Thursday, May 29, 2008

more with the plaques







I have spent most of the day hammering tacks into the sides of my plaques-the most boring thing ever! Now I need to get the sawtooths on the back but I am sick of hammering so I am going to organize beads and work on some jewelry now. It has been a hard couple of weeks. I have to question so many things and it seems that I am not getting much done. I did get some new glittery eye makeup as I want to do some new Fairy Tale photographs done. I need to call up all of my old models though-I am out of pratice with my photography. The last series I did and exhibited was for El Dia de Los Muertos(the Day of the Dead) last year! It was for the months of October and November. I usually do black and whites so it was fun to experiment with colour and the candle light. Here are a few. I sold all of the photographs in this series but kept the one of my little daughter cat, Sister Bijou, because she looks just too gorgeous! She is a sweetheart for sure! Which brings up my next big job-I have been combing and combing out all my little cats' winter coats. They all 4 need baths. They are really good about it, I still not looking forward to it! Wish me luck.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Plaque Making time!





I am finally getting around to making my yearly plaques. I make high quality reproductions of my original pieces and then decoupage them to wood and trim them with doo-dahs and ribbon. It is a nice way to get a smaller version of my larger pieces and nice for me to work with glossy gel mediums and pretty ribbon!

Friday, May 23, 2008

I need to make more dolls!
























It has been a whole year since I have made a doll! That is just crazy! I have had a lot going on this year and last that really messed up my flow from one project to the other. Here are a few of my favorite dolls of the past and the last two I made-the Bird Cage skirt girls Imogen and Matilda. I miss them all! Time to get my ideas out of my head and make them "real"!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Pixie Dust Vials















I finally finished some new jewelry-my Pixie Dust Vial necklaces. They have Pixie Dust(I have Fae Folk contacts for the hook up!) in glass in vials which are sealed with a cork and red wax. I also bead them with crystal and glass beads and they tie on with satin ribbon. Yay for Faeries!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

6 Random Things

I have been tagged by the lovely Audrey Ecletic to list 6 unimportant things about myself so why not. I don't have 6 folks to tag on blogger yet so whomever reads this it's your turn!

The rules of the game are as follows:
1. Link back to the person that tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. Share six unimportant things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your entry.

Some unimportant things about me(so hard because there are so many!)~
1)I have an identical twin sister and we had a secret language-both verbal and nonverbal. We still speak in remmants of it today. I guess we really freaked my parents out with this!

2)I am in love with the colours aqua and turquoise! Especially with a touch of red. My mom is too and her mom as well-is it genetic?

3)My mom's mom was part native american and her name was "Laughing Water" but we all called her "Sally". I love the name "Laughing Water"!

4)I used to play the piano, flute, harp, oboe, english horn and harpsicord but stopped after college. That was stupid as I miss them all now!

5)My hair is naturally dark and light blonde but have been putting henna on it for years to make it red like my irish relatives.

6)My blogger name came from my favorite tree(the Rowan tree) and my dad's name "DeVoe"-he goes by "DV" though so the goodness is lost!

Monday, May 19, 2008

The Female Self-Portrait Artists Book!

One of my loves is photography and I belong to the Female Self-Portrait Artist Flickr Photography Group. Our first book will be published soon-this June! We will each have a page, including me. Here is a sample to check out! So exciting!



From the intro (written by Natalie J McCarthy) of She Took Her Own Picture..

There are approximately 3.3 billion women in the world, all of whom doubtlessly live a split existence: the person viewed by others, molded according to culture, and created for display to the rest of the world, and the true self, the woman who exists in, of, and for herself. When Laurel Fiszer started posting her photos on flickr.com a few years ago, she certainly did not imagine plunging into an existential debate. Instead, she noticed that female self-portrait photographers were often seen as narcissistic princesses who had to defend their work against an onslaught of criticism—most of which was not directed toward the photograph’s technical merits. When Laurel founded the Female Self Portrait Artists’ Support Group, her primary goal was to create a place online where female photographers could share self-portraits and receive constructive criticism in a supportive, encouraging, and non-judgmental environment.

Since its founding, the Group has grown to include hundreds of women from all over the globe--all of whom share a passion for interpreting, inventing and reinventing themselves through pictures. Despite this commonality, the artists come from different countries and cultures, demonstrate diverse worldviews in their photos, and have distinct artistic motivations. Members of the Group hail from Latin America, Europe, North America, Oceania, and the Caribbean. Some within the Group are professional photographers with an accomplished body of work; others only recently picked up a camera and are working out their own sense of focus, light, and composition. Moreover, not every artist is catapulted into self-portraiture for the same reason. Many do it for lack of other models. Other women appreciate the creative control that self-portraiture affords them, and some embark on a self-portrait series as a form of therapy, self-discovery, or self-empowerment. Still more women photograph themselves as a feminist statement; for them, self-portraiture is a way of removing themselves from a male-artist/female-object paradigm. These cultural, geographic, and artistic differences do more than add to the diversity of the Group; they more importantly highlight the diversity and complexity of all women, not just photographers, and not just women with access to computers, internet connections, and digital cameras. The Group’s photographic campaigns about women’s issues, such as domestic abuse and mental health, highlight each photographer’s quest to portray not only herself, but also her place within the world’s collective of women.

This overarching female experience is evident in group members’ common need to defend their work. The artists in this collection have stood up against all-too-common misconceptions of self-portraiture: Only an egomaniac would photograph themselves! You’re so self-absorbed! On the other side of the critical spectrum, female self-portrait artists often hear that photos of pretty girls are not art; rather, they are magazine ads, fashion spreads, pornography or eye candy. These criticisms present female self-portrait artists with an exciting and powerful opportunity: the chance to categorically refute antiquated notions of the woman’s role as an art object, and to create a new, empowered vision of the female model.

She Took Her Own Picture is certainly constructed upon this feminist foundation. However, while this book brings to light women’s own empowered visions of self, it also presents a collection of first-rate photography. At the end of the day, the Female Self Portrait Artists’ Support Group is a collective of women photographers who strengthen their friendship by sharing inspired, artistic, and well-executed photographs. With She Took Her Own Picture they bring you into their circle of friends and share their art with you.

This is not the front cover, this is merely an advertisement, a little sampler of what you will see in the finished product. Stay tuned.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

My Tudor Lady Paintings










With all the craze over "The Tudors" on showtime and with the book to movie "The other Bolyn Girl", I decided to do some paintings of Tudor-ish women. Here they are!
And, Heather of www.audreyeclectic.com did a trade for a Tudor lady painting. The one she did for me is of 2 sisters and I love it! I finally found a frame for it and will get some photos when I get it framed and hung up.