her vision. family. art.

merry day ofter christmas! i love love the holiday season, but am always happy the day after, and with the new year, a sense of renewal.

i embrace that feeling. seriously.

as part of my holiday RUSH, i did 2 last-minute christmas photoshoots the day before christmas eve! it was a great shoot though, 2 sets of cousins-making pics for their grandparents....so we shot it on the grandparents((smith)) road((smith ln)) that goes up to their farmhouse.  
besides the main focal being the grandkids, the key element i captured was the road sign.:)) 
 
in this shot i wanted the focal to be the 'newest' grandbaby with his siblings, so i finished it in black/white, only to leave the babe in color..
they mainly wanted a black/white finish on this shoot.
the girls..
and i really love this shot. the 'look' on hunter's face;him getting kissssees from his older sisters;))

it was a fun shoot!

holidays are ongoing..  only in the stressss.free phase of it all now! i'm super stoked that we're going to a predator's hockey game tonight with friends. then downtown nashville afterwards.good times!

merry holidayzzz

it's the holiday crunch week- 4 days till christmas,and as always, i'm creating more work for myself to do. it would be too simple to sit back, enjoy the week........breathe!

alwayzz challenging myself!

the christmas gift tag marathon continues to roll on! i was given a little bag of sequins, these white doves, ribbons..  i already had the vintage mini christmas bells((i love))!! and etcetera...

the doves are secured in place with adhesive and beeswax. the mini bells already had the wire attached, so i just wrapped them around the doves neck((sounds graphic!)) then added a bit of beeswax to reinforce. i added book text to the doves...across the wings that say she was the wing and soul of his family.

 

here's some more dimensional visuals. 

vintage hip:))

now i'm going to proceed onto my task and get gifts wrapped, tags completed and whatever else is in my path today!

wishing all a great holiday season with family, lots of good 'cheers', warmth, coziness...good times,etcetera!!!!!

bring on 2010!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU FOR ALL THE PERSONAL EMAIL, COMMENTS AND THE CONTINUED FOLLOWING OF MY ARTWORK. I APPRECIATE IT EVERY SINGLE DAY, AND AM WOW-ED AT THE DAILY HITS I GET HERE<3.  OBRIGADO;)) 

'tis this silly season!

it's that time again that i find myself in the holiday crunch, pushing that deadline of getting my christmas tags,etcetera designed and created! -it's just my style:)) to P R O C R A S T I N A T E!

for the kids, i used a recent photo that i altered with santa hats and
reindeer horns/red nose! i diced the pic in 4 to make the personalized tags.
this is the end result..   for the boys', i wired glass cigar vials onto the tags with red/green-small gage wire.. securing with beeswax. i wrote on the back of a pic of US3, rolled it and put inside of the vial.

the backgrounds consist of layered nostalgic christmas sticker tags,vintage deer and tree stickers, star stickers, tree light bulbs, sequins..  a synergy of christmas elements!

i imprinted the 25((christmas date))into the warm wax, and used a round lid to impress the circle. when set, i used acrylic and dye in the negative areas.
at the top of each tag i added a star eyelet and green wire coated ornament hook. i'm working on more using masks and spray paint, then going with the same concepts of the cigar vial and wire. i'm also creating an 'our first anniversary time capsule vial' with a lot more elements added((no tag))

..anni gift to T..! jan'10!

      

pasticcio vol.8

and i am seriously stalking the mail person ..waiting to get my hands on this zine!!!!!!!!!
i'm stoked! this is my first published work in about 2.5yrs since i stepped back out of 'view' for a while and decided to go back to the 'no pressure' days of why i started doing my journalwork for real. for myself...

this summer, my brilliant friend asked me to do a piece for  pasticcio -fishburn and cartwright's collaboration zine. these chicks do amazing work, so i know this is beyond goodness! sarah asked me to also send a write up with the images of my finished piece. the next morning i had received another email from sarah saying "we've reserved a 2-3pg spread for your article"..GASP!! i also hadn't written an article for a couple of years.. the article played out with minimal 'tweeking', and now i can't wait to see this in print!

a huge shout out to sarah and angela..  thanks for including me in this fab collab!

get pasticcio HERE

and it's something like 15 days til Christmas!!        holy...((tis the season))!

i love photo programs..ESPECIALLY THE FREE ONES!!!..

this is the time of year that EVERYone wants fam pics.. holidays ..and i'm not excluding myself:-)
but..   sometimes the 'perfect' photoshoot doesn't come into play easily! not from non-cooperation, it's just hard sometimes to get that 'edgy'-unique pic that i absolutely am in love with.  i shot a series with the kids on sunday but i just didn't get what i was wanting in the end result, and honestly, i don't know what i wanted. something different((of course-we are talking about me!!!lol)) so as we're driving down backroads and i'm looking at the gravel roads, the huge pines((love.love)) and this vision hit me. to shoot the kids standing in the middle of no-where. DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A CD COVER OR WHAT??????????? I LOVE IT!

completely RAW.
after i shot about 8 pics, it started raining!!!!!!!!so they pretty much bolted back to the truck, and i shot this!  

two of my fav editing sites are picnik and Be funky. 

besides my own, i shot several fam shoots over the thanksgiving weekend, have more coming up in the next couple of weeks, and canvas work to do ..busy!busy! but i'm craing studio time for myself, in a huge way!! (priorities. right??!)

in the meantime i'm going to be doing a lot of photo editing..

it's been a fab week with lots of family and now it's back to a routine. same ole..   in a good way:-)

  

this one is outa the vault!!

mood:nostalgic

in the mist of piecing the house back together; working in crunch time and family coming next week...i don't 4-see any journaling time in my very near future...

i was going through some of my journals, and was more drawn to the one that i would have to call the spawn of my art journaling. my life journals. 2004-yea, nostalgic no doubt! it was even 'pre-typepad' for me so i've never posted pics of it. but i am now!! these chicks and i connected while i was instructing in Vancouver Canada. from Seattle, they know how to have a good time! my 'COSMO' girls!!

the pic was taken in portland where i was doing an instructional and they drove up to see me.   
so funny..  i love memories!! and good times!!((lots here)) and my hair here..      LOL, was frickin awesome 5 years ago*wink

LOOK AT MY BOYS!!!>   holy! bobby's senior year in high school, and ethan just becoming a teenager. this pic of eth was taken in AZ when him and i flew out to see my bro during spring training. i'm pretty sure i had to bribe him to let me take these pics of him. haha..  

here' a few other fav visuals of mine from the journal..

holy change!!     

it's the weekend,enjoy;-) 

WE're rollin ..rollin.. rollin.....

quickie post to keep in touch- but we've literally been overwhelmed with HOUSE RESTORATION!!!  seriously, we're tearing down walls, sheetrocking(om! the dust!!) replacing floors, painting-painting-painting, new light fixtures..  but we're busting butts and gettin it DONE!!

i did the spray paint and water technique (knobs/hinges in earlier post) on an old ceiling fan, and will another today.. so cool and i'm lovingg it! here's some pics
every blade is different. the base, well actually the whole fan was eggshell, so we spray painted the base black and the pull.eys(chains) and blades are textured in the brown,black and gray exactly like i used in the ((black cabinet)) knobs and hinges.

i love it when ART comes into play here!

good stuff.

i didn't want to overkill the technique inside the house (unlike my journalwork when i do..lol!) so i'm keeping this technique simple and keeping it down to the knobs/hinges, and the 2 fans. love the teXture!*smilez

 
i took this pic the other night. sunset across the pasture..

have a fab week.end

p.s..  i should have something to post about the upcoming pistacchio zine, soon.

untitled

 
but yea, it's got meaning:-) studio play day for me and i got some much craved journalwork in!! this is an old pic though..  taken 3 years ago actually. i was doing a photoshoot of a friend's girls and i didn't know it until afterwards- she was shooting me at the same time!(the concept of the photo feeds into this page/old or not) so check this out...  does the torn-jagged piece of tape NOT look like a wing???(i seriously crak myself up sometimes!!) i have strips and pieces of tape,etcetera stuck randomly onto the edge of my island countertop. for some reason i looked down and this piece was there, it said 'wing' to me and it came into play on this page(crazy how that works right) the tape was too transparent to leave 'as is' so i put red dye underneath to make it more visible. the side strip says KC(at the top) with a line drawn to TENN(bottom). (more symbolism)

here's the page in whole. the torn piece of milagro paper came from anima designs (love.love that site!) the paper is very porus. i actually journaled underneath the paper before i adhered it onto the page underneath. the wet paper helped to expose the journaling. it's just for visual purposes..  you can't read it:-)

i swear, i've thought of having a contest to see who can define the most out of one of my pages!! would be interesting to know..  sometimes i have to take a 2nd look myself, but it always comes back to me once i look at it long enough. lol.. 

this is good for my soul work.slm.

a little random.ness..

up early..  trying to get my 'to do' list established for today but it's not working too well for me:-)  i cleaned and did the laundry yesterday, so it can't be too bad right.. 

going through old pics (i've posted this one before) i came across this old hallow's eve pic of my bro and me (1976)! i love it!!   the good ole' days when we created our own costumes (and seriously..  always said i had a gypsy soul, guess this secures that statement;-) who knew then??!

btw:millhouse has a redesigned website. check it out..  kinda retro-cute.ness(he'll hate that statement) i guess their expansion and moving to their new location spawned the revision of my bro's website. i'm still hoping on the expansion to pull through in tenn! (fingers crossing!!)

our road trip up to nashville for halloween was a good time-as always. we went out and stayed with good friends, then on the way back on sunday, we hit some side towns. taking our time..   the trees are beautiful here right now. we stopped and checked out the new harley store in columbia. -amazing store built mostly out of recycled elements dug up from the excavation.(timber/rock).impressive.very cool.

and-i'm loving the sweatshirt with diamond.studded wings that tony bought me there.. (you know my obsession with wings*wink) but it seriously rocks!

(he's just TRYing to look scarry! and no, we didn't do the costume gig this year:-)pic.halloween night.more on myspace)

my plan is to get started on the re.build journal that i committed to for the guys bike that tony is rebuilding. it's been a slow process...  mostly taking pics of the different stages from the teardown.to the rebuild.

i've had so much on my plate lately, it seems like our days slip away and i don't get enough accomplished!!

i'm craving journalwork for myself in a huge way and have only done 2 pages since i've been here. and we're talking JULY!

bluhhhhh! not cool at all..

my boys' flights are booked for Thanks.giving and i'm super sToKEd! serously.the plan is for my bro and his fam to come for a week as well and i can't wait! i'm not kidding.. i will be waring my camera out!

OH YEA..  did i mention that the new print of pistacchio will be available around the holidays?? remember the altered cigar box that i posted 'limited' visuals of a few posts back??  (smile) i'll post details as soon as i get them. i can't wait!! in the meantime, check out the previous issues. this zine is amazing and the synergy of artwork is created and put together by the fab sarah and angela.

....(forcing myself to get to bustin a move with my day)!

see ya!

trick.or.treat!!

quick post..    i wanted to show you a mini photo journal that i made to go with a recent photo shoot.

fox.

this is the cover.

this book is a mini 7gypsies accordian journal that i altered.

the cover is a library pocket that i covered with modeling paste and impressed the design with my wings (surprise right!) and a clock stamp. after the m.paste dried i covered the surface with turquoise acrylic and wiped-randomly to expose some of the underneath. around the outside of the pocket are strips of heidi swapp decorative tape strips.distressed. i also used a few strips at the top where i wrote FOX with my pen nib and black ink, then stamped 10/   09 unerneath that in RED.

i kept the inside simple and mainly used hks tape strips and again distressed.

 
 

Tony and I are heading to Nashville and the Fox's tonight to parteeee in Nashville for All Hallow's Eve!!

TRICK.OR.TREAT everyone!!