Today’s the day of the Big Reveal!

Disintegration Collaboration part 3 is here!!

As you can see by the first photo, my bits and pieces that I tied to the dogwood tree this past winter, have been turned into a book.

The book is my take on the ever evolving disintegration of the family.

I do NOT mean divorce.

I mean how a family grows and has children who then grow up and away to have families of their own. Bits come together, form something new and those bits in turn form with other bits to form something else...disintegration of the original, then further disintegration and so on.This is not disintegration used in a bad light but in a very good light. Very much like the rest of nature and a lot of the art we all do.

Now for a bit of the process.

I managed to use almost every scrap of my papers from the original bundle put out last winter!

The book is from the 50’s that I painted with gesso then distressed. I added several layers of acrylics. The title is a Disco paper added with matte medium. The image is my wedding picture transfered on to look sort of like worn stone: it is supposed to be unrecognizable.

The inner and back cover pages are made up of left over bits of the DisCo papers placed over a painted background with matte medium.There was additional watercolor pencil work done also.

The title page is made up of all DisCo papers attached to the fabric. Even the word “Disintegration” had been in the bundle.

The wedding dresses are all DisCo papers that have been stamped, and added under a pattern made of deli paper then “gel mediumed” on top of the photo.The papers behind all the canvas photos are from the Disintegration bundle and are sewn or stapled on.

All the words represent important things in/to our family. There is a progression as the family develops and forms. Then the words go back to the original (plus one) as the disintegration occurs.

The inner pages are material I’ve collected for about 20 years from thrift stores and such. There is a progression of winter to spring to summer to fall to winter in the colors and patterns as I see

them.

The pictures are transfers of my wedding and my children, and their weddings onto used canvas. I fiddled with them in Photoshop CS3 before making transparency transfers with them.

The love quote at the end was also in the original bundle.This fabric is the same as the title page ,but has been gessoed and painted.

I closed with some words about the project.

But I think I will add this blog in, as it is a fuller explanation.

This Disintegration Collaboration was a most enlightening venture in which to participate. It has opened my eyes to different ways of looking at my art. And that is always a very good thing indeed!

I want to thank Seth at the Altered Page for a chance to be in this wonderful adventure with him and all the other DisCo artists around the world.

Time is slippin' away

The days are drifting by like the scent of the butterfly bush on a breezy day.

I've been finished with my Disintegration Collaboration project for a bit, and have it ready to be revealed next Saturday. No peeks for you. Sorry! I did work for many hours on this piece. Put a lot of thought into it before hand too.

I'll be spending the next few days cleaning up the studio. Seems I've let it run into a bit of a mess with the way I was working. Then I'll be back to the "Color Blocks" that I'd started before the wedding and Tommy arrived and I stopped to do the DisCo.

Oh yeah, and I'm still in the process of switching computers. I didn't think it was going to be such a big deal. Right now I'm trying a different publisher for getting this onto the web by way of my new Mac. I used to use LiveWire on the PC. There isn't a comparable publisher for the Mac. And I still don't have my photoshop programs on this yet... some mix up with what they want & what I sent. BUT I'll get there!

OKAY change what I just wrote! When I went to upload the pics, I had no control over the size at all. So that program was a bust. Now I'm back to using Google's publisher and this doesn't make me happy either. But this is it til I find something better. Oh Live wire, why couldn't you have a Mac version too? Yea, sure, you're a Microsoft program, but gee whiz, somebody, do something!!!

I leave you with a pic of one of our hibiscus' blooming for the second time after they dropped all their leaves during that really hot spell:

And a picture of Tommy with his grown up ears on!

Hello and a fun reminder

Yes I'm out here!

Been having "issues" with the computer. With my blood pressure, it's best I don't mess with it too much! So I got a new mac, but don't have all the programs I need on it to function in the world. So I'm sorta stuck.

Anyway, the reminder is come August first, be on the web for the Big Second reveal of the Disintegration Collaboration! Those of us that opted to, have made some form of art out of the pieces that we gave over to Mother Nature back in the winter! So you can start here or at Seth over at The Altered Page where all this began so many months ago. He will be posting all of us who are doing this second part. I think this is very exciting. We are taking things that are sort of random if you've looked at the 100 plus posts on this, and turning them into art. Very cool!

So see you here August 1.

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Counting up my pennies

Literally.

I keep all the change from when we go shopping, and put it in a savings account.

Now I'm getting sick of all the problems I've been having with my newish pc.

This morning it had the nerve to just shut down to do some random update. This was while I was in the middle of doing something! I've been given warnings before and pop up messages about this and that from my pc, but this was crazy. Made me furious.

So anybody switch from pc to imac and wanna say good words about the experience?

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Ok...so here's what's been taking up all my time

Introducing....

Tommy:

He's a West Highland white Terrier.

A Westie.

And he's the cutest.

And he's bitey and he's barkey and he's rolley.

He's always at full go or full stop.

The five cats either ignore him, hide from him or swat him.

He barks at them and we tell him no. Then he wants to be their best friend.

And did I mention he's the cutest?

It's strange to have to walk a dog in our yard (remember we live out in the boonies),

especially when it's about a million times a day!

He has a very different personality from the last 2 dogs we had, which were labs.

This takes some getting used to.

But did I mention he's the cutest?

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aahh the wedding...

The ceremony was beautiful,

the day was beautiful, 

Heather was beautiful.

The whole thing started off with a rehearsal dinner at Lady and Son's in Savannah.

If you look closely at Heather's bouquet, you will see they are paper flowers that we made, and that she put together into the bouquets both for herself and the wedding party. I got a surprise bouquet too! The flowers were also put into the live plants we bought to go into the tins on the beach, that lined the aisles. And also on the tables at the rehearsal dinner.

 

This is the essence of the getting ready:

This is the beginning:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is IT:

Reception followed.

With CUPCAKES!!!

It was GRAND!

Followed by beach party.

Finalized with dinner out at fun seafood restaurant.

Then drinks with the family we hadn't seen in forever.

The very smiling couple went off to Key West for a week.

Himself and I stayed a few more days at the beach and enjoyed the sun and seafood.

Then we headed up to see my brother, his wife and my Mom.

That was a treat, as she couldn't make it down for the wedding.

Lots of tears shed in our happiness, lots of smiles broke our faces in happiness.

All in all emotionally draining, but extremely happy days.

Ever onward folks, ever onward!!

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