Patti Edmon Artist

The 'A' word is the topic over on The Altered Page . Seth addresses the difficulty too many of us have referring to ourselves as Artists. Like, "oh, what do you do?" Answer, "I stay at home, work in the studio most every day." Or, "I'm often creative."  When I was in an advanced fiction program ten years ago, I never introduced myself as a writer, because it's inevitably followed by, "oh, really, where are you published?"  I am a writer, have written all my life: poetry, essays, and a collection of short stories, albeit unpublished. (Nobody really wants to hear about the book  forwards and prefaces or the ton of commercial writing)   and I've been blogging for several years now. It is very fulfilling when I get blog comments as much about my writing as art. So, I write, I've done loads of photography/ darkroom work  I paint almost every day and dabble in lots of mixed media  but only recently did I acknowledge that ...

'Once' is one of the frozen charlotte canvases that I mentioned in the post below. I've been to The Altered Page and am a bit, well, humbled by the stunning photographs that Seth has posted. Still life, array of objects, I thought, hmmm, things I make art with - so I chose buttons!! Well, if it's good enough for Seth...

Who says you can't go to a yard sale 2000 miles away?! The boss of art and objects cool and collectible, Ms. Alicia Caudle , had hers and, trusting her as I do, I had her ship me a box. The contents eclipsed my wildest imagination and I considered posting photos of my new treasure but decided to skip to the best part. Alicia art. This altered tin blows me away. To say she's an inspiration doesn't cut it - I've always been in love with her work. I've also been experimenting with Frozen Charlottes lately and having a blast - I plan to post the three new canvases I've finished soon. The most amazing aspect of these porcelain babes is the incredible variety of uses; yes, they are always recognizable as an element, or focal point, but the options are unlimited! Charlottes (and Charlies) have a really cool history. The one-piece dolls were made in Germany between 1850 - 1920 and the smallest ones were often put in Christmas puddings as charms! I'll ...

Once again, a giant THANKS to Seth Apter for including my response(s) in the Christmas Day edition of The Pulse. Check out the amazing series featured on his blog, The Altered Page - engaging and inspirational! Happy Holidays to all and best wishes for the coming year!

I was fortunate to be featured on Seth Apter's latest edition of The Pulse . If you haven't been there yet, check out the amazing variety of artists on The Altered Page , now talking about their favorite tools and/or techniques. I could spend entire days wandering around the blogs he has graciously shared over the months - such fabulous art! My favorite part of the creative process is diving into, or on I should say, a white surface and it just so happens I've been working on backgrounds for the past several weeks. I grab as much 'stuff' as I can scavenge in my studio (not difficult!!), like coffee cup wrappers, gift wrap, tape, sewing patterns, corrugated paper, wholey paper (of course - a must on every piece - available at my pal Saluda Jane's Random Arts !) glass bits, punchinella, whatever. Then, along with molding gel and several other textured media, begin the layering process. And layering and layering... then grabbing sponges, bottle caps and a s...

Seth Apter's latest collaboration on The Altered Page , is the admission of our proclivity to stack. Hop on over to his blog to check out the myriad ways creativity can be piled! I immediately thought of the paper I use to protect the drawing table. Once a project is done I add the paper to the pile accumulating on a side shelf and tear off a new piece. Yes, it's brown kraft paper, but, the sheets are also a journal in a sense. I can leaf through them and see what I was working on, sketches and doodles, stamped images, holes sliced out, lists, color experiments and a host of other information - phone numbers, names, dates - because having two teenagers necessitates the answering of the phone while working in the studio. It also serves as alternative, readily-available gift wrap - what's better than recycling?! After I finished the box (below) I wrapped it with the paper I'd used and tied it with recycled sari ribbon. It may look a bit odd, but people who know m...

How very cool to get an email from Seth Apter with the cover photo and news that the book will be hot off the press in a few short months - March 2012!! Knowing that my words will be contained within those pages is such an honor! I was one of a hundred artists who wrote - in detail - about art, process, inspiration... come to think of it, I was rather brutally honest - it will be interesting to see which of my thoughts appear in print! Seth, as I'm sure most of you know, is an amazing artist, writer, blogger and host of the fabulous blog series The Pulse. The Style File , launched early in July, is the first of six collaborative projects that asks artists the question, "how would you describe your artistic style?" Seth has gifted the art-blog world with an incredible opportunity to peek into the creative windows of a multitude of diversely-talented artists. My own descriptive was featured in the third installment. If you haven't yet visited The Altered P...

Thanks to Seth Apter for drawing the art-blog community closer together - again!! He is so amazingly generous; blog world is definitely a better place because of Seth and all his efforts. Here is one of my favorite 'oldies'! deadlines. all the years I worked at our agency we lived by them. we had drop deadlines too. nice language. get it done or drop dead? think about or do little else until the deadline arrives and the project, thing, action is complete and one can resume living. It has been nearly five years since I've lived - and died more than a few times - in that world. other than paying bills on time, washing socks when everyone starts yelling, and stocking the fridge with the basics, I don't have deadlines. doctor's appointments don't count because you all know that passing the hours in a waiting room is enough to kill anyone. I am fairly self-propelled, albeit somewhat tardy on occasion; my daughter says we put the 'pro' in procrastination. cal...

I wonder if anyone else gets bogged down in a color rut... So often it's the faves that end up on the surface - blue-greens, yellow-golds, purples... I've been experimenting with an extended palette, using colors that I ordinarily steer away from and trying to incorporate a wider variety of 'stuff' into pieces. Having more fun, getting carried away, traveling into that inner zone where the muse can hide now and then. Thanks to Seth at The Altered Page , I'm finding and rediscovering so many art blogs - such inspiration! My scanner isn't working and photographing pieces with glare issues doesn't present the best image, but for now it will have to do! I love making journals and the gallery wants canvases. Don't get me wrong, I'm so grateful to even be represented!! But it can be intimidating so I pretend that I'm working on a journal cover - what's that about? Somehow I have more freedom with journals than canvas, though it's obviously ...

Every so often I find myself questioning the direction my art is taking... more cigar boxes, or mixed media canvases, how can I retain my sense of self and still evolve. The first answer came when the senior pastor at my church called on me to create a series of pieces based on the discussion during a new Sunday School class. The Edge is about our ancestral need to express our faith, in written word (the Apostles Creed for example), story and visually. Of course, I said, never stopping to wonder about the challenge he'd handed me. Then, I dropped my daughter off at the Woodland (Park) Art Fair , a juried annual show that attracts 200+ artists and an enormous audience. Impressive art sprinkled with mixed media. Like this guy, a piece by Brad Devlin , a Louisville artist that I 'discovered' in Ann Arbor, MI a few years ago. Having been in the midst of a rather nasty flare, I hadn't planned to stay but I happened upon a parking space - right beside the show - no walking! ...

Seth Apter, a  New York City mixed media artist and participant/creator of genius collaborative projects that draw scores of talented artists, admitted in a July 9th post to being a blog junkie (who isn't?); however, there is a project born of this to saturate oneself with the best of, according to fellow bloggers. It's a concept that has been rooted in literature for decades (I have the entire collection the Best American Short Stories) so when I saw this, I had to jump in.   This fabulous piece-of-art banner, created by Seth, accompanied the post and announced a new collaborative effort: on Thursday (the 16th) we re-publish a favorite post or two and announce to our readers that we will be doing so; Seth will also post a list of participants for those of us who can't get enough! So, I'll start roaming around the archives...