Abandoned Art - "Reve Du Papillon"

I am probably taking this "Art Abandonment" thing too far, but I'm having so much fun with it, it's hard to stop.  If you don't know what that is, check out the Art Abandonment group on Facebook or Google "Art Abandonment" or "Free Art Fridays."  There are a number of movements out there where artists are leaving pieces of art in public places for people to find and enjoy.  I've actually been doing this for at least five years already, but it's becoming very popular now, in large part due to the Facebook group's founders and members.

"Reve Du Papillon" will soon be among those pieces abandoned.  This is a mixed media assemblage piece made almost completely of recycled materials.  The substrate is a piece of bevelled wood I salvaged from the junk pile at a woodworking shop.  Various paints, inks and other treatments form the background, along with a vintage image and various repurposed embellishments (including a salvaged butterfly and harlequin face cabochon which give the piece a 3D look).  It sits on a faux wrought iron stand.

I am not sure where I will abandon this piece but it will be somewhere in the Okanagan Valley during the month of February.

Perhaps you'll find it???

Zentangle-Inspired Original Magnet Art

I haven't shown much in recent months that features my doodling and zentangle-inspired art, even though I still doodle regularly.  I discovered zentangling almost three years ago and immediately became hooked on it.  I was, and still am, so grateful for discovering this new art form and being able to integrate it into my mixed media work.  Having worked in collage and mixed media for so many years, it was wonderful to be able to infuse my work with something new and interesting.  Any artist fears their work becoming stale and getting bored with doing the same old thing.  Adding doodling to my art, has given me (and the art) a boost and moved me in new directions.  That is always a good thing for an artist.

Here are two little original magnets I made recently.  I doodled them on my own handpainted papers and I really like how they turned out.  They are encased in acrylic magnetic holders which protect the art well.  They measure about 3.5" X 3.5" and will be available in my Etsy store here very soon.  $9.95US each.  If purchased here through my blog, I will pay the shipping anywhere in North America as my thanks for the support.

If you want to find out more about the art of zentangle, check out these websites:

Zentangle

Tangle Patterns

"The Only Gift ..." Original Art In My Etsy Shop

I often forget that I should be using this blog to promote what I am selling in my Etsy shop.  Duh!

So, here's a piece that is a combination of mixed media, collage and zentangle-inspired work.

The quote is, "The Only Gift Is A Portion Of Thyself."  Unfortunately I can't remember whose quote it is.

It is about 5" X 8" in dimension and was made using salvaged cardstock for the substrate, assorted recycled papers, inks, stamped images, zentangle doodling and various images.

The link to the listing on Etsy is here.

Thanks for looking!

Joanna

"Find Harmony" - Inspirational Mixed Media Art

This piece is one of my favourites and was actually quite hard to part with when I sold it.  I guess I just liked how bizarre it looked while also being quite tranquil.  And, of course, the quote was so powerfully suited to the art.

I started with a scrap piece of matboard for the substrate and covered it with a piece of salvaged wallpaper (it was the silver you see in the photos and had the branches in its pattern already).  This was one time where I didn't mess around with the background at all.  I loved its simplicity and although it doesn't show up in the photos, it has a shimmer to it.

The woman was created using the body of one vintage image with the head of another and the eyes from somewhere else.  All of the ladies come from my vintage images CD collection.  The little house in the background was made by altering tags into the shape I wanted and then embellishing it further with added doodads.  The bird represents opportunity (per the quote below).

The quote is:

Out of clutter, find simplicity
From discord, find harmony
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity
(Einstein)

GLITTER, GLITTER EVERYWHERE!

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that I love glitter and all things sparkly and shiny.  But every once in a while I overdo it on the glitter.  This art journal page was a case in point.

"Invest In Yourself," as this piece is called, is another of those background practice pages we did in Color Love 101 with the awesome Joanne Sharpe. It was a lesson in creating wavy lines (she calls them "whimsy grids") with paints and then doodling, writing, painting over and around them.

The page just sat around for months in my journal with only the whimsy grids, a bit of doodling and the color laid down.  Recently I added bits of recycled napkins (the dark purple areas), then stencilled the yellow flowers and smeared purple glitter everywhere (which hardly shows up in the photo).

The faces of the flowers are flattened bottlecaps, with stamped images and a resin doodad on top.

Note to self: next time, do the lettering and highlighting BEFORE you add all the sparkly sh*t! Writing over glitter is IMPOSSIBLE!

Come Through The Portal - Art Journal Page

This piece was originally done as an art journal page but I decided to make it into a standalone piece of art to sell.

It measures about 6X6 and was mounted on recycled heavy cardstock to give it a firm base and then covered with salvaged blue foil that I had kept from another project's scraps.  If you look closely at the background where you see the dark blue, you can probably tell it is foil that I have highlighted with copper leaf foiling.

Then the rest of the collage was built on top of the blue foil, using little bits of leftover scrapbooking paper, some stamped images, blue scribbles with my Neocolors and a beautiful vintage image from my CD collection.  I took vintage images of butterflies and printed them onto sticker paper to make my own stickers to embellish this piece, and also used recycled ribbon roses (left over from a wedding gift I made years ago) to highlight the butterflies.  The back is finished and hangs from recycled ribbon.

The saying is, "Will You Come Through The Portal And Meet Your Destiny?"  I often make up sayings for my art that are inspired by my love for the study of metaphysics.  This was one such quote.  The piece represents awakening to one's full potential if we would only step across the barriers of our own self-imposed limitations.

I hope you enjoy this piece.

I will be listing this piece soon for $29.95US and if purchased through my blog, I will cover the shipping costs of approximately $10.00 (anywhere in North America) as my thanks for your support of my creative endeavors!

MORE FREE IMAGES TO DOWNLOAD

If you missed my post on January 13th, I included a few images that you are free to download to use for your own art.  Here's the link to that post if you need it:  Free Funky Images

Today, I have a few more for you to enjoy!  These are scans of my original collage/mixed media work from between 2001 and 2009.  All you have to do is right-click on each image and save them to your own computer.  You can do with them what you want, all I ask is that if you use my images to create something you'll sell, that you acknowledge credit where it is due.  Otherwise, you are free to play with them as you like.

I hope you have fun with these funky images.  I'll be sharing some more in the coming weeks.

Cheers!

Joanna