Tuesday 28 May 2013

Knew I Kept Those Crutches For A Reason


I admit, that I left this one until the last minute. Josh's theme is Spines and Hospitals. I had other ideas, but then Monday morning I was putting my shoe on and looked at the big red scar that curves around my ankle. Then I looked up and saw my crutches. An idea was born. I started with the red ink on the end of my crutch and stamped the paper. That looked like a poorly done Target ad, so I added the black stamps. Then I started drawing stitches. At that point, I thought, what the heck, lets do some real stitching. So I cut holes in the paper, backed it with red construction paper and stitched them up. They actually, look not unlike the scars on my ankles. 

Monday 27 May 2013

Exploring Shadows and Media in Heather Dowd's Book


I have always loved taking pictures of shadows.  I thought I would take Heather's Exploration theme and see what I could find.  Initially, I really wanted to get my Nikon out and search the whole island for shadows I could shoot.  With my foot injury, I quickly realized that mobility is a bit of an issue.   I decided that I would have to add to my "Shadow Album" via  my iPhone5.  I found a few interesting shadows around home and printed them out on regular printer paper  (I must really buy photo paper and better glue). I think the shots around home could have been really good, had I played on iPhoto or used Lightroom to clean them up.  I hope to continue exploring shadows this summer.  Thanks for giving me the chance to explore, Heather!

First set of photos:  Mia on Sentosa  2011- Playing With Shadows



Second set of photos: iPhone 5 - Around the House (The three in the middle are difficult to see as the glue soaked through the paper)


Sunday 26 May 2013

Becky recycles in the mystery sketcher's book

I learned that I like a few boundaries, and when a book doesn't have a theme, I have to work a little harder. It's not bad, but it makes me think. The mystery sketcher had a vibrant geometric tic-tac-toe of patterns that Leigh built upon with likewise embroidery. Betsy collaged  a Degas-like woman covered in keys over a whirling dervish. Where's the common thread???? And so I ended up with a collage of my own that echoed some of their choices. But the real message in it was that  sometimes the best ideas are the ones we've used before. I don't think ANYTHING in the sketchbooks is cheating, but after some discussions with sketchers this weekend, I realized that we all have our internal "rules" we're following. I believe good work can be already-used work, and I made myself do it. Almost every image is one I've drawn for something else at some other time.

The Art of the Orchid



When thinking about how to capture orchids for Heather's book, I decided to go back to my roots (yes, pun intended).  A few months back, we went to the Art of the Brick exhibit at the ArtScience Museum, and we were amazed at what we saw.   So, I followed Nathan Sawaya's lead and started building an orchid from scratch.  Luckily I had photos I took from the National Orchid Garden to refer to, but I was limited to the colors my girls had in their lego box.  I also had to dismantle some of their structures to find all the pinks.  Shhh, don't tell.  Thanks, Heather, for letting me dig through the Lego box once again.  It felt so natural and peaceful.  Just like an orchid.

Saturday 18 May 2013

Perspective on Singapore


Photography is the art form I'm most comfortable with and that's what I used for Scott's book on Perspective. Living in Singapore sometimes overwhelms me with the numbers of people and lack of space. I make sure to find another perspective on Singapore by looking for the green, open spaces when I need to feel space. So, I took a bike ride from Woodlands to Ang Mo Kio Bishan Park and captured these scenes. (I have to admit that Doug helped me post process the photos to get the vibrant colors that you see.)

Friday 17 May 2013

Orchids for Heather R



I wanted to do some art on my iPad, and this was the result. It was fun to experiment with brushes and colors. I imagine it's a little bit like experimenting with different mediums on paper, but without the mess and without having to wait for things to dry. The app I used was Sketchbook Pro.

Sunday 12 May 2013

Rhian's entry in Sandy's book

I tried to capture Sandy's Hamster Wheel theme through a spiral of time...again, I found myself with only a black marker at hand and it ended up looking a little plain so I thought I would use a ribbon to highlight the spiral.

Little did I know that what sounds like a good idea to begin with often turns out to be a ROYAL pain in reality :) However, snipping and gluing the ribbon and trying to get it to turn nicely became quite relaxing after a while and loads of fun for our kittens!

To Explore Is To Be Human


For Heather's book on Exploration, I decided to go to the best source I know related to this theme, National Geographic.  While flipping through the pages looking for images for my collage, I couldn't help but notice that not only do we explore ideas and concepts in the physical world, we do the same in the spiritual world.  In this collage, I chose a number of those images, and laid them out on top of a series of maps where places have been negatively impacted by human exploration.  In the end, I realized that to explore is to be human.  It's what sets us apart and makes us unique.  It's what compels us to take our wonderings and put them into action.  It's what motivates us to take risks and make the impossible possible.  And that's exactly what Heather's book drove me to do with this collage.  Thanks, Heather!

Math = Panic Attack


Anyone who knows me, knows about my aversion to all things mathematical. So when I saw what Emily's theme was I enlisted the help of a math geek. Thank you Karen Coppell for your idea to use different types of numbers in the work. 

Treasuring where I live



Anybody who knows me well will know that I'm a tea fiend.  I sip a different cuppa depending on my mood.  At home, when the mood is blissed contentment, when I'm loving life and I'm in the moment, that flavour is a full-bodied orange pekoe (I cart a year's worth of it back from Canada every summer, and visitors bring me my favourite blend rather than items from duty-free).  I've been known to drink three to four pots of it a day.  If my mom, sister, grandmother or either of my mothers-in-law is with me, double that.  So here is a huge cup of that blend, and on the cup,  places & people that make my heart happy. The top two bands are Canada-related treasures from where we live - mostly because we're  at t-minus 24 days until these feet hit Canadian soil & Rebecca's theme immediately flooded me with visions of long summer days at the lake.  If it weren't for that, the bottom two bands, of Singapore places and the names of the kids whose laughter I hear on a daily basis at Mimosa, would be at the top  :)

Am I Really Cut Out For This?


This whole sketchbook gig terrified me to begin with.  I’ve never thought of myself as an artist, and I see a lot of artsy types in this group.  Needless to say, I was totally intimidated, and my first piece was a real struggle.  I decided to go with collage as my medium since I can’t actually draw anything, and then I did my best to block the whole project out of my mind until the Saturday before it was due. That day, I traipsed over to the Holland Village magazine stand and waddled away with more than $100 dollars worth of magazines.  I spent about eight hours that afternoon and evening flipping through pages, tearing things out, trimming edges, and spreading a wide variety of cutouts across the blank pages of my sketchbook.  Nothing looked right though.  I left a limp design on the page, shuffled dejectedly to bed, and hoped inspiration might strike overnight. 

When I woke up in the morning, the only inspiration I could find was a 50 dollar bill in my wallet, so I traipsed back over to the magazine stand, picked up another few magazines, and threw in a National Geographic for good measure.  When I sat down to my sketchbook again, I wiped it clean of cutouts and started over.   One of the things that had been bothering me was the white space lots of little cutouts tended to leave behind, so I started looking for interesting backgrounds. 

Then Scott Riley called.  I whined like a frustrated Kindergartener, told him I was not cut out for this gig (pun intended), and he said something that changed my perspective on the project completely.  He said, “You may not be an artist, Betsy, but you ARE a designer.”  It’s true.  I’ve always loved design.  When I was a kid, I used to play architect.  When I visit my parents during the summer, I enjoy rearranging their family room while they go to the store.  Here in Singapore, a number of friends have asked me to help them place their furniture, hang their art, showcase their tchotchkes, that sort of thing. 

So when I set down my phone and went back to my sketchbook, I looked at it with a designer’s eyes.  Quickly I realized that my problem before was that my page was a cluttered cacophony with no focus.  I needed to strip it down to the minimum, but still fill the page with something interesting that would also fulfill the theme.  National Geographic saved me.  In fact, it has played a part in each of my first three designs.  Now I try to complete each sketchbook entry with the fewest number of cutouts possible while still drawing people in with some combination of images they may not have thought to put together themselves. 

Maybe I AM cut out for this gig after all.     





What Inspires Me

I had Becky's book this week, and I used a paper shopping bag I received from the Tabitha sale as the inspiration for the tree layout.  Then, I used my family-Josh, Ethan, and Laney-as the main sources of my inspiration, while the multi-colored circles at the top of the "tree" are additional sources of  inspirations: friends~movies~cheesy TV~naps~bike riding~traveling~massages~reading~eating out~shopping for good deals~organizing.  The phrases are hard to read, but I liked how they blended together, and I also intentionally included empty space.

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers I know.

Sunday 5 May 2013

Becky feels angst about Leigh's book

I had a karmic bite in the keister this weekend. Many kind and creative and inspiring folks have come to me with their sketchbook worries. Should I finish this piece? Is this good enough? Is it okay that I did this hastily? And while I DO care and AM sympathetic, I also have been flippantly saying, "What does it matter? Post anything! Make anything! No one cares! Live it up! This is not worth worrying about!" Sixty-seven miserable hours later, I post my fourth creation for Leigh's book. Leigh's theme of, "Choose your attitude: positivity" caused me to create things that looked like Barbie had a party and puked all over the place. Bubblegum pink and smiley shiny sunshine:
A reject
That's not me. So I'd sketch again, and soon I found myself muttering the phrase that lets me know I've crossed into a bad place. I'll keep the blog PG, but it's a phrase my dad often used while working in his wood shop (usually post hammer-to-thumb). It's part of my DNA, and man...I said it a lot while working on this page on positivity. (I think my dad would find that absolutely fantastic) I come from a line of cave dwellers. We are retreaters. We are people that hide and hermit and fester. We have to force ourselves to people and to the Light. And as I worked with Leigh's theme, I realized that in order to cope with my nature towards the glum and isolated (and the swearing), I have attempted an attitude and loosely followed a code of conduct. I tried my best to document that (often violated) code...albeit with a *&%#@$*^% pen and ^%@&&#** results. And now that I read it, I'm crafting addendums...there's nothing about service, or selflessness, or kindness, or...etc. etc. etc. Sigh. It's hard to be a *&%$#%**@# work-in-progress.



Thursday 2 May 2013

For Heidi's Book


Heidi's Book:  Textiles and Harnessing Synergy 

I took Heidi's initial design and used it for inspiration.  I chose a piece of fabric, I liked, to provide the colour scheme.  I used three straight lines, as she did.  I used a spiral, similar to those she sewed into the quilt batting. Then, I layered the design, while adding texture.  I loved putting 5 different materials together and I am surprised how well it worked. Thanks for the synergy concept, Heidi! I also really appreciate the asymmetrical nature of this final product. Much of what I normally do ends up very symmetrical. 

Materials: fabric, ribbon, paper napkin, glitter paper, and shredded tissue paper.