Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's Day.

  I hope you day is filled with love and happiness that extends through the years.

Embroidered Quilt Block

Painting by Gene Black

Confirmed, affirmed and verified

Referred, deferred or put aside

Disclosed in full, or in part

The secrets of the human heart

Cannot be analyzed or sampled

No protocol or test procedure run

Can ever under sky or sun

Explain the love in humankind

No forensic evidence you will find

Of what is in the soul or mind

So let us stay outside the box

And not place love

'neath chains and locks

Confirmed affirmed and verified?

No! In faith, love is justified.

Copyright 2004 by Gene Black

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Friday Face Off - Collage

I have been on a "collage kick" lately.  While I have made one collage with a face on it, I don't have a good photo of it.  But while just goofing around with some of the pieces,  I laid out this face. 

The background there is actually my sewing table. 
I did not make an actual collage of these pieces. I just put them back in the container of pieces to work with. 

Here are a couple of collages that I did finish.

Blue Moon

Created from piece cut from vintage magazines.

Pink Vase
Made with paper that I painted and pieces from vintage magazines with a bit of crayon added.

I hope you have a great Friday

Linking to The Friday Face Off.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Sunday in the Art Room

My latest artistic obsession is collage.  I have been playing with shapes and designs for years.  I have worked in paints

and in fabrics

in clay - yes I even made jewelry with clay and stamps

and even carving stamps

What do they all have in common?  The use of shape is vital to success with each of them. 

I have even woven fabric with shapes woven into the design.

So why did it take me so long to get into collage? 
Actually doing applique on a quilt is really a form of collage.  I just didn't realize it until I broke through my mental block on collage. 

I had even done an abstract collage from fabric in 2024 - I even called it collage.

Nicole asked that I share the four collage pieces that I showed on Friday again, so here they are.

I have two newer ones, but I am not sure they are as successful as the above collages.

Nevertheless,  here they are.

I think the painted backgrounds didn't have enough contrast from the collage papers. 
I may still go in and change these.

Here is where you can find the Classes from CreativeBug that got me started collaging this month.  That  is my affiliate link. If you use it to sign up, you will get a free month of Classes - all you can watch in that month.  The collage classes that I watched are: 

4 x 4 Studies: A Daily Practice  and Collage Homage: 15 Women Artists to Know.  These are both taught by Erin McCluskey Wheeler.  

Failure is not something I worry about.  I am sure that if I DON'T TRY,  I will fail.  But if I do try, I may succeed.  And if I don't succeed - well, that is okay too.  Remember that I used those failed paintings to cut up and create collage. 

If you are wondering about materials,  For the base layer, (substrate) I used mat board cutouts (free from a local framer)  OR Mixed media paper - relatively inexpensive.  My adhesive is cheap glue sticks that I bought on sale when school was starting.  (Elmers purple disappearing school glue.)  For collage material, you can use almost any paper that you can find. One artist suggested painting acrylic paint on paper bags, brown paper that comes as packaging material or even copy paper - yes even those bills you have paid an are ready to toss - paint them with opaque paint and you have collage paper. Some famous collage artists have used candy wrappers, junk mailings, and other found papers.  I just got a package with a wad of brown paper in it.  I cut it into sheets and ironed it to get most of the wrinkles out.  I will be painting them.  Oh yes, you can even use the cheap cheap cheap hobby paints like Apple Barrell, Folk Art or Americana.  You could use leftover latex wall paint.  You can use crayons or....gee I could go on for hours.  Use what you have or can get easily.  Just be creative. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Face Off -Extra Portrait and some collage

There are many forms of art that I love to play with.  For example,  I enjoy painting - usually in abstract or non-representational form.  But, as today, sometimes I drift into more of a representational style.  

For the Friday Face Off,  I have an "extra" portrait from the portrait challenge.   I simply couldn't stop until I tried painting one of the faces on a canvas.   So here he is.  

I  used the same guy as the one in the portrait challenge.  But, I changed him a bit.

During the last week or so, I watched a couple of classes on collage.  

Then a few days later, I started playing with collage. 

The first piece started with a drawn line on the mat board drop out that I used as a background.  Then I started using pieces that I cut out of a couple of "failed" paintings. (hint, I never throw those away)

Then the next piece is using vintage magazine pieces on another piece of mat board.

And finally two more using cut up paintings. 

There are a couple of pieces of that vintage magazine in this one also.

Note, that piece in the background is one of the paintings I was cutting up. 

Yes, these are a bit "weird"  but I like them 

Have a great week.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.