Express Your Creativity Week 11

Welcome to Express Your Creativity. Here you can share paintings, sketches, art journal pages, poetry, photography, fiber arts like knitting and weaving, favorite recipes, organizational and decorating ideas, and more. The only requirement is that it is something that you have created in some way. I hope you will join me here and please pass it on. Please make sure to list your posts url and not your blogs url. This makes it easier for any late comers to find your post. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, this is how it works. You type in your name in the first box and the url/link to your post, not your blog address about your creative efforts this week. When you return your name will already be populated, you just need to paste in the new posts link.

I have created a blog button for those participating who might want to post this on your blog. You'll find it on the sidebar to your right.

These are collages in my recycled paintings journal. I seem to be in a red period.

This one used a flyer from an exhibit I attended about Kimonos.  Did you know that kimonos un-sewn when they are washed.  Then the pieces are sewn back together to be worn. Their rectangular pieces make this relatively easily. Can you imagine doing that with all your clothes.

I created the background with a brayer and then drew the feathers on top.  I have a journal that I got as a gift that has feathers all over it.  I used it for inspiration. I use markers,, gel pens and pitt brush pens to make the feathers.  Feathers are fun to draw.  I never tire of them, they are one of my personal symbols.

Do you draw any of your personal symbols?  

Full Crow Moon

Its the Full Crow Moon or the Full Ash Moon this evening as I write this. I chose aspects from both of these moon's lore. Change and transformation are what the crow brings while the ash moon points us to water and emotions and our connection to it. They seem to be connected in my life as well. Lots of change is brewing for me. Its wonderful seeing it laid out in this imagery.

I made it through the dental surgery this morning and am feeling better than I thought I would. So glad recovery is coming along nicely. Now comes the waiting time. I have to wait 4 months until they can install the implant. I think this year is going to be all about patience.

Express Your Creativity Week 6

Welcome to Express Your Creativity. Here you can share paintings, sketches, art journal pages, poetry, photography, fiber arts like knitting and weaving, favorite recipes, organizational and decorating ideas, and more. The only requirement is that it is something that you have created in some way. I hope you will join me here and please pass it on. Please make sure to list your posts url and not your blogs url. This makes it easier for any late comers to find your post. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, this is how it works. You type in your name in the first box and the url/link to your post, not your blog address about your creative efforts this week. When you return your name will already be populated, you just need to paste in the new posts link.

I have created a blog button for those participating who might want to post this on your blog. You'll find it on the sidebar to your right.

Today I am sharing some work in an old book journal.  I am using this journal to teach an Art Journaling Class.

This is a face that came out of the background.

Here I was showing how to make a stenciled background and a silhouette.

This was just a collage I did on my own at home. The tag in the background was made with a mono print.




















Another collage with a stencilled and masked background.

Now its your turn to share what you've created this week.

The New Moon

My dream board for the New Moon.  This is the  first time I have made a board for the new moon so I did a quick google search to guide me.

I found this on this site:

The new moon is the birthing cycle of the moon's various phases. Are you ready to attract your heartfelt longings by doing a moon ritual focused on manifestation? The new moon phase is an optimal time for planning and seeding your intentions. Seedlings need a period of gestation before they break through the soil and reach for the sunlight. This is also true for our cultivating our ideas and clearing the way for our visions to surface in reality. The dark side of the moon, with its mysterious unseen forces, offers a nurturing environment where our intentions can establish roots before their miraculous manifestations begin to sprout and reach out to the stars.

As a result I think I cemented ideas from my last board and things I want in my life.  I really want to thrive so I liked choosing that word. All the images speak to me on some level.

I have had an issue lately of not liking the magazines I have for collage.  I usually pick them up at a library sale so I am limited to what people donate. So today I went and spent a little bit.  I bought some inexpensive magazines, 5-6.00 each.  I am seeing it as an investment, like buying art supplies.  I also am cutting up old art magazines. They have wonderful images to use in collage.  Artful blogging is great for it. I figure I could also buy a really nice magazine once a month.  Before you know it I will have such a collection of magazines that collage will be a dream to do. 

What are your favorite magazines to use for collage?

Kate

Express Your Creativity Week 3

Welcome to Express Your Creativity. You can share paintings, sketches, art journal pages, poetry, photography, fiber arts like knitting and weaving, favorite recipes, organizational and decorating ideas, and more. The only requirement is that it is something that you have created in some way. I hope you will join me here and please pass it on. Please make sure to list your posts url and not your blogs url. This makes it easier for any late comers to find your post. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, this is how it works. You type in your name in the first box and the url/link to your post, not your blog address about your creative efforts this week. When you return your name will already be populated, you just need to paste in the new posts link.

 I have created a blog button for those participating who might want to post t
his on your blog. You'll find it on the sidebar to your right.

My offering for this week. I took Jamie Ridler's workshop on making vision cards.  I picked 3 focus areas I wanted to work with and made these cards.  They are for writing, self care and painting.

I start my day and end my day by looking at the cards.  They have been very motivating.

Collage Night

I'm still sick so there hasn't been much art this week.  I did this collage tonight though. I laid down some book page scraps and then covered it with Neocolor II watercolor crayons. I activate the crayon with gesso and then stenciled with distress stain.  Then I added lots of different collage elements.   Journaling went on top after I took this picture.

I'll be posting to Express Your Creativity on this tomorrow.  Be sure to check back here to see how others have been creative this week.

Full Moon Dream Boards

I know I am late, the Full Moon was last week but I say better late than never.  My good friend Claire does her dream boards in a journal.  I thought that was such an excellent idea. Did I do any, well no. It was one of those things I was going to do I just never got around to it.  I even suggested the idea to a coaching client and she started doing them.  Silly me what was I waiting for.  I knew I had a book I could put them in I just needed to find it.  So without any planning today I just did it.  Sometimes that is the best way.

The advantage of doing them in a sketchbook/journal is you have a record of a whole year or more. It will be great to go back and see what I was thinking at any given month. Its a very cathartic process, just cutting out images from magazine that you are drawn to.  This was the frosty moon so I looked for images that resonated with me and then words I was drawn to.

Have you made a vision board like this?

Kate

Connecting Writing And Art

I have these odd silhouettes that were given to me years ago.  I often pull them out to use and then decide I don't want to use them.  So this one was lying around my desk. I liked it over this background. Doesn't that blob on the left look like Africa? I see now I could have made a map out of this page.  Sometimes it seems like I don't see things in my pieces until a photo is taken.  I wonder why that is?

This is the second half of the ugly spray ink exploration I talked about in yesterday post. On this side I muted the page with gesso before I drew and painted the trees.  The stencils in the background look like a ghost image. I think I like it.  Happy accidents are fun to discover in your work. I am really loving these trees.

Wouldn't it be awesome to walk into a forest that had trees this color. It reminds me of something I am adding to my novel.  I have no title yet but I thought I might start sharing some little tidbits here on the blog. It's the idea of a feminine forest. One where men have a hard time traveling through and women gain something special from being there. I haven't decided how this forest will look yet, but this is a pretty good start. I like the idea of exploring some things I am writing about in my art journal.  It gives my ideas a little more life, to see them on the page.

Do you have more than one hobby?  Have you found a way to work on them at the same time like a collaboration?  I'd love to hear about it? Leave me a comment about it.

Expressive Landscapes

For paint party friday I thought I would talk about an online course I have been taking. I've been enrolled in Pauline Agnew's course, See Paint Feel - Expressive Landscapes for the past 2 weeks. Its the third course I have taken from Pauline and its really been great. She is such a great teacher, I always learn amazing things from her.

One of our first exercises was to make collages for the four elements, earth, air, fire and water. This is my collage for air.

This is earth.

This is fire.

This is water. These were really fun to make.

This was an exercise with mark making while listening to bird songs.

Here we used Oil Pastels to mimic a water lily painting. This is something that takes a lot of practice. I'll need to do a half dozen of these before I feel confidant at it.

Next we did our first landscape.  This is still a work in progress. I needs quite a bit more work but I'll add it to this post anyways.

This is what is called a network drawing. The original photo was a scene looking from underneath a flowering bush.  I am learning lots of new techniques in the course and of course new ways of looking and seeing.

You can heck out what others are doing on Paint Party Friday here.

What's Hidden Underneath

I woke up on Sunday morning to this lovely stuff.  We got about 8 inches.  It was wet and heavy and soon will be gone.  It was a shock though, it the most snow we got all year. It came down in this big fluffy white flakes and was quite beautiful to see.

In my journal I have been making some small collages. The background on this one was made with some alcohol ink and then the black was printed with a gelli plate. The paper is tyvek. The quote comes from The Medicine Cards book. I typed it out on my typewriter. I really like having that tool at my disposal.  The image of the hawk is from a calendar.

This one is all collage.  I used wrapping paper, scraps of walpaper, cut out from a creft magazine and more. Just lots of fun with layered elements.  There is paint underthe entire thing.  I didn't like what was happening with it so I just covered the whole thing.  Art is like that sometime, you never know what is underneath it all. As a mixed media artist I create layers, layers of word, paint, images.  It is like each layer leads to the next, if I skipped one I would never get to the next step. We have the ability to hide things that we don't want others to see but still those messages are in the energy of the piece. In this piece, by covering it all up I think my message is that you keep moving when you've hit a stumbling block.  You push on until you come out at the other end with some sense of satisfaction.

Do you hide things in the layers of your work?

Happy Turkey Day

Happy Turkey Day to all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving.

I took the background from yesterday and added some collaged pictures and words from a greeting card. I was going to journal on the silhouette but I decided I like her black.  I see he as contemplating all that is falling around her in her life.

Linking to Art Every Day Month.

AEDM Catching Up

Since I started on day three for Art Every Day Month, I am playing catch up today. The idea is to do something creative, not necessarily finish something.

I did this over 2 days so I am counting in for Nov. 1 and 2. The background was done yesterday and the collage was made this morning.

For Day 4 I am showing this background. I love the colors so much that I am waiting to see what it wants to become. I love my fluorescent paints and my Catalyst tools. So much fun to work with.

Collage Journal Pages and a Flip Video

I have been trying to finish this journal.  Its getting close only a few more pages to go. I cut these out of old mail art envelope and decided that I could put them over this highly textured page that I posted earlier. I love reusing old mail art.

This page was made with collaged scraps in the background, wc crayons and more scraps as the focal point.

I recently got myself a set of these metallic Panpastels, the colors are amazing.

This was my first attempt at using them.  I can see that I am going to need a lot practice but this was a good start.  I love the colors.  The background is a wash of NeoColor II water color crayons.

This started out with dark pink paper and then some gelli printed deli paper and then lots of scraps.

I

















I tried drawing a face over this multicolored print but it wouldn't take the charcoal consistently so I changed to Stablio pencil. I love how the design in the background made her dress.

The Girl and the Bear, I cut up some old calendars for this piece.  I like to think of the Bear as her protector. The background has paint scraps, collage and then spray ink.

I added a figure onto this collage I showed on Wednesday, she seemed to have the same quality that the background does.

This was a gelli print on cardstock before I added some more calendar collage.

This was the same multicolored background as the woman with her eyes closed.  You should recognize the same colors.   I had this scrap from a calendar and thought Arwen looked nice here. I may add more at a later date.

I decided to do a video of the whole journal.



Check out the other folks at Paint Party Friday.

What a Weekend

I just spent the last 3 days in an intensive writing workshop called "Bestseller in a Weekend" put on by Beth Barany and Alicia Dunams. I think my brain is a little bit fried, so much information in so little time.  I learned so many things about writing and publishing.  I have a whole new posse of peeps to help me on my own writing journey.  It was fabulous, worth every penny.  Now I have the rest of the week to work on characters and outline so I will be ready to go on November 1st.  Nanowrimo here I come.

In between all that I have been doing more work in the collage journal.  These two ladies came out of the background. That blob of blue on the left was just there and I kept it since I thought it made a great hat or fascinator.

I took the paper doll I made a little while ago and glued her down. I think she accomodates this background really well.

I had this face from a collage sheet from Zorana. It was muted and not distinct at all, so I got out my charcoal pencil and changed her features. It was fun changing her a bit, now she seems more mine.

There are a lot of blue green and gold in this collage.  It needs something on top of it, but I decided to show it anyways.

This was made with a color wheel stencil. I kept some colors in the background and used markers to fill in some of the squares. I am not sure if I will do anything else with it.  I kind a like it just as it is.

This was a page with leftover paint scraps from when I was in Sedona last year.  I added tape and other marks with gelatos.  I think it looks great just as it is. I love the bright yellow in contrast to the purple.

I took some scrapbook paper and sanded it down. I thought I'd add PanPastel to the top layer and so it did not work the way I planned. So then I added more vibrant pinks and purple to the background. I like how it changed the paper.



















This is how the paper looks now, I love how it really made the colors more vibrant. Its always fun to look for new ways to use your supplies.