Workshop Questions!

I'm thinking of doing a workshop at Daisy Yellow during the second half of 2013 and I'm hoping that you can help thank you to the 109 folks that took my little questionnaire to help me me decide what to teach!

On to the results! I'm a math geek and I love surveys, so I'll share with you some geekiness.

According to the survey, an art journaling workshop will have the most interest. Perhaps a workshop "like" The Museum of Simple Things" with all new techniques and inspiration to face the blank page and work without fear. I'll consider a freeform mandala workshop as well.

Here's the % of respondents indicating the topic as #1 or #2 choice:

Click to read more ...

EDM #23: Draw your foot

5x8" moleskine

The text reads, "Found this task more difficult than drawing my hand. Perhaps - lower light, further away, less detail to document?" And perhaps because I have what my eye doc calls "Over 40 Eyes" and I can't see anything at a certain middle distance. Got reading glasses but wasn't wearing them when I drew this!

I'm working through Danny Gregory's Everyday Matters {EDM} drawing list. The idea is explained here, and all of the drawings are tagged EDM Challenge.

EDM #22: Draw a piece of clothing

5x8" moleskine

I haven't forgotten about the EDM Challenge, because it is important to me that I learn to draw better. And I know that I have to DRAW in order to DRAW BETTER. It's common sense. It's something I know from drawing abstract stuff.  But yet I dilly dally in finding a subject to draw, and actually drawing. I'm finding that the more time between drawings, the worse the drawings! That whole concept of practice and keeping things fresh is abundantely clear. 

I'm working through Danny Gregory's Everyday Matters {EDM} drawing list. The idea is explained here, and all of the drawings are tagged EDM Challenge.

What challenges are you doing? Have you ever committed to a challenge {to yourself, on your blog, in public, whatever the case} but then dropped out? How did you feel? Did you get any negative reaction for quitting or dropping out of a challenge? Or maybe you started a challenge with TONS of energy and then fizzled out, then started again? Do tell. 

Do tell

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities.”
Dr. Seuss

What would happen?

If you carried a real camera.

And looked for things to photograph?

If you picked up a brush.

Or threaded your sewing machine.

With bubble gum pink thread.

And wound a bobbin.

Or loaded your inkwell.

And dipped your pen.

In indigo ink.

Would it change your life?

Has it already changed your life?

Do tell.

PS. There's a fresh PROMPT6ix Art Journaling Prompt every Tuesday. Here's the latest.

365 Somethings #56-62

This is my 365 project.

I'm keeping myself on track by creating a few cards every few days and I'm well ahead of the game right now. I learned that I'm not really good at creating one thing at a time, I'd rather work in small batches. So here are Somethings #56 - 62. 

"beautiful"

found text, fabric, painted papers, espresso rings, tokyo metro map, index card art

"carpet options"

found text, accounting forms, inked paper, fabric, cardstock, painted papers, greeting card

"paper!"

found text, fabric, cardstock, tokyo metro map, stitched/painted papers, magazine ephemera

"discard"

includes found text, fabric, cardstock, painted papers, polish ephemera, map, library stamp

"registered mindlessly"

one of my favorites to date

includes 35mm slide case, ephemera, found text, fabric, painted papers, 

"and adheres the surface seminars"

includes found text, product packaging, fabric, cardstock, painted papers, stitched papers, blue jeans

"the patience"

includes found text, fabric, cardstock, painted papers, magazine clippings, greeting card

What is your favorite of the set?

I started sewing paper just two years ago and I use a cute little Janome Magnolia sewing machine. If you are interested in learning to sew paper, read my series Sew-a-Go-Go.

Hanna is creating square collages. Join the Flickr group for 365 Somethings. Everything is in my 365 Somethings Flickr set. Find my 365 somethings posts at this link.

Have you registered for 21 Secrets Art Journal Workshop? I'm teaching "Watercolor Playground" starting April 1.

Begin it now

"Whatever you can do,
or dream you can do,
begin it. Boldness has genius,
power, and magic in it.
Begin it now.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It is YOU who must take the steps to gather your materials.

You who must set a place at the table for art.

You who must set aside a few moments each day for creativity.

For color and texture. For paint and brushstrokes.

It takes energy to push yourself to do these things.

When you don't feel well.

Emotionally.

Physically.

Try to reframe the goal.

See that it is all for the good.

Know that you are giving a gift to your future self.

The self of tomorrow.

The you that feels better.

The self of next year. 

If only because of your creativity.

Double Take {With Natasha} #2

"Natasha's Challenge"

THE PLAN: 

1. Natasha White and I challenged each other to create art journal pages with duplicate sets of ephemera plus free use of Golden heavy body acrylics, Golden fluid acrylics, Caran D'Ache Neocolor II wax crayons, a black marker and matte medium.
2. I made two sets of materials and mailed one off to Natasha in New Zealand. 
3. We created art journal pages from those materials. You can see the first set of pages we made in this post.
4. Natasha maiiled me an envelope of goodies. 
5. We developed art journal pages using the same ephemera.
6. These are the pages I made with Natasha's ephemera.
7. Click over to see Natasha's second set of pages here.

The rules? Use all of the materials in the bag, although they could be cut up as we wished. We could use acrylic paint, neocolors, adhesive, ink and marker. We could add no additional ephemera.

The materials for Natasha's challenge: tissue papers with bird images, postage stamps, 3 gem stickers, a sparkly  dragonfly sticker, orange patterned cardstock, flower patterned cardstock, tea-stained fabric, book text in two languages.

The first thing that jumped out at me was... the three gems. I'd never used anything like that on my pages. And the Mother Teresa stamp! A dragonfly? How on earth would I pull this all together cohesively?

If you have seen a lot of my art journal pages, you know that I use a lot of bright colors, not earth tones. But I knew right away this this page called for just that. Browns. I'd just purchased my first container of Van Dyke Brown heavy body acrylic and it was put to immediate use. I flipped through The Noticing Journal, a hardback book I've been altering for about a year. One of the pages had a purple background with white writing that I wasn't really digging, so I started with that page. You can see a little of the purple peeking through.

After painting part of the background in brown, purple, blue, white and cream, I cut up the pieces in my challenge kit and started gluing them to the page with matte medium. I looked at everything as a puzzle that I needed to put together. Each item became simply texture and pattern rather than whatever it really was. Ultimately I cut some of the book text and patterned papers into square boxes and stripes. 

 I thought about what Mother Teresa might recommend for us and I looked at the dark browns on the page and saw glimmers of beauty and light in the sparkly dragonfly and other spots.

"In the dark corners... find beauty."

I used the stained fabric in several ways. Seeing that one layer of the fabric was thin enough to see through, I decided to play with that a bit. To build on the dark theme of the page and give it a bit of mystery, I placed the cotton fabric over one of the stamps. I also folded and stapled fabric to the page under one of the flowers cut from the cardstock to give the page more dimension and texture.

Adding more paint, neocolors, doodling with white uniball marker... and the pages were finished. 

What a transformation!

Be True

The poetry of Mary Kate Teske.

{poem by Mary Kate Teske, shared with permission from the writer}

You can find more of Mary Kate's poetry and lyrical prose at her tumblr. I found her poetry real and raw and eloquent. I asked Mary Kate for permission to share a piece of her poetry here. Please read some more of her work and be thrilled. This is the next generation.

And the best thing about amazing writing is that it pushes you to write, it pushes you to get your words out on the page. When I read this poem, here's what went through my mind... 

Write.

Just write.

Write whatever comes into your mind.

Or the opposite of that.

But write.

Write on your journal pages.

And in your day-timer.

On the edges of your Target receipt.

In crossword puzzle boxes.

And index cards.

In thick navy blue Sharpie marker.

Or in dioxazine purple ink.

And write just before bed.

Or when you wait at the dentist.

Write to your friends.

Write about your enemies. 

Write a story.

Or a memoir.

About your neighbor.

Or a list of your favorite movies.

Or a screenplay.

But write. 

Art Journal Workshop: 21 Secrets

I'm teaching at 21 Secrets, an online creative workspace with 21 art journaling workshops!

 I'll be teaching a workshop about incorporating watercolors in your art journal pages!!! I'd appreciate your registering via my link {I get a small payment in return}.

 

Any link to 21 Secrets in this post will work! 

Our focus will be on enjoying the process of painting, writing and creating. The beauty of each color, the texture of the paper, the way the paint flows from the brush... selecting colors intuitively, not from a color wheel!

21 Secrets: April 1 - December 31, 2013

Facebook group open now!

This is my second teaching gig at 21 Secrets! Pop over to Dirty Footprints Studio to learn about 21 Secrets.

What's Up

There is always a lot of art going on in my world.

Maybe your world is like this too.

I've been getting happy mail from Poland ⬆ and New Zealand ☟ and Maryland ↙↙.

 

Making a lot of something is a really incredible endeavor. So many thoughts and feelings go through your mind, as you question your sanity yet roll up your sleeves and dig in further. Every few days I make a bunch of stitched index card collages.

This is a glimpse of my sewing space {aka half of the guest room} after making a bunch of index card collages. It is creative madness while I'm working.

I finished this stitched journal and added it to my Etsy shop. There were four handmade journals in the shop... and three have already found new homes!

I think everyone knows about the Zine! I published Issue #7 of the Daisy Yellow Zine in December, with articles + journal prompts galore. Perfect for a blueberry scone and a pot of tea. Or three. And I'm writing a post about writing the Zine!

I cannot tell you how wonderful it feels to paint. Paint. Paint. Paint. I finished a 36x36" canvas over the winter holidays and a 24x36" canvas in January. 

 

After gathering an amazing team I stitched Phase I of the Millennium Mail Art project and mailed the postcards off to New Zealand. Natasha completed Phase II of the project. You can read about how she interpreted each of the 7 themes with paint. Seeing the idea come "to life" is warming my heart. Natasha mailed the postcards to Sweden where the creative Hanna completed Phase III of the project with beautifully lush colors and textures. They are looking brilliant for yet another trans-oceanic voyage back to the states. Our team = Natasha, Karen, Michelle, Roben-Marie, Hanna. 

I'll be teaching at 21 Secrets with a cadre of amazing artists. workshops officially open on April 1 and registration is open at this very moment. Folks in the facebook group are getting quite excited to get started. If you register through Daisy Yellow at THIS LINK ---> 21 Secrets <--- I get a small payment and do a happy dance.

Thank goodness this workshop doesn't have an "end" date because I am so slow at taking workshops! Diana Trout's on-line workshop. Longstitch, 2 Ways is really motivating me to get some journals officially BOUND. I've cut my paper and the next step is to attempt the bindings. I know it sounds like cutting paper isn't much progress, but for me it really is!!!

 

In the kitchen, I haven't been cooking anything too exciting other than JELL-O! I've been making gel plate prints the old fashioned way. Learn how to make a DIY plate here. And now I am using little clippings from the prints in my collages.

 

I was happy to be part of a fun blog hop to celebrate the launch of Dawn's new journaling book Art Doodle Love.

 

I've been getting so many happy emails and good feedback from folks about their art journal prompt cards.

A really good decision that I made earlier this year was to leave more blog comments and I've finished 7/21 random acts of kindness, including letting folks go ahead of me in line at the grocery, chatting peacefully with the pharmacist when she was stressed out, treating the person behind me in the starbuck's drive-thru to an afternoon coffee, sending happy birthday notes, etc.