Look at this ridiculous beast

This is Jake, shamelessly lolling about on my work table.

 He has gesso on his fur:

 

 Moments after I took these pictures, he accidentally knocked the heat gun to the floor, turning it on in the process and scaring the bejeezus out of him.

He bolted from the room while I doubled over laughing.

Serves him right.

Customary Freakout

A few months ago I signed up for a "mixed media weekend technique intensive" at the Rhode Island School of Design (Continuing Education summer class).  I've been eagerly awaiting this fabulous weekend, and now that it's two days away I'm having fits of irrational anxiety.

Right on schedule.

The email from the instructor started the spiral:

 "bring your sketchbook with ideas and motifs. You will want to have sources for reference; a subject or abstract theme in mind."

 

 And just like that, all good ideas vanished from my head.

Motif????

Concept???

Theme???

I need to come up with something fast and it better be good, because I'm going to RISD for heaven's sake. 

How about trees or leaves? 

I can't do that.  It's completely overdone and way too simple.  Same goes for circles and flowers and birds and hearts.

What on earth will I put in a sketchbook?

I don't even draw.

I am convinced I will embarrass myself in front of "serious artists."

 Naturally, when the crazies strike, they are not limited to a specific topic.  I am now completely over-thinking the two round robin journals that are sitting on my table.

No idea is good enough, and the longer I worry about it, the longer I hold up the groups, which then leads to a whole other kind of panic. Whatever I create will reveal the truth about me.

So just to be clear, I KNOW I'm being crazy.

I'm not being graded.

Nothing is at stake here.

The room will be filled with lovely human beings who will not notice or care about the contents of my non-existent sketchbook.

I will learn bucket loads whether I have a motif or not.

My round robin folks will not send back the book and demand better art. I just need to get this particular brand of craziness out of my system.

Here's the one thing that is not freaking me out, and is making me very excited. I will be meeting - in person for the very first time - the sewing/knitting/painting/stitching/salamander dreaming wonder, Amy.

Here's a postcard she sent me after she got back from Squam.

(She's giving away more from this series here.)

After several email discussions about the class supply list, we have  agreed we will be "those women with the wrong paper."

I solemnly swear I will try my best not to disrupt her learning experience with whispering and giggling.  (I'll save that for our dinner together.)

And if my anxiety doesn't abate by Saturday, I can always travel incognito.  Amy - if you have trouble recognizing me, I'll be the blurry one with the mustache. 

 

week something-or-other of whatchamacallit

Every year it takes me by surprise.  The start of summer camp knocks the stuffing out of me.  Is it the 50 exuberant children?  Is it the cacophony of their voices?  Perhaps it's the 8 hours a day of kids/parents/staff wanting/needing/asking something.

I'm a zombie.  And though it seems hard to believe right this very moment, history suggests I will NOT be this tired for the remaining seven weeks of camp.  Just for this one.

I'm making art every day, but I'm having a heck of a time keeping up with blogging and flickr and facebook and linking and visiting and commenting.

The most recent "summer of color" challenge was this ice cream:

It's called baseball nut (though I'm not sure what it's got to do with baseball)

"A smooth, vanilla flavored ice cream swirled with a black raspberry ribbon and loaded with cashews"

-Baskin Robbins

 

I liked this color combination a lot better than the last one

I cut flower petals out of book pages, mulberry paper and tissue paper.

 

After I finished it, I noticed the cut-up book page on my table and liked the look of it.  I glued it on top of some lovely cashew-colored paper, and collaged on some handmade paper, and doodled with gold gel pen and flicked on some gold paint.

 

and then, even though we've moved on to a new color/flavor for this week, I couldn't get baseball nut out of my head.  

This one has shiny gold circles stamped on top.

This one used washi tape, book pages, paint and a stamp, but surprisingly nothing gold and shiny.

 

Not linking up to summer of color, or index card a day or paint party Friday or anything else because I'm just too tired.

off to bed.

more fun tomorrow.

ICAD - Week 3

 

I spent all day moving furniture and supplies in the 95 degree heat.

I'm completely out of steam, but my camp program is ready to go.

Summer has truly begun.

I'm off to sleep like the dead in air conditioned splendor.

Minty ICAD

Last week's "summer of color" theme was mint chocolate chip.

At first I was excited because it's my all time favorite ice cream flavor.

But then I realized, I hate mint green as a color.  It makes me think of a bad bridesmaid's dress.

I made my first minty index card while visiting my sister in Virginia.  I didn't have any green paint with me, but noticed that the price tags from my thrift-store bargains were that yucky mint color, and I came up with this:

I couldn't get the challenge out of my head after I got home, in spite of (or perhaps because of) my distaste for it.  And so I made this one, using pan pastels and acrylic paint over a gessoed card.

And all the while I was making it, I could hear my son's voice when he was really little, complaining that the toothpaste was too mmmmmmiiiiiiinnnnntttttttyyyyyyy!!!!

so I drew this in his honor.

 

(I couldn't bring myself to make the toothbrush brown for the sake of the challenge, because who ever heard of a brown toothbrush.  I mean really?)

Zine Winners

Thanks to everyone who left such horrible jokes on my zine giveaway post.

I can't wait to start trying them out on people.

The Grand Prize Winners of the Daisy Yellow Zine plus my 3 original zines are:

Jo Urbani

and

LizzieBo

The runners up will get the copies of my zine:

Olivia

Winnie's girl

Kristin D.

send me your mailing addresses so I can get the zines in the mail to you!

iamrushmore@gmail.com

Some days are like that

Warning - bad puns ahead

Time to show the results of my recent postcard making spree.

I mailed out 26 postcards last week and I'm almost caught up on my mail.

One bunch was made from all the collage goodies Steph sent me:

look at that jam packed box of goodies!

 I made some big collages and cut them up

added some paint and text:

and now here begins a series of bad pun cards:

The next cards were made on spray painted backgrounds.  

On a particularly glorious Saturday I set up a spray paint station in the back yard:

 Here are some close up shots of a few pieces

and some of the postcards made from those sheets:

"What did the hat say to the hat rack?"  Learned that joke from my grandmother.  The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

I made this one for the farmer at my meat share.

Kristin, you can add this to your chicken joke arsenal.

(that's me sitting on top of my first car in 1989 )

  

And then there are the distressed magazine page backgrounds I was talking about in my last post.

Thanks to Steph for pointing me to this tutorial.

(see the video by Katie Kendrick here)

Here are a few sheets of collaged magazines - I add layers of ink and paint on top.

Some of the more serious and pretty cards using this technique:

and then my favorites in the bad pun series:

You guys have left so many wonderful jokes on my Zine Giveaway post, I feel another series of postcards coming on. (you've been warned)

You still have a few more days to leave me a joke and enter to win the zines!