Art Journal Thursday: More Room in a Broken Heart

Most mornings I wake up with a song in my head. A few days ago, I couldn't get Carly Simon’s “Coming Around Again” out of my mind, particularly the lyric, “…there’s more room in a broken heart.” Like an itch that I had to scratch (for this can be quite maddening) I knew I wasn't going to get any peace until I worked on what that lyric meant to me. So off to the art journal.

Using a torn coffee sleeve with gesso and undiluted acrylic paint spread over it adds great texture.

It made me think about loss and how we soldier on afterwards. My grandmother, Jessie (or Nanny as I called her), suffered the loss of a husband and a few miscarriages, but she kept on with a broken but open love. Pragmatic and tough, she was still filled with love that she showered on me and the rest of her family.

Taken before they left for Guam.

She married my biological grandfather, Michael, and moved with him to Guam. A career Navy name, he was stationed there before WWII began so she came with him. There are photos of her in the jungle, the mess hall, and hanging out with friends. My uncle was born there but he and Nanny had to flee as tensions with the Japanese began to intensify. She returned home to North Carolina to find that Guam had been invaded by the Japanese. She waited for 18 months wondering what had happened to her husband, giving birth to my father and caring for my uncle. She learned that Michael had stayed behind to blow up munitions and had been captured and killed.

Applied gesso to the burlap with a dry brush, let dry and used a palette knife for the red. 

She could have given up but there were children to raise and a life to live. She met the man I knew as my grandfather and they moved to Kansas. They tried several times to have children of their own, but sadly it was not to be. Again, she had the opportunity to give up and make a stone of her heart. But that just wasn't her. She kept herself open. I am sure that she had her days, dark and full of the weight that these tremendous losses caused. But they did not over take her.

Layers of paper and ephemera with gesso, rubber stamp ink and thinned acrylic paint applied over them.

Her heart may have been broken many times, but there was still room left to fill.

Art Journal Thursday: From the Journal to the Wall

Last week I shared my goals for 2014. And then I filed them away in my art journal file. (I was starting an art journal that would have loose pages that I would bind together later.) A few days after my post, it occurred to me that the goals wouldn't do me any good if I weren't reminded of them all the time. So I decided to make them into framed art.

Now I can see the goals and align my activities to them.

My first step was to find a frame. I went to my stash and found a lovely 10 x 10 frame. But my art journal page was the wrong size. So back to the stash. I found some black art board that I rescued from the trash many years ago and cut it to size. I then mounted the page giving it a quarter of an inch border on three sides. I decided to mount it off center so that I would only have one edge to embellish.

Raided the stash for the embellishments.

The embellishment is from Prima. The flowers are cut from a Tim Holtz Sizzix Bigz die. The black swirl is cut from a Quikutz Adornment die. (A little secret--I love this Adornment die a lot. I mean tons. It's a wonder to me that it isn't in more of my projects, but it just doesn't do to repeat one's self too much.)

Seeing the goals all the time will help me align my activities to them. This is an important aspect to achieving these goals. For example, this turning the art journal into wall art included two of my goals: "Spend less" and "do more me"!

If you  have a favorite art journal page, try turning it into art that you can see all the time. I'd love to hear about your projects so please drop me a line to tell me about them!

Postcrossing: A New Project

I just joined Postcrossing.com. It’s a site dedicated to exchanging postcards with people from across the world. By signing up, you can send or receive postcards from its almost 500,000 members from more than 200 countries around the world. You can send up to five at a time. The site gives you a code so they can track your postcard. I read about it in this month’s Flow magazine.

Tim Holtz stencil on craft paper that's glued to a piece of card stock.

I decided to use it as a creative challenge and handcraft postcards. It’s exciting to think that I can make contact with people from around the world. I can’t wait to get my postcards!

Old stickers and a book cut out from a book page. Postcard is bound for Bravaria!

Look for upcoming blog posts to see how this new project is going.

Art Journal Thursdays: Goal Art

We are well and truly into the new year. As it happens, I had a significant birthday just a few weeks ago. And I finished an art journal. These things collided into a desire to do a goals page. I know. There are a lot of blog posts about New Year’s resolutions. I inwardly groaned as I thought about sharing this post, but goals that are not shared are too easily forgotten. So, dear friends, here it is.

 Goals written on vintage note paper.

Goal: Do more encaustic work.
I have a fascination and abiding love of encaustic artwork. When I was little, I remember my mother taking me to an art class. We played with melted crayons; it was yummy. Plus I have always loved the idea of depth (see my blog post, “The Old Me Meets the Current Me”). So encaustic painting seems like it would be a great fit. Except for one thing; it scares the crap out of me. I took a course from Serena Barton and it took the edge off of the fear so now it’s time to do some work.

Used card stock alphabet stickers from my stash. Gessoed, painted and inked. Then all of it removed with rubbing alcohol.

Goal: Buy less stuff.
I don’t think this one needs an explanation. You know what I am talking about.

Old sticker, mounted on ephemera and a cardboard letter stencil.

Goal: Document my life. 
Scrapbooking was my gateway drug into mixed media. I used to scrapbook all the time but when I learned that I could do other things, I stopped scrapbooking. But as I culled through our family photos looking for a particular photo, it occurred to me how important these photos are. I forget things

A Tim Holtz stamp stamped on card stock and cut out.

Goal: Journal again.
But scrapbooking isn't the only way that a life gets documented. I need to keep better records of my days and the things I am doing to achieve my goals. Lastly, I need to do more spiritual journaling. Taking the time to read scripture and working through what it means to me, letting God have the space to talk to me, has had a significant impact in my life. Sadly, I have let this practice lapse. Time to start again.

Goal: Do more me.
This goal is about trust. It’s about trusting my instincts. It’s about being willing to fail and move on quickly so that I can move more toward the artist that I want to be.

So that’s the list. What’s on your list?

Art Journal Thursdays: Monochromatic

When I sat down at my desk, I had no preconceived notions about what this journal page was going to look like. I knew that I wanted to do a page honoring this old picture that I found. There she was, among a number of old family pictures, with no name or notation. Family friend? Long lost cousin? The one that got away? Who knows. But there was something captivating about her, so she became the page’s focal point.

The QuicKutz 'Adornments (Victorian) Die is in the corner and it does a nice job of directing the eye toward her face.

I wondered about this woman. Who was she? I liked the picture because her lips slightly parted as if she had just finished saying something. Maybe it was, “Let’s this done because I need a drink!” or “I have to pick up my kids” or “What a dry summer…you have no idea what it’s doing to my peonies!” She was sitting in her black dress against a gray background, eyes alert contrasting the stiffness of her body. It just seemed to me that using a monochromatic palette was the right thing to do.

Using watercolor paper, I glued down some random pieces of book pages to create a little texture. Then I laid down a thin layer of gesso. Using Anita’s Metallic Black acrylic  paint, I brushed a generous layer on to the dry gesso. I removed some of the paint with baby wipes, sometimes scrubbing down to the gesso or paper.

I added a little black burlap under the tags so make them "pop" a little more.

The next step was finding the right pattern to give the journal page some more interest. I chose the K&Co. vellum border since their pattern reminded me of the wall paper this woman might have. I applied the border to plain white tags and then added a little white Faber-Castell gelato to the edges. They ended up looking a little plain so a few mother of pearl buttons were sewn on. I wanted to the tags to be “bound” to the larger piece so I found an old notebook page in my ephemera stash and glue it to the photo and then ran the strings through the holes.

I removed all the paint in some areas so that the gesso would add a little texture.

The side panel was made by gluing three book page scraps together. I punched out some flowers. Again, it seemed too plain on the page so I decided to gesso the panel and then added some more black metallic paint. Again, baby wipes were used to get rid of the excess paint. I added the vellum borer to a scrap piece of cardstock and glued it behind the windows of the panel.

Lastly, I added a little random poetry from two phrases from different books.

What I found challenging about this layout was the play of values. Since I didn't have different colors to add emphasis or texture, it all had to be achieved using color values. It actually required a little discipline to grab a red just to give it punch, but I resisted in the end because that would have stolen my lady’s thunder.

What challenges have you found in your art recently?

Art Journal Thursdays: I Breathed Again and Listened More Deeply

Even though the Winter Solstice is still a few days away, winter is truly here. The sun is less brilliant, usually hiding behind wispy clouds, shedding cold light over brown grass (which inspired this art journal page). While that seems like it might be depressing, and I know it is for some, I find it peaceful. It seems that everything is at rest.

Acrylic paint roughed up by using the paint brush handle.

I won't say that winter is my favorite time of the year, but it has it's advantages. Winter is a time for short days, full of introspection. Nights by the fire, hearty soups or hot chocolate in hand. Knitted scarves, woolen socks and gloves, and bulky sweaters...it's like wearing home when your are out. Everything slows down.

A Tim Holtz "ledger" rubber stamp was used at the top of the page and then gessoed over it with my finger.

I used random cut out words from a large print book. These words jumped out from the pages...they captured exactly how I was feeling about that day.

Paper scraps, other ephemera and rub-ons with gesso over it.

A hand-drawn tree in winter.

The focal point of the art page is a tree that I drew one afternoon. I copied it, using a laser copier, and then transferred it on to the page using matte medium. I applied the matte medium to the image, turned it upside down on the page and then used an old credit card to smooth out the bubbles. I then used a hair dryer to dry it quickly and then wet the paper and rolled it off with my fingers. It is a great way to incorporate my own hand-drawn images without having to carve a stamp.

What season inspires your artwork the most?

Art Journal Thursday: He Himself is Our Peace

 

Life has a lot of stuff to it--work, family, relationships, experiences and on and on. It's all those things that make us who we are, right? We all have lovely bits--talent, generosity, compassion, intelligence, etc. We also all have our sucky bits--envy, contempt, irritation, and so on. We can't help it because we are imperfect beings in a fallen world. If I am left to my own, there is no peace. I cannot make right the things that are wrong. I can't do things over. I can only move forward trying to minimize the uncaring things I do and find ways to positively impact those around me.

Multiple layers of acrylic paint applied with a palette knife.

So today's journal page is about layers. It began with scraps of book pages randomly glued to the substrate. Then I began with layers of paint. I began layering several colors of paint and then decided that I didn't like them. So I mixed some black with some gesso and started over.

Gesso and thinned acrylic paint applied to the die cut flowers.

I liked the layers because the it had such a messy quality. But I wanted to add something a bit more joyful to offset the overall darkness of the piece. Using a Tim Holtz Sizzix Bigz die, I cut out several flowers and then adhered them to the page.

Use a Pitt brush pen, size B, to journal and add lines to my flowers.

Sunflower yellow acrylic paint, applied with a palette knife, was created as a background to journal on. I added one of my favorite scriptures. It is a reminder that I cannot obtain the peace I seek alone.