The End of heARtist but Not the End of Small Art

The final trades of heARTist Trading Cards is complete. The trades were map ATCs and a flat Santa or Angel (taken from the Flat Stanley books of the 1960s). It is always sad to see the trades end especially since it was such a wonderful group of people. Life has changed for the people in the group so we are ending on a high note instead of fading away.

For my maps ATCs, the saying "wherever you go there you are" was my inspiration. I also wanted to play with a different kind of layering. So travel inspired tags were added with a brad holding everything together.

Since I had already done a flat Santa for a previous trade, I decided this time to do a flat Angel. I combined fiber and paper. I used Timtex (a stiff interfacing which is no longer on the market) and fabric for the wings. I added some dimensional paint dots for interest. Painted tissue paper was used for her halo and paper with colored pencils for her face and body. Dimensional paint was used for her necklace and I added glitter around he edge of her hair.

For the final component, I created cards with the Blue Angel, an amazing fresco from a church in Georgia. Artists painstakingly removed the paint that covered it during Soviet times. When I stood in the church, I was truly moved. I can also tell you that the monks from the region where the church is located are incredibly handsome- tall, dark curly hair and piercingly blue eyes. We all joked with the unmarried women and girls with us that it was too bad that they had given up women because even if they weren't great husbands at least it would be nice to look at them. I have such wonderful memories of my times in Georgia and miss my friends. Hopefully I will be returning next year when the 30th anniversary of the Georgian Textile Group will be celebrated.

So I am a little sad and happy to have this opportunity to share. While this is the end of trading with this group, it is not the end of creating small art. The wonderful thing about making art is that you can always make more. Happy creating!