You don't have to ask me twice... (but I'm glad you did!)

About a week ago, when I checked my post office box, I found a package from Lark Books addressed to me as blogger/reviewer. Inside, I was surprised and pleased to find copy of Yvonne Padilla's new book Bronze Metal Clay for review. What fun to get an early peek at this new book! I started looking it over right away. The next day, a package arrived at my home. It was another copy of the book sent for review. It appears I'm on more than one list - and the very best part of the duplicate mailing is that someone gets to share the fun...

Lark Books has published many of my favorite books in the jewelry/craft field. Yvonne M. Padilla has written another great addition to the Lark collection. This new book is a comprehensive guide to working with bronze clay. The basics are covered thoroughly in a question and answer format with an illustrated troubleshooting section that addresses many common problems. A wonderful gallery of bronze clay work by a variety of artists provides inspiration and 35 projects from very simple to more complex are presented to get you started. The book is well designed, and the projects, photographs, and illustrations are nicely integrated, making it very pleasant read.

Here's the fun part: since I was sent two copies of the book, I'm giving one away! If you'd like to have a chance to have my extra copy of Bronze Metal Clay, please leave a comment after this post - it need not be more than something like "I'd like a chance to win." If you don't have a profile and leave an anonymous comment, be sure to leave me a clue (like your first name and last initial)! Next Friday, I'll announce a winner chosen at random. So check back to see if you've won! I'll provide information about how the winner can contact me and let me know where to send the book.

More old silly... the unfortunates.

It's silly how busy I've been. Unfortunately, I haven't had time to post. Here are a couple of more silly old silly cards... both from what I affectionately call the "unfortunate" series @1985.

© 1985 Catherine Davies Paetz

Silly old silly...

Well, I've been trying to be more silly, which for me, includes trying to keep up with the Silliness workshop. It seems the first silly thing I did was to think I'd have time for this workshop... the second was to buy more sidewalk chalk... (now I'm prepared!).

I'm batting about 50% for some of the drawing activities (which isn't bad considering...). Just need (more) time to scan them into the computer and upload to Flicker. So while I don't have any more new silly to share yet, I thought (just for fun) I'd share some "old silly."

Once upon a time, I used to illustrate greeting cards - lots of them. I don't think I bought any cards for about a decade or so... I just drew them. In honor of my birthday (last week), here's a silly old birthday card I drew - circa 1986...

Card front and inside © 1986 Catherine Davies Paetz

I feel a little silly...

And I'm not alone. There a quite a few of us feeling silly right now thanks to Carla Sonheim. We're all thinking silly thoughts as we participate in her online workshop in The Art of Silliness. When I saw this opportunity, I jumped on it. No arm twisting needed - I was raised on silly (thanks Parents!). A favorite childhood book is The Silly Book by Stoo Hample. I've always thought being a cartoonist was a dream job - need I say more?

Of course this wonderful adventure came along in a month that's already silly with deadlines, but I will do my best to play along. And what I don't finish this month - especially all the "extra credit" opportunities - will surely keep me silly all summer. Yep, silly days are definitely ahead. I did say I wanted to draw more - I just hadn't gotten around to it until this opportunity came along. Maybe it was because I thought I had to draw serious things, but that's not really my style. Ah, the freedom of silly...

I'm really looking forward to getting my (silly) drawing chops back in shape - they're extremely rusty. I didn't know how much I missed them until I started this workshop. There's a Flicker group where I plan to post and will also share some silly things here.

"I am silly, You are silly, All of us are silly, Willy. All of us but cousin Millie. She's upside down." The Silly Book


Special thanks to Ruth Baillie for bringing this workshop to my attention!!!!


More silly workshop stuff... 
If I had sidewalk chalk (yes, we're out - and at time like this) I'd be out there putting X's everywhere and watching what happened for sure. I have a history of finding random chalk on the sidewalk and leaving silly faces for the kids who left it there... note to self: BUY MORE CHALK!

This is noteworthy!

From serious to silly in the blink of an eye...

What is art?

After my last post about Alexander Calder, I heard from some people who love Calder's work as I do, along with others who don't get the same reaction from it. Well, that's just fine. Life would be pretty boring if we all liked the same thing. Having spent time at the National Gallery and Smithsonian recently, I was treated to some amazing artwork. Not all of it was to my liking - but that's OK. Seeing it gives one an appreciation for the broad range of "accepted" forms of art.

And what about art that doesn't find its way into museums? What about the artistic expressions of ordinary (and extraordinary) individuals whose work isn't traditional or even something that could be put into a museum? No doubt you've seen work sent around the internet by the amazing chalk artist Julian Beever or the paper cut artist Peter Callesen. If you haven't seen them, do check out them out.

Artistic expression comes in many forms. What about 32,470 painted eggshells as artistic expression? Eggshelland represents 52 years of devoted creative spirits sharing their vision with children and adults. It has touched so many people that an award-winning documentary was filmed about the experience. Would scholars call some of these things art? I can't say - but they're pretty cool... and beauty is in the eyes of the beholder anyway.