Well it was a creative weekend – not only did I get the August tag done but I also managed to do the September tag all in one go.
Tim Holtz challenged us to bust out those alcohol inks and do some ghost stencilling, die-cutting and stamping (cos it it is STAMPTEMBER).
Y’all know how I like clutter and mess though on my tags – so to try and keep my tag simple and unclutterd was a little bit of task for me. Eventually I compromised – and allowed myself to ghost stencil a coloured background. But I did colour everything – because life is colourful.
What I was hoping to convey in this tag was the idea that in life you can have all the things you want, all the the dreams you want to live, all the time you want, love you want, peace you want if you bring your own fulfilment into being.
From the Tim Tag – instead of the “Frenzy of Butterflies” I used the “Tattered Florals” Strip Die. I wanted it to look like a hand releasing a shower of flowers, the idea ofcourse being that you bring your own flowers to your life.
When I did the tag background, I was sad to have to embellish it because I thought it was great by itself. I created the background by multi-layering the ghosting technique – as per usual – I couldnt just stick to one colour.
I loved making the background for the flowers. Tim is right – glossy cardstock and alcohol based inks are the bomb!! I sloshed alcohol based ink in many, many different colours all over a strip of the glossy stuff. I smooshed it all together and then when that dried I layered more ink over that and let it run all over. Check out this awesomely cool effect it had going over here.
I used the tattered florals strip die to cut out some florals – arranged them so that they look like a hand releasing a cascading shower of blooms and then I glossy accented the hek out of those. To add a bit of dimension – I glued on flat-back pearls on the flowers.
Disclaimer: I didn't make it in time for Tim Holtz in August because I was busy with another exciting project that I will tell you about on the 11th of this month!
I did promise myself this that I would commit to make a tag for every month of 2014 – so I decided to go ahead and make one retroactively.
If I am submitting to the Holtz Collection, I try to stay within the Tim Holtz / Ranger line of products,stamps, trinkets and dies. That challenges me to be original in the interpretation and arrangement of something familiar and well-known to his global fan-base. I gotta tell ya though, while it’s lovely to rework the theme with my existing stash of Holtz’ings, the pressure gets cranked up. I always kinda think – it’s like taking a famous symphony and then putting your own touch on it, this is an extremely high-risk enterprise!!! The devotees hold you to high standard so to deliver a half-holtzed attempt is something akin to sacrilege right?
So since I didn't make the TH Blog deadline, I decided that I was just going to go a little nuts and use the layout and the technique somewhat but I would branch out of the Holtz collection and give myself the creative freedom to go where my eye and heart was leading. On the right is the result boldly titled “Dreamer of dreams”.
Recently, I have been wondering about consciousness, forms of knowing, seeing with different forms of vision. I have become very taken with the quest to see how much more of the experience of consciousness we can experience.
I am so grateful to a few people in my life but particularly to my first husband - “Bear, the Fire-starter” as well as my “Chairman Mau” who have both steered me in directions that got me to this point where I feel like I am slowly being delivered into a realm of consciousness that I didn’t know I could exist within.
I am grateful that I finally have awakening to the idea that to be conscious is to love, to feel connected, and to embrace the dreams that exist inside my inner world that I have always been ashamed to acknowledge existing inside there.
I am thankful that I have the opportunity to express my inner vision through this medium of collage or mixed media art. I have always loved the Holtz style because it resonates with how my mind projects my thoughts, feelings, experiences, memories on its internal canvas. There is something intimately familiar in his style that reminds me of how my mind sees, interprets and organises the world. My dreams are vivid, in colour and a little all jumbled together in a wondrous, whimsical medley of sights and sounds superimposing themselves on existing memories and feelings. I love that I can express the incredibleness of it somewhat through the medium of art.
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