Found Words

My friend and fellow blogger Lori Moon has a series called Shared Messages from the Universe. 

Lori is talented photographer and jewelry artisan. 

She photographs found phrases and words she comes across in her travels in the The City. 

She shares written signs that have a message that you probably walk past every day. 

On her walks, she finds messages on billboards, ads in the subway, store fronts, etc.  

My favorite one is here, because what she wrote rings true. 

I am very inspired by words as you know. 

I live in the country and I laugh about this series in a good way 

because if I ever attempted to do the same my slate would read:

Children at play

Men at work
One lane road ahead

School bus stop ahead

For Sale

frost heaves

yield

CVS coming soon 

So what is the message from my universe? I just laugh!

So funnily enough, I found words on a recent trip with my two kids and my two nieces to a children's museum. I came across these words put together by the younger set at an interactive station full of magnet words, blackboards, chalk, crayons and paper. 

I love how in the one below we have to "imagine" the letter "g" and "i" in the word imagine.

Great advice. Just do it!

Just love this one.

This one goes without saying. 

A shout out to the Flying Lessons Group.

Giggles here! I feel like this on my days I don't make art.

 Lori did mention that we could find messages in magazines and here is one for me to share.  
Another artist friend has this large jar full of magazine clippings of words she uses in her work. 

On a recent visit this clipping is what I pulled out of the jar and it left me with a good laugh. Enjoy! Thank you for stopping by.

All images and content belong to Deborah Velásquez. Copyright 2005-2011.  All rights reserved.

Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on on your blog or website

Art Every Day Thirty • Mosaic of Art Everyday

 The Art Everyday Month Challenge comes to a close today. 
I made the commitment to make art everyday. 
My final piece is a mosaic featuring art made during the month of November. 
I can step back and see what was accomplished in thirty days. 
Not the easiest of tasks but what fun it was to get the creativity going. 
Thank you to Leah Piken Kolidas, blog author of Creative Every Day Blog for putting together the AEDM challenge. 
I met many wonderful artists and enjoyed seeing everyones work and beautiful blogs. Many of my friends from Kelly Rae Robert's Flying Lessons e-course participated as well. It is always fun to make art alongside your friends.


The challenge was a good artistic discipline to follow. 
I learned that even if you only have an hour to make art, make that hour count. 
If you have young children as I do, that might be all the time you get in a day.
I rely on chip board and butcher paper to make art a lot of the time. 
I have to work fast and embrace the imperfections in my art as character. 
You know the spills, drips an smudges! 
Another lesson learned this month was that as an artist we can create anywhere.
During the challenge we experienced a Nor'easter displacing my family for nine days. 
I took my traveling studio, made the best of it and made art at a friend's. 
She happens to be an artist as well, so she welcomed my mess. 


Do you create art in other places other than your studio?
If you participated in this challenge what growth or insight did you experience?

All images and content belong to Deborah Velásquez. Copyright 2005-2011.  All rights reserved.

Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on on your blog or website

Art Every Day Twenty Nine • Advent Calendar Tree

Advent Calendar Feather Tree. 

The countdown begins.

All images and content belong to Deborah Velásquez. Copyright 2005-2011.  All rights reserved.

Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on on your blog or website

Art Every Day Twenty Eight • Advent Calendar Project

 Counting down the days till Christmas. 

Advent calendars offer surprises and treats everyday. 

What fun for the kids and for us as well. 

I bought ready made bags at our local craft store, they are available in all different colors. Buy a few more than you need to allow for mistakes. Cut decorative papers into circle, square and rectangle shapes. For the numbers you can use rubber stamps. Glue or stamp your design directly onto the small paper bag.

Can't wait to see how it all turns out when I am done.

All images and content belong to Deborah Velásquez. Copyright 2005-2011.  All rights reserved.

Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on on your blog or website

Art Every Day Twenty Seven • Holiday Cards

Here is the word love again! Working on Holiday Cards. Having thoughts on different motifs for the holidays like trees, owls in winter gear and type. I started to carve words on the blocks and wanted to share. 

I worked on different color combinations, traditional and fun. 

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I have narrowed it down to these designs. 

What types of cards do you send during the holidays, traditional, modern, 

humorous, e-cards,  homemade, religious, musical, or photo cards?

All images and content belong to Deborah Velásquez. Copyright 2005-2011.  All rights reserved.

Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on on your blog or website

Art Every Day Twenty Six • Love

Love, a favorite word, continues to be ever present in my work.  As I was organizing photos it kept appearing leaving me to think it needed its own folder! Sharing some love here. Something to remember as the days on the calendar change to embrace the spirit of the holidays and the season.

All images and content belong to Deborah Velásquez. Copyright 2005-2011.  All rights reserved.

Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on on your blog or website

Art Every Day Twenty Five • Your Today

Everyone has a word path. One word leads to another.

Velásquez©2011

Word Paths, a Friday feature showcasing possibilities in written words, creative process and artistic pieces. 

My goal is to present three to five words or three to five lines. 

I may go to seven words or seven lines but probably not often, only if needed. 

I plan to work the Word Paths out artistically and process them to share with you here. 

You can go here, to my first post on this project and see how it all started.

•


Enjoying a holiday full of conversation, reflection and introspection with new friends and old.

_______________________________

Here is my word path for today

Happy Weekend • Savor Today • Enjoy the Language of Words

All images and content belong to Deborah Velásquez. Copyright 2005-2011.  All rights reserved.

Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on on your blog or website

Art Every Day Twenty Four • Happy Thanksgiving

Did 

you 

get

the 

giblets

out?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Art Every Day Twenty Three • Silhouette

  This five petal flower motif comes up often in my work. 

I decided to have some fun with how the photos line up. 

Love the movement created with the placement of the cut paper layout. 

Working with cut paper gives me a lot of freedom to play and process ideas.

 There is such strength in a motif when in silhouette. When was the last time you even thought to look at or draw something in silhouette, flowers, animals or birds? For me probably art school, an art class or workshop when they ask you to break things down to their simplest form in a drawing or painting. I should add this to my list in my Lessons Learned in Art School post. 

Great to keep in mind when creating. 

Give it a try, put your idea or sketch in silhouette, you will be pleasantly surprised.

All images and content belong to Deborah Velásquez. Copyright 2005-2011.  All rights reserved.

Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on on your blog or website.

Art Every Day Twenty Two • Colorful Birds

Making bird prints today. 

I first printed this the Pineapple Bird in black on the first of November as my first piece of art in the Art Everyday Month Challenge which you can find here. I used a rubber carving block and ink. I thought I would share the initial rough sketches I did before cutting into the rubber block.

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My creative process, pen and pencil to paper. 

My supplies, a rubber carving block, textile paint, Speedball carving tool and a brayer.

When working with a larger rubber block handle with care. 

It may split because of its flexibility and it is a bit on the thin side.

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Developing a limited edition color series. I love how the different colors give the Pineapple Birds a different personality.

All images and content belong to Deborah Velásquez. Copyright 2005-2011.  All rights reserved.

Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of the origin on on your blog or website.

Art Every Day Twenty One • Scribbles and Motifs

      

Dots and swirls drawn from inspiration found in beautiful garden gates. Will be interesting to see what patterns develop from these doodles and motifs. The swirl and circles above show up in my work, my decor, my clothes quite often. Do you find that happens with you? Are you attracted to the same motifs without even being aware of it? Just your style perhaps. I blogged about one's icon in a previous post which can be found here.

Beautiful white gate from a garden among the gingerbread cottages of Oak Bluffs in Martha's Vineyard.

Top of my wrought iron gate used for decoration in my garden.

 Front section of my wrought iron gate.

All images and content belong to Deborah Velásquez. Copyright 2005-2011.  All rights reserved.

Please do not use anything without permission or without making note of  the origin on on your blog or website.