Add Peace to the World

Work has totally wiped me out this week. I cannot remember it being this bad. Thank goodness for art. Art saves me, calms and grounds me, brings me back to me. Here are my last few days of art on an index card, most of which I did in the front seat of my car in the morning before I went in to work. You know it's never to late to join in the fun of creating art on an index card. You can go here to find out more. I am going share this with the folks over at Paint Party Friday to check out all the wonderful stuff they have been creating. I hope you've had a good week where ever you are.

Playing and Working Hard

I have a few things to share with you. Still playing with art on index cards. Tammy Garcia hosts this challenge every day until the last day of July. You can still jump in and you can learn more about it here. Here are a couple more. Both were done pretty rapidly actually, making more mess in my already messy studio. Seriously, I hate to admit it. My studio is much like my house sometimes. I would rather be making messes in my studio than cleaning up messes in the rest of the house. It gets to a point and I cannot stand it and the mess becomes too distracting and I cannot focus. I think it's coming soon, like this weekend. The first one was made with acrylic glaze shimmering paints (from DreamingInColor.com and a few stencils. The second one is acrylic paint on top of gessoed stencils and a face was drawn with a water color pencil. I am also plugging a long with some art journaling pages, filling up an old sketchbook I turned in to an art journal. I add something every so often and those every so oftens add up. I can see my growth because the journal pages are mixed with old and more recent additions. I'm getting a bit better at drawing. Here are a few pages. And now I have a surprise. I've been working hard at my art and working hard to get this finished. While it's not finished, it's a good beginning. I am excited to show you my art like this. And this. And I love the way my art looks here. I want to buy them all. lolAnd lastly, If you'd like to check out more of my art please do go here. It would be wonderful to have your support if only to add your name to "+follow." Also, please do note that the cost of each item is not what goes in the artist pocket. In fact, it's only about 3% in most cases, maybe less that actually goes in mine. But, it's a pretty wonderful feeling seeing it out there in frames and other items. Please go there and check it out. This was a long one tonight. Thanks for sticking around. Thanks for supporting me with kind words. I'm linking today to the wonderful people and artists here. Happy Paint Party Friday!!

The Heat is On!!

I know it's summer time but geesh, it was in the mid 90's here in Virginia today. Yuck!! Sometimes I wish I was back in the north. I have been very busy in preparation for my demo/possible workshop the same day at my local AC Moore store for mid July. I'll keep you posted on that. IN the meantime, this is short and sweet. I think it's the heat that's gotten to me today. I feel like my brain is fried. Here's a few ICADS which makes me caught up once again. Thanks for visiting. Where ever you are, I hope you are cool.

Icad #3

I'm having fun!! Are you?

ICAD CHALLENGE 2014

The ICAD challenge began again yesterday June 1st and will continue until July 31st. This is my third year participating. The very inspirational and creative host, Tammy Garcia, has lots of ideas and prompts to get your juices flowing if need be. It's totally optional to do them. Do check it out here and do come and join the fun. Seriously, all you need is some index cards and what ever else you want to put on them. Anything goes. Well, almost anything. As long as it's clean. Here are my first two days of art on an index card. I have some other things to share with you tomorrow along with icad #3. Thanks for visiting here.

The Time for Singing ...................

The Time for Singing of Birds is come.............. ~Song of Solomon I received some lovely flowers from my daughter on Mother's Day. She knows my favorite color palette so well. Are those not gorgeous? I went to work on Monday morning and left three hours later with a fever and generally feeling like you know what. Paid my doctor a visit, came home with a Z pack, and crashed. That I didn't do any art for 2 days told me I really wasn't feeling well. Today is the first day I feel I am on the mend. I'm showing you the last two pages of my Smash Book Overhaul. It's time to lay it down and close the cover..... for now. I pasted down an index card on top of a pretty "grunged up" painted page. A catch- all piece of waxed paper was pasted down on the index card with home made stenciling. The bird on top of that. I think I was really in to red the night I did that page. I found some torn red paper from a home decor magazine and managed to catch the light on the glossy while photographing this page. (Not my intention.) Speaking of index card. It's nearly time for The ICAD challenge again. For those who have been following my blog for a while you may remember my participation in creating art on an index card for 60 days. This will be the third year for me, and while I am usually pretty enthusiastic in the beginning, I often go through a whiny stage of "Why did I commit to doing this?," because I know I will not be ok if I start it and do not finish it. I remember that I can cut myself some slack. It's ok. I can catch up. It's just a simple index card. Create something on an index card for 2 months. Sometimes you want to follow the prompts. Sometimes you don't. For me, this is an exercise for seeing something through. Of committing, of showing up. I cannot tell you how many of my ICADS I really liked and were the inspiration for something larger. There were also plenty I didn't like at all. Here is what one month of last year's ICADS looked like. In the end I am glad I have participated in this challenge. It gets my juices flowing and if I have created no other art every day but this, it's good. Check it out. The last page of my overhauled Smash Book is yet another grunged- up -paint- on- top -of- paint-page with my own art photocopied and cut up. Lot's of black paint speckles and some miscellaneous doodling. Thanks for coming on this ride with me. It feels good to have finished it. So, here's the front cover again. And the back. Talk abut a very old attempt at a face... more like an alien. But it's mine. And look how far I've come. Isn't it funny to look back at the early stuff you did? I've come to the end but I will not stop. Thank you also for so many supportive comments. I am joining the party here and here

The Smash Book Overhaul -Part 2

I'm going to show you these pages a bit at a time because I wanted to explain in some cases what was done. Here's the inside front cover. ....... some doodling, playing with an assortment of markers and gel pens. Notice the mandala on the index card which is glued down. Remember ICAD, index card a day? It's coming up in June again. The next page is sort of a flap page. I took bits of paper I altered using Citrasolv , which is a natural cleaner. Pages with photos from a National Geographic magazine were soaked and or sprayed in/with Citrasolv for various amounts of time and voila! YOu get many different new images. It is a messy process but if you have some time and patience you've gotta try it at least once. I have often left disposable aluminum pans soaking for days with a dozen strips and forgotten about them only to return and have the liquid dried up and the paper stuck together. But peeling them apart promises great surprises. I also have left them hanging outside letting the ink drip off onto the ground or paper and then letting them dry from there. I've also manipulated the ink around with various tools to get patterns, create designs, writing and drawing in to the ink.Pockets and puddles of ink blend and bleed. It's best done in a ventilated area or outside. While the citrus orange leaves the room smelling very nice, it can be overwhelming for some people. Throughout the book you will find bits and pieces of paper made with this technique. I have tried this with other magazines but it doesn't work. The secret is in the ink that Nat'l Geographic uses in printing. I think I discovered washi tape around that same time, so I bordered the page with some washi tape strips. Oh, yes, and there's a bit of a piece of map showing through. Stay tuned for more.

61 Stands Alone

Math was never one of my best subjects. As I was painstakingly laying out all of my ICADS out on the floor this evening, after a grueling work day, while trying to keep two cats from walking on them, it occurred to me that something was missing. 61 was missing. Duh! Today is the 31st day of the month. Thank goodness for understudies and extras waiting in the wings. I refused to lay them all out again for photography purposes so you will see #61 alone. We'll consider her the nearly forgotten special one. It also occurred to me that I could have laid them out in a more interesting color format other than the order in which they were made, but, I don't have the energy at this moment to do that. I had to decide did I want to lay them out horizontally or vertically to get them all in- in such a small space on the floor. I settled on both. Here they are: all 60 + one. Tell me. Would you have forgotten #61?................. I feel so much better now. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you visit again soon.....................................................jo

HURRAY!

The index card a day challenge has been completed. I did it! Another year of 60 days of art on an index card. It really has been a challenge some days. not so much of doing it but of telling myself it doesn't have to be perfect or lavishing or even spectacular. I wasn't too thrilled with some of them and I wasn't very good at following the prompts, in fact, most of the time, I forgot to see what the weekly prompts were. I was too busy creating other art. It's the fact that I showed up, had fun, experimented, and did SOMETHING on an index card. I met the challenge. It also shows I can create art on a deadline if I have to. So, there's lots of good things that have come out of this. I give you the last 6 days of ICADS. The first one was made with taking a leaf from the plant in my studio and pressing it on to a stamp pad. The second one was made with alcohol inks dripped on to the paper and oil pastels. I soaked the index card in chai tea for the third one. The mandala is painted with various inks. The next to the last one is covered with waxed paper with remnants of paint markings, oil pastels, markers and my own torn doodle. The last one is gelli plate background with torn paper with watercolor, washi tape and stitched on the sewing machine. There you have it. I hope you enjoyed show.Thank you Tammy Garcia for hosting yet another ICAD challenge. I hope you are well.......... Thanks for stopping by..............jo

Larger Spaces

I've been working on larger canvases. I'm trying to be brave. I am trying not to think about it, analyse it, plan it. I find it's good to work on several at one time. Here are some beginnings. The same canvas with some added layers. Here is the second one. And with more layers.. Here are two more ICADS. Thanks for visiting. I hope you have a relaxing weekend............................jo

Continuing the Challenge

Here is one more day of art on an index card. ............... jo

#40

I've made 40 pieces of art on an index card so far. This is the fortieth card. Gelli plate background, gelli plate transfers on to clear packing tape, washi tape and stabilo black pencil. Thanks for stopping here for a moment...jo

Look Now

I have one more ICAD for you today, a continuance of the same colors as the last several. And a page for my journal where I am preparing lots of background pages for art journaling. Some of the paper in the upper right and lower left corners are from National Geographic pages which were distressed with Citra Solv. Hoping you had a good day. ...............Jo _____________________________________________________ I am linking to Glue it Tuesday.

Pursuing Portraits

I ran across Pam Carriker's Pursuing Portraits class offering today. She is giving one spot away. You know how I have been fixated on learning to draw faces for how long now? I am entering my name in hopes I might win this spot. It can't hurt to try right? This morning as I was writing morning pages I did not draw a face. I think I am getting bored because I can't seem to do anything but frontal faces. These are the last couple of ones I have have done. I think I might put the pan pastels down and try pencil. I dunno. If you want to check out Pam's info on her class you have to go here Here is today's ICAD. #38 (Index card a day) I really should be including what number it is as I show them to you. I don't know why I haven't done that ongoing. That's it. Short and sweet. ..........Jo