A bunch of stuff . . .

I can't believe it's been so long since I blogged. Where has the last week gone? Doesn't it always seem like time speeds up this time of year? Or do we say that all year long, every season? I don't know. I've been busy. The collage sheets I've been making take a lot of time but I've gotten a little more comfortable with it. One soccer season is over so we have a bit of a break as the new team starts practicing. And, we've been filling out or at least talking about filling out college applications with my son. We're going to finish that this Wednesday.

Nancy Baumiller's Collage Dreams on Paper class has been teaching me a lot, but my mind has been all over the place figuring out what it means or what it should mean to my work. I wrote in a comment over there that I think there was this little bit of me thinking if I took the class I would magically be able to make imposter Teesha and Nancy work. This was not the case and at first I was disappointed that my work still looked like mine. But, I've started to accept, I am me and just like I can't hand write just like any of you or you like me doesn't mean a hill of beans and is probably a good thing for variety sake. I know this was in the Being an Artist 101 class but I keep making it harder than it has to be.

This piece was made for a one-eyed zetti postcard swap and I chose to make it in the style of Nancy's class though it is much more organized than Nancy or Teesha would organize something. Many of the elements used are from my new collage sheets and this piece is available as 5 x 7 print - all in Etsy.

Beholder


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 11/6/09. All rights reserved. You may not copy, print, download, or use this image in any way without my permission.
This is a 4 x 6 postcard made for a swap. The body is from lisasalteredart.etsy.com and the flower crown is from spiceitup.etsy.com. The wings are form designer Nicole Young and used with a commercial license. The eye charts in the borders are from shabby chic papirskatter. The rest of the border pieces and the view master are from my own collage sheets at tumblefishstudio.etsy.com. The face is from the public domain and highly altered. All hand cut, most hand colored, and attached to a background made with NeoColors and Pan Pastels and ink.

There was an auction for our friend, Tina Wright, who is fighting colon cancer. I donated a couple of prints and gift certificates. One of the high bidders was so very sweet to offer me two of her pieces of work and when I went to peek I was just amazed at her beautiful and original Wee Planets. Nikki Smith is a very talented book artist but works in all sorts of mediums. Her Wee Planets just truly caught my imagination. I chose one and she sent me two.

This one is called Planet Path.



And this one, I didn't realize until I looked on the back, she personalized to be Hotel de Tumble Fish!



See in the close up? Isn't that just the coolest thing ever? I just love it! Special touches like that can turn a very lovely and cool piece of art into a meaningful and extremely lovely and cool piece of art! Be sure to go look at Nikki's other work, but here's a link to her Wee Planets http://art.flatwaremedia.com/images.cfm?pwid=0&dynid=0&tblImageCategoryID=75 You can get to her blog and other galleries from here too.




I finished a few more collage sheets . . .

Vignette-ies

Happy Day Swim Club



Scrapalooza


And lastly, you've seen this before, but it is now all glued down with lots of ink outlines and shading added. It's in my Etsy too. I wanted to share the image credits now that it's done. A lot of folks have asked about the houses and I got those from Kelly Burton's collagevisions.etsy.com.

Little Traveler


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 11/6/09. All rights reserved. You may not copy, print, download, or use this image in any way without my permission.
This is a large 8 x 10 collage using a face from the public domain, glasses and crown purchased from clipart.com, legs and boots scanned from catalogs and altered digitally and by hand, skirt from the public domain, bodice and arms from cemerony.etsy.com, hearts and wings from designer Nicole Young and purchased with a commercial license, houses from collagevisions.etsy.com, TV screens & exit sign purchased from clipart.com, word "entree" from designer Lorie Davison of Studio Lorie at Scrapbookgraphics.com, black and cream border from crowabout.etsy.com, scalloped and straight red and white striped border from crowabout.etsy.com, small red and black border from crowabout.etsy.com, inside side borders from Gaby Braun of gaby-cajubrasil.blogspot.com, scalloped borders with numbers from designer Sande Krieger and purchased with a commercial license, scraps from Graphic 45 papers, other scraps from the public domain and my own vintage ephemera, and clouds & view master reel from tumblefishstudio.etsy.com. Most of these pieces were hand colored to some degree and all were hand cut and glued to a background made from NeoColors, ink, and PanPastels.

First digital collage sheets are done!

Whew! I had no idea how much work was involved in digital collage sheets! All of you image sellers I buy from, my hat is off to you! I don't know how you get so many done. I worked pretty much non-stop from Friday to this afternoon and I only have 5 sheets done and have only used about 12 of my 100 or so vintage pictures. I have a long, long way to go! But, here they are . . .

Fun House



Borders and Scraps



Paper and Tin



Little Geishas



Snappy Dressers


I am taking a break from all things art tonight and doing some laundry, going to a soccer meeting, and watching TV later. I might even wear my new lovely bracelet to do these things. I won a prize from Monica Magness's Pink Artist Project and the prize was this very gorgeous bracelet from my friend Sharon of Livewire Jewelry! Sharon, I haven't even written a thank you yet but I'm off to do that now! Thank you so much! I love it and am already fighting my daughter over it! I can't believe I won!

Contrived intuition

I watched all of Teesha Moore's videos this morning that she has recently posted to her blog. Oh boy, I love watching her work and hearing what she's thinking as she does it. It makes my head spin with urges to work in her style.

I think the word I've been looking for to describe my own work is contrived. Teesha uses the word now and then in the context that she wants to change pieces she collages so they don't look so contrived. I think she means too perfect, too neat and tidy and therefore empty of expression. She uses the word intuitive alot. I think I work intuitively but I don't work very expressively or gesturely. Now, everytime I write about where my head is in regard to my work I get a bushel full of compliments and loving lectures. I want you to understand that I am not looking for assurances about my work, maybe admittedly my thinking and questioning (cuz we all like to know we are not crazy), but I am truly posting my journey on this blog. I'm sharing what's in my head. Eventually and hopefully, you'll continue to read my blog to see how I work these things out, how I overcome or ignore the moments of "stuck". If I don't question my work from time to time, I'm not sure I would keep striving to find my true voice, my true work that is buried down deep in my soul somewhere. I think those times of questioning are that deep down art trying to get a little closer to the surface.

A strange thing has happened to me. Up until a couple of weeks ago, I found myself increasingly very attracted to surealsim and digital artists that use vintage images to create these crazy odd elaborate stories. I started to try and think about working in that direction, but still working with scissors and glue and marrying that crisp odd surrealism with a mostly non-digital presentation. Then, I started Nancy Baumiller's class and I foundmyself trying to work in this crazy un-crisp, very expressive zetti Teesha Moore journal style. And I love both styles and find myself torn and confused about which direction I want to work in or trying to figure a way to work in the two styles at once while still keeping me in my work. I think it is these things that have brought on the questioning and self criticism you've been reading. But, please know that I love making art. I'm not about to quit or throw myself off a cliff. I'm just telling you about my journey.

So, I've left just a few links here to show the two very different types of work and artists I find myself in a love triangle with!

Martine Roch
Maggie Taylor
Casa Jordi
Paul Grand
Teesha Moore
Nancy Baumiller
Jade Adams
Roc Nicholas

I plan to flit amongst these styles and continue to keep playing and continue to keep questioning. I'm even taking a mini-break from creating. That really means, I'm not pushing myself as I had been, to make a set number of pieces a week. I'll make when I can't fight the urge and won't make if I have to force it. In the meantime, if I'm not around much, I am finally working on collage sheets and scanning, scanning, scanning, photoshoping, photoshoping, photoshoping, etc. It's taken me about 10 hours a sheet so far so this is a big project for me. I have a couple of sheets done but want to wait until I get a few more before I "release" them.

Lauren went back to school today and we kicked the flu out of the house over the weekend. All is good.

I'm not a digital artist . . .

First, thank you for the support below. I should've told you not to gush over me, but I have to say, what helps more than anything is to know I am not alone in my moments of doubt, that you all feel that way from time to time. I know that deep down, even told other people that when they were doubting themselves, but sometimes I lose perspective and just need to be reassured that everyone feels that way sometimes. Like I said, I don't think my "art world" friends ever make me doubt things, it's the others in my life that make me look at things from a broader perspective and then I question everything. On another note . . .

Lately, I've been getting some flickr and blog comments that lead me to believe people think I am a digital artist, and even a couple of blogs have linked me as a digital artist and I'm not. I mostly work the old-fashioned way - scissors and glue. I WISH I knew how to do more digitally but about all I have figured out is layering textures for backgrounds, then I just print them out and glue everything to them anyway. So, I thought I'd show you the backs of a couple of my older figures so you can see that they are constructed from cut pieces and glued together.



I Just Wanna Fly, below, has 6 pieces glued here but by the time she was finished with hat and cuffs and trims there were 11 pieces in just the main figure. All cut and glued and hand colored.



Hope, below, has 9 pieces glued together not counting the 3 on her hat.



And, lastly, one of my newest characters without wings. This crazy person (for Nancy's Collage Dreams on Paper class) has 13 pieces glued together with the wings. (This one is harder to see the cut edges because I should've scanned on another color to avoid the bright contrast but you get the idea)



Hey, but I did learn a little trick by accident this morning that might be fun to play with. If you scan the back of a figure into your computer so that it is white on a black background, take it into Gimp (gimp is a photo editing program that is much like photoshop but free and not as sophisticated - good for easy edits), "color to alpha" which means it takes everything white and makes it transparent, save it as a png image, you can put the shape over another picture and make an interesting silhouette. Hmmmm, may have to play with that a bit more. Would be a great do-it-yourself template for wings or crowns or all sorts of new things to play with.

Do you ever feel totally lost in your work?

I do. I do right now. Between taking Nancy's Collage Dreams on Paper class, looking at more art than I have in a long time from all over the net, and then looking at my own, I have no idea what I'm doing or what I want to do. I accidentally ran across my "flickriver" (an alternative view of your flickr images) and I had not seen it before and the first thing that came to mind was that my work looks very amateur, very elementary and awkward. I just can't see it hanging in a show somewhere. I need to really assess what I'm doing and where I want to go with my work. I need to "up" things a notch or two. I'm being impatient I think. This new facebook experience had me get up out of my chair and look at my work and my life from standing on top of the desk (kind of a Dead Poet Society perspective thing) and it all looks so different to me when taken out of the context of our blog and flickr familiarity with each other's work. And Nancy's class, and some input I'm getting there, has me really feeling like I need to keep pushing myself and not get too comfortable anywhere yet in my work. I just don't know what to do next - I'm in a gridlock.

I had this piece almost finished for over a week, before I started working on Nancy's class assignments (that has me throwing everything in but the kitchen sink - it's been very fun but I'm overdoing it a little I think). This piece is very, very simple but I liked it enough to not throw it out. I'm using it for a trade I have coming up.

Dreamers


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 10/29/09. All rights reserved. You may not copy, print, download, or use this image in any way without my permission.
This is a 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 collage using a black and white face from the public domain, a partial body from cemerony.etsy.com, and black and white legs from the public domain. The hat, boat, and wings were purchased from clipart.com owned by Jupiter Images. The ground is from designer Lori Davison of Studio Lori at scrapbookgraphics.com. The grass is from Create Wings and the TV is from Holliewood Studios at Oscraps.com. The background was made by merging layers from flickr's skeletalmass and Neighya.


I'm off to do some more art soul searching. Daughter is still sick, going back to the doctor tomorrow and I have had a headache for over 24 hours now and sore throat all day. I'm grumpy.

Wait! (updated after WW's comment) (which was very nice by the way)
Can't you all read my mind? I always assume you are right there in my head with me. The other half of my thinking, which I didn't explain, is that I've been very comfortable with my work here and with you all. As I started facebook this week, my potential non-art audience completely changed. I don't have hardly anything about my art on my facebook but when someone from my old life asks about it, I see my work in a whole new way - it's very awkward and scary for me to share it with them and I suddenly feel so inadequate. This stems from the fact that most of my family and friends (except for my dear husband and mother-in-law) never talk about my work, hardly acknowledge it and when they do it's a lot of uhuh's, oh's. They don't like it much or think I have much sense in pursuing it, I gather. So, that is where a large part of my doubt is coming from also. If I was just a person walking down a street and saw my art in a window what would I think? Probably the old "I coud do that, what's so impressive about that?" or the "I don't get it".

All mixed up

I'm all mixed up. Good, but mixed up. Daughter continues to get better so no worries there. She's still home though. And, I'm tired from sleeping on the couch and getting a cough. I have so many things half done and I HATE that - I'm such a don't-move-on-to-the-next-thing-until-the-first-thing-is-done gal. And I have so much I want to do and want to get done . . .

I just joined facebook yesterday and amazed at it! I've had contact with people I haven't seen or heard from in 20 years and my head is spinning with nostalgia. It's a very weird feeling to get in touch with one's old life no matter how good your old life was. Facebook could become very addictive if I am not careful. I made an updated slideshow of my family for my facebook profile and thought I would share it here if you'd like to see (it's kinda long though). It's called 22 years of my life (but it won't take 22 years to see, it's not that long - though it might seem that long to some) . . . here's the link
http://www.slide.com/r/nC94Kfiuwz8k5ms_QLSwWNXFCgK48Dmx?previous_view=lt_embedded_url

Happy Wednesday!

Happy post

There is a sad, but important for me, post below this one. You can read it if you like and if not, you can just stick to this one.

My daughter is turning the corner and feeling better. She is wiped out but doing much better. Yay!

Drawing winners from Sunday are in this post. There are 10 winners in all so if you entered and haven't checked to see, you'd better go look now!

Here's where I am so far on my Collage Dreams on Paper class with Nancy Baumiller. You have never seen a more busy piece from me and might not ever again . . . and it's not done yet! We still have more to add and more to learn! Oh my . . . the crazy person is not attached yet and I may end up changing it. I'm beginning to look at it and think it looks like I tried to fit in all 10,000 pieces of my scraps in it. But, I am learning a lot and I'm so glad I am taking the class.


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 10/24/09. All rights reserved. Do not copy, print, download or use without permission. Image credits will be posted when the piece is finished.

Sad post - I mark this day (updated 8 a.m.)

I try to keep this blog lighthearted and focused on art for the most part. Today is an exception.

Two years ago, sometime in the night of October 27 or the morning of the 28th, we lost someone very special to our family. William, the only son of our best friends, who was only 15 at the time, a gracious, kind, vibrant young man died of a drug overdose in a friend's basement while his parents thought he was at a high school dance. He was discovered several hours after he died alone and unnoticed by his "friends". His biological mother, who I do not know and who had custody at the time, was at a concert late into the night and didn't know her son wasn't where he was supposed to be, nor did she cooperate with his biological father, our friend, who was very concerned about what they thought was only a recreational use of marijuana. William's father wanted to drug test his son regularly and get him help but was threatened with law suits (from a family of lawyers) if he pushed the issue. It is not clear who all knew that what was thought by his concerned father to be a typical teenage marijuana experimentation was in fact a real and much larger drug problem . . . but his father and step mother were not given the opportunity to deal with that in any way and for that I have little forgiveness in my heart. They would have fought with all of their might to turn things around and were shut out and cut off because the custodial family didn't want to deal with it. All I can say is, the hurt is still very real not only for my family's own loss of a young man we dearly loved but for the broken heart of his father and his wife, our best friends, who tried to do the right thing, who always did the right thing as best any of us could have tried to do. We will never forget William or the great emptiness his loss has left us with. We pledged, as a family, that his death AND LIFE would make a difference in our lives and it has. Know where your kids are, know what they are doing, follow up, be a parent, and handle the tough stuff.

I had a slide show up of my family and friends but it was annoying me that I couldn't turn it off. Sorry if you missed it. It wasn't that important for this post anyway.

Added later this morning . . . . Thank you for all of the comments. William's family marks tomorrow as the anniversary of his death but I always set aside today as the anniversary of the last day of his life. I'm not sure why I do that. I find myself thinking two years ago right now, he was here and no one had any idea what was about to happen. I want to add after reading your lovely comments . . . no matter what we do, bad things can happen and tragedies happen and we all have our faults as parents. We can only do our best I agree. For me, it is just the ultimate reminder to not feel badly about being strict or snoopy and to sit and talk with and really be with my kids every minute I can. My husband and other best friend were pall bearers and I remember at the graveside John, our other best friend, saying they were appropriately taking William on his last hike. John had hiked many, many times with William over many years. My kids stood with me and watched this and watched the incredible waling of William's family and we hugged and I told them "Don't you dare ever put me through that" - it was a very painful experience for my kids to lose their friend and even more painful and shocking to see how very much William's family was hurting and still hurt to this day. My purpose for sharing all of this today is to remind all of us, especially me, to stay involved, say the stuff to our kids we sometimes get too lazy to say or assume is understood, hug lots, say "I love you's" lots, and to not let up on the message to our kids that they just cannot be using any drugs ever. One more poignant part of the story for me . . . William's father found out that has son had died because another kid who found William found William's cell phone in his pocket and went through the contacts and "dad" comes before "mom" in a contact list. William's dad was so delighted to see his son calling him as his son didn't want to talk to him in the weeks before he died because he was coming down on him for the marijuana, only to find a stranger on the phone telling him his son was dead. William's family and my husband and other friends spent most of the day in a police station waiting to confirm it was actually William that was found as no one was allowed at the "crime scene". Can you imagine having to do that?

Halloween Winners and more!

The winner of Sarah is Jean of Bluebirds Living in the Meadow
The winner of Sady is Leslie who remains blogless despite the urging of many of us!
The winner of Jack is Kathy (in Chicago) of A Spectacular Mess (what a great blog name!)
And the winner of the larger Good Little Witches piece is Danny of fiDOArt
You winners, please send me your addresses ASAP so I can try and get these to you by Halloween. Just email me at marsha@tumblefishstudio.com

There are more winners!
For the rest of you, I have drawn six other names to complete my part of two very special prizes I won earlier this year. One from Terri of Pringle Hill and one from Cathy of Reflections of a Ramblin' Girl. Both of these talented ladies had a drawing to win a surprise piece of art sometime in the year after the drawing. The recipients of the prizes had to also promise to pay it forward and send three more pieces of art to three other people. So, the six of you listed below need to send me your addresses as well so that I can truly surprise you sometime in the next 12 months with a piece of art from little ol' me. You may receive a set of limited edition prints, several ATC's or a larger original piece - time will tell and you will just have to wait and see. I may contact you just before mailing so you know to look for it in your mailbox. Now, you were not given the opportunity to enter into this drawing and may not wish to participate by sending on three pieces yourself. In this case, I say you can fudge if you promise to do three random acts of kindness in whatever way you can, whether it is sending art or doing something special for someone who needs it. I leave it up to you.

These winners are . . .
Theresa in MS
Jill of Third Age Musings
Janny of Tricolore
Elizabeth of The Last Door Down the Hall
Shannon of SaturdayVille
Michelle of Lost Coast Post

Daughter is still very sick and I just try to lay near her most of the time. This is definitely one of the worst illnesses we've seen in her 16 years - maybe one other time years ago. I didn't worry too much about all the swine flu hoopla until now - it's kinda scary when someone is this sick and nothing much anyone can do and reading how it can be harder on young strong healthy folks because their immune systems fight with such power it kind of backfires on 'em. So, I may not be around much until she is better. I do have to say she probably caught it from her 17 year old brother who probably caught it from my husband but the two guys were just down and out like a regular flu. It's weird that it has hit Lauren so hard.

My son sent me to this very cool website - little people - this kind of work fascinates me so! Enjoy!
http://do-while.com/small-people-in-the-big-world/

Drawing tonight, swine flu, & Collage Dreams on Paper

Don't forget! The Halloween drawing will take place and be posted here tonight! Comment the post below to enter to win one of the published original Good Little Witches collages! I'll post the winners tonight!

Our daughter probably has swine flu! Eeek! Actually, my son and husband probably had it last week but their cases were very mild. We had to take our daughter to the doctor early Friday morning after she had 2 asthma attacks and a very high fever. She has never had an asthma attack except in the midst of a soccer game and it has been a long time since that has happened. To have two pretty bad attacks in one day, just laying in bed, scared the pants off of us. So we were told to go to ER with her. She tested positive for influenza A which more than likely means she will test positive for swine flu - we will know in the next couple of days. But, she is home, really, really sick but home and soaking up the TLC.

As I keep an eye on her, I am getting caught up with my homework. I've been taking Nancy Baumiller's (aka Crowabout) Collage Dreams on Paper online class. I have already learned so much! We haven't gotten to the main image or adding lettering (which scares me to no end, I'll tell ya) and details, but here is what I've done with the first three lessons. This class is great, and I mean GREAT! So glad I took it!


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 10/24/09. All rights reserved. Do not copy, print, download or use without permission. Image credits will be posted when the piece is finished.

Halloween Drawing this Sunday! Leave a comment!

Leave a comment on this post to win one of these published original collages! It's a quick draw . . . I'll be choosing a winner this Sunday!

These are from the Good Little Witches suite published in two Somerset magazines. The first and larger one was published in the 2009 Holidays and Celebrations issue, Vol. 3, that just came out a few weeks ago.

Good Little Witches


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 4/14/09. All rights reserved. You may not copy, print, download, or use these images in any way without my permission. Image credits at end of post.

These smaller pieces were published in the Sep/Oct 2009 issue.

Jack


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 4/14/09. All rights reserved. You may not copy, print, download, or use these images in any way without my permission. Image credits at end of post.

Sady


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 4/14/09. All rights reserved. You may not copy, print, download, or use these images in any way without my permission. Image credits at end of post.

Sarah


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 4/14/09. All rights reserved. You may not copy, print, download, or use these images in any way without my permission. Image credits at end of post.

That's a total of four original collages I'll be sending out to 4 lucky winners! Just leave a comment below and you'll be entered into the drawing. Be sure your name is linked or you leave me a way to contact you in the comment!

Linda of Just My Little Bit blog (linked if you run your cursor over it) left me such a lovely award a few days ago! Thank you, Linda! One of my most favorite things about blogging is meeting new people, their blogs, and all of the blogs they have linked. I can spend hours and hours going from one lovely blog to another, which I have done several times this week.

"Rules, (as I borrowed them from Linda's blog), are to pass the award onto 15 blogs you think should be named Best Blog. Then visit the blog and leave them a message to let them know. Those are the rules but since rules are meant to be broken, I think you should pass on the award to as many as you are comfortable giving it to …. even if it’s not 15. The award should be heart felt."

Whenever I've gotten awards, as most of you do, I've told you it is really hard to pick and to remember who you've given things to before. I could give this to everyone in my links with all sincerity, but there a few that I have just discovered and spent a lot of time visiting lately . . . (they are linked if you click on them, for some reason the link color isn't showing up)

Two Dresses Studio

Julia & Co

Love of Collage

Viola

Vintage Susie and Wings

ArTick (which I most recently discovered!

I have been working this week - hours and hours of looking for new images. I am thinking about getting a small part time job just for a few months and want a full library of images ready so I can keep up with making new art pieces. I have several in the works at various stages. I have also been researching other people's art, looking for inspiration to take my work a bit further - it's been a week of invisioning things, getting new perspectives and I feel so ready to work now!

My back is all normal again. I love chiropractors - they are magic I think. We have discovered some itty bitty mice in the house so I am on a two day cleaning palooza around here - today and tomorrow and then Saturday has soccer games. I'll be in and out until later in the weekend, which I hope is wonderful, restful, and creative for all of you!

Good Little Witches image credits: The smaller three pieces are 3 1/2 x 5 and the larger piece is 5 x 7. These collages were made using black and white images from the public domain. The images were manipulated digitally for contrast and brightness and some focus, and the faces were enlarged separately. The hats were found in a catalog and scanned, also manipulated for contrast and printed in black in white. After printing the images, they were trimmed and hand-colored using a variety of ink markers and powder pastels and then arranged, heads and hats attached to bodies, and all attached to papers from 7 Gypsies, Graphic 45, and Paper Pizazz.

Muse-itude: Are you talkin' to me?

Back feeling better! Yahoo!

I started this last night and finished this morning. The arms in this body just totally brought to mind an attitude. Because the movie referenced in this piece is not a typical chick flick and most of my audience consists of chicks, the title and text at the very bottom of the piece comes from a very famous quote from Rober De Niro's character Travis Bickle in the 1976 movie Taxi Driver. "You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me?" I swear, if I cross my muse, she just ups and leaves so here is a tribute to my Muse and her demeanor. I completely respect you, my little Muse.

Muse-itude: Are you talkin' to me?


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 10/15/09. All rights reserved. You may NOT copy, print, download, or use this image in any way without my permission.
This is a 5 x 7 collage using a face from moonfaires.etsy.com, a torso from Blanca at magicmoonlightfreeimages.blogspot.com, a skirt from cemerony.etsy.com, partial crown from spiceitup.etsy.com, and boots scanned and altered from a magazine. The wings are from Butterly Utopia and used with a purchased commercial license. These pieces were all reprinted, trimmed with scissors, and hand colored (skirt only colored with a wash). The floor is from flickrs 'Playingwithbrushes' and the striped borders are from Anahata Katkin's Spare Parts. These pieces were also reprinted, hand cut and shaded. The main background was made with textures and brushes from flickr's moosebite and anwphotography and brushes from i-m-u.net found at brusheezy.com. The taxi is from desinger Holliewood Studios at Oscraps.com, used with a purchased commercial license and added digitally to the background after some manipulation. Most of the words were piece together from various ephemera in the public domain, altered digitally, reprinted, hand trimmed with scissors, shaded, and attached.

(detail view)


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 10/15/09. All rights reserved. You may NOT copy, print, download, or use this image in any way without my permission.

Now I have to share a lovely, lovely gift I got last week in the mail from my friend Cathy at Reflections of a Ramblin' Girl (aka Pingbirdgirl on flickr). A few months ago, on her blog, she had a Three Surprises drawing. The idea was to send finished pieces of art as a surprise to three other bloggers sometime during the next year. The lucky recipient also has to have a drawing for Three Surprises. I'll be posting my drawing soon, but until then, enjoy the gorgeous work of Cathy Mendola. (I linked the picture to Cathy's flickr post of this piece so you can see it better. She works in so many mediums, you need to have a look at this woman's whole flickr and then stop in her Etsy.)



(I borrowed your picture, Cathy, hope you don't mind. I linked it to your flickr. It doesn't fit on my scanner and camera is away from the house at the moment.)

Feeling better, again . . .

I've been to the chiropractor three days in a row and everyday a little better. Actually, I'm great for a little while each evening after my appointment but then it kind of takes two steps backward, especially in the mornings and during the day. I have other stuff to blog about (like a gorgeous gift I got from another special blogger) but I want to work tonight as much as I can as it has been so hard to sit and do that without hurting this week. I'll try to share something other than my back tomorrow, I promise!

Open Wings


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 10/14/09. All rights reserved. You may NOT copy, print, download, or use this image in any way without my permission.
This is an intricate 5 x 7 collage using a face and separate body from flickr's picassowoman, reprinted in black in white and hand colored. The wings on both the body and heart are from Itkupilli.etsy.com and the heart and red background are from cemerony.etsy.com. The frame is from designer Holliewood Studios at Oscraps.com and used with a commercial license. The triangle border is from Cassiscreations.etsy.com and the black and white border is from Crowabout.etsy.com. The inner border is from Gaby Braun of gaby-cajubrasil.blogspot.com. The crown was made from a 100 year old encylopedia page along with the background of the frame. Almost everything was hand trimmed with scissors and recolored to some degree and too nearly 20 hours to complete.

(detail view)


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 10/14/09. All rights reserved. You may NOT copy, print, download, or use this image in any way without my permission.

An elephant stepped on me . . .

. . . I think. I mentioned that a little over a week ago I twisted my back. It feels like an elephant stepped on it. I've never had back problems, never injured my lower back before. I still think I hurt it getting in my daughter's car which is much lower than the truck I am used to. Then, after sitting and spending so much time on my blog last week, I think I just made it worse and I could barely move over the weekend. Saw a chiropractor yesterday and my spine was straight as an arrow but completely twisted - like someone took one end in one hand and the other end in the other hand and twisted in opposite directions. I got some relief but have to go back today. I can't sit more than a half hour or so at a time and walking after I sit is just . . . no words. So, I haven't been on the computer or working much since Thursday. I am so anxious to get back to work! I just can't seem to get all of my ducks in a row at one time lately.

Anyway, until then, here is an old advertisement you can use. (click for larger version to download) It's from the Library of Congress with no restrictions. Enjoy and I'll be back soon!

Well, that was a long way around the block

but I think I am done with my blog remodel for now. Just have a few little tweeks to make here and there. I want to organize my links list a bit better and add some new ones. I added three more naked men to the background for those of you with the special magic monitor (just kidding - see posts below). I really miss my music so I'm going to add that back in but I'll do it so you have to turn it on if you want it. That should help with the freezing problem I read about on other blogs. I spent a lot of time the last two days looking at blogs and trying things on mine and I decided to keep things simple and clean for now. My mouth waters over some of the intricate lovely layered backgrounds I've seen but I just couldn't make one I was happy with. I am just not a very digital person yet.

So tomorrow, it's back to making art. I have one started I can't wait to finish. Thanks for all of your help everybody! Oh! And before I forget, here's a helpful hint from my buddy Tace's computery husband (left in a comment on another post - thanks Tace and hubby!) "My husband said it's not monitor size that's determining whether people can see the (blog sides) stripes it's what their resolutions are set at. He said 44% of users have a 1024 x 768 resolution. When I set my monitor's resolution to that I can't see the (blog sides) stripes but I when I look at my normal resolution, 1680 x 1050 I can see em fine and dandy." I have since removed the sides I had up (I ended up with just a solid white background for now), but thought I'd share the tip in case you can't see people's blog sides (and some are so darn cool!), you can try adjusting your monitor resolution.

More blog work today . . . .

I had asked in the previous post if anyone can see the turquoise sides or orange stripes on the side or the naked man in the background. And most cannot. Duh. I have a 22 inch monitor not 17 - that's why I can see the turquoise sides and others can't. It appears to me after some research, there is nothing I can do to change that, . . . well, short of buying everyone 22 inch monitors. Maybe someday. But, then again, I'm wondering how you all see your own background sides if you can't see mine. As for the naked man, well, you need a special magic monitor to see him. (and he is not Winston Churchill, Linda - he's totally gorgeous) I did find this helpful post about who can see what and why at 1st Floor Flat. Hmmm. Will have to keep working on this today.

Blog tweeking . . .

Well, the new blog face isn't done yet but I'm too pooped to figure out the rest. It may still end up looking completely different in the next few days. Many, many thanks to the gals at The Cutest Blog on the Block for their tutorials in how to make your own background and how to set up the html for a 3 column layout. Now that I finally figured out the 3 columns, I may redesign everything.

Just curious . . . can you see the turquoise on the sides of the blog? I have a 17" monitor and I always think some folks can't see what I see. Do you see the orange stripes on the sides? Do you see the naked man in the background? Just kidding, there's no naked man in the background.

I actually finished visiting all the blogs in my links list this week! Yay! What a wonderful day I had visiting. More about that later. I'm off to bed!

blog maintenance

I'm working on a blog-lift tonight if things look a bit strange.

I keep dreaming

Monday already? Gosh, did we even have a weekend? I think I had a nano-weekend, not a real one, it was so short! I twisted my back yesterday getting in my daughter's new used little tiny car (I drive a truck usually). I don't usually have back aches but oh my goodness! I can barely walk today - I look quite humorous trying to move about. I'm good if I stay still, moving is another thing.

Many years ago, after my mom died suddenly (I lost her when I was 30 and she was 66), I used to love to sleep in hopes that I would get to see her in my dreams. I used to lay down just hoping I could fall asleep and dream. Well, as they say, with time the pain we experience gets smaller and smaller and though I love it when my mom visits my dreams, I often wake up having dreamt about art images. Very regularly ideas come to me in my dreams and I plod to the computer sleepy eyed to try and create them before they get away. I wish I had some police to capture the fleeting dreams and hold them in art jail until I get them made.

Dream Police


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 10/5/09. You may NOT copy, download, print, or use this image in any way without my permission.

This is a 5 x 7 mixed media collage using faces and bodies from flickr's bobster855, all hand trimmed with scissors and hand colored. The boots are scanned and altered from a magazine picture. The hats are from keeperofthenest.etsy.com and the wings are from Itkupilli.etsy.com. These pieces were hand trimmed with scissors and slightly colored by hand. The floor is from designer Lauren Bavin of DigitalScrapbookPlace.com and the stars are from designer Holliewood Studios of Oscraps.com - all used with a commerical license. The floor was added digitally and the stars trimmed by hand and glued. The border just above the floor is from designer Sande Krieger of Two Peas in Bucket, used with a commercial license and hand trimmed and washed with color and glued. The main background was created using a texture from flickr's JoesSistah along with a face I created (altered digitally, handcolored, and rescanned and layered digitally) from a picture from the Library of Congress. The word Dream is from Crowabout.etsy.com and the striped borders were made from scrap paper and hand colored.

(detail view)


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 10/5/09. You may NOT copy, download, print, or use this image in any way without my permission.

Something different

I tried working a bit differently today and tried to teach myslef a bit more about Photoshop. I still like hand trimming and hand coloring images, which I did mostly here, but am trying to learn how to clean up and sharpen pictures. Had a small bit of success, still have a lot to learn.

Blue Yonder


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 10/3/09. All rights reserved. You may NOT copy, print, download, or use this image in any way without my permission.
This is a 5 x 7 collage using a face and body from the Library of Congress, a castle from flickr's shoofly stock, wings from Itkupilli.etsy.com, background from designer Lorie Davison of Studio Lorie at Scrapbookgraphics.com, and a frame from Holliewood Studios at Oscraps.com. Designer pieces were used with a commercial license. The face, body, wings and castle were reprinted and trimmed with scissors. The face and body were hand colored with ink and pastel.

(in mat)


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 10/3/09. All rights reserved. You may NOT copy, print, download, or use this image in any way without my permission.

You may download these pictures. They are form the Library of Congress and appear here as they did before I altered them digitally and by hand.





Soccer tomorrow. Then computer work, no art making tomorrow . . . I think.

A day in the life of . . .

. . . me. I awoke to daughter's alarm at 5:15, hit my snooze until 6:30 knowing hubby would make sure everyone was up and going. I do this partly because the first thing I have to do when I get up is visit the bathroom and everybody needs the bathroom and with 5 people and two bathrooms, it is quite the rotation. So, I just stay in bed and cat nap and yell out every few minutes to make sure everyone is doing what they're supposed to be doing. A true pleasure of kids getting older is that they can get themselves dressed and fed and put together. But, after everyone is out of the bathrooms, I get up at 6:30 just to be sure everyone is going and has everything they need. When I got up today, hubby was still waiting for his turn for the bathroom and watching some documentary on a movie, famous I am sure, something about Flamingo. I was too sleepy to pay attention to the documentary but immediately had an art piece concept come to mind. Just like that, 6:30 this morning. I had the urge, the complete compulsion that cannot be denied as I have no self control whatsoever, to make what was in my head. So, even though my best intentions were to blog visit and catch up on emails and flickrs, I could not control the urge to start the piece, fully believing I would knock this out in a couple of hours and carry on with my intentions.

Well, 17 hours later, I just finished. This happens to me frequently. I get the main idea done and the main character but get hung up on the background, or borders, shoes or no shoes, crown or no crown, words or no words, background again, 5 different backgrounds printed, image searching to see if the "right" background just hasn't been purchased yet, no crown, a hat instead, no hat, nothing on the head, wait, what are other people putting on heads, more image searching, 45 pages of flickr collage searching, 200 some pages of Etsy collage looking, the flamingo I wanted to use only had one leg so had to "build" another one, . . . . in between I did manage to vacuum, dust, wash dishes, fold laundry and straighten up as son was having 4 guys over tonight to computer together. (Have you heard of LAN (Local Area Network) parties? It's when computer geeks (meant in the kindest of ways) swarm a house with their own computers and set them all up in one room and play these crazy intense games together for marathon hours. So I have four 18 and 19 year olds in my living room with massive computer gear and my electricity bill doubling every 5 minutes.) Anyway, the piece is done. My head is at peace. I can sleep (LAN party and all) . . . and tomorrow I will wake up and blog and flickr visit. Unless of course . . .

Being Flamingo


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 10/2/09. All rights reserved. You may NOT copy, print, download or use this image in any way without my permission.
This is a 5 x 7 collage using a face from Landofenchantment.etsy.com, a body and crowns from keeperofthenest.etsy.com, and boots scanned from a catalog and altered. These pieces were reprinted, trimmed with scissors, and hand colored. The flamingo, flamingo wings, and grass are from Holliewood Studios at Oscraps.com and used with a commercial license. The main background was created using textures from flickr's moosebite and anwphotography. The checked border is from Crowabout.etsy.com.

(detail view)


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 10/2/09. All rights reserved. You may NOT copy, print, download or use this image in any way without my permission.

I know . . . 17 hours on this. sigh

Fish Out of Water


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 10/1/09. All rights reserved. You may NOT copy, print, download, or use this image in any way without my permission.
This is a larger 8 x 10 collage using a body from lisasalteredart.etsy.com, a face from flickr's rosebudinnh, legs from flickr's takeabreak, boots scanned from a catalog and altered, wings from greatmusings.com, and a hat from Itkupilli.etsy.com The fish are from phenomenon1859.etsy.com, the water from flickr's minette gamez, altered to make a puddle and in the tank. The following designer pieces were used with a commercial license. The red tank border, the floor, and striped awning are from designer Lauren Bavin of Digital Scrapbook Place. The metal parts of the tank, the metal floor border, and the red wall are from designer Lorie Davison at Studio Lorie of Scrapbookgraphics.com. The sign, the sign letters and frame, the crates, and the hat badge are all from Holliewood Studios of Oscraps.com. Most pieces except for the lettering, which were added digitally, were reprinted, trimmed with scissors, hand colored and glued to the background.

(detail view)


copyright by Marsha Jorgensen 10/1/09. All rights reserved. You may NOT copy, print, download, or use this image in any way without my permission.

This definitely falls in the category of "Wish I would've thought of that" . . . click on the picture below to visit the Art-O-Mat site. How darn cool is that? I am going to find the ones near me as soon as I can. They're all over the place so just find the link at the site to find one near you!