Art Ventures

       SuzyOzone Art Studio is not open for guests...not yet, at least.  But for the curious among my friends, I'm willing to give a peek. As a mixed-media/up-cycle artist, my collection of supplies takes up more space than it merits.  Last week, I took a trip to the Habitat Re-Store & Creative Re-Use shops in Lancaster and came home with an abundance of treasures. I should put it in my will that if I pass away before using up all my creative resources, I bequeath the remainder back to those two wonderful businesses. I'm hoping my family won't turn me over the the reality TV show about hoarders in the meantime.

    Some of my more organized friends who have succeeded at de-junking, Feng shui, and removing all clutter a la St. Francis of Assisi, would have to sit me down to a serious lecture. That's why I keep earplugs on hand. Of course, they are right, and change is necessary--but the one principle they suggest is not bringing anything into the house without an immediate use or a place to live. And put your toys away when you are done playing...don't they know I'm NEVER done??!!

    Anyway, I feel I must give evidence that I am trying. I re-purposed an old box spring into an upright wall storage unit for some of my art supplies. I stripped it down to the wooden frame, stapled in 18 cardboard envelope boxes (salvaged from my brief stint working at an insurance agency), and decorated it. I do more art if I can see where I put my things.  Using hot glue, I connected wood chess pieces up and down the front sides of the frame--you can see my assortment of scissors displayed on them:

It may be hard to see in the photo, but a set of vintage building blocks spells out the name of the studio down the center post. The two middle-left shelves have white popsicle molds holding paint markers.
 
In order to prove there was a good reason to save empty prescription bottles--I connected a bunch of them onto a backboard, covered them with red satin ribbon and fabric trim, and sorted out my collection of Sharpie markers.

There are always multiple projects in process simultaneously. I steal a few minutes here and there to work on them. Several have been completed recently: a miniature blanket box and a sculpture of  house cleaning fairies..

                    This is on the back of the fairies sculpture: "I wish the cleaning fairies believed in us like we believe in them."

    Oil on canvas (yes, I occasionally work in traditional media) of a seascape. You have to squint really hard to see me in my sailboat near the horizon.

 I didn't do the drawing: it's from a gift bag used for European postcards (I think). Looks like Old Amsterdam, and it may have come from the gift shop of the Van Gogh Museum. It is colored with brush markers and some color has bled through from a food-dye stained paper towel decoupaged underneath it.

   Mixed media from an altered book titled: My Life as a Trapeze Artist. I started many years ago. The photo of the wooden puppets was taken in Austria in a toyshop window.

 

  More mixed media from the same book; the images are of Kabuki dancers from an old book about Japan.  

 Acrylic paint and iridescent medium on leather.  This is a work in progress. Waiting for ideas to strike.
That's all for now. Bug me and I'll post more.