few weeks ago, I posted about changing up things at home...after 10 years, it was time to do a little
re-arranging. 

The set of vintage Paris postcards that had been hanging in our living room belonged to my mom...she gave them to me shortly after we moved into our present house.  The cards were a gift from a wartime beau who was courting her...he knew that she had a postcard collection so he brought back several Paris images when stationed overseas.  And though he did not win her heart, she did keep the postcards...and 60 years later she relayed this story to me...

Changing the artwork in the living room to an eclectric bird theme meant the postcards had to move...they had been hung in a symetrical grid...duplicating that arrangement might prove difficult.  I had read several times about the tip to make a newsprint template when hanging art...I decided to give it a try...

I wanted to move the postcard display to the dining room...since the cards were mounted on white watercolor stock, the lightness of the prints would brighten the room.  I measured the wall and determined a rough placement...I cut 9 paper templates and armed myself with plenty of blue tape...

A level was extraordinarily helpful for this project...in fact, I find my small level (with a magnet on one side) one of the most useful tools I have...soon I had my grid laid out...

I had one extra of the frames that I used to mount the postcards - this was helpful in finding the exact designation of the nail hole since I could line up the frame with the paper template and make a mark in the same location for each template.  I simply hammered a small nail into each mark, removed the paper template and hung each card...again using the level to ensure everything was straight and aligned.

And soon all nine postcards were hung...

The lightness and whiteness has made the dining room brighter...and the postcards are still on display, a daily reminder of my mom.

And I can lay testimony to the newsprint template technique for hanging art-
it saved time, effort and frustration...a triple hit!

linking up to Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Nite Special...there's always a good tip or two (or more...!)

Long live the Queen!

As some of you know...I have been on a quest...looking high & low for the perfect wheel...

I have searched half the state of Washington...I found a "maybe" possibility at the liquidator's junk store...it was cracked but was fixable...it had no price...the woman said, "Well, its broken but for some reason its worth it to you so...59cents".  After I got it home and was trying to "fix" it, it broke more...

My sister had an entire yard sale group looking for the wheel...two old coots couldn't begin to understand why anyone would want only one old wheel...

So finally I emailed my artist friend here in town, Shelly Holm, the Queen of Junk...sure enough, a day later she emails me back...found it...come and get it!

And sure enough...it was perfect...

It is rusty, it is old, it has open spokes...

Also picked up a second place prize...which knocked out the contender I had for the second placement.  My art piece needs three wheels for completion...I had the first wheel from the start when I hatched the idea for this piece...its been finding the other wheels that has proven challenging...













So now I can carry on...and complete my collage...for the Fresh Paint Art Show in August...

In the meantime...make sure you visit Shelly's blog, From the Alley to the Gallery...when I picked up my wheel, she was also trying to figure out what she was going to create for the upcoming Fresh Paint show...I brought her two boxloads of rusted parts in payment for the two wheels...hoping that brings her some inspiration...but gotta love the Queen of Junk for coming through for me...Vive la Reine!

A day in the garden

Amid the rumble of thunder and the distant gray clouds, I enjoyed a day in the garden at Bountiful Home and Nursery on Saturday...participating in Art in the Garden...

The gate/arbor is part of the junk garden wall...
and welcomes you into a green oasis...

The art booths were set among the nursery stock and the garden
plantings...

Four participating mosaic artists from Chippin Chicks Artist Cooperative in Edmonds

Scott Ward

Jody Cain

Trina  

and me...

it was the perfect mix of sun and cloud, art and friends, rest and repose...

Art in the Garden

I invite you to join me in the garden...
and to enjoy a little art...













This Saturday, July 14, I will be one of a select group of artists participating in Art in the Garden at Bountiful Home.  Todd Waddell, owner and master decor genius of all things green, natural and floral, is hosting this event at his beautiful home & garden store located in downtown Edmonds.

I will have a great selection of original multimedia collages for sale, focusing on a nature/garden/flower theme...here's a sneak peak of two floral compositions...

The botanical prints are from the turn of century...and are Scandinavian...each print is mounted on a vintage cigar box that has been sealed closed and whitewashed, providing a sturdy base so that the collage can be hung on the wall or set on a table or shelf for display...

Each print has been embellished with original found objects and vintage ephemera...to tell its own story...

I hope you'll stop in...

Art in the Garden
Saturday July 14, 10am - 4pm
Bountiful Home
122  4th Avenue South
Edmonds, WA  98020

Delight in the details

While I recently wrote about injecting some summer soupçon into my home, giving it an overall refresh...it is really the details that delight me.  Though I pared down the layers, I still have (and want!) those touches that breathe a bit of soul into a space...its these details that make a house a home...and importantly, makes it your unique space...









We have a lot of books...and other interesting finds...so the three shelving units in the dining room has a rotating collection of stuff...two of the units are wood, painted dark green, while the middle piece is an old rolling metal shelf that is mostly green...with a bit of blue, black and rust in spots...since it is the same depth as the wood units, it blends in nicely and looks cohesive...

When I arrange, I do it with a theme in mind...sometimes, more than one theme (same topic/same colors/same function)...this helps to unite a seemingly unconnected mass of junk into...well...a connected mass of junk! 
Here, the typewriter, the massive dictionary, the old wood type (in the tall glass vase), the assorted pen points (in the short glass vase) and the light bulbs are tied together with the stencil word IDEA, punctuated with the doorbell mechanism...signifying that eureka moment when an idea pops into your head...

The clock bodies/faces/mechanisms are an extension of my larger collection...but again pared down for a lighter effect...the two large rings are hoops from an old barrel...just that circle helps to tie the vignette together...

Step outside of the bounds with what you think you can hang on the wall...I love to mount objects other than framed pictures/prints...breaks up the surface and adds more interest and variety...this oversized clock mechanism is suspended by a length of jute twine hanging from a decorative brass nail.
















Keeping the color scheme in check (white/silver/gray with a touch of yellow/gold and black)
provides another unifying element.

Giving the eye (and the imagination) something to amuse/stimulate/entertain/ponder

refreshes me on a daily basis since I walk past these shelves countless times...

And isn't that what your home should do for you...

Oh, the places you'll go...

I recently received a large mailing tube...and inside was an extensive collection of marine and topographic maps...my artist friend Dave from Clearer Reflections is cleaning out his studio...and thought I could make good use of these.
Of course, he is exactly correct...I love maps - in all of their forms and permutations.  I gave a copy of the book Maphead by Ken Jennings to the Southern Man for Father's Day (rather, Calvin gave his dad the book...) and I am anxious to look at the book myself.











an aside...the Southern Man and I are huge Jeopardy geeks...when Ken Jennings was on his winning streak, I don't think we missed a game...and many years ago, I tried out for Jeopardy when they were in Seattle looking for contestants...I tripped up on Mary Baker Eddy...but I digress...

I find maps fuel my curiosity and my creativity...all the different places one could travel to...and what would one do there...what would one see...

And from an artistic standpoint, the colors, lines and shapes are wonderful background elements for collages...






























In the newspaper this week, I read an article that paper maps are on the decline...everyone is using their smartphone and/or GPS to get from point A to point B...which is expedient but doesn't do much to fuel a sense of adventure...

Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon is a travelogue of his adventures of following the blue roads on a paper map...the less traveled roads...off the main highways.  Its a book that I read in college but has always stayed with me...the sense of what one might discover when the pace is a little slower.  The Southern Man always chides me that if there are two routes to a destination and one is the interstate, you can bet that I will take the alternative...

So this newest map gift was the impetus for my latest collage...this snippet of a Maine coastal community is perfect background for my "collection of the heart" piece...and has spurred me on a whirl of tearing/gluing/nailing/waxing with relish...

and to wonder what it would be like to visit Maine...I've never been there...I'll have to go some day...

The saga of the wheel

Lately I have been on a quest...a sort of artistic holy grail...looking for the perfect wheel for one of my vintage art collages...

I never thought that it would be this difficult to find such a creature...and after searching half the state of Washington, I'd settle for less than perfect...

So far, this is what I have...










This wheel is too big...

This wheel is too small...

and this wheel just isn't right...because its a pulley not a wheel...

What I'm looking for is an old wheel, no larger than 7-1/2" in diameter...with open spokes...
a baby buggy wheel would be ideal...
So I'm throwing it out there to the junk gods...ideas/suggestions/offers would be appreciated!