August 2013 Idea-A-Day Journal Spread

Cloud shape cut out of a foam dinner plate
used approximately a 2" square

In July I saw someone Else's calendar spread, a field of flowers, but it reminded me of a painting I

loved when I was younger: Georgia O'Keeffe "Sky Above Clouds IV" .  It made me want to create

a sky full of clouds for August and do a Dream-a-Day record for August.  Cut out a cartoon cloud

shape (doesn't look like O'Keeffe after all) from a foam dinner plate.  It is so cool that I can cut out

any shape I want from a foam plate, as long as the shape falls within the approximately 2" square size,

and on a 8" X 10" journal page you can get 3 of those shapes on the left and 4 of the shapes on the

right (or do it the opposite way) to make your calendar for the month.  

I made my foam template, traced around it, drew the month/title and numbered the days.  The trouble

was, although I am a person who frequently remembers my dreams I didn't as August began.  Instead

I have been waking up with brainstorms--ideas of projects to try and solutions to problems, feeling as

strident as marching orders.  So my clouds became thought bubbles and here we are.

I used Tombo Markers for the words and numbers and to outline each thought bubble.  Sharpie Pens

and Gelli Roll Metallic Pens for details.  The background is Derwent InkTense Water soluble Pencil,

Iris Blue.  Brushed around with water.  I like the blotchy effect, like the real variations in a cloudy

sky.  Already getting ideas for what I want to focus on each day for the next months.  No surprise

since I am a person much more excited by the idea than the work involved in manifesting the idea;

although the process and all the problem solving and discovery is actually more fun in reality. 

Gifts of the Muse Journal Pages: It's OK to Go Inside

Credit card scraped acrylic background, stenciled acrylic spirals

with Tombo Marker detail. Clipped out raised wall-paper scrap colored

with stamp ink, spray ink, Tombos. Magazine clips of sea vegetation.

"It's OK to Go Inside" page left

Recollections "snow" opaque marker, Pitt Pen, Office Max metallic marker
fish cut-outs recycled from copy of my prayer flags

"It's OK to Go Inside" page right

Recollections "snow" opaque marker, Pitt Pen, Office Max metallic marker
fish cut-outs recycled from copy of my prayer flags

In my visual art journaling group I've been opening each session with a 

guided imagery taking us down to a garden to meet with our creativity

muse.  In our meetings we've asked to receive a symbolic gift (like a shell,

etc.) or a message of insight and encouragement.  I've begun to call this

activity "Gifts of the Muse".  In this group my muse (yes, I meet with my

muse while doing the guided imagery) reassured me that "It's OK to

go into your shell".  I do a number of extrovert seeming things in the

world like teaching in the classroom and running groups but I am a

dyed-in-the-wool introvert.  In the US the extrovert rules and sometimes

I feel guilty or weak because I need alone time and become exhausted

when I overextend myself in the outer world.

I recently showed my psychology class this great Susan Cain

TED Talk about introversion.  

http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts.html

It reminded me about how our culture treats introverts like failed

extroverts.  Introverts need to remember the gifts available to 

those who turn inside to be inspired and energized.  Because I am

blogging for creatives and we tend to be an unusual and thoughtful lot

I just wanted to share my muse's words:

It's OK to be an Introvert

It's OK to be Reflective

It's OK to Think and Dream

Go inside

It's OK to go into your shell

Go inside. 

More Envelope Art

My first envelope doodles this year, markers and Pitt pens.

Doodled mandala flowers with curly-Q's. Pitt pen, markers.

Close up from envelope above.  I really like the wavy lines and curlies.

I signed up for 21 Secrets this year when it first opened.  I've only had a chance to do the first
assignment in Ro Bruhn's "Flower Power" workshop.  In her workshop we were asked to make
flower doodles on the inside of business envelopes.  This background was used in order to add
interest to our drawings with the envelope security patterns.

I think this series of envelope doodles is interesting in terms of my various styles.  The first
doodles seem blobby and overworked.  After experimenting a bit I was more relaxed,
happy, playful.  I returned to my usual mandala flower doodles and even tried a curly wavy line
around my final doodle.

I'm not sure what it all means but it is interesting that my doodles progress during my three attempts.
Makes me think about how useful it is to warm up, experiment, relax and play, and persist.  Also
love the up-cycling of business window envelopes.  Life gives you phone bills?  Answer the call to creativity.

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.

 

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.

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.





June Botanical Sketch a Day & Finishing Things

Botanical Sketch a Day, June 2012
Tombo Makers, Sharpie Pen, Sakura Gelly Roll Pens

I started this sketch-a-day in June but just finished it last night.  One of my areas to work on:
I start a project or challenge with great gusto and get distracted by another shiny project or idea
and leave the previous project unfinished.  This is not just with art projects but also weight loss
plans, reorganizing plans, and the list goes on, throughout my life. 

I do need to acknowledge myself for completing my BFA and extensive graduate work
(three Masters) while admitting it took me from 1969 until 1988 to complete the BFA (sigh).
The masters were easier--two (or three) years, easier in some ways.  But think I am a sprinter
and not a distance runner.  That makes it sound so...athletic, doesn't it?  Chasing whatever leaps
or dazzles within eye shot has meant that I have often been confounded by narrowing down
my intended destination.

Images and ideas excite and inflame me!  New art techniques and materials are akin, for me,
what others gain from that expensive new purse or pair of heels.  Me, just show me a pretty or
intriguing flower, leaf, fruit, seed and I'm in artist heaven.  Don't know what it is about color,
curve, line, texture, that seductive negative space and shape. 

My life is heaven and hell, the pain of forgotten things, unpaid bills, unfinished things, living
space messes; the ecstasy of being a witness to beauty and the pleasure of noting my visual
impression of what I experience.  I haven't given up on learning to steer a little straighter
on my path, but I have to quote one of my favorite contemporary artists, in a CBS interview
series "Notes to My Younger Self": "I am confident that no artist has more pleasure, day in
and day out, than I do".  I believe that what you say is true, Chuck, but ME TOO.

I've provided this link before in this blog, but think it is worth repeating, in case you did not get
around to  viewing it.  http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7404806n

Botanical Themed Mini Journal

First three panel journal entry, Van Gogh quote

Tombo Markers, Sharpie Pen, Bienfang Watercolor Brush Markers, Gelly Roll Metallic Pens

2nd three panel journal entry, Emerson quote

Tombo Markers, Sharpie Pen, Bienfang Watercolor Brush Markers, Gelly Roll Metallic Pens



3rd three panel journal entry, Monet quote

Tombo Markers, Sharpie Pen, Bienfang Watercolor Brush Markers, Gelly Roll Metallic Pens



4th three panel journal entry, Roethke quote

Tombo Markers, Sharpie Pen, Bienfang Watercolor Brush Markers, Gelly Roll Metallic Pens

The mini-journal was an assignment in Joanne Sharpe's ColorLove 101 class.  I don't remember
making a small art journal before and this was so fun.  Background made with craft spray and stenciled, then gessoed.  Size of the journal doesn't matter, just needs to be about 7 times longer than it is high. I used a Strathmore muti-media paper.  Fold the strip in half and then in half again and fold like an accordian.  You could make this into a story about a specific event, a travel journal, a letter or greeting card.  I made it into a quote book.

I started making quote books with illustrations in high school.  I gave my first completed one to my sister. She loaned it to a friend who was tragically killed and the book was lost.  I've continued to illustrate quotes that speak to me, in my journals. 

For this one I found quotes by artists and others who talked about flowers.  I don't know what it is but love putting words and pictures together and get as much pleasure, later, from reading the quotes and seeing the pictures again.  The beauty that these words and pictures reflect lift my heart.



Tombo Markers and Scribbles: Everything's Energy

Tombo Blooms plus Scribbles

Tombo Jelly Bean Markers, Identipen Marker, Pitt Pen,
Gelly Roll metallic markers, Staedtler Watercolor Crayons

Today experimented with using the Tombo Markers (Jelly Bean color range) like
watercolors.  Love the bright and cheerful colors and in keeping with the child-like
colors I made simple flowers with large centers and playful petals.  Did all the
basic drawing with the Pit Pen, then Tombo Markers, water and brush.  Did not want
to quit so  added scribbles, first with watercolor crayons, then with Gelly Roll metallic
markers. I last added dots in the flower centers with Plaid liquid embossing.

The scribbles were fun to do.  While I scribbled I was thinking about Julia Watkins http://www.platris.com/energism.html and her energism painting and Einstein's quote:

"Everything is energy and that's all there is to it.
Match the frequency of the reality you want
and you cannot help but get that reality.
It can be no other way.  This is not philosopy.
This is Physics."