International Impromptu Art Exchange

Hopefully the dream box above has safely arrived in Canada by now, also making it safe to post my pictures here on the blog without spoiling the surprise for recipient Heather Robinson of Creative Solace.

I have admired Heather's work for some time, first spotting her during Technique Tuesdays, a former challenge blog, co-sponsored by Heather and Suzan Buckner, whose crazy zetti-style art I also love. Then I ran into Heather as a design team member for Indy (not Indie, well, yes, indie, too) artist Kris Hubick, and IRL friend who runs Retro Cafe Art, the Web site and blog.

Recently, Heather posted a darling ATC on her blog, and I wrote to her to propose a swap. She responded with the suggestion of an altered art assemblage swap, which I gladly accepted.

Heather mentioned she had been doing some altered tins. You can see them on her blog here, as well as a nature-themed piece here. Heather is good at updating her blog almost daily, which is tre's fun for her followers.

It's ironic that the tin 'dream box' or nicho I altered for her, came to me from Canada, having been ordered from another favorite supplier, ArtChix Studio. However, the nicho was hecho in Mexico originally.

I used a gazillion little products to 'art it up.' The paper wings are from Retro Cafe Art, the background is a postcard from Bluhm Studios, the mini eggs, leaf mask and tiny bottle with decorative stopper are from Altered Abbey, the green 'seeds' are from ArtChix, the reeds and corrugated paper are from Random Arts in Saluda, NC., the mushroom is from Paula's Kit Club and the egg-print paper on the back as well as other paper scraps are from Character Constructions.

Nothing like having to link to practically everyone I know! But it's always important to give credit where one gets supplies, and also readers will ask, where did you find that thingamajig? The swap gave me a chance to use various bits and pieces from two years of accumulations. The dream box was one of the first things I ever bought, and the piece of lace on the bottom I received early on in a swap and immediately thought it belonged on the dream box. Some months later, the tiny bottle, stopper and seeds arrived separately and seemed to go together. So I filled the bottle, plugged it with the little topper, stuck them in the lace-embellished dream box, and there they sat for over a year, until it seemed just the right thing to use for this swap.

I hope Heather agrees. Mail sent at the same time as her package has already arrived in both Belgium (a swap with ATheeC on Flickr) and Oregon ( 1:1 swap with Michelle Geller of Hold Dear), so Canada can't be far behind.

So Excited! You'd Think I Just Got Published

These two amazing books are by and belong to two fellow artists and people I can truly call friends. I am so excited for them! Each is very different - the book and the person- and I feel privileged to say my art is in each book. The thrill of publication belongs solely to the artists, Jane Powell and Lisa Kettell. But, I'm so thrilled for them, you'd think they were my books.

Altered Art Circus is now available here on Amazon. You won't be disappointed. And I can say that even though my copy is not in my hands yet, for I have some of Lisa's original work as well as works by some of the other contributing artists.

Artist and Silver Bella founder Teresa McFayden reviewed the book here. Although I didn't get a mention there, I am just so happy with her review of Lisa's book. The circus animals by Lisa that Teresa shows on her blog are great, and interestingly enough, Martha Stewart just featured a similar project here by Katie Steuernagle, Matsutake on Etsy. And talk about full circle, Lisa was in the audience, third row, for the Martha taping that day!

The hand-made, 75-pp book above is equally impressive. Owner Jane Powell of Random Arts in Saluda, one of my favorite places, decided to host a collaborative journal project and even sent out some supplies to willing participants to get the ideas flowing. When the unique pages started flowing in from around the country and beyond, Jane knew she had something special.

So special is this book that Jane "donated" it for a fund-raising auction for the Saluda Senior Center and then Jane bought it back in a bidding war for $500.00! How great is that? You can see my "Sorry, Time's Up" page peeking out of the photo above and my finished project here. I hope I can get to Saluda again soon to see the entire book. Here's her story about it.

Charity Project Nets 72 Journal Pages

One of my favorite spots in the US is Saluda, NC, and my most favorite spot in Saluda is Random Arts, the great shop of Jane Powell. I met Jane a couple years ago when I happened into her store, and she was kind enough to feature me on her blog. Then, I blogged about Saluda and Jane for a travel article on Vintage Indie (no original idea; she'd already been featured in Cloth Paper Scissors magazine). We've managed to keep in touch and have run into each other at Art & Soul.

So I had to join in when Jane announced a journal page project. Unlike other projects and swaps, Jane was even sending the supplies! All I had to do was make a 5 x 7 journal page out of them. All of the pages from the 70+ participants are being featured on the Random Arts blog, and the book is being auctioned for charity. Jane, of course, hopes to buy it back.

I don't usually (ever?) do angry art; I'm just stuck on chirpy, happy images and colors. But I thought I'd work outside the box just to see what I could do. Since I'm always grousing about getting old, never having enough time, time going too fast, etc., that was my theme as you can see on my page here. We all added to the items Jane sent, of course, so I added clock parts, a watch face and other metal bits. Not sure I even like my page, but hey, it worked. The back is at top, above

An Award of (Un?)Questionable Magnitude

Today I returned from a two-day out-of-state road trip for work to learn the lovely and funny Laurie Blau-Marshall, a fellow ZNE-r of Loud Life fame http://loudlife-laurieblaumarshall.blogspot.com/, had awarded me the prestigious (dubious?) Creative Snit award. After reading points #2 and #4 below as well as the word "obsessive" in the definition, I felt I had no choice but to accept! Thanks (a lot) to Laurie who passed this on from another fellow ZNE-r, Lennea Truesdell, who shared the modified definition of snit to make it more acceptable, as follows:

"Unlike many other blogging awards, this award requires much thoughtful deliberation and strict adherence to the following CREATIVE SNIT AWARD criteria.
This award shall be presented only to worthy artists who have shown evidence of being in a creative snit.To help with the selection, we need a common frame of reference.
I found this definition of snit:
snit; noun; a state of agitated irritation; "he was in a snit"
However, I think a CREATIVE SNIT requires a somewhat different definition:
Creative Snit; noun; a state of creative chaos, creative frustration, or a state of obsessive creativity: 'she was in a creative snit'.

Therefore, worthy recipients of this prestigious award should demonstrate one or more of the following criteria:
1) photos of their chaotic creative studio spaces, 2) reports of staying up till the wee hours of the morning while consuming large amounts of coffee and or chocolate in order to finish a swap or prepare for a show, 3) documented frustration over the creative process, 4) evidence of a large quantity of art created over a small period of time.

I also have to thank Laurie for catching my typo in the Random Arts blog address, which has now been fixed in the post below.

Random Arts- The Love Continues

Imagine my surprise when I check in on my new favorite place- Random Arts in Saluda, NC (blogged about below) - to find that owner Jane Powell has mentioned me on her blog at http://randomartnotes.blogspot.com/. "Mentioned" is the key word here, as Jane splashed my art in big beautiful photos and kind words all over the front of her blog! Thanks, Jane. Love, love, love that little town! And store! And e-commerce at http://www.randomartsnow.com/- go there. Now.

More Pics from Saluda and Random Arts

A Little Side Trip to Saluda

Although I am back home in Indiana from South Carolina, if it were up to me, I'd still be in Saluda, NC. What a wonderful town! Made the stop off I-26 per an article I read in Cloth, Paper, Scissors about a wonderful shop called Random Arts. Wonderful it was! The entire town is an artists' colony, similar to Nashville, IN for those who can picture that equally hilly town.

I could have spent hours in Random Arts. Owner Jane Powell was so nice! We swapped ATCs, took pictures of each other's art and she showed me the latest and greatest. I came home with so many goodies...and left so many behind! She was packed with "stuff." Even all her ribbons were each on vintage bobbins. A bin held tiny pieces of vintage wooden rulers.

And the art! Oh, glorious samples. Incredible drawings and paintings by Jane. Beautiful altered books. Examples of past classes by well-known, published artists. Just a fabulous store!

We had lunch at the Purple Onion. Just missed jazz night by one day. Hit a few other shops and Wildflour Bakery. The hardware in town was something right out of 1950. There were bed and breakfasts all around, and the hills, mountains and foilage were gorgeous. They kept whispering, "stay, stay." All I could say was, "I'll be back."