A Mixed Bag

 I had a quiet weekend at home, and managed some good quality time in my studio.  I'm very grateful as my weekends are booked up for the next month - not sure how that happened!  And it was too disgustingly hot outside to do anything else anyway!

I worked on a mixed bag of things, some that had been started and never finished, and one impulse page in my fabric art journal done on plaster, below.

The flower here was created on a separate page, and cut out and added here with foam tape so it stands above the page.  I tried to get a better picture of that in the second picture.

If this one looks familiar, I've created a similar flower before based on the same picture.  I find these so fun and relaxing to draw and paint.

I also decided to tackle one more man/bird, and made him a little mask as well.

I'm not sure if he's going here

Or here...

I may not be posting much, if any, in August, but I'll still be checking out your blogs whenever I get the chance!

Live in the work of your own making...

I was just playing in one of my art journals, and had the masochistic idea to create a portrait with oil pastels after the rest of the page was already done.  I don't highly recommend doing this over a dark background like this, especially on a highly textured page, but I persevered.  Her hair is done with an Inktense pencil, I didn't have it in me to try doing that with oil pastels also.  She looks highly skeptical of something, to me.

The quote says "live in the work of your own making, not that of others" -  from Robert Genn who I get words of wisdom from in his weekly artist newletter e-mails.  It had struck me as very wise...

Fini!

I am such an idiot. I finally finished my first Moleskine journal (it took me a LONG time, but in my own defense I did work on others at the same time), and for the final page I wrote "finished" in French, and managed to spell it wrong.  As I was putting the title on this post it suddenly ocurred to me that I might have, and I looked it up and sure enough... I don't know why I chose French, when I've actually studied Italian! Oh well - this doesn't even come close to the time when, after my first visit to the kitchen store Sur Le Table with several women, I pronounced Table just like it's pronounced in English.  I had no idea that the word is spelled the same in the two languages, but pronounced "Tob" in French.  I've never lived that one down...

Below are some of the final pages in the journal.  The scans turned out terrible because the journal is so fat now and right at the end.  And it's possible I may have rushed the pages just a bit, in my desire for the journal to be completed.... they aren't my best...

Art Journal Catch-up

I thought I'd share some of my more presentable art journal pages, I don't know why I don't post them as I do them...  I guess I'm lazy and like to scan them all at once, usually when I want to use a copy of a part of one in something else...

This is a birthday card I made for a friend. One advantage of almost no one I know being aware that I have a blog, is that it makes it possible for me to post cards and gifts I make...

And finally I have to share this link : http://now.msn.com/now/0328-dog-saves-life.aspx#scptmd.  I don't know if it's because I have a Basset Hound too, but it actually made me cry with laughter, and for my English friends, you'll be proud to know this was on your turf!

CRUSADE No. 61 ~ Restraining Order

Michelle Ward's last Green Pepper Press Street Team challenge (only for a little while, we hope!), is about using restraint, not feeling the need to cover every inch of a journal page - that it takes bravery sometimes to leave blank areas.  I found this to be so true after I'd read her post when working in my journal.

This page I had sketched out a couple of weeks ago and made a little bit of a start on.  I started on it again, and was planning little fish cut out of an old dictionary, and I was going to put things in the boat, things she carried with her on her journy, and birds in the sky etc, but then I realized that this was exactly what Michelle was talking about.  Why not stop, and let the focal image just speak for itself, why clutter it up? So, it wasn't easy, but I used restraint, and am happy that I did....

GPP Street Team - What I love

This month's crusade on Michelle Ward's Green Pepper Press Street team is to do a journal page about what we love.  I've been wanting to participate in this fun monthly crusade for a while, as I love Michelle Ward and this seems like a really great group who do great work - the website is here. I've finally gotten my act together this month enough to do it!  Here is the challenge:

I decided to make a page (in my new journal I just made, my first attempt at making one) with things I love to make art with. It was a lot of fun digging through my stash to find things that could go on a page, and of course I love it, because it's made of all things I love!

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...