summer arting with the kiddos (is fun!)

what a grand summer!  arting both alone and with the kids, camping, traveling to see properties (that we can’t buy — more on that another day), weeding my ass off in the garden.  it’s all around good times.

i’ve been spending a lot of time painting over the past couple of weeks while gearing up to break out piles of assemblage supplies (i like painting in the summer because it’s more portable — i can sit in the sun, or shade if i’m smart — i fry in the sun).  here is a peek at some recent girlies.  i call them my imaginary friends.  well, four of them at least.  the others are a bit standoffish.

these are available in my shop, here: http://alteredbits.com/alicia-caudle-art.php

the “tallest” handmade book in the world is slowly but surely coming to fruition and more resembling an actual book than a pile of gorgeous pages.  i’ve just added drawers to the back cover but no peeks yet!  i shall post some in the next week or three.  i don’t know what it is with me and drawers and secret places in books, but i like it.

in the meantime, i wanted to share some of the fun art some of the kiddos and i have been creating.  we’ve been trying to get together with a couple specific friends every friday for art, and have another couple of friends who come here on an irregular basis.  friday before last, we made collaged “special boxes”.  we thought we would make them so they can put other projects they’ve made into them to keep them save, along with other treasures.

finn (my 10 y/o son) reminds me of myself sometimes.  somehow a nude stamp got into the pile of goodies which i thought i had edited well, but i hadn’t.  his friend elie turned it up-side-down and diverted her eyes when she happened upon it, and finn snatched it up before a word could be said.  here is the top of his box with the nude stamp and some skull beads (AND i am the lucky recipient of this box!):

miss el started to create a box house for some of her tiny dolls.  i wish i would have gotten photos of the completed box house but i was too distracted.  they both had so much fun collaging, painting and finding random items to glue on.

here is the table — think i brought enough stuff for two kids to make boxes?  (this wasn’t even all of it!)

after that, finn was quite inspired to surprise elie with a doll house the following friday, and look what he made, complete with popsicle stick hardwood flooring, wainscoting, etc.  i helped, but shhhh.  she loved it and we had super fun making it.  good times all around!  this is a bad angle — there are photos of birds on the walls on the lower level.

soon we’re going to be working on some sculpted covers for handmade books (i’ll probably bind them for them).  i love sculpting with the kids!  in fact, here are two bird dolls el made before summer.  these weren’t done when i took the photo, but you can tell she is an amazing talent!

here is a detail shot of their super cool heads:

anyway, having lots of creative fun both alone and with the kids, and loving every minute of it!  hope you’re having a creative summer too.

an assemblage and book combo

since i have to work cyclically lately between different mediums, sometimes i can’t decide if i want to create an assemblage or a book.  they are, after all, the two things i’m most passionate about creating (though i’m still overly obsessed with the idea of creating a portrait i don’t hate).  so this time i decided to create both in unison… a book inside an assemblage.  it’s funny how i say that as if i’ve never done that before.  i’m totally laughing right now.  this is probably my forty-third assemblage with a book in it.

meet the second gal in my doll box series (the first, “exhibition of self” can be found in seth apter’s book “the pulse of mixed media” where i was one of the featured artists).  i fell instantly in love with that little face of hers and had to create something special.  at least i feel she’s special.  ❤

like most people, she has her secrets; some are kept in the little drawer just above her heart, and others can be kept in the book within her belly.  the drawer is actually not empty.  can you guess what’s inside?

the book is made with bones upon the spine and a metal and shark tooth closure i fashioned out of miscellaneous found objects.

you can see several more detail photos on my site, here, if interested >>

what did you create today?

objects of my affection

i’m totally cheating right now… writing this at 2:40 PM on the 17th, to be posted sometime in the morning of the 18th (didn’t want to compete with my winners post, plus am not going to be home tomorrow).  i’m probably out to breakfast at the big egg right now — it’s so yummy that you should be quite envious of me.  it’s not even a block to paxton gate from there either, and omg, you know how i love that place!!  (if not, scroll down a few posts.)  shall i buy myself a birthday jackalope?  hmmm.

i’ve been working on a series of new mini-books for a little gallery that’s interested in having them.  to me, they are “little objects of affection books” in that i’m putting all of my favorite things into hand-made little wooden boxes and frames on the front.  this is the first, and isn’t done (though the 3rd, 4th and 6th are complete), but soon.  victorian doll parts, glass vials, dried flower petals from my garden, porcupine quills, vintage medical book text.  (you can barely make out “delirium and insanity” inside the top of the box i made, and “a disturbance of the mental processes” on the paper underneath.  didn’t plan that, but it makes me smile.)

of course it has a funky alicia-style rustic-woven and tangly binding too:

but way better than a silly little book — i received a WONDERFUL package the other day from the generous (and extremely talented) donna watson.  i share her affinity for rocks, and she shares mine for frozen charlottes, so we swapped.  how perfect that i had plenty of room in my new printer tray from miss lisa!  for now, this is a little collection on my coffee table, “objects of my affection”.  i’ll probably relocate it all later to do an assemblage in the box, but for now, this pleases me to no end.  though i think i’ll take the red “mars” marbles out.

aren’t these just divine!  look at the top two-toned, smooth and gorgeous oblong stone!  and the one with the white ring!  and the speckled one.  donna has a real knack for rock finding for sure!!

the following six are perfectly round and absolutely lovely.  they look like marbles — which i also have a huge thing for so these are double-perfect!

thank you so much, donna!  i LOVE these wonderful stones!

speaking of “objects of my affection”, i keep forgetting to post this fantastically sweet shirley temple doll i found at the flea market a few weeks ago.  look how crackled she is!!  she came that way naturally (imagine my surprise to have found her!).  she’s missing an arm and it looks like a creature chewed off half of her opposing foot, but she’s divine none the less.  i’m guessing about 15″ tall or so… maybe more.  i want to create a creepy motorized piece out of her, maybe motion detection style so she waves when you walk by or something.  i wonder how hard that would be.  (oh, just hollered to the husb and he said it would NOT be hard a’tall.  rad.)

right now she’s just hanging on the wall in the hall, greeting people as they pass.

happy february 18th to you all!

a day late

happy love, a day late.  we’re not huge valentine celebrators around here, but we’ll typically make each other something.

the little man woke me up with breakfast in bed that he made all by himself (cereal) and the most gorgeous card.  the husb actually made me art!  real, true life, visual art (i’ll photograph soon).  his art is music and he doesn’t typically enjoy making things, but recently we had a spur of the moment “altered man” workshoppy art fest here with some friends.  we all started in on altering some anatomical guy dolls.  well, he finished his in secret for me  and wrote me the most delightfully sweet love song (kinda sounded like an angry horror film narrator in a sexy nerdy way talking circuitry and electronics and love).  needless to say, the dude he made me was packed full of electronic bits, circuits, an LED crown, wires, etc., standing on a heart shaped circuit board.  i guess he’s sweet after all, eh?

i made him “us” last weekend, while so on top of things, but ran out of time making him the part two piece of “us as animals”.  sounds worse than it will be, hah.  anyway, us…

our hearts are all tangled and lovey.  guess i can be sweet every once in awhile too.  pfff.

xxox