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i got some matte photo prints of some of my art which i’m having a sale on. $5 each, 4×6. leave a comment or email me at hi at altered bits dot com if you’re interested as i haven’t yet posted them on my site. i have a very limited amount of all but the first two on left.
i have also donated one of each of these to judah sleep, fellow mixed media artist, for his charlie’s spot etsy shop which i will be mailing out tomorrow, along with some digital collage sheets he’s already listed. if you are not familiar with judah and charlie’s situation, please read (this is from their shop description):
Why Charlie’s Spot?
During the week of August 16th, Charlie (my partner of 15 years) suffered a debilitating stroke which had been proceeded by two TIAs (smaller strokes) completely out of the blue. This shop will feature a variety of items from a variety of our rather artsy friends! All proceeds (minus Etsy/Paypal/CC fees) will go towards medical bills, the remodeling/renovation of the built-entirely-by-hand (by us!) home to make it accessible for him, and ongoing therapies.Sincere thanks and love,
Judah, Charlie, and extended family and friends!
Judah, Charlie, and extended family and friends!
please go take a look at their shop and buy if you can. once i have the money, if it’s still there, i’m snatching this up because it needs to live around my neck: anatomical heart necklace
this is what i did today — i bundled each of the prints up individually in little clear self-sealing bags, added pretty paper backing and made labels for each of the pieces. i hope they sell fast for these guys ’cause every dollar helps.
oooh, what a magnificent week! 2012 is turning out to be quite a special year indeed! my prediction: the best ever! what do you think?
the week started out by me registering “little bug studio” as an official domestic non-profit corporation. after many, many minutes on hold with the IRS (57 of them, to be precise), i discovered that filing my 501(c)(3) for official tax exempt status costs roughly $5-700. that wasn’t part of “the good part”. however, with my EIN (which i’m getting next week) i can accept tax-deductible donations AND there is a 27 month grace period for having to file the paperwork for 501(c)(3) status. woots! buying time is my kind of process indeed!
i recently purchased both littlebugstudio.org and bugsartshack.org and will soon (depending upon your definition of the word “soon”) have websites up for each. then back to creating more art with the kiddos for fun and fund raising to finish their brand spankin’ new studio. even if we have to keep arting it up at our 1960s diner restaurant booth though, i’ll be happy because having 2-3 kids over every week is WAY better than zero. my dear and wonderful friend katie cahill did a blog post about little bug studio which you should check out here: Call to All My Handy, Arty, and Bighearted Friends! katie and i have been friends for almost 20 years (practically fresh from the womb — we are very, very young!) 😉 she gives a little peek into my life as the mama of an aspie boy, my plans for the kids’ art studio, and even posted the most precious shot of my little man’s bug-fingers from the last time we were out to breakfast.
copyright neighborhood center for the arts
from her post, wonderful things have happened… the best being my introduction to my new friend, mixed media artist susan lobb-porter. check out susan’s website, oo la la! living the arty life. susan is a wildly creative lady with an enormous heart. she works at a non-profit art center called neighborhood center for the arts (in grass valley, california) where she teaches art to adults with developmental disabilities. every day, up to 50 artists between the ages of 21 and 75 attend their studio and create paintings, weavings, ceramics, drawings, woodwork and computer arts. many of the artists have had their works exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including european galleries. i’ve seen photos of the amazing work they are doing (you can too — check out the above-linked website) and you must check it out now too! i am in love!
copyright neighborhood center for the arts
while perusing susan’s blog, i read the most magnificent post and implore you to read it (actually two posts). please go read them both, then come back and finish mine as it will make sense. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO WATCH THE VIDEO. i cried. but in a good way. soooo very touching!
artside out: http://www.oolalatheartylife.com/2648/artside-out/
yellow bird: http://www.oolalatheartylife.com/2735/yellow-bird/
lalalalala. <— this depicts a jaunty tune, like “hold music” but actually good.
copyright neighborhood center for the arts
okay, so as you read, susan is trying to raise funds for an iPad for her students, such as the one she wrote of. what an amazing gift! i’m going to help because that is just the kind of girl i am. some time in the next week or so, i’m going to list a new digital collage sheet and 100% of the sales of that sheet will go towards her cause. i have lots of ideas for her but because today has been a day chock full of utter insanity, errands and unexpected fiascoes, i haven’t gotten to tell her yet (and this post was supposed to be up yesterday which proves that i’m miss slow motion this week). (this is where my ADD kicks in and says “even though you’ve been typing this post for 36 hours, you should stop and email susan your ideas)…
i am super-crossing my fingers that they will be able to raise the funds for a new iPad so these amazing moments of transformation, expression and creativity will continue. no, they WILL raise the funds. this is 2012. people are good. art saves lives and those of us who are smart know it.
AND, please read her latest blog post (she so graciously wrote about my bug and me, and our wonderful art group): http://www.oolalatheartylife.com/2848/eunice-traded-her-right-arm/
another magnificent and magically kind and big-hearted event that has transpired is that TWO gorgeous and lovely friends have contacted me wishing to provide donations for the mum and finn etsy shop (100% of all proceeds go to little bug studio). what a wonderful and kind gift! jo archer has donated several of her wonderful wooden brooches. these are $5 each and she has even offered free shipping! go snatch them up — we are the proud owners of two ourselves and these rock! (i have a doll head and finn has a robot) all five of the bucks go to our art group charity.
you can also check out jo’s etsy shop here, with more wooden brooches and gorgeous art.
and now for the winner of my drawing for vintage foreign book pages…
(random number generator picked #22)
AJ’s Art Journaling: http://ajsartjournal.wordpress.com/
congrats! email me your mailing address and i shall have this out to you this week.
have a fantastic week, my friends, and check back soon for more books and giveaways.
some of you know that i recently had the idea of starting a non-profit art group for kiddos with aspergers syndrome and autism… and it’s finally happening! i’m super excited. we’re getting bids to remodel the garage and make it our little group’s “art shack” and touching young lives with art and expression. right now we’ve just been having tiny groups of two to four kids at a time at the dining table but soon we will expand (in the spring) to being an open group with up to eight or ten kids at least twice a week. it will be donation driven for supplies and things, like “pay if you can” sort of thing, but no one will be turned away if they can’t afford it. one thing i’ve noticed is that the kids feel so comfortable with teach other and can totally relate to one another. one little guy told me that he liked that he wasn’t picked on at our house for being “different”. happy tears for me!
in preparation of trying to file the non-profit paperwork, getting the garage remodeled into the kid’s studio, and setting up website hosting (shameful admission: i can’t afford to do it all myself money-wise), i’ve created a few pieces of art with the kids to make a little start-up money, in a joint etsy shop with the boy called mum and finn (our monsters will be going there soon, too, but i thought it would be a good fit for this stuff as well). 100% of profits go to the kid’s art group, of course. the first three pieces below were based upon the kid’s talking about feelings and some of their favorite things to do. they picked the colors and things and i painted the pieces as best as i could based upon their descriptions (according to six to nine year olds, i’m “really good” at painting their words — they are so sweet!).
piece one: i love skipping rope in the rain
4×6″ canvas
available here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/90242520/skipping-rope-in-the-rain-mixed-media
sold. thank you. 🙂
piece two: kicking a ball while wearing a funny hat
4×6″ on canvas
available here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/90239254/kicking-a-ball-while-wearing-a-funny-hat
sold. thank you. 🙂
piece three: watching orion (in bunny ears)
5×5″ canvas
available here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/90238257/watching-orion-in-bunny-ears-mixed-media
sold. thank you. 🙂
stuffed monster (based upon my son’s drawing): eunice traded her right art for george’s intestines. she survived… but he did not.
(not intended to be a child’s toy — small parts — removable intestines)
available here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/90244911/stuffed-monster-bunny-eunice-traded-her
sold. thank you. 🙂
and last but not least, a special playful but weirdo mixed media book/journal.
available here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/90248419/two-story-book-mixed-media-art-journal
this one is special in that it’s a “two story” book™ (© alicia caudle, 2011, all rights reserved) which is one of my recent creations (i will be posting my other two story book creations soon and will be hosting a small workshop on how to make them but more on that at a later date): THIS PIC MAY TAKE A BIT TO LOAD.
sold. thank you. 🙂
all of these pieces have been added to our new etsy shop (with LOTS of new monsters coming soon): mum and finn on etsy
note: both the girl and the boy above that are listed as 4×6″ canvases are the same brand of canvas but for some reason the size is a tiny bit different. what’s up, winsor newton!? the girl is about 1/4″ taller… and i didn’t notice until i finished each of them. hmmmph.
i had an idea about six months ago but being the ever-so-busy girl that i am, coupled with my proclivity to procrastinate, and sprinkling a little bit of “frequently side-tracked” on top, i’m only just now sharing. i kinda blame our dear friend seth apter for the inadvertent nudge — i have stacks on the brain as of late and this could be a HUGE stack… introducing: the tallest handmade book in the world {project}.
i really have no idea what the tallest handmade book in the world measures in at, but know it’s more than a foot. probably more than even three feet but i’ll just pretend it’s not that tall ’cause i want ours to be the tallest.
overview: if you want to play, create one or more page and send it to me (see address below). i will bind the whole thing together as the pages come in. once it’s completed, i will arrange an exhibition under all of our names. how fun that will be! i will also create a little zine-type publication in case anyone wants to see all of the amazing work that went into it with all artist names and contact information (this will be desperate from the altered bits zine). my goal is 2 to 3 feet tall, but i’d LOVE for it to be as tall as me (i’m short — only 5’2″ or a tad less, shhh!).
the point: once the book is complete and it has been exhibited, i would like to auction it off somehow and have all proceeds go to a non-profit group of our choosing. i’m all about “art for a cause”! my personal thoughts on this are something having to do with children, art, aspergers/autism as these are things i live with on a daily basis in my life as a artist mama to a super cool boy… but i’m open to ALL suggestions and we can vote on it. in my dreamiest dream of all, i would like to start a FREE or donation only, non-profit, weekly art group for children with special needs who could express themselves via the arts. all i would need is a free or cheap space (which i may have found this week) and kid-friendly arty supplies.
specs: size-wise, the book pages will be 4×6″. this means you’ll take a piece of 8″ x 6″ paper or fabric or whatever (preferably thick enough to be sturdy and not floppy but something that can be bound with needle and binding thread easily) and fold it in half to be four sides measuring 4×6″. like this:
this may be the difficult part of many of us, but pages should be fairly unthick, at least at the binding seam. some embellishments and things are okay but it shouldn’t have an super thick or heavy parts to make the binding easier. you can paint, collage, stamp, do anything you want out of fabric or paper or unsharp metal or or whatever you wish as long as i can get binding holes in it. this can be in any style or topic you desire — treat it like an art journal, draw or paint a portrait, doodle, print out some of your photography on thick paper, do a collage, write a poem on a colorful background, make a miniature quilt — this is totally your thing and all submissions will be accepted as long as they are not cruel or inappropriate.
this is how the binding holes will likely be placed:
if you would like to play, please just make sure all four sides are used on your paper (i’m using watercolor paper) so that there aren’t blank spots. you can team up with someone if you think four sides is too much for you, or you can send more pages if you desire. let’s see how tall we can get this baby!
i will take donations of binding thread, too. i only have black but maybe it would be cool to use multiple colors? if you have a spare foot or a couple yards of your favorite color(s) and want to pop it into your envelope, i would be SOOO very grateful!
if you want to play, let me know either by leaving a comment here or emailing me (hi at altered bits dot com). feel free to share this with any of your friends that you think may be interested in giving something back to an organization through doing the art that we all love… or trying to achieve a guiness world record height of a handmade book (doubt that really exists). feel free to use the image above (if interested, remind me to make a smaller side-bar iteration for your blog/website). children submissions welcome too if you have arty kiddos who want to play. my little dude wants to draw four monsters. here is some of his art (i’ve posted this before — it was actually a mum and finn collaboration we did when he was 6 that he calls “two birds”):
as for the covers, i can do those or if anyone is interested, let me know and we can see what we can work out.
i hope you’ll like to play! and if you like this idea, pass it on!
UPDATE:
here is a small sidebar image if you want to use it to link to this post. i’ll update with my PO Box address tomorrow (just reserved and paid for it):
right-mouse click to save and upload to your blog if you’d like to use this.
also, to clarify (regarding a few emails i’ve received) it doesn’t have to be totally flat, just not super bumpy/chunky. the page i started today, for example, is on super thick watercolor paper and the front side has a vintage book cover on it. i only have to sew through the watercolor paper to bind it. i think the other side will have glass on it and be a door. so it doesn’t have to be just flat work the paper/fabric/page if you want to add to it — i just need to be able to bind it. 🙂 i’ll post photos one of these days once i’m done so you can see.
mailing address:
alicia
altered bits
PO Box 83928
Portland, OR 97283
USA
back in the day when i had a kinder heart… or um, at least more time, i would create pieces or series to sell to raise money for causes i was passionate about. things like cervical cancer, schools for chiapas dot org, general art groups for under privileged youth, etc. i also often donated a piece or three per year to various auctions for good causes (mostly art teaching, autism/aspergers, school or child related). other than a few things on the altered bits site where 50% of the sale went to this or that, i haven’t done this much in the past couple of years and feel mean. i by no means have a lot, but we’re not quite starving just yet so i wish to help where i can in this lovely world of ours.
to feel like a better contributor to the world, i have just created and added a new big huge super high resolution digital collage pack of 10 pages (over 40 images), of all old papers, grungy book pages, postcards, letters and text of various sorts to altered bits’ collage sheets page. 50% of the proceeds will go to ethiopia reads, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing books to children who may not otherwise be able to experience reading them. a couple of months ago i had purchased some gorgeous handmade brass beads from an amazing ethiopian man who came to the west coast, US to sell his beads and charms, and i sold some on my site — 50% going to ethiopia reads as reading and literacy for children is a huge passion of mine, second only to art. or maybe they are tied. anyway, altered bits was able to provide several storybooks to young ethiopian children. the organization is amazing and they have a donkey with a mobile library on her back, traveling from village to village to pass out books (some to keep, some to borrow). check out their site to read about it.
ethiopia reads was recently featured on CNN, which i did not know until after i had donated to them. upon donating to them i learned that the feature helped them to receive a huge amount of donated books — around 60k. this is two HUGE freight containers of books, and it costs about $13,800 to ship each container. now they are struggling to raise enough to GET the books to these children, and that is why i created this lovely little (er, HUGE) digital collage pack. i want to help, if even only a little teeny bit.
the digital collage pack is HUGE — super high resolution print quality images (300 dpi) as transparent PNGs. the zip is 120MB+ large and is housed on a file sharing site that i would have to send an invitation link to for you to download. a bit of a hassle but VERY much worth it for the gorgeous imagery and great cause. print out to use in collages or art pieces or use in digital art as you please. or make me print them and mail them to you.
i have a few other good cause reading and literacy things in the works so check back soon if you’re interested. or check back even if you aren’t ’cause that’s not all i’m about. 😉 will have pulpy stuff to post soon as i have two books, for example.
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