Stephanie's Studio

M is for mixing it up Being very linear, with everything planned out neatly, has it place. It is reassuring and can keep your energy flowing from a place of security. I like sketching and outlining but have also enjoyed m ixing things up a bit.  M ixing m edia as an artist is a sure-fire way to break up m onotony. Further, it is a challenging discipline that pushes boundaries preset by other well-defined disciplines. Mixed Media can lead you into unknown territory, ripe and ready to be m ined for new m aterial.  The Dancers, Mixed Media Book Art with Found Objects, Collage and Stitching, by Stephanie Rose Bird As a writer, I’ve found that adding poetry, letters, book passages, quotes, songs or recipes into my stories is another fun way of mixing things up, in a productive and fun way. "The Dancers," Mixed Media Book Art, with Collage, by Stephanie Rose Bird My theme for the A to Z Challenge is Creative Hacks to Break Creative Blocks. I’v...

When I was in art school my main stay as an artist was oil on canvas. As I have matured as an artist, I have found myself gravitating towards mixed media. I find it fulfilling in many ways. It allows for experimentation and it is always full of surprises. This piece was created using kitchen vegetable and fruit scraps from the juicer to make handmade paper. Materials were added to make it able to achieve archival quality and to be permanent. Then twigs were added in and found paper scraps. I call this "Ghost in the Frame." This next piece was created in much the same way as the one above it but it does not have the prominent element of assemblage through twigs, instead it is more of a painted collage. It combines the same type of handmade paper and found paper with water-based paints like gouache and plaka with natural inks. It is an abstraction with landscape elements and its title is "Mixed media Landscape." I am an eclectic in my pagan, earth-based s...

Journaling can take many forms. I find it to be relaxing. It also feels safe. Some other art forms can seem formidable. There is the huge expanse of a freshly gessoed stark white stretched canvas or even a large sheet of 24" x 36" of paper. However, within the small book-like, intimacy of a journal,the confined spaces make artmaking more approachable. Shown above this text, is a cover of an altered book I did that incorporates sewing, collage, handmade paper, paint, papyrus and found objects such as screening. This piece is quite fragile. the fragility is part of it's visual statement. This is the other side of the same altered book. I re-purposed and upcycled an old book cover, book pages, jeans, paper scraps and then added the sewing and collage pieces. The aging is from natural inks, such as walnut ink with some tea staining as well. Then a few years ago, inspired by one of my students at the School of the Art Institute, I decided to fill an entire hardbou...

Writing brings immense pleasure. It has been an important part of my life since high school when I got seriously involved with poetry. Writing a book is both challenging and pleasurable. It is a daily practice and it requires a great deal of energy and discipline. Typically, I try to write early in the morning, for at least a couple of hours, particularly when I am working on a book project or article. Seeing the finished product, all of your words, folded into the beautiful form of a book that is a precious gift. I love vintage books, first editions, antique hardcovers and finding signed copies of old books. As much as I enjoy creating a written book I also love to deconstruct them, in order to make altered book art. I first started working in that medium about 20 years ago; while teaching at the Art Institute, working with an old volume of faded-denim-blue Shakespeare books that I bought from the farmer’s market in New Jersey called Cow Town. The interior art in the altered books was...

I also restarted Love Bird Designs, making art cards this fall for the holidays. I make cards every year but to give away as mini-gifts not to sell. This fall though, I've been doing some local craft fairs and have two more this season. This coming weekend I will be in one called Holiday Craft Faire at Oak Park Conservatory, in Oak Park, (10 a.m. - 4 p.m.) on Sunday. Previously, my cards were pretty abstract in their orientation but recently I ordered some vintage images from Art Chix Studio in Canada and received an interesting angel goodie bag, among other things. I particularly like this and another angel derived from a transparency, that I will post later. I call this one Dark Angel Noel. I wanted to give her background a Victorian feel because she seems to need to be in that environment. I found just the right green-tinged paper that reminds me of aging wall paper from one of my card stock books. She seems dark and mysterious, maybe it's because of the transparency she exi...