Altered Book Class Resumed

 

 Silhouette Art

The monthly Altered Book class resumed on Saturday after a 2 month hiatus during the holiday season.  For this class, the technique is silhouette art....you can sort of see the 3-D effect.  I didn't complete the piece in class, because there were all of these little pieces of seaweed and a tiny mermaid to be cut out to "layer" in the framed part...my scissors just weren't small enough to handle those cuts so I created my little seascape inside the frame.  It's not quite as 3-D as the one done in class, but I get the idea.  And, of course, I had to jazz it up...the seahorse is looking pretty good and I have lots of beaded glass gel in this to give the water some sparkle.

More Journaling Using My Recycled Art

I did the left side page last night...I took some of the elements from the page  on the right and elsewhere to create the page.  I'm still not happy with the page on the right so...still thinking about what to do to it.

And today I dug a tunnel from my driveway over to the far side of the house to make sure the oil delivery guy could get to the pipe...but it turned out to be great fun for Boomer because the yard has been too deep for him.  Now he has a racearena.  I didn't take photos of that but check out these icicles....I have since knocked them down out front ....but every  now and then...I hear one fall out back...and the mailboxes at the end of the driveway.....

Y' all Come!

And It's Only January.....

Free As A Butterfly - Pam Carriker Workshop

 

This is another exercise using some of Pam Carriker's techniques.  These two pages have paint, collage elements, oil pastel, charcoal pencil, gesso, etc.

The "hat lady" was from a fashion magazine.  I copied the picture and printed it in black and white on my printer and then played with the face.  Here is the original...obviously she looks better in the photo....but how would you look with gesso brushed over you?  And the idea is to reinvent it....

 

More Journal Pages - Strathmore Workshop

Tribute to the Pottery Barn Catalog

I did these two pages last night...two things I've taken from the workshop thus far:  choose materials that are similar in color....it doesn't matter what the subject...and create your page;  and use your charcoal pencil to add shadow to make things "pop".

All of the collage elements I cut out of the catalog.  

When I first started these two pages, I had made black & white copies of some of my prior journal page art.  I placed them randomly on the two pages....and I didn't like it.  So I brushed a coat of gesso over them and then sanded the pages.  At first, I was going to use gesso and make the images disappear....I'm so glad I turned a "mistake" into a great backdrop for what I think turned out to be interesting pages...the bird on the left was one of the images...and look what it did to the page.  Imagine if I had edited the bird out....  I'm enjoying this workshop...

Here's the left page....

 

 And this is the right page.....After I sanded the two pages, I put a color wash on the page....and then I added a little bit of another color wash.  I did some rubber stamping in brown and some in black.  Then I started to glue the collage elements.  After that I took the charcoal pencil around and blended the charcoal.  Inspired by the catalog....

Workshop Lesson

Red, White & Blue Lady

Another entry from my workshop with Pam Carriker. This assemblage is created from 3 prior art journal pages...the red & white striped sleeves and legs were from a July 4 art piece that I did and they are part of a tablecloth....the skirt of her dress is from a page I did about a winter night and her star/head from yet another page. There are oil pastels here, charcoal pencil and a jewel on her turban cut from a magazine. The snowflake...donated by a friend from a Christmas card....and she has a bluebird on her shoulder.

Strathmore Workshop - Pam Carriker

I decided to take an online workshop hosted by Pam Carriker and Strathmore using their Visual Journal and my Recyled Journal Pages.  The frustrating part of this is....for whatever reason...I can't actually open the videos!!  So...I went to YouTube and looked at some of Pam's videos that she's done with Strathmore...at least I can capture some of her techniques there.

So the first page in the book...I figured I needed a "dedication"...and found the quote in a magazine that I was clipping last night....

And so the journey begins...I can almost assure you that I will add more to these two pages...

Two Heads Are Better Than One

And the word is....OPUS

You know....I recommend a Word Journal for every one...it doesn't have to be an "art" thing....but words are powerful.  


I watched a movie on TV recently that I wanted to see when it came out in the theater...and it's been on TV numerous times....and it was made in 1995....and yet, I had never taken the time to see it....it's Mr. Holland's Opus and it's a fantastic movie that everyone should see....we are all teachers of some sort....and those who make teaching their profession...it should be required viewing.  I can't believe I hadn't seen it before now...but better late than never.  
So...inspired by this movie, the next word in my Word Journal is.... OPUS.  

The top photo is the left page, the one directly above is the right photo.  Here they are together....  underneath the cd cover I have written about how music is a big part of the memories of one's life....going to dances, a song that makes you think of your first boyfriend, special moments in history, places you've lived and so on.   In the end, think of your life as a musical composition..how would it sound...hopefully those you've touched...will applaud at the end."

My Art Room just keeps getting better.....

Boomer likes it....

Decided to make a major change in the space and move the desk from my kitchen into this room...because I wanted my computer, printer, everything all together....well, I had no idea how it would affect my computer/phone connections which are all tied into ...cable.  So  I've had one of those weeks where I spent more time than I ever want to spend again on the phone with the cable company...they don't speak the Queen's English either....and I had the cable guy here last night....and I had my computer techie neighbor here today...and I think I'm finally good to go.....isn't technology grand?  But I couldn't blog without it....

I think I'm about at 85% of where I want to be in finally getting this room to look the way I want....and be user friendly for what I want to do.  Maybe 90%...The light from the windows is so bright with the snow.....

Can We Just Move On To February?

OK....it's winter...I get that, but I'm ready for the January thaw.  Between the post Christmas blizzard and the 18+ inches dumped on us last night...I've had my "fix" of snow....

 The top photo is looking out at the dining table on my deck and the bottom photo is looking out the window in my art room.  It is all beautiful...no doubt about that, but it's going to be there for awhile....lots of schlepping in boots.  Ugh.

The Art Cabinet

Still working on the cabinet....at a snail's pace, but I thought I would show the latest.  The gold star needs another coat of paint and you can't see that there's a bit of gold on the dental molding on the top of the piece.  I do love this piece....it's come a long way from being the sad, old cabinet that probably was someone's pride and joy dining room cabinet...a very long time ago.  I'm giving it a new life.

The Word Journal - Addition

Nothing like some snow to keep you in your art space....I love it.  I just did these two pages.  When I first thought about doing a Word Journal, I was going to be very selective about the words I chose....but as so often happens when I'm doing these "art journal pages"....things go off in another direction which is what happened today.  


For whatever reason, maybe it's because my bird feeder fell into the snow....stick with me...this is going somewhere....but "birds" were on my mind.
The next thing I know is I'm thinking of an old song from my early high school days (the kind of tune that drove parents crazy just like rap music does today),   I thought of Surfin Bird by The Trashmen.  That was a song that would get everybody dancing....if you grew up then...you know what I mean.  So..."the word is the bird"!


And...not to forget the art part....I created another pocket to put more "words & phrases" in for use in other art as seen on the left side of the page.

The Word Journal - The Cover

In A Word

I've been playing with my new word journal- altered book.  The cover of this book is actually a royal blue.  I gessoe'd it and when I first used this stencil that was in the scrapbooking section of Michael's, I did the spaces in different colors of sage green, pale orange, golden yellow....and I didn't like it at all...it just didn't "pop"...and it didn't speak to me.  So...the beauty of gesso....I covered it all over, added a coat of white paint and then did the holes in black.

Do you remember those black and white composition books we all grew up with in school?  Well...I think of this as sort of my version.  I spent last night cutting words out of whatever I could find...magazines, catalogs, etc., and these are what I came up with.  There is no connection to the words...they are just random...but I do like all of them.

I haven't decided on the back cover yet, but it might just be the reverse of this...I'm working on another inside page at the moment....playing with words...