2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 353

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 353: Self Doubt's Voice

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 352

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 352: Her Image May Have Faded

"Je Dessine" (I Draw) Show-and-Tell Mondays

Babushka in Holland

Seems like there is never enough time. Maybe it's because I daydream a lot or surf the internet too much or straighten up the house, or studio, or office too many times too often, or run too many errands, or have too many doctor's appointments. Sometimes, like right now, I just want to go live in Airstream. I'll just drive to some secluded somewhere: to some beach; some grove of redwoods; some mountain stream; some heap of desert pictograph-encrusted red rocks. I'll draw or collage or paint or sing or drink my instant coffee or hot chocolate or sing to no one or try to play the mandolin or stroke my cat or dog and just be. Well, it's a nice dream. I think if I wanted to do it I would. So I look at how I don't, and keep on movin' right in the moment, this place in time -- knowing that here is the perfect place for me to be.

The above odd joy of a little painting I did in my art lesson last week. My teacher said do a continuous line drawing of the model AND DON'T LOOK AT YOUR PAPER. Oh I don't like that. Talk about discomfort, Alice in disturbia kind of out of control. And just look at what happened: the black robed, small, petite blond model ending up as a Russian babushka! How did this happen? I don't know. But once I added the daffodils in front of her I thought, well OK. I made my teacher laugh. I liked that. Worked in sharpies, acrylic paints, and some aquacolor crayons.

 Drawing Zeus & House on the Pages of Trust the Process by Shaun McNiff

The rest of my drawings this week were done hastily at night while reading Trust the Process, An Artist's Guide to Letting Go by Shaun McNiff. A terrific book on the creative process that currently holds my attention like no other book on the subject. And since my cats seem to be consistently on the bed at night,  they consistently serve as my models. But the little, grade-school style house was a response to what Shaun was saying in the chapter "Unpredictable Magic":

"When a child makes a picture of a house, freely yielding to the impulses of expression...do we view these images of life as mistaken? More likely we enjoy the picture of the house within the context of the  fresh and delightfully expressive world of childhood. Imagine having the same appreciation for your own creations."

 Drawing: Zeus Squinty-Eyed

In My Studio: Vignette

Brushes galore, a color palette considered, an eyebrow raised -- what more do I need to start?

A Re-Awakening of Creativity Through Altered Books

Sybil's Altered Journal Spread

The first woman to sign up for the first Express Yourself! Collage/Altered Book workshop I held wasn't able to attend that class due to work conflicts. Sybil was unfortunately also not able to make up her absence at any subsequent workshops due to scheduling issues. Usually I don't allow makeups, but because she was the first one to sign up I reexamined my policy and offered her a makeup at my home studio at a time convenient for both of us. Something just told me to do it and I am so glad I did, because I got a chance to see and reaffirm what altered books can do for a person.

When Sybil came to my house she said that a long time ago she did collage quite a bit, but over the years because bored with it and let it fall away. As I she shared with me her old collages (which were professional, beautiful, and humorous) her description of her process was so familiar to my own. I too had created collages and assemblages, been in shows, then had become bored with my art, and stopped creating. When I discovered altered books some 15 years later, a whole new world of creativity opened up for me. As Sybil began altering her book I watched a similar transformation take place. It was thrilling to see and recognize. I hoped that she would continue on her new journey. A few weeks later she sent me this photo of a beautiful altered journal spread, which she had created, along with these kind words:

"A single private lesson with Virginia inspired me to sit down at my art table and PLAY, after a dull and tedious period. The experience was quite extraordinary. She immediately encouraged a more care-free attitude and sparked my creativity and sense of adventure through her altered book technique. What's more,she shared materials and resources that provided new tools and fun possibilities. Now, I simply say, 'Why not?' and carry on."

Thank you, Sybil!

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 351

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 351: Animality, Freedom, Desire, Belief, Courage

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 350

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 350: Johnny Got a Boom Boom (Part One)

This is another "three-pager" journal page. What does she not want to see? Part of her can't help desiring to look only for the man bearing a big, beautiful bouquet. But she just wants to avert her eyes away from what he is holding in his other hand...

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 350: Johnny Got a Boom Boom (Part Two)

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 348

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 348: Some Surprisingly Intimate 

Spiritual Lessons

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 349

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 349: Satisfy One Appetite and Fuel Another (Side A) This journal page has a center page that flips back to reveal the spread underneath. 

 It's a good thing that the heart of the universe continues to exist in all of it's beauty as we bumble along in our journeys through this space and time.

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 349: The Heart of the Universe (Side B)

"Je Dessine" (I Draw) Show-and-Tell Mondays

Drawing: My Bestest Morning Model

(waterproof ink pen, rubber stamp ink pads, pigment ink pads)

No art lesson last week, which forced me back on myself to draw a bit more on my own this past week. Looking at what I did I was kind of shocked! Drawing in bed is one of my favorite things to do in the morning. Most weekday mornings, I get up and fix coffee for my husband and I and bring it back to bed. My husband reads manuscripts for his publishing job, our cats sometime join us, and lately I use the time to either read art books, journal, or draw. This past week I continued to read Journal Spilling by Diana Trout who uses spilling writing as a writing exercise.  Diana credits Julia Cameron who uses this technique to stimulate creative writing in her book The Artist's Way (which I picked up way long ago and never read). Basically you write anything that comes up. Could be one word, could be a slew of sentences and if you get stuck or pause keep writing the same thing until something different comes into your brain.

Journal Spilling: The Critic and the Firebird

The exercise I started with from Diana's book was to spill write non-stop about your critic. Then draw a picture of yourself and cut it out and collage it on top. I was in too much of a hurry so I just drew a face on top of the writing. Mmmm. Is this my critic -- or is this me? I colored the drawing later with ink pads, iridescent chalk and pigment inks. The name "Firebird" came up because of the red hair I guess. But I think I also think of myself as a firebird -- I keep rising up out of the ashes, over and over again.

Drawing: MeThinks Me Perhaps

This was my second page of spill writing about my critic. I took a longer time drawing this bird. Notice the oriel necklace she's wearing. I am having trouble with my scanner so the color is not as strong here as it is in reality. Haven't figured it out yet. I used again here watercolors, ink pads, pigment pens, permanent pens. I like whatever is emerging in this drawing. There's a lot I don't like still, but I am becoming more comfortable with fumbling around -- like someone who has been blinded or put in a pitch black room and is getting their bearings. "Surprise, surprise..." as Gomer Pyle used to say.

And as a postscript I drew two journal pages in the past week: one and two.

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 347

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 347: Renewable Energy

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 346

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 346: The Edge Is Never Dull

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 345

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 345: They Both Have Long Limbs

OK, I'm finally caught up --it's official -- with my pages and my posting of them! And where did this one come from? I started out with the model. Then I saw a Smithsonian magazine article on giraffes. Then I thought about Drawing Lab's second exercise that I never got to, which had to do with drawing giraffes. So I drew one on the page. I figure it's legs must be as long as this woman's arms. Then I remember my second giraffe encounter. I will never forget being in Vienna, well on the outskirts -- I went to the Summer Palace for a trip. It had a very small zoo with cramped cubicles for the animals. I was not happy about the unhappy animals. But I went into one tall building and there was a giraffe, 8 feet above me, eating hay out of a hay bag tied way up high in its cage. No one was around so I pressed myself up to the bars and said hi to him. He looked at me, slowly batted his eyelashes, and lowered his head all the way down to my height (5'4"). I pressed my nose through the bars and breathed into his nose. It smelled of hay. He breathed back into mine. His eyes with their great big black eyelashes fluttered on my cheek. No kidding, I was in love. And so was he.

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 344

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 344: Where to Find It?

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 343

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 343: 2 AM Club, Mill Valley, CA

In eras past and currently the 2AM Club still thrives.

In My Studio: Vignette on Desk

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 342

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 342: Spring Awakenings

Mixed Media: You Are the Person You Dreamed You Are

You Are the Person You Dreamed You Are

I did this 8 x 10 mixed media canvas sometime last month -- or was it the month before? Initially I didn't like the technique I was trying out (journal spilling and then adding multiple paper layers, gessoing then painting over). It's been lying around for a while in my art studio, in my office, in the house. But I've finally come to like it: the colors, the movement, the sparkles, the way I gessoed then painted over her dress with iridescent oil pastels.  It was prompted by the death of a friend, mentor, teacher -- Shirley Luthman -- and perhaps the mixed emotions of her leaving this world had to be processed before I could appreciate what she had left me with and what the painting represented of my journey.

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 341

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 341: I'm Not Listening Anymore

I started this daily journal spread with "spilling" writing about my inner critic. You can learn abput this technique from Diana Tout's book Journal Spilling. Next I laid down water-soluble oil pastels in bright colors, but when I added water the supposedly permanent black marker I was using bled -- and everything turned to mud. Well, here was the perfect situation: listen to my judgments or keep moving? I kept moving. And even though it's not "pretty" (there's that ****ing judge) I like the thumb's up it's giving to the critic....Next!

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 340

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 340: Pick Up Your Bed and Laugh!

I get way too serious when it comes down to the wire to setting goals and managing money. So serious that I am overcome with an anxiety and paralysis. Usually I just avert my Southern Belle eyes and sidestep away to let things flow on their own. How can one accomplish one's dreams if you don't visualize them and don't look at what works and doesn't? I don't know. But there is a challenge here and I think having a sense of humor about the whole damn thing is the first order of business. Then whip out those colored pens, paper, and post-its and get to it!

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 339

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 339: Incubator

A woven tapestry, a butterfly ornament in my garden, a bejeweled hibiscus, a mysterious woman masked in red feathers...all incubators for the imagination, don't you think?

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 338

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 338: Only for a Moment

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 337

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 337: The World Is in Need

"Je Dessine" ("I Draw") Show-and-Tell Mondays

Drawing: Marsha in Rocking Chair 3.8.11

 In my drawing lesson last Tuesday, Sabrina said that I was going to have my first color painting lesson -- so don't worry about the details -- just get a quick sketch down then go at it. Our model was Marsha today. She sat in the old rocker and I quickly (HAH!) drew her, the chair, and a down coat. I worked with both acrylics and Neocolor 2 crayons. I felt kind of out of control -- but the main thing I learn over and over again is not to think -- JUST DO! Sabrina liked the colors I chose and the way I painted her pant legs (which I thought were pretty ugly -- so much for what I think!). I also brought home a drawing I did of Sabrina and a floral arrangement sometime last fall and colored with Neocolors. I like the kind of quick, abstract way way I did it. It's been fun to see my artistic fits and starts over the last year. And today I drew in one of my journal posts. So that's my Show-and-Tell Monday!

Drawing: Sabrina and Orchid Fall 2010

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 336

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 336: Where Are We Going, And Why?
Although you really can't tell this from the scan, the girl and car are on a seperate piece, mounted on a file folder, and taped on three sides to the spread to create a pocket. The chair (a photo I took in Mexico last year, the glittery hot pink "G," and La Guadalupe are stuck into the pocket. I'm sure I'll think of a few extra things she made need to take with her on her cosmic rode trip...

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 335

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 335: Unveiling

Was reading Violette's Journal Bliss and did a quick exercise on drawing faces. My one and only sketch showed up in this daily journal page. I suppose...it speaks of my current process of unveiling.Ya' think?!?!?! This little entry can also serve as my "Je Dessine on Mondays" submission if I don't want to do another post. Neat.

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 334

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 334: In a Vanished Era

(fold closed)

I was looking back through some of my earlier journals and noticed that I created a number of "3-D" pages with folds, windows, doors. So I decided to intentionally create some more in my daily page catch ups this week and see where they'd  take me! "In a Vanished Era" speaks to the pensive, nostalgic me. It's not a melancholy place, but it is a resting place. If I am aware of entering that space, I'm OK and can use it for what it is, and then meander on out of it to a place of motion.

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 334: In a Vanished Era

(fold open)

In My Art Studio: Monday, March 13th, 2011

Art Travelin"...

YOWSER!!! As typical, my workable area is shrinking down to a postage stamp. That vintage Samsonite is one of two filled with images for me to pull from. But...I seem to be bouncing in and out of the studio today. Can't seem to stay in one place too long! Maybe I'm just a night owl creator...I do seem to get warmed up by 4 in the afternoon, then cruise through until my husband gets home, we have dinner and most often I'm back in the studio or on the computer until 11pm. Want to make time for working in on my Right Brain Business Plan, email off a workshop proposal, and send in an art street fair application!

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 333

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 333: A New Me, A New You

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 332

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 332: Dive into the Depths

Less and less I feel like I'm wearing a mask. But when those times present themselves to me I just dive deeper and clarity seems to arise from there.

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 331

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 331: Your Life Comes in Different Styles

Graceful, elegant, a bit adventurous (try walking in 6-inch heels with a train), or a tad disheveled -- if you see where you have been, where you are now -- and dream of where you are going -- you just can't go wrong. You just can't.

I am going into my third year (WOO!-WOO!) of my Daily Journal Page Art Challenge:  a personal art challenge of creating one journal spread a day and  posting my pages on this art blog. I did this to create a daily art  discipline and to breathe new life into my jewelry business.You can read  about my original intentions here or go to my Flickr account to see the entire 2+ years' collections. I use exclusively Paperblanks Pocket Companion journals. You can buy them through me or through your local book or stationary store. 

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 330

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 330: Paris Fin du Jour

I am going into my third year (WOO!-WOO!) of my Daily Journal Page Art Challenge:  a personal art challenge of creating one journal spread a day and  posting my pages on this art blog. I did this to create a daily art  discipline and to breathe new life into my jewelry business.You can read  about my original intentions here or go to my Flickr account to see the entire 2+ years' collections. I use exclusively Paperblanks Pocket Companion journals. You can buy them through me or through your local book or stationary store.

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 329

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 329: She Trusted Him

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 328

2011 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 328: Out-There Man

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 327

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 327: Master of Play, Restoring Life

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 327: Master of Play Restoring Life

There is a certain amount of aggression --in a positive, energetic sense -- to restoring life. It requires a constant awareness that every single living thing is connected, and if we do injury to one, it is done to the whole. Mindfulness, playfulness, inquisitiveness, curiosity, a willingness to be open, and a determined vision is also required to renew and restore.

I am going into my third year (WOO!-WOO!) of my Daily Journal Page Art Challenge: a personal art challenge of creating one journal spread a day and posting my pages on this art blog. I did this to create a daily art discipline and to breathe new life into my jewelry business.You can read about my original intentions here or go to my Flickr account to see the entire 2+ years' collections. I use exclusively Paperblanks Pocket Companion journals. You can buy them through me or through your local book or stationary store.

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 326

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 326: Five Things to Watch

1. Creating every day.
2. Taking Kentucky Girl Designs to the next level.
3. Writing a Right-Brain Business Plan.
4. Passionately generating income from my custom jewelry and altered book workshops.
5. The wind in my mane.

I am going into my third year (WOO!-WOO!) of my Daily Journal Page Art Challenge: a personal art challenge of creating one journal spread a day and posting my pages on this art blog. I did this to create a daily art discipline and to breathe new life into my jewelry business.You can read about my original intentions here or go to my Flickr account to see the entire 2+ years' collections. I use exclusively Paperblanks Pocket Companion journals. You can buy them through me or through your local book or stationary store.

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 325

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 325: Make This the Year You Reward Yourselves

Next month my husband and I will have been married 30 years. We are celebrating this journey together with a trip to London and Paris! We are rewarding ourselves, aren't we honey?

I am going into my third year (WOO!-WOO!) of my Daily Journal Page Art Challenge: a personal art challenge of creating one journal spread a day and posting my pages on this art blog. I did this to create a daily art discipline and to breathe new life into my jewelry business.You can read about my original intentions here or go to my Flickr account to see the entire 2+ years' collections. I use exclusively Paperblanks Pocket Companion journals. You can buy them through me or through your local book or stationary store.

"Je Dessine" ("I Draw") Show-and-Tell Mondays

Gesture Drawing: Four Hats 3.1.11

Well, I am very behind on all of my Daily Pages and postings. I have been creating everyday because I have been attending the Right-Brainers in Business Video Summit and doing exercises from The Right Brain Business Plan book by Jennifer Lee, all creatively executed. I'll be posting more about this terrific course this week. But I do have these drawings I made last week. I returned to my weekly drawing lessons with Madame Sabrina TerHeune. The last lesson that I had was in October. I took a long break because of a month-long flue, a heavy dance performance, and the holidays. I took her all of the drawing I had made since I started my commitment to draw every week. She was thrilled with my work and could see what I took away with me from our sessions...she was very, very pleased. We also spoke French in the class -- which was great since I am going to Paris in April with my husband (in April we celebrate out 30th wedding anniversary!. I have been taking les lecons francais for 3 months in preparation for my trip.

Imaginary Drawing: Paris Tea 3.1.11

Here are two drawings from class last week -- I felt awkward but just forged onward -- I seem to be doing that more and more in my life nowadays -- and I am certainly getting more done when I don't tarry on the task at hand! And here is a drawing that I made last September. I like the strength in it, and somehow it speaks of where I am heading.

Pup in Lap 9.21.10

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 324

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 324: If You Gotta Go, But Not without Love