Last Sunday the Varley Art Gallery hosted a wonderful artist trading card swap.  There was a great turn out and we had tons of fun trading cards with other artists.  I hope they hold more of these events.  My ACEOs (Art Card Editions and Originals) are linocut prints and so I was able to make several of each type.  These three are just listed in my Etsy store.  I have more of these animal friends  to list, but Christmas is bearing down and I haven't started to make my Christmas cards yet.  The month of December is also a big birthday month in our family, so this will be the last non-Christmas or birthday art posting until the new year.

When I was listing these I was amazed at how my scanner picked up the texture of the printing ink.  I think it picked it up a little too much!  However, being linocuts, there is some texture.  I hope you enjoy them!

I love to add words to my prints.  I'm not sure why, except that their shapes are so pleasing to look at and they add an unexpected element.  Just like pictures, they have meanings which are altered by their context.  When I put them together with a print the perception of both are altered.  I have a collection of words that I've cut out of old books from the recyling depot.  I sift through them often seeing how they fit with various prints.  There are many I am dying to use...like "deepest and most thrilling of all the stories" .  I really hope I create a print that goes with that someday!

A little over a week ago I raced up to the Georgina Art Centre to enter a few of my prints in the "Undefined" Juried exhibition.  I made it just before the deadline and I'm glad I made the trip.  Last Sunday, the reception showcased a beautiful display of art with many talented artists.  I was so pleased and surprised to get a third place for my reduction linocut print, "The Story Begins".  It is really a wonderful show with a great variety of painting, photography, sculpture, pottery and more.  I'm so glad to be a member of the gallery there.

This week I'll be adding more prints to my Etsy store, so if you are in the mood for a new print, stay tuned : )

It's been over two months since my last post : O
I have been acclimatizing to my new part-time job as a schoolbus driver.  It was a lot to get used to at first but I'm getting the hang of it.  I had also started a large print which was causing me no end of grief.  Between the two situations I found myselft unable to post anything.  However, life has a way of carrying on and things invariably get better.  I decided to give my difficult print a rest and I finally finished these two little prints on Japanese tissue.  I love this sort of magical thinking.  It reminds me that my brain can take me anywhere.  We only use a small portion of it they say.  What is in the other part?  Maybe magical things...

Here's my latest collage, made of old prints, magazines and printers ink.  I always look at my work and wonder,  where is the pain and suffering?  I have heard that true art must have angst and struggle. I admire a lot of art that is full of struggle and complex emotions.  I just can't channel mine.  It's not that I don't have any in my life.  I think we all do, some more than others.  I just do what I do.  It's only after that I wonder...should it maybe be a little darker...more ominous.  But since art is a place where I escape to, I don't really want there to be struggle.  I don't know if this is wrong, but I would like to go live in this collage.

I'm always more than a little hesitant to call something new because I'm sure somewhere on this earth someone has done this before.  However, I'll qualify by saying, this is new for me.  These little prints are made with water soluable printers ink and hand carved stamps. I love water soluable ink because it's so easy to clean up, but you can't re-wet the ink or it can run.  To solve this problem, I sprayed the prints with acrylic sealer and then painted with fluid acrylics.  I was amazed and delighted to find that the printers ink, under the sealer, acted as a resist to the thinned out fluid acrylic.  It reminded me of painting with watercolour over top of wax crayons.  The prints, once  sealed, could be glued onto painted wood and protected with archival gloss varnish.  I'm so happy not to have to frame them!  Now that I've developed this technique with these little 4 by 4 inch prints, I plan to try it with something larger!  I'm hoping to have more time in August.  Most of July was taken up with learning to drive a school bus.  I'm hoping that this will be the perfect part-time job.  It will make me get up early, but still leave me lots of time to do my art and provide a little much needed cash for art supplies. I really quite like the idea of bouncing around in a big yellow bus.  It may even provide some artistic inspiration.  You never know!

Now is the time...to have fun with collage! 
I often write down random words, quotes and proverbs that I like in my sketch book and I usually, but not always write the source.  I think this is a celtic blessing.  If you know where it comes from let me know.  Everyone around me is full of stress these days!  I am too, but sometimes I can just let it all go.  I think meditating is giving me more control over my own mind. Meditating is one of those things that you've got nothing to lose by trying.  I'm always up for those.  Last year my hormones decided that I should have acne, for the first time in my life.  Yep, and I'm not anywhere near being a teenager.  The doctor was recommending antibiotics, which I didn't want to do, and then I read that you washing with raw honey was the best thing for your face.  The article said, "you've got nothing to lose!"  Actually I lost the acne!  My face started improving imediately.  Meditating is similar.  I thought to myself it was probably not going to do anything, but I was amazed.  All those bees and tibetan monks are right! I recommend meditation to everyone who's too busy and stressed.  I try to fit in ten minutes every morning and I'm totally surprised at how much it helps.  It's still not easy, but I'm getting much better at freeing my heart and letting all the intentions and worries stop because life is a wonder.  We might as well enjoy it

I'm working on a new print which was originally going to have several plates for different colours.  Then I hit upon the idea of masking areas with paper.  This saves a lot of carving and lino and I have no idea why I didn't think of this before!  It's easy and you can use the same piece of paper over and over.  You just take the paper off when you are rolling on the ink and then put it back before you put your paper on.  I apologise to those of you who aren't printing nerds.  I have very little training in printmaking so I dream about this stuff at night.  Sad but true. 
Some of these prints are made on this gorgeous brown Nepalese handmade paper.  I'm going to have to get more of this!  I see another trip to the Paper Place in my future.

I haven't quite finished with these yet.  They need to be signed and titled. There are some one white paper too.  I'm hoping to get them into my Etsy soon : )

Starting today you can see the prints of Sarka and Lisa and myself at the Flato Markham Theatre.   They are open Monday to Saturday, 11:00 to 6:00 and of course in the evening if you take in a show!  I have 12 prints at the theatre and yesterday I was rather dreading wrapping them all up in paper so they wouldn't get damaged while I drove them over.  I've always thought of making reusable envelopes with duct tape and bubble wrap, but I don't have nearly enough bubble wrap.  Then I remembered that thanks to my daughters monster making adventures, I have bags of polar fleece and the use of her sewing machine.  Why did I not think of this before!  It only took a couple of hours to sew up twelve bags. I'm not a skilled sewer, believe me, but polar fleece is forgiving and they're so much more colourful than bubble wrap!

It's finally spring here and that rare time of year when the sun is warm, but not hot and the mosquitos haven't woken up yet.  Things are sprouting in the garden, but I'm much more successful with carved linocut flowers than real ones.  My dog Basel likes to dig nice sleeping holes and rest in with the flowers and herbs.  He's actually dug up my herb garden so many times that all I have left are the chives.  Herbs must be especially nice to sleep with.  This form of landscaping is not really pleasing to the human eye.  If only I could teach him how to only dig out weeds.
This  large linocut makes up for my lack of flowers in the garden.  It fits in a 16 by 20 inch mat and is done with water soluble printers in and lots of individually carved stamps.