Some more "Me"..........................

Here is a picture of my first spread in my altered book journal. As you can see, there is a picture, there, of Katherine Hepburn. I've had this picture for a long time just waiting for the right place to include her. I'm a huge fan of "Kate" and I have her book that is entitled "Me". I still, to this day, refer to it when I need a little confidence boost :) Katherine, to me, stands for a woman who really knows herself and can speak, her mind, strongly and truthfully with full confidence.

She has inspired me to create my altered book journal using just words that have meaning, to me, that are motivational and inspirational. I've decided to use my own handwriting, for the words, as I want this journal to be a very personal experience.

The second picture is of the tags, I created, that are in the pockets of the spread. I thought it would be, of interest, for you to see them spread out a bit. I'm really enjoying having this journal to turn to.

I am wishing you all a very safe, joyful, and artful weekend, ahead, and, once again, thank you all for your friendships, visits here, and your very supportive comments. I so appreciate all of you!

Love, Marilyn

Some me time :)

I'm on a little break from art shows and classes, for about two weeks, and I've decided that I want to use this time to concentrate on some of my own personal art.

One of my favorite classes, to teach, is altered books. What happens, when I teach a series, is I use a book for demonstrating techniques, etc. and I never really finish a whole book ya know?

So; I'm going to use this next two weeks to complete my altered book that I used for my recent workshop.

This is a picture of my cover. It's actually a magazine transfer that I demonstrated as part of the workshop. I fell in love with this ad in a magazine and I just knew it had to be my cover. I covered my book with canvas paper, gessoed then transfered the magazine image. I added some acrylic paints as well as walnut ink. The white calligraphy is part of a Japanese poem stamp that I recently ordered. The embellishment on upper-left side is an old rusted washer, of sorts, I found on a walk! :)

I've decided that this altered book is going to be my art journal. I haven't done much journaling and I am really looking forward to working in this. I will be uploading pictures of my journal pages, from time-to-time to share with you.

I so hope you are all having a good week. Tonight into tomorrow we're supposed to get another snow storm and promises to deliver a bunch of it. I will use this time to work in my altered book :)

Much love to all! Marilyn xxoo

And the winner is............................

Barbara Head from Texas!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo! Barbara; please contact me and I will arrange to send you my "Divas" during this week.

Congratulations and thank you ALL for participating in my Blog giveaway.

I plan on having another one next month but it won't be my art; I've got something else up my sleeve :)

I am wishing you all a safe and happy weekend!

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

BLOG GIVEAWAY :)

One of my goals, for the beginning of 2009, was to offer another Blog giveaway. It's been awhile and I think they're such fun........ so here goes:

This is a picture of two 5 x 7 pieces I did. They are both on canvas board. You've seen the one "El Diva" from an earlier post and I recently had an opportunity to work on another. I call this other piece "Temptress".

All you have to do is leave a comment, here, or email me (Artbeliever@gmail.com) with your interest in winning these two pieces.

The deadline, for your comments or email, is Friday, January 23rd. That weekend I will enter your names in a drawing, here, and the winner will be announced on my Blog Sunday, January 25th.

I so hope you'll play..........................................good luck! Love to all - Marilyn

"Not in Vain".........................

I'm recently learning to crop some of my larger works that haven't been working for me. I use different sized mats and work around the piece until I find a spot that I like. This is an example of that.

This piece was originally a 9 x 12 and I just didn't feel comfortable with it that large. There were areas that were just lost.

I cropped it down to a 5 x 7 and ended up seeing more in this piece than when it was originally done on the larger scale.

I recently came across a poem in an antique book that just grabbed me and it's by Emily Dickinson. It's called Not in Vain. I scanned the poem, cut it out and added it to this piece.

This poem moved me so much, I added it to my Blog (see top left). I just love it!!!!! I hope you enjoy it, too.

Hope you and yours are all well. Thank you all for your continued support and friendships; your lovely comments really mean so much to me!

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

When the weather outside is frightful........

I decided

to make it artful :)

These are two pieces

I recently worked on. The floral piece is

an 8 x 10 acrylic/mixed media called "Infusion". (thanks Patti G. for the title suggestion) :)

The picture of the woman in red is an acrylic paintover working with a full page from a glamour magazine. It's a 5 x 7 and I named it El Diva. Her dress was originally a brown color and I just thought it should be hot red and her hair was a dark brown, too, and had fun altering her hair. The background was gessoed, sanded and texturized and I used pan pastels for some additional effects. The music note and text are Photoshop elements.

Our weather, today, is awful! We got a couple inches of snow, overnight, then it's sleeting now; creating an icy mix. All the schools are closed, in my area, and surrounding areas. Thankfully, it's not as serious as the ice storm of December 2008. But; it's enough to keep us inside and I decided it would be a great time to sit down at my art table and have some fun. :)

I hope you are all having a good week; be safe and thank you all, again, for your continued support. Your lovely comments just make me feel like flying!!!!

Much love.......................Marilyn

"My Story".......................

12 1/2" x 21"

Collage/Mixed Media

Salvage - Cabinet Door

A friend of mine gave me some old architects' blueprints to play with. I really love working with them.

I still have to screw in the hardware on this piece (right-hand side) but I placed it there, for now, to take the picture. I thought it interesting how my handpainted word came out "MyStory" I realized, after, that the two words run into each other but now that I take another look; I think it's kind of neat. It could be the writing of this child, here, in the collage - maybe she couldn't spell "mystery" or this is really her "story". Funny how art does this to us isn't it? This piece has a lonely feel, to it, I almost feel like she's been abandoned - perhaps she has....................

It's great getting back to some art!

Wishing you all a safe, happy and artful weekend...........................Love, Marilyn