It's been a busy week around here

This week was taken up with lots of construction work. As a person with a couple of autoimmune disorders, I usually sleep until about 9 a.m. most days, but that wasn't a possibility this week, as I had to be up before 8 four out of 5 days, and the fifth day, I had to be up at 8. 

But look! They framed my new studio! And put a roof on! And even managed a bit of Tyvek and an installed window (ahead of a rather wet and wild Nor'easter)!

See my sweetheart in the grey, talking to the project manager?

Despite all the NOISE NOISE NOISE NOISE (that's me, channeling the Grinch), I managed to get some work done.

In fact, I did so many boat collages that I can offer you a boat show!

The 8"x10" boat pieces are going to be priced at $80 and the 11"x14" ones will be $100. Holler out if you spy one that you want!

In the next blog post, expect to see the finished studio. Oh my gosh, you guys, I am so excited!

Breaking ground on my new art studio

You guys! Things are getting real around here. I woke up this morning to the sound of men's voices in my backyard. (Which was unexpected and mildly startling, but anyway . . . ) It was the contractor and the masons, here to start digging the foundation and footings for my new art studio.

Can you see Miss Kismet in the window, supervising? 

By the end of the work day, the footings were dug and most of the dirt they removed was carted away. Next up, an inspection . . . and (if all goes as expected) the foundation will be poured on Wednesday

And, um, hey - if you have been looking at my work and would like to help me out by clearing some space before they remove those glass doors and I have to clear half of my living room, just give me a holler. You can see a lot of the available pieces here on my website - three different galleries: one for paintings, one for literary collages, and one for art tambourines.

Support Clean Ocean Action's efforts to stop offshore drilling

Most of you know that I live in southern New Jersey. I live about an hour from the coast, so Morris and I get to the beach a few times each year. The beach is beautiful, but if new proposed regulations are allowed to go through, offshore drilling will change the view forever.

HORRIFYING, isn't it?

The above image came from Clean Ocean Action, an organization dedicated to keeping the New Jersey shore clean. They are currently fighting proposed federal regulations that would open the New Jersey coast to offshore drilling. 

If that organization sounds vaguely familiar to you, it may be because I mentioned them last fall, when I announced a series of acrylic ink pieces I'd made. I've sold three of the original seven, and each sale ($48 each) has contributed $12 to Clean Ocean Action to help them with their cause. 

The four remaining pieces are below, so if one of them "belongs" to you, I will be very happy to mail it to you and pass a donation along to Clean Ocean Action. Meanwhile, whether you are in NJ or elsewhere, know that these proposed regulations involve sea coasts throughout the country (with the apparent exception of Florida due to a personal favor to the governor), so if you don't want to see oil derricks, perhaps consider checking out the information at Clean Ocean Action and leaving a comment before the March 9th deadline.

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If you are interested in any of the above pieces, please let me know and I will be happy to get it in the mail to you (and to turn over $12 per piece to Clean Ocean Action). 

About 10 days until Valentine's Day

And things are still on sale, if you think your loved one would appreciate a literary collage, an abstract painting, or a beautiful piece of art on a tambourine. Take 15% off the listed price, or (if you are signed up for my newsletter) take 20% off.

Tambourines with collage and paint - $60 each.

This week has been a super exciting one here in southern New Jersey. And not just because the Eagles are playing in the Super Bowl and everybody is amped. Just yesterday, my 10x10 tent for art festivals arrived (along with bright blue sandbags to keep it from flying away), and today I got my first shipment of greeting cards, and I am THRILLED with how they turned out!

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New literary collage: "If you were coming in the Fall". $125

I'm hoping to be accepted into several art festivals/craft shows this year, so I've started dreaming what the inside of my booth might look like - and making more items!

If you would like a piece of art for Valentine's Day, please get in touch and order it by February 8th at the latest so I can be certain it will get to you in time!

Valentines Day is coming!

In just under a month, it will be Valentine's Day. Full disclosure: I have occasionally had extremely mixed feelings about Valentine's Day. The cons fall into the "it's a madeup/Hallmark holiday" and (in some times past) "it's here to remind me I don't have a person who means that much to me" categories. The pros fall into "LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE" and it should be celebrated, the "these days I feel pretty good about myself", and the "I am madly in love with my husband, Morris, what's not to love about a day celebrating love?" categories. 

This year, those pro-Valentine's Day vibes are winning out for me. If you love somebody, or want to show some love to somebody (even or especially if that somebody is yourself!), then it might interest you to know that I'm running a sale in honor of the day, because we could all use a little love in our lives, and probably some new artwork as well! So if you are interested in the sparkly new things in this here post, or in any of the pieces on my website (I promise, I'm working on how to make the galleries more "shop-able"!), I'm gifting you with 15% as a way of sending a little love your way. (Newsletter subscribers get 20% off - and they've known about this sale for a week already!)

“And love is love is love is love is love is love is love”

— Lin-Manuel Miranda

How about making a little noise about your feelings? Try art on a tambourine. Each of these includes hand-done collage and painting, and will come with ribbons, ready to hang (or play). $60 each before your 15% V-day discount (20% discount for newsletter subscribers).

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Not feeling the (tambourine) music? That's okay—there's some quieter (in decibels) artwork available, including these brand-new literary collages. If you click on them, the embiggen and given you more details on size, materials, and pricing:

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Collage, mixed media, hand stamping, and a wee original drawing on a 9"x12" canvas board, featuring a quote from Shakespeare's Sonnet 116.

Here's a linky-link to the gallery where you'll find my literary collages (including a sweet little rose with some Sense & Sensibility text collaged in and a number of quotes that might be just the thing you (or someone you love) will love. And here's another link to the other paintings I've got available, including a sweet little bird collaged from hand-marbled papers and some abstracts. If you think any of these pieces are just what the Cupid ordered for Valentine's Day (or any other occasion), just get in touch with me and claim your piece! I'll get it packed up and in the mail for you, and get your my PayPal info for payment!

Kismet in the Cold

For many, many years, I've had a blog at the (now unfavored) LiveJournal, where I mostly kept my writing. Original poems, interviews, and book reviews, lengthy series about Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and more. It is still in use, but I am considering winding it down, quite frankly. However, I have an ongoing poetry project with five (sometimes six) beloved poetry sisters, and we write new poems each month on agreed-upon topics or using agreed-on forms.

Kismet sleeping on my legs.

This month's assignment was to write a sonnet (on any topic we wanted). I chose to write about Kismet, my six-year old calico.

I watch small brown birds puffed fat against cold
peck gravel for small sustenance at best.
A finch, a wren, some dark-eyed juncoes wrest
the smallest bit of God-knows-what. I hold
the cat up to the window, where she tries
to follow hops and jumps, small bursts of flight.
We both pretend she’d catch them all, despite
us knowing that is all a flock of lies.
She’s lived inside a house since she was small,
found toddling by a highly trafficked street,
a tiny, bat-eared calico fuzzball
with pink toe-beans on all four small white feet.
    She asks to be put down, climbs in my lap,
    curls up, then dreams of birds during her nap.

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I am unsure whether the rest of the poems will move here or not, but as this is ART & WORDS, I thought I'd see how it goes.

At the Turning of the Year

Here in southern New Jersey, the light has started to grow a bit each day since the Winter Solstice, though the Arctic air has swept down upon us and looks to stay for another week or so, with the winter months still to come. 

The view into the back yard during last week's snow. Note that the patio closest to the house has been torn up in advance of construction of my new art studio.

It's no longer snowy here, but it's so cold that I've taken to wearing fingerless gloves much of the day and drinking lots of hot tea to keep warm. We have heat, of course, but I don't see the need for us to crank it super high, and cold manages to seep in through the slab, I suppose. 

Tea time

I am loving this beautiful mug, which was a gift from my older daughter.

I have responded to the cold in my art as you might expect: by using warm and/or bright colors. I recently completed my Buddha painting, as you can see below, and have started working on some tambourines (art that makes noise!) and a large canvas full of brightness.

Buddha head

Acrylic paints and glazes on 24" square canvas.

Detail from work in progress

Acrylic paints and inks on 24"x36" canvas.

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Construction on our addition is likely to occur in January, once this cold snap breaks. Our permits have been issued, and we are excited to get underway, though I confess to dreading the noise and commotion that is sure to accompany it. But it will be a delight to have a designated studio space, and to allow us an uncluttered living room.

This week, I've been working on business planning for 2018. It includes creating some new pieces for Valentine's Day, and hopes for several different in-person sorts of sales events in addition to my website.

And now, there is nothing left for me to do but to wish you and yours a happy, healthy, and peaceful New Year.

Some of the Literary Collages Available

Today, I thought I'd feature the available literary collages here.

You can click on any of the images below to open the "lightbox" - a way of seeing the full piece you've clicked on. Once you click on one, you can hover over it with your cursor and get the details (size, price, media, etc.) 

AS NOTED in my prior blog post, we are about to break ground on my studio addition here in southern New Jersey, and I'd love to clear out some space around here for when they break through my living room wall, so all of the pieces on my website are 25% off, with free shipping in the US.

Just in time for hygge season, it's a 25% off sale!

Hygge (pronounced hue-gah) is the Danish word for the idea of inside winter coziness - you know the sort of thing: warm socks, afghans, fires in the fireplaces, and snuggling. It's like hunkering down, but perhaps without the sort of isolated bunker-mentality that sometimes elicits. As you can see from the photo below, my cat Kismet has this down to an art form:

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Autumn - overlooked my knitting -

Speaking of art forms (were we not?), I've been making slow progress on some larger pieces as well as on a few literary collages. Above is one that I completed not long ago - it features text from an Emily Dickinson poem, "Autumn--overlooked my knitting--".  It's now available in the "Literary Collage" section on my website, if you're interested, at a cost of $150. (25% off from now until end of December.)

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Ooh!

These are actual building plans.

For a brand-new art studio here at my house.

In this season of hygge, I am about to endure weeks of daily assault on my quiet and sanity. On the plus side, in the end, I'm going to have a wonderful new art studio to work in. In the meantime, I'm going to have to move a lot of . . . STUFF . . . in our current living room in order to safeguard it from the work area. And that means I'd really, truly like to sell some finished art. Not just to make money (though who doesn't like money), but because our relatively small house is going to be really hard to navigate if I have to move all this artwork into the hallway and other rooms.

In light of the foregoing, I am offering a HUGE incentive to collectors: TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT (25%) OFF of any piece here on my website. And I'll give you free shipping to addresses in the US as well. 

Why not add to the feeling of hygge in your home by adding some new artwork, while I'm unable to enjoy much of the quite and cozy for a while?

When you don't have designated studio space...

Making art is messy, yo. And that is abundantly on display here at our house.

A tarp, a table, an easel, a cart . . .

There's a canvas tarp folded in half and spread beneath my entire working space. A small folding sewing table that I inherited from my grandmother. It is covered with newspaper, pencils, pens, brushes, some in-process works and more. A lovely new easel that my husband bought me to support me in my work, literally. A teal IKEA cart that holds some of my supplies - stamping stuff on the bottom tier, oil and chalk pastels plus bubble wrap in the middle, gel mediums and other items up top. 

The chair is one I bought at a flea market 25 years ago for $1. There are stacks of canvases in various states of completion leaning against furniture and walls. Boxes full of mark-making tools (foam brushes, rollers, stencils and more), paints (Golden paints in bottles and tubes in one, FW Daler & Rowney acrylic inks and Liquitex soft body acrylics in another). A rattan trunk full of papers for collage. A basket of ribbons for "decorative trim". All of it quite literally in the middle of the living room, as you can see.

I can't work whenever I want

You can see last week's Eagles-Giants game on the screen in the background. I'm an Eagles fan, but my husband is a much bigger one. And since he tolerates my mess, I don't work when they play, because I'd be blocking his view of the screen, and that would be unfair.

Buddha

Buddha reminds me to keep calm. You can see him on the floor at the left of the above photo, but here is what he looks like just now. This colorful canvas whispered that it wanted a face, and it turned out it wanted a Buddha face. It is not *quite* done yet, but it's getting very close. And it is a nice reminded to keep calm while I carry on making my artwork.

New items

What I just started working on is a new series of autumn-themed pieces that include layers written in pencil, which are from the poems of Emily Dickinson. "If you were coming in the fall" and "Autumn—overlooked my knitting—".

IT'S A CONTEST!

At present, I have 10 people signed up for the newsletter here on my website. You can sign up on my home page using the form at the bottom of the page. 

When I get to 30 subscribers, I am going to pull a name from among all my subscribers and the winner will receive this print of my Raven piece.

It's a signed 8"x10" print and will arrive to you rolled in a mailing tube. (The print is seen above weighted by a mug on the left and some pistachios in a jar on the right. Mug and pistachios not included in raffle.)

Doing the work

This week, I've completed a collage/mixed media piece using handmade marbled paper and begun several new pieces.

Copyright Kelly Ramsdell 2017

Isn't this little bird cute? He's hand-cut from handmade marbleized paper, and collaged onto an 8"x10" canvas. He's moving into the "Art for Sale" gallery this evening.

The above images aren't full-sized (heck, it's a 24"x30" canvas), but they show the progression of the first four layers of a new larger work in progress. Below are two smaller pieces - the pastel smears are over top of a completed project on an 18"x24" canvas that really wasn't working for me. I already like it so much better than when it started. And the other is on a 9"x12" canvas board, showing the first two layers on a new collage. Those bright splashes were made by applying paint to actual maple leaves.

It's so much fun working with both summer and autumn palettes at the same time!

Rainy Days and Mondays I & II

On a rainy Monday a few weeks back, I began a new piece using acrylic inks and acrylic paints in lush greens and blues based on what I was seeing outside through the rain-drenched window. Over a four- to five-day period, I kept coming back to it, adding new layers and bits, and eventually adding a bit of white gel pen, too, because it seemed to want it. In the end, Rainy Days and Mondays looked like this:

Rainy Days & Mondays I (Copyright Kelly R. Ramsdell 2017)

Imagine my surprise the following Monday when it was again a rainy morning. I started a new canvas to reflect the yummy rainy day outside, and called it Rainy Days & Mondays II. This one is more blue than green, though of course it has greens and browns in it.

Rainy Days & Mondays II (Copyright Kelly R. Ramsdell 2017)

"What I feel has come and gone before
No need to talk it out
We know what it's all about"

Rainy Days & Mondays rarely get me down.

Tour of my "studio" space

I don't know about you, but if you are anything at all like me, you are interested in seeing where artists work. In my case, at present, it is in the middle of our living room. And yes, it means I have an exceptionally tolerant and supportive husband - especially since if left to his own devices, everything would be exceedingly tidy. Instead, it looks like this:

Copyright Kelly R. Ramsdell 2017

As you can see, there's nothing tidy about the entire situation. 

Some of my supplies are stored in boxes, and some of those boxes fit under a nearby piece of furniture. Others . . . don't. Some of my supplies are stored in a swell teal cart from IKEA. Some are jammed behind pieces of furniture or stored in an entirely separate room.

My workspace, which you can see a closeup of below, consists of a collapsible sewing table that I inherited from my grandmother, which is set on top of a large tarp that also houses the swell new easel that my sweetheart purchased for me recently as a gift. The table usually holds my butcher tray palette, a container of water, spray bottles, pencils, paint markers, brushes, and occasionally gel medium, as well as whatever paints I'm using at the moment. 

Copyright Kelly R. Ramsdell 2017

You can see a copy of in-progress pieces on the left there. The bird is cut and collaged from marbleized paper that I made in a workshop a while back. Isn't he cheery?

Farewell, my lovely

A couple weeks ago, I began a painting that I call EXPLORE, my first really big painting at 30x40" in size. It began looking a bit like this: 

Eventually, after many additional layers of acrylic paints and inks, it looked like this:

Finished

And now, it's getting packed up and shipped off to California, because it sold right off my easel just that fast.