Last week I wrote about my latest passion: applying scrapbooking techniques to mixed media art. I had abandoned painting many years ago in favor of papercrafting and paper art. As new scrapbooking products emerged and new scrapbooking techniques mastered, my passion for anything paper only grew. I had managed to cultivate a business around my love of paper by teaching scrapbooking, creating scrapbook layouts and albums for others, and facilitating cardmaking and scrapbooking workshops. Who knew that an on-line mixed media workshop would reignite my love of painting in three short weeks?
The final project in week 3 of Christy Tomlinson's She Art Workshop, the assignment was to create two self-portraits, one of us as a child, and the other as an adult. These are the images that I chose as patterns for my mixed media projects: 
The photo on the left is one of me at age five...most likely taken on my birthday...at our summer cottage in Erd, Hungary. It was the summer before the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1956 would prompt my parents to uproot their family of six and risk their lives in an attempt to flee the communist regime of the time, and literally sneak across the border one night to freedom. Our lives would be changed forever, and we would never return to Erd. So you can only imagine the significance of this photo, of little Enikö holding up her pure white dress in a pose that is so endearing to me that I have embraced it as a logo of sorts for my business.
The photo on the right was taken just this past December, as I was on my way to the best party of the year here on Martha's Vineyard. I've been attending the Edgartown Yacht Club Christmas Party for over 30 years, I think. It is by far my favorite evening of the year - abundant with strong spirits, wonderful old friends, exuberant laughter, wild dancing and great joy - and especially enjoyable when I have a fabulous new outfit to wear!
Now for the most interesting, and surprisingly therapeutic, portion of the assignment. We had to hunt through our memorabilia - past and present - and copy items that were significant to us to incorporate into the backgrounds of our artwork. 
Here, I'm showing the background for the adult self-portrait on the left. On the 12" x 6" Gesso-d canvas, I have applied love letters from my ex-husband as well as my current love, Jim. There are hand prints of both of my boys, and artwork made by them when they were little. There are various mementos of past history...I stuck to happy memories by choice. I also added an image of my blog banner and a badge from the Barbie Fan Club -something I joined well into my adulthood! Ha, ha, ha...
The 8" x 10" canvas of my childhood self-portrait was covered mostly with images of people I loved deeply as a little girl, moments that were significant to me, and icons I grew up with. The idea is to use these memories as a base for the mixed-media artwork more for the benefit of the artist than the viewer. It is the artist's choice to cover the images up, or not. 
I decided to leave certain images visible in the background of my adult self-portrait...the ones that were still the most significant symbolically to me today. On the childhood self-portrait, I covered over the images with several layers of paint, deciding to make the memories mine alone. Many layers of paint, ink, scrapbooking paper cut-outs, die-cuts, rub-ons, pen doodling, rubber stamping were then applied as instinct, fancy, and vision dictated. I used nearly every scrapbooking technique I had mastered through the years in the process. One of my favorites is the unique acrylic stamp which I assembled myself by adhering random letters from different alphabet sets onto an adhesive-backed roller purchased from Christy Tomlinson's on-line mixed media shop, the Scarlet Lime Store. 
When I'm in the midst of mad-creation, I am far too obsessed with the process to stop and remember to take photos, so I apologize for not being more thorough here, but I can tell you that after I was satisfied with the backgrounds, the layering of the figures began. I used a piece of vintage embroidery cut from an old cotton pillow case as the skirt for my little-girl Enikö. I soaked it in Mod Podge medium and manipulated it to achieve just the look I envisioned. Because I felt strongly that the dress needed to be bright white, I painted over it several times after the fabric was dry and stiff. I was thrilled to find the perfect scrapbooking paper for my Yacht Club Party jacket & embellished it with rub-ons that mimicked the trim of the original. I also tried to express my feelings through the various additions to the backgrounds and through the words I chose to add as the final touches to the artwork.
So are you ready? Here's my little girl:
I surrounded my five-year-old self with all the colorful dreams of my pre-refugee childhood. The whimsical sun, the little bird singing in the tree, the fluttering butterflies, and the robust flowers blooming at my feet.
The adult self-portrait reflects the years after the little girl grows into a woman. Well- adjusted to her adopted homeland, having weathered several careers & businesses & love affairs, having raised two children and still playing with Barbies...reaching for the inner strength to succeed in her art.
I hope you enjoyed this journey with me...I certainly enjoyed sharing it with you. If you are interested in taking Christy's class, she just started a new cycle today. There is still plenty of time to sign-up.
Alot of you leave sweet notes on Facebook for me, but I would love to see some comments here on my blog, so please show me some blog-love & let me know what you think.
Sending hugs, Enikö
Please visit my website: Enikö's Scrapbooks
