happy halloween...

this is just creepy enough that it's perfect for Halloween...

this is a tiny canvas - 5x7 - covered in spackle, polymer clay push mold faces, tons of paint and topped with beeswax that was tinted with perfect pearls - copper. 

BOO!

dragonflies

playing with different mediums today during Hurricane Sandy... this is an 8x10 flat canvas panel.  I made three dragonflies with a push mold and polymer clay.  Once they were baked, I spread spackle over most of the canvas, and dragged a line maker thingy through it.  (very technical term).  I put a little crystal glaze on the backs of the hardened clay and pressed it into the spackle.  Then I spread some spackle along the edges of the squares.  Those suckers aren't going anywhere! LOL

I painted the entire thing with white gesso, then did the dragonfly squares with shimmery watercolors.  Covered the rest of the piece with a matte medium... and I'm calling it done.  Much starker than I normally do - but I like it!

i hope you dance...

a canvas (8x10) flat panel, that I started at the beach, and finished today.  Sold already...

the one in which...

The one in which Blanche dyes her hair brown, gets a rescue dog and insists on doing another 'name' contest...

Meet Blanche's dog.  She is a rescue mutt from the local shelter... but she needs a name! She's a sweetheart, and she KNOWS she's fabulous, just like Blanche does - they are a match made in Heaven.  (aside from the fact that the dog has a red streak JUST like hers)

So once again, we're back to names.  Please post a comment here, or on the facebook post that I will start, telling me what name you think Blanche's new dog should have. 

The winner, chosen by Blanche, will receive a Blanche print - the Blanche of their choice. 

If you want to see other Blanche's - click the tab above that says 'Blanche Sez'. 

Winner will be chosen tomorrow evening, Sunday, around dinnertime - provided Sandy doesn't knock out my power by then. 

Spanks all!

so yeah... i cried.

I abandoned 4 or 5 small pieces of beach art this past weekend in Lavallette.  There is a pic of one of them in a post below.  I forgot to take shots of the others.

I used seashells, and driftwood... polymer clay, paint, inks... just small trinkets that said 'brave' and 'joy'...

I attached my business card on each one - hoping that the person that found the art would contact me.  I explained in a note attached that I was abandoning the art and hoped that the person would enjoy it.

This morning after getting ready for work, I checked my email... and found this:

Sandi - I'm writing this email for my mom.  She was unable to contact you herself.   She was so lucky to be taking a walk on the boardwalk in Lavallette on Sunday, and found a beautiful piece of artwork.  She said it was like finding a message in a bottle.  She will always treasure this gift from your heart.   She says.....thank you for making her day!!!   If you feel like you would like to contact her, her email is...

So yeah.  Tears. 

Oh! And I just heard from another!!!  LOVING this!

Hi Sandi!

I found one of your abandoned art pieces last Sunday!  We were down for the weekend checking on our house & decided to walk to the hardware store for light bulbs, when I noticed your art on a bench.  I read your little attached note &  brought it home with me to Cranford, NJ. I 've since visited your web site and love your creative art work.  Anyway, thanks for adding a little surprise to my day...finding the Joy & Dragonfly driftwood put a smile on my face!

I'll bring it back to Lavallette and find special a place for it in my house!

Thanks for sharing your art with a stranger,

Linda

and today brought a third!!

Hi Sandi! Yes! I found one of your pieces - the oyster shell with the "Brave" dragonfly - Philly Ave in Lavalette. Actually our 8 year old son found it and wanted to give it to me <3 later in the weekend our 10 year old daughter found another abandoned piece from another artist! It was a magical weekend!

We live in Harrisburg, PA but are in Lavalette every weekend with family who are year-round residents. We have collected so many treasures on the beach and this summer we created an altar of sorts with everything that we found. Although we aren't artists by trade, we're inspired to make our own art and abandon it now too!

Thank you so much! I love my piece!
Sincerely, Shani 

small faces...

i am a member of a facebook page - magical mixed media, and there are some amazing artists in there. i have gotten such inspiration and met some incredible people.

I became enamored of this one artist's work - Deborah Company - and these cool small faces that she did.  Took her class and created some of my own. WAY out of the box for me - working with clay... but SO fun.

art abandonment...

i just did my first art abandonment.... that was cool and fun.  but i'm so messed up with stuff like that, that all i did was stalk the bench where I left it.

i saw a woman sitting there, writing something down.  did she take it? don't know.

i know it's gone now.  and now i'm stalking my blog to see if they visit.

be uncommon...

sometimes the girls have trouble telling me exactly what they want their words to be. 

this girl was one of them.  she kept me up at night, and had me in the studio this morning at 6am... adding to her, changing her, watching her morph beneath my VERY sore fingers... wire work HURTS. 

she stared at me for a while... waiting for me to hear words. 

and finally I heard them.

she is a 12 x 12 stretched canvas - covered first with torn tissue paper, then I brayered on some aqua acrylic paint... and put down her dictionary page face.  I knew I wanted her hair to be curly copper wire, but wasn't sure at first which direction I was going with attachment.  Finally I just.. 'sewed' it through the canvas itself. 

Once the hair was attached, and curled... I decided it didn't show up enough against the aqua - so I added a bit of Titan Buff acrylic paint with a very dry brush. 

That was when I decided her curls weren't tight enough, so BACK in I went with a smaller curler... my little paintbrush.  My fingers were screaming by this point. 

Then she decided she wanted some bling.  So onto the curls went the beads...

I like her.  She's happy being uncommon.