The Rescue

This is another one of the encaustic pieces I did at Annie's house last week. Titled The Rescue, it was literally a rescue, of a page from an old 1800's children's book. The page had been ripped, and had been lovingly sewn together in rough stitches. I have to figure out how to mount or frame this piece. Annie has used wooden boxes to mount her works. I found one for my other piece which I posted a few days ago, so maybe I will get lucky and find one for this.

The title was also inspired by an email from a friend about Bernie Berlin, an artist friend who has been raising money to build a shelter-check out her website A PLACE TO BARK Bernie has been rescuing dogs for as long as I have known her. She has dedicated her life to saving the lives of many, many animals. Donations are readily welcomed, and I encourage you to visit her website and her blog, and donate of course.

Off to figure out how to make a donation......

patti

The Empire and Plum Girl

I just named these two cards off the cuff as I scanned them and had to save them to a file SOMEWHERE on my computer. Do I file it under Etsy, or Blogs, or Greetingcards? I have so many files, some of them cross into multiple files, and it gets to be a big pain in the ass to manage all of them so that I can find them.

Pictured are two new cards. They are a bit different than the cards that I have been making, and it is good to divert a bit and come up with something new. Unfortunately, I am out of the paper that I used in these cards, and have to find some more. If I could only remember where I bought it....

I don't think that I will list them on Etsy as they will probably be sold this week, but if anyone is interested, give me a shout. 8.00 each. Made with beautiful art and antique papers, sewn onto Strathmore deckled edge cardstock w/envelope. They are miniature works of art and look FAB framed. And I REALLY love these two cards.

Off to lay on the heating pad. My back is not happy tonight. patti

Encaustics

I spent the day today making four pieces of art in encaustics, which is mixture of molten wax, resin, and pigment. I used it as a collage medium in this piece.

The images are antique, from an old book, and advertising card, an old bingo card, an old hand written poem, and an illustration. Most are pre 1900.....they are held together with layers of wax and resin, the edges worked in gold encaustic paint.

It is a tricky medium to work with, but fun. The artwork still smells of beeswax, and periodically I buff it with a soft cloth to bring it to a shine. It takes a few months for the wax to cure, after which it will hold the shine from the resin for a long period of time. In the meantime, I take a cloth to it now and then.

I have to figure out how to frame/present this. I will look to see if any of my cigar boxes will work...if there is no varnish I can coat the box in encaustic, and mount the piece inside.

Tomorrow another piece, treated in a slightly different way.

Till then! Patti

NEW BLOG

I have put a new link on my blog here so that you can check out Liz's musings, along with the other blogs that I read periodically. Liz works with Larry at the Center for Photography in Woodstock....and has a blog about living as an artist in the funky, wonderful, artsy, historical town of Woodstock, NY. It is called Life as an Artist in Woodstock. You have got to read her blog and check out the photos on SECRETLY CREEPY. You KNOW I had to check out each and every one. I have a few I should send them of dolls I was selling. I kept a lot of the photos as they were strange and just plain fun. In fact, I decided to put one up on tonight's blog here..it was a photo of a doll that sold for a lot of money, and Alanna, my granddaughter, is rolling around in the background. It was indeed posted on ebay.

I spent my teenage years in Woodstock, and whenever my students ask me about what I have done or not done in my youth, I just say "I grew up in Woodstock"---it is my alternative to pleading the 5th.

Enjoy her musings, and you KNOW I will be checking in on her adventures! Patti

DREAMWEAVER!

I am thrilled that I spent the day learning Dreamweaver CS3. It was part 1 of a 2 part class, and I learned soooooo much.

I am a visual learner. I learn 10x faster doing hands-on while the teacher is demonstrating what she is doing up on the board. I HATE learning from those 3" thick "Classrooms in a Book", which is what I am doing with Illustrator.

I learned about meta tags and all kinds of web design no-nos. When I got home I fixed some problems on my pagibbons.com site, and am ready to get working on my two new websites.

The only problem is, I have an ancient version---Dreamweaver 3, and we were using CS3. When I told the teacher what I was using, she laughed, but I figured that the concepts still apply, and sure enough, I understood more of my own program.

So my next goal is to start writing meta tag code, and seeing where that gets me. Oh, and I have a new counter on my site, thanks to the teacher, which will help my future coding.

Here's to the joy of learning!

patti

Early Catskill Morning Musing

I have been grabbing bits and pieces of time in the studio when I can these days in between seeing my friend who died last week, working on the photo board and cards for his memorial, and then the service.

Caring for others takes away from one's energy and artistic time, but one thing in life that I have learned over the years, is that friends and family matter first--always first. I can always find time to go to the studio even if that means giving up my social life, but you can never replace time that you have not spent with someone you love. That lesson has come harshly to me.

I grabbed a few hours to start making cards for my client and for my friend Kip whose bowl I previewed on this blog on November 23rd. Last week he was on the Martha Stewart show, and was invited to be in the audience in person to answer some of Martha's questions! I was so excited for him.

There is an example of someone who has developed, honed, put his craft out there, and wham, he is discovered and on national television!

I wistfully hope someday that someone will discover me too. I also know that the universe won't give me more than I can handle, and my life has been rather full to take on too much.

A friend told me that you have to be in stores, and out in art shows and markets for the likes of Martha and Mary Engelbreit and others to discover you and then write an article, and I wonder how that will ever happen when I work in seclusion and sell a bit on the Internet, but my private clients are the ones that keep me afloat.

Sometimes it is easy to get discouraged. I look at magazines at others like me who are nationally recognized and discovered and I sigh ... "when?". But yet I keep plugging along, and know in my heart that someday my time will come.

Later today I will go back in and finish working on some cards for Kip to send to some of Martha's staff. Perhaps they will see it and have their interest piqued. Or it might be the woman at my one and only craft fair who is up for the weekend who sees my work and falls in love.

I am grateful for the things that HAVE happened (Jen from Earth Angel Toys!) and my other private clients, and know that my day will come, and if it doesn't, I have loved every moment of the time I have spent with myself in my studio.

That is what matters.

Patti

Cabin Fever In Alaska

Check out aritist/blogger Judy Vars at CABIN FEVER IN ALASKA. You can read about my friendship with her on my EAT MAN DRINK WATER BLOG.
Judy is an amazing artist and writer.

Stop by her blog for a treat.

Photo is a painting done by Judy, and her recent blogs talks about her oil painting techinques. (and encaustic too!)

patti

Another .com Business

I don't know what has gotten into me, but I have been getting inspired, and PUTTING THOUGHT INTO ACTION. Besides, it is only a 10.00 investment for the year, so why not?

I purchased the domain Catskillpaper.com. It is the name of this blog, of my Etsy store, and was my Ebay store name. (remind me to close my store!) I have always liked the ring of it...the double entendre-- Catskill (the mountains that I love) and Cats Kill Paper---which they do when you have indoor cats in your house and they find your piles of paper and dig or play in them.

So when I found that the domain had not been bought---as a dot.com no less, I snatched it up.

I envision Catskill Paper to be a place where I sell my printed AND one of a kind cards, and have an "Ephemera Museum" where I will sell antique prints and paper, with a special selection for cats and local ephemera. I know of another artist who has made cards out of his paintings of the Hudson Valley, so perhaps he would like to be on my site too.

The problem is, even though I have web space and the domains, I have to design websites and even a bigger challenge, figure out how to get them uploaded etc. to the site.

So much to learn and do, so little time.

So, may there be a snow day tomorrow with this northeast storm that is supposed to brush us by.....and I will keep you apprised of what is happening!

patti

Earth Angel Toys

A friend reminded me that Jennifer from Earth Angel Toys wrote a lovely piece on her blog about my friend Kitty and I at the Unison Craft Fair.

I met Jennifer last year at the 2006 show, and she asked if I could make 100 of my collage ornaments for her to give as gifts.

If you see stop by her website and see who Jen reps, you will understand the genuine honor that I felt being asked to design for her! (as PS folks...you can't always measure your success in sales alone!)

Jen is an amazing woman, as is Kitty B.----whose boxes number about 6 or so in my collection.

Thank you Jennifer, for your enthusiasm for my work, as well as your great energy! I hope to see you at your February show (visit EVENTS link on her website)

I borrowed the photos from Jen's blog. She took the fab photos, of Kitty's work, ,and the paper ornaments on my tree, and I took the one of her (R) and Kitty (L). But they are her photos!!!! Patti

JUST DO IT

This is my mantra for 2008. I hope I don't get sued by Nike if they read this blog.

Just do it. Stop thinking of it, stop dreaming of it, stop wishing for it, stop talking about it.

Just do it.

Things are in motion.

Patti

This wild woman as well as a few of her friends? and a house for all them to live in will be up on Etsy in a few moments!