Altered Silver

The background of the first card is a portion of a staircase turned upside-down. I liked the lines and the warmth of its yellow.

I enjoy finding very cool abstract backgrounds like this brown-on-brown in the first card, but it seems I inevitably end up covering so much of them with something. In this case, the image of the French text pages was made available by someone in one of the altered arts groups, and I printed it off in a size to "fit" a card, not knowing at that time what the background might be. Happily, the bright-sun-blue-sky background plays a larger (retained) role on the second card.

Ah, finally, the computer problems appear to be resolved! I need yet to make a few backups, then I'll be able to get on with other things again.

Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer.
– E.M.Forster



Technorati Tags: art journals, collage, gluebooks,altered cards

Markers, colored pencils and paper punches...and of course, primarily gluestick!

Technorati Tags: art journals, collage, gluebooks,altered cards

Today's cards show a couple ways I'm playing around a bit with the media.

Notice the word "Secrets" on the first card. That was done by snipping the word and gluing it to an interesting texture, snipping it out again while letting the texture become a frame, and then gluing that to a darker tone to create a "drop shadow." After gluing this completed element to the card's background, I used a (Sharpie extra-fine) marker to outline the textured frame, making it appear more dimensional.

The second card has two images (the yoga-woman and a flower) and two snips of text applied to a colorful background. Then I doodled with markers to enhance the subtle distinctions of the background and flower and to tie everything together.



Technorati Tags: art journals, collage, gluebooks,altered cards

Changes and transitions can bring awkward yet wonderful times.

Practice the art of aloneness and you will discover the treasure of tranquility. Develop the art of solitude and you will unearth the gift of serenity.
– William Arthur Ward




Technorati Tags: art journals, collage, gluebooks,altered cards

I've been performing computer maintenance and cleanup this week while trying to correct a baffling problem. Happily, my gluecards focused on the positive side of things which offered relief from the perplexing situation.

More fun with altered cards. These two came together very easily and quickly. In fact, the hardest part was sanding the glossy face of the card to prepare it for receiving glued papers.

Making two glue-things at the same time takes a little adjustment. I haven't found my rhythm with that yet, but of course, today is only the second day doing it. I found the flowers images first and thought I'd continue along on that card before starting on the other, but then I found the background for the other. And so it went back and forth with the rest of the elements, thus both of these cards were actually created simultaneously.

No marker used on either of these; just a touch of colored pencil on one bit of text. I look forward to finding a rhythm for the media as well. I can easily envision rubber stamping, freehand drawing, paint strokes...but I'm following the flow rather than trying to push anything. One of the best parts of gluebooking -- or throw-away collage, whatever you want to call it -- is learning to let the project happen instead of trying to make it happen.



Technorati Tags: art journals, collage, gluebooks,altered cards

My first day of gluecarding and these are what emerged. It's almost the same as gluebooking, but there are differences (beyond the substrate) that feel good to me. The cards feel more free to me somehow. Maybe because I'm coming to them after five months of the book. I really like how they feel in my hands. The first noticeable difference in media turned out to be using markers rather than colored pencil for small bits of color enhancement.



Technorati Tags: art journals, collage, gluebooks,altered cards