BIRTHDAYS, QUEENS AND DOGS

Been away at a conference this week and have been behind in blogging.........like FOREVER.
While I wait for this mornings meeting, I miraculously have a few moments and would like to first honor my dear friend Susanna. Who has been spreading her warmth and good cheer around the world with her winged messengers. Above is the one I carried with me to Venice.



This is a photo from Susannas birthday, which brings me to my next and most important part of this post, my beloved husbands birthday......TODAY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB!!!!!



HAPPY BIRTHDAY FROM YOUR THREE BITCHES. WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!


.....AND, last but not least, for my wonky friend Bonnie, HERE"S HARLEY......she sends you many licks and swishes.

DIA DE BLOGLANDIA -> REMEMBRANCE

Remembering my mother. Helen Dorner Shechtman 1914-2009, with love and appreciation for who she was and who she became.

She would have never understood the traditional skeleton representation of Dia De Los Muertos therefore, I chose to use one of her favorite photos. I made a breastplate/neck piece that uses some of her old jewelry parts and a piece of her crochet trim. She loved "bling". The bigger the better.

The staff at Elm Terrace Gardens, where she lived, had this to say when she died. Something I treasure.

"Karen, your mother shared a world of warmth and love while living out each day........

.....She had her share of tougher times, yet never lost her way....


....she showed the world what a great person she was in everything she did......


....and for the joy she brought to all, today we honor our dear Helen."


A special thank you to Susanna and Stephanie for organizing this and putting it all together.

With love,
Karen

MANDALAS MATERIALIZE IN MANHATTAN

I am inspired by design that radiates from a central point and was thrilled to discover that the Rubin Museum in New York was having two special exhibits that I thought would be the perfect venue to maximize my inspiration, Mandalas and Carl Jungs' , the Red Book. It was a great starting point to do a workshop with friends and work on copper technique with found objects. I highly recommend this museum. it is one of those "little gems".


After spending the day at the museum and seeing the beautiful intricate patterns and vibrant reds, blues and greens of these amazing works of art, we went to work on our own variation on a theme.










My finished piece.


Joy Snyder

Jerri Weitz

Kathryn Gilbert




Happy Halloween wishes to everyone!!! A Halloween Mandala, of sorts.

ART STEW

"Society is like stew, if you don't stir it up every once in a while , a layer of scum floats to the top". -Edward Abbey

I have already mentioned that when I attended Squam Art Workshop, I met many wonderful people and had an inspiring time. I did manage to make a few things in the workshops I attended, as well.

Above is from Elizabeth Bunsens' "Positives and Negatives" class (journaling with photographs). In this piece we tore up a photo, passed pieces of our photos around and then put everything together in the way we thought best. I ended up making another layer on mine with a transparency I brought, of a black and white drawing I had done.


Took a great class with another wonderful woman and teacher Judy Wise, called "Waxy Layers" (collage, painting and encaustic). I love using photos of my own work to make new work. I did that with each piece I created.....hence the title of this post," art stew". If things sit around my studio for too long, I need to "stir it up" a bit. How about you?


More from EBs' class. She gave us many creative prompts to get us started on each page.


More encaustic.




This last page is from Judys' "Playbook" class. We simply played in our sketchbooks using many ideas for loosening up......funny how you forget how to do that.

Don't forget to stir things up a bit!!!

WHAT TO WEAR TO AN ART OPENING

"One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art". Oscar Wilde

This past weekend I was honored to be a part of the opening of a wonderful art show, "The Found Object". My work was very happy hanging on this particular wall, next to the work of an artist that I have long admired, Cathy Rose. Her figures are pure magic. I was delighted that this figure was placed there with its hand extended, as if to say, "look here". The turnout for the show was huge. Thank you to everyone that came out to see me.

I had decided long before, that I would wear black. Somehow, in my mind, I wanted the "cool reserved" artist look. I suddenly realized that if I didn't do something, I might be the "invisible suburban housewife" instead. I decided to create something that would say, "hi, I made this and I also made what you see on the wall".

I decided to make a medieval "breastplate" type piece that would partner with my theme of heraldry. Not being much of a wearer of jewelry, this was a bit of a stretch, but I had a sense of humor about it. I decided to make use of something my blog readers may have seen before. I'll surprise you at the end of this post.









Some of the first people to arrive were Isaiah Zagar and his wife Julia. I have been a fan for years. My out of town visitors usually end up visiting his"mosaic wonderland".

My dear friend Paula is also exhibiting her fabulous glass pieces. Each piece is story full of masterful detail , humor and surprises.

Fellow blogger, creator of beautiful dolls and figures and friend Mo'a came by with her husband and brought me the most beautiful bunch of peach colored roses.

How wonderful to be surrounded by so many wonderful people and do what you love to do. Life is good.



Remember the disintegration project? It is still alive and well and continually reinventing itself.
See anything familiar?

BOOK IT

I decided that before I went to Squam, since I was taking a few journaling classes and I do not usually bind my own sketchbooks, that I would create artwork for the covers. I used my small-scale assemblage work on copper technique.

Can you find the word Squam in this photo? Hint....tilt your head to the right.


I thought I had completed this piece when I left home, but I found this heart shaped stone on the shores of Lake Champlain.


The edge of this piece is tree bark from Squam Lake that was given to me by Elizabeth Bunsen, collector of all things, extraordinaire.




Reminder- if you are near the Philadelphia area this Friday night, please come out and say "hi" at Snyderman/ Works Gallery . I dropped my work off today and saw some of the work by the other artists in the show. It's pretty incredible. I'm thrilled to be included.

The time on this invite should be 5:30- 8:30 and the show will be there until the end of October, not mid November.