ATC's ready to go!

Wow, it's been a while since my last post! Hunh. I hadn't realized i'd left it for so long till a friend of mine ryan mentioned that the last time i'd updated it had been a music related post. I guess life gets in the way sometimes. I've been very busy with teaching, friends coming in to visit from out of town and my many music activities i am signed up for. I play trombone in the University of Regina Jazz band, and we are just winding up for the semester. Our semester concert is on this wednesday... and i'm not sure i am completely ready on a couple small parts. Sometimes life gets in the way of practicing (and blogging lol).

So, this month, on April 25th i believe, is the birthday of Artist Trading Cards. So, the MacKenzie Art Gallery here is having a celebration, as i believe i mentioned in previous posts. In order to participate, they are asking people to submit 6 artist trading cards, which will go on display at the gallery. So... i guess you could say... in a small way... my art is going to be part of an exhibit at the art gallery! I know for some of you supremely talented, experienced art bloggers this is a regular thing, but this is a first for a newb hobbyist like me. Here are the six cards i am going to submit:

This first one i created using some really cool dollar store finds. When i went to the local Dollerama, i found they had this really cool meshy/plasticy/straw like stuff. It was such a cool texture that i had to have some :). I also found these really cool painted feathers there too, and some stringy fiber/yarn. I sewed the fiber all around the edges of the mesh, sewed feathers on and created a stylized stencil of the letter f. I then spray painted the f onto the mesh. I have always felt rather inspired by the way i see the way so many artists using spray paint with hand-made stencils in their journals, especially at this blog, Dispatch from LA. In the end, i am fair pleased with how it turned out. However, i think i needed to use more spray paint on the edges of the thin stencil, or buy better quality spray paint or something. It didn't seem to work too clearly, i would have liked a clearer edge. Maybe the stencil needs to be taped down more securely? I will be trying this spray painting method again, as i now have a couple stencils made.

This one i had talked about in a previous post. It is createdon foam board, with iridescent ink, music paper and stamping.















I had also previously discussed this marylin atc. I created it with photoshop the colours into the picture, and then photoshoping a second pic that just had the high points of her lips, her eyes, her hair and her shadow. I then used a packing tape transfer to put the second layer on top of the first. I found this one appropriate as they currently have a warhol exhibit on at the gallery.











I have been playing around with felting. I created this card with my grandmother last weekend. I went up for a visit, and we had a WONDERFUL time, art-ing (is that really a verb? haha it is now) up a storm. She is the tin-snips queen. We prepped the pieces for a really neat soldered copper piece that i will be eventually completing. So far, we have the shape of bird wings and a house cut out of a sheet of copper with the tin snips she so expertly wielded. Maybe i should make her something, a plaque or something, with her new title of the tin snips queen? haha.

Other than working with copper, we also hand fun experimenting with ways to dye the wool i had previously picked up, and doing some felting. This pic, called 'stripes' is my first felted piece. I also created a second piece of a felted scene using sheet and grass and sky, but i seem to have forgotten to scan taht one *embarassed*. I'll have to scan and post taht one later.

Lastly, i created one with a copper base. I was rather unsure what i wanted to do with this one at first. I knew i wanted to do something that featured the copper, and also wanted to feature my new intrest and 'skills' (haha) with the soldering iron. However, i just couldn't think of anything that wouldn't be too thick to fit in the atc sleeve (they are quite thin... not meant for taking anything bulky unfortunately. I wish they could take more thickness!). I wanted to maybe make it with a copper base, and the solder a piece of glass to cover the collage within, but then i decided it still wouldn't fit in the sleeve. I liked the collage so much, i decided to just leave it the way it is. I like the texture of the copper as the background. I will have to play more with that as a base in the future... when ihave more ideas of things that will fit? Or maybe when i am creating a 4x4 piece or something? or maybe something entirely different? I like the swapping aspect of ATCs, but i am finding them limiting in some ways. I guess i will just explore and see what's up :)

So, there my cards are, all ready for submission! I will go drop them off tommorrow, and let you all know how the birthday celebration goes later on. It should be a blast!