Friday, January 27, 2012

Book Of Days-Is This Art?

I do journal in my Book of Days
after making a page, I 
usually just don't 
post a pic, due to the
personal nature of my writing.
Here's two pics to prove it:

Some of it I blurred out.
I really had a hard time
finding a pen to write over 
all the texture on the 
fear flower page. I think I
ended up using a Pitt brush
marker. not quite sure.

So The Universe provides.

So, I've been playing
around with my blog. In bed.
God bless the lap top. 
What do you think so far?
I couldn't change it back 
if I tried. It took hours
and hours to get to this point.
Opinions?
Moving on to....
Our prompt for this spread was
becoming comfortable where 
your are in your skill level,
not comparing yourself to others,
embracing the need to just keep
making art, even if it's not 
"good" even if it doesn't feel 
"right" or "your style". 
Just keep doing it. You have to 
make a lot of art before your 
style reveals itself to you. 
This video by Ira Glass tells all:
I began with a partially gesso'd
out spread from my Book of Days,
which is an upcycled 2004
Art Journal Calendar from
Somerset Studios. I could
never throw it away due to the
gorgeous collages within, but
for this project I was able to
gesso through the book, leave some
elements that spoke to me and white out the others. It's been
really interesting how the images 
I retained without any prior 
knowledge about the upcoming 
prompts have been so perfect
for the subjects that come up.
blah blah blah.
Time for pics, no??

I really liked the horoscope 
circle thing this page had going
for it. My first thought about this page and combining it with the subject, is that I feel splintered like pieces of a pie,
when it comes to knowing what 
my "style" is. 
My wheels started turning.
I painted the gesso'd out rectangle with silver dab on paint.I was thinking of a mirror or reflection of my style symbolism....

Brayered on some color,
thought I would lay down a stencil
inside my pie shape...not really
sure where I was going....
I purchased this stencil a while ago. I assume every artist questions whether or not their work is "art".




I don't like how the flower stencil looks. I'm not feeling it or the silver paint.


I'm liking the spread below for the This is Art, This is not Art,
bits, but really nothing else appeals to me. 



Since I've been living in bed
for the last four weeks, I have paper everywhere. A little less than two years ago I decided not to use anyone elses art in my art.
So I have lots of copies of my own
work that I use as collage
elements. 
Oh, I do use copyright free vintage images, and images of  vintage fine art...but I don't buy
collage sheets anymore. 





So I see this pile and I think slices. They are all slices of my style as its evolved. I cut them up to make pie shapes and represent all the parts of me.
On the outside ring, I've written names of artists that inspire me,
or I've taken workshops with.





I do use junk mail in my art.
The lady's face was from a 
house cleaning brochure. 
Her red hair and green eyes match me as does her look of horror. 
teehee.

The underlining is white-out
correction tape. I've journaled
about my feelings on style below.
and separated the days of the 
week for future journalling 
with a question mark stamp.
I am having a really hard time
writing over top all these layers.
So far no pen is "the one".
Here is my finished spread.


Thanks for looking.
And thank you to 
The Sisterhood Of The Book
for giving me something to 
look forward to. 
In Bed.
xoS

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Effys Book of Days-Mosaic Spread

The cover of my Art Journal
is still almost blank.
I'm really surprised 
that the muse has not shown up
yet to tell me whats what.
She is a fickle one...
All in good time...
The next spread in 
Art Journal project is 
Mosaics!
At the start of this journal,
I spent a lot of time 
gessoing out artwork
I didn't think I would 
use as collage elements.
 I covered most of the
images in white gesso
but used transparent gesso 
for the images I was 
pretty sure I was gonna keep.
Below you can see
the next pages in the calendar.
Ironically, we've got a 
mosiac theme going!!
Coincidence? 
I think not.
This proves this calendar 
is meant to be the vehicle
for the project.
So I was going through the book
gessoing in advance
of the assignment and prompts.
When I saw this page I thought
ohhhhh, what a perfect
page for my 
1970's porn star inchies!!
Pic below.
Handy tip:
I got 2 boxes of this deli paper
for $20 bucks two years ago.
And I just opened the second box! 
I highly recommend leaving 
the paper in between your pages.
Even if you think they are dry.
They will still stick together.
Prevention is better than
um, fixing it???


   Below you can see 
I've added some drips
and some acrylic paint I've run
a texture rake through.
The green is my fav
green of all time
By the time I lay down the color
I've seen Effy's video.
She journals about 
feelings of rejection
and about not taking 
it personally.
How people come and go 
in our lives and the 
importance of learning
to let them come and go
graciously, with love.
Oh, I'm not supposed 
to grab his leg
and let him drag me across
the room as he's leaving?
 stupid flashbacks.
teehee.
I only did that in my mind.
Thank God I'm on the path
to enlightenment
and I don't own 
a hand gun.
Back to Art.....

 I was so lucky
to attend 
two day Portrait workshop
in Virginia.
I had never drawn a face let alone
a portrait before,
but A and S
is a growing experience for me.
Hell, driving 7 hours in one day
alone is a lot of growth for me..
And pushing myself to grow
artistically in such 
a safe and positive
atmosphere is heaven on earth.
It is unfortunate that the retreats
are no longer in my budget.
Even dogs know that I can't
afford it, thats how
obvious it is that 
I can't afford it.
Feel me?
I knew that you could.
ok back on track....
I was so lucky that besides
sharing musical tastes
and getting the thrill of 
turning Misty onto 
she is an extremely 
generous and patient teacher.
And oh so freakin talented.

As I was pondering on what to journal,
I remembered this piece I did.
I love the poetry
so I incorporated his words into 
my self portrait at the retreat.
I am frightened
not frightened
Powerful words, no?
I printed a copy of the original
and journaled on the back.
I wrote about my fear of death.
My fear of aging, getting sick,
and dying.
Of losing my "beauty". 
Of becoming invisible.
Of walking next to my teenage
daughter in the mall and
the 50 year old guy
looks at her and not me.
Again, I am grateful I do not have 
a hand gun.
teehee.
So I purged it all out,
and cut the print into strips,
then 1 inch blocks to cover
the exsisting inches
in the spread.


 

 
I said good by to all that 
 bad habit energy, and
  glued the blocks down with
Goldens Heavy gel medium.

On the facing page
I glued down a flower 
I've used billions of times
as a mask and stencil
ala Traci Bautista.
This one is actually
the one I used in her class.
Altho stamped with Fear,
its a symbol of the growth
I experienced at Art and Soul,
and the growth I am experiencing
on my path to Buddhism.
I put a little pic of the 
original photo used to 
represent wholeness.
and because I look hot.
teehee.
I did some journalling on the page,
and left room to add thoughts
about experiences that occur
that frighten me.



So that's the whole shebang so far.
I have a feeling that I will not feel 
the "decoration" for the cover 
of this journal until it is complete.
But thats ok.
Effy taught me that! 
My next spread will be for a 
week of days, 
and then Mondays spread!
Which is about
Excepting Where You Are 
In Your Artistic Journey!!
Amen, I'll take Acceptance
for 500 Alex!
Until next time!
xoS

Monday, January 16, 2012

BOD's Mindfulness Spread

This is what 
art in bed looks like.
It's not pretty,
but it's necessary!!!
I tried to walk
without the boot today.
HELL NO!!
So, back to bed....
So below you see my supplies 
for Effy's Book of Days.
um, and some other 
supplies, as well.

   

Below, I am gesso'ing
out the elements in the 
2004 Art Calendar
that I don't 
"feel" for this journal page.
This spread took quite a while.
The subject here is 
all about celebrating what 
I am looking forward to 
in the upcoming year.
Not resolutions!
too much presha!!
At this point, 
I have the
tags journaled 
and stamped, 
but don't have a feel 
for the big picture yet.
Here is where I blogged 
about making the tags.
I have both white gesso
to block out images
and clear gesso to 
protect and provide
tooth for the images 
I do want to keep.
By tooth I mean
getting rid of the slickness
of the calendar page
so I can add layers of paint or ink
or GLITTER!!!!
and those layers will stick.
 

 
 Below, the gesso has dried
and I'm adding 
Adirondak Re-inkers
for color.
This is butterscotch, I think.
I used a paper towel to 
lift off some of the ink 
and that cool pattern was the result.
That's an Effy thing. 
Like shabification.
I have a hard time
with shabification.
I love color.
But, it will happen....
 

I decided to keep the profile of 
the face, the fish eyes
and the owl eyes.
Cuz, well eyes are what
I do for a living.
And seeing is part of 
what is required for
wisdom and art.
Very important.
Below you see the full spread.
I used a paint texture tool
for the lines.
Added some Lettuce re-inker.
So my issue was that 
some of the ink lifted when 
I sealed it with 
matte medium.
I suspected it might,
and Effy confirmed.
I let the first layer of medium dry
and added another to seal.
The second time there was 
very little movement.
I was all worried about it 
and then decided not to 
add anymore wet layers.
Ironic, no? 
teehee.


 


Next stop is adding a
flap with tape.
I ended up just folding 
over a flap and using
heavy gel medium as a glue.
cuz, I didn't have any
masking tape in my bed!!!
teehee.
I used a little pan pastels
to color up 
a stamped heart that is
I kid you not,
about 10 years old.
I don't own that stamp,
I was taking a class
from the creator of that 
line of stamps,
sorry can't remember who,
and she was soooo 
generous and let us use 
tons of them!
I knew someday the perfect 
use for that paper would
come up and it did.
I look forward to Art in 2012!
Hey, I cheated and used a color wheel.
Being untrained and what not, 
I knew I wanted to add another
color and had no clue what
would work. 
Voila, and thank you, color wheel!


 Delicious Purple!!





Now the story of the 
transparency pockets:
they are the left over from 
banners I made for my bff's 
bridal shower.
I will blog about that soon.
I punched holes and used brads
to add the pockets. 
The transparencies were ran
through my ink-jet printer
and you can see some
sheet music on the edges
which I love.
Who doesn't look forward
to music?
I love that I was able to
"use what I have".
Big goal for me for 2012.
I used a sticker library card thingy
and covered it with paper.
It is actually my freezer
catch all paper that I put under my 
paintings. The palette just matched 
so I glued it on! 
Slipped the tags in 
and glued on the 
Be Still stamped paper.
I can add more tags
under the pockets
and there is plenty 
of room to journal!



I took the opportunity
to add a couple
sentences about 
mindfulness and suffering
that are very important to me
on the outside 
of the flap. 
This piece of paper 
is also from my stash,
circa Art and Soul 2007 or 8?
I took an INCREDIBLE class
given by Albie Smith
on paste paper making.
OMG.
It was HEAVEN.
teehee, you're welcome.
There is a pic of me and Albie
on my sidebar. 
We are holding the 2 books we
made in class.
I think it was a two day class.
But I don't remember 
and am too booted up to check.
I have very few pieces left of
my special paper, but I love the
purple and bronzy colors.
It was meant to be.
So, that's my 
second spread in my 
Book of Days!
Thanks for looking!
xoS