Imagine This

Well, Look Who Finally Did a Little Art!

This is a collage I created for a new artist friend.

I did this collage in the style of my good friend and swap buddy, Kim Logan. I'd been wanting to try her style for a while now. . . you know, "copy the masters" in order to learn. Isn't that what they have you do in art school? LOL. Seriously, I appreciate Kim's awesome art and I wanted to see what I could learn from it by emulating it. Funny how it turns out looking different when different artists do the same technique! I'm afraid I'll have to do some more "Kim art" before my take on it matches the splendor of Kim's.

Patti Koosed is the new artist friend to whom I sent this collage. She is a new friend but not a new artist. Patti is a retired interior designer from California who has relocated to Oregon and has taken up our favorite pasttime -- mixed media art! Patti was so new to our world that she didn't even know what a RAK was but true to her naturally generous nature and for no reason at all, she surprised me with this little collage that she had been practicing on:

Collage by Patti Koosed

Isn't it cute? I think she's getting the hang of mixed media collage quite quickly, don't you? Patti is one talented artist you will want to watch. Besides her blog, Treasure Barn, be sure to check out Patti's web site, Treasure Barn, an online second hand store and her Etsy shop. She was able to put me back in an arty mood and I appreciate the impetus to make art again. Thanks to Patti for the motivation and to Kim for the inspiration.

I've worked hard this past two weeks to finish up some mail art swaps and to finally complete that incredibly long calendar round robin I was in. I wanted to get those off my list before I take off for Seattle with my good buddy and innovative artist, Deryn Mentock. We will be off for an adventuresome week to experience the found object jewelry world of the amazing Susan Lenart Kazmer. Since Deryn's was the last calendar book I had to work in -- how could I face her for a whole week if I hadn't finished her book? LOL. When I get back, I'll post my pages in her book and some of the mail art I managed to complete. Stay tuned.

Angel Gone Home - Sad News

Vickie Enkoff 
(of Creative Chaos, Artistic Rubber Stamps and OrganizedStudio )
died suddenly and unexpectedly about 1 pm yesterday, Aug 17, 2007. 

I had just read that she was in the process of closing her rubber stamp business to focus more on her health and was thinking how I'd miss her presence online.

I didn't know her well - I once did a collaborative rubber sheet with her daughter, Melanie Sage and I bought rubber stamps and zines from Vickie -- and always looked over her sale items. I also was a regular lurker over on her Yahoo group, OrganizedStudio.

Vickie was a selfless soul who spent her hours trying to be helpful to anyone she thought needed it. She was loved by so many friends and also by many people she didn't even know. She was one of those people you just assume will always be there should you need them.
There are many shocked and devastated friends and family members today.

According to her daughter, Melanie Sage, she went swiftly surrounded by her family. Melanie said Vickie asked not to have a funeral- she wants only a celebration at home.  The family wants to decorate the house with art from all her friends - art that celebrates her life. You can send it to her husband, Grady Enkoff, 14961 Valencia Ave, Fontana, CA 92335.

There is information about Vickie, her illnesses, and her death on Melanie's blog. That is where Melanie asked to have any messages of condolence posted -- as comments on her blog. There is also a little bit more about the kind of art Vickie liked in case you decide to send something to the family for decorating the house. I know she was a big Frida Kahlo fan.

It is really odd how touched I am over this tragedy surrounding people I don't even know very well. Just another example of how the internet has bridged relationships and made us all one big community. My deepest sympathy goes out to Melanie, Grady, and the rest of her family and friends. May God walk with you and warm you with dear memories.

Oh, Boy! Mail Call! Not Just once, But TWICE!!!

Look at this luscious mail art that the awesome Sharon Tomlinson (Sharon at Norah'S) sent to me for no reason at all! What a lucky girl am I! Aren't these colors yummy? The very happy stamp is Sharon's own carving and that tag unties to open up with a personal greeting - how clever is that? Here's a look at the open tag:

And here is the back of the tag:

Sharon sent this tag just as it is - no envelope - through the mail. Don't you know the mail clerks enjoyed seeing this little jewel? You can see all the tags she made in this style in a post on her blog here. She did these to participate in a mail art challenge as a participant in "Crusade #10" over on Michelle Ward's Green Pepper Press Street Team.

Sharon is a talented and skilled mixed media artist from Texas. After receiving this tag in the mail, I was thrilled to see that Sharon and I are practically neighbors! She lives only about 100 miles from me -- hey, in Texas that's a next door neighbor!

Sharon's blog, All Norah'S Art (Norah is Sharon's muse! Isn't that cute?) is a banquet full of eye candy. Check out  this box she mailed that is done in the same bold style as the tag she sent me. She writes in this post that she can't really show all about this mail art but she hints that we might see it in an up coming issue of Cloth Paper Scissors.

In another post on her blog, you can see a picture of some gorgeous mailing tubes Sharon decorated with this bold and sassy paper.

There are miles and miles of art in Sharon's blog. You must pay her a visit. And while you are there, don't miss her collaborative art journal, I Choose Flesh. Just scroll down her side bar until you see, "My True Colors Flesh Journal." Each page of the journal has a link in the list just below her Flickr badge in the side bar.

Below is a little peek at the cover for this creative masterpiece. Check out the other pages in the side bar here.

Now, remember I said that I had TWO mail calls to tell you about? Well, I'll post about the other one tomorrow.  Until then, have a grand ole time over at  all Norah'S art.

Arty Gras Mask

My last three posts included something about face masks made with Rigid Wrap. Two of the posts were actually about my grandkids visits during which we made masks of their faces. The other post is a set of instructions for making the masks. With so much posted about masks, I thought I'd show you one more of the ones I've made using this technique.

I had forgotten about this mask until the granddaughters pointed it out in a showcase in my house. This mask won first place in a conference artifact competition at Darlapalooza a few years back. The mask of my face was built by my friend and artist extraodinaire, Molly Campbell. Of course, I decorated it for the contest. Because the theme of the conference was Arty Gras, I used acrylic paint hues, collage images, and found objects representing things indigenous to New Orleans and Mardi Gras.

Below are some other views of the mask, some with more detail of the images used in collage. Click on any image to see a larger view.

Details:         
Forehead Medallion                 Nose and Mouth Area
            
Right Cheek Area                            Left Cheek Area
 

I Survived Week 2 of Camp T!!

Note: Instructions to make a mask are published below in the post after this one.
(Click on any image to have a better look.)

Alrighty then -- on Tuesday, I met my DIL and picked up the granddaughters, Carly 8 and  Korie 4 years old. Gee, girls have lots of "need-to-have" stuff -- especially stuffed animals! So, off we started for this great camp week. On the way to Huntsville, we stopped at Jack-in-the-Box (AND Burger King 'cause Carly doesn't like Jack's chicken but she does like Jack's fries.) Hmmm, maybe it's gonna be hard to spoil these two? But I know we can do it.

The first day was all the usual camp stuff - the girls picked out video movies for the night and then went grocery shopping. This week we shall have Spaghetti Os, Lunchables, Gushers, Fruit Roll Ups, -- well, you get the idea. When asked by her mom what she liked best about Camp T last year -- she said, "Grocery shopping!" Well, hey, I like that too 'cuz it's fun and it means I don't have to sweat meals. Hopefully, they won't be hurt by a few days of eating junk. (My apologies to Mom and Dad!)

That night we saw Barnyard (Korie's pick) and Cinderella III (you know, where the ugly stepsisters plan their revenge.) --- yea, a chick flick -- I think I'm going to like this week's movies - at least checking the ratings won't be quite the hard task it was last week.

On the second day, Papa T picked up McDonald's breakfast. While the girls ate, I went into their bedroom for some reason -- GUESS WHAT??? Those little angels had cleaned up the room, made the bed, and put out their PJs! Amazing! (Mom, aren't you proud?) I told them how different the boys left the room (Duh!) and thanked them for the awesome job they did. Then the girls and I went to the studio to plan our project. Against my better judgment, I agreed to do masks with them, too. Oh, my. Next, a trip to the video store to get new movies for the night.. . Tonight it will be The Wizard of Oz (Korie's pick), Wallace & Gromit-the Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and The Last Mimsy (Carly's pick.)

Papa T took the girls to lunch at King's Candy Store while Mimi had lunch with her old art group (The Monday Night Football Art Group that started meeting together on Monday nights way back when Monday night football started!! Yes, over 30 years ago. We met every week for 30 years!! Yikes.) When I got back home, the girls and I started our masks.

Now, Carly and Korie were a little nervous about the process and frankly, so was I - because of their young ages. I assured them that if they got uncomfortable and wanted to quit (or if I did!) -- we could stop at any time. With that, Carly went first. To my surprise, she did very well. Because I was trying to hurry, I forgot all about taking pictures.  But here is some I manged to get of them with their finished masks two days later.

      
(Click on any image to see a larger version.)

After Carly encouraged her, Korie was now pretty sure she could do it. I thought I could talk her through it. Since I had some inquiries last week from my blog buddies about this mask making process, I enlisted Carly to take pictures of us as we built the mask. Check out the post after this one for the steps in the process and the pictures.

Meanwhile, as we put our masks aside to dry overnight, we watched two of our movies. Korie didn't like the Wizard of Oz -- it's too scary for a 4 year old. I mistakenly thought she had seen it before and liked it. I told her that her dad felt the same way about that movie when he was her age. In fact when she told him about it, he said he doesn't like that scary old movie to this day! LOL. I've now managed to take away two possible fans of that classic. I'm sorry for that.

Thursday morning, we had a chocolate doughnut breakfast! And Hot chocolate, too! Then it was off to the studio for painting of MASKS!!! We did lots of searching for just the right things for decorating the masks. Between layers of gesso and paint -- we set them aside to dry while we did other drawing, coloring, etc. It was a full studio morning.

Finally, it was time for the big trip to Conroe for our afternoon at Incredible Pizza (I.P.) We ate a little lunch from the I.P. buffet - pizza, spaghetti, salad, cookies, cobbler -- etc. -- you know the drill.

 

The first thing was miniature golf on Route 66 by black light! Carly's first ball on the hole #1 was a HOLE IN ONE! Yippee! Forgive me for the horrible black light picture (needed a tripod!) but I couldn't resist showing you the ambiance of that golf course.

Next, bowling on the small lanes. (You can see the longer lanes behind the girls in two of the pictures below. I thought it was so neat that they had short lanes for the  younger kids. Each of the girls managed to get a strike.

 

 

Now on to the bumper cars. Bummer, Korie was too short and wasn't allowed to ride. Never fear, Carly, Papa T will challenge you to a bumper car duel. (Sorry 'bout that flash in your face, Papa T.)

 

Now Korie was too young for the Go Karts but Mimi agreed to drive her and we would race Carly. That was a blast! I'd do it again with the slow cars -- you have to be 14 years old to drive the fast ones and I'm not ready for that.

Mimi and Korie get the winner's ribbon while Carly came in second place. And they said this was a boy's sport! Harrumph!

The afternoon was rounded off with more food and lots more games:

       

Friday morning we put the final touches on our masks. Before we left town to meet Daddy for going home, we went shopping for clothes. Now, these girls are not the clothes hound their brother is which is evidenced by what they picked out. Carly got a fantastic pajama set with leopard print accents. Glitz girl, Korie, selected a purse bedazzled with giant sequins! Yes!

Papa T and I felt a little weird about that shopping trip because the girls probably could have used some real clothes - for wearing. What they got was frivolous, we know, but we decided that the girls got some things they were very excited about and that their parents would never have allowed them to purchase. In fact, we agreed that if we were their parents, we wouldn't have approved of it either. It's so cool to be the grandparents. I'm finally at the place in my life where the rules don't apply to me. Yippee.

Make a Mask of Anyone's Face

How we made the mask:

Photos by Carly Turlington, 8 yrs. old. Didn't she do a pro job?
(Click on any image to have a better look.)

Step 1.
I clipped back as many tiny little hairs as I could to keep them from drying in the plaster - ouch. Then we wrapped her hair and body in plastic to protect the clothes. Note though, later I had to arrange the plastic to allow her hands to be out so that she could hold a paper towel and dab off drips as they roll down her face. This is a very messy process!

Step 2.

Rubbed some lotion over the skin so the plaster wouldn't stick hard to the face. I used Avon's Skin So Soft. Do they still make that product? My bottle is years old. I think it was also a mosquito repellent. It works very well to lubricate the face for this process. I even lubricated the eyelids and eye brows, etc.

Step 3.

Putting a liberal coat of Vaseline (petroleum jelly) over the eyebrows and eyelashes to saturate each hair ensures they won't stick to the plastered gauze -- I didn't want anything stuck to and coming off with the dry mask!

Step 4.
Now, we could start making the mask. Rigid Wrap is gauze impregnated with dry plaster. I cut it in small rectangular pieces. Most about 1 1/2" x 1" and a few were about 1 1/2" x 1/2."  I started with larger ones saving the thin ones for tiny places around her nose.  Each piece of gauze is dipped in warm water just before it's applied. (Disregard the color of the water. Honest, it's only warm tap water but our water turns brown sometimes and the city assures us it's ok - NOT! In a while the faucet water runs clear again.)

Step 5.
I start on the forehead and wrap the pieces around the perimeter of the face, going under the chin, and overlapping each piece by about 1/4 of an inch. After put a piece on, I rub the surface of the piece to smooth the softened plaster. After the perimeter is done, I start covering all the forehead, the checks, and the chin. Next, I cover the eyes and then the lips. As I work, I'm careful to follow all the contours of the face pressing the gauze gently into depressions and crevases so the mask will look like her. I'm especially careful around the eyes, the mouth and lips. I talk the whole time, reassuring Korie that she was doing well and telling her each step what I was about to do. I let her know that when I do the top of the nose and upper lip area that I will not cover the nostrils. She will be able to breathe. I also put a thin strip between the nostrils. It is necessary to put two layers of gauze pieces on the mask so I go over the whole face again. The gauze dries fairly quickly and the forehead and edges will probably be dry and hard already.

          

Step 6.
Before I covered her nostrils, I loosened the edges of the mask all the way around the perimeter to be sure it will come off easily. Lastly, after the mask was loose around the edges, I told Korie it was time for the nostril piece. I counted to three while dipping the small gauze piece in water and moved it to her face, told her to hold her breath, and then quickly covered her nostrils. I count aloud to ten quickly (because we practiced that ahead of time - holding her breath for a count of ten) while I'm smoothing the piece on her nostrils and take the mask off whether I'm done or not. After all, she has to breathe!

Step 7.
I took the mask off. Korie was glad to be out of that dark cave. She did extremely well right up to the end. I always hold the mask up to the light to see where it might be thin and I add pieces of gauze either outside or on the inside of the mask to reinforce it. Korie got impatient and moved her face before the lip and nose area got set enough so I had to reinforce it a lot after we took it off. I would put it back up against her face to try to keep the shapes correct. Be careful when adding gauze for this because too many layers in certain places will distort the mask just enough to NOT look like the subject.

Step 8.
To complete the building of the mask, I cut the shape of the rim to give it a nice oval shape with even edges. Then I added  a layer of gauze pieces around the rim to give it a finished edge. Finally, we set it aside to let it dry overnight. This is necessary in order for it to harden and cure. You can tell if a piece is completely dry by the way it feels – if it feels “cold” its still curing. Rigid Wrap can be cured faster in a microwave – to tell if it is completely cured – allow it to cool before judging to see if it still feels “cold” – at room temperature.

Step 9.
After the masks were totally dry and cured, we covered them with a layer of gesso to seal them before painting them. When the gesso was dry, each girl chose her colors and painted her mask inside and out. When that layer dried, the girls looked through my stash of emphemera and found objects to design and complete decorating their masks. And when the glue dried (we used Bond 527 multi-purpose cement to glue objects),  we took pictures and celebrated!!