February 6th - A Visit from a Friend, Sushi, & Origami

I didn't have much time to create today but inspiration was EVERYWHERE! My friend, Tawna, came to visit. She lives in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. I met her in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, when she was my student. I was teaching a digital photography workshop. We have kept in touch and she is in Banff now to attend a work conference at the Banff Centre. It is so good to see her. She lives in an amazing place that few people have a chance to visit. We would love to do a camper trip to see her one of these summers...

It was a beautiful sunny day and we spent it attending the 60th anniversary for the local library and finding treasures at the thrift store. We went out for dinner at the Sushi Train, where they put sushi on a train and you pick what you want, then they total your bill using your stack of colored plates (different colors represent different prices). Then, Tawna showed me an amazing photo/video slideshow of 3 weeks she spent in France and Italy. It was lovely and made me realize how much I miss traveling abroad...

All I had time to accomplish today was a bit or origami. A panda and a bird. Voila!

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Hanging Art

I made this mixed media piece for the Hanging Art Show which is an annual part of the Canmore Arts Weekend, which is in mid June. It is a fundraiser for the local Lamphouse Arts Centre. The participants are local artists who can go to one of three locations and pick up an 8x8" Masonite board, upon which their art is made. The only "rule" is to use this board. Each piece is hung from a clothesline for the sale. All pieces are $75 regardless of materials or who the artist is. The piece can not be signed on the front so that the buyer has no idea who created it until they buy it. They only hang so many pieces at a time, and the buyer pays and then takes their chances as to what is on the line when it is their turn to pick. I have taken part in lots of art fundraisers in the past, and I had actually made a deal with myself not to do anymore where I was not at least paid back for materials, because artists seem to always be asked to donate their work, with no regard for their costs or time. It isn't really fair, of course it is up to the artist whether they say yes or no, but I prefer fundraisers where the art is purchased from the artist at a fair price and then sold at a price that brings a profit to the fundraiser. But, it is a local festival so I decided to participate.

I am pretty happy with the piece that I made but I would make a few changes if I could have it back... Originally, I had the masonite board as the border for the collage. I like the way it was heathered looking but when I asked my husband for his opinion he didn't like it. I decided to add the paper border, and because I forgot that I was not supposed to sign the piece (which I had done under the transfer) I put a paper border there, too. I tried to tie it into the rest of the piece by adding an acrylic paint wash, but it didn't quite do the job. It bugs me that you can see where the paper comes together at the corners, which may just be because I do know how to cut mats and this is a very basic version of a mat. In the end, I was happy to experiment and have decided to do a series with my transfers and different origami pieces. I like the 3-D effect. And I think that I will use beeswax and maybe even encaustic paints to pull it all together and to soften the look around the transfer.