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Page for a Collaborative Calendar

Allright, get ready....this is going to be a long explanation. First of all I'll tell you that this is a page I did for a collaborative 2007 Calendar. My month was January, which I asked for specifically. Second, this is the most emotional and personal piece that I have ever created. I've been wanting to find those things in my art and I think is helping me to get there. Allright, about the art...and why it is completely personal to me.

This page is about, and dedicated to, my dad, who I called Poppie. The color of this is the color blue that he loved the very most. He wore Ben Davis shirts (the monkey shirts as I always called them) and I teased him that he kept his picture on his pocket. However, he always insisted that it wasn't a picture, but rather a mirror! Anyhow...several of his shirts were in this color. I painted the blue over a dictionary page that I found with the word "Begonia" on it. This word can be found in the very bottom right of the work. It is faint, but more noticeable in person. He was the 2nd generation of Begonia Growers in Santa Cruz and the owner of Antonelli Brother's Begonia Gardens for many, many years after his father retired. All told, he worked there for aproximately 44 years! To say tuberous begonias were a big passion of his, is an understatement!

The little white house reminds me of the house he lived in on the nursery property. I believe my brother lived in that house with his family later on, too. All of our little feet ran around on that property at one time or the other! The baby in the image is my Poppie himself! Isn't he the most adorable thing EVER?! I love this picture! The man holding him, is of course, his father, my Papa (Grandpa). The year it was taken was 1943. Now, the reason I used him for January, and asked for this particular month, was becasue he was born on January 7, 1943. Sadly, he passed away of lung cancer in the same month, 2 days before his 60th birthday (January 5th, 2003). So this month is very bittersweet for me...and I still have the birthday card I bought for him on his 60th...I never did get to give it to him. But I think he knew how I felt...See, I told you this was a deeply personal and emotional piece!

The flower is not a begonia, but represents his life among the flowers in the nursery. (By the way, this image is from Bmuse if you are interested). The words "Early Blooms" is taken from a book by Mr. Veterle about tuberous begonias. This is appropriate, as the Antonelli Brothers (1st generation) worked at Veterle (forgive me if the spelling is wrong!) Brother's nursery in the early days and where they learned their knowledge of begoinas! They took this knowledge and opened up their own nursery in 1935. These words have several meanings for me. First, being a New Year baby, he was an "early bloomer". Second, early begonia blooms in the nursery were a good thing as it meant the year was temperate and folks would want to buy things sooner. Lastly, the early bloom refers to his much shortened life. 59 is much too soon to pass from this earth, in my opinion! I wish I had gotten to keep him for just a little bit longer....

The snowflakes are described below and are mostly asthetic, as it doesn't snow in Santa Cruz. Although, it did a couple of times and was a real event for all of us beach bums! :) The words on the calendar page are taken from a poem and reveal the eternal optimism of my Poppie. He always saw the positive in things, people and situations! It doesn't mean that he was blind to the problems. Far from it. Only that there could be positive sides to any situation and that if you found that side, you would come out ok in the end. It reminds me that only days before he died, bald from chemotherapy and laid up in a hospital bed from a quick and furious 4 month battle with lung cancer, he said "There is still time for the miracle". And you know, even though he died, I think the miracle was with him. He kept that positive attitude to the end and never gave up hope, even when it was apparent that there was no chance he would survive. The miracle was that he lived and was an amazing and giving person. He touched everyone who knew him and years later people still recall his generosity in all aspects of his life.

Whew...emotional. Told ya! Of course, this was a really difficult project to get through! It was FULL of problems and OOPS moments, let me tell you! And honestly, I think it was Poppie sitting besides me pulling some of his practical jokes! Originally I was trying to transfer a barren tree to the piece and it absolutely did not work....even though it did work when I tried it on something else first! The darker blue spots on the page are covering up those attempts. I think...honestly, that he knew the barren tree would be too cold and depressing and didn't want it on his page. And you know, he was right. For while I am sad that he is gone, his life was about love and celebration and sweet memories. The tree would have taken those things away from his memory.

So that's it. It looks simple enough and doesn't have a lot of complicated techniques. But it is very meaningful to me. I think I am going to have it copied and framed to give to my family for Christmas with a little letter explaining what it means to me. I think they'll like to have it as a keepsake. We all miss Poppie very much....

Calendar Page 2 For Collaborative Calendar

This is the actual calendar page. The size of the whole thing is 6", the calendar is approx. 5 1/2" wide. The snowflakes are painted dictionary pages with glitter laid on top. Then a irridescent sequin was glued in the center and more glitter added to the top. The scanner didn't pick up the glitter at all, unfortunantly. It is subtle, but definitely wintery.

PAINT, GLORIOUS PAINT!

I'm so amazed at myself! I actually painted on canvas! Whoooo Hoooo! Now, for a lot of you, that's no big deal as you are pros with the paint and brush. But me....I was actually afraid of painting! The self-doubt monster always told me I couldn't do it! But maybe, just maybe, I can.

I chose yellow because it is the color I want to be inside some day. I also felt that yellow just wouldn't let me down, you know? It is such a happy color that nothing could go wrong. I just played with it and other colors and splattered and swirled and covered up and just let it all come out onto the canvas. And you know what - it was freeing and amazing and wonderful!

Thank you for the inspiration, all my art-stranger-friends - Santa Cruz Soul Sistah, Jersey Girl, Small Bird, queen of yelo, and especially to A.C. , who encouraged me to experiment with paint in her book with no fear! Love you guys so much!

Watch. Listen. Learn.

http://www.rosie.com/2006/04/07/all-hail-pink/

Bag & Card For Special RAK

I made these two things for a special group RAK project. The bag is now stuffed full of goodies that several wonderful people donated! The card is darker than shown and the poem (From Wordsworth's "The Daffodils") was done on yellow paper matching the moon in the bag with light blue lettering. The stars are brads.

Egg Shaped ATC's For Bmuse Swap

These are for an egg shaped ATC swap. This was my first time working in this shape and I loved it! The "sun rays" are cut up from images from Bmuses "Ancient Time Pieces" Collage Sheet.

Grunge Style 4x4 Art Squared Pages

Round Robin Pages in Rebecca Ronco's CRAZY CATS Mini Book

Page Spread in Crazy Cats Mini Book. Images are from Bmuse!

Sign in Page
Third Page in Book.

Spring Muse Paper Doll For swap

"Star Flower".

Spring Muse For A RAK

This is a spring muse paper doll. The name of it is: "The Birth of The Sun".

Altered Card For A Charity Auction for Bernie Berlin's "A Place to Bark"

The name of this card is: "Life Lesson No. 2: Live Your Life With Passion".

This will part of a unique, one of a kind, collaborative deck of cards and will be auctioned off for "A Place To Bark"! More info soon!

My Miniature Round Robin Altered Book

This book is part of a round robin in my Mini Canvas Yahoo Group. My theme, obviously, is Zinnias, Zebras & Zettiology. I came up with the name, oddly enough, not because I wanted to have Zebras and Zinnias created on the inside - although artists may certainly do that too - but because when I try to explain the Zettiology style, that is what comes to mind! Zettiology is full of faces in flowers (zinnias) and black and white striped arms and legs that make me think of Zebras. The flower face and arm are both zetti. The zebra "z" is from a playing card sent to me by one of the participants.

Tomorrow this book starts on its first journey - to Australia! It will be a well traveled book by the time it comes home!

Rules and Sign In Page

There will be 8 other artists (plus me) working in this book. I cannot wait to see what each person comes up with for the theme! The rules card on this comes out (see below) and all the letters are cut out from a magazine.

Zetti Rules Card Front

The flower card is a playing card sent to me by Janet H. and was just perfect for this use! The pink flower on her hat is also from a card she sent!

Rules Card For Zetti Book

This is the rules card for my book. As you can see, I like to leave it to each individual artist to create whatever comes into their imagination for my book! Because there is no "must" in art!

Final Pages in Zetti Book

This page was actually going to be my "Information" page. However, once I added the Zetti "eyes", I felt compelled to look for an eye quote. The VERY FIRST quote I came to was this one by Roald Dahl: "Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." It was absolutely perfect for this last page, I felt. And is what I believe artistically! So instead, my name and info is on the back cover. :)

Round Robin Page In Sharon G's Book

The theme of Sharon's book was "The Color of Music". This is somewhat done in the Zettiology style, although a little more simplistic than Teesha's wonderful creations! The blue "vein" at the top and bottom is space between the torn paper. I filled it with blue glitter that was much more shiny in person!

Bird Brains Left Side of Spread (See The Next Page Below)

This is my spread for a round robin book. The theme of this book was "Ravens". The scan does not do the actual color justice, but it is pretty bright in person. The purple words really stand out on the black background, which is why I left the original black for it. Normally I would have torn up paper to collage for the background, but I really liked how the white popped against the black.

I cannot remember where I found the funny men graphic....but I remember instantly liking the image! It felt a little like deja vu and I could have sworn I had seen it before. And I was right. This image was used by Kelly (who it will travel to next to be worked in ironically!) in an amazing composition!! Once I realised that I almost didn't use it -- I didn't want her to feel I was copying her! But I just love the image so much and was so taken with her own use of it, that I had to use it! So thank you Kelly for the inspiration!

All images were printed onto either card stock or matte photo paper. The words were printed as well. All the other colors were added with watercolor pencils. This was my first use of these type of pencils and I just LOVE them! I have the small set of 12 colors, but will certainly ask my hubby to start saving for the BIG set as I am hooked! They are amazing...you color the section you want just like with normal colored pencils. But then you take a wet paint brush and swipe it over. Instantly it makes your coloring seem like it was watercolored. Next I want to try watercolor crayons, as I hear they are just as wonderful to use!

Bird Brains Right Side of Spread

The quote is: "If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be ravens". The actual quote from Henry Ward Beecher was not "ravens", but "crows", but I switched it for this spread.

It was an honor to have worked in this book for Mija, my dear Oregonian Art Friend & Santa Cruz Soul Sister! I must confess that I felt a little intimidated when it showed up as all the previous work is just amazingly beautiful! I took a long time working out what I wanted to do on "test papers" and couldn't find the right fit. Knowing that my personally set deadline to get it in the mail by the end of the year was quickly approaching, I sat down and worked it out. I had the images of the feathers, the large crow, the silly men and the quote but had no idea how I was going to put it together. I opened the book to the blank black spread and stared at it for about 15 minutes. Once I started moving the pieces around, it started to evolve. Then I really got into it and had to force myself to stop and sleep. I picked it up again today and finished it off. As is true with most of my work, it seems to just evolve into something. My compositions never turn out to be what I had in mind in the first place. I know some artists "see the finished canvas" before they start, but somehow that has never worked with me! I usually start with one image or a piece of paper or a quote or word and go from there.

The name "henry ward beecher" was put into the flying bird at the top left at first. Then I wondered, at about 9:00 pm tonight where this quote came from (what text). When I googled I found that it came from a piece called "bird brains" and voila! I knew it had to be put into the bird instead. I really like how it all came to ballance once I moved his name and added the title. With that, I was done!

Tomorrow this book starts its journey to Kelly in Southern California, where she will most certainly create a real masterpiece for it! It feels right somehow that it is going to "little bird" now! I cannot wait to see how it evolves...

Mini "Things With Wings" ATC's

Vintage Holiday Themed ATC's

Click On This Link...

...if you want to see all the beautiful playing cards made for the WINGS OF HOPE PROJECT inspired by the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

http://www.alteredchix.com/

Once there, click on "WINGS OF HOPE" to take you to the picture trail! These beautiful cards have been sent to Oprah with our hopes that they will be used for charity. Enjoy!

Favorite Quotes Theme

This card was made for a Vintage Favorite Quotes Swap. The background paper was given to me in a paper swap and I have saved it for a long time. It felt right for this card with all its texture and layers because we travel through life with those very same things. Or at least the really interesting people do!

Vintage Beach Themed ATC's (Artist Trading Cards)

4 Page Spread For Circus Round Robin Book

This is the opening page of "The Circus Girls" spread I did for another Round Robin Book. This page was actually created last after I realized that I had picked all circus women to display! A coincidence?! I don't think so....I myself think I'm a freak! So I must have been telling my own story, eh?!
This is the last of the four pages. The colored dots are actually clear bingo chips! I also used vintage circus tickets in this spread.
Strange Girls....why were they born?! Because we are ALL beautiful to behold! This is the third page of the spread.

This is the second page of the spread. I have plans to make a book like this for myself one day. I just love how whimsically it turned out! A great theme!

Gold Themed ATC Swap

The theme of this swap was GOLD. I am really proud of how these cards turned out. They seem so "rich" and "deep". The square images in the background are actual cancelled postage stamps. Perfect for this project!

3 Mini ATC's For A Winner Takes All Lottery

These were made for the winner of another WTA Lottery Drawing. She said she loved abstract and roosters. These were so fun to make! I knew right away I wanted to use Picasso's Woman with Book, as that is one of my favorite images! One day if I ever own a tiny house, I'm going to decorate a room around this poster! Anyways, these represent the first mini's that I really fell into "the groove" making. I'm thinking abstract/surreal images may be the best subjects for me with the mini cards since they are so small (1.5 x 2.5 inches).

Altered CD's For An Asian Themed Swap

These are a bit blurry looking because the jewels on them raise the image off of the scanner bed. Some day I'll have a good digital to take pics with. Until then, this should give you a pretty good idea of what they look like. :)

More Altered CD's For An Asian Themed Swap

ATC's For A Vintage Angels Swap

The gold edging on some of these are from candy wrappers! Yes! You can eat the chocolate and then use the paper for art! What a great deal, huh?! ha ha ha! Seriously though - these cards really spoke to me and I loved making them. I hope they are watching over their new owners like good angels should.

Birthday Card and Matching Box

I made these for my Sarah Bella for her 37th birthday. I thought the little girl looked like her a little bit and I just loved her silly smile under all that cake! The saying on the card is: Bella always found a way to have her cake and eat it too! Which PERFECTLY describes my sweet bella! Somehow she always comes out ahead!

Lil Freakies Paper Dolls

I made these for a Miniature Halloween Doll Swap! They are only 4" tall.

2 Mini Cards For A Winner Take All Lottery

Sure, not everyone is going to appreciate the Elvis card! But it was hilarious to make! The winner of the WTA Lottery in the miniatureatc group got to choose the kind of cards they wanted made for them. And this person liked Vintage (thus the nude on the right) and Satire/Humor. She said she loved the Elvis card a lot and that it was right up her alley!

But I DO like Elvis! Honest!

4 Page Spread In A Round Robin Book

This is in Laura A.'s Fantastical Fantasy Book that she sent out for our round robin in the Altered Chix site. On the bottom is a picture of J.M. Barrie himself - the wonderful author of Adventures in Kensington Gardens - better known as Peter Pan! It was this picture of him that inspired me to create this spread.

3" Magnates For The Eiffel Tower Swap in Artchix

The only rules for this swap were that you had to use an image from the Eiffel Tower Collage Sheet from ArtChix and they had to be paper. I decided to make little magnates. I really like how these turned out.