Titled:"Hinged"

Titled:"Hinged", originally uploaded by jack and cat curio.

I need to post a piece of art a day! It keeps me honest. Making and doing. So here goes. Everyday brother. A new piece each day- photo, altered, mixed media, beeswax, illustration. Every day. First of many. I love old textures. This is an old door of an abandoned school in Phoenix. Loved the colors.

Free Image Friday!

So here are a few images I have pulled from my collection.I made the crown sheet for a transparency and collage project I was working on this morning. What a busy day! This will be a big crafty weekend. I have all my supplies, movies, music, and magazines ready to lock myself away. I just need to go out once tomorrow to help my mom with her garden. After that I have vowed to lock myself in my house to create and make. I have metal tape projects waiting, pendants waiting to be filled,old clock pieces to be altered,and beeswax to be spread on canvas. Not to mention two crafty magazines to read. Two giant collections of cowgirl photos and vintage circus to scan and crop. I also have to create a composite of an idiom this weekend for a class next week-I chose "going to hell in a handbasket". Anyone know the old 1940's term? If you have any ideas for a visual let me know. I have a few...but I love a good brainstorm.


I also need to create a few class examples for some projects I'm teaching.Trying to think a few months down the line. I also went and grabbed a few new sheets of the new 7 gypsies paper and ATC transparencies this week. I think that I will post a "How to beeswax with the ATC transparencies" for next weeks techniques and tips. Very cool stuff.


Also I taught a fantastic beeswax collage class last Saturday at Mystic Paper in Mesa. An incredible group!One of my favorite classes.I want to thank all the ladies who came and I hope that you all enjoyed the class. I will be finishing and sending my notes from class this weekend. Because I didn't have my camera- if anyone would like to send me a pic of your finished piece I would gladly like to post it and share. Just send it to my email. Thats all for now! More tomorrow. Good night all!

The new set up!

Many of you might remember a few months ago I had a creativity challenge and free image Friday's for awhile. So in the last bit I have decided to revamp a few things. Its been some time -chewing on a few things. But I believe things are going to work like this:

Masterpiece Monday's
Banner Manner Tuesday
Thursday Technique & Tips
Free Image Friday

Good old blogging in between. If your curious about what these might be and look like - check back. If you have any ideas for me-let me know... I'll be back later today.

Hello Everyone!

Today's piece of artwork. Is titled: "Passion Is Key". It's a mixed media piece using several personal photos, some clipart, some trinkets found and photographed. Then all have been fused together and blended in Photoshop. I did this for a big project. I'm quite happy with the results. I think I'm going to create a set of ten. With the same theme and feel. Trade out different elements.


I hope that you all had a great Valentine's Day! Here are a few images and craft sheets I made for Valentine's Day. If you feel the need take a few and happy creating. Just click on the image-takes you to flickr-then hit all sizes-download the size you want.I'll post a more personal blog of sorts tonight. Its been crazy as usual. My brothers are all in town this weekend. One brother just got back in town from being in China for two years. Another brother came for his 30th birthday from Seattle. The youngest brother came to join us for a few days from his busy Hollywood hustle and bustle lifestyle. Time to go join them all for a big breakfast with my sister and mom. Someone needs to keep the peace. Talk soon all.

This time we are back.. for real.. no joke...

This is my first and favorite artist trading card. I received it from Sandy Ramsdell a year ago. "Never enter an elevator with a veiled woman".

More posts coming this weekend. Things have been busy. Been crazy, I have fallen off track. Its hard once you get off track to get back on.But for me thats what blogging is about. It helps to keep me on track, keeps me honest, keeps me connected and disciplined. Its my way of keeping me real, with my thoughts and art. Its my daily journals- as you might have guessed not much personal journaling and personal art has been created these few weeks. Things have been packed with big issues for us. So if we still have any hardcore readers out there, and good friends. We thank you for staying in touch. My vow is not to leave my blog unmanned for such a period of time again.

Just start blogging..... Mark Twain said it best "The hardest part about writing is picking up the pen". I'm such a procrastinator. I remember telling the school principal in Junior High the reason I was failing so many classes was that I was an anal retentive procrastinator. My homework had to be just perfect before I could turn it in. “Due dates are not for me” I said.. My principal didn't laugh and sent me to detention. Twenty five years into the future I find that it really is a label, and I could actually use it as an excuse today.

So where have I been? Where did I go? Hows Lesley the Cat? My animals Eddie & Teddy? Why no challenges? All very good questions.
Answers: Everywhere. California & parts of Arizona. Lesley is good. Eddie & Teddy are best friends. I ran away.

So let me just say sorry. I dropped the ball in a big way. I have a nasty habit since childhood that has grown with me into adulthood. No -not twinkies, highlights to my hair,Saturday morning cartoons,standing with the refrigerator door open just staring into the fridge wasting energy.
I have a habit of cutting off relations, just stopping, and picking things up whenever. Its a habit I'm trying to stop. It started as a kid.

When I was a kid we roamed. My family is like a pack of gypsies. Seriously. Growing up we moved alot. I have three brothers, 1 sister, and a lot of adopted bros and sisters. Meaning people we took in- Pat, Sage, Christi, Cliff, Mitch,George,Ron,Cindy,Jerry, Mark, Vicki,Susie, thats you! Any who- the core of that group still roam and move. I have moved and lived in thirty eight different homes since my birth. I'm currently thirty five. That means a home a year. My Senior year of High School I attended four different High Schools. Because I dated girls older than me in High School and moved -I attended four different proms in three different states. I was busy. The last two schools I attended- everyone thought that I was a “nark”- undercover cop. Mostly because they would ask me where I lived- and most of the time I couldn't remember my new address. It sounds stupid but such is my life. I once had a truck full of heavy metal kids follow me home on my moped to make sure that I lived in a real home. Instead of reporting to a police station. I'm sure that the French beret and army boots I wore didn't help. Fashion either made or crippled me. The best fashion story was when I decided to wear a duster trench coat with my moped. It seemed like a good idea at the time. When I stopped at a red light, my duster settled onto my moped and the back tire. When I increased the throttle on my moped the duster got caught in the back wheel of the moped. The more I increased the throttle the more of my jacket got sucked up in the back tire. This caused quite the scene in front of one school. My moped was lurching forward,with its front wheel in the air- my red face choking, because I was being sucked up into the back wheel. I learned its hard to be cool sometimes, very hard.

The point of all this? We moved alot! I was always making new friends, joining new communities, and then abruptly leaving. Usually never to be heard from again..... until years or months later. It was emotional damage control and then turned into bad habit.

Where I found that I fit in the most – the theater department. The theater reflected my life. Actors got together for a great emotional play. We perform for several weeks and then we move on. Getting together for another great emotional honest reflection of life- performing- leaving. This became my habit for years after High School. I became a professional actor. Traveled doing Children's theater, bad commercials,Shakespeare Festivals, community theater and festivals. I continued to roam in this fashion until I fell in love. I met Lesley in Tucson when I was helping build a theater company. She gave me good reason to slow down and enjoy. Have I still moved? Yes? Lesley and I have been together for twelve years. In that time we have moved twelve times. We have lived in Tucson, Seattle, Phoenix, and have traveled all of California and every single nook of Oregon,Washington, and most of Idaho. Does it drive her crazy? Hell yes! Do I rearrange all the furniture in our house every few months -yes! I point all this out – because thats why I started the blog.

When I move and travel so much- I meet a lot of people. Some nice, some bad, some great. Some I love to death. Some inspire, some devastate, some cripple, some are simply positive,I have learn from them all.

In most of these places I have taught. Fifteen years ago I started teaching. It started with group home and shelter work. Kids who came from the rough. I then started after school programs and summer camps. Daycare and 1st grade( It always makes me think of the “Zen of Steve”). Community groups and non profits. Children Museums and National Camps. Art classes, acting classes, workshops , and retreats. That's a alot of people in passing. Any teacher can tell you that he or she thinks about all the people they have shared with over the years. I do. The majority I want to stay in touch with. I meet people everyday I want to stay in touch with. I always say that I will stay in touch. But life moves on and so do people. For most people its out of sight out of mind. I have always wanted to hang on to those people I meet, friends, artisans, and family. However the mover in me wants to keep going. Its easy to cut the strings and move on. So I started a blog. To share my thoughts, my art, friends,family, travels, and inspiration. So that I could still be found by some. I still have a bad habit of dropping off from people and places. I'm a gypsy. I move. But the blog is a way I can stay centered. A month ago I dropped everything. It seemed to spread into a lot of things. My art, my classes, my teaching, my health, my relations, I started to withdraw again. Get ready for a move. But I have realized what I have been doing. So after some reflection time....I'm ready to come back.

So I just wanted to apologize to my readers for a long absence. I will stay centered in my blog and in my art. For the readers that I have lost- I hope you come back. For the readers I have broken trust-I understand. For my friends-I Thank You. For my family-I love you. For the Cat of Jack I can not do without you.


Eddie & Teddy