Golden Tarot of Klimt

Here' s the Golden Tarot of Klimt which is "inspired by the artistic style of early twentieth-century Austrian painter, Gustav Klimt. The art is vivid and sensual, interspersed with mosaic patterns and accented with gold metallic accents.

This will be my last post for awhile as I'm going on vacation, and then immediately after coming back, starting school again full time (whilst working full time no less). *Gulp.* It's definitely time for me to commit to finishing college. I finally know now 100% what I want to do as far as a career, where before I wasn't that sure... so it's time for me to light the fire under my ass and go!

See you soon.

Another Dia de la Muerta skull. Don't you love his gossamer eyes? Shown is the original, and one that was hot-wax coated with my graphics program.

Indian Lily

Here's a small, post-card size mixed media piece inspired by the art of India. The background is painted with acrylics and the flower itself is made from origami paper (if you haven't realized yet, I am an origami fanatic). I experimented a little bit with this one. I wanted to give it that aged, color-saturated look that you see with a lot of Indian art. I mixed a little pink paint in with some gloss acrylic gel medium and brushed a layer on top of the piece. It dried clear but with a pinkish hue, giving it a nice monochromatic effect; my only regret is that I probably added a little too much paint to the the gel medium...it looks a bit washed out, especially in this picture.

The Stick Figure Tarot

The Stick-Figure Tarot. I had to throw this one in. It's just too cute.

The Illuminated Tarot

Another tarot deck. This one is called the "Illuminated Tarot." "The Illuminated Tarot deck is another recoloured version of the Rider-Waite... but these are no ordinary colours. Every part of the scene glows with luminous brilliance. The cards live up to their name."

The Rider-Waite is my old standby, and I hate to see cheesy recreations of that deck, but this one is simply beautiful. The Six of Cups (bottom left) is especially enchanting.

Here is a set of mini-collages set into some simple balsa frames that I painted, "aged", and embellished with beads and buttons. I'm not sure if this would fit into the "montage" category or not. These were done last October, for Halloween of course. The center images were cut out from an old dictionary (since those images are copyrighted, I could not sell these; they are for my use only). A quick and easy project; I thought I'd feature it since Boo-Day is steadily approaching.

Vacay!

I'm so excited! Dan and I are going down to Florida from October 27th until the 3rd of November. We're going to stay at my family's beautiful time share in Orange Lake, Orlando. Orange Lake in itself has enough to see and do for the whole week (even its own water park), but what I'm really looking forward to is Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights!

From 6PM to 2AM the park turns into a huge series of haunted houses based on films like Friday The 13th, A Nightmare On Elm Street, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Thing, Dead Silence and others. Horror-film bad guys roam the streets in realistic costumes ready to pounce. Not only that but there's Halloween-themed clubs where you can dance the night away if you wish (after you've been scared half to death).

I am SO looking forward to this vacation. I've been trying to plan our itinerary-I want to pack in as much fun time as possible. Obviously Universal is a must, but we were thinking about Epcot too, and will probably also go to the Orlando Cirque de Soleil show, which I heard is only second the the Cirque show in Vegas.

After a stressful summer, I think this is all I'm going to need to fully recover.

Dia De La Muerta Skull

In keeping with my Halloween theme, here is a collaged skull inspired by the Day of the Dead in Mexico. I've always wanted to go to the Dia de la Muerta festival; I can imagine it being quite an experience. The skull is made of origami and other collage papers and glitter glue. It was tweaked a bit with my graphics program in the end, giving it that lovely hot wax coating effect that I totally dig.

BRAAAIINS!!!

I made this softie last year for someone very special who has an (almost unhealthy) affinity for everything zombie. He is made of muslin, felt, acrylic paint, and embroidery floss for the hair. He is stitched entirely by hand.

Spanish Tarot

In celebration of this spookiest of months, I am posting another tarot deck that caught my eye: The Spanish Tarot. I love the bold primary colors. They look like medieval woodcuts, but with a little more flair. I've always wanted to design my own deck of tarot cards. The thematic possibilities are endless, not to mention the fact that the end result is something you could use for years to come.