Changing Blog Title

Art journal page prompted by Rae Missigman's #artmarks30daychallenge

While I haven't been posting to my blog in a while, I have been fairly active on Instagram. Even before the last post, I made I started considering where this blog was going and some changes I hoped to make. Changes I hoped would make this blog more interactive. 

Art journal page prompted by Rae Missigman's #artmarks30daychallenge

It's not unusual for me to overthink things, to dream up new ideas and leave half of them behind as I forge forward with a creative idea. Each week I thought I would make the decision. I would move forward in a new direction. I did some research. I did some brainstorming. I spent time sketching in the park. 

Finally, today, I made a decision. It wasn't any of the options that had been under consideration.

Finally, I decided to just be me. And so it is. No agenda. Just me. Making art. Sharing joy and art. That is all. So from now on, you can find me by my name. 

A collection of mood books I made from magazines I decided had to go after a spring cleaning purge.  

As stated previously, these hands have not been idle while my mind was working overtime. 

1. Chipping away at The Artist's Way, albeit slowly.

2. Making a Facebook page with artist-friend, Cindi Huss, to keep us accountable to each other. You can check out our page at 

3. Completed Rae Missigman's 

#artmarks30daychallenge part 1 and part 2 

4. Did a studio purge as the spring cleaning bug hit me. I needed room to move about. These beautiful magazines needed to go, so I made them into mood books. That way I could try out binding them with the Coptic stitch. This was something that would have been on my bucket list if I had one. The bindings aren't perfect, but they mark progress. 

The mood books stacked to show bindings. Each book is themed by color. 

Thanks for coming by. I'm excited about providing some new content for you. Let me know if there is something you would like to see. 

The Artist's Way

I've been hearing about The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron for a long time now. Several years ago my friend Cindi Huss told me about the book and about morning pages. I didn't read the book, but I got the gist and started doing them off and on. About a year ago, the book found me at a Barnes and Noble and jumped off the shelf. Literally. I took it home and it stayed on the very shelf I photographed since then. About six weeks ago I started doing morning pages every day and decided to read the book.

Thus started this journey. 

For the Artist Date portion of my assignments I have decided to set down some time each week with one of the books from the overcrowded shelf, find a skill and try it. So far this is leading to some fun creativity. I'm moving into different territory.

 

I started with the Gelli Plate Printing: Mixed-Media Monoprinting Without a Press by Joan Bess. Quite a lot of paint has been seen flinging about here. Intrigued by the Paper Cloth on page 90, I mixed up some glue, unearthed some muslin and got down to business. What a fun process! Several other techniques await the right tools to make them happen (where is that carpet tape when you need it?)

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? 

The Mad to Glad Tea Party

Welcome to the 

Mad to Glad Tea Party 2016

These days there is so much to be mad about, sad about, absolutely devastated about.

Wherever I look I see people questioning why...

wondering how we got to this place....

wondering if the things they do matter...

if they matter....

and they do.

They do matter. 

You matter. 

So as I pondered these things, along came the time for

Vanessa of A Fanciful Twist to post the invitation 

to her annual

Mad Tea Party. 

Each year I look forward to this wonderful party. The loveliness, the creativity, the joy of it all. 

As I pondered these things I decided to hold a 

Mad to Glad Tea Party this year. 

First we must entice a rabbit with a bouquet of basil and fresh dill. 

Everyone knows that rabbits are great for inspiration. 

Sir Fernly Fern and I thought a long time. I stroked his silky fur. He nuzzled me and nipped me when I stopped petting him. Sir Fernly Fern doesn't shy away from comfort as we humans sometimes do. 

The idea to turn Mad to Glad came to me as we snuggled. Tea, friendship and art journaling - the focus for this year. 

I used craft paper instead of a pretty cloth so we could spill as much as we wanted, or write, or paint. 

Guest tags were replaced by black sharpie free flowing names on the table. Naturally we set a place for the Unexpected Guest. 

Three kinds of tea. Why not? A taste testing adventure.

Silly labels made us laugh. 

And we can't forget to stop and smell the roses.

While I know that a cuppa tea can often change my mad to glad, I had more planned for my party friends.

I gave each friend a piece of cold pressed watercolor paper and told them to write what was making them mad or sad or anxious or worried. Like 18th century letter writers would conserved paper, we turned the paper and wrote crosswise. In days gone by the paper was expensive. We used it as a design element. 

After choosing some colors to paint over the words we picked up our cards and spread paint.

My spot at the table after painting a few layers. 

Collage ensued. Scrap paper. Paper bags. Paper from presents last Christmas. Magazine pages. If it could be pasted down it was fair game. 

More color. More layers. We stopped only when it became apparent that our pages needed to dry before adding any more. We hope to continue these now glad pieces. Pieces that inspire us to move forward when it seemed hard to move a muscle.

Here's hoping that you have some inspiration to turn something mad into something glad. Thanks for joining us.  

Please be sure to visit A Fanciful Twist for links to see all the Mad Tea Parties that are happening today. Just click on the invitation to zip over there. 

17/100

I am always over enthusiastic about how much I can fit into my life. So when I saw The 100 Project and noticed many interesting people signing on to the party on Instagram I jumped in. I'm not keeping up with the pack, that's for sure. But I made more art than I would have unprompted and I'll call that a win. If you are on Instagram check out #the100dayproject. 
My hashtag is #100daysofbookingit

 The first few books I made were made of one piece of paper. The background fun began on the full sheet. It was then folded and cut so that it would form a book with 8 pages. You might think of it as a greeting card with a lot of pages, a pamphlet or a sparse book - your choice. 

Yes, there's plenty of pink. Why wouldn't there be?

The layout possibilities are endless.

Here's a peek at several I've made. The one on the top includes a fortune cookie fortune that I've held on to for a while. 

The uncharacteristic shock of green in this one makes me smile. Nevertheless pink reigns front and center. 

Perhaps I'll post some more of these. I lost my momentum as Spring appeared. Seasonal allergies, end of the school year (how will I finish everything in time?) and other projects have been a pull at my time, but I hope to get back into the swing of things when we break for Summer. There will be work to do, curriculum to work on, but I think there will be a few more hours for paint.

How is Spring treating you? What delights you these days? Hope to be in touch.