In asking for guest authors, South African Painter, Thea Burger chimed right in. She’s the one who painted the tea cup in my header.

She asked if I’d write a guest piece for her too and I thought what a lovely idea.  We plan to post on the same day!

I have an artist in me, I see things artfully, think things artfully, and some say I speak artfully (blush).  I have a portfolio of work from high school and college. Nothing of which I’d reproduce today. Drawings of faces in pencil that are so minutely detailed, I’d need a magnifying glass to work on ? I just don’t have the patience or expression for that anymore. I am not an artist that produces things day in day out, I am not an artist who uses a medium that one might find a bit of it in my hair, I lack a niche, a consistant medium, and I certainly lack discipline.  I want to dress arty – you know one glance and you’d think – yeah that’s an artist. Nope -  I dress ala JCPenny. I have no idea what image that portrays. Probably just very ordinary.  UGH – I hate being ordinary!

I did set up a studio finally for my current collage work, and when I am inspired I will do a piece or two. My very old oak drawing table pleases me greatly as a piece of furniture.  As an active surface for producing art ?  Sometimes it looks more like a closet.  Last month I did 4 collages in preparation for a conference.  I liked the way the pieces turn out. It satisfies me to create them but past that, I don’t see anyone saying hey – are those for sale?

This to me describes the classic starving artist persona, if I had to earn a living as an artist. I’d die.  Yet there is this part of me that wonders what might that be like? What does it feel like to be a full fledged in demand artist? Thus the title of my post:  Mother Earth is a Collage Artist.   I’m just going to fake it.

Below is a cropped section of one of those four collages I did last month.

Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Publisher
708.482.0678 ~ Websites: Nutrition, Weight Loss, and Green Clean 

I first met artist Lisa Calvert when I moved to the city prior to having kids. She was my neighbor on Surf, if you know anything about Chicago it’s always been my feeling that everyone lives at least once on Surf. She had an end unit and it had natural light, my apt’s view was the very vocal Puerto Rican lesbians across the way. My landlord was a a nudist mandoline player. At the time I was an art student at the American Academy of Art. Let’s just say I was young. Very young.

She gave me this beautiful piece as a gift in 1986.  Since that was forever ago, I am not sure now of the sequence of events and why, I do recall that we used to have each other over for birthday’s.  She once gave me an asian wallet with rice paper in it, and I still use that wallet to keep my stamps in. I also have a small handful of ornaments from her as well as a stunning candlestick that she gave me at my second wedding.

This piece along with several others and some articles of glass has it’s home in my “pink” section, or the area where all things pink reside. It’s a west window, with a small piece of wall next to it, I’ll highlight the other pink print next week!

I have always adored Lisa’s work. This one I am quite fond of the lines at the *knuckle part* of the stem, and of course it’s overall pinkness. I will always treasure that fact that it was a gift.

Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Author
708.482.0678 ~ Websites: Nutrition Weight Loss, and Green Clean as seen on Oprah

Artist Tom Stella and this piece titled Gaurdian of the Forest came in to my home by the generous hand of my  friend, Jane.

This was given to me right when I sprained my ankle, and was in recovery from my car accident – a little over a year ago now.

With my arm casted, my ankle useless, and my seperation from my ex at it’s peak, I had called on the good graciousness of my many friends to help me. Jane actually is the one who encouraged me – she told me she’d be really mad at me if she found out I needed help and didn’t ask, and she was completely right – yet asking for so much help ( oh my gosh I needed help with everything) for an entire month was more than I thought I could do. Was it my pride? Really, what is it that has us hesitate to ask for help? Needless to say I did ask, and thank goodness she encouraged me, because I would not have gotten through all of that otherwise.

Rewind a bit to the fall….I had asked Jane to attend this art exhibit with me at the CAC’s Annual Art Open, another friend and my collage mentor, Ann Kleboe had a lovely piece she was exhibiting. I wanted to support Anne, but didn’t want to go to the exhibit myself.

Jane has a very impressive personal art collection and I knew she’d appreciate the show and perhaps she’d even find something she’d want to purchase.  She was that kindof person. I loved the exhibit, as did she and playfully we both picked out things we absolutely loved. Which really is a great idea…find the paintings that speak to you and declare them as your favorite.

I picked this one, for fun. The one I am sharing with you here today.

Life then of course went on it’s merry way and soon I was caught up in this personal whirlwind of total crap.

It was hard for Jane to come over because she’s allergic to my cats, we typically meet at her house.  She hadn’t met Marble yet and as it was some other friends were over doing a wonderful clean sweep of housekeeping for me. I had gotten a horrific cold that day, had this wicked fever blister on my lip, my ankle, my cast – well you get the picture – I was a wreck.  Jane called to say may she stop by and in she walks with the gift of this framed print.

She had encouraged the artist to do a limited edition print – mine being the very first of 25 – Tom Stella was very happy to be one of many artists who sold work at this exhibit and when I wrote to him to say how much this print meant to me – he was very glad to hear that it had found a meaningful home, and when I asked to share this image today, he of course said yes!  (Thank you, Tom!)

There are many many things I love about this piece. That I even have it is amazing, but what spoke to me about it in the first place was its deep greens and blues, the division of earth and sky – at least that is what I see in my minds eye. I was taken with layers of leaves imbedded (look in may a book of mine and you will find pressed leaves), many areas in the piece have remarkable texture. The gaurdian while primitive spoke to me of never being alone. Universal protection one might say. The brilliant blue still speaks to me to this day. I just love it.

A newer piece of his is just dripping in blue – go check it out.

Thank you Jane for gifting in a way that is you, so very generous and so very very kind. Thank you Tom for your unique expression and especially speaking so brilliantly with the color blue. You speak my blueness. 

~~~~~~~~~

Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Author
708.482.0678 ~ Websites: Nutrition Weight Loss, and Green Clean as seen on Oprah

When I moved here we painted the kitchen, actually my ex did – which was pretty cool of him. Not much has gotten painted over the years at least in the way I would have liked, in a decor expressed kindof way. I admit to enjoying brightly colored walls or the depth that can be added to a room with paint.

I did paint a wall in my kids room when they were little – which was a beautiful teal color. Their room at the time was microscopic with bunk beds, the wall of teal really added some spunk to the small dimensions of the room. Kate’s room seemingly gets painted. Right now her room is bright purple and apple green. It’s very bright and cheerful. 

I wanted to create a french provincial sortof look for my kitchen with blue and yellow that at the time matched a cup I had from starbucks. The blue was a smokey, deep night sky blue and the yellow was warm like sunflowers. I didn’t pay alot for the paint.  And so while the paint chips somehow conveyed sophistication, the colors are really just too out of the can – meaning as my one art teacher used to say – way too “candy”  The room looks alot like the rah-rah colors of my kids high school. Oh well. I tried.

Additionally the room is full of cat decor, many framed prints actually that I enjoy tremendously.  They bring quite a bit of whimsy to the place.  A recent purchase with spare funds from a nice little business affiliation of mine had me finally get this piece from A to Z prints by Zoe Ingram – whom I discovered through Craft Boom. For months I have been visiting her site and contemplating my favorites.

Zoe’s work is distinct – meaning her style is very specific. I find her pieces delightfully playful and charming. She really captured this cat who so reminds me of my Cleo – who will be 12 this July.  Plus Zoe’s customer service, all the way from the UK, totally rocks!

Thank you Zoe!

Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Author
708.482.0678 ~ Websites: ^{Nutrition, Weight Loss, and Green Clean as seen on Oprah}

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Member, Board Member and Programming Chair of West Suburban Women Entrepreneurs}