My Friend David Designing His Life Gracefully

http://gracefuldesignsonline.com/index.html

Hello,

I would like to put out there that a dear friend of mine named Dave and his lovely wife Beth have a beautiful website - featuring all kinds of down to earth items such as herbs, rocks, along with beautiful handmade jewelry, and other earth friendly items for sale.

Dave started a blog - and he and his wife are on an amazing adventure traveling through the western part of United States (They are from New Jersey - Atlantic City area).  I always knew Dave was a good writer - (both he and his wife Beth are outstanding Artisans/Craftsmen) and I look forward to reading his posts and following their adventures.

Check out the site - read the posts.  You will be glad you did.  It is good reading, and a good place to purchase reasonably priced hard to find - one of a kind American Made items as well as to exchange ideas.

Sincerely,

oxoxox Daisy Rita

PIGGING OUT

I’ve come to start referring to my collages as “paper paintings” – I collage on all kinds of items, (canvas, cigar boxes, plates as well as piggy banks).  

 

Although I had a lot of holiday projects to complete for the Christmas season – and a painting to prepare for the art exhibit – I still found time to get to work on my collage pig series.  On several pigs I finished the first phase of the collage - which was laying down the first layer of paper.  

 This is a side view of Pig #1 For Baby - here you can see a cut out of a little girl holding a crescent moon along with miniature prints of a butterflies I've painted. 

This is a photo of the front of Pig #1 For Baby.    On this pig I collaged a lot of images such as butterflies - birds and birds nests - beach scenes - kitties - as well as a 4 leaf clover.

This is a view of the pig facing left.

This is the view from the rear.

 This view is taken from the bottom on an angle. 

This is a photograph of the mixed media collage of Violet and Tino - all ready and framed - to be entered into the Galloway Township Cultural Arts Center's Art Exhibit this Saturday (January 14, 2012) - This painting as well as many more paintings by some really amazing artists will be on display open to the public at the Galloway Township Library - for nearly two months.  Come on out and give your eyes a treat.  We have some amazing artists in this area.  The phone number for the library is (609) 652-2352.

Thank you to the Judges for the "Honorable Mention" Award.  It really is an honor to win an award.

Tino and Violet Collage Finished - Prior to Framing

 

This is Violet and Tino prior to framing.  This is the finished piece.  What I had done was a reverse collage - (I'm not sure if that is the correct term) - I had collaged all the items "behind" the glass.  In reverse to what I would have done had I collaged them on top of the glass.

First I used modpodge to collage the pastel painting to the glass - then around the immediate edges I glued red and pink papers - followed by floral papers.  I came across a wrapping paper that had flowers that reminded me of Violet's Shirt.  I tore the flowers apart and glued them all around the image.

Once the image was dry I then used white acrylic paint to paint behind Violet's image and red acrylic paint to paint around the collaged edges.  I believe the back painting helped enhance all the other colors.

Preparing Violet and Tino for the Art Exhibit Next Week

After weeks of preparation - I am finally finishing up the mixed media portrait of Violet and Tino.   The portrait was originally done in pastel on an acrylic painted background.  Here I took the painting and modpodged it to glass.   For the matting I am reversing the collage elements of with various papers depicting pinks, and some floral to tie in the floral on Violet's shirt as well as the blues.

As you can see I am working at the kitchen table - as it is freezing outside - making it too cold to work in my studio in the basement.  Hopefully Violet and Tino will look good enough for me to exhibit in the Galloway Cultural Arts Center next week.