Possible Possibilities

Here's a page from the "art journal" I made from an old magazine to play in and keep my artistic hand limber while I'm away from my home studio.

c.2012  Lynne Ciacco, Upfronting Minds, acrylic & pastel on magazine paper, 10 x 8 in.

It was done very quickly and spontaneously, using dollar store acrylic paint, some old oil pastels I found in the closet (left over from my high school days!), and liquid matte medium. 

By cropping the image differently, other "paintings" can be produced, creating a series.

These could provide inspiration or jumping-off points for paintings on canvas I might do in the future.  They provide a different approach, at the very least, for  my way of picture making.

c. 2012, Lynne Ciacco, Circle Dance Squared, Digital Art

And for making digital art, they provide fine fodder.

This is the first image seen at the start of this post, plus a repeat of it flipped 180 degrees and superimposed on the original.  I toyed with Distort: Wave: Square in Photoshop's filters, and used a final blend mode of Exclusion.

I only wish I could get the same effect in the "real" world of paint on canvas. 

Hmmm, maybe I could...

Maxim of the Week

Inspector Chan’s rather foolish demeanour invariably tricked the culprit into revealing his crime.

Maxim:

Murder will out.

*

PS. Snuck in a little extra post last night, just to make up for my absence.

Looking forward to catching up with your blogs this week. 

Where does the time go???

Gallery Gaze

Oh my goodness, where has the time gone?!  Another week has flown by and I didn't get any art work posted here, although I have been dabbling, as promised in the previous post. I must admit that I have been spending more time over on my other blog lately, leaving little time to share pictures here.  Sometimes it's a fine line between which blog I should post a picture to, as I tend to tamper with nearly every photo I make.  When does it stop being a photograph and become digital art?

For example, I turned this photo of two pedestrians walking along gallery row into a posterized version

as I also did with this street scene of South Granville, though less obviously.

If you'd like to see some more of the sights from my day out visiting Vancouver art galleries, hop on over to Décolleté and take a peek. 

I'll be back soon with updates on my dabbling, I promise.

Meanwhile, I've got a maxim to prepare for tomorrow.

*

Art never really sleeps;
 it just takes a nap from time to time!
(you can quote me on that)

Maxim is Back! Plus More...

Picking up her daughter from playschool was the sweetest moment of Rose’s day.

Maxim:

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.

***

I've been indulging in a rather longer break from art making, blogging about art making, reading about art making, visiting other artists' blogs than originally anticipated.  I know there's a popular push to make art every day but sometimes it's good to not make art.  Sometimes it's the art itself that stops; the inspiration or fire fades; the confidence wanes; the questions creep in; the desire dwindles.  I've come to identify this phenomenon as a fallow period in my process of art making; a time for the creative soil to rest and replenish itself.  And it is also a time to not FREAK OUT because of the fear that I've lost the ability to make art and will never be able to do so again.  Well, there's all kinds of ways to make art and all kinds of art forms so the likelihood of "never making art again" is pretty small.

But really, in this instance, I've just been enjoying NOT making art.  However, the old itch to make scratches on surfaces has been gradually creeping back into my consciousness. 

I recently felt the need to set up a little creative corner in my bedroom (yes, I'm still visiting the old homestead  in North Vancouver,
probably till early March, which I'm blogging about on Décolleté Glimpses).

Using an old card table for my work surface and a pedestal that was once used as an ashtray stand to hold my brushes and small things not in use, I`ve created a mini-studio.

So, okay, I'm not going to be making great Art...I'm going to be Messing About.

And that's okay.

We have to give ourselves permission and freedom to play,

 to goof around,

 to explore and make a mess...

as artists,

and in our daily lives.

I'm not using any fancy supplies:

• An old magazine that I picked up for free on my last visit and saved because I liked its matte paper.
• Acrylic paints from the dollar store: off white, sienna, black, moss green, gold.
• Cheap brushes.
• A large bottle of matte medium (for glue and as a protective layer).
• A few magazines to possibly use for collaging.
• Paper towels (post-clean up collage fodder)

I prepped several pages in the magazine by smearing them with paint and medium, separating them with wax paper and standing the book up on end to let the paint dry.  I've started making a few "paintings" in it, which I'll be posting here over the next several weeks. 

I warn you, though,

 it's not going to be pretty!

***

The Sunday Maxim #213

Nobody was sure if Boris was a young dude, old beyond his years,

 or just an incredibly immature old guy.

Maxim:

Scratch a Russian and you find a Tartar.

Or should I say, "Scratch an old year and you find a new one"?

I wish you, dear blogger friends, a creative and inspiring 2012.

I'm taking a little break from Ragzedge postings for a couple of weeks. 

But I'll be back!

Ciao for now,
Lynne (louciao) xo

Window Wonderland Reducks (+Swans+Geese)

I recently enjoyed a bit of window shopping at Holt Renfrew in downtown Vancouver--it's pretty much the only way I can afford to shop there.  The very clever window-dressers had chosen to illustrate the lyrics from The Twelve Days of Christmas. Here's a sampling of images that I couldn't resist "toying" with.

Electric Lady Land Partridge in a Pear Tree!

I bet you didn't know that it was a Canada Goose that laid the golden egg.

5 gold rings...jewellery is always a popular gift, or how about a solid gold hoola-hoop.

Golden rings and golden eggs with a little Christmas bling (thanks to Pixlr effects)

 8 maids-a-milking with 6 swans-a-swimming while the 7th one swans in for a solo

9 ladies dancing conjure up visions of sugar plum fairies

11 pipers blowing as hard as a winter wind, even though they haven't got a leg to stand on



(image treated with a dousing of magic pixlr dust)

 and 2 turtle doves (or as my grandmother used to say, "Lovey Dovies")

wishing you love, warmth, and merriment

in this festive season

xoxo

*To see more images from the Twelve Days of Christmas window, take a peek at my Décolleté blog*