I thought you might like to see a process post today...it's kinda been a while since I've done one.
This spread is for my Documented Life journal for the Art Challenge "When Not To Stop" and the prompt "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough! (Ooh)" and is the first in the February (yep, that far behind!) theme of "Layers You Will Love"
I have to admit that layering does not come very naturally to me...it tends to require drying time...and that, in turn, requires patience...which is not my forte...
I think that's why I always turn to a MINDY LACEFIELD inspired girl when I am prompted to do layers. She talks about how her art is inspired by child-like freedom...doing what feels right, even though it may be technically 'wrong' artistically...like not waiting for that first layer to dry before you add more...that's right up my alley! And here's what happened:
I started out with Aquamarkers on an un-gessoed page...added a crap ton of water to try to get them to blend...which didn't really happen, as you can see...FINE THEN, BE THAT WAY!
Instead of waiting for it to dry, I started spreading on some acrylic paint with a pallet knife over the sopping wet Aquamarker.
It looked a little flat, so I decided to add more paint, still with the pallet knife, but this time with the sharp edge instead of the broad, spreading way I had done previously...much better now, I think...more interesting to look at...more energetic...
Next, I challenged myself to paint the girl solely with my fingers. I started out with the basic shape of the girl in a neutral color.
I started defining areas of her face and body with a few more layers of paint...
I kept having issues with her nose shape and there are several boring pictures I left out that were just me getting aggravated at noses in general....
I finally picked one and went with it...more colors, shading and highlights at this point...
I evened her out and gave her some pearls...blue pearls because she has that slightly sad introspective annoyed look on her face...
"I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate - it's apathy. It's not giving a damn." -Lou Buscaglia
Sometimes I have a quote in mind before I start. Other times, like for this spread, one will present itself after the fact...the art will tell me what it is my heart's brain was trying to say and I can find the just-right quote pretty easily.
I hope you liked the step-by-step today...my mom says this girl is kinda scary looking, but she does have some harsh things to say, so she couldn't be all cutesy-froo-froo...she's lived a hard life this gal...she's jaded and bitter... But admitting there's a problem is the first step towards solving it, and this little lady knows something's not quite right...
And now, for my sweet friend Twinkletoes, here's a couple pictures of Frida:
I caught her on my bed...she's never been on it before, and she doesn't know if she's allowed...she is literally not moving anything except her eyes (waiting to see if I'm going to fuss at her!)...for so long I decided to grab my camera and snap a picture...
Once I snapped the first pic, I started laughing at just how long she had stayed so still...and that's when I got this picture...it's the "Yay! She laughed, I'm not in trouble!" picture.... I just had her to the vet the other weekend, and she'd gained 12 pounds in a month! She was a fluffy 41 pounds (at 4 months old). She's such a gentle giant though...her brother, which is my sister's dog, is 54 pounds at the same age...and a maniac in my opinion... I'll have to try to get some pics from where I take Frida walking at, Steele Creek Park...it's really pretty and serene and there's a lake and all...it's awesome!
And, on that note, I'm off to get ready for work...in a super speedy way because I've only got about 10 minutes before I have to go...five minute shower for me today! But I got the important things done, and that's what counts, right? :)
I'm slowly but surely working my way through all the prompts I've missed during the craziness so far this year... I'm trying, you know...I'm trying.
The first thing I've got to show you today is for week 6 (back in February) of JOURNAL 52, the prompt being "Windows":
"Losing love is like a window in your heart, everybody sees you're blown apart."
-Paul Simon
It's from the fantastic song "Graceland" by Paul Simon:
That song has some great lyrics, and I'll probably return to grab more of them in the future...
Then there's the DOCUMENED LIFE prompt (from the last week of January) "What Lies Beneath?", with the art challenge of "Under Paper" and here's what I ended up with:
"Flowers grow in all kinds of dirt."
Not one of my favorite pieces (me and painting flowers just don't get along for some reason!), but the sentiment's true!
And finally, there's week 7 of JOURNAL 52, which had the prompt of "Valentines" and here's what I made:
"I'm amorous but out of reach."
I'm not sure about this one...it actually looks much better in person, the lines aren't so noticeable and the colors are a little different looking as well...but on camera...well, it looks like this...meh...I don't know...
I got the line from this song, "Valentine" by Fiona Apple:
And used this painting by Raphaelle Peale as an inspiration:
"Still Life With Peach"
And that's a couple more towards catching up!
I've actually got more to share with you, it's just a matter of getting the blog posts typed up...which is time consuming if I write in my usual way...hence the super condensed version today. But next time, I've got one with pictures that show the progress of the page, and coming up really soon, I'll share a piece that I am super proud of! So just bear with me...I'm still trying to get the new balance of life down and I'm just not there yet. But soon, I think...I know I've got a lot of lovely people rooting for me. <3
I've been adjusting (more on that later) and I actually managed to do a couple of art journal pages, so I thought I'd share them with you...as proof that I'm not dead and all that...
The first page is for JOURNAL 52...week 5...the television prompt, posted way back in January...yes, I am that behind...shame of shames!
"You spent half your life trying to turn the other half around." -Kathleen Edwards
What does that page have to do with TV you ask? The words are from this song by Kathleen Edwards, called "Six O'Clock News":
I am not a TV watcher by nature...even when I do, I've got to do something else while I watch...and I wasn't really feeling the TV prompt...until I remembered that song and the line "You spent half your life trying to turn the other half around." Which I really like and had more to do with where I'm at right now than any other TV related thing, so I just went with it.
And then there's the DOCUMENTED LIFE spread...also from way back in January...I feel so behind! (Probably because I AM THAT BEHIND!) The Art Challenge for this spread was "writing" and the Journal Prompt was "words with friends" and here's what I came up with:
You can't see it very much, but I used writing as my beginning layer...it only shows through in a few places.
I got the words on this page from this song, "Time to Leave" by Melissa Ferrick:
And I think they are some wise words indeed:
"You can't fix anyone else, babe."
"Being a friend means knowing when it's time to leave"
Aside from getting a little art journaling in, KAT MCNALLY'S APRIL MOON (still time to join!) has started, and I've been pondering the prompts in my head...she's got such a knack for helping you get to the meat of things, instead of just fluttering on the surface...she just asks the right questions, I guess.
Kat's Reverb14 prompts last year had a very profound affect on me. In fact, they are part of the answer to the first April Moon prompt:
"That's when I knew that this chapter of my life had ended. And now I was free to..."
The thought of leaving my husband is something that had occurred to me many times...but there was always a reason not to...me talking myself out of it with one thing or another. Because it's wasn't something to do lightly. So I stayed and things just kept piling up and piling up and I stayed and things piled. And for years of my life, I waited and hoped things would change. But they didn't change. And so I decided that maybe if I changed, then it would be an inspiration to others and then they would change too. But that's not what happened.
There was a point last year, during Reverb14, where I was sitting there typing my answer to one of the prompts and I thought to myself 'I don't want to live this life'. I was so, so tired of trying and trying and having nothing to show for it. I'd worked hard to make things better...but I was the only one who was changing...everything around me stayed very much the same...despite my needing it to be otherwise...despite my pleas for something/anything to be different.
And something in me just snapped...I knew that nothing was ever going to change. I knew that I was always going to live this same sad existence every day and have that for my life. And I knew that I did not want to live that life forever. There had been so much opportunity for things to have ended differently between my husband (Andy) and myself, but Andy was comfortable with the way things were...he didn't want anything to be different, and he didn't seem to care very much about what I wanted. This is not different from the entirety of my marriage...the difference is that I was not ok with it anymore, and I was not willing to keep trying. He made his choice, and I'm not mad about it...I just wasn't going to let him make my choices anymore. I needed things to be different and I wasn't going to be the only one compromising any more. One person can't hold up the world.
And so I left, and I've been staying with my mom since January. And in some ways, I feel in transition still...not settled...because this is not the end of the line for me...I will get my own place eventually and have my own space and take care of myself completely by myself...and so as I sit here and type away on mom's computer, in mom's house, I feel like a bit of a transient.
But the thing is, I know now that I am free to do things differently. That I won't always have this feeling of unrest...that I will find a place to put down roots. I don't have to do the same things I've always done. I can make another choice. I can forge my own path. And I'm working on it.
And that leads me to the second prompt for April Moon:
"Knowing what I know now, I would tell my ten-years-ago self:"
Not to damn wait.
Ten years ago, I was a year and a half into my marriage, and had pretty well already started to have doubts about it. Instead of listening to my gut, I listened to other people. People, who despite having the best of intentions, didn't really have the right to decide what I should do. I chose to listen to them, and I lost a lot of time and opportunities.
I would tell my former self to get it together...pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get to it. Nobody in life is going to hand you what you want, and you don't get anything by sitting there wishing for it. If you want it, go work for it. Don't let anybody tell you who you are and don't let anybody guilt you into being something that you don't want to be.
I'd tell her the same thing I am telling myself today: Figure out what it is that you want and go get it. Knuckle down, quit your whining and make things happen. You don't get to blame anyone else ever again. Whatever you end up with, good or bad, is because of your actions or lack of them, so whatever choice you make, you better be ready to make it work.
And on that forceful note, I'm done for today...
I'll leave you with some cuteness...Frida the adorable (and growing like a weed) puppy dog:
Had to trick her with treats next to the camera so as to get her to stay still...
...the paw on the leg is the last ditch effort at patience...half a second after I snapped this pic, she jumped up, head-butted me and stole the treat...
If you've been a friend for a while, you'll know I've been contemplating some really big moves.
About three weeks ago, one of those big changes took place.
"Not fighting it anymore." The drawing is older, but the sentiment remains true.
After a lot of thought and then more thought and a little more thinking, I've had a change in living arrangements. It was the right choice for me.
I'm not really ready to talk about it fully, but I wanted to give you a heads up on where I've been and why it's been so quiet on the blog. I'd like for things to be a little more settled before I give you the full scoop, and things have been anything but settled for the past three weeks...there hasn't even been any arting going on and you know how crazy that is for me!
Adding to the craziness is a new puppy for me:
Hi! I'm Frida!
This is my new puppy Frida. She's half Saint Bernard and half Great Pyrenees. In the picture, she's nine weeks old...now she's 11 and has already grown quite a bit...I think she's going to be a monster size dog. But she's super sweet and very smart...and she's LOVING the frigid weather we're having right now.
Hopefully, in a little while longer, I'll be able to get back on track with my art (I am so behind on DLP and J52!) and sharing it with you here on the blog. In the mean time, just know that I'm more ok than I have been in a really, REALLY long time and that I am so excited to see what the future has in store.
My sweet friend JACKIE (AKA MY HONEY) nominated me to participate in a little challenge, where you share pictures of some of your older art.
This has proven to be a little difficult for me, because I've only been sincerely arting it up for a few years...and shared 99.9% of my art here on the blog...so you've probably already seen it!
And then I wondered if I've ever shown the canvases I did in the past...and I think the answer is no, so here you go:
I copied this mermaid from something I saw on Pinterest...so long ago I have no idea who's work it was, so I apologize! I was really pleased over how she turned out at the time...now I see all kinds of things I coulda/shoulda/woulda done differently. I guess it just goes to show that I've gotten to be a better artist over time!
This girl is the same way...all the stuff I learned between then and now is calling my name! I do still enjoy her hair (which is scrapbook paper!) and I still find her mouth to be saucy and happy-making! Also, I just noticed that dry erase board underneath the canvas says November...I just looked over at it...it actually says November 2012...clearly I don't use that dry erase board as much as I once thought I would...
The background on this one was my favorite...and the sentiment is one that I stick by too! I used alcohol inks to make the background on all these canvases and this one looked like plaid to me and made me very happy!
All three of these canvases are hanging on the wall in my studio...they remind me of how far I've come in my art! Even my lettering skills have improved since then, despite the fact that I've not really practiced it like I claimed I would (and keep claiming!)...this must support my theory that any kind of art practice improves your art over all...so I may not have been practicing lettering, but I was fiendishly practicing other things and better lettering was a happy byproduct!
Before taking up art/art journaling, I was creative in other ways.
Like sewing:
Made for my nephew Michael, from a Simplicity pattern.
Made up my own pattern for her!
Made from a pattern from a book called Wee Wonderfuls, which is a FANTASTIC book on soft toy making!
I also embroidered:
Elephant, from a pattern
From my imagination
Crocheted:
Actually, I crocheted A LOT...this was from a pattern from LUCY AT ATTIC24...at one point, crochet was like art journaling is for me now and I was quite the little busy hooker! (haha)
And I did dabble in painting as well...just not the journaling kind:
He's a magnet...he still makes me laugh every time I look at him!
And this is Stanley, my Mom's "gentleman caller"...also hilarious, in my opinion...
I was thinking about all my past arting and crafting as I worked on this week's JOURNAL 52 spread. (The prompt is "Silhouettes".)
I decided to use some of my MANY stamps that I never use...
While I've not always been an art journaler, I have always been a creative person. My sister and I used to joke that I was "a craft acquiring junkie"...if I saw it and liked it, I had to try it...HAD TO.
I love those little stamp gals...so cute! I went over the stamp lines in black marker to darken them and to give them a more 'drawn' look...it's a great way to cheat if you're not good at drawing, plus tracing things will help your hand get the feel of drawing, which will help you be a better draw-er...it sounds crazy, but it's true!
Now I think I must have just been searching for the right thing for me. Don't get me wrong, I do tend to love all things creative...and there was a time that I thought making soft toys was my passion and that crochet was my one true talent...but when I started art journaling...OH BABY! It's a whole different kettle of fish!
"We must all be beautiful in our own way."
But that doesn't mean those years spent on other creative endeavors were wasted...or that sewing or knitting or jewelry making or writing or any other creative act is any less artistic. It only means that we can define art in many ways...and that they are equally valid and important.
When I look at my beginning art stuff, I cringe a little, because I can see so many flaws. But, while I do see those glaring flaws in my work, I can say that those works are still beautiful in their own way. All those flaws led me to become better. In a couple more years, I will look at my current work and hopefully be able to say that it too is flawed but led me to improve even further.
Sometimes the beauty in our art is not in the outward appearance of it. Sometimes the beauty comes from a hidden meaning only we know. Sometimes it comes from the years of hard work it represents. And sometimes it comes from the fact that we were brave enough to try something new.
So my spread today is meant to encourage myself (and hopefully you too!) to find the beauty in everything around me, especially when it's not readily evident.
This week's DOCUMENTED LIFE art challenge was The Color Wheel and the prompt was this quote from Georgia O'Keefe: "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way..."
Let me just tell you, me and this spread fought really hard with each other, and either the spread won or it was a draw.... I just couldn't get inspired! Don't get me wrong, I think the prompt and art challenge were GREAT...but for some reason, no matter how hard I racked my brain, I wasn't getting it!
I ended up putting color on the page, thinking something would come to me once I did that:
I did actually really like the left page...the cool colors were really neat...but that left page...ugh...it just wasn't sitting right with me...
NOPE! Still nothing...
Finally, I just scrolled around on an O'Keefe Pinterest search and found another quote of hers that I really liked:
"I have already settled it for myself, so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free." -Georgia O'Keefe
I just thought this quote was a good reminder to be true to your own vision...whether in art or in life.
I suppose it might be odd to some, especially because we all love to be praised for a job well done, but I really agree with the idea of not letting ourselves be affected by flattery in the same way that we wouldn't want to be too affected by criticism. Just like everything else in life, I think it's wise to take praise in moderation.
I'm not saying it's a bad thing to be taken note of when we deserve it...it thrills me to the core when that happens to me!
Praise is kind of like a drug though...the more you get, the more you want...and that can lead to a problem because you can find yourself doing things you don't actually want to do or that you don't enjoy doing just for the pat on the back you'll get.
It's why I love O'Keefe's quote so much...the idea of 'settling it for yourself' so that YOU are pleased and free to do what YOU like and enjoy...that appeals to me so much! What an excellent way to be able to live happily.
I love my dogs very much, but I'm not like them...I don't need that pat on the back to know I did right.
So THAT'S WHY I didn't like you right page...
In the end, after looking at this spread for a good while, I finally realized what it was that kept throwing me off.
I should have flip flopped the colors on the right page...so the yellow and orange would be to the far right and the pink and red towards the middle...then it would have a pattern that progressed from the darkest to the lightest colors and my brain would have been much happier! It would have been like the colors were leading you to the next page!
Of course, I see that the way I did it now is also a pattern, with the darker colors on the outside and the lighter ones within, but I know I would have liked it better the other way...so that's why this is my OK O'Keefe spread and not my fantastic O'Keefe spread. (On the positive side, OK O'Keefe is sort of word play, and I do enjoy that!)
Oh well, you live and you learn, right?
Luckily for me, there's always more paper and more opportunities to settle things for myself!
The prompt for this week's JOURNAL 52 spread is: "Create a page inspired by a conversation you've had or overheard in the past week or so."
Can I just say how much I love this prompt! I plan on having a go at becoming a really good listener from now on...then I'll have a whole journal full of funny things I've heard in conversations...I live among southerners, and their crazy expressions would be enough hilarious fodder to fill several journals easily!
I figured to be fair about it, I would make my first 'overheard conversation' page about my own crazy conversation...it's only ok to laugh at others if you can laugh at yourself in the same way, right? Don't dish it out if you can't take it! (Puns...hehehe)
"And they'll all have matching lids..."
The conversation that I chose to document was me talking to a friend of mine at work about my dream to someday own a set of Rubbermaid/Tupperware containers.
I didn't realize exactly how silly the whole conversation was until I saw the look on my friend's face...and then I recognized the crazy person look that was probably on my face...
I am loving my Neocolor II's lately! They are so bright and pigmented and awesome!!!
The reason I'm obsessed with this is because I can never find a stupid container with a lid that fits it anywhere in the house. I think, after the sock monster that lives in the dryer, the lid monster is the number one danger to household management...
It's really bad when you start thinking that your dirty brush water is a pretty color, isn't it?
The problem lies in the fact that, aside from not having lids, the containers I have are still perfectly fine...so I can't throw them away, right? *says the crazy harder* And then cupboard space is at a minimum, so there's no room for new Rubbermaid if I don't throw the old stuff out!
Do you see the conundrum I'm in?
I love these colors...I could just squeal with delight!
I actually think this problem stems from not being used to having extra moolah...the whole don't toss it if you can use it thing...which is a perfectly good way to be. Except for now that I have a little extra moolah...at least enough for a new set of Rubbermaid containers...I find that I'm having a hard time letting go of the lidless wonders that have carried me through to this point...as though these inanimate objects were my dear friends...and now you see why my work friend (who is a real person, not a Rubbermaid container, just for the record) was looking at me like a maniacal weirdo...and why I had to make a page about this conversation (except I drew some vintage Pyrex instead of Rubbermaid, because, frankly, Rubbermaid is not as cute.)
Someday, I will have microwaved my lidless Rubbermaid containers into oblivion and I will get my new set with their fancy matching lids...
So maybe the moral of the story is that it's just as well to have small dreams as it is to have big ones...because, one day, my dream will come true and, after all, how many people can honestly say that?
