HealingBalancePassion

New blog

2011-03-05T16:11:00.000-08:00

This will be my last post on this blog, please follow my new blog, Red Paint and Blue Skies. If you are a follower of this blog, please change your preferences to my new one, or bookmark the new one. I plan to be more consistent at my new home!

A new year, and a new life

2011-01-11T10:23:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted since September, which is maybe the longest I have gone without a post. I am not going to write much about the what and why's, but here is the story in a very small nutshell. My husband asked me for a divorce in November, we are signing the papers on Thursday, and my life as I had known it and thought it would continue, is over.

Here is the good and new part: my new life is beginning now. I have been, and will continue to be, sad about the losses, but I choose LIFE and I am open to embracing every new thing that comes my way.

I joined the MONDO BEYONDO class which started this week (see button in my sidebar, they are still open) and this is my first posting to the site:

"I am here to be wide open to whatever is coming my way. I intend to be open to the new, and to say yes more, to be curious about new experiences.

I have been given the opportunity to completely reinvent my life, and though it wasn't my choice, I have decided to embrace this opportunity and look for everything good and collect blessings along the way (this is already happening).

I am taking this class because I need a nudge to dream bigger, I have nothing but space, so I may as well!"

And now it is September

2010-09-03T06:55:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that I haven't posted since June. It has been a busy summer, but busy with what, I am not quite sure. I have a little art to show, these were done in July, though. There was also a Gussy retreat in July, and a lot of journal pages were done. Maybe I will post some of those later.

I have been making small collages with paper and paint on canvases. This one is 8 x 10.

Playing with paper

2010-06-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

I love this book by Esther K. Smith! I found it at the library a couple of months ago, and I kept renewing it until last week, when the library REALLY wanted it back. I finally had to break down and buy it! I know that I will use it over and over, though, and those are the books one really needs to purchase.

Magic Books contains lots of very clever ways to create books and toys out of paper, most involving paper folding.

Esther K. Smith is a very inventive book artist, her first book, How To Make Books, is another favorite. I highly recommend it if you are at all interested in making books, wonderful instructions and humor.

Yesterday I made a birthday card for a good friend's 60th birthday using one of the ideas from Magic Toys. I used the map fold with a cover, to the right is the cover.

This is the inside of the card, lots of cool folds on which to add bits. It was difficult to photograph, but the top of the card has a picture from a 1931 magazine of two ladies gossiping (in evening gowns) by a wall. Under it I wrote, "Did you hear that N... is going to be 60???" Another face says, "NO WAY!", below that,
another face says, "Darling, I simply can't believe that!"

At the bottom, there is a cake, on which I drew 60 candles and wrote, "I do believe there are 60 candles on that cake..." and added my birthday wishes.

It was a fun project, I enjoy making cards, and this one was especially fun!

I have been working on a collage on canvas board for a few days, and really enjoying that. That will probably be the subject of my next post! Off to the Edmonds Art Festival!

First Swap in a long time...

2010-06-06T14:04:00.000-07:00

I decided to join a swap with Alpha Stamps, an online retailer of cool collage sheets, decorative paper, rubber stamps, ephemera, book making supplies, etc. I am on their newsletter mailing list, and always enjoy looking at the newest offerings from the company. They are usually grouped by theme, and periodically the Alpha Stamps yahoo group hosts a swap. Some time in May, a ginormous tag swap with the theme Mad Hatter's tea party was announced, and I was hooked! The possibilities for collage sheets and stamps were very enticing! Also, the color theme was black and red, two of my favorite colors for making art.

One tag is on the right and just above. I don't usually use too many embellishments in things I make, but they were a requirement for this swap. There is a hanging medallion which says "we are all mad here" which I ordered from Alpha Stamps (with each of their swaps, it is specified what items must be used on the swap, and there is usually a sale page for those signed up for the swap. There are really only a couple of things required, on this one I was required to use a collage sheet from A.S. and some sort of embellishment, and the colors black and red, as well as a ginormous tag. The tag is 3 1/2"x7", which is a nice size to work on.

My second tag is to the left. The words say "Like a tea tray in the sky", the Mad Hatter's version of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. I will get two tags in return, the quality of work done in this group is very high, and I am looking forward to receiving my tags!

I used to do a lot of swaps, when I first got interested in making mixed media art. I was in several fatbooks, and a couple of ATC swaps. I liked them, but I got tired of making so many of the same thing, so I haven't done any for probably three years.

I don't really have time to get in to many swaps, but I will do another one with this group, if the theme strikes me the way this one did!

Fun Find

2010-06-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was scouting around Country Village in Bothell with a friend and found this odd little table in front of an antique mall. I loved the funky chartreuse color and I really loved the price: FREE!

The top of the cabinet lifts up, and there were file folders inside...the old fashioned ones with metal tabs on the edge, another bonus! The table extension folds down, to make it quite compact. I thought about it for a few minutes, we live in an apartment with very limited room after all. I decided it would make a great addition to our patio, where the table will come in handy for holding our plates and glasses when we eat outside, or perhaps my journal?? The outside journaling idea sold the deal, so we scooped it up and took it home!

Here is another view of the outside of the antique mall. I love the old windows, but we already have one hanging on the outside wall of our patio.

My husband is usually the champ of thrift store shopping and dumpster diving, but I think I did pretty well this time!

I Love Creating Books!

2010-05-30T16:05:00.000-07:00

I love creating books! I am still on the photocrawl thing, I offered to create a collaborative book of our experience at Pike Place Market. Everyone sent me photos from the day, and I made books with all of the photos and some writing submitted along with the photos. I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do with the books, as a couple of the women in the group were really busy and so we made the deadline to send me the photos May 1.

I found a very simple book with a rubber band and pencil (or stick) binding, and decided to use that. The pages are brown kraft paper, and I cut covers from some red file folders I had left over from a filing project! The camera paper on the cover is so great, I found it while shopping with my daughter, and almost forgot about it when I was making the books!

The photo above is of one of the inside pages, I printed the sentences on graph paper in a typewriter font.

I love kraft paper, it set off the photos very nicely, I think. I throughly enjoyed making these books!

April Journaling Retreat and New Pogo trick!

2010-04-17T11:11:00.000-07:00

Last week my wonderful group of art journaling friends had another 4 day retreat on Guemes Island. I didn't feel as productive as I have in the past, but I took quite a few pictures and had a good time. Yesterday on Facebook, I found Traci Bunkers work with Polaroid Pogo printers, she had done a double exposure! It is so simple, all you need to do is print one image, then run that print back through the printer and print a different image!

I played around with it last night with pictures of Catherine and Celeste, and pages they worked on at the retreat. There was a little too much dark in each of the images, so they aren't very clear, but you can get the idea! Traci also had a link to a very cool video which showed some truly awesome things to do with the prints from the Pogo. If you have been thinking about getting a Pogo, this ought to push you to do it!

Photocrawl: the second, in which we encounter the CEntEr oF the UNIverSe

2010-03-28T10:41:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday a different group of local photoart journal-ists met up to crawl the Fremont Sunday Market! Michele, Louie, Suze and I met at Alderwood mall and drove together to Fremont. I haven't been to Fremont for years, and if I had been dropped there, I am not sure I would have known where I was it has changed that much! Of course, the landmarks are still there, the Fremont bridge, the Aurora Bridge and Waiting for the Interurban, but there are condos galore, and very spiffed up businesses, like the new (at least to me) Fremont PCC.

The market was really great! There were some street performers, and lots of very interesting booths, as well as an underground flea market that was fabulous! We wandered around, shopping, taking photos, trying out hula hoops, talking to people, and then went to Blue Moon Burgers to eat and work on journals.

My scanner messed the blacks in the page on the right... Louie doesn't really have scary green eyes...she has very nice eyes! Louie is one of the most prolific members of the photo group, and this was my first time meeting her. She brought her sister-in-law, Suze, who was a wonderful addition to the group!

I had a very good time shopping at the market, especially the hypermarket, underground. I loved the flea market! Michele and I kept each other from adding too much to our already overflowing stashes!

I was a little too caught up in shopping and didn't take as many photos as I would have liked, I realized as we sat in the Blue Moon deciding what photos to print. Maybe when I go again, I will be more focused (pun intended)!

I am very happy with my second photocrawl journal, I have an idea to do a whole series of them, in this format and to create a boxed set!

Louie and Michele have also blogged about the day, and their journals, check them out!

Photocrawl Seattle!

2010-03-09T08:25:00.000-08:00

First a little background, I am a member of the photoart journal yahoo group started by Catherine Anderson four years ago. Having a subject to work with for our frequent collaborative photoart books has really helped me to see more intensely. I have an excuse to focus on the things I see that interest me and capture them with my point and shoot camera (I am no great photographer, but my little camera is almost always with me!)

Almost two years ago, I had the idea that it would be really fun to gather some of the members of the yahoo group who live in the Seattle area and do a photocrawl, much like a sketch crawl, only with our cameras. Scheduling difficulties and my broken wrist kept the idea on the back burner until this month. On Saturday, Paula and Jan took the train up from Vancouver, WA and Dawn and I met them to do our first photocrawl at the Pike Place Market!

All of us are art journalers, so we included journaling after a few hours of photography. I made some simple folded paper books for everyone and using our Pogo printers, we printed some of our photos and each worked on a small book of the day. If you click on everyone's link above, you will eventually see their books. Paula's is up now, and mine is below.

It was a wonderful experience, I realized that though I have been to the Market 100's of times, I have never had a camera with me! I ended up seeing the Market with new eyes! I loved all of the neon, but never really registered it before. It was also very satisfying to make and complete a little journal so quickly.

We all loved the day, and look forward to more photocrawls, in Seattle and Portland!

Orange and Purple

2010-02-26T19:38:00.000-08:00

Are two of my favorite colors! I am in a wonderful yahoo group called Photoart Journals. For the past few months we have been doing a series of color photo books. My favorite colors didn't come up until the end, and I had a lot of fun getting these shots.

I went to the produce department at Central Market (organic, of course!) to take these. Obviously, I found more orange than purple, but I like the cabbage shot! (The top photo is golden beets, and the middle photo is of habanero peppers.)

I have not posted much lately, I need to catch up! I will be back soon...

Reflecting on hands

2009-12-15T08:22:00.001-08:00

I feel a little like I am cheating here, using more photos from my Point and Shoot journal, and of the October assignments at that, but I have been busy with preparations for Christmas, so a reflection on hands seemed appropriate!

I am making things this Christmas, for the first time in a few years. Yes, I know this is a little crazy for someone who calls themselves an artist! As is the case for many this year, things are a little tight financially. I am using things I already had to make a few gifts. There is something so satisfying about that! It seems easier to buy something already made, but the fun is in the planning and the making, for me.Offering for this day, 10 days before Christmas, all the things that hands can do! I am especially grateful for my hands' ability at this moment, having recovered from a broken wrist at the beginning of this year.

I also offer another plug for LK Ludwig, she is offering a photo prompt a day from Dec. 14 until January 1st. I will try to play along, as well! I am also taking her painting class, which started yesterday! I am sorry, the photo prompt link doesn't work, and blogger won't let me delete it! Go to LK's blog (that link does work) and you will find it.

I never used to have any trouble with blogger, and now my posts look ridiculous! It highlights text I don't want highlighted, and does other crazy stuff... Any ideas?

Point and Shoot Journaling

2009-12-01T08:00:00.000-08:00

I have been taking LK Ludwig's Point and Shoot Journaling classes online, I wrote about my first assignments on Oct. 13, and didn't do any more than print out photos after that until I went to the second art journaling retreat. I had created a simple journal with heavy watercolor paper pages, and painted them ready to go.

I worked with my photos and this journal most of the time. Below is my first attempt doing a technique involving tissue paper and matte medium and colored pencils. I found this technique quite addicting, and very fun. I don't want to describe the technique too much, as it is part of LK's class.
This photo is part of the journey series. I used white china marker on in. It is printed on a cool matte photo paper, which I LOVE. Journaling done with a white inkssentials pen, which is my new favorite white pen. It wrote easily over the rough surface of the watercolor paper, and on the glossy surface of several photos, too. They can be found at Michael's in the scrapbook section, with Ranger supplies. I give you that little hint, because I had to go twice to find it, the staff don't know what they have or don't have!Below is a self-portrait, done again with the colored pencil technique. I really love it. The journaling says it is the only self portrait I have ever taken that I even half-way liked.
Blogger is giving me fits today, and everything is out of order. Above is the cover of my point and shoot journal. I did this at the retreat, and I really like it. I have a huge thing for black and white and red...

Another "journey" photo. I also quite like taking photos in the side-view mirror!
LK is doing this class on a month-to-month basis, and I took November's class, also. She is doing it again for December, and adding another class about making background pages for art journals starting in the middle of December and running for 6 weeks. All the information is on her blog, click on the link a few paragraphs above and check it out. I have really enjoyed the classes so far, and there are new assignments and techniques every month.

Another Journaling Retreat

2009-11-29T13:39:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of this month, the wonderful artists called "the Gussies" assembled again for 4 days of art journaling. This time we went to a wonderful house on Guemes Island, which will be our permanent home (we hope!).

This is the beautiful place where we stayed. The rooms were large and light-filled, there was plenty of room for us to spread out and work. The kitchen was huge and very well equipped. This is important, as food is a very important part of this weekend! As you can see below, we had a lot of supplies with us!On Saturday afternoon, four of us took a walk with our cameras from the house down to the water. I think that all of us got photos of the others taking photos! Celeste has a great silhouette photo of us on her blog, and more photos of the retreat.Next up, what I did while on the retreat--I was productive!

Point and Shoot Journaling Class

2009-10-13T11:04:00.001-07:00

I am taking a class online from LK Ludwig called Point and Shoot Journaling. I have my interpretation of the first assignment above and below. We were to find two images from our archives of photos that resonated for us, and then a third image that could serve as an echo.

I chose the first two because they seemed to match my current mood. I have been feeling closed off, and distant. The window and gazing into the distance seemed so lonely. We were to make our images black and white, and for me, that furthered the mood.

Journaling exercises helped to come up with words to express the mood. The final photo is an echo, for me that was removing the glass, and "engaging the world". I have never worked with journaling prompts before, but I am really liking that aspect of the assignments.

I love photography also, and being able to work with old photos and make them central to a journal page is what attracted me to this class. I also love LK's work, so I knew it would be a good class!

This class runs through the month of October, but I think that it will be offered every month, here is a link, check it out! There is a button in the right side bar, and if you scroll down through a few posts to about Sept. 8 or 9, you will find an explanation of the class.

More Journal Pages

2009-09-20T17:36:00.001-07:00

This is one of the kind of strange pieces I did at the journaling retreat. I found a photo in the Seattle Times of a geisha holding a large paper umbrella, wearing a kimono with a similar pattern on the lower part of the kimono. I loved the graphic boldness of the photo, and was trying to use a technique I learned in a class I took from LK Ludwig at ArtFest a few years ago.

It had to do with abstracting the image, so I took shapes from magazines, roughly corresponding to the shapes in the photo, and collaged them on to a large journal page. I am happy with how it turned out, and it was a stretch for me to do the exercise. I am not done with the process, I am going to try to abstract it even more.
The one one above was a hot mess while I was working on it. It may still look like one. I had done a water transfer of a photo on the page to start, and it didn't transfer very well, lots of blank spots. I decided to glue a doily over one spot that was especially blank, and I used glue stick (on a doily, with holes in it), so I had glue everywhere, oozing through the holes. To cover up all that glue, I started putting pieces of a deconstructed paper napkin over the glue-y holes, with the napkin sticking to my fingers, etc.

I probably would have been smart to just tear out this page and start over, but I was determined to keep going and see if I could salvage the thing. Our watch word that weekend was "just glue s*** down", so I kept going on it. This was also the first thing I attempted when the weekend began, and I was seriously out of practice.

I ended up coloring some of the children in the photo, using Caran d'ache, and drawing in features with a pencil. I liked the look of that. Some more collage added here and there. It may still be a hot mess, but I salvaged it enough for my taste, and won't be tearing it out of the book.
I just loved the image here, it was from one of the Departure magazines we all loved so much. I found the crucifix figure in the same issue of the magazine. I will add more to this, but it is hard, because I really like the way it looks right now. I am also trying not to get too attached to things I think are too good. It can be as much of a stumbling block as the ugly ones, probably more.

What I Did on My Journaling Retreat

2009-09-10T06:42:00.000-07:00

The journaling retreat in August was so much fun, I did some seriously ugly stuff to start off with, because it had been so long since I had gotten out the journaling supplies. I knew I had to just start "gluing s*** down" (this was one of our catch-phrases for the weekend) and not obsess about what I was doing. I would be happy to share those pages, but I did them in a really large journal, too large to scan. I actually ended up liking some of them, I had to just keep messing with them until there was something there.
I was more in a groove on Friday, our first day of journaling, Rose brought many copies of a magazine none of us had seen, an exclusive for American Express PLATINUM members, which had gorgeous layouts and ads. I found one with an article about a production of Madame Butterfly. I loved the bright colors and unusual set designs, and rearranged them with other bits from my own collage fodder.
These little guys just appeared toward the end of the retreat. I think I was sufficiently loosened up by then. I had a lot of fun doodling. I really admire the doodling Catherine does in her journals, and I was inspired to do some of my own. Catherine was the instigator of the journaling retreat, and a good friend from ArtFest. She doesn't have a blog, unfortunately. She would rather just sit and journal!
We are going to have another retreat in November. I can hardly wait! I am meeting one of the journalers this afternoon, and will work on some of these pages some more. Sad to say, I haven't done much since we got back from the retreat.

A Magical Weekend!

2009-08-30T20:15:00.001-07:00

This is the beautiful group of women I spent the last several days with! In the back row from the left are Liesel, Celeste, Kathe, Catherine. In the front, from the left are Rose, me, Penelope, Michelle and Ruth. We are so happy because we had a perfect weekend sharing, working on art journals and laughing A LOT! This was our first time doing something like this, and it was a smashing success.

Our cabin was big enough and well equipped, everyone had enough room to spread out and work in their various journals, there was plenty of food, everyone pitched in to help, the hot tub was great, and some creative breakthroughs were achieved by everyone.

Catherine had the idea and we managed to pull off such a successful weekend that we are planning another one for November, though not at Mt. Baker (where we went this weekend).

kelly rae has written about the power and just pure FUN of getting together with a bunch of like-minded women in her recent posts about the Love Bomb group she started, and I was envious, even knowing that I had this weekend coming up. I had no idea that the group of us would gel so well, as none of us really knew all of the other people in the group, but gel we did in the best possible way.

We asked a kind stranger at Half Moon Bakery in Maple Falls take this photo. We stopped there this morning to share with each other one last time all of the pages we created over the previous three days.

I will share more in the next few days, and check out Liesel's blog here this week, as she is planning to post about our weekend also.

Randomness

2009-08-26T09:44:00.000-07:00

I uploaded what was in my camera yesterday, and thought I would share some randomness from my summer. I walked into our local market, and was amused by the offering inside the front door. One of the clerks saw me taking the picture, and asked why, and I pointed out the sign, which she also thought was funny. The next day the sign had been edited to read "mangos".

While I was in Portland, we ate out and managed to hit some great restaurants. This day we had breakfast at Bread and Ink on Hawthorne. It was fabulous, and I am looking forward to eating there again. There were many interesting shops, this was one. I love signage!

My favorite Chinese restaurant, and pure comfort food for me, The Canton Grill on 82nd. This restaurant is over 60 years old, in the original location, and my family has eaten here for my whole life. I always have the "number 3 dinner". Fried shrimp, pork fried rice and chicken chow mein. I love everything about it. No other fried rice or fried shrimp can touch theirs! I love the lanterns on the ceiling, the large laughing Buddha at the entrance whose belly I have rubbed forever, and all the happy memories of eating here with my family.

I took the train to Portland a couple of times. It is a very pleasant ride and the station is less than 5 minutes from where my father lives. My sister picked me up on one of my trips and said that the ceiling was like one she saw in a train station in Paris! More signage.

Tomorrow I am going on an art journaling retreat with 8 other fabulous women. We'll be at a cabin at Mt. Baker for 3 days, and I am looking forward to it very much. I haven't done much art since I got back from Santa Fe. I will have lots to report on when I return!

My Mother, Helen Louise Thompson

2009-08-20T06:36:00.001-07:00

My mother passed away on August 4, 2009. When I went to Portland over the Fourth of July weekend, I knew it was getting close, and the family, my siblings and I, descended on Portland to figure out a plan to help my mom and my dad transition through this time. I spent a lot of July in Portland, and hours on the phone with my sister and brothers.

Even though we all knew that mom was probably not going to make it through the year, none of us expected it to come so fast. Mom told us that she was ready--her vision was almost completely gone, and her body kept her from doing even the simplest things for her self. That was the hardest for her.

She told us, but none of us knew it would come so fast. I am glad for her, that she didn't linger or suffer, but losing our mom is the hardest thing I have ever experienced. I feel like I didn't adequately tell her goodbye, or how much I loved her. I hope that she knows, I think that she does.

The photo is from the memorial pamphlet we made. She is fishing in the high meadows of her Uncle Bert's ranch in the Rockies in Colorado. We spent part of every summer there in the 50's and early 60's with her sisters and brother and my cousins and our grandparents. I hope that she is having good times like that now in Heaven.

I love you, Mom!

(I don't know why blogger highlighted the first few lines of text, I can't seem to make it go away)

More from the travel journal

2009-07-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

This is one side of the calendar page I made for my travel journal. I got this idea from my friend Paula, who always puts a calendar page in her travel journals. I made the page in advance, and then added a few words about each day, and some bit of ephemera collected that day. I really liked doing it, and it will be a regular feature of my travel journals from now on!
This is another sketch I made sitting in the Plaza in Santa Fe. I drew the sketch and then painted it later. I realized as I was scanning it that the tree looks like it might be dead, it was actually all leafed out, but I am not that proficient with watercolor, and couldn't figure out how to add the leaves without blocking out the buildings! You can see my sketch lines for leaves in the background!

I really loved the Peerless Watercolors for traveling. I can thank my friend, Paula, for that suggestion, also!

Of Blue Sky and Adobe

2009-07-01T06:52:00.001-07:00

One of the things I loved best about New Mexico was the intense blue sky. This effect was partly because of the altitude, over 7000 feet in Santa Fe, and pretty high in the other places we went. Another thing I really loved was all of the adobe! The color was incredible, and the outline of the adobe buildings against the blue sky made it even more beautiful.

I was in love with all of the old adobe churches! They were beautiful on the inside, too, but cameras weren't allowed. The church above is in Chimayo, a tiny town about 30 minutes from Santa Fe.
This church is in the tiny town of Trampas, on the High Road to Taos.
This is the church at the Taos pueblo. It is very small inside, but absolutely beautiful. There is a wonderful painted scene behind the altar with Mary in a dress that looks like a wedding dress.
If you are a fan of Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams, you will probably recognize this one, it is the famous church at Rancho de Taos. This is the back end of the church, and it is what you see as you drive by on the main road to Taos from Santa Fe. It is just as beautiful as all of the many paintings and photographs indicate.

We arrived in Taos just a few days after the entire church had been re-mudded. It is a big celebration, and there was an article in the paper about it. Many of the other adobe churches we saw had straw visible in the structure, but this one did not.
The church from the front. It was a beautiful and serene spot. Most of the churches we saw were dedicated to either St. Francis (because Franciscans built them) or to Our Lady of Guadalupe. We laughed about how we had been in more churches in a week than we had been in about 5 years!

The color of the adobe against the blue sky made me think of the land rising up to meet the sky. I found a wonderful quote in the main guidebook we used,

From the earth I was made,
And the earth shall feed me,
The earth has sustained me,
And in the end, I shall be earth also.

From Fodor's Compass American Guides Santa Fe, written by Lawrence Cheek. The quote is from an "ancient New Mexican hymn". The guide book was tremendous, by the way, I would highly recommend it, if you plan a trip to Santa Fe.

Land of Enchantment, indeed!

2009-06-25T19:00:00.000-07:00

We came home from Santa Fe on Monday, to mid-70's to 60's weather after a week of 80's and 90's, and I am tempted to turn on the heat in our apartment! I loved the weather in Santa Fe and Taos. I never did get completely acclimated to the altitude, but I loved the weather! It was hot sometimes, but there always seemed to be a breeze coming, and sitting under trees in the Plaza would cool us right off.

I had a lot of fun with the watercolors I brought. The above sketch from my travel journal was made after we got caught (in the car, luckily) in a torrential downpour. I loved how the adobe still glowed even in the rain and with dark skys.
We went to Taos overnight, and tried to cram way too much into the short time we were there. I did this page of two memorable things we did. We visited the Taos pueblo and also the Mabel Dodge Luhan house. I found both to be incredible, though in very different ways.

I bought a Polaroid printer called a POGO the day before we left, and was able to print out wallet sized photos with adhesive backing, which made journaling really fun! I love my POGO, and think I will find many uses for it, beyond journaling.

The trip was fabulous, and I will be writing more about it over the next few days, so check back!

2009-06-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

An Adventure! and a book in which to chronicle it

2009-06-14T10:56:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we leave for a week in Santa Fe, the oldest capitol city in the United States! New Mexico is called the Land of Enchantment, and that is what it has always been for me. I have never been, and this is a much anticipated trip!

Above is the cover of my travel journal, I have been working on it for a couple of weeks. The covers are museum board, nice and heavy. I like using the binder rings, because I can move things around, as well as allowing the book to lay flat for painting and writing. The pages are hot press watercolor paper cut to size, in this case they are 9 x 7 1/2.
A collage I made on one page using images from a tourist guide magazine DH ordered from New Mexico. Some of the things I am excited to see.
I prepared a few of the pages with paint and stamps, but many are blank. I am going to be sketching and using Peerless Watercolors to paint. I also have two memory cards with me for my camera, and I plan to fill both of them! Another advantage of binder rings: more pages can be added if need be!

Something wonderful to share...

2009-05-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

I am very excited and honored to announce that I have some art work published in LK Ludwig's new book, Collaborative Art Journals and Shared Visions in Mixed Media! I received my copy over the weekend and poured over the book many times. It is a beautiful book, with a wide variety of collaborations.
I am especially pleased that LK chose to write a long section about the Photoart Journals yahoo group, of which I am a member. Catherine Anderson started the group in 2006, shortly after ArtFest. I was lucky enough to be one of Catherine's roommates that year, and found out about the group from her.

We have made over 30 books in the last 3 years, and each one is a treasure. Being in this group has enriched me in many ways. The page above illustrates one of our early books, but one of my very favorites. The book is about Texture, and it was exciting to look for and photograph different textures. One of my texture photos is on the page above!

I found the book to be very inspiring, I am thinking of some one-on-one collaborations that I could start, and maybe another circle journal in the future.

Beautiful Paper

2009-04-18T09:18:00.000-07:00

Last year at ArtFest, my friend Catherine and I both took classes from Anne Bagby. Catherine took a stamp carving class, and I took the class called Beautiful Paper. I blogged about my class here and about making collages with the paper here.
A couple of weeks ago, Catherine spent the night with us after this year's ArtFest, and we played with some of the incredible stamps she has made over the last year. She has about 20 4x6 and 6x6 inch stamps now. They are all very beautiful, and we had a great time layering them on unwaxed deli paper.

This paper is very strong, and also translucent, making it excellent to use in collage.

This one is a single stamp used over and over, because I loved the stamp. I glazed over it with a reddish glaze, which brought out the design even more.

This one has several stamps on it in different colors, the glazing (with red again) made some of the stamps ghostly, because they were red, also.

I really love this cat stamp! I almost ruined it with a blackish glaze, this is a close-up. The page below is a section of one of my favorite papers. It was a great day, and confirmed for me that I love creating my own paper. I recently bought some carving tools, and an excellent DVD of Anne's technique from here.

Look for my own hand carved stamps, coming soon!

Circle Journal Rolls Home!

2009-04-08T09:05:00.000-07:00

After ArtFest last year, Celeste started a collaboration, making circle journals. We each chose our own topic and made (or purchased) our own books, did a few pages in them, and then sent them off on their rounds. I got my Graffiti book back at vendor night at ArtFest! I am really thrilled with it.

These are the sign-up tags that each participant made. Each is so clever and colorful, as are all of the pages in the book!

This page is just one of the four WONDERFUL pages that Michelle did in my book! I love all of them!

This is Cordelia's page, tatoos are body graffiti, I love it! I am not a tatoo person myself, but I really appreciate body art, and so I am glad Cordelia chose this for her page!

This is one of Celeste's colorful and thoughtful pages. I really love this buddha she draws, and was thrilled to find it in my book, and on her sign-in tag! Thanks, Celeste! This is the first collaboration I have ever participated in, other than fat books, and I loved it. I wish I could scan the whole book, it is really terrific, every single page! Maybe I will add a few more pages randomly in my next few blog posts...

Progress Report

2009-04-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

Another page from the hand journal. I have been slowly writing on the pages I completed at Play. I like having a journal with a theme, it is easier for me to write. As I have said, I keep a written journal, and I frequently feel self-conscious when I write on "art journal" pages because to me, it seems forced. I like travel journals for the same reason, they are themed, and so the writing is more natural.

I have been going to hand therapy for 3 weeks now. I am progressing well, Wednesday I was given putty to start building up strength in my hand, and I can use it to "practice" actions I do in massage, to build up strength for that, also.

I do have a slight (I hope) set-back, as the physical therapist diagnosed me with "frozen shoulder", probably from the trauma of the fall. This is an inflammation of the capsule of the shoulder. PT and massage don't really help it. It has to run it's course, which can take a year. I do have some exercises I can do to keep up my mobility, and I can do anything that doesn't make it hurt.

I am going to practice doing massage on some of my massage therapist friends next week, to see if I can do anything useful without making my shoulder hurt. I am anxious to return to work, and I am hoping before the end of this month, I will be able to start doing a few massages a week--like maybe 3-4. I used to do 20-25 a week, but it will take me several weeks to build up to that, I am sure.

A little art, and a trip to ArtFest!

2009-04-04T09:40:00.000-07:00

I haven't been making much art lately, I have been organizing and working on other projects, but this last week I had an opportunity to work in another circle journal, this one for Michelle, her beautiful Mermaid book! I was lucky enough to be the last person to work in it, and I got to deliver it to her in person! (More about that later...) I am not much of a mermaid person myself, but I had seen pictures of this book on Michelle's blog, and on other's blogs as it was worked in. It was such a beautiful book, and I love Michelle's work so much that I wanted to really get into this book. I have been on the lookout for mermaid things and ideas for almost a year, and finally got to use them!

In the spread above I used a scan of a page from a very old book about fairies. I added twinkling H2O's to the scan, and included the poem from the book on the opposite page. Such fun!

For this page, I got to make a paper doll of a mermaid. I had a BLAST making it, and may have to make some for me! I found out about the pattern from Calamity Kim, whose blog I love! The template is from Kimberly Crick, to be found here. I got to use some glitter markers that I have had for years, and it was so much fun. I finished everything just in time to leave to meet Tara and go to ArtFest for vendor night! Luckily I remembered to take pictures of my spreads as I was running out the door!

Going to vendor night was soo much fun! We left at 3:00, took the ferry and drove up, it was a beautiful day! We arrived just in time to check out the great art store in Port Townsend and then get in line for the opening of vendor night. The vendors are teachers and attendees only, and it is an opportunity to see and buy some wonderful art in person, and for Tara and me to say hello to many friends attending AF!

I found Michelle and gave her her Mermaid book and exchanged a big hug! It is amazing how blogging friendships feel so real, and it was great to meet her in person! I also ran into Celeste, and received my finished circle journal from her! That will require another post! I love it!

After getting our fill of the excitement of vendor night, we said our good-byes to AF and had a great meal at Fiesta Jalisco in Port Hadlock! Fabulous carne asada! Can't wait to go back! We sat at the table talking about how great ArtFest is, and pretty much decided that we needed to go for the whole thing next year. The feeling one gets at ArtFest is so magical and infectious, it is too good to miss! I think we got the last ferry from Kingston, we weren't paying attention to time, it was 12:45AM when I got home, and anyone who knows me, knows that is WAAY past my bedtime.

I woke up late this morning, and showed all of my goodies to my husband, and realized that I feel as excited and energized as I usually feel when I go to AF for the whole four days!

Then and Now

2009-04-02T07:19:00.000-07:00

If any of my siblings read this blog, and I don't think that they do, I will be in big trouble for posting this! This is a collage that my grandparents made of the four of us. I am the oldest, and from the looks of THIS collage, the most important (NOT!). They just cut up my high school graduation picture, which was bigger than all of the other photos. The curly haired baby is our youngest brother, I was 13 when he was born, and I ADORED him! He is to my right in the photo below, too. I still adore him!

Here is a shot of all of my siblings and my parents, taken last weekend in my parents apartment in Portland. We were all there to celebrate my mom's 90th birthday. We will all be back in September to celebrate dad's 85th. I am awfully lucky to have my parents still in my life! I am the oldest, and I have a rather significant birthday this year, as well, but I am not telling which one! I bet you can guess...

Happy Birthday, Mama!

2009-03-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

This photo is a few years old, but the only recent one I have of the three generations. That is my mama in the middle, and my daughter on the right. We are going to Portland today to meet up with my sister and two brothers to celebrate our mama's 90th birthday! Unfortunately, none of the grandchildren will be able to be there.

My mama was born in Kansas, and made the big trip to Oregon after she and my dad got married, 61 years ago. They have lived in Portland ever since. Her world has gotten even smaller in the last few years, due to physical limitations, but her sense of humor and wit really shine when all of her children are around, so it will be a fun weekend.

Journalfest

2009-03-26T06:40:00.000-07:00

If you are a fan of art journaling, RUN--DON'T WALK, here and check out the website for the new retreat, Journalfest!

The retreat itself sounds fantastic, but you have GOT to see the incredible website that Teesha's daughter, Tiphoni created. It is the coolest thing I have ever seen! I knew that Tiphoni was uber-talented, but she really outdid herself on this one!

Talk to the hand...

2009-03-25T05:57:00.001-07:00

I started a journal about my hands when I went to Play in January. I have a couple of other posts about the same journal. Here is a page I completed recently. It is still a bit of a struggle for me to write in my visual journal, as I have kept a written journal for so many years (about 39!). This journal has a specific theme, however, and it is easier to write in it.

I like this page, the photo is from a Sports Illustrated magazine, and I had saved it before I broke my wrist. I liked the exuberance of all the hands reaching. I liked the theme of hands even before I started this journal. I have several pieces of hand related art in my home.

My wrist is getting better. I go to hand therapy twice a week and do a variety of exercises three times a day. I am making progress, but I am ready to be back at work! My hand and wrist just aren't yet. I am hoping by the end of April I will be working. It will probably still take me a few months to build up to what I was doing before I injured myself.

I want to add that my friend Delorse took the photo in my sidebar, click on her name and visit her thoughtful and beautiful blog! Thanks, Delorse!

Projects completed, projects begun

2009-03-18T08:18:00.000-07:00

I have been finishing up projects hanging around, and starting on ones I have thought about doing for a long time. The following two images are of some small collages I have been making with the "beautiful paper" I made in Anne Bagby's class at ArtFest last year. (Be sure to click on her name, she has a new website with really beautiful photos of her work.) She suggested that we do some small collages with the paper we created, and it took me nearly a year to start. I am going to do more with these, they are essentially backgrounds at this point. I usually fall in love with my backgrounds at least for a while, but I think these will be even more interesting when I have added to them. I have some ideas, but want to make a few more before I start. I have made 10.

The next two images are of a project I made for my niece for a wedding present. She got married almost four years ago. I know. The project was lifted from ClothPaperScissors magazine, July/August 2007. Anna Maria Horner made this, and I loved the rules, and thought my niece would like something hand made. I had everything I needed but the 12 x 12 canvas. It was fun picking out the fabrics to use. A very easy project to complete, and it will be winging its way to Dallas, TX as soon as I show her mother (who is also crafty) this weekend!

I just found out today that the circle journals we started with Celeste as our leader, are just about done! I hope to have mine to show you in a week or so, and I am excited to work in the ones I haven't seen yet!

Have fun with your projects!

Sunday

2009-03-15T19:10:00.000-07:00

church from the 1860's in San Antonio, TX

Even though I no longer go to church, old habits die hard. Couldn't resist posting a picture of a church taken in October when we visited our daughter in Texas. It is still Sunday for a little while longer!

I have been fooling around on facebook a little bit, I signed up thinking it would be a way I could network and promote my business, but it seems more social than business. I had a lovely surprise on Friday when Jane, a friend from UW who I have known for over 30 years but lost touch with in the last few years, "friended" me! We have been catching up in a couple of long emails, and I hope we reconnect in person soon.

When we were at UW, we were studying intellectual history (!) and were quite serious. Now all these years later, it turns out she is very interested in art and artmaking, too! She makes jewelry with stones and beads from Africa and it is quite lovely. She has a shop on etsy here, hop on over and take a look. She also works with fiber and surface design, though I haven't seen any of that work yet.

I really love how it often happens that friends will parallel each other's interests. I am looking forward to sharing more with her.

Sunday is also the day that once or twice a month I get together with some friends from ArtFest at Third Place Books. We all bring projects and work on them and share. It is a very rich time. We did it today and I feel very satisfied. Maybe that is my church?

Friday Morning Musing

2009-03-13T08:17:00.001-07:00

morning tree at Fort Worden

I haven't posted for over a month because I have been thinking about what this blog is about, what do I want to do with it? I think when I have long lapses between posts one of the reasons is I am not sure what I am trying to accomplish here.

I updated my profile information (located to the left of this post) to define for myself what I want to do. Hopefully, this will be helpful to my readers, too. I have decided that I was very out of balance with my work life. Don't know why I needed to break my wrist to slow down enough to realize this, but there you go. When I start back to work in about a month (hopefully), I will have the opportunity to structure my work hours so I have a more sane schedule.

I have tried to focus on art making as much as possible since I have been on this hiatus, and I have learned that I need to structure that as well. I have not made art 24/7, as I thought I would, I have to make it a priority, just like anything else.

This post is meant to reintroduce myself and my blog. I look forward to sharing my thoughts on art making and life making, and photos of both.

I PLAY and create a Hand journal

2009-02-04T09:33:00.000-08:00

I just returned from 4 wonderful days in Port Townsend PLAYing at journaling with 40 wonderful artists. Here is my one photo of the activities, Teesha is talking to us about some aspect of visual journaling. Several demos were given throughout the weekend, but they were optional, and Teesha and the others used a microphone so if you didn't want to stop working, you could listen. This worked really well for me, I went to the retreat last year and saw all the demos then. It was nice to just listen and be able to keep working.

And work I did! The first night I got help making a 16 page journal from a single sheet of watercolor paper and a "junk" journal, and I started working in the 16 page journal right away. I decided to work on the theme of hands, specifically my hands, so I could explore what this injury means to me.

These two pages are a spread. Each page is 8 x 10. The bottom page is one of the flaps in the book. It counts as one of the 16 pages. It is fun to have the smaller work surface the flaps create.

Creating these two pages was a real challenge. I was trying to do "my own style", which I like to think of as being very loose and sort of grungy, but initially they were a mess! I knew they were, and asked Teesha for help. That was one of the best parts of the weekend, getting one-on-one help. I made a bit of a fool of myself, saying that I didn't want to copy her style, so hadn't put borders on my pages, she was so patient, explaining that borders tie the whole page together, and draw the eye in. I also had a lot of glaring white on the page, and she showed me how to tone it down, so the eye didn't go immediately to the white spots. I had to sleep on her advice, but while I was sleeping, I "got it" by osmosis.

The next day I worked for about 8 hours on my pages, I was in the zone and so happy. I have learned that I can work on my pages for as long as I want to, adding color, collage, borders, doodling, words. It is all fun, it is all meaningful, it is all intuitive. I thought that intuitive meant "do it fast". Yes...and no. It is also intuitive to keep working until it really speaks to me.

This spread isn't necessarily my favorite in this journal, but it will always be important to me because of what I learned while working on it.

This page speaks to the fear I had/have about my livelihood as a massage therapist. Including the photo of myself, happily working at PLAY despite my cast, speaks of survival and hope for the future.

And that photo, that is a print from Fran's Pogo, a tiny Poloroid printer that you attach to your camera. The prints are a little smaller than a playing card. The best part? The print is a sticker! Just peel off the backing and slap it in your journal! Fran says that your camera has to be pict bridge enabled, but many newer digital cameras are. Thanks, Fran, for sharing such a cool toy!

Finally, I learn something in Photoshop!

2009-02-03T11:23:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to my dear friend Paula, who spent some time with me today showing me how to do a few things in photoshop! She helped me make a header for my blog! I learned how to put text on photos! I learned how to do invert! And, most of it was really as simple as everyone told me it was!

Now I just have to spend some more time playing so I don't forget how to do it... I am in the photoart journal yahoo group, and now I will be able to put text on photos. I am so excited.

And speaking of "play", the retreat at Fort Worden was incredible. I learned so much, I had creative break-throughs right and left, and hung out with the coolest people ever! I have pages to scan, check back tomorrow...

2009-01-24T18:05:00.000-08:00

I still can see no reason that blogspot uploads picture in the order they do... the following scans of journal pages are in totally screwy order, and not the order I uploaded them. It should be obvious which pages go together to make up a spread. I am experimenting to find my own style, following prompts has me trying to do similar style, and that is fine, but I want MY style. Sometimes I want to write, and sometimes I don't!

So I am doing my own thing. I still aim to do a page a day, and I like that. I also like the smaller journal a lot.

Trying to use different supplies, masking tape and some colored electrical tape, also an altered photo. I am "painting" the backgrounds with caran d' ache, coloring it on the whole page and then brushing water over, sometimes going back with another color while the page is still wet.

I am using what I have, and what is fast--having fun. I hope you are having fun, too!

I have an Escape Plan!

2009-01-22T07:45:00.000-08:00

Nearing the end of week three of "My (broken) Left Wrist", I have been feeling very sorry for myself and very useless. I haven't even been journalling much. Then, on Tuesday, I had my stitches removed and was given a hard cast. The cast makes my wrist feel much more secure, and I don't need to use the sling as much, so it is easier to do some things.

Yesterday I got an email from Teesha saying she hadn't been able to fill my cancelled spot at the journalling retreat after all, and did i feel like changing my mind and joining in! It took me about ten minutes to decide that I ABSOLUTELY wanted to do it!It is nice to feel wanted, and to have something to look forward to. I went to this retreat last year, and it is heaven...four days of solid journalling with a small group of wonderful people. Inspiration to last for months, and it is in Port Townsend, one of my favorite places on earth!

orange is one of my favorite colors

2009-01-16T10:16:00.000-08:00

Misty is using color prompts this week. I am not really following the prompts, but as I was eating my beautiful pinkish-orange orange this morning, I decided it would be fun to do a page about it.I have some pages already painted, and thought that my oranges would make a nice contrast on the gray page. I used caran d' ache to draw the oranges, then added orange scraps from my table, and a scrap of orange kimono fabric as a flag. Quick and easy and fun.

real life, a page a day

2009-01-15T09:16:00.000-08:00

I am still doing a page a day, something I started from a challenge on Misty Mawn's blog, with an
unintended hiatus for a broken wrist, which I wrote about a few days ago. Fran Meneley, a wonderful journaler with a beautiful blog, suggested I journal about it (thanks,Fran!).

The idea that I have NINE screws in my arm just boggles my mind, never mind the fact that I can't work for a couple of months... I am really glad for Fran's suggestion, it made me realize that I have quite a lot of subject matter for journalling, as I navigate these weeks of recovery.

I haven't NOT worked over 35 years, except for about sixteen months when I got pregnant with our second child until she was about a year old. And any mother knows that that wasn't a vacation!

This isn't a vacation, either, I can't drive, I can only type with one hand, and there certainly isn't any disposable income around. I do have long stretches of solitude (and no babies!) to fill and the contemplation of what this accident will mean for my livelihood.

Check out another page-a day journaller here , her post for Jan. 14 got me thinking. All of her posts have been beautiful and thought-provoking, though.

another page

2009-01-14T08:02:00.000-08:00

The colors are not good in this scan, the blacks look purple, possibly because they were also shiny... I want to learn to use photoshop during my "vacation", and I could have used its help here.

I am back!

2009-01-13T06:23:00.001-08:00

i am back, with a journal page a day. This may not be one of my better pages, but considering that I did most of it with one hand, I am happy! The background and the fabric border were done months ago, I added the photo, the drawing, the journaling--all with one hand. Thank God that I finally mastered scanning, trying to line up a photo would be tough! I had surgery on my left wrist almost a week ago. Thanks to a nerve block in my left arm and good drugs for when the block wore off, I really have had no pain, which I think is amazing when I look at these x-rays of my wrist. That is one plate and NINE screws...

When I go in to see the surgeon next week I will have the large splint removed and hopefully be put into a removeable brace. There is no lifting with the left arm for at least 6 weeks, and then only a gradual return to enough strength and range of motion in my wrist to go back to my work as a massage therapist.

I don't talk about my work in this blog much, but I really love being a massage therapist, and this accident has really made me realize how important it is to me, aside from the fact that is the way I earn my living!

The next couple of months will be hard, but at least I can work in my art journal to process the feelings.

What a trip...

2009-01-02T20:36:00.000-08:00

the best laid plans... slipped on the ice today and broke my left wrist in 2 places. hopefully i will be able to do more after i am in a cast, but who knows? i am hoping for the best.

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T10:00:00.001-08:00

I promise to do a page a day for January, and hopefully beyond, but I will consider this first month as my first deposits to the bank of good resolutions. I have two journals I am working in now, and my entrys will be in one or the other. This is a lovely hand made book, made by my friend, Catherine. I like the size of the pages.

I tried scanning the page, I clearly need to learn how to trim off the useless edges, but it is faster than photographing and editing, etc.

Happy New Year to all!

Suburban Icebergs

2008-12-31T19:16:00.000-08:00

The streets are clear, and the grass is back, but we are left with mountains of snow and ice, scraped up by plows. They will be with us for months, and I found their shapes interesting. I like old buildings, and apparently I like old snow, too!

Reading LK Ludwig's blog today, I discovered that Misty Mawn has issued a challenge to do an art journal page a day for the month of January. Since I had just written that as one of my art goals for 2009, I jumped on the bandwagon. Hope on over to Misty's blog and jump on yourself!

So, turn in tomorrow and see my page for the day...Tomorrow will also be my 2nd anniversary of blogging, spotty as it may be.

December views

2008-12-21T14:41:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted for a long time, in part because our computer was getting an overhaul and it took a while. Let that be my excuse...

The photo above is of our courtyard from the patio. It snowed last night AGAIN and we got about 6 inches new snow! This on top of the snow we have been getting off and on for the last week. In addition, we have had sub-freezing temperatures for the same period, so nothing has melted. It is beautiful, but we are not equipped for this kind of weather, so we are getting a little house-bound...

I loved these delicate footprints on the patio this morning.

We are cozy indoors, here is our little tree. A real Christmas tree takes up a lot of space in a small apartment, I found this one on sale last year, and it suits our needs perfectly. I do need to find a way to display more of our ornaments, we have some really interesting and beautiful ones, collected over 29 years of marriage.

Below is a part of my angel collection. I have a garland with white lights that we put on top of our bookcases at Christmas, and I put my many angels in and among the garland. This is only one section of the 4 section bookcase.

I have been journaling again, and I recently made a cloth doll that I really love, but I will save that for a later post. Part of the computer overhaul was to give us a little more speed, and that has been achieved, so it won't take me so long to do a blog post.

If anyone is still reading this, I hope that you are warm and cozy, and that your holidays are bright!

A Poem for the day, sharing words

2008-11-19T08:40:00.000-08:00

LK Ludwig is hosting a day of sharing words, hop on over and read the many selections of bloggers, and enjoy their images. This photo captures what my family calls a "bibical sky".

When I was in high school, my friend Becky and I shared a love of poetry, especially e.e. cummings. Though he is considered a bit of a light weight now, I got out some of my books and found this one, which I loved then, and still love now.

i thank You God for most this amazing

day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth

day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing

breathing any--lifted from the no

of all nothing--human merely being

doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

circle journal swap

2008-11-13T08:14:00.000-08:00

I am in a circle journal swap, and posted one spread I did on the great day of Nov. 5, 2008, and I have now finished my work in the three journals I had, so time to post a few peeks.

This is my favorite spread, that is me in 1971, this journal is "Magical Mystery Tour", and I got my inner hippie out. The full spread is below. I had the fortunate experience of finding exactly what I wanted to use, the first place I looked for it! Believe me, folks, that is a RARE occurrence!

Working on these journals has been a lot of fun, and I feel inspired to work in my own journals now, and to finish the journal I started when we went to Austin.

There are seven of us in this swap, and I have worked in 4 books now, so that means I have two more to go, and that my graffiti book will (hopefully) soon be returning to me. I am really excited to see what has happened in it.

I have been tagged...

2008-11-09T11:44:00.000-08:00

I don't usually do these, though I enjoy reading them, but Celeste has tagged me for a meme, and also asked me to start posting again, so I will play along! And, thanks to Binky, I can link to others without having to type out the whole address...I am a slooow study on computer things!

The photo is of my hubby and I with our daughter and her wonderful boyfriend in Austin, TX where they live (for the time being). We visited them in October. I am working on my travel journal from the trip, and will share later.

So, here are the rules:

1. link to the tagger, and list the rules on your blog.

2. share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some wierd

3. tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog

4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here are the 7 things about me.

1. My name is Gwen and I am a complusive reader. I have a tendency to read the way others

might drink, I go through periods when I read constantly. Like the last few months.

2. I love the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace, especially the ones about their high

school years. I couldn't count how many times I have read them. They were written in the

early part of the last century, Betsy gets married at the beginning of WWI.

3. I was a member of the Young Republicans in highschool for about 2 weeks. I have never

voted Republican in my life! Don't hate me, I discovered the error of my ways with lightning

speed!

4. I am very vain about my red hair, and plan to have it until I die!

5. I collect crocheted potholders and also cloth ones with faces on them

6. I commune with trees.

7. I have a degree in Japanese language and Asian studies that I have never used once in my entire life!!

I probably can't think of anyone to tag, as Celeste tagged most of the people I would feel comfortable tagging. I read a lot of blogs, but most of them aren't personal friends of mine.

I have reviewed this post a couple of times, and when I preview it, the line spacing is all out of whack. I do not want to re-type the whole thing, so I apologize for the ridiculous line breaks. It

doesn't look like that when I type it.... who knows?

It is a New Day, and the fog has been lifted...

2008-11-09T09:58:00.000-08:00

My last post was about the dark day that started the nearly eight years of fear and hate and ineptitude that was/is the Bush administration. This post is about the joy I felt on the day after the election!

I am working in three circle journals that started the rounds in May and June, and on the morning of Nov. 5, I HAD to journal about Obama! His face mirrors the jubilation I felt and still feel. Like many of you, I cried throughout the day; with the waitress at the cafe in Bothell when I had lunch, with my co-workers at the clinic, when I read other's blogs, when I watched American Prayer on You-tube, listening to NPR, what an amazing day!

remembering

2008-09-11T11:49:00.000-07:00

No art today, I am remembering that seven years ago the sky was as blue as it is today, and that I kept thinking all day, "how can it be so beautiful when such a terrible thing has happened?"

I guess that defines heartbreakingly beautiful. In my journal today I wrote seven years ago the world changed. The world changes every day, of course, but everyone who was alive and old enough to be aware knows that things really did change that day.

My heart is with all of the people who died that day, and their families. Also with the families of all the soldiers and civilians who have died since then in the "war on terror". Yesterday my son told me that one of the kids who was a neighbor of ours years ago was killed last week in Afghanistan. He was a Marine. My heart is especially with his mother and the rest of his family.

It is time to change in a big way. October 4 is the last day to register to vote in Washington state in time for this year's presidential election. If you aren't registered, or you know someone who isn't, DO IT!!

peace to all of us,

Sketching and doodling...

2008-09-10T09:44:00.000-07:00

From time to time I get the urge to draw, or sketch, and I carry a sketching journal with me. While we were at the family reunion in August, I captured a couple of my nephews during the family story-telling time. This is Jim, he is about 20. He is extremely well-spoken and thoughtful, as the pose might indicate.
This is Michael, the 12 year old son of my nephew, Todd. He was so still while I was sketching him that I thought for sure he was posing for me, but he told me later that he didn't know I was drawing him! I used caran d'ache and a water pen to add color to these.
Quick sketches of our wonderful dog, Nell, during naps. I was really glad that I could do these, as she was not still for very long...
Finally a page of doodles. I loved drawing freely from my imagination in Theo Ellsworth's class at ArtFest earlier this year, but haven't let myself do it much since. This was fun. I blocked off some journaling which included too many names.

I have been finding a lot of sketching on other people's blogs lately, and thought I would share some of my recent work. I would like to draw every day, it isn't that hard, and I enjoy it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the portrait sketches were reasonable likenesses, I want to do more sketches of people. I love the faces that Danny Gregory draws.

I am purchasing a new toy for Halloween!

2008-09-01T20:43:00.000-07:00

Etsy :: tarasartcamp :: Pumpkin Girl, Stuffie, Softie

I have just purchased this wonderful, delightful, doll from one of my favorite outsider artists, Tara Ross! I love Halloween, and couldn't resist this doll! Check her out at http://tararossstudios.blogspot.com/, and check out her etsy, too!

The seasons have done an abrupt switch here in the Northwest, and I am thinking about Halloween, and fires in the fireplace, and baking bread and making soups.

I need to learn how to do a few basic things on my blog, too, like how to do a link to someone's website without having to put in the whole address... Enjoy Tara's work, though!

Catching up with the Circle Journal

2008-08-28T21:31:00.000-07:00

Celeste (http://stonesoupart.blogspot.com/) started a circle journal group several months ago, my journal is graffiti, I wrote about it in May or June. I have finally finished working in Celeste's book, this is the title page. She is a new mom, and wanted thoughts on raising a child.

Raising a child is a long time ago for me, but it is a subject that is near to my heart. I did have a little trouble getting started on the book, though, cute pastel thoughts kept floating around in my head, and I am just not a pastel kind of person... Some of the pages were started a little by Celeste, and I added to this one, the most important ingredient in raising a happy and well-adjusted child! It is water-soluble crayon and Sharpie poster paint marker.
The next page is about books, I found an magazine article about collecting Golden books, and it was perfect for a page about the importance of reading, something I happen to know that Celeste is already doing with her little man!

We read books and novels to our children until well past the age that most parents quit reading to their kids. We enjoyed it as much as the kids. I remember my father reading Winnie-the-Pooh to me and my siblings and all of us laughing about Eeyore, and I wanted to share memories like that with my kids. I read most of The Chronicles of Narnia to my son, and we loved it.
The last page is really "me". Not only do I think that play is so important for kids of all ages, but I like the colors and the randomness of the spread. I colored a few background pages for the other players to do with what they will.
Tomorrow the book is off to Michelle (http://michellegeller.typepad.com). And I hope that I will have another book to work in soon. The process is going slower than we anticipated, but I am enjoying it. Luckily, there are only 7 of us in the group, or at our current rate, we would be doing this for a very long time... And I will be the first to admit that I hold on to the books for a long time! I will try to do better the next time...!

I am on a roll... with books

2008-08-21T08:49:00.001-07:00

I am happy that the creating bug has got me big time lately, I have been making books and having a blast. My dear niece Alycia and LB were married on the 15 of this month, and I really wanted to do something special for her because she was the flower girl at our wedding, 29 years ago. I have been feeling very nostalgic ever since they announced the date. I also wanted to do something fun and handmade because they seem like the kind of people who would like that. They are both in theater, and their wedding invitation was a total kick in the pants! So, I made an altered board book recipe book. The cover is fabric printed with aprons, I have had it for a few years and this was the perfect use for it. I collected recipes from all of Alycia's aunts on the Delmore side (there are six) and her mom.
I covered the inside pages with interesting scrapbook paper, and used my favorite 50's housewife stamp. This title page explains the gift.
Each aunt has a page, and a recipe. I am very pleased with how it came out, I am making them aprons, also, as they both like to cook.

Yesterday I made this book from directions in issue 12 of Teesha Moore's ART & LIFE. It is made from 12x12 cardstock and scrapbook papers.
This is the front, the flaps fold out, and the rest of the book folds out from there. The finished book, folded, is 6x6 inches, and could be made smaller.
There are several square surfaces, and about 6 flaps, so a lot of surface to write on, doodle, or collage. It would make a great travel journal, or a special photo album, with the flaps for journaling, but I intend to use it as a journal and collage and stamp on the backgrounds of scrap-book paper. Teesha's suggestion in the article was to use it as a surface for collage so it wouldn't be "flat". It is tempting not to add anything, because the papers coordinate so well, but I want to see what it will look like after I work in it.

This was a very fun book to make, it only took me about two hours total to put it together, and the next time I think it will be faster. I hope I will be able to make a dent in my HUGE stash of scrapbook paper making these.

This would also be a fun way to showcase hand decorated papers, like the ones I made in Anne Bagby's class at AF.

Check back to see what I do with this book eventually.

The Travel Journal

2008-08-19T15:29:00.001-07:00

The front of the travel journal I did while we were on vacation. I used caran d'ache and a water brush to add color to the pages, the gesso made that possible, I did a little writing on each page and the date.
I added the trimmed off edges of the water color I did with Patricia to commemorate that day, and the warning sign we saw so many times on the way to Port Townsend.
This is the inside of the travel journal, unfolded. I added photos from the trip, and business cards I picked up from memorable places we visited.
The four of us on Long Beach (I am only in shadow). I love how happy everyone looks, we were!
This was a cool way to do a travel journal, and I will do this type again, if not for a travel journal, for something else. I really liked the shape and the surface.

Vacation, part 2

2008-08-19T14:59:00.001-07:00

One day we drove to the north end of the peninsula, to Leadbetter State Park, to walk to the beach through the "woods". The park is also a wildlife refuge, and very undeveloped. We parked and walked a little way to Willapa Bay, an absolutely huge bay formed by the Long Beach peninsula. The tide was out, and we walked for quite a way along the flats of the bay. It wasn't really mud, a combination of sand, and mud, and various grasses and seaweeds. It was a cloudy day, which made for good photos. I loved the colors and texture of the grasses.
I love nurse logs, dead trees or stumps that give back to new life.
The beach trail was about 2 miles, it went through very dense and claustrophobic, scrubby forest, as well as grasses and open places before opening out on to the beach. It was nesting season for western snowy plovers, so part of the dune and the sand was blocked off to protect the nesting habitat.
On Friday, we drove from Long Beach to Port Townsend to catch a ferry to Whidbey Island, the largest island in Puget Sound. The weather was beautiful this day, but we ran into so much road work that we missed the ferry we had a reservation for, and had to wait for an hour.

This is the view from the porch of the houses at Fort Casey Inn, where the family reunion of my husband's family took place. The houses were a bit rustic, but very comfortable, the big chairs on the porches were wonderful! We took all 8 of the houses, and the Garrison Hall, which we used for family dinners and entertainment and a family mass celebrated by my husband's oldest brother, who is a Jesuit priest.

This is a section of the inside of my travel journal, with a family photo, and a combo of photos from the entertainment and the mass. Two of the older siblings turned and will be 70, and there were funny hats, songs and speeches. My husband is one of 11 siblings, and the older kids used to have to memorize poems and speeches for entertainment.

At the family reunions we always have some kind of talent show, or play, and I always wondered why. By the time my hubby came along (he and his twin are the youngest), the older sibs were leaving home and new traditions were forming. This family is great, some of the best senses of humor I have ever encountered, and we always have a great time when we get together! Luckily, most of the sibs live in the Seattle area, so we see each other fairly often. The reunion is a chance for the out-of-towners to get in on the action, and for us to have concentrated time together.

This was one of our best vacations, ever.

The travel journal

2008-08-13T09:59:00.001-07:00

Inspired by something Fran Meneley did in Sas Colby's workshop in Taos, see http://www.franmeneley.typepad.com/ and http://www.sascolby.com/, I painted two single sheets of newspaper with gesso and then drew lines on the dry gesso. I had to glue the two sheets of newspaper together, they curled too much, so one side has the lines and the other side is just plain gesso. I then folded and cut the papers and made a book. I love the look of the lines on the gesso, they get a little smeary and make a wonderful graphic element. The folded book is below. Counting the front and back, there are 8 pages, exactly how long we would be gone on our vacation, and I planned to do something every day to commemorate the trip. Since the "inside" of the book can also be utilized, I planned to add souvenirs and photos to the plain gesso side.
I did finish the journal while we were gone, and am still adding things to the inside. More photos to come. I am quite proud of myself, I have never done a travel journal before. I was inspired to do the travel journal by my friend Paula's travel journals of her trip to France. Find her at http://www.dreamciclejourneys.blogspot.com/ . Her journals are incredibly beautiful, and mine is very humble by comparison, but remember that I went to Long Beach and Whidbey Island, and she was in FRANCE!

Vacation, part 1

2008-08-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

This was our destination for 4 days in Ocean Park, WA on the Long Beach Peninsula. This is Miss Lily's Cottage. It was cozy and comfortable for the hubby and I and our dear friends, Patricia and Dave from Ottawa. They had been in Oregon for a family reunion the weekend before, and we met at Miss Lily's. Patricia and I were room mates in the dorm freshman year at U of Oregon, and have stayed friends all the (many) years since then.

We meet, and begin talking as though there has been no absence, in fact, I think that we have grown closer over the years, even though we only see each other once a year.

The weather was beautiful driving to the coast, but we could see the bank of fog approaching as we got closer to Long Beach. It was foggy on Tuesday morning when we got up, but we set out for the beach anyway. Long Beach has a long beach, but one has to hike over grassy dune to get there, so nothing is really on the beach. Maybe that is why people can drive on the beach (which I think is insane and ridiculous) there.

In any case, we hiked over the dune, and at the edge of the dune, just before you got on to the beach, there was a street marker, saying 268th , which was the street we were on, pretty cool! It doesn't look like it was foggy in this shot, but it was, the sun was starting to come through. It was blowing around, and we had to be careful of the stupid cars on the beach. Luckily, there weren't many up where we were.
The next day, we went to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, which is fabulous. I love the history of the Northwest, I read lots of books about it when I was in school, and I am a real geek about visiting historical sites.

This is not a photo of the interpretitive center, though, there is an old military installation at the same site, called Ft. Canby, that used to guard the mouth of the Columbia River. I decided to wander through it, and found an absolute treasure trove of graffiti, and peeling paint! I was in heaven, and took MANY photos. Everyone was tired, and Tom kept saying time to go, but there was so much to see!

These are just two, but I am planning to do a book of the photos, and riff on the colors and shapes. There will be more to come.
This is how one's non-photographer, non-graffiti loving friends look after you finally return... It was time to go back to the cottage and have a beer and kick back! Patricia and I talked every waking moment about art and our lives, she is a wonderful watercolor painter, and is very free in her style. We painted together one afternoon, and she showed me some of her tricks. More on that in another post.

Hello...hello...is anyone still out there??

2008-08-02T15:55:00.000-07:00

Gadzooks! It has been 3 months since I posted here! I read several blogs daily, but I can't seem to follow through with my own blog for very long. And, of course, I have messed up on how to upload photos, so these are out of order.

We moved in May, just across the parking lot in the same complex, to a first floor apartment, which opens out on a very nice grassy courtyard, with trees and flowering shrubs, and a lovely flower garden next door.

The apartment is slightly larger than our other one, it is still two bedrooms, but the bedrooms are larger, and somehow even the living room and dining room are more spacious. We love the apartment. We are sharing the larger bedroom as our studio space, and it is a luxury to have this much space.
The above is one of my favorite pages in the journal I created for a 7 person "circle journal" round robin I am in. More about that later, when I get to the rest of the pictures...
This is my husband, Tom, and our new dog, Nell. She is a shiba inu, a Japanese breed, who we acquired shortly after moving into our (ground floor) apartment. We didn't realize how much we needed a dog until we got her. She is very sweet and smart and loving.

We are the typical empty-nesters with a dog, completely in love and she has us wrapped around her...little paw. We discuss potty habits and sleeping schedules just like we used to discuss the same topics about our kids.
She weighs about 15 pounds and is two years old. Loves walking and will play fetch until she drops!

So. This is the cover of my graffiti book. I made it with hot press watercolor paper, and used some type of illustration board for the cover. It is 9 x 9 inches, and I had it bound at Kinko's. Celeste of http://www.stonesoupart.blogspot.com started this group. We have all had a little trouble getting the whole thing rolling, I now have Celeste's book and will be working in it soon.

My book went to Michelle of http://www.michellegeller.typepad.com, who sent it along to Andrea at http://www.shopgirl.typepad.com. I don't have the blog addresses of the rest of the players, but will add them as I get their books.

The sign in page, and intro to the book. I love the rough quality of graffiti and all that that implies for me, peeling paint, letters, rust, randomness.
Another page,
and another.
The other half of the spread with the circles. I love the scribbly lines of this, and the way that the circles came out.

On Monday, we are leaving for 8 days away, we are meeting good friends in Long Beach, WA for four days, and then going to the Fort Casey Inn on Whidbey Island for a family reunion. I am looking forward to all of it. I love the ocean, I love the people we will be with, and I am making a little journal just for the week. More about that when I get back!

Oh, check out the posts about Fran's week in Taos on http://www.franmeneley.typepad.com. There are beautiful photographs, and incredible art from a workshop with Sas Colby.

Asian collage

2008-04-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a collage for a little over a week. I started with a piece of cardboard that I peeled to expose the corrugation. I rolled some white gesso on, and then some black and red paint. The paint was a little too garish, so I covered it with some Chinese newspaper, and then a napkin which I also peeled. I kept adding things over the course of several days. I prefer to work faster with a collage, but I wanted this to have a certain look, and so kept auditioning additions to the collage. I didn't take anything off, but I left several hours, or a day between additions.

I am happy with the way it turned out. In this photo, it makes me think of grafitti on a wall, layers peeling away.

Play in Olympia

2008-04-30T10:02:00.001-07:00

Below are the two papers I made with my friend, Lynne when I went to Olympia last Friday. These are close-ups, the papers are 12 x 12. They are also slightly back-lit.

Lynne made two or three beautiful papers, too, but I stupidly did not take photos of them! I haven't been very good about taking photos, lately.

These are using the techniques I learned in Anne Bagby's class at ArtFest, you can see that there is lots of layering of stamps, and color. They are both finished with glaze, the one on the bottom has a bit of blue in the glaze, and the one on the top had red in the glaze. The glaze really brings out the layers and the slight color change seems to bring up colors that were less evident before the glaze.

We used commercial stamps, and some work better for this technique than others, deeply etched show up better than detailed stamps, though some of those showed up better after the glaze was applied.

I don't think that I am going to be buying as many decorated papers anymore, these are too much fun to make!

A Road Trip!

2008-04-30T09:24:00.001-07:00

Last Friday I made a road trip to Olympia to visit my dear friend, Lynne. She used to live in Seattle, and I saw her more often, but unfortunately, when she and her husband moved to Olympia, we lost touch---for four years!

By happy accident, we reconnected a few months ago, and she is also into art, so after sharing show and tell, we decided to get together to play! Hence the road trip.

This wonderful place, called Fun Junk, is only open on Fridays, so that is the day I chose to go visit. I guess it changes from week to week, and it was definitely FUN! I was blown away by all of the cool junk, apparently the woman who runs it hits junk stores and junk yards from Olympia to Alameda, CA about once a month, and unloads her stash here.

Some things displayed are favorites, and when you ask about a price, she explains that she likes that piece, and isn't ready to sell it. There were a couple of things I liked that were on the favorites list, but there was plenty more to choose from!

I found this wonderful wood box for a Gilbert Junior Microscope, it has all of the original hardwear, the sliding fastener on the door, says "Gilbert" and there is a handle on the top of the box. There is a decal on the door and inside, as you can see below. I think that my brother had one of these. I was VERY glad that it wasn't a "favorite"...I was afraid it was, as there wasn't a price tag on it. I have several ideas for it.
The treasure trove below represents the rest of my haul. I went over budget a bit, but I won't get to Olympia every month, and couldn't resist! I love the blank ledger book, the pages that kept track of the "egg money" were torn out, but there are lots of pages remaining. There is a homemade Valentine from 1914, stenciled price tags, cigarette cards from WWII Britain, a 1919 almanac, old calling cards, number cards that I liked for the graphics, a copper heart, and some type of holy card, and other assorted papers.
We had a great time there, and I will make it a point to go back to Olympia on a Friday!

Lynne and I played in her wonderful studio, where I stupidly did not take pictures! She had fun stuff every where I turned! Her studio is a smaller room than mine, and I am put to shame!! She is very organized!

More Art Fest classes

2008-04-17T11:06:00.001-07:00

On Friday I took Tiphoni's color theory/mixing class. I have been looking forward to this with great anticipation, having heard many good things about her teaching at last year's Art Fest. Also, she gave a very brief demo at PLAY: the retreat in February, so I was really ready!

Our supply list said only six paints plus white. We learned about cool vs. warm colors, and had a cool and warm of each of the primary colors. Tiphoni taught us a little about the color wheel, and introduced us to saturation, hue and value. We learned to mix colors by looking at a color and deciding what was the main color in it, and then thinking about what other color might be in it. We also had to think about whether it was a cool or warm color.

I loved doing this, though there was a learning curve, and always will be. It was really fun to mix a color that actually "matched" the color I was looking at. In the afternoon, we were given small gesso boards, about 5 X7, and could do a composition of our choosing. Some did something representational, and some did something more abstract.

We were to use some of the color theory we had learned, and make a balanced composition, color-wise. I chose to do blocks of color, so I wouldn't worry if it was "good" or not. I started with non-saturated colors in the gray family, but they were too dull, and really not my favorite colors.

Tiphoni encouraged me to add a color I liked, and go from there. Then things got really fun, as I covered the whole piece with color. I covered some sections several times, trying to get a color I wanted, and in the right relationship to the colors around it.

This photo is not the best, to say the least, and the right side of the painting is not as dark as it seems, but I did have darker values on that side.

Tiphoni is a great teacher, she wandered around to everyone, and gave encouraging advice and lots of praise. I want to take her watercolor portrait class next year, if she teaches it again. I really want to do more painting, and not being sure about how to mix color has been holding me back. I feel confident now, and know that even if it takes me a few trys to get the color right, I will have a great time doing it! On Saturday, I had a class from Anne Bagby, an artist whose work I have admired for years. The class was wonderful and exciting. I was a little disappointed in the color palette I chose for myself, but I learned a ton about creating "Beautiful Papers", the name of the class.

The class was very fast-paced, Anne is a bundle of energy and we hit the ground running. Those who were a teeny bit late to class were playing catch-up! We had our own plain paper, and she wanted us to work on at least ten papers at once, letting some dry while we worked on others.

I love to work fast in a class, because then my right brain can be in charge, and I don't think about how to do it perfectly. Far from it. Anne encouraged us to just keep working, not to throw anything away, and as we were layering, the ones we thought were ugly might turn out great. It happened over and over.

We used some of her large, and beautiful hand-carved stamps, as well as stencils, glaze, and more stamping and stenciling. She showed us a great way to get beautiful edges on our papers, everything was great. I really tried not to think about what the outcome would be like, but I felt stumped by my choice of colors frequently. This after a day of color mixing...., maybe I DO have more to learn in that department...

Some people had given a lot of thought to their color choices, and it showed in their work. There were papers produced in that class that could be sent straight to a printer and sold in stores. The next time that I make papers this way (and I will), I am going to think more about what colors I want to work with.

This is an array of the papers I made. Some I like better, now that it has been over a week since I made them, and I will probably add to some of them. They actually get better as you produce more layers, up to a point.

Anne's class was great, and I would love to take more classes from her. She gave us a homework assignment to do between now and next year's Art Fest. We are to make small collages from our papers, 5X 5, or 6 X 6. We can use other paper, too, but primarily the papers we made, and do one every day, 5 days a week.

She said (and I SO agree) that we get this big rush before AF and for a couple of weeks after, but then we don't do much the rest of the year. This way, we spend a little time every day, and on the weekend we will be primed to do more. Even if we don't do more on the weekend, we will be way ahead by the time next year's AF rolls around.

I must confess, I haven't started yet, but I will, and now I HAVE to, because I wrote it here, and some one will ask me about it! Besides, I want to.

And, speaking of being accountable, I lost 6 lbs the week I went to AF, I gained a little back the next week, but I have been writing everything down, and planning meals, so I am back on track this week.

Sorry for such a long post...

A Selection of Photos from my classes at Artfest

2008-04-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

The first day at Artfest, I took a class from Theo Ellsworth (http://www.artcapacity.com). I have long admired his work, and wondered how he could draw such incredibly detailed pictures, not only are they amazing to look at, they seem like they would be fun to do!

His class was called The Mystery Play Inside You, and we drew on these head and shoulders shaped pieces of cardboard. He guided us through the mystery play, that we discovered for ourselves by drawing on each piece, one at a time. At the end of the class, he gave us a wonderful handwritten book, of all the exercises and descriptions he gave us during the class. Above is the first page of my mystery play, we drew with our eyes closed, for several minutes and then opened up and worked on what ever mysteries we had begun with eyes closed. This was great fun, and a great way to loosen up. I think that we had almost an hour to work on each piece. It was such a luxury to have that much time, and nothing else to do, and really get into drawing. I never feel self-conscious at AF, so I just let myself go and had fun!
For this piece, we drew with both hands at the same time! That is mostly on the bottom of the drawing, and then we could finish up with one hand, and again it was great fun to draw! This might seem like it is about anger, but it is not. We were drawing the gateway for our big voice inside that has so much to say, and such a tiny mouth with which to say it. I loved the idea of this, and for me, the red equalled power, not anger.
This piece is about the heart, transforming garbage into beauty and truth. I loved this concept, also, and the book in the face was stream of consciousness.
The next piee was a self portrait, and I used eyes closed, both hands and just drawing. I let myself be completely free doing this, and I am very happy with it. I especially the head full of easter eggs! I also like the dancer who made her appearance!

Theo is a great teacher, and I am so glad that I was able to be in this class!

Been back for a week

2008-04-14T13:33:00.000-07:00

I have been back from Art Fest for a week. It was wonderful, as usual. It is so great to hang out with other like-minded creative people for 5 days, basking in the joy of being your crazy, creative self and knowing that everyone "gets" you.

This year, I went with my friend, Ruth, and we met up with our room mates, Margot and Karen and Catherine. Catherine is the one responsible for this great car! It was photographed by the local (Port Townsend, WA) newspaper and appeared on the front page! The photo below is my own, though. Catherine's car was the talk of the Fort, and every time I saw it, someone was photographing it!

I will do another post about my classes, but one of the highlights of Art Fest for me this year was going with a friend, and having all of that time to connect and share. Ruth, Margot and Karen were all experiencing their first Art Fest, after hearing all about it from me the last two years.
It was a real joy to see each of them get the great buzz that comes when one realizes that they have really tapped into the huge well of creative energy that is so readily available at ArtFest!
This was my third year, and I was worried last year that the first year had been a fluke, but this year I KNEW that the magic was real, and just expected it to happen!

On Friday night, my friend Paula and I finally found each other, and seeing her was another great part of the experience. We got to know each other at the PLAY retreat in early February, so it was great to have a chance to reconnect! We both took Theo Ellsworth's class, but on different days, so it was fun to compare our books. More on that class in another post.

Paula and Ruth and I had a wonderful breakfast together on Sunday before heading home. Earlier that day, Delorse took this photo of the three of us, from left to right, Ruth, Paula and me. We were in the cafe in the Commons, where I enjoyed a split shot soy latte every day, they were fantastic! I have only recently started to drink coffee again occasionally, and those lattes were so tasty! Luckily, they don't seem to taste as good around here, because the price of a latte has gone up a lot since I last indulged!
Once I have photographed my pieces from the classes I took, I will do another post. For some reason, I wasn't as interested in taking photos while I was at ArtFest this year.

So much for two posts a week.....

2008-03-31T11:25:00.000-07:00

So. Here we are on the last day of March and nothing accomplished for TIF for February, or March. I guess this means that I am out. I still intend to follow along with the blog, and I will work on getting my things posted as I go.

On Wednesday, I leave for ArtFest, so doubtless I will have many photos to post next week. I am very much looking forward to going, and seeing all of my friends from all over and taking some fabulous classes.

Even though we had SNOW on Saturday, I still feel the stirrings of spring, and seem to be coming out of my incredible slump. I have been doing my taxes, so they will be filed on time this year, for the first time in a couple of years! It will be a huge relief to have that off my plate before I go to ArtFest!

My daughter and her wonderful boyfriend made it to Austin, and we talk at least every other day. They love it there, though they do get homesick, and I am so happy for them and proud of their bravery. As far away as I got was Seattle from Portland!

My son has a great new job and is living in Seattle, where there is so much happening for young people, so I am happy and proud for/of him!

Now I am going to get started on making my life happy and fulfilling! Not that I am not happy, but I have been letting a lot of things slide (like my business and art) and my body (too much eating to fill the void and not enough exercise--or any, really).

I went back to Weight Watchers this morning, and I am READY this time. Thanks to my daughter and my sister and my leader, Claudia, for the encouragement! I stopped at the grocery on the way home and got supplies for vegetable soup!

I hate to admit to WW on this blog, but if I had any pictures of myself on this blog, you would know why I am doing it...

It is good to be back, and I am going to be honest with myself from now on.

Not making much progress...

2008-02-25T21:18:00.000-08:00

We have had a lot going on psychically around here lately, our daughter is leaving tomorrow to drive to Austin, Texas to live with her boyfriend. There was a good-bye party for them tonight. I can't wrap my head around the idea of her being about 2000 miles away. I am very happy for them, I think that it will be great for them to spread their wings in another part of the country, and we will be able to visit them eventually.

I have been trying to prepare myself for them being gone, but I didn't cry when we said good bye tonight. I just can't believe that they won't be here...

Also, a very dear friend has breast cancer, and we have been worried, and praying and trying to do what we can. These two things are occupying a lot of my mind, and I haven't been able to really focus on doing any work on my collage for TIF. I have it pictured in my head, and I hope to have it done by the first part of next week.

I am also working on a small fabric collage for a fabric fatbook for ArtFest. I have everything cut out and pressed and stamped, but haven't gotten the sewing machine out to put them together.
Hopefully, I will feel like working on them tomorrow.

One good thing through all of this, we have been having gloriously sunny weather, and it has been warm for February, it does a lot to lift my mood.

February TIF challenge

2008-02-17T15:21:00.000-08:00

I have been so busy this month, that I haven't had a chance to think about or write about the challenge for February. The concept for this month is what are you old enough to remember. Many of the participants have written about things they remember from their childhoods, and as we are a diverse group both geographically and in age, the memories have been very interesting to read about.

I am also going to go with childhood memories, and thought of the things I liked to play when I was a small child. I have been thinking for several years now that I was a fairly high-spirited little girl, and I have pictures to prove it! I have been pondering when and why I became so cautious and non-adventurous. In my own personal growth, I have been trying to reclaim that adventurous child. Committing myself to growing in my art has been a HUGE part of the reclamation effort, and I feel joyous and free-spirited when I am creating either alone, or with groups.

Thinking about what I played when I was a child, I remember loving to finger paint, and to make mud pies. These activities were discouraged because they were so messy! I can't really fault my mother very much for this, as she had to do laundry with a wringer washing machine, and hang clothes in our dampish basement to dry. I grew up in Portland, Oregon, and most of the year drying things outside wasn't possible.

I also loved to color in coloring books, and I still get a feeling of joy when I put crayons or oil pastels on paper. I really connect to that child-hood activity. Dolls were a huge part of my play, too. I had many real dolls and also loved paper dolls. I was very attached to all of my dolls, and took very good care of them.

I also liked playing with the dozens of children in our post-war housing development. We were so 50's! Donna Reed and June Cleever didn't seem that different from my mom. I remember that I had a dress just like Shelly Fabares' once! And dresses! Girls could not wear pants to school, even when I was in high school!

Wow, one can really get carried away down memory lane... I am going to do another paper collage, with many of these elements in the collage. I will post more when I actually have something down on paper.

New Art Journal, made by ME!

2008-02-17T14:42:00.000-08:00

Below is my new art journal, made at PLAY: the retreat. As you can see, it says so on the cover.
We were all told to bring something flat to use in our journals, as trades with all of the participants. My cover art is a photocopy of a page from Lynn's journal, which was her trade for all of us. I brought a TON of stuff to use in journaling, but we received so much from our fellow art journalists, that I hardly cracked the stuff I brought. A shot of the side of the journal, showing the stitching. The book was made with canvas boards for the covers, and I have three signatures of six pages each. The signatures are wonderful Fabriano Artistico 140# hot press watercolor paper. The instructions for making one can also be found on Teesha Moore's website. (http://www.teeshamoore.com)

I was somewhat worried about making the journal, but it was easy. It is time consuming, but I am sure that I could do it faster next time. I really, really love the paper, I think that I am spoiled... We painted the pages before binding the books, so we were ready to go once they were bound. I thought that I would save time, and only painted one side of my pages, so I could decide on a different color if I wanted to on those pages. I loved the painted pages, though, and ended up painting all of the blank pages in the first signature as I went along, so I could keep working. I worked on several pages at a time, and really liked that process.

Here are several of the pages I worked on that weekend. The page below has a really cool stamp made with heated fun foam, the kind used for children's toys, and a small porcelain doll was pressed into the foam while it was still warm. The foam will hold the impression until reheated. We all gasped when we saw the stamp, it has an eery quality that I loved, and I used it to stamp one whole page. I am going to make my own stamp, as Sarah gave me a couple of the porcelain dolls!
We had a number of demonstrations throughout the weekend. They were for inspiration, and to learn neat techniques to use in our journals. I was very excited to try my hand at stamp carving after Tracy demonstrated how to do it. I journalled about my experience carving my first stamp. On the left page is my inspiration, and at the bottom of the right page, is the actual stamp. I will definitely be doing more stamp carving!! In fact, I stopped on the way out of Port Townsend at a new art store and bought two linoleum carving blades.
The last page is not finished, I will probably add more visually and also do some journaling on this page. I did a pretend stencil technique on the right, and I love the simplicity of it. We also learned to use copic markers to do air brushing, which looks to be a less messy and less toxic way to do stenciling. My page is just done with Caran d'ache, rubbed into the paper.
Play was a fabulous retreat, I learned so much and had so much fun just playing with other like-minded folk. My little visual journal that I started at the end of last year cut me loose, and this experience gave me validation and more spirit of adventure to continue!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-13T22:11:00.000-08:00

I found this on a walk, while I was in Port Townsend for the PLAY retreat, Jan. 31-Feb. 4. I was so pleased to find such a great heart, and I offer it to you for your Valentine today! PLAY was a wonderful, busy, magical, friend and fun-filled weekend. I roomed with Paula (http://dreamcyclejourneys.blogspot.com). I met Paula last year at ArtFest. We are in the photoart journal group but had never met. She lives in Portland. We became good friends throughout the weekend. Getting to know her was definitely a MAJOR highlight of the weekend.
Here are Paula and Marde talking about a journal. We all worked at round tables in the light filled Commons at Fort Worden. We had every surface covered with supplies and paper goodies received from our fellow retreatants. We were each to bring a trade, something flat that could be used in our journals. There were all levels of experience in this group, and everyone was so generous with techniques, and supplies, and advice and encouragement.

I worked most of the time, and really didn't take many pictures. I will have to take some of my journal and post them. I have been incredibly busy since we got back, we left on the 8th for a few days in Walla Walla, and I was getting ready, and trying to work at the job that pays for these jaunts!

This is a picture from the car of the rolling winter fields and the sky on the road to Pendleton, where we went to see our friend, Margaret's exhibit entitled Inner Circle: The Archetype as Tribal Elder. From the postcard: "...a series of large painted "robes" to represent the cast of characters universal to the human psyche. From Healer, Teacher and Storyteller to Victim, Visionary and Addict, these pieces speak to -and from- the deep places within us which ultimately govern our decisions, behavior, and the way we live our lives."

I need to ask her permission to post some of my photos of the robes here, but if you are anywhere near Pendleton before Feb. 22, you must go to this exhibit at the Center for the Arts. The painting is incredible, and the archetypes as depicted are by turns gut-wrenching and beautiful. Her workmanship is outstanding.

I wanted to post something, and I will take photos of the journal I made, and some of the spreads I have done in it so far, and post in the next few days. Busy, busy, busy.

Today I go to PLAY: the retreat

2008-01-31T08:03:00.000-08:00

Today I am leaving for Port Townsend, one of my favorite places in the world, for a new Teesha and Tracy Moore production. It is a small art journaling retreat, only 35 people, to be held at Fort Worden, a state park on Puget Sound and the Straits of Juan de Fuca. It is a beautiful and magical setting, and magic is sure to happen.

I am bringing about 3 different journals, and we are going to make a journal tonight, with instruction from Teesha, using a very nice watercolor paper for the pages. I will probably end up using that one the most, but I want to have plenty to work with. Other than the journal making, the weekend is supposed to be very unstructured, just time to play in our journals. It will be heaven!!

I am sharing a room with Paula, a woman I met at ArtFest last year who is also in the photoart journal group. I am looking forward to getting to know her, and everyone else who will be there.

There will be lots of pictures next week...

If you are interested in seeing some amazing work from the TIF challenge, check out http://takeitfurtherchallenge.blogspot.com. There are many amazing artists taking part in this. I will have to wait until I return on Monday to see what February's challenge will be, I can hardly wait!

January TIF challenge, complete

2008-01-28T05:16:00.000-08:00

I finished my collage for this month's challenge last night. I am happy with it, but also feel that it is more representational than I had intended. However, it is true to the idea I had, which was to portray the admiration I feel for several young artists who bravely continue on in pursuit of their dreams, despite the challenges everyone feels. The challenges are there, but one has to stay focussed on the goal, and not keep looking down.

I used paper, acrylic paint, gel medium, caran d'ache, clip art and rubber stamping.

Below is a close-up of the artist and her goal.
I found this project to be a wonderful challenge, I enjoyed it very much, and I have really enjoyed seeing the other participant's interpretations. My husband and I had several discussions of the theme, and he was very helpful. When I said that I planned to have the artist be a tight-rope walker, he found the following quote in an old Parabola magazine. I think that it adds a lot to the symbolism and the meaning of my piece.

"The whole process is part of the hero's journey: the false move is nonetheless a crucial bend along the path. To elaborate on von Franz's metaphor, in life's circus, the bumbling clown often precedes the death-defying high-wire act."

One other quote I found helpful, also found by my husband from the book Tracking the Gods: The Place of Myth in Modern Life by James Hollis:

"...the paradox Nietzsche described when he said we are both the abyss and the tightrope
across the abyss. We are the open emptiness, to be filled by courage and by choice, and
we are the fragile thread by which to traverse the abysmal terrors."

doll project for charity

2008-01-25T13:27:00.000-08:00

I have joined the community art doll project, see button in sidebar! It is a great project, and thanks to Debra and Monica for helping me figure out how to add the button!

Anyway, click the link above and sign-up, as well. I will making a fabric backed 2" square to contribute to the art doll. That is pretty easy, and all proceeds will go to breast cancer research! I promised myself that I would only do the TIF challenge, and the things for ArtFest this year, so I can concentrate on doing my own art, but anyone can do a 2" square for a good cause!

I am suddenly very energized about my massage practice. Lately all I have wanted to do is make art, and I have rejoiced when I didn't have clients. I will definitely have to "work from my stash" if this continues, unfortunately, there is not a "stash" of rent money or food money, so I need to do both art and massage. The art supply stash is seemingly endless, however!

So. I am going to do some teaching, and I am adding some new features to my practice. I am excited about both of these things, and made myself a long to-do list to move ahead with my ideas. I think once I get some of the key items on the to-do list done, I will have more clients, and be closer (much) to my goal of being fully self-employed by May. I know that this is very vague, but I promise to be more clear once I have gotten things going!

Today I am thinking, Hooray for me!

Nearly done with my first visual journal!

2008-01-24T07:56:00.000-08:00

Starting this visual journal back in November was one of the best things I have ever done for my creative soul. I have so enjoyed just putting some things on the pages, color (most of the backgrounds have been Portfolio oil pastels, colored then rubbed off with paper towel) and whatever images come to hand from my table. Now that I have "organized" a bit, I even pull out files of things I have "saved" for collage, like on the page below. I know it is pretty random, but it was fun to stick in some things that I had been saving for "good".

I am going crazy with the quote marks, I will try to stop. Back to playing with graphic elements, below. I really have a thing for grids, like this bingo paper. I like lining up patterns and design, and straight lines, and using text for background.
This one is silly, I used some photobooth photos left over from last year's ArtFest yearbook. This journal is a little like having a scrapbook, I have decided, I am adding things I have saved, and now they have a place, and I no longer have to keep track of them!

Maybe some day I will be able to think that way about all the DECADES of family photos I have?

More random below. The heads were cut out and auditioned for my TIF collage, but were too big. I had to do something with them...
Next to last spread in the journal. More magazine fodder, and I had a lot of fun with this one!

I am having an art date with my friend, Margot, today. We are going to see an exhibit at the Edmonds Community Center of art by students of the EDGE program at Edmonds Community College. It is a program for artists to learn how to make their art a business. We haven't had an art date in quite a while, and it will be fun.

I did a little more on the TIF collage this morning, I don't know why I am dragging it out for so long, but I am enjoying it. I will definitely finish it this weekend.

Take It Further Challenge (TIF)

2008-01-22T08:45:00.000-08:00

To refresh your memory, I am doing the Take it Further challenge from Sharonb's website, http://www.inaminuteago.wordpress.com/. The January concept challenge is to somehow illustrate a person or quality you admire. I am working on the concept of bravery which is the quality I admire in young artists who continue on with their dreams despite the inner critic and other inner (and outer) voices who may say they are crazy or impractical.

Below is a sketch of the collage I am working on to illustrate this concept. I envisioned a person on a tightrope, bravely continuing on toward their dreams, with the "critics" below them and the mountain of a LARGER life before them as their goal.

I found the drawing to be way too literal, but it gave me an idea of how to begin the collage, so here it is.
My next step was to cover the paper with scrap paper, just a background to begin on.
Below is the collage with a couple of layers of thin paint added, and partially rubbed off. I have laid on some of the foreground collage pieces, as well.
There will be more to come, and I am very happy with how it is developing.

I have 3 more page spreads to go in my visual journal. I will finish it this week, and I am using my husband's discarded 2007 calendar for my next one. The pages are larger (yeah!) and I will probably only do one page a day, rather than a spread--who knows?

I am so glad that I started a visual journal, and am looking forward to starting another one!

Super-toy, continued...

2008-01-16T11:43:00.000-08:00

I should have waited to post my last entry until I had tried more stuff with my wonderful new printer! Below is my first inkjet transfer, done on the ultra cheap (as in quality) photo paper from Walmart, as recommended by LK Ludwig. I am thrilled with how it came out. Next, a journal page with transfers:
The one on the left is a black and white photo of a photo, and the right is an image from the web of an equation for "strange attractors". I have no idea what that means, but I liked the name and the image. The transfers weren't as successful, because the paper in my visual journal is pretty thin, so water media makes a big mess.
Another page, using a photo taken in Pioneer Square in Seattle, looking up toward downtown. I think that it looks like Gotham City. The other page has a collection of ephemera I picked up at Floating World Books and Comics in Portland last year.
More things from Floating World, and some helpful advice from Homeland (In)Security, found in the middle of the phone book (!??) for what to do in a "situation". If we were in a "situation", would you turn to the middle of the phonebook for advice? I don't think so. I use my phonebook for cheap paper to do gluing on, and that is how I found this...

I have begun working on my collage for the TIF challenge, more later, and some preliminary photos.

A brand-new super toy!

2008-01-14T09:36:00.000-08:00

My journal page for yesterday. I included a packing tape transfer, the baby, and I like how it came out. I love packing tape transfers, they are SO EASY, they are like magic! It is the only transfer technique that works everytime for me. We just got a new all-in-one printer, that means it does printing, copying, scanning and fax. It was a bear to install, I had to try the install CD four times before it finally installed, but I really love the new printer. It is a new one by Kodak, the EasyShare5500, Kodak's ink is pigment ink, but at least half as expensive as other printer ink, and it reportedly lasts much longer.

That was a powerful incentive, I would love to be able to print photos quickly, and with this I can. The quality is astonishing, and it is instantly dry!! I may not be able to do inkjet transfers with this, because the ink is permanent, but I was never very successful with those anyway. I haven't tried it with super cheap photo paper, yet.

I also want to print onto fabric, and I will probably have to go to Joann's today and buy some inkjet fabric so I can try it out! I am hyperventilating with all of the possibilities!

I will keep you updated with all of my experiments!

Moving right along...

2008-01-12T13:16:00.000-08:00

I have been having a lot of fun working in my visual journal. I am really enamored with the look of black ink on bright backgrounds. This page is about as random as they get, but I like the look of the tree stamp and the penny stamp that my husband found for me at a thrift store (along the right edge). The oblong stamp is supposed to be used horizontally as a braided rug, but DH got that one for me, also, and thought it would make a good form for poplar trees! I love it. Have I mentioned how good my hubby is at finding things for me in thrift shops??

The next page uses some artwork from the Sunday editorial page in November, illustrating an article about impeachment for the prez and v.p. I am totally in favor, and added a little more to the illustration.
Another thing making me happy these days, is beautiful scrapbook paper, of which I have collected LOTS. I have been going through my stash and using it. I love the colors in these papers, and feel like it isn't really my work, because all of the design and color coordination was done by the paper designer. But, I am in love with the combination of purple and orange, and couldn't resist using all of the combinations. I also dug out some stamps I hadn't used, and worked them in, as well.
Another random page, the two sides don't go together at all, but I kind of like each of them, the one on the right a little more.
More scrapbook paper love. I need to tear into my "good stuff" and not hoard it, so expect to see more scrapbook combinations here. I am such a geek, it makes me feel so good to just play with the paper, not to mention the stamps.

Today I am going to start in on the Take it Further challenge (TIF from here on out), and start constucting. I am going to do a layered collage, somewhat along the lines of the collages we did in Anahata's Symbolic Icons at ArtFest last year. I haven't used that technique since that class, and I loved it so much. I think that the process will work very well for me to illustrate the concept of bravery, the concept that I admire...

It is Monday...

2008-01-07T13:32:00.000-08:00

Saturday was a fun day, I always look forward to the monthly meeting of local ArtFest people at Third Place Commons. This Saturday there were seven of us, the most that have been there when I have gone! I included one photo of part of the group. We all bring things to work on, but I usually end up talking, it is hard to start something new when there are so many interesting people to talk to! It is always very inspiring to see what others are working on. I brought my visual journal to show Celeste, when I first met her, looking at her journal helped me to get started on mine, and I was able to share that with her.
Two new pages, so far one a day since last Friday. I am enjoying it! I started to say that I am determined, but that makes it sound like it is a duty, and it should be a joy--and it is! I may start a journal for the Take it Further Challenge, too. I haven't decided yet. I know that I want to do some of the challenges in fiber, so I am not sure what kind of journal will accomodate paper and cloth.
I like this page, and I will probably go back and stamp or write on it. I am using the insides of security envelopes, inspired by Mary Ann of http://dispatchfromla.typepad.com/, one of my favorite blogs! As she says, it makes going for the mail like a treasure hunt. There are a surprising number of different patterns.

The Take it Further Challenge

2008-01-05T09:19:00.000-08:00

I am going to do the monthly Take it Further challenge with SharonB of In a minute ago. See Jan. 1st for a link to the blog. This month's challenge is to think about someone one admires and do an interpretation of the theme in fiber or paper. There is always a second challenge which will involve a color scheme.

I like the color scheme well enough, but I am going to go with the admiration challenge. I want to do some of the challenges in fiber, but I think that this one will be using paper and other things. I have been thinking of who I admire, and the ones who come most readily to mind are artists I have met in the last 4 or 5 years.

The central characteristic is bravery, it seems to me, they all pursue their dreams and really work at them. In other words, they take themselves seriously! They love what they do, and they allow themselves to do what they love. I am thinking of one person in particular, who has taken GIANT steps, and only occasionally scares herself by looking down. She doesn't let that stop her, though, she gets her balance and continues on.

I am starting to get an idea for what I want to do in writing this. Check back for more progress...

House-cleaning (one room, at least...)

2008-01-04T20:33:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I made it! This will be my second post this week. I haven't been working on my visual journal because (in part) I no longer had a tiny space on my art table to do anything! I have spent several days, little by little, cleaning up and re-organizing all of my art stuff. I am filling a lot of boxes for the Art Asylum at this year's ArtFest, I have made lots of trips to the recycle bin with unwanted stuff, and for the first time since we moved here, making some sense out of the bins I keep my stuff in.

I have most of the top of the table open to work now, and happily did a page today! I like just coloring the background, just putting some bright color on the page!

I have many projects to do before Feb. 15, I am doing a Fatbook, an altered trading card fatbook, and a fabric fatbook--all for ArtFest. I know what I am doing, but need to get started. I am excited to do all of it.

I will show pictures of my space in a few days. I didn't take any pictures of the disaster that was my studio before I started, but you won't believe it when I show the photos I took when I was about half done!

New Year, new post

2008-01-01T18:15:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, no posts for a solid month. But, it was December, and I took on too much. I didn't even do one page in my visual journal, and I swear that I was a lot more scattered because I didn't have that discipline.

I am ready to start fresh. My goal is at least two posts a week in 2008. I have a lot of goals for the year, one of them being to journal as close to daily as possible, to not spend so much time reading other people's blogs and more time working my own art work!

One of my goals for the last two years is to get my private massage practice to the point that I don't have to work part-time anywhere else, and I have written May 8 in my planner as the day I make this happen. I want to keep this promise to myself, and I know that I can do it.

Once I am fully self-employed, I want to use the extra time (when I won't be working as an employee) to figure out my next step. I want to expand my employment options by teaching more classes, one I will be doing this month is a couples massage class.

I want to take myself seriously as a person who makes art. I want to be as kind to myself as I am to others who express a desire to create, I will take the time each day to nurture my soul by drawing, journaling, collaging, taking artist dates. I will put in the time, I will do the work, and I will write about it and show it to you.

I am taking part in SharonB's Take it Further Challenge, see http://www.sharonb.wordpress.com. This month's challenge can be found under Jan. 1. I haven't decided which one I will do, or if I will do both, but I will be recording my progress here.

This is also the one year anniversary of my blog, though it has had such enormous gaps that I should call THIS my beginning. Everything is a process, and you have to just keep coming back to the things that you want to do.

Let's go!

A little of this and that...

2007-11-30T06:25:00.000-08:00

I have been busy, working in the visual journal, working on swaps, and photoart journals, and I don't always feel like I have time to download everything and write about it.
I like grids. There is something about the symmetry, and the repetition.
Just fun, using up bits of leftover projects, and printing disasters that ended up looking cool.
The first page that I have included any text. I liked how it looked, and I wanted to remember why I put these items down, or rather what they made me think of.

I feel that I am going through a major shift in my life. It is one of those times when the pattern of my life reveals another path. Sometimes the various things I have pursued in my life thus far seem so disjointed and totally without plan that I feel like a complete mess, and then things shift and I begin to see a pattern to all of these pursuits.

It is like a trail of bread crumbs through the woods, they begin to glow and I can see that there has been a direction to my life. Despite all of the times I have been afraid and insecure, and have stayed in jobs and other situations too long, thinking that I had to have money, or healthcare, or a relationship and if I took a step off the path in front of me I would be lost, the bread crumbs have showed up to lead me to the next thing.

Far too frequently I have gone trembling with fear and dreading the rug being pulled out from under me, but I have gone, and I have always been rewarded. It has taken me far too long to realize and trust that I am being led in the direction of my heart, and that it has been my heart lovingly leaving the bread crumbs for me to follow.

I am seeing the path diverge again, and I don't know where I am going yet, but I feel more trust than I have felt in a long time. I do have some ideas about where I might be going, but it is too soon to put it into words. Still in the planning and thinking and meditating stages. I think that the slump I was in all summer was a fallow time preparing me for change.

Making visual journals is helping, I don't have to use words, and it is a relief right now, I always over-analyze things. Now I just grab the color that appeals to me, and shapes and items that may reveal a pattern...of bread crumbs.

Thanksgiving Day and what I am thankful for

2007-11-22T13:33:00.000-08:00

My page for Thanksgiving, no relation to the day, just what I grabbed from my rat's nest of an art table... The following page I did a couple of days ago, and I truly hate it. I didn't want to post it, but I think to be honest to my process, I have to. I was still grabbing things from my table, but it has no coherence at all. I kept trying to "fix" it, with the doodles around the circles on the background paper, but I hated the big elements I put on the page, and could see no way to bring them together. Maybe in a few weeks or months, I will be struck with some inspiration of how to make it more likeable, but at this point, I doubt it. Maybe I will just cover the whole thing with other scraps?
I hope that you have a festive and warm Thanksgiving, I am thankful for my children, and how well they are adapting to adulthood. They are spending Thanksgiving with my parents in Portland, and we will be celebrating with my husband's family in South Seattle. I am thankful for my husband, who always supports me in any wild idea I come up with. I am constantly, for 29 years now, amazed at how lucky I have been. He is a gem.

I am thankful for my life, for the constantly unfolding surprise of discovery that it has been, and continues to be. I am thankful for my friends, some dating back to college, and many more recent. It is a true blessing to have so many friends in life.

What are you thankful for?

Back in the swing...

2007-11-20T09:51:00.000-08:00

Here is the journal page I did after returning from Fort Worden and the massage weekend, the background is cut from our schedule sheets... I was really tired and slow all last week, hence no entries here. The following page is the only other one I did last week.
The page below is the one I did today. I feel like I am out of the flow, and need to get back into doing this daily. I have missed it, and I think that I will do several pages today, because I have more time, and I feel like it!
Yesterday, my daughter woke me at 6:30 and asked if I wanted to go to Snohomish. This is a November tradition for us. I started going for a wonderful Christmas bazaar they had on the first Saturday of November probably 20 years ago. When my daughter was about 10 or 12, she started to want to go with me and the friend I went with, and when the friend moved away, she and I started making it a tradition for just the two of us to go.

The bazaar faded away, and for several years we have just gone to shop in the town and have lunch. We get some Christmas shopping done, and have fun. Our favorite store is Joyworks, on the main street of town. She got several presents, and I got LARGE pillows covered in red and tan ticking for our couch, which is a futon with wooden arms, the pillows look great and make the arms comfortable, finally!

We had a wonderful time, and it didn't start to rain until we were almost home! Last year we were drenched all day! Below is a photo of my beautiful daughter by a weathered brick wall in Snohomish.

How I spent my weekend...

2007-11-11T19:41:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning at Fort Worden, I had about 25 minutes before I had to begin a marathon work day, and decided to take a short walk with my camera. It was a gorgeous day, clear and not a bit of wind. I walked up a rather steep hill to a wooded area with wonderful tree skeletons, madrona trees, leave-less, and a little grey, but such beautiful structure.

I really love trees in all their manifestations, bare, in bud, in full leaf, the colors of fall. I have been at Fort Worden in all seasons, and have many photographs of trees there, and these were very beautiful to me.

This path was begging me to follow, but work was calling.

This was the view from the top of the hill I had climbed. I love how the rays of sun seem to be captured. I feel so at peace at the Fort, it is a magical place.

The weekend was exhausting, but also fun. The three of us did MANY massages, and our pay was good, but by the end of Saturday, a thirteen hour day, we were so tired that we barely made it to our beds before we collapsed! We decided that since we are all pushing 60, that this would be our last year doing marathon massage.

It was a bittersweet decision, this was our third year and we had finally gotten all of the kinks out, everything ran very smoothly, and we were completely booked for the time we were there. We had a lot of fun together, and some very meaningful discussions about LIFE, but it was a mutual decision to quit. Plans have already been made for other getaways without work!

It may go without saying that I had no time or energy for working on the visual journal. I missed it, but will start up again tomorrow.

The final photo is a self-portrait!

More visual journal pages

2007-11-09T07:41:00.000-08:00

These are my last three days of journaling. The last pic is a bit drab, like the weather today. And the mood of November, even though we still have trees in glorious color, it is getting closer to winter every day.

Today I am leaving for Port Townsend, for two days of work/fun. Two massage therapist friends and I will be giving massages to ladies attending a scrapbooking retreat at Fort Worden.
We work hard, but have a lot of fun, the ladies are great and hilarious, my friends and I have a weekend away, and I will pay for Play:the retreat with my proceeds!

Those who know me know that I love Port Townsend and Fort Worden. I feel happy just thinking about the drive over and back, in fact on the day we leave, M. and I will be eating a fabulous breakfast on Lawrence street, gallery hopping in PT, and hitting The Arts Mine in Port Hadlock.

I am taking my journal and my camera...

Have a good weekend!

Processing the visual journal

2007-11-07T10:01:00.000-08:00

I have been reading through The Vein of Gold (Julia Cameron) this morning, and I realize that the writing, which is a lot of what the early assignments consist of, puts me back in to the old over-analyzing mode that has been the story of my whole life.

I know from various therapists over the years that the same stories from one's life keep coming up, over and over. Each time a little more is healed, but so far that has all been with words--talking or writing. The visual journal, my version of morning pages, is a way to process things in a whole new way. I am not "thinking" about what I put on the page, but there is definitely something breaking open here.

Of course, now I am analyzing it with words, but what is happening with the visual journaling is not something that I can put in words. For me, this seems like a very positive step. I think that I am getting to another layer (of myself) that is non-verbal.

This has happened to me while receiving bodywork, emotions have been released that are very powerful, but have no words, those emotions have seemed pre-verbal.

What I sense with the journal pages is that the PROCESS of making them is coming from a non-verbal place, a place that I have always wished I could access, where I can just BE.

Obviously, words are important to me or I wouldn't be writing about this, but I am happy that I have found another place where I don't have to explain.

Does this make any sense??

Junky antique store heaven...

2007-11-06T14:20:00.000-08:00

This is the majority of my great haul this weekend, going thrift and antique store shopping with our WONDERFUL friend, MJ, who was visiting from Walla Walla. The three of us love hitting the thrifts, and we have a regular route we follow when we are in WW. This was our first time going as a threesome over here.

The Physical Culture magazines are hilarious, expect to see journal pages and other things incorporating these. MJ and I had much hilarity reading the titles of the articles, so much so that we had to make a second trip to that store to find a couple for her. I loved the stuff we found, and this was after MJ showed us the "gifts" she brought from WW, exciting finds from cleaning out her mother's house. All will become fodder for the mill.
Saturday I went to Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park to meet with other ArtFestors. I did my visual journal there that day. We all bring things to work on, and just talk about our various projects. There were only 3 of us that day, but it was interesting and fun.
This was Monday's page, I ended up with a stencil, made by rubbing Portfolio pastel through a piece of paper lace. It will probably rub off, eventually, but it was fun. I want to do more stencils. I was surprised with the direction this page went, but decided to just go along with it, and I like it.
Today's page. I seem to have this linear thing going on. I have been coloring the backgrounds with Portfolio's, because it is easy, and I rub them with paper towel, to blend and sink the color in. With trusty glue stick, I just start sticking things down. I have lots of little ephemera packs from AF, and trades and I am digging into those now.

Further along the vein of gold...

2007-11-03T15:10:00.000-07:00

This is my page for November 1, I am just grabbing what is lying on my table and gluing it to the page. I have incredible amounts of stuff that I have kept for using in collage, it is getting used, finally!
This is my page for Nov. 2. It has made me amazingly happy to be doing this, I try to do my pages as soon as I get up, I really look forward to it.

One of my biggest problems, my whole life, is performance anxiety. I will put off doing things I know that I love (like making art) because I worry that it will not be good enough, or that I will mess it up and waste art supplies. I can already feel that this little exercise in visual journaling is going to cure me of that, or at the very least make it less prominent. Doing these slapdash pages has given me ideas for more complete things that I might work on in a bigger journal. This is a 5x7 book, and I have much larger books which tend to intimidate me.

I found out yesterday that I will be going to Play: the retreat at the end of January. It is hosted by Teesha and Tracy Moore, of ArtFest fame, and one of the primary things will be art journaling. I am VERY excited to be doing this, it will be a very small group, around 40, and most of the time will be to just play, and look at each other's art. This is my idea of heaven.

As far as Vein of Gold goes, I have decided to go through the book, do the morning pages, the visual journal, and the artist dates--and the WALKS, this is a very important part of the process--but I will probably not do each one of the various projects. There are some that speak to me more than others.

I am especially looking forward to making the dolls and the masks, which come later in the book.
If any one wants to join me in this pursuit, leave a comment and a link to your blog.

Once again, I will try this blog thing...

2007-10-31T09:44:00.000-07:00

I have been in a slump for several months, I think about doing something and that is all that happens, I THINK about it. I hate to admit this, and that is part of the reason that I haven't been blogging.

However, recently I have been re-reading two books I found when we did a major book weeding-out. One is To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love by Marsha Sinetar. She also wrote Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow. I like the first one better, because I am so usually so worried about money that I can't figure out what I love...!

The other book I found is The Vein of Gold by Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way. I wanted to jump into Vein of Gold after doing Artist's Way with two friends years ago, but we were all off on new paths found by doing Artists's Way, and no longer had time.

Both books struck me as possible ways to find out how to move myself out of this slump I have been in. One important discovery is that though the slump is definitely a slump, it is in small part a time of (very non-productive) discovery. I say negative things about this slump because it has gone on far too long, and I am sick of being so slothful.

Anyway, I have finally started to move in an upward fashion, or to recognize that I have been on a spiral, it seemed that I was just going around in circles, but I have actually been making some upward progress.

I want to work my way through the Vein of Gold, and share my experiences here in my blog. YIKES-----that is scary to say! Of course, that is assuming that anyone reads it anymore... As you may know, Julia Cameron uses several tools to further the artist's progress, one of them being Morning Pages. I have kept a written journal for most of my adult life, so that isn't hard, I just have to commit to doing it daily, and I have added a new wrinkle to this.

I am going to also do a morning visual journal page, or two. I have wanted to do visual journaling for a couple of years, and I don't have much consistency to it, so I grabbed a blank lined journal, and I will do a color and paste journal, no particular subject, just put something on the page(s) each day.

I did my first one today, and it felt marvelous. I collect a lot of stuff, and this journal will be one way to use it, and get my creative juices going. I am going to try not to be self-conscious about it, and I will do that by posting photos of it, to be accountable to the process.

Marsha Sinetar's book has been inspirational also, and I will write more about that later. Part of this slump has been about ruminating about what my life/work is all about, and how I can make it work better for me.

After a long absence

2007-07-30T21:12:00.000-07:00

I have not been here in a long time, I have been in a slump of some sort, I don't do much of anything except go to the appointments I have scheduled. I haven't been doing art, but I have been doing a lot of reading.

I read the last Harry Potter, which I loved, and was sorry to have end. What an achievement! The world could certainly do with a few heros who are able to stand up for what is good over power and evil...

Speaking of power and evil, my husband and I just watched the documentary about the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church called "Deliver Us From Evil". It made me so angry and sad that I have a terrible headache, and I almost never get headaches.

When the breadth of the scandal began to be revealed, and there was nothing but cover up by the church and the bishops, it was the final blow for my dwindling connection to the Catholic church. This film showed the only priest I have ever heard or read about who actually has apologized to victims. Father Tom Doyle is a victim advocate, and a canon lawyer.

At one point in the film he said that the only place in the bible that Jesus gets angry is in the church. And I believe that Jesus would be very angry in the Catholic church today.

I have too much of governments that run by their own perceived reality, contrary to all evidence to the contrary and I am not going to be a part of a church which is doing the same thing, especially to the most vulnerable. A hierarchy that believes that they are a law to themselves.

I could go on and on, I am so angry and feel so betrayed. If you have also been scandalized by the church, watch this documentary. There is a lot of sadness, but some hopeful things too.

Finally, some photos

2007-06-17T14:48:00.001-07:00

Here are some close-up pictures of my studio table. In retrospect, maybe close-ups were not such a good idea, all of the messiness is quite apparent! I love having access to everything I need and want all within reach (for the most part). On the left is a peek at the accordian book I did for the people who went to ArtFest from my photoart journal book, more views to follow.

Another view of the studio table, showing the Ikea boxes that I have wanted forever, and finally purchased. It is so great to know just where various tools are. I have collections of various ephemera in the little boxes on top.
The other end of the table, that stack contains some of my rubber stamps, also easier to find now! Stamp pads are in a cassette tape holder that my husband found for me at a thrift store. He found an enormous one later, which we plan to put on the wall above the table, as I have filled the smaller one on the table. It will go back to thrift store heaven.

By the way, my husband is a fabulous thrift store shopper. He finds amazing things because he knows where to look in the two stores he frequents a couple times every week! How cool is that! He got me a table top easel awhile back. Did I already say that?
Here is an open view of the ArtFest accordian book. The pockets contain wallet-sized photos taken at ArtFest, and I managed to spell out A R T F E S T. The photos are on the reverse side.

The cover is a scan from an old McTavish toffee tin, stamped and labeled.
The finished book, tied with ribbon.
I am working on another page for a small accordian book, only 5 players, called Sanctuary. I am altering photos to construct the page. I am doing the altering manually, and it looks good. I can't wait to see the finished book.

I also decided to give fatbooks a rest for a while, and signed up for an altered fabric swap! I am totally excited about this one, we can fancy dye, paint, stamp, silkscreen, whatever--4 to 6 fat quarters. We will get back as many fat quarters as we submit. A fat quarter is a half yard of fabric cut in half through the middle, so approx. 18"X 22". This is a great size for working and a handy size for using in quilts or other projects. I plan to submit 6, and have them all be different. It will be a great way to try different techniques.

Now mind you, I have never dyed, painted or stamped fabric, but I am thrilled to try it. I have read a lot about it, and these swaps are a great way to try new things, and for me they are especially good, because if I have a deadline, then I get things done!

Still no photos, but hang in there!

2007-06-14T11:19:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that I still haven't put up the photos! I have been busy, my friend Tina came for a few days. She is one of my best friends from college, and really for the rest of my life, too.

Tina's cousin, Mary VandeBogart, http://www.maryvdb.com/, has a show at Noble Horse in Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle. Tina came for the opening, which was on the 7th. It was great fun to go and celebrate Mary, and see Tina's other cousins, Mary's sisters, who I have known for almost as long as I have known Tina!

Mary is an amazing artist, she works in clay, sculpture, printmaking and most recently, bronze! Her bronze sculptures of horses are incredible. There is so much life in them, she took a class in the anatomy of horses--how cool is that??--and her sculpture shows it. It is so much more than technical skill, though. She has put the spirit of the horse into her work. Go and see the exhibit, if you are in the area!

Tina and I hit a couple of other gallerys while we were down there, I don't usually get a chance to go to First Thursday, because I work on Thursday evenings, so it was a real treat for me.

Friday we spent the whole day at Pike Place Market, it was an absolutely beautiful day, and we had a great time looking at everything, and sampling various food stuffs throughout the day. I had to make sure that we hit Milagros, my favorite store in the Sanitary Market. I came away with some Frida postcards and some wonderful handmade paper stamped with milagros (red paper stamped with yellow--Yummy!).

Tina lives in Salt Lake City, and we have never visited her and Jim there, but we made plans to go in August. I know, I know, it will be VERY HOT, but they have a fabulous vegetable garden, and August will be a perfect to partake of all of my favorites from the garden.

I have also been disciplining myself to devote some time to my business, which is massage. I have been having so much doing art, that I have been neglecting the business end of my business. I never neglect my clients, but doing marketing for the business always falls at the bottom of my to-do list. This is not smart if one wants to make a living and buy art supplies...

So, I have been writing a newsletter, and spiffing up my website, and planning some classes to do over the next few months.

Once I get going on a project, it becomes exciting, but sometimes it is hard to get started. Trying to learn just to make that first step, like putting the first big line on the big white journal page!

Pictures coming soon.......

Lost in the blogosphere...

2007-06-05T17:11:00.000-07:00

I seem to be spending more time looking at other people's blogs than doing anything about my own. It is amazing how easy it is to slip into someone else's life through their blog, and vicariously enjoy what they are making and doing, rather than make and do in one's own life!

I will bet you never do that, HA! That is why everyone has such long blog lists!

I actually have been making things, I made 10 little accordian books for a swap with the women from my photoart journal group who went to ArtFest this year. I am so happy with how they turned out! I also learned an important lesson: MAKE A PROTOTYPE BEFORE YOU START!

I had the idea for the accordian book before AF, but I didn't make an actual book, so didn't know how long it would take, or that the double-sided tape I planned to use to make the pockets in the book wasn't going to work, or that I couldn't get the depth of color I wanted stamping on black card stock (so I had to rethink that part, and think that the solution I came up with was even better than my original idea).

I am very happy with how the books came out, but next time I am making a prototype first so I don't have to keep making decisions on the fly, because OF COURSE I waited until the week before they were due to start, and they took much longer than I had imagined!

I have pictures of the books, and of my studio table, which I am loving so much, but I am going to post them later, like tomorrow, because I have a few more blogs to catch up on...

Hello...

2007-05-25T06:23:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos of what I have been up to at my studio table lately. I signed up for a few fatbooks because the themes intrigued me, and here are the results, these pages are for a book called graffiti, that was to be based somewhat on Traci Bautista's book Collage Unleashed. I met Traci at AF and bought her book, and was itching to try some.
These were made by pouring acrylics on some canvas paper and using an old credit card to scrape it over the page. On some, I went back in and added some twinkling H2O's to cover any white spots.
I then cut the canvas paper in to the requisite number of pages, all 4X4, and stamped with foam shapes in several colors, and finally I used gesso and circular implements to over-stamp. I also doodled on some with black pen, but I don't think that I have any pictures of that.

After each stage, I had them laid out to dry on the dining room table, and they were so colorful and fun, that it was hard to package them up to mail off. I took a lot of pictures, and intend to make more squares to add to other art work. Very fun project.

Above is an example of the page I made for the Heavy Metal fatbook. I stamped black cardstock with a great background stamp using silver metallic ink, then punched the hole, added eyelets around the hole, and wired a washer into the center. It was time consuming and a little hard on the hands, setting all of the eyelets, but I am very pleased with the results. It has the industrial look I was trying to achieve.

I also completed pages for the current photoart journal book, Windows, and got those in the mail.

I really love having a table, I feel that I can really get in to the flow of what I am doing, I can reach all of my supplies, and it is private. It has made a huge difference for me. I feel more organized about all of my projects, and look forward to the ones still coming up.

We are going to Portland this weekend to visit my parents and my brother. We haven't been there for several months, and I am looking forward to spending time with them, and just getting away with Tom. They celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary last week! It is such a blessing in my life to have my parents still with us, I love them.