We Interrupt this Interruption......

......I am home for a few days before family business takes me away again, and as the name of my blog attests, doing art is an absolute necessity, no matter what other drama is going on.  Before I left last week I started work on pages in my friend Lill's Artistic Evolution journal, and finished them yesterday.  This morning I went to the post office and the book is on its way to the next contributor.  Yes, I just love being a part of these collaborative projects.

Lill's only request was that the color turquoise be part of our work, and most of the artists who did pages before me had an aquatic theme.  I continued that, but with a bit of a twist.  Here they are:

There are lots of layers under the blue that wound up being covered, which happens a lot.  But even if you can't see the text, the music sheets, etc., they do add lots of texture.  As for my version of koi fish, I did a rough sketch with pencil and filled that in with.....are you ready?.......scraps of that black and white patterned paper you find on the insides of security envelopes.  They're pretty much covered up in the largest fish on page 1, but you can still see some of the pattern on the second page fish.  I can't even tell you all that went on top of the paper.  I know there I used a blue glaze, wild honey distress stain, gold paint, orange glaze.....until I got a look I was happy with.  

I was most excited though, about the quote I found. 

Speaking of collaborations (I was, wasn't I?), if you're not already a follower of Seth Apter's blog (The Altered Page), you ought to visit.  Seth is a NYC artist who has been widely published, and has been involved in many collaborative projects, some lasting years!  Seth is very dedicated to fostering an online community for all us mixed media peeps, and one way he does this is through something he calls The Pulse, which appears on his blog.  He sent out a list of questions for a variety of artists to answer and the results will be published beginning this weekend.  There will be posts Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and then every Sunday thereafter.  Questions like, what is your go-to technique?  what art supply can't you live without?  if you could take a class with any artist living or dead, who would it be?  And other equally interesting things to ponder.  I've always enjoyed reading the responses of other artists, and this year, my responses will be part of The Pulse.  So please do check it out.