Mothers and Daughters

As a collage artist, I am always on the lookout for paper of all kinds to use in my work.  In particular I love old books and dictionaries, maps, anatomy and technical drawing books.  Anything with interesting print and patterns will do.  One dictionary I purchased at a resale shop contained a foreign words and phrases section.  LOVED that! Using a few choice phrases, family photos, and the techniques I learned from two great workshop, a new sentiment series was born.

This summer I brought collage artist, Jane Davies, to Houston to teach a workshop.  That's her in the picture above wearing her plastic tiara.  This class was a blast and really pushed me out of my comfort zone.  Making abstract art is not easy - at least, not for me. 



 Using Jane's guidance, I created the three abstracts above.  Now, what was I supposed to do with them?  I tucked them away and got ready for my next arty adventure - my first online art workshop.

 I wasn't sure if I would like taking an online class; but, I saw Mary Jane Chadbourne's playing card class and I couldn't resist.   Mary Jane's class was yet another eye opening experience and the online instruction was fantastic.  Here are some of Mary Jane's cards below.

So, now I have my dictionary phrases, my abstracts, and my new playing card techniques I learned from Mary Jane.  Here is how I put them all together.

 

I started by taking this (very old) photo of myself and making a copy.  Instead of copy paper I used a page from my dictionary and ran it through my printer.  Nice effect! 

Next, I took my abstract background and glued it onto an 8 X 10 canvas, mounted my picture to the abstract background and super sized all the playing card techniques to fit a bigger size substrate. 

I used another abstract for the background of this piece.  That's my mom pictured.

The last background I used with a picture of my daughter.

Mothers and daughters - three generations in art.  I think each foreign phrase fits its subject perfectly and I love the new techniques that brought the pieces together.  Both of my amazing instructors teach online workshops throughout the year.  Find them here:

Jane Davies - www.janedaviesstudios.com

Mary Jane Chadbourne - http://desertdreamstudios.weebly.com/blog.html



Desserts in Review

The yummy dessert series is all wrapped up.  I tried several new techniques this time around and I really like the results. 

 

One of the things I purposely tried to do was to create the feeling of "white" using color, as seen in the cupcake holder, the ice cream, the cream-filled cookies and the cake.  Large areas of white in collage have always been a challenge for me; but, mixing in colored paper with the white paper completely brought the white to life.  That was a good lesson learned.   

 

 

 

 

Another first in the dessert series was the use of a few large format stamps I made from foam core and fun foam.  (Thanks Judi Hurwitt for that fun class this summer).  I cut the foam core to the size of the panel - 12 X 12 - and then cut self adhesive fun foam into circular shapes, placed the shapes onto the foam core, applied paint with a sponge, stamped the panel, voila!  Very happy with the result.

 

   

 

Another handmade stamp was used for the cake background.





 

And another for the cookies background.

 

 

Chocolate covered starwberries has a background made from a stencil, a rubber stamp, and a small circle cookie cutter used as a stamp.

 

Soon after I finishing this series, I discovered the Society 6 website which allows you to upload your art images and place them on items such as notecards and tote bags. 

 

 http://society6.com/LisaMoralesMixedMedia/Cupcake-Delight-tsQ_Cards



 



http://society6.com/LisaMoralesMixedMedia/Cupcake-Delight-tsQ_Bag#26=197



So Cool!