Stephanie's Studio

A few days ago I found these colored pencil works. They'd been abandoned in a dusty old portfolio in my studio: "Celebrating Ersulie's Love" c. 2008 Stephanie Rose Bird, watercolor pencils                     "Open Hearts" c. 2008 Stephanie Rose Bird, prismacolor pencils                           "Feelings" c. 2008 Stephanie Rose Bird, prismacolor pencils                     "Overpouring" c. 2008 Stephanie Rose Bird, prismacolor pencils                  "Layers of Love" c. 2008 Stephanie Rose Bird, prismacolor pencils Lessons Learned: 1. What you have may surprise you. 2. Hidden treasures can be right under your nose. 3. You never know what you will discover and when. 4. It's entirely possible to pleasantly surprise yourself with what you'...

(Untitled: Colored pencils on Paper by Stephanie Rose Bird) Whew! That was a busy post I did previously called  Getting the Word Out There . I wrote it as a member of IWSG  for our monthly blog hop. Thanks so much to so many new people for stopping by during that event, joining this blog as members and adding me to your circles on Google+. I have been humbled by all of the new connections I've made with fellow bloggers, readers, writers, artists and people generally this past year. I am a private and quiet person. Coming out of my den and connecting with the world once again has been an inspiration. As I was busy blog hopping last Wednesday and Thursday as a part of the support group experience, I stumbled upon a post by a fellow member Gwen Gardner called  Giving it Another Try . One of the most compelling parts of her post for me was that she posed the question to us, is blogging dead? As an artist specializing in painting, I've heard that topic discusse...

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...