Rabbits Redux

I’m making a series of small somethings using a simple cartoon-like rabbit stamp.

For this week’s iteration, I applied a technique I recalled from my youth: Draw a tangle, draw a simple shape in the middle of the tangle; color in the shape.

Instead of drawing a tangle, I stamped rabbits all over the place. Then I selected and colored a few individual rabbits.

I believe this approach could have worked. But I can’t say that it did.

Another try some day, perhaps. you have to make a lot of art if you want to make a lot of art you love.

Sail Away …

A quick collage that I am fond of.

My art-girls group and I often give ourselves prompts … but I don’t recall what this prompt was. Nothing to do with boats, of that I am sure.

Could it have been “an unforeseen adventure “?

Abstraction

A while ago, I experimented with glue resist and acrylic paint. It didn’t work as I expected, but it was a little bit interesting. You can see it on my Instagram account (@judithhollowood.) It’s coral and black, pretty easy to spot.

I experimented on the image with a visual effects app called BeCasso. I liked what it did to my unsuccessful print.

I don’t think I will keep the app beyond the free-trial period; I don’t have much use for it. So I’m not recommending or not-recommending BeCasso. It was definitely fun to play with – a true time-sink in the making!

Here Waiting for You

One of those things that just happened. I was looking at that central image and I thought “I want to be there right now.” All the other components just leaped at the chance.

What’s on the Desktop

What’s on the desktop tends to stay on the desktop for a long, long time. Then items get shuffled, and new patterns jump out at you.

I wouldn’t want you to miss the tagline, obscured as it is in the rotated view above: “the rare one.”

ICAD Is Here Again

The Index Card a Day project continues to ring a bell for me. One homemade artistic expression daily in June and July. This may be my seventh or eighth year. Who’s counting?

The theme for week 1 was drawing and mark-making.

Pleasant stitcheries

Two in as many weeks! My mixed media art group is really cooking along.

“Dirt”

Amazing how differently five people can treat one prompt.

“Stream”

More primitive than the first one, and worth a little more attention – but it’ll probably stand as it is. Don’t miss the two tiny mountains in the upper left.

I Wondered, Lovely as a Cloud

Unsure where to go for a “white on white” stitch work, I finally got some help from Wordsworth.

There was wandering as well as wondering involved in realizing my idea.

I wanted to felt a white cloud – that was the heart of the plan – but my local shop had only “ice blue” and “polar bear” roving on hand. Sure enough, “polar bear white” is an authentic color. Polar bears aren’t white! And so neither is my cloud.

My disappearing ink didn’t disappear.

With mental adjustments made for these disappointments, I felt liberated to continue in a wonky vein, all the while considering a future “second draft.”

If it happens, my work will still be casual in finishes but a little more planned out. I gotta say, though, it’s true to my nature to let the walking create the path.

Labyrinth in Stitches

More of a practice piece than a show piece, but worth sharing, I think. Iron-on transfers are tricky. The slightest movement of the iron creates smudgy lines. There may have been an unintended burst of steam, too.

As for centering the image, that didn’t happen either!

Abstraction

The crisscross of staircase rails in my house is bewildering if you think of it abstractly. This image was made with collage, pen and colored pencil, and watercolor. It’s almost accurate, too.

Quilting with Long Stitches and No Stuffing

There’s a lot to learn when you try a new technique. It’s even more challenging when the WordPress interface has changed a lot since the last time you posted. There’s a lesson there.

At one foot square, this piece was the right size for trial and error learning. I think I will make another this size before thinking about scaling up.

Part of the pleasure was working with number 12 weight cotton sewing thread. It rarely tangles, and when it does, it rarely knots tight.