Drought,Quotes, and Morning Musings

We've had quite the drought here in the midwest and I have been in a bit of a creative drought myself.

After some very warm days it has cooled down quite a bit and my morning walk was quite invigorating.  Some morning musings:

" We are all born artists of some sort if we care enough to believe it."  Orly Avineri
This was in a blog I like to follow and it really rang true for me.  Believing in yourself as an artist is always a struggle, at least for me, so we have to put the self doubt aside and just "Believe".

"Normal is in the eye of the beholder"   Whoopi Goldberg
Not even sure where I saw this but it struck me as being so true and thought provoking.  What is "normal"?  Who and what defines  "normal".  Is anything really "normal"?  Do we need "normal"

So back in the studio and referring to my "idea book" that I made for the online class I am currently taking,
The Julie Prichard Mixed Media Variety Hour http://thelandoflostluggage.ning.com/group/the-julie-prichard-mixed-media-variety-hour?

Very old elementary school library book

The idea book is not really an art journal but more of a place to record ideas for future projects.  So I gathered some papers, an old elementary library book that I had purchased just for the pictures, and my 40 year old sewing machine.

selection of papers for pages of book

After some very frustrating machine and hand sewing I did manage to put together several pages to glue between the old book covers and make a new book.  the inside front and back cover of the original book were a little stained and moldy and after gluing the front and back end papers there still was some original showing that I didn't care for.  I decided to trim that out with an old measuring tape keeping with the "old" and "sewing", "hand made" theme.

signatures that will be sewn together for inside of book.

And I also decided to embellish the covers to put my own spin on them and make it more personalized to me.  Also took the leftover cut papers and embellished a few of the inside pages.

Finished book,front cover.

Here are the inside pages that hopefully will be filled with lots of new ideas!

Pages waiting for creative project ideas!

Now for some ideas?????????????  Have a few I'm working on.  Come on up and visit me in the treehouse studio and we can talk about them.

Summer Manifesto and a new class

Today is the first day of summer -officially- but it has been such a warm spring and June that it feels like it's been summer for a long time already.

And as if there's not enough to do in these short summer months I decided to take another online course.  This one is from Julie Prichard at The Land of Lost Luggage.  You can find the details here.http://www.julieprichard.com/blog/2012/6/16/my-dream-new-concept-in-online-teaching.html  I have taken several classes from Julie and I highly recommend them.  Once you sign up you can take them at your own pace, they have great videos, great PDFs and online support and community.  Really, make this part of your summer manifesto.

On my morning walk yesterday I picked up some varied leaves and decided to do leaf printing 101 in a few journals I'm currently working in.  So easy, so messy, so fun.  Nature never fails to inspire me.

dictionary pages and deli paper

in my journal using acrylic paint and inks

last page and inside back cover

on black gesso with gray paint

in altered book over bubble wrap print used first as a mask then with ink

So what do you have planned for your summer?  Come visit me in the treehouse and tell me about it.  I'll have the iced tea ready.

Still here

  

When I saw the date today I realized that it has been 1 month since I posted last and I wonder how this time has gone so fast and gotten away from me.  Do you feel like time goes faster the older you get?  We all live by the same time, 24 hours in a day, 7 days a week, about 4 weeks per month, 12 months a year and yet it feels so different for all of us.  For some it goes by way too fast and for some it seems to drag.  I guess it depends on your circumstances and how you see things, anticipation or dread, work or lack of, happiness or sadness, deadlines or open time, whatever,  it's all the same amount of time.  Whatever it is, seems I never have enough!

What I do know is I've been enjoying my time in and out of the Treehouse Studio.  I've been painting alot and doing tons of journaling.
                                                           
                                                       

These are two large paintings I'm working on with a limited color palette of Paynes Gray, VanDyke Brown, Red Iron Oxide, Titan Buff, and Titanium White.  They have an under layer of collage, old book pages and sheet music and some texture.

     I think this one is about finished-need to do some more highlighting and shading of the textured areas and then I'll finish up the other one with more glazing.  Hope to hang them side by side somewhere.

                 

From my "grunge class".....Mixed media collage using old papers, paint, stencilling, and glazes.                                        

And some in progress journal pages...... working in about 6 different journals right now.....ripping, gluing, painting, stamping, stencilling, writing,.... it's all good.....

  

The weather has also been glorious 

and I've enjoyed some great time outside walking and enjoying nature and picking up little treasure along the way.                        

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
- Rabindranath Tagore

I hope your time is well spent.  I also hope you find some time to just enjoy the moment-just as it is.  Have a safe and enjoyable holiday.  Mine will be divided between time outside and time in the studio-both well spent.

                       

                        

I hope your time is well spent.  I also hope you find some time to just enjoy the moment-just as it is.  Have a safe and enjoyable holiday.  Mine will be divided between time outside and time in the studio-both well spent.
                       
                     

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
- Rabindranath Tagore-

Which comes first, the picture or the page?

When I approach a journal page it is usually with no image in  mind.....I like to just start on a background and let it go from there.  But in Judy's class I have learned that a whole spread can be determined by one picture.  I have a copy of this picture, which I love, sitting around since I took my first online class with Misty Mawn.  So this time I chose some complementary colors and painted the background and did some stencilling with the picture in mind.

After playing around with the placement I decided it needed to be torn apart and some more paint elements were needed, so I ended up with this.....

I'll eventually do some written journalling when the mood strikes or I find a quote I like.  My other pages in this journal are pretty much backgrounds waiting for the right picture, quote, or inspiration.

This background was done a few days ago and ended up looking like this yesterday.....

 

And I never really liked this background page that I did earlier in the class so decided to add some watered down Gesso, some fun collage from an old pattern book I found in a thrift store, so it made quite a transformation.

 

And here are a few more WIP's (work in progress).........

So as you can see I'm all over the place with  this-which is why I love mixed media and art journaling.  I can try new things and do a little of everything.  Now I'm going to go work a bit on my abstract class.

Have a great week and go do something you love!

And now for something completely different.....

Hope everyone had a great Easter or Passover celebration.  I was lucky enough to spend mine with my son,daughter-in-law and two of my grandsons so it was full of joy!  I love this time of year and all it symbolizes to me-new beginnings, growth, hope.  So for new beginnings I'm taking a class online from Julie Prichard.  I've taken classes from her before and loved them.  And I think they are a bargain!  Lot's of videos with tons of information and great PDFs.  Also lot's of online support and encouragement from the instructor and other students.  I highly recommend them if you get a chance.



So this class is a little more abstract and first assignment was to journal with vintage papers and rip and tear with abandon.  I thought it was going to be easy for me because I love old paper, vintage look and tearing and pasting.  Well it was a lot harder than I thought and I'm still trying to let go and embrace imperfection.

Spring Break

Spring break for me was a break from my studio and a break from my three different online classes- a break I really didn't want to take.  But with four grandchildren here on their spring break other activities took priority-and my time and energy!  It was wonderful to have them here and play and now it's catch up time.  So yesterday I did some journal assignments from Judy's class,http://judywise.typepad.com/.a/6a0133f2045333970b015393eae4ee970b-pi. The first was a fun upside down "Picasso"face with fingerpainted background and the other a trace of my hands on fingerpainted and stamped background.  The process on both was freeing ans fun and it felt so good to be back in the studio.  Both need to be written on which hopefully I'll get to today and show you later.

 This was one of the firsts spreads I did in response to one of the first lessons.  We were to take some paper and write a list of what would make a perfect day.  I was a little too detailed and when I went to paste in my list it wouldn't fit on the 2 page spread.  I really didn't want to do it over or shorten it-I enjoyed being in the moment when I wrote it and it was free flowing and captured my feelings at the time.  So  I accordian folded the list and glued them to the page.  Of course then there was the problem of the journal closing or being able to flip to other pages.

So I decided to tie some thin pieces of jute from the back of the pages to the front to hold down the list pieces, but they can be easily opened and read if I want and then be put back in place.  Just poked holes with an awl and then pulled the jute through with a darning needle.  And I don't mind the length of jute on the back of the pages-adds some interesting texture.

 This is another page in progress that needs some journaling.  The face was drawn with india ink on the decorative paper we made which I showed you in the last post.  And not sure if I showed you the actual hand bound journal - here it is. 2 canvas boards that I painted are the front and back cover and it's filled with three 6 page signatures.  I'm going to keep adding to the cover as I go and hopefully bead  the hanging strings from the stitched binding.

I'm really learning a lot of fun techniques in this class and look forward to filling the pages.  Going up to the treehouse now to do some catching up although it is such a beautiful day here, this is where I really want to be.