Mixed Media Mayhem - Facing the Blank Page

As I went though the end of the year art magazines I culled the names of some bloggers and found an interesting group with all kinds of talent and a dedicated enthusiasm for journaling.  Several blogs propose weekly themes to keep members interested and challenged... One uses a weekly challenge (http://www.art5academy.com/the-studio/the-documented-life-project-free) to encourage you to document your life.  Another, Journal 52, http://journal52.com/start/, also provides weekly prompts. Loading your journal page to their archieves, facebook, Pinterest, Google 1gives you a chance to share and receive feedback from artists around the world.

This journal page is the first one and addresses the challenge of facing the blank page.  The journalists suggested covering the page with colored paper.

I loved the rich red provided by newspaper pics saturated with matte medium.  When the newsprint papers dried I was surprised at how intense the colors were.  To fill in the blank spots and to unify the pages I added gesso through a stencil to provide a resist for green and yellow gelatos.

Then, I began to find forms to fill in...I'm thinking green poinsettias.  I hand drew a calendar to set the scene.

I had a lot of deli paper around for clean up so I tried stenciling and printing to create leaves to collage in place. My theme is "the positive path" so this will be an affirmation journal.

Mixed Media Mayhem - Tranquility

When I was teaching in China, I fell in love with their delicate porcelain dolls. Depicted in flowing robes, flowered hair, serene smiles, and finely wrought hands, they represent the special delicacy of the Chinese aesthetic. I purchased about 10 variations, mailed them home where they keep harmony among the rest of the Chinese statuary.  I used watercolours and Inktense pencils over gesso.  I plan to add more to this entry....updated to add stamped sentiment.  I love carving stamps.

Mixed Media Mayhem - Textures of San Miquel

The streets of Mexico's colonial cities present a rich source for art inspiration.  There are the jewellike colors, the rustic textures, the frivolity of flowers and foliage, the pungent odors ranging from sweet to spice.  I made this page to capture my awestruck feeling as I walked the streets of San Miguel.
I used Gelatoes, gell medium, and spackle with wallboard repair tape to lay down the initial texture.  Found materials including lottery cards and old newspapers gave me more source material.  My spread just gives a snapshot of the beautify to be enjoyed in San Miguel

Mixed Media Mayhem - Hello Dolly, Happy New Year

For my birthday I had an outing to the Pasadena Flea Market which I had longed to do for years.  I love to look at old letters, books, photographs, and postcards.  In one stash I found a photo of four young women taken in the summer of 1905.  I brought it home with all my other goodies, but I kept taking it out to look at it...pondering their thoughts, pasts, and futures, and thinking what a watershed year?  1905 - Einstein publishes his thesis expounding E=MC2, Bloody Sunday in Russia heralds the beginning of the Russian Revolution, Las Vegas is founded, the Japanese are given the nod to go into the Asia mainland...so much history.  Did these young women have any idea of what was to come? They appear so innocent in their summer frocks.  Their names written on the back gave me a sense of personal access.  I made this page for them and especially Dolly.

I had begun this journal page by wiping paint with a credit card.

I used Vaseline as a resist and added a second layer.

Now my page had the appearance of an old peeling barn door appropriate for a historic interpretation. I added layer with tissue paper I had stamped with StazOn using images of text.

To add more to this text theme I stenciled with black using "Ledger" from the Crafters' Workshop. For collage papers I used my Gelli plate to print some doily patterns on deli paper.  Now I had a thoroughly layered page with an antique feel.

To give Dolly prominence I scanned her image and altered it in photoshop to give a pen and pencil rendition.  I glued her down to form the place for my journal entry

                                                           

and taped the photo to the opposite side.  I could not glue the photo down because I wanted to be able to look at the handwriting on the back.  I used a piece of washi tape to just tack it in place.

As we enter this New Year I ponder how will history look back on 2015

Mixed Media Mayhem - Koffee Klatch

This journal entry represents the jagged edge that I get from my daily dose of coffee... that tattered, hyper feeling I get from one too many cups.

What do you get from a pile of Restoration Hardware catalogues?  Hundreds of images of texture.  What is my favorite technique for using magazine images?  Gel medium transfers.  Images of rugs, drapes, upholstery laid face down on the wet medium and peeled off before completely dry give a gronky background spread over two pages. 

 I liked the rough, textured results so I added another transferred layer of faces from People Magazine.  On my way to somewhere.  

A theme developing.   

Dangerously near my daughter’s home in Studio City, Ca, sits an inviting Paper Source store.  I walk past it every time I walk the dog or go to Starbucks.  I can’t resist their paper.  One of my recent purchases included Tea Cups Wrapping Paper…

beautiful enough to frame.  I cut out several repeats of the cups, adhered them to my textured spread, and added my own marks to them to own them.

The idea of tea seemed too placid to go with the expressions on the faces on my page, but coffee definitely had the possible impact.  I Googled for images related to coffee including the chemical makeup, the botanical, and various health reports.  To place all these pics on the pages while preserving the background, I printed them on transparency, then cut and glued them with medium.  

Finding the right snippet of words finishes off the spread,

  A peak at my work space with the invaluable Ranger Craft Mat.

Mixed Media Mayhem - Where Next?

Today's journal entry presents a long standing dilemma - Where next?  It’s a question my friends always ask when I come home from an adventure.  Like everything else, there is no long range plan. Something pops up and it becomes a destination. I have not been to Sub-Saharan Africa so this page is a possible answer to the dilemma.  

What’s more fun than a bunch of new tools to try.  An entire book of textured wallpaper with shapes ideal for Gelli printing and a new assortment of stencils gave me stimulus overload. Focus, focus, I chose the circles and ovals for positive and negative printing with Pebeo Studio Acrylics Iridescent Orange.  

Once the Gelii plate is on full speed, I can’t stop so I made a lot of prints on deli paper that I could use for collage.  Some of the deli paper became the translucent circles that I glued on top of my original prints.  

I loved my background and left it unadorned for weeks.  

When my Grand Circle Travel brochure came, I found the images and message I needed.  I fussy-cut the animals and strung together the message.  

The final touch was an old gelli printed mask of a giraffe I had used in one of my classes.  

Mixed Media Mayhem - Ode on a Chinese Napkin

I have a fascination, maybe an obsession, with the Asian aesthetic evidenced by all the treasures gathered on my numerous travels to the region.  So when I attended a cocktail party where the hostess set an Asian motif, I secretly hoarded several of the napkins.  I wanted to preserve the beauty of this little piece of paper in my journal, but I wanted it to be more than a napkin overlay.  To prep the background I used gel medium to adhere several layers of tissue paper.  Separating the napkin pattern from the other layers, I glued it to the surface to set a scene spanning both pages.  To make it my own, I added drawings of the motifs to complete the picture and I stamped and collaged Asian images. I used Faber-Castell Big Brush Markers and Intense pencils to match to colors.  My favorite part is the Chinese ginger jar.  Blue and white has always been a favorite color scheme, almost rivaling teal and Chinese red.