A collage inspired by a bar? Yes, The Blue Ruin in Hell's Kitchen NYC. The highly edited version of the story is that I ended up there with friends. The bartender blew fire out of her mouth. My friend almost got shot in the face with a stream of seltzer (yes, same bartender) for no apparent reason. A major popcorn fight broke out. The most amazing thing was that the owner thought WE were bad asses, bought us drinks and even posed with us for photos. What did we do? I'm not telling that part of the story. 

My studio currently consists of an 8 ft table so piled high with art supplies that I don't have any room to work. Yup, this is it. When I'm busy creating I just throw things around and make a huge mess. Previously I'd been limiting my work to small collages because I knew that was all I could physically manage. I started painting and now I don't have any place to work. Its kind of a good dilemma because I've decided to carve out a space in the basement to work. I will need to get more organized and get rid of some junk. I will need to buy & install some shop lights, move all my supplies and set up another folding table. 
The practical aspects are all doable. But I also need to find some courage because I find the prospect of having more options a bit scary. Taking on a bigger space is more of a commitment. I can work larger, I can be bolder. Maybe I can set up an easel and even take photos and videos of my process to share. I'll just take baby steps and start by finding new homes for some of the junk in the basement. 

I live in a beach community on Long Island. Come Labor Day most year round residents are absolutely elated that they will be free of traffic, lines at the store and beautiful serene vistas to contemplate free of annoying things like beach umbrellas, humans and dogs. I always have been one to dance to my own tune (typical artist) and I have to bite my tongue so I don't blurt out "This is absolutely the saddest time of the year!"
While I don't have a traditional art journal (in a bound book) I do consider my daily art practice to be a kind of art journal. It reflects my moods and experiences in a more subconscious way. I often don't know how I am feeling until I look at my work at a later date. Reflecting on this postcard series I see an expression of a feeling of loss, a trip, a memory. 

When I decided to create a collage a day on September 1st I was not expecting that I would be making a big leap into painting and mixed media. My collage work has been imaged based so its been a surprise detour to work abstractly. 
My comfort zone in terms of a color palette is neutral/green/blue. That's why I decided to choose red for the theme. To my surprise this piece practically created itself! It was so much fun to create all the different red textures with magazine images, acrylic paint, fabric and oil pastels. Although I'm not especially knowledgeable about the Chakra centers I definitely felt energized during the process and have fallen love with red. . 

Its been literally decades since I've worked on a painting. It wasn't just those negative art school critiques that made me put it aside ... it was the fact that I agreed with them. I just wasn't a very good painter. I experimented quite a bit with painting last week and I think I found a secret weapon: paper! 
Because I'm in my comfort zone as a collage artist, I decided to bring collage into my paintings to add some structure and familiarity. I'm definitely been having more fun painting than I did in art school, and I think that is a big part of it too. 

I've been teaching jewelry making classes for about 10 years. During my last class one of my students asked me why I never wore any of the jewelry I made to class. I was a little embarrassed and finally answered very honestly "The jewelry I make to sell doesn't express who I am. Next week I'll make something that does and wear it here". Because I am a mixed media artist it was clear that I needed to make some really quirky mixed media jewelry. I found these books really helpful in my journey to make unique pieces:
Semiprecious Salvage by Stephanie Lee
Resin Alchemy by Susan Lenart Kazmer
The Jewelry Maker's Design Book by Deryn Mentock
Making Metal Jewelry by Jen Cushman

Dreams can be very elusive. Sometimes I wake up and have a feeling about a dream that is very strong, but I can't remember any of the specific details. I may be able to recall a few vague images for a few moments before they slip away. 

I've  made a commitment to make a collage a day, inspired by Randel Plowman's wonderful blog Collage A Day. I've just started the project and, of course, life got in the way and I got behind. My cheat was to use the scan only project featured in this book The Collage Workbook. I gathered a bunch of scraps on a shoebox top and placed them on my scanner without any pre planning. It was pretty difficult to plan the placement or predict how the collage would come out so I just gave up trying to. I did several in a more neutral palette but found that using bright colors gave me better results.