Grungy, Messy and Mysterious

I don't like to show unfinished pieces but I'm finding I am doing it more often. Because I have ADD where art is concerned, I have a bazillion different things in progress. I mean I have a lot of canvases that I've set aside for years. Do you do that? How do you feel about sharing something that's not finished? I came across Roxanne Coble's work before I knew she was a guest teacher at 21 Secrets. I found I was drawn to her style. She suggested to us to work in areas. I call it little fragments. The pages seem fragmented yet they're not. In the end they all blend into one. It's almost as if each section of the piece tells a story and the story is in your imagination. I dunno. I find her work grungy, messy, and mysterious all at once and I like that. These couple of pieces are based on or inspired by Roxanne Coble's art journaling process. They don't feel or look finished to me. Maybe I'll return to show you what they look like when I feel they are. Roxanne Coble's process is altering a book to use as her art journal. I like that idea. I also like the idea that what's on the pages that are being altered often are the inspiration to what follows. With mine, I left certain images because they took me in another direction. They took me to the next fragment. I also like that there is no use of someone else's stencils or stamps. Mark making was all by the artist's hand. That's refreshing to me. I had an old sort of periodical magazine. Not hard cover but the pages are thicker than a normal magazine. I chose to add some of my vintage family photos. I am reminded by Roxanne saying how long it sometimes takes her to finish a page as there are so many layers, so she has many pages going on at the same time. And I agree, it's kind of cool to have a bunch of backgrounds laid down and then you come back to it for the final doodling phase. So, here are a couple of unfinished pages inspired by her workshop Fragments and Mysteries.

Artistic Embroidery

Because of my nearly one month absence due to my MIA computer and then more computer issues, I have not been able to share with you some of my work inspired by the latest 21 Secrets workshop. I have thoroughly enjoyed Paivi Eerola's Artistic Embroidery with Pens and Paper. Seriously, I find this gal's work pretty amazing, not to mention her very interesting background. I found her website full of "eye candy," and found myself pretty inspired to use my colored pencils and listen to music more when creating. Here is my take on her offering. Here's a few close ups. My intention was to show you the steps leading up to this point but I quickly forgot to photograph after the first three pictures. I forgot to mention that Paivi works with water colors and the way in which she uses them is unique, like throwing color down and then using pens and color pencils to doodle. This is how my background paper started out. The shapes were then embellished with doodles and color and then cut out and then glued down on a dark background. Learning water color has never been on the top of my list, but using it in this manner was really fun. Embellishing, coloring, doodling, cutting and pasting..... what could be more fun?!! Thanks for stopping by.......

Doodling My Way

As I have previously mentioned I'm making my way though some of the workshops over at 21 Secrets and picking up some new ideas and information, not to mention having some fun as well. I have finished Cathy Bluteau's 'Doodling Our Way' class where she suggests we build and doodle around flowers cut out from magazines. I took it one step further and drew flowers from my own painted papersand built around them. I love Copic markers (which is what Cathy Bluteau used) but don't have many of them so I enhanced my color with water color crayons. And while I finished this project, I'm not oohing and ahhing over it. Maybe I'm critiquing it far too much, but it didn't turn out the way I had imagined it. Nonetheless, it was fun so I'll probably do it again. And just for fun, here is what I was doing a year ago on this date. I have to chuckle because it still looks the same today. Perhaps I might do something with it. I almost like it better than what I just showed you. It feels a lot more free. .............Thanks for stopping by..............jo

Baby Wipes

I am making my way through the workshops at Twenty One Secrets. I am picking up some interesting tips, techniques and ideas from each one, even if I do not do or complete the project for each class. For example I learned a much easier way to make a home made journal from Terri Kahr's I have a Secret class. She makes it from a mailing envelope, card stock and a simple pamphlet stitch. And talk about fun. Each page is gessoed and color is drawn on with water color pencils and then rubbed, blended in with baby wipes. I took it a step further and used water color crayons. I found that color will really pop when letting one layer dry and then adding more on top. Right now I am just having a ball covering the pages with color. I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that after raising a twin son and daughter, baby wipes would again be a frequent item on my grocery list. Tomorrow I will show you another piece I made from another workshop through 21 Secrets. Thanks for visiting here.....jo

What A Story!

My friend Robin told me recently that making journals was addicting. I was really excited about my first attempt at making a journal with duck tape but that changed pretty quickly.. Jodi Ohl over at 21 Secrets makes it look so easy in her videos. I started out ok until I "tried to nestle" (hot glued) the signatures in and then I couldn't get the book to open, or lay right or flat, so it ripped the first and last pages of each signature. OK. Jodi Ohl did that, too, in her video. No big deal.I patched the pages up. I thought maybe I hadn't left enough space for the spine so I separated the covers and started again making a wider spine. Maybe it was the thin black electrical tape I used instead of duck tape. I dunno. I went to purchase some black duck tape, figuring I could still cover up any more rips. I did hot glue the signatures back in but they still don't seem to lay right. I'm sure with practice and more mistakes I might do better but to tell you the truth, I was peeved. It was more like a challenge, a test> Did I measure everything right? Did I make a wide enough spine? Did I do everything correctly to make this beautiful home made book> I felt like I failed. Perhaps journal making is just not my thing or perhaps I really don't have the patience for it. Addictive? Not too sure about that. Robin makes journals. wonderful journals as well as she tells stories. I know. She's gifted me a journal or two and I've heard her tell a few good stories. And yes, I know there's tons of info on the internet for making journals. I wish the journal making fairy would throw some dust my way. I swear, I was like a little kid after nestling then wrestling with that glue gun that destroyed my pages. I'm on the home stretch of the ICAD challenge, although I'm still running a bit behind. That's ok. Here are a few more all in the same color palette. But if you have any ideas you want to bestow upon me I would gladly listen. Thanks for stopping in................Jo

Icads and More

I am once again running behind in not only posting but actually making the ICADS. Life, you know, has a way of sometimes getting in the way. Here are a few more. The second one was soaked in a chai tea bag bath. I wanted to see how dark I could stain it. This one didn't get too dark but it has a pleasant smell. I don't like the first one with the tree. I like the tree but the piece is missing something. It's not one of my favorites so I will come back to it at some point. The last two were made with layers of painted waxed paper glued on. You know. The paper laying around on the table you've used as a pallet or you've used it to wipe your brushes. I like the grungy look. I think I mentioned a while ago that I was taking the Twenty One Secrets workshops. I hadn't anything to show for it at that point. I decided to give it a try with Jodi Ohl's class on making a journal. This is how I've been using up my many gelli plate prints I've been making and any other miscellaneous papers. These are the front and back covers for my book. Here are the inside front and back covers. And here are some pages of the first signiture (or is it signature) at this point?. This is all new to me. This book is not going to be sewn into a spine but rather duct taped and then hot glued. I will see how it turns out. I figure if I make enough of them and experiment with different techniques I'm bound to make a home made journal I like. I know there's a million different ways and resources in how to make them out in cyberspace. I like that I can finally find a place to put all those prints. They take on a different look when cut down to smaller sizes. Stay tuned. More to come. Thanks for spending a moment here............I am having a staycation this week. I am not wanting to pay attention to the time in any regard unless it's having to do with eating.( my head will tell me if I have forgotten to eat.)........Hope everyone is well..............jo

Back in the Saddle

It felt really good to be able to spend some time in the studio after not being there for nearly three weeks. Honestly, I didn't know whether to clean it up from the mess I left it in or just push stuff aside and continue on. I decided to ignore the mess and create a new layer of mess on my table top. I worked on a page from Roben Marie Smith's class here. I am having fun with learning how simple it is to build layers and see different artists' take on that. Here are some images for this piece I had started a couple of weeks ago and continued yesterday. You can see the added embellishments between the first and second photo. I used a foam stamp glued to a piece of cardboard, two other stamps I had previously carved and there are bits and pieces of washi tape. And here is another altered book page I have been intermittently working on when I can find it buried on my table. I'm off to play some more. Thanks for spending a moment here...... Please come again..................xoxo jo

Update

Aimee is hosting yet another week of glue it Tuesday. I have had a very busy, stressful week but have managed to at least fill one side of a file folder which is my contribution for this week. Again, these paper pieces are from my own art papers and I will probably do some more on top of what's there. Thank goodness for little snippets of time in the morning in the van. And speaking of the van, the van has been laid to rest somewhere else with a transmission that was eroding, corroding, with little metallic flakes dropping into the pan, not exactly reliable etc. you get the picture, which has led me to use much of the week to car hunt, which has left little time for creativity. I now have a more reliable large enough vehicle in which to continue my morning art projects. And with that, also comes a new car payment which I have not had in at least six years. Oh, well. Such is life. Interesting to learn that the salesperson who helped me find a car is also an artist, so you can imagine the conversation moving back and forth between art and cars. I also have enrolled in a workshop here I would like to say I have something to show for this participation but at this time I do not. It has tons of workshops that are on line 24/7 through January 1, 2014. I feel it is an exciting opportunity to learn from some wonderful artists at my own leisure. I hope to be showing you more projects from that in the future. Midweek I am taking a long overdue trip to N.Y and NYC to see some dear friends and family so I look forward to relaxing on the train and doing some art. I thank you for all your comments and support. Please do visit again................jo