Sunday, May 31, 2009

you always know


has a week passed by already?! i'm gonna show you my new journal before it gets paint and glue all over it...

i used corrugated cardboard for the covers again, putting masking tape over the edges and eyelets in the holes before i started painting. after i got the paint the way i wanted, i glued a PaPaYa card on that i'd been saving for a couple of years... i ripped off a couple of strips of unbleached muslin, attached them to the back cover, and then wrapped them around a button sewn to the front for a closure (after the covers are done i use an awl to poke the holes for the button and muslin, that way i can see what placement looks best).


i'm a coptic stitch binding addict... the pages lay open in a wonderful way, and there's a sturdiness and flexibility about signatures bound with coptic stitch that i love...

the pages are half 140# arches cold press, and half 140# st. armand watercolor paper. the arches does crack a little at the fold, but it doesn't go all the way through and i've never had a problem with the pages tearing at the fold, even when the journal has been through months of use. i tear the pages out using a deckle edge ruler which is way easier than cutting, and you get a nice, soft edge.


a poor picture of the second page... i covered up the whole page with a piece of muslin (you can see the frayed edges around the page) because i had so much paint on the page that i didn't like and it seemed like a good solution to the problem.


this is what layer 5 (or was it 15? :) looked like -- much better than layer 4, but i couldn't see anywhere to go with it, so down went the muslin...


some of the pages are narrower than others, and this is one of them. this figure was the first stencil that i cut... it was drawn by karin and was on a piece of tissue paper, so i glued it to a sheet of printer paper and cut the stencil from that. i was so thrilled about cutting my first stencil!


the back side of the page above, and probably something that only a mother could love... it's the paint that i scraped off of the piece of glass that was on my art table. i needed a clean piece of glass for stencil cutting, so i scaped all of the paint off of it and then glued most the paint down here. it's a kind of visual record of the painting i've done at my art table in the last year.


the bird is the second stencil that i cut. can i say too many times that i'm happy about cutting my own stencils?!!


jerry stopped by to sniff everything when i was taking pictures yesterday. this is him telling me that i've missed my best chance for photographing his big cat self...


i spent a lot of time last week on the stencil cutting thing... figuring out which images i wanted to cut and printing them out... i chose karin's figure, a bird, and a tree. this piece is on canvas board (4" x 6"), and i used the bird and the tree, although i wiped most of the tree off... i used caran d'ache crayons, acrylic paint, tim holtz crackle paint, twinkling H2O's... everything!


more experimenting with the bird and tree stencil. this piece is about 6" x 9" on 90# arches hot press, and is going to be a big post card. stenciling just cries out to be used as mail art...

the hearts at the top of the page are from a stamp i carved... in the process of printing out stencil designs i printed out a version that was way too small for a stencil, but perfect for a stamp.


i tried something i've been wanting to try for a while, which is to draw over the design with a pencil and then rub the pencil onto the stamp material. it worked like a charm! the pink arrow is the original heart (you can see where i've put pencil over the black), and the other hearts are tests of my stamp. i kept taking away until i got the one in the upper left. there are lots of images here that can be used for making stamps...


a postcard (about 4" x 9") that i made last week with the stencil i cut from karin's figure.


the graffiti wall has been cut up, and is now in the process of being made into graffiti prayer flags. i added a little paint and rubbed in oil pastels on these pieces, which make up the first set of flags. they have much more artifying to undergo before they're done.


morning light...


and more morning light... these cumulus clouds grew before our eyes as we sat outside having coffee two days ago. within minutes of taking this the blue sky was no longer visible... amazing!

have a beautiful week!

XO

Monday, May 25, 2009

solar heart


maybe it's mercury in retrograde, or maybe it's the gorgeous weather, i don't know... it's been a week of fits and starts creatively, and i'm feeling no desire to take photos of what i have done. just this, 'solar heart', which is the first page in my new journal... i have been pretty obsessed with the whole stencil scene -- now that i think about it that may be the culprit...

mrs. mizzle is settled in at jacky's. she lives in the library and spent the weekend reading a couple of novels, nothing heavy. she's *totally* not affected by this mercury in retrograde thing...

XO

Sunday, May 17, 2009

finis y gracias


i finally finished the journal i've been working in since october (this was the beginning)... i took it to texas thinking i'd finish it there, but nope...

these are the last pages, the ones i've done since i've been back...








these letter stamps are gorgeous wooden stamps from karin... they were in the package with her book (which arrived about two weeks ago. i'm workin' on it... : ).


this is the background before i put the letters on. in case you're interested, it's a quick and easy way to get a grungy background... all i did was paint watercolor paint randomly over the page, let it dry and then cover it all up with acrylic (i used off-white here). when the acrylic was about half dry i took masking tape and picked up some of the paint with it, then i stuck the used tape on the page. some of the watercolor bleeds through the acrylic (even though it was dry when i put the acrylic on), and between that and the masking-tape-picking-up-paint thing, you get a funky distressed look. i got the idea for using masking tape from susan tuttle's "exhibition 36: mixed media explorations...", the rest was the result of painting over a watercolor painting i didn't like!


originally a bird from an old calendar was glued down here (the silhouette)... painting over the whole page (bird included) because i didn't like it, i realized that the bird would come off! so i took it off and this is what was left behind... i used the bird again on the next page -- this time intentionally as a mask!


i know, latin and spanish... terminado sounded, well, a little harsh...


besides finishing my journal and starting in my collaborative 'karin journal' (you can see what she's done in my book here), i've been fooling around more with stencils.


i'm doing a set of 'i know', 'i see', 'i remember' (etc.) pieces...


i'm using arches 90# hot press that i had laying around... these pieces are about 4" x 9".


'i remember' goes on here somewhere...


i found these little by little last week... they're obsidian, and how on earth they got so rounded is beyond me. i suppose they've been tumbled somehow, but considering how easily obsidian fractures and breaks, i can hardly imagine it. i found them all in one small area... some are mahogany obsidian, some are black, and some are gray...


lichen... oh how i love lichen!


new poplar leaves... heavily aromatic, like an exotic spice...


the shasta lilies are starting to come up... as i was looking at them i decided to examine last year's seed pods, and wow... look at those seeds in there.


this long flower stalk shot out of the spider plant this week -- it's almost two feet long *before* it gets to the part where the flowers are! it seemed to appear instantaneously!


that's my new journal on the footstool... um hmm...

(whew! that was a lot of pics!)


XO

Sunday, May 10, 2009

proceed to love


after, of course, mrs. mizzle announces who she's going to live with (and other miscellaneous news is shared). we'd both like to thank you all for your kind and funny comments... i don't think i've ever done so much smiling in front of the computer!

mrs. mizzle has her bags packed -- she's going to the southern hemisphere! she's gonna be an aussie! jacky, look for mrs. mizzle just as soon as the mail plane can get her there. she's smiling thinking about going to live with you and your klimt dolls... and the horses!


we've had this christmas cactus for 5 years and this is its very first bloom. isn't it the most gorgeous flower you've ever seen?! there's only one bloom on the whole plant... i think it put all its resources into this one amazing flower...


every morning for the last three days i've snapped pics of it before even putting the coffee water on. that's what flower love can do to you...


i've been out wandering -- leaving signs of tree love behind.


it's a festival out there! plants popping up, creeks rushing, birds singing!


eb's got me thinking about mandalas when i'm out... some indian corn that i left behind as a 'thank you'.


the main MAIN thing i've been doing is messing with stencils! yup, i'm catching up in mary ann moss' stencilry class. i am smitten!!!


these four pics are the inside and outside of my stencil portfolio cover, made on cardboard.


i've tried different techniques...


i didn't use spray paint,


i used a very little spray ink, which was maddening because the sprayer got clogged up easily.


mostly i used this roller sponge and regular 'ol acrylic paint. i need about five more of these...


the front cover... i don't think it can take one more thing, do you? i used three layers of muslin (glued together with gel medium) to hold the front and back together, and then painted over it.

she's offering this class again in august. i HIGHLY recommend it. not only is it chock full of videos and information, it's very well laid out. this is the first online art class i've taken and i can't say enough good things about it... thank you, mary ann!

okay! now we can proceed!

: )

XO

Sunday, May 3, 2009

mrs. mizzle


this is mrs. mizzle and she's looking for a good home...


she wants to make sure you get a good look... she's made from a scrap of molding -- she was hanging out with the dallas brick people before i scooped them all up and sent them to california...


even though she doesn't look like it, she's very strong. i've decided that Beings that incarnate through me have a 'barely there' look, but don't let that fool you. we've -- whoops! they've come in to do a job and they're serious about it! her job (so she says) is to provide sound counsel and sage advice...


here she is with the 'xo' tag that comes with her.


and the other side of the tag (which looks pretty much nothing like the 'xo' side). i've been messing around with making tags -- they're just so dang fun! and handy for when you want to spruce up a gift, or a letter, or...

mrs. mizzle says if you'd like to partake of her sound counsel and sage advice just say so in your comment... i, i mean *she* will pick a name from a hat and tell you who she's going to live with next sunday!

i don't know who i've been more captivated by -- mrs. mizzle or the daffodils... i kept snapping shots. this one was taken last night with available light.


besides doing a lot of experimenting with paper clay Beings, i've been working on my graffiti wall project. the lower right corner has since been done, so all that's left are the top corners. my plans to cut it up are still in the works and supplies for finishing the project are hopefully on their way. here's what julie's canvas looks like now, and seth, i don't know what yours looks like at this stage!


earlier in the week, before the (lovely, welcome!) rain started, amelia taking a sun bath...


have a beautiful week!

XO