Lucky Dip

Cape Egmont Lighthouse

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:09:00 +0000

We've been away for a few days in Taranaki. Taranaki holds a special place in my heart and one of the places I really wanted to go while there was out to the Cape Egmont Lighthouse.

It's the only real lighthouse I've ever seen and the only one in New Zealand built under armed guard. Mossy stairs set into the hilly paddock lead up to the lighthouse and once up there the view is off the Tasman Sea. It was definately worth the trip 'off the beaten track' to go and see it.

And after 'just a few' filters and tweaks...

Weeds and Wild Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 03:04:00 +0000

Today I took my camera for a walk, the first in a long, long time. I've been waiting for inspiration to hit me. For me to feel like going and doing. Inspiration didn't come. Instead today I hit a new low and realised that I had to go and do something or I was going to sink. So I did.

The pond is unusually green for this time of year. Other times of year I've been here and the mud has been dried and cracked and the plants various shades of brown.

In writing those words I remembered that I had written a post called 'shades of brown' previously so I just went in search of it. Ironically it was written almost exactly 2 years ago.

The walk with my camera has helped occupy my time and distract my mind, but more than that I now realise that I do have to feel like going in order to do it. There are plenty of things I do when I don't feel like doing them but I motivate myself because they are necessary. Just like this was.

Adrenaline Forest

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:30:00 +0000

They say excercise is good for depression and while it wasn't my objective today, I have to say that I wasn't thinking of my worries while tackling this course!

These obstacles got progressively harder and higher until we were about 20 ft in the air. Tarazan swings, wobbly things, tight rope walks, barrells...hard going at time but good fun!

Sunshine, excercise, time out...good for me? Yes!

Thank You

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:32:00 +0000

I really appreciate the warm thoughts and best wishes I've recieved following my last post.

*Thank You*

I can't yet say that I've done anything interesting with paper, nests or nature dyes but taking a photo of this sunset is actually progress. It used to be so second nature to grab my camera and take a photo but I started thinking...what's the point? All they do is sit on my computer, rarely looked at again. So I stopped. No photos of fennel flowers or spider webs and no photos of the leaves and trees I've always loved so much. Slowly, bit by bit I stopped and as a result I stopped wandering around, taking a closer look and spending time just enjoying them. I just didn't see the point in taking yet another photo. Tonight I realised that the best reason for taking the photo wasn't actually getting a photograph. I've realised that photography was just my way of being in nature. The walk around gave me time out, it inspired me artistically and refreshed me personally. It helped keep me grounded. I knew that of course but some how I forgot. It just slipped away and it's hard to hold onto something when you don't even realise you're letting go.

Resolve number two: take time to wander.

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:25:00 +0000

Belated Christmas wishes everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic, stress free Christmas.

I know I have been absent from my blog and yours for some time now. I thought I was simply struggling to find balance in my life but the truth is...I'm depressed. It's taken me months to realise that and even longer to admit it. But it's true. That horrible black cloud crept up on me and it's hard to get rid of. Some day I will be back here, full of ideas and inspiration. I can't change the events of this year but I hope that I can learn to accept them and find happiness in the aftermath.

I'm starting 2012 with a resolve to beat this.

Two of my favorite photos from 2011...

My best wishes to you all for a safe new year period and a year full of love to follow. I hope 2011 has been good to you and that 2012 will be even better. Thank you for the wonderful comments, the collaborations, the inspiration, the friendship. Be well!

Graffiti pages...finally!

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 23:01:00 +0000

I am really pleased with the way this series turned out! It didn't quite go to plan, I missed a deadline for the first time ever and I only created 8 instead of the intended 11. Once the deadline had passed there didn't seem to be a lot of point in creating the projects required 11 but I really wanted to see the project through. I see this series as a bit of a turning point in my artistic journey and even though the series is complete the journey isn't. It's exciting to have a new path to explore and I will be taking inspiration from these pages and the Rena disaster for my next ICE series.

There are a lot of photos to follow so I am going to do it in two parts.

Part 1

Page 1.

Personally, I'm not actually a huge fan of this page! It showed enough potential though for me to keep working on it and as you will see from the other photos posted they contain similar elements but the style is cleaner.

Page 2.

Jackpot! Home-made walnut and eucyalyptus dyes, pencil, map pieces and stitching. I love the bigger blocks of paper and most of the pages that followed adopted that look.

Page 3

The first page with an anatomically incorrect heart-nest! (Linocut)

Page 4

Page 5

The stitched text piece is my favorite part on this page, along with the note paper my kids used and left laying about.

It took me so long to 'get around' to finishing the series. Emotionally and physically I was really zapped by the effect of my daughters surgery and my mojo left me. It wasn't really a time thing, I had plenty of time sitting around in the ward and it seems logical to take my supplies and to pass time that way. Unfortuantely my logic and my motivation wern't in tune with each other! When I decided to detox one of the first things I did was to sit down and stitch and it only took a short while to finish these.

School goes back tomorrow for us, I have 2 at home full time doing correspondence and I hope that this term I will do better at balancing school and art. I really struggle with it and even now as I type I am aware that I should be planning the first weeks work instead.

On that note...see you soon:)

Graffiti and Spring Flowers.

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:37:00 +0000

I'm posting these together because I took them within the same 15 minutes. Graffiti and Spring flowers sound like a good mix to me. I took them after going to see the Rena mess. It increased my time warp feeling but cleansed me at the same time. Life is strange sometimes, but it's still beautiful.

Time Warp

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 06:56:00 +0000

I didn't get my call to volunteer today but I went down to the beach anyway. I needed to see for myself what was going on. Driving their I felt as if there had been no oil spill. Sunny day, people out walking, pushing prams and on skateboards. The first stop I made was at Pilot Bay which is buffered from the spill by a strip of land. The Mount itself stands at the end like the dot on the letter 'i' or an explaination mark. Getting out of the car I immediately heared the choppers over head and I was hit by the industrial smell of oil. This was real after all.

Every where people can access the beach from has warning signs telling us to stay off. Dotted along the otherwise deserted beach were volunteers in protective suits.

It was an odd feeling. I expected to see the oil. I couldn't see it but I could definitely smell it and the people cleaning kept adding little blobs to their bags.

I crossed over to the other side of the land strip to the main mount beach. This place is a tourist hot spot in summer and the sea itself important both environmentally and financially to our area.

Standing there taking these photos I felt sure I was in some sort of a time warp. One one side of the street people sat at cafes, they ate lunch and crowded the streets. The other side was completely empty. An endless coastline and not a single person on it. I was standing in the middle with my camera and it felt like I was stuck between 2 worlds, like no one had told the busy side of the street that there had been a catastrophic oil spill. If it hadn't have been for the smell and the emptiness I could have almost not known myself.

I didn't photograph the people who stood on these dunes like me. Some were quiet and reflective, others talked about the spill as if they were discussing the weather.

"Oh yes..bit of a spill over there...nasty thing...but such a nice day out, should we get lunch?"

It was surreal.

You may recognise this part of the beach from this photo that I posted at the start of the year.

The nakedness of the beach stayed with me when I left.

It was the only real sign that anything had happened here. Driving towards Papamoa I came across a road block almost immediately. Papamoa has been badly hit by the spill and if I thought getting to the beach at the Mount was hard it had nothing on Paps!

These trucks were taking away huge skip bins filled with toxic gunk. Further up were the police, the army and security firms all making sure that no one got through except media and trained personale. They kept the traffic moving and thanks to the dunes blocking the view from the road I didn't get another photo. Below is a media photo of what I would have seen had I been able too. This area is much closer to the shipwreck and in the direct line of fire.

Sad, very sad.

I am glad I went despite the bizzare time warp feeling. It's frustrating not being able to do anything but I'm only 1 of 4500 people who've registered to volunteer. This is good! Hopefully the oil will stay onboard the ship and not all of us will get a turn to help clean up our coast...fingers crossed.

Death toll:

Human 0

Birds 1000+

Seals 2

Fish, squid and crabs untold.

If you missed my first posting on the oil spill you can see it here.

Black Tide. Troubled Times.

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:15:00 +0000

Black Tide. Troubled Times. This has been a sad, sad week in NZ. The biggest maritime disaster in NZ waters and it's not over yet.

A few days ago the container ship RENA struck a well documented reef in our harbour. Since then 350 tonnes of oil have spewed into our precious ocean, swamping our beaches and poisoning the sea. Untold marine animal lives have been lost. People's livelihoods are at threat. It will take years to recover from this already...and this ship still has about 1500 tonnes of oil on board. The ship is breaking up, the containers are posing an additional threat as 88 of them are already bobbing in the sea or have crashed into the sea.

A volunteer helping to clean the beach. This photo was captured a few days ago. The beaches are now closed to the public and those that do volunteer are having to be trained and are having to take precautions against getting sick. This is nasty, toxic, devastating stuff.

The army has been called in. Since this photo was taken people on the beach are now being issued with face masks and protective suits. Volunteers and locals being exposed to the oil's fumes are becoming sick with headaches, respiratory problems, blurred vision..can you imagine how bad this is for our sea? The birds and fish? This is our heritage getting poisoned and it makes me sick that this is a MAN made disaster!

A poor bird, a shag that didn't make it. The last I read about 500 seabird had washed up dead, including rare albatross's and penguins. I am so sad. Rescue centres are set up for cleaning oil off birds, manned by trained volunteers. Unfortunately more dead birds are being found than alive ones. Fortunately no seals have been found. At this time of year whales are on their migratory path past the reef the boat hit, their natural route and food chains are disrupted and they have such a long way to go before they reach the Antarctic.

This beach, these waters are what Tauranga is built around. We live near the sea, play in the sea, eat from it. Not now. Black Tide and Troubled Times doesn't quite cover the gravity of this situation.

Two of my kids fishing from the wharf where boats now stay moored, unable to fish and unable to move in these waters for fear of hitting containers.

This beach where we collected shells, drew pictures, laughed, played, made memories...

Now looks like this...

No words can express the sadness and frustration felt so many of us.

There is good come of this, face book (where I got most of the images, public domain) has several support pages. Pages to discuss the disaster, pages for volunteers involved in both clean up and food runs for those on the beach. Local business donating food to feed the people cleaning up this awful mess, even teenagers organising the collection of baked good. People giving up there time to come together. Messages of support from ex-pat kiwis feeling the pain. Offers of accommodation for out-of-towners who've come to help. It makes me proud to see the kiwi spirit alive and fighting, it's just a shame that it's because of something so terrible. We have an election coming up and this disaster has thrown the issue of deep-sea oil drilling into the public spotlight. If we can't cope with this how could we cope with a deep sea leak? It's good to get people talking, debating and hopefully voting accordingly. When will we learn? Man did this! Not mother nature, not global warming. It was human activity.

I'm hoping to receive my call to volunteer tomorrow, people have to go in teams and do an hour training first. I'll keep you posted, if you are reading this from NZ please support the Bay where you can, it will be very much appreciated.

If anyone see's a photo here taken by them and is offended by my use of these photos please tell me and I will remove them. As far as I know all images are in the public domain, with the exception of my photos (photo's 6,7,8)

Slow and steady...

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:19:00 +0000

I am making slow but steady steps forward with my detox mission! My head really is cluttered at the moment but I feel good about the progress.

So far I've blown the dust off my visual diary and started scribbling down my ideas for next years ICE exchange. I'm playing around with the concept of life lines, originally the idea was laughter lines. I don't mean the wrinkly sort...my ideas are more focused on paths represented by

lines _________dots.......dashes _ _ _

and the paths are the places I've been, seen and loved. I am not well travelled having never left the North Island of my own country but there are definately places that have helped shape me as a person and as an artists. I have an emotional attachement to them. Here's a link to a series of Mick Mathers that's appealed to me for some time now. Not the same thing but appealing to me for similar reasons as 'life lines' is. This post is also very inspiring, thanks Robyn for your perfect timing in sharing this! I like the idea of taking a meditation memory walk and revisiting some special places. I then wonder if I should be looking forward and not back? In my head I can see pieces of maps, sewing pattern paper and navigation symbols such as the Southern Cross and compass points but I'm not sure how it all goes together yet and I havn't reached that 'ah huh! moment. As you can see I am still confused and my vision is a little cloudy. It will come to me in it's own time and until then I will patiently wait. I'm good with that.

The other thing I have done is finish my 9 Grafitti pages. The weather isn't photo friendly at the moment so no photos yet. The collages had been in the 98% finished stage for months and all that was left was the stitching. I can't believe a project that took months to get to only took me an hour to finish! Really! It feels good to see them done and I think I will turn them all into a visual diary to use next year.

Photos soon I promise!

Thank you for your kind comments, I have intentions to visit everyone a few blogs at a time so see you soon if I havn't already!

Detox

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 07:23:00 +0000

I'm doing a detox! Too much housework, nursing, hospital and school work for me lately and I am definitely not achieving any sort of balance and haven't done for quite some time. So I am detoxing myself in the hope that I will find my artistic mojo beneath all those layers. I know I'm not alone in my struggle to find balance but my art supplies are actually gathering dust! I decided that despite everything going on I AM DOING ART THESE HOLIDAYS! Why is it something that is so important to me keeps making it to the bottom of the list? I have good intentions every week to spend time to spend being creative but leaving it to the end of the day when schools done, housework's done and kids are in bed inevitably means I don't do it....and I really need to. I could probably pick a better time given my daughters current situation but given I teach 2 out of 3 of my kids at home I really feel a sense of urgency to DO IT NOW while the school holidays are on...so I am. Obviously I won't be able to not do the housework but I'm hoping to finish these holidays a lot more in balance and in tune with myself.

Here's my to do list...
Finish my Graffiti pages, even though I missed the deadline for these. Something about these pages and my anatomically incorrect heart is really 'ringing my bell' so I am going to finish the series.

Finish the replacement ICE collage from this years exchange. Unfortunately one lady (out of over 100 artists) had her package explode in the post, one of mine was amongst those that went missing. I volunteered to replace it and it's about time I walked the walk instead of just talking it!

Start growing my ideas for next years exchange. I have a feeling the graffiti series are some how important to this which is another good reason to finish the pages! Visual diary, blow off that dust because here I come!

Visit blogs and be inspired! So many wonderful things to see in blogesphere and these fingers are doing some walking!

Photograph spring before the cherry blossoms have passed and all is green again. I am loving spring with my eyes every time I drop by youngest at school but it's about time I stopped and smelt the 'roses' too.

My camera's first outing in a while was also my daughters. The spring blossoms made for a beautiful walk and the perfect contrast to the bright hospital lights. It's so good to be home!

I'm sure you noticed this one's already been achieved...I wrote this blog post the other night as a draft and the next day remembered to grab my camera before heading into town. There's something about a list that puts intentions at the forefront of my mind. Already this detox is working and I feel a little more in balance.

See you soon!

We made it!

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 08:45:00 +0000

Old iron, old doors and old paint...taken several months ago in Waihi.

I can hardly believe only a month has gone by since I last posted. It feels a lot longer and if I am being honest I would say that these doors look a little like how I feel! I am so very glad to be home though. My daughter spent 16 days of the last month in hospital, 1 major operation turned into 2 due to complications, its been a difficult time but as my daughter said today... we made it!

Recovey is going to be a long process with hospital visits 2 or 3 times a week and extra demands on my energy and time... but at least the journey has started.

Thank you all for your kind wishes and comments, they are very much appreciated!

Checking out...

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 06:47:00 +0000

I know I've hardly been around in blogosphere lately and I can't believe how much I miss creating and blog surfing! Unfortunately that situation is about to change any time soon and I'm checking out for awhile..

Black Oyester Catchers, Mount Maunganui beach.

My daughter is having major surgery tomorrow afternoon. Triple fusions in her both feet and heels, bone grafts, muscle lengthening (calves) and removal of plates from her knees...suffice to say I am going to be preoccupied for a while! I have art stuff packed, so hopefully that will help pass the time...and keep me attached to the real world and not just the hospital one!

Take care everyone, I hope to see you all soon!

PS: Goose if you read this, I can't contact you! Please leave directions on how to find you in the comments!

Promises

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 23:55:00 +0000

Spring is coming!!

And the winner is....

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 05:27:00 +0000

This postcard is going to be arriving in the mailbox of....drum roll please...

GOOSE WYCLIFFE

Congrats Goose!

(Winner chosen by random.org)

Thanks to all who dropped in and visited my blog:)

Life is a little crazier than usual here, I hope to post soon!

Erosion Project Update and Giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 02:27:00 +0000

The background paper for this postcard is from my erosion bundle. The rest is all recycled from various books and projects. It's not real mail art unitl it's posted so to be in to win all you have to do is leave a comment saying you'd like it to appear in your mailbox!

At the start of the year I signed up to take part in the erosion bundle project.

The aim was to gather some items together and leave them out in nature to disintegrate. The bundles stayed in their position for about 6 months being battered by rain, baked by sun and torn at by the wind.

Finally we brought them in and with great anticipation unravelled them to see what remained.

I was especially pleased with my results!

The challenge was to then make something with the contents of our bundles and display them on our blogs August 1st (yes, I am late!) and also links to them on the Erosion Bundle Project blog.

So what became of the tea, ginger and eucalyptus dyed papers?

I made the above postcard and a book, with the addition on some map pages as these are my current fixation! I love maps, the more colourful and lined the better!

The string from my project was used to bind it and to wrap around it. The button (found on the footpath) acts as the closure. I've already used some of the string and fabric in Debrina's altered book for the Pulp Redux Collaboration, such georgous stuff I wish I had double my bundle!

Thanks to Kris Henderson for organising this project!

Buried Treasure 2011- TREEsolutions

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 09:05:00 +0000

Seth Apter has put the call out for treasure hunters to come and play once again and knowing how fun this is I didn't want to miss out! Below is a link to my "Buried Treasure" which is not actually that old. I posted it on New Years Eve 2010 and I've chosen it for it's beautiful photographs (if I may say so myself!) and because it's a good time of year for me to do a little check point of sorts! In the post below I set myself some TREEsolutions...

***Lucky Dip***: Festival of the Trees: "I was wondering what I was going to do for my NY eve post and happened to come across this blog call out from Jasmine and Nature's Whispers ..."

I enjoyed reading them again, even though they hadn't been forgotten I hadn't consciously pursued them either. It seems committing them to ~~paper~~ blog was the sowing of the seed and since then they've been quietly growing. Most of them at least!

TREEsolution #1: One of the beautiful treelines my eyes have enjoyed this year. This one was found on a driveway and not in the bush but that didn't stop the air being filled with the beautiful song of the native Tui. How awesome it is to take time out to look and listen!

TREEsolution # 2 Not exactly guerrilla art, but I have enjoyed making several 'landcastles' and flat works.There's still time for flags in trees...

TREEsoloution # 3. I've really, really enjoyed this one! These papers are dyed with natures dyes (eucalyptus and walnut) brewed on the stove top at home. Awesome collage fodder!

TREEsoloution #4. I said I would improve my 'green-ness' when it came to paper. Recycling and reusing is second nature and first preference for me although I said I thought there was always room for improvement...I'm not sure if I really have done this. Nearly all of the paper in the collages above is recycled and/or re purposed but that's not a new and improved thing. That makes this a timely reminder to try a little harder so watch this space!

Thank you Seth for another great online collaboration opportunity!

Anatomically Inspired Grafitti

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 01:21:00 +0000

I am so excited to be back in my art zone! I have been wanting to do another lino cut for a long time now but couldn't settle on an image to carve. I thought a lino cut could lend itself quite well to my graffiti pages for the International Signature Exchange and for want of a better search term I googled "lino cut grafitti' or something to that effect. Look what I found! The whole website is fantastically inspiring for a graffiti 'wannabe' such as myself! Full of inspiration I seized the moment and spent several hours drawing, carving, printing and collaging. In the end I only stopped because my shoulder blades were insisting! (Standing hunched over a bench isn't as easy as it used to be! lol) Below is the result of my efforts...an anatomically ~~incorrect~~ inspired linocut heart-nest!

I realised after printing several of these that my heart is not anatomically correct. The valves are back to front! I was going to re cut it and but had a little laugh at myself when I realised that I was worrying about making a heart with a nest in the middle anatomically correct! The existence of the nest made it incorrect and the rest I am putting down to artistic license:)

This is signature two for the swap. I am enjoying adding collage elements to my grafitti inspired papers. Below is the inside of page two, which will have a blank double-sided page in the middle making these pages 1,2,7 and 8.

Above, my sketches, not included in my signature!

Below, signature one for those who missed it.

Below, a segment of the inside of this spread and the back of the signature, heart-nest added!

Sneaky peaks of the signatures I've collaged but not yet stitched. Anatomically correct or not, I love this heart-nest!

PSSST> Watch this space to see my contribution to Seth Apter's Style File, coming soon!

Waihi ICE Exhibtion

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 07:37:00 +0000

The Waihi Exhibition of the ICE collage's I've recieved over the previous 2 years as well as those recieved by several other participating artists in the North Island

Participating Artists include...

Dale Copeland

Grace Leal

Susan Gnaedinger

Pascale Hulin

Jeanna Manniken

Mary Beth Lies

Susan Hurrel-Fields

Claudine Intner

Jean Tock

Renea Erickson

Jane Hilbert

Lisa Haddad

Carol Melichar

Joanelle Connolly

Jude Worters

Event organised by Berys Daly

Thanks to all involved!

Coming soon is Seth Apter's BURIED TREASURE event.

Hop on over to Seth's if you want to sign up, this is a lot of fun!

Tree Love

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 05:11:00 +0000

So many beautiful trees for my eyes to admire...

On a cold and sunny winters day...

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 10:17:00 +0000

We had family stay on the weekend and it was fantastic to take a walk around "The Mount" together. It was actually the second time in a week I'd done this walk but the first time I only got a few pics as we were doing school work!

You know I was doing my (quiet) happy dance being able to get this close the shag!

From the cliff where the shag was. Beautiful day!

You can't tell from my daughter's shorts but it was freezing cold when I took these! It is winter here!

You probably recognise these hands....

Taken from the rocks on the beach. Mount Mauganui is in the background.

Nearly out of light for the day and frozen by the wind we headed home, happy and hungry!

Below is a pic taken earlier in the week from the same walking track. Two of my kids doing math (algebra and decimals) from the look out. The joys of teaching at home!

It's nearly the end of term, only 2 and a half weeks to go...and that means soon I will be able to do lots of art and visit lots of blogs! Wahoo!

Miss ya's!

Gingko Trees and Snapdragons

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 06:02:00 +0000

Rhino's, Zebra's and Gingko trees...we've been to the zoo this week! I photographed the animals too of course but it was the Ginko tree that facinated me. Flat, fan like leaves in golden splatters all over the grass and mossy growth on the trunk of this prehistoric tree. If your interested in trees you can see this link here to learn more about this tree species. I will be on the lookout for them now!

My friend photographed me, photographing the tree... and I snapped by daughter snapping snapdragons. (Sorry, couldn't resist that!)

Altered Bits Print Zine

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 10:10:00 +0000

The Altered Bits Mixed Media Art Zine #1 is available now!

If these images look familiar to you it's because I posted them as 'sneak peeks' waaaaaay back in November! I can't believe it's been that long!

Alicia has been a very busy bee and she's put together an AMAZING zine available in either print or as a download. What's inside? Wow! Where do I start?

There's an artist interview with Lisa Jurist whose art never fails to be completely inspiring!

AND

There's art glorious, wonderful art, click here to see who the artists are.or preview the zine and you will find the contributors on page 3.

AND

There's a 3 page PULP REDUX spread!

AND

There's this.....

My contribution to the 'Letters and Symbols' section.

A long time ago when only sailors got tattoos the humble sparrow was an important symbol. From what I have read the sparrow was tattooed onto a sailors as a talisman to keep them safe. The only time sailors saw sparrows while they were at sea was when they were close to land. The sight of a sparrow would tell a sailor that they were nearly at their destination and had survived their long and dangerous journey. Sighting a sparrow was a reason to celebrate!. The tattoo of a sparrow became a symbol of a sailors desire for safety, home and well being. Over time the use of sparrows became interchangeable with other birds such as swallows and bluebird.Another reason sailors chose sparrows was because of the belief that sparrows took the souls of people to safety (based on an ancient Egyptian belief) and that should they not make the voyage then at least the sparrows would take them home. This is thought to be how the tattoo of a small bird, such as a sparrow, carrying banners with a loved ones name originated, Incidentally, swallows in tattoos were originally used to commemorate the achievement of 5000 nautical miles at sea. If a sailor had 2 swallows it meant he had sailed 10,000 miles. Both swallows and sparrows were used to symbolise love and loyalty as both these birds mate for life.

Mixed Media: photography, thread, paint, found metal, rubber, beads, fabric, lace, re purposed book spine, paper scrap.

Special thanks to the wonderful Alicia for all her amazing-ness! You rock Alicia!

Sketch Book Project

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 04:56:00 +0000

I decided to take part in the Sketch Book Project for the first time this year. I love the concept of this project! If you're not familiar with it please go here to find out.My favorite part of the project is the fact that these books will eventually belong to a library and be issued by the public like a regular library book.

How cool is that?

I've had a brilliant weekend and have managed to make these 3 pages plus get a graffiti page 90% complete! Wahoo! The theme I chose to work in is 'Nothing New' which seemed like a logical choice for me seeing as though I love to recycle and reuse! I decided to take it a step further and use old papers from projects past. When I start a new project I like to use a new method, colour or idea to glue the project together and to provide inspiration. At the end of each project I usually have bits left over and if it looks usable I can't bear to part with it! It ends up in a stash...but then I don't use it because in my heart/mind it belongs to particular project (any one else do that?) eventually I end up with all these papers that I love but don't use!

To be honest I think I form an attachment to them because they symbolise not only a particular project but also a cycle of growth and discovery. I've realised I have a lot of emotion invested in that time and these bits of paper become like photographs to me.

Below are the first 3 pages in my book, Paper Trail.

Paper Trail #1

Remnants of Four weeks in a Season, Take it and Run, Pulp Redux, ICE 2010 and 2011

Paper Trail #2

Remnants of ICE 2010 and 2011, Four Weeks in a Season,

Paper Trail #3

Remnants of ICE 2011, Four Weeks in a Season

These pages aren't glued into the book yet and when I put them in they'll be divided up by journal notes and a sketch or two, it is a sketch book after all!

PS: I'm having trouble visiting some of your blogs! In particular blogs that ask me to select my account, which for some reason I can't although I clearly have one!

ICE conclusion

noreply@blogger.com (Lucky Dip Lisa) — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 05:23:00 +0000

A collage of collages. I made a slide show of the collages I recieved this year but couldn't load it, I seem to remember having the same problem last year! So, a collage of collages it is!

Permissions pending these collages may also be exhibited at an arts centre in Waihi (about an hour from here) in July along with a 'special edition' collage of my own so that one of my pieces is represented as well. There's 2 or 3 ICE artists looking to contribute 11-12 collages so it will be exciting if this goes ahead!

My collage sold this year (Freedom Song) and I recieved these great collages in return.If any one reading this is tempted to do this exchange next year I hope this will convince you to give into temptation!

Thank you to everyone who dropped by my pulp post, so lovely to see you all!