A Happy Lughnasadh to All

Pictured is Lugh - The mythic founder of the feast of Lughnasadh, the ancient Celtic festival he established to commemorate the passing of his his foster mother, Tailtiu - the defeated Firbolg queen who is said to have brought the growing of grain to ancient Ireland by her labours in clearing it's dark forests -  is held around the first days of August. August 1 is tomorrow, hence this picture.

A word about it's creation:
A digitally-created work, one of  4  on the theme of Lammas/Lughnasadh created for an Artist trading card exchange. The other 3 may be seen by accessing my Gallery at the  ATCS for ALL site on the sidebar.


Lugh himself is actually an outdoor sculpture of the ancient fighter, Vercingetorix atop a pillar by the 19th century French sculptor Aime Millet...I coloured him digitally fo this ATC card , as I much admired his stolid and heroic pose... the long spear I added in, as it has been mentioned, along with the bag at his waist, as objects that always accompany him.
His giant horse is from a 1901 post-card and his hunting hound from Morgue File.
The stormy back-ground is my own photo from a field near Rocky Mountain house, here in Alberta , the stylized frame is in the public domain.

Shades of Black, White and Gray : Tarot card 15

Tarot card XV-The Devil

I tend to use a lot of Public Domain imagery in my cards, and am going to try to do better in this new year to give more credit where credit is due - Library of Congress /LOC and the New York Public Library /NYPL here!

I’ve downloaded a huge amount of imagery and put them in various folders for future use……
Having an idea already in my head for The Devil card, I pretty well knew what folders to access for imagery and initially - after first choosing what I thought of as an appropriately dramatic back-ground for them - narrowed down to about 21 to possibly use… I put them in a new folder so I could visually see the mix together to try and pick out the best matches for the back-ground…..and then chose my three main ones

Went for shades of grey, as I think that’s my overall feeling on this subject card…..
I think, really, we are our own agents - bar a catastrophe-like being in a War ,or having some kind of illness- things not of our doing- we more or less make our own personal ‘hells’ just as we go about our daily lives…

So I was quite surprised when I came up with an “Eve” image for the woman, and an unaware “Adam”-type …the wonderful operatic Mephistophicles figure was just too fitting for the background NOT to have him there overseeing it all!
A diagram of the Golden Mean -what we want to achieve/have,and mostly beyond our grasp- kind of finished off the symbolism from being somewhat quasi- religious to more simply just speculative……I hope!
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Back-ground: Stage design of 1896 by one Adolphe Appia
Man: LOC image from 1860 by one Marconi
Woman: NYPL image from their theatre database
Devil: from a turn-of-the-last Century Russian operatic production of Faust

Shades of Black, White and Gray III : Gothic Collages

All Things Gothic Collages

I was inspired again to continue creating more old-fashioned style Gothic scenes in black and white tones, and the arches format

They are

Night at the Opera (albeit not the Bros Marx )!
The Awakening
The Meeting Place and
The Summons

All are public domain images- original stage or movie stills figures set into new backgrounds- backed by the patterned gel-layered napkin paper I made pictured behind them.

Shades of Black, White and Gray II : Gothic Arches

Bodacious B/W Gothic Arches Swap
The word "Gothic" was the approach I took for these 4-and shades of gray
Please take a moment to click on the title to see black and white work by other artists in this swap

All mixed media / photo transfer or collages with gel-layered napkin paper backs
All photos are Public Domain

The Stairs
The Assignation ( how's that for a gothic phrase )?
Angel of Remorse and
Twilight Garden

Shades of gray,black and white I

I am once again in love with Black and white...and shades of GRAY!

Victorian age swap - false daguerreotype and newly photo-manipulated photo
Depicted: Aime Millet
(1819-1891)
Millet was famous in France for his monumental sculptures. His portrait here - placed in front of one of them and aged and embellished digitally - is from an original still amazingly clear studio shot by Felix Nadar c. 1856.

Base Textures, albeit modified ,courtesy of Shadowhouse Creations/aka Skeletalmess

I have used Jerry Jones' wonderfully evocative digital textures as an enhancement to more than a few of my images since I first discovered him as FLICKRS' skeletalmess...he remains one of the most generous-minded and open community spirited artists online.

The "False daguerreotype"beside it is made as follows:

Dissolve 2 Tbs of bar soap shavings into 1/4 cup of hot water
Let cool.
Add 1 Tbs turpentine / Mix well

Print out a b/w image from your inkjet computer onto regular copy paper ( My b/w is the same image as shown in it's digitally coloured version here )
My printer is an Epson pigment-based one, I"m assuming a dye-based printer would work as well-

Paint over the picture, count to ten ,then turn onto bond or water-colour paper
Burnish well with spoon about 1/2 minute....lift it off and check it out!!

Lady Luna and Sir Finn

lady Luna and Sir Finnegan....cats we know and love!

Introducing Spaceball comics!

My bro and I were big super-hero fans when we were kids, so in redponse to a SCI-FI Swap I decided to create my own brand.....introducing SPACEBALL COMICS

Using old 1950's era Planet comics as inspiration,

I did some new backgrounds/re-colured some others, swapped/re-named some characters and designed new covers for a a new image ....the SPACEBALL image!

Digital design altered and re-assembled into physical collages- 1 only of each -for the swap..

( Original designs saved as files to only be re-issued, if ever , as digital - only prints )

Introducing Princess Zara and Space Maiden!

Homage to Hitchcock

Thought it was about time to show some of my recent work!

I"m in an exchange about what movies mean to you over at the ATCS for ALL site

MEDIA: Digitally designed collage/ re-assembled as a single physical collage

To keep the ATCS I make one-of-a-kind for the recipient , even while digitally designed , I choose certain layers to isolate and then print out as seperate collage elements to physically re-assemble. Pen or CP might be added, or a water-colour or mixed media base used...

In the case of Homage to Hitchcock, about 4 seperate layers of birds -and a plane - were flattened into the sky back-ground, with his profile shadow to make one collage layer to cut out and put down.

So, 7 into 1 cut-out...the hand, house and field were also laid down seperately.

Photo Painting Image

Here are the finished images 

Baby Blue  and 

Luna looking Up

Compare them to their  WIPS   below to see the difference!

QUAN YIN - Chinese Goddess of Compassion

Quan Yin - The Chinese Buddhist Goddess of Compassion is one of 4 cards created for the WATER elements exchange on ATCS FOR ALL.

Patroness of Fishermen, she is sometimes seen standing on water over a lotus- symbol of purity- and a protective dragon-or overcome sea serpent - about her....she is also seen depicted carrying either a vase of merciful water to pour out to those in need , or a willow branch.

Digital design of about 9 layers

Summer 2010 Exchanges I"ve been in!

I haven't written here, but I have been busy creating art!

The other cards in these exchanges - usually 3 different out for 3 back - can be seen over on my ATC"sFOR ALL Gallery page

Some methods:

Constellations were done on coated  scratchboard paper with cp and gel pens...found the surface is so slick anything used to colour photographs  ( like Marshall's photo cps ) works on that surface very nicely!

Tried "scraping" first and found it not my forte'!

The Tiffany lamp postage stamp was built around a last century French fashion illustration, with added collaged elements

The "Apple twins" are a face doubled and cut out.  Image courtesy of WACKY STUFF ,  of FLICKER.

The "Nuptial Visit" is a PD Theatre image I collaged over a water-coloured background over which I embossed feather shapes with cp for the wall-paper.

"The Newfangled Invention " actually WAS an invention...!!

I placed it in the early 1900s, but it actually was invented in the early 1930's...the inventor remains a Frenchman, but with his HEAD SWAPPED for a more EDWARDIAN-looking fellow, following STEAMPUNK-  period"conventions"

Three pictures were combined and layered to make it , and I decided designing it to look like an old studio photo of the period would be fun!

Lu Hai and the three-legged toad

Title: Lu Hai and his 3-legged Toad

1 in a series of 4 designs done for an Asian-themed exchange on ATC’s FOR ALL.

( The link here goes directly to my Gallery, there , to see the rest )

There are many versions of this theme of the good luck and riches toad and his human companion.

I chose to combine 2 Ming Dynasty images of the story I found in the Smithsonian Museum online; the main image is shown here, untouched and as as I downloaded it.

Quite the fun challenge to “clean it up” a bit - left some of the bottom stains in for effect - and frame it with a colour-changed border of a Chinese silk painting I got years ago.

My intention was to print it - and other Asian designs I did - on silk, but found the silk version of light art works much muted; ( nice for Lu Hai- but not the others ).. even with more saturation and set to best printing mode... and the darker prints were just too dark...AH me!
Cotton dulled all prints
Mulberry paper worked well with the darker, but soaked up the lighter!

So with Epson pigment ink and on Epson photo paper it remains!

Vintage Lace

I loved creating these ...and I love the result!

These are the digital copies - the ones mailed for the exchange are of fabric.

Printing the images on silk fabric for inkjet, and adhering them and the lace with sheet adhesive worked very well!

Can't wait to see what the mail brings for me!

Exquisite Corpse

Meet Geraldine 

( not the transvestite one from Some Like it Hot - before that )!

A 3 part image to be mixed-and-matched in a swap called Exquisite Corpse.

She was inspired from a photo of an early stage and screen actress named Geraldine Farrar; done with cp/fine line marker and metallic pen on Bristol.

Her pose and attitude reminded me of a Mucha model, so I followed his lead in the decorative detail, though substituting silver for his lush gold.

Newest ATCS Traded

Thought I"d show what I've been up to, Art-wise, besides digital -work.

I've been in a series of exchanges over at the ATCS FOR ALL Web-site over the past few months; shown above are some of them!

I quite like the set-up of the ATCS FOR ALL trading site... you join a swap -  numerous varied themes are always on the go - and usually have a time limit of 6 weeks to 2 months to complete either 3 0r 6 pieces of art to swap for...3 for 3 or 6 for 6.

The host master/mistress chooses what they consider like for like effort &/or ability wise.. after having been in a fair amount of swaps now I can say that I think generally, the host decisions as to how to swap OUT - whom to whom - are fair, more than not.....You send in to them, and they swap all received cards out to the other traders.

The prime  advantage for me is because I am only making a limited amount of cards within a discrete time span - I usually opt for 3 for 3 -I feel I personally end up actually doing BETTER WORK...it keeps my initial interest fresh and alive!

I truly believe that attitude works both ways; affecting other participants as well!

Happy May Day , one and All!

TITLE:   Reader Rock Gardens

SWAP:   Vintage Spring/ ATC'S FOR ALL

I researched Historic Houses in the Calgary area from at least 85 years ago to make the sources Vintage. Calgary was only declared a city -of 4000 souls- in 1884; so most Vintage homes are of the 1885-1925 era.

Couldn't help throwing in a famous cowboy's homesteader's cabin about 150 km from Calgary, though!
I also tried to match the era of the house with flora and fauna that would likely have either naturally grown or been planted in the area at the time.

THE HOW:

I designed the cards digitally in layers; then printed the underlying house layers on adhesive cotton that went over a base of a green floral print which I had distressed.
A layer of waxed paper went under a transparency printed with a floral overlays.

Constructing a card that way is quite new to me; so I've learned a bit from the experience..know better what to do next time around!

AS OF APRIL 30, 2010 , THERE IS STILL SNOW ON THE GROUND HERE...WE WERE HIT BY A SLEET STORM THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY, AND SNOW YESTERDAY MORNING!

THAT'S CALGARY!

Busy at ATC's for All!

I have been busy creating Art- digital and otherwise- for some of the themed swaps courtesy of the members of the  ATC's for All( AFA ) site as of late.....

I have a GALLERY over there featuring cards I created for some of the swaps I have been involved in.

I will be uploading a few examples to post here,  in the near future!

The one posted above, Winter Tree is a photo transfer onto film, adhered to paper I made out of watercolour paper scraps and white cabbage!

It is ATC-sized, 1 in a series of 4 made for the TREES Swap I was in.  The other 3 can be seen in my Gallery on the site.

ATCS FOR ALL Site & Photography Festival Feb 1-28 2010

Went tonight to a First Thursday Gallery opening at one of my favourite Calgary little eclectic book arts loving Galleries where I made my first ever IN-PERSON-and-IN -THE-FLESH ATC exchange!

I traded with photographer Roberta Murray, who is also known as  uncommondepth  on the ATCS  for All website....I received a print of her fine limited edition  digitally enhanced Alberta parkland photo "Daybreakers" in exchange for my own ( Artist proof)  copy of "Eternity"..

Interesting to talk to an established Artist who  agrees that there is still prevalent a lack of acceptance for the validity and merit of creative photographic art enhanced digitally on behalf of still quite a few out there... 

I"m also in a mail art trade with another member of the site who does lovely digital art from Finland, trading a post-card size copy of my digitally archived but never printed or traded  "The Ghost in the Machine "

We're both quite interested in seeing how long mail takes from there to Canada -and vice -versa!

ATC's for ALL is a PRIMO site for all kinds of trades and swaps ever-changing and fast moving....

One can configure their own Gallery and thus display any cards they want to trade one-on-one; or join one of the active swaps ", there's also forums for swapping art other than ATCS...such as inchies, chunkies, bookmarks or the aforementioned Mail Art...

Have joined:

-a digital "round robin" 

-a 3-for-3 swap on TREES ( any medium )

-a 3-for3 on the theme "Air" ( any medium )

-and a 3-for-3 creating your own hand-drawn and coloured CHIMERA

For anyone at all interested in Art exchanges I most definitely say ...

CHECK IT OUT!