The End of the Year Art-a-thon has begun!

Hello!!

2016 is almost here! Feels like this year went by at lightening speed.

The art-a-thon has finally begun for me. Some of you have already been doing it for a few hours and others have yet to begin.

Hope you are all ready to complete those art projects that you have at various stages of completion! If you don’t have any incomplete art projects, you can create new art pieces, organize your art space so its ready for the new year, set your new art goals for 2016, flesh out your ideas for upcoming projects or anything that will help you prepare to make art in the new year.

Unlike other art-a-thons this will be the only post until I ring in the new year because there are no prompts. Most of my interactions will be in the Facebook group where I will check in from time to time. I will share my completed items in the group, instagram and twitter.

Good luck in completing your projects!

End of the Year 24 Hour Art-a-thon

Normally I don’t do anything for new years. Its just a regular day for me. This year I decided that before the new year arrives I would finish all the projects I started but have yet to complete. I then started thinking that maybe other people might have unfinished projects as well and decided to host an art-a-thon.

This art-a-thon is to finish any unfinished art projects so that hopefully when the new year starts you have completed everything you started in 2015 or at least put a big dent into your unfinished projects. If you don’t have any unfinished projects but still wish to participate you may create whatever you like during the art-a-thon.
 

This art-a-thon will be different in a few ways.

  1. I will be the only host.
  2. It will have no prompts since the goal isn’t to start something new but to finish anything already started.
  3. It would start at midnight on 12/31 and end at midnight 1/1, as the new year begins in each time zone. That means that not everyone will start at the same time and not everyone will end at the same time as you will be starting at midnight your time and ending midnight your time.
  4. The Prize will be small and most likely just art supplies.
  5. Since I am the only host and there are no prompts I will only be checking in from time to time.

 
If you are interested in participating you can sign up below.
 
Here are some buttons you can use on your sites. If you need instructions on how to use them click here.

 

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That’s All Folks!

Now the 24 Hour Art-a-thon comes to an end!

Thank you to everyone who participated in this challenge and made it a fun and awesome experience! So much amazing art was created by all. You are all truly talented.

Thank you so much to my co-hosts Rhonda, Ruth and Sarah for helping me to host this challenge and not thinking I was crazy when I suggested it so many months ago! You three are an amazing bunch of remarkable and talented women and I am very happy to call you friends!

 

Now on to the prizes!

The Grand Prize Winner is……Michelle Visser and her two awesome daughters! You will be receiving all that you see below!


Strathmore Mixed Media Journal
Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt Pens
2 Uniball Signo White Gel Pens
– Given by Melissa

Martha Stewart Journal
Canson Make Your Own Manga Book
Canson Make Your Own Comic Book
– Given by Rhonda

Cut Press Board Book
A set of Various Color Gelatos
A set of Black & White Gelatos
– Given by Ruth

Calligraphy Pen & Ink Set
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Tissue Wrap
Art Minds Plaster Wrap
– Given by Sarah

 

The following winners won prizes from each host. All winners will receive an email or message from me sometime this evening after I have some much needed sleep or at the latest Monday morning.

For my winners you can choose something from my prizes listed on the prize page or wait till Monday when I make a list and take pictures of everything I created during the art-a-thon to choose from. However the “White Rabbit” is on a first come first serve basis since there is only one.

 

Prompt 1 – Host Melissa
Winner – Amy Hightower Mosely
Prize – Not Yet Chosen

Prompt 2 – Host Rhonda
Winner – Anita Mistry
Prize – A surprise

Prompt 3 – Host Sarah
Winner – Jamie Joslyn
Prize – Handbound Journal

Prompt 4 – Host Melissa
Winner – Aubrey Oddbreed
Prize – Not Yet Chosen

Prompt 5 – Host Rhonda
Winner – Trisha Doran
Prize – A Surprise

Prompt 6 – Host Sarah
Winner – Aubrey Oddbreed
Prize – Mini Framed Monster Portraits

Prompt 7 – Host Ruth
Winner – Melissa
Prize – Surprise

Prompt 8 – Host Melissa
Winner – Beverly Jensen
Prize – Not Yet Chosen

Prompt 9 – Host Sarah
Winner – Evelyn Havertz
Prize – Handmade Doll

Prompt 10 – Host Rhonda
Winners – Trisha Fettig and Jennifer Rothstein

Prompt 11 – Host Ruth
Winner – Rhonda
Prize – Surprise

Prompt 12 – Host Ruth
Winner – No Winner

 

Please keep creating awesome art and having fun!

Prompt 12 – Hour 23

Found Poetry – 6:00 – 8:00 a.m.

Its The Final Countdown! 😀

“Found poetry is a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and reframing them as poetry by making changes in spacing and lines, or by adding or deleting text, thus imparting new meaning.” How nice of the wiki to define it this way… LOL

I’ve really personally struggled with this art form and finally found some examples of styles of found poetry that appeal to me!

The most popular method of creating found poetry right now is to find words still on a page of text from a book and black out or create art over and around the words not chosen, usually flowing down or across the page in a shape in the same order as they were originally presented as if the genius of the artist was simply waiting for this page and in meeting some sort of magic happened.

Google it and click “images” and you’ll find dozens of types and styles, mostly all circled words on a page.

Here is one that one of my co-hostesses created for me in a Round Robin journal we did together.

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I suck at this entirely.

And then I found photos of collage pieces, and ransom note style poetry that leapt off the page all grungy and amazing… FINALLY… something that spoke to me personally and that excited me about this art form!

So I cut up a pile of words… all from a single page of text… and I selected the ones that I liked best. I’ve worked to replace them from text in different forms or sizes and shapes and I’ve otherwise altered the ones I have here.

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And now they are my flow and my words. Not entirely unlike Dr. Seuss who first wrote the Cat in the Hat using only a list of 220 vocabulary words then being challenged to write a whole book using only 50 words, and turning out one of the most favorite children’s books of all time, Green Eggs and Ham.

No, I do not compare my art to the master of the wacky rhyme, I simply point out that limiting my list is as good as it gets, because I do not see poetry in words already published on a page until the page has been deconstructed again. Creativity is in part the finding of a way to express yourself regardless of your limitations. Particularly when they are your own.

I find poetry in the flow of things around me. And in words piled on a desk. Or in text here… maybe. Come on, if you’re out there and awake and hanging around… post some words in the comments here or on the Facebook group feed and let’s see what I can make of them with the time we have left after I complete this canvas.

Here is a poem written on the bus going home night after night past the same signs and advertisements until they formed a story in my mind… sometimes it isn’t so much that we find a poem as that we see that it has found us…

*hint: think beat poetry and read aloud*

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I’ll take pictures for you of the piece of artwork I’m creating now as a close to this fantastic experience with everyone… please, if you’re not interested in finding poetry on a page the way that so many people are so beautifully capable, think in your mind of a poem that you could say you “found” inside yourself or from your life, or that found you from someone else’s experience… illustrate your poetry and tell the story of how you “found” it. Post it.

This piece of art will be one of the prizes offered up today, and it is a little different… because you can’t win it, you can only trade for it. You must trade it for the one YOU create.

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NOTE: When wingeing to my co-hostesses that I was afraid I’d bomb this thing I got some exceptional advice that I would like to share. As a student in school Rhonda did a found poetry piece that was so good that her teacher featured it on the first page of the class poetry book. Her exact words, “Grab something and read it. Write down the most interesting words. Put them on individual small pieces of paper. Like tiny rectangles. Mix those up in something and drop some on the floor. Compose those into a sentence and continue until you are happy with the results. You will need to add a few connecting words. I prefer to keep those to a minimum, but use as needed.”

Beauty. I’ve asked her to share her poem in the feed below when she’s able to log in today.

Prompt 11 – Hour 21

Something using yarn. 4:00 – 6:00 a.m.

Now we’re burning the midnight oil!

We are tasked in the wee hours with this great and fun challenge.

Make something from yarn. I’ll have been doing THAT for the past 20 hours, give or take. In one way or another. I’ve been sort of yarn addicted of late, so yarn is making its way into journal pages, jewelry, fashion accessories… kind of a little bit of everything.

 

Scarves, Sugar Skull Lolita Hair Comb, Star Purse, Serenity Garden Yarns, Quickie Arm Knitting Yarn and Sassy Cloth Yarn

I like to learn something new every day, I didn’t know I’d be learning something new at o’dark:30 in the morning and documenting it for you all… maybe this can be fun without the stress.

This is roving weight yarn made specifically for arm knitting by Lion brand yarns and the other two fabric yarns I’m using.

Fruity Quickie       Red Heart Sassy Fabric Newsprint       Red Heart Sassy Teal Panther

Here is the tutorial by Maggie Weldon that I used for my materials and will use for the pattern and the tutorial by Chandi of Expression Fiber Arts that I am actually following for my method, particularly on the cloth scarves I’ll be wearing to work since she is working with sari silk which also does not stretch.

I have not done any arm knitting yet… I have wanted to do some for about 4 weeks. I am going to document my journey and I’m secretly hoping that Alex (my insomniac son) is awake tonight just so that he can take pictures for you. I want to do a 5 minute time lapse for you from start to finish. Of both projects. And this is going to be harder if I have to try to stop, take a picture, upload it and then move on. MUCH easier if my cameraman does it for me!

The first project; a fluffy cowl that can be worn stretched over the shoulders and covering the chest and back or that can be pulled up to protect the head as well as neck and shoulders. Something soft and yummy for my most beloved Stephanie who loves “tu-prises”, particularly when they manage to come off as actual surprises! (are you surprised?)

The second project is the same as the first only not… NOT fluffy yarn… NOT stretchy and warm… made from cloth strips is for me, for wearing to work. Because I’m a big girl and finding pretty things long enough, or just wide or narrow enough, or in the right weights is sometimes more of a challenge than it is worth, and so sometimes we just have to make it for ourselves.

Pictures are incoming… watch the Facebook or Twitter feeds. You might just like what you see.

If there is time I will make the second work scarf by this method, since I bought two different patterns of the cloth yarn. I will also post the ingredients and “pattern” in the Facebook feed for those of you who adore the colors and prints as much as I did. Alex will also get a fashion shot or two for you if he is still awake, or I’ll do it myself and post them as selfies!