Art Journal: June

A recent page from my art journal.

Sometimes the worries of life can get the best of us. 

Sometimes life requires more than we have to give at the moment. 

Sometimes the challenges that we face are steep and the paths are rocky. 

Sometimes we lose our footing. 

Sometimes we experience the pain of life as well as the joy. 

Sometimes it's easier (and more fun!) to dream of being somewhere else. 

We do what we must. 

We persevere. 

We keep going. 

Choosing to stay present.

Taking one step at a time.

And still dreaming...

peace. ♥

Untitled Collage

Nothing makes me happier than creating something the speaks the truth of my heart.

I ran across this quote today that encouraged and inspired me:

"How I use the material at hand is often more important than the material itself."
~Kurt Schwitters
From Launa D. Romoff's site

These Hands

"My hands are small, I know
But they're not yours, they are my own"

~Jewel 

 

Art Journaling: Dare to Jump into the Unknown

I have a confession to make.
My art journal has become my best friend. I love my art journal. I even have a small art journal that I keep in my purse along with a graphite pencil, .05 micron pen, a travel watercolor set and water fillable brushes just in case...when I'm out and about. You never know when you'll have an idea strike or catch some kind of inspiration! My art journal is where I can experiment with different mediums, try new things, take creative risks and speak my heart without fear of judgement or rejection. When I'm working in my art journal, I feel like a kindergartener on the playground! It's not only important for me to have a place to experiment and practice as an artist but I need it for my soul. Sometimes it's just easier to say things in colors and images rather than words. I can be simple or I can be complicated with as many layers as I want. I can lay stuff down quickly and intuitively or I can really think through my composition. It just depends on where I'm at and what I need at that moment. My art journaling actually started with scrapbooking. My scrapbooks started to become more than places to place photographs, tickets, certificates, maps, and other ephemera. They became a place to store my thoughts, wishes, celebrations and dreams. I longed for a place to play with color, paint and paper and juxtaposition those with my thoughts or quotes that expressed my thoughts or heart-felt sentiments. That's when my art journal became the place to document my soul's journey.

Here's a peak:

 There are so many ways to create and keep an art journal. It can be art focused as a place to practice sketching, say, or it can be the place where you keep your innermost thoughts or a combination. What I love the most about art journaling is that there are really no rules, you make up your own ways of doing it and you can use any kind of materials you want. Your art journal needs to be authentically YOU. You use your daily life and thoughts as the subject matter and with so much variety of materials available, you're sure to have a never-ending, plethora of ideas! The skies the limit, the only question is:

 How far can you let yourself go?

I'm inspired by those who art journal and who are willing to share parts of their art journal. Art journalists like Michelle Ward, Pam Carriker, Traci Bautista and Pam Garrison are a few of my favorites and there are many, many more! This magazine is to swoon over! Do you have an art journal? I'd love to see some pics! Share your art journaling links and your favorite materials to work with in the comments section!

Strathmore Online Workshop Week 4 Update

Here's week 4, the final stage:

This workshop hosted by Strathmore and taught by Pam Carriker was so much fun. I used different mediums than I'm used to, learn some different techniques, and expanded my perception a bit. Plus it was free to boot and still open to those who want to give it a shot. Thank you, Strathmore and Pam for making this available!

Strathmore Online Workshop Week 3 Update

Here is my page for the end of week 3 of the Strathmore Online Workshop by Pam Carriker:

Strathmore Online Workshop Week 2

I joined the Strathmore Online Workshop Visual Journal Series and am just loving it! There are three different workshop series and Pam Carriker is conducting the first one on Recycled Journal Pages. It's so interesting to take finished art and look at it in a new way. The first week, we were to make copies of past art and cut and tear them to make elements for our new page. I used a graphite pencil and journaled between the torn strips and then covered the journaling partially with gesso.

The second week, we were to use charcoal to add definition and shadows. And THEN, oil pastels! I had never used oil pastels before, and what a treat! I just fell in love with them. I love how they glide over the page and interact with the gesso. It was so gratifying to push the colors over the page with my fingers and blend them into one another to create color, definition and interest.

I'm excited to see what Pam has in store for Week 3! Strathmore is offering these workshops for free and it's not too late to join. The Visual Journal is a great journal for working in with mixed media. It's a heavy water color paper that has the ability to hold lots of different media and layers.

Focus Your Thoughts...Choose What You Love

Another page from my art journal.

To Love and Be Loved

No Brushes Allowed!

It's Street Team Challenge time!

 

Last month was Text Messaging and thank you to everyone who encouraged me with their kind comments. It is truly a joy to participate in these challenges. I learn new things every time not only from working on my own project but also from seeing what all of you come up with in your interpretations of the challenge. It is so much fun to meet and hear from new friends from all over the world.

This month: In A Scrape, No Brushes Allowed. This month we were to scrape on layers of gesso and paint using an old credit card or flat edged tool to result in a grungy, textured background. My cup of tea, I love to work in layers and get messy! I was really excited to experiment with gesso as I have not used it that much. Now, I will use it a lot! The gesso and paint react to each other in interesting ways and create really cool textures together. So, without further adieu...

I began by layering brown acrylic paint over a layer of gesso and layering another coat of gesso over the brown. The layers created an interesting effect together. While that was drying...

I went back to a couple of earlier challenges (#27) & (#19) and created some stencils and masks. I made them out of old manila folders. I used these and scraped colors onto my background.

Then, using my stencils, I added a couple of stars in the corners and wrote a couple of quotes with a white gel pen.

I couldn't stop there, so here are a couple of others:

This one was made with some cool stencils I purchased from Tattered Angels. I absolutely love them. I think they work better with brushes or by spraying paint or ink on them. Scraping the paint across them required a lot of paint to cover the intricate details and it became really thick. After drying overnight, however, it has a really cool texture.

On this one, I started with gesso and scraped on some black plum acrylic paint. Then I spritzed on some water and let it set for a few minutes, scraped again and voila, cool splatters. I'll use this grungy background for something else later. 

Thanks, Michelle, for another great challenge. I learned so much on this one! 

Texting

 
I had so much fun with Michelle Ward's Street Team challenge last month that I'm once again participating. This month the challenge is to cut or tear typography text and use composition techniques to place on a page or two. I made a two-page spread in my art journal as I did last month. I tend to like to cohesiveness of a two-page spread. I was a little short on newspapers and mags and such to find cool typography and so was relegated to my daughter's discarded teen mags. I found quite a few cool and very colorful, albeit youthful texts.

I noticed that the messages in the teen mags are getting more and more positive, uplifting and encouraging.  Lots of color, energy and fun with a focus on the possibilities of life.Very cool!

I just ordered some cool stencils and would like to paint and/or spray over the top of these, but will have to wait until they get here.
Thanks, Michelle! Another fun challenge. I can't wait until next month to see what else you have up your sleeve!

Beauty