Title refers to the stars that look like the Star of David. Some of the early settlers of New Mexico were “conversos” – Jews who had converted to Catholicism during the Inquisition but still practiced their faith in secret – or at least kept some of their Jewish traditions and passed them down to their descendants. I don’t know if the person buried here was a converso – but it was the first thought I had when I saw this gravestone.
The Printer’s Daughter
Memory
Sometimes my muse takes me to unexpected territory. Today I was playing around with some of my photos from Sunday and ended up with this homage to “Little 15″ by Depeche Mode. The face is one of my glass negatives, the “spray paint” drips and circles I made in Photoshop, and then there are three photos layered on top of each other.
Little fifteen
You help her forget
The world outside
Youre not part of it yet
And if you could drive
You could drive her away
To a happier place
To a happier day
That exists in your mind
And in your smile
She could escape there
Just for a while
Little fifteen
Little fifteen
Why take the smooth with the rough
When things run smooth
Its already more than enough
She knows your mind
Is not yet in league
With the rest of the world
And its little intrigues
Do you understand
Do you know what she means
As time goes by
And when you’ve seen what shes seen
You will
Little fifteen
Little fifteen
Why does she have to defend
Her feelings inside
Why pretend
Shes not had a life
A life of near misses
Now all that she wants
Is three little wishes
She wants to see with your eyes
She wants to smile with your smile
She wants a nice surprise
Every once in a while
She wants to see with your eyes
She wants to smile with your smile
She wants a nice surprise
Every once in a while
Little fifteen
-Depeche Mode
So here is my very first official encaustic piece. It has an image I used from the glass negatives I’m obsessed with. I love the textures in this piece. It looks molten. I used copper, pearlescent rose, and black.
This guy is a glass negative that I scanned and then altered in Photoshop. There is some of my own photography but it just adds texture and depth to the background(it’s a landscape). I love him, but don’t have name for him yet – any suggestions?
ATCs for a new group I joined. We have to utilize a digitally produced tag in the ATC. Seemed like a no brainer as I have tags on my mind already. I’m a little concerned that this might be a little too much for this group – there seems to be a lot of vintage-y stuff. My ATC include images of alcohol, protests, and me looking weird. We’ll see what happens.
So I ran out of UTEE a couple of days ago – and I ran out of copper tape yesterday. So I have all the CDs cut out and most the images and glass put together, and I’m stoppping for a bit. My big thing was getting the CDs cut because I don’t like doing that around the kids – the CD shards have a tendency to migrate. So I’m going to vacuum today and be done with that part of it.
So I have 22 done now, and 3 more that just need fiber. And I’m out of UTEE! 
SO tomorrow, I’m going to cut the rest of the CDs out, and find more images, print them, and mount under the glass. That way I’ll be ready to go once I get the UTEE. Tomorrow I’m also going to play around with tags (my artistas group’s new “Las Semanas” Project), and I’m going to do some acrylic stuff, I need to paint the edges of some of my canvases, do some varnishing – nothing interesting – just stuff that has to get done for the gallery show.
I think I’m only going to do 50 CDs for Artfest. And then I’m going to do 25 charms. I think that’s enough.
You can see all the trades I’ve completed by clicking on the pic.
Sometimes I wonder if I’m just totally insane. I can’t do copies. Having ten of the exact same thing just depresses me. I know lots of people do it – especially for ATCs, fatbooks, other swap and collaborative things – but I can’t. When I have – due to time constraints usually – I have always been disappointed with the result. It’s like the more times I see the same thing the less happy it makes me.
That being said I very often go back to the same image again and again. Using it in different ways and with different media. These are all ready to be placed on some altered CDs. Some are OLD – the green hindu madonna is one of the first images I ever created in Photoshop. Some are brand spankin’ new like the one of my son walking in the snow.
So now, instead of making the same thing over and over – which makes it easy once you make all the design/layout decisions. I now have to choose the colors for each CD, the right beads, the right fiber or wire, the right place to put the everything! At least I won’t be bored anytime soon. Gotta go to sleep now!
I just started on my Artfest trades. Hoping to get 50 done this week. More pics on Flickr – just click on the pic.
