Susie's Muse

Unusual Structures and Lion Cubs

It's been awhile since I have had spare time to post. I have been busy. This time of year my daughters have dance competitions. One of them was held last weekend in Wisconsin Dells. As usual we left Minnesota early and arrived by 9AM. We had time to kill before we could get into our room so we drove the main drag. Wisconsin Dells is a tourist area. The area is really beautiful. We didn't get a chance to really explore but I did come across a most unusual structure. This is the White House as it is in the Dells. It was closed and had these big signs all around that said "TOP SECRET" I couldn't resist taking some pics of this. I took a few close up shots of details that at some point I will incorperate into artwork. The day was cold, snowy and foggy so the structure took on an added sense of mystery.

We stayed at the Kalahari which has a huge indoor water park. The girls and I had a blast over the course of the weekend. DH always stays at home for these events. The hotel had some special guests, a 6 month old lion cub that you could have your picture taken with. These are my girls with Paw.

Brittney 14 and Megan 12 with Paw. The handlers have a wild life refuge and the photo shoots help raise money for the care of wild animals who are rescued from people trying to raise these animals as pets and some of money also goes to the Make A Wish Foundation. This was one of those chances you only get once in a lifetime. They took 3 shots and this was the keeper. Afterwards the girls and I had a chance to interact with the cub. It was an incredible experience. They also had a baby roo which we got to pet. She was so soft. The handler had a little pouch she put the roo in and she was so calm. It was really cool to get that close to animals we will never be able to see in the wild. This was the high light of the trip for the girls.

New Artwork

So it's been awhile. I have so much going on at the moment but here are a few of my newest pieces.

This piece is a page in a round robin.

This year my resolution was to create at least some little bit of artwork each day. So I went out and found a great journal style desk calendar with small blocks for entries for each date. I decided that it's destiny was as my art journal.

Another art journal page.

This is an altered cabinet card for a cabinet fat book I hosted recently.

Other side of cab card

This is a page in an old 45 record album that I am in the process of altering.

Mixed Emulusions

Angela Cartwright's newest book; Mixed Emulsions is now available and I am so excited to be a part of this amazing book.

This is my page as it appears in the book. I am in the gallery section. If you have not gotten this book yet I highly recommend it. If you enjoy experimenting with different mediums and want to take your art to the next level this is the book that will help you reach that goal. Mixed Emulsions is an exceptional book.

More New Art

And even more RR artwork.

This is another spread in the Pocketfull RR. I used a transparency image by Angela Cartwright.

I enjoyed creating this piece very much.

Catching Up

It's been forever since I have had time to post. Life, kids, work, and trying to take some time out for art has been the story of my life since September. Art is being created tho. It's time to share.

This is a page done in the Pocketfull RR I am playing in. I love the found text.

Numbers

Numbers is a truly amazing piece of artwork from the hands of an incredible artist. It is worth the time to check out. If you wish to be moved take the time to check out this piece.

Numbers

You will be awed and touched.

New Art Journal

Last night I put the finishing touches on the cover of my newest art journal.

The underlayer of this cover was created using Berh's crackle medium. The top coat of that layer was originally an offwhite with an under color of a deep blue. I painted over that with a sepia colored wash. I then used Golden's crackle medium which is a textural medium around the edges to add another layer. I then used the same sepia wash over that layer then added it's title 'unfinished' When seen in person it actually looks and feels like wood that has been burnt. The back cover is done in the same manner but I left that plain for the time being.

Bright Lights

Last week, I spent an afternoon dying textured papers I had. The paper all used to be white. Some of it is very sheer and some of it is a combo of paper and cheese cloth. I simply created a dye bath in a shallow pallette pan; let the paper get saturated and then carefully remove and allow to dry.

                                                   

ABout that Door

I was remiss in the sharing of my newest artwork; the beautiful door image was shared with me courtesy Kathy Mcelroy who so graciously shared many beautiful images with me that she took on her European holiday last year. Take a trip over to her site. http://kathymcelroy.typepad.com/ The door is in Florence Italy.

Finished, Almost...

Well after nearly a year I have finished a piece I have been laboring over. It's a long story but the piece was inspired first by the lyrics of a song. I started with a layer of gesso and then added some vintage text. I used titan buff and did a wash over the text and used Golden's Crackle medium. It sat that way for a very long time. Eventually I was going to add an image of a bridge but abandoned the whole idea and I let the canvas sit for months untouched. I went back to it one afternoon with a new vision for it. It ended up looking like this which I posted earlier here. Before I added the image of the door. I crackled the mid area with Behr's crackle medium and then added the image of the door.  Again, I let it sit this way until last week. I just started adding layers and layers of this wonderful sepia wash I created with Behr's glaze medium and tube acrylic that I had used on a different piece. I started out with a light wash and then just kept adding layers of color. I then stumbled upon a poem by Brian Andreas that reads as follows;

Opening a door to the mysteries,

hoping to shed a little dark on

all the stuff we think we know

Once I found that poem I knew I wanted this piece to reflect the poem.

It now looks like this. I added 2 hinges from an old barn door and some rusted chicken wire. The last step was to add a key and then the text of the poem at the top. I want those who view it to have to get close enough to it to read the text. I may still add a cool antique door knob plate I have but I am not sure about that yet. For now I am pleased with this. Me and this piece go way back and have quite a history.