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...

Petaluma Inspiration

My Mom and I went to Petaluma over the weekend, for 2 reasons. One was Halloween & Vine, a juried Halloween art show that I'd heard about that I've wanted to go to. It was wonderful, really amazing (although in most cases shockingly expensive) original art. My favorite by far was actually one of the more reasonable vendors, and I just have to share pictures of the two pieces I bought (one is a gift, I swear!).

My pictures are terrible, I took them last night in awful light, but these are just so amazingly creative, she gets such amazing character out of these felt ( I assume) faces, and uses such wonderful accessories. It was torturous picking two of them...Here's her etsy site.
The other reason we were there was the Art Is You art retreat they had there for the first time. Actually attending the retreat and taking classes wasn't in the financial cards for me this year, but they had a trunk show Saturday night that was open to the public. Oh my gosh, I got to see some amazing art that I've only seen online, and meet some amazing artists in person. I got to meet Michael DeMeng, he was so nice, and so down to earth, which I already knew just from reading his book, "Secrets of Rusty Things" but it was so exciting to meet him and see his work in person. His fiance Andrea Matus, equally creative and amazing, was also so nice and easy to talk to. She has a piece that I just stared and stared at when looking at the available classes for the retreat, and it was wonderful to get to look at it in person, see it here. I got to meet some other amazing artists, and I left feeling so inspired, and really hoping I can attend next year.

Phrenology Love

I don't know what it is about these Phrenology heads that I love so much - it was pseudo-science at best, but the images speak to me of self-analysis, looking inward and understanding what makes yourself tick. Plus there's just something visually appealing about them. I'm lucky enough to have found an old book devoted entirely to Phrenology, so I can use the images and some of the text.  This is one of my plaster experiments, I love applying plaster somewhat roughly, then playing with the texture with layers of paint. And I just love this little metal plaque, maybe an old bicycle license plate? I was thrilled that it says BE, sometimes it's so hard to just be, to be comfortable in our own skin. Anyway, I attached it with some old rusty baling wire that someone gave me - people know that if it's rusty, I'll take it off their hands!  There are a couple of coats of clear encaustic wax applied as well, which I think gives it a dreamy quality. Since I'm on the subject, here's another piece I have right now featuring a phrenology head...

I made this using plaster gauze wrapped around a wood board - it adds great texture.The dots are made from molding paste, and there's the requisite piece of old mystery hardware and some rusty wire wrapped around it...As my significant other said, this one is SO me....

Time

This is the first time I've ever posted my work for the world to see (not that the world is looking!), and for some reason it gives me butterflies, but I promised myself to be braver and this is certainly part of it. I like the fact too that this can be a place where I can see the progress of my art journey, whatever that will be. This was my project over the weekend, and I had a lot of fun. I struggle to give up my rusty and old bits and pieces I collect to use in my mixed media pieces, so it was a little hard for me to use so many of my old watch parts, but it was worth it. I am very drawn to old clocks and timepieces and parts - the passage of time, and the nostalgia of the past affect me strongly and I naturally tend to reflect this in my art.  I also love drawing faces (thank you Suzi Blu!) so this was fun to incorporate both. She looks a little sad, but I do believe that time does have a lot of power to heal...