Imagine This

Inspired

I Stand at the Door and Knock (Rev. 3:20)
(Excuse the really terrible digital picture)

I was inspired by Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the US. A non-Catholic, I found the words of this scholar and theologian heart warming and encouraging. His theme, Christ, Our Hope, I felt was realized in every way and especially in his homilies. This piece, I Stand at the Door and Knock, is illustrative of Revelation 3:20.

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

Notice that the heart in my piece has a huge door -- big enough for Christ to come in -- but no handle on the outside of the door. So Christ must be invited in and the door opened from the inside. That, to me, is the beginning of our hope. . . when we invite Christ in to be the Lord of our life.

My collage was inspired in technique by my friend and yours, Sharon Tomlinson, of All Norah's Art. I love her pieces using napkins and collage with lots of painting. She is a grand master at it and through her blog, you can get totally motivated. So I tried my hand at it.

I started with a painted background of  Quinacridone Red covered by Titan Tan acrylic and then water soluble pastels for mark-making. Next I affixed a picture of the anatomical heart and overlayed a clip art doorway.  I had removed the doorknob in Photoshop. Then, my favorite part, the napkin with flowers to match the heart. I added a few stamps of a heart diagram in the background.

From there I went about matching the colors with acrylic paint, water soluble pastels, and colored pencils as I tried to make the doorway look like it was built in to the heart and the whole thing look nestled in a grove of blooming plants. The miniature door knocker was added to allude to the Bible verse. Lastly, the text and butterfly were added.

By the way, I got that doorway image from a website I was clued in about in one of my groups (don't remember which). I didn't look around very much because one of the first images I saw was that door and since I'd been thinking about Christ knocking at the door, I just stopped looking and took that image. (Later I realized I even have a rubber stamp of that doorway.) Anyway, I have a feeling this web site is a terrific treasure of copyright-free images. You all probably already know about it and have been using it. Sometimes I wonder what rock I live under!  The site I'm talking about is Liam's Pictures from Old Books. There seem to be lots of really terrific images there from which to pick.

When I first showed my new piece to my DH, he guessed it was a frog house (!) Well, I have to admit, that his comment was helpful -- I always have to wonder if it is just him or is it the piece -- but in my first attempt, there was a dark line through the heart over the door that sort of made it look a bit like an orange lemon or something. I hadn't noticed it until I saw it with Jer's eyes and wondered why it didn't look like a heart. See what I mean below.

Frog House (A bad first attempt.)

See that dark line where the arrow is pointing? Well, I thought that was the culprit so I painted it out and I, at least, think it fixed it. Now, I think it looks more like a heart. So what do you think? Did you even notice at first, when you saw that first image above, that it was a human heart with a door in it or did you only know that after I told you?

Why in the World . . .

. . . Why Do I Do This to Myself???

Last Friday morning I got up enthused to go out to the studio. I picked up the last Somerset Studio issue and thought I'd see what calls they had for art. I haven't submitted anything to them in a long while so I thought maybe I would. OH, the Halloween issue is what they are looking for now. Great. I love Halloween. And it was due four days from then. So, I can do that.

I grabbed a piece of watercolor paper, wet it, and started slapping some paint on it. Oh -- how fun -- red, orange. yellow -- Hey, that looks like some figures emerging. I whipped out my water soluble pastels and went to town defining the figures somewhat. I'm creating now. Yippee.

Detail from Halloween, Right? Mixed media on watercolor paper.

I had almost finished the whole piece when I looked up at the clock. It was 10 P.M. and it dawned on me that in order to get this piece to Stampington by the deadline, it would have to be mailed the next day. Oops, the next day is Saturday and my post office would close at 1 P.M. I reasoned with myself but, as usual, myself is headstrong so I worked until one or two in morning to get it finished completely. I planned to get up the next morning and get it ready for the mail. Groan.

(Detail from Halloween, Right?)

I awoke bright and early Saturday morning and started pulling together mailing envelopes and packing stuff. Well, let's see what all do I have to submit with this? Oh, mercy -- a description and a few words about the process, label it with my name, email, etc. Include a SASE if I want notification that they got it. Enclose a check for the return postage. Hurry!!

I frantically prepared everything until . . .Oh no! How much will I need to enclose for return postage? Well, I got the package ready, grabbed up my postage stamps, my check book, did NOT comb my hair, put on makeup nor earrings -- I DID change my pj top for a real shirt and throw on my jeans and clogs. (Was I really going to get out at the Elkins Lake post office where all my uppity friends might show up with me looking like death warmed over?) YES! Had to!! No time!!

I cannot even believe I'm posting how I looked! Forgive me.
(The disgusted look was directed at myself for embarking on this fiasco.)

Rather than calm down like any sane person would and just skip submitting to Somerset this time, I leaped into my car and at 12:55 (think: five minutes until the post office window closes) I arrived at the window. Whew! I asked the clerk to give me the mailing cost so I could write a check to enclose for return postage. I told him I wasn't ready to post the package but I had all the stuff in the car. I also asked him if the window was closed by the time I returned and I drop the package in the bin, would it still go off today. He assured me it would.

 

Detail of Halloween, Right? (Compare with photo of me above. Hmmm, is this a self portrait?)

Ok, so I'm in my car in the parking lot rummaging around, writing the check, closing the package, putting the stamps on -- OH NO-O-O-O-O!! I don't have Stampington's address. Yikes! But do I give up? Nope. I started the car and raced back home to get the address. Raced back to the post office and dropped the package in the slot. I resisted the urge to knock on the window and ask again if it would go out with that day's mail. He had told me it would - so I'll just trust. It probably won't matter. This piece didn't turn out to be the kind of lovely art that Stampington goes for anyway.

Stampington has not returned my postcard so I have no idea if it actually got mailed on time and I'll never know if it made the deadline. But it's all out of my hands now. I may never look at the "Upcoming Themes" section of Somerset Studio again for fear that I might try to get something created and mailed in a day and a half and leave myself frazzled to the bone like I did this time.

Detail of Halloween, Right?
(These four images are just sneak peeks of the piece. When I can, I'll post the whole piece.)

Finally Found it!!

Hitched to the Universe, journal pages

About a year and a half ago I started noticing some yummy perforated paper that the talented artist and designer,  Kim Logan, was using in her fantastic collage pieces. It seemed familiar but then also, not familiar. To me, it looked like mini punchinella but I'd never seen such a thing - and it was heavy paper, not metal.

 
Altered Calendar Pages by Kim Logan 

Now, Kim is from England and I finally chalked it up to something vintage that those clever Brits had uncovered in the antique shops of England or something. I'd been meaning to email Kim about it and finally, about two weeks ago, I did.

Lo and behold, it wasn't a mysterious English thing at all. Kim said that the fabulous, multi-talented Jennifer Rowland had gotten it for her from some kind of DIY store in the US and I should ask her where she got it. Oh, my gosh, Jennifer is one of my TEXAS friends and it turns out she told me it was sheet rock tape from either Home Depot or Loew's home improvement stores.

WHAT? NOT IN ENGLAND BUT IN MY BACKYARD???

Off I went last week - on a wild goose chase to Home Depot and to all the hardware stores in Huntsville - to no avail. Finally, last Thursday I had a doctor's appointment in Conroe so I went by Loew's And YIPPEE!! I found it!!

It really doesn't take much to excite me, huh? Maybe I should get a life after all. Anyway, it's called Easy Joint Tape, Self Adhesive "Paper" Drywall Tape. •Made in the USA•(see label left) I used a little corner off of the life time supply I bought. You can see it in my journal spread above. I also used it as a stencil on parts of the pages.

Speaking of this journal . . . you can count on my being - not a day late and a dollar short - but about a month late and at least $100 dollars short!! I'm sure most of you check in on Michelle Ward's Green Pepper Press  Street Team Crusades. Well, about a month ago, Michelle challenged everyone to put together a journal kit for journaling while you travel. Well, when I saw all the neat set ups that people had, I thought I'd like to do that. Of course, I didn't get it done in time for the challenge but at least I didn't blow it off like I usually do. I actually put one together the other day.

My journal and kit for traveling

The journal is a metal one that I started in a metal transfer class with Beckah Krahula about a hundred years ago. LOL. After I got home, I did a blanket stitch binding and decorated the cover with two metal transfers (which I had done in Beckah's class), and some metal findings. All the pieces on the cover are hand riveted in place. That little clown is an earring that had belonged to my grandmother. His legs swing freely from his body and he is so much fun. Obviously, the theme of this journal is the circus.

The suitcase I used is one of a couple I found a while back at a Hobby Lobby sale. (I really can't resist a great box or trunk, can you? Especially on sale!) Now for all of you that are like me and want to know everything that's in the little trunk, I'll list the items for you. It's a mini art studio!

• The small handmade journal, 4"X6"
• A set of Derwent Inktense pencils
• A tin of water media brushes
• A small plastic bowl
• A set of Karat Aquarell Watercolor Crayons
• A set of Caran d'Arche Neocolor II wax pastels
• A set of Expresso colored pens
• A Memories dye ink pad (black)
• A Kaleidacolor rainbow ink pad (Bouquet)
• A Ranger Distress Ink pad (frayed burlap)
• A Phrase roller stamp from the Paper Studios
• A small alphabet roller stamp from Studios Blackbird
• Fiscars soft touch scissors
• A small rubber brayer
• A plastic spray bottle for water
• A jumbo UHU glue stick
• A small tube of 527 adhesive
• A small drawer for two or three favorite rubber stamps (including my self designed hand stamp), tape, stapler, colored staples, cutting blade, ruler, pen, pencil, pencil sharpener, and eraser.

Whew! I'm a champion packer!! Hopefully after I get a little practice journaling, I will pare down to my favorite tools and supplies and slim this stash a bit. (More is better until you master your craft, right?)