The Garden Fairy................

A friend of mine sent me a picture of these mushrooms that were on a tree in her backyard. I love mushrooms! Their shapes and grungy colors always attract me. I'd really like to incorporate them more in my art.

This is a little Photoshop fun using the photo.

Have a safe and Happy New Year everyone!

Love, Marilyn

Things to come..............................

Soon a whole new year will be upon us. I do think 2008 flew by. I hope it was a good one for you and yours. I do feel 2009 will come with lots of challenges, changes, and I keep hoping for a brighter future for so many who are being effected by the current status of our economy - all over the world.

I did have a great Christmas celebration with my family (the picture, here, is of my son and his wife on Christmas Eve). I altered it a bit in Photoshop. My daughter-in-law presented my son with a "Kiss the Cook" apron as he was the chief cook and bottle washer as a gift to us all. We all contributed a food item and he cooked, served and cleaned up! It was a wonderful meal and evening!

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful holiday celebration with your loved ones and would love to read, in your comments, here, how you celebrated.

With every new year, there is hope for more things to come.................... I wish, for all of you, a very healthy, happy, joyous New Year and may we all find more art time so we can continue to share our passion for creating.

I look forward to visiting your Blogs and websites, in the coming year, and the inspiration that I receive from them!

Thank you for your friendships, your continued support in 2008 and I am excited about sharing the new year with all of you!

Stay well! Love to all - Marilyn

"Cherish"..................

Thought I'd pop in, here, for a bit in between stuff...................

This is a digital collage that I created, tonight, while enjoying some relaxation time in my home. Last Friday, December 12th, we had a terrible ice storm that hit our area and we were without power for one week. We didn't have heat, lights, running water; all those comforts of home that I took for granted.

Fortunately, we had family to turn to and we stayed at my son and daughter-in-law's home during this stressful time. We were very appreciative of their gesture of love taking us in for a whole week. Thank you David and Kate!

We just got back in our home yesterday. I am cherishing the moments, now, feeling the heat that is coming from the vents, the Christmas tree lights, the bathroom light! I am appreciating the fact that I can sit, in my favorite chair, while having my computer on my lap, while my husband is watching the news on TV.

Our area was hit hard by this ice storm; just driving around our neighborhood lets me know that we were luckier than some.

We did suffer some external damage to our home from falling trees and heavy limbs but we were able to come back and stay in the house once the power was restored. Some people were not that fortunate.

I am very thankful for my family and my friends who have offered their assistance and help during this difficult time. I would like to thank everyone who reached out to us; your love and support were so appreciated.

Happy holidays to all of you and I will be back blogging soon.

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

Takin' a little break............................:)

I've been realizing, more and more, that time is getting away from me a bit, here, with holiday time and Christmas is right around the corner.

I haven't done a thing! I don't have one Christmas card made, let alone addressed, I've worked on one gift package, so far, and I need to get myself moving.

This means I will be taking a break from Blogging for a couple of weeks so I can allow myself time to work on the things that I need to get done.

Thoughts of all of you and your beautiful art will be with me throughout this holiday season.

I wish you and yours a safe, healthy, and joyous holiday and may the traditions of your holidays offer you peace and comfort that continues in the New Year.

Much love and appreciation always! Marilyn xxoo

Before and After..............:)

I've been cleaning out some files on my computer today and it's a little like cleaning out my art room :) I'm finding some little buried "treasures" that are inspiring me.

This first picture is one that I took last year! It's outside my living room window and it was just before a snowstorm was due. I converted it to black and white and cropped. I thought it was kind of cool.

I decided to play around with it in Photoshop and the second picture, here, is the result. I now think this picture looks like the sun is over a city scape!

Hope you're enjoying your time today! Love - Marilyn

Dreams.............................

"Dreams"

16"x 20"

Illustration Board

This is my very first commission piece.

I was approached, recently, to create a painting which would include a figure of the person's grandmother as a young woman. I used a photo of the woman as a reference.

The painting will be presented to the grandmother at the celebration of her 80th birthday. I so hope she likes it.

The first picture, here, is of the original painting and the second is of the painting altered a bit in Photoshop. It's such fun to do that :)

Hope you're all having a good day and have plans for a fun weekend!

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

Time Passages..........................

I felt like having a little fun with Photoshop tonight. I've taken so many pictures over the past year; stored them in my computer stash and have forgotten about some of them.

The first picture is one I took late September. This shot caught my eye as I really love the shapes of the tree roots intermingling with some leaves and bricks; kind of grungy. :)

The second picture is what I did using this picture as a background.

Enjoy your upcoming weekend everyone! Love, Marilyn

"I Can Walk Through the Storm".................

16 x 20

Acrylic/Mixed Media

on illustration board

Thinking of you all and wishing you a safe and happy week ahead.

Love.......Marilyn xxoo

The Perfect House Guest.......................

My husband and I have the privilege of dog sitting this Thanksgiving weekend for some friends of ours who went to New York City for their holiday.

This is a picture of Haley, a 5-year old Golden who is just the sweetest dog and is so well behaved. What a marvelous house guest!

I took, this shot, as she was resting after a long, brisk walk. I had this Kodak frame saved in my computer stash, so thought I'd use it in Photoshop with the picture of Haley. I converted to black and white but Haley is a beautiful honey-colored retriever with the most expressive eyes!

Her Master will come pick her up on Sunday evening and we know we're going to miss her when she has to leave. But; I feel it's kind of like grandparenting ya know? There will be more opportunities to have Haley has our guest, in future, and for our friendship with this wonderful dog, I have been truly thankful for our Thanksgiving holiday.

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving with your loved ones and are enjoying your holiday as much as we are.

Much love always...............................Marilyn xxoo

"My Red Hat".....................

16 x 20

Acrylic/Mixed Media on Illustration Board

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Love, Marilyn

Sanja!

I have been nominated for this Kreativ Blogger award by Sanja! Please visit her Blog: http://loona18.blogspot.com/ .

Thank you, Sanja, I am so honored to received this award from you. It means so much to me to have offered you inspiration in return for what you offer me when I visit your Blog.

I encourage, all of you, to visit Sanja's Blog to see her beautiful artwork. She applies texture and just the right color to every piece that she creates.

I am supposed to nominate 5 other Blogger friends for this award and I just am unable to narrow it down to that number. Therefore, I am nominating all the Blogs, here, that I have linked as you all offer me such inspiration on a daily basis.

Thank you Sanja and thank you all for your continued support and never-ending inspiration; I am in awe of all that you do, not only with your art, but with your words!

Much love and all have a safe, happy and artful weekend...............Marilyn xxoo

Yupo

Yupo; when I first heard this word, out in the art world, I just could not imagine what it was. The word, itself, is a little funny.

I joined an art league, in my area recently, and I started hearing this word more and more and my curiosity got the best of me. I just had to ask.

Needless to say, I am now taking Yupo lessons!

Yupo is watercoloring on synthetic paper and I am learning from a friend, of mine, who is an experienced "Yupoist" (my word) :) and we get together, when we can, and she so patiently has been giving me instructions. Along, with her instructions, she has loaned me a couple of instructional DVD's so I can have something, on hand, here at home to refer to.

While I mainly work with fluid acrylics, Yupo has re-sparked my interest in watercolors! I used to take watercolor workshops, years ago, and never really got the hang of it.

The Yupo paper is actually a polypropylene material and originally was used for making signs. It's wild to watercolor on it! It is so forgiving and there are wonderful textural techniques to apply (which I love) and I can stamp on it, too, and the whites, in the paintings, are created merely by agitation! You don't even need white paint!

This is a picture of my very first Yupo painting! It's a little elementary but I really had a ball working on this. I can change anything I want to, when I want to, without too much trouble. The hardest part, for me, is getting used to doing a lot of "negative" painting.

I think I'm going to call this painting........."Outside My Window".

Thank you so much for visiting; your lovely and supportive comments are always appreciated.

I hope you are all having a good week! Much love, Marilyn

"Just Be".....................

This is an 8 x 10, Acrylic, Mixed Media piece that I had a chance to work on today. I call it Just Be as this image, that I found in a glamour magazine has a bit of a "tude" don't you think? She's very self assured. :) This image is a paint over technique that I did. I cut the image out, copied it in black and white then painted over it incorporating it into the collage. I love this technique and discovered it in an issue of Somerset Studio. The artist that created the technique is Lisa Bebi (her Blog is included in my list of favorites).

I decided to play with this painting in Photoshop (2nd picture) and thought this effect looks like the lights are all on her as she's struttin' down the runway at a designer fashion show!

I'm wishing you all a safe and happy week ahead! Love, Marilyn

"The Trio".................

I love altering my own paintings in Photoshop. The bottom picture is a picture of my original painting. I did this awhile ago; it's on a very large canvas. I call it "The Trio".

The inspiration, for this piece, came from a photo I took on a road trip to Schoharie over the summer.

I thought I'd have some fun altering it, a bit, in photoshop, too. (the top picture)

Love, Marilyn

SOLD!

I've shared a picture of this piece in an earlier post. It is of a collaborative piece that my friend Karen Schupack and I created for the Albany Historical Foundation project called "Built".

This weekend, on Saturday evening, was the silent auction event that was held in the Church of All Saints in Albany, NY.

I just got the good news that our piece SOLD and went to the highest bidder :)

Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's funny because, while Karen and I are happy about this, there was also a little sadness to part with it. We were already discussing "shared custody" if it didn't sell. I definitely wanted holidays! Oh well; we have plans to do more. :)

I hope you are all having a happy and artful weekend.......................Much love - Marilyn xxoo

Tag; I'm it! :)

I have been tagged by Beth Moran. Thank you Beth! You can visit Beth's blog: http://beths-babble.blogspot.com/.

According to the rules of being tagged, I am to list 7 facts about myself.

Here goes:

-I am a morning person

-I love coffee

-Whenever I receive a magazine to read, I always start at the back

-I do not like tailgaiters

-Pasta (of any kind) is my comfort food

-I think I'm the only person in the world that does not like the TV show "How I Met Your Mother"

I LOVE anchovies!

Love, Marilyn

"Funky Pears"........................

I love pears! The shapes, colors within color, they taste good and I'm noticing, very often, subjects of paintings.

I belong to an art league, in my area, and we had the opportunity to offer some "priced-to-sell" art pieces for a two-month holiday extravaganza.

This piece is one of my entries. It is an 8 x 10 that is on watercolor paper.

When I took this picture, the painting wasn't quite finished. I've since added some gold leaf, postage stamps, a touch of some Asian newspaper strips and a butterfly.

Hope you're all having a good start to your week. I'm off to vote now :)

Much love, Marilyn

"Honor".......................

A little Photoshop fun this morning to send you off to your weekend. The background, for this piece, was created using one of my cemetary rubbings and a few photoshop brushes. I scanned the rubbings I did and find they make great backgrounds.

The figure is actually one that I drew for a painting that I did. She looks so honored to be wearing her brand-new red hat!

I am wishing you all a safe, happy and artful weekend ahead.

I really enjoy reading your supportive comments and taking the time to visit my Blog.

Thank you! Much love - Marilyn

Kerin Rose ......................

For the past year, I have been going through a lot of self exploration, not only in my art life, but personally. Just one of the "gifts", to myself, that has come out of this self exploration, is a deeper understanding of symbolizm in our lives. I'm sure you're all familiar with my crows as a symbol for my need to always keep Shane's life close to my heart and mind. We lost Shane over a year ago and the crow played a very large part in his burial ceremony.

I've never really been interested in having a tattoo needled on my body; although I've had thoughts of doing it over the past year. I enjoy seeing some tattoos that people have; art, in itself, that is gorgeous and very meaningful. I just cannot get myself to have it done; it's the needle thing. I even had trouble getting through the flu shot the other day :) But; my understanding of wanting something to symbolize someone or something has become very clear to me now.

I have been cyber tagged by Kerin Rose. I first connected with Kerin a few months ago from visiting the Etsy website. I was searching for a "tattoo" ring, of sorts, that would symbolize my heart taking flight and healing. I found the perfect ring!

This is a picture of it here and it actually symbolizes a Mexican Milagro. But, to me, it was exactly the symbol for my personal need. I am not a jewelry, person per say, not to say I don't admire it on others. I was always having trouble with earrings; allergic to certain metals, etc.

I ordered the ring, from Kerin and it arrived in record time! I wear it all the time. I never have occasion to take it off and I never will! Kerin designs her jewelry to conform to our bodies and, while this ring is very wide, it's so comfortable on my finger that I can no longer even feel it. It's not really a "tattoo" ring but I like to think of it as such because of the way it fits - just nice and snug and so comfortable. But; I can remove it very comfortably. Kerin was able to advise me of the perfect size.

As part of being cyber tagged, I'm suppose to list 7 facts about myself and then pass on to others. Frankly, I've never been fully comfortable with this as it's not listing the facts, so much, as it is passing it on to others who may feel pressured in doing this and they just don't have the time, etc.

I was honored being tagged by Kerin. It was nice to hear from her again and knowing that she's still creating her beautiful jewelry on Etsy and off of her website.

Here are the links to Kerin's Blog and Website. Check them out when you have a chance:

Her blog address is: http://www.kerinrose.blogspot.com/ and her website is: www.Kerinrose.com/

Thank you for thinking of me, Karen! I love my ring!

Best to all and hope you're having a good week. Parts of New York got hit with lots of snow already!!! Yikes! We lucked out, in my area, but up North really got it!

Much love, Marilyn

Rainy days..........................

Rainy days sometimes "set the tone", for me, to slow me down a bit; something that I need to do lately.

I picked up a book at the bookstore today. I need to start reading again; I've missed it. I used to read a lot and when art entered my life, the only kind of books I read are art books or articles in art magazines that I subscribe to. There's nothing wrong, with that, but I felt like switching gears a bit. Today is the perfect day to sit in my favorite chair and begin my new book.

The book I am reading is called The Soloist by Steve Lopez. I just started it and feel it's going to be a really good read. It's a story about an unlikely friendship.

I hope you're all having a good beginning to your weekend and that you are able to catch some quiet moments for yourself.

I'd love to read your comments to include your favorite quiet-time activity.

Much love - Marilyn

"Built"

The Albany Historical Foundation is offering a really neat auction project to the community that is called Built. The event is coming up on November 8th.

It's a call for art that has to include something that symbolizes the architecture of Albany.

Karen Schupack (owner of the Albany Art Room where I teach), and a friend of mine, asked me if I'd be interested in working on this project, with her, as a collaborative piece! I was thrilled!

Karen found this wonderful cabinet door at an Albany salvage store and I felt it was perfect for the substrate for our project. We prepped it by sanding it, gessoed, then coated with absorbent ground and got to work!

We took a lovely walk and took some pictures of some rowhouse fronts as we both are attracted to stairways and doorways, etc. We found the shot we liked the best, Karen took a picture of it to a friend of hers to enlarge it in black and white for us.

We cut out the doorway, left part of the bricks, stairs, cut out a window and began our design. We used acrylic paints, tissue paper, pumice gel, real flower petals, images and some wonderful hardware embellishments! Karen had a wonderful street map of Albany which was included and we decided on adding some beeswax as a final touch!

We just found out our project has been accepted into the event! The pieces that have been accepted will be juried and there are monetary awards that will be given.

The pieces are to be donated to the Foundation and will be auctioned off as a fundraiser for the Albany Historical Foundation as well as some community projects.

I really enjoyed working on this collaborative with Karen!

Thank you all for your well wishes and lovely comments. I wish you all a safe, happy, and artful weekend ahead.

Much love, Marilyn

I got a little somethin' :) ................. 4 x 4

I think I'm still going with the Halloween visions right now. Again; it's not my favorite day of celebration but my previous post will explain some of this.

I'm still nursing this nasty cold but found I have a little more energy today so I thought I'd try getting back to some art; baby steps ya know?

A friend of mine is hosting a 4 x 4 exchange with the Halloween theme and I thought it would be fun, for me, to join in. I'm really glad I did as I enjoyed working on the theme and the project was just enough for me on this day.

This is a picture of the 4 x 4 that I did for this exchange.

Have a joyful day! Love, Marilyn

I got nothin'.........................

First off; I am wishing everyone a good start to this new week. I hope you've been able to enjoy your holiday weekend. Our weather is glorious and I hope you are experiencing same.

I am nursing a terrible cold and throat thing, here, and have little or no energy to do much of anything. I am going nuts as I haven't had energy even to work on any art. A whole week of no art, for me, is torturous! I feel like something wants to come out but I just don't have the motivation. This should be interesting when I get my "game" back to see what spills out on the canvas. I will surely share; it might not be pretty :)

Anyway; as part of my trip last weekend to Vermont, I took some pictures (previous post) and here is a picture; well two pictures but the one on the left is the original shot I got of a window with lace curtains in it. It was part of a vacant store front and I am always attracted to lace curtains - love them! When I uploaded the picture, I could start seeing things in the patterns through the panes. Perhaps this is the cold medicine???????? :)

Now that Halloween is approaching, and frankly it is not my favorite celebratory day, I actually saw a Frankenstein head in one of the panes. See if you can see it, too. :)

The second picture is of the same shot but I fooled around with it in Photoshop and I started experiencing even more Halloween visions. I see ghosts and goblins dancing, strange fish, skeleton heads, masked figures..............oh boy! Maybe I ought to just go back to bed - you think?

Have a great week, everyone - be safe and happy!

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

Autumn pleasures.........................

Autumn is my favorite time of year. It's a short season but offers beautiful colors, crisp, cool air, great fruits and vegetables, and lots of fun activities.

This past weekend, my husband and I took a day trip to Woodstock, Vermont with my son and his wife. Woodstock is a picture-perfect little place on Route 4 that we visit every year. They were having a chili cook-off when we got there - really neat!

Once we found a parking space, we were able to walk around, got some lunch at a very quaint cafe that offers great food with wonderful homemade apple and pumpkin pies!! Yummy! They make their own ice cream, too! :)

These are some pictures I took along the way from our walks and drive. I thought the "haystack animals" were cool! They are all along the highway on both sides - fun!

Notice the shot of the window with the horse in it? Or is it a donkey? Well; this was an art gallery that inserts art work facing out from inside the windows! I thought that was very clever!

We ended our day with visiting a Llama farm! They are wonderful animals. The owners of the farm hand out Llama food to visitors so we can feed them. They are very appreciative :) We got to see a momma Llama with her baby and they actually make a humming sound while tending to the young ones; it's really touching. We observed the Llamas kind of "spitting" at one another, at times, and we asked the owners why they do that. They told us it's actually a way that they communicate with one another. My son preferred calling this activity "Llama kisses" :).

It was fun sharing some pictures of our trip with you. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and wish you a great week ahead.

Thank you for your visits, here, and I always appreciate your warm and supportive comments :)

Much love - Marilyn xxoo

"Chez Soi"......................

11 x 14

Acrylic/Mixed Media on canvas

I just recently finished this painting. I've been working on it for awhile. It all started with a torn piece of French newspaper that I found in my stash. The words Chez Soi caught my eye. I looked up the translation and it means "go home".

I decided to create this painting/collage with that theme in mind. I picture this woman taking a break from her long journey; walking with her guitar. She stops to reflect and day dream about her desire to want to reach home.

Thanks for visiting and I always appreciate your warm and supportive comments you leave for me.

I wish you all a safe, joyous, and artful weekend. Love, Marilyn xxoo

"Cool Hand Luke"....................

I'm not much of a TV person; especially as of late. I just can't seem to find anything, program-wise, that really holds my interest for very long.

I do enjoy the old movies that are offered on a cable station, here in my area, and once in awhile I will treat myself to one of those. I always look for movies that star Jack Nicholson, Paul Newman, Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly to name a few.

I was saddened to hear about the passing of Paul Newman. What an icon! I thought he was such a terrific actor, and oh, so handsome, and while I never knew him personally, it just seemed, to me, he was a really good person, too. He was so charitable and really gave back to the world. He founded a camp for children who suffer from terminal illnesses, eventually these camps have spread all across the country. All of his products sold in the stores; every cent was promised to go back to his charitable causes. I purchase his products because of this.

Paul Newman didn't seem to fall into the "Hollywood lifestyle" role. He was able to keep most of his personal life out of the limelight. I've always admired that. He remained married to the same woman (Joanne Woodward) for years; all of these things that I admired in him.

If I had to choose one movie that was my favorite of his, it would be Nobody's Fool. It was based on a book written by Richard Russo and was filmed in Bath, New York. It was a dark movie, but very powerful and Paul's performance was outstanding! There was a scene in the movie where he went back to his childhood home and there were very disturbing memories, there, for his character. The scene lasted for almost 10 minutes and Paul didn't speak one word throughout. It was all about his expression; it was like I could get inside his head and really feel what he was thinking. Incredible!

So; this post is my small way of saying goodbye to a very wonderful man, who I didn't know, but offered me, and so many others, hours of enjoyment watching him perform on screen and stage.

It's funny; when we don't know a celebrity but we admire them for the way they have effected us. There's something comforting knowing that they were still in the world with us.

For those of you who are a Paul Newman fan, what were your favorite movies of his? I'd love to read in your comments.

I wish you all a safe and happy week ahead........................Much love, Marilyn

St. Agnes Cemetary Field Trip................

This past weekend I had the privilege and opportunity to organize a field trip through my Collage Clinic at the Albany Art Room with some very special artists who happen to be my friends :)

I've uploaded a few pictures, here, of our experience at St. Agnes Cemetary in Menands, NY. This cemetary is on a New York State Historical Register and is one of the most beautiful cemetaries that I think I've ever seen. It goes on for miles and our day was blessed with beautiful weather to experience the lovely grounds and gravestones.

I shared, with my friends, my technique for doing gravestone rubbings. We each came away with some very cool rubbings that can be applied to our artwork. The last two pictures are some samples of the gravestone rubbings. Thank you for visiting and I wish you a safe and happy rest of your week. Love always - Marilyn xxoo

My self portrait collage......................

This is a picture of my self-portrait collage from my Blog Challenge. (SEE POST BELOW FOR PICTURES OF OTHER PARTICIPANTS).

I guess I didn't realize that I cannot upload any more than 5 pictures on one post on a Blog. Does anyone else experience this or is it just my lack of knowledge :) ?

Have a great day! Love, Marilyn

Pictures of Self-Portrait Blog Challenge :)

Well; I'm back! I got a lot done, last week, and thought I'd start out Blogging, again, with the results of my most recent Blog challenge. It was to create an 8 x 10 collage using a photo of ourselves when we were children. There were six, of us, who participated and I want to thank all for meeting the challenge above and beyond. These are all gorgeous and so very meaningful. I couldn't get mine on this first post as I could only upload 5 pictures at a time it seems. I will add mine after this on a separate post.

Here are the names of the participating artists in the order that they appear:
Laura Jones
Roberta Partridge
Elaine McCallister
Karrin Hurd
Heather Robinson
We get to keep our original collages and mailed 8 x 10 prints to exchange out along with 3 ATC's of same. I will exchanging out our prints and ATC's this week and mailing out with a thank you gift.

I hope you've all been well and happy. I will catch up with everyone's Blogs this week. I've missed your art!

Much love, Marilyn