1) ArtAffections Jewelry

Well it has been at six months since I have painted. I laid my brush down, only to journey a path in creating “wearable art.” I began by taking my artprints to a new small dimension, 1x1inch, and inserted them into little trays with glass coverings, then I tried glass tiles with hand made bails-- lovely, unique pendants, but too limiting… I had to move on to something more challenging. I look back with some regrets that I had not taken the jewelry classes at University (80’s) which my sculpture professor was also teaching…At the time, I was intimidated by the “smallness” of it…I wanted to create BIG and impactful art, like the steel metal sculpture horse “chess” piece I forged which stood 7 ft tall…It found its home in my father’s front garden in rural Fairfield, ME (now rusted and, well, not really standing tall anymore…however, I do still have a scar on my left thigh from sanding it.. lol)
….So I “hit the books” (from the library, that is, a wonderful source in much of my “self-taught” art studies since University--being a wife, homemaker, homeschool mom, and secretary in this season of my life). I began investing in lot$a materials and lotsa tool$ and I grew in knowledge and understanding of metal working with copper and sterling silver wire and sheet… The last six months has been a wonderful time of exploring new ideas, methods and materials. I really enjoy creating “small” now…Each piece gets my full attention and though it be meticulous and time consuming, it is ultimately a rewarding process…to cut, anneal (with a torch), bend, hammer, anneal again, pickle, solder, pickle, solder, bend, hammer, and then again pickle, wash, polish and finally…Ta-da ! …It is awesome to be able to wear my art…and others can too ! You may find these at my new ETSY shop, ArtAffectionsJewelry : http://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtAffectionsJewelry
What you will find there is just a beginning…Ideas are stirring and my notebook is full of them. I am about to launch into a new line of copper, sterling and mixed metal pieces in which I’ve added another “step” in the creative process to the copper: Patina, in a lovely traditional Tiffany blue/ Green, a Cupric nitrate Blue, and a “Rainbow” rich mottled brown/orange…*Hope to have those pieces available in early November, 2011.

2) Picking Up the Brush again

Ok…picking up the brush again after 6 months "leave"... This past summer, it began to appear on our radar screen that our family may be in store for some kind of shift, in location that is, perhaps as soon as in the summer of this next year, 2012. My thoughts were, ‘Perhaps, I won’t be able to take many of my paintings with me, at least all at one time…This must be why I had been led to

go “small” (as in jewelry art) so that I can tuck them easily into my suitcase !’ Yet, the desire to squeeze tubes of rich colored medium onto my palette, scoop it up with my bristle brush and push that wonderful viscous oil around on the canvas again has been too strong lately…And as I looked around my studio at the untouched collection of white canvases (still in wrappings) just beckoning me to free them and give them some color and purpose…I couldn’t resist their longing blank “stares” anymore…lol... Fast forward…This month, my husband took my youngest son, Benjamin, on a 20 day ministry trip to Germany, and my time opened up to return to oil painting…I set a goal to complete the ten - 6x6x1.5 stretched canvases, to recreate some of the 24x24inch “End-time Harvest” series paintings in smaller scale, as well as to give some oldies new life…So by this Friday, with a few exceptions, I completed these new landscape oil paintings : short-term mission accomplished ! However, the next step was the least “palette-able” part of the process of making art : to prep the little happy canvas faces into a digital format for viewing beyond studio walls…Taking outdoor photo shots from various angles of 12 + paintings, was grueling, since my first attempt did not produce accurate color matches…So back to the photo shoot, with indoor lighting in my studio, and then again into PhotoShop for hours of comparing digital to actual colors, sizing in a web format, and uploading them. Thankfully, they are finally up in my ETSY shop : http://www.etsy.com/shop/LisaMDSkinnerArt