Friday, May 25, 2007

New Journal Page & Fish Eye Photos




Here is a new journal page that describes my past week...I really don't like the person I become when I am stressed out. I get very short tempered and everything just seems to piss me off when normally it would just roll off my back. I think it is because I am a bit of a control freak and a perfectionist. I am such a stickler when it comes to getting things done on time and in a certain way. If I feel overwhelmed by something, I feel backed into a corner. That is why I try to avoid putting myself in these situations as much as possible, so my husband doesn't want to stangle me. Most of the time, things turn out fine and I realize I got all bent for nothing, but I guess it is who I am...some of us do better under pressure, some of us get bitchy. On a happier note, I have also added a few fish eye photos from my recent photoshoot. I LOVE big dog noses and could take these photos all day long and just crack up...I find that my clients either love them or think they are totally weird...I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend! Yay, summer is officially here and I can lay on the beach every weekend and relax...it sounds like I need to...maybe a Margarita would help?

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

SPCA Spring Pet Portrait Day







Busy, busy weekend...I had my Spring Pet Portrait Day to benefit my local SPCA here in Va. Beach and it was sooo much fun. I met so many cool dogs (and one brave kitty). The weather was perfect and most dogs and owners were well behaved! I really love this event because I do not have to do it inside with a backdrop like the Xmas shoot. It makes me feel like Summer is almost here with all of the flowers and warm weather...These are a few of my fav's...I will post another group later of just fish eye shots that are pretty funny. Hope these photos brighten your day!

Monday, May 14, 2007

A few new journal pages




Here are a few more journal pages from my Art Journal....I have also started a color journal after taking Claudine Hellmuth's class. It feels good to finally have a place to put all of those ripped out pages from magazines or photos...I just glue them in my book and then pull ot the colors I like in the photo and create a "palette" that I may want to use in a future piece. I don't know about you, but sometimes I just go blank when it comes to figuring out a color scheme for a new piece or in my journal. I hope these little swatches will inspire me to try some new color combinations...I will post a picture from that journal later...

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Happy Mother's Day!

Barbara Beninato
1928-1995
This my favorite picture of my Mom...It always makes me smile to see her so happy and carefree...Then she had 5 kids...need I say more. I always wish I had known her when she was young like this. She was so tired when I came along (#5) and then in poor health for many years before she died 12 years ago. My Mom was always my hero and the most amazing woman in the world to me...I wish I was more like her. I always miss her just a little bit more on Mother's Day....it reminds me of how much I miss sharing my life with her and how the world will always be a little less bright without her in it. Happy Mother's Day everyone! If you are lucky enough to still have your Mom, call her, tell her you love her. You never know when it may be your last chance....

Saturday, May 12, 2007

K9 Karnival

We went to a local event today called the K9 Karnival...It is a outdoor festival where you can see different events, contests, vendors and of course lots of dogs hanging out with their owners. Pupperoni had a really cute booth where you could take a picture of your dog sitting in the side car of a motorcycle against a southwest "route 66" style backdrop...very cool! I photographed my daughter Caroline with our dachshund Daisy and a really cool dog named Cody who was stylin' and profilin' in his doggles. What puppy fun!


Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Back from Art & Soul


Now that the dust has settled from Art & Soul, I can finally get back to my blog...I have a few photos to post from my workshops that were all really great this year...I always learn something that changes the way I work at these workshops and I was so grateful to have Art & Soul come back to my area this year! My first class was called "Totally Plastered" and was taught by Stephanie Lee. She was a great teacher and very open with sharing her techniques and processes. We all got totally plastered with plaster and had a lot of fun...


It is kind of hard to see this piece, but what we did was apply plaster to a plywood substrate, paint it, collage on it and finally we added a few cast plaster pieces. I loved casting the plaster bird heads...they were very Edgar Allen Poe....



My next class was with Doris Arndt and it was called "mighty Mini Metal Journal. I loved this class as well and it was nice to go home at the end of the night with a finished little book. I learned how to emboss metal, color & stamp on leather and how to do a new binding style.





Next was "Adventures in Color" with Claudine Hellmuth. In this class we learned how to mix colors and to match ANY color that we want to just by using the three primaries. I have been mixing paint for a long time and thought I knew what I was doing pretty much, but this class really taught me a fool proof method of color mixing that I will use forever...This is a little tag I made in a color matching round robin we did in class.



Next was Michael De Meng's "lightbulb Shrines" class...As you can see, I have not gotten to the light bulb part and probably never will. I think I like it on it's own. If you can't tell, it is a sculpture of a little dog that I made out of Sculpey combined with a bunch of found objects and then painted to look old and weathered. I used dog biscuits around the base to create a temple of the dog kind of thing...Michael was fun as usual and showed us his new book which is very cool. It is not due out until June, and I think a lot of people may be suprised to learn that it is not a "how to" book. It actually talks about different myths? I think and each piece in the book illustrates that myth along with some art journal style entries. It is really beautifully done with awesome photos and artful layout.

On Sunday, I took the "Pirate's Code" with Juliana Coles and that was a pretty good class as well. You either like her teaching style or you don't...This is my second class with her and each time she gets me to work outside my comfort zone and I really like that.

Last, I took Misty Mawn's "layers on Canvas".....WOW! She is such an amazing teacher and SOOOO open with sharing her techniques. I learned more from her in one hour than I learned all week probably. She makes everything look so easy and effortless of course, but everyone came away with some interesting results. Her approach is very fly by the seat of your pants and get real messy which I liked. She rarely uses brushes, mostly her hands in the paint. I will post my piece from her class when I get it a little bit more done...I have a headless woman right now.

So that was my week in a nutshell! Thanks to Glenny for putting on such a wonderful retreat and thanks to all of the wonderful people I met there this year for your friendship and company. Everyone was really nice and a lot of fun to hang out with!