the honey bee tree

this week i've been getting ready to go to virginia to see my family... i leave day after tomorrow.

i painted this page in my first art journal more than two years ago... i was 'back east' visiting my family, and i sat under a tree absolutely covered with honey bees painting with my sister. it was a gratitude journal -- around the edges of each page i wrote lots of small things that i was grateful for, and at the bottom in big letters i wrote the biggest thing that i was grateful for that day... i drew everything with my left hand so i couldn't get into 'perfection mode', and on this day there was no doubt what the main thing would be because i'm a honey bee lover! what a delightful morning it was -- drawing in the presence of thousands of buzzing wings... also on that trip i bought a couple of yards of silk with chenille bees on it. omg! i was ecstatic at the find! i've used bits and pieces since then, but not much. finally with my newest journal i'm using more than just a bit here and there. and these chenille bees will get to go 'back east' again. (and why is it that on the west coast we go 'back east', while on the east coast they go 'out west'?)



my new journal -- i've just bound it and am beginning to paint the silk.



inspired by roxanne i made the pages different sizes -- the largest is 5" x 7". it was harder to stitch together this way, but worth it. i also put four pocket pages in it for things like feathers and ticket stubs, and two signatures of white printer paper for gluing photos onto (that way i can use the heavy watercolor paper just for painting). both of these ideas are the result of putting together The Book.



the finished journal. boy do i love not only the bees, but also the texture of the silk under the paint. i unraveled the edges of the silk before i started to stitch the book together and it was aggravating to constantly have the silk unravel even more and get tangled up in my stitching. but man oh man, it was so worth it in the end. instead of a button or other closure on the front i decided to just wrap it with a piece of funked up muslin. ever since wrapping kate's box of treasures i can't get enough of the wrapping thing.



more wrapping -- the back of my art group journal. this ribbon wrapped a recent birthday present... it made me smile then and it makes me smile now.



are you wondering what happened to The Book?! here's what it looks like now. the pages have been sewn to the binding -- the back cover's being glued to it here. i was all set to cover this with some barkcloth that i have, but it overwhelmed the covers so i've set it aside until i come back from virginia.



i've only done two collages since my last post. i think i worked almost one whole day tearing up this one!! the main photo on the page is of a room on ellis island. i don't remember exactly what the caption said, but it had to do with immigrants who were not allowed to immigrate once they got to the u.s., so the closest that they got to the statue of liberty was the photo hanging on the wall (or is that a mirror? i can't remember). evidently the sadness of the photograph transferred itself to my psyche because i dug up everything here. the roses growing out of the sink have exploded.



'the sacred tank'



i'll leave you with billie holiday singing 'i'll be seeing you'. oh my...

i'll be gone for three weeks, but i think i'll take my computer with me and blog when i can - i'll only have access to the internet periodically. if i don't see you while i'm gone, i'll certainly be seeing you when i get back.