Cay Denise

This zine was inspired by a Netflix series...a South Korean series about the afterlife titled 'Heavenly Ever After'.  The first episode (of the 12 total) sets up the background of the main character and her immediate 'family' -- all whom she will eventually meet in the afterlife.   The series has so many twists and turns in the storyline as well as explores some of those questions I think we all have asked or will about whether 'life' goes on after we physically die and whether we'll meet our beloveds in the afterlife if there is one. One of the interesting plot twists is that a woman in her 80s loses her paralyzed husband of about the same age.  He chooses in Heaven, to take the form of the youthful male -- at about 30 -- that he was before becoming completely paralyzed for the rest of his earthly life in an accident.  The woman, his loving wife and dedicated caretaker, chooses to stay her age (80s) when she ascends to Heaven because of something he says ab...

This is a really good documentary and well done.  It's about a special program for those participants on the inside and those who benefit from their gifts on the outside! Here is the trailer (from YouTube):

The process of creating this zine reminds me of Alice's journey after falling into the rabbit hole -- entering Wonderland...a curiously strange and entrancing place. This project started as a test of some new markers.  The test was done by drawing a flowery image on an 8.5"x11" sheet of copy paper in a horizontal orientation.   I decided to make a zine out of the image.  As 'luck' would have it, when the paper was folded as a zine, half the image was right-side up and the other half was upside down.  It wasn't going to work that way.  So, I asked myself -- what am I going to do to fix the problem, because without a fix it is non-sensical?     I started to think of how to work with the problem rather than tossing the zine-in-progress out, cutting it up, or just giving up and being defeated by it.  What would Alice do, I wondered?   A 2020 article in Medium titled 'Alice in Wonderland: The Sense Behind the Nonsense' says that gaining power in W...

This project is the result of a session led by Denise Love, part of Tamara La Porte's 2025 Mastering Mixed Media Expo. In my May 8th post in-progress photo, one of the three painted strips has been cut into smaller pieces for future art projects.  It just didn't fit (design-wise) with the other two painted strips.  This finished Concertina combines those two (see the top photo).   The Concertina covers have been made using chip board covered with scrapbooking paper, and  I'm delighted with how it worked.  The paper has a very nice finish and is perfect for a book cover!  Some decorative black shapes have been added to the front and back covers -- as a continuity element because they are elements in the paintings (the front cover is the second photo). The back of the painted strips have black wavy echo lines made with a Sharpie and some smaller nib pens.  The rest of the photos show how the Concertina looks partly open and folded.   This is a great...

This started out with what I thought was going to be a zine about trees.  All I can say is that it had something else in mind.   The first two-page spread is the one on the top right.  It sat for weeks after being completed while I felt stumped as to where it could go (this was when the sky was still white and there was no quote).  As I said, I thought it was going in the direction of trees, but there seemed to be a 'pull' for clouds to have a greater role.     Now there is something cloud-y on each two page spread.  That said, the two-page spread on the top left may need a bit more work at some point.  But it is ok, for now.   What I like best about this zine is the stained glass looking page with the drawing of a tree/sunrise and the cloud quote.

I started playing by drawing stem-like lines in gray on regular copy paper.  Then I drew the leaves  followed by the flowers (some odd).  Once everything was colored in, I cut out the drawn and colored part and glued it to black paper.  Changing the background to black was a great way of immediately creating contrast.     Because this was a play effort, there was no planning of what it might be beforehand (aside from maybe flowers) or become - during the making process.   What I really like is the red and pink jagged-edge flower with the center black dots over white.  It's gnarly and fun at the same time.  Many more together -- might make a strange and winsome 'garden'!

Filoli, also known as the Bourn-Roth Estate, is a country house set upon 16 acres of formal gardens surrounded by a 654-acre estate in the San Francisco Bay area. It was a hot day to visit, but what a lovely stroll we had through the gardens I haven’t seen for over a decade!   A bonsai exhibit had some interesting displays including a redwood that has been cultivated as bonsai since 1966.  Another was a trident Maple that is 200-300 years of age donated to Filoli by a gentleman who survived Nazi Germany and emigrated to the United States. The Spring blooms have already passed away, but there were still many flowers to enjoy especially roses as well as other varieties including ranunculi, peonies, irises, and water lilies (in the many decorative ponds).  Here are a few photos.                                                 ...

In Tamara LaPorte's latest Mixed Media Expo (Taster), I started creating the pages for a Concertina book (from a guest instructor's session).  The first part involved making marks and shapes on a large piece of watercolor paper.  I started with a large piece of paper that was already covered with gesso and a bit of green watered-down acrylic.  From there, we were to play adding whatever we wanted.  So, I added fluid and airbrush acrylics, more watercolor, water-soluble crayon, India and Acrylic inks, Tempera paint sticks, Posca pens, and Sharpie markers.  After drying, we were to slice the paper into three equal strips.  What you see below is the product of my play and the strips cut.     I'm going to use two of the strips for the Concertina.  The third just didn't work and has been cut into much smaller pieces to stash for other uses.   What I especially like in this one is the darker green ink applied in a design and then - using a pai...

It has now been 100 days since Donald J. Trump was inaugerated President of the United States and began his second term in office.  PoliZine #1 covers the period beginning Inaugeration Day through the end of February.  Today's post is about my newest zine which is another digital collage of many shared Facebook posts from March 1 through the end of April -- about the political issues that have risen to prominence in the news cycle for this period including the peaceful, public protests that have been increasing across the nation, in response.   I've called this piece ' PoliZ ine #2' (Poli for political).  It's hard to believe it only represents what has happened from 3/1 through 4/30/2025...all that has been visible to the public, that is.  It marks the completion of the administration's first 100 days, considered an important benchmark.   Both PoliZine #1 and PoliZine #2 feel like hosting containers for the information dumps I've needed to make for my own ...