Postcard Challenge  
February 25, 2012 

"cut and paste...

Photoshop, the challenger!" 

ART and SOLE: POSTCARD CHALLENGE 2012 is a new challenge group (for me)  on Yahoo that has a fun premise ... like the book series by author/artist, Nick Bantock,  we're tasked to create two mythical characters who correspond with one another from all over the world through postcards from declared countries. I'm starting a bit late, but trying to catch up. We create the postcard, write our message as we would normally do, then insert it in a page created for that particular country. It's through the postcard messages that other artists learn what the story is between the two imaginary correspondents. My two guys met when one (from New York) was stationed in tribal Ethiopia with the Peace Corps. (The second correspondent lived in the village in southern Ethiopia.) They became friends and when the Ethiopian fellow finished his time at University, he was invited to New York to visit with his Peace Corps friend. After a stay (and an introduction and short education about first world countries,) the young Ethiopian fellow took off on his own, journeying bravely, around the world. 

These are my cards and correspondences thus far... 

 

 

I hope you'll journey with me in this new challenge... it's educational and fun! Each country supplies it's own art inspiration! Will you join me?

Hugs,

Abbyj 

ONE MORE... 
February 22, 2012 

Oops...I forgot to add one last challenge for the week. It's one declared by THE THREE MUSES calling for "art in the round..." I really enjoyed putting this together. Hope you like it as well...

 

Thanks again for taking a look at this extra piece of art...

'Til the next,

abbyj

RANDOM CHALLENGES...  
February 20, 2012  

daughter dives

I can't

depth overwhelms    

My husband and daughter just returned from a week of scuba diving...the photos are beyond awesome! It's a world I'd love to experience, but the thought of being surrounded by all that water makes me claustrophobic!! I enjoy their dive experiences vicariously... and that's okay :)

A few challenges for this week, then I'm starting a new project: POSTCARD CHALLENGE 2012 for which I'll be doing a postcard a week, each from a different country... for 52 weeks. It'll be an imaginary correspondence between two people with lots of exploration and new experiences involved in each country...sounds like fun, doesn't it?

THIS WEEK, Sunday Postcard Art's interest leaned toward GOTHIC... 

 

Both Take a Word and The Three Muses loved the color TURQUOISE...

Inspiration Avenue didn't care what we did as long as it had TEXTURE!!

I had fun with Creavil Challenge Blog's request for HEAD GEAR...

Collage Obsession was obsessed with HANDS...

...and I'm obsessed with thanking you, once again,  for stopping by to share my art. It's definitely a growing and learning process!

Hugs 'til my next post,
abbyj 

MORE CHALLENGES... 
February 13, 2012 

 "Love...from my heart to yours!"

The sweet masked girl above was inspired by the blog challenge groups, CRAZY AMIGOS and THINK MONDAY-THINK ATC...their task today was to create a heart-themed piece.

TAKE A WORD wanted us to take a stroll down the old-fashioned lane... I strolled three times!!

COLLAGE OBSESSION was obsessed with sports this week...

I'm especially attached to the above piece as it's all about my super sporty grandson...need I say how proud I am of him?

INSPIRATION AVENUE was all about THE DIVA this week...my DIVA is a French model...La Diva...

THREE MUSES issued a real challenge this week... the theme is BIRDS, but part of our piece had to have a bit of it outside the frame...

Finally, on PAPER TRADERS ART BLOG, a nostalgic theme of  LACE inspired me to create this...

I really appreciate your stopping by...I realize that viewing someone else's art isn't everyone's cup of tea, so a BIG THANK YOU! I sooo appreciate your encouragement!

Hugs...'til the next,

abbyj

ANCIENT...and NEW BEGINNINGS
February 12, 2012 

 "ONE LOVE,  47 YEARS... MY HUSBAND"

Wishing you all a Happy Valentine's Day! Hope you find yourself surrounded by loved ones...

Some interesting challenges on the art blogs this week...of course, LOVE is the theme for a few:

4X4 FRIDAY's Heart and Home...

At SUNDAY POSTCARD ART, My Heart Belongs to You is the theme...

SPRING seems to be an ongoing theme and that's not surprising...around this time each year, those of us who live in "snow country" are yearning for that season of renewal...of green! Of course, this year, for those of us in Central New York, there has been so little snow that we can't complain (not that I would complain...LOL!)

INSPIRATION AVENUE challenged artists to think of IMBOLC (we learned in last week's blog entry, that this means spring awakening...)

Awakening Spring

Her sweet song is everywhere...

A promise to come

SOARTFUL CHALLENGES didn't actually declare their theme to be SPRING (it was "red, pink and white.") I chose to  interpret it to reflect Spring with a picture of a robin on a windowsill...

Finally, THINK MONDAY-THINK ATC required us to study FOSSILS and create a piece of art around them...

Enjoy your days 'til we meet again. Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your encouragement and support...

xox,

abbyj

MIXED BAG... 
February 9, 2012  

 "Happy there's no snow..."  NOT ME!

What an extraordinary winter! Here we are in the snow belt of Central New York, annual victim of  lake-effect snow (from Lake Ontario,) and we're still waiting!! We live in the nation's snowiest metropolitan region, averaging 114.6 inches every winter (...and we love to talk about it!!) I can remember years when we had snow on MOTHER'S DAY...October to May is always fair game!!! Our snowiest winter on record  blanketed our fair city with 192.1 inches...that was in 1992-1993. 

THIS winter, we've only had a mere 31.8 inches...unacceptable! Most people who read this blog KNOW that I love the snow!! I miss it, but I'm certain that between now and Mother's Day 2012, we'll see more of the beautiful, fluffy white stuff...we have to put to use the biggest snow plow IN THE WORLD, (or so they claim,) that sits at our airport. It's a 32-foot, 3-inch blade attached to a payloader. The 48-inch tall piece of steel can clear 8,500 cubic yards of snow in an hour!! That's equivalent to about 4 feet of snow covering an entire football field...it would take 850 standard sized dump trucks to haul all that snow away!! Can you imagine? 

Enough snow talk... moving on to this week's artistic challenges!  SUNDAY POSTCARD ART tasked artists to create a piece based on the movie classics...here are two!

CRAZY AMIGOS asked us to concentrate on Charles Dickens... I remembered "Hard Times"  that took place during England's Industrial Revolution. Unlike many of his other books, it had no scenes set in London, but takes place, rather, in "Coketown," a fictitious,  Victorian industrial  mill-town in Northern England. 

Shorter than most of his other novels, it's a good one to sit down and read with a cup of COFFEE...

TAKE A WORD's challenge for the week...coffee!

COLLAGE OBSESSION challenged us to play with a theme of TANGERINE TANGO...

F

Finally, in one of my online Yahoo art GROUPS, PAPER TRADERS, I've joined a page swap involving creating 7 coasters with a Wild West theme. They're not due until March, but here are some of my creations..

This was a good week for art...if not for snow! We'll see what next week brings. Thanks again for stopping by.

XOX,

abbyj 

STILL EARLY WINTER

CHALLENGING MOMENTS... 
January 31st, 2012 

 "spring is still a distant thought"

Welcome back, folks! This week, Central New York has been blessed with spring-like weather, just in time for IMBOLC, an ancient Celtic festival  associated with SPRING and new beginnings. Groundhog Day is right around the corner as well...what will the verdict be...6 more weeks of winter, or will spring be on its way?  I personally celebrate each of our 4 seasons and can't imagine living in a place with any less...

The online challenge blogs continue to inspire willing artists to participate in their calls for pieces art with a variety of themes...throughout all the seasons. Here are the current pieces...

4X4 FRIDAY has challenged artists to create a representation of what IMBOLC means to them... to me, it's still time to gather firewood to keep warm... perhaps Groundhog Day will determine that this won't have to continue for much longer. Note the new crocus shoots...

 winter melts to spring

earth awakens from slumber...

STILL winter in New York

SOARTFUL CHALLENGES is paying tribute to artist, Geogria O'Keeffe. I created my personal tribute to one of our country's great artists...

She said, "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way- things I had no words for."

SUNDAY POSTCARD ART ... a bit nostalgic with the "As Time Goes By" theme. I was equally nostalgic about the 60's!

 A musical theme was declared by THREE MUSES...

In case you're wondering, Jason and Little Chops are my family!  :o)

TAKE A WORD  wanted to feel that REGAL touch, so I gave them a Queen...on a KING card- two for one!

COLLAGE OBSESSION was thinking of the everyday picture with their call for art about TOOLS... how about gears?

 

Finally, I came across this photo I took in Myanmar (Burma)  many years ago, played with it because I think this man has a great face... and thought I'd share it with you. My goal was to make it resemble  the style of  famous American photographer, Alfred Stieglitz. (He did many photos of Georgia O'Keeffe!!)

Thanks for stopping by...hope to see you next time!

Take care...

xox,

abbyj