Confessions of a Magazine Junkie

I just realized how much of an admitted mag junkie I am. There was a thread on another group I belong to asking what the magazines we read, here's my list....ready?


Paid subscriptions (This does change every year too):
Selvedge
Echoes/memebrship
American Craft/membership
Architectural Digest
Mary Engelbreights (I never spell her name right) Home Companion
Rachel Ray's Every Day
Domino
O (a gift subscription)
Vogue
Western Interiors & Design
Casual Living (not so interesting, and free)
Dwell
Metropolis
Metropolitan Home
Interior Sources
Cloth Paper Scissors
Yankee
Fiber Arts
I am waiting on other free subscriptions to arrive in my post box as we speak! (mostly trades)

Pick up from the news stand on a regular basis:
Country Home
Home
Cooking Light
Belle Amoure

Twice a year I go to Borders or some such place, even better if I am NYC, and load up my arms with anything interiors and foreign, I love the Australian Elle Decor, English and Italian

And the truth is, when I get subscription specials in the mail for ...like...Elle Decor one year for 7.00US$ I ask you how can a girl say NO!

See what I am up against?! Oh and what about those family members who are enablers? My parents just recently gave me 10 years worth of my dad's Saveur's he had been saving. I thought, O, I will cut that up too, but as I started devouring it, the beautiful photography and recipes I realize they must have their own shelf as well.

I am sure there are more that I have forgotten, and will see them laying by my bed tonight, and I will say "oh yes, I love you too!" ZZZZZ


Oh and then there are catalogues...I won't go there...yet

More Juice for the Brain

I also wanted to share a really cool website I have gotten some major inspiration from. I have been trying to expand my art into mixed media-collage. The more I do this the more I realize it is more for me than to "sell" and certainly not as Festive Fibers or Nicole Chazaud Designs. When I went to art school (graduated in 83) the funky collage that is around now was not even a blink then. and then using the computer as an aid was also just pitiful. So I have been getting the coolest magazine for fun inspiration and finding very cool artists and "clipart" stuff in its back pages.

The magazine is called Cloth Paper Scissors, http://clothpaperscissors.com/
and in it I saw the cutest ad for the funkiest clipart thingies by a gal who goes by
artchixstudio.com
I bought four sheets from her, Crowns, Party Hats, Hearts and Mermaids. It is so much fun and freeing, I did Valentines (Annie did you get yours?) and a few other things. Of course I look at this kind of stuff and say to myself, self, I can do this, can't I hook up with someone like this and license my fun drawings for this market? (brain is always chugging and I am planning on pursuing the likes of this) Along the same line of collage, I was playing with the animated gif files, that you tried putting on the blog. I want to combine both ideas. I tried figuring out how to upload the animated file so they "run" on this blog but to no avail. I bet Erica, your illustrations would be great animated?! I see a whole story about that funny frog doing something funny already! Like a reverse of the princess kissing the frog.

There's tons more fun stuff in the back pages of that mag. and the one to dream for is a workshop/retreat called At Home with Art & Soul. There are two this year, one in Italy and one in Virginia. Couldn't quite figure it out to make it happen for me this year, either retreat. But will put it on my wish list. artandsoulretreat.com

I hope this has been a bit of inspiration for you guys. My problem is not lack of inspiration (at the moment), but rather pulling myself away from the EVIL TV at night. I get sucked in at around 6 or 7 and stay glued in till around 9 or 10. I keep thinking I could get so much done those 3-4 hours each night, like my downstairs bathroom. And I don't have kids either, so what's my excuse?

Kisses from melting NH.

Funk?

OK Artistically speaking, no pity parties babe! This is what this blog is for. Excitement and inspiration, right? Love your suggestion to get back into your old sketchbooks Erica. I use mine all the time. The funniest thing I see, since my sketch books are mostly receptacles for magazine clippings of things I love, is that gee, my taste is consistent!

I am going to share one of the exercises I do with my color theory groups. It is really the culmination of the session but it is also a great exercise to inspire.
1. Find a great picture from a magazine.
2. Interpret it into a colorful collage. You can either reinterpret it in textures and color mixed media collage, or use the image as the base to embellish. I have included the one I did. I loved the red and green use in the photo (pure complimentary colors) and I loved the action of the model. The little color bits were cut from paint chips.


I am sorry to hear of Matt's dad, and will keep him my prayers.

Feeling Funky

Creative funks SUCK! I know how you feel Annie. Whenever I get into one of these spaces (which happens more than I would like) I think about something that Steve Martin once said. He said that he, as a writer, loved getting writer's block. To him it meant that his brain was asborbing and taking in new thoughts and ideas rolling them around and turning them into something new. He knew that one day, when least expected, his brain would spit out a result of that time he took just taking things in, and creativity would begin again. That is totally paraphrased, of course. I take a lot of solace in that because I really think it's true. Try not to get frustrated and force yourself into creating - I find that only makes it worse. You need to charge those batteries.

Another solution to creative funks is experimenting. I am currently feeling like I am going through some sort of evolution and I haven't quite figured out what I am supposed to be doing. I know I am an artist, but I also feel like I need to grow. That was a major factor in me deciding to go back to school. But in the mean time, while I am making value charts and color wheels, I have been going back through my old sketchbooks and remembering how "free" I used to feel. I feel like I have lost that a little bit so I have been experimenting with the old and the new:

The frog is from an old sketchbook and I drew him in Illustrator which is also an old technique. The new is bringing him into Photoshop, which I don't normally use in my illustrations. I shaded him and added some scanned textures I created and I am really happy with the result.

P.S. Annie, I will keep your father-in-law in my thoughts and prayers.

creative funk

Hi all. I am in a creative funk. Caught me by suprise, because last week I was in a complete creative spin. It was a friggin deluge, I tell ya. And now... I've got nothing. I've been poking around my favorite blogs, and they aren't even doing it for me.

Kelli, how is the needle sketch coming- how about an in-progress peek? Talk to us about this traveling book, please! Erica, what are you working on for school? Leslie, Jill, write soon! Nic, I love the sea of paint chips.

On the up side, it has been beautiful here- in the 40s, so crazy warm I'm taking Miss Lovely for walks without a coat. Me, no coat. Little Miss is bundled. I think the thaw has begun...

And Matt's father will be going in for brain surgery on Monday- they only just diagnosed him with lung cancer, and then immediately found out it has metastacised to his brain. Please keep my sweet husband, his father, our family in your thoughts.

-annie

Color Theory Class

Here is a pic from the Color Theory class I taught a couple weekends ago. My primary source of color for this class is good old paint chips. I constantly raid HomeDepot, and other local paint stores for my stash, now two big shoe boxes full. I don't know if I said this in my profile, but I am a self-confessed magazine-holic. I usually tear images for my "notebooks of inspiration", but since I began teaching this class, the pile grows faster, and the class images now have their own box. These magazine clippings are the visual tools I use to demonstrate an example of theory or for student inspiration for exercises in the class.

Hi All
Boy I feel like I have been away for ages, but I swear I have been creating. The bummer of the moment is that my hubby moved my scanner in the house and I want it here so I can show you little things I have been doing, (a little whining here, sorry) so for now I will tell. But first things first, welcome Kelli.

This past weekend I taught a color theory class in MA. We only had 4 students, it was joined by a second day of fiber dynamics (a felting class) and all very good. I did a little collage as a last synopsis of the color day and love what I did. (Scan to follow) I have done this color theory class a few times and usually have about a dozen students, but this time we had time of year, winter weather undependable and it was a joint class, both more technical rather than project classes.

I am working on felt orders, dyeing fiber, I finished fulling a rug that won't shrink down enough- whew!, and waiting for more fiber to arrive in the door to finish another order. Gotta pay the bills! Oh yeah and the tax thing (Tom did most of it over the past month, but there was a lot of running and finding bits of papers and numbers, finished yesterday and mailed to my accountant, yeah) BUT... While I am doing these things I am also working hard on my next incarnation, Nicole Chazaud Designs
I am painting my favorite Festive Fibers designs onto paper in a new coordinated color palette. I am planning to take them to manufacturers who will commit to produce my patterns as licensed properties. As the line comes together and becoming really tangible, I am getting great response from some manufacturers, and have two appointments next week. One a wall covering company and the other a floor covering company. I am so excited I can't paint fast enough!

I have also taken on an interesting challenge. I have offered a drawing idea to my church. Congregational. Their weekly bulletins have had very plain covers. So this year I suggested that I would like to contribute illustrations for each week. I have done 5 or 6 so far. Each one is either a seasonal image or related to the scriptures read that Sunday. I must say this is a very interesting exercise, as it is all B&W, and I am working in pen and ink with grey washes. I have always loved pen and ink, and I have always also loved making caricatures for cards and the like, so this is very fun for me. But also challenging, drawing people that look like their anatomy is doing the right thing. Oh, I've had life drawing years ago (there's a funny story there), but I AM RUSTY. But I must say so far the congregation is enjoying seeing these covers. My final goal for my church is fund raising. When I get the whole year, I will put together DVDs and sell them at church conferences and hopefully sell them to a company who produces liturgical clip art, and have the royalties go to my church.

Dance for Joy
(Or God's Hoedown :) )

The Irish Blessing

"Follow Me"

"God's Glory"

(These images are copyrighted)

OK now I feel like I've caught up

Oh - Annie, a few things, how do I get my photo on the comment screen or in the artist profile, and can you e-mail me your little copyright symbol? And the coolest thing about the Picasso theft is that I have a cousin who is a detective in Paris who works specifically recovering stolen art. When I read about this I wondered if he was working on this case?

Funny just went to post this and an error came up saying that explaination points are not allowed, weird.