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.

Its coming up purple around here

During my convalescence I have been watching lots of art videos on YouTube.  I can take only so much inspiration before I really have to make art.  Last week I did quite a few backgrounds in my paper bag journal. Since I couldn't go another day without doing any art I decided to work on some of those backgrounds in my journal.   I picked these two purple backgrounds to work on.

This is what I started with, 2 pages of purples and blues. The page on the left was not really that dark.

















I decided instead of covering this lovely background up with collage I would look for the art hidden in the background instead. I found these three ladies just wanting to be seen.  I wrote "although they were sisters sometimes it felt like they were miles apart."














This one had an angel in it. I keep seeing angels lately. This is the second one I have found this month. I do not know what that means but if I see em I will paint them. I  really enjoyed working on these two pulled art pieces.

Groggy but fine

Just popping in to say everything went well this morning, now I think I will go back to sleep. Dave took a couple days off so he is treating me just like a Queen needs to be treated.  I'll be back when I am more awake.  zzzzzzz

Owls and sheep and more pages

It was beautiful out today so I headed outside to see if I could get some pictures of the owls and this one was out of the nest on a branch looking around












He is sort a cute but losing the baby look.

Then I turned around and these guys thought what in heavens name is she doing. I think they were happier when I was taking their picture.  That is Titan on the left and Athena in the middle and Emily on the left.

This today's journal page.  I seem to be doing  quite a bit of orange lately. I have been doing other backgrounds but none of them are completed yet.












This page is from a few days ago, more orange and some browns too. This page makes me want to head down to Utah or New Mexico.  I just love those red rocks.

I got a bunch of liquitex fluid paint really cheap and my color scheme seems to be limited to purple and orange pages. I think I have to challenge myself to come up with something different with the colors I have. I have decided that Liquitex is a cross between craft paint and golden fluid. Its better than craft paint but it is nothing like golden fluid at all.  I think its fine for journal pages and so forth but I do like the golden so much better.

Tomorrow I have that medical procedure I talked about earlier.  So I may not be here for a few days but then it may go wonderfully and I will.  You never know.

Graduation Weekend

Our first event was at the Davidson Honors College.  We had a reception to attend at 3:00 p.m. We got there a little late but there were already tons of people there.  Apparently the biggest crowd the honors college ever had.











That is Brenna on the left and Sarah on the right. They are pointing the document that recognizes them as University Scholars.










Here Sarah and I are toasting all the honors college students.










Sarah was featured in displays in several areas of the Honors College.














Sarah is next to a bulletin board showing achievements by outstanding students and pointing to her picture.














This is a closeup of her showing her copy of Scribendi the publication that published her story.

On Saturday there were two graduating ceremonies to attend.  The main one was was held outside and the weather was perfect.












Sarah and Brenna her roommate in the procession walking in.  I think she is very excited.













Smiling for the camera with the with the happy graduate.

Here is Sarah and her boyfriend Kyle.

We had a great time and are happy to have her home for at least a little while.

Life is Good

My friend Lis at Dandelion Seeds and Dreams gave me this award. I need to answer the following questions.

1. Do you have a special gift and what is it?

A special gift, I think I am a really good friend.  I listen and I counsel when needed and I am loyal and would do anything for a friend.  I am not sure that is a special gift.  Perhaps its my creativity. I do so many creative things, I am the queen after all. I am not sure there is anything special about that. 

2. What would your perfect day consist of?

My perfect day would be some time alone and some time with friends and family. I'd want to spend some of that time in nature and some of it indoors. I'd see those people I rarely get a chance to see.There would be food and drinks involved and maybe some dancing too.

3. Who do you miss and what do you wish you could say to them?

I miss my mom,  I would love to be able to talk to her again.  I would want to know more about her life and my grandmothers life.  I'd want to know how she transitioned into midlife. I would love to just talk with her about my life, the things I have seen and done since she died. I'd love to just sit and have a cup of tea with her.

4. Do you have a recurring dream and what is it about?

In the dream I have I am lost one time I was in some kind of shopping mall and there are all these different escalators some go to the 4th floor and some to the eighth and some you an only get to on certain floor. I am trying to get somewhere but this maze of escalators is confusing and I get upset always being on the wrong one.  Then I meet someone and he is helping me to get to the right place.  I never get there I always wake up first.   My dreams like this take different forms but the idea is the same. I am lost till this person helps me.  I think I am both people and it is either my higher self or an idea like trust.  If I just trust my instincts then I won't be lost. Dreams are interesting things.

5. Who inspired you as a child? Do they inspire you today?

I don't remember much of my childhood.  I know that I really loved my Aunt Margaret.  She must have died when I was 10, and she was in her fifties, way too young. In addition to raising seven children, she wrote a column for a local newspaper. Maybe that is where my writing desire came from. Many of my childhood memories surround visits to her home on her birthday which was close to Christmas. 

6. How do you hope you will be remembered? 

I would hope to be remembered as a woman who lived an authentic life.  One who followed her dreams and did all she wanted to do.    I want my daughter to be proud of me.  I want to be known as one who inspired other women to explore their creativity.

7. Is there a moment or an event you wish you could do over and why?

My brother recently died suddenly after returning home from the hospital after having open heart surgery.  It was a blood clot that killed him. I had planned to call him when he was feeling better. I wish I could have had that one last conversation with him.   

8. What artwork would you like to own? 

I would love to own a piece of Nina Bagly's jewelry, Or a painting by Sharon Tomlinson or DJ Pettit.  If I could have something from a famous artist I would take The girl with the pearl earring by Vermeer or anything by Monet or Renoir.  I do like my impressionists.

9. If you could have any talent, what would it be?  

Teleporting then I could go visit anyone I wanted at anytime. That would be so great.

10. Describe the best meal you ever had (or perhaps your dream meal) and who was with you (or would be with you?) 

It was the first time I had an entire lobster not just the tail.  I enjoyed every morsel of that meal.


Wow these were hard questions to answer but rewarding.  Thanks for the award Lis.


Check out Lis post on self portraits and photography in general.  Its wonderful and well worth a read.

Yesterday Sarah comes in the house and says something is hooting outside.  we go outside to the tree in our pasture where we have been seeing a Great Horned Owl.  Now owl in that tree but in the backyard we see this.

But that is not all we saw.

It was exciting thing to find a family. If you look close you will see a parent on the right a branchling hunkered down in the nest in the middle and another branchling outside the nest on the left.

We also have kestrels nesting in the house we built for them like last year. Plus we found a hawk nest in one of our spruce trees but its about 50ft high so you can not see much. I love being able to see these birds so close.

GPP Street Team #40 Step on the Scale

 Its time for the GPP Street Team's Challenge #40.   Its all about size and Michelle asks us to go big or go small or do your usual size but cut it down or try new tools in a new size. Oh what fun.

Here I did a 2 page spread and tried out 2 new sets of larger alphabet stamps. The angel was pulled art and that moon just wanted to be blue.  I like how that happens.

Then I decided to go small and did a tag, with paint stamping and collage.

















I found an even smaller one to use, 1.5" X 2.75" I made a reduced copy of the materials I used in the first tag, and changed the color scheme














Side by side you really see the difference.















Then I found another tag and played with that one.  After painting it I used a Krylon gold marker to create swirls on the background and on the edges. I went looking through my collection of small images and this seemed perfect.

Then I decided to go big this is 9 x 12 which is larger than I usually do.  The background is done with PanPastels and then I drew the city on with Pitt artist pens.  I made a mistake with one of the buildings so I added scrapbook papers to cover it up.

This challenge was really fun.  I used all sorts of new materials and sizes and re-purposed old ones.  It doesn't get any better than this. To see what others did with this challenge or to do it yourself go here

Playing with glitter mist

I am back in town, we got Sarah all packed and her apartment cleaned and so the front room and the garage are filled with her stuff. Its amazing what someone can accumulate in four years

I did a little bit of art while I was gone and this is a journal page I did last Sunday.

On one of my shopping incursions I bought some of this. Its called glimmer mist and I figure to use it in place of spray paint and to use in backgrounds. I tried a couple colors in my watercolor journal just to see how it works.










Then I did a zentangle on top, I liked the glittery look it gives. I am looking forward to playing with this new art supply.














This page was lots of fun. I used paper embellishments for the flower heads and then painted over them with Inktense Pencils to bring out the colors, and outlined them with a stablio pencil. This was fun, I like it when pages have a sense of play.

Today I seem to be suffering from that lethargy that happens when you get back from a trip.  You have all the time to do things but you just can't seem to get back in the groove.  I know it takes days sometimes but I wish I could reintegrate to my life easier.

Blogging in a campground

At the last minute I decided to take my computer along.  I figured I could use it at Sarah's apartment. Then I found out we have Wifi in the campground we are staying in.  That is definitely not the norm this campground is right in a city so that is why.

The graduation went off great. I will do a nice long post on it later but doesn't Sarah look great.

I made this journal page last night. I brought a bag of scraps with me but not many images so it was a little bit of a challenge.  The background had been painted before. I love how art journaling can be so relaxing sometimes.

Spray painting again.

I made this page several days ago and then forgot about it. I really liked the image and just added some embellishment to go with it.












The weather is finally nice enough to do some spray painting. This background was done months ago. The cranes and dragonfly's were spray painted with a stencil.












This background was done with that gesso ghost writing technique. It was so long ago that I don not evwen remember what I wrote. I am a little rusty with my spray painting so the city did not trun out exactly right  but I still like it.














This is one of those pages that has paint on top of paint I never like the colors but with a little spray paint it came to life. These stencils were made with my Cricut electronic cutter.

This background was fun because I randomly used 4 colors of spray paint. The paper I used for the stencil was bought a long time ago. I just never had the opportunity to use it yet. I think it will be a fun one.

Here are the latest paint and pass canvases I have worked on.

On this one I added the sun. I had a hard time decided what to do here but my muse Zoe told me to paint a sun so I did.










I saw a mountain in the background   so I added several.

In the morning I am heading to Missoula for my daughters college graduation. I won't be posting till at least Wednesday, see you then.

Wishcasting Wednesday - What do you wish to Experience

Its time for wishing again.  I missed this last week so here I am back at it.  Today Jamie asks us

 What do you Wish to Experience?

Oh that is a really good wish, I wish to experience Bliss.  Now bliss is the word I chose as my word for the year and frankly I am not sure I have experienced all that much bliss so far this year.  Sure I have had moments of it but I think I would like bliss to be my natural state.  I want to wake up with bliss and go to sleep knowing I have had  blissfull moments all day. Just thinking how this would feel brings a smile to my face, so maybe I can create all the bliss I want. Today is the first day of a very blissfull week.  What do you wish to Experience?


If you'd like to participate or see what others are wishing for, go here

International Migratory Bird Day

On the spur of the moment we headed to West Yellowstone for International Migratory Bird Day.  The Yellowstone Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center and Yellowstone National Park were doing a joint program on Raptors, Ravens and the birds of Yellowstone.  They had a bird walk early in the day so we missed that.

This is a western screech owl, it was so cute I wanted to take it home.  It had been hit by a car and lost sight in one eye.  It can't live in the wild so its an Owl ambassador now.
















Here is the naturalist AJ with a roughed  leg hawk.

















He was such a beautiful bird,  He had a broken wing so he too can not live in the wild.  Some of his feathers don't grow right because of it.











Then we saw a Great Horned Owl.














AJ and Great Horned owl.  Now the story of the Great Horned Owl is interesting.  He has imprinted on humans.  He was calling to us all through the presentation.

We also saw a presentation on Ravens, my favorite bird. It covered all the Raven lore from different cultures, about all the science and the relationships that Ravens have with wolves and Grizzly Bears.  It was a wonderful presentation.  They have no live birds though.  We had to go outside for them.










When we walked outside I saw these four ravens sitting on the top of the sign.  I snapped a quick picture. After a nice lunch in town we headed into the park and saw these.












We saw these Elk cows standing in the river.  This was so unusual that I took a picture of them,  You usually see Elk on the shore.  We know that Elk sometimes go stand in a river when there are wolves around but we did not see any of them.  It was a great day trip but I wish we could have stayed longer.

















I felt like sketching so this is what I did.  I had a wonderful Mothers Day.  I hope you did too!

The Artistic Mother

I had looked at this book The Artistic Mother and thought oh this is nice looking but it doesn't apply to me. Then I started reading Shona Cole's blog An Artful Life. I loved what she did on her blog so I decided to check out the book again. I really love this book. Its main premise is to get mothers of children to make art but I found ways to make it my own. She has great ideas on how to be creative when you are a busy mom and it holds true for busy women in general.

There are great chapters on creativity, planning and creating space to do Art. I especially like her idea of an Art action plan. If you don't make any plans for your artistic goals then how will you ever get there.  I know it sounds simple but it is the true.  Sometimes I am just floundering with my art and these ideas were just the thing for me. These ideas are also like the micro-movements that SARK talks about.  Little steps always lead to results.  OK now back to the book..

In the media section there are 3 main topics, photography, poetry and collage. I am interested in trying to write poetry so I was immediately drawn to that section. The sections on photography and collage are also good.   I was also drawn to the projects, I think she has some really great ideas.

Here I took one of her organizational tools and tweaked it to fit me. I made a simple background, then made a copy of it and printed a weekly list. The other thing she had you do was a baby sitter list. Since that is something I do not need I changed the idea to fit my style and made a to do list for the day. I really think you can take the ideas in the book and make them your own very easily. She has some projects to do for children but I see no reason why you can not take the same ideas and either make them for yourself or for a friend.

I particularly like the vision statement banner project. I can't wait to make one of those. To have your ideas hanging right on your wall in an artistic way sure seems like it would foster those more often in your life.  Even if you are not a mom of young children you may still find some insights in this book.