Many thanks to everyone on the Artist Circle group that gave me suggestions on how to finish my ATCs.
I got the lottery series ones done, and decided to let the self-portrait ones simmer for a while as I worked on other things.
I’m pretty pleased with how these turned out.
I’d love to hear comments or critiques on these if you have them.
I think my muse is trying to tell me something.
As you can see from my previous posts, I work mostly in paper – altered books, ATCs, some collages, etc.
Something I’ve never worked on or even thought about working on is canvas. It seemed too “high art” for simple old me.
But today I was poring through an old Dick blick’s catalog and saw they had multi-packs of mini-canvases for sale. This was inspiring – I like working in small formats and restricted spaces. I also like working in multiples or series.
Then, someone in one of the Yahoo groups posted about a project they had just completed. They’d made a mixed media piece on a corner canvas – but they used it backwards so the sloped sides became part of the artwork. Beautiful work, and very creative use for something that is generally used in very traditional work.
A few hours later, someone in another Yahoo group posted about a project she had just completed – a mixed media piece using the back of a canvas! http://greenwomandesign.blogspot.com/2008/02/tintypes-and-daytona-500.html
So, I went from not thinking about canvas as a possible medium at all to seeing it in 3 different places within a few hours. And not only that, but 2 of the 3 places talked about flipping it around and using it as a pseudoframe.
That’s the kind of coincidence that means I must try my hand at something like this soon. If that’s not a message from my muse, I don’t think I’d be able to ID one if it hit me over the head!
Our first project for February for the Artist Circle Yahoo group was to make 3 part ATCs – a background, a focal image, and an embellishment.
Initially, I found this project tremendously inspiring, but I’m afraid I’ve gotten in trouble by interpreting the instructions too literally. Below are my ATCs all with only 2 parts – I’m stumped on how to complete them. I’d love any ideas you can give me.
Part of my problem is being new to the whole art scene. My stash of images and embellishments is not terribly large. Most of my images are cut out from magazines, catalogs and junk mail.
I don’t even know where to begin as far as embellishments go. Most of my work thus far has been fairly flat rather than 3-D. I realize I could use another image as my embellishment, but I’d really like to break out of my box and do something really cool here.
I’m open to buying new products if I get specific recommendations for something that will give great results. I really just want to get these done so they aren’t weighing on my mind any longer. I’m really excited about our next project but feel I can’t move on until I’m finished with these. (more…)
