Each Dazzling Moment

Backyard Bliss

Yet another drawing for my Artistic Alchemy class.  This page started with a drawing of a chair and a couple of flowerpots. The rest is watercolor...and markers for the journalling. 

(I must say the chair looked a lot better before I tried to put a dark purple scrub behind it.  My hands are way too shaky and too new to using a brush!) 

We had a lovely afternoon with the kids enjoying the kiddie pool and me just chilling and watching them play and, of course, drawing!

  I really surprised them with a trip to the fair.  It was the first time either of them had been to a fair! Anyway, it was pure joy for all three of us.  (More details and photos to come!)      

Lost...

It's day two for me in this draw-something-everyday assignment.  I drew a small spiral notebook with these two little blocks on it. The blocks were plain wooden ones that I covered and decorated according to a project I saw in a book or magazine somewhere.  The idea is to roll them like dice and get motivating messages such as "dance - out loud" or "sit - in a new way" (I did customize the words a bit!).  Having a lot of white paper yet to fill...and casting around for inspiration, I glanced at a bookmark I had made from a Teesha Moore design using the Joseph Campbell quote "Follow Your Bliss."  The page evolved from there.  I guess it's obvious that I'm not having a blissful day. 

I'm really not liking all the white.  I definitely need to get with the background color next time.

Pencil, watercolor, markers, colored pen, collage, rubber stamps (hand, round swirl).

Look Up!

    Look Up! 

     less asphalt,
     fewer power lines,
     more sunshine,
     blue sky.

This page was inspired by our assignment to look at our surroundings with 'beginner eyes.' 

I have found lately that I can truly appreciate my everyday surroundings more if I look up...above the city skyline...above the power lines. Texas has the most beautiful big blue sky.

I take a few deep breaths...and I'm filled with a sense of spaciousness and well-being. 

The techniques used on this page were inspired by (and borrowed heavily from) Ashley Calder's Scraptastic, which is a great book!  What you see here is a first-time attempt to follow her advice!  :) 

 

Bursting Out...Surprising Even Herself!

Artistic Alchemy Drawing Assignment - Day One.  I really can't seem to get enough of bird imagery lately. I'm even taking photos of birds in my yard. I just ordered some bird stencils!  It seems to be in the air, since I notice birds all over other people's art as well. 

Wow, this week we have to create a drawing every day. I think it's a great assignment...I need a shove like this to really make an effort to draw. Hopefully, my drawings will improve!!   

For this page, I used Markers, Watercolor Pencils.  I wasn't happy with the sky, so I used a mixture of Fluid Acrylics - with a overlay of White Gouache and Acrylic Glazing Medium.  I was very disappointed, since this mixture has a lot more opacity than watercolors...you lose the beautiful properties of the watercolor medium.  I do like the 'pop-up' wing I gave her, though!

Anyway, there are so many things I'll try to do differently next time...this definitely is a learning process!  :)   Your comments would be very much appreciated!

My Day So Far...

For some unknown reason, I was kind of obsessed today with the idea of making an 'art journal' page about the little minutiae of my day.  The thought just kept nagging at me, so I finally made a stab at it. 

It's an attempt at integrating 'art' and 'journalling', but I definitely consider it a failed attempt.  Not much 'art' going on here!  It did give me another opportunity to just play and experiment with different techniques, though, so I thought that was a bit of redemption.  I'm going to keep trying!  Kira is so great at this and so are many of my fellow art-journalists in here Artistic Alchemy online class.  So I certainly have good examples to follow.  I think I just need to take more time with it.  Here, I'm just captioning the photos.In spite of all that, I had so much fun making it!  :) 

Of course, I couldn't resist blogging it, because I love the photos of the kiddies so much.....I know, I'm shameless!  So anyway, here's my day so far...

The Mermaid's Song

Her spirit rose up in delight -

splashing, churning up the sea

to dazzling sapphires - glittering,

blushing in the twilight sun.

Her laughter swept away the gloom -

ringing, frothing up the air

to bubbling waves of sense and sound -

joyful, floating arias.

Looking at this photo of my grandaughter in the kiddie pool, I instantly saw a glittering mermaid. Childhood should be so full of magic. One of my goals is to find the magic in simple, everyday moments.  I'm a rank amateur at translating my ideas to actual two- (or three-) dimensional objects that might approach the classification of "art", however, so I'm working hard on that one as well!  :)

Oh, and when it comes to writing poetry....!  I'm the newbie that wants to sniff the rank-amateur's laundry!   Amazingly, I was kind of happy with this one...my first attempt at such a thing in eons.

Go Do Be

Go....Do....Be!

These colors really speak to me. Watery....with bursts of sunshine....a few shadows to add mystery.  I think I was a mermaid in another life!  ;) 

This page was made for Lesson 2 in the Artistic Alchemy class: Finding Your Colors. We were also to make up 'names' for our colors. I've had this magazine ad cut out for ages...I love the message and the colors. I had so much fun making this page.

My Space

This week's assignment for the Artistic Alchemy class is to make a page about our 'space'. This one talks about my space in the literal sense.

I've been trying to make it more usable and organized for a while now...I'm making some progress here and there, but still have a ways to go! I throw a big painter's cloth down on the floor to protect the carpet and let the kids go crazy with washable paints, fingerpaints, rubberstamps, etc. At 3 and 5 they are much more focused on the process than the result, but that's as it should be! They make some really cool art sometimes!

I made this page entirely in Photoshop Elements. This was my first attempt at this and I'm still learning the software! I was so frazzled by the time it was done!

Right View

My View - Your View...

Right View is No-View...

All Views are Partial

(as taught by the Buddha)

This page was inspired by a fairly extreme divergence in views I had to work through this past couple of weeks. I was reminded that part my nature (personality, whatever you want to call it) is that I have very strong opinions on some matters, or in some situations. I got some practice in being open to someone else's perspective. :)

For this page, I experimented with my watercolor crayons for the first time...outlining elements and then going over with a wet brush. Whoa...better be ready for some pretty vibrant colors!! I had to do a lot of toning them down with white paint, thinned with a little Iridescent Medium. (Ahh... I'm told that watercolor pencils are a more subtle medium...good to know!)

Learning new skills is absolutely thrilling to me. I am loving having this new outlet for my creativity.

Walk in the Rain

    Walk in the rain,
    smell flowers,
    stop along the way,
    build sandcastles,
    go on field trips,
    find out how things work,
    say the magic words,
    trust the universe.
              -- Bruce Williamson

This is my second page for the Artistic Alchemy course. I experimented here with a tissue paper overlay technique. I used a little birdie stamp, markers, fluid acrylics and some torn paper to frame the poem.  My handwriting is so bad here...my hands are still pretty shaky for some reason. I either need to practice or start using strips of paper printed on the computer!

Anyway, I'm learning something with each page, so that's very exciting.

Just When the Catepillar...

...thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.

This is one of the first pages I did for my Artistic Alchemy class. So, please be gentle, I'm very new at this!! :)

I've added thoughts and words that have become very meaningful to me over the past two years. I thought my world was over (I had terminal leukemia), but then I had a bone marrow transplant (enabled by an anonymous donor - a man from Germany!). Now, I'm a fledging butterfly...still learning how to fly....wondering where I should be flying to (LOL!), etc.

Let's see...I used paints, markers, papers for the catepillar and butterfly, I created the Butterfly text with swirly background in Photoshop Elements, printed on cardstock, then enhanced the colors with markers and paint.

Color inspiration...and alchemy

....comes from some strange places sometimes.

I was so blown away by the gorgeous, juicy colors on this bag it inspired me to buy a bunch of them and now I'm finally able to abstain from the paper-or-plastic question! Whole Foods rocks. Now I'm having crazy thoughts of redecorating my kitchen in these colors!!

Our Week 2 assignment is all about color - "Finding Your Colors".  I think Kira and I have some very similar color preferences!  Not only do we have (and love) the same great textured paper from K&Company, the paper reminds me a lot of my shopping bags!  LOL! 

So, Kira, I am loving the class, but I have to say you are turning me into a vampire (based on the hours I'm keeping!).  I need more sleep, but I'm having too much fun making pages!  I'm so excited because tomorrow I will have a few ready to post. 

"Straw into Gold...Straw into Gold..."

Did anyone besides me listen to the (audio...actually vinyl) tale of Rumplestilskin where he sung this little song?  One of my very favorite fairy tales! Crazy, the things you remember after so many years!  Anyway, if you can believe it, I've signed up for an online workshop about art journaling - the  "Artistic Alchemy Summer 2008 Workshop". It's just begun and is being taught by the lively and lovely Samantha Kira.  I'm very excited to finally stop thinking and dreaming and reading about making some art and really start doing it!!   (I guess to be fair to myself, I did have quite a long run with polymer clay a few years ago - jewelry making and sculpting figures, which was a blast...but evidently I burned out or something...)  So anyway, I've had virtually zero experience (since high school) with two-dimensional art.  I'm really loving getting started with my own art journal and I'm finding inspiration everywhere.

I hope the course is the catalyst - the magical alchemy - needed to begin the process of coaxing out my very reclusive (fearful? cowardly?) inner artist.  What I love about art journaling is first of all, the truly alchemistic mixture of art and journaling (well, duh) but also, the vast array of media that can be transmuted from common elements to something of beauty and meaning. Can you tell I'm totally turned on just by the word "alchemy"?  I love that Samantha chose this name for the workshop.  It's Day Two and I'm following Lesson One and 'Finding My Space.'  My hope is to make some pages that are not so completely embarrassing I'll be able to post them here.  :)