Friday Desk Photo- 1st one

My work space this morning.... I would like to photograph my desk every Friday and see how the projects change over several months, a single date and one photo example how will it tell the story over time.

Recently I have enjoyed time researching the history of the Santos. I find the imagery and art of idols fascinating, I was held up on my internet surfing for a short time looking at all the wood Santos carvings from Guatemala and found out that a person making one is called a santero.

I made a version of The Virgin Guadalupe. My goal was to see if I could get a wood look by painting on acrylics and then rubbing off. It's not bad in person but stills needs work.

I had to play around but don't you just love the colors of Guatemala.

I walked into the room that held the Santos just as the afternoon sun was cutting through the curtains, the first shot is with the flash and ....

now without and at a lower angle.

This group of Santos are wonderful and as different and lovely as the artists who made them.

My Personal Santos

"Our Lady of Letters" is her name, I sure can use a patron saint to help me spell.

I dug into my stash of fabric and found some with text to hang on her, the rest I stamped on to get the look I wanted. I had first covered the frame with old text and aged it bit, if you look close it is from a book by Mark Twain.

I made her a crown from calligraphy nibs and on her skirt band hangs old type writer keys. She wears an X and an O around her neck for a hug and a kiss, after all don't we want our saints to love us?

I can't stop making them, I just love the way they look ! You will be seeing more.

Studio helper and link to tutorial !

I had help the other day my beautiful granddaughter Savannah.

One of our first jobs was to brush off the Tic Tac's before we ate them.

CHECK IT OUT!!!

I put a felted soap tutorial on the Portland Art Collective blog, You can try out the first steps of felting with the soap then move on to this cute little hat Savannah is wearing. I made this for a class I was teaching, she fell in love with it and now owns it.

After the Tic Tac's we critique the new Santos.

What a fun time we had, I love my helpers.

The girl with attitude goes first

This is the face I was not in love with, I really did want to make a Santos with a angelic face and in it's place I got attitude. I can work with attitude so she was first of the three to be put together.

Her main body is an old shoe stretcher, her legs are the handles of a croquet mallet, and she stands on a antique phone box. Even her body says she has attitude.

I love the way the shoe form defines the shape of her body.

She sports the latest twirl skirt made up from yard sticks, folding and cloth wheel measuring tapes, this she wears low on her hip. She embellishes her outfit with a Dixon pencil and wire necklace.

She knows she can measure up to anyone!

I'm happy how the "Girl with Attitude" turned out and I think she is happy with herself as well.

Santos

The next step on my Santos, I made a post on the beginnings of her clothes. I had a thought of how she would look her height, weight and so on but as things often do before I got very far she changed.
The heads not as sweet and young as I first though but are in my typical style, so I will let them be and see how they work.

I love the posture of the one in the back looking down.

Perhaps to much attitude, they are after all to look sweet...hummm

This is the one looking down.

Better...

After looking at them last night I noticed how much they look like croquet balls -hee hee-

Here is a bit of Santos history..From this web site http://www.santoscagedoll.com/history-of-santos-dolls/ Check it out this site has some very nice dolls.

The Santos dolls take their name from the Spanish word for Saint, and are also known as Santos (French) and Santibelli (Italian). The Santos originally started as copies of 17th century carvings by priests. Originally, Santos were created for use in-home altars. They were needed in small villages that did not have a priest, as well as for when it was not possible to travel to church, such as during times of war. Their development flourished in Europe in the 1700’s and 1800’s, primarily due to these wars.
Santos dolls are closely related to the Crèche figures, which were implemented in Italy by St Francis of Assisi, during the 13th century. However, the Crèche are primarily associated with Italian and French nativity and crib scenes. Crèche scenes are still elaborately displayed throughout Italy and in parts of France, most notably in Provence.
European Santos dolls were also brought to the Latin Americas during the Colonial age of Spain’s settling of The New World. The dolls were used to aid in the conversion of the Native Americans and Central American Indians to Catholicism. Many of these original dolls, along with the art that inspired them, were destroyed while trying to settle the West. Therefore, antiques in good shape are rare and very expensive. It is not uncommon to see an antique Santos bring 4 and 5 digit figures. In more recent years, fine and folk art has emerged to replace these dolls. As the art form has progressed, the Santos has become recognized as a true artistic doll. Some dolls are rustic carvings, while others have magnificent details.

Dolls to follow some time soon.

Artfest Fun

This last week I traveled to Port Townsend, WA for the most wonderful art retreat with great classes. Dayna Collins and I rode up together and just before we got to Fort Worden we saw this young deer. Fort Worden is a 434-acre multi-use park with over two miles of saltwater shoreline and a wide variety of services and facilities. The park rests on a high bluff overlooking Puget Sound. Many historic buildings remain at this 19th century military fort. The wild life roams the town of Port Townsend as well as the fort. I stayed in the officers housing with my friends Debi and Suzanne. We shared the house with now friends Maggie and Mary and spent many hours laughing with them.

Opening night Tracy and Teesha treated everyone to a welcoming party with a band of primal music that promoted everyone to jump up and dance.

Now lets get down to the art. My first class was with Misty Mawn a quiet gentle women, but when she starts to paint watch out. I didn't finish my piece and may never as I'm not so keen on it but will put everything I learned from her to good use.

My next class was with Lynn Perrella, we used everything in the toy box and I fell in love with an old toy "Portfolio water soluble oil pastels". They are inexpensive with very rich colors. Most all of the color on the sea captain is from the pastels.

He looks out to the sea from the house I stayed in.

And the final class was with Robert Smith. We used sausage casings to cover wire armatures, everyone made a variety of objects. I made a octopus lamp and a necklace like the one below, I forgot to take the photos so I will show it in the next post.

Sunday morning before we left the fort Dayna and I went on a photo shoot and found some fun images. This one is from the battery next to the sea.

In a near by town we found a cemetery to photograph. Some very old markers from the early 1800s to present day.

This image stopped me in my tracks.

So I just had to play around with photoshop, Mary made a trip to Fort Worden. The color on the battery was candy to the eye.

More to come, photos and art from this most wonderful adventure.

So much to show you!

Natalie helped me sort fabric the other day, she ended up liking the Dupioni silks the best. My daughter Jen and I started a fabric project so I hauled out 3 extra large bins of silks, batiks and bright fun fabrics one bin of ribbons and 2 with wool, the living room was full and the only spot for the baby was in a bin and boy did she love the color. I made the mistake to think of organizing it all after we were done, it is still in the living room. Well the best thing to do then was go to the beach.

I packed for an 8 hour trip which consisted of the dog, my camera, a sketch pad and a bag of pencils. I haven't sketched in MANY years and found it very relaxing to sit and visit with my sister and her friends. I was going for a self portrait but didn't quite get it. So hells bells when did all the wrinkles show up and why does gravity work so well in Salem! My lips aren't that full, I will try again later.

This is the little book I made a few weeks ago, the 64 pages are only 3.5 x 2.5 and I wasn't sure what I would use it for but after going to the beach I decided it will make a nice little book to record one thought at a time.

The light house is an image that says "the coast" to me with the date and names of the gals I can just look at this and remember the trip. My goal is to improve drawing skills as I go.

There is a wonderful artist who lives across the street from my sisters beach house, she was dyeing wools this last weekend and we were lucky enough to get to see her work drying on the front deck.

Her name is Ashley Martineau and she can be found at Neauveau Fiber Arts.
She has a great tutorial on her site to teach you how to recycle yarn, and you can buy her fibers at her etsy site, go have a peek.

Ashley is telling us how the different colors of sheep effect the out come of the roving.

And she spins beautiful, yummy art yarns......

with beads and sequins from Japan and India. Lori came home with the blue one.

The girls are-- Ashley--Lori--Becky- and-Amy

On the way home Becky and I hit a few antique stores it must have been good timing because the owners dropped their prices more than half with very little begging. I came home with 9 old telephone boxes that will be made into assemblages.

The inside of the phones have very cool gears and other things I'm not sure of what they are but love.

I also came home with a VERY old accordion, its a bit smelly (old attic) but has some lovely parts.

I just took a few quick photos of the accordion and like how they look, very artistic and sexy ! So before I part it out I will see how I can take advantage of its photographic possibility's.

The art work that is put into musical instrument always amazes me.

This is not the last of it but maybe the best of it. The letters are old 1900 type set out of brass and the cashier's checks are 1910.
The 8 hour trip to the beach turned out to be 36 hours and boy was it fun!

Soup?

Have you ever started to make soup and ended up with a thick stew that could feed two foot ball teams? Well that is what is happening in the studio, I started out a few weeks ago making a wonderful mechanical assemblage not shown in this post but coming soon. And the next thing you know I'm out of control.

I'm teaching this sachet class next Saturday at the Purl District in Silverton 12:00 to 3:00. It will be fun and will smell verrrry nice.

This is the start to a Santos project, the doll is made but not ready for a coming out party yet.

Same project and as you can see a simple palette of old materials are being used.

This was a private soldering class of five very wonderful women. We spent most of our time trying to lay out our projects. It looks as if they are all in witness protection, no faces will be shown.

Concentration rules!

Here we are some very nice charms. That was a great day of art!!!

Well it looks like I will be having stew for awhile, so many things to play with so little time.