Hodge Podge

 Happy Mail from

generous, talented

and beautiful 

Wendy Erman!

Thank you Wendy!! 

And Sam on her 18th Birthday!

Yes, Mom did the NO! you can't have those shoes on Saturday,

and snuck back and bought them

on Sunday....

Working on drawing:

this is an excersize

from Suzi Blu's

class. 

 and I call her Ava:

this is a really imperfect

work in progress

but I'm loving her attitude:

I erased her mouth 5 times already. And I know her eyes

need tweeking to capture her

'tude. 

teehee.

And her nose looks piggy, but that will also be addressed.

My problem is, I want to draw,

but I'm so tired after work,

my efforts start looking 

like shit but I'm too in 

love with it to stop.

Thats my story and I'm sticking 

to it.

And I resized,

 photoshop tweeked

and matted

"Her Eyes Wore Sombrero's"

I really like this piece.

Why is it that men

really don't get it?

A male friend of mine said the

saying on her nose 

"doesn't go with the face". 

Really.

I hate you. 

Go back to playing fantasy football league.

I don't get that either. 

I didn't say anything for real.

I just directed him to the 

etsy listing so he can read 

the back story. 

And told him that all viewpoints

were welcome.

In other words, I lied.

I'm living that saying 

"fake it till you make it"

a lot these days.

A Hell of a Lot.

 new listing on etsy:

Thank you for looking.

And I'm also working on 

my Katie Holmes zombies.

I want to have 2 completed to 

take to Creative Genius Gallery

when I pump up my display.

oh scarey!!

Happy anti-valentines day!

Happy Birthday Sam!!

xoS

Book Of Days-Is This Art?

I do journal in my Book of Days

after making a page, I 

usually just don't 

post a pic, due to the

personal nature of my writing.

Here's two pics to prove it:

Some of it I blurred out.

I really had a hard time

finding a pen to write over 

all the texture on the 

fear flower page. I think I

ended up using a Pitt brush

marker. not quite sure.

So The Universe provides.

So, I've been playing

around with my blog. In bed.

God bless the lap top. 

What do you think so far?

I couldn't change it back 

if I tried. It took hours

and hours to get to this point.

Opinions?

Moving on to....

Effy's Book of Days.

Our prompt for this spread was

becoming comfortable where 

your are in your skill level,

not comparing yourself to others,

embracing the need to just keep

making art, even if it's not 

"good" even if it doesn't feel 

"right" or "your style". 

Just keep doing it. You have to 

make a lot of art before your 

style reveals itself to you. 

This video by Ira Glass tells all:

I began with a partially gesso'd
out spread from my Book of Days,
which is an upcycled 2004
Art Journal Calendar from
Somerset Studios. I could
never throw it away due to the
gorgeous collages within, but
for this project I was able to
gesso through the book, leave some
elements that spoke to me and white out the others. It's been
really interesting how the images 
I retained without any prior 
knowledge about the upcoming 
prompts have been so perfect
for the subjects that come up.
blah blah blah.
Time for pics, no??

I really liked the horoscope 
circle thing this page had going
for it. My first thought about this page and combining it with the subject, is that I feel splintered like pieces of a pie,
when it comes to knowing what 
my "style" is. 
My wheels started turning.
I painted the gesso'd out rectangle with silver dab on paint.I was thinking of a mirror or reflection of my style symbolism....

Brayered on some color,
thought I would lay down a stencil
inside my pie shape...not really
sure where I was going....
I purchased this stencil a while ago. I assume every artist questions whether or not their work is "art".

I don't like how the flower stencil looks. I'm not feeling it or the silver paint.

I'm liking the spread below for the This is Art, This is not Art,
bits, but really nothing else appeals to me. 

Since I've been living in bed
for the last four weeks, I have paper everywhere. A little less than two years ago I decided not to use anyone elses art in my art.
So I have lots of copies of my own
work that I use as collage
elements. 
Oh, I do use copyright free vintage images, and images of  vintage fine art...but I don't buy
collage sheets anymore. 

So I see this pile and I think slices. They are all slices of my style as its evolved. I cut them up to make pie shapes and represent all the parts of me.
On the outside ring, I've written names of artists that inspire me,
or I've taken workshops with.

I do use junk mail in my art.
The lady's face was from a 
house cleaning brochure. 
Her red hair and green eyes match me as does her look of horror. 
teehee.

The underlining is white-out
correction tape. I've journaled
about my feelings on style below.
and separated the days of the 
week for future journalling 
with a question mark stamp.
I am having a really hard time
writing over top all these layers.
So far no pen is "the one".

Here is my finished spread.

Thanks for looking.
And thank you to 
The Sisterhood Of The Book
for giving me something to 
look forward to. 
In Bed.
xoS

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