The Flu

I don't feel like I'm starting the new year out very well. I got the flu last week,for the first time that I can remember, despite that I got a flu shot. Yes, I know they said that it wasn't necessarily going to work for this year's strain. It came fast and hard for me. Imagine being under an electric blanket and still being cold. And I thought it was just lots of continuous hot flashes and the body aches were that I was another year older so maybe I was getting arthritis. No! It was the dog gone flu!! I can't remember the last time I slept as much as I did the first 2 days of this. I had to cancel my Saturday mixed media class AND a 90 minute massage that I got for a bargain price on Sunday. I went back to work today still not totally feeling my normal self y but I expect it will take some time to find my energy again. Already I want to take a nap and it's only 7pm here. I got some of these for myself for Christmas.I've been wanting these for a long time because the colors are intense. You know how I do my "Morning Pages" around 4:30-5am? Those morning pages of rambling, bitching, whining, moaning, complaining, dump everything on the table pages none stop important don't think about what you're writing just get it up and out stuff........??? I've been playing with these luscious color sticks on top of all this writing. Ok. No writing on that page. But here And here And one morning I got so into this I created a two page spread. Not bad art for still recovering from the flu yesterday morning. But don't you just love the color? I feel like I'm moving in to something different on these pages. AS I am looking back at these pages I have to tell you it feels fun looking at them. I mean it looks to me like I had fun doing them. I didn't plan them. I only wanted to play with color and lines. Do you find that when you don't plan something you end up liking it or not? Is the end result what you're after or do you already trust that you will like it in the end because you have trusted the process? Thanks for stopping by........ I hope you do not get the flu.

Be Nobody But Yourself

I am continuing to play in this Moleskine Journal, sometimes in the car in the morning before work. If I have laid down some gesso in the background at home, I can spread some color on with some water color crayons with a water brush or a baby wipe in the front seat of the car. Baby wipes are great for spreading larger surfaces quickly. When that baby wipe is full of color and when it dries I can also use that somewhere. I begin some journaling and eventually something will come to me that I want to collage. I find myself still drawn to using faces in my journaling, so this one came out of altering a face from a fashion magazine and the gown came from yet another magazine. I love recreating an entire new character. Call it my love of costume design in college or making paper dolls as a child. Maybe both. Day by day along with some brief journaling, a bit more drawing with watercolor crayons, doodling with paint markers and the page is full. I like it. And I am a firm believer that one should always be oneself all the time, not only in art. I am joining the party. You are invited!! Thanks for stopping by. Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!!

I've been teaching a mixed media workshop at my local AC Moore on Saturday mornings. We've been playing on large pieces of brown paper. Just playing....with prompts and or suggestions ..... I have seen such growth. Check out some of the pieces and see the changes. Same piece after another session. How cool is that!! Here's another one. Which became this..... Here's one that really changed. It began like this. She was not feeling it. I mean, I think she was having a hard time moving on. I suggested she try some different colors, ones that she had never used before and that it was ok to cover anything up. She could always bring it back again. Check this out. Here she is- very much feeling it now. I love this!!!Here are some closeups and some other works in progress. That one is slightly out of focus. Sorry. But aren't those colors awesome? Notice that some of these are hung up. WE didn't have a lot of wall space in the craft room due to all the Christmas wreaths in the beginning so we had to make do with the outside of cabinet doors and big boxes that were leaning against the wall. Hanging the pieces up on the wall allows for a different view, and some of us are finding it allows for more freedom and playing when we are standing up. I am just so impressed with these wonderful creative women. I look forward to more good stuff during this new year. Happy Creating to all of you. Thanks for being here and for being so supportive. Happy New Year!!

Marbleized Paper Continued

Yesterday I showed you my experiment with making marbleized paper. I sprayed the surface of a dishpan fill of water with spray paint and then took a stick and slowly stirred the paint around. I tore some pieces of water color paper and laid it gently on the surface producing some very cool patterns. I did most of the rest of the patterns with card stock which seemed to do just as nicely. Yesterday when I was in The Dollar Store I found a weekly planner for 2015. My thought in getting it was not necessarily to use as a planner (I'm still stuck on the small pocket sized calendars for my purse. Call me old and/or stubborn) but to leave it in the car in the morning to write a word or a few thoughts down, maybe throw a bit of paint down with some water color crayons, sort of a quick document my day/morning kind of thing. Could be a place for reminders, lists, ideas etc. Anyway,as I was sitting in my studio with these pieces of marbleized paper on the floor next to me, I figured I'd need something to inspire me with this cheapo journal, so off I went tearing up the paper and gluing it down. Matt medium did not work as well as mod podge in this case. With the exception of the torn paper (which is from my made collage stash) in the upper right and lower left corners, it's all from my experiment with marbleizing the paper. I'm pretty sure I will add more to the cover at least. It needs more...... more Jo stuff. Today I was going to share the pieces that we've been working on in my mixed media class on Saturday mornings, but I will save that for another day. Thanks for stopping in.................................Jo

Marbleized Paper

Hello friends. I hope you are well and warm. On Christmas Day here in Virginia it was on the warm side. I think in the low 60's so I opened some windows in the studio. I filled a dishpan with some water and tore up some card stock. I sprayed the water with several colors of spray paint and took a stick and swirled it lightly on the surface of the water. I quickly laid some torn paper on top of the water, left it there for about 10 seconds and then used some tweezers to remove the paper. Pretty cool don't you think?. I will say this. You have to do this with ventilation and I probably should have done it outside; even with the windows open I still got a bit of a headache from the fumes of the spray paint. I also noticed that after using the same pan of water the paint was sticking to the stick as I swirled the water and so I had to spray more paint before I laid the paper on top of the water. I was too impatient or maybe too lazy to change the water. It was all trial and error. Still the results were pretty neat. Have you ever done this? Tomorrow I want to share the lovely pieces the women in my Saturday mixed media workshop have been working on. The results are so amazing. Thanks for visiting.

Making Cheapo Stamps

I made my first attempt at stamp carving a couple of years ago. I started with some erasers from The Dollar Store. I figured I'd practice on something cheap before I carved on a SpeedBall block in case I wasn't happy with it. The blue and two dark pinks are erasers and the light pink is one of the first block ones I carved. I don't like it much but I have used the lower left one a lot. It shows up often in my work, so often it's becoming brittle, and dry so I attempted a few more on blocks. Oops. I repeated this. I'm sorry. I meant to show you where I drew designs in to piece of craft foam and pieces of an egg carton to create these. Talk about some instant gratification. So simple. This last weekend at my mixed media class, I gave everyone a piece of craft foam to create their own stamp on the spot. It was fun to watch the different designs appear and how they used them. I had given everyone a big piece of brown paper to work on and most everyone used their craft foam stamp as a border. Oops. I think I repeated this again. This is what happens when google chrome wasn't cooperating this evening and I had trouble keeping my eyes open after waiting for 45 min for me to try and finish this post........ Did I mention that we all tried my hot glue stencils that I shared with you on yesterday's post? So remember to save that egg carton or foam package from the grocery store. Grab a ball point pen and you'll have a stamp in 5 minutes.... Thanks for visiting. P.S I didn't repeat after all. Good night my friends. It's time to go. .................