Always Running

Shoup, Lynda Diane. Always Running. 2017, Private Collection of the Artist.

New spread exploring the time sensitive nature of modern life. 

Do you feel like you are always running? Do you have strategies to combat this? 

Try it or trash it

Yesterday I read a blogpost by Jen Morris on her website Jen Morris Creative entitled What I'm reading this year: 17 books in 2017.  She realized that she has many inspirational books sitting unread on her shelves and she is aiming to do something about that. It inspired me. Thanks, Jen. 

My bookshelf before the challenge

As a librarian I have always said that books need to earn their places on the shelves. They don't get to be there just because they are paper bound together into book form. They don't get to be there because someone sweat over each word, each illustration and some editor pulled out hair trying to convince that author not to use a semicolon 15 times on one page. They don't get to be there because they were donated by the principal's aunt or a favorite of hers from childhood. Even MY favorite childhood books have not been exempt from my scrutiny. 

No, to earn a place, and keep it, a book must be useful, used and relevant. If not, sayonara. Becoming a librarian made me much less romantic about books. I'll guard them from censorship and use my own money to buy them for kids. But, dare I say it, they are not sacred just because they are books. 

Content, my friends. Content keeps them on the shelves. 

My book shelf after turning the books upside down. I hope to be able to turn them right side up again soon. Don't count on it, but I do hope. 

Never more than in my own home must this be true. I look at my shelves of art techniques and shake my head. So many techniques, all untried. So I have declared, rather hastily I might add, that in 2017 I will conquer this shelf. Each book has been taken off the shelf and turned upside down. Each will only earn it's place back on the shelf if I have read a chapter or tried a technique. Going so far as to say they will be thoroughly explored is going a bit overboard. 

I hope to be able to report positively on my progress through this self imposed challenge. 

Do you have a stack of books you need to get through? What kind of books are in your pile? 

Check out Jen's list of books she is going to read this year. There are some that sound very interesting. Now where is that Barnes & Noble gift card? 

Have Journal Will Travel

It seems that the majority of my arting has been done on the go. While I continue to try to get my art desk under control, I haven't spent much time at it. So I'm getting pretty good at creating wherever I am and in mini-bursts. More often than not, time at my art desk is focused on preparing materials to be made on the go.

Last pocketbook buying trip was focused on getting a bag that could not hold the kitchen sink. Naturally, it has become apparent that if it can be stuffed to overflowing it will be. There is space for a sandwich sized zip-lock bag with two mini books and a handful of gel pens. The mini-books have already had a layer of collage or paint and now it is time for embellishment.

Another bag is stuffed with a host of materials for collage, a variety of art pens and water soluble crayons. This bag is taken when there is any suspicion that the day will have down moments or even a visit to a tea or coffee establishment. 

You may have noticed that I have a favorite tea shop to work in. Kung fu Tea in Providence, Rhode Island is my new favorite journaling spot. I go there whenever I have a chance (which isn't nearly often enough.) I love the environment and Oolong Milk Tea is nothing short of ambrosial. 

I still love journaling in Starbucks. I'm plenty happy pasting layers and adding pen in the car. 

Lately I have found that our nearby hospital has a lovely waiting room where I spent some time  while waiting for a family member's tests. Pages were completed there. Callous you say? Art journal pages are a great way to process the feelings you are having whether they are fear, joy or confusion. Art journaling eased my worry and helped me to be more present for others. I'd say that is a win all around. 

I've also discovered over the past few months that I have gravitated to posting on instagram. It suits the out and about nature of my days. Actually it was through instagram that I was inspired to get serious about making art on the go. Jogatheringwild regularly creates art in her car before work. This inspired me to really get started. Check her out. 

What are your favorite tools for art on the go? How do you manage fitting art making into your routine? 

Average No More

Life changing events are not always large. They can be small, seemingly insignificant things that would have no effect on others. They can be something another would forget within the hour. 

In High School I found out that my GPA was in the middle of my class. I don't mean approximately. 

Smack dab in the middle

As in I was the average student. With an odd number of students in my class I could not even cry that it was the other middle who was actually the average one. Add to that blow hearing that the guidance counselors had used my standardized test (was it the Idaho or Iowa back then?) to show all the guidance counselors how to interpret the data. 

The shame. 

I had always been a kid who followed the beat of my own heart. I wasn't following a drummer, after all. A dear friend at the time sighed when she heard this factoid of information. She intimated that my life would be plagued by the need to prove myself NOT AVERAGE. At the time I didn't necessarily agree with her assertion, but reflection does indicate that she was prophetic. 

Haunted by the fear of being average, I have challenged myself, pushed through and done things that looking back, I can't believe were possible for me. Still, the fear remained, always taunting me with the fact that accolades have not been forthcoming and comparing myself to my contemporaries. What in the world do I have to show for myself?

Yesterday in a flash of inspiration I found my answer. I have to change my thinking. No longer will I repeat those words in my head 

"You are average." 

From Yesterday those words have been replace by something so much better. 

"You are archetypal."

"You are the prototype."

"You are universal consciousness."

My daughter's kind voice added:

"You are a classic."

I am not average. Those who know me best would tend to agree, I think. I am wonderfully unique. The word that has plagued me all these years has lost its power. I am archetypal. I will have the last word. 

Background Knowledge

I recently came to the conclusion that I need to add more layers to my work...that I just don't push forward as far as I really want to go. I wrote a blog post about it. 

Well, this week I started trying Morning Pages again. It is an exercise that comes from The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. To be completely honest, I have never read the book. Those around me have, however, and I have gained some knowledge symbiotically. (Some day I will read the book.)

But I digress. Writing helped me realize that not only do I not push myself far enough, I haven't finished anything in quite a while. Some time ago I satisfied myself with creating backgrounds as a way of getting some art in during very busy patches. There are many very busy patches. 

The time has come, however to reach beyond and start finishing the beginnings. Taking a good hard look at the journals I have been beginning has been enlightening. Part of this issue is not knowing where I am going with any of them. So I assigned themes to each of the ones I have been working in and found a surge in activity. Even the backgrounds are coming together more fluidly. 

So instead of limiting me in a negative way, the themes are helping me to be free. Before I was hesitant and noncommittal. Now I forge forward adding with abandon. Well, with as much abandon as one can forge with when paint, gesso and gel medium are drying. 

Some of the themes are also demanding that color be evaluated rather than flinging the same bright colors on the pages willy nilly. I loved those vibrant pages, but they will be tamed and toned down and reined in so that they bring more life and illumination to the whole. 

Fun. Fun. Fun. 

Background knowledge informs my work. 

Intention

 These days I don't hear many people talk about making New Year's Resolutions. A trend I have seen over the last few years is the tradition of choosing a guiding word for the year. I have been intrigued by this idea, but didn't think I'd do it until several things occured to make my word find me rather than the other way around.

1. I was telling my child about how some people do this. I remember where I was on the road when this conversation took place. I then said "I don't know what word I would choose unless it was...." and out the word popped. What a surprise!

2. The next day I was reading the blog All of Me and her post was about, surprise, her guiding word. She also posted a link to Susannah Conway's Find Your Word for 2016. I promptly signed up, went through the process and ended up with exactly the same word. It was a great process, one I would highly recommend. Thanks Lynette and Susannah!

My guiding word for 2016 is Intention. 

While there are plenty of other worthy words out there, I know what I need this year is Intention. There are so many demands. So many tasks that need doing, or seem to need doing. There is no way to fit them all in. So being guided by living intentionally I may start being buffeted less by the winds that blow and start charting my own course with more accuracy. 

I want to be intentional about my work, my family, my art and about my living space. I am sure I will find more ways in which intention enhances my experience of my life. 

So when I finally got down to doing my warm up page for Life Book 2016 (I need a little more intention to get that rolling) I knew that my message would have the word Intention front and center. 

I want to make sure I make time for creating. The intent is that I fit it in every day. It is like meditation for me. 

More often I'm intentional about whether a thing, activity, obligation really has a place in the life I want to live. There are still winds of unexpected changes, but I am starting to choose more carefully. 

Work, Family, Art Balance

It's not easy to balance everything. That's exactly the reason I am determined not to give up. So finding ways to sneak in more creativity is an art I want to pursue. 

Some people would stick with one journal and see it through. 

Not me. I am a firm adherent in the multiple journals philosophy. With just five minutes to create, unfurl three journals to in progress pages - usually pages that are in their first few layers of existence. 

Choose one color of acrylic paint and then another as the first one is dried up. A dollop of paint on the palette, a make up sponge and a couple of minutes is enough to move three pages along....more if you have space to spread them out and have them dry. 

Always having something in progress - rather having multiple things in process has been a technique I have used to keep me moving forward. 

It works for me. More pages. More art. More finished products. Happier me. 

Busy Time Play

It's been hard to fit in time to paint lately. Too many things to start a new year. I am signed up for two classes and had hoped to make progress in each of them this weekend, but alas, it was not to be.

Still I just had to listen to that voice that begs for expression. Some time ago I decided that I needed to create a forum for just such times. Using a thin journal I splashed paint on the pages, added ink and started adding extra paint/ink/stmaps from other projects. The concept of this book is that it would be easy enough to pull out and do 10 minutes of playing. Some of the pages have ended up favorites.

Too bad it lay forgotten - until tonight. I pulled it out and added color with abandon. It now looks nothing like the page it began as. Transformations are fun. The page wasn't the only thing energized. I was too.

Note to self: This should be a core activity and done so regularly that it is not forgotten in overwhelming times.

Hope you will make a play journal too. 

Optimist or Idiot?

I've neglected my blog, I know, but I am glad to be back at my computer and posting. Frankly, I can't really manage a post on my phone or iPad. Photos get posted to Instagram and then I move on to the next project. So my strategy going forward to is prioritize getting to my desk. 

The struggle to find time for it all is real and yet I remain confident that connection is worth the effort. Prioritizing projects, deciding which things to participate in and which to pass on is hard. After months of thinking about it I finally decided to commit to doing Life Book 2016. The desire to take part is a given, but time...there is always time. I have yet to start my December painting for the Spirit Wings Angel Painting class. There are three more to come. So starting a yearlong project, am I an optimist or an idiot? Can I keep up? The months to come will tell the truth, but I am glad I choose to say "Yes" to this thing I want to do. I'm doing it for me. 

I am a caregiver. I think of the needs of others in so many of my roles. If you are reading this you probably do too, It has been a long time since I started putting the needs of others first. That's ok as long as I put my needs somewhere in the calendar. I'm learning this and it is a struggle. So I am glad I joined this groups as well as the others I enjoy. Life Book 2016, Spirit Wings Angel Painting, CarveDecember, Art Journal Every Day, Mad Tea Party - all these events and the people who host them have made my life more exciting. Thank you all. 

So I may be an idiot, but I hope I will be a happy one following dreams that bring joy and holding the things I cherish dear. If that makes me an idiot, I embrace it. 

Laugh in the Face of Fear

For the past few months I've been carefully using the time I have for creative endeavors...not everything can be accomplished at once. The last week of the year will be spent tidying and organizing so that I can be more efficient in 2016. Hopefully some art will be created in tandem. 

Kelly Rae Robert's course, Spirit Wings, has been my main focus. December has added the option of using snippets of time to participate sporadically in Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Carve December. Both of these have given me joy this season. 

(Hashtags for the projects #spiritwingspaintingcourse   and #carvedecember)

The painting above is my angel of courage. It was a wonderful process painting her. 

Below you can see a few of my hand carved stamps made during the December event. 

Painting Angels

I've been missing here for a while. I've started a six month long creative Adventure with Kelly Rae Roberts. The course I'm taking is called Spirit Wings. By the time the course is done I will have completed six angel paintings. 

I love art journaling and mixed media is part of all that. I wasn't so sure about painting faces, though that is a trend in art journaling these days. I don't think I would have gone the route of adding faces to my art if it hadn't been for this wonderful opportunity. The timing was great and Kelly Rae Roberts is a powerful course leader. So I showed up.

You can see my first painting above. It's pretty amazing because I would never have imagined I'd paint like that. My big dilemma was the wings. I had done the face and hair and realized that I didn't have a clue as to how the wings should go. I started cutting the features out of tissue paper. I thought if I wrote my meditations on the feathers using a white pen they would be invisible - a note just for me. Well, I was wrong about that. They show up well and I love the foggy aspect of them. 


Looking forward to learning so much more in the next five months.

Pushing Past Limitations

There's red under here. Really.

Limitations. Sometimes they are given to us. Sometimes we make them ourselves. As someone doing art journaling, nursing my limitations was not in my favor. I became aware of my color deficiency some years ago when taking my first course with Vivienne McMaster. 

So when Kelly Kilmer challenged us to use up the paint on our palettes I became recalcitrant. "No, I will not use that red" I said. My painting partner also aired her dislike of red. I then took a moment to think about why I was taking a class instead of following my instincts and proceeded to use that red. (Yes, I agree. I should have thought before childishness refusing in the first place.) You know what? I liked what came out of it. If I hadn't used red then, I would have missed an opportunity for self growth. 

A few weeks later during our Artist's Retreat, Cindi Huss playfully jibed me about my aversion to red. Later on her blog, my name and red were mentioned in the same sentence. I took that as a challenge. The gauntlet had been thrown down. My next page spread would heavily feature red. 

Well, Cindi, here's some red for you. 

See?! It was red. Really. Well, before I added the pink and purple. 

I still use pink and purple as my neutrals. What can I say? I can't get enough of them. Nevertheless, learning to add colors I don't normally use will stretch me and make me grow. So I'll be giving it a try. 

P.S. I have learned so much from each of the teachers I mentioned above. If you have the opportunity to take a class with them, take it. 

Love Everywhere

This spread was done during our Artist's Retreat and was inspired by the wonder that is Cindi Huss. Cindi has never ceased to amaze and delight me with her openness to people who have a wide, and I  really mean huge, span of cultural, political, socio-economic, gender, add whatever else I have left out, backgrounds. She helps me to open my perspective and see more love in the world.

Who inspires you to see more love, to be more love?

Artist's Retreat - July 2015

First meal of Artist's Retreat - on the shore at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Photograph altered with Brushstroke app. 

Artist’s Retreat. Doesn’t that sound romantic? Maybe expensive? Certainly illusive.

Well, at least that’s how I felt about it. Every year I’d talk to Cindi Huss, a dear friend who has moved far enough away that we don't see each other often. We’d say how we should run away for a weekend sometime and leave all our responsibilities behind us. Well, this year I called her up and said “Let’s have an artist’s retreat!” She was enthusiastic and so we started planning. Last week was the fruit of all those conversations.

Revel in these paint colors!

We had three full days together. Cindi had seen my art journaling work and was game to give it a go. Our plan was to do gelli printing, art journaling and gelli printing on silk scarves. Cindi also brought matching white moleskins in which we would record our retreat. I found some necklace findings which allow for a picture to be inserted. We would also have these as momentos of our time together.  Our other goals included food and laughter.

Gelli Printing

We took turns. Each of us printed a few and then handed the gelli plate to the other. We never washed the plate until we were done. This method allowed us to rif on each other’s work, gave us the challenge of using what was left on the plate to create a new print and resulted in some pretty amazing pulls in which we could see traces of each other in our prints. When finished we laid out Cindi’s prints to photograph them. Then we did the same with mine. It was amazing to see how even though we had the same materials with which to work, we made very different collections of prints. It was also really fun to see Cindi’s touch in the middle of my creations.

Cindi's gelli prints. 

My Prints. Notice how different the color scheme is. 

Art Journaling

Cindi made her journal by taking large paper, applying gesso, ripping it to size and sewing together. We actually applied gesso the first day so that we could use our pages as a place to blot excess paint from brayers, paintbrushes and fingers.

I suggested the added challenge of each of us using a gelli print the other made as the inspiration for the journal page. Even as I suggested it, I quaked in my boots. Cindi took up the challenge and off we sped. We each offered up prints that we could part with which added another level of structure vs. choice. 

(Left) Cindi's print. Red was going to be a challenge for me, but those shapes! Could be leaves. Could be paisley. (Right) My print. She was already seeing things in this print.

Working with these colors was definitely out of my comfort zone. We added background color, stamping, stencils, spray ink, collage and pen. I regret neglecting to introduce Cindi to the joys of bubble wrap printing.

You can see our pages. 

What do you know? I can use red.

The shapes were taken organically from the print. I stared at it until I could see the lines in the print.

The whole page felt organic to me. It didn't take much thinking. 

Working with Cindi was great. The message came easily in her presence. She is such a fountain of joy and compassion. 

Cindi's journal page. It was fun to see her expand her vision as she added layers. 

Gelli Printing on Silk Scarves

We had seen the tutorial on the Gelli Arts blog that shows using the round gelli plates to print of silk scarves. We both reacted very positively to that idea, so we forged ahead. One of Cindi’s many talents includes dyeing fabric. Go to her website or blog to read more about her work. She had some silk scarves and offered to bring them. 

After brushing on the paint I pressed a piece of lace into the paint. Here is the result. 

This piece of lace is brightly colored now from the number of times I used it as a pattern maker. 

Cindi and I took very different approaches to this project. I started out too rigid and lifeless in my thinking. I used the blocks as the rectangles they are, marking them by pressing a piece of lace into them. 

No limitations for Cindi! She did not conform to the shape of the plate. 

Cindi printed with wild abandon. Eventually I loosened up and added the circles – big and little. The circles were made with stamps I had made from styrofoam trays my vegetables came in. Cindi’s scarf was a wild garden full of vibrant flowers and leaves.

Taking the scarves off the freezer paper was awe-inspiring. We gasped when we saw how different the scarf look as it draped around my neck or on the table.

My scarf unveiled.

Cindi wearing the scarf on the way home. 

Cindi's scarf off the freezer paper. 

Moleskine Notebooks

A silly picture we took with the APP Snap Dash. The caption reads "You're a pig being carried to a luau."

We wrote in our notebooks. What we did. How we did things. Things we wanted to remember. Food we ate. Pieces of the work we did. Photographs of us being silly. Working in these books helped us to think about what we had created and to take it to the next level. They are wonderful reminders of these days spent together and of our friendship. I will cherish mine.

Necklaces

The pieces we gave to each other. (Left) from me (Right) from Cindi.

We each chose a gelli print to cut a piece out to put in our necklaces. We each wrote a message to the other on the piece of paper we gave. Then we put them together with a piece of our own and closed the latch. Lovely charms for us to wear and shine.

It was hard to let Cindi go when the time came. Yet instead of that old feeling that things were coming to a close, I had a strange feeling that something was beginning. Guess we’ll just have to do it again. Can’t wait.

Want to see more about Cindi? You can see some of her work at http://www.cindihuss.com or her blog Dancing Threads.