Getting back into the groove of paint, glue, stamps, tape, and journaling.
Embracing imperfection because imperfection is where I am at the moment, and most likely, where I always am.
Imperfection = humanity; that's not so bad as long as we continue to grow.
Loving it!
EB craved some red.
So did Kim.
I wanted pink! You see, I'd come across the most gorgeous pink jacket I'd seen in awhile. I knew it'd look great with some black pants, or maybe my black skirt. The budget didn't allow that jacket to come home with me, and that was okay. I didn't "need" that jacket, but I surely did want it! And, that's pretty funny, since I am not a pink person.
My mom, bless her, cured me of ever much wanting pink. As a little girl, she deemed pink to be my color. Denise had blue, and oh boy, did I want that blue.
Nope, nope, and nope. Mom deemed that I should wear pink, and I did until I was hearily sick of it. Even today, you won't find much pink in my wardrobe. So, I'm not sure what made me want that jacket, but I did.
Next best thing? Some pink in my journal. I had to mix it, because the color pink is rarely found in my stash of supplies either. So, I mixed the paint and scrounged up some tape. I stamped, stenciled, and journaled.
I really did have a blast!
Now, we might be getting some snow tomorrow, maybe even enough for a snow day on Thursday.
Maybe, just maybe, I'll get some more time to play.
I don't think it will be pink, but my muse tends to be a bit fickle, a bit surprising. Who knows?
Yesterday morning, Mother Nature blessed me with time to simply play in my journal. I'd already glued down some random leftover bits a few days earlier. That pink you see behind the house really is a piece of deli scrap that I'd mixed paint on and stamped on for some "trial runs." I love the pop against the blue, and so I added a stencil on the left page.
I owe Jeannine full credit for the house image that you see. She gifted me some of her gocco prints awhile back, and they show up every now and then on one of my pages. I did add the tiny face you see peeking out of the window and the tiny "H" in the doorway. You can find Jeannine guest curating over at Crescendo this week. Be sure to read what she's written...lots of wisdom there.
Back to this spread...it really did come together over several hours. I'd add some paint, some paper scraps, step away for a bit and then come back to it. I played with a Tim Holtz mask (the light blue swirls on the left). I made friends with Payne's Gray, a color I've pretty much loathed until recently. Let's just say we're getting to know each other a bit! And, finally, of course, a bit of jounaling. My only plan, really, was to make it feel "cold and wintry." I think I did okay!
Diana Trout's Creative Nudge # 16 began with a bit of Hanna's journal play, Hanna's blog always inspires! This woman simply oozes creativity and really enjoys the process. Neither lady ever fails to inspire.
The idea is to play with gray, which is certainly not one of my favorite colors, but it was a good reentry point after a week of hospital rooms. It was really, really good to get my fingers dirty with paint again.
I've used this angel image many a time. She's one of many from my stash of cemetary photos.
The "lines" on the right are torn up bits of text where I tried out the various grays I mixed...as are the lines that frame the angel's face.
The bits of purple on the right edge of the left side of the spread? Dried up bits of an African violet that belonged to my mom! As I was cleaning up the art area a bit, I picked off some dried blooms. One fell on the page, and I rather liked it! I'm not sure what it means when a middle aged woman carefully glues dried up bits of violet to her journal pages!
Do you remember the one passage in Alice in Wonderland where Alice and the Red (I think!) Queen are rushing pell mell around and around a tree...faster and faster...just to keep up? I'm right there with Alice and the queen.
I've spent most of my last few days channeling my inner Martha Stewart, and I'm hoping to post some pics soon of what we accomplished. Our theme for the shower is "fall," and the colors are gorgeous - rich brown tablecloths, white pumpkins with a crown of fall flowers and purple glass swirls along the sides, blue mason jars filled with more flowers and tissue papers in reds, yellows, and oranges. Mmmmmmmmmmmm....just breath taking.
And then there's the daper cake...oh, my, but Martha and I outdid ourselves. If a diaper cake can be truly lovely, this one shines.
And, in between it all, I did just a bit of journaling. That cute little moo card on the right side is from Diana Trout. One of these days, I'm gonna order mine. Really. I am!
I need to go do a bit of this and that, and then I'll watch "Dancing with the Stars," the one and only show I'm faithful to.
Tomorrow is back to the world of baby showers...Martha and I, well, we're getting to be real pals!
Oh, and if I don't have to walk back into Michael's for a long time, I'll be a happy woman.
So, this arrived on my doorstep about a week ago, and I've been happily curled up with it ever since, marking up pages, scribbling down my thoughts, etc. I have always loved Patti Digh's writing, and this newest book proves to be a treasure. Patti delves into creativity....what it is, the roadblocks we set up for ourselves, and so much more. Tons of food for thought.
I am blessed to have 2 pieces of artwork in this...and doubly blessed that I got to illustrate Patti's story of our very own rock fairy, "The Queen of Arts!" Now, I've got to admit, I hadn't detached myself from this outcome. I really really wanted that piece of art to make it....my tribute to my friend, Kim. I've sent off several pieces to various publications, some picked, some not. Most, I send off on a wing and a prayer; some get chosen and others not, and overall, I'm okay with whatever happens. Not this one! I wanted to be the one to illustrate this essay...and when the book came, that's the piece I had to find! Here it is...
For whatever reason known to man, I took a huge leap of faith and used my ....insert gasps here....watercolors! So, hats off to you, my friend! As the Bud commercial goes, "This one's for you!' Kim, I did it with much love for the wonderful kind soul you are.
The first night I curled up with this book, the words "Detaching Myself From the Outcome" jumped out at me. They grabbed me, because sometimes, this detaching myself proves so darn hard to do.
Some outcomes I'll never detach myself from, but, oh - there are just so many that I need to let go of, at least as far as the results go. I'll never change some people (and who, am I, to think I should?; some pieces of art get chosen, and others don't. It's when I let go of the outcome and just let myself enjoy the making of art, that I'm happiest.
Some arguments I'll never win, and I need to let go of the energy they consume. If I can do that, I won't be walking around with a pounding headache.
I began this spread with an "idea in mind." You'd think I'd know better by now. I wanted to do one of those wonderful shilouettes using a magazine image...the ones that look oh, so cool! Well, I fussed with it. I layered paint. I made a mess.
And, then I realized that I really liked the way the paint covered image being used as a mask much better than anything I'd done. So, on she went, and there the page sat for a few days, because I really didn't know what to do next.
I saw the words a few nights later, and into the art room I went and stamped away. Perfect!
Know what's funny? As I reread the book, I've yet to find those words again. They appeared when they were needed, and I imagine they'll reappear at some point.
So...detach when you can, when it's simply not worth the energy something consumes. Don't detach when it's important. Only you can decide which is which. I just know that I need to get better at this. I need to stop spinning my wheels. Sometimes, I just need to let go.
Diana Trout...who by the way is one awesome teacher!...is sending out little creativity nudges. Here's the fiirst one with which I had a great deal of fun. I loved just kicking back, grabbing whatever appealed to me from my scrap stash and just pasting it all down. The lady on the left was acquired at an Art & Soul event and the gal on the right came in a catalog the day I worked on this one. What's funny is that they almost mirror each other, which I didn't notice until about 2 days later. My best art really seems to happen by accident! I need to work on creativity nudge # 2 as well.
And, then there's Hanna! Hop over here for "49 Creative Things You Can Do Today." Hanna has put together the neatest list with each item linked to some wonderful eye candy and ideas for you to explore. I follow Hanna's blog, but I've bookmarked this entry so I can go back to it again and again and again. You're bound to find something that appeals to you, so quick...go, play!
Thank you all for the most wonderful messages about my dad. Each and every word made my smile. Ladies, you really are the best!
I spent a few precious hours playing in the art room yesterday and today...more of Michelle's GPP Street Team Crusade for this month. I played a bit with mixing white with each of the following: burnt sienna, Payne's Gray, and Quin Magenta. I worked with an old gift card and scraped on some paint thicker than others. If you look closely, I stamped a bit in the upper right corner using a cork, blotting it a bit with a paper towel afterwards to soften the circles and make them blend in a bit more.
The corrugated cardboard on the left had been used for mark making. I peeled away the backing to make it a bit thinner and flatter, but then went ahead and glued on a tiny umbrella from a strawberry smoothie I enjoyed at an "Artfest" on Solomon's Island, MD. The gal comes from a recent mail catalogue and the paper behind her from a mail art friend. A bit of stamping, a bit of jounaling with a fine tip Sharpie, and "tah dah!" another page!
Since I always use too much paint, no matter how hard I try, I always keep some extra paper nearby.
Except for the round "donuts," everything here is scraped as well. These are rather large sheets, so I'll ending up tearing them down to size and use them as pages for a future journal. I love accumulating a stash like this!
I keep a stash of expired gift cards and credit cards in my art room, and they bear signs of a great deal of use! So, I was tickled to see Michelle Ward's new crusade, which involves scraping on paint with old cards, scraps of cardboard, a palette knife, or anything else you can find.
I had already started something else on these two pages, but I didn't much like what I was seeing. I had already scraped on some paints, when I read about the newest crusade. So....I just kept going. Have to say that I really don't know where all this blue is coming from; it's not one of my favorite colors, but I sure do seem to be using a good deal of it lately.
The two little folks you see are stencil images and were already on the page when I began to cover everything up. Along with various shades of blues, including ones right out of the bottle, and some that I mixed, I also spritzed on some water and scraped. The water softened the acrylic that had dried, and when I scraped it took off very thin layers, and various images, like the people, began to peek through. Too quote Michelle, "How Cool Is That!"
The lines along the left side are prints made using a piece of scrap cardboard, and the rectangle above the people is a ticket stub from a concert. I love to "sneak in" this sort of everyday ephemera. And, I don't know where I cut out the words, but I'm pretty sure the universe is sending me a message again!
I'll be doing some journaling on these pages, but right now, I'm just letting them be.
Sometimes, I putter around for hours...painting, layering, gluing, and pasting. A sort of "Labor of Love," if you will.
I didn't have one of those times the other night. I had a "quick, just start gluing" sort of night.
Time to just grab bits and pieces of stuff on the art table...stuff that would be "garbage" to most folks...like the paint smeared deli paper that made a heck of a great background.
I needed to create even though I had my cranky pants on again...I hate entering grades!
I really needed just to play a bit, not really think about anything, and to get myself in a much better frame of mind!
I love this blue dog. I love random bits and pieces. I love making art!
