Spring bottles

Posted on April 11, 2017 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

This is an art-journal page I made recently. Because of the spiral in the journal, some of the image isn’t flat on the scanner, resulting in a lack of sharpness.

sp1

(detail)

sp2 When I transcribed the quote, I wrote it as

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one who is without faith, no explanation is possible.” – Thomas Aquinas

but it is really

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” – Thomas Aquinas

Someone on a Facebook page said that it is really from St. Ignatius of Loyola – that there is a bronze bust of St. Ignatius at the Casa Dom Inacio in Brazil with this quote on it. However, all the indications online say it is from Aquinas.

Mixed-media art journal (Strathmore). Watercolor pencils. Distress ink pads. English stamps. Distress ink. White pen. Skeleton leaf.

Rumi quotes – art journal page

Posted on March 10, 2017 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

I wrote these quotes with a plain ink pen, then painted over them using Tim Holtz’s Distress Ink. I used the ink as if it was watercolor. The colors are vibrant and translucent on the page.

rumi full

Details –

rumi top rumi2 rumi

“In my mind” art journal page

Posted on January 3, 2017 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

“In my mind” completed 1/2/17. Asian ephemera – printed calligraphy and map, “Hell money” pieces. Gesso tinted with Distress ink. “in my mind there are mountains” – letters printed with “rusty hinge” Distress ink pad. Stamped images – deer and Celtic. Gel pen. Includes art from Lilian deMello called “Ghost Dance” in bottom left corner.

in-my-mind

Detail –

in-my-mind2

When do lines mean words, and when do they mean places? What if they are the same? Can words be maps? Can maps be words? Are wrinkles small mountains? Hide and reveal.

December 2016 art journal pages

Posted on January 3, 2017 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

While cleaning out my craft room I rediscovered my list of intentions for 2016. I’d not done many of them – perhaps because I lost the intention list. Can’t get anywhere without a map. Some I had done, and was glad. Some I’d forgotten about, and have refocused my commitment. One thing on it was to make an art journal page at least once a week. I had some time off from work so I decided to catch up a bit.

“Fragile” – 12/12/16 – 12/15/16 Distress Ink, ephemera, gel pen

fragile

(detail of “Fragile”)

fragile2

“Doppelganger” – 12/15/16 Distress ink, ephemera, colored pencil, gel pen, water

doppleganger

(detail for “Doppelganger”)

doppleganger2

“To be a queen” – 12/16/16 Distress ink, stamps, gel pen, colored pencil

to-be-a-queen

(Detail – “To be a queen”)

to-be-a-queen2

“Paramecium” made around 12/22/16 copied images from 100 year old Biology textbook, Distress ink, broken glass glitter, gel pen, matte medium, Sharpie, white gel pen

paramecium

(detail, Paramecium)

paramecium2

“Shamash” – 12/28 and 29th, 2016 5th and 6th nights of Chanukah. Distress ink, stamps, gel pen, Sharpie

shamash

(Detail, “Shamash”)

shamash2

Little Red Riding Hood

Posted on December 28, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

This is not a simple fairy tale. This is a story designed to control young girls. The moral – stay on the path, or else you will get hurt. This is victim blaming at the core. It teaches that it is Little Red Riding Hood’s fault that she and her grandmother got eaten by the wolf.

The wolf is every single male she ever encounters in her life. The “being eaten” is everything from getting a lesser job to getting raped or killed. This story teaches girls – and only girls – that if we don’t stay in our defined roles then we deserve everything bad that happens to us.

Notice she isn’t even named. Her “name” is what she wears – exterior only. She isn’t even real, just a placeholder. She isn’t a person, but a thing. People look at her outside only.

Notice that it is a strong male who saves her – the hunter comes by and hears the grandmother snoring and decides to investigate. Why is snoring loudly seen as a sign that something is wrong? Do women not snore? Are we expected to maintain control over ourselves at all times – even while unconscious?

Notice that the townspeople don’t send the hunters into the forest to clear it of dangerous animals. They don’t make it safe for her or others.

————————

Art made on a Strathmore art journal – mixed media paper, using various pens and painted using Distress Ink. Words are photocopied from a book about Little Red Riding Hood and then dyed/stamped/inked.

Gnossienne

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

Gnossienne
n. a moment of awareness that someone you’ve known for years still has a private and mysterious inner life, and somewhere in the hallways of their personality is a door locked from the inside, a stairway leading to a wing of the house that you’ve never fully explored—an unfinished attic that will remain maddeningly unknowable to you, because ultimately neither of you has a map, or a master key, or any way of knowing exactly where you stand.

Art paper from Tim Holtz’ “Distress” line, old Asian map, card stock that was colored with Distress inks and stains and then coated with glazing medium and cut up, old stamps.

Anecdoche

Posted on April 15, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

This speaks to the fakeness of so many people – of those who want to compete in conversations, always talking but never saying anything. Each sentence is like a domino, where they connect their experience next to that of the person who just spoke, and then divert the conversation away from them and to themselves. Nobody is ever heard. It is a game where everyone loses.

Anecdoche
n. a conversation in which everyone is talking but nobody is listening, simply overlaying disconnected words like a game of Scrabble, with each player borrowing bits of other anecdotes as a way to increase their own score, until we all run out of things to say.

(I created the art paper myself using card stock, Distress stains, glazing medium)

Avenoir

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

Avenoir –
n. the desire that memory could flow backward. We take it for granted that life moves forward. But you move as a rower moves, facing backwards: you can see where you’ve been, but not where you’re going. And your boat is steered by a younger version of you. It’s hard not to wonder what life would be like facing the other way…

Tim Holtz art paper page
torn out color images from a AAA magazine
Strathmore art journal

November rain

Posted on March 28, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

This is a work in progress. This is the second layer. This is the companion to “Deep art” (which the title itself is a work in progress). I was working on this one first and had spare paint to use up.

Here is the original full canvas.

I fingerpainted the original colors onto the canvas about a year ago. I don’t remember what colors I used. This was before I started documenting the layers of my creations. I also thought that I was done with this because I liked it like it was. However, after reading several Nick Bantock books, I’ve decided to push it a little more. Plus – canvases aren’t cheap and they take up space. So it is either add more to them or start finding a market for what I’ve done. Speaking of that – if you like what I’ve made, let me know. We can work out a price that is good for both of us.

Here is the second layer full canvas.

Top left detail.

I’ve added some washi tape and stamps. I’ve learned the hard way that if I’m too liberal with the matte medium, it covers over areas of the paint outside of what I’m trying to glue down, leaving a dull smear. Also added are layers of tissue paper that I colored using Distress Ink stains. I let them dry first, and affixed them to the painting colored side down.

The paint colors that are in the second layer are titanium white, cadmium yellow deep hue, and Payne’s grey. I put blobs of them into a large yogurt lid and put some glazing medium on top. I blended them only as I went, using the brush.

Top right detail.

Bottom left detail.

Bottom right detail.

Mountain waves (visual poem)

Posted on March 11, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

I spend part of May in the Blue Ridge mountains celebrating my wedding anniversary. The view from Grandfather Mountain (in Western North Carolina) is like this – when is it a mountain, and when is it a wave in the ocean? It is overwhelming, especially at sunset

This is composed of cut up cardstock tests of Distress Ink – the edges of the main test. Reassembled like this, it looks like I’m trying to take pictures of the mountains, and putting captions underneath.

Card stock
Distress Ink
gold paint with glazing medium
Tim Holtz Idea-ology quotes.

(Click on the image to see it larger)