the golden hour: light and shadow (and spots)

a couple weeks ago we were back in WI and IL to visit our families. One day, I drove from the WI Dells area to spend the afternoon with my sister. Driving back from my sister's house to the Dells late in the afternoon cross-country, I drove around a corner and came upon this beauty... I grabbed my camera and opened the passenger side window to snap a couple quick shots. (As always, click on any of them to make them larger!)

on the edge of sunlight and shadow--

zoomed in-- turns out it's one of this year's fawns
(fyi, according to the internet, fawns have an average of 300 spots)

gone! (two white tails-- can you see both of them?)

zoomed in-- they run in leaps and bounds!! 

It's too bad this time of day lasts for such a very short period of time... from looking at these pictures, it's clear to see why photographers call it the 'the golden hour' for the golden quality of the light it brings to the scene.

tonight's blog post is brought to you by the letter 'B'

a few photos from our recent trip back to the Midwest to visit my parents and Tom's family. I have tons more, but here's a few. (Click on any of the photos to make them larger!)

Butterfly

Bumblebee (he's busy!)

Bumblebee's butt (they were tough to get pictures of, lol!)

Birdhouse (in the prairie grass / flower patch)

(the little red) Barn... along with Mom's flowers

These photos were all taken in Mom and Dad's yard... glorious summer weather (except for the humidity, which I can't handle anymore, lol!), wonderful company and lots of conversation with Mom and Dad, and a bit of Midwestern sightseeing, along with Mom's homemade pasty. (always a treat!!) It was a really nice time, although the time went by much too quick!

Hoover Dam SB Layout- updated & finished!

two posts in one day!! don't count on it happening very often, but I didn't want to wait any longer to post this:

I finished the Hoover Dam 2-page scrapbook layout! It took me a few weeks of mulling things over and working on it a bit at a time-- to be honest, there was more mulling than working till yesterday afternoon, when I worked for a couple hours straight and finally got all the elements stuck down. 

Here's the finished updated layout (click on any photo to see it larger):

I added quite a bit of lighter colored paper to get rid of the plainness of the kraft- a distressed ledger paper on the left-hand page under the title and at the top of the right-hand page; I also added manila shipping tags around the layout for grounding the embellishments.

 I added quite a bit of texture and interest with chipboard and 3-D foam tape- the 'before' title was flat (boring) stickers, so I re-did it using chipboard letters (see the photo below for an explanation). You can see in these detail photos that I edged all the light colored papers with Distress ink (in 'Vintage Photo' ) to give them added dimension.

yellow chipboard alphabet stickers (American Crafts Thickers, maybe?)

I really liked these particular chipboard sticker letters for the font and size, but they're yellow-- so they got sanded, base-coated with gesso, painted with two coats of barn red acrylic paint, then sanded and trimmed around the edges... voila, red chipboard letter stickers that match my layout! (that was part of the reason it took a couple weeks to finally finish the layout- but I think the result was worth it.)

A look at the updated title section and the 3-D 'America' embellishment. I added a couple pennant flags with sticker letters, some additional punched stars, and used 3-D foam tape for interest. Much better! I also 'grounded' the whole area using the manila tags, so it wasn't just 'hanging out in space' any more. I added the polka dotted deco tape to each of the long borders for a bit of extra dimension and to bring the light blue into those areas.

This photo is the upper-right side of the two-page layout showing one of the other embellishment areas. A few more punched stars and red and blue label stickers give it some added color. I added short captions for each of the pictures to the journaling tag. If you read it, you'll see I made a spelling error on the. very. first. line. (drat!!) but I just left it alone. I didn't want to mess around trying to find something else to use for journaling, and I figured anything I did to cover it up would just bring more attention to it.

Above is the bottom right embellishment cluster: more manila shipping tags, red and blue label stickers, and more punched stars. If you look at this photo and the one above, you can see that I only really used one blue sticker (round) and one red label sticker (the rectangle). I cut both of them in half and overlapped them so you can't tell they're only partials, a clever trick I learned from watching Shimelle's scrapbooking videos. (Actually, all of these embellishment ideas are ones I learned from Shimelle; she has a wealth of design information available, both on her blog and in her 2Peas videos.)

The photo above shows how I labeled each of the photos to go along with the journaling captions- I typed the numbers on the same ledger paper, punched them out with my circle punch, and inked around the edges of each circle to match the rest of the paper.

And here it is again, just for reference: the 'before' layout in all it's unfinished plainness and boringness.

I quite prefer the 'After" layout.  I think I'm going to add a 6 x 12 insert to this layout so I can add some historical facts about the dam, maybe with some additional detail photos of the architectural features-- so I'm not done scrapping this visit after all. But I'm really happy with how this layout turned out!

Minnesota memories journal pages

and now for a couple more 'serious' art journal pages, featuring memories of childhood vacations to Minnesota. Every year growing up, we went on vacation to a resort on a lake (Loon Lake, in Ottertail County) in northwest Minnesota for a week of fun, fishing, and relaxing. My dad went there with my grandpa for a 'guys' fishing trip' even before any of us kids were born, maybe even before my mom and he were married? (I'll have to check with Mom on that one.) Anyway, those trips have been on my mind recently, because we would always go at the beginning of August. So, I painted and collaged my way into recording some of those memories:

Map to the Past:  I found a topographical map of the lake on the internet,
and printed it out a couple of different times at different zoom levels.

This page spread marks places I remember, like the cabins we stayed in, the bay where we always went to pick waterlilies, some of our 'tried and true fishing spots' (right out from the Lutheran Church across the lake is one I remember), things like that. This page was sort of inspired by techniques from Jill Berry's Personal Geographies book... she taught a class at Artfest when I was there that involved some of these map-related techniques, and I saw some of the student work at Show and Tell night.

close-up of the left-hand map, showing the entire lake. 

#9 was turtle town, where we could always find plenty of turtles sunning 
themselves on downed trees; #14 is a spot where I remember (very vividly) seeing a loon swimming underwater right next to the boat. #11 is the fishing spot across the lake from the resort cabins. 

another page of Minnesota memories

the Minnesota map on the page above marks Vergas, the town nearest the resort. The loon statue is the largest in the state (Minnesota is known for large statues of all sorts of things); we'd always have to go into town at least once and stop by the loon statue for a photo op. 

my work space (plus a nosy dog trying to horn in on the photo- lol!)

This is a photo of my usual work space, which isn't really much of a defined space, at all. If I'm painting or spraying something, it's done either in the kitchen or out on the patio, but the collage and 'finishing work' is usually done in the family room, in front of the TV. So, I sit on the floor in front of the love seat and spread everything out around me, effectively 'walling myself in' until I get it all picked back up again. I've tried sitting on the loveseat or couch, but I work better with everything spread out... Michelangelo had his work space issues, I have mine- lol! 

theme #2, also known as "where I grew up"

Another "theme" for vacation photo-taking came about while Tom and I were out taking a drive and got stuck driving behind a "farm implement." This happens sometimes in that area, especially this time of year. You learn to live with it and be patient (till you can get to a passing zone, that is!), but it got me looking around and noticing the signs we passed along the way. (Bear with me here; these pictures might not be all that "interesting" in the traditional sense of tourist photos, but the more I think about it, I'm really glad I took them because they give me a visual sense of my "place and history," if you know what I mean. ) So, as we kept looking around during our driving, I started noticing seed company variety signs alongside the road. These signs are put up as sort of "advertising" for the different companies, in front of the fields. Once I started actually really "looking" at them, I realized there were a lot of them around and that they actually have kinda cool graphics on them: Someone who didn't grow up in this area of the country might not even take notice of these signs, or notice them without thinking about them, but growing up in a small town (population 1500; my high school graduating class was 42) where farming was all around, I think a little differently about these things. Well, now that I've grown up I do, anyway... I didn't really think much about it at all while I was in high school! :D Farming is not an easy profession- it's one of the most dangerous professions there is, and to me, it seems a lot like gambling: farmers gamble on what the weather will be like for the planting and growing seasons, they gamble on the prices they hope they'll get for your crops (months in the future), they gamble on whether their expenses and equipment will hold up, and they hope there won't be any emergencies... it's not for the faint of heart, I don't think! I grew up with this all around me (my dad worked for a seed corn company my whole life, actually, until he retired), and like I said, I never really thought too much about it before... how important this way of life is, how most people nowadays probably don't ever think about where their food actually comes from or that actual people work to grow it, and how we all should probably have a better understanding of these kinds of things. (I'm not going to get all political on you here, or anything... it's just something I think about sometimes, and it does make me glad I grew up where- and when- I did.)

This is a "test plot" on the edge of town; after Dad found out I wanted to take pictures of the signs, he told me where I could get a number of them all in one place... test plots are fields where they plant a lot of different varieties, so as to "show off" the different ones in close proximity, so farmers can compare them. (I took a drive out there, then kept driving to eventually find a few more... I ended up being late for lunch, actually!)

These two pictures showcase some of the gorgeous scenery you can find in northwest Illinois and southwestern Wisconsin (this area is "unglaciated," which means the glaciers did not go thru here and flatten everything during the Ice Age). It makes for some beautiful rolling hills and good farmland... the vistas aren't as dramatic as the Arizona landscape, but they are majestic in their own right, that's for sure. (These two photos are much prettier if you click on them to view them large; please do that!)

So, now that I've waxed all philisophical on you, I'll say thank you for indulging me, and I'll close with a quote from Willa Cather (one of my favorite authors for her lyrical descriptions of the land and countryside). She lived in the early 20th century and wrote a number of novels about pioneer life in Nebraska... this quote is from one of her best-known novels O, Pioneers!

We come and go, but the land is always here. And the people who love it and understand are the people who own it - for a little while.

Theme #1... also known as somewhat random vacation pics

For our vacation, we visited our families in NW Illinois and south-central WI. That area is the heart of dairy and cheese country, after all, so how could I resist taking pictures of cheese?? :D Pictures in a theme: when you actually go out and look for them, they're not too difficult to find... it started even before we left Phoenix!

we snacked on queso dip and chips in the airport while we were waiting for our flight. (it was tasty!)

the cheese sale display in the Milwaukee airport: possibly the only airport that sells cheese-to-go??

a sign on the way to my parents' house... cheese for sale at a random gas station / mini mart along the highway. This sign is from the cheese factory in the town where I grew up. It was at the end of the block where I grew up, actually... I remember walking down to the sales room to buy cheese before major holidays, so Mom could have all the necessary ingredients for the cheese and relish plate. (Sadly, this cheese factory is now closed.)

The cheese display in one of the stores when we visited Galena... we tried a couple of the more exotic cheeses, although I'm still wishing I would have tried the horseradish cheddar. (...just to see what it tasted like!) Tom's dad slicing into a fresh-from-the-oven cheese and pepperoni pizza prepared with freshly grated mozzarella and cheddar-- it was wonderful!!

Salt and pepper shakers from a gift shop in downtown Wisconsin Dells-- they're cute, but I prefer to be able to figure out which is which a little easier than this. (I told you, themed pictures are everywhere, if you look!!)

This is one of the traditions from Tom's family reunion-- if you watch Larry the Cable Guy's show "Only in America," you know that limburger is made in only one cheese factory in the country, and surprise, surprise-- it's in Wisconsin! It's an acquired taste, but one I have not yet acquired. I have tasted it- more than once- but I can't get past the (dirty sock) smell; give me a nice sharp cheddar any day!

Tom, however, does like it! The "limburger crowd" had the screen tent to themselves (along with their onions and liver sausage) while the rest of us kept our distance, waiting for the burgers and sweet corn to be ready... funny, but after putting this post together, I'm thinking now I need to go make some mac and cheese-- LOL!!

a short update--

If you wondered where I've been, blogwise, I haven't posted because I've (we've) been gone! We just returned from a week in Illinois and Wisconsin, visiting family, and I didn't have any blog posts pre-set to post while I was gone... I ran out of time; I was lucky to get everything packed, to tell you the truth!

We spent a few days visiting my parents in NW Illinois, spent some time with Tom's family in SW Wisconsin, and I took a short road trip to visit my sister in SE(ish) Wisconsin.

During that week (it seemed to go by so quickly it was amazing, but it really was a week), I took well over 700 photos (ahhhh, the joys of digital cameras, right?!?) and even shot a few videos with my litle point-and-shoot camera (it did pretty good, but I think Steven Spielberg is safe-- lol!!), so once I get some serious editing time in, I'll be back to share some of the best ones with you!

next artfest installment (be warned: it's a long post, and has LOTS of pics)

Wednesday night was the Welcome meeting where Teesha and Tracy Moore spoke to welcome us all to ArtFest 2011, and to introduce all the instructors. They thanked us for attending, and talked bravery- thanking us for our bravery in attending, and being brave in our art. They also reminded us to be open to the experience of learning from the instructors, and each other. I don't remember much of the specifics, and I really wish I could-- it was a great welcome speech. I don't think of myself as particularly "brave" (quite the opposite, actually) so it was nice to get a reminder of the fact that putting myself out there to have this experience is an act of bravery, on a lot of different levels. (I never had a chance to meet Teesha or Tracy during the time I was up there, unfortunately; they're waay busy making sure everything goes okay for all of us.) For Teesha's viewpoint of ArtFest, you can read her blog post here. It was really interesting to read how the week went from her point of view, and what all has to be done to keep everything going smoothly.

After the Welcome gathering, I went with my roommates to another welcome meeting, a "Wine and Chocolate" party hosted in one of the neighboring dorm buildings. The two hostesses were veteran ArtFesters, and had a very lively party going; we mingled, chatted, signed their journals, and passed around trades. (more on trades in a later post, but the short story is: you can bring "trades" for trading with other people- charms, pins, collage goodies, Artist Trading Cards, small works of art-- you name it, anything can be a trade. I got plenty, and will show some of them once I take pics.)

My first class (on Thursday) was "Luscious Layered Canvas" taught by Roxanne Padgett. Layers of paint, stencils, and pattern on canvas that can then be used for whatever you want- below are a couple of her samples:

This class was a lot of fun, and I got some great ideas-- we started out making marks and patterns on our canvas with things as simple as crayon, gesso, or gluing down smaller pieces of paper. After that, we started in with building up our patterned layers using crayon rubbings, stencils, and stamps. Below is my table, partway through the morning: The pic below is three of my four pieces of fabric, partway through the process. There are probably 3 or four layers on them at this point... the colors I used are definitely more vivid and bright than I usually use; Roxanne's catchphrase is "fear no color!" Some of the stencils were made using manila file folder, and the stencil used to make the scroll-y pink pattern was a piece of die-cut scrapbook paper. (so many great tips, I tell you!! I just hope I remember them all!)

I'm glad I took the in-process pics-- the picture below is one of the fabrics from the pic above, turned to black & white on my computer... If I print it out, then voila! my very own printed paper! Doing this was a tip from one of my dorm-mates, I think... It makes for a really graphic patterned paper, that's for sure.

Below is one of my classmates, making a crayon rubbing on her canvas... we used chipboard letter stickers to make a rubbing plate, along with such mundane things as trivets, placemats, and manila file folder shapes... another great tip!

below is my table later on during the day when I was making my own stencils, and had more layers of color on my fabric. At this point, I was sort of hating a couple of my pieces; they just needed "something" but I wasn't sure what. Roxanne was very helpful, walking around seeing how all of use were doing, and she gave me some good advice. (notice, I was using the leftover paint to make a couple art journal pages, there-- I can't waste perfectly good paint and paper scraps!)

This is an overall shot of the room, as we were finishing up for the day... the building we were in was the USO building; it was quite spacious, and had plenty of light (it was sunny!), which made for a great workspace. We each had our own 6-foot table (and I still ran out of room, as usual- LOL!!) to spread out on, plus plenty of floor space to spread our canvases to dry.

below is a shot of all four of my pieces. A couple of them I still don't quite like; I started out thinking I would hate the piece that started out with black fabric but it turned out to be one of the ones I like best. Huh! just goes to show, you never know what direction your art will take you in. I learned TONS of things, though, and will definitely use this layering technique in my artwork. (part of the pattern on the top-right piece was made using a pizza cutter- just roll the wheel thru the paint, then roll it onto your surface: another memorable tip, and I have already found a pizza cutter at the thrift store, to do this myself!)

The art-making didn't stop once class was over, though! Dorm 202 had classrooms in the common areas on the first floor, so all evening long, there were plenty of people hanging out at the tables showing off their class projects, working on their projects (class or otherwise) or just chatting and socializing.

I hung out down here for a while, working on my art journal-- mind you, this was after I had already gone down to the beach with one of my roommates to roast marshmallows, make a smore, and do some socializing and trading with the people down there... I didn't get much sleep while I was at ArtFest: there was way too much to do, see, or talk about for sleeping! Next Artfest post coming up shortly... I need to take some pics of my class project, since I forgot my camera for part of the day during class (whoops!).

ArtFest 2011 Installment #1

My Christmas present this year was a trip to ArtFest 2011, an art retreat held every spring in Port Townsend, WA which is northwest of Seattle on the very tip of the Olympic Penninsula. I’ve wanted to attend ArtFest for years, and this was the year it finally all came together. I sent off my registration after Christmas, when spring was still a long ways away. It seemed like April would never get here, then all the sudden it was time to get ready to go! I scrambled around at the last minute (like usual, of course) putting together the supplies for my classes and making items to trade with the other attendees. I had to figure out how to fit all my art supplies, trades, my journals, and my journaling supplies in my luggage. Of course, I did need a few clothes and personal items as well, so I ended up doing some luggage juggling in order to get it all to fit. I really wasn’t thrilled at having to pack long pants and a jacket (!!) since it had already been up in the 90s here in AZ, but for ArtFest, I was willing to make sacrifices. (LOL!)

Wednesday morning, I got up at 3:45 am (ick!!), so I could catch my (early) flight to Seattle. I hadn’t slept much the night before, what with all the last minute packing and being excited about the trip… the flight was pretty uneventful, and even got into Seattle about 30 minutes early, which was nice.

In the airport, I got the rental car paperwork and met my carpooler Lydia, a fellow first-time ArtFest attendee. We headed out to find the Seattle ferry, which we did with only a few road construction headaches. (who does road construction in a tourist area without putting up detour signs, anyway?!?) Anyway, we finally found the ferry station (?? is that what you call it??), and below is what we saw:

There's the ferry, just pulling away from the dock-- darn it! But that did give us time to head into the local (and by "local" I mean right-next-to-the-parking-lot local) McDonald's for some badly needed caffeine while we waited for the ferry to make its way back. Once it did we all drove on; then Lydia and I hopped out of the car to go up to the observation deck.

Here is the obligatory "photo on the ferry" snapshot, LOL!! Just kidding-- it was pretty cool, since I've never been on a ferry before. It was pretty chilly, too, which is why we went back inside after this shot, but not before I snapped a pretty nice photo of the Seattle skyline.

There were plenty of other people taking pictures outside on deck, as well. It looked like lots of them were re-creating the "king of the world" scene from the movie Titanic, but we headed inside to hang out and watch the scenery for the half-hour ferry ride.

We checked out the vending machine snacks, and I thought about playing a video game or two when I saw this PacMan/Galaga game, but then I saw this:

A dollar?!? What the heck?!?!! I guess it's been a loooong time since the mid-1980s when I would hang out at the arcade after school and play video games for a quarter! Once the ferry landed on Bainbridge Island, we headed out on the highway across the island, across another bridge, and then up the eastern coast of the Olympic Penninsula. Lydia did a very good job of navigating (thank goodness, since I had no idea where I was going!), and we passed the time chatting about art-related and other things. Turns out we're both Geminis, and we have a lot of other things in common, as well- it's interesting how that kind of thing happens, isn't it?!? Once we found the town of Port Townsend, we stopped at the local grocery store for some art-making staples like paper towels and waxed paper (for my painting classes), along with other art-making staples like snacks, wine and chocolate. :D Lydia's friend Kim had been waiting for us at the Port Townsend ferry stop (wondering where the heck we were) but she finally found us at the grocery store and we followed her to the following mysterious destination:

Art supplies-- yay!! Akamai Art Supply was great- lots of fun. (and isn't that car the coolest?? I took a few more pics of it; it's covered with really nifty stencil designs.) The store didn't seem overly large, but it was definitely jam-packed with all sorts of fun stuff. Plus, we got an ArtFest discount; what could be better than that?!? Then we headed to Fort Worden to get our check-in information packets, and Lydia headed back to her bed and breakfast till the Orientation meeting that evening. I found my room, unloaded my stuff, and put on my running shoes to find the beach before it got too late. Here's one photo of the beach and the pier:

I walked down the beach a ways and out onto the pier; I have some more beach photos, but I think I'll finish up my post for now and save those pics for the next installment. The weather was very pleasant (although colder than I was used to in AZ, for sure) the entire time I was there, and the scenery was absolutely gorgeous, but I am sad/happy to say that I was so busy socializing and art-making that I didn't have any other opportunities to explore the area around the fort at all, so I am doubly glad I took the walk on the beach on Wednesday.

I'll post again after I edit more of the almost-200 photos I took. (thank goodness for digital cameras!!)