Patti Edmon Artist

Just shy of two months  after the Michael deMeng workshop in Saluda, NC, I've finished my Morpheus box. It certainly did morph... We started the boxes on the second day, which, given the fatigue that accompanies this illness, I should have known would surpass my ability to make a sentence, let alone construct anything creative. But, I did get a good start.  I brought it home with a voo-doo looking mask on one side of the rotating bar, and a transparency of a little girl and clock face on the opposing side. Hmm, how was I going to connect the two wildly disparate images? After stewing for a few weeks, I realized that, though I liked both sides, one of them had to go. I had dremeled out a niche for the mask/emblem, which was cool (love the flying dust), so I hated giving that up, but, not having any related objects, out it went.Once I cleared that hurdle, I began to think of morphing, changing, seasons.   I have a very dear aunt, who has been more like a second mother, and she is pas...

I've been watching Random Notes daily for my Sweet Tweet journal entry, which I mailed at the last possible moment. It popped up, for sure, in my mailbox yesterday - the label fell off!! I had spent almost as much time on the envelope as the page so the postal carrier took pity on me and brought it back for an address. I used this quote on one of the pages I made for the visual journaling workshop I recently completed (over but not abandoned!). And, since the theme was birds and sweet, I thought it fit rather nicely. I think we are all tempted to let a pesty nest start tangling in the do, now and again anyway. My favorite ways to disassemble the sorrow roost in whatever stage I manage to catch it, are making art, wandering through blogland and keeping in touch with people who use their time and talents to create projects like the journal this page will hopefully end up in - if it gets there in time. Jane at Random Arts is one of my all-time favorites... pal, artist, shop owner, bl...

How many of you use Blog Catalog? I listed Altered Attic hoping to widen my circle will widen and sure enough, heard back from my new friend, Collage Contessa , whose blog shows up in the "similar blogs" panel on my BC page.  If you check out her latest post, you'll see she's been on vacation too! I think I'll invent one, in the hopes that by using a little creativity while traveling through blog-land I can vicariously experience the beach and other cool places.  No pity parties here though! I got to do the deMeng workshop and DH did an illustration conference in New York a couple of weeks ago, so we've had our share of adventures. Summer at home with two kids, a dog, two cats and a hamster makes for some fairly lively days. Trips to the pool, photo-walks and visiting friends... hey, I just saved on accommodations! Now if I can squeeze in some studio time. Fortunately the last half-dozen light switch plates I made sold, so I'm working on another batch. I u...

Finally, after two months, my Assemblook  (deMeng terminology:) from the Random Arts workshop is complete. I knew if I didn't finish it I'd put it away and diminish all the time, energy and creative resources I'd spent learning from Michael deMeng, such a fabulous teacher.  Altering a book seemed like a fairly simple task, until I realized that there would be four layers of foam board on each 'page' and that, like the rest of my life, it would be an open book. (It will close - not the huge opening in the left side) but then I'd have to do the cover - ha). After many batches of the uszzzzzhhhh!!, mixing paint to look a bit like verdigris, burnt paper and other tricks of his trade, sticky from adding mica, Wholey Paper and everything else I could get my hands on, I feel a sense of completion. Now, I only wish I could take another workshop.... Left-hand 'page' Click on the Right hand page to view in Flikr Right hand 'page' 

The Altered Attic has been quiet... it's difficult to mix up a batch of uszzh* in the random, tiny chunks of time I've had to myself, let alone create an altered trading card or other piece of art. Ahhh, summer. Kids. The old routine goes out the door and no new one takes its place.  I love summer; no more waking to the annoying beep of the alarm clock at 6:30, sweeping my sleepy kids out the door at 7:30, for several more weeks anyway. I feel better when I sleep an extra hour or more and I realize how much of my kids' lives I miss when they're gone all day. It's fun doing the things we don't ever have time for during the school year and not feeling like we're in a hurry. But I also realize how much entertainment school provides - my daughter misses her friends and I've been hearing "I'm bored" more than I'd like (frankly, once would suffice). They aren't old enough to go off alone, but too old to play with the hose and sidewalk cha...

The greatest thing since sliced bread isn't sliced, in this case it's holes. Wholey Paper is available at Random Arts , in Saluda, NC, where I attended the deMeng assemblage workshop. It's  my new favorite coolest altering tool. Yes, it is paper, but I say tool because it stands up to nearly every finish imaginable, from crackle paint to layers of washes; it can be grunged, painted, sprayed, torn, stamped, embellished, used as a stencil, well, you get the idea. On day one of the workshop I found it was just the solution for the book I started; I needed to disguise the holes in the foam board we layered to create a cavernous niche. One of  many challenges. I stained, stamped and ripped Wholey Paper and  layered along with Mica - also way cool. My book project is far from finished - I haven't touched the left side - or the cover -  but I can't wait to get started. I did stock up on Wholey Paper while in Saluda so I'll have plenty to play with.  

After two of the most intense, fun days of workshop, fingers still tacky with Dap and matt medium, evidence of Michael deMeng's signature colors spotting my hands (and, oops, a little on my clothes:), I must say his Assemblage workshop is a most amazing learning experience. I noticed as I worked well outside my 'box' (excuse the pun) how far I was stretching artistically, which isn't always possible in the comfort of one's own studio. Of course, that's what workshops are for; this, however, is my first one. Straight to the top. Studio to deMeng - ha. The Secrets of Rusty Things indeed, and verdigris and copper and burnt paper, and when I  return home I will approach each new project from a radically altered point of view, in terms of technique, perspective and, well, joy. A warm, witty and very funny man, Michael is the best kind of teacher - so outwardly comfortable in his own skin that if he does have an ego, he doesn't unpack it along with his favorite pa...