Happy Holiday Parties

Our holiday party was a huge success. My sister and I acted as caterers, cooking and serving delicious curry-laced food. Here is a picture of the winning menu card!

The Setting for Holiday Magic

Here is a view of my mother's holiday table where her buffet will be served. Try to guess which menu design she chose. The menu is 8 x 10 and will be propped up with a decorative easel.

More moods

My other two compositions are presented here:

mood board menu card

I have been working on a commission for my mother's elegant buffet this weekend. I am creating 4 mood boards, she can choose which she likes best, and will print the menu on vellum to place in the center of the piece she chooses. Her table is predominantly blue and white with red accents, with delft pottery and tulips. i chose to do two with a blue and white color scheme, and created the other two using darker tones inspired by dutch still lifes. Here are examples of each...

Completed Cards

Here are some of my finished artist cards that are now for sale in my etsy store:
http://insitudecorativearts.etsy.com
Concerning their completion, the most difficult part was deciding about adding text, and I'm pleased with the results but also wanting very much to improve in this area. Maybe I'm just taking this all too seriously: let's face it, it is hard to justify working and re-working a tiny card that will be selling for a mere five dollars with free shipping. Yet I suppose making art is all about having fun and learning for yourself. It is about developing an original style of working and then running with it. So profiting isn't only about cash money. But art should also be shared, at least that is what i have been thinking lately. I'm the kind of artist that is many times driven by either curiosity about process or mere coveting of objects that I can't afford. For instance, my drive to make decoupage plates arose because:
A. I wanted to learn how decoupaging images under glass was done and
B. I couldn't afford to buy a glass dragonfly tray made by John Derian
So I mainly create for myself and myself alone, or occasionally friends and family.
It is only in the last five years that this has become completely untenable. This is a big whopper of a topic which i will return to in my next post.

More Tarot

Here are some other cards from the oldest existing Tarot decks (Visconti-Sforza) dating back to around 1450. I love these cards with their embossed gold backgrounds, like russian icons which i adore as well.

Working Schemes

I haven't been writing lately, haven't visited these pages for what seems like a while. Where have I been? Well, for one thing, I've been busy finishing up my art cards. And while completing those, my head is already spinning forward with new possibilities and ideas. I've been reading about Pamela Colman Smith, the artist who designed the Rider-Waite Tarot card deck, the most popular version. Rider was merely the publisher of the cards, so now informed people prefer to call the cards Smith-Waite in honor of the artist who created the 80 card set. While reading about this, and creating ACEOs, I thought it might be interesting to let the Tarot inspire me in future card endeavors.
Not to make a formal set of Tarot cards necessarily, but to investigate some of the ideas and imagery. For instance, one of the suits in Tarot is that of pentacles or COINS. Well, as you can see from my larger collages posted earlier, I am already employing coins in my work. In fact I have been collecting images of world coinage for some time. And I've been obsessed with royal figures like Louis xiv and Napoleon as emperor. So it seems like the Tarot might provide a neat framework for some new cards.
Pictured is one of my favorite Smith-Waite cards, the Queen of Cups, completely dense with visual symbols.

next stage ACEOs

Please dear internet gods, let these smaller files upload easily and look pretty!
Anyway, now that I'm looking more carefully at my sets of cards it seems I am working better in the landscape versus the portrait format. In other words, I am favoring the horizontal. Also please note the hesitancy with which i am approaching incorporating text.

stage two ACEOs

I have been working on my little paintings pretty steadily, one by one. Some are coming together more easily than others, but i am determined to see them all to a dignified finish. I've been trying to upload new images of my progress, but it has been a slow and frustrating process.

stage one ACEOs

Here is a first look at my first try in this tiny format (2.5 x 3.5). I'm trying to work on many at once so as to not be too precious about them. This is only the first stage, and I will be adding and fine-tuning each one. It is surprising how much I'm getting back into painting again. Of course my bachelor's degree is in drawing/painting, yet I'd gotten away from the sheer fun that comes with smearing and layering paint.

antoinette flowering verso

This simple combination is one of my favorites. It combines two of my latest obsessions: Marie Antoinette and N.A.S.A.

multimedia reverse

Here are the other versos for my small scale canvases. for my forgotten russian I used a reproduction of an original engraving of a village in siberia. For fleur/papillon I chose a beautiful mushroom botanical.

ahh, post-holiday energy redirection

Family holidays are fascinating. each year's celebrations are unique yet oddly the same. our events are always boisterous, whether there are 10 guests or 50. And i am blessed with a family that feels comfortable letting it all hang out, which is a comfort.

As far as my crafting goes, i received some much needed feedback from my mother and aunt. I also obtained some collage commissions from both of these wonderful mentors for holiday gifts, which is so exciting. It will be a challenge to come up with mixed media pieces that reflect the recipient's taste without being too literal and void of mystery.

After returning home from our family feast i had time to decoupage images on the back of my tiny 5x7's. here is the back of my slavic queen.

slavic queen

This piece went through a lot of changes, as you can see here. I had to cover the Faberge egg in the right corner, which was sad, but necessary.

forgotten russian royal

I love the use of both Russian and Asian imagery in this piece.

fleur /papillon

The larger image is of the completed collage, while the small one is the beginning stages. it is interesting to see the choices that were made from start to finish.

antoinette flowering

here are some images of four small collages i have been working on for the past two weeks. never satisfied with leaving well enough alone, these paired pictures in the next 4 posts will document the process of embellishing through covering up. the first pair is inspired by a famous painting of marie antoinette:

Insitu starts a blog....

Today I began this blog out of a kind of frustration at not selling anything in my Etsy shop. Being new to the internet game, I feel I must be missing something important, presumably some feedback and contacts. Also, I feel misunderstood, so what better way to rectify the situation than to blog my head off, and blog some more.