Dreamspiration!

So, I woke up this morning with just the teeniest snippet of my dream still in my head. I almost never remember my dreams so this is odd, but this image stuck with me all day. You know how that can shape your whole day? Well, the image is of a little handmade shrine with little rusty bottles with little bits of this and that stuck inside. An eye here, a photo there and a few painty parts to it. It was like Michael De Meng meets Carol Owen meets my Grandmother's antique bottle collection meets Julee Herrmann.

Now, I've read Secrets of Rusty Things and taken a MdM class. I read Carol Owen's Crafting Personal Shrines book and bought all the makings per her recommendations, but I still haven't REALLY made a shrine. I've done some reliquaries that are like little pocket shrines and I've even done some bottle cap shrines, but people I NEED to MAKE a SHRINE!!! You know its gotten desperate if I'm bothering to dream about it! ;)

So, I cleaned up my studio - got all the remnants of xmas outta there! I've got my sketch book and my two previously mentioned books here with me and I've been surfin' the net for inspiration. Here's what I've seen in my travels;

This is from the site of Kat Soto a local artisan. These sculptures are so inspiring to me! And just stunning! I was surfing around some local writer's blog and I came across an article about Shreeve & Co's window in Union Square when they mentioned the window stylist and his brilliance in hiring Kat Soto to create the fairies for his windows. All of her work is just STUNNING! Click on the photo to see more of her work.

I also read all over the site of illustrator and ceramicist and overall Mixed Media diva Cindy Couling. Also, a local. The Bay Area is really full of talented artist and I'm feeling lucky to be among them! And lastly, I'm always touched by the haunting words, images and work of Misty Mawn. The quiet in her pages draw me into another realm and I feel like I'm dreaming when I see her work.

None of them screams shrine, but all of them get me moving in the direction of my dream work.