Featured Blogger – Rae Missigman

We are inspired by the world around us and love to showcase new and exciting artist, designers and crafters and our guest designer series is a great way to inspire our Crew as well as each one of you to try something different, show off a new style or help you think outside of your creative box, so from time to time we like to invite crafters to be our Guest Designer/Blogger for a month to challenge us to see things in a different way and so that we may learn more about our products through the eyes of a new designer. This month we have invited Rae Missigman. DIY crafts is all the rage these days and we love that so many of our basic products are perfect for simple and clever crafty projects.

 Rae love combining paint, textiles, and paper- something that is evident in much of her art. has a fondness for both pattern and color, which has led her to create outside the lines, resulting in artwork that is both busy and polychromatic. We asked Rae to show us what she could do with some of our canvas products.  Here is a bit about her…

CCB: Where are you from?

Rae: I am originally from Wisconsin but haved lived in Florida most of my life, with the exception of a few brief years in both Colorado and Pennsylvania.

CCB: How would you describe your design style?

Rae:  I think my design style is mostly abstract. I like mixed media and working with a variety of mediums and textures, but concentrate less on a focal point and more on the color and feel of a project.

CCB: How long have you been creating?

Rae: I have been making “art” most of my life but as really broke into a true mixed media style about 10 years ago.

CCB: What is your go to product right now?

Rae: My go to product would definitely be paint. I love it for everything. Paper, wood, fabric, stone – nothing is off limits.

CCB: Do you have a signature touch you like to include in all your pieces?

Rae: I am pretty sure my signature touch is making marks. I can’t seem to move on from a piece without adding a variety of repetitive marks. Mark making makes me happy and so it goes without saying that they are in everything I create.

CCB: What advice would you give to someone who gets in a creative slump?

Rae: WALK AWAY.  When I begin to feel stagnant while working in the studio I know it is time to step away for awhile. Almost always looking at a piece with fresh eyes helps me to gain a new perspective on my work.

CCB: What is the oddest inspiration you have used for one of your projects?

Rae: Someones hair! I saw the most intricate and beautiful braiding on a woman’s hair one day while visiting St. Maarten and it was the springboard for creating a variety of new marks.

CCB: Tell us one thing that people might not know about you.

Rae: I play the piano.

CCB: How often do you create?

Rae: Daily. It is rare that a day goes by that I don’t sit down and mark art. It might mean 15 minutes, but I am famous for working in small bursts of time so I make “making art” doable by allowing myself a few moments every day.

CCB: Do you jot down your ideas before you do them or do you create as you go?

Rae:  I typically create on the fly. Once in a while inspiration will strike while I am out of the studio and I will text myself a note or write my ideas down on a napkin to refer to at a later point in time.

Rae created two pieces of stunning art for us.

I love creating with lots of color and marks. I feel like my art always is a bit chaotic but it tells a good story. Layering and overlapping and adding lots of elements that create dimension help me to create art that begs to be picked up, art that makes you want to reach out and touch it.
I am also a big fan of altering my supplies. I rarely use something in the shape or form that it is handed to me. I love to tear, cut and otherwise manipulate papers, stickers and fabric to create elements that are even more unique and better suited for the art that I am creating.

While creating my first project I found that water soluble inks really jumped off the paper while adding color to the flowers for this piece. Tearing the corners and adding some colorful stitching made it feel more like me. I like to paint papers with simple marks to create colorful backgrounds. The glittery black paint really created a stunning backdrop for the pale blue dots while the red burlap gave the entire piece the pop that it needed. I altered the canvas square by painting stripes using glitter paint and then snipped the edge to create a ruffled fringe. By gently plucking individual strands from the burlap fabric weave I was able to gather colorful strands that I could then stitch into a pretty knotted embellishment. 

I am famous for recycling everything. I loved the covers of the paper and sticker tablet so much that I had to cut them up and use them in my art work, creating a pretty and colorful scalloped edge on an already busy and texturized mixed media piece.

When it came to creating my second project I found myself creating something more serene in color and feel. I was drawn one sheet of paper in particular that was filled with vintage sketches of various objects. I immediately imagines these tiny objects cut and visualized them sorted and stacked in a variety of ways. I love adding a fabric element to paper projects and the stitched canvas made the perfect backdrop for all those tiny cut objects. I added a vintage style rub on to the mix and made it pop off of the page by filling it in with color. By adding water to wet paint I was able to create soft black drips that I love in combination with all of the soft colors on the page. 

Once again I plucked strands from the burlap fabric and stitched them near the center to create a wispy ribbon of sorts. Lots of marks and even more stitching made the piece feel cohesive and a bit more me. I love how this piece, while a paper project, offers so much more the viewer in terms of texture and dimension. 

My advice to anyone who is handed supplies that are new to them? Think out of the box. Do what you love and create art that speaks to who you are. That might mean manipulating your new tools so that they work for you. 

Please visit Rae in social media – you will be amazed!

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About

Canvas Corp Brands is the home of Tattered Angels, 7Gypsies and Canvas Corp (Canvas Home Basics). We are a manufacturer of surfaces, paint and vintage reproductions coming to you from Springdale, Arkansas.


'Featured Blogger – Rae Missigman' have 3 comments

  1. April 26, 2017 @ 6:16 am Karen Bearse

    Wow your projects are so fresh and colorful! Love how you used the burlap thread. Some great inspiration thx

    Reply

  2. April 28, 2017 @ 7:56 am Linda

    Abstract elegance .. Rae that’s how I would describe your distinctive style .. you are such an inspiration ??

    Reply


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This blog is a compilation of inspiration from the Canvas Corp Brands family including Canvas Corp, Tattered Angels and 7Gypsies.