Believe it!

Today is See It Say It Saturday on the ZNE BLOGZ. ZNE celebrates the mixed media artist, and all artists of every genre are welcome. That love and acceptance is what I love about ZNE.



This is my first effort at a digital scrap book page. I continue to struggle to figure out Photo Shop Elements. So I did this one on Print Master. And it is pretty simple. But I think minimal is sometimes good.



The ZNE Design Team picked the SISIS art selections back in February. We were each assigned several weeks throughout the year. The wonderful work shown here, of birds and a bird house was created by Fran Burras. This piece was selected by Kat Tarra. Kat was caught unawares with out her art supplies while out of town and I stepped in and covered for her week.



I was thinking a lot about these birds and their bird house and how one of the birds is bringing elements to the other bird for nest building, they are obviously building this nest together. No doubt, building a special place where their baby birds will be loved and nurtured. It makes me think of my father,(and my mother) on several levels. First Dad was an avid bird watcher, complete with binoculars, bird books, bird houses, bird feeders. He loved them. I remember once as a little kid, there was a sickly pigeon in our yard. Dad knew he couldn't help it, but he coaxed it into the garage, thinking in the morning it would be dead. I know he was thinking that the bird could die peacefully, and not be eaten by the neighborhood cats or dogs. In the morning, he went out to the garage, opened the door, and the bird hopped out of the garage and flew away. It said a lot to me about how to treat others. Do what you can to help, relieve suffering where you can, be kind, always. It was how my dad lived. Do what you can with the gifts that you have and be kind always.


I think....I know... that my dad loved us, and did all he could to create a home filled with abundant love, where we would be safe against all the evils of the world. I found another picture with this one today. We're at a lake, I'm about 3 or 4 years old. I probably wanted to stand on that wall. You can see my dad holding on to me for dear life. He is not going to let me fall!

But back to the top of the page. There is the photo showing my father's ultimate love, something I believed in everyday. I know my mom took the photo, only a mom could take that photo...in that way. She probably took the May 1957 photo, too.



















My folks both passed away in 2006, about 10 weeks apart. They were in their 80s, lived full and happy lives. They had what they needed. How do you ever let their deaths go. I had them thru all of my growing up years and until I was 53. I have friends who lost parents when they were still in elementary school and when they were in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. They were all too soon. Some days, I still can't let go of the grief . I know that is normal. I am always reminded of their gifts to me. I always will be reminded. I try to celebrate their lives every day.

The morning of my father's death, he watched the sun come up, my brother and I were with him, there was a female cardinal at the bird feeder outside the window of his hospice/nursing home room. I know it was my mom saying "Come on , Joe, let's fly away home."















So Fran's work here of the sunny day, of mom and dad building
a home filled with love...something that is to be believed against the whole world....makes me think of my family and their love for me. Thanks Fran for the gentle reminder of love, home and family.

SISIS - ZNE BLOGZ

I confess, I have posted this picture several times......I really need to get back to NOLA and take some more fun photos. But it works well for SISIS (See It Say It Saturday) on ZNE BLOGZ. I love this Orleans Fairy, complete with wings and fun leggings. She was standing in the perfect spot, I can't help but calling her "Altered Art Live". Her colors and her background colors and the images in the window are absolutely perfect. When you gave her a tip, she gave you a sprinkling of fairy dust, a nod and a gentle smile! Maybe she is waiting to see what is behind the door, or is going to have a "reading" .


Over on the ZNE BLOGZ is a great piece made by Susan Tuttle.


I think Susan's red headed girl is also wondering about what's behind the door....and here it is in the middle of this field. She's kinda shy, but doesn't look frightened by the whole thing. AHHHH!!! Anticipation of the future. ( I won't start singing any Caryl Simon songs, promise.)

Susan will also be teaching at the ZNE Convenzione in August 2008. ( I am so lucky to be able to attend.) I look forward to meeting her at the many events that Chel, the Queen of ZNE has planned for us!

On See it Say it Saturday.... you look at the art posted, and then reply to that work with something of your own.....so here's mine!

Shoes - SISIS -ZNE BLOGZ

"Would you Eschew what a shoe might construe?" ....So asks Todd Garland, in his poem SHOES. I made this piece last year as one of the ZNE Design Team Challenge Pieces. I enjoyed the tiny printing ...around and around the shoes with the poem. When I was a in about 6th grade, we were on a family vacation in Michigan, and stopped in Holland, Michigan, at the wooden shoe factory. We all got a pair of wooden shoes. They made appearances throughout the years in the form of Halloween costumes on next to the fireplace for Christmas decorations. Hoping that Santa would fill the stockings and the shoes!!!

Another piece made last year, for the ZNE design team, It is an atc background, with a button and shoe, I added the text and the woman seated on the shoe. I know my grandmother had these shoes. I remember worrying that I would have to wear them when I got old. I was glad to see my mom hanging out in light blue KEDS during her final years. So all is not lost in the shoe department. The text below is from an old Red Pepper Burns book that my grandfather gave his mother when he was young, in the early 1900s. Don't you love the word "Torrid"!!!


I haven't totally lost my mind, I am posting these in response to the work posted Saturday on the ZNE BLOGZ for SISIS. Each week the work of a ZNE Artist is featured and everyone is invited to post some sort of response on their blog, and link it to the ZNE BLOGZ.


This flying shoe was created by Ana Marie Seaton. Be sure to visit the ZNE BLOGZ and play along.

Finding Mojo - See it Say it Saturday - ZNE

It's See It Say It Saturday on the Zne Blogz and today's featured work is the lovely angel piece shown below by Diane Duda. The angel is so sweet, unpretentious and just beautiful. She is surely thinking about spring, and its impending arrival. ( Any day now, wouldn't you say.)

At the top of the page, is my response. I thought about doing a simple sketch, but that implied that I knew how to do that. (NOT) So I tried a doodle glam girl, who is surely an angel, she is wearing her heart so all can see, she appears to be trying to find mojo. Surely that means she is looking for spring.

The background piece is a half of a game board that I used the "peeling paint" technique with petroleum jelly and acrylic paint. You apply vaseline, then wipe some of it off, smear on some paint, and let it dry and wipe off the vaseline. You can learn all about this in Claudine Hellmuth's book, "Collage Discovery Workshop" One of the books from the ZNE Book of the month club

The Doodle Glam Girl idea came from Traci Bautista's book "Collage Unleashed".

So how do these relate? Well.....glam girl is looking for peace, too, aren't we all. She has some wild hair, and great eye lashes, and wants the world to know that she is full of love, peace and goodness. Plus she was kinda fun to draw. I'm enjoying these doodle glam girls, a lot! Check out the ZNE website.

Diane Duda

Today's See It Say It artwork on the ZNE BLOGZ site was created by ZNE Member aLaNi Pfeiffer. It is a beauiful page from an art journal. I always admire the work people can pull off in their art journals, and this is a beautiful example. First, I find them hard to keep up with, because I am afraid of making them ugly, but I know it's a place to practice your art. I have one that I have been working on and have actually filled several places. Usually I start about page 2, intimidated by page one, and go from there for a couple of pages, then get distracted and go on to something else. I do have sketch books I have filled with doodles and notes, but nothing as pretty an Alani's work. Now I guess I need to explain my response.

I wouldn't be so bold as to post a journal page, at least not yet. I was attracted to those olive looking things in the upper right corner, and it reminded me of a project I did for a design class that I took at Meramec Community College in St. Louis, MO. We were to make a design with a repetitive image and use color and have images overlap and the overlap look transluscent. I think that is what it would be called. The two colors as if the colors were "mixed" when over lapped. We used those art papers you get at art school ( you can tell I'm up on the lastest jargon. So you had to try to figure out what the two papers would look like mixed. I confess, I matched my papers up with my prismacolor pencils and then matched the closest paper to the two pencils blended. Whewww....did that make sense? The photo lighting is not the best. It certainly has an olive look to it. Not sure why I went that way. But I enjoyed the process and received great praise from the teacher. Which made me kinda proud.

You provoke my curioisty!

Check out 'See It Say It Saturday" on the ZNE Blogz. Kristy Christopherson has a lovely collage mixed media piece featuring Crows. She has a wonderful style and I love her work. On See it Say it Saturday you are suppose to respond to the art shown for that day! So above you will see my first crow piece. The template for the crow is from Stampington's tempting template collection. I hope to make something by the deadline and submit it for publication. Check out the art work on the ZNE Network

This crow piece is by Kristy Christopherson, Enjoy!