for Mandy and others . . .

The enormously talented Mandy Higgs recently asked about this little blog bumper sticker and so I thought since it had been awhile since posting it originally, I'd share with everyone.

This was designed last year after hearing so many complaints from other artists and image sources whose images and even completed artworks were used without permission or used in ways that were not intended. Several of us kind of started a grassroots campaign to remind everyone that when you use images without clear permission it hurts everyone. I hear over and over again from flickr members who offer images free to use in personal art work only to discover their generosity has been exploited and people are reselling their images without permission. And, even worse when complete works of art have been used without permission either in whole or part. If we overlook or ignore the abuse of the rights of those that give and sell us images to use, the images may no longer be offered to anyone. That's how it hurts everyone. Image sellers give up and quit selling, free-to-use sources quit sharing. And, to be candid, it really ticks off a lot of the creating community when a few bad apples ruin the pie for the rest of us that respect our sources and get permission. And, word gets around when it happens so protect your own reputation and be sure you get proper and clear permission to use images from other sources.

Feel free to share this bumper sticker on your blog or website. You have permission to use it for the purposes of sharing this proper use message but not sell it or claim as your own. You can find other free-to-use badges at the Stop Art Piracy Campaign Project on flickr.


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 7/21/09
You MAY copy this image for the sole purpose of displaying on your blog or website IF it is linked back to this flickr group www.flickr.com/groups/stopartpiracycampaign You may NOT use any piece of this image for your own artwork or any other publication or reproduction.

Image credits - legs are from my own vintage postcard, face is from kumareeboo.etsy.com, arms from iktupilli.etsy.com, body and crown made from pieces from LandofEnchantment.etsy.com, Sande Krieger, and flickr's 'Playingwithbrushes', and wings from Dover clipart. All were digitally altered, reprinted, hand trimmed and hand colored and attached to a background made from flickr's 'Playingwithbrushes'.


On another note . . .
Feeling much better! Not 100% but feeling better. 3 weeks in bed gives one a lot of time to think. I have a lot of exciting projects going and can't wait to get them all going and share with you. Biggest news and first project . . . finally figured out how I want to do collage sheets and am working on getting them in Etsy. Watch for that in the next few days!

Before I go . . .
Here's some place I go for inspiration . . . makes my heart jump with excitement.
Corinne Geertsen

Getting better . . .

Still horizontal as much as vertical. Yesterday was better, today a little rougher on my back but I'm getting better. I've been working on this one piece a few minutes at a time for days and days. Finally finished it today. Be back soon!

Pull


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 8/24/10. All rights reserved.
8 x 10 hand cut collage with some hand coloring. Image credits: flag from Clementine Design at Deviantscrap.com, some of the background and circle brush from AsunderEphemera.etsy.com, body from clipart.com, eyes from the public domain, waves, head, partial sky background from my own image collection.

Looking up . . .

Just a quick note here . . . I hurt my back about a week and half ago and have been on bed rest ever since. Still not able to sit for more than a few minutes but getting a bit better everyday. Should be in full swing sometime next week I hope. Have a good weekend everybody!

All is good.

Hey! I have no changes to announce, no big revelations! Hee hee. All is good.

Had fun playing digitally again tonight. I love the immediacy of digital work. I will still make my hand cut pieces but playing digital allows for some freedoms and discovery.

Fish Speak


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 8/10/2010. All rights reserved.
Image credits: bubbles and wings from Holliewood Studios at DeviantScrap.com: Spring Fairies kit and used with a commercial license. Everything else from my own stash.

Did you see it? It is quite amazing to see a star unfold before your very eyes. America's Got Talent gave me goosebumps tonight . . . I could listen to this little angel all day everyday. Absolutely amazing!

Runaway crazy person

Have you seen the movie Runaway Bride? It's one of my favorite light hearted girl movies. It has nothing to do with the image below but everything to do with my mind at the moment. I swear the whole world that knows me will think I have lost my mind.

At the risk of that, I have had yet another shift in thinking tonight. I am hoping that all these changes of heart, all of these twists and turns I seem to be making are eventually going to direct me back to the path I am supposed to be on. I have had yet another change of heart tonight. Well, it's been coming on for a few days but I couldn't deny it any longer tonight. I am a runaway crazy person.

In the movie, the bride keeps committing to get married and has a last minute change of heart and can't seem to say "I do". I keep saying I'm going to do things and it gets down to it and I can't say "I do" to it, or I say "I do" and then I don't want to. So, the nitty gritty is . . . tonight I think I am not going to sell collage sheets anywhere at all. I feel so goofy writing any of this as if the world is hanging on my every word to find out . . . I know that is not the case. But, I always give the details here, the honest part of the journey. And the honest part right now is that I think I need to just make art, not collage sheets. I just can't seem to do both well at once and I am not done making art. I have so many things I want to do and figure out. I think I've just had a hard time finding my "home" since my dad died. I have had a hard time feeling "home" inside myself and I think that needs to be explored in making art, and in a less shared experience. Selling collage sheets kind of shares the creating experience, I am figuring out, and that has it's importance and its time and place. But for now, I think I need to concern myself with just my own insides, my own imagery, to help me get back on track, back on the path, back "home". So, I'm running away again.

This piece below, is another quickie digital collage . . . it has nothing to do with running, but I think I relate to this feeling of "here we go again" absurdity I see in it . . . complete boredom with myself.

Aye, aye, aye


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 8/9/2010. All rights reserved.
All images are my own creation.

Onward . . .

Happy Friday!

I've decided to go ahead and offer some simple collage sheet sets in my Etsy. I don't have my shop open yet, but will open sometime next week. Things just clicked this week and I followed the muses and have overhauled my old bigger image packs, making them into jpg and png sheets. I won't be offering individual png images, but will offer the option to get the collage sheets in png format to save digi folks from extracting at least. I've saved the best of the previous sets, added new images, scaled some sets down, made some larger, etc. So far, I'm very happy with this new simpler direction.

The digi skinny below was made using some of my new images that you'll find in sheets next week. I am particularly happy with a set of sky backgrounds and borders I made from my own photographs taken as we traveled across the country last summer (most of them taken with my window rolled down, as we zoomed down the interstate at 75 mph). I rarely work digital as I am so not good at it, but this was a 10 minute digi collage I did before I quit work for the weekend. I don't always have time to sit for hours and do a handcut, hand colored piece, but I want to be sure to take at least a moment or two to make a complete piece everyday, digital or hand made, whether anyone else sees it or not. You get to see this one.

The Moment


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 8/6/2010. All rights reserved. Please do not copy, download, print or use in any other way without permission. All images in this piece from tumblefishstudio.etsy.com

Hope you all have a great weekend! I'm off to clean and go to the market and enjoy my husband being home finally! My little family hasn't been home all at once for more than a day or two in a long, long time.

I have super powers . . .

I can't make fish fly in formation over my head, but apparently, I have super powers. I am enjoying a day of whimsy and hanging with my kids. My son is 18 and about to start college, if we can ever find any classes open. Long story, but he's been accepted to three colleges and universities, we have paid all the fees, met all the requirements and can't seem to find any open classes. We are currently enrolled in two separate places, just hoping to get some classes that he can actually attend! That's an all consuming job at the moment. My daughter is 16, almost 17 and she is about to be a senior. Today is one of those days where nothing seems as important as hanging out with them.


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 8/2/2010. All rights reserved.
4" x 8" skinny using images from my own collection of vintage pix and papers.

So, as we sit around talking about various directions in which the writers could take Grey's Anatomy, as we watch reruns, we have been looking up things in Urban Dictionary. That's where we discovered anyone named Marsha has super powers. I can read minds and know who is calling me before I answer the phone (withOUT looking at the call waiting) supposedly but it does seem kind of true we decided.

We have also discussed why flip flops get stinky and how to get them unstinky and we've talked about thugs and contemporary uses of that word, and we've talked about movies, and friends and various things. My kids are getting to that remarkable age where even in seemingly trivial discussions, from their mouths, more frequently than before, flow some incredibly intelligent developed thought that makes you realize they are their own people with their own sense of self and that they have grown up or are about to be grown up. That amazement you find in your kids accomplishments does not end after the first words are spoken, or first steps taken. It continues long after they are talking and walking, and have grown taller and smarter than you, I have pleasantly discovered.

My friend Terri is celebrating her 35th wedding anniversary today and it made me realize I never proclaimed my undying love for my own dear man. Last week we celebrated our 22nd anniversary and more than ever, I cannot imagine my life without him. He has been such a rock for me always, but especially in the last year. The best friend I have ever had, the best husband I could have ever imagined. He completes me. He is someone I admire greatly for so many reasons and I know how very lucky I am to have him. He makes dreams come true. He has super powers too.