Living Right

He said who invented evil?

And I said I wasn't sure

anybody invented it,

it just happened when somebody

got tired of all the effort

it took to live right.

They probably didn't have anyone

to teach them, he said

and I thought to myself,

we might just be doing

this right after all.

http://www.storypeople.com/

I love this poem. The first time I read it I was deeply touched by the simple words that remind us that 'living right' is not always easy but when we do, when we reach out to others, when we offer empathy and understanding and embrace people for who they are rather than what we want them to be, the world becomes a much sweeter place to share with each other. 

Today I finished a rather large 'HuG' style journal. It's 8" tall by 7" wide and when laying flate on a table is 4.5", about as thick as an average phone book. The size itself was a challenge to work with. I created it in sections and then made a hidden seam and sewed the lengths together. The cover was 33" long before it was folded to create the 3, 1.5" spines, cover, back and enclosure. I used 300 pound watercolor paper so it is sturdy and solid. There are a total of 60 pages and it has 10 fabric pocket pages. Working on this journal was an artistic adventure for me. Here are a few of the pages.

Gathering Up Bits of the World

Fabric pocket pages using two of my favorite quotes. The first, a text fragmen from a Storypeople poem and the latter; Leonard Cohen. 

Favorite Time of Day

http://www.storypeople.com/

Spending alot of time in the wee, tender hours of the night creating. And then, about 4 AM; I find my way to my nest of down and cotton and let sleep have it's way so I can awake refreshed for whatever comes my way on the wings of the new day.

I recently wrote this little poem inspired by the writing assignment from Misty Mawn's class; Stretching Within

The prompt was 'I am the'

I am the hawk circling above

the rabbit seeking shelter

the tree bearing fruit

the leaf that falls to the ground

the sun that rises

the night that grips my heart

the inhale and the exhale

I breathe today and I am whole

I don't normally do well with journal prompts. I tend to over think them, however this came together as soon as the first sentence entered my thoughts. I wrote it in under a minute and much later decided it expressed everything I had been holding in the last few weeks. A release, an inhale and exhale through words and art. 

More journal pages in the works.

Hidden pockets page.

More pockets.

It's All A Blur

Fabric pocket page.

Love bursting.

Storypeople poem of the day.

this is a yo-yo that teaches everything

there is to know about life,

but it spins so fast it's all a blur

 and it takes a long time to figure out

that that's exactly what it's trying to teach you

http://www.storypeople.com/

More page peeks.

All Of My Life

Today these lyrics said everything I needed to hear today. Music is a constant source of inspiration and I often feel the music and words as strongly as if I had been physically touched by them. Music helps me find my 'center' when other parts of my life seem to be spinning haphazardly in directions I'd rather not go.

All Of My Life

Phil Collins

All of my life, I've been searching

For the words to say how I feel.

I'd spend my time thinking too much

And leave too little to say what I mean

I've tried to understand the best I can

All of my life.

All of my life, I've been saying sorry

for the things I know I should have done

All the things I could have said come back to me

Sometimes I wish that it had just begun

Seems I'm always a little too late

All of my life.

Set 'em up, I'll take a drink with you

Pull up a chair, I think I'll stay

Set 'em up, cuz I'm going nowwhere

There's too much I need to remember, too much I need to say

All of my life, I've been looking

But it's hard to find the way

Reaching past the goal in front of me

while what's important just slips away

It doesn't come back but I'll keep looking

All of my life.

And with that a few pics of the journal that is making it's way to Misty.

Places Where the Light and Rain Get In

places where the light and rain get in

http://www.storypeople.com/

I have been working away on various projects. This is a fabric page in Misty's journal.

A fabric pocket page.

I am having fun doodling with thread on fabric. My goal here was to carry over images from the print fabric pocket onto the background of the page. I added some french knots for detail, just playing around and allowing my muse to go wherever it chooses.

A few close ups.

I love layers. I adore paint, paper and fabric and when they are in harmony, it is simple and pure bliss. It is wonderful when elements play nicely with each other. These are pages in Misty's journal.

This Game Called Life and Leftovers

I love making a mess. Just abandoning myself to the simple pleasures that can be found in scraps of canvas, a paper towel, watercolor paper and dye ink (stamp pad reinkers) diluted with a little bit of water. My results after several hours of play. 

In fact I started buying dyebased reinkers to use them as another form of paint. When it was all dry I heat set everything with a few passes of an iron. It's super easy to do. Remember to stick with dye based inks if you want to do this.

Choose a couple of colors. Squeeze out a dab of color onto a plate. Just a tiny dot or so will do.

 Add a tiny bit of water.

 Then decide what you want to add color too.

First I rinsed a scrap of duck canvas so it was wet, squeezed out exess water and then using a paint brush, I dipped it into the ink and spread it out over the fabric, because it's wet the ink will bleed around, then I repeated it with other colors. Now the canvas was totally saturated with color.

So I grabbed a piece of water color paper and then put the wet piece of canvas on top of the paper and then simply let the color bleed from the canvas onto the paper. Then I grabbed the paint brush and randomly painted around the paper with more of the diluted ink.

That still left me diluted ink to work with, so I used the dye loaded brush to add color to the tiny canvas star which was also wet.

And then I still had diluted dye so I poured the lefts overs on to a paper towel and then let the saturated paper towel also bleed on to the already blotted piece of watercolor paper.

I kept repeating everything till I had used up all the diluted dye. I even colored up a couple of shipping tags just for good measure. And I did all this with just a few drops of ink, no bigger than about half the size of a dime.

Left overs can be amazing.

And now speaking of 'leftovers' I heard this song over the summer, by 'Leftover Cuties' watching The Big C . Pull up a chair and watch, listen and enjoy. I think this just might be my theme song this year. Yes. I think so indeed.

Opening Up

Late Night

In the end, I think that I will like that we were sitting on the bed, talking & wondering where the time had gone.

http://www.storypeople.com/

Opening Up. This page is inspired by the outpouring of sharing that has erupted through a wonderful group of woman who have all signed up to take Misty Mawn's new online class, Stretching Within. The class has not formally begun but many of us have started sharing  FB and this page became the result of my creative efforts today. The Brian Andreas poem felt perfect with this as it feels like we are all gathered together, talking and quietly sharing long into the night, discovering each other and finding ourselves among new friends.

Highly Prized

I am participating in a year long project called 'the sketchbook challenge' and the prompt for January is 'highly prized' and the above page is the result I created today. I was going through some paper I had back ground painted quite awhile ago, as I was looking at the various pages and colors, I spotted a heart shape in this one and almost in an instant I knew I would use this for my challenge page, I already knew I wanted to use an image of a 'house' since I value my home and the security it expresses and also my intense love and need to be creative as expressed by the found text glued below the house which reads ' with scrap of wood, tins of paint and bottles of glue, every available space in the room was filled' and thus an art journal page was born.

Awakening

Page in Misty's 'KiSS' journal.

January 2011. A new year is just beginning to open itself up to the world. I have been thinking about a word for the year and a few have come to mind. I have not completely settled on one but so far 'one' is where I am leaning,

to concentrate on where I am right now, this day, this hour, this minute and to keep myself centered in all aspects of my life, finding one center, which is not easy to do. I am always working on multiple projects at once, every day there is something that needs doing, every day I have to be some place else so sticking to any 'one' thing or act is a challenge.

The other word that presented itself is 'security' and my sense of it. Needing to feel secure in all areas of my life; home, health, financially, in my artwork, and who I am; defining myself as a wife, a mother, a parent, a writer and an artist, who I am in my soul and heart. A new year is truly a new awakening, to begin afresh, wipe the slate clean.

My first project of the year is a 'KiSS' journal that will be heading off to Misty Mawn very soon. Here are a few page peeks so far.