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.

LIfebook 2014- Moving Forward

I've been showing you my work I did in a year long on line workshop called Lifebook. The brain child of Tam Laporte, incorporated a variety of artists sharing their techniques, styles and various lessons. I did not complete all of them simply because of time and my choosing. The three I want to show you in this post are 3 of my favorites. As I look back at my work I can see growth, some bravery in simply doing, being present, showing up. This included making trips to the refrigerator one afternoon, pulling out fresh vegetables and taking them back to the studio to use as mark making tools as suggested by the wonderful Flora Bowley. I am at the very least, smitten with her artwork. This is my work as inspired by Flora Bowley's lesson called Intuitive Painting. Celery stumps and mushrooms make for interesting stamps. The next one was result of the wonderful Jennibellie who I've been following for years. I was once a guest of her "Tell All Tuesday" where she interviews people about their art, how they arrived at that point etc. She still features that on her posts today. You can read it here This was the result of her lesson. And lastly based on Alena Hennessy's lesson is my Moving Forward. I hope you enjoyed looking at my pages. I am noticing a distinct color palette in all three of these pieces. I am linking this to the party tonight. Thanks for visiting. *** Thank you Sheila for pointing out to me that there were only two pieces showing. Now I know how tired I was last night when posting. The third one has been added.

More Quietly and More Deeply

When I got up this morning I discovered my 4 legged canine had peed on the kitchen floor. I must have turned over when my first alarm went off. We headed to the door into about 5 inches of snow. By the time it stopped today there was about 9-10 inches. I was going to take a picture but my camera was not charged. I am taking a break from showing you more Lifebook pictures today simply because........... I found a photo in my files from two years ago on this date that pretty much sums up how I am feeling these days. I'm not sure if it ever made it in to my many posts about my Smash Book Overhaul project, which was basically one of those once popular kind of scrapbooking/memory style books that I completely overhauled and made it my own. It only took me two years to complete. Anyway, I like this page and it felt good seeing it again this evening as I sat down to write a post. I am living more quietly and more deeply. I hope you had a peaceful day and are safe and warm. Thanks for stopping in. P.S. I found another snowfall photo I took in 2009 though we had more today.

Lifebook - Part 3

I am continuing on in my sharing of my Lifebook project with you. You can find parts 1 and 2 here and here I must confess I did not write down the names of all the teachers who presented lessons. In some cases I felt good about just being able to stay awake some evenings for the many videos that went with all of the lessons. I have no doubt a great deal of planning and hard work went in to all the recordings to present them to us. The next piece I am sharing had to do with people or positive enhancing connections. This was not one of my favorite pieces in terms of the outcome. I don't really like the colors I chose and the piece feels a bit unfinished, but I enjoyed the thought process behind it. My interpretation was to show some of the things or people that were/are positive reinforcements in my life............ one of my favorite authors, Anne Lamott, my best friend of more than 30 yrs, Patty, making art and my love of drawing houses. If I remember correctly, this was also a lesson on how you could alter a face from a magazine, because this face is not really my style. The next piece is not from Lifebook but I am including it in my book as it was done at the end of 2013. It's sort of a journal page and then I used my own collaged pieces of paper and again, showing my love of houses. The next one also, was not part of Lifebook but again, I included it as it was also done at the end of 2013. I think my intent here was to play with texture and stenciling. I did not have any molding paste or heavy gesso, and somewhere I got the idea of using joint compound which was much less expensive than heavy gesso or molding paste. And you know what? It worked. The circular pinkish/purplish circles are my stencil filled with joint compound paste. At the moment, I can't find the photo of that stencil but I will try to locate it at some point to show you. So, this piece is weighted... and a bit crackly, but so far it has not left a trail on the floor. I like the colors, layering and the texture. The last piece I am showing you today comes from artist Danielle Daniel (say that 10 times really fast) called Honoring Your Inner World. I kind of like this piece in that it was another drawing lesson. I finally did relax after I erased over and over again and put my hands together thanking the creative forces around me, that I was able to half way draw this character. Again, some layering and some of my own collage papers. I hope you are enjoying my pages. There's more to come. Thanks for visiting here.

Lifebook 2014

Last year I gave myself a present by taking a year long on line workshop called Lifebook. Created by Tam Laporte, Lifebook was rich in a variety of teachers presenting a variety of styles, techniques, and themes. I did not do every single project as some quite simply did not resonate with me. But there were some that I thoroughly enjoyed and learned a lot from. Last year I shared a few of those pieces as I was doing them, but I wanted to show you what it looked like in book form, or should I say my attempt at putting it in to a book. I am not a book binder, I haven't had the patience at times to attempt it, even though I know there are many ways to do it. I found my challenge was in having so many different sized papers made it hard to bind. I knew that I would not have the patience to coptic stitch this book together so thought binding it with binder rings would be ok but I was not happy with the end result. Perhaps down the road I can figure out how to better attach these pages together but for now, here are some of them. I had to find/make covers that were large enough for the largest papers. I ended up using the box that I had originally been storing my projects in as I completed them. You can see the hole I originally punched on the left side above the red ribbon and you can also see the holes in the upper side as I had changed my mind in the direction of how to open this book. Moving on. This was sort of a warm up exercise. We were to choose a word for the year. Originally my word was forgive, but I found it did not feel right to me, so I changed it to forward. Forgiveness or to forgive allows one to move forward. So this sort of guardian angel was there to remind me of that as I journeyed through the year. The next one was again, an exercise. The last one I'll show you today is from the wonderful Carla Sonheim's lesson where we made an envelope in which to put the imaginary creatures that sprung from paint blobs. More to show you tomorrow. Thanks for visiting.

More Playing with Food and Other Stuff

Last week I told you about the Lifebook lesson with Flora Bowley who encouraged us to find different things for mark making or stamping. I showed you this. Although you cannot tell from looking at this, it began with marking making with various pieces of produce. After I went grocery shopping on Saturday, I took a potato and cut it up into various shapes and put it to paper. I forgot to photograph all of them but did get one to show you. Ok. So, it's not that exciting but it was kind of fun. I forgot to buy celery so I could use the bottom of the stalk to make that cool flower print. Saturday morning I was at my local arts and craft store (AC Moore) with two fun women. We had decided to take a break from art journaling and played with making prints on the gelli plate with the deli paper. This was in preparation for decorating Christmas ornaments. I really don't enjoy it when it seems anything having to do with Christmas is pushed upon us earlier and earlier every year, however,I think if you are making things, that's entirely different. Handmade things take more time and thought. Some ornaments were cut out of two pieces of card stock, glued together and decorated. Here's another plastic one that's getting collaged. And here are a few others that I made back in the summer time while watching Netflix in the evening. I haven't yet found the motivation to paint my pumpkins this year but maybe I still will. Are you creating holiday or seasonal things right now? Thanks for visiting here.

Painting with Food

On Monday when I was off from work I sat down with Flora Bowley's Brave Intuitive Painting lesson on Lifebook. I am blown away by this artist and one day would like to take one of her live workshops or one of her online classes. She had me(us) looking in the refrigerator for things to use as stamps. The best I could come up with was some mushrooms, some celery stalks, some cucumber slices and some onion. I wished I'd had some potatoes to cut in to sections or carve some stamps out of and I wished I hadn't thrown the bottom core part of the celery away because it would have made a cool flower image stamp like Flora did. I found it a bit challenging as my vegies were super slippery once I dabbed them in to the paint, but some of these made some pretty cool marks. She suggested we work on two pages at a time, one with only cool colors and one with warm colors. I think I can say I finished one of them. Here it is along with a couple of close ups. No paint brushes were used. Only fingers. I used a credit card and the end of the paint brush for mark making. I'm sorry I did not remember to take photos in the beginning with my veggies, and as it turned out, much of the mark making was blended or covered up. I like the color and I like the layers. I like that you can see through them in some parts.I like it better now after not looking at it for several days. I had no plan or outcome and that was the point. It really was intuitive and it was a lot of fun. Do you create art in this manner? Intuitively? Thanks for stopping in.

Coming Home to Myself

I am slowly making my way through Lifebook 2014. Here is a piece from Tamara Laporte's Exploring Intuition lesson. It was a piece created after some meditative work. I like the layering and the color. Yes, those colors are some of my favorites. I am, in fact, coming home to myself in many areas of my life. . I hope you've had a good day. Thanks for visiting.

In The Moment

I am making my way through Lifebook 2014. I say making my way but not doing every single week's project. Some weeks I just plain miss or skip. One of the week's was Traci Baustista's class called In the Moment. I did this at least a few week's ago by now, but what I remember most about this, which is why I like her work, is it was very relaxed, very messy. She really encourages play and play with found things in which to make marks. There is so much out there in terms of stamps and stencils today, it almost feels like sometimes that one is made to feel one's art is not complete or as good as when you use the latest stencil or stamp. Don't get me wrong. I love stencils and stamps but it gets to feeling so commercial. I would rather make my own or find my own mark making things. That's what she encourages and demonstrates. I also like the grungy, sort of graffiti look in her art. To me, it's just plain fun and simple. Here is my take on her assignment. I am trying to hang on to that "in the moment feeling." Trying not to plan, look too far ahead, or worry about the outcome. I think it works sometimes, but not always. Sometimes, in your heart, you just know, when something's not right. Thanks for stopping by.

Forever Is Composed of Nows. ~ Emily Dickinson

This piece is a result of Danielle Daniel's class over at Lifebook 2014. called Honoring your Inner World. Another reminder to stop and slow down and breathe. These weekly postings really come up quickly but so far I've managed to stay up on most of them. I think the colors in this piece are different for me. I didn't think too much about it, but tried to just let the background become itself. I I like the pose of the woman. It reminds me to breathe and calm when I look at her. And this one was inspired by Traci Bautista, who is full of "grafitti glam." Seriously, I like her style. She is big on mark making using things you find around your house kind of tools. I had fun with this and these are my colors. Thanks for stopping by.

Moving Forward

Taking a break from The Smash Book Overhaul for a moment because I really wanted to show you one of my pieces from LifeBook 2014. I am so glad I made the decision to take this year long adventure. It's allowing me some " deep me time" with lots of reflection and playing at the same time. These two pieces were based on a segment taught by Alena Hennessy called The Joy of Intention. I think I did two of them because I wasn't happy with the way the first one started but still kept within the same color scheme and keeping with my words "Moving Forward." And I kind of liked how it looked (a lot) when I put them side by side and then cropped them. Does that happen to you that you sometimes end up liking your work more when you hone in on one section? Thanks for visiting....................jo

Where Does The Time Go?

Doesn't this look like a fishing tackle box? Wait. Here's another bad photograph. I've never been fishing a day in my life. It is a fishing tackle box. I thought it very ingenious of me to use it as a onthecouchwatchingNetflixmovies kind of thing. I thought it would be cool to limit supplies. Limit paint, use the cheap craft paint, limit markers, etc. You know, create with the bare essentials. It's got so many compartments I can't find anything. Most things get dumped in the bottom.I think if I would take the time to organize it better it just might work. These were made for my Lifebook 2014 class. I'm having trouble keeping up but that's ok. I had some fraudulent activity on my bank account. That was NOT ok so I had to deal with that. Yes, this is the same picture as the one above but more filled in. Continuing to work on background pages in this recycled photo album. That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by............................... jo

Faces and Lifebook 2014

So, after I came down from learning about "my face" being published in the recent Cloth Paper Scissors magazine, I got back to work. I'm working on faces in Lifebook this year, so I'm including one of these as part of my 29 faces count. WE started this lesson with playing with spray inks which I dearly love. They are lusciously vibrant in my opinion. This is the result of the preliminary lesson. The face followed. And this face I did probably 6 mos ago at least. It was a spur of the moment thing on a piece of corrugated cardboard. I reworked the face a bit and then wanted to frame it or mount it but it was such an odd nonstandard size. So, I dared myself to cut it up and rework it a bit more. It now looks like this. I collaged a piece of wood and then put her on top. The colors look different in this as the photo is taken in the evening hours, but I think I lost some of the turquoise blue so I need to find a way to get that back. It's in progress at any rate. Thanks for stopping by.