Cabinet of Curiosities

Art and images copywrite 2009 by Traci Donahue

January Cabinet

This was a fun theme. I had this shadowbox decoupaged in old Sear's catalog pages in the back of my workshop and only found it when I was looking for something else. Don't ya love it when that happens? I threw a light coat of gesso on it and than proceeded to search for stuff to fill it. I take a walk with the dog and cat every day and find some really cool stuff along the way. Most of these things have come to the house from different directions. The snails, wasp nest, moss and twig are directly from here. The Paulownia pods came from my MIL's tree. I found the agates in the gravel pile we had. The other rock I found, but I can't remember where. The little skulls were found in various places on the road and in the trees. The antler was part of a stash from Harlan's ex-FIL and was shot in 1947. And the dried paperwhite flower is from an arrangement by Cynthia.

Now I get to go looking for more stuff to collect!

Art and images copyright 2009 by Z'anne Bakke

Cabinet of Curiosities - Walks in the Watershed

Every day, Mari, my canine companion and I, take a walk. Though it's just minutes from downtown, Johnson Creek floods and leaves in its wake a lot of open space in my neighborhood. Just last week I found the 2 point deer antlers under a tree. And then I found a complete cat skeleton, also under a tree. Only my friend Tory B really understands my collection habit. These curiosities came from our daily wanderings, as well as a few second hand store forays. Though the detail is minimized, if you visited my front entry way you'd find birds nests, fresh water clam shells, feathers, seeds, odd things with no names. Perhaps I'm part crow. This one deserves a bigger canvas . . . perhaps some day.



Guess I'm a rule breaker . . . probably a reason I got kicked out of Girl Scouts. So here's a second Cabinet of Curiosities. This one's my husbands collection. Couldn't resist. I used the photoshop "Cutout" option to give this the texture that may be visible on your monitor. I'll let the images speak for themselves. If they could talk, we might be in trouble however!

Suzie

Art and images copyright 2009 by Suzie Wolfer

Amphibians

A quilt square pieced on a muslin foundation was mounted on a stretched canvas with matte
medium. A transparency printed from my sketch of frogs was attached using my old Camp Fire Girls honor beads. I nailed through the beads and into the stretcher frame. The beads do not appear in this picture because the computer scan was done before this last step so that the picture would lie flat on the scanner. The final product looks just a bit different.

Art and images copyright 2009 by Judi Stack

She Who Carries the World on Her Back

I loved working with the turtle and felt inspired with this challenge.

To start I found an image of a wise looking turtle, mounted it on very thin paper clay and embossed the shape into it. Then I painted a piece of bristol paper with watered down acrylic. Wish I had used hot press water color paper but live and learn. When that dried, I glued down the embossed turtle image then gilded over the top of everything. Once that dried I used pumice powder to remove much of the gilding then glazed with stamp pad ink and a little more acrylic wash. Then I scratched and sanded to give more texture. Last step was to lay down an image transfer of her head and touch up with very fine point black pen. The light catches her in many differnt moods that don't show up on a scan.

I like her!

Art and images copyright 2009 by Suzie Wolfer

Hidden

I call this creation, "Hidden". It is a chameleon hiding among the grasses and leaves. After pondering several other ideas to create for the December Reptile and Amphibians Challenge I decided to create a chameleon. The ability for a chameleon to change colors was my inspiration.

Since I love creating works using snippets and bits of items rescued from the trash can in my art room that became the medium of choice. The background consists of snippets fused on an 8"x8" paper, then the chameleon was created separately on a fabric scrap. Once I had the chameleon completed I pinned it to the background, stuffed a small amount of polyfill for dimension, stitched the chameleon to the background and finished the detail by trimming it with multi yarn on the top of the head. Grass and follage was created using feathers and a two-toned scrap of ribbon. Once all was complete the eye was added.

As you can see the chameleon's main color is a combo of blue and green but it is beginning to take on the colors - pink,orange,yellow,lavender,etc. - found in the background.

This was my first attempt to create a fused piece since my surgery. Thanks to my husband's assist with cutting large fabric pieces for me I was able to use my left hand to complete the chameleon. Boy, it feels good to be able to create again!

Art and images copyright 2009 by Marylin Huskamp

Amphibians and Reptiles

I could not decide which reptile or amphibian I wanted to use, so I used them all - snake, gecko, turtle and frog. Freehand sketch with watercolor on hot press D'Arches paper. Enjoy!

Art and images copyright 2009 by Jan Harris

Amphibian

I have to admit, that December's challenge was just that... A CHALLENGE. I struggled quite a bit with the subject matter, and how to best represent either amphibian or reptile.

I am pleased with the results of my labor, as this piece took me much longer to complete. I also wanted to continue with the exploration of pattern, which is represented in this piece by the marsh foliage, shown in the upper portion of the work, trailing off into what is the watery depths surrounding the lily pad.

Art and images copyright 2009 by Tracie Lyn Huskamp

Zentangle Ssssssnakes

I had fun with this project. I started it before all the snowfall and then got a nasty abscessed tooth. That put me about two weeks behind, but I was able to think about how I wanted to display my snakes. If you don't know about Zentangle check out their site and see what cool things you can do with a pen and piece of paper.

I Zentangled my snakes, used color pencils to color the background, glued it down to the painted canvasboard, cut up duct tape to use as a frame for the snakes, added a glow in the dark plastic snake and the sssss and called it done. It's a funky piece and different than what I probably would have done it I wasn't on drugs. For my tooth, drugs for my tooth. ;)

Art and images copyright 2009 by Z'anne Bakke

Reptiles and Amphibians

Art and images copyright 2009 by Cynthia Mooney

Fauna - Ferret

Art and images copyright 2009 by Cynthia Mooney

Field Notes

Art and images copyright 2009 by Cynthia Mooney

3-D Fabric Mixed Media Snake

Happy New Year everyone! I've been working on this piece for a couple of weeks on and off. I took the quilted pet portrait idea and made the image 3-D. The head is polymer clay with wire fangs and a sequin eye- very mixed media. For the next challenge, I'll be creating with a different medium- not sure what yet. I have enjoyed working with fabric. Hope you are warm and cozy.

Art and images copyright by Paula McNamee 2009

A Litte Bird from Traci

This photo doesn't quite capture the presence and spirit of this little bird! As you can see, she's an active creature, looking for nesting materials already. And how amazing to realize your husband was our postman! Is his name Ken?

I'd love to know how you made this! It doesn't feel like fimo, clay or plaster of paris! And it's very strong. Your painting is amazing. Thanks Traci! I love it. She decorated our table for our New Years Day gathering.

Suzie

PS I had to go back and check the instructions to see if we were supposed to make birds. There are so many cute ones!

This Lizard Was Placed...

As I was walking through a farmer's market in Seattle last April, the bright green lizard caught my attention. At first, I thought it was alive, but a few minutes later, I discovered that it was not. But I found it to be a neat gimmick for grabbing most visitor's attention because of the color contrast between dark green and bright orange colors.


Art and images copyright 2009 by Andrew Borloz