Checking A Link

 Just a test to see if this system is working correctly!

New Project Almost Finished

 I am finishing up a project. I looked over my notes for this project and discovered that I started it in 2017. Better late than never I guess! I'll be posting the project on this blog. The tag on this post is a clue.

Indian Ink

Photo and Story Credit: Spotlight on Indian Ink

  

Probably the most renowned ink, Indian ink is a permanent, opaque black. It mixes well with other colours, adding a cool, dense tint. It flows well on paper, producing strong, crisp black lines which makes it popular across many genres. The History of Indian ink Also known as Chinese ink, Indian ink stems from one of the oldest and most durable pigments of all time: carbon black. Made from ash mixed with a binder such as water, liquid or glue, various recipes for carbon black can be found as far back in history as the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. A recipe by the Greek scribe Dioscorides from 40-90 AD survives to this day on parchment. Around 3000 BC, drawing ink appeared in China. The pigment was dried into small sticks or little saucers, often using animal glue as a binder. These then needed to be rubbed with water to create a liquid ink. Traditionally, black inks were favoured by Chinese artists who excelled in producing monochrome paintings conveying texture and emotions through ink strokes and varying shades of black and grey. Why is it known as Indian ink? In India, scribes have used needle and pen since antiquity to write many of their Buddhist and Jain scripts. Black ink was known as masi in India: a mixture of different ashes, water and animal glue. It was only in the mid-17th century, when Europe began importing ink from India, that it became known as Indian ink. Who uses Indian ink? Today Indian ink is used by illustrators, calligraphists, designers, cartoonists and tattooists all over the world. It’s long been a staple for any sketch, and artists such as William Hogarth, Henry Moore, Andy Warhol and David Hockney have all used it. The iconic ‘gentleman spider’ wrapped around boxes and bottles of Winsor & Newton’s Indian Ink was created by the world-renowned designer Michael Peters OBE, and won a D&AD award for packaging design in 1973. Surprising uses Outside of the art world, it has many surprising uses; it’s popular for its permanence in various medical procedures, such as staining tissue and microscopic slides. It’s also used to polish metal surfaces to peak reflectiveness, a process that was patented by Nasa in 2002. In Japan, the traditional racket game of Hanetsuki involves the loser being marked on the face with Indian ink. Winsor & Newton produce 26 colours in the drawing ink range, including two professional quality Indian inks: Liquid Indian Ink, which is the traditional formula of the Chinese sticks and is not waterproof, and Black Indian Ink, which uses a shellac binder, allowing the ink to have washes painted on top without bleeding. indian ink

For Evan

 It has been two years since I've posted here. The hardest thing I've ever done in two years was to bury my son Evan. He died in March 2022. I have very few words today, except that I hope this never happens to you. I think the worst thing that can happen to any parent is to lose a child. This photo was taken in June of 2021. Evan somehow convinced me to participate in a 5K road race. Well, he went flying by me and I finished last. But at least I finished. I love you Evan, and I'll miss you for the rest of my life.

Back Online

With the imposed quarantine in place, I thought it would be a good idea to start posting on my blog again. I've decided to add a new category called ~assorted to give myself the flexibility to post interesting ideas. Most of those posts will be art related, but sometimes may not be related to anything; just exciting stuff I come across. And I've decided to post once a week on Friday.  Onward we go! Stay safe everyone, and stay home!

This CDC illustration reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses.  

Alissa Eckert, Dan Higgins/CDC

Red To Blue

No this is not about politics. I was listening to WAMC this morning and heard a segment about this new blue dye. You can read about it here. Talk about mixed media!

Beet Blue

Spring Arriving!

Walking around my still soggy yard, I spotted these crocuses.

Sparking Ideas

My favorite base for my mixed media work is cardboard. I have a friend who keeps an eye out for pieces she thinks I might find interesting. This morning she wrote and sent me a photo shown below. Asked me if I wanted it; YES, I want it. It looks so fascinating as a jump-off point for a new project. I’m thinking weaving but could be something else. Here’s where I need advice: does anyone know of a good safe coating I can use on the cardboard to preserve it and yet keep it flexible? I can see covering these pieces on both sides with an acrylic medium, but I’m not sure because I want the pieces to stay flexible. Ideas? Thoughts? Recommendations?

And This Is Me Yet Again

You all know I was adopted. From a very early age, my mom and dad made that very clear and easy to understand. Mom considered her adopted children as her own, as any good Mom would.

Then came the discovery and subsequent DNA test. As this photo shows, I'm 48% from The Baltic region of Europe, primarily Lithuania. There are also some surprising findings on this map too. Roots in Italy sound like fun exploring. But, as my friend and I always talk about, if it comes to winning the big lottery, I'm heading to Lithuania. It's like two of me, one Scottish and Irish, the other Lithuanian and Irish. Never in a million years would I have guess Lithuania. I'm so happy to know this!

 

This Is Me

I've known my family roots all my life. With the last name MacDonald, I kind of figured where it all started. My G4 (or maybe G5) MacDonald ancestor fought the good fight for The Crown during the American Revolution. Well, we know they lost. But I do know that my Lt. Colonel grandfather MacDonald was granted a large section of land along the Mirimichi River in Canada. That's where the MacDonald story in North America began. Here's a photo of the MacDonald Historic Site. This photo was taken in 2008 when my mom and her daughter visited the old homestead. That's them standing in the doorway.

The Mystery of Aunt Olga

A while back, I posted about my birth mother's older sister, Olga. I had her photo restored thanks to a very talented man who does restorations. I'll be posting more of his work as time goes on.

Aunt Olga was born in October 1917 in Brockton, Massachusetts. The 1920 census lists her then at age 2 3/12, which means she was two years and three months old at the time. That's what I'm basing her birth year on until I can acquire her birth certificate.

Regardless, while I had information on her siblings, I couldn't find any details about her. Aside from the beautiful photo in this post, I didn't know anything about her. My birth siblings never mentioned Aunt Olga. Well, that all changed when I found her married name. What I discovered was a sad story. In 1940 at the age of 23, Aunt Olga gave birth to a little girl named Olga after her mother. Shortly after that, Aunt Olga died from complications of childbirth, a not uncommon problem back in those days.

The records indicate the birth of her daughter and the date of Aunt Olga's passing on as the same day. I can only infer what happened, but still, it is a sad story.

The photo I'm posting below is clearly of a young woman. Now I know she was in her early twenties when this photo was taken. A short life, but her legacy carries on in her daughter.

Olga Mary Martinkus 1917-1940

Keeping Up With Pieces Of Me

Well, that break went longer than I thought it would! Lots going on in my household, so I haven't been posting much. I have not been in my studio, creating art since I last posted in July. But I have been working on my genealogy. So I'm back for that at least. I've made some new, heartbreaking discoveries and broke down a brick wall that has been bugging me for a while. I'm planning to only post once a week for now. So I'm back, sort of! And yes, I ended the sentence with a preposition. Oh well, it works.

Adjusting My Sails

I love this quote attributed to Elizabeth Edwards, a noted attorney and health care advocate, who died of breast cancer in 2010. I liked the quote so much I made this mixed media art piece using the quote. I am taking a break from blogging. I have "stuff" going on at home (nothing serious) that means I will be packing up my studio for a while. The veritable "winds of change" are blowing around here, and my sails require adjusting. I'll be back on course, probably in the fall 2019. Have a beautiful summer!

Ones and Zeros

That's how we run our computers. And I noticed when my car hit this mile marker.

Melrose Cemetery

On Easter Sunday 2019 I traveled from Orange to Brockton to visit the cemetery where my birth mother and her parents are buried. Melrose Cemetery is a large, public cemetery in Brockton, Mass. As it happens, my birth mother (and her two siblings) were born and raised in Brockton. I was happy to finally find her resting place.

What Is Your Favorite Color?

Mostly in my art, I use acrylic paint. So many colors, so little time. My favorite color is...all of them! My personal palette tends toward blues and greens, but yellow has always been a favorite. I mean, with so many choices, can you pick just one? I can't.

This Heart Will

A few years ago I had an EKG and it inspired this haiku. Good heart!

MaryAnn Steele's Childhood Home

Still stands! My mother took this photo of HER mother's childhood home during her last visit to Canada in July 2008. This is where my maternal grandmother was born.

Super Spirograph

Folks of a certain age will remember this fun toy. I purchased one off Ebay. Oh, the potential for mixed media art! I tried a few designs shown here, but it's harder than it looks. I had to learn to control the tension in my hand to carefully go round and round.

Busy Pollinator

Veteran's Park in downtown Orange springs to glorious life each year. There are many lovely flowering trees and plants. One sunny day, I managed to catch a busy pollinator enjoying the harvest.

Mining Accident July 1917

My ancestor was killed in a mining accident in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia on 17 July 1917, over 100 years ago now. He was just a young man, son of my nana Maryann Steele and her husband, Athony. My mom got to visit back in 2010. Here is a photo of her with her brother's name on the list she holds. Also posting a link to the website that remembers.

 Here's a link to the museum:

Miners Museum

Scanner Flowers

Someone gave me a lovely bouquet of flowers. I was sad to see the petals drop, as flowers do. But they were so pretty! So I put them in an arrangement on the scanner, along with the shiny green paper the bouquet was wrapped. And voila, I had a mixed media photo.

Miss Vicki and Me

Every once in a rare while, you get a cat to sit still long enough for a cute photo. Miss Vicki sat nicely for this one for about 2 seconds. A cat selfie is hard to catch!

The Not Knowing

Never did I think that I would turn out to be, by birth, fully half Lithuanian. I celebrate the history of all my families, adopted and birth. This is a map of The Baltics where my biological roots run deep.

Subscription Cards

I subscribe to a lot of magazines, mostly related to art, but some general purpose magazines too. One thing that used to drive me nuts was all those little subscription cards stuck into the binding of these magazines. I'd come across one, rip it out and just fling it letting it land anywhere. Then it occurred to me to start making art with them. What do subscription cards deliver? Words! I love words, especially words meaningful to others. This project is the beginning of an art installation. I take subscription cards, collage them, use Scrabble tiles to pick a letter and then pick a word. Here's how it gets started.

Father Son and Holy Ghost

I live near a municipal airport, and we get some spectacular sunsets here. The first thing that popped into my head was the Catholic Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The rest of the rhyme came from a famous song.

Four Kids Six Total

This is a photo of my four birth siblings. I went from being the oldest of two to the younger of a total of six children. My birth mother gave the two youngest, me and De, up for adoption. These are the four she raised. Left to right, brother Jamie, twins Connie and Stacey, oldest sister Barbara.

Painted Circles

This series was created using bottle caps dipped in paint (for the circles), curly-cue styrofoam peanuts and a page from an old book. The hardest part about making these was having to rip a page out of a book! Something very hard to do for a voracious reader.

Upside Down Nelson

Mobile phones can go almost anywhere to take a photo. I slid the phone under Nelson and got this shot. He was simply sitting on the counter, but it looks like he's upside down. Silly cat!

Shanks Place

The Shanks family name is deeply rooted in New York in the Delmar area. That's where this photo was taken. My first cousin Pat and I posed for this photo next to a street sign commemorating where my paternal birth family has the homestead.

Dandelions

I've mentioned before how much artistic talent can be found on YouTube. A lot of my mixed media work comes from artists who do "how to" videos out there. One artist I follow is a young man from (I believe) China. His name is Jay Lee, and he is a watercolor artist. He posts some great tutorial videos. This series of figurative dandelions came from one of his tutorials. He took toilet paper tube rolls, cut them down, dipped it in the paint and dabbed it on paper. So much fun to do and a great way to use up all those tubes I have in my studio!

Tea and Roses

This lovely vignette is in the garden at a church in Petersham. It looks ready for an afternoon tea.

Seventy Years Ago

My mom and dad got married seventy years ago. This is a screen grab from an old home video. Someone else has custody of the original wedding photos, but I have this.

My Studio

I'm fortunate to have an entire room to devote to my art studio. I needed a sign for the door. This sign shows two cardboard boxes made into frames and collaged with tissue paper. The letters are wooden letters collaged with paper napkins. Then I just used twine to connect the boxes and claim my studio space!

Back In Time

I save empty notebooks because you never know when you need one. I've got a lot of new ones, but recently I came upon this one. The date on the notebook cover is 18 Sept 1995 and my son was only fifteen years old, and he was in high school. He decorated the cover, just like any teen does and I thought it made a fun haiku photograph.

"Little" Did They Know?

This is a photo of my birth father, James, on the left and his older brother, Charles, on the right. The handwritten caption says the photo was taken in 1911. James was about two years old, and Charles about six years old.

Flower Power

In my art practice, mixed media means just that - you can make art out of anything; mix it up! One teacher gave us a prompt: wood and told us to create art with wood. I came up with the idea of using wooden spoons. That idea synthesized into spoon flowers. The first photo shows one flower in production: you can see the spoons painted, the glass seed beads to decorate petals and a piece of costume vintage jewelry that will be the center of the flower. The second photo shows four flowers already completed. The plain brown one was the first before I expanded the idea to include other kinds of media - jewelry and hand colored paper.

Where Are You From

I did a spit test to find out where my genes came from. This image is taken from the service. It shines a new light in my life since I reconnected with my birth family. I will always be proud of my Scots and Irish heritage, but seeing this genetic map splits me into two people: the one I grew up as and the one of my birth. Cool stuff!

My Nana

This is a photo of my mother's mom and dad. My Nana lived with us from the time I was born until she died in 1972 when I was a young teenager. I was very fond of my Nana and we were close. I don't know when this photo was taken, but I love it.

Collage Paper and Glue

Traditional collage involves paper, glue and a substrate. Mixing up the paper and gluing it down is fun. These are a few examples of the straight forward art of collage, paper, and glue.

Winter Rain

This photo was taken right in front of my house. I have slate pavers leading from the driveway to my front door. The rain was falling, and the timing was perfect for this photo.

In Service To Country

This is one of my all-time favorite photos of my dad and his family. Dad and his four brothers, pictured here with my grandmother and grandfather and their sister, all served in WWII.