See you in September....

What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness. ~John Steinbeck









How can it be the last day of August?  Although Fall is one of my very favorite seasons I am not ready for summer to come to an end.  It went by way too fast.  I find myself saying that a lot lately.  But as Joni Mitchell sings "the seasons they go 'round and 'round-we're captured on the carousel of time".  I did get to spend quite a bit of time in the "treehouse studio", journaling, trying new things, making messes that never seem to get totally cleaned up.



Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.  ~Twyla Tharp

working on some more abstract pieces.

Started an altered book with a thrift store childrens book-embellishing the existing pages and making it my own.

Did a piece that I call my homage to Back to School-thinking about how schools no longer teach beautiful cursive handwriting,  how library time is limited to once in blue moon, feeling nostalgic for how things once were......

And even added some embellishment to this piece with my sewing machine while I had it out for my sewn tags.



What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit.  ~John Updike


As always my journals kept me company and provided
space for practice and play and just plain letting go.

Ledger turned Art Journal

Final page in my Canson Mixed Media Journal.

Hope you had a good August.       See you in September.     Enjoy life.

Evidence-Prepping and Playing

I think I may have mentioned before that I like to work in more than one journal at a time.  When I find time to be in the studio I like to start a few things while something else is drying.  Plus I just like to try stuff-I'm all over the place.  I started to count all in progress journals I have and stopped before I reached a number I won't even divulge.  Not to mention the altered books I'm working in also.  But it works for me.

Gessoed pages drying on the studio floor

  Sometimes I'll just take some time to prep pages-I always coat them with gesso before I start painting or collaging so they will stand up to the abuse different techniques and mediums I use.  And sometimes I go up to the studio with no ideas, no expectations, and when an idea strikes or I just want to enjoy the process I have something in some journal ready to go.

 Many times I go up with the intention of cleaning and re-organizing and an old paint color I forgot about insists on going down or a torn page or collage image needs to be glued down.  Maybe an idea needs to be worked out in a sketchbook,  or maybe a new technique or supply needs to be tried.  I'm always prepared!

Prepped page patiently waiting.

Journal Page

Large and small journals in progress.

Old ledger turned journal.

And sometimes I just need to play, not worry about the outcome, composition, color, image, design.  I just want to splash, spritz, rip, tear, cut, glue,  and see what happens-no expectations-no pressure.  Just do what I like to do.  That's what I did the last couple of days-I needed to.  No deep thought, no self criticism, just doing what I know how to do, playing, having fun.

 Painted Papers

 
 
Tags made from painted papers, old book pages, sheet music, etc.




Of course that comes with a price-the treehouse studio is a disaster and sadly in need of cleaning and re-organizing.  Why don't you come on up and help me?  I'll show you a journal or two or........