Alice in Wonderland or Me in Aliceland

Marie who? Seems my Marie Antoinette kick may have taken a back seat for the moment to Miss Alice herself and her wacky friends, like M. Hatter, Esq., pictured here popping out of the house I made for him. Doormouse, Cheshire Cat, Duck, Dodo, Lory and Eaglet are in the back window (not seen here) along with Alice. So many strange characters in that book! Isn't that where one finds Toad the Wet Sprocket? I think someone besides the Caterpillar may have been smoking the hookah when writing. Of course, that was Lewis Carroll back in 1865.

Meanwhile, I was inspired to create a Baby Alice art doll (Linda and Opie O'Brien Who's Your DADA?-style), Alice as a Young Girl art doll/canvas assemblage (inspired by Lisa Kaus) and a Zettiology-style (inspired by Teesha Moore) Alice skinny book page. Small doll head from Kris Hubick of Retro Cafe Art. The black framed pieced is a 3D collage under glass with vintage silhouettes. I think that may actually be inspired just by me. Maybe that's the author explaining his book idea to a comrade. March Hare/White Rabbit (who is whom?) winks knowingly on the front of the piece.

How to Explain Zettiology. Don't.

I am so tempted to let these pictures speak for themselves, and for the most part, I will. Suffice to say these are one-of-a-kind (OOAK), handmade pages for a skinny book (that needs explaining, too) in the Flickr group Zettiology, hosted by Jade Adams. Seventeen artists will submit 17 pages, and Ms. Jade will bind them into OOAK books for everyone.

Zetti style is probably best explained, if not defined, by looking at the work of Teesha Moore. Even her rubber stamp line is called Zettiology. I've blogged about Teesha and her work several times. This piece of art by moi earned me a comment from Ms. Moore. Check out her entire site and blog; her husband and daughters create amazing art as well.

The one-eyed, girly, swirly heads I used on some of my pages are from a collage sheet by Traci Bautista, which I bought from her in-person at Art and Soul in 2008. I've saved it all this time for something special. The strange and colorful heads are just perfect for my interpretation of Alice in Zetti-land.

More Alice-themed art ensues. I hope to post soon a couple of mixed media pieces I made this weekend with doll heads for Somerset Studios' fall art call regarding Alice in Wonderland. So far, I can tell you I employed a door knob, a jello mold, bird cage, watch face, resin, and I tore apart a $5 IKEA clock for additional inspiration and supplies.

Art & Soul Fat Book, "By the Sea," Here I Come

Suddenly my blog seems to have become "what I did on my weekend." It's not supposed to be just that, although when you eliminate politics, religion, co-workers, family and personal issues, it's either blog about my arting adventures, or tell you what non-food object Larry the Cat has recently consumed.
So, obviously this post concerns the most recent weekend and the approximate 23 hours total I spent on 40 fat book or 4 x 4 original pages front and back. These will be mailed off to a hostess who will create covers, sort pages from other artists, bind the books and return to me at Art and Soul May 1 a fabulous finished book.
I decided to go with a Zetti theme for half my pages and a nautical alphabet for the other half. All the pages were first cut from watercolor sheets and then painted with acrylics, gel medium or gesso in shades of blue. After each side dried, I rubber stamped nautical images with distress ink on one or both sides.
Next came drawing and collaging my Zetti mermaids a la Teesha Moore http://www.teeshamoore.com/, then watercolor painting, glitter, gel pens and other accents. The pages you see here are not done yet, but are waiting for embellishments of beads, charms and fibers to be added before they are mailed. All these additions help make the fat book fat!


Besides this, I kicked off my weekend by finishing 32 handmade Mermaid Ballerina charms pictured further below, which were mailed off today for another Art & Soul swap. Now I am down to my miscellaneous charms and swaps I will take with me to trade with the other artists there, a highlight of Art & Soul for sure.

And, to prove I have more to talk about than just my weekends, I have to say Yay! to Alex who made the high school varsity baseball team, which we kicked off tonight at a team and parent dinner. (We have a scrimmage planned for tomorrow in the rain and sleet). I also have to say Whew! to me for surviving today: a 6 a.m. drive out of state for a day of meetings, a rush home to take two dozen homemade lemon bars to said baseball dinner, and living through a 90-minute radio interview on blogtalkradio.com for my ZNE art group. Finally, I have to say Happy Birthday (the 18th) to my childhood friend Jeaniene: you're older than I am once again!! Yay!

Good night, Gracie!

Art and Poetry, Poetry and Art

...And so often the twain shall meet. Being a moderator for the ZNE Verses forum, I decided I should join the ZNE group Artists and Poets. Artist Jodi Barone runs a separate blog for this group http://artistsandpoets.blogspot.com/, one of her two blogs.

I didn't know I would find already-blog-friend Laurie Marshall of Loud Life fame http://loudlife-laurieblaumarshall.blogspot.com/ with some cool poetry and a fabulous journal. I am also enjoying other ZNE friends' creative work and inspirational art- published there to jumpstart poetry.

What I also did not expect was to find myself featured there on the home page so soon, with one of my first works, shown there to evoke well, something, in someone(s). You can see it here http://artistsandpoets.blogspot.com/2007/12/gina-smith.html.

Jodi asked me what it meant, and first I told her the usual: it means whatever anyone sees, blah, blah, blah. But then I decided to figure out why I had made it as I did. Certainly, Teesha Moore's style inspired me http://www.teeshamoore.com/ and also Karyn Gartel http://altereddiva.blogspot.com/.

I also said I find that those who are too too outspoken and judgmental and presumptuous usually have to eat crow later, and to that I say, "would you like fries with that?" In other words, dig in.

Finally, I told her I might just eat all five cupcakes in one sitting and in numerical order if I want, and all of my family, friends, colleagues, customers, etc., whom I find have treated me differently since gaining a little weight can just eat crow. Or they can eat cupcakes with me. So enough of that. That is exactly why I hate explaining (or even thinking about) what my art means.

On the poetry subject, joining the group made me dig out my earliest poems, from about age 16, when I wrote a bunch. I was lucky enough to get one published by Indiana University in a book of mostly adult poetry, called Indiana Writes, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. Several other poems, including this one, were also published in the local newspaper, at that time called the Anderson Herald.

Genius

You sat there figuring the square
root of a multi-digit number.
There was a calculator in its case,
but only a worn down pencil and
a stack of paper was good enough
for you.

Your face mirrored your mind
working, and I was in awe of
your anger as another wadded up
sheet of paper was sent flying
to the trash can. If it wasn’t
math, it had to be history or
science, and of course weekends
were reserved for English.

I always said, “How brilliant.”
Or “That’s wonderful.” Then I
Hopped to the pencil sharpener
So you wouldn’t be without a
Sharp point. Other times I went
Off in search of more paper
For you.

That was a year ago and you’re
still the great genius you
were born to be and me-
well, you made me wonder why I
wasn’t an algebra book or
a grammar lesson or even a
pencil sharpener that you could
turn and turn until your pencil
was resharpened.

Gina Smith

Happy Fall Trick-or-Treaters!

So what do these three seemingly disparate images have in common? Well, atually nothing, except that I have so much to blog about, I thought I'd better lump them together or I might bore you all stiff.

You know how in high school when you liked a boy and you found out he liked you too- maybe he even sent you a mushy note or left something in your locker? And then you went and told your girlfriends (of course!) because you just couldn't help yourself, and then, poof! Cool boy runs for the hills.

Well, that's sort of how I feel writing this, because part of me feels I should just keep it to myself. But I just can't help it! I GOT AN EMAIL FROM THE ARTIST TEESHA MOORE! Oooh, maybe I should tone that down. I don't want her to know I went and blabbed- not that she would see my blog, mind you.

The email went like this:

"LOL! That piece of art is awesome! and inspiring! thanks for sharing.

teesha moorewww.teeshamoore.com"

It is in reference to Zetti Preschool pictured here, which I have shown before. I was ordering from her website, and got all ballsy and sent it to her. For those of you who don't know, Teesha Moore is possibly one of the most famous artists in the outsider art world, altered arts, the crazy collage arts movement. She started about 25 years ago on the west coast and has an amazing following for her art and her rubber stamp company, Zettiology. She even has a Flickr group of wannabees dedicated to her art. She was also recently featured in "Mixed Media Collage" by Holly Harrison. Teesha publishes her own zines and hosts ArtFest and Art FiberFest every year in WA. Her art truly got me started on this current path. Thank you, Teesha!

The Haunted House scene, also shown before, just came in second place in the ARTchix Holiday Art show, as voted by my fellow members, and I am so thrilled to have won a gift certificate to artchixstudio.com.

And the tree. Well, the tree was just showing off today. All the neighbors still have green leaves, and we have this beauty.

By the way, my new blog banner (and more to come) are by Kris L. Hurst at Blissfull (sic) Elements. I love it!

Welcome to Zetti Pre-School

I created this 8 x 10 paper collage on artist board today, using some heads I got in a Zetti swap with ARTchix friend Jade from Michigan. I made this for my Flickr Zetti group. There are nearly 300 members, fans and afficionados of artist Teesha Moore. There are also over 1,000 gorgeous pieces of art to view here http://www.flickr.com/groups/zettiology/ including some of mine.

Some of the bodies are from Lisa's Altered Art on ebay; some of the heads and hair were drawn by me. The wings are from a wall paper border (what a clever idea!) given to me by my CaaT friend Sue Young in Tampa for our Art & Scent swap.

The teachers' instructions are helpful: please leave extra-large wings, wands and heads at home on gym day. Bring nap mats and cupcakes on Tuesday. I did have a rabbit head girl I drew also, but she wouldn't fit. However, I have four Zetti postcards due October 15 for a Swapbot swap, so I am sure she will come in handy.

If you haven't scanned all the way to the bottom of my blog, there is an ever-changing, ever-growing slide show running, courtesy of Ning, the new home of the ZNE Talk art group, and home to a bunch of fabulous artists.

Sweet and Sinister Swap In Progress SIP

Here is the Haunted House I made last night (possibly) for my Sweet and Sinister Swap with Artsymama's group on Flickr. I say possibly because it is supposed to be black and white with thouches of Halloween colors, and this is possibly a little too colorful.

The potions bottle should be a shoe-in though, as it is black and sparkly, with a skull, black and silver fibers and my black cat charm attached. Makes a nice gift I think, as the charm can be detached for wearing, making into a pin or displaying on a tiny easel. The other swap pictures posted on Flickr are all luscious, so I am a little bit intimindated to send my offerings. I hope they pass muster- wouldn't want to be the target of an evil spell or something.

Speaking of Flickr and my new-found love for it (see below), there is a Cupcake group on Flickr which I have joined. Surely someone who not only paints but crochets cupcakes should be in this group! I just love like-minded (weird) people!

My other Flickr group is a Zetti group. Zettiology is the company of Teesha Moore (see links) and her husband Tracy, whom I have written about before. There are over 1,000 pieces of art (and now 5 of mine) in the Flickr Zetti group for admirers of this style. It is a color celebration! Check it out.http://www.flickr.com/groups/zettiology/.

Artist Trading Cards Zetti Style

The Washington state artist Teesha Moore, who with her writer husband Tracy and artist/writer daughters Tiphoni (daughter's business spelling) and Trista, has charmed (or horrified depending on your take) art watchers for 25 years with her outsider brand of collage, journaling, fabric arts and rubber stamp line called Zettiology. See her stuff at: http://www.teeshamoore.com/ or check my links at right.

These four artist trading cards were inspired by her style as well as made for a Zetti-style (no, not spaghetti) ATC swap with an ARTchix member, who has just informed me about an ATC swap day in Monroe, MI on my birthday weekend that sounds like it will be my treat to me. Happy Day!