Christening the Studio

In the last two posts I shared that I had moved my studio space from an upstairs bedroom to the room that I used to use as a living room, the room I had called the "library" since it has floor to ceiling bookshelves. I dearly love books and they've always been important to me, so I had no trouble filling it when it was the library. Anyway, I had to do something in the new space even with the chaos of being disorganized. I had already gessoed a large piece of brown craft paper in the old space and it was begging me to throw some color down. So, that's what I did. And I doodled and stamped and just played. My younger brother Jim is a wonderful musician and composer. He can play a "mean" piano. I happened upon this site recently and came across a vintage music magazine. I bought it and started using it in the background of some art journaling pages. I decided it would be a pretty cool birthday gift for a "vintage brother," being a musician etc, so I ordered another one for him. I wanted to send a surprise birthday gift in the mail which is what prompted me to make a mailing envelope. But when I tried to tape it up with the standard clear packing tape, it would not stick because the paper was now like canvas. I tried duct tape. It stayed for a few hours but I knew it would not hold either. I could have placed the entire thing inside another mailing envelope but that would have defeated the purpose of creating a piece of art for all the postal system to see. lol. In the end it ended up being hand delivered. And at the last minute I thought I should have lightly outlined little 4 x 6 squares so he could cut the piece up and have a few little pieces of art. Oh well. Maybe I'll still mention that to him. So that is how I christened my new studio. Next I want to make a fun hanging banner for the studio, maybe hang it from one side of the room to the other. If you like vintage things, check out the collage stuff site and thanks for stopping in.

Moving the Studio Continued

Last week I shared with you that I was in the process of moving my studio from an upstairs bedroom to the room downstairs that I had deemed "the library" because of it's wonderful floor to ceiling book shelves. I had really outgrown my space upstairs and been feeling confined and always cluttered. Not that I minded the clutter but always having to clean up one thing totally before working on another in terms of surface space. So, being able to spread out was/is important to me. I wanted to be able to see things around me within reach and not always having to go searching through a drawer or a bin to find it. So here are some pictures of my new space taken in spurts over the last several days. I do think eventually I would like to paint this room and get rid of these awful drapes which were left here by the previous owner. Drapes this size can be pretty costly and so they have remained for now keeping the cold out of this old house. I like being on the first floor so I can be around my visually impaired, very elderly dog, Buddy, who has a favorite spot on the floor of this room. More to come. I hope spring has sprung where you are. It's not quite here yet but I feel pretty "springy" hanging out in my new creative space. Thanks for visiting.

Changes

Every so often I take pictures of my working space, the space I carved out for myself when children began leaving. The space I dared after so many years to deem my studio. I have seen it change as I have changed, as my art has changed. When I returned to art after years of not doing it, after being a wife and mother, I worked on an old table in the study. Some time after that I took over my daughter's room and called it my studio. Brick and board bookshelves that had traveled with me from apartments to rental houses and finally this house became the feature for holding art supplies, art books,journals anything having to do with creating. I thought I was doing pretty well for a few years. I used every available surface space I could find. And then came the "clothes lines" strung from one window to the other. And more shelves on top of tables....... An then there were ladders and big garbage bags taped to walls and plastic drops clothes on the floor. And then something happened........... something changed... How has your creative space changed? Stay tuned......... and thanks for stopping by.

A Little More Spring, Please

Lots of rain on top of that already melted snow. My back yard is like a swamp. Not sure what I'm going to do with this and the ones I've previously shown you, but, I am having fun playing in this giant Moleskin journal. Thanks for visiting.

A Little Bit of Spring

Strange that 3-4 days ago we had a sleet/ice storm and a little more than a week ago we had nearly 10 inches of snow. Today it was nearly 70 degrees. Feels a bit like spring but I know it's not quite here yet. At least that's my prediction. I think it's a big tease. But this also makes me feel like a bit of spring. How is it in your part of the world? Has spring arrived? Thanks for stopping by.

LIfebook- The Finale

I've been showing you my work from a year long on line workshop called Life Book. I did not do every lesson partly by choice and partly due to time constraints. These last four of five pieces are from Life Book lessons. I enjoyed this first one because I learned to draw a face from a different view, which was not comfortable for me since I hadn't practiced any other than facing forward. This was also supposed to be a celebration of our positive qualities which are listed on the back of the paper. The next one I am showing you was Tam Laporte's lesson on being present to and in your life, called Stags, Patterns and Ritual. Again, this one was a bit of a challenge for me in a drawing sense. I can't tell you how many times I drew and redrew the face on this stag. I almost scrapped it out of frustration, but in the end was okay with it. The next one was also inspired by Tam's lesson called The Sacred Inner Eye. The next piece is not part of Life Book but something I did this year and includes my love of houses and buildings in art, so I included it. And finally, the last one is probably one of my favorites. Coming home to ones' self can be left to ones own interpretation. That's it. At some point I will decide if I want to bind it in to a book or perhaps choose a couple to frame and hang up. I have been researching a Bind-it-All machine and something called The Cinch. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of these? Thanks for visiting. I am linking to Paint Party Friday and thanking Eva and Kristen for hosting this week after week.

Waiting for Spring

We are at the tail end of a snow storm here in Virginia. More like an ice storm. Driving home from work this afternoon was not fun. I was grateful to finally see my driveway. I am sure I am not alone in my wanting and waiting for spring. I hope you are safe and warm. Tomorrow I will share the rest of my Lifebook project. Thanks for visiting.

Something New

Yesterday I told you about making Valentines for ourselves in my mixed media class at my local AC Moore craft store. You can read about it here. I took this and after a lot of persistence and patience I was able to get it in to this. This is a very cheap embroidery hoop. $1.99 cheap. I'm surprised it did not snap. Brown paper is not thin. I will finish the canvas and paint the hoop black. And you can use different sizes. Instant framing. How cool it that?! I'll show you when I'm finished. Thanks for visiting.

A Valentine to Oneself

I've never particularly been in to Valentine's Day for many reasons, but when I led my mixed media workshop on that Valentine's Day Saturday, I had big pieces of brown paper laid out on the table for each participant. My directions were for us to gesso the page. The next step was for us to draw a large heart in the middle of the page and scribble a letter to ourselves... what ever we wanted to say........... just fill the heart with words, scribble, babble, blah, blah, blahs. Didn't have to be legible. No one was going to read it. The next part was for us to paint, collage, anything to fill in the heart to our heart's content. What they did with it after that was up to them, but my thinking was that they could then use this piece as collage paper in several ongoing projects, such as our altered children's board book. Here are some of those ongoing and completed board books. I am having a blast creating with this small group of women. They are the high light of my week. We are all working at different paces; some have finished their board books and are moving on to altering a deck of cards, and at the same time working on a larger altered book. More on that to come later. Thanks for stopping by.