Featured Artist Lorraine Reynolds The Glimmering Prize

The Glimmering Prize is a bounty of heartfelt treasures made from discarded trinkets and everyday items. Mixed media collage artist, Lorraine Reynolds, transforms the mundane into mystical, the everyday into extraordinary. A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology, Lorraine is a costume and technical designer by trade. A Vermont transplant for almost 18 years, she takes found objects, such as broken dolls, rusty tins and discarded books and brings forth their unspoken stories, weaving tales of lost love, childhood memories and remembrance into each piece.

She is a self proclaimed junk collector, treasure hunter and junkyard gypsy. You can find her meandering about early on a summer’s morning with her two boys, Henry, 14 and Jack, 7; scouting flea markets and yard sales looking for that embellishments for one of her pieces. It’s the process of collecting, finding and discovering the components that inspires her to make her art. But, music and history are her two muses. She cannot create without her “soundtrack to art.” Playing her music in the studio; the lilting notes from her favorite movie scores carry her to a creative space that has no walls. Often, she will get stuck on a song and play it over and over again until the piece is finished and the bittersweet emotion is caught within her mixed media collages.
She loves to travel about the state of Vermont, admiring old mill towns and Main Streets: places off the beaten path that are permeated with mysteries, secrets and perhaps a ghost story or two. It is the mixing of the past lives with the present in the physical form of art as an offering to remembrance that is what she calls “the Church of the Ordinary.”

Her work has been shown throughout the state of Vermont, as well as in New York City. She is a proud member of the International Society of Alter Book Arts, the Vermont Book Arts Guild and ZNE. She has recently been published in Somerset Studio, the art of mixed media and paper, July/August edition, where two of her assemblage pieces were featured in this “sisterhood” edition.

You can find out more about her work at her blog: http://glimmeringprize.blogspot.com/

Facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Lorraine-Reynolds-Glimmering-Prize/55961283750

Etsy shoppe: http://www.glimmeringprize.etsy.com/

Featured Artists The Outsider Artists

They started noticing each other’s art on Ebay and Etsy. Sensing a certain “something” they all seemed to share – an emotional and sometimes dark approach to altered art – a small group arose, dedicated to exchanging ideas about art. Here they asked each other questions and openly shared techniques, experiences, and images. They also shared their lives with one another as friends do. After these artists joined together in a couple of group art projects, it seemed like a natural next step to join together in another kind of group venture.
Outsider Artists is a co-op of artists from this original group, selling original art pieces - ACEOs, mixed media assemblages, art tags, bookmarks, jewelry, journals, canvas pieces, boxes, dolls, corsets, hair accessories, and more –even an occasional jeweled crown! What you find at their site today might be totally different from what you find a week from now! They also offer a vast array of digital collage sheets including a beautiful antique style alphabet, tags, ACEO backgrounds, gorgeous vintage images, and edgy new images – many of which have been altered by the artist to enhance their appeal. These sheets are sent directly to your computer where you can print them as many times as you want to use in your own art projects. Each artist has her own catalog of art, listing the pieces that she currently has for sale. You will find that each artist has her own individual style. You can choose from art by Amy Flowe, Becky Loyall, Deborah Bohm, Jann Clark, Izabella, Judy Keefe, Lynn Tears, and Michelle McClinn, Jillian Schneider. Buy from one artist or buy from all of them. You will find that the artists welcome inquiries about custom pieces.
Outsider Artists is a treat to visit. In addition to the wonderful art pieces for sale, they offer free vintage images, articles on art-related topics, “how-to” instructions on various art projects and techniques, and links to other sites that you will want to visit. Via a comment section, they are able to have interaction with the people who visit their site. You can also see some of the prior art that each artist has created in their respective gallery sections.
Whether it is your first visit or your twentieth, you will want to stop by today to see what is new! (P.S. I hear these artists are set to embark on another group project at the end of summer. Rumor has it that at the end of this project, a joint creation will be offered for sale to benefit a designated charity. You will surely want to stay tuned for more about that!)
Visit now!http://outsiderartists.typepad.com/
You can also visit the blogs of the individual artists:
Amy Flowe - http://www.alteredamy.blogspot.com/
Becky Loyall - http://whymsicalmusings.blogspot.com/
Deborah Bohm - http://deborahbohm.blogspot.com/
Jann Clark - http://www.foreverjann.blogspot.com/
Izabella - http://izabella.typepad.com/
Judy Keefe - http://jmkoriginals.typepad.com/
Lynne Tears - http://moonlightjourney.blogspot.com/
Michelle McClinn - http://michellerenee777.blogspot.com/
Jillian Schneider - http://bohemiart.typepad.com/