Altered By Me

I entered the world of hand carved stamps very innocently. While shopping at my local Joann's for some gesso I notice a few items marked on clearance on the same isle. I found the Speedball Block Printing Starter Kit marked down to an unbelievable $5. The kit regularly retails for $17.99 at Joann's. Needless to say I snatched it up and also bought the last two linoleum blocks they had. This is my second attempt at carving linoleum blocks. For my first try I did a simple tree. The blocks are 4 x 5 inches so they make a large size stamp. I read a lot online about carving linoleum before I tried my first stamp. I really thought it would be more difficult then it actually was from all that I read online but I found the linoleum very easy to carve. For the above picture I used three different types of stamp ink. It is amazing the different looks you can get by using different color inks. I'm not sure what I'll use the stamp for. It's too big for an atc. I'll pr...

Triptych From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia A triptych (pronounced "trip-tick," from the Greek tri- "three" + ptychē "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting ) which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together. The central panel is the most important one, and this is flanked on either side by two lesser but related paintings. The whole is intended to be greater than the sum of the parts. I've recently joined a mini triptych swap on one of my yahoo groups. Even though I knew what a triptych was I decided to look it up on Wikipedia just to see what I could find . I mostly needed to find the correct pronunciation. I grew up in Brentwood, New York with a family that was all born and raised in Brooklyn. Then as a teenager we moved to South Florida. Sometimes I have the hardest time pronouncing some of the simplest words. Out of no where the New York accent rears it's head and believe me it is not pr...

Updated 9/1/07 I've had a few people ask me if I allowed each of my layers to dry in between. I did use my heat gun to dry each layer before I moved on to the next one. Thanks for all the great comments! Over the weekend I tried out a background technique I saw in last months issue of Cloth Paper Scissors. I'm very happy with the way it turned out but this took hours to do and I'm not sure if I will do it again. I started out with a sheet of tissue paper that I placed on top of a sheet of freezer wrap on my kitchen counter. Taping the freezer wrap to the counter stopped the wrap from curling and it then laid flat on my counter. I did not cut down the first sheet of tissue paper so my large background piece was as big as a standard sheet of tissue paper. I then glued dictionary and book pages down onto the tissue paper with waterd down elmers glue as my first layer. I then added another layer of tissue paper torn into pieces over the book pages.Then I painted a layer of wa...

The Secret Society of Rusty Things is the name of a new yahoo group for all artists who admire the art work of Michael deMeng and are inspired in their own art by his style. Anyone and everyone who has ever looked into the world of assemblage art has heard of Michael de Meng. His new book is titled Secrets of Rusty Things. Here is the introduction for the group as found on the home page. “Welcome to The Secret Society of Rusty Things. The place for friendly discussion about art inspired by Micheal Demeng's new book Secrets Of Rusty Things. We welcome any and all mixed media, altered, and assemblage artists.” I'm a regular reader of his blog and if you'd like to take a peek at what he has been up to lately the best place is his blog Assemblog of Michael deMeng Thanks for stopping by!

Last week while I was suppose to be working on the "Line" collage exercise in the yahoo collagecomposition group I was working on this piece. I have titled it Father Time. I was in a very morbid mood the day I made this. And as I was looking through my folders of images for something to use in the "Line" exercise I ran across this image and decided I felt like doing a transfer. I thought about using the piece for my "Line" exercise but I haven't sent it in. Once I found the image my piece came together quickly. I'm sure this happens to a lot of other people as they work on their art. I am always happiest with the pieces that just come together. I had no idea what I was going to do but once the transfer was down BAM I was throwing things together. You really can't tell from the photo but there is a piece of transparency over the top. I dabbed some Ranger Alcohol Ink down on it and this very cool pattern emerged. It reminds me of old water stains...