Collage Background Page

Here’s another simple way to make a background for a collage. Take a magazine you like, and flip through it, looking for colors you like. Avoid detailed photographs or words. Big patterns are fine, but keep them in small amounts.

Rip out long strips of color, keeping them vertical. Stripes and patterns should run up and down. You can tear or cut. I like a mix of both.

You don’t have to stick with one color, but keep the values the same. In the example, the values are all medium to dark, and the colors are all in the gold-brown/ gold-green range.

Many people work “intuitively,” placing pieces as they pick them up. I prefer to shuffle the papers till I see what works, then glue. That way, I can focus on the gluing technique rather than look out for color placement, size and glue technique all at the same time.

Start from the middle and work out. Keep the color uniform, it’s a background and you can soften it later. You are looking for an even overlap, mixing torn and cut edges, and adjusting the pieces so that not all overlap in one direction.

I used matte gel medium, in a heavier consistency, and I take an extra step: I apply gel medium to the back of the paper first, then let it dry. When I work on the front, it doesn’t warp or buckle.

Next step: Creating the collage. We’ll do that as soon as the collage is completely dry.

–Quinn McDonald is a collage artist who focuses on words in her art. She creates journal pages in collage fashion, and is working on an art book as well. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2007 All rights reserved.

Freeway Art

The original blog (posted on Aug. 12) disappeared while I was editing it. Here is the re-write.

The 17 freeway in Phoenix is an art gallery of sorts. We actually drove longer than we intended to, just to see the art on the exit ramps, around bridge abutments, and on the sound barriers along long, otherwise empty stretches.

Some of the overpasses are encased in fencing, and the top is jagged, to match the mountains in the distance.

There are murals of big cactus plants, complete with red tile squares for flowers on the exit at Frank Lloyd Wright Road. There is a topographical gecko–green stucco with attached layers that give it a three dimensional look.

There are geometric, repeating patterns on the walls–simple circles and lines, repeating incised patterns, triangles, wavy lines.

Why art on the freeway? Because art is public and meant to be enjoyed everywhere. Art inspires, calms, and often challenges. I’m sure there were a few council members who grumped at the cost. But it makes for a good impression of a sprawling city, and it speeds up the time of the drive.

–Quinn McDonald is a writer and artist, who recently returned from vacation in Phoenix. She recommends the freeway, particularly from 7th St. to the 101 South as good viewing. See her work at QuinnCreative.com. (c) 2007 All rights reserved. Images: circle on entrance ramp, Quinn McDonald. Mural: Kristine Kollasch, I-17 and 7th St., Phoenix. Cactus Mural: members. virtualtourist.com

Different Teachers, Different Styles

Part of the joy of going to an art retreat is experiencing the different techniques taught by different teachers. The only thing the classes I took had in common were a need for speed. Each teacher thought it was important not to over-think technique. Consequently, we were given one minute, sometimes less, to accomplish a piece.

In the design class, the final exercise was to completely cover a given background, using one color family as a main color and another as an accent. We had to start from the middle and work out. We had three minutes to complete the piece, and that included ripping out pages from a magazine.

The class was a buzz of ripping and cutting, then silence as glue was applied before the buzzer sounded.

The other was a hand-lettering class, in which we kept working on two pages of our journals. We did a background, overpaint, wipeoff, lettering, push and pull exercise. All on one page. The teacher kept telling us we should be finished already, then she’d race on to the next instruction.

I enjoyed both classes. And I don’t need to identify which image fits which class.

–Quinn McDonald is an artist and writer. She just returned from Art Unraveled, an art retreat in Phoenix, AZ. (c) 2007 All rights reserved.

Intransigent Technology

In the cab on the way to the airport, I grinned. The camera I always forget was with me. An older digital that I finally figured out with my brother’s help. In Phoenix, I took pictures. I didn’t hear the usual shutter sound, but you don’t on a digital. It ate up batteries really fast, but it was hot, and heat wears out batteries.

Once back home, I downloaded the pictures. It took a while, but 10 of them downloaded. When I opened them, they were little movies. Jerky images of the inside of a rental car, then one great view, then more jerky views of the inside of the rental.

At the airport, the camera had been singled out for hand inspection, and somehow the knob that selects the type of image got turned from ‘automatic’ to ‘video.’

The videos are huge kilobyte eaters, which accounts for the fast battery use. They run beautifully in Quicktime, but I don’t know how to convert them. And there is something about landscapes with cacti that don’t really need the video format.

Sigh. I’m behind the times in my knowledge. Again. And there is a certain intransigence of inanimate objects that always baffles me. If you know how to convert them, please tell me. My email address is below. Then I can post some. Meanwhile, here is a shot of a desert plant I took last April when I was in Phoenix.

–Quinn McDonald loves taking pictures, but knows nothing about videos. If you can help, writer her at QuinnCreative [at] Yahoo [dot] com. (c) 2007. All rights reserved. Particularly on that video. I don’t want it on YouTube.

What I Learned About August in AZ

1. It’s pizza-oven hot. 115 degrees.

2. But it’s a dry heat. 21 percent humidity. So you can breathe in the pizza oven.

3. Leave your car and melt cups. Yep, you leave your car in a parking lot and everything inside melts. You can boil water inside a car. Well, maybe not. I haven’t tried it. But I did melt a plastic cup.

4. Watch what you touch. You get in the rental car, and the seat is fabric. But the steering wheel, the seat belts, the shift knob are finger-searing. You burn your fingerprints off.

5. Take a dip in the pool. The pool is a cool 90 degrees. Really. Because your skin is heated to 115 degrees, 90-degree water feels cool. You get out of the pool and the water evaporates so fast that your teeth chatter. You are standing in 115 degree heat and you dry in less than 60 seconds. I did some hand wash and put it out on a pool chair. Ten minutes and the wash was dry.

6. Everywhere you go, you are offered a bottle of water. And you are grateful for it. If you live there, you offer the postal deliverer, the UPS driver, any workman who shows up at your door a bottle of water.

But it’s a huge, blue sky with palm trees outlined against them. It’s a wonderful place.

–Quinn McDonald is, still, a resident of the Washington, D.C. area. She’s thinking about it, though. She is a writer and trainer. See her work at QuinnCreative.com Image: fuzzyco.com(c) 2007. All rights reserved.

More on Slow Art

Yesterday’s post got me thinking about the huge variety of slow art, and the difference between assembling pre-packaged items and working with simple tools and creating on your own. I’ve had some more random thoughts that haven’t unified themselves, but may if I put them in one place.

1. Does the huge variety of pre-designed, cut, colored, pasted, printed and available products for collage, scrapbooking, and altered books encourage creativity or stifle it?

2. There seem to be a lot of specific tools that do one specific task–apply glue, heat objects, flatten clay. It seems to me that they could have designed a multi-purpose machine for a certain art. They invented the fax/phone/copier for communication, why not a die-cutter/color-applier/printer?

3. Is the flooding of the choices in paints, embossing tools, glues, fibers really to help artists achieve exact creativity, or it is more to sell product? If the favorite hobby among American women is shopping (according to studies I’ve read), isn’t is a great marketing idea to combine shopping with new craft products? Is the goal simply encouraging more spending, more acquiring?

4. When my son was small, I purchased coloring books for him and fell in love with the wonderfully soothing task of coloring. Then I purchased them for myself. I’d sit there and use new crayons–waxy and smelling of ideas. It was clearly not creative; I was prosaic–blue sky, green grass. I found it calming and soothing, and it was one of the steps that led me to other, more ambitious parts of my life–meditation eventually replaced coloring. So did making my own art. It was a step along the way.

5. What is the leading edge of art? What changes make progress and which ones are useless? Is there ever a way to know? When the computer came out, I scorned computer art, but now I use Photoshop to create virtual collages I could not achieve with paper and scissors. And those collages don’t exist anywhere except on my computer. They aren’t “real.” No one can hold them. Does that make them less art?

Just random thoughts from an art retreat. Nice to have time to think.

–Quinn McDonald spends time thinking about art, writing, and the connection the two make between people. See her work at QuinnCreative.com  Images, top to bottom: directomedia.com;  commons.wikimedia.com; creativespirit.com (c) 2007. All rights reserved.

“Them” v. “Us”

Being on vacation gives you time to muse. Musing is good. It is the mental equivalent of listening to 12-minutes of guitar noodling by the Grateful Dead.

So, while at the art retreat, I got to thinking on the topic of “them” v. “us.” Artists v. crafters, artists who sell v. artists who don’t, even a topic that came up a few times, the fact that most of the classes had no men in them, and the inevitable feeling of “just us girls who understand.”

This need for duality in our culture fascinates me. We seem to enjoy the dividing line. It’s ‘them’ or ‘us,’ you are either ‘deaf’ or ‘hearing,’ ‘cancer survivor,’ or ‘cancer free.’ Or even, when we get right down to it, particularly in Washington, D.C, ‘patriot,’ or ‘terrorist.’ There doesn’t seem to be a lot of middle ground in this way of thinking.

What makes that odd, is that over the last 10 years or so, our culture seems to be gravitating there. We like labels. And once we put on the label, we have to make the other label not as good, worthwhile, or, better yet, bad.

We not only categorize people, but we use the categories to give people a value rank. Cat owners have the perspective of “Dog people are not as ‘worthwhile’ as cat people.” (Or any one of a million labels we give ourselves). And once we have a label everyone else gets lumped into the “other” group. We are really shortchanging ourselves.

It would be great if we could all leave our boxing ring corners and come out and play in the middle, shrugging off differences. Talking about differences–including sex, religion, race, and politics is a good thing. Even better is listening. It won’t hurt to hear what someone else thinks. It might be a clue how to communicate with them instead of a way to gather information to shun them.

As a culture, we may be too competitive to do that. When we are competitive, we need to be hierarchical. “That person is better. He could [choose however many work] beat me up, make more money than I do, have a bigger house, get a better job.]” And from that, being higher up the food chain makes us feel better about ourselves.

There are few people, who believe, as I do, that having a support position is what we are here for. I often say that my life isn’t about me. I find myself an observer, not wanting to be either “this” or “that.” I want to try out many things, sample ideas and positions, and not have to choose one and defend it to the death.

This kind of dualistic thinking only gives us two options–right and wrong. And that’s just not enough. There are many opinions, beliefs, ideas that are not right or wrong. They just are. And that’s where I am, too. Anyone want to join me? It’s awfully quiet and the space is empty.

–Quinn McDonald thinks a lot about how people interact and why it works and doesn’t work. She is a writer and artist. See her work at QuinnCreative.com Images: turbosquid.com (c) 2007. All rights reserved.

Slow Art

Art retreats can be intimidating. Not just all the art instructors, ideas, books, and people. It’s the material. I don’t browse in Michael’s, I shop for specific things online, so there is much I don’t know about. And every bit of it is here. . .mica sheets, postcards, and flakes. Microscope slides for soldering into pendants; scraps of silk, threads, and fibers of miraculous origin, packed into color-coordinated envelopes. Metal embossing plates, rubber stamps that aren’t rubber anymore, they are plastic and stick onto acrylic blocks.

There are colored inks, stamp pads that do everything except print themselves (that’s next year) and pieces of paper printed, embossed, and covered in particles to look like glass, river stones (and rivers), drifting snow and hundreds of other things. Die-cutting and binding machines in pastels for fun studio use; machines that make stickers or add glue to one or both sides of anything.

Many of the classes require using these objects. It makes me feel old and out of date. I use colored pencils, paper, India inks and other things that have been around for years. I’m not against progress, I have a Mac and blog, for heaven’s sake. But what I noticed was that a lot of classes were about assembling more than creating.

And I was intimidated. Not owning these tools makes me feel behind the times, not up to date as an artist. It took a whole day for me to have the “Aha!” about this. It’s great for people to assemble things that make them happy. I’m sure when the first dress patterns came out, someone grumped about “shortcuts.” I’m not against assembly, or pre-cuts or pre-colored. I think they save time and are great to make people feel creative.

I just don’t want to use them myself. I’m more of a wabi-sabi artist. A minimalist. The simple tools of art–pencils, ink, paint, glue create enough variety for me to create. In fact, I like limiting what I can use, it forces me to think of the technique, the connections between materials and the result, and the pathway to get there.

Neither one is more valid than the other. I just choose the way that works best for me. It’s not about purchasing the best equipment, it’s about using what you have to create art. And now I’m ready to go back to class.

–Quinn McDonald is an artist who is at an art retreat learning more about herself than about the latest machines. See her work at QuinnCreative.com  Images: color wheel, Xaraxone.com; Water landscape, using only inks and colored pencil, Murray Chowlowsky, pencil2pen.com
(c) 2007 All rights reserved.

10 Travel Tips for Today

Having just flown 10,000 miles in two weeks, I’d like to pass on some tips to make travel a little easier. Every flight I was on was packed, middle seats and all. Along the way, I learned some things that are good to know, for comfort and for cost-savings if you own your own business.

1. Plan ahead. If you know you are flying, start looking at the Internet sites early. Yes, you can find great last-minute savings, but if you have to be somewhere on a certain day and don’t have a lot of spare time, book earlier rather than later. Always choose a seat for your flight. Don’t leave it to the gate agent who cares more about filling seats that your comfort.

2. Ask, and you might receive. At the hotel, ask if you can have a microwave or refrigerator in your room. Sometimes, they are free for the asking. Sometimes not. But you should give yourself the choice. Chilled drinks, heated snacks or meals made from restaurant leftovers can be a big cost saving.

3. Carry easy food. You don’t get food on a plane if you aren’t flying first class. Carry a granola bar, trail mix or raisins for snacking and to stave off the hunger that encourages you to make bad food choices when you arrive. You can also carry an orange, apple, or a bag of grapes, but I found I didn’t want to have to watch out for my food in travel. There are many small spaces in the travel world, spaces that will squash your carry-ons.

4. Ask your hotel about wi-fi. Most hotel websites are out of date. What cost $10 on the website (and lets you pre-register) was free at the hotel. Without the hassle of having to fight over the credit card charge.

5. Find your favorites ahead of time. Before I left, I used Google maps to help me find wi-fi spots, a coffee shop, a bookstore, and other places of interest for me. I printed out directions from the hotel to these places without having to ask for directions.

6. Know where to find a drugstore. A good source for bottled water, toothpaste, hair product, sunscreen and other things you don’t have room to take (or that doesn’t come in small enough containers) but want to have.

7. Use tools at hand. My cell phone screen lights up when it is fully charged. Annoying when it’s on a nightstand, quite useful when I plug it into the hotel’s bathroom plug and let it serve as a night light. Also makes me get up to turn it off when I use the phone as an alarm clock.

8. Going to a convention? Staying in a hotel with a kids’ sport convention? Most conventioneers are noisy and not thoughtful of sleeping guests. Carry earplugs and a CD of soft music. Many hotels now have radios with CD players. I have a friend who bought cheap, wafer-thin speakers and connects his i-pod at night.

9. Check the radio. Figure out the alarm or how to turn it off before you go to bed. Hotels often have off-brand and older clock radios with the writing worn off the buttons, or just baffingly difficult to work. The person before you needed to get up at 4:30 am, you don’t. I unplug the extra-bright clock radio and bring my own small (about $30) LLBean clock radio that has a far better sound.

10. Lines at airport security are horrible. Wear a jacket with pockets or carry a bag with an outside pocket to hold your license, boarding pass and receipts so you don’t have to open and close bags in the quadrillion steps it takes to show certain documents. Then carry a big envelope (at least #10 size) to put in all your receipts so you can have them when you create your travel expense account.

–Quinn McDonald has traveled to all the continents except South America and Antarctica, which she hopes to do before travel gets too weird to make it worthwhile. She is also a writer and artist. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2007 All rights reserved.

Renewal is not an Option

It’s been a hard three months. Lots of work, some of which didn’t work out, clients who are slow to pay. On the art side, I’ve hit one of those creative walls that I can neither dig under nor climb over. I want to engage in a process that keeps evading me.

Every artist, writer, coach, instructor hits that wall at some time or another. In my case, I was lucky enough to have signed up for an art retreat last March. I’m heading off for Art Unraveled in Phoenix. Last year I picked classes to enhance a project I was pursuing. This year I chose classes that sounded like fun.

Our culture doesn’t approve of having fun. We like to spend long hours at work. Work makes us feel important.Lacking friends who are not connected to work, we get validation from people who are much like us. That’s not a groove we’re in, it’s a rut.

Everyone who works hard needs to have fun. To play. To take time away from clients, memos, emails and orders. The Germans, French, Spanish and Swiss get far more vacation than we do. And before you jump up and snort, “Well, they are lazy,” now is a good time to note that our country is ranked behind all of those countries in ability to read, do math, infant mortality, successful marriages and perceived satisfaction with life.

For me, renewal is important, both for my soul and my mind. I’m taking classes in hand lettering, collage, and drawing. Sounds like fun. Just what I need.

–Quinn McDonald can be cheery, bright and hard-working, but right now she is glad that for the next week she doesn’t have to be anything except an artist and student. See her work at QuinnCreative.com Image of paintbrush: kapture.com Magic Door book:Quinn McDonald. (c) 2007. All rights reserved.