New Art-O-Mat Designs

I got bored making the same designs for my art-o-mat (artists in cellophane) blocks, so I tested out some new designs. They all got the thumbs up, so now I am off to make 50 of each for my next shipment. Anybody want to vote on which one they like best?

Abstracting Myself

A few years ago I decided to teach myself to oil paint. Since I was home alone, I decided to start with myself as the subject, and looked at myself in the mirror to try and get the features right. What emerged was not particularly flattering, nor an exact likeness...but then, I was working through some pretty severe panic disorder at the time, and couldn't sleep...had dark circles under my eyes and green streaks in my hair from swimming to try and get tired so that I could sleep...and I wasn't trying to make it pretty. Later I scanned the painting and played with it in a number of ways to make different portraits on paper and fabric.

Here is the original painting, and then a piece that was abstracted from it. If you scroll through my blog, you will see some other work that used the oil self-portrait as a starting point.

This was pretty experimental: a while back I made a pincushion for my Threads of Sanity fiberart pal Lori, who collects pincushions. It was the first one I ever made, and I just winged it. I used all fabric that was hand dyed or hand batiked (by me), stuffed it, and added seed beads and dangly hand-rolled tyvek beads...and a little gold-painted lutradur star on top.

Roosevelt Island Spring

The cherry trees are blooming along the banks of the East River in front of the hospital where I work, so I tucked my camera in my tote bag the other morning and snapped a few shots. While I was at it, I decided to document the views on my daily tram ride.

Saving My Face

Well, I didn't win the Rock and Roll Challenge from Quilting Arts, so I guess I can post this now. This was a tribute to one of my favorite songs and singer/songwriter/musicians, KT Tunstall. I tried to do a paint/fiber interpretation of her song "Saving My Face." I started with a photo of myself, printed on Avery cotton, the painted over it and added some of my hand-batiked fabric.

Third Eye, but not Blind

Here's another self-portrait I did in my series for Cate Prato's book, Mixed Media Self Portraits. I called it Third Eye. It is about introspection and mediation and the creative forces inside the mind and soul. And influenced by Alex Gray a bit. And why the title of this blog? For the non-rockers who didn't get my little joke, Third Eye Blind is a band, not any kind of comment on blindness.