Art Supply Testing Journal

I never decided between circle or square test spots but like the bright and messy result.

Page one (mostly warms) of my Derwent Inktense Water Soluble Pencils

Tombos are water soluble markers that come in blendable bright colors.

Thanks to Joanne Sharpe of Whimspirations fame http://joannezsharpe.blogspot.com/ for

teaching me to keep an art supply testing journal.  Such a great resource and reference for

choosing materials and colors for a project.  Plus the pages are so pretty I just had to share.

Every time I get new supplies I make a color range page for them.  Why wasn't I taught this 

practice in art school?  Helps me to develop a deeper relationship with materials and colors.

Think my next art supply testing journal is going to have heavier wet media friendly pages.

Probably a small Strathmore Visual Journal.  This one was just a composition book with

pairs of pages glue sticked together to make more sturdy pages.

 

Fall Pages: Preserving Memories & Childlike Qualities

Fall Page, Preserving Memories and Childlike Qualities, Left

Fall Page, Preserving Memories and Childlike Qualities, Right

Stamps, butterfly decoupage paper, Plaid liquid embossing, Inktense W/C Pencils

I first used spray ink to make patterned paper.  I then stamped the redline.com stamp

"Nature Jar" onto it.  I used Plaid liquid embossing (silver) to make threads on the jar lid after I glued the cut-out jar down.  The background was made with scribbles of fall colored Inktense Watercolor Pencils spread around with water and paint brush. Stamped with leaf, crow, spiral line stamps (origin unknown).  

I also found fall-themed quotes from 

Edwin Teale

"Change is a measure of time and, in the autumn, time seems speeded up. 

What was is not and never again will be; what is is change".

and

Andrew Wyeth

"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape

the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter.  Something waits beneath it,

the whole story doesn't show".

I added journaling about my memory of my grandmother canning tomatoes in the summer and using those tomatoes the whole winter to make wonderful stews and sauces.  Also thinking

about the whole idea of preserving something from seasons past.

I am in the fall of my life, a time of collecting memories and gathering my treasures, accepting loss.  Also preserving the childlike qualities of hope, playfulness, enthusiasm, energy, imagination, creativity, spontaneity.  

Doors of Opportunity

Back page and Cover of Doors Booklet

Pages 1 & 2

Pages 3 & 4

Pages 5 & 6

Collage, Sharpie Pen, Tombo Markers 

I'm participating in Jess Greene's "Jump start Your Creativity" online course. http://www.jumpstartcreativitytour.com/ 

I definitely find, at this point in life, 

that I am more likely to spend time creating if I am enrolled in some sort of online art class.  A great point of departure.  Her first week prompt with "doors".  She sent out a pdf with directions for folding an X-book and a sheet with drawings of doors.  

I've always loved the metaphor of the "door".  Here's where I went with this point of departure.  First, I made an x-fold book (look on YouTube) ledger sized, the tiny book was too small for me.  Then I drew 8 doors.  That's when I realized that these 8 doors where doors that represented OPPORTUNITY to me. 

You know that old saying about opportunity knocking?  So looking through these open doors I thought about my areas of opportunity that need attention.  I used the Drawing with Associations method here to gather association to these collage/drawings.  Guess the next step could be an activity that breaks down the steps needed to realize these opportunities.

Drawing with Associations

Art Muse Mind Map

Black Gesso, Tombo Markers, Gelly Roll pens, sharpie pens.

One of my signature art therapy assignments is

1. make a drawing, painting or collage
2. make a mind-map related to your art piece
3. make a journal entry related to your art piece and mind map

I think that this process now has a short hand version.  I made a drawing of my "Art Muse" and printed out a copy which I glued to the cover a composition book that I had painted with black gesso.  I embellished the drawing...surprised that she ended up with a mask.  Then, instead of making a separate mind-map I made the image itself into a mind-map.  Maybe I'll call it a Art with Associations.  

My composition book is a place for me to plot and plan ways to expand my streams of income through making art, coaching, doing art therapy (virtually, and face to face) and teaching.

What I discovered: I need to develop myself as a product.  That's what the mask means, I think.  I need to assure the part of myself that is a raving introvert that another part of me will do all the extroverted stuff that makes her so tired.  Like an actor creates a role.  It really is me, my ideas and heart, but a product/persona as well.  At least that's what I'm thinking today.

Bulb Blossums

Bulb Blossoms

Sharpie pen and Tombo Markers

I know that fall is here but I'm nostalgic about Spring and new blooms.  I bought an old

book for a dollar at the Denver Botanic Gardens " Readers Digest Complete Book of The Garden" from 1966.  I'm not a gardener but loved the simple botanical drawings.  Great practice to use these drawings as a reference to draw from.  Just added a little color
with Tombo Markers.  I love working from living flowers but also love to work from
photos, drawings and painting.

Don't be afraid to draw from any source that inspires you.

Botanics and the Technosphere

Cone flower and Clouds

Collage, Tombo Markers, Gelli Roll Pens
Koi Watercolors, Copic Markers

It is the height of August beauty at the Denver Botanic Gardens.  Actually, many of the Cone flowers are faded from the intense heat of the summer.  But there still is a glorious riot of color.  When I am at the Gardens with the glory of color that is summer here, with lush green and happy bees having an orgy all around, I feel so blissful in in the moment and let go of my worries.  I become one with this beauty.  Think that is why I love the Gardens so much.

In contrast, on Thursdays, I teach my college class called Technology and Society.  Used to be called Technology,  Ethics and Society but at some point corporate dropped "ethics" although that is still what the book is called.  My students share articles from the web related to science,technology and society.  They mostly bring in articles about the changing screen size for the Smart Phone or Apple's lawsuits against Android.

I've made the list repeatedly for them: current events in science and technology that effect us all.  I know this class is meant to encourage critical thinking and awareness of issues facing the modern world but I am surprised that they are not aware of or do not care about the larger issues: genetically altered food and other food source concerns; regulation of polluting  industries; globalization and the third world; person to person communication issues caused by  over-reliance on electronic communication; global warming; radioactive pollution that is mutating wildlife and insects and many other human caused environmental issues that need to be aired.

So now you will often see indicators of my awareness, in my art, that the technosphere man-made technologies from the wheel to the latest development in weaponry) and nature are no longer separate.  We have taken and added to the natural world with ingenuity and ferocity such that even native crops can be found to have altered genes in their make-up.

I feel sad that I would probably become ill if I drank untreated water from a lake or stream. Rain contains pollutants that acidify soil and oceans.  We have changed the weather.

So you might see torn pages from news articles intertwined with leaves, stems and bloosums. I can still create art about the beauty of nature while acknowledging my pain about the ways we've altered our world in ways from which there is no returning.





ART SPACE Shared Journal

ART SPACE (cover)

Collaged photos of Mars and space,

packing tape transfer of Muybridge

motion study, young girl, text added

in the Picasa 3 program, motion study

picture altered with Gelly Pens

Mind-Map, Techniques, Reflection

Collaged border, mind-map with

Sharpie Pen and Tombo Markers,

scanned/printed strip from original 

I am very excited to be creating a shared journal with two other Art Therapists, Ginger and Sylma, who are with me in the ARTbundance training. We are making this journal to record our journey as well as integrate the ARTbundance information with our previous experiences as Artists,Art Psychotherapists and Creativity Coaches.


My son had brought home a pile of old  

Sky and Telescope magazines from his high school library and I had previously cut out pictures of space and the surface of Mars to use in collage. I also had a Discovery magazine that had a picture of a Muybridge motion study using a young girl, that intrigued me.I made a Xerox copy of it.

I started the shared ART SPACE journal cover using the space and Mars images in a collage.  I next altered the images of the young girl with Gelly Roll Pens adding a swimsuit, flying hair, flowing ribbons and a candle which later turned into a torch.  I scanned the completed image and added the text in the Picasa 3 program (free Microsoft download).

I next burnished a piece of packing tape to the motion study image and then used warm water on the back to saturate the paper.  The wet paper easily rubbed off, leaving the altered Xerox image on the tape.  I hung the tape up to dry.  Once the tape is dry it will be sticky again and you can stick it to any surface you wish.  I was so happy to find out that the Gelly Roll Pen transferred as nicely as the toner from the Xerox!  I applied the strip to the collage.

I next scanned in the image and added the words ART SPACE to the image in the Picasa 3 program.  I printed out the collage with text, cut out the text portion and added it to the collage.  I glued the completed collage to the journal cover.

Sylma and Ginger and I agreed that it is important for us to include a record of our techniques, process and a reflection about each entry.  On the inside cover I made a collaged border and then added the motion study strip from the printed copy.  Above the strip I made a mind-map
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map making associations to the images in the journal cover.

Love mind-maps because they are a non-linear way to use words which means you can stay connected to your intuition/subconscious while you are finding words. I often have my clients mind-map when they make collages, then reflect/journal from their mind-maps.

I found, from this process, that art making connects me to hope, life and strength as well as keeps me moving and determined to bring light to others.  I realized that the candle the girl carries is actually a torch, allowing the light to be carried to a shared place.



 ART SPACE, first page

Printed copy of ART SPACE collage,
printed on red paper.  Gelly Roll Pen details



When I first printed out the original collage I printed it on cardstock that ended up having a red side.  I ended up liking the red image, especially since Mars is the "red planet", added gold details with a Gelly Pen and glued it into the journal as the first page. Love those happy accidents!