"Art is the Portal to my Soul" .........................

With the coming of our new year, I have decided to focus my attention to a new direction in terms of my art. This is not a resolution; as I've never had luck with making those, but this is a "calling" if you will, of where I'm being taken in this art journey of mine :); the path as I like to think of it.

I love collage; it is my heart and I'm also discovering, more and more, that I love to paint!

So; why can't I combine both of them? I found a way to do just that.

Through workshops, books, videos, being blessed with very artistic and creative people around me, I am learning to be able to combine so many things that I have learned over the past years. I guess this is the true discovery of the words Mixed Media. Those words are thrown around so much, lately, and I've never really defined it in my own mind.

Soon I will begin teaching at the Albany Art Room and while my beginning classes solely focus on collage, acrylic painting is where I'd like to focus on next. Not to say, that I am giving up on other mediums - no way:) But; since I'ver discovered the world of acrylic painting, particularly abstract painting - THEN realizing that I can still use collage, and those cool embellishments we all love; I just am holding on to the wings of discovery lately.

This picture, above, is an acrylic collage painting that I did over the weekend. I named the piece "Portals" which is one of my favorite themes.

I wish you all a good week ahead! Love, Marilyn

"Postage People"...................:)

Today's weather really set the pace for me to try to get to some art projects. I recently joined in on a very cool ATC exchange with the theme being "Postal People".

This fun exchange enabled me to utilize some of my favorite postage stamps that I have in my stash. I just loved being able to use my Andy Warhol stamp.

The challenge is you match up a postal stamp with a collage image, photo, or rubber stamp and create a "postal person". Pretty cool, huh? I thought so.

This is a picture of my ATC's that I created for this exchange.

I wish you all a great weekend, stay safe and thanks for visiting!

Love, Marilyn

We just flew in......................

I'm back! My husband and I arrived home, here, in New York last night from Florida.

Our wings were tired and even had some ice build up on them as we descended into Albany!! :)

We had a marvelous time with our dear friends and we miss them already.

So, I'm back and will be catching up with everyone over time. I am looking forward to visiting your Blogs to see what beautiful art you all have been creating.

(these pictures are of two felted crows I worked on just before I left for our trip. I named them Reginald and Ernie :)

Thinking of you all..........................Love, Marilyn

Follow the sun.............................

Hello Friends!

I wanted to let you all know that I won't be posting on my Blog for a couple of weeks. My husband and I are leaving for a vacation in Florida to spend some time with dear friends.

We are leaving on Tuesday, Jan. 15th and will be back home on Jan. 29th.

I will be thinking of you all. I look forward to catching up with all of your beautiful art upon my return.

In meantime stay well and happy :) Love, Marilyn

4 x 4...................

This is a 4 x 4 page that I did for a dear friend of mine. Her book's theme is Oriental Garden. The substrate for this piece is a rusted tile. I am really having fun with Grungeboard and the "swirl" in the corner is a piece of the G-board from the Flourish collection that I gold-leafed. You can really do anything to this material- really takes a beating and, I feel, is a lot more flexible and workable than chipboard!

I wish a good day for all of you!

Love, Marilyn

Hope, Joy.............Create

These are pictures of a shadowbox-birdhouse that I made out of a small canvas (approx. size 5x5). I love looking for canvases with the opening on the backs of them as I find them so inviting for shadowboxes. I also love birds. I so enjoy observing them, listening to them, seeing pictures of them, reading about their habits. The whole nesting thing fascinates me.

The roof, for this piece, is made out of matboard; I drew the shape, cut out, and used small brads to nail down on top of the canvas. I've had that piece of the fencing for so long and it was really fun to be able to use it. I'm finding that, more and more, with my art stash. Ever since I moved all my art stuff down to our basement, I can actually find things :); even the tiniest of embellishments, it's like discovering things for the first time.

For the back of the canvas (which is really the front) :) , I used crinkled tissue paper with gel medium, painted with acrylics, I used crackle paint for the back of the roof and even on the tiny fence. It gives the little fence a kind of "shabby chic" look.

Thanks for visiting and I wish you all a great weekend; it's our first weekend in 2008!

Love, Marilyn

"Art is the Portal to My Soul........."

Happy New Year!

I thought I'd start 2008 off with an upload of a picture of 3 ATC's for an exchange. The theme is Portals. It's actually one of my favorite themes as this word leads me to think of new opportunities, a new vision for an art piece, new friendships, hope, life, the beginning of a new day, etc.

For the backgrounds, I used pieces of some of my acrylic painting scraps that I had left from a workshop.

Thanks so much for visiting and I look forward to sharing more art and thoughts with you in the new year!

Love, Marilyn