I forgot to cross post this earlier from livejournal, so I'm making up for the omission:

Mr. Imagination ( aka Gregory Warmack aka Mr. "I" to his friends) is brought you by the search term "multimedia art"- Chicago born outsider artist. Outsider artists tend to be sorta cast out by their communities but not so in the case of Mr. I, his current PA community is rallying behind him after his home burned in January of this year, and much of his art was lost in the fire along with his dog and several cats. Info on what is being done to help him can be found here.
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You can see more of his art here

For more info on Mr. I and other talented outsider artists check out DetourArt a roadmap of self-educated art discoveries found along the back roads of the world, (no it doesn't just cover artists in the USA). ON the site sites in danger of disappearing are listed in case anyone wants to donate to help save them. It's a really fun site to wander around on. They also have a blog, in case you want to follow their travels. I was intrigued by the number of outsider artists who had near death experiences before they found art and started creating.

While I am posting, I'd like input on the best portable GPS system out there, yes it needs to be portable, we all know how good I am at killing vehicles.... any opinions? My daughter Karina is offering to get me one, I guess she is tired of getting lost with me. ;)  IOW, the secret here is to act inept and she steps up to bat and helps out or throws money at the problem to fix it. Nice to know, I may start breaking dishes so she offers to load them into the dishwasher once in awhile.

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For mother's day Ramie and Brian sent me this Genius Mousepen . I finally got around to getting it out of the box and looking it over last night... see, I told you all I was too tired to do even things I wanted to do!

I have not played with it much yet, I just dabbled with it last night a bit ( and I liked what it did ) but I am taking it and my laptop to Vi's house this weekend for some extensive playtime since I am staying there Fri-Mon while her live-in goes camping.... so it gets a MAJOR test run this weekend. Looks like the reviewers on Amazon like it well enough, one even said for the money it was as good or better than their Wacom drawing pad. I can hardly wait to play with it.

After MUCH trial and error ( and some creative cursing) I was doing okay drawing with my wireless mouse until it died, but I have to say as much as I used it, the darn thing was killing off a ton of batteries. One thing for sure, this drawing pad is going to simply the process and give me much more control if last night's trial and error was any indicator. The learning curse is fairly short, and in my book $45 is a whole lot more justifiable if you are an artist on a budget than ripping almost $200 from the budget is if you have a use for a drawing pad.

There will be an update on how the weekend playtime goes on Tuesday.

I am off to inhale some coffee, and then I'll do a web surf and treasure find post before I start in on my day.

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This is the most amazing idea:

LifeGem Client

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This wonderful place is more fun than Disneyland

I am taking an Encaustic Painting Workshop at Scrap next month

Heaven in 2 square blocks

The best art supply store I have ever found

Places I like to eat:
La Costita Cocina Mexicana
The Berlin Inn, they offer a menu for your dog on their patio, doggies are welcome there to dine with their human parents
JaCiva's Bakery and Chocolate
Spendy but great for special nights out- Marrakesh Moroccan Food
I go to Wong's King for the best Dim Sum in Portland
VooDoo Donuts has the Best Donuts
The Paradox Palace Cafe, vegetarians, vegans and their burger eating friends can all eat wholesome food here
When I need a Falafel sandwich I go to the Down To Earth Cafe
And last but not least I have to mention this even though I have not been there yet, (but I plan to go soon and check it out), my son's new place of employment  Living Room Theaters, And this is his menu My son's media of choice for artistic expression is food

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I made Vi stuffed cabbage leaves and eggless banana muffins with dried bluberries and cranberries in them for dinner. This was no small feat since there was no food in her house to speak of beyond mustard, pickles, cereal and jelly. I took cabbage, hamburger, rice, homemade spaghetti sauce, baby carrots and 3 got-to-be-used-up-now bananas from my house. I had a bag of dried cranberries in my car... I keep emergency rations in my car because I care for a lot of old folks who have little or no food. Anyway, I winged the muffins...they were a tad dense, but she had no eggs so I added applesauce from the car stash as a binder. I gotta say dinner was yummy, I haven;t made stuffed cabbage in ages. I shared some with her next door neighbor who is also struggling to keep food on the table with rises prices...she now claims to love me, we'll see how long that lasts. I need these little old ladies to form a non-profit so I can take them off on my taxes ;)

I got to thinking while at Vi's about spending 3 days and nights in a tent with my daughter Karina.... one of us may not come home alive from the camping trip. Ramie likes to acknowledge her feminine side, but Karina is the girlie-girl in our family... she took 2 suitcases to Cali last summer, one of them held nothing but makeup. I have worn makeup maybe 10 times in my life, so she did not get this addiction from me. Oh gawd, I just had a thought, wait till she finds out about the outhouses! Luckily the ocean tends to carry all evidence of foul play out to sea fairly quickly. I hope Keegan is not overly attached to her. Heh....

Oh I need to share something artsy I found online.... Is this not the most amazing thing you have ever seen?

Off to bed.... the cats are stalking me.

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I watched the most fascinating show on the history channel today, on the Mayan Doomsday Prophecies for Dec 21, 2012. More info can be found here.
The actual show I saw can be watched online here if this subject interests you at all. The Mayans were interesting people, they were highly developed in ways no one can explain or justify... especially in regards to math, astronomy and time.

I LOVE ancient knowledge, the symbols, the art, the mythology.... when I was living in New Mexico I became consumed with petroglyph rock art and the meanings behind them. One day I spent the whole day wandering the cliff dwellings near Silver City, as the sun went down the way the desert winds swept the cliffs, they created a moaning sound that sounded like a 1000 voices whispering....it was eerie to listen to it, and yet comforting in somehow. It was almost abstractly spiritual in a way, I found it makes you feel connected to ancient voices and you become acutely aware of the lives that have passed through a place before you.... in a way you can almost see them and you can certainly feel them if you close your eyes and open yourself to the presence of their energy.

Even as a child I felt connected to the energy in the California missions when we visited them. I felt connected to the people who use to live there in weird ways I cannot explain. I think I would have loved living back then.

BTW, the site above that has the Mayan Prophecies Movie up has some other fun videos to watch if you need something to do: http://www.moviesfoundonline.com

For reasons I cannot explain, I enjoyed watching American Dictators, even if you believe Alex Jones is a total lunatic, some of what he puts out there might have at least a small shred of truth in it somewhere.... sorta like Michael Moore's "documentaries".

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If you use MS Live messenger, you can benefit The National MS Society every time you send a message by signing up here. It won't cost you a cent.
Multiple sclerosis interrupts the flow of information from the brain to the body and stops people from moving.
The National MS Society exists to make sure these things don't happen.
Every hour in the United States, someone is newly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
MS affects more than 400,000 people in the U.S., and affects more than twice as many women as men.

Off my soapbox to get some some sleep, the big walk is tomorrow.

For those on my friend's list and those who have wandered through and donated... thank you. So far Keegan has raised $800, Karina has raised $535.... we are hoping to push it higher still, I am going to be doing art sales on my live journal next week since we have until the 21st to get all our donations in. I'll be posting a link to the art sale here when it is ready. Every dime raised during the sale will go to the NMSS.

 Have a great night everyone

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The healing doll adventure took a turn while stranded in my van for 17+ hours over the weekend with a flat tire I could not get off my car without help in a no cell phone reception area. Luckily I had been to the store and not unloaded the van yet so I had art books, my sketch pad, a couple magazines, some wine, cheese, cantaloupe, and crackers to keep me company while I waited for someone to come by and find me. I sorta figured Dave is not going to open to getting a "doll" doll... so I turned it into a healing doll book, sorta.... I had already designed a doll on a quilt for a challenge I doing on yahoo so designing his was easy.
The rough drafts:

Goddess Healing Book Doll

Dave has made it clear he feels like an alien since the stroke, so I made him into one on his version, in the rough draft the scribble down his right arm is actually going to be Celtic knots, flowing from a Celtic knot heart if I can figure out how to make one to lay over the red fabric heart. Power symbols are being appliqued in healing colors and quilted onto the back ground and onto the back. This one is also going to have the zippered pouch area to hold
the herbs.

Dave Healing Doll Book

Both are about 9x12 inches.... the faces on all of them are paint painted and appliqued onto the doll. These are turning out to be lots of fun to make.

I have been researching healing symbols online and came across this cool rubber stamp website   with lots of info on celtic symbols. Since Dave's doll is going to have knotwork down the right arm, going in that direction with the symbols seems like a gotta do to me. BTW, that site has some GREAT stamps, I plan to buy a couple of the round ones to use as my return address stamp and one for my art work hang tags/price tags. Really worth a closer look if you want stamps that are not the usual ho-hum stuff.

Some more of their round personal designs can be seen here.

While looking for more info on healing colors, yes I am learning as I go on this project... I stumbled onto this aura colors test.  The results were quite intriguing. It links to a book on the subject, but the test and the outcome were not your usual stupid stuff. My daughter assures me the outline of the two I tied for (magenta and abstract tan) fits me like a glove. I have read them several times now and I am not sure if I should write her out of my will or not in return for that opinon. heh

Nothing blew up or went flat on me today, that's always good. Now I need some sleep....

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Partially cross posted from my livejournal.  Since no one here is probably interested in my healing doll building adventures that has been omitted and this vox post contains some other stuff.

My beliefnet.com newsletter yesterday held the subject line: "Clear Your Clutter" The attached article says..."money expert says our clutter and need for extra storage is a sign of a culture gone mad."
How did they know I have been procrastinating about this? ( insert eerie music)
Ok,ok in a minute.... I'll get to it, I promise.

I finished the neutral sun face collage yesterday that had me stalled for a couple weeks. It's for Virginia Speigel's Collage Mania 2 fund raiser for the American Cancer Society, one left to finish up and I am back on track time wise with a whole 4 days to finish my quiltart list originating challenge doll. She double crossed me and  took a sudden turn in a new direction on me without warning last week, so she is going to be down to the wire, but so far I have not missed any deadlines in 2008, yay! Who knew over-coming a lifetime of fine tuned procrastination skills took so much focus and effort?!?

The sun face collage I finished yesterday is here:

Paper collage sun1

I was listening to Pema Chodron last night and I was struck by her explanation of why she struggles with meditation... she claims it is because she has "a busy mind". I feel her frustration, and yet I think in some cases a busy mind can be an advantage, ask me.... I appear to have one too. Rambling follows as I sort through this, ( that means punctuation is out the window from here on out):

I get side-tracked easily, I cannot just web surf for one thing. As a result I find lot's of things that interest or inspire me. I start out looking for healing properties of herbs, and wind up places not even remotely related to what I am looking for, like these great places:
Dumblittleman.com ( who is anything but dumb and quite a fun read IMHO)
I was sucked in by 2 articles there in particular:
39 ways to live and not merely exist and Revel and grow with your uniqueness

Not even sure how I got there, but I was happy I did. The side jaunt also landed me at Betterworld Books,  they sell new and used books at close to Amazon prices, they do not have the same endless selection but they have free shipping within the US and flat rate shipping over seas of $2.97....so if they have what you want they can be a bargain because shipping adds up fast. In cases like this a busy mind took me places I might ever have found, ones that I will return to again someday. It's an adventure, having a busy mind...maddening at times yet also a benefit.

Anyway, I am wandering again...( see I told you), finding the wallpaper books that made finishing the neutral sun face collage happen lead me to inspiration for several other collages, so while I was cutting and pasting I was also jotting down ideas and sketches....  if I could harness the flow of the energy that flows through my brain most days, I could power a city. I would like to blame my scattered nature on me being a Gemini, but I do not think it is that simple. I seem to be driven by ideas, that I feel a need to acknowledge and sometimes they actually materialize, but I accept the fact that I will never have enough time to generate all of them in a single lifetime. It bothers me for awhile and then, I reach a point where acknowledging the idea is enough when it comes to most things. Some ideas I have to materialize or they drive me crazy, but some just lay quietly in sketch books happy to have made it that far. I surf scattered too, hell I live scattered.... always 15 things going, obligations all over the place... it's self defeating really, but when it gets too quiet I get bored and go quietly mad. I seem to need the stress of it, the adventure of it. I struggle to prioritize and  it makes me look ... I dunno,  "blonde", I guess...for lack of a  better word.

Sometimes I think it bothers those close to me more than it does me. Like if a friend is nearby when I get an idea, and start the sketch or notes on it, weeks later they ask how it is going...well, it isn't.  "but it was a great idea"... I cannot do them all, that one did not make the cut. "Then why bother with the notes and sketches?"  Because I HAVE to do those, I have to acknowledge the idea, I just do not have to carry it out.  It makes no sense to anyone but me, this much is clear. I don't pick all the pretty flowers I see either, I have no room for them all, I do enjoy them all, those I pick and those I don't, but sometimes I go for weeks acknowledging  flowers and ideas, and picking none of them, & the older I get them more I am okay with this. OMG, I just realized I have been setting boundries... well, that is a tad depressing! :)

I guess I better get back to my search for info on herbals used in healing dolls, gawd only knows where I will wind up...

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Cross posted from live journal posts done yesterday:

I started this with very limited knowledge, even though I had several DIY pages to guide me. I somehow got the idea you had to leave the beads on the stick/straw/whatever while they were drying, you do not have to leave them as long as you are careful to not get glue on whatever you are winding them around. This means you do not put glue on the first 1/4" or so on the widest end, where you start rolling, Glue should be applied only on the strip after you have it around the stick/dowel once. They slide off if wound just right, not too tight, not too loose. A toothpick would work great and give a nice small hole

A good quality glue stick is your friend... tacky glue or elmers, works too but a glue stick is less messy to work with. I only used a dab on the final end to make sure it was secured well. Using a glue stick increased the speed in which I could roll beads, and made them less slippery while rolling. They dried faster too.

Folk art acrylic paints has this clear suspension with metal flakes in it called Gems...sorta glitter in clear nail polish.... you can paint it on over the bead and the colors show through, but it adds glitz in a much easier way than wrapping this little boogers with metallic embroidery floss.... trying to do that just made me want to scream.

I am playing with the dipping process now using 3 different options including Triple Thick by Krylon, a sealing glaze by Sculpty, and I forget the third. I am thinking of stringing a bunch of beads onto a string running them through the glaze, separating them on the string and then thumbtacking the strand into a window opening for drying, if the beads get stuck to the string no biggie, the center will still be soft. The idea might not work the way I think it will.... and I may have to resort to dipping one at a time and drying them on toothpicks stuck into something... that would be very sad, and very slow. We'll see how it goes...

So I dipped some beads in the Triple Thick Glaze by Krylon. I cannot post them yet it says to not handle them for 24 hours. It did okay I guess, it is drying very glossy, but it looks more like paper beads with varnish on them than it does faux glass beads. I'm not sure if Triple Thick is suppose to be water-y or not... but I was a tad disappointed. It's gonna take several dips of the beads into this glaze ( and probably me dipping into some vodka more than once or twice) to get these looking like lampwork beads I can assure ya. Personally I would not use the words triple or thick in describing this product. I was expecting milkshake THICK when I opened the jar, what I got was ummm.... sorta antacid thick, so when one is expecting milkshake creamy and they get Maalox instead... I hope you can appreciate my dismay ;) The last time I remember being this disappointed was age 8, I spent months drooling over a purple Stingray bike with a banana seat and rainbow streamers flowing off the handle bars and on Xmas what I got was roller skates. It's just NOT what you were expecting or hoping for, even if it also has wheels. I was hoping for THICK, and one dip and I'd be done... like magic, it's just not happening with this product.

Testing the other two options tomorrow.... for now here are the paper beads done with "Triple Thick"
One coat results ( the only exception to this is the green bead in the bottom row, I coated it with Tacky Glue first, (because it IS thick). I let it dry and then did a coat of TT on top of that to test how it would impact the end results. The paper ridges are a lot less obvious up close on that bead and the Tacky Glue did not get milky when I added the TT top coat.

1coatBead

The next picture is of a bead that has 3 coats of Triple Thick on it, ( sorry for the blur) it's getting closer but still no cigar IMHO.

3coats

I am not discouraged from continuing, I will not be beaten, I will figure out a way to make this deliver results that make me happy without resorting to investing in a melting pot and UTEE.
I am getting closer:

Beads

BTW I found more paper bead styles and options, as well as some products to use the finished products in:

Round paper beads:
http://www.astorybooklife.com/how-to/paper-beads/

Paper bead and safety pin bracelet:
http://paintedfishstudio.com/?p=76

This artist is doing sorta paper bead mosaics:
http://www.cprincebatchelor.com/

Paper Bead wall art and a beaded door curtain:
http://www.curbly.com/DIY-Maven/posts/1151-Paper-Bead-Art

Another how2 for rolled beads:
http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cr_beading/article/0,2025,DIY_13745_5160420_02,00.html

Tyvek painted Beads:
http://carolclasper.blogspot.com/2006/10/beads-beads-beads.html

How I want mine to look, ( yay, eye candy):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oxymephorous/2291072575/

Paper bead people/figure charms:
http://www.artfarm.com/dollpaperbead.html

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