Mad Tea Party 2016

It is that time again. Mad Tea Party Time! This year is a unique year. So a unique interpertation of this theme seems in order, don't you think? I've got something up my sleeve and I'm excited to share it with you. So sneak around by on Saturday and see what is cooking on the blog. I assure you it will be Assam. Oh Darjeeling, you must drop by. 

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? 

Handmade Journals and Books

For a significant piece of time the desire to make my own books has been poking at me, worrying at me, and wearing me down. One would think that by now, with all the things that tug at me in one direction or another, I would be smooth as glass like a river rock polished by the current. In May I started to act upon the whispers. (To be honest, they started as whispers, but had turned into shouting long ago.) Against all odds I decided to join the 100 day challenge and work on making books during that challenge. 

Little did I know that life would intervene. My father passed away and for a time I ceased my book making and painting. For a time other things, precious things, took my time. Not only that, but the end of the school year arrived. My creativity was harnessed in a different direction for a few weeks. 

Slowly, I am returning to the books. The contents will, no doubt, be different than if I had filled them six weeks ago. That's ok. All part of the journey. I didn't finish the 100 day project, but it did kick start me on a project that has long wished to be allowed into the light. 

The top picture shows the cover of the journal I put together immediately after sewing together. The base of this book is a JoAnn Fabrics calendar that did not find a home on the wall. The colors were lovely and the paper strong. The 2nd photo shows the cover with a layer of gesso. It is ready for some adventure. 

Inside there are some pockets made from folding over the paper. Brown paper from a purchase was added to the middle. I have always admired handmade journals featuring a variety of shapes and sizes of paper. So I tried to add it all to this journal. 

Here's a spread with three different shaped papers which have been gessoed, painted, sprayed and painted over again. 

Love the sizes, shapes and textures, but need to pull them together a bit and make them ready for what comes next. 

First step - gesso, paint, stencils, and blotting. 

Another peek at before...

... after. 

The transformation is exciting to watch. While it remains clear to me that I am the one making the transformation happen, it is still a surprise and delight to see it marinate and deepen. 

What have I waited so long for? Making books is so much fun. It is actually much easier than I imagined and the possibilities are endless. 

What have you been itching to try? What have you been putting off until the time is right, the star align and the stock market is favorable? 

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.

Assigning Meaning

I enjoy making connections. Whether they are connections between people, ideas or things the connectivity of life excites and intrigues me. Sometimes I think I would have been a good detective. Being a librarian, however, I get to do plenty of sleuthing, finding and scoring in the search for information. 

That search for connection is part of my career path, part of my leisure and simply, part of me. 

I connect the dots.

Sometimes the dots are pretty faint. Sometimes you can barely see them. No matter. I can find connectedness when none is plainly in sight. 

Some years ago I read a book that made me pause. It made me wonder if my search for meaning and interconnectedness was a good thing after all. The book Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy Frost and Gail Steketee. Frost and Steketee make many observations about hoarders that were at once fascinating and terrifying. Although I read the book years ago, several things stay with me: 

1. Hoarders are experts at creating meaning even when there is no meaning discernable to the average person. The problem is that they are then unable to rank the meaning or value of items. They cannot distinguish so they keep everything.

2. It was striking how many of the hoarders were, or had been, librarians. It seems like I am in danger. It makes sense. As librarians we are trained to look for connections, for meaning. To assign meaning when we are cataloging. To find resources for any occasion, no matter how random. 

3. The authors state that people who they studied hadn't always been hoarders. A loss, a stressful time, a shock could all send a perfectly reasonable person into a spiral of hoarding. 

I don't want to give up the joy of making connections or of assigning meaning in my life. It brings much depth and beauty to my life. However, I do want to cultivate a more meditative sense of meaning. Rather than focusing on the ownership of that meaning, I am practicing an ability to notice the meaning, make the connections as let it go by me. Sometimes I create and let it go out in the world to touch others, sometimes I give it away, sometimes I do keep the end product. I am becoming more mindful about curating the materials I keep and letting others go. 

In art and life allowing the flow to be uninterrupted makes for less friction and more joy. That's part one. Now I have to go fill another garbage bag. 

Distracted and Forgetful

Happy Belated Valentine's Day! I hope everyone had a pleasant day. 

February has been an interesting month. I sprained my wrist, but didn't want to slow down too much so I practiced using my left hand. I'm not so good at it, but I did improve. Practice makes perfect...well, not perfect. In my case practice made less unsightly.

I used my time to lay down some backgrounds in my art journal. Something a non-dominant hand can definitely handle. 

Meanwhile, Life Book 2016 has captivated me....the only problem is that I'm still on the warm up exercise from week one. I don't really care. I am enjoying it at my pace. 

Here I wrote and used the paper like they did in the past by writing crosswise as well. Great for the background. 

I had some fun taking the photo into my Diana App and juxtaposing it with other art I've done. I love this affect. 

And you can see various stages of color and texture below. 

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.