Shadow Artist--ATC's for November

Here are my ATC's for November on which I have then  superimposed two Shadow Magnets, "the Artist" and "Degas Dancer." Go to www.shadowmagnets.com to visit the collection of shadow magnets.

And here is each one of my 10 ATCs for November as single images. I used food color to dye a piece of water color paper, which when dry I cut into 10 ATC-sized rectangles. I decided which side of the card looked "best." Using Faber-Castell Pitt artist pens to draw cartoon border boxes on each card, I then painted in the spaces with metallic water colors. Metallic paints do not show up well on these web images, but look glittery and glitzy in real life.

Spontaneous Play

Autobiographical. Age: About 10.

The title is: "If you don't take care of your body, where will you live.? Walk more, eat less."

Everybody dies. Life if short; Art is long.

Using a "failed" watercolor and imposing an abstract, cartoon-like grid over the top. The plan is to cut each segment into ATC-sized segments and then to insert the text from the feedback received before, during and after melting down.

1. Can this rift be healed?

2. Meaning every word. What remark? The cutting edge.

3. Listening but not hearing.

4. Blind sots. Solar flares. Lacunar amnesia.

5. Unanticipated fallout. Catharsis or attack?

6. A Peccadillo. A tad embarrassing if not ridiculous.

7. A semi-pubic dark alley trantric tantrum.

8. The joy of breaking social taboos.

9. Working through the muddle.

10. Fractured

11. The past cannot be changed. Acceptance is the key. Learning that is forgiveness.

12. Friendship

Clarifier Mosaic Project, Lyons, Colorado

Here is the completed zodiac symbol (Aquarius) for the Clarifier Project. It is available for viewing as of September 25, 2011. Just so you know, the background has been enhanced using editing feature in "Paint" program.

Abner Dean

I've added this link so I can take it off my favorites list. The site is is a comics extravaganza. Too back it takes so long to load. Click below and then click on Abner Dean, and check out "What am I doing here?"

http://whatthingsdo.com/single-panel/what-am-i-doing-here/

Art Doodles

Another one for the box.

ATC's: Making Marks

As I clear up my studio in preparation for the year of marking making to come, I am finding things that cannot yet be tossed. I have started a box for 2011-2012 for the year's collection. Nothing larger than 8 1/2 by 11 inches.

Humpback Whale Link--8 minutes of Joy

My cousin Linda sent me this inspiring video. It takes about 8 minutes to watch, but well worth it.

http://www.wimp.com/humpbackwhale/

Origami, Between the Folds

If you want to see how mathematics and origami mesh, check out the DVD from Green Fuse, called Between the Folds.

ATC, "The Path of the Fool"

Art-4-Art, Lyons Depot Library, September 17, 2011

Title: “The Path of the Fool”

Art & design by P. Jeanette O’Rourke,M.A.

www.6tplus4ezdesigns.com

Origami Exploding Page inside a double ATC watercolor.

INSIDE TEXT: The Path of the Fool

"What the Fool exhales, the Fool inhales.

There is no feminine for Fool.

In the Descents, the sex of the Fool alternates.

The inner strives to become the outer.

"The Outworld others are self reflected.

Seeing others as Self, the soul seeks to make amends.

Balanced again, the Fool descends.

New thoughts become wrought deeds.

"All below is image, and names perish.

The Virgin in the Fool’s eye does not perish.

The Virgin Waters generate their own light.

Without separation, the is no illumination."

—p. 357, “The Zelator,” by Mark Hedsel;

introduction and notes by David Ovason

6t plus 4 = EZdesigns

Today my goal is to figure out how to link my URL to my already existing blog. At the end of the day, I will check in and report on my progress.

Success. It is now linked to my blog.

Hauntingly Beautiful

There is something so hauntingly beautiful about the music by Emily Bond Miller. Check out the art by the poet, harpist, and visual artist, Sandra Scull.

http://emilymillerbond.com/sounds_music/Nocturne.htm

Mark Making; Making One's Mark

I have started making a triptych cover for each of my ATC's that gives my contact information, the date of the trading session, and the title of the ATC. The cover uses recent art from my journals and art shows.

This month I used my Perfectionist Gremlin and "Seated Nude at the Confluence" from the Third Annual Naked in Lyons show at the Ohm Gallery.

Inside the cover is a poem about laughter by Susie Petersiel Berg, called "So Many Words for Laughter."

On the back of the poem is a page of words associated with "laughter." I stamped my chop over the words on the back and made 12 copies of the cover and poem insert.

This ATC was a collaboration between the Muse and what Quinn McDonald calls the Gremlin, in her permission-giving book, "Raw Art Journaling." She encourages artists to Confront, Confine, and Confound the Gremlin. A fun way to not get rid of but to dialog with the Gremlin is to draw it on a separate piece of paper and then choose a time to have a dialog. You can then allow it to speak or be in your studio on your own terms. One art Gremlin many of us deal with is Time.

The Gremlin says, "Wash Dishes; Go Shopping; Do your Laundry; Then you can do your art, but only if you are perfect."

The Muse says, "In God's Eternal Now there is time enough for all things."

Many artists complain they do not have enough time to do their art. Lesley Riley challenges artists to make time for their art by:
1. Announce your commitment
2. Set boundaries.
3. Schedule time.
4. Create a habit.
5. Plan Ahead

This is the year I will spend Mark Making and Making One's Mark. A year from now, it will be interesting to see where this journey has taken me.

 More information can be found at www.createmisedmedia.com.

Third Annual Naked in Lyons Show: August 13, 2011, 5 - 9 p.m.

Available at the Ohm Gallery: 441 Main Street, Lyons, Colorado 80302

Title: "Seated Nude at the Confluence"

Artist: P. Jeanette O'Rourke, M.A.

Medium: Daniel Smith Watercolor & Krylon Gold Leaf on Daniel Smith Watecolor Ground; Sealed with Daniel Smith Gold Gesso; Finished with Golden Archival Acrylic Varnish

Size: 8" x 10" Hardboard

Frame Free: Ready to Hang with Hammered Brass Clips

Price: $400

Poems While You Wait

Just What Do You Think You Are, Really?

While walking with an art buddy on our way to the Monday Boulder Arts group, I saw a man sitting on the Boulder Mall--he was sitting in front of a 1917 Corona typewriter with a sign that said, "Poems While You Wait."

I asked him how much a poem cost, and he said it was by "donation." He asked me for a topic, and I gave him the question R thinks is important to answer during one's life on planet earth: "What are you?"

So while R and I waited, he typed out this poem:


WHAT ARE YOU?

STARDUST
               ashes from great big stars
                OD'd on light
caught in skies of gravity
     deep enough to draw water
and something
                something very near like a first kiss electric
     happened
                 things begin to wiggle and draw in
     like a magnetic
                  all the brilliant designs
     that make a home
                  our home
            beautiful
like fresh love
                   enough to make it work
     you are a miracle of light and ash
             putting forth all the effort necessary
                     to see your love again.

Then Bill Keys read us his poem and I handed him my donation (actually, I had to borrow money from R. to pay for it). I don't know how much a spontaneous poem costs; I hope it was enough; I know I got my money's worth.

I read his poem to our arts group and two of our members asked to hear the last line twice.

Anyway, I am linking to Bill Keys blog at www.poemswhileyouwait.blogspot.com

A great idea and a fun blog; check it out.
            



       

Plein Air: Fast and Furious with Teri Gortner

Over twent artists joined Teri Gortner in Lyons for the "Plein Air: Fast and Furious" workshop at Betsy Burton's Lyons Farmette, sponsored by the Boulder County Arts Alliance.

Here is my abstract of a garden sculpture (artist?) and Betsy's Tractor.

Farmette Sculpture

Betsy's Tractor

Six Most Common Mistakes Made by Artists

If you don't know what these mistakes are, Mr. J. Jason Horejs of Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona, may be able to help. According to Mr. Horejs in his book, "'Starving' to Successful: The Artist's Guide to Getting into Galleries and Selling More Art," many artists's porfolios end up in the trash before ever being seen by gallery owners. I'm letting my art buddies know about the 4-hour seminar on the same topic being given by Mr. Horejs in Loveland, Colorado, and Denver, Colorado, June 23 and June 25, 2011. For information on his book or the upcoming seminars, contact Mr. Horejs directly at his website: Here is the link to his Xanadu Gallery: http://www.xanadugallery.com/home.asp

For those of you who are interested in reading about both sides of the on-going debate about tailoring art to a specific kind of audience, I encourage you to read a review of Mr. Horejs's book. Here's the link to the article in the blog by F. Lennox Campello, a reviewer and art critic from the Washington, D.C. area: http://dcartnews.blogspot.com/2009/08/six-most-common-mistakes-artists-make.html

A friend and I plan to attend the seminar and will be letting the artists at the Boulder ARTS Salon know what we learn.

Musical Splash: #19: Variations on a Theme

The completed work:

#19 Variations on a Theme for the show "Musical Splash"

#19: Variations on a Theme: Detail, Right

#19: Variations on a Theme: Detail, Left

Musical Splash: #19: Variations on a Theme

Here are Variations #16, #17, #18, and #19 of #19 Variations on a Theme.

Musical Splash: #16 of #19 Variations on a Theme

Musical Splash: #17 of #19 Variations on a Theme

Musical Splash: #18 of #19 Variations on a Theme

Musical Splash: #19 of #19 Variations on a Theme

Musical Splash: #19: Variations on a Theme

Here are Variation #13, #14, and #15 of #19 Variations on a Theme.

Musical Splash: #15 of #19 Variations on a Theme

Musical Splash: #14 of #19 Variations on a Theme

Musical Splash: #13 of #19 Variations on a Theme

Musical Splash: #19: Variations on a Theme

Here are Variations #10, #11, ande #12 of #19 Variations on a Theme.

Musical Splash: #11 of #19 Variations on a Theme

Musical Splash: #12 of #19 Variations on a Theme

Musical Splash: #10 of #19 Variations on a Theme