So I cleaned up my desk...

... and I found a couple of things I'd forgotten about!  

These are just a couple of postcards I made when I was hacking around. The first one is more doodling than anything.

This second one is a little more focused, but it's still on a piece of old file folder cardboard.  It's so weird that I can't resist buying fancy art supplies, but then every little piece of trash I come across has incredible potential, and I end up using that stuff first.  Junk mail, cereal boxes, packaging, magazine images and words, (and numbers... I use a lot of numbers when I'm writing letters and marking the pages), stuff out of the newspaper, flyers; basically anything is fair game as long as it doesn't have food on it.  Dirt's okay, I've used lots of stuff I've found in parking lots and at bus stops.  But no food.  I don't want feral coyotes attacking the mailbox when I go dump my daily pile of envelopes in the outgoing.  The new mail-lady would be upset too, and I kinda need to get her on board with my mail habits, so yeah... gotta watch what I use.  Also I think all coyotes are feral so I probably didn't need to qualify that, but it sounded more descriptive, and that's how I roll.

Because of these magpie-type habits, I've realized that I don't need to keep buying actual art supplies.  In fact, I'm putting a moratorium on any more art spending for 2013.  I have more than enough STUFF and even books, and I'm going to use what I have for the rest of the year.  This is a scary resolution to make, especially for books... I freely admit I have a... problem... with books.  In fact, I keep expecting to come home and see this hanging up:

I'll still keep a running wish list though - because I'm only human, and I know I'll still WANT more.  But let's see what I can do with what I have on hand and what I come across in my daily travels.  I bet it's a LOT.  Between finishing up things I've started, and following through on ideas that have been brewing, I have a lot to get to.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I know I will.

Love Shelley!

The mail is alive and well

This isn't super-fresh, because etiquette dictates that you make sure the recipient gets the mail before you go splashing it all over the internet for everyone else to see.  Plus it would be a spoiler if you saw your mail online before it showed up in your mailbox, right?

I just grabbed a plain white envelope and started playing.  First I collaged on some bits and pieces that looked interesting, then I think I put a coat of gesso over some of it to mute it a little.  Then the rest was pretty much all done with Inktense pencils.  They behave just like watercolour pencils when you're using them, but when they dry, the colour is permanent, hence the reference to ink in the name.  You can even go back and add new marks over top and if it's dry, the stuff underneath won't move.  The permanence is nice because you never know what's going to happen to that envelope between here and there.  If it gets soggy I don't want the address to slide right off the front, the mail people have enough challenges.

To make the lettering stand out, I gave it a white highlight with a Sharpie paint pen, and then I used a T5 toner grey copic marker to shade the grey underside of each letter.  

Then of course, stickers.  I'm all super fancy up in here!  Oh, but since stickers are considered cheating, (whatever), we'll just call it additional collage.  If you send me a letter and it has stickers on it, I promise not to judge.  Ha!  

I know it says "SECRET" but there wasn't much in there that was very incriminating.  (Or maybe there was.  I'm not telling.)

Hey, you should go send a letter.  Then you might get a letter back, and that could really make your day.  It always works for me.

Love Shelley!

Dear Loren:

Okay, let's see.... this isn't the only thing I've been up to, but it's the most recent:

I'm all caught up on The Walking Dead now, and this is from the second-last episode.  It's Me'Shonne, and if she looks grim, she should: Merle is about to hand her over to the Governor, who is PISSED at her.  She poked him in the eye and now he wants to get even.  

Anyway, I was going for a certain effect with the watercolour, but it wasn't as easy as it was when I rehearsed it in my mind.  Turns out you can't just look at someone else's work, decide you want to emulate their technique and then have it turn out as nicely as theirs.  Especially when they're a professional illustrator and you're hacking around with a waterbrush in the garage.  

Okay, what else...

Oh, I organized the pantry!

I can't show you the "before" pictures - they're too shameful.  Not only was it a messy, jammed-together wreck of open packages, expired products and mysterious bags of strange food; but a bag of potatoes had gone bad in the back.  To the point where they leaked on the shelf and ruined the particleboard, plus smelled like Satan's armpit.  Sooooo, I had to replace a shelf, (housekeeper of the year over here) and put everything in proper containers and threatened the rest of the family with bodily harm if they messed up my work.  It took about 8 hours to get it from what it was, to this.  Two Hefty garbage bags to the dump, a trip to Rona and Home Outfitters for plastic bins and organizers, and a ruthless purging state of mind.  

We are also keeping bees now:

Ants attacked our hives so we put them up on tables in cans of used motor oil.  Not really environmentally friendly, but it did the trick; the ants got the message and scrammed.  Today we're extracting our wildflower honey; then in the fall we'll have canola and/or sunflower honey.  YUM.  

And now I'm going to go make something, so I have more to report next time.  Stay tuned.

xo

Shelley!

Um... happy new year?

HAAA!  Is anyone else as far behind as I am?  C'mon, I can't be the only one.  

Maybe I'm still recovering from these:

I don't usually do anything for new year's but this year I went to a house party... and some bright bulb had the idea of serving these.  They are literally maraschino cherries, soaked in straight 100 proof grain alcohol.  Bleah.  SO, to kill the taste, they put a couple into a shot glass and filled it up with sambuca.  And that's how they invented a new drink called "Satan's Testicles."  I think it made my hair grow a little.

I haven't nailed down any resolutions yet but I'll keep you posted when I do.  In the meantime, here's an ATC I made.  I haven't been making much art lately (but I sense a resolution about that coming up) so I thought I better do a little something before I dry up and blow away.

That's all I've got for now.  What are your resolutions?  Inspire me!

Love Shelley!

A sad state of affairs

Remember back on October 30, when I was talking about unfinished business?  Well... a lot of it is still unfinished.

The ones in green are the ones that were great ideas at the time but got kiboshed for whatever reason. The ones in red are DONE.  And I am proud of the ones I got finished, although I think I could have possibly accomplished a couple of other things, now that I look at the list again.

I'm on a more-or-less constant quest to find more minutes in the day; to squeeze in just a little bit more living before I have to go to bed; and to wring as much joy and fun out of each day as I possibly can.  A lot of times, my satisfaction comes from getting things accomplished, which is why this list of unfinished projects bugs the living hell out of me.  So, because I'm completely contrary, I'm going to ADD to this list, and see how many I can knock off by the end of the year.  Yes, I know that's only 13 short days away - but knowing that an entirely new year (and decade, for me) starts in two weeks... well, that's a pretty powerful motivator.

I'm under no illusions that I can do ALL of this stuff - after all, I do have a day job.  However, it definitely won't get done if it's not on a list right in front of my nose.  So the list is going up right beside my "DO EPIC SHIT" resolution.  I'll be unstoppable!!

See how I left room for one more thing?  JUST IN CASE.

Okay, I gotta go.  I have a lot to do.

Love Shelley!

Guess what these are.

Did you guess feet?  BECAUSE THEY'RE FEET!!

That is all.

Love Shelley!

Some art history - WAIT, COME BACK!

Hopefully this won't be as boring as yesterday's landscape...

The final assignment - or exam - for the art class I was in (which I promise to stop talking about soon, if you're getting sick of hearing about it already) was to pick an artist, do some research into his/her work and then to channel that person and create a work of art in that style.  We had to consider medium, substrate, colour, composition, style - all the things that make that person's work his or her own.

I chose Paul Klee, a Swiss/German painter who died in 1940.  I hadn't heard of him before taking this class but it turns out he was kind of a big deal.  He taught at the Bauhaus school in Germany, totally NAILED colour theory, and my favourite - he used any and all media and would pretty much paint or draw on anything he could get his hands on.  A man after my own heart!  Oh, plus I like his work, a lot of it really appeals to me.  He did some cool stuff with his own version of pointillism, his colour choices were amazing, and even though I don't particularly understand what he was getting at with a lot of his pieces, the mechanics of it all completely fascinate me.

Paul Klee - an example of his colour use and his version of pointillism

Not wanting to walk into this class (or EXAM) totally unprepared, I actually did more homework than you would expect from someone like me, (ie. who has the attention span of a flea) and on top of the research, I decided to try a surface that was new to me but sounded fun.  He had done some of his work on pieces of burlap, on top of which he had glued newspaper.  The newspaper was thin enough to take on the texture of the burlap, plus had the added advantage of sealing off the burlap so the paint wouldn't leak through.  It also automatically gave the work some depth, since he just painted right over the newsprint and that added a layer of text before he'd even started his work.  That sounded so cool to me, I couldn't wait to try it.

Here's where I had to deviate from the plan... burlap stinks.  Like, really, really reeks.  In the spirit of things, I did buy half a meter, but then I found this other cotton blend that also had a nice big woven texture, similar to burlap, and it didn't smell like a potato's ass.  Cotton it is!  The burlap is still sitting in a bag on the floor.  I'll have to try to pawn it off on someone else, because I can't stand it.  Bleah.

‘Untitled (The Prisoner)’, Paul Klee (1940)
Presumably on a less-stinky version of modern-day burlap... no newsprint on this one.

Anyway.  I was still in eager-student mode, so I cut off a baseball card-sized piece of the cotton and experimented with the newspaper and paint.  I had found a pic of Klee's studio after his death, and on his drawing board were a few different partially-finished works.  I tried to copy the one with the fish-like marks on it.  Then I used gouache to paint it in, and OMG I FELL IN LOVE.  The texture, the fabric, the newspaper underneath, the semi-opacity of the gouache, and the blending of the colours... be still my heart.

Paul Klee's studio after his death

My test piece - about 2 3/4" x 4"

All of this nerdery of course didn't make me any friends when I sailed into class, with my prepared fabric/newspaper surface ready to go; and found the others were feeling nervous and anxious about the exam.  I was EXCITED!!!!  I couldn't wait to get started!  I was probably super obnoxious and offensive!!  I apologize to my classmates; I hope I didn't aggravate anyone too badly.  I felt like Buddy the Elf, all "I'm SIIIINGING!!!!" but I couldn't help it.

Yes.  I was THAT excited.

So (ahem) I did the assignment and got it graded right away.  (A+, bitches!!!)  (Okay, I'm done.  Sorry for the outburst.  I promise that's the last one.)  The instructor offered a few comments, then said what I should really do next is the same kind of thing, only way, WAY bigger.  Like, use-a-staple-gun-to-put-the-fabric-on-the-wall-so-you-can-work-on-it kind of big.  And then I zoned out because I started picturing it. And liking it.  A LOT.  She probably said some other things, but hopefully none of them were dire warnings or anything because I wasn't paying attention any more at that point.

Anyway, here's the finished product.  It's hanging on my living room wall right now, which is great for catching the natural light, but crappy because you can see my shadow in the lower-left of each pic.  Please squint and pretend I'm a good photographer.

Thank you.

Nunchuk Fantasy, by Shelley Malone (fine, YOU come up with a name for it.)

Detail of some of the shading

Detail of the bottom right edge

You can see the newsprint beneath the red paint.

Okay, that's it for today.  If you made it this far, gold star for you!!!  Thanks for playing along.  I'm already picking paint colours for the next one... any suggestions?

Love Shelley!

PS: In case you think I was maybe getting a little conceited about this painting, don't fret.  My daughter came home from school, spotted it on the wall, and immediately announced that it looked like "two pigs' nostrils."

So I screamed, 'It's an ANGEL!" and flipped the table.

Artists are so misunderstood.