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.

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.

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”.

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 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.

Necklace Oragnizer

I have A LOT of necklaces. I enjoy making them and buying them, I think they are an easy way to update a wardrobe or change an outfit, so I like to have plenty of choices handy. I had considered hanging all of the necklaces on fun and funky hooks on the wall, but I currently rent and I did not want to drill that many holes in the wall (not to mention that I didn’t have the patience to drill that many holes). So I took yet another frame I had found at a garage sale, cut a piece of half-inch thick foam core and wrapped it in fabric. Then, I glued the fabric covered foam core into the frame. I use stick pins to hang the necklaces. I was originally worried that wouldn’t hold the weight of the necklaces, but they hold up pretty well and I have some heavy necklaces hanging on them.

Mosaic Corkboard

Like all creative people, I’m constantly writing things on little pieces of paper and leaving them all over the place. I created this corkboard as a colorful way to organize all those scraps of information. I used an old frame I got from a garage sale and painted it with some left-over paint a friend gave me (I couldn’t very well leave it the horrible black and gold sponge painted atrocity it was). The cork can be bought either in a roll or in a four pack of one foot by one foot squares at any craft store or office supply stores. You can do the next step a couple of ways, if you buy the roll cork, you can just cut a piece to fit your frame. I purchased the squares, so I cut it down to 4″ x 4″ pieces. I painted the squares with acrylic paint. The cork soaks up the paint, so each square took 2-3 coats. I used a half-inch thick piece of foam core board cut down to the size of the frame as a base for the cork squares. I hot glued the cork squares onto the foam core, then glued the cork panel into the frame. To finish the corkboard, I tacked a piece of ribbon onto the top of the frame to act as a hanger.