Green Paper

On a Grand Tour...

Have you ever heard of a Grand Tour?

Wikipedia has a full description, but I'll just give you a few lines:  "The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means…The primary value of the Grand Tour, it was believed, laid in the exposure both to the cultural legacy of classical antiquity and the Renaissance, and to the aristocratic and fashionably polite society of the European continent."

Sounds intriguing, doesn't it?

photograph credit here

So, when you wonder why I haven't posted to my blog in forever, just imagine I'm on a Grand Tour. That sounds much more exciting than I-got-a-demanding-new-job, and sadly, I'm-not-very-interested-in-my-art-or-my-blog-lately.

As far as the winner of the November challenge...They all won! I am sending the French Dictionary Collection to each of the artists who entered. I am missing emails for 3 of the artists who entered, so if you entered but haven't been contacted, just send me an email at [email protected] and I'll get your collection to you.

I plan to keep my Etsy shop open as I sell off some of my extras and things I know I really won't use again, so feel free to stop in from time to time to see if there's anything new.

And, of course, Classes and Images are available in the e-store, as always. If you've read this far, I have a bonus for you - 50% off anything and everything in the e-store. Just use the discount code grandtour (all one word). The offer's good through January 15th.

I hope you're well, and that you're enjoying your art. Have a wonderful Holiday season!

Olympic Paper

Even the Olympics finds odd uses for paper...

How fun!

Charlottes

I completely forgot to tell you this story when it happened...

I went to the Nelson Atkins museum last year with Beth and one of the Karlas. We went to see the Monet Waterlilies triptych.   We had lunch there, in Rozelle Court...

...and we visited some of the other exhibits.

As we wandered through the Egyptian section, we came through a darkened hall and there was a lighted case...

And Beth and I turned to each other and, in unison, said "Charlottes". 

Here's a close up:

Don't they look just like Egyptian Frozen Charlottes? Well, not exactly, and I imagine that's kind of an insult to the art scholars among us. Plus, I think the guard thought we were crazy. (even though he was happy to let us take these pictures with our phones - no flash)

Anyway, they sure reminded me of Frozen Charlotte dolls.

I bet you've seen them all over altered-art-land, and loads of you have used them in assemblages and books. If you don't know about Frozen Charlottes, HERE is a a bit of info about the little dolls and the story. 

Even Restoration Hardware is on the bandwagon. Even though they don't call them Charlottes.

Anyway, I thought you'd get a kick out my Art Gallery/ Charlotte sighting.

If you'd like some of your own, Etsy's full of them. You can also get them from my friend, Karla Nathan. She imports them from Germany, in all sorts of sizes. You can see them HERE.

Remember Me?

Remember me? I used to post all the time about art and gluebooks and vintage paper and cool images and online classes... Do you remember? I can't blame you if you've forgotten all about me. 

Many of you were so sweet to send messages inquiring about my long absense. I think I answered back to each of you, but if I didn't respond, please, please forgive me. I've been ill, but I'm feeling much better now, and actually interested in art again. 

I don't plan on writing any new classes just yet. I'm just happy to be glueing a bit and hoping to get some new things in the free images folder.

Wading through some of the excess paper and supplies in my craft room has been an eye-opener. Just looking at the shelves is getting me down. I've been keeping every image or picture I've ever posted on the blog or offered in a class and I need to purge!

I know some people who would kill me if I started tossing things like I'm tempted to, so I'll  post some pieces for sale in my Etsy shop over the next couple days. Some are in great shape, others are shabby. Maybe other artists can give these treasures  a new home. If you're always in the market for good ephemera, check the Etsy shop or you can email me directly. 

Posted along the way here are recent gluebook spreads. I hope you like them. I don't think my style has changed in my absense...do you?

So good to be back!

Sticking With It....

Do you ever feel this way too? I was talking to my sister Eileen this week and complained that everything I've created lately looks horrible. I joked that maybe my art-ing days are over.

My beautiful sister, Eileen, helping me at Silver Bella a couple years ago.

Then last night, Eileen and I were talking again and she mentioned an Ira Glass / This American Life episode she listened to. I remembered that I had saved an Ira Glass quote a while back because I found it particularly meaningful, but I couldn't remember why.  So, I pulled it out again...

“What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. 

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. 

It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”-Ira Glass” 

Do you find that true, too? How easily I forget!

I can't tell you how many gluebook pages I've set aside lately, because I just couldn't finish. I'm so unhappy with them! So, my goal for the weekend is to finish some art every day. To stick with it, even if I think it's really bad.

Wish me luck, I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh, and just a reminder that the Spring 25% off sale ends tomorrow. If you'd like to gluebook along with me, come ahead!

How do you like to follow blogs?

As you probably know, Google Friend Connect is going away in just a few days (yeeks, that came up fast!).  So, I've been doing a little research on other ways I can follow blogs and ways others can follow my blog. But on every site I've looked at, it's a little tough to understand exactly what I should expect and how much I can tailor my experience...

So I'm asking for your advice!

If you have a blog, what do you plan to do? If you like to follow blogs, how do you do it now...or plan to do it in the future?

Here are just some of the things I'd like to do as a follower:

• I want to follow on my own schedule, to be able to sit down with a cup of coffee and read through all "my" blogs at one time a day.
• I want to put everybody I follow in one place, so I don't have to go to a bunch of different locations to follow
• I want to be able to add blogs myself - for example, new bloggers who don't have widgets yet. 
• I want my list of blogs to show who's posted since the last time I logged on, so I get straight to what's new.

Do you follow blogs, and how do you do it? If you're a blogger, what's your plan to invite followers?

Any recommendations will be truly appreciated!

She's posting my work...

I hate writing this post, but I could really use some help. 

A few weeks ago, a friend directed me to a Flickr photstream, which includes about 70 (yep, seventy) pictures of my own gluebook art. None of the individual pictures mention my name or any information about me.

Since it's my art and I want the pictures removed, I have emailed the Flickr user twice, and have contacted her through the Flickr system. I've never received a response.

In my last email, I asked her to have them removed by yesterday, or I would have to contact Flickr/Yahoo. I also told her I would post about this on my blog.  Unfortunately, nothing happened.

So, today, I sent a copyright infringement notification to Yahoo, and now I'm posting on my blog.

I know this person reads my blog, in fact, she enters the monthly challenges. So, how do I get her to remove my art from her Flickr photostream?  Any ideas would be so appreciated!

My Other Mother....

How many mothers do you have? At one point in my life I was up to 4, but now I'm really down to just one. I had my own mother, adopted roommates mothers, and aquired a mother-in-law for a while.

But my most consistent "other mother" is still in my life, in a really big way. 

My family moved to Missouri when I was about 13. My sister fell in love with the boy across the street later that summer, and I became best friends with his sister. Of course, I spent plenty of time at their place, and 'adopted' both a mother and a father.

my other mother and my mom, about 5 years ago

Fast forward 5 years and my sister married the boy across the street. Both sides of the family and all of the friends knew each other really well, and it was a great celebration.

A few years later, my sister and brother-in-law had the first grandchild on both sides. About 6 months after that, my parents moved to California. I stayed. I was in college nearby, and just couldn't bear to leave my sister.

Later my best-friend-across-the-street moved 1000 miles away with her family. I became a doubly surrogate daughter in my other family.

In all of this time, my other family and I have shared most holidays and countless family events, plus lots of just hanging out.  To this day, weddings and babies are celebrated by both sides of the family, and I'm surrounded by people who know each other and have a long shared history. 

Both of my parents have passed away now, and my other father has too, but I still have my other mother with me. On Thursday, I'll be lucky enough to be one of dozens of people at Thanksgiving dinner with her. That's just one of the things I am thankful for.

Everyone needs other mothers. Collect them if you can.

What if we die?

Catchy blog post title, eh?

The latest edition of the Collage Club was about using 'the real thing' in your art - the actual vintage papers and ephemera you've collected. I've been thinking about my overflowing 'collections' recently. I know you have them too....old paper and books, rare ephemera and trashy ephemera, fabrics, beads, buttons, lace...should I go on?

Then, I received some timely comments this week. First, from Pam at Fairy Rocks and Things: I love old photo albums. I just hate to see those abandon families.

Then a comment from Julie (Jewels, how come I can't find your blog?)  in which she says: I got to the point where I was asking"if I don't use it now will I ever". Can't stand the thought of something just siting in a box some where when I can highlight it in "art"!  

It all percolated together for me....overflowing collections, abandoned photographs, if I don't use it now...and it made me wonder: what happens if I die?

Will any one of my family members treasure my bits and bobs the way that I do? Will any of them see a tub full of old paper as anything except trash? Will they have any idea what pieces of my stash are actually valuable and which pieces have very little value to anyone except maybe artists like me?  Are my beloved collections about to become the forgotten cabinet card photos at the flea market...or more likely added to the recycling bin?

If you're like me, you have friends and relatives who 'don't get it'. They may love us, and our art, but they don't really get the magpie attraction we have to the faded and aged. Can you imagine their dismay at having to dismantle our collections someday?

So, I am committing myself to using the real thing even more often. Who will appreciate it and enjoy it more than we do? Would I rather it was thrown away by an unsuspecting relative 30 years from now, or would I prefer to take a deep breath and glue it down onto something beautiful, so it will be seen and appreciated...by me and my blog friends at least!

I plan to label the truly valuable things I would never use, like my French Holy card collection and my Tennyson calendar, among others. They're all in a special drawer anyway; I just need to add some notes about them so maybe the descendants will make a bit of cash.

Then, I plan to start using the real thing even more often: the dozens of magazine images, the damaged ledger pages, the ripped handwritten letters, the old book pages, the actual photographs, and torn bits of ephemera.

It's true for money, and I have to remember that it's true for art supplies too - you can't take it with you. 

Back from Vacation...

I'm home from my visit to California, where I had a wonderful time.

We did both family (Nica's first birthday!) and tourist-y things. Nica's birthday party was fabulous - just family and a few friends. Nica was cheerful and smiling through the entire thing (actually, she's normally like that) and she seemed to love all of her gifts, as well as the cake.

But the thing you all probably care about the most is my trip to the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena CA. Hundreds of vendors, miles of aisles.   This is the 3rd time I visited the Rose Bowl Flea and the other 2 time were fabulous. This time, there were some cool things you might have liked...

sweet baby shoes...

burlap...

and more burlap...

and loads and loads of vintage clothes

The last time I went, I bought dozens of cool things. This time, everything seemed overpriced or just boring. There were few books there, and even less ephemera. I had better luck last year when we visited the Pasadena City College Flea. I plan to schedule for the Long Beach Flea next time - I hear that's great!  

So, what did I get? I bought two items. Yep, you read that right, two. But - they're both wonderfully cool, both were affordable and they'll give me hours of gluebooking fun!

One is a 1920s-1930s scrapbook of dozens of cool pictures of people and activities, including swimming, a wedding, graduation, and plenty of family and individual shots.

The other is an 1880s autograph book with loads of pages of sentiment - many decorated with a bit of Victorian scrap.

I'll share something from each with you in this week's Collage Club, so if you're a member, or become one, watch for that.

What else did I do on my trip? I visited the Getty and saw various exhibits, including the Luminous Paper exhibit, which I highly recommend. We went to Universal Studios, where I got a private back lot tour with my sister Kathi, who is head of benefits there. We also went to a free outdoor jazz concert at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and visited some of the exhibits there. One was a small dual Monet/Lichtenstein exhibit of a series of paintings by each artist, both of the Rouen Cathedral.

What did you do while I was gone?