I’m inspired to play in the petals for a few more weeks before turning back to working on my novel idea and waiting for my palette to be refilled with fresh “paints”!
Here’s what’s in process right now … along with a few more 4×4 Christmas themed tiles coming up next.
So fun!
©Belindabotzong2018
This one looks like the beginnings of Christmas ornaments dangling.
I scanned handmade paper with Queen Anne’s Lace blossoms- looks like snowflakes – and winter is blowing in ..
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Have a blessed time preparing for Christmas & Hanukkah..and hunkering down for winter … unless of course you live somewhere tropical then here’s a little taste of winter for you!
©belindabotzong2018
In my travels and stress of the past month I nearly forgot that Heartstrings had been hung in my absence by the lovely ladies of the Whatcom Art Guild ❤️
I finally got downtown to Hair Art Studio to see it hanging and it made me happy! Of course it’ll be even more happy to see it sold but I love these mixed media canvases that are inspired by the power of music and mental health and life in general for most people!
If you’re out shopping downtown Bellingham this month please stop by and see all the art of local artists, many who are members of the Whatcom Art Guild and Market!!
©Belindabotzong2018
All my childhood I lived here
Riding my bike up and down the streets
Delivering newspapers
Eating burgers and fries with goop
Walking and shopping – then the 88 cent store and still Oliver&Hammer clothing, then Holland Drug, JCPenney. Now the Woolley Market and some empty.
Yesterday I had to walk to the post office down the alley and took these photos of the very old brickwork that I would have never noticed as a child. Now I love and appreciate the rust, brick, old architecture of my home town.
Enjoy –
As most people know, I have not led a creative life. I have led a productive, hard-working, technically (technologically) challenging, and beautiful life, but I have not been known to be an artist in the least. Accepting this new role in life, at this stage in life, is kind of funny, kind of embarrassing, and kind of weird, I suppose. We have decided to call it my Renaissance Period!
So, it is with a weird sense of self-deprecating humor that I had to announce that it is my debut as the “Featured Artist” at the Whatcom Art Market this coming week. I have not embraced the term, “I am an artist”, yet I am thankful for the encouragement of my family and fellow art guild members who acknowledge that I am, indeed, somehow an artist. My father-in-law and I agree when he says, “You mean people buy this stuff?” It cracks me up that he says that like my inside voice came out of his mouth. This “stuff” is Refind Creations, which I invented just over a year ago when I was getting this sudden urge to be creative with things that I found. Sometimes they were in a junk store (aka Treasure Store!). Sometimes they were just random objects I found or had laying around that suddenly seemed as if they could totally function as something entirely different than what they had originally been created to be. Like me! I was, I thought, just created to do really technical things in the medical field, while of course being compassionate and caring with my patients. It takes little creativity to use a computer to do diagnostic imaging, though some people think there is an art to the science. It is more rigid than that.
Anyway, about a year ago I decided to join the Whatcom Art Guild. I remember that first meeting when I had to stand up and introduce myself and announce to the other members what kind of art I did. And I fumbled that because I said I had no idea what kind of art I did, but that I was wanting to explore the possibility of being creative. To that point I had taken a pile of old insulators and turned them into candles. That was about as creative as I had been besides finger painting with my children when they were little and admiring their true artistic talents that fill my home even now with their beauty.
And now my Renaissance is in full swing. I have two canvases for sale at Hair Art Studio in Bellingham. And … Over the past several months I have created many things from found objects, I have scanned into the computer, dried, pressed, and preserved about a ton of flowers that now inspire me to “paint with petals”, and it seems a bit surreal that I am now going to be “Featured Artist”, where I am not only selling my creations in the Whatcom Art Market, but indeed I am going to demonstrate this technique I invented and let others try their hand at being creative, too! It just might surprise them to know that they, too, are artists!
I have added many of my creations, most of which are scanned flowers, petals, and many items found in nature, to my “storefront” on Society6, a website that let’s artists like me make their creations available in home décor and many other useful items. Enjoy! I hope you can come out to the Whatcom Art Market next Saturday, November 17, from 11am-2pm and see if you, too, are feeling creative!
https://society6.com/Refindcreations
Like the bio for Refind Creations
Autumn is the color of my dreams
The world is drenched in rusty hues
As leaves transform from deep luscious greens
To a vibrant mosaic in shades of orange, red, yellow and brown
Catching the low slant of sunbeams
Creating a breathtaking yet nearly sublime beauty
Unsurpassed
Causing the soul to ache for the coziness of Fall, the crispness of Autumn, the changing of seasons
Rusty
©Belindabotzong2018
My heart is happy with this work in progress from my Petals as Paint collection.
A collage of dahlias, hydrangea and elderberry — this creates a peaceful scene on a breezy day. A mist creates a foggy field beneath a periwinkle sky. A place of solace. Two trees stand in tranquility amidst a golden meadow.
Petals as Paint on burlap canvas.
©Belindabotzong2018
Thank you Diane Kindle and Nancy Craig for the flowers and thank you Lord Jesus for letting me Refind your perfect creations.
So happy that Sunburst found a new home! Lovely couple from Seattle came in to Whatcom Art Market and loved the unique design painted with petals from dahlia and black eyed Susan. Made my heart happy ❤️
©Belindabotzong2018
Society6.com/Refindcreations
The beauty of the dahlia has captured my imagination. The color wheel is built right in – reds and yellows, purples with white, and all manner of pinks and orange that create a beautiful palette for Painting with Petals.
I discovered a new adhesive. You all know I suffer from adhesions – sometimes getting glued to my own self. This is acrylic medium glossy and I loved it. Some change in the petals occurred after this photo but much less than using a water based adhesive.
It’s going into a frame and will be available at Whatcom Art Market tomorrow morning. An explosion of Fireworks Dahlia
©Belindabotzong2018
It all started in a garden
Then a lady came along and picked a dazzling fireworks Dahlia
She scanned it and photographed it multiple times. She filtered and posted and delighted the world
She dried it for weeks until it became kind of sad looking but she saw great potential
She unwrapped a canvas covered in burlap. She applied layers of aerosol adhesive and began plucking the sad looking petals and placing them in a design onto the canvas until a pattern developed. She said it was her favorite so far – but she says that every time. She said it looks like a dream catcher. He said it looks like fireworks. And the other he said it looks like an explosion.
She will let it sit and ponder what it will become — sleep on it dreaming of delightful ideas and share them with the world.
©Belindabotzong2018
