shine on

your choice of perception, 3/12/09

mostly what i've been doing these last few days is making a book for my collaborative journal project with karin bartimole of beyond words. below is a book that she sent a while back as a sort of 'sample' for an idea she had.


she made it, of course, and every teeny tiny part of it is completely perfect. precisely perfect. i love to make books but this kind of precision is absolutely beyond me, so in choosing to work with this genius of a talented soul, i either a.) have no pride b.) have a very small ego c.) am crazy d.) totally love journal art and don't care how bad my own book looks. well, of course a and b are out (!!!), so it's c and d all the way... i'm sooo delighted to be doing this with karin.


this is my book about halfway through. we're using 140# hot press watercolor paper. this met both our criteria for a paper that we like to work on.


a little further...


the finished book minus the covers. this is karin's design and we chose it for several reasons, most of which have to do with the fact that it gives us lots of room to mess around. we can add lots of stuff to it without the spine busting loose, pocket pages will be easy, and cut out 'window pages' will also be easy. our basic guidelines are that we each do three pages before sending it off; we can alter each other's pages and the covers in any way, at any time; and there's no timeline. if one of us is done with our pages we'll hold onto the book until the other is ready.


the covers are a work in progress and will stay that way so that we can each add to them, paint on them, whatever...






this is the journal page i'm working on now. i've since drawn in the back of a torso (left handed) between the wings. i started to paint a lotus here and got about halfway through before i said 'enough of this precise painting!!'. out came the acrylic! precise is striking me as very boring right now!

i'm going to take a break from blogging for a while -- i don't know for how long. in less than two weeks i'm leaving to visit a friend in dallas, texas, so i may pop up from there. in the meantime, may we all

shine on...

XO

synchronicities can build

the weather is gorgeous and my thoughts have turned to roaming... this is a conk on an old juniper tree that i saw yesterday on my wander. there seemed to be something stunning at every turn...


part of a juniper tree that was absolutely loaded with berries. i've never seen anything like it.


i came upon a grassy path that lead under an old juniper. on this dry hillside grass is unusual; a grassy path downright miraculous...


it lead to a cool, quiet spot under the tree where icicles were melting on rich, green moss...


i sat down nearby, and it kept coming to me that this spot was 'deeply quiet'. i read, i dozed, i painted...


how is it that this 3" knob didn't erode while everything around it did?


since i'd walked up along the ridge, there were no footprints on the road walking back. yeah, i was smiling!


these sharpies came in the mail today. they're oil based, AP nontoxic, permanent, and they don't stink! the white isn't as opaque as the ink in a uni-ball signo pen, but the other colors are very opaque and appear to have great potential. i'm thinking about using them on my graffiti wall project,


which looks more or less like this now. i haven't told seth or julie, but thoughts of cutting up my 'wall' are at work in my brain.

synchronicities can build, 3/11/09

a poor photo of my last journal page. i used a color called 'icicles', which is full of glitter, on the wings, so all you see is shine...

which brings me to LuminArte ... they're still taking orders, and all orders will be filled. so if you've been thinking about ordering some paint before they go out of business, you still have time!


XO

put your feet up

put your feet up, 3/4/09


so you can see the different page sizes... some days i think i'll make the next journal like this, and some days i think i like it better when the pages are all the same size...

. . .


i think i was, uh, a little premature about the 'almost-spring' thing.


no wait! this looks encouraging!


ahhhhh.... the tidiest it's been in months... i like to just gaze at it in this condition.

i'm going out of town 'til early next week; if i don't take my computer with me, i'll see you then! and thank you everyone for your comments and waves!!

XO

have a seat

have a seat, 3/1/09

. . .

we've been having a lot of rain so i'm watching the creek...


this is what it looked like last summer...


and this is what it looks like today.

the first thing i did when i got up this morning was go see what rocks were still above water. it's a riotous celebration... loud - like a big wind blowing! when you stand and look at it you feel joy all over!!


every fall i put my favorite rocks on the creek bank so they don't get washed away. these will go back in the creek this summer, and i'll make a new batch of rock sculptures to get washed away next winter. one year i thought that a beloved rock (in the center of the summer photo above - shaped like a triangle with water splashing under it) had gotten washed away. i couldn't believe it -- it's so heavy! something told me to dig down in the creek bed where it had been, and sure enough, there it was under layers of smaller rocks. i was ecstatic!


these are beside the creek... can i resist photos of prayer flags? no!


this is the paper that came with the prayer flags. still amazingly intact after six months outside. looking at this and the creek made me think about seth's disintegration collaboration...


i took this standing outside our front door when i got back from my creek survey (that's wood smoke on the right). the air has a soft, moist, almost-spring feeling... and that makes me smile!

XO

the seer

the seer, 2/28/09
. . .

a happy flight, ching-chou kuik

these are the paintings that sit on the little table beside my chair... i'd put more on it but i have to leave room for my paints. : )

night patrol, ching-chou kuik

unnamed, lisa luree

XO