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As part of my job I do about four bookmarks a month, sometimes more for special events (or just because a certain event such as one on stories as a tool of community preservation should NOT be placed on the other side of the bookmark I call "Hungry Kitten").

Occasionally, I actually proud of the work. (A lot of them are just cropped pictures that are PRET-TY.) And yes, I use clip art . The really fun ones are my black and whites (BW's): while we have white cover stock that handles color photo quality pieces well, my boss invested in these electric (bright, bright, bright!) colors of card stock which are just plain old fun. I suppose I can be less simplistic and do something with color ink on them but with my laziness guiding me, I just design everything around black print. (Less thinking is always good for me.)

The other thing is, I make sure at least half of what I do isn't overly feminine, hence the Lizards:

(I don't think I will do anything like this again....it took hours and I still see areas that don't look right because I can't crop at an angle....)

Anyways, that is all SOP for me and lately between making promo stuff for summer events, fall events and my computer classes I have been a little burned out. Which is probably why this month's BW's are a little off kilter: each one is kind of a mini-story...

Fish Friends

Hungry Kitten

 As head tilting as they may be, I absolutely adore them...I haven't liked anything so much since the lizards. It's kind of annoying really...I like them so much I show my co-workers and say "Isn't it cool? Aren't I fabulous?"

Total geek-out.

Patchwork

Months back my mother came to visit (I blamed her for not posting during that period, which obviously was not so...as my laziness is a documented fact at this point). She left me with towels to wash and fabric scraps. I have a sewing machine (although I managed to bust it in one use...don't worry I won't build the suspense, mother fixed it on the next visit) and I've played around (in my head) with sewing scraps together and creating a patchwork piece for mailing...

And then I thought: Sewing takes too long. (Told you, my laziness is completely documented.)

So I turned to the ever powerful and awesome (as in awe inspiring -- not an '80's Dude. Awesome. Which really is the same kind of meaning but apparently one of my mental differentiations. Well hello stream of conscious, where have you been?) turbo tacky glue!

That's how I ended up with Sophie's Picnic:

With the exception of the glittery (shiny) flowers and frogs scrap book stickers, it's all fabric: ribbon, cloth and more ribbon. It's like a continuation of cutting out elements on ribbons to build something as I did with the Modern Pastoral. It remained unifinished because I couldn't stop thinking that something was missing-- hence the frogs and flowers.

Which kind of took a sweet but interesting little collage all the way to a tooth ache of cuteness and light.

So I sent it to my neice. She's adorable and almost four, and will hopefully like the visual candy (well, visual candy for a four year old).

Swirls

"Swirls" is one of my favorite clip art look up words. It always has interesting little pieces that I can do quite a lot with...(I really need to scan some of my destination bookmarks made for our summer reading program Novel Destinations. Add it to the list, Jeeves. Sigh, I would love a butler...especially one that washes windows and dusts.)

Swirls are also a favorite doodle and the way I draw them, they are really a self propagating species of vine...My love of swirls combined with a need to practice (and use, since I spent money on them) with the pastels started what became "Innocent Dreaming".

In fact, I had done this multicolor, softly blurred card then slapped some fixative on it and it proceeded to sit around staring at me longingly while I put together Modern Pastoral, Winter Forest, and Champagne. Occasionally I would look at it and think, well what am I going to do now? Eventually after numerous sorting through my clipping file to work on these other projects, more elements (or cut out images and a piece of swirly purple ribbon) were set aside with my swirly background.

And, eventually, I got this:

Ribbon, magazine cut outs, pastels, fixative and a thin (okay, thinner layer than I usually do...although anyone can see it is still overdone so much so that it hasn't dried completely clear-- oops (see it without the gloss on the Index Card Creation page) layer of gel medium make up this particular piece.

The lesson learned, or more precisely, the lesson underlined three times and highlight in bright yellow, is some creations take time....lots and lots of time, coming together piece by piece and walking away is just as important as sitting down and doing some work.

With my already admitted lack of patience -- It is unfortunate but true, that the length of time afford to this project to develop actually comes from my bone-deep laziness....Oops?

Books and other distractions

I keep repeating some bad behavior (okay I consider it bad mostly because I do this on a monthly basis, fix it then tell myself not to do it again. So naturally I do it again).

Over the course of a couple days, whatever I'm working on in the library draws my attention to a number of books. I check them out planning to read them and at the end of maybe three days, I have a stack of at least six books on my kitchen table waiting to be read.

And they sit there, sit there, sit there...still there about a month to six weeks later.

I've been trying break the cycle, so instead of creating little pieces of mediocre art to mail out, I've been reading....and reading and reading....

So, two cheers for me, I cleared my latest pile. (Of course some I simply returned, others I read the first paragraph and said no way....) but the important thing here is for once I made it throught the stack and half of it got read. (Instead of sitting around even longer and then getting returned without reading).

So here's a list of what was in the pile (I won't tell you what got read or re-read or returned without being opened or skipped due to disgust to the first paragraphs -- that might be helpful but why should I be helpful here?):

• The Whisperers, John Connolly
• Raziel (The Fallen), Kristina Douglas
• Unfamiliar Fishes, Sarah Vowels
• The Physic Book of Deliverance Dane, Katherine Howe
• The Darkest Secret, Gena Showalter
• Quicksilver, Amanda Quick
• Blood Oath, Christopher Farnsworth
• Predatory Game, Christine Feehan

Not included are the two books I checked out but never made it off my desk at work....
(St. Lucy's Home for Girls raised by Wolves or the Peanut Butter Murders)

Crude?

Needless to say, (which is a very silly phrase because if it was true I wouldn't waste my time saying it.) I managed to mail off something this Thursday. (Probably not a needless to say thing really as there was just as good chance that I wouldn't because deep inside me, okay not deep, is a lazy person. For instance, it took two weeks to get up the energy to put my recycling in the car trunk and then another two weeks for me to make it to the recycling center.) So there will be another post coming with a new piece to display. Eventually (you know when I get up the energy from my lazy self to do it.)

Until then you are stuck with the following thoughts.

When I stopped by the post office, the lady behind the desk once again examined the piece, giving off the vibe of " I don't know if this will make it". As she held it, she ran a finger over the edge where the layers of index cards used to create the piece were visible. I just widened my eyes and used innocent face as if I couldn't understand the concerns she was trying, non-verbally no less, to express.

(I, of course, have always assumed I do a good innocent, or as others may call it, playing dumb face. Some would say it comes naturally. I don't talk to those people too often.)

I ended up looking over what I have lying around at home. It's all pretty crude work and I thought about what I would have to do to make it better, refine it a little, produce work that had if not more class, a more finished air.

That lasted about a second before I mentally shrugged it away...no sense in trying to be something I'm not.

Work in Progress

I am currently working my way through the Charlie Parker series by John Connolly and the art side of my life is slowing down, but just a bit. I have three pieces hanging out in the house, under books or drying in the sun or stalled due to mediocrity (as defined by me...after all who's opinion matters more).

Also due to my work schedule I'm locked in to sending some stuff out on Thursday, my day off. Of course I don't know which ones to send, who to send them to or if I can really consider them finished...

But here's my mental list of what is sitting around the house...

1. Keyhole collage
2. Modern Pastoral
3. Trees, attempt number 1
4. Champagne & Dorothy Parker

(I know not the most descriptive of lists, although the trees one is pretty easy to connect some dots on...)

Only one has a definite person to which it will be sent....so the conclusion here is I need to get in gear and do some things.

I don't know if this is a thing or a feeling or a consequence (which are all things of a sort huh? I speak English I swear) but sometimes when I pick up a piece and do a touch here or there on it or sort through the scraps I've already clipped out of a magazine I can end up creating something totally new. No planning, no thinking that "I'm going to create a new piece..." Just a hmmmmm and oh, and how 'bout that and suddenly I realized I've been working for a long time (ignoring the rerun of NCIS playing in the background) and I have a whole new project started...It's one of those good feelings.