Art out of Thin Air



Under the Sea



The third annual AOTA exhibition opened to a large and appreciative crowd last Tuesday evening at the Pole Creek Golf Club near
Tabernash, CO. Art Out of Thin Air is a loosly structured coalition of Grand County artists of all media. We meet once a month at varying locations and show our work once a year at Pole Creek.

The above mermaid was runnerup in the people's choice selection. My second entry is the necklace below. For those of you in the area, the show runs until August 1.



copper, glass beads, ammonite



sketches: Day 7

God Blessed the Seventh Day and Made it Holy

By the seventh day God finished the work

 He had been doing, so on the seventh day He rested from all His work.

Genesis 2:2

The center square represents the heavens and the earth and the circle of pearls is the symbol of completion.

sketches: Days 5 and 6

Living Creatures/Man

Genesis 1:20-31

God created the creatures of the sea and every winged bird. (day 5)

God created living creatures according to their kinds. Then God said "Let us make man in our image". (day 6)

God saw all He had made and it was very good.

sketches: Evening and Morning

Evening and Morning

In some translations the Bible concludes every day of creation with "and there was evening and there was morning.....the first day, the second day, the third day, and so forth up to the 6th day.

Our annual drive to Florida starts with a very early morning drive through eastern Colorado before the sun comes up. The upper left hand sketch was inspired by this year's sunrise with the morning star in the sky.

sketches: Day 4

Lights in the Sky

"God made two great lights - the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars"
Genesis 1:14-19

(It always seemed strange to me that vegetation came before the sun was created)

sketches: Day 3

Lands, Seas, Vegetation

Genesis 1:9-13

God said "Let the waters under the sky be gathered to one place and let dry ground appear." God called the dry ground "land" and the gathered waters He called "seas". Then God said "Let the land produce vegetation........"

sketches:Second Day

Separation of the Waters

And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water". God called the expanse "sky".

Genesis 1: 6-8

This was difficult for me to visualize as I am familiar with the images of water on this earth and not "waters" of the heavens. Perhaps the image top/right is the most successful?

sketches: Let There Be Light

Four more sketches on the creation.

Genesis 1:3

"God saw that the light was good and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day" and the darkness He called "night" the first day.

sketches: In the Beginning

A year ago my friend, Sherry Stiles, and I challanged one another to do a sketch a day for a period of time. I decided I was not happy doing drawings on paper and I wanted to do mine with beads. (Needless to say I am not able to do a sketch a day.) Doing these small beaded pieces is giving me a chance to experiment with different ideas, textures and bead stitches. The result of this challange is this first series, "Sketches: Creation" based on the biblical story of the creation of the world. Each "day" consists of 4 2"x2" sketches using glass seed beads stitched on pelon then glued to a 4 3/4" square canvas. I will post a new sketch every day.



"In the Beginning"

Genesis 1: 1&2 - "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."

bracelet and earrings

copper, brass and found metal - textured - heat patinas



copper, paper. aluminum, rubber (?) washers



taking a break

I am on track for having 30 pieces for my show in Sept. with only one more nativity icon to go. So...I thought I would take a break and make some jewelry using the riveting techniques I learned last winter. To prepare for our class Pilar had asked us to bring scraps of material we could use in the bracelet. All I had were some art show invitations and I found their graphics very appealing for the project.  For the jewelry below I used an invitation from Patty Alander's show in Evergreen (with her approval). ( see http://www.alanderart.wordpress.com/) I love Patty's prints and this is one of my favorites. For the bracelet and earrings I used snippets from the invitation. For the necklace I made a small beaded piece framed in copper based on her design. I am going for a "rustic" textured look.  I still need a lot of practice.



necklace, earring and bracelet set of copper, beads and paper

necklace of beads and copper

new icons

I finished mounting 3 new icons yesterday     

untitled Madonna

untitled Madonna 2

Mary's Heart

stones

         Two more pieces in the stones, bones, fossils and shells series.



amber necklace with small amber and glass beads



chalcedony rose bracelet with crystal and glass beads



shells

Continuing the series of natural elements in my jewelry



scallop shell with cut shells, pearls and glass beads



bracelets with assorted shells, glass beads and bone carved face



turban shell with piece of spiney oyster shell, keshi pearls, amber, carnelian and agate beads



bone

pendant with bone, shells and glass beads

Continuing on my series of stone,bone,fossil and shells are these pendants with a face carved of bone.

pendant with carved bone face and fish

one more ammonite pendant

Ammonite, fossil, garnets and glass beads

                           

ammonite necklace

ammonite with crystal and beads

This is my favorite necklace

bones, stones, fossils and shells

ammonite bracelet and leapard jasper bracelet with glass beads

stones, bones, fossils and shells

I wanted to post a lot of photos of my jewelry incorporating natural materials, but this blog is giving me a difficult time today so I am going to try to post one or 2 pieces of jewelry in several separate blogs  over the next few days.

ammonite necklace with glass beads

Ammonites are my favorite fossil and I have incorprated them into several pieces of jewelry - to be continued................................................