Reflection and Retreat: Top 10 Art Journal Pages of 2014

Tags

altered art, art, art journal, collage, flowers, gratitude, illustration, Journal, lettering, meditation, quotes, reflection, watercolor, zentangle

On this darkest day of the year I want to wish you all a happy solstice. I will be starting the new year with a mediation retreat and will be entering into noble silence. I have decided I will not be blogging between now and January 10th. So I wish you all happy holidays and happy new year.

I have taken some time to reflect on the past year of my gratitude journal and would like to share my top 10(ish) pages/page spreads with you. I really enjoyed looking through all the art I have created within the last year, particularly because one of my big intentions for this year was:

I feel like I have been true to that intention to the best of my ability. Here are my favorite art journal pages either because of content, execution, or a combination of both.

I look forward to our continued journey in 2015. I have so much to be grateful for and I thank you for joining me.

Diva Challenge 198: Keep It Simple

Tags

art journal, Diva Challenge, gratitude, zentangle

This week’s Diva challenge is the last for this year. It is the 4th anniversary of the Diva challenge and she directs us to keep it simple. So I kept it simple with the circle turned into a flower using crescent moon and adding a few off kilter circles.  I outlined the “tile” by writing down some of the things from yesterday I was grateful for. Today’s page is pretty simple, too. I was doing some writing patterns and writing sown some things I am grateful for and I got an idea for a very simple Christmas card. I’m almost done getting ours ready to send out for this year but maybe next year. Check out lots of cool art at

Infusion of Music and Art

Tags

acrylic paint, altered art, Altered books, art journal, Camus quote, collage, depression, flowers, gratitude, Invincible summer, zentangle

I have been working on some more collages for another art exhibit. Here are some sketches from the works in progress. I just found out today that they have been accepted into the show! Yeah me! None of them turned out how I envisioned them, but took some interesting turns. I have some new paths to follow in the new year and I’m really looking forward to it. To see the completed collages check out my Gallery page.

Of course this season is full of music and my musician son has had one or two concerts many days in the past 10 days. I also went caroling with a group of people from my church. Nothing gets me in the holiday spirit like music. The darkness of the season and the emotional complexities that go with it really make my battle with depression a serious challenge these days and art and caroling are fabulous medicine.  I am also finding that blogging can be helpful, too. Thanks for all the kind words and support.

On one of the collages I have the quote by Albert Camus “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me lay an invincible summer.”

Cee’s Which Way Photo Challenge: Memories of Italy

Tags

Castello Bibbione, Cee's Photo Challenge, Italy, photograph, roads, Tuscany

Zentangles, Music, Art, Friends, and Cats

Tags

altered art, altered art book, cat, collage, grateful, gratitude, gratitude journal, zentangle

Here is the sketch I did for my Christmas Cactus painting. I have also had some time to do some random Zentangling. This is a new tangle pattern from the Zentangle newsletter.

I have so many things to be grateful for! What are you grateful for this week?

Wordless Wednesday

Tags

Altered book, Christmas cactus, flowers, painting

Organizing, Eating, and Playing: Life is Good

Tags

altered art, Altered book, art journal, collage, games, gratitude, photograph, Playing, Thanksgiving

Every year we celebrate Game Day the Friday after Thanksgiving. We make a large pot of vegetarian chili and provide soft drinks and beer until things run out. People bring food and games and we never know how many will show up. We had a great turn out this year and had some new people join us as well. We played for hours! There was so much laughter and talking. I can not think of a better followup to my favorite holiday.

Thanksgiving day was SUPER cold but we had warm hearts and full bellies. Yatzee and pie go well together.

I have made great progress in turning our extra bedroom from a storage room into an art room. I use bits of stuff that I find on pages for days that I spent organizing and sorting and making space for making art. I’m so looking forward to having a clean, fresh start in my studio in 2015! I used the cleaning up of getting ready for Game Day to help me get going on the process.