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? 

International Women's Day

International Women's Day journal page. The prompt I was working on was "primary". The librarian in automatically thinks of primary documents. So I chose two from the National Archives - one of suffragettes marching on Bastille Day (they ended up in jail) and the amendment to grant women the right to vote. Keep marching. No accepting backsliding. Thanks to the women who came before and paved our way. 

#internationalwomensday #strongwomen#adaywithoutwomen #wearred#wearredforwomen#artmarks30daychallenge #artjournal#artjournaling #artjournaleveryday#artjournalmixedmedia

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? 

Push forward

I love mixed media and the layers of gorgeous goodness it entails. Always struck by the depth of some of the mixed media I see, I aim to create such depth myself. I usually come up short, however. The reason, I fall in love with each layer. I fall too easily. 

This week I was inspired by Kim Cammack Hesson's slideshow of her process on Instagram. (You can find her there at @missalayneeah or try her website http://www.kimhesson.typepad.com) Watching that slideshow I realized that I would have quit so many steps before she declared herself done. I decided the time has come for me to push forward. And so I am commiting myself to add successively more layers. I know that this is one of the areas that I need to leave behind my comfort zone and push ahead. I may be in love with the colors, but I can go so much further. 

It's taking me a while as I find that more often than not there is paint to watch dry. I have 3 sets of pages going at once. Well, at least 3 sets. That way I can move ahead in each and not need wait as long. 

I'm sure in the past I would have stopped here or two steps before. I'm liking where it is going. Certainly not done yet, but building the layers. There need to be enough of them to be interesting and not just distracting. 

Have you discovered anything about your own work lately? What do you have to fight against? What do you have to push yourself to improve? 

Those days

Some days are for finishing, for forging ahead, for executing visions with paper, pencil and paint. Other days are for starting. 

Today I am thinking ahead. Preparing pages for those days...the bleak and barren ones...the days that there is little energy left and deciding to give up would take but a moment. Those days are days I would not like to loose momentum. I would not like to pass the day without creativity. Yet on days such as those there is not a shred of inspiration, motivation or drive. Those are days that I can pull out a sketchbook with some colorful ink or paint or paper already installed. 

A page that seems begun is a resting place. A place to feel peace. It is a place I can go and stay for a moment until I can see the hint of a shape, the breath of a life. On such days I can pick up a marker or a gel pen (have you heard how I love them?) and add a hint of this and a sparkle of that. Those are the days for such tools. 

On days such as those I will be glad that today I chose to spread ink for future happiness. Storing away the color and the warmth for a day less blessed. Today I felt like banking the colors and inspiration I could feel and invest it for a future which needs this color. Which needs the vibrancy of me on this day. So some day I will look at these backgrounds and see the love that pours through me on to the page and into the blogosphere. 

That day I will be happy I had today. 

Every Day

Sometimes it's increments of the smallest measure. Sometimes it's bigger. Sometimes it's grand. 

A few dots. Several lines. Once started the gel pen moves almost on it's own. Just a few minutes is enough to keep the momentum.