Journal Pages

  Today is going to be a babbling day. If you prefer to skip the babbling and go straight to the art, go right ahead. I'll never know....  
    It's been a busy week for me. For whatever reason, late autumn is the time I feel most compelled to clean and clear. For three days now I've been going through closets, drawers and cabinets cleaning them out and amassing piles of things to donate. Clothes and shoes mostly. Or rather boots. The women in my family seem to have a hoarding issue when it comes to boots. Especially black boots. I'm not sure what it is about boots, black boots in particular, that we love so much. This love, and hoarding issue, carries over to coats too. I in particular have a weakness for vintage wool coats that I find at the Salvation Army. Something in me cannot possibly leave a vintage 1950's red wool coat with black cuffs and collar or a 1947 full length black wool pea coat to languish, unappreciated, at the thrift store. So I, of course, buy them, usually for less than $10.00, give them a good cleaning and wear them with pride. And love. Lots and lots of love. But I digress...
    What is it about late autumn that makes me want to get every nook and cranny of the house in order? I believe it's an instinctual knowing from deep inside. I know that the cold, dark days and nights are upon us and my time will focus on indoors. Somewhere inside I know indoors needs to be tidied up, swept free of summer's energy and made cozy for the long months ahead. For me, all this must be done before Samhain, October 31. As a pagan, Samhain is one of my most sacred and important seasonal celebrations. It's the time we say good bye to the harvest, give thanks for the abundance of summer, welcome back our ancestors and focus our hearts, minds and spirits on the darkness ahead. It's really a time of renewal and reflection for me and others who dance the spiral of nature based beliefs. Which completely explains why every year I am compelled to cleanse, purge and release that which is no longer needed.

Tiny journal pages, 4.5" x 7".
The one on the left was created using Neocolor II crayons on 9/30/11
The one on the right was created with collage and Gellyroll pens on 4/29/11

Another tiny journal page created with collage and Gellyroll pen on 10/9/11

Page created with collage, ink jet transfer, Sparkling H2O's, and Gellyroll pen
on 10/10/11

Updates

It's been a busy time around here lately. A few days of warm weather had me outside working in the gardens. I love being able to get out and do some work in the outdoors. My crocuses are blooming and the daffodils are all budded. Even though the temperature has dropped the past two days just knowing that those flowers are out there makes my heart soar!

I've spent the last few hours adding supplies to my Art-Fire shop. I had a bunch of unopened silver clay that I never used so thought the store would be a good way to get it to someone who will actually use it. My adventures with Art Clay silver and PMC were short lived. The materials are too expensive and you have to be conscious of every little bit of the clay and make sure not a speck of it is wasted. Scraping off my fingers, Teflon mat and tools just to save a minuscule amount of material, but a large amount of money, is just not my thing! Not that I'm wasteful, but I don't feel my creativity benefits from having to be so exacting and material conscious. I'm more of a wild, seat of your pants, live in the groove type of creator, ya know?

I have a nice journal all made, tagged and ready to be left in the wild. I think I'm going to leave it in the art section of the library. I figure if someone is in the art section they might have an artistic streak and would probably love to find an art journal there waiting for them. The journal itself isn't very large, but it's pages have been painted, an inscription is inside and a tag hangs from the binding saying 'Take Me'. Very reminiscent of Alice and the 'Eat Me' tags on the cookies she found. At least in my mind that's the way it is!!!!

I'll snap some pictures of the journal, both before it's dropped off and once it's in among the library books so everyone who comes here can see. I'll also get some new art work photos uploaded--journal pages and paintings--so you have some eye-candy when you pop in instead of just my blathering.

OH! And I NEED to get back down the road to get a photo of the car I saw the other day. The entire side had been spray painted with Shepard Fairey's Andre/Obey image and beneath it the words 'Free Shepard'. As some of you may know, Shepard is my *favorite* graffiti artist so seeing that car was a real hoot for me. Not that he did the work himself, but finding out another Shepard fan lives near me was a kick!

Enough with the fleeting thoughts for one day, I'm off to create.............

Recent Journal Pages

Some of the journal pages I've done this month. I've been doing two each day, one for each of the two journals I'm currently working in. The pages shown are all from one journal. When I get a chance I'll snap photos of the ones in the other journal so they can be uploaded.

PEN RANT: What the heck is up with Sakura Glaze pens???? A month or so ago I received an entire batch of them that were leaking from the top of the pen barrel (where the pen and tip are put together). Those were replaced and had been OK for a while, but tonight I grabbed a few out of my bin and discovered that they were leaking too. I've NEVER had this issue before with Sakura pens and am not amused to be having it now.

The Soufflé and regular Gelly Roll pens are fine. It's just the Glaze pens that leak. Very frustrating as I have a TON of these pens and use them ALL the time!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Random Art Drop

Today I had to do a postal run, so decided to do a random art drop at the same time. I picked out one of my big paintings, attached a note to it that said "This painting is for YOU! I hope it brightens your day and brings a smile to your face" and put it in the car along with the stuff to mail.

After my postal stuff was done, my little guy grabbed the painting out of the car, plopped it down between the outdoor blue boxes then hopped back in the car. All before anyone saw what he was doing. that's a key point because an art drop should be anonymous. You don't do it for the recognition. You do it to make yourself, and hopefully someone else, feel good.

Before driving off I snapped a photo of the painting, bid it good luck and good-bye.

Why drop off a perfectly good painting in a public place? Well, why not? If someone comes along and takes it home then I've made someone's day. And if it ends up in the dumpster I'll never know, right? So either way it's good. I prefer to think that some stranger came along, saw it there and took it home. That's the hope and the wish behind the random art drop. Try it some time. Grab any piece of your art, attach a note to it and find somewhere to drop it. You'll be surprised how good it makes you feel.

Ho Ho Ho

Yes, I know. The holidays are over. But I never got around to posting photos of the Santa's I made for relatives for the holidays so am doing it now. Plus we've got a big snowstorm approaching and that makes it feel like Yule to me.

All of these are based on Old World Santa's and are painted with multiple layers of paint, wiping off in between layers to create more depth and an aged look.