Bottled Spirits from some Kindred Spirits

Greetings Everyone! Well it was one of those incredibly beautiful weekends here on the coast. But it was even more beautiful to me becasue I was teaching art to another room full of Kindred Spirits at C.Andrews Studio. This was my second Bottled Spirits class and as you can see above there were some wondeful pieces created. Everyone of them was so totally different from the next! Here are some close up scans of each bottle.

This was Maria's Spirit. Sorry for the glare on this piece. I love that Maria used colors that she doesn't use alot and I think that helps to make this spirit a slightly knowing but Kindly one. This is a spirit that would kindly grant you a wish or two.

This Spirit was created by Maria's daughter Clara. Isn't she beautiful? She's slightly pouty and introspective. Just what you'd expect from an adolescent!

This was Cindy's bottle. She has infused this bottle with a little Team Edward. He's looking dreamy as usual! But whatever you do Cindy don't let him out-we don't want to tempt him with our blood.

This little spirit was created by Maureen. I had to show you this spirits face close up. Maureen thinks she's sweet. I think she's up to something. And something not entirely nice. Be careful what you wish with this one!

Cheers everyone!

Bottled Spirits anyone?

Greetings Everyone! I wanted to show you the incredible art created by my students today! I taught a totally new class at Art Max in Seaside called Bottled Spirits. You can see all the spirits, and evil gins lined up above. Thank you to all the students that attended class and of course to the lovely staff at Art max for putting up with the spirits and their whims. I am truly blown away by what was created today. These are phenomonal pieces and totally freaky and you gotta love that. Here are close up of each bottled spirit. Enjoy!

Round Robin Journal entry #2

Greetings! Here is my second Blog entry for the Half Moon Bay Altered Book Club. Now I thought that I should explain before anybody tells me how gross my spread turned out. Its really not my fault. This time I received Ammi's book. You can see the cover above. Sweet isn't it? A patch work quilt with butterflies and the title of Happiness is... But this book isn't what you think. Below you can see Ammi's first spread

Yes that's right it says Happiness is having six leopard sharks swimming around my feet! Huh?!

Leopard sharks around your feet? Now how sick is that! Not to mention leopard sharks really aren't very nice animals. OK so you see what I mean? Not my fault. I live in Half Moon Bay where there is at least one Great White shark attack per year so naturally the entrie group's thoughts turn to shark attack. All I can say is that Ammi is totally responsible for what happens next. Oh yeah guys it's on!

Here is Lisa's Spread. A lovely bedroom with words that read: Happiness is a comfy bed to dream in after a swim with sharks. And yes the woman across from the words is holding a book called Shark Attack. Now it's definately on. The most natural thing for me to do is to continue on with the theme. RIGHT?! So here's my spread below.

So my spread reads: Happiness is finding your finger after a swim with sharks. I started the left hand side of the spread with a dyed paper towel (thank you Traci Bautista) because it had an under water look. The shark is my own photo of the cheesy shark billboard at the Point Montara Lighthouse advertizing their espresso bar. I've actually become kind of attached to this ridiculous sign. I thought this was a better image than a real shark just to keep the subject lighter.

The next page has a chipper Edwardian lady swimming in the water. The water texture was made with with gel medium and the sky with fiber paste. You can see the woman call out: Yoo Hoo I've found it! And below her is her finger. There is a little blood dripping down her arm and in the water. Well you gotta keep the art real.

Here's mister shark. He's in love because he just got the scent of her blood in the water. Awwww what a nice shark.

Here's a close up of the chipper lady and the final finishing touch-a finger book mark so that anyone looking through this book can keep their place.

Yes I know. I'm afraid this book brought out my darker instincts. I'll admit it. But hey at least it ends on an upbeat note. She did find her finger after all.

Altered Books class-Student Work

Greetings Everyone! Well the Altered Books series has ended and I've been anxious to show you some of the incredible work that my students have done in class. Since I hate telling people what they have to create, every student was incouraged to pick a subject that they were interested in or passionate about or simply to pick a book with a title that brought a subject to mind. We had altered books with subjects ranging from Film Noir to Dragons and strange creatures to houses. Unfortunately I started out with many more students than I finished with. As summer rolled around many students found that their commitments would not allow for more classes or perhaps just lost interest. At the least they learned that an altered book cannot be created in one day and that it takes an incredible amount of time and commitment to finish one. I did have two people that finished their books and I will start with their books first. The first book is Mary's. You can see her cover above and some pages below. Her subject was a cheezy Film Noir meets Vampires theme with a hero named Rip Murdock. This book was not only clever but fun.

This is one of Mary's pockets made to look like a pocket on Rip Murdocks coat We'll skip the obvious gun in the pocket pun. This page is just simply amazing!

Mary's pass through window was a keyhole that Rip peers through. And you've got to love all the cheezy blood on the next page.

Very mysterious and very Film Noir.

Mary's niche with vampire bad girl, bullets and vials of blood. And as Rip says" Dames are always pulling a switch on you. "

The next book is Maureen's fantasical Dragons book. The colors and textures in this book are phenomonal! This book is intended as a gift for her son.

Look at the incredible texture on this page created with Gel Medium and layers and layers of color. Yummy!

This spread incorporates a picture drawn by her son years ago and a niche that includes and a 3-D dragon with glowing eyes. I especially love the glowly eyes. They are kind of mesmerizing.

Maureens beautiful door including stained glass and a hatching baby dragon behind it. I'll bet Tiffany's never thought of that!

This is a beautiful and elegant spread. It makes me want to walk through it to visit this world. As long as the dragons keep their distance that is!

The next book was Ann's Strange Creatures book.

This incredible page was Ann's niche! It contains a creature swamp in beautiful glowing colors and textures. But I still would not want to step in it. Icky!

The next book was Peggy's. She drove all the way from Fremont to Princeton-by-the Sea to catch the last class. Now that's devotion. Unfortunately she brought the wrong book with her that day so she just started a new one!

I love how evocative this page is. I think it just says it all.

And look at this beautiful spread. This image was painstakingly cut out with an exacto knife and its simply gorgeous. I love the way the vintage image just works set against the modern abstract background. It makes the entire spread seem almost other worldly.

The next book was Jolenes. Her subject was houses. Jolene has created some exquisite backgrounds. Look at her torn pocket below filled with different little houses. I just wanted to take all of her little houses home with me!

This spread is just stunning! The colors-yummy. I love the collaged house above with the eyes looking out and the hand reaching.

How much more emotion can a spread hold than a much loved home? Again Jolene's colors are beautiful. The blue and pink together are amazing.

The last book I want to show you is Cindy's book. It may be last but not least. Cindy's book pages all visualize a different line of a poem from the book.

One of the things I really loved about this book is the pairing of black and white line images and painted backgrounds. This spread visually grabs me right away. I wonder where this half naked warrior woman is riding off to?

This spread has a slighly carnival atmosphere to it in contrast to the spread above. The painting is gorgeous but again lends a really other-worldly feel to this spread.

This line drawing paired with a real photographed window again gives me an unreal feeling when I look at this spread. Somehow this figure looking out the window is exactly where she should be. Cindy's painting is beautiful and makes this spread and the entire altered book totally work for me.

Well that's it for now. What do you think about the work above?