Author: Shelly

Art, Drawings

Blue Tree

Shelly

Blue Tree
Blue Tree
wax resist (wax crayon and India ink) on leaf from 19th century patent book
9 x 5 1/2 inches

The altered books group posts monthly techniques. I hadn’t done wax resist in years–and never with India ink–so I thought I’d try it. I used RoseArt crayons, which aren’t as heavily pigmented as Crayola, but they are waxier, so they might be better suited to resist.

Blue Tree
Blue Tree
wax resist (Portfolio water-soluble crayons and India ink) on leaf from 19th century patent book
5 1/2 x 9 inches

I also did one with Portfolio water-soluble crayons. That was only almost as stupid as it sounds. The top layers of crayon washed away in areas, but I can go back in and replace them. What’s more interesting is the way the ink bloomed. There are circular spots in the top drawing, where the ink dropped onto the paper. In the bottom one, there are lines, where I used the dropper to squeeze swathes of ink along the edges of the paper. In the scans, those areas read as tears, though close up, it’s obvious that they are not.

You could use other colors of ink. Watercolor or acrylic paint mixed with a small amount of water might be interesting, too. Pretty much anything that flows well and is water-based should work.

Art, Artist Books, Collage

The Remembrancer: Blue Moon

Shelly

The Remembrancer: Blue Moon
The Remembrancer: Blue Moon
Portfolio water-soluble crayons, pencil, and gesso
4 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches

For some reason, I have a terrible time color-correcting blues. It doesn’t help that some media–like crayons and colored pencils–lose opacity when scanned. So, the color on this one is as close as I could get it, but it’s not perfect.

I’m also not a big fan of Portfolio water-soluble crayons. They’re super creamy and smeary and are just too mushy for my tastes. They also don’t layer very well, so just when you think you are building up nice, complex strata of pigment, you end up with bald spots. Hrmf!

Meta

I’m not dead, yet!

Shelly

I was just playing around some more with Google Earth. StatCounter uses WhoIs to give geographic locations for each visitor, based on the location of their ISP. It then taps into Google Earth, allowing you to see a map of who is posting from where. Or that’s the basic theory. It’s not quite that straightforward, though, so don’t panic, thinking that I or anyone else can hunt you down! For example, I’m located in southern Indiana, but my IP address maps to Louisville, Kentucky. I assume that’s where my ISP’s main office is located. Except, I just looked at the Google Earth satellite map, and I appear to be posting from a cemetery.

I’m not dead, yet!

Art, Artist Books, Collage

Distress Signals & The Soothsayer’s Palm

Shelly

The Remembrancer: Distress Signals
The Remembrancer: Distress Signals
collage (illustrations from old book, child’s dress pattern, and buttons) with gesso and Portfolio water-soluble crayons
4 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches

The Remembrancer: The Soothsayer's Palm
The Remembrancer: The Soothsayer’s Palm
collage (film strip, old shipping label, dictionary fragment, dried flower and brass brad) with gesso, ink, and Portfolio water-soluble crayons
4 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches

Art, Artist Books, Bookarts

The Remembrancer: A Tragedy in One Act

Shelly

100_3948

100_3944
The Remembrancer: A Tragedy in One Act
5 1/8 x 4 3/8 inches
8 signatures of 2 sheets (32 pages)
brown paper grocery bags Coptic bound with hemp twine

This one is kind of small, both in dimensions and length. It’s also nearly square, which will probably make me cry before I finish it. Too bad I got gesso on the binding, because it actually turned out pretty well. It’s nice and even, without being too tight. That’s not so easy to accomplish with rough hemp, because the twin itself is knobbly, with thick and thin bits. I’ll try to clean up the gesso splotches and get decent close-ups of the stitching tomorrow. Or maybe I’ll decide it doesn’t matter.

Journals, Photography

Journals and Altered Books

Shelly

100_3934
Mead Composition Book

This particular notebook is filled with collage work. The spine became stressed, and is now square, because too much material was added without removing sufficient pages to compensate.

Learn from my mistakes, people!

100_3936

100_3939

These are a few of my journals and altered books. I finally figured out how I want to finish a painting I’ve had stashed away for years, so I dug out a sketchbook, to make notes. Otherwise, I’ll forget. While I was at it, I thought I’d take a few photos of the most recent strata of journals, sketchbooks, etc.

Photography

Lake Michigan

Shelly

IMG_5454.JPG
Frozen Wave
Credit: karen ybanez, published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license

I mentioned that we used to live in Michigan City? We moved around quite a bit, but during our time there, we stayed for awhile in a little bungalow just a block from the beach. There were white concrete lions flanking the front steps, and a couple of concrete statues in the yard, which was surrounded by a low hedge of some sort. I remember the lake in winter being icy and magical. Summer was equally amazing. We could run down to the beach in the mornings, or go to the park or zoo, which were just a few blocks down Lake Shore Drive. And, even though I was only in kindergarten, I walked to school by myself.

On the way to school, there was an enormous sand dune we used to climb up, then roll down. It was right across the street from Les’ candy store. Les was a grumpy old guy. I don’t think he liked kids very much. There was a car repair garage connected to the candy store, and for some reason, I recall that his brother ran it. The giant sand dune has been paved over and built up, and I assume Les is long gone.

There was also a fire station on the way to school. Sometimes, when they weren’t busy, the fire fighters would talk to the kids and let them climb around on the trucks. They also sold candy. Lifesaver swirly lollipops.

Ice Feathers
Michigan City Lighthouse
Credit: Mike Lavoie, published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license

Altered Books, Art, Collage

The Terrible Hours: Title Page & Table of Contents

Shelly

The Terrible Hours: Title Page
The Terrible Hours: Title Page
collage (altered Polaroid, anatomical illustration, and yearbook photos)
9 1/4 x 5 7/8 inches

100_3933
collage (anatomical illustration, map, child’s dress pattern, and fragment from old book) with Neocolors II and pencil
9 1/4 x 5 7/8 inches

I’m not going to do anything to the cover. I sort of like the idea of altered books sitting on the shelf, looking “normal” on the outside.

Now, what next? I’m going to have to find a new project.

Uncategorized

Much Reading (No Spoilers)

Shelly

I didn’t end up starting the new Harry Potter book until nearly 11pm last night. I stayed up until about 3am, reading. There’s just not a good place to pause and put it down, but I finally had to go to sleep. I was able to finish it this evening. Hoo-boy. It was much better than I’d anticipated. Much. I think Joseph Campbell would have approved. It was also much more intense than the other books, though I was expecting that.

The plot point that I was most worried might be mangled was the Snape story. I don’t know why that one was important to me, but it was a relief to get to the end and to know that I was right, dammit. I was also concerned about what might happen with Dumbledore. I think I would have felt cheated if the Dumbledore story had gone wrong, but it didn’t.

The writing itself seemed a little better, too. It may be that I was too engrossed in the story to be critical, so we’ll see, on re-reading, if the same sorts of things distract me in this book as in some of the other books.