Alteredartswap Tip In Journal

High on my list of favorite art activities in 2008 is the Tip In Journal Project in one of my very favorite goups, alteredartswap.

In February I created a spread for Judy Evitt's "White Rabbit," Jefferson Airplane's version of Alice in Wonderland. GREAT fun!! For the background I chose alcohol inks on glossy photo paper to achieve a "psychedelic" look. I added to that the funkiest, wildest images I could find. The results, as we said in the 60's, are "cool, man," in my opinion. These pages definitely allowed me to stretch my creativity and achieve a look quite different from my usual. That's one of the greatest values to me of swaps and mingles; they spur us to try new ideas and gain varied perspectives

My March pages are for Tamara Comerford and took me in a completely different direction than Judy's. Tamara and her husband have recently purchased their first home, and her chosen theme is "Home Sweet Home" in shades of red. I experimented with and discarded half a dozen ideas before my muse finally whispered "Quilts." Being a born and raised Kentuckian and having spent many years in the Appalachian Mountain region of the state, I have long had great appreciation and affection for the works of art created by the women of the region through their quiltmaking. I chose the Log Cabin pattern for Tamara's spread and pieced together a minature fabric square to center one page. For the other page I found a poem which compares the warmth and comfort of a quilt with those qualities in families.