snowball fight!

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from back in the day!

these photos were taken in 2002 when Jacque and I laid our hands on a digital camera (neither of us were so sophisticated or rich enough at that time to have one of our own...we were so jacked up to finally use a camera). We started messing around, in front of a huge painting of Jacque's, which turned out to be the perfect backdrop.

gel transfers

Starting out with a couple of small 'canvases' and some photocopies I want to transfer on to the canvases. The canvases are pieces of cardboard I've painted with acrylics, and then with a coat of Golden Medium (acrylic polymer, used to extend acrylics, or seal them with a matte or glossy finish, or a variety of other cool effects, depending on the stiffness or viscosity of the particular weight of medium you choose to buy).

The coat of Medium on top of the acrylic is a good surface for the toner in the photocopies to adhere to. This coat is completely DRY.



Cutting out what I want to transfer. The less paper around the image, the better. You're gonna rub it off later anyway, save yourself some time and work (and numb fingers).




Placing the image face-down on the canvas, after coating it with a layer of medium (I like to use my fingers, to get a feel for it). Do NOT let the medium dry now, slap that image on to the canvas! Then I use a brayer to squeeze out air bubbles, and excess gel medium. Wipe it all away around the edges.



Here's the next image I chose, which is a photocopy of a block print I carved, and printed with water soluble ink. You gotta make photocopies or printer-prints (like from a computer) in order to do the gel transfer method.


Layering the gel medium on (this is what transfers the image)




After it's dry, rub away the paper. Use a little bit of water at a time. And be patient It's a rather lengthy process. And make sure that it's dry before you start wetting it, or the image won't transfer completely.




I always brush another coat of gel medium after all the paper is rubbed off, and the image remains. Makes it look better (usually); otherwise, it's pretty dull. This will bring out the luster.




I like this shot:


Here's the other, all done:




Here's the one I painted tonight. I drew earlier today before work (on the right), then at work I photocopied my pencil drawing (the one on the left!):




Here's the original photograph


I left two blank spaces on the canvas after I decided what sort of background I wanted. I painted again with acrylics. The picture below is after I've painted a coat of gel medium over it. I decided to do that on the whole canvas so that I could go back over areas of it with a ZIG pen (see below):





Now I've pasted the photocopied images on to the canvas, with the gel medium, and squeegee-ing the air bubbles out:



Here's the finished piece:





I like this part of it too, so a close-up:


One more of the guys:



Now you try!!!

:-D

solstice

......that it is. And here we are in the darkest hours. This is where I spend most of my off-time - unless it's summer, then I'm out in the garden more. I was just looking at the summer pictures of this place after AntH asked about posting some pics over on flickr of my art space. Here are some from tonight then. I realized this is the longest my hair has been for years and years so I snapped some photos.....not that you can see much anyway but tonight is a good night not so camera-shy.....



What is that stuff on the floor? That's not a habitual thing. Too much.

If it's cluttered - too much - I can't settle in and do art. This is a good week's worth accumulation all over the tables. Stencils on the left and the latest printmaking party too; Barandash on the computer.

warrior Jason

proof positive

......that my iMac is not invincible. Was in the shop early October and they couldn't replicate this little problem. Now it happens several times in the first 20 minutes that I boot up. Even if I've not opened any applications or browsers. Can we say new hard drive? Logic board? what? what?!

one fine day, redux

(well in case the above never comes to life, here's one from good ol' photobucket)

This bridge is one of several in this town that spans the Willamette River.

Yes, in broad daylight with traffic whizzing past.

sun shiney bonus day yeah!!!!!

This was yesterday:





And this is today:







Music is courtesy Shpongle.
Barf-bag courtesy me, they're over there in the corner, I hope you grabbed one before you started watching.

compostit!

nothin' dead about this pile

the dreaded spinning beach ball

Gah.

this is the bedside table that Jacque built

It was over five years in the making, but it was so worth the wait! (hey, the girl has to make a living!) She built this to spec back when I had a very tall bed. I moved recently and we were bummed that the table wouldn't serve its original intention - but the new place here has a built-in bed, and between that, the mattress, and piled on blankets......it fits PERFECTLY. Amazin'.

Jacque used mostly chinquapin wood.

Is it not gorgeous?

She struggled for a long time with the legs, since the table needed to be so tall - and wide, at the time, since a cabinet was going underneath. She did good.

who goes there

friend? foe? something was trilling and rustling around in the dark a few moments ago...I've no idea what. I'm glad I'm on the second floor in my bedroom/studio.

Things can turn nasty real quick out in the wild.

Rosewood

Front of the house - Kit and John live here; I'm in the back. Come on round! (some shots are from a sunny day and some are from today, this evening, it's clouded up but ahhhhhh still warm, I love love loooove summertime)


Now we're headed toward the rear of the house - I'm facing south, away from the street, and out on to the garden and yard (sweeeeet).



Here's my front door!
Welcome!


This is walking in the front door:



Looking north - to the left of the TV is a pretty deep storage space that parallels the bottom staircase. I love the accordion door.




And standing on the other side of the room, looking back at where we were just standing:
(I'm near the stairs now)




Swinging in to the kitchen, still on the first floor -


I love this hutch against the wall. Plenty of storage in the kitchen, it is sooooo great:



Standing in the kitchen, looking out into the living room:



From the second or third stair:



And now looking up the staircase, where Ganesh waves a fine how do ya do (Ganesh for new journeys):

After just doubling back on the landing, going up to the second floor where my bedroom and bathroom are:

I bought this sweet little wardrobe at River Road Second Hand Furniture - it's right down the street, and it fits PERFECTLY inside this little cubby between the big big closet (north side of the room) and the bathroom! All the drawers slide very nicely too, unlike the other dresser I had (thanks Mom...she gave it to me when I was 20 years old but I had to say goodbye but it's living with good folks)


Panning clockwise around the room -- here's my art space. Kit offered me two old doors, and Jacque said she'd help me set them up. So last week we went to BRING recycling, and I bought two cabinets to set the doors on, plus a filing cabinet I already owned (and a book that fit perfectly underneath to bring all the doors level):


Standing over by my bed,




The reason the bed is on a platform is because Kit and John needed to make headroom for folks going up and down the stairs! They made the platform a perfect twin-bed size, and you can see that they also installed some thick marbled glass blocks so that in the daytime, the stairwell receives light from above, and at night if the stairwell light is turned on, it illuminates this side of the bedroom very softly. Smart people. Lotta love here.


On the left (south) is the deck, let's go on out, shall we? Mind your head, the laundry's drying out here:

(those are hops growing up and in bewteen the deck railing things - loooooovely!!!)

The garden!!!!!

The sister sequoia (you saw one on the way in from the street, to the west). Sure is a beauty. And, my first night here, the moon was full behind it giving it a lot of glow.


Here are some evening pictures:



I'm in the picture below, at age nine, making my mother a bent wire 'pin' (from a large paperclip) that says Mom


From the garden, nightfall:


Thanks for dropping by! Hey, I just made some zucchini carrot raisin muffins. Want one?