Wordless Wednesday - Blue Angel

Blue Angel - Polaroid Transfer tweaked in Photoshop Elements

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Polaroid Transfer, watercolor & colored pencil.
Angel found in The Pantheon, Rome.
____________

Couple of quick notes:

The new Mix It Up With Melange Challenge is "Secrets". Click through to submit your take or see what others have come up with.

Last chance to enter random drawing for a $10 Gift Certificate to GardenDelightsArts on Etsy. Leave a comment here before 1 a.m. (EST) on 12/17 to enter. Click Here for details.

Mix It Up With Melange Challenge - Heavenly

Calling All Angels ATC

I made this ATC for a swap & (lucky for me ) it kinda fits this week's Mix It Up With Melange prompt. If you have any Heavenly mixed media art you've created, click through & add your link in the comments. If you just want to check out some cool art pieces, that is where you'll find them.

This atc started with a photo I took years ago that was altered in P.Elements. The angel was then printed onto textured paper & enhanced with watercolors. This was trimmed & glued to a piece of red mat board. The whole thing was worked over with colored pencils,pastels & metallic gel pen. Then colored swarovski crystal pieces were glued on. Unfortunately I had a hard time getting a good photo of the little sparkly bits

On different note, I finally had a sale on Etsy - feels like it has been forever! It is easy to come up with excuses, but the reality is that I've not listed anything new in ages. I've just been making stuff & setting it aside.

My drawings have not been selling, so I've pulled out the mat cutter and am busy making acid free mats. These will allow the art to fit easily into standard sized frames. I'll be adding these to ArtSnark.etsy.com this week & sure hope this helps make them more appealing.

By the way, If you haven't signed up for tomorrow's 2 random drawings, you have until noon (EST) on 9/24. Click through for details:

1 winner receives a custom printed 18" x 24" poster from Uprinting.com - US only

The 2nd winner chooses 1 print from Koniver.etsy.com - Worldwide

Monday's Muse - Art On The Darkside

Popped over to Art On The Darkside to check out the new challenge .... Oooh, Mirrors! What fun!

Mirrored Angels

This is adapted from a piece I sold a while ago. It actually started out as 2 Polaroid emulsion transfers on the inside of a plexiglas frame. It needed a little something so I backed it with a print of an antique postcard. (Nice to be able to use something from my collection now & then)

The postcard is from Mother to Billy Boy and has no picture. Just the words - If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap, than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

Some trivia for you, while Googling to make sure that this was an Emerson quote, I found out that in 1855 he really wrote - If a man has good corn, or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles, or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad, hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.

Funny how all that eventually morphed into: Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

I then scanned & tweaked in Photoshop Elements. Just playing around.

So what's inspiring you today?

The folks over at Maternal Spark want to know.

And I wanna know too!

Leave a comment on this blog before noon (EST) Thursday & be entered in this week's random giveaway. There will be 2 winners. Each will get a set of ACEOs from Melanie over at Studio27. Click HERE for details & pics of prizes. Plus an interview with the artist.

The Butterfly Charmer & Faux Frescoes

Cleaning out some shelves & uncovered these wonderful teeny frames

Decided I needed to make a little something.

And I do mean little. The frames are 3"sq & almost 1.5" deep.
So made this tiny Butterfly Charmer

It feels good to create something...anything. Too many days without making stuff & I get cranky!

Hope to really dig my heels into something meaty soon.

Till then, I added 5 Polaroid Transfers to my etsy sale at ArtSnark.

These are emulsion transfers on marble tile.* Ready to hang
Fun to make The final look reminds me of old frescoes & ruined walls.Just click on any pic for details
* If you'd like to read more about the different steps for making emulsion vs. image Polaroid transfers click here. The photos I posted yesterday were image transfers. Friday's post featured an emulsion transfer

Giant Polaroid Transfer Sale

The studio cleaning continues! It's a tiny space but so cluttered I'm having trouble working.

Deep discounting a bunch of Polaroid Transfers from a few years ago.
Just click on any pic to see the detailsThey are all originals (no prints) and have been enhanced with watercolors & colored pencils. Most are framed & ready to hang. Please keep checking back at ArtSnark on etsy
I 'll add 3-4 new pieces every day,

including some emulsion transfers on marble tiles.

Illustration Friday - Climbing

You cannot learn to fly by flying. First you must learn to walk, and to run, and to climb, and to dance.
- Friedrich NietzcheThis drawing for Illustration Friday is available in my Etsy shop.

Special thanks to the talented Nancy Lefko for introducing me to Illustration Friday through her blog. Click here to see Nancy's wonderful Climbing collage

A Day Of Sharing Song - Calling All Angels

"Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought. " E.Y. Harburg

Playing with another great idea from LK Ludwig:

"Songs can move us to places we haven't been in a long time, places we long for every day, or places we some day hope to be. The combination of music and poetry can transport us across distances, and through the years... Meeting new music, musicians, composers, poets, new ways for my soul to sing, is an intriguing concept. Want to go on this adventure with me? It will be easy to travel along...Dec 3 ...post a song that touches you...."

I've narrowed mine down to 2 -The 1st is Calling All Angels by Jill Siberry & KD Lang:
You can listen to it hereSanta Maria, Santa Teresa, Santa Anna, Santa Susannah
Santa Cecilia, Santa Copelia, Santa Domenica, Mary Angelica
Frater Achad, Frater Pietro, Julianus, Petronilla
Santa, Santos, Miroslaw, Vladimir
and all the rest

a man is placed upon the steps, a baby cries
and high above the church bells start to ring
and as the heaviness the body oh the heaviness settles in
somewhere you can hear a mother sing

then it's one foot then the other as you step out onto the road
how much weight? how much weight?
then it's how long? and how far?
and how many times before it's too late?

calling all angels
calling all angels
walk me through this one
don't leave me alone
calling all angels
calling all angels
we're cryin' and we're hurtin'
and we're not sure why...

and every day you gaze upon the sunset
with such love and intensity
it's almost...it's almost as if
if you could only crack the code
then you'd finally understand what this all means

but if you could...do you think you would
trade in all the pain and suffering?
ah, but then you'd miss
the beauty of the light upon this earth
and the sweetness of the leaving

calling all angels
calling all angels
walk me through this one
don't leave me alone
callin' all angels
callin' all angels
we're tryin'
we're hopin'
we're hurtin'
we're lovin'
we're cryin'
we're callin'
'cause we're not sure how this goes