Bookish Mary

  Have you ever worked with a piece of food and looked at it from an artistic point of view?  Recently I was making an avocado salad and when I emptied out the skin I asked myself, 'what does this feel like and how can I use it?'  It felt like a small water cup that fit perfectly in my palm, which made me think about cups, water and then the phrase, 'is your cup half-empty or half-full?  I then thought, well, it depends on whether I am filling up the cup or emptying the cup.  The intent of the original question was to help identify if one is a pessimist or optimist.  Again, I though, well it depends on what experience I am being faced with: sometimes an optimist and sometimes a pessimist.  This piece embodies both sides of the phrase.   I really liked the leathery texture of the avocado skin which I had cut perfectly in half.  I washed it out and let it dry and then gave it two coats of varnish to prevent it from deteriorating.  I t...

An artist bought one of my blank journals at a Christmas bazaar one year.  We started talking about our different practices and she told me she painted with oil paints and cold wax.  She suggested I try it out.  Not knowing anything about oil painting or cold wax, I stretched my brain and creative curiosity.  I watched a few videos on the technique and then gave it a whirl.  I had a palette knife, cold wax and a small selection of oil paints.  I find when I am not well-informed in a subject or technique, yet find myself trying it out, I just let it happen with no expectations or clear vision.  I just want to 'see what will happen' and see if I like the process and the outcome.  I could feel myself resisting as I laid down the wax-infused colours on a piece of masonite.  When in this zone of creating, there is always a feeling that it's time to stop; I looked; I was unsure; I set them up to dry; I re-visited them often trying to decide, deciph...

  I started thinking about love and why it is ascribed to the heart.  I wondered how much one knows about what's in her or his heart and what's in the heart of others who are loved and respected.  Do we really know what is in: our heart? or the heart of another?  Sometimes words expressed tell us exactly what is being felt, while at other times, behaviours inform us and others what a single word cannot.  These thoughts and questions inspired this piece.   I particularly like the sculptural element of the papier mache technique.  I like the layering and shaping and watching a piece becoming as it was imagined.   I created this heart in two pieces.  The interior is painted with gold acrylic paint and has six, red glass hearts attached to it.  The exterior is painted with red and gold acrylic paint.  The base is cardboard covered with chiyogami paper.  There are thirteen (13) scrolls with fourteen (14) hand-written poems...

  This piece was inspired by the1939 song, 'Puttin' On The Ritz' by Irving Berlin and a pair of cardboard shoe forms.  I created the top hat with three layers of papier mache and painted it with black acrylic paint.  Three layers of papier mache was used for the shoes and then covered with silk fabric.  The inside of the hat is lined with red, chiyogami paper with firework images.  I found the hand at a local shop and stained it with linseed oil and appliqued blue ginkgo leaves onto it.  On thin strips of Japanese gampi paper, I wrote the lyrics to the song. This was such a fun piece to make.   top hat and wooden hand with applique  top hat, shoes and Japanese gampi strips with hand-written song lyrics  Measurements:  Top hat, hand, text: 12.5 x 6.5 x 5.5 inches/31.2 x 16.5 x 14 cm Shoes: 7.75 x 4 x 3.75 inches/19.7 x 10.1 x 9.5 cm Materials: recycled paper, wood, silk, acrylic paint, synthetic gems, cardboard shoe forms, ink Techni...

Autumn is upon us and nature is spreading her seeds on the wind. The leaves on the trees are painting breathtaking scenes with their magnificent colours.  Soon they will be exposing their naked beauty until the spring rains bring forth their new buds.  The ginkgo trees on the street are dropping their silky, yellowed leaves.  Blue Ginkgo  Blue ginkgo is an accordion book I made with water coloured pages and the applique of blue ginkgo leaves from decorative paper.  It is whimsical and needs no text to express the story.  It allows the viewer to create a story that is drawn from lived experience or purely from imagination.  Cover with appliqued leaves  Measurements :  7 x 5 x .25 inches/17.8 x 12.7 x .6 cm  Materials :  water colour paper, water colour paints, blue ginkgo leaves from decorative paper  Techniques used: painting, applique, book binding Blue Ginkgo Boxed Book With Companion  I had an image of a book with a co...

  I started reading Sir Richard Burton's interpretation of Arabian Nights.  The story of Scheherazade is the first story in the book which inspired this creative piece.  I covered the cardboard shoe forms with three layers of recycled paper and the final layer with cotton fabric, and a smattering of  synthetic gems.  I created the drawing of Scheherazade in 2010.  I etched four  acrylic pillars and covered the bases and tops with chiyogami paper.  I made two domes using recycled paper, covered them with the same fabric as the slippers, and topped them with a magic lantern and a silver flower. The hand-written scroll is an abridged version of Scheherazade's story.   Scheherazade's slippers, the two domes and the drawing.   The scroll, the slippers and the drawing.  The domes, the pillars, the scroll, the slippers and the drawing.  Materials Used:  paper, fabric, repurposed map of star formations, metal enameled la...