Friday, August 17, 2012

Liberated Art, Charts and a Few More Leaves

WIP
encaustic and paper on plywood 12x36
Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time - Thomas Merton

Seems like cutting out leaves is my deal lately.  Or maybe its just the pure concentration of cutting out something is what I like.  Have you noticed if you are trying to cut around a picture or a drawing that its pure "in the moment" concentration to keep to the lines.  Its kinda nice, really. 
We've been having some work done around the house.  Its the year of the outside projects.  We had a little deck repair work done that left me with some scrap plywood to play around with.  Plywood is a great sub strait for encaustic.  So what better subject for a long skinny board than branches and leaves?  And, also the fact I'm stuck on some kind of tree and leaf thing lately.  Do you ever get on a "thing"?  Just curious if its just me.

I used the charts  from my lucky find and cut them up to make the branches and leaves.  They are nice Big pieces of paper and thick.  I also keep whacking up that old book.  It really took an act of brave to cut up an old hardback book.  Its part of my fabric that "we" don't deface books.  I don't even make notes or highlights in them.  They are sacred or something... except for this one, I guess.  Does anyone else feel that way about books? 
I'm a little stuck on this painting.  It flowed really nicely to this point than hit the wall.  So, now its sitting waiting for the next flurry of inspiration to take it to the next level.  Or maybe I just got side tracked or something.  Imagine that!?

Yesterday I got my first postcard for Liberate Your Art - hosted by Kat Sloma over at Kat Eye Studio.   I'd like to introduce you to the art of Kim Giery.  Honestly, I have so much to learn from beautiful mixed media artists.  I mean, really... look at this card - the colors, the composition, texture - the dots (I love dots).  Super all of it. 
I asked Kim to share a little more about her fabulous art.  It turns out that Kim is exactly what Liberate Your Art is all about.  The postcard swap is the first time that she has shared her work to the outside world.  She loves collage, photography, art journaling and making handmade books.  She has made a studio space in the corner of her living room where she can work on her mixed media creations.  She even dabbles in encaustic (yay!).  This piece is what she calls a "faux" encaustic, using layers of acrylic paint, gloss medium, ephemera, etc. to mimic the look of wax.  Beautiful work and I am so honored to be the recipient of your first - get it out into the world, liberated art.  BRAVO Kim!  The lovely quote at the top of the post is from Kim.  She included that on the back of her card.


It's Party TIME!! 

37 comments:

  1. Brava to you and to Kim for setting it all free - her card is just lovely. Thanks for sharing more here!

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  2. You are so right, Kim's experience is exactly the point of Liberate Your Art! I'm so glad you two connected. Thank you for sharing her story!!

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  3. Lovely encaustic tree and leaf creation ~ well done ~ Also Kim's work is very freeing ~ Great connection for you both ~ (A Creative Harbor)

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  4. Your art is inspiring me to cut up some old books. Like you I have hesitated, even though the books I have I got speccifically for using in my art! LOL Happy PPF!

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  5. I love your encaustic on board. Your use of ordinary papers and things really appeals to me. This is gorgeous.

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  6. Ahhh such a beautiful encoustic piece! A peaceful joy to look at. Love the Merton quote as well!

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  7. Your branches and leaves are wonderful! I hesitated a bit the first time I tore a page out of a book for collage, but now there's no looking back. One of the ways I rationalize it is that it's one way to perpetuate the printed word in our digital age. I agree that mixed media art is such an inspiration -- that postcard is wonderful! Lucky you!!

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  8. wonderful works of art. Happy PPF, Annette x

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  9. I love your leaf art, it looks finished to me! Nice work from Kim too.

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  10. Love the depth of your branches & leaves. I think it looks fabulous! What a great piece of art you rec'd in the mail- thanks for sharing!

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  11. I love that quote. It is one of my favourites. I get on little obsessed kicks as well. Love the trees you are doing. Fabulous.

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  12. Always a pleasure to see your art and thanks for sharing Kim's too - it does indeed need to be shared with the world!

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  13. love your painting... especially that colour palette... and the postcard is special.... I can't wait to have the first card arrive... makes me wish I didn't live so far away...xx

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  14. Very interesting to look at. Lots of depth and the colors are perfect. It looks finished to me as well. Great job.

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  15. I love your encaustic tree branch piece, with it's fall colors. I tend to get into trends where all I want to use is a type of media, and then I get tired and switch or mix it up. As to books, I have a hard time scraping them too. As a matter of fact, I don't even like to get rid of books after I read them, so I have to force myself sometimes. Blessings!

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  16. Lovely rich grays in your encaustic WIP!
    ♥♥♥
    Happy PPF!!
    Mary
    Mixed-Media Map Art

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  17. Very inventive work. I like work on wood. Happy PPF.

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  18. Wow..and wonderful..visually stunning..I love the trees/branches/leaves..totally beautiful!Beautiful works as always!
    Victoria

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  19. Your work is rich and beautiful. I like using book pages, although I had the same reluctance as others to destroy a book. Unfortunately, libraries are actually throwing books in the dumpster! If we're using them in our art, it's like rescuing them.
    Thanks for showing my postcard on your blog.

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    1. You are so very welcome, Kim. Your postcard is wonderful and I am so happy that I could share it.

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  20. Wow your encaustic is amazing....what a good job!! So glad you can recycle the scrap wood!! I love all the yummy detail!! I'm with you I can not cut up old books, I feel they are sacred too!! Yet artists do it all the time... It just feels so wrong to me, I can't explain it either!

    Kims post card is fabulous too!! To answer your question I am terrible about creating the same subject matter over and over!!! Those stupid cartoon dogs came from no where and didn't want to go away... It's as though I need to get them out of my system so I can do something else!! Have a great weekend!

    Hugs Giggles

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  21. Gorgeous painting! I do get excited about things for a while then move on. :)) I missed out on the postcard swap this year.

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  22. awesome post! love your leaves! yes - focusing on the act of cutting can be like meditation! -or- torture depends on the mood! Kim's work is beautiful and the postcard swap is proving incredible! Have my first and can't wait to do the blog hop!
    cheers, dana

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  23. This is so appealing. Keep cutting those leaves because I love seeing what you do with them. I used to feel the same about books but when I saw them dumping cardboard boxes full of books into the dumpster at Goodwill, I realized I was really saving some small part of them. I get my old books from there and now have no guilt at all. Love the fab card from Kat!

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  24. This is beautiful! I love those cut out branches and leaves, and the colourpalette is wonderful.

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  25. yeah, it can be a really fun Zen process to cut out things - it requires concentration but no real thought! love these cutout! nice metallic sort of colour

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  26. I love this tree and the texture you get! I am right there with you on getting stuck.... First it was my fallingladies, then mandalas(still) and now i can tell it will be painting on rocks! I guess we can justify it saying it's a series....

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  27. I definitely find myself going back to the same images or shapes, and it carries throughout everything--my favorite Zentangle patters are the viney, leafy, swirly patterns.

    I'm with you on loving doing things that make me totally in the moment. I have my theories about how important that it.

    I, too, had issues with tearing up books. At first, it was almost painful, and just felt so WRONG. I've gotten past that, now, especially since most of the book I tear up are old (pre-1920) and falling apart, and are never going to be read by anyone again. I feel like maybe I'm honoring them by sending their words back out into the modern world...

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  28. Your encaustic tree and leaves is really strikingly beautiful. Simple yet makes a loud statement. Would adorn anyones living room wall and invite others in to view it. Easy to live with.

    My husband feels like you do about books. Every once in a while I get one at the thrift store or a garage sale and say I can use this for mixed media art and he about has a heart attack. So in retrospect I have done this rarely. I have the books but I feel guilty thinking of ripping the pages from them. Defacing them as you and he say. I feel like I am being unfaithful to him.

    Lovely post card from your friend too. Nice design and balance...colors. Lovely.

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  29. Your leaves and berries are fabulous. So serene and wonderful. And the card from your friend is beautiful. I rescue and alter books and love every minute of making them into a work of art...when they would've gone to the dump otherwise.

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  30. beautiful work Marji.. Love the way you cut paper and do it gracefully around. Yes I do do the same thing whenever I am inspired on a certain thing. Lovely art from Kim!

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  31. I think this painting is gorgeous. It looks like a city tree, clinging to a few stubborn leaves just after the first snowfall of winter.

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  32. I agree! Just gorgeous! So elegant and inspiring - with so many little details to look at! Congrats on your gift too, xoxo

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  33. Lovely work. its very peaceful and earthy. Something you can look at for a long time and never tire of. HPPF

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  34. What a lovely experience, swaping art is.

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  35. I am glad you explained it, I thought it looked so 3-D. I like the look of it. Blessings, Janet PPF

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  36. oh wow!!! this is so amazing....I am inspired by your encaustic work!!!! wonderful share and I wish you a wonderful week!!!

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