As many of you know, March is National Craft Month, so we thought it was great timing for kicking off what we would like to announce as our Mixed-Media Monthly Challenge. Each month, beginning with March, we would like to challenge you with a specific theme. This will be something that will hopefully encourage you to try new things with your art and maybe encourage you to look at something you might not have thought about in the past. For our first month, March, we're going to begin with the topic of Personal Imagery. By that, we mean incorporating your own photos into your work. This can mean portraiture or not--it's up to you. For inspiration, you might want to check out, TheArt of Personal Imagery by Corey Moortgat. Very shortly, we'll be sharing more details with you on this month's theme and what fun activities we have planned (including forum discussions, a place for you to share your monthly-challenge images and a book giveaway). This challenge will be good for me personally because I don't normally use much of the way of personal imagery in my work, but I'm ready to try!
The Crafty Ninja and I attended the Art of Food exhibit at the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center in Covington, KY (a very cool building that was once a Carnegie library). It was a bit of an adventure, as there wasn’t a soul around, but eventually we found a large room with some haphazard displays. And once we got into the room and turned around, we saw this (the link takes you to the gallery--we're having some system issues with putting images in blog posts--sorry!).
It’s the Mona Lisa made out of pieces of toast. Now we’re talkin’! It was made by the advanced-placement art students at St. Henry District High School in Erlanger, KY. Love the shading and detail they achieved.
While I was mesmerized by the toast, the Crafty Ninja noticed a few other people come down some nearby stairs. So we ventured up there to see if there was more to be found. And indeed there was. A birthday cake exhibit, a handmade table setting exhibit, and a meat exhibit. Well, kind of. It was the work of John Wolfer, who creates artwork that is painted in acrylic and silk-screened. And it all features meat. Check out this gallery page to see what I mean.
Another fun outing for the sake of art. Hope you had a fun weekend, too.
Just last week I was introduced to the vast, amazing world of Google Images. I'm not the type to pay attention to that sort of thing, so I had no idea that you could simply click on the Images button on any Google page, type in your search topic, and then see what turns up. (Yes, I did immediately Google-Image myself and found one photo of me and a bunch of pictures of people with my same name--weird.)
But today I Google-Imaged "mixed media." Up popped a mind-boggling array of images of every type of mixed media artwork imaginable. Some were more paint based, some were book arts, some were sculptures. I was completely capitivated, and I can totally see myself coming back when I need a little inspiration. Next time you have a few minutes (or hours) to spend, check it out and let me know what you think.
Recently I came across a link to the BookScans Database. This amazingly addictive site is a central place where you can find literally thousands of scans of vintage book covers, organized by publisher/genre for collectors. If you love using nostalgic images like these in your mixed-media work, be forewarned that you might want to stock up on color printer cartridges before venturing onto this site--once you start looking around, you can't stop! Even if you just love books or pop culture in general, you won't be able to get enough of this vintage goodness, from cheap pulp digests to original versions of classics in the making. The write-ups about the history of each imprint and surprise finds like special condensed Armed Services Editions make this site a real gem. The only thing better would be being in a room with all these books themselves--and having them all still cost only 35 cents!
A forecast including a mix of snow and icy rain sounds like the perfect excuse to stay inside this weekend where it's nice and warm—warm blankets to wear while catching up on magazines, warm mochas to sip while catching up on email and nice warm wax to paint with and indulge creative urges.
A couple of months ago, I was fortunate enough to spend an entire week with Patricia Seggebruch (our jobs here at North Light are tough that way) when she was here for her step-by-step photo shoot, for her upcoming book, Encaustic Workshop. I was so totally inspired by the magic she made with layers of wax paint that the first day of the shoot I ordered up my own bunch of "getting started" supplies (my Christmas gift to myself). While I have dived right in and had some fun playing with the paints already, I haven't had a good free weekend available for a while, so I'm really looking forward to returning to it this weekend.
I'm sure many of you are experiencing this same arctic blast, so what are your creative plans for the weekend?
