Sondi Sees

Yeah, what she said…

Go here to this blog….she has put into words PRECISELY what I've been thinking….plus her blog is pretty cool…

http://collagecontessa.blogspot.com/2008/12/just-because.html

Somerset Studios ARTFUL BLOGGING

My Spring 2008 copy of Somerset Studios ARTFUL BLOGGING. And why was I so excited to see it? Well, of course I was excited about all the amazing photos and blogs of creative interesting people. I LOVE THEIR MAGAZINES. THEY ROCK….

BUT….I was also excited because guess whose email was printed right at the tippy top of the BUZZ page? MINE!! Unfortunately, they listed THIS blog address instead of my arty one (although they confirmed that they got the updated address….cest la vie….). BUT STILL, how cool am I feeling right now? Granted, i didn’t get a whole article devoted to me, but dude, seeing my name (albeit MISPELLED…those balloonheads!) in print is sorta mind blowing. KABLEWIE!!!

P.S.  For anyone interested, please refer to my feeling arty page with all my art on it….

http://sondisees.typepad.com/feelingarty/

Catching Up

yet another meeting cancelled due to snow. Lots of time to hole up in my art room with glue and scraps and snips and tidbits of this and that! I’ve been making an effort to try as many new techniques lately as I can. I uploaded some more collages to my FEELING ARTY site and today I tried a challenge posted by Wednesday’s stampers (see my challenges link list if you’d like to give it a whirl!). The theme was Gothic Arches, which they claim is an up and coming new format for mixed media pieces. Sure, why not….

Below is my contribution….was in a goofy mood today. One of these days I’ll get my medications balanced. LOL

Other than the art I did, I sharpened my scissors, replaced my razor blade (nothing worse than rips and tears due to faulty equipment), found some supplies that had been sorta….uh…missing (yeah, it’s a mess in here, AGAIN)….also found a bunch of rubber stamps that I (1)hadn’t used in a while, (2)hadn’t used at ALL, and (3)hadn’t finished constructing and USED THEM ALL!! I was quite proud of myself! Then I attempted to clean off the diningroom table….still lots of piles of stuff on it but I managed to empty off enough to at least remove the tablecloth…so that’s SOMETHING.

I also backed up some photo files, sorted thru some clipart and deleted some really ugly images that I have no idea why I was saving. This laptop has no extra memory space and using what little it has to store ICKY stuff is just boneheaded. Over the weekend I also downloaded a host of free fonts. Since switching from ‘the family’ computer to my laptop, I have really felt kinda creatively cramped without my arsenal of fonts. So that took like most of the day yesterday. Ugh. But TOTALLY worth it. Bummer that I can’t use them on here unless I upload them as a picture. Arrgghhh

So, except for dishes and cooking and cleaning and mundane stuff like that, that was pretty much my last couple of days. Oh wait, completely forgot….on Sunday we brought the girls to a kids’ sledding party.

WHAT AN UNDERTAKING….first had to snap/zip/button/stretch/squirm them into their many layers of playing-in-the-snow clothes, then loaded the little snowpeople into the van and drove over to our friend’s place, an hour away. We got there and the girls played outside for a total of eleven minutes….then they REALLY started to party..aka, consume large amounts of sugar and run in circles screaming like banshees. Fortunately, most of the other kids were doing the same thing so ours mostly blended in….except for when the noise levels died down and ONLY ours were still shrieking and exhibiting signs not unlike hardcore heroin addicts.

After two hours, they were still going strong and Richie and I were completely exhausted and ready to head home. Even though I drank two cups of coffee at the party, I laid down on the couch when we got home and promptly fell ASLEEP. At six o’clock. Yowsa, that was a day.

ART LOST & FOUND

Hmm….it’s been brought to my attention that the link I’d been using to connect (or direct, as the case may be) folks to my art blog, is no longer working.

So I’ve updated my links…..PLEASE let me know if you click on something that doesn’t work (THANK YOU, STEPHANIE!!!!).

Here is the new and current link to my artwork….

http://sondisees.typepad.com/feelingarty/

PLEASE VOTE!!!

First Off  — Here is an awesome, truly homemade postcard that my friend, Terese sent me. It’s a large photograph attached to cardstock with a message and address on the back. The picture is a snowangel with a face and heart drawn on. How cool is that??? I love it!!!

Second — I’m playing around with some ideas for a new title bar on this webpage. I’m looking for feedback. Please leave me a comment on the one that feels right to you for this site – A., B., or C. ?

A. is the original snowy birds

B. has the tiny mom and daughter in the lower left hand corner

C. has a brain and pink flowers on the left

So whaddya think???

I’m awaiting your thoughts with eager anticipation!!!!

Just click on ‘comment’, below!

Continue Reading PLEASE VOTE!!!…

FIRST

Here is the first of the fifteen pages I’m working on for the round robin 15-page journal. It is the smallest in size and the most simple and yet, it took me the longest to complete. Thanks, mom for the awesome starbucks tissue paper! The feathers along the bottom are real feathers attached to brown ribbon (to make it easier to attach). I loved the warm colors of this one…probably because I’m ffff-freezing! Today there are some gusty winds kicking up the snow that fell over the last two days. Our house has been warmer lately except for the gusty blustery days. On those days, the wind is large and in charge and finagles it’s way in thru all the little cracks and crevices. The plants above my kitchen sink are actually MOVING in the breeze. SO NOT COOL……(COLD more like it. Har har…)

“FRIEND”

It’s interesting…the psychology behind collage sometimes. I’ve been starting some of my collages with random colors and then just grabbing random bits of paper and gluing them down. Then, as the pages start to fill up, a theme (sometimes color, sometimes emotional) starts to emerge. This one startled me a bit as it developed and I realized how strong the emotions I had bubbling away under the surface. By the time I finished, I realized that I better lay off the sugar and caffeine ’cause I was downright weepy…..weird how that can happen…

I heard that ebay is running this tagline that says something like, "give a gift that says ‘I Get You’, not ‘i got you something’". And I started thinking about how few of the people you know and like actually really GET YOU. And then, when someone that you care about and love spending time with and who you REALLY think ‘gets you’ doesn’t want to spend time with you anymore and phases you out of their life…..what does that say about the kind of person you are??? Because, either there is something fundamentally toxic about you that makes them run, OR they never really got you at all and you were just too dumb to notice. Either way, self doubt does more than ‘creep’ in at this point. It breaks down the door and barges into the room and starts beating you to a bloody pulp and leaves you half dead and bleeding on the floor.

(So yeah, I have some issues…. LOL)

A Little Bit O’ Arty Rambling

Since I’ve been busy working on some round robin journal pages, I’ve been channelling all my emotional energy there….so instead of coming up with something original to say here (oh yeah, except that I uploaded some pictures of me with my fancy schmancy new watch ….love it!!!…to Ringo so that you could see it Shasha! Too much coolness!! ).

So here is an excerpt of an email (with a couple of grammatical alterations that I noticed upon further review….lame-o that I am) I sent to a friend….it thoroughly sums up my day….

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I LOVE Michelle Ward!

I have a couple of her websites bookmarked. I have a set of her stamps….the ones with all the birds. I have thought of participating in one of those challenges and sort of never really rose to the occasion. I’ve finished my altered book club for the year. It doesn’t pick up again until February. So I have until then to start a new book (choose a theme, start decorating it). In the meantime, I’ve signed up to do a round robin journal of sorts. There is a woman on one of my yahoo altered book groups who has sent a bunch of journals out into the ether…..the participant does fifteen pages in fifteen days and sends the book back. My book arrived in the mail yesterday and it has a big "67" stamped on the inside front cover (it was brand spanking new! ) so I assume she has at least that many circulating.

Soooo….I checked out the latest challenge you were referring to (#15) and realized it would be cool to have some pages in the journal about where I come from and where I am. So if it is any good and I don’t HATE it, I will scan it in when I’m done on the challenge site.

(Followup note…. I scanned it and it’s on my companion site: www.feelingarty.typepad.com)

Anyhoo…..the first collage-ing I got involved with was a yahoo ATC group. Then as I developed my own style (i’m a bit schizo….i have a few completely different styles), I participated in trades….and then I kind of outgrew them. There were too many people with either styles that were too cutesy for my tastes or it seemed like they just didn’t try very hard. (There were of course some AWESOME artists in the group that I really admired…but then again….frustration with the others!!)

There was a woman and her daughter that were running a bunch of round robin swaps and ….either the girl is VERY young or she is mentally disabled because the resulting cards were AWFUL. BAD. HORRIBLE. EMBARRASSING. ICK. I joined a few more ATC groups in the meantime and mostly just lurk, hoping for inspiration….

Anyhoo…..so I haven’t done any swaps of atc’s in so long that I have really gotten out of the habit of making them. I have lots of blank backgrounds just waiting for inspiration to be finished up. I’ve no problem making backgrounds. I have a couple of recipe boxes filled up with backgrounds…..argh!

Inspiration, where are you???

Friendship, Take #2!

These two pages were my second set for the theme, "friendship". Instead of going the cartoony route like the last set, I used layers of paper, paint, stamping, vintage and modern images collaged along with stickers and more paint and copies of my latest batch of old photographs. I used canvas as a base this time instead of cardstock. It held the weight of the many layers quite a bit better with no curling of the corners. Voila!

Altered Book Pages

If you click on the tiny images above, you will see larger versions…. The theme of the book these are in is "Stillness". (The left hand page reads: "the quiet peace of a sleeping child". )

For me, I find stillness in watching my sleeping babies. During those moments as I gaze upon them while checking on them before bed, their sweet, innocent little dreaming faces engulf me in such a quiet peace….one of my favorite daily (er…nightly) routines.

It’s hard to believe there are terrible things in the world outside as you look upon your sleeping babies. How can there be hate and ugliness when there is such purity right in front of you??? *sigh*

Continue Reading Altered Book Pages…