Insomnia Art

Early morning insomnia led to creating this page.  I started with a circle to make a mandala and just kept on going.  This was fun although it felt limiting with the rectangular page.  The center is oil pastel and the outer is acrylic paint.

I don't know about you but I am constantly reorganizing my art supplies/ Always looking for a storage solution that will work the best.  I found these great plastic containers the other day at TJ Maxx. They are made in New Zealand and they are great for storing art supplies. The plastic pieces fold down and the cover comes off.  Just the right size for water color crayons or oil pastels.  I bought 4 of them which was all they had.  Now I am on the search for more.  I ordered some from Amazon thinking they were a similar size but I was way off.  So I sent them back, now I will just see if I can find them at another store. The top one is thin and a really good size for the kind of things I want to store.  I hope I find some more soon. They are really great.

In My Art Journal

I am still not feeling good. I went back to the Doctors and they sent me to the hospital immediately. They thought I might have a blood clot in my lung. So I had blood work and a cat scan done. Luckily I did not have a blood clot. That was pretty scary for a little while. I am feeling a little bit better but not much. I can sit in my studio and do a little bit of work. So I tackled some of the numerous backgrounds I have created.

I may add some words or journaling to this later, it doesn't feel quite done. I often find collage work cathartic and frustrating at the same time. Frustrating because I can't find what will work and cathartic in the sense that playing with miscellaneous bits of paper and images and making something new out of them is very satisfying.

















After I finished this two page spread I found it humorous that I chose those words. Feeling good was not what I have been experiencing. I hope that is broadcasting my near future because I am so tired of being sick.

I added s postcard to this page. I initially made it to exchange with the new art friends I made in Misty Mawn's Face to Face class.  It was a little small in compared to what others are sending and I didn't like the way the face turne out but I think that she looks nice on this page.

In doing all this collage I ended up reorganizing my papers.  I have paper in drawers by color and then a drawer for new papers.  I decided to go through the new paper drawer and separate the colors and add them to the colored drawers.  So now all my blues are together even the big uncut sheets.  I think this will let me use my stash more efficiently. I think a reorganization of a studio has to happen often. I find it best to make the things I use often more accessible or I forget about them.

I continue to draw in my sketchbook daily but I think that I will do a journal flip at the end of the month. That way you can see the whole thing at once.

Have you been doing anything fun this week?

List Making And Where it Will Take You

I love lists, I like making them and then crossing each item off.  I will even add items later just so I can cross them off the list.  Often I will use different colors to cross things off just cause its fun.

Todays list led me to organizing my studio. No it not an item on the list. I was vacuuming my office/sewing room and looked at a storage container. It was half empty and I thought I would switch it out with some containers from the art room.

Now its in the art room and holds all my paints, spray ink,etc. I think its going to work great having it all in one place. I need to add some labels but its pretty functional right now. I won't show the rest of the room since its still in disaster mode.

I have always loved stencils and am just a bit annoyed that no one around here carries the good ones. So I have taken matters into my own hands and did some online shopping. I bought a whole slew of stencils by Crafters Workshop, Primarily Balzer designs.  Julie Fei fan Balzer has fantastic style and great stencils.  Check some of them out here.  I ordered from Blue Moon Scrapbooking.  They are fabulous to work with and got me my supplies fast. The pic is of a few that I purchased.

This is my first play with the stencils. I am still adding things to this background.   I do love to keep adding layer after layer.

I think this side may be the reverse of the stencil. when using spray ink I turn the stencil over and get the background too.  It gives different and interesting marks.

I am also doing a fairy swap with some friends on line.  This was my first try, I think she is a little chubby for a fairy. I am trying out a few poses to see which one I would like to use. Doing swaps is always a fun thing for me.  Trying to do something you have never done before helps you grow and stretch as an artist.

Have you done anything out of your comfort zone lately?

Making Order out of Chaos

This past week I have been making jewelry which resulted in all my bead boxes becoming a disaster.  So this is just a little bit of the mess of my reorganizing.  I had piles of colors all over the tables in the house. I worked on organizing for 2 days but now everything is in its place.  Sometimes I can handle only so much disorder. I can get such pleasure of putting things in little piles of color and shape and making order out of chaos.

 

 I found this video on twitter this morning. Its an advert for these silicone tools that look really great. I also liked watching this artist and her philosophy about using the tools. They also have wedges that work well with encaustic painting and would be great for mixed media. I may have to get some of these, yes Dick Blick has them.

This little guy should be arriving at my doorstep today.  Its a self igniting torch for encaustic painting.  I have been re-watching all the video's from Judy Wise's encaustic painting DVD.  I am looking forward to doing some of the exercises I didn't do while the class was live.  I hope the UPS driver comes early rather than later.  I want to play.

I Love These Ideas

I found this video today, its all about using what you have to make items to store all your stuff in your studio. There are really some great ideas here. Who knew chalk board paint could be so versatile.

The Dancer

I experimented with this page. I added a image from a magazine and then painted ove it. Then I tried using a dip pen. I have heard people talking about using them on their pages so since I had one I thought I would give it a go. I ued two different nibs and had fun. All my white gel pens seem to have died, its annoying to say the least. I had to paint the outlines in this piece and I am not that great with fine lines.


















In this page I took an image I liked and built the page around it. The image of this woman sleeping seems to evoke peace and sleep and wonderful dreams to me. I like how comforting she looks.

I have started work on a canvas, I just pulled out colors and lathered them on.  I am trying to use supplies that I rarely use or that are really old.  I'll be taking pics as I work on this piece and then show them all at once.  All I have is a background and then I have no idea what comes next but sometimes that is the fun in it.

I wrote most of this post on Saturday and today I did not do any art in the studio.  Every once in awhile I get this cleaning and reorganizing bug in my studio. It all started with buying a new storage container and that lead to getting more today and redoing how I store several things. Which led to cleaning everything, bookshelves drawers, floor etc. I worked at it all day and it still needs some work but I am too darn tired to do anymore.  The next thing I think I will do is go through those drawers that have things I never use anymore and gift those items to someone.

Do you have things stored in your studio that you never use?  Maybe its time to pass those goodies on to someone who would love to use them.

Wishcasting Wednesday - Investing

Its Wishcasting time again. This week Jamie asks us


What do you wish to Invest in?

After just a little bit of thought on this I decided I want to invest in Organizing my life.  Not in the sense that my closets are clean or that my desk is organized but I want to organize my TIME better.  There are 24 hours in a day and I seem to waste a lot of it.  I on occasion do make lists and on those days I get many things done that I have wanted to.  The problem is that I am not consistent with it.

I want to set some art and writing goals and organize my time so I actually can do them without feeling stressed  or guilty because I am not doing something else.  I want to waste less time by watching TV, talking on the phone, surfing the net.  I want better priorities and then I want to stick to them. 

Maybe a reward system is in order.  Bribes are always good.  I could make a list of small things I would like to do or have and put them in a jar and when I have succeeded for a week or  more I could pull something out of the jar as a reward for a job well done.  The more I think about that I like that idea....  Now to some up with some fun things, I don't think it will be too hard.

To see what other wish casters are doing go here

A Little Organizing

A little while ago I won this lovely book from my friend Kelly's blog Dragonfly Reflections. It arrived in the mail in some lovely packaging.  This book is supposed to be amazing.  I am looking forward to reading it.














Look at the cute card she made to send along with the book. Kelley does everything with such a beautiful touch. Thanks Kelley.

In one of the moments where I felt ok I headed to Michaels with my 50% coupon and came home with this.













Its a revolving carousel organizer and it has 6 sides to it. There are 3 little drawers to hold small items and a place to put label so you know what in them.

This view shows hooks that you can hang things from.  There are plenty of slots for pencils and markers and scissors and those odds and ends we use all the time.

I took my old organizer, put it on it side and put in my Golden tubes of paint. I painted a little dab of color on the lids so they'd be easy to locate.  I don't know about you but I am constantly reorganizing all my tools.   I really like the new organizer, I think the fact that it revolves will make it easy to use.