inside out and upside down

wow, so much to catch up on... it seems like it's been a whirlwind of activity since we got back from our trip. i feel like my painting/creative energy has been turned inside out and upside down...

first something from our trip... i painted this in my green travel journal while we were at the cafe (with the great coffee and delicious scones). drew it with my left hand so i wouldn't get hung up on the Perfect thing.



when we got back, the first thing i did was finish the soul journal page i was working on. our 'assignment' was to cut out silhouettes from a magazine and use them as stencils. what i ended up doing was ripping the silhouettes out of the page i'd originally stenciled them on, and gluing them onto the front and back a sheet of st. armand paper. (satisfied my need for texture)

i glued the figure over the stencil spot on this side (she was covered with black paint at this point). i liked it better this way.



this side is a true stencil.

early in the week robyn at art propelled gave me a heads up about kelly snelling's blog, soul humming, which was full of great info about the jesse reno workshop she'd just attended. from kelly's i went to blogs by other people who'd attended the workshop, and came away fully inspired! on the same day my friend anna (one of the ashland artists whose work is below) told me about studio sfumato. whoa!!!!!! after exploring their website i was about to explode with inspired goodness!!




so i got out the acrylics and started to paint...



and paint...



and paint...

i was completely engrossed in the process of painting these -- i had so much fun! and there are many more in different stages of finished-ness... the last two may or may not be finished. the top one is mail art, so it's (almost) outta here.

yeah, i've got my eye on jesse's website for news of upcoming classes...



some mail goodness that arrived yesterday from kate at this disordered life -- you should've seen my eyes light up at the sight of this envelope!



her zine was inside, along with some extra bits and bobs, one of which went on the back of the (yet to be written on) painting/post card above. nice, huh? thanks, kate!!

one last thing... jeane, at art it shows the progression of one of her pieces here. i met jeane when i was living in port townsend, WA... she's a tremendously talented artist whose paintings evolve over time. i'd be surprised if this one stays the way it is, but i'll keep checking to find out. she's going to show us what happens with it over the next two months.