Friday, January 13, 2012

Playing with Friends - Monsoon Papers

Playing with friends - what does that bring to mind for you? For me, it was a lovely January afternoon in Phoenix creating monsoon papers with artists Quinn McDonald and Traci Paxton. We played in an unattached way - which I define as 'seeing what happens when . . .' and being completely unattached to the outcome. The joy is in the playing and the discovery that the playing leads to. Our explorations with inks, a water hose and Arches Text Wove paper yielded these wonderful pieces of paper. Fun, fun, fun.

Monsoon Paper © Rosaland Hannibal
Monsoon Paper ©Rosaland Hannibal

Monsoon Paper © Rosaland Hannibal
Monsoon Paper ©Rosaland Hannibal
Artist's Hands ©Rosaland Hannibal













I have found that if you allow yourself to be unattached to the outcome, you can have a great time exploring and discovering; just play.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Creative Every Day - A Quick Painting


I have thought about joining Creative Every Day for almost two years. It is a challenge set up by Leah Piken Kolidas to encourage others to create. You don't have to create every single day - you do what works for you, so there is no need to spend time whipping yourself if you happen to go a day without sharing some creative aspect of your life.
 
Leah defines creative in the broadest sense of the word and you can read about the challenge on her Creative Every Day challenge page

While I was working at the studio today, I decided I wanted to do some painting. I don't often paint on canvas but I took a recycled canvas that happened to have torn pieces of paper collaged onto it. I decided to let it emerge as I painted and this is my result of my efforts. I love the texture and colors of the collaged paper. It was fun to create a piece that I like from a piece that another artist tossed away for reasons of their own.

Exercises like this are a great way for me to get out of my head and just go with it. I have been taking pictures of trees lately on my almost daily walks in the park and I am quite happy with the way this tree turned out. I did the writing with a white gel pen. The photo at the top is more true to the colors but the bottom one is a bit clearer.


Sunday, January 1, 2012

Carved Stamps


 I spent a very calm new year's eve working (at an art studio) and carving the first side of my 6 inch by 4 inch piece of soft-cut block that I believe is made by Speedball (no affiliation). This first photo is the full stamp  and the second is a closeup that shows you all of my imperfect cuts.


I think that 2012 will be a year that I leave room that allows room for imperfections, since my focus will mostly be experimenting and exploring as I create. As processes emerge from my experiments, I will learn a lot. You can see from the stamp being covered with paint and how the stamp looks on fabric, there could be some improvements if I choose to make an absolutely perfect carved stamp. But I kind of like the less formal addition of personality that the imperfect cuts add to the piece. I also love the idea of 'allowing' the imperfections to be part of the work. Just like imperfections are part of us and part of life.

It was pretty easy not to fret over the lines that are not straight. I learned a bit about which tool might give me the look that I want and which tool scoops the way I need.

One of the best parts of using this soft-cut block is that it is thick enough to cut another design on the flip side.So once finished, I flipped it over and started a new stamp. I like it too.


Flowing lines and bubbles inspired by the Raw Art Journaling technique of Free-Floating Bubbles (p.77). Disclosure, yes, author Quinn McDonald is a good friend of mine and I love this book of hers. The openness of my lines and bubbles design allows for the addition of words after stamping. I will probably use markers or gel pens to add words to the fabric.




                       ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~

And I can't sign off without wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year! May the year 2012 be one in which you realize your dreams and take some of those risks you have previously been hesitant to take.

R


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