THE CHURCH LADY?

Here they are framed....just a trial set....for the shop This "Be Attitude" was hard because I couldn't quite get her face or expression right....maybe it is right. Anyway a funny thing happened with this one....I showed it to my grand daughter, age nine, and she read it.....then she said, "Mimi, this would be a good Valentine for a husband who has left his wife!" Well, I had to laugh because she didn't know it was scripture (Matthew 5:11), so her imagination made it what she thought. We are from a family of strong women who also point that finger when we need to to get our husband's attention or make a point! We DO still have our husbands too...ha...Anyway, here she is...... she reminds me of maybe some of the "Church ladies" that have been bad mouthed through the years, but were maybe right. Her glove makes me think of the days when they wore hats and gloves to church....anyway, enjoy!! I have a few more coming...that I like more! Again, if you want to read the Beatitudes...see the link to it in the post below. BLESSINGS!!! Keep warm!!!!

ANOTHER BE-ATTITUDE....."MOURN"

Here is another "Be-Attitude" .....as I named them...... I have taken old paperback Bibles I buy at the used store and tear scriptures out of them that I want to use on art pieces. I've had these "beatitudes" from scripture laying around from a previous project and I have always wanted to learn more about them and what Christ was trying to say when He told them to the disciples while sitting on a mountain (Sermon on the Mount) after He saw the multitudes. He knew something about us .... and what we needed .... truly needed. I hope I haven't miss represented these "beatitudes" with the art I have paired them with ... and I may have slightly. These have caused a lot of conversation and many of us to wonder what exactly did the beatitudes mean? So if you want to read them and do a little fun digging .... here is a fabulous place to go to .... "Blueletterbible.org" ....but specifically when reading them ... click the blue numbers by the words you want more meaning to and it takes you to the original meaning it had in the Hebrew or Greek at the time it was written! Have fun and forgive me if some of these have been paired wrongly with the art. We have giggled with them and wondered with them .... so I hope a good thing! I would love them in a devotional to lift spirits .... who knows where they will end up. But here is one more ...... with more to come. ENJOY and BLESSINGS!! And thanks for all the positive feedback!! This one is "Mourn"...number three.

MY HOUSE WAS CLEAN.....

A page that was cut out , then ruffled to add to the oval already with ruffles...I finished it all ....to stiffen....with a layer of mod-pauge or could use gel medium.... This above piece is my favorite....now what to do with them!? Below is my new sign that goes on the roof of my shop....YAY!!! My street sign will have more info on it....this one is to just identify which of three buildings on this 3 acres is the store! Yes, my house was all clean and orderly for the up coming Fourth of July crowd coming to my house. It was two days before the first company came and I had a BURNING DESIRE to be creative.....I mean I HAD to create something .....anything!! I didn't want to drag out a bunch of supplies, so I just used what was handy.....a thin marker, my watercolor pencils, mod-pauge, a cut piece of cardboard, a CBS catalog and old paper scripture pages, scissors.....and my hands! I was suddenly immersed ....in heaven! I just began to draw leaves and cut them from the catalog which had different tints of color on the pages and I added the same colors but darker.....then took the pile of leaves, glueing them down as I grabbed them randomly glueing them on the larger cardboard cut, gessoed heart ....then I formed a small paper rose for the small red heart with mod-pauge. ....still don't know what I am going to do with them....keep adding formed or "ruffled paper"...I think, until I know it is finished. But then I played with making some ruffled scripture strips and torn oval from a jelly jar wrapper from Spain....I just kept playing....I love the ruffles best and want to make more. I know this is not finished but I just wanted to share what I got to BE FREE TO DO BECAUSE my house was clean!!! THAT always motivates me!!! Enjoy what was done, and I hope it inspires you in a spontaneous area of creativity!! The sky is the limit!! Big Blessings....and Enjoy! .....oh!.....and there is one of my new signs for the roof of my building!

WASH ON MY MIND?....or Washington...

When I finished the top collage of the big eyed girl....it was the night they were counting votes for the Health Care thing.....and then I was trying to figure out how to make her head bigger because it was too small, so on my art table were some map pages I had used in another collage and the colors were right ...and lo and behold "Washington" was the city with all those roads leading into and out of it....ha....I had to use it....and with the "Not so sure" look on her face....plus the advice of scripture...it became my FIRST "political" scripture piece...I just thought it was fun and so I called it "WASH....or Washington on My Mind". It also has that "Chintz" look....as well as the Mockingbird piece, from a Mockingbird in my peach tree a few weeks ago.....using designs from my old feed sack stash on both of them. The last piece is probably my favorite....it is the little feed sack dress my Mother made me when I was near a year old.....with the three little heart buttons on the back and her lovingly hand embroidered flowers on the front....the border is from from a piece of fabric that is in one of her scrap quilts and the frame is from 100 year old wood from a house made into a frame....it is big....this piece feels like my Mom's arms are around me! I especially needed that recently after a visit with my brother. This year I did art in too much of a rush....and I think it shows....but never the less there is at least some new things in the gallery, plus some individual zinnia paintings, and a baseball boy and girl on cardboard....but not time right now to get pictures....I had absolutely precious women yesterday and today...God really sends me his most precious girls.....we had fun and my heart is fuller!! Tomorrow, Sunday, I'm closed and going on a "date" with my husband to see the Blue Angels! A day of real rest ...no business......I hope....just give me a chair and a diet Dr. Pepper.....and my hat for the sunshine....(and maybe some ear plugs) I'm good for the day.....ENJOY!....and big BLESSINGS!

YOU ALL KEEP SAYING "PLAY"....

OKAY....all of you artists I'm reading keep saying....."PLAY!" So here is last night's "PLAY".....I must say, I HAD to play to figure out what would work with the different mediums I used....with the different pencils, sticks, paint etc that I was trying to use. This is the result! I didn't even draw much, because the birds are drawn from little drawings by a little eight year old boy named Tito, and the kids on the horse one are my brother and I on one of those 1950's horse/photographer teams that went around your neighbor hood.... the photographer had the western wear for you to wear for the photo. I haven't seen my brother for a long time.... there fore the great scripture. On the bird one.... Mama bird is pushing the baby out of the nest to go learn about life and grow, and to search for his "Father". The future is sometimes scarey for a little bird! Any way, ENJOY ....I did!!! OH!! The fun thing was that these evolved from stuff laying around the room!!! I didn't plan them!! For me that's a change!!

LOVE EACH ANOTHER....

This new art piece is a girl with a lot of love in her heart ........ grateful for YOU! I have prayed and poured over blogs searching for inspiration, not just inspiration ...... as so many blogs are very inspiring ..... but something that spoke to my heart, my art desires, just something that I wasn't even sure of myself! And through another blog (which I can't remember!,.....Lisa something?... sorry) I found a very unique and wonderful young woman and her ART journey..... MYSTELE .... is her name ..... I love her art, her heart and her commitments. Thank you Mystele!! Then through her blog I found this incredible "FEEDING PLACE" for your art needs, and for your soul! Before I realized it, I had been on that site for almost four hours! It is called FAITH FOLK CAFE.....you must check it out. Enough said ......... this is my piece I did in gratitude for the new discoveries of the week! In the flavor of Mystele's inaugural piece she did....thank you!

A FINISHED PIECE....?

I love my head band ..... HOPE ....there is always HOPE! I found this great quote and decided I needed to WEAR IT...."The Lord has an incredible destiny for you..." I'll take that!! A FINISH ...? The last post was called "a start" ..... I'm still not sure about this so called "Self-Portrait" .... it may never be finished .... so many things wouldn't work .... certain colors on top of the dried medium ....too slick for paint to stick ... etc .... so I've definately learned a lot! .....BUT MOSTLY, about myself!!! This piece revealed things about my life..... like it is very cluttered, and complex....which I know I am... not necessarily a good thing. I discovered that who I am begins with my Mother, the heart of the family and a Father who was a hard worker, and provided for us all, even later if we needed it. He also went to war to fight for our country and I'm proud of that...as did my husband. The baby bracelet with my maiden name encircles my Father and Mother...representing my natural birth. The vase is blooming as children do, then the strong thick branches are my strong personality and stuborness.....but there is greenery.... or growth....with eventually a flower or two....working thru the growth to finally bloom through difficulties that arose in my life.... we all have them, but the flower finally comes. I love birds and lots of details in life ... maybe too many details .... guess what.... I talk a lot! No surprise. The two whimsical portraits on the left are my favorites.... the top one was a drawing by a special little boy at age seven. It is the way he sees me. I like the way he sees me. The bottom one was altered with the computer, ... I would love it on a business card. The portrait on the right is a one line (sort of) drawing that doesn't focus on the age, wrinkles, grey hair or sallow skin and no reading glasses. I decided to ignore THOSE details!! I couldn't get my hair dark enough with the pencils I was using.... anyway, the Psalm 139 help me to realize that I was formed and known about when I was in my Mother's womb. And that I don't have to be perfect to be HIS child.... but that He knows me and loves me and has worked in my life to help me become who I really am..... it begins as a child....as seen in the lower left in the pieces that show the importance of children to Jesus. Matthew 18:1-5 was a crucial teaching for me,...read on further....6,7,...etc.... showing me that He actually protected me in many situations growing up. When I found Romans 8:16 and decided to add it to all the other elements, I teared up because I had actually put elements that told who I was... and now who I am in my spirit... His Child ... inspite of struggles ....He began the work in me, and I know it and am so thankful for His persistence and patience , His grace and mercy, and finally His gift of love. I know ... it's all about ME ... but it is a self portrait ... with a lot of details that came out....a story. It will stay in my studio.....it was just for me.

A START....

Here is a peek of what was supposed to be a self portrait .... a journal page ... which quickly became a larger piece ..... and as usual I made it more than it was going to be! I'll explain some of the little details when I finish it. These pictures are the pieces and some of my art glued on a wrapped canvas, size 12x24 ... a little larger than a journal page. Doing part of it made me tear up ... it really struck a cord in me. I felt very thankful. I will now start to embellish it and add color and drawing on top... I think anyway ! There must be something in my personality that likes to take a mess or broken down house or something thrown away or of no visual value and try to make it into something special. We'll see if I can do it with this. Of course it may only be special to me....which is the driving force behind us artists! How we see... what we see. Hope you enjoy it... so far that is ....keep in touch to see the final results .... good or bad! Have a good week!!

A Doodle Day....

No serious art will be posted for a while...as we have a lot of irons in the fire....grandkids mostly and some construction and rearranging, plus packing stuff from my Mother for my daughter....etc............so I'll just show you two things from what I call my " DOODLE DAY".....when I just have to "doodle" for my pleasure only. The contemporary one is actually a collection or pile of pieces of scraps I doodle on when I'm actually painting a serious piece....and I collected them all, arranged them and made them into this piece of art with a little manipulation play on Adobe Photoshop to make it look like a watercolor.............Then the other is just that....a play with color and words....a "doodle".........have a "doodle day"!! Hope you are all having a blessed day!

My Second Try at Collage...

This is my second try at a collage, which is something somewhat new for me....it is a painted textured canvas, cutout zinnias from my own artwork, stamps on tissue with birds, vine looking scrolls and words that show us how trustworthy God is....in Matthew 13:31, 32. (you can click on the scripture if you want to read it) The collage is a bit busy, but it fits how my mind is....BUSY!...with some clutter spread around the house....even so, I think it works. I don't know what I am going to do to the frame yet, but it will come to me....then I'll hang it in the gallery.....unless you want to suggest something..... It was fun to do and I want to do more.....I forgot to mention it was highlighted with oil pastels and pencils, then stamped with the letters from my new letter alphabet set #4 from stamp-out-cute-.com. I hope you enjoy it.....and feel free to comment...as I am looking for honest critiques! ....or advice! ENJOY!