GUEST ARTIST OF THE MONTH..........SEPTEMBER

I'm so happy I've returned to my Blog. I love sharing what I'm doing and also what others are doing. I consider myself to be blessed with some wonderful friends and not only are they wonderful, caring and loving people, but they also happen to be very talented and creative. So, without further ado............................

My Guest Artist of the Month for September is the one, the only Linda Martuscello!! Linda is a local artist and I first met Linda at Art Connection and right from the first encounter, I knew she is one special woman and artist. I have had the privilege of having Linda in my classes, at Art Connection, although, most times, she ends up teaching me! She's amazing and she's not afraid of anything! She just jumps right in and has such a spontaneity to her art. I just love observing her take off with a new technique and make it her own.

Above are two pictures of backgrounds that Linda did for us. I think they are fabulous techniques and backgrounds and I'm so glad she shared this with us. Thank you Linda! Here are Linda's own words on how she accomplished these backgrounds:

"These are very easy backgrounds. They can be used on paper, canvas, matboard, or whatever your little ole heart desires that will take moisture from the mediums.

For the first background (weaved texture), I used canvas board and, of course, Golden's Gesso. Let dry. You can speed up the drying time with a heat tool. Mix Golden Fluid Acrylic (Turquois Phthole with Golden Gel Medium - matte. Do not over mix, you want some clear to show through, and some of the deep color. You don't want bubbles. With a 1" brush, add generous amounts, in a basket-weave pattern.

The second background offers depth. Again; I used canvas board and applied Golden's Black Gesso. Let dry or speed up drying time with heat tool. Now comes the child-like fun; squiggle Limin Arte Twinkling H20 (watercolor) over it. Cover it with Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid
(gloss) and squiggle with H20's again."

Matboard collage...........

This is a 5 x 7 beeswax collage on matboard.

See that "hangie" thing there above the collage? I was anxious to use it and have others just like it that I picked up at a flea market.

I found out what they were originally used for while talking to the man who sold them to me.

If anyone can guess what it is, I will send a prize to the first person that has the correct answer. I feel like having a little contest of sorts.

Now; I did alter it just a tad by adding some Asian script papers around it but I didn't have to do much to it.

I am wishing you a really good day!

Love, Marilyn

More Tim Holtz stuff............

These are pictures of an assemblage project that I took during our Tim Holtz weekend (see previous post). The name of this class was "Assemblage in Flight" and very appropriate, for me, as this was my first "flight", so to speak, into the real world of assemblage. I have to admit, I was challenged but this opened up a whole new world for me. I didn't complete the project during class and finished it up at home. One of my biggest challenges turned out to be knowing when to stop! Tim was very generous with supplies for our assemblage but I did find some more things, of interest, that I added to this. The cool thing about this is it has a light in it, too. So; I can say this whole experience was quite "illuminating".

I used to think assemblage was just embellishing an Altoid tin but, now, that my eyes have been opened up even wider, after taking Tim's class, there are so many more possibilities. Assemblage actually combines all mediums and the collecting process for them is much fun.

We had a choice, during class, of creating our assemblage with a bird/nest theme or a mini skeleton! Yes; skeleton and Tim even provided that. Cool, huh?

Love always, Marilyn

I spent the weekend with Tim Holtz!

Well; let me add that I didn't literally spend the weekend with Tim Holtz! It just sounded cool, didn't it? I had the opportunity this past weekend to attend a 3-day Tim Holtz workshop in Topsfield, MA at a place called Absolutely Everything! WOWSER! I enjoyed myself so much with some very special friends and we really learned a lot. I can't stress, enough, how very entertaining Tim Holtz is! Yet, he's very professional, so well organized and generous with his products and knowledge! Not to mention his smile; he really lights up a room. Most of us took 4 classes; others all of them. I think through the whole weekend, Tim taught a total of 12 classes! Whew! I've uploaded three pictures, here, of just a few of the projects I worked on over the weekend. The first two are pendants. We could have made these into pins if we chose to. The first one is created with two acrylic pieces, Tim Holtz papers, Doo Dads, butterfly wings (not real of course), charms, ball chain, rusted keys and jewelry parts. The second pendant is from a watch piece that has a magnetic front to it. We created a small assemblage inside (I apologize for the poor picture), I couldn't seem to get a clear shot because of the double glass. We were provided with a crown charm, wings, keys and locks, etc. I just couldn't get over the amount of supplies we had to work with. The third picture was from the last class I took on Sunday; the Mystery Class. We worked on a mirror/frame. It was a mosaic project, of sorts, using chipboard pieces and we each were given 32 chipboard pieces and we did different techniques on them using new Ranger crackle paints, Distress Embossing Powders, Tim Holtz papers, and charms. Very cool!

I have more pictures of projects to share, in time. I didn't finish everything so I will have fun working on them, this week, and will share upon completion. I highly recommend anyone who has the opportunity to attend a Tim Holtz workshop to do so. What an opportunity! It will certainly stay in my memory bank forever!

More to come......................

Love to all, Marilyn

Shayne L. "Potsie" LaVoie

Sadly, on August 12, 2007, a beautiful young man slipped away from us.

This is a picture of my son, David, and his best friend Shayne. Shayne is on the right. It was taken on Parents' Weekend at the University of Vermont. David and Shayne went through school, together, including attending and graduating from UVM. They were roommates as well. They shared life, loves, laughs, heartache, everything together. I wish I had a better picture of the two of them; but this was the only one I had of Shayne. I'll have to check David's wedding pictures and upload a better one sometime. Shayne and his partner, Sharon, were taking a leisurely motorcycle ride not far from where they lived and taking a curve, collided with two bicyclists. Sharon escaped with cuts and bruises, one of the bicyclists is in critical condition and, unfortunately, Shayne lost his life at 31 years of age.

I felt like sharing this, with you, as this is one of the reasons I'm happy to be back to blogging. It helps to release some thoughts and feelings and this is kind of my tribute to Shayne. I loved him, I always will and it will be hard for Sharon, his family and friends to go on without him. But; knowing Shayne, like I do, I know he would want us to move on from this. A long time ago, I found this poem by Henry Scott Holland that I find comforting and fitting particularly knowing how Shayne thinks. I want to share it with you now:

Death is nothing at all.

I have only slipped away into the next room.

I am I, and you are you,

Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.

Call me by the old familiar name.

Speak of me in the easy way which you always used to.

Put no difference into your tone.

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed

At the little jokes that we enjoyed together.

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.

Let my name be ever the household words that it always was.

Let it be spoken without an effort,

Without the ghost of a shadow upon it.

Life means all that it ever meant.

It is the same as it ever was.

There is absolute and unbroken continuity.

What is this death but a negligible accident?

Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you, for an interval,

Somewhere very near,

Just around the corner.

All is well.

Class Sample; coming soon to Art Connection :)

Coming soon to Art Connection, Melanie and I will be teaching a class called "Home is Where Your 'Art' Is". It's a 3-session class and we'll be designing our own house in a sense :) Cool, huh? Each student will get a chipboard-shaped house that is approx. 5 x7 to add their beautiful artwork to. They can even bring in copies of family photos to include.
These pictures are what I got accomplished today. I can see why we have to make the class into 3 sessions as there's a lot of work to do. There are 6 pages to the chipboard house and both sides needs to be embellished. The end result will end up looking like a book or can be spread out accordion style. We'll be creating a whole new neighborhood! How cool is that? The classes are all on Saturdays and the dates are: Aug. 25, Sept 1, and Sept. 8 11-2. Mel and I look forward to this class so much and we'll be introducing some new techniques along with the class and some cool collage sheet images :) Love to all, Marilyn

Sharing Some Art ..................

Saturday, Aug. 11th-Hubby and I are heading up to Racquette Lake, soon, to hop on a boat cruise and tour around the "Dacks" a little bit. It's a gorgeous day so we thought we'd take full advantage of this:)

I thought I'd upload a couple of pictures of some art I've worked on this week. One is another felted purse! I am hooked on needle felting; it's so relaxing and it's not very time consuming. I call this purse "Polka Dots and Posie". The blue color of the purse just was screaming polka dots to me :)

The other picture is of a frame that I altered. I recently taught a class at Art Connection called Fanciful Frames where I shared two techniques on altering a wooden frame. This technique is using Gesso as a primer, some old dictionary pages and decoupaging napkin elements over and adding image and some embellishments. I finished mine at home and the mid section is a transparency from Angela Cartwright's paper collection. I call this piece "Dreams of Home". I had fun applying oil pastels and distressing with Distress Inks.

That's it for now; the lake is calling me! I hope to take some nice pictures, too, to share.

Love to all.....................Marilyn

Reflection leads to SELF EXPLORATION.................

Well......................I'M BACK! Gosh, I've missed all of you!

This picture is not of me when I was a little girl, but I thought it fitting for the way I've been feeling recently. For the past couple of weeks I have been doing a little self exploration. I really can't put my finger on what triggered it, but I've felt like something has been missing in my life; not personally, but in my art life. I think this all started when I fullfilled one of my "dreams" to have my own website. I did arrange to do that (http://www.inmyvintageroom.com/) and while I enjoyed reaching that goal, I've felt something has been missing.

I like the website, but I don't love it. I had visions of it being interactive, sharing of my art and others, selling some artwork here and there. I've done a little of that, but it just doesn't feel comfortable. It's actually made me doubt myself in terms of what I'm doing with my art; what I want to achieve. I had my first show a couple of weeks ago, too, and while I really enjoyed it, it came with some surprise feelings for me. It was hard to get "me" out there. The show was also one of my personal goals and with every piece of art that I displayed, I felt like I was peeling an onion; peeling away bits and pieces of myself to share with people. It was really a very good exercise for me on a personal level. I do know I couldn't have taken that "jump" if it wasn't for my family and friends that came to support me.

Now this may sound like I'm giving up on things; that is far from what I'm trying to say. I'm just doing a little personal rearranging to get back to some things that I've been missing. One of which is I MISSED MY BLOG!!!!!!!! I miss Blogging with others, I found the blogging very relaxing and an artful journal for me. I loved the feedback, I loved visiting other friends' blogs, commenting to them on how much I enjoy visiting their sites, viewing their art and reading their thoughts and feelings.

I missed the ease in which I can upload pictures and not feel like it takes a whole lot of my time.

So; this is what I decided to do. Ready?

I am going to re-activate this Blog and will be back to blogging my art and thoughts. I hope you will come visit often so we can begin sharing and connecting once again. I hope to meet some new friends along the way and I already feel much better! Whew!

I will keep my website (http://www.inmyvintageroom.com/) for strictly SELLING of my art. I will announce, occasionally, on my Blog, when my website has been updated with art for sale. I might have some collage sheet offerings, too, and I still plan on offering my own line of rubber stamps in future. It's just taking me awhile as it's an expensive venture plus there are some technical challenges that I am trying to overcome. I'm a slow learner but determined to get there!

So you see; the past couple of weeks, I've really taken a good look at myself to try to determine why I was feeling a void.

The way my website is set up, it's supposed to act as a Blog as well as a website, but it just wasn't working for me. I didn't feel the same freedom that I do on my Blog.

I guess this is part of being human; these times of self exploration. It's also teaching me that reaching a goal doesn't necessarily mean contentment.

I've been on a bit of a roller coaster with my emotions recently. The art show kicked that in; but not to say I won't do another. I just found myself wondering if I'm a "crafter" or an "artist". I still don't know the answer and it might just not be significant to know that. It's the creative process really; when I stop and think what I love the most about art; it is the process of doing it AND sharing it with all the wonderful friends that I have.

Getting back to my Blog is one huge step for me to get back to the things that mean the most.

Thank you all for your loving support, your caring ways, your beautiful selves and your beautiful art!!

You are true friends who have given me wings!!!!!!!!!!

Love to all.......................Marilyn