Riding the Storm; Andrea and Mary in Mike's

Riding the Storm
painted collage
Collab Andrea and Mary
click image to view larger.

When we were in Colorado, driving south on the east side of the mountains, a storm sat over the mountains and funnel clouds, sometimes a number of them, kept snaking down out of the clouds.  It was creepy, scary and fascinating.

Andrea added the house.

I made a college and then painted over parts of it.  The witch is my friend Gail Slaughter and Dorothy, the scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion are all friends of hers.

A Potpourri for Ballookey (Round 3)

After having not worked in Ballookey's mole for what felt like ages (mostly on account of not having energy after taking care of a couple of people I love who went through serious medical issues) I finally picked up the markers, paints, and glue, and got to work.



The collage at the very top started with a pink background and ended with a girl on a swing. I used found images plus cut up a monoprint that I'd made, and the result is that the page is super thick, almost like cardboard. Hope you don't mind, Ballookey, but your Mole has some girth to it now.

The second piece above started with stick flowers on a ochre background, and it was only after finishing the first collage that I got inspired to re-work the stick flowers into something meatier. (You can see an earlier version of it in my last post.) And finally, the piece below contains small prints of some of my doodles, which I made into loteria cards.

I'm enjoying making collages. Something about the idea of layering and the richness of many disparate elements added into a whole. Kind of feels like my life right now.



Ballookey's mole is on its way to Gretchen. After holding on to this mole for so long, it will be strange to be mole-less for a while.

Mike's Mole shipped to Gretchen - Round 3

Yay! I got Mike's Mole to the post office before it closed at 1pm today. I wasn't sure if I could, but I did a quick-and-dirty collage this morning for Gretchen to complete. I used different Washi papers, some old airport tax fees from China (as I know Mike traveled there before), and a few little doodles.

And guess what was waiting for me at the post office when I got there? Andrea's Mole that Mike sent. Woo hoo! I'll wait a few days before I start drawing in it. Andrea's pages have a lot of texture and surface, planes and dimension. They make me think of artists like Kandinksy or Jonson. I might ruminate on that and see what comes up for me.

Ah, it feels good to finish a Mole. Is that how it is for everyone? BTW, here's another photo of the spread from my previous post. The colors are a bit truer than the scanned version.



Happy weekend!

Heidi Ships Anders to Aya (Round 2)

Anders gets a 3-tea sampler in his pocket from me, to ward off head colds, HA! Here's my collaborative art in his book, with Ash, who gave me "blaaahh!" to work with. It's me as a sick raccoon, tucked in bed with my current favorite tea. I used black pen & some gray acrylic wash to align with Ash's style... except the tea wrapper & hangtag, which are glued in as collage.

Heads up, Aya: I mailed Anders book to you today. I'm not sure if I should apologize for lateness or not? I was working on your book, but then happily switched to Anders' when it arrived, since the original plan was that our own books should come home at the end of Round 2, not in the middle of it? I hope that seems like a reasonable judgement call. Somehow, the shipping order got twisted. The only book (besides my own) that has not come to me yet is Steve's, and I expect it should arrive soon.

I'm curious to know who is actually done with Round 2 & has their book back? Anyone?

four collages in Andrea's Moleskine

Here are some collages made from small prints of various works of mine that didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. Instead of throwing them out, I made more art. I sill need to complete my collaborative pages and hopefully this book will be sent out tomorrow.

Mustang Battle for Supremacy, in Willie's Mole

Mustang Battle for Supremacy, By Mary Stebbins Taitt. Most of the background was done with handmade stencils and water colors. I painted in a few trees. The mustangs were done in Photoshop with flowers over them. The whole things is a sort of loose take off on a painting by Wesley Dennis called "The Mustang," which I had in my room, framed on the wall, as a kid. I couldn't find one on-line to link to so you could see it.

I have an MS in Biology and I did my Master's thesis research on "The Social Behavior of Free-ranging Appaloosa Horses." (These aren't appaloosas.). So I thought this would be a fun project for me.

I had fun doing this but was really upset to discover that enough moisture leaked through the paper to make some of the thousands of dots on the previous picture, which I've been working on for two weeks, run! :-( I haven't posted it yet becasue I am still working on it, but you can click here to see a much earlier draft if yr interested.