Artist Trading Blocks ala Mary Jane Chadbourne

Stencilgirl columnist Tina Walker is full of great ideas. I have participated in quite a few of the group projects she has conceived of over the years, and truthfully, those challenges have sparked me to produce some of my best work. The latest challenge was the Beautiful Minds Inspiration Collaboration: we were to choose an artist we admire or are inspired by, and create something in their style.

My mind immediately went to Mary Jane Chadbourne, whose website is called Desert Dreams Studios. She is an amazing, creative, colorful artist and has inspired me for years. She does all kinds of two dimensional and three dimensional work, but the ones I loved most were the stacking Artist Trading Blocks.

Mary Jane Chadbourne's Artist Trading Blocks inspired me.

I didn't want to wait to order pre-made blocks...I was much too eager. So, I made my own out of 140 lb. watercolor paper. I love building things and doing art-related math, so it was fun to figure out what size blocks to make, how to design them so they folded up into cubes. I made the top cube 2", the middle 3" and the bottom 4". Mine did come out a little wonky, making me think that next time I would order some that were perfectly square and perfectly flat.

Here's how I made the first block. (I used some watercolor paper that I had stenciled and didn't love.) 

Above are six stages in the construction of my small box.

After I had completed the construction of all three cubes, the fun began. I auditioned a variety of stamped, stenciled and printed images for the top, middle and bottom blocks.

Here's some process shots:

Here's the three cubes, piled between layers of parchment paper while the glue was drying.

I "auditioned" all kinds of faces, clothing, and accessories for each block. I used up scraps of painted, stamped and stenciled paper.

Little did I realize, when I started the project, that I would need to create 18 little works of art: each cube has six sides, and there were three cubes! My concept was that the bottom block would have a dress or skirt, the middle would have a face and shoulders, and the top would have a hat or crown on each section.

It is SO much fun to play with the blocks, to rotate them and mix up the different faces, outfits and hats. My Artist Trading Blocks definitely bring out my inner child, and I can't wait to make more!

STENCILS USED:

Nathalie Kalbach, Manhattan

Judy Wise, Judy Judy

Kristie Taylor, Tapestry

Laurie Milka, Pilgrimage to the Renaissance

Tina Walker, October 2020 StencilClub set, small stencil

Gwen Lafluer, Decorative Medallion

Valerie Sjodin, Leafy Doodle Merge

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

ArtTeaLife/One Crabapple

The Graphics Fairy

Desert Dreams

If you are a mixed media artist and haven’t heard of Mary Jane Chadbourne or her Desert Dream Studios, you have been missing some inspirational work. She is a master of whimsy, color and design, and her work keeps getting better and better.

I have been trying to put my finger on what it is that draws me to her work because there are so many elements and factors that make it so special. Maybe the most important element is color, so I analyzed some pieces of Mary Jane’s and decided that, among many other factors, it was the use of earthy golden ochres with turquoise that speaks to my heart.

I started this journal page in Photoshop, and layered vintage handwriting, old newsprint, and several shades of yellow, brown and orange. Next, I started using the eraser tool (in varying percentages) so that it would “age” and have layers peeking through layers. I varied the brush size and shape, and experimented with bringing different layers to the front or back to get the effect I wanted. Next, I added a heart shape in a pretty shade of turquoise.

I printed the design out on ordinary copy paper from a color laser printer and glued it to my journal page with matte medium. Then I tried to figure out what to do next, especially since I needed to cover up the marks that were already on the page, made from testing new stencils. But first I wanted to highlight the heart, so I used a Balzer Deco Doily stencil with viva décor inka gold—a creamy paint that goes through a stencil beautifully with no bleeding or smearing. I also used the edge of the doily at the top and bottom to fill in the blank space. Next, I used the inka gold through a section of the Cathedral Series Amiens stencil, placed in the center of the heart.

The page needed more turquoise, so I applied a soft chalk pale turquoise ink through a Balzer Flower Piecing stencil at the edges. Pretty, but still…something was missing. I decided that it needed whimsy and magic, so I added a blue Graphics Fairy vintage butterfly to match the heart, but decided to cut it in half and apply to the edges of the heart with matte medium. A few pieces of washi tape with French words, measurements and mini butterflies, and my homage to Mary Jane was done.

ABCs of Life According to Dolls

The theme ABCs of life for my August small group trade was slightly outside my comfort zone. Why, I don't know, since in my life as a 9-5 person I get paid to write. Maybe it seemed to profound, too hard to choose a meaningful word for each letter of the alphabet. Some letters had to many inspirational words, others were kind of a stretch.

My friend Karen sent me an awesome small, handmade book with illustrations and words for each letter, which set the bar pretty high. I puttered with cutting big letters out of cardstock & fumbling with mini books, but was not happy with anything.

I had an inspiration--finally--I pulled out a copy of "Beyond Paper Dolls" by Lynn Perrella. http://www.lkperrella.com/cgi-bin/itsmy/go.exe?page=5&domain=1&webdir=lkperrella
The cover art was the springboard for my idea, which I combined with faces inspired by artwork from Mary Jane Chadbourne's online course from Roses On My Table called "The Imaginarium - Anthology of an Art Doll" http://desertdreamstudios.weebly.com/blog/collaborative-junctions I didn't take her course due to time and space constraints, but watched the progress on her facebook posts.

 My concept was to print 26 words on silk and have them suggest clothing for paper dolls.

I made six pieces in all, using a background of my own collage/printmaking, and adding reprints, on cardstock, of vintage paper doll parts and other vintage images, attached with brads. Washi tape with vintage images, tapemeasure and ABCs were mixed into the collage. I used some images from The Graphics Fairy.

I wasn't 100 percent thrilled with the end product...I loved the faces and most of the body parts, and liked the background, but the words on silk didn't quite work the way I envisioned them, so on the ones that I am mailed off to my art group, I hung the words on the bottom, more like a prayer flag than a clothing effect.