This is a digital collage made from CPWC images then printed and hand painted by artist with prismacolor pencils and ink. labor intensive! mounted on 6×6 masonite art board. 32lb. paper. willing to sell for right price.

]]> http://briedah.com/2012/04/14/more-new-stuff/feed/ 0 http://briedah.com/2012/04/14/beware-of-darkness/ http://briedah.com/2012/04/14/beware-of-darkness/#comments Sat, 14 Apr 2012 22:31:34 +0000 briedah http://briedah.com/?p=1136 An amazing spectacle appeared in the western sky above Cedar Mill yesterday. Thunderheads reaching 30,000 feet or more blanketed the sky around me like caldera of puffy meanness. They encroached from the north, the east and the west, while to the south the remnants of a sunny spring day’s baby blue sky retreated. I was awestruck by the massiveness of these storm clouds and the fact they are seldom witnessed in April in Portland.

About a half hour later they began their rumbling, not close enough to frighten this small child at heart, but loud enough to frighten Noni, my year old Bengal tabby. I was drawn out to the patio to see that the southern sky was now an ominous purple slate and off to the east the light had changed to a pinkish gold.

The loudest clap was likely 15 miles away; day changed to night and the down pour began. I heard it hitting the roof and the metal chimney box and looked outside to see pea sized hail pummeling the driveway.

It faded off as quickly as it began and then within another half hour the sky cleared in the west and the sunset colors replaced the grey.

zetti style journal page done in my personal smash journal. prismacolor pencil, oil pastel, watercolors, gelly pen, pigment ink, graphite. bird images from my dover collection. fashion magazine cut outs altered by artist.

this is truly a ‘mixed’ genre of landscape with cartoon characters. I am displeased there was no room left for larger text and so i had to use sticko sticker letters. :beware of darkness: is a song by my FAVORITE beatle: George Harrison.

I am happy the mood came through as fearful and dark; two feelings that i experienced when i was hospitalized at Christmas for severe depression. I am coming out of this slowly but surely, but still have bouts of uncertainty and disillusion. I avoid certain triggers, but somehow they creep in to destabilize me.

Fortunately, creating ART prevents the unwanted thoughts; I am trying very hard to maintain my balance.

I am going to rehab for my back,hip and now knee. Is this a shock to anyone? No. I am almost 55 with too much weight on my joints and blessed with the loveliest syndrome: degenerative joint disease. I do not want to be in rehab. I do not want to use a cane. I do not want to end up in a power chair.

Yesterday I got an injection of synvisc in my knee to help with the pain of protruding meniscus and joint effusion. I haven’t noticed an improvement yet…

guess i will go to the pool now and get some exercise…

]]> http://briedah.com/2011/07/30/no-more-rehab/feed/ 0 http://briedah.com/2011/07/21/the-price-of-deprivation/ http://briedah.com/2011/07/21/the-price-of-deprivation/#comments Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:49:39 +0000 briedah http://briedah.com/?p=1019

My friend constancet2009 on Flickr mentioned an artist named Junelle Jacobsen whose blog had some fabulous ideas for art journaling with paper crafts. This above 6×6 collage is based on her own journal page called ‘little beating heart’. I took a piece of brown journal paper (Darice Paper Mache Journal) and crunched it up into a ball. I stained the ball with distress ink then unraveled the paper and smoothed it out. I stamped images with various rubber stamps, cut out the heart, and glued a distressed page of text to the back (so text shows thru heart) I then glued down images culled from the stash and wrote text and added stickers. Page then was glued to larger square sheet 6.5 inches from pad of My Mind’s Eye  Stella & Rose cardstock. Punched ring holes thru all sheets.

About two years ago I was urged by my primary care doctor that I needed to lose weight as I had serious co-morbidities that would ultimately shorten my life. My health issues were complicated by the fact that I needed to have a cervical laminectomy to repair a herniated disc in my neck. Those of you who follow my blog here may recall that my pain was blinding and constant. I used art as way of coping. Now that I am recovered from the neck surgery I am free to pursue further improvement of health issues that stem from being morbidly obese. I learned about  Dr. Emma Patterson  through an article in the news about weight loss surgery. Her clinic, Oregon Weight Loss Surgery, (OWLS for short) is a center of excellence, first of it’s kind in the Portland metro area.

I have chosen gastric banding as a tool to assist in my weight loss journey. Here is my visual journal that will document my hopes, fears and affirmations as I cope with life without sugar and unhealthy eating behavior.

It seems like I abandoned ship in October-for that I apologize. I am back to entertain you with my latest journey. Be prepared for some incredible art journaling…best wishes, briedah

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I prefer Halloween over Christmas. I love orange and red and black and purple; the fall colors: gold leaves against a crisp blue sky. October light is magical to me….I made almost all these collages digitally. The 3rd one down Live Life is cut and paste on 8×11 paper.

You can get lots of Halloween card ideas at www.Deviantscrap.com! go the the shoppe and check out Crowabout Studio B. Nancy’s stuff rocks!

I am getting much better in my neck dept. But now I have the cold that turned into the croup….I sound like a barking walrus with my asthma cough. Today I forgot to bring my Ventolin inhaler to work and by two o’clock I could hardly breathe!

Got me some steroids and Casero rub…I think eucalyptus is lovely this time of year…all I need now is some pumpkin pie…

Deb saw the ‘Be Glad’ 16×16 commision and decided she wanted HER favorite Psalm done for her birthday April 25th:

and this one is the leftovers: while making a collage for a friend, little leftover scraps and pieces kept catching my eye. The central body shape was for a jewelry spread in some fashion rag. The are always extras of everything I cut….arms, legs, flowers. She was wanting to dance I guess so I found this quote on the interwebz and learned that Mata Hari was really Dutch and not the double agent I thought she was…back ground paper Life’s Journey K&Co; distress ink, pen, TOMBO markers, black sharpie….

I was not feeling my best after doing taxes and so this turned out sort of rushed and jumbled all together. from flickr:

The Little Cuties Processional was the same day as The Tea Party so not too much effort went into getting all the cuties to show up (most of them chose to DO their taxes and cough up some dough) The baby stroller was part Naturalizer sling back and part BMW and The Old FreakShow That Lived In A Boot came because she was grounded due to the ash flying over her home town in Iceland. There was so little money left over after the tax payment all the commitee could afford for refreshments was jelly sandwiches which many shoved into their faces making quite a picture…or crowabout…
8×10 mixed media collage with images from Nancy B crowabout collage sheet(s) some dover freebies and some assorted mag clippings.
the best part I think is Bjork in a boot…

oh yeah…I have been DENIED by my insurance company an artificial disc replacement due to ‘investigational and experimental’…and the leave coordinator at work explained if I really wanted job protection during the time off for surgery I would have to return to full time duties for the next six weeks….so basically I can work until my arm goes completely numb and continue to take pain meds until I appeal the insurance denial. fun.

I want to live in a BOOT!