October 2019 Art Journal Spread, What I'm Preserving

This is the left side of the spread.
Silk leaf in the left jar. A Mexican Loteria card of Bear in the right jar. A real fall leaf attached to the top.

This is the right side of the spread.
Quin Yin image from a napkin found at the Asian Market. Hand made paper web over the right image.
Spider from a die cut pack, Michael's

My October 2019 Art Journal Spread "What I've Preserved"
Tim Holz die-cut Mason Jar. Background: stencils and Marabu Mixed Media acrylic Art Spray.  Crow stamp.

I used the mason jar die-cut over a spray ink background which I gessoed after it dried.
This was done intuitively, interpreted later. I used paper scraps from my art paper drawer
that had already been punched. I usually save all my scraps because they are so good for
spontaneous application. There is a piece of cloth paper (that's another blog post)
underlining the right side of the spread. 

Now the interpretation: I'll start on the left and proceed right. The first jar has an silk leaf
that represents an artifact from the season. One thing I love about October is the beautiful leaves.
The jars on the left side of this spread represent my earthly existence, what's going on in my
day to day and things I need to pay attention to. 

The Bear card has definite significance in my life. In terms of Loteria Interpretation  Actually,
I can't find the site that talks about The Bear specifically, but when I looked in up in the past
it was associated with addictions, most particularly to food. I was shocked when I saw that
interpretation because bear imagery has appeared for me in many contexts as has addictive eating
and spending. I am now mostly in control and losing weight with Weight Watchers but have
struggled with various addictions my whole young adult and adult life. Addiction, for those who
are not familiar with it, is a compulsion to overindulge in a substance or activity that one mistakes
for true connection with one's own soul and an avoidance of emotional pain. It is sort of a wack a
mole sort of situation. When one addictive substance or activity is eliminated or abstained from
another is sure to appear. The only "cure", as far as what's real in my life and experience, is
"Letting Go and Letting God". Doing the emotional work and connecting with one's Higher Power.
Sorry, didn't mean to turn this into a 12-step rant. Suffice it say that receiving The Bear was timely.

The right side of the spread turns out to represent my spiritual life. Two mason jars contain an image
of Quan Yin who is sort of the Buddhist equivalent to the Mother Mary. She is a deity of compassion.
I am very connected to the feminine face of God and particularly love Quan Yin. In the left jar her
image is clear and the seal on the jar says "Nothing is worth more than this". On the right jar there is
a spider and a spider web that obscure Quan Yin's image. It has to do, I think, with Native American
and shamanistic activities I have been pursuing in the past and present. The spider also represents
the Great Mother Tunkashila. The Great Weaver. Part of me fears some aspects of Shamanism
and Wicca. These things are part of my soul heritage and need to, for me, be understood and embraced. 

For those of you who wish to interpret your creations (a truly worthwhile endeavor) I recommend
using a mind map to capture your associations to imagery and also journaling.

The spread turned out to mean that I need to preserve and pay attention to specific aspects of my life:
seeking and seeing the beauty in the world, riding herd on my addictive behaviors, honoring the
Great Mother in all her forms, continue to explore my spiritual heritage and expression in this life. 

New Wisp Brush

Remember
Fire Works Spray Ink, gesso, stencils, stickers, Dimensional Magic,
Aqualon Wisp Brush marks.

Art Journal back
Demo of what a wisp brush can do. Acrylic paint and gesso.



Mandala Art Therapy

Original drawing colored with Winsor Newton Watercolor Markers

Soul Seal
Rock painted with silver acrylic, Luminere Metalic Acrylic
and outlined with black Sharpie Pen

Mandala Doodle with Heart
Sharpie Pen on lined paper
with assorted metallic markers

I am currently crazy about anything Mandala. I've always loved centered art, and have doodled
mandalas since who knows when. Now I am developing a workshop called "The Mandala Journey"
which will utilize guided imagery, drawing and painting mandalas, with a variety of techniques.
We will also create mandalas in the sand tray as we make a progressive journey through our living mandalas, the chakras. The 7 chakras are energy centers in the body, along the spine.

Mandalas are symbols of wholeness and have been utilized by many cultures for self development.

To prepare for this workshop I have been reading myriad books, watching videos, and am
experimenting with making mandalas with various mediums, including painting on rocks.
So fun! I'm also doing chakra meditation, which is shifting everything. I was ready for a shift.

The three images I've included are, from the bottom, a example of my mandala doodles,
A rock painted with my "Soul Seal", and a botanical mandala.

I will keep you posted about my mandala journey in images and will also give you a book
list in future posts if you want to read about mandalas, creating purpose or chakras.
Warmly, Gayle

Painted Paper Collage: Eagle

Working on an eagle collage, sitting with the results to date. Might make the feathers more distinct. Below is the step-by-step of how he was created.

Pencil and Derwent Inktense WC Pencil sketch.

Toner copy of the drawing transferred with gel medium to a collaged canvas.

Beak and eye collaged with gelli plate paper.

Tea dyed paper and lace rice paper added.

Final (to date) Eagle with paper details added with lace and gelli plate papers.

8 X 10 canvas, 150.00

Creative Collage: Hungry Bird

My Visual Art Journaling group is still meeting twice a month at my home studio in Northglenn, CO. but my creative collaging has been focused on mixed media collage on canvas or cradle board. Actually, the jury is still out about whether to call it "Mixed Media Collage" or "Painted Paper Collage". I use mostly painted or gelli plate printed papers but also use some specialty rice papers, Derwent Inktense Water Color pencils as well as occasional mechanically printed patterned papers and tea dyed dictionary pages. As I'm writing this I'm leaning towards Mixed Media Collage, even though that implies the use of dimensional elements, which I don't use. Tell me what you think.

I'm way behind on blogging about all the collaged bird canvases I've completed in the last year or so but I'm going to blog about the "Hungry Bird" canvas in this post and will post about the eagle I'm working on soon.

Original drawing in pencil and Derwent Inktense WC Pencils

Transferred a toner copy of the drawing to canvas using gel medium.
Rose patterned paper for inside mouth, tea dyed paper on breast.
Pencil sketched background. 

Additional tea-dyed (tea baked paper) and patterned paper added.

Additional paper and lace rice paper added.

Details of background blocked in with watercolor.

Working on shadow area below bird. Pink buds and stems papered.

Next steps.

Continuing to add grasses to foreground.

Iridescent papers added to the petals.

More grasses and blue sky painted in.

Final piece with softened sky and additional grasses, stamens.

I'll try to post a better picture of the final piece, this one looks a bit faded. I'm not sure what is so satisfying about painted paper collage but the fussy detail is right up my creative alley.

Activating Your Sacred Art Studio with a Collaged Candle

My studio candle and a Happy Buddha

7" x 7" collage including catalog images of sculptures from Sacred Source

Dollar Tree altar candle

I wrote a paper about creating personal altars as part of my Sandplay Therapy training.  My research into altars, from many traditions, lead me to understand that most altars have at least two things in common. The first is that altars are most often created to acknowledge the importance of something or someone we value in our lives. Another commonality is that a lit candle activates the altar and the sacred space (such as your studio).

Whether you are initiating sacred space for art making, workshops, groups, prayers, meditation or personal therapy, I believe that lighting a candle can enhance your important activity. I would like to suggest that you make this candle even more meaningful by creating a special candle for your studio.

You will need a 7" x 7" piece of flexible paper (I used a nice rice paper), an altar candle (I bought mine at Dollar Tree), images for collage, scissors, permanent glue stick (for collage) and paper craft glue (for attaching your collage to your candle).

Simply create your collage by cutting out and attaching images that relate to your art process and your creative life. I have an image of an ancient calendar (honoring the seasons), a picture of Ganesha (the remover of obstacles), an image of the triple goddess (the three ages of the feminine: maiden, mother and crone) as well as a window (view into other worlds) and art supplies. This collage represents the sacred nature of art making and group work that takes place in my studio.

You must choose your own imagery: your playful inner artist, an image of a muse or mentor, important family members, images related to personal goals. Don't over think this--just gather collage materials and allow you intuition to guide you.

Once your collage has been completed just wrap it around your candle, putting paper craft glue in a line at the two joining ends of your collage. If you only glue the joining edges you will be able to remove your collage from your candle, when the candle has burned down, and put it on a fresh altar candle if you want to. You might also like to make a new studio alter candle collage each year or season. Alternatively you could glue your 7" x 7" paper to the candle first, then add your collage images. The advantage of this is that the two ends of your collage will match in theme and color.

Enjoy this activity and please leave comments about what kind of studio candle you made for your sacred art space.

Altered Day Planner for 2016

2016 Altered Day Planner, hand designed stencil, gelli plate, collage

Planner, back. Tea-stained music sheets cut with stencil,
bubble wrap patterned gelli plate paper

2016 Altered Planner, collage, gelli plate,
Twinking H2O paint

2016 Altered Planner, Brush Dance design,
washi-tape tipped in pages.

For the last three years I've been altering a day planner from Brush Dance. I love adding custom

covers and adding extra pages with washi tape. I can't tell you how great it is to glue in monthly

mementos of events like post cards, photos, sketches and doodles, favorite quotes. At the end of the

year I end up with a perfect (for me) memory book for the year. Since it gets "fat" I keep it closed

with a dollar store elastic headband.