Zetti Princess

This is my entry for The Three Muses challenge this week ( Zlightly Zetti). This was a fun and experimental challenge for me (new to Zetti-style). The interesting part of the challenge for me was to create something in a very well known and recognizable style but still make it my own and represent what I like to do! The background to this piece is a journal page made from decorative paper napkins and clipart. The face and Kimono images are from Dover. The symbols, hat, coins and Zetti swirls were added digitally.

Cabernet

This is my Gothic Arches entry for the theme "Autumn". I love Autumn, and where I live in the wine country in California- nothing says it more beautifully than the grapevines in their full glory. The colors are fantastic just as the "crush" begins to happen in late September . I made this Gothic Arch with some of the colors and elements that symbolize this time. I wanted it to have the look of a wine bottle label which I love to collect!

Dance Fest '09

This is my postcard entry for SPA (Stripey Legs). I decided to make a poster-type postcard this week using a great rubber stamp (Teesha Moore) , scanned and altered ribbon elements and the background is sheet music that I altered digitally. Digital text added.

Grunge With Alcohol Inks

This is my entry for the SaWo theme. Artist papers were used for the background of this journal page and the woman and cross are Fimo clay pieces that I made that are finshed with alcohol inks and metallic pigments.

Window To the Soul

When I first saw the prompt for this week's theme at The Three Muses (Windows) my mind went to that old proverb "The Eyes are the Window to the Soul". I googled the quote and had a hard time finding the author (the information runs from an old biblical reference to William Shakespeare) so I'm not sure- but I like it! This is a digital collage made from a (Dover ) image , a personal photo of a window in my home with the sun coming in (erased out background) and a photo I took of an ornamental piece at Grace Cathedral (sky element). I added digital text and gradient filters.
I have always been drawn to a person's eyes as an immediate (and I have been wrong) sense of their essence or nature. A downcast eye (shyness) or a bold square look into your eye (truthful, honesty) rings true most of the time. I think a lot of emotion and inner signals make themselves apparent through our eyes- a sort of window to our inner being.

Postage Nichos

This is my entry for the MMM challenge (Metals). These are metal Nichos or shrines that I altered with paint, postage stamps and added bead embellishments and metal patinas.

The Fortune Teller

This is my entry for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge "Gypsies". It is a digital 4x6 card made from assorted copy-free clip art and artist papers. I also included a couple of (fortune card)tags that I made. Digital layering and filters added.
I have always been fascinated by the Gypsy lifestyle ( although I'm sure that the fascination is fueled by a very romantisized - Hollywood or book version rather than one based in reality). The fortune teller or seer was always portrayed as a wise and mysterious woman who read cards or gazed into a crystal to tell you your fortune (for a price , of course)! Having learned the Tarot myself I now realize that the best reading is one you do yourself- an intuitive, insightful exercise - that certainly can be aided by someone knowledgeable in the card meanings - but one who lets (you) give the cards their meaning and power.

The Magician

This is my entry for TGIF this week- the theme is Magic. This is one of my digital Tarot Cards - The Magician (1). This is composed of art papers for the background and a tag that I made using(rubber stamping and hand painting) and then over layed. Assorted copy-free clip art and digital text was added. The Magician , follows the Fool in the major arcana and represents magic along our path. Any good magician knows that magic is fueled by intent and right desire along with the use of corresponding elements that align with the wanted outcome. We are all magicians when we set forth on our journey to achieve and by pulling all of our sources and knowledge and intent together for an expected outcome- magic happens and we get our desired results.

Sitting Pretty

I admit it. I own far too many pairs of jeans! Dress jeans, torn jeans, skinny jeans, fat jeans; yes I have them all. One of the things that I realized that attracted me to some of my jeans are their back pockets- which are often quite fancy and detailed. So, for The Three Muses challenge this week (Pockets) I took photos of the back pockets on 5 different pairs of my jeans and made a digital collage from them. I cropped, arranged and added artistic filters and some digital text for fun. Some day I may look back on this collage and wonder - how did I ever sit down! Such a slave to fashion!

The Sea Ghost

My husband and I built a home in 1992 on the Pacific coast in Mendocino California. It was a glorious setting and it was a vacation home for our family for about 9 years. I named it "The Sea Ghost". Among some of the antiques that we found in nearby Fort Bragg ( a quaint fishing and lumber industry town) to furnish the place was this old steamer trunk (above photo). I remember the musty smell inside but was really taken by the mystery that it held. I now owned the Key to unlocking its hidden past, its travels, its prior owners.
I decided to make a digital collage using my own photos for Rosie and Linda's Big Art Adventure in which the theme this time is "Key". A key is a powerful piece of hardware. It leads to joy, sometimes sorrow, and sometimes through a door of no return. It can answer long held questions and give insight to past times and perhaps even future ones.

Skull and Butterfly

This is my entry for the TGIF theme (skull). A digital collage made from a photo I took of a plaster skull which I then cropped, erased and painted digitally. Artist papers and butterfly images added. A little graffiti Halloween spirit!

Moonlight Musings

I do enjoy the romantic theme challenges! This is for The Three Muses this week - the theme being"Moonstruck". I built the background from 2 layers of artist papers then added cropped images (background erased and altered) on the woman and fern images. The rubber-stamped moon is from one of my journal pages and the butterflys I created digitally. Gradient filters added.

Twilight Garden

Ah- Twilight or Dusk as some call it. That wonderful in-between time when the sun has just set behind the hills but you can still see enough to dream. Here in Northern California we are just entering late summer into fall (another in-between time) and the sunsets are amber in hue and long golden shadows spread over the landscape. Definately my favorite "Time of Day" and season to boot! I made this digital collage for Mixed Media Monday and it represents twilight in my garden- where I am often visited by Barn Owls (some that I rehabilitated and released when I worked at Wildcare) and others looking to nest (I still have a nest box on my property). Twilight is a magical time for rest , reflection and connecting to the darkening world around us!

Art Academy Postcard

Early September and school begins again. I always enjoyed starting back to school with all new pens, pencils, binders and organizers (things didn't stay organized for long!) ; looking forward to a new year of learning and new experiences. Looking back I was always very practical minded about the courses I took but wish now that I had taken more art classes or gone to Art School... On the other hand I think our art developes with time, out of what we know and learn reflecting who we are and what we have become. With Art School in mind, I made this digital collage for the Sunday Postcard Art Challenge "School".

Celebrate -Gothic Arches

This is my handmade card entry for the Gothic Arches Challenge (#2) in celebration of their 2nd Birthday! I have only been a member a short while but am enjoying the creations a lot- gets me back to the art table.

Chaplin - Modern Times

This is my entry for The Three Muses challenge this week - the theme being Charlie Chaplin. About 35 years ago - just after college my husband and I went to a Chaplin film festival at UC Berkeley ( a tye-dyed and long haired pair!) , and one of the films that really hit me was "Modern Times " made in 1936. It was Chaplin's last "silent" film - despite (talkies) already in full force and it became his social commentary on the ill effects of machination in modern society- (the silent film being a bit of a hold-back to the more modern films with sound). Giant cogwheels and a tiny Charlie represented what he believed to be a scarry -yet funny prospective future! This is a digital collage I made that sort of represents the old and the new in respect to the sentiments the film left me with. An ominous machine in the foreground and a smaller/shadow of Charlie behind. I added a fibre/coffee-stained look to this piece for a bit of ageing.

Sidewalk Art

I played around with some images last night - one is a photo of a cool brick pattern in the sidewalk in San Francisco that I took while visiting a few weeks ago and the other image is actually a rubber stamped image in one of my journal pages. I blended the two and added filters in Photoshop to create a kind of sidewalk art.

I love combining images to create something new. I have always done collage work but the "magic" of digital is captivating and never ceases to entertain me. Beats TV!