Tuesday, January 31, 2012

finding models

I love watching this fantastic webcam of a barn owl nesting box in San Diego.
Today the owl was standing on one foot, very sleepy, so I got out the paints and painted her:
I then scanned the painting, and printed it on other kinds of paper, here is one version on a page of text, ready to collage into my journal:
So here in the studio, I am able to get an owl to model for me!  What a miraculous time we live in.

"Nature and meditation have the ability to draw us to our deeper selves, where we finally realize that we are not boring, nor isolated, nor in need of external excitement to be happy, but a part of the great harmony of all living things."  --Marney Ward

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Libellule

I can't stop pointing to the beauty. Every moment and place says,
'Put this design in your carpet!'
--Rumi







Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Intention


"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened."

--Albert Camus

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

and the Buddha called out some words:

"Close the language door, and open the window. 
The moon won't use the door, only the window."
--Rumi





Buddha fun

Here's a page with some stenciling and a Buddha face I did in photoshop over the watercolor page.  Hmm.... let's add some:
Lotus flowers. . . .
and some CARVING -- a stamp inspired by the LOTUS flower.
Patterns and layers. . . .the tip of the flower didn't fit on the rubber stamp, so I will just draw that on.
Some watercolor to help hold the images on the page.
NOW spread is ready for some ink and text. . . come back to see the finished page.


"The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity." --Alberto Giacometti

Friday, January 6, 2012

Ode to a Grapefruit in Mixed Media

Yesterday morning, in the kitchen, I encountered a group of round, plump, beautiful grapefruits, I simply could not ignore these colors and decided to make them the topic of my journal . . . .
and of course my intent is to share a bit of the process, so here goes:
First - some photography.  Photoshop helps make multiples, so I can cut out parts and repeated patterns for borders:
Next, a watercolor of a sliced open fruit, then a scan and once again, photoshop magic to make multiples of the painting:
 
Then to the journal, the pages are already painted, so I chose the green pages, in order to contrast with the orange colors of the fruit:
I add some stenciling, I like the sectional theme of this one:
I gather my supplies, and play with the arrangement of papers I have made.  I will glue it all down using spray mount and a spray box outside -- okay, here's the paper is all attached:
Then I carve an eraser to use as a stamp to make some more patterning:
I like the flower it makes, even though I was thinking of the sections of the grapefruit when I carved it:
A little sewing never hurts either.  To get the journal through the machine, I often have to sew backwards.  I tie the ends of the thread on each side of the paper. 
Then I add some watercolor to hold the images down, shadowing the fruit and just make the elements hold together.  Finally, marker time!  Words, doodles, dots, playing with some lettering:
and the finished page -- photographed, painted, stenciled, stamped, marked, sewn, and written on: Mixed Media!  Hope this gave you some ideas for your journaling.
"And yet the artist will go on with his work without knowing in some way if any of his representations are sound or unsound. The artist knows nothing worth mentioning about the subjects he represents, and that art is a form of play, not to be taken seriously." --Plato

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Tulips in Mixed Media

Welcome 2012!
I have set some new intentions for this blog and my journaling work, more details, and more mixed media. Here is my first spread of the new year! I started with a photo of a very orange tulip from the garden. I printed it in a few forms, traced the largest one, and then scanned the tracing to make watercolors and border papers using the design. There is some sewing, some watercolor crayon, paint, marker, and ephemera. (See if you can find it.)
It does feel wonderful to be working in my journals again, I had too much going on last month to journal much, and I noticed a difference in my mood - Journaling as Art Therapy!

Glad to be back.
"Do you think I know what I'm doing?
That for one breath or half a breath I belong to myself?
As much as a pen knows what it is writing
It may be the satisfaction I need depends on my going away
So that when I've gone and come back, I'll find it at home." --Rumi