No Longer an Android

So I made this little mini book on cheapo water color paper, although I think it's really cheapo mixed media paper. Good way to use up scraps. I realize as I am uploading these pictures to this post that I have taken pictures of the book upside down. Two weeks ago I inherited my daughter's boyfriend's Iphone 5 since he has upgraded to a newer one. I was just too tickled because now I have also begun to post on Instagram. Imagine. I recently had to buy a new printer, and then a new computer and now I have a new phone. So much new technology!! The phone was a wonderful gift and daughter and boyfriend Reggie have been wonderfully supportive and patient with my numerous questions regarding the phone and posting to instagram. It has taken me nearly 1 1/2 hrs between photographing and posting to instagram and this blog I am going to watch a 'Bones'episode before it is time for me to hurry up and sleep. I hope you are well. Thanks for visiting. And if you go here you can see a lo of cool stuff.

Loose Pages

I have a lot of art done on loose pages over the years, mostly on cardstock. I wanted at some point to purchase a binding machine but have not yet made a decision which one. I happened to be at Kinkos one day and was reminded that they bind things into a spiral journal. They charge by the thickness of the paper. So, for under $10.00 I had 18 loose pages counting the front and back cover (which they provided) bound in to an instant journal. Here are few of the pages. The nice man at KInkos was confused as to why some of the page were left blank. I told him those pages would eventually be filled up. I took it home and decorated the front and back covers. I know there are way more "cooler" ways to book bind, it takes time, patience and practice, which I don't always have, this seemed to work for an instant journal for not much money. I can pick it up and work on it as I feel like it. Next time I will take some smaller pages and see how that works with a smaller size journal. Thanks for stopping by.

You Gotta Catch it When (and where) You Can.

A day or so ago I was talking with a patient at work about the weather changes. I said I hadn't remembered such a fluctuation in temperatures in a given day or maybe I was just a bit more aware of it now that I was in the midst of such fluctuation with my own power surges. He grinned and said he had kept a journal for about 40 yrs and the first thing he did each day was document the weather. This opened up the door for a brief conversation about art journaling and how I felt better starting my day with "Morning Pages" and art. I said, "You gotta catch it when you can," meaning there were not enough hours in my work day for me to create so I took advantage of my need to get to work an hour before I started in order to get a parking spot - hence art in the car. He thought that was pretty cool. And so I am slowly filling this little tranformed Dollar Store day timer. I covered it with some marbleized paper that I had made earlier in the year and the first thing I do is document the weather at that moment and what might be forecast. The book is small enough to work in on my lap and my art bag has glue sticks,some markers and pens, a few big zip lock baggies full of torn paper for collaging, my water color crayons and a water color brush. I have to remember once again to take the crayons out of the car on the days it's going to be hot. I tend to remind myself that I have certain appointments or that I need to do something like pick up insulin for the dog. It's kind of cool to see this little book grow. I started another page by gluing down this altered dictionary page in to the book and I knew I wanted to do some more. (I knew there was a reason I was telling you this) I tore out a bunch of dictionary pages and went to town. So now I have a bunch of paper to use in this little document your life in the car journal. It's really quite simple. You gotta catch it when you can. I hope you have a great weekend. I haven't been to the party in a few weeks so I am headed to where there's a lot of good stuff going on. Thanks for visiting.

Finally

I am up and running again thanks to the Geeksquad who came to my home and sorted out a bunch of computer issues for me this afternoon. It was a month ago that my visually impaired, geriatric dog, Buddy, bumped into the computer desk, knocking it over and cracking the screen, thereby my having to purchase a new computer, which I was none too overjoyed about. While they had transferred my data from the old to new, this was not the same program I was used to using in order to upload photos, edit and some other things. "Agent Jordan" was very helpful in resolving these issues as well as sharing other tidbits of computer knowledge which I greatly appreciated. Needless to say, I feel sooooooo much better. Today I am keeping it light, just showing you a couple of unfinished journal pages. I have been wanting to incorporate some vintage photos in to my work, and what better way than to use some personal family photos. . THe background of the first one was done with INktense blocks, gesso, and my own torn papers, and the second one is using the same as well as torn paper from a magazine image. These two girls were sisters. While I cannot remember the exact story, I know that one of them died in childhood. And the last one was just playing around withe inktense blocks, gesso, torn paper and some doodling. I rather like it. Of the art supplies I have ever bought I cannot say enough about these inktense blocks. The colors are luciously brilliant. I am thoroughly enjoying my new studio space, hopping from end of it to another. I still don't have it all organized, but I know that will happen when I can stop creating long enough to do it. I should have done that when I had all this computer trouble, but it was a lot more fun to come home after a stressful work day to throw some paint down rather than organize. I have lots more to share with you in the coming days. I hope you are well. Thanks for visiting.

A Little More Spring, Please

Lots of rain on top of that already melted snow. My back yard is like a swamp. Not sure what I'm going to do with this and the ones I've previously shown you, but, I am having fun playing in this giant Moleskin journal. Thanks for visiting.

A Little Bit of Spring

Strange that 3-4 days ago we had a sleet/ice storm and a little more than a week ago we had nearly 10 inches of snow. Today it was nearly 70 degrees. Feels a bit like spring but I know it's not quite here yet. At least that's my prediction. I think it's a big tease. But this also makes me feel like a bit of spring. How is it in your part of the world? Has spring arrived? Thanks for stopping by.

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.

Waiting for Spring

We are at the tail end of a snow storm here in Virginia. More like an ice storm. Driving home from work this afternoon was not fun. I was grateful to finally see my driveway. I am sure I am not alone in my wanting and waiting for spring. I hope you are safe and warm. Tomorrow I will share the rest of my Lifebook project. Thanks for visiting.

Something New

Yesterday I told you about making Valentines for ourselves in my mixed media class at my local AC Moore craft store. You can read about it here. I took this and after a lot of persistence and patience I was able to get it in to this. This is a very cheap embroidery hoop. $1.99 cheap. I'm surprised it did not snap. Brown paper is not thin. I will finish the canvas and paint the hoop black. And you can use different sizes. Instant framing. How cool it that?! I'll show you when I'm finished. Thanks for visiting.

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.

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 Continued

Yesterday I began to show you my final Lifebook project, which was a year long on line workshop full of a variety of artists, techniques and themes. I am showing you the work that I did. One of the earliest lessons was for us to decide what we wanted more of in the new year. I wanted more peace...........in my life and also the world. One of my favorite lessons was Tam's quirky Animals on a Totem Pole. This was also a drawing lesson, drawing animals in a quirky, whimsical style that represented the feelings/emotions we felt at that moment. So, at that moment, this is how the animals spoke to me or represented how I was feeling at that time. The elephant is the largest, strongest carrying all the weight and we all know that responsibility is a heavy load. The donkey, ass, burro is often a work animal. Hmm.. Guess that says it all. The cat is the relaxed, peaceful one, with not a care in the world. The ox is yet another work animal. And lastly, the bird on the very top is the lightest and can fly away and leave it all behind. This lesson was fun, playful and I got to experiment with expression and color with the neocolor caran d'ache water color crayons. You can see this page is an odd size. I think it was half of sheet of water color paper. Moving on...........Traci Bautista's lesson was also fun. I am drawn to her style of messy, grungy, graffiti style. She always uses an amazing color palette and encourages using found objects for making mark making. This was my response to her In the Moment lesson. So, there you have a few more. There's more to follow. Thanks for stopping in.

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.