Effys Book of Days-Mosaic Spread

The cover of my Art Journal
is still almost blank.
I'm really surprised 

that the muse has not shown up

yet to tell me whats what.
She is a fickle one...
All in good time...

The next spread in 

Effy's Book of Days

Art Journal project is 

Mosaics!

At the start of this journal,

I spent a lot of time 

gessoing out artwork

I didn't think I would 

use as collage elements.

 I covered most of the

images in white gesso

but used transparent gesso 

for the images I was 

pretty sure I was gonna keep.

Below you can see

the next pages in the calendar.

Ironically, we've got a 

mosiac theme going!!

Coincidence? 

I think not.

This proves this calendar 

is meant to be the vehicle

for the project.

So I was going through the book

gessoing in advance

of the assignment and prompts.

When I saw this page I thought

ohhhhh, what a perfect

page for my 

1970's porn star inchies!!

Pic below.

Handy tip:

I got 2 boxes of this deli paper

for $20 bucks two years ago.

And I just opened the second box! 

I highly recommend leaving 

the paper in between your pages.

Even if you think they are dry.

They will still stick together.

Prevention is better than

um, fixing it???

   Below you can see 

I've added some drips

and some acrylic paint I've run

a texture rake through.

The green is my fav

green of all time

Goldens Green Gold.

By the time I lay down the color

I've seen Effy's video.

She journals about 

feelings of rejection

and about not taking 

it personally.

How people come and go 

in our lives and the 

importance of learning

to let them come and go

graciously, with love.

Oh, I'm not supposed 

to grab his leg

and let him drag me across

the room as he's leaving?

 stupid flashbacks.

teehee.

I only did that in my mind.

Thank God I'm on the path

to enlightenment

and I don't own 

a hand gun.

Back to Art.....

 I was so lucky

to attend 

Misty Mawns

two day Portrait workshop

at Art and Soul retreat

in Virginia.

I had never drawn a face let alone

a portrait before,

but A and S

is a growing experience for me.

Hell, driving 7 hours in one day

alone is a lot of growth for me..

And pushing myself to grow

artistically in such 

a safe and positive

atmosphere is heaven on earth.

It is unfortunate that the retreats

are no longer in my budget.

Even dogs know that I can't

afford it, thats how

obvious it is that 

I can't afford it.

Feel me?

I knew that you could.

ok back on track....

I was so lucky that besides

sharing musical tastes

and getting the thrill of 

turning Misty onto 

The Wood Brothers,

she is an extremely 

generous and patient teacher.

And oh so freakin talented.

As I was pondering on what to journal,

I remembered this piece I did.

I love the poetry

of R.D. Laing,

so I incorporated his words into 

my self portrait at the retreat.

I am frightened

not frightened

Powerful words, no?

I printed a copy of the original

and journaled on the back.

I wrote about my fear of death.

My fear of aging, getting sick,

and dying.

Of losing my "beauty". 

Of becoming invisible.

Of walking next to my teenage

daughter in the mall and

the 50 year old guy

looks at her and not me.

Again, I am grateful I do not have 

a hand gun.

teehee.

So I purged it all out,

and cut the print into strips,

then 1 inch blocks to cover

the exsisting inches

in the spread.

 

 

I said good by to all that 

 bad habit energy, and

  glued the blocks down with

Goldens Heavy gel medium.

On the facing page

I glued down a flower 

I've used billions of times

as a mask and stencil

ala Traci Bautista.

This one is actually

the one I used in her class.

Altho stamped with Fear,

its a symbol of the growth

I experienced at Art and Soul,

and the growth I am experiencing

on my path to Buddhism.

I put a little pic of the 

original photo used to 

represent wholeness.

and because I look hot.

teehee.

I did some journalling on the page,

and left room to add thoughts

about experiences that occur

that frighten me.

So that's the whole shebang so far.

I have a feeling that I will not feel 

the "decoration" for the cover 

of this journal until it is complete.

But thats ok.

Effy taught me that! 

My next spread will be for a 

week of days, 

and then Mondays spread!

Which is about

Excepting Where You Are 

In Your Artistic Journey!!

Amen, I'll take Acceptance

for 500 Alex!

Until next time!

xoS

BOD's Mindfulness Spread

This is what 

art in bed looks like.

It's not pretty,

but it's necessary!!!

I tried to walk

without the boot today.

HELL NO!!
So, back to bed....

So below you see my supplies 

for Effy's Book of Days.
um, and some other 
supplies, as well.

   

Below, I am gesso'ing

out the elements in the 

2004 Art Calendar

that I don't 

"feel" for this journal page.

This spread took quite a while.

The subject here is 

all about celebrating what 

I am looking forward to 

in the upcoming year.

Not resolutions!

too much presha!!

At this point, 

I have the

tags journaled 

and stamped, 

but don't have a feel 

for the big picture yet.

Here is where I blogged 

about making the tags.

I have both white gesso

to block out images

and clear gesso to 

protect and provide

tooth for the images 

I do want to keep.

By tooth I mean

getting rid of the slickness

of the calendar page

so I can add layers of paint or ink

or GLITTER!!!!

and those layers will stick.

 

 

 Below, the gesso has dried
and I'm adding 
Adirondak Re-inkers
for color.
This is butterscotch, I think.
I used a paper towel to 
lift off some of the ink 
and that cool pattern was the result.
That's an Effy thing. 
Like shabification.
I have a hard time
with shabification.
I love color.
But, it will happen....

 

I decided to keep the profile of 
the face, the fish eyes
and the owl eyes.
Cuz, well eyes are what
I do for a living.
And seeing is part of 
what is required for
wisdom and art.
Very important.
Below you see the full spread.
I used a paint texture tool
for the lines.
Added some Lettuce re-inker.
So my issue was that 
some of the ink lifted when 
I sealed it with 
matte medium.
I suspected it might,
and Effy confirmed.
I let the first layer of medium dry
and added another to seal.
The second time there was 
very little movement.
I was all worried about it 
and then decided not to 
add anymore wet layers.
Ironic, no? 
teehee.

 

Next stop is adding a

flap with tape.

I ended up just folding 

over a flap and using

heavy gel medium as a glue.

cuz, I didn't have any

masking tape in my bed!!!

teehee.

I used a little pan pastels

to color up 

a stamped heart that is

I kid you not,

about 10 years old.

I don't own that stamp,

I was taking a class

from the creator of that 

line of stamps,

sorry can't remember who,

and she was soooo 

generous and let us use 

tons of them!

I knew someday the perfect 

use for that paper would

come up and it did.

I look forward to Art in 2012!

Hey, I cheated and used a color wheel.

Being untrained and what not, 

I knew I wanted to add another

color and had no clue what

would work. 

Voila, and thank you, color wheel!

 Delicious Purple!!

Now the story of the 

transparency pockets:

they are the left over from 

banners I made for my bff's 

bridal shower.

I will blog about that soon.

I punched holes and used brads

to add the pockets. 

The transparencies were ran

through my ink-jet printer

and you can see some

sheet music on the edges

which I love.

Who doesn't look forward

to music?

I love that I was able to

"use what I have".

Big goal for me for 2012.

I used a sticker library card thingy

and covered it with paper.

It is actually my freezer

catch all paper that I put under my 

paintings. The palette just matched 

so I glued it on! 

Slipped the tags in 

and glued on the 

Be Still stamped paper.

I can add more tags

under the pockets

and there is plenty 

of room to journal!

I took the opportunity

to add a couple

sentences about 

mindfulness and suffering

that are very important to me

on the outside 

of the flap. 

This piece of paper 

is also from my stash,

circa Art and Soul 2007 or 8?

I took an INCREDIBLE class

given by Albie Smith

on paste paper making.

OMG.

It was HEAVEN.

teehee, you're welcome.

There is a pic of me and Albie

on my sidebar. 

We are holding the 2 books we

made in class.

I think it was a two day class.

But I don't remember 

and am too booted up to check.

I have very few pieces left of

my special paper, but I love the

purple and bronzy colors.

It was meant to be.

So, that's my 

second spread in my 

Book of Days!

Thanks for looking!

xoS

Upcycling a 2004 Art Journal

I've joined an online 

Art journal group, 

Effy's Book Of Days.

It's completely free and

chockfull of cool techniques

and lots of glitter flinging by the 

workshop leader,

Effy Wild from 

Wild Precious Life.

There is also a 

supportive and generous  

face book group 

to participate with.

I've met many

very talented women

and am having a great time. 

For my Book of Days

I am recycling a 

Somerset Studio

Art Journal Calendar from 2004.

Below are pics of the 

front and back cover.

 

I'

Above, 

I've taped up the inside pages

to protect them from paint.

I gesso'd the hell out of 

both covers. 

Added some kind of thin fabricy 

stuff that a Christmas present was 

wrapped in a few years ago.

Yup. I save everything.

On top of the fabricy stuff

I used gesso with a palette knife 

to create texture.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do 

with it, 
I may try to make it look leathery

or like the surface of an old stone building.

 From the cover of the

original calendar

I only kept the word 

"TODAY"

which I covered with
Dimensional gel

and now has a cool

raised effect highlighting it.

Part of our practice in this 

journal is to pick 

a word for the Year.

I've been struggling mightyly

with choosing the right word.

I have been thinking 

for months about my 

focus for the upcoming year

and I keep coming back to

"use what I have"

and that phrase does not 

boil down to one word.

DAMN IT.

So, like all things,

I'm learning that the word

Mindfulness

pretty much covers 

everything.

If I am practicing mindfulness

I am using what I have!!

I probably have thousands

of rubber stamps

but I really 

don't use them anymore.

I came to a realization a

year or two ago that

I really don't want to use 

anyone else's art in my work.

Sooner or later I will start

organizing them and selling

them on etsy or ebay.

These 4 stamps are among

my favorites. 

"Be Still" is "still" 

one of my favorites.

On these tags I journalled

about the things

I am looking forward to in 2012.

On the back of Be Still 

I journalled about learning

more about Buddhism and

practicing Mindfulness.

On the Frida tag

I journaled about looking 

forward to making strong friendships

with women who create.

On the dragonfly tag I journaled

about the upcoming Milestones 

I am looking forward to this year

taking place in Sam's life.

Prom, choosing a college,

senior trip, and the continuation

of her independence.

And on the Venus tag,

I journaled about 

"using what I have".

 

Pan Pastels

 add the color to the tags.

I originally embellished a 

baseball pocket page 

with alcohol inks intending

to attach the page into the journal 

to hold the tags.

You will see that idea

never made it into my

Book of Days.

After I got a start on the book

the feel of the plastic 

is not organic enough with 

the pages I have so far.

 My next post will show 

pics of the progress I've made

on the first few spreads.

I deviated somewhat

from the instructions

but Effy encourages

and nurtures our individuality

in a funny, wise,and

completely stress free

environment.

Good times!!

Now tell me,

how have you started

this new year?

Have you picked a word 

to support your endeavors 

in personal 

and creative growth?

Or do you play it by ear?

Spill it, sisters.

xoS