Dream a little dream of me.

Happy New Year!  It's 2016 and I am hoping that this year will be another great year for me.  I have selected the word DREAM to be my word this year.  I need to dream more, and dream big.

Like 2015, the year has started off with death. My mom passed away last Tuesday. She was 84, and it had been a struggle for the last few years with her health, and the last few months were very hard, with her bouncing back and forth between a rehab facility and ICU at the hospital. We had a great visit with her on Christmas Day when she was back at rehab, and it was a good day for her. That was our last visit with her before she passed away, so we have happy memories to end on.

Cleaning through old family things has brought me the following photo, one I didn't think existed. It's a photo of me and my brother, I was five and my brother was four years old.The best part about this photo is that I am wearing my blue daisy raincoat.  This raincoat was very special for me. So special I devoted a page in my art journal, trying to recreate it from memory.  See how close I got to the real thing:

Work in Progress

June was a crazy month for me at work, so it is taking a while with art journaling. Here's what I've been working on.

I did a two page spread in my art journal, starting with Dylusions Ink Sprays in Lemon Zest, Squeezed Orange, and Postbox Red. I used a paper towel to spread the ink spray around to create the blended colors. Then I used a magic market to write inspirational mantras and sayings crossed both pages.From there I sprayed with Tsukineko Walnut Ink. Then I used a Heidi Swap spray stencil (dots) and stenciled with Craft Smart Acrylic Paint in White.

This is page two of the spread. I have already begun collaging with images clipped from magazines, using the images as my 'paint' finding the colors I wanted to make the face, hair, and leaves. The eyes were from separate sources (obviously) the left from Dover clip art and the right from a magazine ad.

I will continue with this image by adding pinworm soon.

The top page will get another collaged image. I have some ideas for what that will be. Stay tuned.

Seeking

Materials: I used Tim Holtz Distressed Stain in Wild Honey and Vintage Photo for the background color of the page along with spraying Tsukinek Walnut Ink. Stencil- Crafters Workshop with airbrushing Copic markers. More Copic markers and a Signo Uniball white pen. Moon phase rubber stamp by Stampers Anonymous. Collage materials from magazines and Dover clip art (eye). Song lyric from Enya "Anywhere Is". Other quotes I picked up here and there on the internet and reading books.

Hope you enjoy.

A World of Artist Journal Pages

I was lucky enough to have two of my art journal pages included in Dawn Devries Sokol's new book: A World of Artist Journal Pages. This is the first time I've had my artwork published, so I'm pretty excited. I'm on page 191:

Art Journaling in Bellevue, WA

Hopefully you haven't gotten too tired of my travelogue from the March Art Romp in Seattle, WA. This post should be the wrap up of the wonderful time I had there. We took an evening field trip on one of the last nights to the Crossroads Mall in Bellevue, WA for dinner in the food court and then art journaling to live music.


I decided to work on this long spread in my journal. I got inspired to make monsters (the red and yellow paint presented a kind of alien landscape to me) so I started looking through magazines and the pile of collage fodder I had brought with me and found that more than one pocketbook ad looked curiously like a monster. Other monsters on this page were made from arms, a feather, and a tree house. I added in some pen work while I was at the mall. I have to admit I have not journaled in public like this on my own for years (and then it was only once in a Starbucks while I was waiting to pick up my kids from art camp one summer).


One more thing that we did at Art Romp was playing around with making marbleized paper using spray inks and shaving cream. Maryanne and Bonnie, two of the attendees of the March Art Romp showed us how to do this. I didn't even try it while I was there (I think I was busy working on the monster collage at the time in the studio). But I tried it the other night at home and it's really easy. Here's what you need:
Shaving cream ( I used Barbasol. You can not use the gel shaving cream, it needs to be the foam. If you can find unscented go with that, otherwise pick one you like the smell of since the paper may retain some of the scent when you are done.)
Cookie sheet
Spray inks. I used the Dylusion Ink Sprays from Ranger (Squeezed Orange, Bubblegum Pink, Lemon Zest, Vibrant Turquoise, Fresh Lime and Funky Fuchsia- I ordered mine from Ellen Hutson, since I haven't been able to buy them locally)
An old credit card/gift card to scrape the shaving cream off the paper and to evenly spread it on the cookie sheet.
A stick (I used the end of a paint brush. You can use chopsticks.)
Paper (card stock, watercolor paper, good weight art paper)

I covered my work surface with paper (anything will do, like freezer paper or paperbags, craft paper, etc)
1. Take the cookie sheet and cover it with shaving cream. Spread it into an even flat layer with the credit/gift card.

2.Spray the inks on the foam. I start with the light colors first. Then swirl the colors together with a stick/paintbrush end.

3. Lay the paper down on top of the ink. Press down evenly with your hand to make sure it has made good contact with the ink.



4. Peel paper off of the cookie sheet. Don't worry, much of the foam comes away with it. Use the credit card/gift card to scrape the foam off the paper back into the cookie sheet. And there you have your marbleized paper. Set it aside to dry. You can use the foam again to make more paper. I did a couple of sheets before I scraped the foam into the garbage and put down fresh shaving cream and did some more. Lots of fun to see how differently they all come out. I also tried some on paper I had already painted a light color with watercolor paint and they came out great. Can't wait to use the papers in my art journaling projects.

March Art Romp in Seattle

I had the pleasure to spend a whole glorious week hanging out with a great group of artists in Seattle last week at the Art Romp sponsored by Teesha and Tracy Moore. From the time we got picked up at the hotel (9am) until drop off after dinner (usually around 9pm) we made art, watched demos, tried new things, and explored Seattle. Working in Teesha and Tracy's studio was liking spending time in nirvana, I had my own table with a window looking out into the trees. I had access to all kinds of great art supplies that Teesha uses to make her wonderful journal pages (and I got to watch her work on her visual journal too!)


I definitely had Spring on my mind with so many things starting to bloom in Seattle. Here are a few of the art journaling pages I was working on while I was there. (More to come in my next posts).

Artfest- Saturday March 31, 2012

Story Pieces with Sunny Carvallo Last day of classes at Artfest. Sunny Carvallo gave us each a small piece of plywood which we painted and stenciled and stamped to create a background for our 'story' characters. This was a great class for me to learn some painting techniques. The idea was to write the last line of a story (you know, before the "...and they lived happily ever after." My line was "Returning home her dog was there waiting for her." (Yes, I was missing my dog very much, couldn't you tell?). My table mate, Mardie was also missing her dog. Here is a picture of the two of us with our finished projects:

After dinner was show and tell where we got to see work displayed from all the classes. I really wish that more people had displayed their projects, even if they were still in progress. I did take some photos at the show and tell, but since I didn't have time to get permission from the artists I will not post them here. Back at the dorm we had another art journaling party, where I started another journal page, which I have posted below. I will continue to work on this page and post a followup when I have finished it.

Sunday, April 1, 2012 Barely getting on the shuttle to the airport (there were supposed to be two buses, but one was an hour late, so having an early flight I was lucky to get on the first shuttle that was on time) it was a sleepy ride to the airport and a smooth flight home. Artfest is over in real time, but the magic will last for quite a while to come. My thanks to the entire Moore family and their support crew for making Artfest a smooth running and magical event.

Artfest- Thursday March 29, 2012

First Day of Classes- Technicolor Journaling with Tracie Lyn and Marilyn Huskamp. I have never worked with pastels before, so this class looked like a fun challenge. Tracie Lyn and her mother-in-law Marilyn were wonderful, leading our class through the ins and outs of working with pastels. After we made a color chart in our brown paper pads, we were each given the same color copy of a photo of a bowl of peaches. Using graphite paper we all transferred the picture to our brown paper and then colored them in with the pastels. It was amazing to see how differently all the pictures turned out- all beautiful, and all slightly different. Here is mine:

The next class project was to select an image that we brought from home to do. I chose a copy of a photo from a La Vie Claire magazine of an old chair with a mason jar of flowers and ball of twine on it. Here is what I did with the remaining time in class.

After dinner there were two journaling parties, one in the Commons and the bonfire down at the beach. I usually go to the bonfire journaling party but thought I'd check out the party in the Commons first. I never made it to the Bonfire, east coast time hitting me like a brick wall at 9:30 p.m. and the cold night outside. I was sitting in the far corner of the room and only caught a glimpse of the belly dancer after the country band finished playing. Had a fun time socializing with the great people at my table especially Collette, Emily, and Danielle. Here is the page I worked on at the Commons party.

Windows in Paris

I will confess, I'm not much of a picture taker. I usually leave that up to my husband and daughter. I don't have a fancy camera. When I remember to bring a camera with me on vacation, it usually stays in my bag. I am usually too caught up in the experience to think to take a picture of it. I also don't tend to look through photographs remembering vacations past. With digital photos I have found a new reason to take photos- for textures or objects/images I may want to use in my artwork. I am now dependent on my iPhone to take these photos. I rely mostly on the camera app that comes with the phone, but I have downloaded the Hipstomatic (because I like the look of old photos) and the Pocketbooth Apps (I am a photobooth junkie and you don't find them out there too much anymore.) So with that said, it takes a lot for me to reach into my pocket to pull out the iPhone and use the camera to take a photo of something, despite my husband stopping every few minutes to take a photo of something (and if he is taking a photo of something I can use later, so much the better, since he has a better camera than I do most times!) Here are some of the shop windows that made me stop and take a photo while I was in Paris. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did. I won't be surprised if these things become an influence in future art projects I end up working on.

Countdown to Paris

Going on a long distance art field trip to the City of Lights- Paris, France. I hope to spend some quality time at the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay. I have packed my art supplies and journals, now I just have to pack my clothes!

Working through creative blocks and procrastination

I don't know what it is about the month of November, but I find it hard to get my head together and create much of anything. It seems to be a month long celebration of procrastination. My workspace becomes an unbearable mess, I do busy work to avoid working in my art journal, then comes Thanksgiving and the prep that is involved with that. For some reason I find it harder to sit myself down and do creative work in November, but can manage to shake off the lethargy and get things going again in December. Maybe it's because I know the year is almost over and it's time to make a last ditch effort to get some things done that I've been putting off.

I decided I needed some extra help to fight my way through these times of procrastination and creative roadblocks. She looks like she can handle anything that comes along, but notice she is relaxed and smiling, leaving it up to me to handle things, but waiting to be called upon if help is needed. I like that. Not an overbearing body guard, but a friend ready with the right tools (she's got a very ornate book in hand, perhaps a journal of her own?), a smile and a light in her eyes, ready to suggest something fun to get things going.

Day 24: 30 Days of Get Your Art On

More work on the journal page. Added some journaling text and doodles. I may do some shading, but my allotted time for art today is done.

Days 22-23 of 30 Days of Get Your Art On

Been busy doing art related things. I started work on a new journal page in my Big Time Journal(see the post before this one) and I picked this fetching page of blue and gray with water spatters:

From there I added some ephemera and computer scans/printouts of my daughter's favorite quote from Alice in Wonderland, and artwork from the aforementioned book:

My next step is to journal on the page, but since I was having marker malfunctions on the last page I did in this journal I decided to use rubber stamps. The alphabet I picked needed to be cut apart from the sheet rubber it came on, so I've been working on prepping the stamps for stamping since late this afternoon. It is now close to midnight and I am still working on putting velcro backing on them as well as some other stamps I've been meaning to prep, so that's what I've been working on.

Sept. 11- Journaling about the day

I spent the morning in front of the television watching the families reading the names of the fallen at ground zero in New York City as I do every year. I sit there and cry even though I was among the fortunate, I did not loose a loved one that day. I do know someone who did. My husband works in NYC and he heard the sound of the plane hitting the first tower as he walked to work that morning. I was out walking my dog and came home to check the answering machine (something I usually forget to do) and received his message "I'm okay, turn on the tv and call me." Pretty cryptic but I did just that and watched the coverage in disbelief as I called. He told me he was okay, but that he would not be coming home that night, since he worked in the media and he knew it would be a long day and night ahead. I watched the surreal as that second plane hit, knowing that this was no accident and that there was more to come. I called the school where my kids were, trying to get a message to them that their daddy was safe but that message did not get to them before the news did- their classmates were getting pulled out of school, some of them lost their moms and dads that day.

I always feel drained by the day, and I am one of the fortunate ones. I looked back at my journals and wasn't all that surprised that I hadn't journaled about it at the time. In fact it was only the five year anniversary that I made an attempt to get something in my journal to document the day in a graphic way.

I haven't done a page since then. Since it's the 10th anniversary, I want to do one now, so I've been trying to work on one, but it is slow going. I had hoped to post something tonight, but these things take time.

Let us remember the fallen, the families, the first responders and our military and their families.

Remember, renew, rebuild.

Day 9- 30 Days of Get Your Art On

Working on a page I started a couple of weeks back. I really love playing around with words, so that is what I decided to do here. It surprised me that many of the bird related phrases we use to describe people with have a negative slant.

Day 6- 30 Days of Get Your Art On

Another day of errands and tending to my art companion/dog Cailean, who seems to be suffering from a seasonal allergy. So I only got to add another layer to the pages I've been working on in the last few posts. Hopefully I will be able to do more tomorrow.

Day 5- 30 Days of Get Your Art On

I am recovering from a very exhausting day of physical labor yesterday and a night of my dog wanting to go out every two hours. So another day of limited art activities - I watched several art documentaries on Netflix, starting with one called Art City, which was three episodes of interviews with artists in NY and LA and which I found to be a tad boring. The next thing I decided to watch was Lost Treasures of Tibet, which was interesting, especially to see what the culture clash of east vs. west was over in the restoration of a Buddhist temple. After this I watched Gypsy Caravan which was a music documentary of the Romani musicians that were brought together to do a North American tour in 2006. This I really enjoyed because it spent time with members of each group back in their native countries- India, Spain, Romania and Macedonia.

Below are photos of the work I did last night and tonight in my art journal. Last night I added a layer of watered down gesso that I sprayed on to the page with a mini spray bottle. After it dried completely I used a Pilot pen to write across the pages to journal my feelings about the last two days and my thoughts on art journaling. My next step will be to add another layer of collage.

Day 4- 30 Days of Get Your Art On

Today I spent helping my husband load up everything in our storage unit into a U-haul truck and unloading it back at our house. Good news- I will soon have access to art supplies I had to pack away for a while. Bad news- I am exhausted. So my art venture today consisted of spraying gesso onto the two page spread I did yesterday in my journal. Once that dries completely I plan to journal across both pages in a fine black pen and then collage something on top of it. That is my plan, but it is subject to change.

I will spend the rest of the evening watching an art documentary. I haven't decided which one yet. For your enjoyment, I am posting a link to a very interesting short film/video I found on the web by a group called Beats Antique:

30 Days of Get Your Art On Challenge

This is one of the journal pages I've been working on over the weekend that hurricane Irene hit the east coast. Luckily here in the middle of Long Island, NY my home didn't suffer any damage and I didn't loose power or internet. Not far from me there are friends without power here on Long Island, and I have friends and family in NY, CT and other parts of New England that are without power, or suffered more damage. The preparation and aftermath of the storm have left me tired and unmotivated, even though the days since have been sunny and bright. What I need is a challenge so...........

I am taking on the 30 Days of Get Your Art On challenge in the month of September.

Here are the rules I have set for myself:
I will be playing in my art journal, trying out new art techniques, taking art adventures for inspiration, photography, ATC's, whatever strikes my artistic whim as long as I do it everyday and document what I do. I will share this documentation of my daily art adventures during the month of September here on my blog. I might not post ever day, but I will let you know what I've been doing each day in summary posts. Sounds like fun with a deadline!

Want to join in? Click on the 30 Days button to the right, or visit the blog of the host of the challenge, Traci Bunkers and follow her directions.

I better get ready to start! September starts tomorrow.