Here's some more ephemera to share. I'm trying to attack the mounds and mounds of paper I have accumulated. I know some people sell it on Etsy and EBAY, but I wonder if it's really worth the trouble?

These are all from a Serbo-Croation Alphabet book-I have no idea what copyright laws were like under communism....

Art for the masses!!

This is a series of little mini collages I made. I got a big bag of miniature oil paintings at the Goodwill for $2.00. They're the kind made in painting factories in CHina. Then I just fooled around with simple ephemera and typed quotations on the, I actually sold several. Everyone can afford a genuine oil painting!
They're about 4"x6 " inches long.

Out of the closet artist

So, even though I showed my work in October, I hadn't told some of my friends. Friday we had our annual Holiday party for Tracy's students and our friends. Now, some of my friends are what I call"real" artists, that is they have studied academic art, make their living from their art, etc... And they were at the party. I hung some of my assemblages and collages on the walls-usually I just keep them in my "workspace" (that's a whole other story!). And guess what-they liked them! I feel like Sally Fields at the Oscars. Now they all want to come to the next show in April-so the bar is rising. Anyways, it made me feel more motivated.

Giant Van Gogh

I have been going back and forth on I-70 from California or Colorado to the east coast it seems like forever. A while back I started seeing signs for a "giant Van Gogh" in Kansas, but somehow never seemed to have the timing to see it. That's unusual-because I try to never pass up the opportunity to see a giant anything. Well, this summer we managed to hit it in daylight and voila-it is fabulous. I highly recommend it to anyone, especially if you don't have the time to go to Amsterdam and see the Van Gogh museum

My neighborhood

I live in a fairly-okay-let's say very conservative town. The two interesting old areas are very cool-Old Colorado City-the Westside- and Downtown. I've lived in both of them. I loved the west side, but there were always a few too many pitbull owners and strange guys with really long beards and aluminum foil covered windows for my taste. (Sorry if you have a long beard and an aluminum foil hat, I'd probably like you, I just don't need to live next door,kthxbai).Outside of those areas the housing is generally bland. We're not talking cool 50s ranch bland we're talking miles of expensive sand coloured garages in front of the house bland.
So-this is what I like about my neighborhood. We're not historically perfect -just on the edge of the historic district, but it's like a hidden gem. These pictures were taken at the end of summer. There is an old man who heats his house with mounds of wood. There's a metal artist who keeps half of a WWII uboat buoy in his back yard (He used the other half to make a hot tub). There's a house with a big metal eye on the front of it, grama and grandpa houses with year round plastic flowers, old TB huts, a lady who grows thousands (really) of dahlias. I aspire to be the artist they all are. And who wouldn't love a neighborhood with a real drive-in restaurant and a lawnmower hospital!!!

I am going to start posting some of the MANY pieces of ephemera I have-feel free to use them -most are in public domain now. These are from a French men's humour magazine called Frou Frou from 1902-they would be interesting in collage or on atcs.

I seem to have a thing for chairs-I hate to throw them away. Here are a few I've found and altered

Art/Craft/TIme/

So, it's been a very busy time since the art show and I haven't followed through on my promise to myself to post-or craft!! We all had a yukky cruddy ikkiness going through the house.
The show went very well, I talked to a lot of people who liked my art and I sold several of my smaller pieces. I'll do it again in the spring. I could have sold about ten of the little Frida art doll/shrines I donated for the auction. I didn't get very good pics of her before she left. I'm planning a series of them for next time-Lizzie Siddal from the Pre-Raphaelites is first. I just read an amazing biography of her.

These are the wall piece collages I had in the show. The one on with the boat is from an Edna St Vincent Millay poem . I gave another in this series to a friend with a Sara Teasdale poem-both typed, of course. I love typewriters.
The chubby girl was all ephemera I got last summer when I was in Ohio visiting my family. There is the most amazing permanent barn sale run by some bachelor farmer types right near my sisters house in the hills of southeastern Ohio. I want to go back and buy everything there. I framed her on the wrong side of an ugly "country" frame I had around forever.

It's not cheap to be an "artiste!!"

So, even though it appears that crafting from old bits of tin and wood and metal should be cheap, I am finding myself lusting for more and more expensive tools. Right now I want a Dremel tool-kind of an all purpose hand drill with about a trillion extras. It's like buying the Barbie then realizing you need to get all of her clothes, her dream house, her corvette and consume on ad nauseum. I love my local ACE Hardware-the people who work there are all kind of middle aged or old men ( and a few ladies on the register) and are very kind when I buy 1 foot of copper piping or 6 little screws. And the paint guy doesn't mind me nosying around for quarts that were "bad mixes". I went in today for a file and some more sandpaper for some little tin pins I'm trying to put together. When I said I was going to use it to smooth the edges of tin cans, they just shrug a little. ACE IS the place with the helpful hardware man

Crafty Girl

I am really excited-I will be in an art show this week-the first I've been in since college!!!It's called Nocturnal Mockery and occurs about 2 times a year. Most of the other artists are probably half my age and very urban "cutting edge"-though I think that the edge of art has been fairly dulled out with all of the cutting edges . I am showing 3 pieces in a found art rusted metal series and at least two collages. I'll also be working with our brand new olorado Springs Craft Mafia selling metal trinkets and other bits and bobs of mine.