What I'm working on . . . "Kimono Package"

I stumbled upon, online, a "kimono package" for sale. It's a large, padded, multilayered, old, soft, weathered, hand-made packet that, when opened, would contain a Japanese kimono.

And I'm slowly, slowly photographing bits and pieces of it to use in photomontages.

These are examples of what I've made so far, and I haven't even begun to photograph the interior.

I have similar yet very different old Japanese papers from a roll that Kathleen Amt so generously gave to me. That, too, is its own project.

And eventually, the two will merge, creating a third series of images.

For me, the key is slowness. I am giddy about all three projects. Giddiness comes with a price, however, and it would be easy to quickly burn out, and/or become overwhelmed.

Slowness is the watchword for these projects. Difficult to accomplish when one's feeling like a nine-year-old on Christmas Eve . . .

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh.

Little surprises in the mail

From time to time, my friend Kathleen Amt sends me little things in the mail, such as cool matchbox labels, Japanese papers, things she's painted, stuff she has lying around her studio that she thinks I can use. Since we're both weird in the same way, I'm always delighted by what she sends.

Yesterday afternoon I got an envelope from her with this cool heart in it, obviously made from some of her paper stash. Love it!

I then combined it with something I had lying around my own studio -- a heavily textured and layered paper with a white gesso topcoat. I added some cottony thingies, toned down all the colors to unify everything, and here's how Kathleen's heart ended up.

Thank you, my friend, for sending me this. And in the meantime, I'm putting together a package for you -- hopefully just as cool as this heart.

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

ROYGBIV: INDIGO!

Indigo is a tough color to find because there are so many varying tones, ranging from blackish-blue to greenish-blue. But here are three that I think conform to the indigo concept.

The top photo is a combination of photos I took of very old papers given to me by Kathleen Amt and, of the three photos here, it's my favorite. It's probably not YOUR favorite, but that's okay. Something inside me changes when I see it, and that's pretty much my criteria.

And then there's a photo I took of a rubber stamp impression, a rubber stamp I bought in England specifically for this purpose. To it I added some texture, some colors, and three postage stamps.

Finally, I included a photograph of a freighter sailing up the Columbia River in Astoria, Oregon. I toned it a blackish-blue to make the image more monochromatic.

We have been in the Whidbey Island house for a week now. Are we unpacked and everything in its place? Hell no! Were we ready for a heat spell the past few days? No. Were we prepared to have to get rid of a hornet's nest over the door to the deck? For deer that eat hydrangea flowers? For robin-eating owls? For a mowing-induced gnat blizzard? And for what I heard around 4:30 this morning? That would be no, no, no, no, and no. None of that was mentioned in the real estate listing before we bought this house.

So what happened at 4:30 this morning? I'll try to write about it tomorrow . . .

©Carol Leigh
 All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

Thank you to Kathleen Amt (Part 2)

What you're seeing here is a stack of papers that threatens to slide onto the floor in my art studio. All this stuff takes up a good third of my craft counter, leaving me just a small bit of space to create. I'm in the process of sorting this out and putting it all somewhere else.

But lurking in this stack are a lot of papers that Kathleen Amt has sent to me. A couple of them caught my eye and I began to make a collage.

In the second shot you can see the partially-made collage with a couple of paper bits standing by.

I didn't use the translucent "band-aid"-ish paper, but cut up the grey/green/black piece and glued it on.

And then at the end you see the finished work (at least I think it's finished) that I call "Connecting Earth and Sky." Made entirely of paper sent to me by Kathleen. To whom I am so grateful and who I hope to see in a couple of weeks when I go back east for my father's funeral.

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

Thank you to Kathleen Amt (Part 1)

Kathleen Amt, over the past couple of years, has sent me some very cool papers from her INCREDIBLE stash.

Well, this morning, as I continue to clean up my art studio, I came across a paper she'd sent that was obviously from an old Japanese book. It had been cut in some manner and I couldn't figure out what she had had in mind for it. Maybe she didn't know either and so just stuck it into an envelope for me.

But then AHA! I realized what she had done. This paper was going to be an envelope, so I started folding it this way and that and yes, this was an envelope that just hadn't been folded yet. So I traced the paper onto a manila file folder to make a sturdier template for myself. Ooh, the anticipation builds . . .

I then took out a "painting" I had done in the style of Jane Davies (who is a major force in the art and art workshop field and you should take a look at her website and her tutorials). I flipped the paper over and traced Kathleen's template onto it.

I cut the painting, following the template guidelines, and then folded it. Naturally, because I'm HORRIBLE at spatial concepts, Chris had to change my folding a bit, and voila! I have this envelope that is SO COOL. It's about 5.25" high and 7.25" wide. All of a sudden my clunky painting has become a little piece of art that I can mail out to someone. It's ridiculous how stoked I am. I MADE something! I can USE this! I am WONDERFUL!

So let me share this wonderfulness by referring you to Kathleen Amt's collages and photomontages at her Flickr site and also referring you to Jane Davies' website.

Me? I'm gonna go back into the studio and make more envelopes!

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!