Art Journaling and Inspiration Paralysis

I thought I'd share some of my art journal pages.  This is a variety that I happened to have scanned, as you can see I flit around a lot between different styles and mediums, depending on my current inspiration and what I may want to experiment with.  I love art journals, I love the whole thought of them. Art done just for yourself, with no one else to try to please, no wondering what you'll do with your piece when it's done. It just sits there on a shelf waiting for you to flip through and enjoy all over again.  I'm very sporadic about it though.  I feel sometimes like a sponge, that's absorbed too much inspiration, ideas and techniques to try, and it paralyzes me. Having a full-time job, when I finally find the time and energy to sit down in my "studio" (corner of our guest room), deciding what to settle down and work on is always the most difficult part. Sometimes I wish I had settled on just one thing that is my thing, art journals, painting, encaustic, plaster, assemblage etc.  Then I could just focus on that one thing and have less noise in my head, but I can't, I love them all. Maybe someday...

Industrial Goodness

I'm so excited about my new table that my significant other made, that I just have to share. We made some changes in the kitchen, and suddenly the console table I had in this spot looked completely out of place. Especially once I put up the old iron industrial window frames turned into a mirror above it. So I challenged my man to make me one, and boy did he come through. We found an old door that we used for the wood shelves, then he scoured iron yards for old rusty pieces that he could use, and really scored when he found the old casters.

I've been having fun decorating it. Old locker baskets, an old metal drawer, my old scale, and under the plant is my wonderful old prescription book from 1917 that I got recently. This will no doubt be an ever-changing display. Next step is painting the kitchen floor, checkerboard I think...

Crackled Plaster

I've been playing with a crackled plaster on burlap method I learned from Stephanie Lee, although I did it somewhat differently. I love burlap, and I like to leave it showing around the edges and outside. It was really fun, and messy, and I absolutely love all the cracks that are brought out by layers of paint. I wanted to keep the artwork simple, so as not to compete too much with the cracks and texture.The "A" on the top one was an old metal piece I got somewhere, and I've been reluctant to use it, as I am with many of my finds. But this piece just seemed to call out for it. The sunflower's center, below, is made from the outside spout of an old watering can, and the petals are made from an old sewing pattern and wire. I've had it in my head for a while, and I finally decided this was the piece to do it on. Really fun...

Halloween!

Fall has finally arrived here, my favorite time of year. My house is decorated, and I even made soup last night.  I get a little giddy this time of year, summers here are so hot that I start longing for Fall around the beginning of August, so when it finally arrives it's like heaven. To celebrate I made this collage piece over the weekend, it was a lot of fun. I love these kind of very old anatomical illustrations, and have been wanting to incorporate one into a piece. I like the combination of drippy paint, torn cobwebby cheesecloth, and "crystals", kind of a gothic feel to it, lightened up with the quotation "Trick or Treat, give me something good to eat", which is hard to read in this picture. Plus, the base layer is a page from my wonderful 1917 subscription ledger from Boston that I found last weekend in Petaluma. It's such a big fat book that it can definitely spare some pages...