Onward!

Here they are! All of my six inch square collages. And I am quite proud of all of them. But I am officially out of all my canvas panels. I have one 8"x8" gallery stretched canvas and I had better make it good as those aren't cheap. If I get into using stretched canvas I am going to start doing it myself. I did it in art school, even high school all the time. Even going as far as making my own stretcher bars. That part I won't be doing.

The top right collage may be my favorite having added a touch or a drawing from my sketchbook in the upper righthand corner. I like how it ties in with the pattern in her shirt. I think without it the piece just wouldn't be the same. That gives it balance. Whenever I am making anything balance is very high on my mind. It is delicate and easy to throw off if one isn't thoughtful. But at the same time I want to be spontaneous.

Right now about half of them are in my shop with the others coming shortly. The mixed-media ACEOs are with all my other ACEOs. Making sections that make sense is difficult!

I need to shower, run some errands and go to the doctor today. At least the weather is nice. Blee and I enjoyed taking the dog for a long walk yesterday using our new Ergo baby carrier. It is great and will be even better for back carry, but I am getting a bit impatient waiting for my mei tai. The company says it takes three to three and a half weeks to make but this is really pushing it.

I declare

Collage #14 - Collage Challenge
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

That I am done with the collage challenge . The original challenge the creator Magic Jelly set up was two weeks. Well I of course decided in a manic fury that two weeks was nowhere near big enough so I would go to the end of the month. Heck maybe until my birthday next month!

Nope. Not happening. Don't get me wrong I loved the challenge and am so glad that I participated in it. But It also wore me out emotionally. The rush and the roller coaster of it. I need a break, even if by that I just mean being able to not feel pressured to make a new one each and every day. I'm a bit disappointed in myself, but at least I accomplished a lot in those 14 pieces and progressed as an artist.

I tried a bunch of new things; stitching, gocco, drawing and other more subtle changes to my work. Heck I even used crayon! I think I am in a new phase in my art. It started with the washi additions to my ACEOs and now it has come full circle into complete multi media pieces. I still adore my pure woodblock pieces and am certainly not tossing them aside. But I needed to grow out of that and discover new challenges. And here I am, in the thick of it for better or worse.

Sometimes I think it would be good for me to take a complete break from the computer. No Etsy, no blogging (writing or reading oh my), no flickr. Nothing but having Jon check my sales once a day so I know if I need to ship anything. But I don't think I can do it. What do you think? Am I too much of an addict? Yeah probably.

The end of a sketchbook

morning moleskine
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

My demons are at me again. Just need to keep busy to keep the negative thoughts away as they can only do harm.

Felt like giving up on the collage challenge, today is difficult for some reason. Yesterday would have been hard too if I hadn't done it first thing. Not so today instead I woke up and did this sketch comprised of various doodads from earlier sketches. I have a tweaked version on printer paper ready to be burned onto a Gocco screen once it is dry enough and I get the chance.

It was then that I decided what I want to try for my collage. I knew that I didn't want to use another ACEO blank or another canvas panel as I used those twice in a row. I also knew that I want to go through materials that haven't been used in awhile and incorporate them. Crayons! Maybe I am more into the whole multi-media aspect than strict collage. But there will be collage in it somewhere.

If you haven't already please run over to Modish to check out my studio in their Modish Handmade Spaces feature.

Collage-A-Day

#9 - Collage Challenge
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Well, I've completed my first week of the Collage a Day challenge that Magic Jelly set up and I am quite proud of myself. As is typical of me I have done more than one a day, and only missed once when all I did was cut a ton of paper. I get carried away by things and can only pull myself away when I absolutely have to. If it wasn't for blee I would probably have twenty or thirty by now! I think the day I ended up skipping was Thursday when I was feeling light headed and super sick. I'm feeling better now but I do need to go to the doctor to get checked out for anemia. But I more than made up for the lost day.

It was hard at first even though I have been using elements of collage in my ACEOs for a couple of months now. I wanted to push myself father and do even more with it and incorporate as many mediums as possible without cluttering the pieces.

Unlike some people I didn't put any time, medium or size constraints on myself. I figure that I am new enough to collage that just doing it is a challenge enough for me. Plus it is really hard for me to keep track of time. Not only do I get lost in projects but I do most things not in one sitting. Like right now I have a box filled with cut paper elements similar to what are in this piece. Because one night I got to cutting shapes and couldn't stop for hours. I have various book pages including a dictionary that is over thirty years old and belonged to my mother, washi and old block prints of mine.

If you are interested in seeing my set and the group set they are on Flickr. I highly recommend the group as there is some awesome and inspiring stuff to be found there. I feel like I can do almost anything at this point! *roar*

I'm far from done. Not only am I going to keep up with collage but I am going to keep up with the one a day challenge hopefully for the rest of the month.

I also have a personal goal of doing art, anything really from sketching, carving, cutting paper to printing, daily for the entire year. I'm pretty much doing it already so it shouldn't be a problem. I mean I can always find time to fill a sketchbook page with random doodles at the very least. I have much to do in 2008.