My new paint pallette January 22, 2011

I recently learned that my drive to reuse things instead of trashing them is most likely genetic. My grandmother is the exact same way. She reuses so much, probably a product of the era she was raised in, I guess I never realized it until just recently (as in, 2 weeks ago). I hate to see things thrown in the trash that could be reused. I know there is a limit to this and I pray that I don’t become a hoarder, but I get ideas from trash. I see how these things can be reused and hate to see them go to waste. For example, I had a chocolate covered cherry box that I was about to throw away. As I was separating the inner plastic egg crate like packaging from the outer cardboard box for recycling, I realized that the inner packaging looks like a paint palette, so I stuck it back in my studio. I didn’t realize how fantastic my new palette was until I started using it today. For one, being plastic, I can use one or as many as I want of the little plastic cups. Secondly, they all have these little ridges in the middle of the cups that are perfect for resting your brush on! I was just so excited about the brush rest discovery. Do you have any items you reuse that make great paint palettes?

New use for CD jewel cases August 6, 2010

Wednesday, I joined fellow church members from Argenta UMC and a couple other local churches in painting picnic tables for the Children’s Home at Methodist Family Health. I suggested we paint game boards on the table, a checker board and a tic-tac-toe board. One of my fellow church members donated checkers for the checker board, but I had to come up with something durable and colorful for the tic-tac-toe pieces. Did I mention, I was hoping it would be free? So I tore apart my studio, brainstorming for things to turn into tic-tac-toe pieces and realized that I had a heck of a lot of CD jewel cases that were just gathering dust. So I used some scrapbook paper to create new inserts for the CD cases and cut out X’s and O’s to glue on the inserts to create the game pieces. I glued the cases shut with an industrial strength adhesive so they couldn’t be opened again. I strongly dislike having nothing to do with those CD jewel cases, so I was happy to find this use for them.

“Green” Journals July 5, 2010

About a year and a half ago, I read Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way” and started writing what she calls “Morning Pages”. Morning Pages are 3 pages of long-hand writing about anything and everything. It’s basically a regurgitation of everything in your head first thing in the morning. The theory behind it is that by writing these pages, you will get everything unnecessary out of your mind and leave you open to more creative thoughts. I decided to give it a try and have been doing it ever since. Well, last weekend I visited this great new store called The Green Corner Store. Someone (I’m sorry I don’t know exactly who so I can give them credit) made journals out of recycled items; receipts, gum packages, used paper, paper bags, basically anything that had at least one blank side. I considered it a bit of genius and was inspired! I immediately ran home and started cutting up every paper bag I had in the house. Originally, I thought I would make enough journals to do all my morning pages on, but it ended up being quite a task to complete each journal, so I decided to just use them as sketch books. I was able to make two of the journals (the large journal and the small one with the ribbon) out about 21 Whole Foods paper sacks (I figured I would eventually use those sacks for an art project, I’m excited that I was right for once!). The large journal has 90 pages and the small one with the ribbon has 37. For the covers, I ripped out interesting pictures from magazines and glued them on cardboard left over from cereal boxes, pizza boxes, etc…Even the ribbon on the one journal is a reused element, it came from a package. As far as how to bind these journals, I can’t even begin to tell you the best way (three journals, three different ways of binding, I’m still working out the kinks), but your local bookstore will probably have a great selection of books with binding techniques that are easy to follow and produce great looking results.

3 “Green” Journals

Small Journal-Open

Bags used in journals

Long Time Coming… July 5, 2010

an update that is…so I can’t believe it’s been well over a year since I posted something on this blog (end of March 2009 to be exact). It’s nice to see that it is still surviving in the internet world and hasn’t disappeared into the ether. A lot has happened since my last post. I started a new job as a teacher’s assistant working with children who have learning disabilities and I also started back to school to work on my Master’s in Secondary Education, so I can teach art (anyone hear of any jobs, send them my way!). Needless to say, I’ve been a little busy and my blog had to be put on the back burner for a little bit. I never thought that “a little bit” would turn into well over a year, but it is what it is and I’m looking forward to working on more projects and getting this blog up and going again. Thanks to the friends who let me know they were still keeping tabs on my blog by asking “So when exactly are you going to update that blog again?” and I hope everyone enjoys the new projects I’m going to post.

Jessica

My new “treasure” March 24, 2009

Glass shower doors

My friend e-mailed me this morning and said her mom had some textured glass shower doors she was going to throw away. My mind immediately started thinking of possibilities for these shower doors before I even sent my friend an e-mail saying I would pick them up later today. I have three doors and endless possibilities. I could smash the doors and make wind chimes or a mosaic. I could hinge the doors together for another room divider, even though I don’t really have another room in need of dividing, or hinge them together and make a triptych to paint. Since I’m having a hard time deciding what to do with these, I’m going to put it out there for the three people who read my blog to help me decide. I’ll post the results when I finish the project, so keep checking back.

Speak your heart March 24, 2009

I screen documentaries for the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in Hot Springs, Arkansas and I get a lot of inspiration from these films. This year’s batch of films is no different, it inspired me to create this piece. This is a 24″ x 30″ mixed-media piece. I primarily used water-soluable oils, but mixed in some water colors on the heart.

Salt of the Earth March 24, 2009

This painting is called “Salt of the Earth”. It’s a 16″ x 20″ mixed media piece that was inspired by an article I read in “Smithsonian Magazine”. The article was entitled “Africa on the Fly” and it showcases photographer George Steinmetz‘s images he captured as he paraglided over Africa. One image that I found particularly striking was of a salt-making site at the village of Teguidda-n-Tessoumt in arid northern Niger. I used brown paper packing material around the edges of the circles and layered paint in the circles, then scraped it out with a pallet knife.

Change is a comin’ March 24, 2009

I originally started this website as a place to inspire creativity with projects. Lately, I have been doing a bit more painting than working on projects, so I thought I would add some of my paintings to the mix in a new category entitled “Artwork”.

Funky Room Divider March 12, 2009

Room Divider

One of my favorite places in Little Rock is this funky restaurant/music venue named “Sticky Fingerz” (www.stickyfingerz.com). I love the funky atmosphere and the homemade art that decorates the space. Some of the windows at Sticky Fingerz have been painted over to look like stained glass. I have always admired this technique and swore if I ever get my own house, it will need to have multi-pane windows so that I can create my own faux stained glass. I was over visiting my friend one day and we were in her back yard. I noticed a couple of white french doors just sitting out in the yard. I asked what she was going to do with those and she said they were supposed to go in the trash, but they just haven’t made it to the curb yet. I immediately saw these french doors as a room divider with the “Sticky Fingerz faux stained glass effect”. She gave me the french doors and I took them home to get to work. They had been sitting outside for quite awhile and the white paint was stained, so it needed a coat of paint. I decided to go with a dark brown and got it in a flat interior paint. It took less than a quart of paint to cover both of the doors with two coats and I have plenty left to do touch ups. I had originally planned on purchasing the faux stained glass spray you can get at craft stores, but I realized with all the colors I wanted to use, that would end up costing quite a bit. I decided to glue tissue paper onto the glass. I used a decoupage goop called Mod Podge to put the tissue paper onto the glass. It worked rather well and if I decide I don’t want to have the colored glass panels anymore, I can just tear the tissue paper off. To create the room divider, I put a pair of hinges between the two doors so you can fold it up. I’m considering putting little stands for tea lights behind each pane of glass so the glass can be lit up at night, but I will save that for another day.

Earring Organizer March 9, 2009

Earring Oragnizer

Maybe I should have called this blog “Land of Frame-a-lot”? It sure seems like I use frames for everything, but I promise I’m not a one-trick-pony. These are a cute way to put your earrings on display and keep them organized. I painted some small wood frames with acrylic paint, then hot glued some scrap window screen I salvaged on the back. To finish the holders, I took a piece of scrap fabric and rolled it up, then hot glued it closed to create fabric rope. I then nailed the fabric rope onto the back of the frame to finish the holder.