{coral castles}***

i just decided to sort of experiment for a minute...this past weekend i had the chance:offered or asked to take photos of the band {coral castles} my brother aaron is in. frankly, i was excited about the opportunity and am even more interested to see how the photos are utilized by the band. i thought that sense the photos already seem to be mingling:on the circulation, i'd play for a day and give this great group of guys a shout out. for one, i had a really nice afternoon and thought of the many great photographers before me, those men and women out there shooting up a storm, capturing mind boggling images, and my attempts, the past, present and future. coral castles needed a shoot for posterity, the record will be important. check out more in my coral castles set.

hot cereal:laundry:enron

my exhaustion has no excuse other than the fact that at midnight last evening i was up folding laundry, organizing dresser drawers, contemplating hunger and hot oat bran cereal with soy, stamping cards, and becoming more and more of a skeptic, a "debbie downer", a hermitess of the mind, a cynic and worst of all an independent thinker. awgh. what's more i only have five, count them on one hand, five television channels. all it takes is pbs. i have no cspan, no cnn, no mtv, no hgtv, or bravo. i should say of course that it goes without saying, in every case there are two sides of every story. but my word!!! if it is midnight where you sit, grab a bowl of warm cereal. contemplate with me.

independent lens

enron: the smartest guys in the room: i wouldn't know how to go about convincing you that you should see this film. it is impossible for me to express myself when my adrenline has peaked and the passionate feelings rise to a high of confusion, anger and betrayal. or rather apathy. i know seeing and acknowledging new ideas, new forms of thinking are really important to me.

for instance i just finished reading barbara kingsolvers small wonder. like wendell berry's a gift of the good land and c.s. lewis' mere christianity i wanted to somehow escape and stay simultaneously in the middle of their words. to say i felt overwhelmed by the language, provoked by poignant fields of thought or humbled is an understatement. after completing these books and after watching enron i am beginning to think that questions aren't proactive and if you think doubting or worrying is enough you are most likely deceived. don't get me wrong though i'm usually pretty disgusted and terribly afraid of protests {verbal warfare:gang debating terror} and protesters in the midst of protesting. in my retrospective i see that i have been mindfully swayed by berry, lewis and kingsolvers thoughts on protest, war, television, and politics. my enron independent lens experience of knowledge has grown expedient. i'll leave it at that.

check out: black gold
see it now: still life with animated dogs

and look what my mom found: warm biscuit

by the way: i wasn't a button design winner, maybe next time. have a really nice day my friends.

busy beaver:button design competition

a while back i was doing some button making shopping and discovered a great little website called busy beaver. then one day i was surfing the www and found a link to a button design competition and it just so happened to be sponsered by the cool peeps at busy beaver. i tried to download the template but was unsuccessful, so i submitted my design in a square format thinking myself a royal dork. okay so a little earlier today i was checking my junkmail and found and email about the competition and wahlah!!! my button design appears on their site as an entry!!! neato, right? unfortunately i missed the voting and have to wait one whole day until judges picks are announced. there are some really cute ideas:designs and there will be twenty lucky winners and five honorable mentions. if i happen to win by chance, which would be really cool, i would win 200 FREE buttons with my design on them. this kind of thing would absolutely make my day!!! say a little prayer or whatever you do and i'll update tomorrow. check em: soandso WOOHOO!!!

move on:gearing up

i finished up the last of the drawings on the Black:White:Silver Paper Quilt Collage a few nights ago. it is a relief to have a rainbow of color to contribute to the upcoming clothesline show. i am getting really excited about sharing my new little paper quilts with everyone. i am not saying that they are the very best art that i have ever created but i do feel one hundred percent satisfied. what's left? well i'll be sending out invites this week to the show. i hope to have a stack of cards ready to sell. a little something for people to purchase inexpensively and still have a small printed piece of art to take home with them. i have got to stamp and seal the paper quilts and come up with a framing/wrapping plan. i have one little collage to go, and haven't started it yet because i really wanted to whip up a larger collage/painting, something fresh and new to hang at fitness together.

lying in bed last night i started thinking about what to send out in a five senses swap. unga bunga!!! i have a scarey halloween sounds cassette tape for "hear-ing"...i dunno know. i really wanted to try and not spend a dime this swapo'round. meanwhile i'll assume a detective style, scope a few clues from anastasia's pretty blog. this weekend i was happily surprised with a brillant little paper package from the dear emily. our earlier conversation where she happened to come across this stash of beautiful vintage wrapping paper totally slipped my mind. so when i came home on friday afternoon and found a surprise in my box i was delighted. really excited, so thoughtful emily. if you're reading: thank you thank you.
i ought to spring into action and create a little something out of all this fine material. i'll keep you all updated on the vintage wrapping paper tip as time speeds on.

and now i am remind of the paper quilt project. all is up and running and the may packets of paper are heading out our way by the end of the week. i'll stop everything to produce and send back a collage in two weeks. this is collobrative effort dream come true. check out the lastest!!!

i'm outta here, moveon.org!!!

working on our clothesline

just wanted to let you all know that katie and i have been working most of the day on a new site/blog for the women artist who are participating in the may 2007 clothesline show. i really wanted to use the new blogger format but can't take the time to learn the html language-xtml or xhml or whatever the heck it is. kind of more complicated. if you are a participating women artist and would like to contribute work or thoughts or what have you please contact me @ catcollier[at]hotmail[dot]com. i will also include your name and site/blog/myspace on the sidebar. i am thinking i ought to send out an email asking for info from each of you (the eleven). until then please go by, check out, let us know what you think. this will help not only us but the rest of the chattanooga community of women artists as well as the general public. hope all of you have an excellant weekend. takecare.

.rainbow.crush.

i promise this will be the second to the last time you will see any of these little paper quilts. only because i myself am trying to draw some sort of closure. when i've finished the black&white 2-sq. drawings i will take a few more photos and then wahlah!!! finally done!!!

yesterday i meant to post, but got caught up with uncle sam and a host of other things here at work.

katie has been working on a new and improved postcard for the clothesline show. i am growing more and more excited about this adventure. ***i am also really loving this little bird. forever reminding me of kate, josiah and eden***. i can't say exactly if or how my expectations will be fulfilled in re:to the next few weeks, just thinking up new projects. really wishing i had more time to create things with all of my mailorder friends. thinking up five senses, paper quilt project ideas and the list goes on, right?

my brother ethan called me yesterday and told me that the folks at FT were pleased as punch with the new art hanging on their walls. i am happy i could help out. and hope i can actually make more to hang. if you're out that way near target, you should stop in and check the place out. FT has a really nice, intimate sort of atmosphere, a unique workout experience from what it seems. over the weekend ethan mentioned his business website was going live. i'm super excited about this, because i am so proud of what ethan and all of his employees do. i have added a link to his new site on my sidebar, even though it is a little different than my other links it is super important that you have access to the green. considering we are in over our heads in re: to the environment. thanks to the guys at coptix for putting together a really tight site for him. way to go!!!

i also wanted to show and tell:

pete goldlust and his amazing carved crayons

one my favorite places on the www happy mundane. finding the cool!!!
wooden frog stools and "poetics of the handmade" thank you jon.

congrats to ellia and her fam:via nina

i cannot wait for sam and liam and caleb to get here.

if you're having a baby check out:
dwell
sparkability
kol kid
kazoo toys

that's it for now, i am totally worn out and the day isn't half over.

half a dozen

i am not sure i am ready to be back after such a really nice weekend off. at home burrowed in the warmth of my sheets i read, slept, made art inbetween, took lots of photos of the now, almost completed six piece paper quilt collage series. i finished the orange quilt, began the black quilt with just the two drawings left to complete. i am so pleased with how this group of collages have come together. i cannot wait to see them framed and hanging on the wall. speaking of...on saturday morning i hung eight pieces at fitness together. it took about an hour or so and i believe all looks really great. i only took a few photos so you'd get the idea. i am looking forward to the regular commitment of hanging there. i hope to make more work, larger work and more colorful work. i left a price list as well as moo cards to coordinate with the work i hung. so exciting. check it out.
maybe just maybe i'll sell something!!! but if i don't i'm real happy for place to safely store my art. my list of things to do is slowly growing smaller. not by much but at least i can say the quilts are 95% ready. i am sure your sick and tired of my progress notes but it helps me to determine the next in line projects. the priorities are: 1 more collage for the clothesline show for a total of 10.


MAY's Paper Quilt Project is #2 on the list. then the swap is #3. then it's on to painting painting painting. my paper phase will take a break and i'll be picking up the paintbrush-kickout two new paintings in the next month or so, i'm hoping upon hopes. so i have something fresh to hang at fitness together. i hope you've really enjoyed walking with me through these paper quilt collages. i feel really positive about their appeal and can't wait to get humankind feedback. they will be up for sale, under $100 bucks. if you see one you'd like and won't beable to make it to the show, please let me know in advance.

i'm gonna leave it at that for today. seems like a whole lot to take in.

week:end:agenda

my head is pounding as i mentally try to make a list of all the things that i would like to accomplish in april, then in may. i am at uoha as well, with casting crowns and third day simultaneously worshipping. my praise is mute in the morning and i seem to remember a few weeks or months ago that i felt overwhelmed and overbooked, much as i do now. come to think, it isn't all about just one thing.

immediately i am thankful for a weekend without much external commitment. i am grateful that tomorrow morning i get to transport six or so pieces to FT, what a light in the darkness. an art showing opportunity i can handle, one that isn't as intimidating as gallery exhibiting. i am so glad i was able to muster up the energy to complete the orange paper quilt last night {sorry nonew fotos}. i also got three of my paintings sides painted no time or money to frame the unframed. in the depths of my depths i am hoping that the people who train at FT are filled with inspiration and possibly the desire to purchase my art. i feel slightly vunerable about sending out this small forest i've started to create. i am going to take crimepays and recycled air and i work so hard, just incase. i have got to come up with a price list and tags for the back of the paintings (correspondence). i'd even like to have an artist statement:intent to hang, as well as cards to sell and moo's to spread. blasted!!!

my mind from here is is on the future. taxes are due, car payment and car insurance and half of december osix rent is due. i'm in a financial crunch and i'll leave the rest. no complaining, just god see me through. i dare not borrow, dare not be negative afterall the car is full of gas and fourteen bucks in my bumblebee wallet isn't so bad.

may brings with it the clothesline show and finishing up all of the paper quilts. i have yet to start the black:white:grey quilt, hoping it will come easily. i have decided on hanging der hund, the robot and the fish. and i have an extra canvas board i may just have to do a tree:squirrel to go along. grand total ten pieces. they are small works i will price below $100 bucks, framed in light wood {last minute @ framewrights/thinking of ikea frames}. a passage for me. united work, a continuity i've been striving for for so so so long. may also brings my participation in the best project ever. the paper quilt project. promising and delightfully inspiring. i cannot wait. and and and i signed myself up for jennifer's five senses swap.

i am now wondering if i will ever do any heavyduty apartment cleaning ever again. wondering if laundry is ever going to be clean. and wishing i had more vegan whole wheat-grain waffles for saturday's breakfast. take care my friends.

a pasture of pink to do

today my friend brought me two cotton skirts from walgreens. one is black with ruffles at the bottom and the other one is pink.

i am hanging art this saturday at FT.

babysitting tonight. almost finished with the orange paper quilt collage. photos to come soon. going to paint edges of paintings to be hung at FT. i asked gray and he said my work did not need to be framed. some of it will be and some of it won't be. i have also got to come up with a list of twenty five. i need to make a list of stuff i am hanging and where and prices and title cards. what did i do last night? freeze my bones off. run the oven at three hundred and fifty degrees. small amount of progress on the orange. lots to do. i have gotten my five senses swap partner. anything else you'd like to add to my list of things to do? yikes. not overwhelmed yet. almost though.

color week: handmaid

Monday : turquoise
Tuesday : green
Wednesday : pink
Thursday : yellow
Friday : red

pleading help:green tuesday

in the course of one day events change, time turns over onto itself, predictions are made, postures mastered, help is on the way or better yet, asked for. i need you. all of you. the ones of you who hide and seek. the ones who have opinions and haven't spoken. the ones of you longing for a voice and reason and a need.

i feel sheepish, altogther hesitant, and bashfully humbled. only because of this "being an artist" process. i admit i have felt very much proud and full of snobbery and have been so unwilling to show my art, share my art or even talk a whole lot about my art. hiding behind the web, hiding in flickr and in etsy. so on and so forth. i am really sorry for my bad attitude. because i know that it hurts people's feelings and it hurts the process of learning and growing as an artist. my art, my paintings and collage are things i have wanted to keep to myself, they can be my own secret, my own mystery, noone has to know if i am good or bad. art is the one area i haven't felt like sharing with the world-community because i didn't want there to be expectations or pressure. afterall there is pressure in my daily life all over the place and art needed to be my refuge, companion. i needed a place to rest without compromise.

today i will compromise and resist the temptation to bury myself underneath layers of paper, six sheets under. maybe i will surrender just a little bit more of myself today. and shed a layer of this newly acknowledge, yet useless burden. self deceit.

two very important art opportunities approaching: fast. my first obligation/commitment is to the clothesline:emerging women artists show on may 18 and 19. secondly, a chance to hang some very large work, possibly 3 or 4 pieces at a fitness center, fitness together. the question:query and my need of your help. if you read on a regular basis and know my art you know what i've got to offer. the paper quilt collage series is specifically for the clothesline show. they are each 8"x10" and will be framed seperately. i will also contribute the remaining and earlier quilts: the robot and fish all of which you can check out here. i also have der hund. that would be a total of 9 pieces, all of which are basically my paper quilts for the clothesline show. sound okay?

for FT i am thinking strictly trees: {i'm supposed to be selling poison tree to my cousin this month} i have my freezing trees that need just a tad more work/little touch up (2). i have bitter water/posturing tree. the flea market:beehive tree and recycled air plus a couple of other here and there pieces. i have two potential canvas to paint, both are larger. so that would give me a total of 5 at least for the fitness center.

so...is my thinking right about all of this? in the meantime, i'm finishing up my orange paper quilt, touching up the freezing trees and well. waiting on the next phase in motivation-inspiration. i want you all to think about what is more appropriate where? i think considering the clothesline show, you might think quilts, so why not go that direction. and trees are symbols of strength, resislence and peace, often thoughts you'd want to have will in the depths of fitness. my understanding is that the training is one on one in single type rooms, where many people grow attached to the art and later purchase it. so you've got the drift. now it's up to you. your ideas, opinions, thoughts, name it, question it and leave me a comment. i trust you all. finally.

colorweek:
Monday : turquoise
Tuesday : green
Wednesday : pink
Thursday : yellow
Friday : red

via handmaid

ssshhhhh:listen

tilt:seasons&dreams

i watch a little bit of television from where you see me sitting in this chair. most afternoons, five until six, little house on the prarie finds it's way onto fox sixty one. i used to wish and dream and believe i'd be the next "laura ingalls wilder" when i grew up. i am a bit embarassed to admit i memorized the shows entire opening credits all of which include the actors/actresses names. bah!

i cannot remember what i used to dream about as a little girl other than the prarie and nellie olsen. i know that i didn't have regular dreams of having a husband, marriage or children, those kinds didn't come until my mid-twenties. i had dreams of being a airforce pilot, a chef, and i think a pro soccer player. i remember when i started journaling though and have kept those secret pages hidden from most eyes except for my mom, who at times needed the cryptic info, to unravel her teenage daughters downward spiral. i tried this morning to go back and find my old old old diaryland account:blog, but that's all awash, a nogo. all this to say:

spring has sprung, all abloom. except for the freezing temps i woke up to this morning, and thru the end of the week. i'm glad for the cool breath of thirty degrees and too a little bit warmer weather but seriously dread the heat and humidity of our southren summer. i think my indoor plants are doing better now, this weird winter seemed to take it's toll, considering too, that all the light i get is indirect northren sun. my aloe, orchid, and orange tree are each showing new growth. bamboo on the other hand. well. i'm not so sure only because i'm not looking at it as much, just making sure it gets water.

the seasons are slowly disappearing and becoming one long hot summer i think. have you all read any wendell berry? the gift of good land. or how about barbara kingsolver? small wonder. i'm in the middle of it, steeped in the thick of feeling, thinking about green, pondering the reality of our environmental distruction or whatever you wanna call it. my aunt cathy has some land and used to have a garden. a fairly big garden. i think she and my uncle have cleared the land, more room for caleb, liam and sam to tromp around on (maybe?). could i do it, make a garden grow again? could i make this land a source of food for her family and my family. or should i start small and go for the land at the back of my mom and dad's garage? oh the ideas... could i make time? i mean when i dream now as a thrity something year old woman i think of opening up an orphanage, fostering teenage children, making a city garden in my apartment parkinglot sideyard thingy. i dream of recycled fenceposts and tincan scarecrows. i think of seeds and occassionally pull out my gardening journal, one that i kept while working for NK Lawn and Garden company as a what? a horticultrual specialist, oh brother, i'm not even close.

i love these ideas: five senses swap: swap meat: books to check out: apron chronicles: crabtree farms are there anymore you'd like to add?

Green Paper Quilt Collage & WIP

over the weekend i completed the green paper quilt collage. i bet you guys thought i was giving up all together but all the while i was a hustlin' and a bustlin' on this go around. i should probably make mention of how the green is similar and dissimilar to the others, though you're welcome to check it blurry style here on your own. the hexashapes are larger this time. the green wrapping paper i used was just too great to waste, i'm sure you can guess...the drawings-the green bird and the arrowhead trees in the top left hand corner are simpler drawings than before. and i have run out of vintage wrapping paper pieces. anyone up for a swap? as in i need more of that beautiful heavy duty vintage wallpaper.
i started the orange paper quilt last night and can't wait to see how that goes. four down:two to go. i'm still debating the last color:lavendar? grey? black or white? anyone have suggestions.

are you following our conversations? a little exclamation is due for sure. kate's blog-post, so good, well written and for me. and others, i know. we are best friends and we are all about hard conversation and discussion when need be, this one is about me showing my art.

showing it out, not just showing it in this space or that space on the great big www. but out in the community of chattanooga. i know. i haven't shown my work out since last march, a year ago at mojo burrito. i am still making work and when the opportunity comes up for me to show my work i will. maybe another mojo show? or maybe an "inapt" show? no matter what i understand. i get it and obviously the only way i am going to get better is if people see and masses speak and i hear and mull things over in my mind. joining ava is not an option right now. rx taxes are due in two weeks. framing is not an option right now, back rent is due in two weeks. april all around is going to be a tight month. may looks good and i am open 100% to handing off some of my work to show at the women's clothesline show...there.

and plus right now art isn't my primary focus. working at my jobs is, i think i feel really defensive and wonder if i should be doing something different. because i keep making art and i know in my heart that i'm getting better. i don't always know what people think about what i do that is true. but my ideas are firm and focused, my direction is now more conceptual and i feel like between my trees and quilts i have got a little niche. i'm i lying to myself?

up till this point i didn't want to talk about my art because i had no idea what my art was for or where it all was going. i have been too proud to admit i needed help in focusing. it was just about experimenting, but those days of hardcore experimentation are over. it's now time to fill the gaps and close bridges. now i can really talk about my collage and painting goals with people and not feel like a flake. i can talk about the techniques because i've done more than one tree and more than one quilt. my work is starting to find cohesiveness that it hasn't had because i wasn't in school being shown how to focus my attention or skill. i don't have a artistic background in school. i never wanted school and was too stubborn to be taught and now after playing with art it is time for me to buckle down. i get it!!!

i wonder...what more should i do? see my work in progress:orange!!!

what do you think about the dotted tissue paper from anthropologie? love it!!!