My Innermost Being. . .

I have finally finished her, my "Psalms 139 Lady".

About 10 days ago I started on this lovely lady, and just this morning I finished her. I honestly thought I would be finished the weekend I started her, but "life" happened and I couldn't get her finished. But I am super pleased to have her off of my work table and standing up straight so I could introduce her to you all.

Here she is. . .  

 

 She is made on a modeling paste base inside a 13"x24" galvanized metal frame. She is based on the 139th Psalm (which you can read in its entirety below), this Psalm was written by King David as a prayer to God, and what an amazing prayer it is! How I wish I could pray like David did! In this Psalm David is confident that God knows everything about him, but he asks God to “dig deeper”. He just wanted to please God and be right with God.  

I wanted to create something that made me remember that God created me and knows every minute detail about me because He loves me just as much as He loved David.

 This Lady has lots of "exposed" parts to symbolize how God knows us so intimately.

"You have searched me, Lord,  and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely"

 For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

 All of the clocks and clock parts are there to symbolize how long God has known me  and loved me -

¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.

 This little bottle hanging here has 2 rolled up scrolls in it.

 

 I wanted to be sure to highlight verse 14 somehow on this piece, so it got added to one of my copper plant stakes here with the numbers "139" added inside of some cogs.

 (excuse the random leaf in this picture)

You can see in the picture below that the entire 139 Psalm is the foundation for this piece - it was taken from an old family Bible I collected. 

And all of the things in her head remind me of how often God thinks about me

 ¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, God, How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

There are so many things on this piece, clocks, clock works and gears of course. But there are also light bulbs, wings, flowers, crosses, keys, springs and coils. There are also guitar parts and several compasses and even a crown. Most of the items on this piece are old and rusty. But there are a few new things as well. Thank you to all of my friends out there that have been helping me collect my "junque". They have found a happy home here with my lady.

 

I hope you have enjoyed looking my Lady over - I can't wait to get some big bolts in the wall so I can hang her up. She is a little bit heavy and I wont be trusting her to a regular finishing nail!

Here is the whole Psalm for you to read if you like.

 

Till we meet again. . .

 

Psalm 139

1You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. 2You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. 5You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. 6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” 12even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17How precious to me are your thoughts,^a God! How vast is the sum of them! 18Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand - when I awake, I am still with you. 19If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! 20They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. 21Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? 22I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. 23Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

More JUNQUE - Litterally and Figuratively

WOW! I have been away longer than I thought!

I have been busy with all sorts of JUNQUE. . .

Finding JUNQUE

Buying JUNQUE

Playing with JUNQUE

well, you get the idea.

Here is a bit of the JUNQUE I have been purchasing (and playing with)

 

 Tons of "watch guts" or "watch glitter as the fancy people call it.

 

 7lbs of old rusty gears and sprockets - Loving the size of these!

 

 21 different watch movements (the pix above and below are the same ones just front and back side) Aren't they sooo cool!

Okay, I am IN LOVE with these! These are big wall clock movements and I took 2 of these apart today and what a treasure trove of rusty gold inside!!!!

(Sorry Deborah - I just couldn't wait for you. But there is still another one to take apart)

I am having to get creative in my storage containers for all of my new JUNQUE - any ideas???

 

In my quest for creating more storage space I did a little (and I mean a little) cleaning in my studio. I used to be such a clean freak - not no more! Now I think cleaning is way over rated!

 The shelf above used to be black & white stripes (when this used to be the girls' playroom) and it has always bugged me in my new darker, grungier studio. So while I was cleaning I decided to give it a little facelift. BIG MISTAKE! the shelf is that dreaded fake wood that is full of my arch nemesis - formaldehyde! Of course I drilled holes in it to attach the typewriter piece and allowed all of that gas to spew out! Needless to say the shelf is no longer there and I was exiled for 3 days.

I got some of my art hung in a grouping. They used to just hang on whatever nails were left behind when this was my daughter's bedroom.

 And I finally got my metal letters painted and up off of my floor so I no longer have to move them 3 times a day to get into cabinets etc.

 The funky white canvas that looks like it doesn't belong there is actually just a spacer for the piece below. It will look super cool there when I get my class sample back.

BTW - this class is this Friday afternoon and I think there are still a couple spots available if you want to get out of the heat and have some fun!

 

Playing with JUNQUE

 

I don't usually show my pieces before they are finished BUT I wanted to give you an idea of what I am doing with all of this JUNQUE I have been collecting.

This is my latest piece entitled

"Innermost Being"

(anyhoo that is the title for now)

It is based on the 139th Psalm

 

Here she is in different stages - I think I am in love!!!

 She is a big girl - about 1'x2'. I have to laugh at the Home Depot guy that "tried" to help me this weekend. He is not familiar with me and kept telling me that I had too many supports on this metal frame. I kept explaining I was not trying to support anything, but was trying to figure out how I wanted it to look. He finally gave up and asked to see it when I was finished.

 I really wish I could make this light bulb work! It is sitting in one of those lovely rusty sprockets I bought.

 Lots of gears and other clock parts on this fine lady. . .

 And even the whole 139th Psalm straight out of one of the big Bibles I have collected.

 

So this is sorta what I have been up to - this and a billion other things. I have to get back to my lady friend - she is anxious to be done!

Have a GREAT week and take some time to have and spread some joy!!!!

till we meet again. . .

 

One Man's JUNK is This Girl's ART. . .

That's right! It seems these days I am always searching for junk to make art out of. This week the junk came to me! Monday morning, bright and early I got a call from my bug man (I love this guy!) telling me to meet him at the door in 5 minutes (it was not our scheduled day). When he arrived he handed me two bags of really COOL JUNK (pictured below)! He really likes the last couple of pieces I have done and said he would start a "Marta Bag" in his house to collect some random stuff for me.

 

Then on Tuesday I had another "playdate" with Deborah and we played with some more JUNK, some that I had brought with me and some that she had collected. I brought this motherboard with me from my deceased PC and we took a shot at dismantling it. WE didn't get everything off but we did manage to get the fan, the processor and one of the heat thingies off (Richard told me what it was called last night but I forget now). The heat thingy was so cool looking and I told Deborah that it looked like flames - next thing I know she has her jewelers saw out and is slicing it into pieces for me. As she handed me the pieces I started lining them up and then added some wine corks to the "display" and asked her "what do you think this is?". She wasn't sure and that was when I told her it was my mixed media version of the Bible story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abendego - do you remember those guys? They got thrown into the fiery furnace and didn't get burned. As you will see later on that started a whole 'nother set of nonsense.

Next on our JUNK adventure was dismantling a blender that Deborah rescued from her son's trash while she helped him pack last week. I never knew there was such fun stuff inside of a blender! Be watching for some of these parts to show up in some art pieces soon. Some of that pretty red wire might be showing up in some of Deborah's jewelery too! We had to take a hammer to the body at one point to free some of that lovely JUNK - I am sure her neighbors loved us out there bashing the heck out of it with a hammer at 11:30 at night!

Just to let you know it was after 1:30am when all of this stuff happened - we were getting a little "too happy". We were just looking at some of the treasured JUNK we had freed that night, when something happened and we ended up making this little "Man". First he just had arms and legs and was standing by the "fire". Then he got some "guns" and a heart (he was a cowboy, that's why he got the guns). Next came some cool "glasses" (he was a vision impaired cowboy). Then he lost his heart and got a "rope" made from guitar strings. I don't think I have ever seen Deborah laugh so hard - our little guy made his way to social media that night when Deborah posted him on Facebook! Our little guy even got 6 "likes and a couple of comments! 

Well I didn't leave there until 3:00am and it is about an hours drive home. But somehow I had the creative juices still flowing I guess and I got my sample made for my July Mixed Media Fridays w/ Marta done yesterday (okay it was actually around 3:00am this morning!). The sample will be in the store on Saturday if you want to take a closer look.

I hope you will join us  - we are going to be learning a little bit about color blending and texture in this class. And you will go home with this super cool 4"x12" canvas to hang on your own Art studio/space wall.

The class will be on Friday, July 19th from Noon - 3:00pm. You can check out the classes tab for all of the details.

 

Well, with all of my "JUNK" play and painting this week my house is a wreck! I should probably get off the computer and go clean - YUCK!

I hope you all are having a fantastic week!

till we meet again. . .

Playing with Copper

This weekend I did a little bit of experimenting. When I made the piece below I used part of an old copper plant stake that I had in my garden at my old house. It had a beautiful patina on it and I just loved the texture.

Well that was the only one I had, but then I got to thinking. . .

I have a bunch of new ones that have never been used in my gardening box! I figured maybe, just maybe I could "quickly" duplicate that beautiful patina?  

 These are the plant stakes I started off with - you can get them in the $1 bin at Target every spring or Home Depot whenever. They come with 6 in the pack

 

 Next step was my "beautiful" aging station on my patio, complete with Vinegar & sea salt. I prefer cidar vinegar but I was out and had to use plain ol' white vinegar. I soaked the stakes in the vinegar/salt solution (2 parts Vinegar to 1 Part salt) all day.

 

 Then that evening I placed the stakes in the lawn so that they touched the grass (thankfully the lawn needed mowing) and waited for the sprinklers to come on that night. By noon the next day this is what they looked like!

 

 I plucked them out of the ground and then pulled the copper plates off of the stakes                      (they just slide off)

 

 Aren't they pretty? They aren't quite as "blue" as the 10 year old stake, but I am sure if I wasn't so impatient, and left them out a few more days they would have gotten there.

I can't wait to use these little beauties now! Who knows, maybe they will show up in a class soon???

 

I hope you are all having a great weekend and doing something FUN and CREATIVE!!!

 

till we meet again. . .

 

I've Been at it Again!

That's right, I have been busy in my studio again the past few days.

So here is my latest creation

"The Way"

 

 

Do you remember a few days back I showed you this picture of the overpass at the 101 & Shea Blvd? I told you I always get stopped at this light on my way to my friend's house.

Remember I told you that it always inspires me and that eventually I would make some art of it?

Well, I did it!

I like to name my art and I like to build in as much symbolism as I possibly can. I also like to use my time in my studio as a time to pray and listen to God.

 

This one is called "The Way" for the obvious reason but as I worked on this piece and I was praying about it God brought to mind the scripture John 14:6

"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life"

As I pondered this verse and worked on it some more, it became obvious to me that this was the purpose and meaning of this piece. After all what better friend is there than Jesus!

"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends"

John 15:14

So you will see there is compass, a cross and a big gear, all of them painted black and red at some area. This symbolizes the darkness our lives are without Him and His blood that changes all of that!

There are a ton of arrows on this piece as well as a reminder of the "way"

The large nuts on this piece are even covered with the above scriptures and others

 

I knew this was going to be a heavy piece, structurally, so it is not on a canvas. It is actually on a pine "canvas" that I built. Well, I didn't build it all by myself. . . I got frustrated when my cordless drill ran out o juice and I couldn't get the spent battery out to put a new one in it. This made me drive to my friend Rooster's house, where her dear hubby John helped me out - Thanks John - you are my hero!

 

So this is what I have been up to - tomorrow I am actually heading back over to my friend Deborah's house and I will probably get stopped at this light again!

 

Enjoy the rest of your week

till we meet again. . .

No Sense Crying Over Spilt Butter and Pepsi!

Okay, so these are NOT the typical pictures I share with you on my blog but. . .

I just had to share with you what I woke up to this morning.

 

 Typically in this spot is a relatively clean concrete garage floor and a refrigerator that holds all of the cold drinks and back-up items. But this morning I woke up to my Mother telling me that the garage fridge had been left open all night! I wasn't too worried since like I said - it mostly just holds drinks. So I go out to check on things and I see all of this "liquid" on the ground around the fridge and figured it was just water. I grabbed some towels and went back out to clean up the mess and found that the "liquid" was actually melted butter!!!!! FIVE POUNDS of melted butter!!!!! That's right 5lbs! My Mother had done a bit of Costco shopping and stocked up. So it had melted over night and ran all over the inside and out the open door onto the concrete floor. GROSS!

So now I have to move the fridge and all of the shelving around the fridge so I can clean up all of the butter that ran under the refrigerator. Mom had also purchased canned soda when it was on sale and had stacked it next to the fridge, as I went to move one of the 12packs it decided to explode inside the box and run all over the garage floor and me! Mind you it is now about 11:30 (I didn't start right away because I thought it was just water) and about 105 degrees outside and hotter than that in the garage.

I had no idea how to clean up this mess so I found this little 1" scouring brush and some baking soda and went to town. Nope that didn't work so I tried bleach - nope that is not the solution either. Finally after a couple of hours I just mopped it up and called it good. Sadly after all of that work the concrete is completely stained, the fridge is not cooling anymore and I think I lost about 5lbs from sweating!But on the up side, my garage is cleaner than it was when I woke up and I got a couple of hours to just listen to my music and got to say hi to my neighbors as they passed by. Gary stopped by to pick up his golf clubs and when he saw the mess he expected me to be cranky (I hate messes and dirty stuff) but he was pleasantly surprised that I was not. I just kept thinking of these two Bible verses as I cleaned up this mess. I even quoted them to him -

Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice! Philippians 4:4

and

Whatever you are doing, work at it with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not for people.
Colossians 3:23
 

He just laughed and said "whatever gets you through this Babe". It is amazing to me how you can CHOOSE to have joy even while doing something you don't enjoy doing. Not too long ago this would have ruined the rest of my day. But today it was just something that happened and needed to be taken care of. So today I share with you my spilt butter and spilt Pepsi and my choice to find joy in the middle of the mess.

I hope your day was full of JOY but without the mess!

till we meet again. . .