What you need

1.Cheap holiday Ornaments from a dollar store or any other discount store colored and clear.

2. Salt

3. Colored Pastels

4. Spray paint.

5. Clothes line

6. Respirator or mask of some sort

7. Newspaper or some computer paper scraps

8. Super glue

9. Clothes pins.

10. Mono filament or some heavy duty string.  

I am going to explain to you two simple ways of sprucing up some plain holiday ornaments. If you are trying to decorate your house you know that you cannot always find ornaments in the colors you wish to use. Other times packages of ornaments can be rather pricey so you decide to ether go for the pricey packages or you don’t both situations leaving you a bit frustrated.

I recently bought a white Holiday Tree and my plan was to decorate it using blue, silver and black ornaments, the blue and silver ornaments were easy to find, but when it came time to find black ornaments I could not find any for the life of me! So I decided to go search the dollar store near my house for some cheap inexpensive ornaments that I could spruce up.

For the first project you will need a can of spray paint, a respirator or mask, some clothes line, clothes pins, mono filament or heavy duty string and of course some cheap dollar store ornaments.

You don’t have to sand the ornaments as they will hold the color pretty well, but if you would like to a soft light sanding will always help the paint adhere better.

Now be sure to do this in a well ventilated area and put your mask or respirator on. Hang up your clothes line from one end of something solid to another and make sure it is secure. If you line dry your clothes you can skip this step as you probably already have a clothes line all hung.

Next take your ornaments and string a piece of mono filament or heavy duty string through the part where you would normally put the hook and hang them from the line by the mono filament or string.

You may want to place something underneath the ornaments because while you spray them they will drip. If you don’t mind getting paint allover the area you are spraying, then you can skip this step. But a good drop cloth or some newspaper should work just fine.

Next standing about 4-5 inches away from the ornaments spray the ornaments and as you spray them they will spin so you don’t have to turn them much. If you notice they are not spinning just give them a quick twirl and they shall spin, this will ensure that you get a pretty even coat of spray paint.

Once you are done spraying let them dry for about 10 minutes and examine them for any parts that you have missed, then spray on a second coat. Let dry again for another 10 minutes and examine again, if they need another coat, then give them another coat, if not then just let them dry, they should be fully dry in about 1-2 hours depending on weather conditions in your area.

For the next project you will need a package of clear, see through, ornaments, they can be plastic or glass, the plastic ones work better as they are much lighter than the glass ones. You need a large container of salt, and some colored charcoal, or chalk and either scrap newspaper or computer paper.

The first step in this is to lay out your paper or newspaper all over your surface that you will be working on.

Second take an ornament and take the part that the hook would normally hang from out. Fill the ornaments with salt to the top and then dump it out on your newspaper or scrap computer paper in my case I used both. I used the newspaper to cover the surface and the computer paper to color my salt on.

Next dump the salt onto the paper and spread it out. Take a piece of charcoal and start coloring the salt, you only need to run it over the salt a few times. Then take the salt and move it around into the pigment from the charcoal until you see that the salt is no longer white.

Once your salt is all colored you refill the ornament and simply stick the part that the hook would hang from back into the ornament. If you would like to simply keep it that way you can, or you can make them more permanent by adding glue to that little part and then sticking them back into the ornament. (Note if you do this, you can no longer re-move the salt, should you wish to change the color)

They say art is a magical thing and it has never been more true when you watch this artist perform. The history, the passion, the sadness and emotion in these works are just incredible tears were streaming down my face about a minute through this piece and if you watch closely the judges, and the audience are also in tears.

What at truly wonderful artist!

This piece is from Ukraine's Got Talent

Everyday people ask me why I love art so much and why I even try to sell my art when we are living in a struggling world. Sometimes it is hard to formulate an answer that is easy to understand because really only the mind of an artist or an art lover can comprehend the true meaning of art. People say that art isn’t a real job, and to a point they are right it isn’t.

Let me explain why I agree with them. A real job is one where you get up every morning, go to work, bust your ass to make maybe ends meat and in the end you basically have nothing to show for it. Or you work hard, have lots of money and live miserably. Perhaps you may have luck and have both money and happiness but that isn’t always the case. The end product is just the money and to be able to pay bills, but sometimes there is no satisfaction and most of us work because we have to not because we want to.

Art on the other hand is in a completely different world. You create art because you want to. You do it as an expression of yourself. And maybe you will live in a world where you are nothing but a starving artist or maybe you will live in a world where your art sells and you make lots of money either or, you live in a world that comes from within yourself, the end product is a beautiful piece of art that you created and every finished piece gives you that feeling of satisfaction. You can look at the work you created and say “Hey! I did that!” A piece that not only embodies what you were trying to say, but a piece of yourself is within every work of art! And I know  do speak for a lot of artists when I say this, there is no better satisfaction that finishing that one piece you put all of yourself into.

Emotion is key when it comes to art, you put your passion and feelings into one piece and in the end you have a reflection of what you are and what comes from within you. This isn’t often the case with a “real” job. Most often we get up, go to work, struggle to get through the day so that we can pay our bills when they come and the passion and the escape that we so desperately need is not there. It’s just part of the daily routine for survival. I don’t get up every day to make art because I have to. When I feel inspired I put that down on a canvas and I work without the time constraints, I still have projects that I have been working on for years. You cant let yourself go like that with a real job, you have to get up every day and work, if you don’t, you could end up being fired.  

I always call the art world an escape from reality, because even when you are dealing with realistic situations in a piece of art, it still serves as some type of escape because as most artists know you can get lost for hours in one piece. It’s a total escape from the real world. You are in your head or in a fantasy land drawing what you feel, what comes from within. And in the end to me there is no place I would rather be, then lost in a work of art.

~F~

“Nude Art V. Porn”

I have had many debates recently about the nude art form and the question that has always risen is “is it porn?”

To me there is a difference between nude art and pornography. As an artist myself, we come to learn how to appreciate the human body, in fact most art classes that I have taken usually involve drawing the nude figure. Figure drawing is a huge, HUGE aspect of learning to draw the human body. The human body teaches of line, curve, shading and shadowing all aspects of art.

The nude human form is in and of itself artistic! Every body, whether, fat, skinny, round, flat, curvy, plain male or female is beautiful and should be appreciated as such.

Nude art is meant to provoke thought, passion, and discussion. It is meant to provoke emotion and how you look at a piece of nude art is different in comparison to porn. Nude art depicts the human body as natural and beautiful and if its done in a tasteful matter is a really, really amazing form of art.

Pornography on the other hand is only meant to provoke one thought and that’s sex, its meant to get you horny, its meant to get you off.  It’s not meant to provoke the type of emotion that nude art provokes and is often very, very dirty, whereas nude art is not.

I am currently waiting for premission from another artist to use some images to compare the two once I do I will edit the post to add the. For now I would like to hear your thoughts on the subject!
 

This is a piece I did last night, I wanted the feel of a map, with a bright color, that I am currently calling "It's a Mad World" The name may change but for now I kinda like it. I used regular crayola crayons and a razor blade and Micron Pens!


Supplies Used


Begining Stages


Starting to come together


Adding more crayon


Slowly Coming Together


Adding Micron Pen


Scrapping off the Crayon


Getting there


Nearing the end


Done!

Sad, Sad Week

            I am just stunned at the loss that the world has experienced this week. Saddened by the loss of so many greats. As the week began news came that Johnny Carson sidekick Ed McMahon passed away. I didn’t know him from Johnny Carson, I knew him as the guy who gave away 10 million dollars! Yet I grew up watching him on tv and as a kid I always wished he would bring me that money! The loss of this wonderful man saddened me but he was nearing 90 and he lived a full, long life so his passing was not a huge shock to me.

            Yesterday we lost Farrah Fawcett the original Charlie’s Angel! While I didn’t grow up watching it, I did catch a few reruns on tv and I can just say that that was one hell of a show! Farrah battled cancer for a long time, she fought a long, hard courageous fight and yesterday she lost her battle, while her passing was expected, it still saddened me beyond words. I can only take solace in knowing that her pain has ended and as her family members and friends have stated, she is now with the real angels!

            The late yesterday afternoon, we received word that a music legend, a man who paved the way for so many artists, a brilliant musician and a brilliant dancer, The King of Pop, Michael Jackson had died. With the deaths of Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett, I was saddened but not so much shocked as they were somewhat expected but Michael Jackson death stunned me! 50 years old and so sudden!

            So today as we morn these legendary figures, take a moment of your day to say thanks to whatever you believe in, to your higher power, your god. Take a moment to appreciate the air that you breathe, and that you are alive to see another day. Huge your friends, your family, your spouses, your kids, and your pets and tell them all that you love them! Because really, life can be taken away in the blink of an eye, when you least expect it.

            To the friends and family of all those lost, my prayers and thoughts are with you!

            To all my loyal readers, friends and family, parents, to my baby boys, Jack and Billy I love you all dearly!

RIP Ed McMahon

RIP Farrah Fawcett

RIP Michael Jackson

~F~

So I have been learning how to write HTML and get my site updated and uploaded and little by little, im learning alot. I have manged to build this site from scratch! Its really cool and its a whole new form of art that I am absolutely loving!

I wrote the page in 3rd person because apparently its more professional to do it that way, even tho i find myself trying to write "I" or "me" all the time. Little by little tho, i am learning how to break that habit!

I am in the middle of writing my monthly mini zine and am hoping to have that up soon if its not up by the end of June I will put it out as the July issue.

I am also currently in the middle of jotting down ideas for the next painting I have planned I am hoping to get started on that in then next week or two, so there should be a new art piece up fairly soon!

Stay tuned!

~F~

Welcome to my blog! My name is Filly, I'm 26 years old and love everything creative! In these blogs I will share with you lots of interesting feelings and ideas I may have on projects. I encourage you to comment and share your feelings about art to the posts that I make. I will share some works of art as I am creating them so yo can see how a piece of mine comes together! So sit back, stay a while and enjoy the ride!

~F~