Over the last few weeks, I've been enjoying the work of Annie Lockhart. I appreciate the slightly softer look she brings to the world of assemblage. Annie likens her work to art journaling and I love the idea of journaling being three-dimensional.
As many of you know, Artfest was just wrapped up this last weekend and Annie was one of the instructors teaching there this year. Already, I've been reading wonderful things about her classes by students who have been posting about the experience on their blogs.
I'm sure we'll be seeing more of this wonderful artist's work in the mixed-media world as the days, weeks and months roll on.
Did
you know April is national poetry month? With popular art retreats like Artfest
hosting increasingly popular poetry workshops, it’s only natural to be seeing
more and more artwork incorporating the art of words. Poets.org offers up a fun
list of 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month. Why not add #31 to the list and celebrate with a piece of artwork inspired by a
poem, or a piece of artwork incorporating a few poetic words of your own, or
borrowed from a favorite verse? If you’re a nature lover or a fan of poets
inspired by the natural world, it may just tie in beautifully to this month’s
challenge.
With the focus this month being on repurposed and found objects, I couldn't help but think of artist Kevin Titzer, whose work I greatly admire (and always get a wicked chuckle from). Kevin starts his sculptures with driftwood from the Ohio River and then frequently adds other salvaged materials such as metal from scrapped rain gutters, candy tins and just about anything else. His style is dark and whimsical at the same time and I'm grateful to artists like him that can truly transform trash into something this amazing.
Don't forget to check out this week's free project while it's still available and watch for a brand new project on Monday.
It’s
universally understood that flea markets, thrift stores, antiques stores and
garage sales are a mixed-media artist’s gold mine. If you’re like me, you often
leave each aisle with a sense of reluctance, worrying that some gem in the rough
has gone unnoticed, that you’re passing by the one found object that would lead
to a revelation in your work. I have an annoying habit of buying nothing, going
home, having an idea for something I could have used, and returning only to
find it gone—and nothing is more frustrating than that.
How
many vintage cameras have you passed by in these excursions? This tutorial from
Photojojo teaches you how to resurrect a vintage camera to take compelling,
stylized digital photographs (like the one above) through the viewfinder—even if the camera itself
is out of film or even broken! Don’t you just love it when someone points out
the gems in the rough for you?
This morning I stumbled across the work of Paul Villinski and I just had to share the amazing beauty I found on his site, with you. This artist gathered crushed beer cans from the streets of New York and transformed them into beautiful flocks of butterflies. This is truly such a wonderful metamorphosis of trash to treasure and will have me thinking tin-can art in a whole new way.
