Category: Art

I think I have neglected to mention previously that I’m participating in Indie For Awareness, a connection of 30 women owned indie businesses, that are working together to raise money for the Komen Foundation for breast cancer research (October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month).

Although it can be a subject we like to passs by, breast cancer is an important one, and I’m happy to have even a small chance to help.  During the month of October, I’ll be donating 10% of playsilk sales from my website, http://www.elliebelly.com to the Komen Foundation.  If you don’t know what playsilks are, but have or love a small child, please come and take a look!  They’re a wonderful toy from the Waldorf and Montessori educational traditions and make fabulous presents and stocking stuffers come holiday time, so come grab some now, while the fundraiser is on!

I’m also doing some survivor journals, in collaboration with Melanie at Earthenwood Studios. Melanie has made the most fabulous ceramic pieces with pink ribbons and inspirational words, and I’m incorporating them into journals like this one.

This particular journal will be available at noon on Tuesday at http://hyenacart.com/MiddayFaire/  (you will have to scroll down through the stores until you get to Elliebelly to find it) along with at least one other journal and some handpainted yarn, and again, 10% will go to the Komen Foundation, so please bookmark this and come take a look on Tuesday!  There will be more survivor journals throughout the month, both at Midday Faire and at Elliebelly.

Finally, since so many of you have taken an interest in the kittens, here is a picture of the slightly more reclusive Harry Potter, who ventured into my studio, took a few leaps and scattered scraps and ephemera every where, and then, after dipping his tail into the gesso a couple of times, curled up in one of the assemblage boxes beneath my desk and took a (cat)nap.

Have you ever tried typing with gesso on your fingers?  I have a sort of gesso obsession.  I paint with it, I scribble in it, I cover stuff with it.  A comfort in times of artistic block.  A multi-purpose cure to many evils.  I think I look at it the way my husband, a good southern boy, looks at duct-tape.  In any event, it’s all over my fingers right now and it’s an unpleasant typing sensation.

I’m using the gesso in my work in Beth Bricker’s fabric book.  I’ve been diligently working on my pages for over a month and am down to some final details and the final sewing, but my studio is in such a hash that I couldn’t find enough space to lay the pages out, so i’m working on my (oil cloth covered) dining room table.

I really don’t sew anymore — my machine gets more use on paper or canvas than on fabric these days, but these pages are lots of fun and Beth is a gem for having this idea!  For the fronts of my pages, I used a transparency image sewn over a painted block of (what else?) gesso that I’ve stamped over.

And, I’ve had some help from an unusual source.  We now have collage cats, real collage cats, living in our house.  We had an utterly devastating experience, that I still don’t really want to talk about, involving Ellie’s darling birthday kitten and a congenital defect that we weren’t told about when we purchased her.  Long story short, earlier this week my wonderful husband, a man who has never seen a puppy or kitten he didn’t like, refused to choose between kittens as a "replacement" (I was still to devastated to do much more than go look and acknowledge that they were really cute) and decided we would get the little girl for ellie and the little boy would be our anniversary present to each other.  So we are now the proud parents of two adorable, enchanting Maine Coon Cats, Harry & Hermione, who are winning our hearts and helping to ease the pain of losing our wonderful kitten Amy.  Harry & Hermione are fascinated by art and have been only too happy to help out with a random cat paw print here and there.

Just a quick late night picture…

This is my work in DJ Pettit’s uber cool vinyl book.

I wanted to share one last piece of art before I pack up and take everything off to exhibit at Artwalk, which starts this afternoon.  Thanks to all of your kind comments and emails, I’m passed the jittery stage and onto the excited and ready for fun stage.  I’m off to set everything up and then pick up a case of wine — that way, people will either like my art or they will be having so much fun that they will think they like it.

                        Her Memories From Before

                                       The War

I’ve spent the whole week sort of torn between utter panic and a concern that i may have lost my sanity somewhere along the way.  Really.  What was I thinking when I decided it was a good idea to enter an artshow?  It seemed pretty easy.  Fill out an application.  Write a check.  Figure you won’t get in.

It starts tomorrow.  It is www.birminghamartwalk.com and it’s an almost queasy feeling knowing that the I’m going to display art in the community where up until now I’ve just been a wife, a mom, a professional.  Not to make too much out of it, but I have this sort of "when worlds collide feeling."

Here are a few of the small collage pieces I’m going to display.

I’m finally getting around to scanning and here are some of the background pieces I did in Mary Jo’s class yesterday (post below).  They are so gorgeous that I think I’m going to print some of them out next time I go to the printer to use as background paper for collages.  She is a wonderful teacher!

These pieces were not finished with Microglaze before I scanned them, so I will be interested to see if the colors shift at all when I do that.