New Polymer

by Barbara Bechtel

Today I thought I would show you some of my most recent polymer clay beads. Admittedly, for most of the last year, I haven't been making much new polymer clay work and have mostly been working in copper. A recent injury has kept me sidelined for several months, and once I started feeling a bit better but still couldn't get into my metal studio, I felt that polymer itch.

This is actually the front and back sides of a double sided focal donut.

Not wanting to burn myself out again, I started in on creating some new color palettes. My polymer clay has always been an extension of my background as a painter and I prepare each piece almost as a mini canvas, spending the majority of the time preparing, building the base, and layering and creating depth through the surface treatments in layers of color and translucency through the careful selection of a color palette.

Transparency and opacity are very important in the colors I select and how much I remove or add to each surface.

At the current moment, I'm not getting to wild with the shapes and forms, but instead using the same or similar forms, really searching for and working beyond the obstacles of each palette. I almost like to think of them as tiny sketches or color studies.

If you'd like to see more of my recent explorations in color, I encourage to pop over to my Facebook page and check out more of the photos there!

Artist Zen

by Staci L. Smith

 

I have always been an artist, even before I knew what that was.  I was happiest making things, or with a pencil or pen in my hand drawing something.  I used to doodle on everything.  everything.  Nothing was left uncovered.  I drew all over my notebooks, my friends notebooks and when we got older, I drew on my friends with sharpies to make fake tattoos. 

 

 

Bead and jewelry making is something I LOVE, but I do miss drawing and painting.  I love having a brush in my hand, feeling the paint smooth on, layer after layer, stroke after stroke.  I especially like when I can work big.  There is something released when I can use my entire arm, and body to create giant movements that turn to art in front of me. 

 

If you read my personal blog, you will know I am in the middle of a studio re-vamp.  It kinda came out of nowhere, since the hubs was around this week.  So we dove right in.

 

We ripped up the carpet and he built me strong workbenches around two walls.  Due to lack of funds and time, we just left the sub floor as is.  I didn't mind, since I'd be ruining it most likely anyway (I am not a tidy artist).

 

Here it was with the sub floor left as is.

 

 

I am not big into decorating and making things matchy and such things, but it just didn't feel right to me.  So I went to get some black paint to cover the ugly 2x4's we used on the frame of my tables. 

 

I had been thinking of painting the floor.  Wasn't sure how it would work or anything, but thought I'd try it out- I mean, I was surrounded by paint in Lowes, how could I not want to paint more stuff?

 

So I got a nice brown grey, and painted a layer on the sub floor.  But it looked sooooo blah, it was too thin, it still showed all the imperfections.

 

So I doodled it.  I took the leftover black paint and just went to town.  The experience, which I want to share, was wonderful.

 

 

I put on some really good singer songwriter music, and got my paintbrush and paint, and just started doodling.  I loved being able to paint so large, to just go free form, with endless room to  take each new idea and design.  I could have done this endlessly (if my body co-operated more- sitting on the floor hunched over that long took its toll on me). 

 

 

I loved going over the strokes again and again, since the floor is rough, I had to make sure each line was really coated.

 

 

As the floor filled with swirls and squiggles, designs and dots, I felt such a smile inside, no other way to explain it, just happy. 

 

I took time with some area's, letting them design themselves. 

 

 

Others area's got deliberate designs, or symbols, as I thought of people I cared for, or situations that I am going through.

 

 

It was so meditative.  No thought required, no work,.  Unlike with jewelry, there are mechanics to figure out.  This was mind freeing.  It was simple, and pure and I enjoyed it with every ounce of my body and soul.

 

 

I know that there is zentangle now, but they just finally put a name to what so many have been doing forever.  If you like zentangle, I recommend trying it with paint.  It just flows, the brush engages your whole body. 

 

 

Now I hope the floor is not too distracting.  I want to just stare at it.  I hope looking at it proves as meditative as creating it.

 

I also hope it holds up.  I put no finish on it, and it is only latex paint.  But the floor is bumpy, so I hope that helps it to stick.  I didn't want to use any kind of finish in the house- (we have birds and frogs and kids with asthma.)

 

I will let you know in 6 months how it held up. 

 

So there you have it, I did NOT expect to find zen in a studio remodel. 



guest post - ersi marina

On 3 September I was asked by Mary Jane Dodd to write a guest entry to this blog.  I was excited and thankful for the opportunity, and I am happy to be here with you all. 

My name is Ersi Marina Samará.  I was born and grew up in Athens, Greece and I have been living in Spain for the last 31 years.  I studied drawing and painting in Athens, and photography in Barcelona.  I also love literature, so I attended creative writing courses for five years during the nineties.  I got some short stories published in literary magazines.  Through the years I have learned as much from my own experimentations and from the work of artists I admire as from my studies and books.  You could say I am 50% self-taught and I certainly keep learning new things about my art and myself every day.

between words and fortune

I am constantly attracted to new techniques and media, and sometimes I need to step back from my work so that I can take everything in.  I like working with watercolours, India ink and graphite, though I also use acrylic inks and gesso, and collaged elements. 

the seamstress

untitled II

Lately I have been incorporating new materials to my work, particularly fabrics.  I am still a beginner in textile art and I have a lot to learn, but fabrics, their colours and textures, their patterns and history, have always fascinated me, so I think they are in my work to stay.

contemporary embroidery

Many things inspire me, physical objects, images or even ideas. But everything goes through the filter of my feelings. I can be very cerebral analyzing a finished work, but I need to create with feeling, establishing a deeper communication with my work, listening to it and trying to satisfy its needs.

sometimes outside

I usually avoid strong visual statements that seem to cry out their message.  I prefer whispers to shouts, suggestions to commands, serenity to tumult.  But I admit I also like contrasts.  Life is full of contradictions, people too.  Sometimes trying to express these contrasts and contradictions in my work is all too tempting. 

Eleonora di Toledo

a free interpretation of an original painting by Agnolo Bronzino

In 2011 I became very interested in book art, especially artists' books.  That is an area yet to explore and I crave the time necessary to do it.  

a long path with pauses - cover

a long path with pauses - inside pages

(editor's note:

ersi also made a beautiful contribution to the flags for peace project this past week, you can see it here)

ersi can be found -

blog

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