One more thing about Mary's book

I tried this once before, but I think it worked better now - to add something to every page (in this case fish) and make all the pages into one long art piece.



press the image to see a larger version of it.

Mary's book pages 7 and 8 (half a page for Molly

I'm going to work on a really neat idea I had for the pocket tomorrow and hopefully, use my no dog break on Monday to go into the city and drop the book at Molly's work place.

Mary's book pages 5 and 6

Mary's was kind enough to include a few photos of herself in case people wanted to make a portrait of her in the book. I can't compete with Ammon's awesome likeness and style, but I did my best with this Mary as mermaid portrait.

Mary's book pages 3 and 4

Today and yesterday though, it was too hot to even do that and I mostly worked from home. It's hot here as well, the AC brings the temperature by about 10 degrees, which is totally fine for 80 and 90 degrees, but when it's over a 100, we are still sweating like crazy...

The dogs though, seems as energetic as ever.

Mary's book pages 1 (with Ellen) and 2

New York is going through it's biggest heatwave since 1936 and I'm trying to keep cool by keeping with Ellen's marine theme, and one of my favorite Beatles songs.

Last week, after our big PA trip, I've tried to get back to life and sanity and started going out to draw in cafes again and spend a couple of hours everyday without Ned and the dogs. Since Nutmeg still have serious separation anxiety we try not to leave her alone at all, and so those 2 hours were the only non-dog hours I had this week.

Martisco Underpass, first piece in Andrea's Mole.

Martisco Underpass, by Mary Stebbins Taitt, in Andrea's Mole. Click image to view larger.

This is a somewhat strange and fanciful interpretation of the abandoned Martisco underpass. It is done in nail polish, Sakura Gelly Roll Glaze pens, and various metallics. I'd never used the glaze pens before--you probably all know how they produce a textured surface similar to embossing.

I used up a whole pen when I was only halfway through--A brand new Gellyroll Glaze pen, which I had used ONLY for this piece. Here's the dead pen and the unfinished picture:

Pocket item for Andrea's Mole: Abstract with 5 buttons

This is a collaboration with my Granddaughter, Rachel Taitt, who chose the colors and applies the first paint. I smeared it with a palette knife. Inserted buttons. Artrage, on iPad, digital. I got the buttons online. This is a 5 x 7 print on matte photo paper. I dedicated it to Kathy E from Novi, because I enjoyed her work--I do not mean to imply that my first attempt holds a candle to hers! Click image to view larger.

I am also working on a 2 page spread. I was very happy with it last night, but unfortunately, right after being happy, I blobbed it up--so now I am remediating.

Mary's book (pages 3 and 4)

In a cute coffee shop called "house of small wonder"

Mary's book go to the dog park

So, I havn't touch Mary's book in my trip to State College, which turned out to be really dense emotionally for everyone involved and I never really had a minute to myself.

But, I did finish the first double spread before the trip, and about 80% of the second yesterday. I think that since we are 11 people rather then 12 now, I might make and extra one and try to finish at 6 pages and 2 halves rather then 4 and 2 halves.

I'm going to work on it later from a cafe, but wanted to intreduce our most common hangout, the dog run. You can see Ginger and Nutmeg in the background!

tiny bit of silliness for Andrea's pocket (Coloring page)

This is about ATC sized on regular plain paper. For Andrea's pocket.

I was playing with the new metallic pens I just got for my collab with Gretchen (I hope they are right!)

The first is a scan and the second a photo trying to show the metallic sheen.

Collab Contest

Mary, we must be on the same wavelength right now. Last night I just posted a collab page and a giveaway on my daily doodle blog. If anyone here would like to collab with my hair, I'd love it. Also, not trying to generate traffic, just trying to collab with some peeps and clear out some unused supplies in the studio, so I can justify buying more. I love buying art supplies. My name is Andrea and I am an art supply addict.

http://art-is-why.blogspot.com/

small giveaway

I am giving away two sets of three cards at my blog, No Polar Coordinates. There's a string attached, if you win, you have to give something (small) away in return, not to me, but to someone else. Sign up if yr interested--the drawing will be a week from today. I am not trying to generate traffic to my blog, I am simply paying forward a really nice prize I won from another blog.

In Andrea's Pocket

I made this 4.5 x 6.5 sketch of BB at dinner tonight with metallic Sakura Permopaque pigment pens on a textured purple card.  The white pen didn't work well, so I used a pastel pencil to add white and since all the colors were about the same density, I shaded a little with a black colored pencil.  What you can't see in the scan is the metallic sheen.  I was trying them out for the first time--never used them before.  Click to view larger.  (You really have to see the texture.)

Round 2 - Final two Pages in Ash's book

Twenty-Three ~ 7/7/11

Ash, this is the final spread I am going to do in your book. I am not going to leave a collab page as there is only 1 page left in your book. I want you to have a space if you want to do some work in the back of your book. I enjoyed working in this book.

Ash, I will get this to FedEx either tomorrow or Friday.

Gardening on my mind in Ellen's (round 3)

Ay yi yi!

Good news, Ellen's is on it's way to Andrea. I received several books all in a rush, so I'll be turning them around at the rate of one every 15th (on time, in other words) as long as they last. :) Also I now have the books to resume doing them in order, so Molly's should be up next, then Aya's and Ammon's.



I started out working directly on the pages in Ellen's book, but the first full page I did, I completely wrecked. Like literally and structurally wrecked the paper. So I re-did the same piece on a separate piece of watercolor paper and pasted it in:



Then the art gods smiled on me and gifted me a piece of trash in our lawn that I thought would make a really cool background for drawings:





Speaking of lawn...our yard has been a catastrophe since we moved in this house. It seriously bothers me to the point of keeping me up nights, it's so bad. I work on corners of it, but it has so many issues it's like one step forward, two steps back. Well, this hasn't gone unnoticed by the city. We got cited for being in violation of some city ordinance about not having, gosh, I don't know. Living green plants, or some such nonsense. :)

Anyway, the fine is probably no big deal, but I used this as an excuse to get a landscaper in once and for all to fix the front yard. Yes, in the middle of July they cited me. Like I can really do anything about all the dry and dead grass when it's 99 degrees out. Jerks. But luckily the heat broke a bit and we're having new sod laid and new planting beds outlined. So thus, I've had nothing but gardening on my mind. Like it's ever very far from my mind.



Here's the beginning of a collab for Andrea. A while back she posted something she did around a photo of sky and clouds or powerlines or something and I really liked it a lot. Right then I thought it would be cool to give her two strips of photos and see how she connects them, so that's what I did here. I chose two totally different pictures in theme and in color. Can't wait to see what Andrea does! :)

In Andrea's...

I wanted to post this over the weekend, but our internet was down! Lots of thunderstorms going on here. Mary posted a preview of these below, but here's a little more detail:

Hand collab with Roma.

Colorful two pager! (Though my iPhone enhanced the colors a bit more than they actually are) This one was done with markers and gel pens. Not sure what it is, but it's like that with most of my art :)

This one is my fav of the bunch, and is much cooler in person! Done with metallic and neon gel pens & markers.

This could've been a collab too. I thought about adding more to it... but decided I liked it the way it is.

Collab for Mary!

I'm off to Montana for the week, but I'm sure Ballookey's mole will be waiting for me when I return!

Hard times...

A book! yey! it came in 10 days ago actually, but I didn't even have time or energy to open it. Ned and I were very busy and frustrated with our new family member Nutmeg:

Who is a sweetheart but have so many issues we just felt like we committed to something we can't really manage. She's got serious separation anxiety, a whole bunch of health issues and can't really hold it in the housebreaking department...

Today, we finally finished dealing with the last of the health stuff, She had a root canal yesterday and though still taking antibiotics, the rest seems to be doing OK, hopefully, no more vet visits in the next couple of months.

We are going to Pennsylvania for a small artshow on Wednesday and I'll take Mary's book with me and start getting some work in it.

Andrea's Mole comes to visit Mary via Gretchen, Roma and Mike

YAY! I have a moley again--it just arrived a little while ago!!! What a wonderful treat to see all the glorious artwork IN PERSON--it's so beautiful in the flesh--or--in the paper and ink etc. I'm afraid my photos do not do it justice!!!!

I couldn't take it outside to photograph as I often do--because it is POURING RAIN!!!

Speaking of rain, we are STILL digging out from the mess created by two floods, but we are slowly regaining some portion of normality. Still, I may need a full month to complete the moley.

You can click on this image to see it bigger. I did not choose what pictures went where, it was done randomly by Picasa. If I have time, I may post more because there was so much to enjoy. One that is not well-represented in this collage is Roma's Vietnam post, which was wonderful. I was trying to get the words so they could be read, but it didn't work out. Go here to revisit.

Pages 2 & 3 in Ash's Round 2 book.

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.