Cave of Pages Project and Class Review

About a week ago, I took a wonderful class with Michael DeMeng called "Cave of Pages." My completed project is called "Immigrant Wishes" and features my maternal grandparents' wedding portrait and some other family heritage photos.  The base is a cigar box, which I covered in acrylic caulking and painted.  I took off the cover of the cigar box and created two layers within the box with paper covered mat board, with openings cut in their centers. Added a variety of found objects and embellishments (a wish bone I've been saving forever, a wooden heart, quilled flowers, burlap, wire, charms on the side, etc) mounted in front and behind the various surfaces to create a finished project that has about ten different levels of depth. I'm very happy with it! The color scheme fits the current Gingersnap Creations challenge for neutrals with a pop of color.

As for the class review, I really enjoyed it, but students should realize it's not one for the faint of heart! Michael's classes are mostly intermediate to advanced, in that you are not given any kind of a kit and told what to do. Instead, he has a variety of samples and he suggests ways to create a project similar to one of the samples.  He explains a bit and then says, "okay, go."  He is VERY available throughout class to help you problem solve and to give advice, but he's not going to tell you exactly what to do step-by-step.  He also intersperses demonstrations on things such as color washes, working with power tools, finding and using the right adhesives, detail painting and other painterly tricks.  The amount of information given out in these demonstrations is enormous - more than I could absorb in a single class.  Luckily, this is the third Michael DeMeng class that I have taken, so I knew what to expect. (You can read more about the other DeMeng classes and his style by clicking on the de meng label at the end of this post.) 

I came prepared with a variety of things to use and a commitment to myself to be brave and jump into the project.  The demos on power tools and color washes were reviews for me, so I kept working on my project and only eavesdropped on  those.  I skipped the adhesive demo entirely because I feel like I've fully absorbed that information.  The detail painting and painterly trick demos were totally new to me (or if I saw them before, I couldn't really absorb them because my brain was already too full).  I learned the "burnt paper trick" which I used on this piece (yes, that's paint, not actual burning!) and also a technique for highlighting certain people in photos by ghosting out the others.  Tried that one on this piece, too. He ends each class with a 30-45 minute critique in which he discusses each and every piece.  All his feedback is positive, and he really helps you see what works for each piece.  This really facilitates learning and understanding and improving for the next project.

Finally, a word about Michael himself.  He's classically trained in art and so really knows painting technique and art theory. This makes him different from someone like Tim Holtz who is fantastic but self-taught. More importantly, Michael is a hilarious and generous man.  He takes time to get to know each and every student and works with them at their level (without making them feel stupid). He has great taste in music and comes equipped with a wonderful mix on his ipod. At the end of a class with him, I always feel like he has given a piece of himself to me and that I have grown as an artist.

Creating in my studio

When playing in my studio the other day, I decided to try to create my own Golden Paint Mixes, along the ones created by Michael DeMeng that I blogged about here.  I am pretty happy with this formulation, which I call "Halloween Night."  It gives the feeling of nighttime but is light enough to be able to create on top of it - a nice alternative to a straight black, I think.  I started with a wash of carbon black on top of a gesso'd ATC (for texture).  I wiped off a lot of the black and then swooshed/pooled on a wash of Hansa Yellow and dried it.  When it was completely dry, I added a wash of transparent iron  oxide.  Do you think I'm on the right track?

And because I'm worried that things are getting too dark & creepy here on the blog, here's a quick art journal page I made in the studio today.  I used the Creative Therapy prompt, "What was your first kiss?" Mine was in first grade with a boy named Michael Tarbox.  I still remember it very strongly (and fondly). Feel like sharing yours?

Speaking of the studio I work in, have I mentioned that we rent it from a woman who makes specialty cheesecakes?  Her creations are true works of art.  Check out this link to see her wedding cake gallery.  A wonderful side-benefit for me is that the studio always smells fantastic! Plus, she will often share "left-overs" with my weekend classes if she has any available!

The Fantasy World of Michael DeMeng

I've been working on this altered book spread for a while, but I'm very happy with how it came out! The theme for the book was "Fantasy," and I decided to create a spread about the fantasy world of Michael DeMeng.  The background is textured gesso, colored with DeMeng's recipe for Uzzzh, with some added green.  I adhered some grungeboard elements (key, flourish and letters) and a plastic tree.  I cut a niche, filled it with a picture I took of my sister holding a skull at a nature museum and covered it with some mesh.  The picture of the model is from a fashion magazine and the other picture is one I took of the Budapest Opera House. You can see more details if you click on the image to enlarge it. It was a ton of fun to make and it definitely meets the Gingersnap Creations challenge for creating a 3D object with paint.  The themes, color and style are all inspired by Michael DeMeng. I find it inspiring and useful to create in the style of other artists.  Have you ever done that?

Playing with Paint

The Something Completely Different Challenge Blog is continuing its "torso" theme this month, and this week's challenge is black and red.  Well, here's my totally awesome Michael DeMeng-inspired entry! I blogged yesterday about DeMeng's cool new app (for ipad or ipod) which gives fabulous recipes for mixing Golden paint washes.  I couldn't resist stealing away to the studio today to play with paint.  Here's some color samples I made:

The colors in the top row are oil slick, ushzz, serial killer red. In the bottom row are fire water, jelly brain and undead red.  The torso ATC above is made on undead red.
I also decided that Michael, former bartender, needed to get plastered (so to speak).  I experimented with fire water on plaster and the result was spectacular (IMHO):

Not sure what I'm going to do with the samples or the big plaster sheet, but I'll be sure to share what I do.  In the meantime, I'm also submitting this to the for the Gingersnap Creations Supply Challenge (Paint). I just read the rules, and you can submit more than one thing, which is great because I was having trouble deciding whether this was better than this flag mini-album I posted earlier.  Anyway, it was so much fun to play today! My wish for you is that you get a chance to enjoy some creative play this weekend.

Thoughts of Shopping Interrupt the Daily Routine

The current prompt at creative therapy is "What is your daily routine?"  When I first read the prompt, I giggled because my life is a little too hectic to have a daily routine.  Then I thought of those little plastic puzzles with the numbered tiles you're supposed slide around and put in the correct order.  Well, that's pretty much my daily routine - trying to slip and slide all the various pieces into the proper order.  So, here's my art journal page capturing my daily routine.  It would have been better sized as a square, but I still like it.
One of the reasons it's so hard for me to have a daily routine are those surprises that pop up.  This week the surprise has been trying to fit in back-to-school clothes shopping for the kids. I always get a headache both from the amount of money I'm spending and the mall. I did buy myself some cute aqua-teal vans tennis shoes, though! Is this a chore you're struggling with?
I've got other thoughts of shopping in my brain:
1. Should I buy a new online class?  Shimelle just posted "Learn Something New Everyday."  I did it a couple of years ago, creating an ATC each day based on the prompt.  Loved it! Not sure if I'll repeat it again.  Any takers out there? Karen of Random Reflections posted about two free classes at BPS, but they aren't calling to me.  Is anyone doing them?  Any reactions?
Any other ideas out there? I'm leaning towards just working on some of the regular challenges out there and maybe finishing up my "When I Grow Up" art journal that I started and never finished.
2. Any new apps out there? Tara Whitney recommends the ShakeItPhoto App for .99. Anyone bought it? I just bought an awesome (though expensive as apps go) app from painter and assemblage artist Michael DeMeng called "Shades of Alchemy." It contains all his awesome recipes for paint mixes (plus videos and cocktail recipes).  You can read about it in this blog post of his.  He's an amazing artist, and I love the idea of having these recipes on my ipad, at my finger tips!  The app cost $8.00 but the recipes and instructions are well worth it.  I would have spent 3x that for his most recent book in order to get the recipes, and I would not have received the awesome videos. They're very clear and really give you an idea of how to apply paint.  It's a lot like being in a class with Michael. Awesome! Plus, I've taken several classes from him and really love him as a person.  I'm happy to support his venture.   You can see some of my Michael DeMeng art in my post here or in this picture:

Anyway, I highly recommend it! Go on - be brave!
3. Time to shop for a new camera lens.  When I was at the state baseball tournament, I fell and broke my telephoto zoom lens.  I shoot with a Nikon. I'm considering this 70-300 lens with a f 4.5 for $600, although I'm lusting after this 70-200 lens with an aperture as wide as 2.8 for $2000.  If I hadn't broken my lens, then for Christmas I was looking to get a fixed 85 mm lens - either this f 1.8  lens for $500 or this f 1.4 lens for $1350.  I'm not really sure I can justify spending $1400-2000 on a lens.  Especially since I was also/alternately planning to upgrade my camera from a D50 to a D90 ($900) at Christmas.  So, any thoughts???  Also, anyone know what the story is with the Nikon DX line of cameras? Never quite figured that out.
Thanks for your advice!

Finding Inspiration in the Mundane

Wednesday was a day when I needed to pick up the house. . . . take down the Halloween decorations, gather the dishes and dirty clothes the kids had left strewn about the house, clear off all those horizontal surfaces that had gathered mail and books and junk. You know that kind of day. I also had to clean up my craft desk, which was impassable. Not a very inspiring kind of day, until I found my Michael DeMeng Demented Toy creation (which, truth be told, I wasn't that happy with) sitting on top of the Frida Kahlo painted panel (which you can see down in the lower left-hand corner of my blog, in the "about me" section). I realized that what I didn't like about the piece was the face (it's a Jon Miller bobblehead, by the way) and the fact that the entire creation did not have any kind of a "shrine-like" quality to it, which is what normally draws me to Michael DeMeng's work. I was inspired to use Frida's face on a cloth mask to turn the creation into something in which I am now really happy. Who would have thought clean-up time could lead to such inspiration?

A strong sense of style

Look at these two pieces of art. Do you know who created them? If you're familiar with the artists, you will know them without peeking at the answer below. Even if you don't know the artists, you can see the differences between the two and easily believe that each has a style that is instantaneously recognizable as their own.

I am fascinated by artists who have developed such a strong sense of style. I wonder if they revel in it or feel boxed in by it. I am sure it helps "brand" them and make their art more salable. It also seems to make them more of an Artist with a capital "A" because you can recognize a Van Gogh or a Monet when you see it. In many ways, they have created their own signature "look." I know I'm not quite there yet. I have some sense of my own style. My collage, "Wings," which I feature on my blog, includes many of the elements which make up my style. But I haven't settled on or created a unique signature style - one that people look at and say, "That's a Maria Ontiveros." I have one in mind, but it's still in the incubation stage. I'll be sure to share it when and if it works out.

In the meantime, here's a list of artists who I think have a strong signature style:

Tim Holtz

Claudine Hellmuth

Ali Edwards

Dina Wakley

Tara Whitney

January Hooker (a local artist, without a website, but you can get an idea from this picture)

And, oh, here's where you can peek at the answers:

Harmony

Creepy Baby

October Class Review

October was a great month for taking classes! In reverse order,

1. Michael DeMeng's Demented Toys Class - in this class, we disassembled and then reassembled toys to create something new and meaningful. The picture of my creation is in a previous post. I enjoyed pushing myself to use power tools to disassemble things and the training on how to adhere things to each other. Michael focused on both traditional adhesives (E6000), mechanical connections (screws, nails) and apoxy clay. I learned a lot. Michael also gave some wonderful painting demonstrations. He's a wonderful teacher - accessible, funny, and a great problem solver. I've heard that he's become a better teacher over time and that this class contained more demonstration than prior classes. I had to leave early, so didn't get as much out of it as I could have (but that was my own fault).

2. Michael DeMeng's Holy Rolling Wheels - in this class, we altered hot wheels cars to create works of art. I loved this class!!! I appreciated how giving Michael was of his time and knowledge. It was a small class, and we all had lunch together. I feel like I really got a chance to get to know him as an artist and human being. it was wonderful to get some insight into how a real, living artist thinks & works. The hot wheels (first picture above) really worked for me because I was able to conceive of how to turn it into a shrine. At the end of the class, Michael gave a critique which really helped me improve my vehicle.

3. Nancy Young's Gesso Class - learned some nice techniques for making card fronts using gesso. Loved how we made a little sample book.

4. KJ's Card Class - Made cards using flower soft and glitter on acetate. Both are outside my regular box, but I had fun.

5. Connie Lutz's - Hot Water Bottle journal class. Yes, you read that right. The little red book is a journal made out of a hot water bottle. I love book binding, and I really enjoyed this class.

6. Connie Andrews Pumice Gel Class - okay, so technically this class was in September, but it was right at the end. Connie Andrews is a gifted teacher who has been offering a series of classes that focus on the use of texture mediums in collage. I created the abstract piece shown here, which is very different for me, but I really enjoyed it. Connie's blog is linked at the left. Check her out and definitely consider taking a class from her if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area. You won't be disappointed.

I'm taking two classes in November, and I'll review those at the end of next month.

The Courage to Finish a Piece

Some of my friends have trouble starting a piece of artwork. . . the blank page or canvas gives them trouble. That's not my problem. My problem is finishing a piece. When it's about half done (if things are going well), it has such potential for greatness, and I worry about screwing it up. This assemblage piece I started in Michael DeMeng's Demented Toys Class is a case in point. I disassembled a variety of toys and happily pieced them together. Added a variety of embellishments until I had a very cool creation. The vibe was somewhere between King of the Forest and Where the Wild Things are. Everyone in class loved it. But when it came time to begin painting it, that stage where you're supposed to pull everything together and unify it into its final form, I froze up. I kept looking & thinking, thinking & looking. Finally, yesterday I dove into it. I like the result pretty well, but mainly I'm happy to have found the courage to finish the piece!