Vintage Moon Studio

Magpie Arts

Many months ago I gathered together a small group of artist friends with the intent of creating a long-term collaborative project ~ and Magpie Arts was born.

 Over the course of one year we worked on a themed deck of large cards, weekly producing wonderful and unique mini art canvases. We each then designed our own creative containers to house the finished 52 cards.

Fast forward to this month, when we have the great fortune to have our finished projects included in LK  Ludwig's newest book, Collaborative Art Journals and Shared Visions in Mixed Media.

  Artwork: far left - Marci Hudziak; left - Kris Henderson; right top - Christine Shebroe; right bottom - Deb Lewis (me!)

This beautifully published book houses a collection of diverse collaborative projects and provides inspiration and insight into talented artists like LK, Elizabeth Bunsen and Katie Kendrick.

I hope you will search it out on Amazon or Barnes and Noble... you will not be disappointed!

Below are a few diffferent views of my project - 52 artist cards contained in a handmade book:

 Thanks for looking!

New Books!

 

I recently received my copies of 2 new books published by Jill Haglund of Tweety Jill Publishing and was excited to see 3 more pieces of my artwork in print.

The first book, "Altered! Art Projects" is chock full of beautiful projects created by  some wonderful artists and friends like Kristen Robinson, Deb Trotter, Susan Tuttle, Audrey Hernandez and many others. Two of my shadowbox pieces are included...

 

The second book, "Creating with Fabric" is also full of enticing and inspiring fabric pieces from some of the leading fabric artists like Leslie Riley, KC Willis and Lisa Engelbrecht. The piece of mine that is included is one that was created during a wonderful workshop led by Leslie Riley... a fabric journal page (measures 18 x 20) that contains fragments of an original short story of mine written on hanging tags... "She was Told to be Good".

Check out both of these inspiring books full of beautiful artwork and technique instruction - they do not disappoint!

A bit of fun...

and a bit of a surprise when I received a copy of Somerset Gallery Winter 2008 issue and discovered that a shadowbox I had submitted many months ago was published. There are so many wonderful pieces of art in this issue... the first box below is the one included in the Gallery - the other two boxes were companion pieces created at the same time. Thanks for taking a peek!

Inspiration:

The ocean has always been more to me than ever-changing shades of azure, turquoise and cerulean blues. Subtle tones of mauves, pinks and gold shine through, creating a harmonious mosaic of color and light.

The New England coast offers a gem called Moonstone Beach.

This national reserve harbors, among others, the elusive and endangered Piping Plover who nest and breed in a protected environment of windswept dunes and vast expanses of pristine beach. The public has limited access to this little piece of paradise and it is here that many treasures are waiting to be discovered… raggedy streamers of purple seaweed cast up like folded ribbons, skeleton horseshoe crab shells long ago abandoned , twisted and bleached coral bits gleaming like small sculptures. All of these gifts from the sea are, in my mind’s eye, awaiting new life.

In creating these three shadowboxes, the detritus of a foggy beach morning become the elements of playful collages. I chose to work with pearlized paint to evoke the lustrous quality of wet shells and the luminosity of the ocean waters and sky. Tags flutter like whisps of paper dancing in the breeze. Sanded wooden cigar boxes provide a safe enclosure reminiscent of bleached wooden picket fences that guard the dunes and their inhabitants.

            

            

          

Something New...

I can finally write a little bit about what I have been up to lately... I just received a copy of the new book "Rubber Stamping Artist Trading Cards" which includes 6 pieces of my artwork. This was published by the wonderful Jill Haglund and is a great collection of ATC basics, techniques, instructions and gallery featuring several talented artists... many of them friends! This is one of the best books I've seen lately for inspiration, whether you are new to the ATC scene or an experienced artist. I hope you'll look for it on your next trip to the bookstore.