Boneificent Creations

The past week I had the chance of spending time creating.  Being up in the mountain always inspires me...especially using natural materials to incorporate in my work.

Since the Wood Hollow Fire here in Utah, I started picking up pieces of broken glass and burned "found" objects and started getting all kinds of crazy inspiration.  Here are my latest creations, and all are for sale.

I Scratch Your Back $75.00

Detail

This piece is called "I Scratch Your Back."  It was created from a pair of burned kitchen tongs we found were our camper was.  I fixed the patina, seed beaded around the hilt, add a beautiful deer vertebra that I found and hygienically cleaned on our property last year.  All bones that I use are from animals that have been legally hunted or have died naturally.  No animals are harmed in the creation of my art.

The next two pieces are created from Sheep knuckle bones and are pendants that can be added to a silver or gold chain...or even a leather necklace band!

This piece is called "Simply Done."  $25.00

 It is embellished bone with seed beads and a tawny tan pearl.

Side view of Simply Done

Tiger's Dream  $45.00

Side View of Tiger's Dream

This next piece is a piece of whimsy that automatically came to me when I saw it laying in the charred wood.

It is created from a fixed patina piece of steel tool, fossilized charcoal from Utah Lake and a beautiful Jasper Heart surrounded by AB beads and seed beads.  This is

The Tinman's Pipe  $55.00

Back of Pipe

The New Necklaces

The next three lariat necklaces are seed bead netting with ab crystals.

Bohemian Nights Lariet  $45.00

Detail

Fall Leaves Lariet $45.00

Detail

Winter Frost Lariat   $45.00

Detail

Earrings!

Autumn Colors Earrings - $10.00

Gold Layered Surgical Steel Ear Wire

Autumn First Freeze Earrings - $10.00

Gold Layered Surgical Steel Ear Wire

Florence Earrings $ 15.00 

Surgical Steel Ear Wire

Silvered Momento Mori Earrings $12.00

Surgical Steel Ear Wire

Bracelet Beginnings

Catching the Blues Bracelet  $18.00

Netted Seed Beads with a Vintage Czech Bead Toggle

Detail

I currently do not have a Paypal Account but am creating one for Boneficient Creations for your ease.  You may contact me for information on any of these pieces for sale at 

grannyweezl@yahoo.com.

Doorways and Open Minds

French Cottage Door

2012 copyright Louise Ann Stowell

It has been a few weeks since the fire destroyed our property.  In this time, I started thinking about the usual "why's" and "now what's."

For years I have collected photos of doors, gateways, windows and doorways.  They have always fascinated me in their many forms, colors and contours.  One of my favorite is a gate located on Telegraph Hill under the beautiful tree canopied stairway leading up to Coit Tower.  Sadly, I don't have a clear photo of it to share. There is a brass lion head door knocker with glittery green jewel eyes that adorns a gateway there.  It's about 3/4 of the way to the top of the stairway.  I had to stop and admire it (along with catching my breath!) on our way up and down from Coit.  There was a mischievousness about it, maybe due to the green jewel eyes...maybe because it stood out from the many other gateways and doors on our trip up.  Whatever it was, it attracted me and made me feel that there had been many joyous parties here...a feeling of long night discussions with revelations and epiphanies over coffee or brandy.   Sunlight poured over the green leaves of the stairway and made this gateway feel like one I wanted to knock on...find out who lived there and compliment them on heir choice of color and knocker.  Of course, I didn't.  We didn't have time and I doubt Tony, my former husband, really would have understood what drove my impulse. Still I wonder...and I feel like I lost something in passing it by.

The doorway to the bookstore in Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice was fantastic.  There was something about the doorway that pulled you in automatically and made you curious about looking at everything inside. Even though you knew there might be things in there that were horrifyingly creepy...you still couldn't help but want to look anyway.  That is one store I still would love to explore.

Another door that I love is this one:

(Yes, I did get permission to download this photo!  It was granted by the wonderful folks at: http://www.clarioncontent.blogspot.com/.  Thank you, guys!  You're blog is awesome and so are you!)

Doors figure prominently in my life.  They are new beginnings, new experiences.  Like the bookstore door above, I like to think that unless you walk into the bookstore with an open mind (door), you're never going to allow yourself the experience of all the wonderful books, wisdom and knowledge that's in there.  

Sometimes the entry is sad and faded...cluttered with debris.  Another time it was a recently painted green door, encased in a stucco icing as it was when we moved into the first house I really remember at the age of 4.  Steel doors (sterile) stained glass (church or bookstore) leaded glass (mortuary or old home) peeling Craftsman style door...all have held an appeal for me.  They say something to me...look here!  There is something to be gained...something to be learned!  Maybe it is nothing more than inspiration, but doors have triggered a mechanism in my brain like the gears and switches of an automaton.  

Open the mind and you open new vistas and opportunities.  Never go in and you never know what joys you missed.  Never pass by those doors that beckon and leave you stopped in your tracks wondering.  There is treasures there.  Of course, use your common sense!  There are some doors that should never be wandered through if one wants to get out alive and in reasonably one piece.

Stepping away from the ashes of our property I realize that with the clean up there are tons of possibilities!  Tons of opportunity!  It's a blank canvas waiting for paints.  

Time to knock on another door!

WOOD HOLLOW FIRE RELIEF FUND

Wood Hollow Fire 2012 copyright Louise Ann Stowell

Hello Everyone!  As many of you may know the Wood Hollow Fire hit our place on Sunday, June 25, 2012.  There were so many communities hit in Sanpete County.  So far 100 homes and 290 structures have been burned and one victim has been verified as having died from this fire in Oaker Hills, our community.

Many of our friends have lost their homes and everything they own...only the shirts on their backs and their vehicles to their names.  We were luck as we got our 5th wheel down, although everything else was lost...the trees, animals our friends are what we really cared about.  The material goods can be replaced in time.  People cannot!

Here is the RELIEF FUND ADDRESS to help out our neighbors in Fairview, Indianola, Birdseye, Oaker Hills, Indian Ridge, Elk Ridge and the other burned out areas:

http://beenservedpayforward.com/wood-hollow-fire-relief-fund .

Instead of buying fireworks this year, think of those that lost their homes and give what you would have spent  for the momentary thrill.  Your donations will make a HUGE difference in someones life!

Thank you!

Reno Gothic

2004 copyright Louise Ann Stowell

35 mm

Photographing Reno was a lot of fun.  This photo was taken one afternoon in February, 2004.  It was snow free in town, but the mountains were covered making the air very cold.  I fought to keep my fingers (and everything else) from turning a lovely shade of blue.  St. Mark's in downtown Reno is one of the oldest churches in the area.  It has some very beautiful architecture and can easily turn into being your entire focus for most of your photography trek in the city.  

As you can see, this photo has been PhotoShoped.  I wanted to isolate and highlight the grill work within  the wrought iron fencing.  

Can You See Me?

Can You See Me?

2009 Copyright  Louise Ann Stowell

This was one of those happy accidents that occur from time to time and actually work.

Look closely...what do you see?

The woman in the photo came from a picture of Marlene Dietrich that I manipulated in Photoshop!  Playing around with the textures and special effects I got the following results.  Here is the neat part, in case you haven't spotted it yet...there is another woman in the photo.

See it yet?

The woman is the silhouetted black figure starting under Marlene's chin and jawline.  Can you see the hat and head outline and the big puffy dress sleeve on the right, under Marlene's hair?  Pretty cool, huh?!

Colma to Fresno - I Love Cemetery Artwork!

I love cemetery artwork.  If there are any of you that have visited Colma, California you will understand what I am talking about.  When I was little, my grandma often did what she called the cemetery rounds.  We would go to Olivet Memorial to the Columbarium where my great grandparents ashes are, as well as visit several others.  We would always stop at the Seamen's Memorial (for all the sailors that have died in San Francisco Bay) and I would place flowers there.  What happened during these trips was to become a life long obsession with the carved headstones, mausoleums (little houses) and figures.

Cemetery statuary from the turn of the last century is truly a lost art form.  The Italian Cemetery in Colma is a wonderland of beautiful stained glass windows and fantastic angels and other beings.  SO when I go out of town anywhere, I always like to take a look at the local cemetery to see what may be there.

Another of my favorite cemeteries for artwork is at the Old Belmont/Calvary/Mt. Ararat in Fresno, California.  I was inspired the last time I visited Fresno in 2009 to go to the Calvary Cemetery, in particular, and take some photos.

I couldn't resist the temptation to play in pastels with this one.  There are tons of photos I took from that trip and hope to start playing with.

THE CRUCIFIXION

oil pastels

Calvary Cemetery, Fresno, CA

2009 copyright Louise Ann Stowell 

If you ever get the chance to go to San Francisco, go south past Daly City and visit San Francisco's official necropolis.  San  Francisco has not permitted any burials within the city limits since before 1930,as  property was being deemed more valuable than to serve as graveyards.  So all (hypothetically speaking...they still find bodies from time to time at the old sites...disturbing to the neighbors, golfers and park goers!  Pretty funny in a black humor sort of way! :)  ) the cemeteries were moved to Colma.  My great grandfather worked in the Masonic re-location and I have a photo of him in the Masonic working.  Grisly, I know.

Anyway, these fantastic artworks are waiting to be seen and photographed.  Take a bunch of flowers from Paul's Floral and maybe place one or two at favorite grave sites or at the place of a loved one. And don't forget to look up some of San Francisco's famous departed, one of which is the legendary Wyatt Earp!

I had to share this as it is an awesome piece of work!

Prismacolor

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. ~ Pablo Picasso

Wildlife by KWScott
Products Used: Premier Soft Core Colored Pencils, Colorless Blender Pencil, Kneaded Eraser

Hung Jury

35mm camera

Egyptian Mausoleum in Fresno California

September 2009

Guess how I did it?

This one was a blast.  The mausoleum itself is truly great for photography inside and out.  Unfortunately, the cemetery society caretakers do not allow you to go inside anymore.  There is some spectacular stained glass in there...one mural at the center of the hall and visible from the front doors is of the three pyramids and the sphinx.   There were side panels to this that someone had vandalized that had the head of an Egyptian (diety?) in a small center cartouche.  I do have a photo of them before the destruction.  Really very sad and disturbing that someone(s) has to destroy something beautiful...and especially in a cemetery.  Those windows were and are truly gorgeous.  The other shame about the mausoleum is that no one has bothered to keep the mausoleum up.  It belongs to the Masonic Lodge.  The Odd Fellows mausoleum in Fresno is being restored, so hopefully, this one will follow suit.  When I get my photos unpacked I will down load the series I took from there.

The Woman in the Moon - Seed Beaded Peyote Stitch

The Woman in the Moon

(seed beads, ceramics, mirror in peyote stitch)

February 2009  copyrighted

Recovering Self

The past month has been particularly challenging since the theft of all of my lampworking tools from a storage shed in Spanish Fork.  Oddly, they targeted mostly my personal business things...35 mm cameras, glass rod, brand new kiln, 2 huge buckets old vintage glass that I had found during a 10 year period in California and Nevada, my glassworking cabinet and tools, all my shells, stones and sand from Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo...and a few other things.  It is difficult not to get really, really angry and bitter, but I have done it through focusing on the future and some new techniques while I have some moments between packing.  

The move to our permanent mountain home is this weekend.  Members of our ward are helping us get our things up there from Spanish Fork.  I can't wait!!!  This house in town has become cumbersome...dark and energy-sucking.  Keeping myself sane has been interesting in itself...so in a fit or desperation I started playing with wooden beads, glass paints, acrylics and gold leaf.  What I have come up with is a faux glass bead that mimics lampwork.  (Photos coming soon)

I will be slowly replacing my lampworking tools and getting my studio up.  

Hey, thieves...my expensive glass beads were never in the storage shed!  You didn't get the good stuff in those 400 pounds you stole!  That was the India cheap glass.   I was smart enough to keep the good stuff with me.  So you didn't completely destroy my livelihood...you just postponed me a little with some things.  Yeah, you got me a little depressed, but...Since then...I HAVE GOTTEN NEW IDEAS.  

Don't you know...you can't KILL AN ARTISTS SPIRIT!  We are strong...we are creative, innovative and imaginative.  You, obviously, are not.  Real artists, Real Creative People DO NOT STEAL OTHER ARTIST'S STUFF!  IDIOTS!!!

Ahhh, that's better.  I have needed that scream for awhile.  :)

I have some ideas for polymer clay that I want to try when I get "home."  So next week I will be alternating between going through all our stuff, tallying up what I need to replace and playing with art.  I want to try some cane work and introducing different textures from various types of sands, bark and other objects from the area.  We'll see.  

Creative Constipation and Collective Clutter

Creative constipation...writer's block...the funk...whatever you want to call it.  I have been suffering from it since I went back to my old job as a proofreader.  My job did me in mentally (loosing my mind),emotionally (pissed off and frustrated), physically (hand in hand with the pissed off and frustrated went the blood pressure...yes Dr. T, I know you want tons less stress in my life) and artistically (completely in the toilet)...again.

Art pieces have sat collecting dust upstairs.  Half created necklaces are waiting for me to pick up where I left off.  My studio looks like the Luftwaffe blitzed it!  Materials are everywhere and have been sitting there for months.

Interestingly enough, once I quit the old job this week (due to reasons really not worth talking about) the creativity has come back almost overnight!  Bits of paper scraps, napkins, binders are being filled with ideas for steam punk to dainty flowered jewelry designs.  Ideas for PMC (precious metal clay) clay jewelry are buzzing in my mind with almost everything I see inside the house and out.  A drive up the canyon, to the lake, a walk through a littered parking lot...a;; of if is blowing around picking up speed like a twister.  I'm watching   a storm of swirling ideas flow through my head onto paper and then through my fingers through different mediums.

Currently I have been working on a number of items all at once.  Winter time is knitting season for me.  I knitted over 30 hats for both children and adults and donated them to the local United Way before Christmas time.  Since then, there has been afghan for our newest granddaughter, a rug which I am currently assembling in a sewn circular style (think rag rugs) using cotton yarn and a French knitting dowel.  The pattern is in variegated blues to match my kitchen.  Then there is the third and final panel of the afghan I am knitting from various leftover balls of yarn...think Joseph's coat of many colors and you've got it!

Today (and probably the rest of the week) I will be going through my loose bead boxes, sorting beads into colors and bagging them for our move which will come this summer (details to be provided later). They can then be further sorted and stored in their old vintage jars and bottles later for use at the mountain. I prefer old cork bottles and vintage jars for storing beads rather than those neat little parts boxes or storage drawers.  If I can't see it, it doesn't spark my imagination.  All those bottles range in size from as small as an inch tall to 15 inches high...fish, a cat, canning jars (new and vintage), an old snake oil medicine bottle, perfume bottles and other vintage glass vials.

Beads of glass (new, vintage and antique), bone, wood, stone, Lucite, plastics,  porcelain, clay, seeds, polymer, rose petal beads, and metal, once bottled, will share space with jars of embossing powders, pigments and paints.  Leather, steel beading cord, lace, feathers, hemp and cotton twine, lumps of beeswax,  wool fleece, embroidery flosses are carefully packed in boxes, shrouded in tissue paper waiting for their new shelf space along side tins of shells, beach stones and glass, tiny gears, found bits, bubble gum machine toys, gold leaf, and other bric-a-brac.  Stacks of paper...parchment sheets to clippings is neatly stored in a box by the bookshelf.  Jars of inks and quill pens, brushes, fountain pens, Prismacolor pencils and old watercolor pencils share a spot next to the various rulers and templates waiting their turn to be packed.  My compass from college is still in it's old blue pouch,and is lovingly placed back in the old green tackle box from when I went to college at Utah Tech.  The various bleached animal bones have already been packed away.

My studio has been (and will be again) a literal wizard's cave of magical items waiting to be pulled out and added to the cauldron of creativity.

Packing is now consuming my life, but in a good way.  I am finding an unbelievable lot of things that I can really do without, as I'm sure most of you can sympathize with.  We collect things...can't part with some little useless item just because someone gave it to us and we sometimes even can't remember who it was!

Do I donate them to Deseret Industries?  Do I garage sale them?  Do I eBay them off?  Some have been given to friends and family. Some are being recreated into art pieces and those are being carefully packed away for their future re-invention or renovation.  Don't worry, Lissa, the spitting gargoyle candle sconce from Notre Dame is coming with me!

Since my marriage to Terry, moving back to Utah and perhaps just age itself, I have discovered that my decor tastes have changed tremendously.  A lot of the darker aspects of my life have been replaced with lighter themes.  Even my black and darker colored wardrobe is gone.  Black may be slimming and classy...but it's also depressing as all heck! 

Greens, blues, purples and pastels have entered in the mix.  Teddy bears (statues and the stuffed) elephants and frogs have replaced many of the more dire Gothic art pieces that were everywhere. My tastes are still Victorian but less...... funereal.   My creative rainbow still stretches from solid dark to eye blindingly brilliant, don't mistake me.  It's just that I can now go between the two extremes instead of being stuck at either one end or the other.

I am feeling comfortable in my old skin again...flabby and wrinkled as that may be...it's still MINE!

Your Family as Art - Creating Bead Patterns

(copyright 2011 - Louise Godfrey - All rights reserved)

My Grandma, Elsa M. Carlson

(created for peyote stitch)

One afternoon, I got out the scanner and thought it would be interesting to take some of the vintage family photos and old postcards and put them on my computer to "play" with them.  Using the bead graphing software I had purchased (I am looking for one now that is easier to manipulate and has better customer support than BeadCreator), I downloaded my grandma's photo from the 1920's and was astounded at what came up. 

The graph above, shows exactly what the photo would look like as a bead mural.  Getting excited, I also downloaded a photo of my uncle, Gus Gustofson, who was a drummer for Woody Herman, Les Brown and many other Swing and Jazz greats.  This photo was taken during the Korean war....

This was created for a loom.

"Uncle Gus" - copyright 2011 - Louise Godfrey - All rights reserved)

It got me to thinking about what great and definitely unique presents you could make for special events, such as weddings and birthdays or for a very intimate, special gift.  But that wasn't all...

I realized photos of all kinds of thing could become a bead graph!  Here is one that I took of the Eiffel Tower at "The Paris" in Las Vegas.

The Paris   (copyright 2011 - Louise Godfrey - All rights reserved)

This one I played with on PhotoShop first to get just the right effects in color and saturation before downloading it to the bead graph software.....and again with "Painted Desert" , below, a photo of the Black Rock Desert near Gerlach in Northern Nevada.

Lake Lahontan    (copyright 2011 - Louise Godfrey - All rights reserved)

The options are endless...all the way from creating something in a size 15 bead for a Christmas or window ornament to huge murals!

If you are a bead artist that has a favorite bead graphing software, let me know.  I'm dying to try one that is recommended by another fellow artist instead of just going by the advertising out there.

 

Vertigo

"Vertigo" 2006 - Copyright - Louise Ann Stowell - All rights reserved

The day that I came up with the concept for this picture, I had just gotten through watching the classic Hitchcock movie, Vertigo.  Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak were sensational.  The location of San Francisco in the 1958 took me back to when I was a kid being taken by my Dad and Grandmother all over the city.

I have a fear of heights that I have tried to get over since I was in junior high.  I could understand the problem Jimmy Stewart was portraying trying to deal with climbing up the Stanford clock tower.  I went to Coit Tower in 2008 and went up the overly packed elevator up to the top.  I was fine until I got to the window and saw the coins laying on the sill ledge and then my eyes traveled past the ledge to the concrete below. My breath hitched in my throat.  Pure terror!   Back up against the inside wall, it took everything I had to remove my clawed fingers from the plaster, to pose for a picture with my former husband, Tony, standing with our backs to the window.  I felt like I was going to tip over and out the window, even though I knew it was impossible due to the heavy Plexiglas covering it. Breathe...breathe, focus on something...oh, look at the big circle of open space above me.  Nope!  Gotta get down...NOW!!!

Vertigo was fun to put together and play with. It was originally composed as a photo using graph paper and a clothes hanger hook. The graph paper was turned from a positive to negative.  I then placed a photo on top of it and began copying it and digitizing it in PhoroShop, layering the pattern, Next I printed it on matte paper and added lines with chalk/pastels and rubbing wet fingers to smear out lines.  It was much more fun than the few minutes atop Coit!

Musee Mechanique Woodcut Stamps

Copyright 2008 L Stowell. All Right Reserved.

Framed by the Golden Gate, the Musee Mechanique is every bit as much a golden treaure as the arches greeting the bay.  

This was a piece I created in 2008 after a trip to San Francisco and to the Musee Mechanique.  I turned several of the photos I took there into a series of old tyme woodcut looking "stamps".  This piece is a combination that I originally published on my old blog Breathing Thru My Eyes.

I love the uniqueness of the old Musee that was formerly located under the Cliffhouse...the peeling yellow paint on the building, the clapboard sign that stood in front of  it and the old hanging sign.  It had the feel of an older time.  The smell of the blowing salt air coming in from Ocean Beach and the taste of the salt water taffy from the little gift shop above took me back to the years that I spent playing in the Arcade at Playland.  Many of the the Musee's games came directly from there, others were from the Sutro Bathes and Museum, which is sadly now is nothing but ruins below the Cliffhouse.  I will be featuring many of the other photos and art pieces I have made from that trip in later blogs.

The piece was taken from individual photographs of each of the four machines...Laughing Sal, Grandma Fortune Teller, the Monkey Orchestra and Jolly Jack the Sailor (still very creepy to me!)  I used PhotoShop to drop the color to a black and white.  Next, I texturized the photos giving them the "woodcut" look.  I then took a photo from when I had passed in our car under one of the beams of the Golden Gate Bridge.  I split the photo, mirrored it and used it to create the framework around each of the "Stamps".

The relatively new location for the Musee is located at:

Pier 45 Shed A at the end of Taylor Street
Fisherman's Wharf
San Francisco, CA 94133
Tel: (415) 346-2000

http://www.museemechanique.org

If you have never been there, it is definitely worth the trip...and make sure you take your camera!  There are so many things to photograph inside besides the machines.  The cases are handsomely decorated with woodcarvings and old brass work that deserve attention as well.  You are also located right at the north end of Fisherman's Wharf, which is an area that is so rich in photographic treasures it's unreal.  Make sure to pick up some ephemera from around the restaurants, aquatic museum and other places you can visit to add to your projects.  Have FUN!

Back in Business and "Vamp"ed to Prove It!!

"VAMPED" Copyright 2009 - Louise Ann Stowell - All Rights Reserved

Back in business again and grabbing all the stuff that fell out of my baggage... what I've lost, scattered, gleefully flung or neglected along the way. 

I'm feeling a little mean in my artwork right now...frustrated and pissed off.  Trying to find a full time job to pay the bills is proving to be frustrating.  Not helping my mood...Nope!  Not at all. 

So "Vamp" is what I decided to start my blog out with.  I have also featured some of my work on Altered Art on Facebook and on my own Facebook Page.

What I don't have room to put there is the poetry and stories and off the cuff rants that I have been accustomed to doing on "Breathing Thru My Eyes," my old blogspot site that for some reason I can no longer access and Blogger can't seem to authorize me for. 

Weird...

but then if you know me, you know that nothing in my life since conception was average or normal.  No one would believe me if I wrote my life story down...different sets of coincidences (which, by the way, I do not believe in...but there you are) circumstances, exasperated inspirations, different sets of values and ethics throughout my many reincarnations...bumping along people like walls in an underground and picking up bits and pieces of them as I stumble along the echoing tunnel.

"I'm like that black crow flying

in a blue, blue sky..."

Joni Mitchell  - "Hejira" album

The one thing that hasn't changed in me over the decades is my need to create.

I get moody and anxious, pacing from room to room, thumbing through well worn favorite books for little underlined fragments to set my mind free and my hands busy getting sticky in paper, mediums and paint.  I'll sit down and then get up moments later to pace again....waiting for those scraps to get thrown through the either at me.  The cosmic zookeeper fairy gets a little tardy sometimes in feeding her animals.  I silently rage and roar for my meal...it comes...eventually.

"Vamp" is a postcard in a series I have created dealing with women's emoitions and studies.  She was made from standard watercolor postcard stock, old clippings, and Conti dry pastel backgrounds with a PhotoShopped finish for textures and sharper color effects.

  Ah, Paris

 Hung Jury

 Ornament

 Exiled

 Ghosts

 I would like the...

  Chronicle

Signed, numbered prints of  "Vamp" , "Women's Spirit" (the top title artwork of the blog)  and others are available as 8 x 10 glossy or matte finish.  They are on a limited print run of 100 each.  Pricing details are coming soon!

Thank you for visiting and I hope you'll come back and share your comments and suggestions.

And to the "Archangel"....Michael...thank you for the inspiration as always....