Mixed Media Mayhem - Joy of Reading... in Bed

This layout began with the accidental collusion of a pack of flash cards delivered from Key Lime Supplies on Etsy, some old paint strips, and some interesting scraps from a quilting magazine.

It celebrates the joy of reading, but not just any reading...reading in bed. Since a cold winter in Wellesley drove me to the third floor to escape the black chill of nighttime, I have gravitated to the bed.  I eat breakfast there, I sew there, I draw there, I play with the dogs there, I take my online there, I even eat there.  This is a confession or a justification.

To begin, I had gessoed the pages some time ago and used them as mopping up.  I added some magazine cutouts to start a flow. In my stash I had piles of paint charts from which I had cut circles for a first grade project at the museum,  I played with placement.

I decided try weaving the French flash cards and the paint chips.  I found three that worked with my theme.  Also stenciled some iridescent turquoise squares around the pages and a page of dictionary text to balance on the right page.

To go with my theme I wanted some old postcards I had stored somewhere that pictured women reading, but, alas, I could not find them.  So I substituted a clip art image of a pretty serious looking gal.  I added some cut out letters which looked boring until I traced around theme with some pearly dimensional paints.  

I added my journaling to commemorate the rationale for my page.  This whole exercise was really fun, and I did not do it in bed.

Mixed Media Mayhem - Documented Life - Coming into Focus

March Theme   Making Your Mark (Doodles & Mark Making)

March 21   Art Challenge:  As a Focal Point         Journal Prompt:  Coming into Focus

One of the things I love about using art journal prompts is the problem solving.  I love the challenge of a puzzle, finding the answer to a problem.  This week's Documented Life Project became fascinating as I sought to bring this together.  I started with the idea of my focal point.  So many possibilities.  I wanted to use a stamp I carved or a silkscreen I had made.  Going through my little suitcase of screens I came across a set of Wonder Woman images that I made from a postage stamp. I had used Photoshop to manipulate the pop comic image to give it the appearance of a rubber stamp. I used EZ Screen to convert a transparency of the image to a silk screen. First I had to have a background which I put together from the graphic liners to envelopes.  I had so many of these that I prepared two spreads...stayed tuned.

Next I looked at the comic book image of WonderWoman, observing the colors and patterns.

Using a Prima Stencil I added blue dots to the whole page.

Next I needed to add some marks that would convey the energy in the comics and I needed to use the vibrant colors, red, yellow,blue, and black. BAM. SLAP, CRASH. I saw a video (forget source) where a puddle of ink was flicked with the fingers to randomly color the page.  I used my black Dylusions ink for this.  With a series of stencils from Crafters Workshop, I added graphics in the primary colors to emulate the comic book feel.  I practiced the skills taught in Dina Wakeley's ART JOURNAL FREEDOM to balance colors and to show movement...I used Faber Castell Pens and Liquitex Basics  to fill in the stencils adding the red one last to pull page 1 and 2 together.

 Next came the focal element which I screened in Golden carbon black and embossed with black.

 Almost done.  But my lettering doesn't show intensively enough and my focal image is a little lost.

I changed the lettering to make it bolder, added a little arrow made out of printed deli paper to integrate the page, used gesso to bring out her face.

 Finally as I was cleaning up I found an old horoscope in the pile of papers on the worktable.  A perfect find...Seredipity.

 "Focus on whatever will bring out the greatest returns.  Use your insight and experience to guide you."

Mixed Media Mayhem - Birds of a Feather

People tend to think of Florida as an environment with no major seasons, but  living here for fifteen years I have observed subtle changes or natural events that mark the year into pieces.  For example, the live oak trees that shade my yard have a cycle starting in January when they lose about one third of their leaves which I rake day after day, followed by flowering and dropping pollen that coats the windows, cars, and patio. Then by March the blossoms have died and fall in brown masses that fill the pool, stain the deck, and and block up the bromeliads.  Finally the new green leaves come out and a new season is here. This Spring like season is enhanced by the return or conspicuous presence of a variety of birds.  Walking back from the mail box, I saw that I have a woodpecker nest in a hollow place in one of the oak branches.  Washing dishes, I watched several cardinals frolicking in the viburnum.  Reading on the the pool deck, I was distracted by the loud exclamations of black birds that swooped from limb to limb.  All of this bird watching reminded me of the joy I experienced when I lived in New England, and after a lengthy snow season I spotted a blue jay in the forsythia bush...an image that still seems vivd after more than twenty five years.  To commemorate this happiness of impeding spring, I made this journal entry, Birds of a Feather, joining other mixed media artists on Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - Birds of a Feather.

Part of the fun of journaling is searching or creating the images to focus the page.  I love antique postcards and combed Graphics Fairy until I came upon this sweet image of the Tufted Titmouse.  I found the nest in my Dover files.  To make a background I covered the pages the birds' egg blue tissue paper followed by a heavy layer of Golden crackle paste.  As it dried the crackle paste chipped like broken eggs shells.  Some blue Japanese paper, a postal stamp and my Haiku-like poem writtne with Faber Castell big pen marker on white tissue paper completed this page for me.  It makes me happy.

Mixed Media Mayhem - Bucket List -

I really don't believe in "bucket lists."  They seem so ominously final.  But I'm always planning the next getaway and my choices are narrowing.  I've been many places and some places are just off limits now.  So I set some priorities for now.  When I was making my journal page for #The Documented Life Project, Layers You Will Love, Under Cover, I made two sets of backgrounds from the same materials.  This is a fun exercise to see the various directions you can take.  I use Cavallini wrapping paper from Paper Source, some tissue paper, Distress Inks, Walnut ink, and matte medium.

I have several boxes of travel ephemera including hotel, train, and plane stickers.  I wanted to use these (UP...not quite).

On the right side I added a tag that had my general list.  On the left, I added a vintage envelope folded with my journaling inside.  I added lots of postage and cancelation stamps.  

The final spread is like a piece of vintage luggage.

Compare this to the final collage made from the same background for the DPL.

Mixed Media Mayhem - The Documented Life - Borderline

March Theme       Making Your Mark (Doodles & Mark Making)

March 14               Art Challenge:  Borders

Journal Prompt:  "Borderline feels like I'm going to lose my mind."

I am not much for doodling except in the phone book but I can identify with the condition, borderline, I feel like I'm going to lose my mind.   So I let this journal page combine some of my ways of making marks and using journaling as a device for relaxation.  My finished spread does not have a border but it is borderline.

For a random start I gessoed the page then spritzed it with yellow, turquoise, and green Dylusions Ink and blotted it with a paper towel.

Seeing the overspray on the towel reminded me of my collection of dyed paper towels...(yes tha't right...paper towels are gorgeous when loaded with paint or dye.)  I pulled out a pile and began tearing them into pieces.

I found one sheet that I love for the background and the beauty of paper towels is you always have two of a kind as you pull the layers apart.  I glued the whole pieces down to the pages

I see a floral patten so began tearing circles to represent blooms and glueing them to work with the existing pattern in the background.  As I glued them down I crumpled them for texture then went back in to add gold to the centers.

As the piece came together it reminded me a Chinese floral painting so I added my journaling vertically to simulate calligraphy seals.

When I felt finished I used a Gelato to to around the outside edge to comply with the challenge of making a border.

Mixed Media Mayhem - #The Documented Life - Surviving the Elements

March Theme

Making Your Mark (Doodles & Mark Making)

March 7

Art Challenge:  As A Layer Element

Journal Prompt:  Surviving the Elements

Thinking about mark making, I was reminded of my efforts to learn Chinese calligraphy.  In a cold classroom in Yangshou I used a traditional brush and black ink to make swooping gestures that in no way looked like those of my master teacher.  After buying stencils and stamps, I was still not satisfied.  My solution was to actually trace characters from a  book and cut them into my own stamps.  I choose words like patience and compassion that were useful in conveying a message. None of my stamps worked for this project based on Elements. I remembered my first day in my 2003 trip to China where Beijing was blanketed with white snow and the sky was actually blue....so unusual.   I asked several people how to say "snow" and "sunny."  Some people wrote it down for me.  I dug these papers out of my travel stash(did I tell you I never throw anything away)  and committed to writing these characters on my page.  Serendipitously, I received a set of Chinese flash cards from Etys' Key Lime Supplies just this week and at the art show last weekend,  a vendor gave me a Chinese umbrella in my drink. All coming together.

I always begin with a nice coat of gesso and notes about the prompt.  

Along with my commitment to use it up...all the good stuff in my stash which would actually take about 50 years and I am 70...I pulled out some precious Japanese paper to tear and paste to the page to give a loose background.

I used a calligraphy brush to write xui, snow, and sunny in  my best interpretation of the actual calligraphy.

Next I looked in my huge collection of Chinese art postcards and museum catalogues to pick out an image that reflected the elements.  I chose a wintry scene, "The Rising Sun" by Zhang Lin.   I liked the lines of the whit trees and the round orange circle.  I tore the sides to blend it better and glued it with matte medium.

I choose several of my flash cards, "sunny," "warm," "conditions," "thunder." and 'snow" and glued them in a rhythmic pattern. Here is one detail...

I wanted to balance the sun on the right so I used the small drink umbrella on the left.  I added my journaling to talk about how the elements I survived in my Florida garden compared to surviving in the environment of my former home state, Massachusetts.

Here is the whole spread put together.