Second Nature

Secret revealed!

This is a very special collaboration hosted by Jeriann and Julie. They also enlisted Lisa as secret agent.
For many month's people all over the world have been creating and thinking how to best express our gratitude towards Michelle Ward for her generousity, and show her our love at a difficult time (she lost her sister Shannon a year ago).
These pages are my contribution.

Gates of Perception

Michelle has opened the "Gates of Perception" for us, in her challenges at the Street Team Crusade.

She has shown a lot of possible directions for creativity.

Opening the back door you discover a mirror, and a mirrored text. It is my letter of gratitude to Michelle.

HCIMW? How Cool Is Michelle Ward!

Go here to see the whole book!

Springtime in Mom's garden

Three and a half week in Denmark.
Not so long, when you are visiting loved ones.
And a lifetime, when you look at the garden.

I really get my Mom, who spends most of summer "bottoms up", weeding and planting in her garden.
It is such a joy and a calming experience to hear the bird song and see the little ones come out of their nests and learn to fly.

One day I may get a garden of my own... Just a little one?!

They say it's all happening at the Zoo...

I have just returned from a wonderful time in Berlin.
It might have been a more "true" picture of Berlin to show all the graffiti; but so much of it is great street art, that I decided to go back another time, graffiti hunting with my camera.
This time, I travelled six hours north, and my sister Nina travelled seven hours south, and we met up in Berlin. We wanted some well deserved sister time. And we wanted to go to flee markets, which were fun, but not a big revelation.
We stayed in the middle of Prenzlauer Berg, which is on the east side of where the wall was. A former noble area, so the houses are grand, but very dilapidated...
I Loved the atmosphere! People seemed very laid back (a joker claimed it was due to the high unemployment...!) And most friendly, which I am sorry to say is a rare commodity.
There are cafés and restaurants all over the place, many of them with good homemade food, and not expensive.

One of the highlights for me, was visiting Berlin Zoo. At least I enjoyed those animals, that were kept in a sensible way, and seemed happy enough. The two on the left, above, were in neighboring "gardens", and spend a good time sniffing and greating each other. An unlikely couple, don't you think?

My next venture is back to Denmark for a while, so I shall not be posting here untill late june.
Kisses and good bye for now!

Last news from the clothes line

Fifth of february I put my contribution to Seth's challenge "Disintegration" up on my clothes line.
My neighbor was asking questions, and my husband said "Art project"... Nor more explanation needed!

My bundle quickly went through changes.
First, a violent storm ripped it off the clothes line and sent it dancing around in the back yard. The light blue monoprinted piece of paper: gone, the tag: gone; I wonder what the person thinks, who finds a tag reading "05.02. 2009 Disintegration"!
The string is still attached to the clothes line (I will have to cut it off at some time).

Then I secured the leftover piece of braille paper with clothes pegs.
Snow and rain in abondance altered my piece, bled the colour away and bleached the paper, and left nice marks where the pegs have been.

Next step is to create some art with this piece of paper.
It is lying on my desk, all ready to be used.

The spirit of Artfest

Bee Shay hosted an ATC swap at Artfest 2009. She did an enormous job of gathering and distributing the contributions of a lot of participants... I seems to have seen somewhere, over 120 people participating?
Here are some samples from the swap, I show some of the backs of the ATC cards as well, they were just so beautifully made!
We all recieved such a beautiful little box for the ATCs, a handmade labour of love!

  [Artwork shown without permission]

When I found out I could not go to Artfest, Bee Shay promised to mail me the ATCs, but first she would take them to Artfest, to catch some of the spirit! Don't you love that!!!
And so I get to share in the incredible spirit of Artfest, in my own way.

Thank you so much, Bee Shay!

Journalfest in Port Townsend

I just got this in the mail! My heart jumped with joy - look at all the creativity and care Teesha put into this package of confirmation. When I unwrapped it, small bits of ephemera fell out in my hand...
I LOVE surprises like that! I can't wait for october now!!!
Want to join the fun? Go here and check it out.

Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas

This palindrome has riddled me everytime I saw it. It sits on a door in a spooky and ancient little corner of Grenoble, where I lived with my husband a decade ago.
Now I looked it up on Wikipedia, but I still can't tell you exactly what it means. Only that it is magic, and meant to keep sickness and bad spirits from your door. So I thought it appropiate to apply on my virtual "door", considering the weeks we have had to deal with that.

However, things are looking up, and spring has arrived! YAY! Finally!
I have been on my first longer bikerides, and it was great!

Here is to strength and good health, to all who needs it! (You know who you are!)

(P.S. The little square depictions of the palindrome is taken from Wikipedia without permission)

I am still here..!

This old suitcase may have travelled the world… I wonder what dreams and hopes it transported to far and foreign places.

I got it cheap on the local flee-market. And now it holds dreams of art, and lots of art materials.

 

I should not be sitting here in front of my PC right now… I should be on an airplane, high over the ocean, going to Canada with my suitcase filled with art materials… and to Artfest!!!

 

What happened?

Oh, just life, I guess…!

Our apartment has been haunted with illness, and insomnia, and sad spirits for over a month now.

It has been really hard, and I had no creative juice in me, and could not find the words to tell you about it, even though I missed you. I prefer to tell sunny stories, but life is not always that way, is it?!!!

 

BUT! Spring is peeking out from behind winter, and the spirits lift, and pure exhaustion gives us some sleep again. We are on the mend!

 

YAY!

 

One of the most important things making me sad about not going is the people I am not not going to meet this time, especially Jo Anne. We got to know each other through a journal exchange we had for a while. But we never met in person. We were supposed to share a room at Artfest… And planned to scan the beaches for sea glass, and explore Port Townsend and the Olympic Peninsula

… Well, I hope we get another chance, Jo Anne!

I made lots of trades for Artfest (see picture above), and sent some to Jo Anne. If they reach her in time, she is going to take them with her and trade for me. How great is that!!! Thank you, Jo Anne!

Bee Shay hosts an ATC book exchange each year at Artfest. She is a real darling! She promised to mail me my ATC book, but first she is going to take it to Artfest and let it capture some of the spirit!

 Above you see my contribution; it is really a deep sea octopus, even if it looks like a handicapped elephant…

I had quite an e-mail correspondence with Johanna from Akamai, in Port Townsend. She made such a great effort, getting all my art materials gathered and ordered for me. And when I could not go, she sent it to me here in Germany in stead. I just got it from the customs office today. So now I can do my own version of the classes I am missing, right here in my home. Thank you so much Johanna!

Disintegration III

What a month! And it is not even over yet!
First snow storms - altering the paper on the washing line, great!!!

Then ongoing health issues, weeks of them.
But we'll get there.

And I haven't forgotten about the vegetable paper; the text for the "how to"is written, now I just need a sunny day and a bit of energy to make some photos.
Until then, bear with me, I haven't even been surfing your blogs a lot, but I'll be back, I promise!

Vegetable Paper slides

It is time to tell more Vegetable Paper Tales... Or at least to show some pictures.
I was inspired to make this little row of slides, when I got the book Transparent Art a couple of years ago. Originally it was Jenny Doh's idea [the slides, not the vegetable paper].

This is the old fascioned plastic slide frames, which have a back and a front piece and thus could be snapped close around a piece of vegetable paper.

I sanded all the the slide pieces. Gave them a couple of layers of acrylic paint, with some distressing done in between. Then stamped with one of my favorite stamps from Green Pepper Press in a warm copper tone. And finished off with a thin layer of clear laquer for durability.

When everything was nice and dry, I placed the back pieces of the slides in a row on a table, gave them hinges of little pieces of sticky tape, arranged the pieces of vegetable paper, and snapped the front pieces on - Voila!

Now I hope some of you reading this would like to try making vegetable paper?
I am presently (in a minute) rereading my notes and writing the "how to" in english, because since this project started out, it has developed some and I would like to give you the latest tips and tricks!

In the meantime, if you have not followed my blog from the start, you might want to read how it all started out, with my mother and me making vegetable paper? Go here for post # 1. And read post # 2 here.