journal, jan 31: emotions - safe

Here are the pics. Hopefully I can add the words later tonight! For now, it's off to Salem for a birthday party!

Ok, still here enjoying the birthday party, dancing the night away, but stealing a moment to write. [P.S. GREAT b-day party, Deirdra! Good food, gallery hopping to see our work in the Wild Women show! Dancing, games, a movie! :D]

So, I made my journal a la Teesha Moore's directions, and after working on the first signature, I got kind of lazy about how I was pre-painting the pages, and ended up with some stuff like this... The journal sat for months, with me not knowing what the heck to do with it.

Thankfully, I have been learning a thing or two from all of you, and I gave myself permission to experiment and try and decided that if it turns out ugly, it's ok - I am learning.

So first thing, I had to camouflge this page! Covered it with some loverly tissue paper.

Next I added some collage elements here and there.

I took photos of my hands (because I knew what I wanted but I'm not such a great drawer (draughtsman!).

Photo copy, add to collage.

On a separate photocopy of my hands (that printed out strangely because I'm out of black ink), I painted this little figure.

Et voila! The finished page - well, finished for now.

Emotion of the day: With your loving support and encouragement, I feel safe. I want to thank Misty from the bottom of my heart for this wonderful month of art exploration, and to others who have been a part of this journey with me. I want to continue the exploration, maybe by spending some more time with some of the prompts, and certainly by keeping in touch with new blogging friends, seeing what you're up to, being inspired, and continuing to share. This has been the most wonderful way to start off 2009 - thank you!!!

journal, jan. 30: emotions - contentment & gratitude

Yesterday I went to my yoga class for the first time since the snows in December - ahhhhh.....! The lovely thing about this Thursday night yoga teacher is that she says affirmations during various asanas. This was the affirmation that spoke to my heart: "I radiate love and joy to friends everywhere." This is the contagious sentiment I've been feeling during Misty's challenge. I show my gratitude in receiving it by passing it along that others may feel it, too. I hope this January has been soulful to you, too!

Other than that, not a lot done tonight. But I did get to start my Gritty Jane cloth and clay doll!

journal, jan 29: emotions #4

With some of life's little pleasures, you've just got to smile!

A peek at today's emotion - sorry it's not finished yet! The piece, and hopefully the emotion, will be continued tomorrow!

journal, jan 28: emotions #2 & #3

Release, freedom, stretching my wings, metamorphosis, transformation. Emerging from the chrysalis, out of the dark, into the light. Late bloomer, but finally blooming. Arms reaching out, ready to take in joy. Happy emotions.

journal, jan 27: emotions #2

I'm trying out different media. This one is in colored pencil, something I'm apparently very slow at! So, this one is to be continued...

journal, jan 26: emotions #1

Misty's prompt for this week is emotions.
Yikes. I was afraid something like this would come out of me.

(Can you tell I had a migraine tonight?)

journal, jan 25,24,23: shape, give away, inspired by...

Ok...PHEW! I've been BIZZZZ-EE! That inspired by piece took awhile. I finally just said, "Like it or not, it's DONE!" But first, today's prompt (which I actually did yesterday while I took a break from the Klee piece, not even thinking about today's prompt, but it's fitting): shape. In contrast to the more complex Klee piece, this page is super simple, and sometimes I like it like that. Simple shapes. Ahhhhh...breathe.....................

Next, yesterday's prompt: Make something and give it away. I'm gonna cheat a little bit here. I'm already participating in the OneWorld-One Heart giveaway, so if you haven't yet and feel so inclined, sign up for my giveaway, one of my soldered pendants. You can sign up either by scrolling down to the Jan. 20th post, or click on the blurb on my sidebar just under the One World-One Heart logo. (P.S. I am trying to catch up on looking at the other players' blogs - so cool to meet people! But there aren't enough hours in the day! Do you think they'd let me take another week off from work to catch up?)

Also in the giveaway realm, I am signed up for an ATC trade and a fatbook trade for the upcoming Artfest. I really should get those done, shouldn't I? I could whine and say "Why, oh why did I sign up for those!?!?!" but then I'll get the trades and say "Oh yeah - that's why I signed up!" Very fun stuff!

Ok, no more procrastinating. Onto the Klee piece. Just as a refresher, here's the piece that inspired me:

I'll give this disclaimer right upfront - in the previous post I said I wasn't going to get attached to the outcome, just enjoy the process. Well, you know - yeah, right! - the old perfectionist ways creep back in. I'll just blurt out that I'm not satisfied with the end product, BUT, I did learn a lot and enjoyed seeing some of the stuff I did along the way. So here are some of the process pics:

I noticed a lavender undertone in Klee's painting, so I started with that, then squooshed in and scratched some more texture.

Detail of texture and prepped collage element. (I would be happy with this as a finished piece!)

Arranging the elements à la Klee's piece.

I decided I wanted to divert from making a copy of Klee's piece by adding a figure. Pencil sketch of the face. (I had some difficulty in the painting process on this one, so I'm glad I have this photo!)

Layout after the dark blue had been applied. This is still Klee's arrangement, before I figured out where to put the figure. If this one clicks open, I really like the textural details in the paint.

Changing things up from Klee's composition, making it into a Mawn/Klee hybrid(?).

Et voilà! The finished piece. The Klee-ish bird is goofy, but I think it helped the composition.

Favorite detail. I actually LOVE the plant in the upper right corner.

As I say, I learned a lot from doing this piece and I'm glad I tackled it. There's a lot of technique here that I'd like to play with again. Thanks, Mr. Klee!

Honest Scrap Award

Yikes! My sweet friend, Tina C., tagged me with the Honest Scrap award. Hmmm, I guess I'm supposed to tell 10 honest things about myself. Why do people always post 10 honest but embarrassing things about themselves? Why not 10 honest but fabulous things? Are we trying to be funny or sado-masochistic? Or do we seek to show our vulnerable, human side, with the hope of making connections with our fellow humans? What will I post - a grab bag of each? (Deep breath) Here goes...

1. I can be very frugal (ahem! stingy) with my money, but when it comes to art supplies lately, I am totally out of control.
2. After years and years of low self-esteem, I am finally beginning to have an appreciation of myself. Yay!
3. I keep thinking about letting my hair go silver, but then I go buy another box of Natural Instincts.
4. Hold onto your hats - some of you may find this one gross: I can totally wear the same track pants and henley shirt for days when I don't have to go anywhere. And they are loaded with cat hair.
5. It's not that I HATE housework, it's just that there are so many WAY MORE interesting things to do!
6. I once saw a printed t-shirt that said, "I'm an Aries. I like bad boys," and I thought to myself, "DANG! It's so true!"
7. I graduated magna cum laude with my bachelor's degree and summa cum laude with my grad degree. (It sounds like I'm giving myself a pat on the back here, but keep in mind that I was an art major as an undergrad, and that my MAT grad program gave out A's like water...really.)
8. I am the luckiest mom in the world because my sweet daughters are amazing! ;D
9. I've been falling asleep at work lately. Not good.
10. I feel so happy at home in the studio, so happy to be making artsy friends. I feel like the second half of my life is going to be totally awesome (dude!).

Okie-dokie... Now I'm supposed to tag some other people. My apologies to the following (unless you're up for playing!).
1. Miz Katie
2. Joanne
3. Mystele
4. JGR
5. Enchanted Curious
Please visit these amazing artists - just the variety of work is so fun to see!
(Deirdra, you know I would totally have tagged you if Tina hadn't gotten you already!)

journal, jan 23: inspired by...

Today's prompt for Misty's January journal challenge is to create a piece of art or journal page inspired by a favorite artist. I was thinking about Frida, but when I went to my art books, I pulled down this book of Klee and was instantly excited by the image on the cover. I haven't even looked at this book in years, but I used to pour over it again and again, drawn to the color and childlike wonder which Klee was able to achieve.

Most of my pieces for this journal challenge have been done in my little 5 x 7 journal, but for this one I wanted to feel less restricted, so I tore off some Fabriano paper, 15 x 15 inches. Still not huge by any means - I'm taking baby steps in my artistic redevelopment - but it is a step! As you can see, I haven't gotten very far on it yet: some collage on the support for texture, gesso, and then cereal box cut-outs to mimic some of Klee's shapes. I'll continue to work on it for awhile tonight, but it will definitely be continued tomorrow. I'm enjoying the process, no matter how it turns out in the end! Talking with Deirdra this evening, she mentioned how great this challenge is for us - it's like taking class from Misty. I absolutely agree. I love this challenge. I feel myself stretching and growing, feeling free to experiment, learning so much, gaining faith in what I could do. I am seeing this in others who are participating, too. This is such a wonderful gift - thank you Misty! xoxo

to be continued...

journal, jan 22: playing with crayons

Today's crayon prompt reminded me of my "face a day" project. I love working with the Caran d'Ache Neocolor crayons. I start out quite garish, no?

Then I go over everything with the white crayon to blend things together. Next I would paint over it Golden titanium white, but tonight I'm just going to leave it in crayon,

and enjoy the way it looks in my book.

Later, I got back to work on my ATCs for the Artfest trade, finally. Ahh, procrastination makes the heart beat faster!

Going to bed before midnight tonight - woo hoo!

journal, jan 21: altered photo

Misty's prompt for the journal project today was do an altered photo. Well, I didn't have a photo of my own that I really wanted to alter, but I've had this idea running around in my head since last April, and I thought it would sort of fit the theme. So here's the first try on this idea of mine. I'll keep playing with it. P.S. She's posing on a couple of unfinished journal pages, qualifying her for the journal project!

Pose #1

Pose #2

She's sort of a wearable art doll. Which reminds me, I've signed up for Gritty Arts paper clay & cloth doll class! I can't wait to try out the paper clay sculpting!

Tomorrow's prompt: crayons. Yippee!

One World-One Heart: How fun to be visiting so many new blogs, and getting such great encouragement on my giveaway. Thanks to everyone participating!

journal, jan 20: word

Happy Inauguration Day! What an amazing event, and how wonderful that we have finally come to this day in our nation's history. Hallelujah!

For today's journal entry I am keeping it short and sweet. Misty's prompt was word art. The photo in this is a picture of the charm Tina gave me. I wear it almost every day, and I especially love wearing it when I'm working in the studio. The writing alongside the figure says: "I wear this charm like a lucky charm. The word has become a mantra." I feel so happy when I can spend my time creating things. I'm slightly crazed, a bit obsessive, but oh so happy.

Aside from this little collage, I also finished three more pendants. Now it's time to sleep. P.S. If you've been following the journal project, I hope you got a chance to see the pink page posted before One World-One Heart, especially if you've written comments on any of the journal pages.

Nightie-night!

One World-One Heart giveaway

What a beautiful concept! Lisa Oceandreamer Swifka is once again hosting the One World-One Heart giveaway. This will be my first time to participate. Please click on the beautiful logo above to get all the info, but the basic idea is that this is a great opportunity for bloggers to meet each other and become friends. As seen in my previous post, I am already being blessed by the enlargement of my world and my heart as I meet fellow artists and bloggers. The encouragement and friendships mean so much to me. I hope others will want to join in the fun! Here is my giveaway (click on photo for close-up view):

This soldered glass pendant contains a mini-copy of one of my visual journal pages. On the back are the words, "Cherish this friendship." White, green, and turquoise beads finish it off.

This particular giveaway is open to everyone who has an active blog worldwide, whether you are a participant in One World-One Heart or not. Please leave a comment on this post only for a chance to win. Make sure I have a way to reach you should you be a winner. The Winner will be announced on February 12th, 2009.

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you!

;D lulu

journal, jan 18 & 19: pink, part 2, plus embellishment!

I was very happy to see Misty’s list of prompts for this week, especially since I was already thinking of embellishing my unfinished pink page! So I made it a double page spread and combined two projects in one.

Ingredients:
One pre-painted pinkish wash page, and another that could be pinkified with tissue paper and fabrics.
Assorted pink fabrics and such.
Mini-photos – I hope y’all don’t mind that I printed tiny little pictures of some of you for this project in my journal. I also hope you don’t mind that I added rosy pink cheeks in honor of pink day. (If you do mind, please let me know ant I'll take care of it.)
Some heartfelt emotions and lots of gratitude. Please visit Tina, Jane, Mystele, MizKatie, PCarriker, Stampmaiden, Red Tin Heart, Danielle Marie, Enchanted Curious, Joanne, Deirdra, and of course, Misty. Marilyn, I wish you had a blog so everyone could see your beautiful collages!

In other news: I will be participating in One World One Heart and my giveaway is ready! I’ve never done this before, so I hope I can figure it out correctly. Photo in the next post!

Yesterday Emily finished her Christmas present for me that she made in her ceramics class. It went through a few glaze trial and errors. She finally settled on this glossy turquoise paint and I LOVE IT!!! I even love it with the bow. My girl knows how I love my quirky ceramics!

Also yesterday, I went with Deirdra and Gay to the River Gallery in Independence to drop off some entries for their annual Wild Woman show. Walking in and seeing the amazing work that other people had already brought in, I quickly had second thoughts about entering anything. But I went ahead and signed up, and today I got the phone call that both my pieces had been accepted! Phew! I framed up two of my color pages I’ve been doing for Misty’s challenge: Red, and Yellow. Red got a pretty, traditional little gold frame, but I painted and decorated a frame for Yellow. Here it is:

Final note for the day: tomorrow (which is now today), Barack Obama officially becomes our president – the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Wow. Wouldn't Dr. King have tears of joy in his eyes?!

pink?

The spirit is willing, and the page is even started, but this cat can barely keep her eyes open. So tonight I can only offer my pink pj's. g'night!

journal, jan 17: yellow

This morning I was raring to go, thinking FINALLY I'd be posting at a decent hour. I got a good start on yellow, but then I realized I didn't have money to go buy birthday presents for my two sisters-in-law, my brother, and my mom. Therefore, I would need to make them gifts. Now. Because the party was today! So I put yellow aside, pulled out the soldering box and got busy. One pendant, one keychain, and four candlesticks later the gifts were done, and I was two hours late to the party! It's not that I'm such a terrible procrastinator (even though I am) - it's that I've been SO into the January Journal that I don't really want to do anything else.

Today/yesterday the color of the day was yellow. I started with a favorite interior decorating photo, took the girl's triangle dress from that, then played with paints and stamping into wet paint. Can you see that yellow makes me super happy? I always paint some wall(s) in my house yellow.

Here are the cut-outs before I glued them onto the background. This photo show the truer color of the piece (because I took it in daylight).

These other two photos were taken after dark and the lighting looks a lot darker.

Close-up

Ok, it's now after 3 a.m. G'night!