Patti Edmon Artist

Invisible Illness (Awareness) Week  has begun! In keeping with the theme, another of my choices is to be my best possible self. And that includes reaching out, sharing, caring, helping when I can... all qualities of being a good friend. There's an old saying, to make a friend you first have to be one. True, but. Sometimes those of us with chronic illness get overlooked, passed by as though not being able to  able make the party means we don't need to get an invitation.  The text I used in this piece of art, called Thoughts on Friendship, is an excerpt from a friendship 'manifesto' I wrote several years ago, after experiencing what I call being tossed from the merry-go-round. When life as I knew it ended and, unlike those with visible injuries and acute illnesses (especially cancer - God forbid), the carousel kept right on turning without me. Don't get me wrong, my family has always been really supportive and I do have good friends. But there were a coup...

The theme of this year's National Chronic Invisible Illness Week is "I Choose To" and one of my choices is to always be emerging from the cocoon, seeking the new and extraordinary, finding and using wings that had been dormant, not settling for a life spent crawling. Well, not all the time. I wake up and wait to see how I'm going to feel for the day and more often than not it's so-so, meaning, no errands, social events or major chores. So, I choose to go to the studio, put on my headphones and blast my fight songs - Rage Against the Machine, Led Zeppelin, Three Days' Grace, Rolling Stones, Tool, well, you get the idea. And then I  gesso a page,  prepare for takeoff... I most always start out with a layer of texture - paper, trim, stuff that will give my page depth. By then I usually have a photograph in mind and I choose a color palette. Hopefully with one or two colors I haven't used recently. That's when I reach high altitude. Paint o...

Not long after whining about the art rut, I was browsing on Create Mixed Media and came across a video featuring Seth Apter , the amazing artist, person and creative friend extr a ordinair e. In the p review of the Easy Mixed Medi a Techniques for the Art Journal DVD, 'low tech' was a term he used to describe using whatever we have at hand to complement our fancy, expe nsiv e art supplies (my words:). After watch ing him make fabulous texture on watercolor paper using acrylics, gesso, wallpaper an d doodling , I was inspired to play. The 'low tech' approach made it easy to bypass my art critic in residence ( in my brain) and start ... I cut apart a Kleenex box and applied gesso to the panels, leaving a few of their design elements sh owing .    Making a book using a tissue box, coffee bags, anything recycled has many benefits. First, how can you screw up a Kleenex box? No fine art standards in this project. It also stimulate...

It's no secret that I love texture, and lots of it... combining scraps of every conceivable tissue, corrugated , patterned and printed pape r with media, fabric, metal and other bits that are within arm's reach, then diving into color... I can do this all d ay and it never feels repetitive, each piece a fresh blank board waiting to be t ransformed. Sometimes I end up with a great beginning . And, since I don 't usually have a finished image in mind when I start, I win d up staring at the background with no clue what to do next. I've gotten through this a s many time s as I've finished art that I mostly love, but this bridge place, the water rushing beneath, the sky - a nd path - dense with fog that filter s through my brain is very frustrating . Yes, I need an image, found objects, a theme or emotion to express...   Like most m ixed-media artists, I've read my share of books on process, the muse, letti ng creat...

This is the fifth of seven in the Seeking Sanctuary series I completed a few weeks ago. The pieces are currently hanging at The Nest: Center for Women, Children and Families (until I pick them up tomorrow!) and they couldn't have found a more appropriate setting. Each piece is deeply, specifically personal, with so much symbolism that it's amusing when I hear a comment like, "Oh, that's so pretty!" In this piece for example, Cinderella, there is a rusty razor blade, a gun and a stick pin, albeit masked amid pearls and a gorgeous Frozen Charlotte.  Most of us know the pain of rejection, humiliation, falling short, abuse, neglect and other sorrows and I wanted to express darker moments in these, a sweeping out of the old bones, per se. So, as you can see, the shoe doesn't fit Cinderella after all... no happy ending.  In (her fourth volume of) The Diary of Anais Nin , she wrote about the creative's need for emotional excess; in other words, my ...

Having finished the 12 x 12 canvases that consumed the month of July and part of August, I was thrilled. Then I decided to have some fun. The local gas station sells cigarillos in a variety of interesting flavors, peach, strawberry, white grape... I can't imagine what they must taste like but I'll bet the nice Indian man who owns the place can't imagine why I keep asking for the empty boxes! I had to let sit for a day or so with the lid open to air it out! No more grape scent and I went to town, gluing, grabbing scraps and odds/ends that I've had sitting for quite a while. Voila! The finished result is a half inch thicker thanks to all the layers, which also add stability, and hides the ink on the box. I have more junk jewelry than the law allows, or if there were a law I might be in violation. I've had my eye on the earring that I dismantled for the centerpiece; in the same family is a bracelet with some cool stones in the same 'family.' Below is the origin...

Over the summer I've learned a lot about myself as an artist. Could have been the dozens of hours I spent making water angels in the lake... Several days I did little else; I truly realize the luxury of idle time, thought and the insight it often allows. We chose to spend our free time two hours from home in a cabin, minimal packing and travel time (and expense), no sights to see or relatives to visit (except the in-laws and Jim's mother is a great cook:). That's one of my ideal vacations, especially since this auto-immune disease swiped its portion of energy. But I've never liked to need a vacation to recuperate from a trip. I have been making art for just over four years and I still hesitate to call myself an artist. Maybe it's a relic from my writing days. Tell people your a writer and the first question they often ask is, "oh, what have you published?" Hence the differentiation between writer and author. I have written all my life, published commer...

I have finished my second 10 x 10 canvas and have a good start on the third, and I've ordered the 12 x 12's I need for the show in August at New Editions Gallery . Entitled Gridworks, the show will feature square pieces, the smallest being 12 x 12. I'm totally used to working small, don't know why, but I've always gravitated to journals, oversize puzzle pieces, ATCs and inchies... and now that I've gotten comfortable with 10x10 I'm looking forward to the challenge. The show will remain up during the September/October World Equestrian Games . Scheduled to bring between 300 and 500,000 people (what about the horses?!) to Lexington, the Games are considered by many to be more 'important' than the Olympics. Wow. I know it will be great for the local economy but I think many of us are in denial about what it will mean for our small city, surrounded by even smaller towns. There are lots of people who are fleeing to parts unknown and renting their houses an...

The Magic Carpet is parked in the garage... jets cooling, waiting for next year. I was so busy this week, I didn't even post the OHOW winners or leave comments on their blogs. I appreciate every blogger who was kind enough to stop by and post during the event. The winners are perfectly suited to their prize, in almost eerie way... #1 The winner of the journal is Elle at Living Creatively Ever After , otherwise known as The Boho Chick. In her comment, Elle said, "Oh my! Love the textures on the journal..." How apropos! #2 The winner of treasure soup is Nicolle at Beadwright . In her comment, Nicolle said, "This is a fantastic giveaway - the second item is perfect for me..." Now, it might appear as though I designed the outcome of this but I promise - I used the same method (random.org) that I saw posted on tons of other blogs. #3 The winner of the tiny altered calendar is Debby at The Gathering Nest whose newest baby bears a remarkable resemblance to Henry, ...

Who would have thought that two weeks in a row I'd be able to participate in the Inspire Me Thursday challenge . I didn't have a lot of studio time over the summer so photography has been the creative outlet of choice, one of my favorites, I might add. Even though my kids are older (7th and 8th grade) and don't require the kind of hands-on supervision that toddlers do, opportunities were scarce for collage, painting, altering and serious journaling. I didn't mind though, because like my kids, I'm old enough to understand how limited my time with them is; for years I've heard about the dreaded adolescent phase when they won't be caught dead at the mall with me, my opinion will carry as much weight as a grocery list, my witty sense of humor will no longer be funny but a freakish side show, only to be outdone by my lack of style, good taste and tact. Why am I so sure this is imminent? Probably a little media influence, some recall, a bit of reality. Right now I...