the next give away

sorry that i made the last give away decision so quickly, but it was a no brainer! mel and i "met" on flickr, and now we are friends on facebook, twitter, and our blogs, and i think stumbleupon, too. so despite that we are hundreds of miles apart, i count mel as a good friend. PLUS -- mel so generously donated to my favorite charity for my birthday, it just seemed like a natural fit!

so, mel, you are out of the running on this one, friend:)

this square collage is four inches per side. i used handmade paper, some very old and delicate hand blocked wallpaper, tissue, found papers, and part of a vintage sewing pattern.

it is not matted. i've found some 8 x 8 inch frames with mats at target that look great with these collages if you are interested in framing it.

changes, changes

it's time for a change. change in my art, change in my life to make sure i have time to make art. the collages i will be posting/reposting are ones that need to go to new homes. i don't believe in having "sales" on art -- i'd rather gift a piece. in fact, i'd just as soon share my work with friends and family as sell it, anyway.

the past year or so has been a busier and harder than i would like. i returned to teaching august of '09 when i was offered a job teaching high school students with chronic and persistent mental illness. (i was out of the classroom for two years and worked as the disability program navigator for southeast tennessee.) i absolutely love teaching students with emotional/behavioral disorders. it's challenging, exhausting, and i'm very good at it. i love the fact that i get to use my creative side each and every day. in theory i should have plenty of down time as a teacher to work on my art but...

i also had to return to graduate school for two semesters to finish classes to complete requirements for my licensure. tennessee is horrible what it does to post baccelaurate intitial licensure candidates. so far i have taken 60 hours of mostly graduate education classes, and i still have three or four more classes to go if i want to get that m.ed. i'm taking a break to decide if i really want to put the time and effort and money into it. i have my permanent teaching license now, and i miss making art.

so...leave a comment and tell me why you would like to have this collage come live with you! i make no claims to have any specific process in place here! i have a good number of my smaller collages to send out into the world. i will post them as i am so inclined -- i make no promises what the frequency will be, lol. 10 minutes? 2 weeks? who knows? i've been incredibly erratic with my little blog.

as i post give away collages here, i will remove them from my artfire shop, but not imagekind. i am reserving the right to sell prints of the original works.

so tell me what you think! would you like some new art for your office or home? or something as a belated christmas gift? or how about a gift for yourself?

happy holidays!

new collage

something i learned from my friend and artist extraordinaire, don't throw paper away. ever. no matter how small. cathy made the most amazing collage from scraps of paper she pulled from my studio trash can. lesson learned! so here is one of my new collages, "a face in the crowd," made from snips of paper left over from a collage making frenzy. i am now selling my art on artfire, and this collage is listed there http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=1797145

new collage book

Masters: Collage: Major Works by Leading Artists can now be preordered from Amazon at a significant discount. randel plowman (acollageaday.blogspot.com) is the editor and i am one of 40 collage artists included in the book, published by lark. it is such an incredible honor to be included in this book -- i have seen some of the other artists' work and it is impressive. the link to amazon is http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Collage-Major-Leading-Artists/dp/1600591086. i have heard it is also available for preordering at barnes and noble, also.

blueboy

blueboy
Originally uploaded by paperwerks

this is the collage that is the companion to the collage below. i'm hoping that the same person will get them both. it's also listed as a pay it forward item in my shop -- www.paperwerks.etsy.com.

pinkgirl

pinkgirl
Originally uploaded by paperwerks

i just listed this and it's companion collage on etsy as pay it forward items, along with some other pif and sale collages. (pay it forward items sell for the twenty cent listing fee, then you do a good deed for someone else.)