Karen's Muse and Musings

Archangel

There is no particular theme at Gothic Arches this week, so I decided to use this black frame I cut out from a magazine. I wanted to use it, so I came up with this archangel. A little play on words — it's an arch and there's an angel. (I can hear the groans!) Once again I turned to that book of French plays and cut out the word, l'archange. For the background, I used a stamp from the Layers of Color architectural blocks set. The stamp is actually half of a block, and I stamped it over and over until I covered the piece. I love this stamp!

Dans ma maison il y a ... vintage!

In our house there is vintage — that's the theme for the week at dans ma maison. I used an actual vintage photo postcard in mine. Aren't those beautiful children? I also used anaglyptic wallpaper which I thought turned out to look like those antique ceiling tiles, so there's more vintage for you.

Gothic Arches Sunday

Here is another arch for my swap with Lisa. When I put it together, I wanted to put a poem or a verse from the Bible on it. Since the other arches had words in French, I thought it would be cool to use French on this one too, but I didn't have anything. So I did an online search and found the Bible in French. You simply type in the reference such as John 3:16, and it will give you the same verse in French. Awesome! The words on the arch come from Hebrews 1:7,

God calls his angels messengers swift as the wind,
and servants made of flaming fire.

My arch below is inspired by my favorite movie, "Enchanted April," and it's my entry for the theme "favorite movie" at Gothic Arches this week. "Enchanted April" is based on the 1922 novel by Elizabeth von Arnim, and it's the story of 4 women who escape rainy London for a month in sunny Italy. It's my "feel good" movie. I have watched it many times, and it never fails to lift my spirits.

 

My Little Pony

Layers of Color Challenge has a fun theme this week — farm animals! I had one of those delightful, serendipitous moments when I discovered the words that peek through on the background just above the horse's head. Barleycorn! Believe me when I tell you I didn't plan that. I just tore out pages from an old thesaurus and pasted them down, not even knowing what I was going to do with the background. I love these moments!

After I finished this piece, I had a flashback to childhood when my sisters and I would visit my cousins on their farm. They had these ponies named Dolly and Sugar that we used to ride until they would get tired of carrying us around on their backs, then they would just lie down on the grass, and off we'd roll! Sometimes the smell of those days — a surprisingly sweet and pleasant scent of horses, grass and apples rotting on the ground — comes and transports me back.

Stamps used: from Layers of Color Flower Child Clear Stamp Set and Stampers Anonymous
Image used: Henry from my collage sheets and appaloosa horse from Dover Clip Art

Dans ma maison il y a ... une fleur!

Faded flower,
faded youth,
gilded with
memory's kiss.

This week, in our house there is a flower. After gluing down layers of text, music, images and handmade papers, I used Willow and Cornflower Antiquing Solutions by Tsukineko to age my piece, and then I brushed or rubbed gold gouache over the textured parts. The flower was lime green, so I also sprayed it with the antiquing solution to get the color I wanted.

Go to Dans ma maison il y a ... to see the other art submitted for this theme.

Angels and Pockets Come Home!

My Stone Angels book and my Pock-et-FULL book have come home to stay! It's always an exciting day when one of my round robin projects comes home to me, but the beauty and quality of the artwork in these books have elevated me far beyond excitement — I'm truly ecstatic.

The Pock-et-FULL book is definitely FULL!

Here are some views from my Stone Angels book.

To all the artists who worked in these books, let me say thank you for doing such a splendid job. Both books are treasures!

Now here's another angel, my little Misu. Her favorite place to be is sitting on top of my desk so she can see everything that's going on. Of course, she doesn't like the cold, hard desk, so she has to have mommy's sweater to lie on.

Night and Day

These arches are for my Oh My Gothic group. This month I swap arches with Lisa Busch, and I was so excited to read that she loves stone angels. As I began working on these, I really had no idea exactly where I was going, but as I worked on the first one with the dark purple colors, the idea occurred to me to use the same angel and do one representing night and one for day. As they came together, I pulled out a book of French plays by Jean Giraudoux. I knew that one of his plays, Sodom et Gomorrhe, had two characters, an angel (L'Ange) and an archangel (L'Archange), and I thought I would just cut out those words. But, as I read the end of the play (slowly — it was in French, afterall), I saw two phrases that seemed perfect for the arches. The world is coming to an end, and one character says, "Forgive me, heaven! What a night!" Another character answers, "Thank you, heaven! What a dawn!"

Our New Angel

We have a new grandson, Robert Jacob. "Bobby" made his entrance into the world yesterday, September 8, 2008, weighing 8 pounds and 15 ounces. He's 19 inches long and perfect in every way.

I had one of those rare days — a day when I had nothing else I absolutely had to do and a day where I really was in the mood to create some art. So that's what I did, and here are the results.

This is my entry for Dans ma Maison il y a un écolier, or in our house there is a school child. I heavily collaged the background on bookboard and covered it with this really cool handmade paper. My friend, Susie, found it for me, and it's ultra-thin with these wonderful threads running through it. It adds such great texture. I framed the old calendar with a stamp from Layers of Color's beaded frames set.

For the Layers of Color challenge, this week's theme is books, so I altered the cover of a purchased journal. I started with a scan of an old ledger page (a gift from Shirley), used a stamp from Layers of Color fleur heart set, and edged it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I added a vintage photo — the actual photo — topped with mica, the word journal with frame and the lace appliqué.

Finally, this is my "pretty in pink" entry for Gothic Arches. Aren't those little girls sweet? There's something about their faces that really touches me. They look sad. I hope it's just because they were a little frightened by the whole photography session, and not because they were actually sad. Hopefully, they went on to live long and happy lives. The background was a page from a Beatrix Potter book on which I stamped with Layers of Color stamps and painted and dry-brushed with acrylic paints.

End of Summer

That's the theme at Gothic Arches this week. As soon as I read the theme proposed by hostess Nancy Dooren, a song immediately came into my head. I knew I had to feature the song, "The Last Rose of Summer."

As I created this arch, I realized I have used this woman's image many times in my art. There is something about her face that I just love. She looks so sweet and kind, beautiful without being glamorous. I suppose I should retire her so all my work doesn't look the same. Well, maybe I'll just give her a vacation!

Take a moment to hear Celtic Women sing this lovely old Irish air on YouTube. It's well worth the time, and if you're like me, it may bring on a few tears, but the good kind.