A Thank You coupon for you, the reader

Thanks to those of you who stop by and read my blog from time to time and welcome to those folks who are new.  If you go to my etsy shop, www.etsy.com/shop/blage and see something that you fancy put in the coupon code FRIEND20 and you will receive 20 percent off the price.  Now, that's a pretty good deal and the code works through the month of December!  Here are a few things that are available.

Book marks!

An original collage of peaches..

A base relief assemblage.  I add new items every week and will be making limited edition prints of a few pieces soon as well.  So stop by often.

Re opening my Etsy Shop!

Shop is back up and running!  I am adding new pieces evey week and have pieces for everyone's budget.  Bookmarks, collage, collagraph, assemblage, small works...also maybe some vintage pieces from my shop.  So here are a few example of what is available.

Bookmark made from matt board samples, always a favorite!

An altered photo I took of a mourning dove with other wooden bird photos, and paper collage.

And some owls, I am way into owls and making all sorts of owl collages.  This one, however is SOLD!   But I have, some similar ones...

So stop by www.etsy.com/shop/blage and poke around.  Give me some feed back or favorite an item. I will send you a coupon code as reward!  Etsy Shop Blage

Owls on Etsy

 Well, I already sold one owl on etsy so I suppose It is time to list another.  Really this one is one of my favorites and I am probably going have a limited addition print made of him.  However, no name for this piece yet.  Make a comment if you have a suggestion.  You can view and purchase work there, here is the address, www.etsy.com/shop/blage. Although I haven't listed this collage owl just yet.  But soon...

He is staring peacefully at the moon.  This piece is 9x12 on clay board.  

This is the piece hanging in a hallway in my friend Heidi's studio.  Hoot!

Ram in Winter wins first place!

I was so delighted that this collage won first prize at The Plastic Club's "Small Worlds" show.  My work has received honorable mentions in some juried show, but this the first top prize I've ever received.  Not only did it receive the blue ribbon, first place also comes with a cash prize of 150 dollars, and I get to keep the piece.   The show had over 100 entries, including some very accomplished Philadelphia artists and members of the Plastic Club.  So I am pretty proud of my little ram, small but powerful.

Todd Keyser of the Synderman Gallery was the juror for this show.

Mostly likely I will make a limited edition print out of this one as well.  Here is a photo of it that I took for my etsy page to show what it looks like hanging in someone's home.

Do I dare to eat a peach...

Hmm, what is it about a basket full of fresh juicy, fuzzy, aromatic peaches.  Is it because they look like orange furry bums?  Is it the daring act of biting into one, knowing the juice will drip down the chin.  So the above piece is one I worked on in a mixed media workshop at Fleisher, in Philly.  It is made with an assortment of inventory papers made in class and pasted on green matt board.

It has a kind of Eric Carle feel, which I initially did not like because I felt like I stole his ideas... But now, I am ok with it.  Learned from him, went on to express peaches in other ways.

And this one is the peach in the photograph with other decorative papers as a collage on a cigar box top.   If you've ever driven on I 85 south you might recognize my subtle nod to the Gaffney Peach of South Carolina, see it? 

And here is a mixed media on clay board piece in progress.  All of the pieces were inspired from that same photograph I took in Ellijay, Georgia and a love for peaches, of course.

Cherry blossoms

Recently framed this mixed media collage and hung it in my studio. Found a few other paces in the house where it worked well also. Will have to do more of these as I am pleased with this one and working with red back grounds. Currently reading "An Artist of the Floating World" by Kazuo Ishiguro, a novel about a Japanese artist set in postwar Japan. Also experiencing cherry blossoms in real life... A chilly, but welcome spring.

I took a class at the Pennyslvania Academy of Fine Art in Japanese brush painting.  Keiko Miyamori was our instructor and I learned all the traditional strokes for bamboo, plum blossoms, orchids, rocks as well as learning about Japanese paper.   These blossoms I tore from practice paper that I made in class.  The paper for the branches is handmade paper that I purchased at the book, paper scissor event at Th Philadelphia Frre Library.

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Happy year of the snake!

Here is a small collage I made of a joyful Chinese girl. This is part of a series of small "fortune" collages I've been working on each with its own original fortune from a Chinese fortune cookie. Yes, I keep them and have a a little glass house full of them, have been collecting these for years.  This one says, "You will be showered with good fortune."

So below she is hanging with a mask and Russian nesting dolls.  Looks like a happy place to me.

And here is a photo of my glass house of fortunes.  I keep it on a shelf in my studio.