A Work in Progress

Belinda Schneider

Belinda Schneider is so talented!  And she is really nice as well.  She is a German artist, and I have been fortunate enough to be a in few swaps with her.  She says she is just a hobbyist, but I love her artwork and I am sure she could sell her work!  She has even graced the cover of Somerset Studio.  She does all sorts of creative work--collage, fabric quilting, rubber stamping, book arts.  This is one of the ATCs I received of hers in a past swap.  It is made out of fabric.  I love the Audrey Hepburn picture and the cool netting she used.  I mentioned here a while back that I wanted to make A Woman's House--this is an online tutorial on the ArtChix website using a cardboard house that they sell.  Unfortunately that has not happened so far due to my precarious credit card situation!  Eventually...I hope.  Needless to say, I am always inspired by her artwork!

Sarah Fishburn

Since I have accomplished exactly nil in the collage/paper arts area as of late, I thought I would share some artwork that I received through swaps from other artists.  This ATC  was made by Sarah Fisburn, whose art I really admire.  It is the only card I have by her, and I count myself lucky to have it.  I love all my ATCs, but it is always cool to get an ATC from a known artist.  Sarah's artwork has appeared in various magazines, and books, and I think she may even teach classes occasionally.  I love the work she did in the journal project--"True Colors" (see my list of books on the left).  She is very talented and I love her work! 

Unexpectedly Good

I have been watching a lot of movies lately.  I guess I have been buying more DVDs lately since you can find them so much cheaper now.  I decided to re-join Columbia House's DVD club (a long time ago I had been in the video club), and you get to choose however many DVDs up front.  I ran out of movies I really wanted, so I had to choose a few that I normally probably wouldn't buy in the store.  This was one of them.  I watched it over the weekend, and it was unexpectedly good.  I thought it would be more of a teenager oriented movie, but that wasn't really the case.  Julia Stiles plays a pre-med student at the University of Wisconsin.  Luke Mably is the prince of Denmark.  Of course they meet (she unaware that he is a prince), she dislikes him at first, they end up getting together--you know the storyline!  But it was very cute, and entertaining.  It is definitely something I will watch again when I just want something lighthearted.  Hopefully the other movies I chose will end up being as good.

Dulce

Since Chispa got her moment of fame, I thought Dulce should get a little time here as well.  Dulce is Chispa's mom.  Not much resemblance is there?  Dulce was a stray who decided to adopt us.  She would come around and hang out with us on the porch.  I decided to take her in and give her a home when I discovered she was pregnant.  Then I had second thoughts--thinking of a brood of little kittens in my house.  When Dulce disappeared I figured she had found somewhere to have her litter.  That somewhere ended up being one of our window wells.  There is a board that covers it, but she had just enough room to get in and out.  As it turns out she only had two kittens and one of them died.  Once Chispa was a few weeks old they got to come inside permanently.  Dulce still looks longingly outside, but I don't let her out.  Chispa is quite happy being inside.  Anyway, they are two lucky kitties--a nice home, food when they want it, windows to watch the world, and humans to entertain them!

The Ninth Gate

Hmm.  I am not sure how I feel about this one.  I knew going into it that it was only loosely based on Arturo Pererz-Reverte's "The Club Dumas".  I was actually surprised that it was so similar to the book.  Johnny Depp did a great job as Corso.  And it even had that same quirky feeling as the book.  It was serious but there was also a thread of humor running through it.  I thought the film did a good job of presenting that.  I guess my disappointment comes from the ending.  I hated the ending.  It was just a little too dark for me.  As usual, I guess, I prefer the book to the movie!

Sanctuary

This is Sanctuary by Drawn Thread.  (Sorry not a very good quality picture--the colors are all washed out).  I am rather proud of it, as it took me ages to stitch.    It is one of the larger designs I have stitched so far.  It is also nearly all specialty stitches and some cross stitching.  It was really enjoyable to work on this one.  The only thing I did differently was leave off the hemstitching on the edges.  I just framed it as it.  It was stitched on Lambswool with needlepoint silks.  There are some other Drawn Thread designs that I have in my stash that I want to stitch as well.  Since I now have a digital camera, I can photograph my framed works.  Too bad I have given several away, so I don't have a record of all I have stitched.  Now I need to work on lighting them, so you can actually see some detail!

Brit Lit/Chick Lit

Lately I have been posting a lot about books.  I haven't had much extra time to do any art, but I can take a book to work as well as needlework and make progress in those areas.  Dragging paper and paste with me wherever I go just isn't feasible.  As I am off work Monday, I hope to have something in the art department to post about, but we'll see what happens this weekend.

At the moment I am reading (nearly finished with actually) a British author.  It is not on my reading list as I bought this from Amazon in the UK.  I really love British fiction.  I admit to getting into the whole Bridget Jones thing, though I feel like it has run its course now (but that seems to be just about all I can find sometimes in the bookstore...).  I do still enjoy a nice fiction/romance/chick lit once and a while, though.  This looked promising, though I have had mixed feelings about it as I have been reading it.  There are two storylines, one set in the time of the Roman Empire (but this is a small part of the book), and a contemporary story.  It isn't always necessary to like the characters, though it does help.  I am not sure how I feel about most of the characters in this book.  I did get to a point where the story picked up and took off.  It was a bit hard to get into it at first.  Now I am less than 100 pages from the ending.  Although this book has been so-so (though notice I will finish it soon...so I didn't exactly set it aside), I will have to share some other British fiction that has been pretty exceptional!  It is not like there is not already plenty published in the US, but I have to go "abroad" to find even more to read!  It is good I don't read any other languages well enough to tackle a whole book!!

Cuisine a la Martha S.

I love this little cooking magazine.  I love it so much, that I am now subscribing to it.  To be honest I am not much of a cook.  I am more of an armchair cook, if there is such a thing.  But I like thinking about cooking.  Sometimes I do try something new, and sometimes it turns out...and sometimes it doesn't.  That is what puts me off cooking...the doesn't part.  But the recipes here seem fairly easy.  I do plan on trying some of them.  I am a better baker than cook, so those will most likely be the recipes I start with.  You'll notice that some of my blog links are for cooking blogs, which I love to visit.  The people who write them seem to really love food (and I don't mean in a gluttony sort of way).  I think if I had a more appreciative audience I might be more adventurous, but my family is a pretty picky bunch.  So I will start with something like this month's recipe for carrot cake (yum) or chicken with garlic-pepper sauce...nothing too exotic!  Bon appetit!

The Club Dumas

I just finished reading "The Club Dumas" by Arturo Perez-Reverte.  He is something, I tell you!  Ages ago I read "The Flanders Panel" and remember really liking it, though I vaguely remember something about the book that was odd or unusual.  This was a great read, too.  It is the sort of book, that I wish I was still reading.  There are a lot of literary and historical references.  Some I was familiar with and some I was not.  But it didn't seem to detract from the story when I wasn't familiar with something.  Lucas Corso, the main character, is a bit of an antihero.  He is a mercenary who tracks down antique books--for the right price.  There are two storylines going--one dealing with an original manuscript by Alexandre Dumas, and the other about a book that deals with demonology.  So of course Corso gets himself in all sorts of dark situations.  Despite the somewhat dark nature of the book, there are some seriously funny parts. I have to say the ending was sort of odd.  It was sort of anti-clamactic, but considering the story itself, it actually really works.  I have the all of Perez-Reverte's other books (except for his most recent still in hardcover), and I plan on reading them all eventually.  I also plan on watching the movie, The Ninth Gate, by Roman Polanski.  It stars Johnny Depp, who is also quite unconventional in my opinion.  He should be perfect for the part of Corso!  I have read that it only follows one of the storylines and the ending is different.  I will try and keep that in mind, so I don't end up disappointed!  Hopefully I can watch it this weekend.  Bravo Mr. Perez-Reverte!

Now on to my new Elizabeth George...   

Assemblage Artist Extraordinaire

I think anyone who does altered art would appreciate the art of Joseph Cornell (1903-1972).  I discovered his art not too long ago, and I found a nice little book about his art and life in the Daedalus catalog.  So now I get to read up on him.  He began creating assemblages in the 1930s using the refuse of daily life.  Most of his art was made in little boxes or within frames, and I have read he sometimes took years to complete an assemblage.  If you Google for images of his work, you can get a glimpse of his art.  His assemblages are really interesting, and I think modern artists really owe a lot to him.  I believe he was the first to use everyday objects as part of his artwork.  If you are looking for a little inspiration--take a look at his work!