Signals and signs

Posted on February 12, 2016 by betsybeadhead | 2 Comments

What is message and what is mountain?
What is writing and what is river?
Is a road a word?
Is a map a manuscript?
Signal/noise
Unreferenced symbol
Un-received messages
Lost languages
The boundaries between mountain and lake are often the boundaries between cultures and countries.
Decay of transmission
There must be at least one who can understand for meaning to be transmitted.

Details –

(middle)

(top left)

(bottom right)

Ingredients –
Bought ephemera – Asian map, page of Asian writing
Paint- olive green, manganese blue, white, mixed with water. Dabbed on mixed very lightly with a smished paint brush and wiped off with paper towel.
Gel pens, matte medium
Strathmore art journal

Created 2-11-16

Convergence

Posted on February 7, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

detail

Thoughts that arose while making it:
Using old ways of measuring (understanding) with new ways of being (experience). Old wine skins and new wine. Abandoning the old that no longer serves. False measurements (weights and measures) – not even allowed to have it in your house (might accidentally use it). Government enforced morality. , overt and covert. What is up and what is down? Words raining from the sky.

Ingredients:
8.5 x 12 inch Strathmore visual journal
Bought ephemera (practice ledger paper) (Asian book page) (Hell money)
Distress ink. Matte medium, glue stick.
White gel pen. Stickers of shoe prints – two kinds.
Created 2/5/16.

Blue Ridge

Posted on February 7, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

Fall is just beginning in the lower elevations. There is a dusting of snow on the mountain tops. The fields have been harvested and now lie dormant, resting through winter.

Ingredients:
8.5 x 12 inch Strathmore visual journal
Torn Art paper (K and Company designer paper by Susan Winget). Glue stick.
Created 1/31/16.

Objects in life

Posted on February 7, 2016 by betsybeadhead | 1 Comment

Objects in life are closer than they appear.

Thoughts that arose while making it:
Scale is important. Compare this to this. Otherwise you are lost, even with a map.
Everything is relative. How do you indicate place when a part of the frame or reference is missing?
The edges are there but the middle is blank.
How little rivers look like lightning.
When lost, follow the river. You’ll find people. (Are they good? Is this safe?)

Ingredients:
8.5 x 12 inch Strathmore visual journal
Matte medium, glue stick.
Map. Card stock. Distress Ink (rusty hinge pad, crushed olive spray)
Gel pen. Art paper (K and Company designer paper by Susan Winget)
Created 1/29/16.

Lost and found

Posted on February 7, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

detail

Praying the Lord’s Prayer at McDonalds.
A man who was lost/homeless/mentally ill/addicted/blind (any or all)

I went to McDonald’s to get “second breakfast” after attending mandatory substance abuse awareness training for my job (This class has to be taken every 5 years). This man outside the store asked for change.
I find it significant that panhandlers ask for change – not money. Change is what they need, true change.
I gave him money and said “God loves you.” He initiated the prayer. He held out his hand to me. It was grimy – grey/green. We held hands while we prayed the Lord’s Prayer together. It was beautiful. I remember my years of struggling with addiction and feeling lost.

Ingredients:

8.5 x 12 inch Strathmore visual journal

Map torn from a book, missing some of the reference points. Paper that reminds me of prison bars. Receipt. Matte medium. Distress ink spray (crushed olive)
Created 1/28/16

Occhiolism

Posted on February 7, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

Detail

Created around 1/24/16

Ingredients:
8.5 x 12 inch Strathmore visual journal
Paper with a word from “The dictionary of obscure sorrows” depicting “the awareness of the smallness of your perspective.”
Art paper
Glue stick
Magazine clippings
Used stamps about peace and world harmony.

Ellipsism

Posted on February 6, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

Entire piece

Bottom right detail

Around 1/24/16

Ingredients:
8.5 x 12 inch Strathmore visual journal
Paper with a word from “The dictionary of obscure sorrows” depicting “A sadness that you’ll never be able to know how history will turn out.”
White chalk pen
Distress ink
Art paper
Glue stick.

Search party

Posted on February 6, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

Full image

Right side detail

Top left detail.

Created 1/24/16. Our scanner broke so there is a backlog and I’m posting a batch of them. The images were taken with my cell phone. The colors are an approximation – they are a little lighter and less intense in the original.

Thoughts that arose while making it:
Framed. Blood trail. Tracking through the woods in misty rain. Hair clues. Musical notes. Organized search party. Tracks crossing water, trail washed out. Switchbacks, doubling back, retracing steps.

Ingredients:
8.5 x 12 inch Strathmore visual journal
Card stock (Pacon watercolor)
Tissue paper
Deli paper
Matte medium
Watercolor
Loose hairs from watercolor brush
Map pieces
Glue stick.

Lost time

Posted on January 22, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

Inspired by/things that came up during the creation –
Fungi, soy/wasabi leftovers, debris, passage of time, look close you might miss it, beauty in ugliness, things passed over.

(Close up)

Materials used –
6×9 piece of “Pacon” watercolor card stock
Glue stick
White crayon
Distress Ink – Rusty hinge, crusted olive
Dr. PH Martin’s Bombay sepia ink
“thirsty brush” technique
Toothbrush with water to spatter
Used salt (previously used in watercolor painting, reclaimed)
“Crushed glass” glitter
Water/paintbrush
Holographic nail polish
“gelly roll” white pen
Light blue “super gel” pen
Poured white acrylic paint mixed with water
Decoupage glue
Tim Holtz “idea-ology” clock pieces
Glamour glitz crystal

Made 1-19 to 1-20-16

Broken dreams

Posted on January 22, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

This speaks to obsessive, controlling “love” that is one-sided.
Brokenness, cover up of truth/self/other.
How even in the same language and culture two people are like other nations/languages. Miscommunication.
Washed out roads and bridges – driving in the fog.
Being lost even with a map.
The glitter represents the celebration of the crushed glass at a Jewish wedding ceremony, simultaneous with the broken glass and dishes in a “domestic disturbance” – how joy can turn into tragedy.
The two sides of a bad relationship – where one is completely clueless as to the terror of the other.
Relentless pursuit, feeling trapped.

(close up)

Materials/techniques used –
Strathmore 9 x 12 visual journal
Bought ephemera – sheet music “I had a dream, dear” and Asian map
Matte medium
Scrapbooking scissors
Distress Ink – Rusty hinge, crushed olive, chipped sapphire
Acrylic paint – olive green + white + water, manganese blue
Fingernail to scratch out a section.
Paper towel to remove paint.
Gold “super gel” pen
Spray mount, “crushed glass” glitter
Tim Holtz “idea-ology” words

(Made over two days, from 1-17 to 1-18-16)