The Sketchbook Project

I am involved in the Sketchbook project which is through the Art-House Co-op. About 2,700 sketchbooks from around the globe will be shown in various venues throughout the US, from Museums to Galleries, to Art coops and Coffeehouses.

Each sketchbook is about 36 pp., and is about 3.5 x 5.5 or so in size. Any medium can be used, all books accepted and the theme is EVERYONE WE KNOW.

I struggled with it for a while, and even thought I would drop out. Then dinner with a friend, looking at what she did, and getting a brainstorm solved my ENTIRE dilemma and I now know what I am going to do.

The book will be copies of my altered photographs, along with some original collages and Victorian images which will be pasted on one side, with a limerick on the other.

I have been writing up a storm, gathering images, which often inspire the verse. Here are a few samples of Limericks.

There once was a man with long hair
Whose beard when from here down to THERE
It got caught it a door
So he has it no more
And now he has to go bare.

There once was a girl by the lake
Whose tits were exceedingly fake
She went for a swim
And when she jumped in
They made a very big wake.

I have a deadline to make so I have to keep plugging away on it. It is what I do best, be silly, political, a bit dirty....and the best part is...I am having great fun.

And who knows, maybe I will sell the original and make a few bucks. I can always scan the entire thing before I send it out and self publish like I did with EAT MAN DRINK WATER.

A Week Flies By

In the past week I have joined the Woodstock Arts Association/Museum, and submitted three works for their show THE RIVER which coincides with the quadricentennial of the Hudson Fulton Celebration. It is being curated by a Bard College professor I believe, and hopefully he/she will like one of the three pieces I am submitting.

I have sold some cards to my client, and have been in the studio in my spare time making little circles out of my paper detritus in my studio to use in arts/crafts and listed them on my Etsy Catskillpaper site. I have used these on cards, on pins, in jewelry, and they are a fun thing to be creative with.

I am enrolling in another class with Christie Scheele at the Woodstock School of Art. Christie is a fab painter, and I took a weekend class with her last year. So, the universe has granted me a bit of money, and I plan on taking another one, weather willing, at the end of February. I get some of my best work done at workshops, mainly because I am away from home, and concentrate on my work, and of course learn a lot from the instructors and I love the workshop atmosphere.

Since I did not sleep at all last night..bad stomach, I am heading to bed to either watch a movie, or read for a bit.

Hope you are all keeping warm and being creative in some way!

patti

Busy in the Listing Room

An Anti-Valentine

After this weekend's sales, you would not think we were in a bad economy. Of course, my biggest sales on Ebay came from Finland and Italy, where their social and economic structure may be a bit different. I sold a 57.oo on a die cut that I was going to use on a greeting card, which blew my mind. It is a third of a tank of gas for the studio however, and I am not complaining.

I have spent most of my time the last few days making cards, and listing collectibles and papers on Ebay and Etsy, as well as listing my cards on my Etsy art site. I have to hussle as I have bills to pay. Tomorrow I have off and I am thinking that I will spend most of the day in the studio, and MAYBE even bring out the paints.

Painting is such a pain when you are only grabbing an hour or two here and there. That is why I love to take classes, as I am forced to paint a minimum of 6 hours under the tutelage of a master painter. I want to sign up for a class at the end of next month, but can only do it if I earn enough money to pay for it. At least I have the canvases and the paints.

Here are a few cards that I made on my pagibbons Etsy site. Valentine's Day is right around the corner, so I am trying to catch some of that business. After that is Easter, but that is not a big holiday for me, so I guess I will keep cleaning out the studio to sell what others covet, and I will then spend some time painting.

Hope you are warm and dry. It is still snowing again. I think it is the third sunday in a row I have not made it to yoga class...as we are still snowed in at 10 am.

patti

Artist Residencies

I have never gone away JUST TO PAINT. I have gone away, and painted, but it has always been with others, and I have never gone somewhere alone, where the main focus is my art.

I came close this fall when I went to a four day Art and Mindfulness Retreat at the Blue Cliff Monastery in Pine Bush. But there was really very little time that we made art. Much of it was meditation, yoga, dharma talks, community work etc. I loved it, I learned much from it, it has taken me to a new spiritual level, but I need something where I can just get away and make art.

I am in the process of looking at what residencies are available in the northeast. I don't want to travel far just yet. Something close to home would be great, but also something far enough away that will enable me to concentrate on my work. Besides, I have a passion for the Hudson River, and want to focus on the beauty of the valley in which I live.

I have already found one residency, however, it does not have any running water. I can handle an outhouse, and there is a camping ground with facilities nearby for a shower. If I get really gross, I can take the hour trip home for a shower, but somehow I think coming back to my hometown will defeat the purpose of a retreat away from home.

How exciting this all is, this adventure.

Patti

The Latest

"In a bad economy we EAT the children!" said the witch.

I received my sketchbook for the SKETCHBOOK project. I have one month to fill it up and post it back to them. I have to get on it and decide which way I am going to go with the theme "Everyone We Know"..... With the advent of a change of administration in this country, I might have a lot of fun playing with politics as part of the book.

Because of the snow, I hardly moved from the house all weekend. Instead I started excavating the stuff in my attic (which is BAD) and list things on eBay and Etsy. I should be in the studio working, but it is much warmer and cozier in the house in the snow.......

Current things on Etsy--- all kinds of old paper and antique and vintage valentines. Ebay has more of my specialty valentines, and some of my antique prints. It is hard to sell these days in a bad economy, but I don't think about that too much and keep positive. No gloom and doom allowed in this house!

Off to work on the taxes, the bane of us creative ones with businesses~

patti

Even More Detritus

I have caught a few snatches of studio time in between jobs, appointments, and life. It hasn't been for a long enough expanse of time to get deeply involved in a project, but I am getting to know where everything else is again, and be inspired by the materials.

In all those hours of working alone I have come to understand many things about myself, including my cycles of creativity and how I build up to the larger more involved pieces.

I must get intimate with my surroundings. A day here and a day there isn't enough; it is the consistent daily contact with my supplies and inspirations that prepare me for the project at hand. It is the warm up before the run. Then the preparation of materials. Since my studio is not very large, I must clean off my surfaces so I can get involved in my medium, whether collage, encaustics, oils.... Then the long visits with the muse.

After my series/piece, run, I am tired, and go back to my life for a bit. Pay bills, email people, maybe list some things online, and play. Then I start the process all over again.

These little pieces shown tonight are for the swap; they are my warm up for bigger things yet to be born.

patti....

Moment of Silence

As I fold laundry

In murky silence of storm

I hear movement of gears

On mantle clock.

Tick tock

Tick tock

The gong sounds

Bongggggggggggggggg

Bongggggggggggggggg

- a moment of silence

Tick tock

Tick tock

Grey snow glows outside window.

Swoooooosh of slush from passing cars

Agitation of laundry in wash

Rain on roof.

drip drop.

Drip drop.

Tick tock

Tick tock.

I Can't Stand...

Oh never mind.

I posted to a group with a question and now I am probably labeled as the "privacy pirate" over a simple, probably poorly phrased question.

Do I care?

Something I shared with my students today: "what others think of you is none of your business."

How true!

patti

Another Piece

of detritus art. Three pieces of paper that laid on my table for ever. Just could not give them up to the garbage bin. So here it is , my collage version of Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Seurat.

Detritus Art

I joined a swap that one of my old yahoo group friends, and cyberfriend - Patty Harrison -"a yankee in England" is hosting on Facebook. Make 16 postcards and you get 16 back.

I have not participated in a swap in FOREVER. They take a lot of time. Sometimes they cost me money. But often the subject matter or the challenge stretches my imagination, tickles my muse, or forces me step out of the safe zone, and I find it freeing and some of my best work has come out of these "challenges".

Patty's main point was to have fun.

I thought about it for a while, and looked at all the messes on my tables from the holiday show rush. Ah, "DETRITUS, that is what I am going to call my series" I thought. I started designing postcards using the clippings and homeless papers floating around my studio.

Tonight's post is some of my examples. I am having fun with this assignment and it is also cleaning up my studio in the meantime. Very fung shui art.

Patti

Sold a W Collage

I am so thrilled. It has been a few good days for Etsy sales, mostly in my supply shop, but today I also sold a "W" collage, this one shown tonight.

Fare thee well Mr. Bush...may your new home enjoy my torture of you just as much as I have!

patti