photo booth

Hardcore

The Muses back in Sebastopol met this week to work on self portraits together. Not wanting to miss out I braved the chaos of my garage studio and decided to take the easy way out, using an old lesson I taught many times.

Take a picture of yourself using the Comic Strip filter on the Photo Booth app (if you have it on your computer) and print it out in Black and White. Then carve it up, glue it onto the paper and have your paint/gesso/collage way with it. Add words.

paint, fabric, comic strip collage

 

Just give me a space to paint and

I’ll find a way

SOMEWHERE

      Between ceiling hooks and oil stained floor

There’s a place to thrive

      In a maze of U-haul boxes

      Partly opened and fully unorganized

SOMEWHERE there’s a place to paint

To cut and paste and draw and write

Because I’m hardcore. . .

Just help me find those scissors I left. . .

SOMEWHERE. . .

 

 Confusion is often the name of the game these days, but one thing is certain. It will be many more months before life settles again into some predictable rhythm, (and the ability to find the good scissors when you need them!) So I just bought myself a new pair. The girl in the picture is OK, even though the snakes on the head sometimes get a bit out of hand!

This is why it’s good to do a self portrait at regular intervals in order to check in on yourself, or to look back at earlier ones to see if things might have changed. Here’s one from May this year when the Sh”!t was really hitting the fan prior to moving!

The look on her face before leaping the chasm. . .

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Golden Girl

goldengirl

acrylic, collage, PhotoBooth image, stamping, etc on w/c paper

The Golden Girl Needs Me

such a golden girl

knows how to be siren cool

all gold lame, silver, and diamonds

such an effort to be she

 

but what’s under that platinum hair

appears absent. . .

looks like she’s gonna need some help 

where she’s going

Looks like more clown folly here.  A second week of playing with PhotoBooth (comic strip) pictures to make self portraits.  Yeah, that’s my  face under the nose, but not my bod!  I was never a siren of the screen except in my dreams perhaps.

I’m off for some camping in the redwoods this week.  Back for a mini-Muse workshop July 14.  We’ll be doing debossing and embossing textures.  There’s still space if you can join us! Visit my workshops page for more info.

Up to Monkey Business

monkeybizness

inks and collage on w/c paper, 10  X 11″

up to monkey business

down with grown up’s worries

we’re here to play

pick a plastic flower

do a duck walk, 

pound our chests

and let out a rousing chorus of 

Toward the Fun!

I had to stop wearing costumes when i got home from camp, but I couldn’t stop painting them.  My clown heart is still warm.  So we have been doing kookie self portraits again in Muse group, and believe me, this one is quite tame compared to the student pieces!

The method?  If you have the Photo Booth software on your computer, set it on the Comic Book filter effect and ham it up for the camera – like you did with your friends in those photo booths that printed out a strip of blurry pics.  Size it to fit your paper, print it out and glue it onto your paper.  Then start painting and collaging til you can see one of your many alter egos taking shape.  This way you avoid trying to make pretty with the image and risking one of those uncomfortable self image – reality collisions!

Muse Student Self Portraits

 

 

by Muse Bettina

It’s really quite refreshing to get together and do art with all my Muse sisters.  It makes me realize I’m not the only whacky one!  We did the self portraits without the mirrors, adding humor to the equation and throwing caution to the wind.   Click the picture above to watch the slide show. Enjoy!

Color Me Purple

acrylic on w/c paper, 10 X 10″

Color Me Yellow came first. Then Color Me Green.  And now Color Me Purple.  The process is to pose for Photo Booth on my Mac computer using the Comic Strip filter, print it out in black and white, transfer the lines onto paper, pick a dominant color and paint fast!

I hate to admit it but this one has actually captured a bit of my likeness.  Hmmmm.  Guess that means purple is my color?  I like lavender but generally shun darker purple because it reminds me of those ladies who dress in purple with red hats and call themselves “Red Hatters”.  Find for them, but I’m not ready for that yet (even though I guess I’m the right age).