Author: Karen

On the Verge of Weeping in the Hallmark Store

Karen

My oldest son, Christopher, is turning 20 tomorrow. Today I went to the Hallmark store to try to find him a birthday card. Am I the only one who abhores picking out greeting cards? I must have read almost every single card there was. Nothing seemed to fit. I wanted to find something funny and encouraging– but couldn’t find a thing. I originally by-passed the section with the cards that have deep colors and swirly fonts on the front. You know the ones with SON written in huge sweeping letters. Finally, out of desperation, I picked up a few of the sentimental types and almost burst into tears. And I’m not even menopausal! Was it the thought of my “baby” turning twenty? It hadn’t really occurred to me that this was a milestone, but yes, it is because tomorrow my son will be exiting the teen years. But wait, it can’t be that significant if Hallmark doesn’t even a have section for the 20th birthday. They just skip from sweet sixteen to twenty-one. What’s so great about 21 anyhow? Wait. I know . . . he can start drinking legally! Whoop de doo! And here he’s been able to vote and get killed in the military for two years already. I didn’t even look at the 21 yr. old cards. I figure they’re all about getting wasted t.

I was trying to think about where I was at in my head when I was twenty. But it’s too long ago to remember. I think I was just passing time until I was twenty-one and could drink legally!

But really, why would I get so teary-eyed in the Hallmark aisle? I think I need to buy a bigger sized pair of pants. There’s not much more in life that’s as depressing to contemplate as that. With the exception of coping with a mother who’s drifing away in an Alzheimer haze. I guess sometimes it’s all just too much to take.

Dia de los Muertos Altered Books

Karen

Dia de los Muertos :: Niche Close-Up

I have finally finished my three books for Dia de los Muertos – The Day of the Dead. You can see more pictures of them on my web site at Dia de los Muertos :: Dia de los Muertos Altered Books. I started creating these books because I wanted to enter a juried exhibition for art related to the Day of the Dead, but I found out about it too late. I foolishly thought I could complete the books before the deadline, but I wasn’t able to. I’m hoping to enter them in a more local art show. The deadline for that one is August 27, so I might be able to get all the entry stuff done by then.

One of the things I need to do is get slides made. I have never done this before. I can’t afford to have professional photos taken, so I found a place online that will take my digital pix and turn them into 2″ x 2″ slides. The company is fairly local, too, which is nice.

I think the hardest part about making these altered books is trying to make each one look unique but also complementary to each other. I spent a lot of time researching the holiday, looking at pictures of Dia de los Muertos altars, and viewing examples of Mexican textiles to get ideas for patterns and colors. All that was a lot of fun, but it was also time consuming. I would do something on the book, say, glue down the bark paper on the covers, and then hop onto the computer while the paper dried.

I spent one whole day just looking for pictures of Loteria cards online. I found some places where people had uploaded scanned images of the cards, but when I tried to print them, the resolution of the pix was so low that they looked miserably fuzzy. No matter how I tried to tweak them, I just wasn’t satisfied.

After hours of frustration, it occurred to me that perhaps they would carry the Loteria game at a Mexican market. I had an idea where one might be located, but when I drove by the next day I discovered it was a Filipino market. I was pretty disappointed and headed for home when I happened to see a Mexican market further down the road. I went inside. My son and I were the only non-Latino people shopping. We walked up and down the isle looking at all the interesting foods and packagings. Finally I got to a section with hats, knives, and Mexican flags. Tucked away on the shelf below some folded up sports bags were three different versions of the game. And they were a lot cheaper than I had seen them online. I was so excited.

Another time consuming part of the process was scanning the text and images from my antique Spanish Reader to use in the background on the books. I scanned the pages I wanted, removed the color, adjusted the brightness/contrast, and did a lot of touching up before I was able to print them out. Then I had to prepare the brown rice paper so it would print in my Epson printer without jamming it. That was also quite a process.

After I was finished with the books I decided to put some of the scans I used on my web site on my Public Domain Images page. The three pages of engravings can be found at Victorian Clipart :: Clipart Victorian, Free Victorian Clipart, and Vintage Clipart.

I had the most fun making the little skeleton figurines for the niches. I hadn’t worked with my polymer clay for a while, so it was a bit of an ordeal to pull out the boxes and dig through looking for colors I could use. I was determined not to buy anymore clay. Luckily I found quite a bit of white, but since I knew that it wouldn’t be enough, I also added ecru and raw sienna to the mix. I wanted to keep the skeletons very pale–almost white–but I but too much of the brown in and so they came out a peachy beige color. At first I thought that I’d paint them white, but I liked them the way they were, and also, since I was going to paint a bridal dress on one of them, I worried about a lack of contrast between the bones and the dress. So I decided to keep them ecru colored. I also chose not to paint in the eyes and teeth, unlike all of the other examples of skeletons that I’ve seen. I like the subtle, understated look. And to tell the truth, I was worried that I would mess them up if I tried to paint them in. So I kept them “au naturale,” so to speak.

I would have to say that it took me about three weeks of steady, off-and-on work to complete these books, and then two more days to photograph them and prepare the web pages. Now that they’re finished, I feel a momentary sense of relief, but I have several more projects waiting in the wings, nagging at me to be created. So as soon as I finish/start cleaning up my workroom, it’s on to my next piece of art . . .

Paper Art :: Rising to the Occasion

Karen


I have just completed everything I needed to do to enter my first juried exhibition. And I’m even ahead of the deadline! What a surprise. There were a lot of guidelines to follow. I had to read and re-read, underline, take notes, and I’m still paranoid that I missed something and will be summarily rejected. This exhibition is specifically for the Book Arts, so I have decided to enter four of my Wall Hangings. I figure that it is likely that most of the book arts submissions for others will need to be on tables or pedestals; I hope that that will leave plenty of wall space for my four entries.

The first thing I had to do is decide which book sculptures to send. There are a few that I worry about traveling, so I decided to choose ones that I thought were my best work and also would go through the mail in one piece. I decided on Paper Art :: Rising to the Occasion, Decorative Wall Hangings :: Dream Weaver, Contemporary Wall Decor :: Stone Heart, and Paper Sculpture :: Land of My Heart. I could have submitted one more, but I really didn’t want to pay the money. Even though this is a non-profit art organization I’m submitting to, and the fees are relatively low, I don’t like the idea of having to pay a fee that doesn’t come back to me if I get rejected. Seems like a weird way to run things. Wouldn’t it make more sense to pay a fee if you get accepted? But who am I to say? From of the looks of things, that seems to be the way it’s done.

So after I decided which books to submit, I had to make a CD with up to four digital images of each book. That wasn’t too hard because I have images on my computer for use on my web site. I had to organize and name them a in a specific format. Again, not too difficult after I got the hang of it. I was grateful that I didn’t have to send slides, since I don’t have any. I am considering entering a arts and crafts’ exhibition in San Luis Obispo, and I will need slides for that. I’m looking into creating slides from my digital images. Everything I read says that I should invest in professional photographs of my art, but I can’t even consider that right now. I know that if I was running my “art business” as a “real” business, I would invest the money, and it would be a worthwhile expense. I mean, if my art doesn’t come across effectively in slides and photos, who’s going to want to buy it anyway? So some day soon, I hope I’ll be in a position to have this done.

Along with the digital images, I had to include a Word or PDF doc giving my name, the title of the work, the media used, and the selling price. This gallery is only charging a 25% commission, which is really reasonable compared to others I’ve seen. Most places charge 40 – 50% commission. It’s hard to keep the selling price down. I mean, the retail price on those four pieces is only $125 each, which I think is pretty low to begin with. If the gallery keeps 50%, then I’m down to about $55 for each piece. Subtract the entry fee – about $5.00 each. Subtract the cost of shipping the work to the gallery and then shipping it home if it doesn’t sell. Boy, when you start looking at it that way, I’m really underpricing my art!


Next I completed an entry form. I also enclosed a very brief cover letter, although I wasn’t asked to. It seemed weird to just stick everything in an envelope and send it without a note of some kind. One of the resources I’m using to figure all of this “art biz” stuff out, is a book called Building a Career as a Visual Artist: Taking the Leap. It has a couple of examples of how to write a cover letter which gave me some good ideas about what to write. Cay does say to use some nice stationary–nothing flowery or cutesy–so I had to make some using my computer. I think it looks okay. Simple but nice. This book has really been helpful to me. It’s very clear and easy to read and basically answers all my questions before I even think of what to ask!

Finally, I filled out a SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) so they can return the CD if they don’t like my work, and I plan on getting the whole shebang to the post office tomorrow. Check back to see how it all works out!

Wall Sculpture :: For the Roses

Karen

The Wall Sculpture :: For the Roses was the second wall sculpture that I made. I had picked up that book for some reason before the concept of hanging altered books entered my mind. When I was looking for books to work with, the title immediately made me think of roses blooming on the page. I cut the center sections out and then painted the back sides of the pages in darkening degrees of pink. I cut out little star shapes and folded them back, which created the the roses. My sister says they look like stars, but I see roses. I cut and folded pages of the book for the vines that I wove in and out of the pages before I glued them shut. I really like the way this book looks on the wall.

I’m working on another flower-themed wall hanging right now called Anatomy of Paradise. It’s taking me a while to get it finished because I have to keep leaving home to take care of my mom. I have a hard time working on a project if I can’t stick with it over time. I like to just sit down, start, and then work and work until it gets done. If I have to put it down and pick it up, I get frustrated; I lose my rhythm. So right now the vines and leaves and blossoms for this altered book are lying all over my work space and have been for about three weeks. I can’t seem to sit down and continue working cause when I get back from my parents’ house, I have so much to catch-up with at home. I thought this summer I would really be able to focus and create. It’s just not turning out the way I had imagined.

Making Altered Books :: Art in a Child’s Hand

Karen

Wow! How fast time passes. I didn’t realize that I had let so much time slip away since my last post. I’ve been busily updating my web site; I haven’t even had time to do any art. Egads!

One of the pages I recently updated was a description of the techniques I used for one of my first altered books. In Making Altered Books :: Art in a Child’s Hand I talk about this board book I made for ISABA [International Society of Altered Book Artists] for a display they were doing.

One of my favorite things about this book is the quote by Picasso. It says “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” Isnt’ that lovely? The back of this little book isn’t even finished, but that’s on my to-do list for this summer. I want to finish the cover and add it to my Altered Books for Sale page. I have too many books and too little space. Some of these have to move on to loving homes so I have room for the new work. Now if I could just get around to creating all that “new work”. . .