Coming Down the Home Stretch............ The Smash Book Overhaul

I'm continuing to show you my "Smash Book" that I bought in my local art store two years ago. I liked the sturdy pages, some already containing some interesting prompts.I began to "overhaul" it, mostly while watching Netflix. I was also just beginning to draw faces so this was a place to play and experiment. The woman with the egg shaped face and the skinny neck was drawn on top of an already used piece of waxed paper. This was before I knew about using deli paper. Waxed paper seem to offer some interesting texture and marks especially when full of old paint and anything else. In the next one I was playing. Playing with crayon and then painting on top, and just plain doodling, scribbling, stamping, making fun messes, and playing with faces. And the last duo are drawn on top of layers of paint and here you can see the beginnings of the stamps I carved along the upper and side borders. So, that's it for now. There's a few more pages yet to show you for another day. Thanks for visiting. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. It means a lot.

If Necessary, Show Your Incisors. ~Clarissa Pinkola Estes............... The Smash Book Overhaul

Sometimes this is the way I feel. I should show them my incisors. Too bad the supervisor on the other end of Dell this evening, didn't see my incisors as I tried to get them to take back my new laptop. They would not because I am 4 days past the 30 days invoice date. "I will not do business with you again!" I said. As if my business makes any difference. The woman in my drawing could bare her teeth at any moment. I mean a snarl is right there. I like the see through, grungy layering, I like the red (how appropriate.) and I like the fact that she looks like she pretty much can stand her ground. ......... I'm nearing the end of this Smash Book overhaul. Not too much left. I want to show you some new things soon. Thanks for visiting.

Esprit- The Smash Book Overhaul Cont'd.

The word esprit, a french word comes from the Latin word spiritus, which means a breathing, a spirit. I used pieces of an international newspaper in the background of this journal page. I thought after it was done it was kind of cool that the images underneath the face came through as if a breathing spirit. It was not intentional. It just seem to come together. Does that happen to you? Thanks for visiting here. I am joining the party (late as usual) over here and here

Deep in the City......... In Tiny Microscopic Rooms - The Smash Book Overhaul

Making my way through this overhauled Smash Book. I love any art having to do with buildings, city scapes etc. I was playing with alcohol based markers here with torn pieces of paper altered with Citrasolv. I think my friend Robin lives in one of those buildings but I cannot remember which house is hers. Thanks for visiting.

De La Fleur- The Smash Book Overhaul -continued

It's sort of a scuffed up grungy look with pieces of torn and altered citrasolv papers, paint splattered waxed paper and baby wipes, some faint punchinella stencilling, and acrylic inks. I then had great fun dribbling the black ink from the top and tearing the edge of the page. I added those tiny stick on letters I found in the .25 bin at the art store eons ago. I think this is one of my favorite pages in the book. I hope you've had a good week. As tired as I am I'm venturing over here tonight. Do come. The folks are nice and there's lots of good stuff to see. Thanks for visiting. I am linking as well to Balzer Designs Art Journal Every Day.

More Making Faces

I seem to have a thing for pink hair.......It's not a prize winning face but I did show up and I did have fun.. Hope you're having a good weekend.....................jo

Taking Stock

Since the New Year began I am taking stock in just how much art I have made this past year. My intention this year was to be a more regular blogger. I'm not off to a great start, although I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I think it's important to decide when to blog and when to create. Working a full time job sometimes gets in the way. I've come a long way in several years when I first jumped in to this blogging cold turkey. Trial and error, lots of errors. I have a lot of respect for people that can blog daily. It does take more than planning and organizing. I've gotten better about the frequency and have learned to navigate my way around, and with the help of a couple of good blogging/artist buddies have been able to put up some decent posts. It's always a delight for me to visit Hanna who portrays an abundance of energy in her blog, but it was her recent post on why we should acknowledge our list of achievements for the year, that guided me to do this. After I wrote it down I felt good. Here's my list of some things that stood out for me, with some pictures. In February of last year I completed a collaborative work with Stargardener (aka Teresa Robinson)who's blog has always seemed to appear to me at just the right moment. She sent me a homemade journal which has all kinds of "neat" prompts. I gifted this book back to Teresa. She was delighted. I sent out a lot of mail art last year. One of my pieces was published as an "inchie" on the back of this wonderful magazine and as of this post I am scrambling to find the photo. So much for being organized. I remember being so tickled when I recieved notification that it would be in the 4th issue and I cannot at this moment find my folder that houses this photo. Am I getting long winded? I doodled and collaged and painted on pumpkins. I completed a very large canvas. I altered a children's board book from The Dollar Store. I cut out and made little wooden houses.. I completed 60 days worth of art on an index card for the second year in a row over at Daisy Yellow. Tammy Garcia is another one of my favorite people for inspiration. I also drew a lot of faces last year. Ok. I want to say at this point that I am tired just posting this. I did create a lot of art in 2013. What now? This blog may undergo some changes in the coming months. I want to keep creating larger canvases; I want to pile enough up to submit for gallery showing. I want to submit more of my work for publication. I want keep getting my work out there. I want to thank you for supporting me along the way, by your following and or leaving comments, which make a person feel very good. Wishing you all good things this year.................Big Hugs.......... Jo

One Dollar

I hope you had a good weekend. A creative weekend. I spent a good amount of time playing. I started with this ****************Painted them.************They became this. I might add some wings to the backs of them. I might see how they look slid over a red candle. I can see them on a mantle or on a Christmas tree. I also finished the front and back covers of my children's board book from The Dollar Store which I've been showing you the last several posts. Tell me what you think? You can view the other pages in previous posts. At least I can say I have finished something. Yay!! One last thing. I was delighted to view Balzer Designs post on Friday to find Julie had "featured" one of the pages of my Dollar Store book on her website for her Art Journal Everyday. Caught me by surprise.......... Thanks for visiting. Do come again....................jo

Letting Go

Letting go may be shaded in sorrow but it is lit by strength. ~Quinn McDonald The remaining page that I haven't shown you in altered children's board book from The Dollar Store. Quinn McDonald is a writer and artist who's blog I frequently visit. For some strange reason on those days I find her words often resonate with what is going on in my life at that moment, or on that day. I am working on the front and back covers of this one dollar book. I'll show them later. Thanks for stopping by.....Jo

Responsibility

Here is another page in the altered book- a children's board book from The Dollar Store. I did the background on the gelli plate. The face is cut out from my- faces -on -top- of- morning- pages -writing. The torn paper is from copies of my own art. I used sharpie paint markers, gel pens, acrylic paint and gesso to complete it. I hope you had a good weekend and that you took some time for yourself to be creative. I am glad to see the leaves here finally in full color. Thanks for popping in and thanks for all your comments. Please visit again..........................jo ************************************************** I am linking this to Carolyn Dube's November Gelli print party.

Grow Your Garden

Back in June I took the train to Pennsylvania and visited my "bestest buddy," Patty. Patty and I have a history, spanning at least thirty years of friendship. Patty and I met as college room mates. Patty, I have learned over the years is a wonderful gardener. I have watched her garden grow through out the years and whenever I'd visit she'd always have something new to show me. This last time I looked at her garden with new eyes. I took so many pictures because I wanted to draw, sketch, paint her garden. And while she is awesomely creative in many areas, a wonderful water color artist, her garden has been her canvas for a good long while. I am amazed. I do not remember the names of these plants, flowers. Perhaps I should have taken a notebook with me on the tour. Here are a few pictures I took from Patty's garden. It occurred to me that I was working on this Dollar Store board book while on the train to visit her and also at her house. I showed you a peek of a page yesterday because I hadn't decided what I wanted to write on it. I figured it out. Sorry about the green grid underneath the photo. I didn't have enough natural light left by the time I took the photo. Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a creative weekend........................jo I am linking to Aimee's Glue It Tuesday Carolyn Dube's November Gelli Print Party and Balzer Designs Art Journal Every Day.

A Peek

Here's a peek of part of a page from my altered book from the Dollar Store. It's one of those children board books that I sanded to get the gloss off and then threw on the Gelli Plate for backgrounds. I haven't decided what to write on this page yet so I'm just showing you the bottom half. I was in the mood for gel pens and lots of color. Stay tuned for the rest of it. Thanks for visiting.......................... I hope you come again...................jo

Be Nobody But Yourself...............

.................. and Creativity Comes From Trust ~ Rita Mae Brown This is another couple of pages from my overhauled children's board book from the Dollar Store. I gelli plate printed the background and used the faces I did on top of my 5 am Morning Pages. I am trying to play and experiment with lettering. All torn paper is from my art work. Thanks for stopping by and thanks for all your kind comments. ............. jo........................................I am linking to Balzer Designs Art Journal Every Day where there's a ton of good stuff. And Carolyn Dube's Gelli Plate Print party.

Do The Thing You Really Care About

It's not hard to decide what you want your life to be about. What's hard, she said, is figuring out what you're willing to give up in order to do the thing you really care about. ~Shauna Neiquist Back in June I took one of those glossy, hard back children's books from The Dollar Store and sanded the pages and then black gessoed it. Sometime later I took the pages and laid them down on the gelli plate in one of my crazy gelli plate sessions. I guess I lost track of photographing the entire process as I don't seem to be able to find any pictures other than when I first began. Here's one of the pages I began after gelli plate painting it with the beginnings of collage. The face is one from my 4:30am Morning Pages journal pages. Here it is finished. I hope you like it. I will have other pages in this short book to share with you. Thanks for stopping in.....jo **********************************I am linking to Julie Fei Fan Balzer's Art Journal Every Day and Aimee's place Glue It Tuesday. And Carolyn Dube's place for a colorful gelliprint party.

Seven Days

I was a week behind in my ICADS until this evening. Now I am caught up. Whew!! Here are the last seven days. And when I was on the train to Philly last week to visit my friend Patty, I worked on altering a book I had gotten from the Dollar Store. It was one of those hard, glossy 4 page children's books that I sanded and primed with gesso and then threw down on the gelli plate one of my Gelli Plate sessions. So the background was already done. I just added more collage and faces. I painted the front and back covers with black gesso. I will link this to Glue it Tuesday over at Artsyville since there is a lot of gluing going on there and here, as well as Carolyn Dube's Gelli Print Party since there is also a lot of my gelli prints used here. Thanks so much for visiting. I hope you're not bored with seeing these ICADS yet. I may get behind again, but, I did meet the challenge of catching up.......... please come back to visit.........Jo