I'm a treehugger, it's true. I'll recycle to a fault (my husband screams, can't we PLEASE get rid of some of these plastic bags??!). So, I get a lot of joy out of reclaiming materials to use in my art.

Slabs of wood are one of those found treasures.

I love working on wood. It doesn't buckle, it takes tons of abuse, and it feels nice and hefty.

Waiting for My Imaginary Friend is a mixed media collage on wood. It's just under 12 x 12 inches. The piece of wood isn't exactly square. Its siamese twins became a bookshelf, I think... I got this wood from the scrap bin at Ballard Bookcase. I started with gesso, although I've also worked on wood as is, bare and ready for collage, paint, pencil and ink. This piece needed some gesso though, mostly because I like the way that the way I paint looks over gesso. I've also done carving on wood, pounded in textures and objects, sanded, scraped, and drilled. Really, it does take most any kind of treatment.

But, then, what to you do with it once it's finished? Originally I thought that my collages on wood could stand on end on a table , but gravity took over. (And, sorry for the bad poetry there.) So I've pounded a couple of nails in the back, strung wire or ribbon or twine across, and now they can hang on the wall.

Why am I posting this? To remind myself and maybe you that you don't need amazing equipment or frames or hanging materials to create a display for your art. Sometimes just a nail or two will do.

By the way, I am planning some art out of those plastic bags.

a little bit more about wolves

One month ago, gray wolves were delisted as an endangered species, leaving them open to hunting. And the hunting started.

Wolves that didn't happen to have calendars with them wandered into the wrong place at the wrong time and will continue to do so. Now, I don't want to meet a wolf in a dark alley late at night, and we all know that wolves have an irrational rage toward girls in red hoodies, but REALLY. There's somewhere around 1500 gray wolves. We have them a bit outnumbered. Yes, they kill elk and sometimes pester small wild animals and pet dogs, but so do the kids that hangs out in the part across the street from me. (Well, maybe they're not so into the elk...)

Oh, wait, elk are cool too, right? Well, sure. So are the other hoofed animals (ungulates is the vocabulary word of the day) that this law is protecting from those evil wolves. Guess who especially loves ungulates? Hunters. They're fun to hunt.

So, hunters win here. They get more elk and deer and other wild things to kill, and plus they get to kill wolves too. (By the way, I'm not necessarily against hunting, but again, they have the wolves a little outnumbered. And out weaponed.)

I've been thinking about wolves for another reason. I wanted to show you another card for the Totem Tarot: The Wolf.



As a totem, the wolf is a pack creature, reminding us to surround ourselves with likeminded souls. However, the wolf has a set role in the pack, so as a totem the wolf might be warning us not to break away from our role, or she might be telling us that our defined roles might be holding us down. Wolves are big communicators, using attitude, touch and sound to "talk" to other members of their packs. They are extremely loyal to the pack as well. If you think the wolf is your totem, you might be outspoken and good at communicating, but you might also consider whether your pack i sthe right one for you.

If you want to read more about the dangers that await wild wolves, check out this web site. And you can find art prints of The Wolf at my etsy site. I'll be donating a portion of wolf print sales to Earthjustice, or a better wolf rights group if I can find one.

what's faux postage, you ask??

After my post yesterday, I was asked what the heck I was talking about, when I mentioned faux postage. Sorry, sometimes I feel a little like I'm having a conversation totally with myself, and of course I understand what I mean! Usually, anyway.

If you haven't heard of faux postage before, it's a fun an addictive art form. Also called artistamps, these are miniature artworks in the form of postage. They're not intended to be used in place of postage, although if you do use them on an envelope and they get canceled, that can be extracool. Artists create them to use in mail art, to trade, to give away, and to sell. I was turned onto the fun of artistamps by my dear friend arto posto, who I miss greatly. I still treasure my collection of her artwork.

My sisters even were inspired to create their own faux postage, and I remember that arto traded with them in the mail. She was such a sweetie, sending them age-appropriate art in trade for their first attempts at mail art. Hey, my sisters' first attempts were awesome, of course! But arto never had children, and I think they befuddled her a bit. Hmm. I think the sisters were maybe 9 and 11 or so...? I do have one of baby sister's sheets, still, but middle sister took hers back a few years ago.

I have other sheets that I'm finding or working on finding, and I'll get them online when I track them down. Some, though, in the spirit of mail art, were sent out into the world never to be documented by me. Yes, some of that art is ephemeral in my mind and there is no record of it; it may only be remembered by the person it was sent to.

I've become more sentimental in my old age, and keep better records now. Or I try.

birds from the past

Look what I found! My sheet of Birds of Ballard faux postage!



Obsessed as I am with collectible tradable art, I made 'em into a trading card. I'm excited because I found my stash of faux postage/artistamps, so look for more here soon.

something new

So, my newest idea is to create limited edition trading cards based on some of my original artworks. These are presented as a trading card, perfect for collecting or display. Each trading card is printed on acid free, recycled paper using archival methods. Then, the card is backed with one of a kind hand painted or hand made paper (each is unique). Finally, the card is laminated with a permanent heat laminate for durability and versatility. Each card is signed, numbered and dated.

I like the idea of creating a collectible, approachable object at an easy to commit to price.

One of my first experiments is What Raven Stole, shown here:



There are more trading cards on my etsy site. What do you think of this idea?

The Salmon (almost a work in progress)

I've been reinspired lately to work on my Totem Tarot again, after putting it aside for a while. I have a lot of card designs finished, but realized that I haven't done much in the way of organizing them or relating them to actual tarot cards. So, I pulled out my copy of The Tarot According to You (a book I love) and my favorite tarot deck and shuffled them up, asked what I was supposed to focus on, and pulled a random card. It was The Chariot.

The Chariot is a good card for my life right now. I'm in the middle of a ton of transitions and changes and decisions. I rededicated myself to talking to people in person about art (my monthly open studio) which can be tough for me. I am shy, believe it or not. Then, my Americorps job is coming to an end. Changes. Will there be a similar job for me in the future, in non profit, helping others, etc, etc? Maybe and maybe not. The nonprofit in which I served my indentured servitude Americorps term is not hiring right now due to budget concerns.

Money is an issue, of course. So I'm applying for jobs. But also wondering if a) it's a choice between more indentured servitude Work and Art, b) if I get a Big Job, a Career Style Job, if it means stepping back from the art just as I was starting to be able to make art again and c) will I die homeless and penniless, and no one will love me, Stuart Smalley Style? and finally, d) don't Real Artists have more ego? Maybe by worrying about this in a public place I'm cursing my rights to be an artist...?

See how appropriate The Chariot is?

I think Salmon when I started to think about what The Chariot means to me, so my next totem card will be The Salmon. The Salmon is a fighter, creative, a creature of the cycle. What goes around comes around.

environmental art

A coworker and I were talking about art that is meant to be ephemeral, transient, temporary. The idea appeals to me, and always has. I started making books because I wanted to make miniature photocopy books to set free into the world, and I left them at bus stops, on busses, in parks, on literature racks...I even created some book dispensers that looked a little like tea bag dispensers.

At some point, art became more precious, and I stopped setting my art free.

Our conversation reminded me about the HIGH I used to get from creating ephemeral art. I love to see it too, from sand paintings to graffitti to the knitted sign cozies that appeared in Seattle last year to web sites like this: WWW.RiverArt.Net- Environmental Works by A. Nadalian هنر رودخانه: آثار دكتر احمد نادعليان.

So, I'm going to try to bring this game back to my art, too.

Tonight I had a Big Idea, a Major Idea, which I don't want to talk about yet. But I'm so excited about it that I wish I hadn't given up caffeine. If only I could stay up all night working on it. Hmm. Maybe I don't NEED caffeine to do that.

bee totem

I have a new totem:



Bee Totem

hilton's nose

hilton's nose
Originally uploaded by bluelemonegg

Sockmadness Reversai

OK, so. I'm out of Sockmadness in Round Two. BUT, I did make it to round two!

Here are my reversai:



And here is my reversai about to jump out the window:



I'm going to keep knitting along with the gang, and try to end up with 6 finished socks, even if I'm not the fastest. Silly me. I'm a SLOW knitter. But, hey, I DID make it through Round One, so there!

Cider, mmm, cider

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web site

I've been working a lot on my web site and on the magazine.

Unfortunately, the work I've been doing on the web site is mostly making it less broken. How did so many links and stuff get broken, anyway?

It's better now: Art by Kerrie Carbary - art books, book arts, decks of cards, mixed media artworks, photography art

Same with the magazine. Lot of editing and trying to make it coherent.