Year’s End Peace Art

Tags

Blue and white, blue paisely, cards, Christmas, Holiday, lettering, paisley, Peace

So I made 30 cards in all. It was really interesting to work in a series like this. I think I may make a larger piece inspired by the process, but until then here are 9 of the last 10. I’m not sure what happened to the 10th photo, but the cards are mailed so we have what we have. I hope this provides you with a little peace to end the year out right. My word for 2016 was Thrive and I think my word for 2017 may be peace. I think I made some good progress with thriving in 2016!

I have a lot of gratitude journal post catching up to do and I think I may incorporate it into a year in review kind of thing. We will see what time permits.

I wish you all peace, health, and gratitude in the year to come!

Raise Your Words

Tags

acrylic paint, altered art book, art journal, collage, handwriting, Journal 52, lettering, Rumi

I have been making progress in both my altered art journal and Jacob’s. Here is his title page. This page in his book inspired one in my own!

Here are my journal pages from Monday. The page above and the two pages below are originally pages that have macro photos of butterfly wings and they make such a fabulous backdrop for whatever I am putting over the top. It is one of the great features of altered art books to incorporate what is already there. I had done some of the paint layers on the pages below on previous days. I have increased my use of leftover paint on stencils and brushes to make marks on future pages so as not to waste the paint. It has led to some interesting backgrounds (like the paper flowers background – that had been created over the course of a few days, but just a few minutes each time.) I am including a scanned copy of my journaling page because this has become my favorite form of “handwriting” in my art journal. It allows me to express private thoughts in a way that I can then publicize the product. I also really like how it looks. I exaggerate any loops and go back into them with short and wide lower letters. On the facing page I did some more traditional journaling with acrylic paint.

And this page includes one of the many quotes I love by Rumi:

Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.

The images and words on the page are not completely obscured by the layers of different papers I layered over the  top of it. I used matte medium to make an interesting surface to write on. I also included a single layer from a paint filled napkin in the collage. I really love this technique. There can be so many layers of colors, images, and meaning.

Have a beautiful day.

Elements of Yoga Retreat

Tags

100 Mandalas, acrylic paint, art journal, Buddhist art, Diva Challenge, joy, lettering, meditation, Tibetan Art, watercolor, yoga, zentangle

Joy is the most important element of yoga to me. My yoga teacher is a proponent of feeling joy in the poses or modifying them to meet your needs. This is just the right fit for me. We did a lot of yoga in 2 days and I really loved it. I had to sit out part of a standing mediation that triggered my migraine, but that was after a lot of really excellent practice. We did lots of Sun Salutations as the sun sparkled on Green Bay. We did circle balance poses that are so beautiful and exhilarating. As we rested on our right side at one point the beauty of another yogini’s feet with the sunshine and shadows was so beautiful I wished I could stop to draw them or take a photograph. Oh, and we ate! Yummy and healthy foods. We started our days with silence and ended with talking and laughter. It was so good to see old friends and make new ones.

The Journal 52 prompt for this week is Elements. That made me think of the Tibetan Buddhist styles of representing the elements in art. As I was drawing them, I realized that each one corresponded with an element of yoga.

Air – clouds –  breathing

Water – the waves of Lake Michigan and Green Bay – and flow

Earth – rocks – grounding, finding my foundation

Fire – flames – generating some heat!

The mandala on this page is inspired by the shirt of one of my new friends at the retreat.

I was also inspired by the Diva’s challenge to use the tangle pattern Tipple as the background for my “joy” page. It provides just the effervescence I was looking for! To see other interpretations of her challenge check out her Diva Challenge.

Have a beautiful day!

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 DuoTangle and Other Amalgamations

Tags

altered art, art journal, Diva Challenge, gratitude, illustration, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, lettering, painting, patterns, trees, yoga, zentangle

I got a lot of inspiration this last weekend from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer on using primary colors and simple patterns to create fun journal pages. Once I got started painting I really went crazy. I am so happy with the flower that was a result of a lot of playing around with paint. It feels like it has been a long time since I have done one of the Diva’s challenges. these are both new tangle patterns to me, I’m pretty sure. I couldn’t quite get my Phicops on the lower part of my J to work out how I wanted it to, but I like how the tile as a whole turned out. To see the other fabulous interpretations of this challenge and to meet the wonderful Diva herself go to

I have really had a rewarding art week doing a lot of drawing and painting. I have also enjoyed settling in to the fall routine. I’m so happy to be back to yoga with my friends. However, I am super happy to still have some of summer’s BLTs left for the year, too. I have had some wonderful surprises come in the mail and have enjoyed playing with different ways of creating patterns.

Fractal trees from Marie Browning.

Diva Challenge 178 & Whimsical Writing

Tags

altered art, art journal, Diva Challenge, gratitude, lettering, zentangle

The Diva is back and her challenge for Zentanglers this week is to use tangle patterns that begin with the same letters as your initials. As you can see, my initials are JC and I used the patterns Jingles and Capell in a simple arrangement.  To see other interpretations of this challenge or learn about an interesting artist check out the Diva’s blog.

This page in my gratitude journal covers yesterday and today. I have been joyfully working my way through Joanne Sharpe’s book The Art of Whimsical Lettering and here are some of the results. You will see many more in days to come. This combines so many things I enjoy creating and I am having fun illustrating some of my favorite quotes. I have a pain monitoring journal that I have started to use as a repository of inspirational quotes. That helps me remember why I am keeping track of my pain levels and I am so happy to say that my levels are going down, down, down. I am so grateful for acupuncture and a new medication combination and metta meditation and yoga and my most wonderful husband. Amen.

Birds Returning

Tags

altered art, art journal, gratitude journal, Horicon Marsh, lettering, sandhill crane, sketch, zentangle

This week I have really been focusing (when possible) on expanding my lettering styles and drawing in general. I am specifically working on drawing birds. I had been looking for a stamp of a robin and not finding quite what I was looking for. I thought – I should just dedicate this same amount of time to drawing birds and I won’t need a stamp AND I will have drawn a lot of different birds, too. I love spring. The poem, the birds, the fresh air and pasty white legs. The fonts that I copied for these pages were Gigi and Harrington.

Friday was a day without focus. I had my eyes dilated for an eye exam (that went really well) so I had a very restful day. I drew this picture of my dilated eye at a later date. The Zentangled flower on the facing page is from my traveling tangle kit. It was completed in waiting rooms, specifically at the orthodontist while waiting to see if the young man could get his braces off. Not quite yet.

I bought this beautiful bird tissue paper at the Horicon Marsh visitors’ center. This is one of my favorite places in Wisconsin. If you love birds like my family and I do this is such a treasure. My mom and I stopped by to see what we could see. Unfortunately the birds and I needed our down coats. It was too cold for exploration, but I had a nice time with my mom. Then I used one of the birds from the tissue paper for my model for the bird on the next page.

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/lands/wildlifeareas/horicon/

Studio setup

Tags

Altered book, art, collage, Journal, lettering, yoga

I have been working on getting my studio set up. One of the things that has helped me get going is thinking “Why not do it now?” when I’m not making great use of my time and energy. This page was some of the word work that got me to that realization. I hope to have photos of my lovely studio before the new year.
I have also been doing a lot of yoga and you will see images that reflect this. Yoga has been helping me have more energy and just overall physical wellness.

 

I think I am making progress in my self-portraits, too. I am working on one that is more 3 dimensional and I’m excited in how it is coming together. I never thought I would become excited about doing self-portraits, but I really am.

Gratitude workshop number 2

Tags

altered art books, art, collage, duck tape, gratitude, Journal, Kandinski, lettering, stencil art

I feel like the blog and the workshops are really inspiring me as an artist. I’m exploring media and really finding joy in the process and in the products. I particularly like this homage to V. Kandinski’s 13 rectangles. Mine was made with different kinds of tape with a base of tissue paper and Mod Podge that I actually did during the workshop on Saturday. The facing page is another experiment in artistic journaling that allowed the illustration of the book remain intact.

 

 

I love how the washable markers spread on the pattern paper in this collage. I really like the Simplicity papers for so many reasons and my experiment of using it as tracing paper worked out even better than I had hoped.

The picture below shows just how flexible duck tape can be. One of my students gave me the leopard sheet of adhesive and it inspired this stencil safari. Note to self: The tape is a lot harder to cut than the sheets.