Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Cows in the Field

Living in the countryside of upstate New York lends itself to beautiful rolling hills and lots of farms.  I’m now on a mission to collect photos of farm animals for future art projects.  While I need to run errands anyway, I might as well make good creative use of my time and multi-task.  Although it was a drizzly sort of day today, I did manage to engage a small herd of cows in the field.  They were resting near the fence which was very fortunate for me.  It is not often I see cows up close.  They are usually seen out in the middle of the pasture.  I must say, they were just a little scared of my approach but then became curious.  I was careful to move slowly near the fence so they wouldn’t back off.  My goal was to capture a few good study photos for my work.  The last thing I wanted was to see them turn tail and run.  Without further ado, here are a few of today’s photos:

Cow9 As if to say, we’re feeling a bit camera shy.

Cow16A Ok, I think we can handle this.

Cow11 There is definitely safety in numbers.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Dozing

Dozing (1) Today’s painting is called “Dozing”, acrylic on 9 x 12 canvas.  It is done in an expressive, painterly style.  It is inspired by a calf from a nearby diary market’s petting zoo.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Earth Day, Everyday

"There is enough for all.
The earth is a generous mother; she will provide in plentiful abundance food for all her children if they will but cultivate her soil in justice and in peace."  ~ Bourke Coekran ~

MotherEarthGoddessGoddess of the Earth, Pencil & Ink on Bristol

Mother Earth, the giver of life that sustains us all.  Earth day is everyday we walk along on this planet.  We are merely passing through as visitors and she indeed is a lovely and giving host.  Honor and care for her in all of your deeds and be mindful as you do, your children are watching you.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Stella The Pug

StellaPug3 Stella is the thirteenth painting in my pet portrait series.  The painting is done in acrylic on 9 x 11 canvas.  She has such a beseeching look on her face as if to say, “just one more treat, please”.

Getting the colors in her coat just right, was a little tricky for me.  Since I do not work from an established palette, I had to play around with mixing a combination of colors, i.e.,  burnt umber, yellow ochre, burnt sienna and titanium white on my palette.  I enjoy the experimentation and seeing the colors I can come up with in the paints.

I’m working toward painting on a daily basis.  There is some frustration because the day to day family obligations must be met.  I need a clear head to approach the creative process hence too many distractions does not a painting make or something like that.  :)  It’s always a good feeling and almost a relief when I can finally get down on paper or canvas the idea floating around in my head.  It’s a release because the creative energy is pent up.  I think many artists feel in a similar way.  I would love to hear thoughts on this subject.  The desire to create but other things, life so speak getting in the way.  How does it effect your creative flow.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

China Adoption - In My Heart Celebration Bracelet



I love making adoption jewelry designs.  As a mom through adoption, these are designs from the heart.  The adoption jewelry line was first introduced in 2003 with the Adoption Is Love design.  It was a big success that motivated me to create more exciting designs celebrating adoptions from around the globe.

The In My Heart China adoption bracelet shown above is a gorgeous bracelet of very good weight.  It is made with high quality materials such as sterling silver, Jade gemstones and fresh water pearls.  I added Swarovski crystals that are set in between the block letter beads.  Customers can choose at no additional charge to personalize it in any birth month color combination.  Select one color or several, it's entirely up to you.

I have to say, I especially enjoy custom orders so please do not hesitate to inquire about a special design made just for you.


www.OffTheCuffArt.com
www.BarbaraGiordanoArt.Etsy.com
www.SunfluersJewelryDesigns.com
www.Zazzle.com/Sunfluer
http://SunfluerDesigns.Imagekind.com

Monday, April 12, 2010

Digging Geekery

"Often, we are too slow to recognize how much and in what ways we can assist each other through sharing such expertise and knowledge." ~ Owen Arthur, Prime Minster of Barbados ~

I love quotes and find I'm using them more simply because it sums up eloquently what I want to share in a post.

I am by far no expert when it comes to coding.  My approarch is either asking my dear hubby who has a wealth of knowledge or wading through mirky waters trying to figure it out on my own. Finding the answer myself is the most rewarding and when I do, I often feel giddy about it.  It's like "ha", I did it kind of moment.  When that happens, I want to share it with others because I can relate to the frurstation of trying to get technology to work for us and do the job it was intended.  Having a base of knowledge helps.  I think I eluded to the fact in previous posts, my background is in corporate training.  I mean, at the very least, I hold a degree in it.  Although I never put the degree to direct use, I use my knowledge in other creative ways.

Today, I added a DIGG voting tool for my blog posts.  I hope you will vote on my posts now that it's available.  Just click on it and in a few short steps, the post is added to the index.  If you have a blog and want to add the DIGG gadget, it's very simple once you know how.  Following are the steps to get it to work for your blog.  I just want to mention, the coding should work in any blog platform that uses html.

Go to where you can edit the html in your dashboard.  The first thing you want to do, is back up your current template.  Where it says, "donwload full template", click on it and name whatever you like.  After you've backed up the template, click on the "expand widget templates".  Search for the following code:

<data:post.body/>

I use Windows and Ctrl 'F' will bring up the search bar making it easy to find the code right away. I thiink on a MAC, it's CMD 'F'.  Just copy/paste the code into the search bar.  Once you locate the code, you will need to add in the next piece of code above the previous code:

<!-- DIGG -->
<div style='float:right; padding: 3px;'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
digg_url = '<data:post.url/>';
</script>
<script src='http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js' type='text/javascript'/>
</div>
<!-- DIGG -->

Preview your blog and it should have the DIGG voting button next to each of your blog posts.  If you like this post, please DIGG it.  :)
www.OffTheCuffArt.com
www.BarbaraGiordanoArt.Etsy.com
www.SunfluersJewelryDesigns.com
www.Zazzle.com/Sunfluer
http://SunfluerDesigns.Imagekind.com

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Meaningful Gifts For Mom

Before you know it, Mother's Day will be here.  Are you prepared to give the mom in your life a special gift that shows how much you care?

I think all moms deserve to be treated special on Mother's Day.  I think mom's through adoption would love a special something that speaks directly to them and their experieince.  Being a parent through adoption suggests a special connection.  I know because I am one.



Adoptive moms have jumped through hoops and filled out a dossier of forms.  We have endured fingerprinting, background checks and home studies to determine our fitness to parent.  Many of us have made huge financial and sometimes personal sacrifices to realize the dream of parenting.  Back in 1999, when I became a first time mom, I wanted something special, a symbol to show how proud I am to be an adoptive parent.  I couldn't find it online or elsewhere.  I decided to create a piece of handcrafted jewelry that expressed what I was feeling and that was and is the "Adoption Is Love" bracelet.  After the creation of that piece, I went on to making other designs to represent adoption from different countries.  My daughter was born in China so finding symbols to celebrate our special connection was easy for me. 



Although my adoption designs have been well received by the adoption community, some are more favored than others.  The Mama Chinese Character Necklace in sterling silver is a favorite for mom's with children from China.  I must admit that although I made this necklace with the China adoption mom in mind, it's a beautiful symbolic piece for all moms.

I love being creative and welcome custom orders.  If you see a design on my website and would like it personalized to represent something meaningful for you, please do not hesitate to inquire.  I will do my best to make a special gift for you or someone on your shopping list.

Your commets are welcomed on my blog.  I would love to hear your thoughts about the blog content, any of my art creations and/or what you would like to see on it.  If you have suggestions for jewelry designs, I would love to read about those also.

As always, thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.  It means a lot to me.


www.OffTheCuffArt.com
www.BarbaraGiordanoArt.Etsy.com
www.SunfluersJewelryDesigns.com
www.Zazzle.com/Sunfluer
http://SunfluerDesigns.Imagekind.com

Monday, April 5, 2010

Collage Art and Lov'in It






Recently I purchased the book "Collage Discovery Workshop" by Claudine Hellmuth and it is nothing short of fabulous. By following some of the guidelines in the book, I created two collage art pieces. Each artwork is created on 4 x 6 inch canvas board.







 
I layered acrylic paints for the background. The fairy with honeybee hive is a cut out from left over wallpaper. I added in a piece of cardstock that looks like old type face and added in the miniature scrabble letters to create a three dimensional effect.







I used the same technique with this collage.  With this piece, I cut out a photocopied image of my original acrylic cat painting and embellished it for added dimension.



Golden gel medium is used throughout the artwork.  It's great for mounting the collage elements as well as sealing the art.




http://www.offthecuffart.com/
http://www.barbaragiordanoart.etsy.com/
http://www.sunfluersjewelrydesigns.com/
www.Zazzle.com/Sunfluer
http://sunfluerdesigns.imagekind.com/


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