August Already

I am amazed at how quickly time passes.  I can really tell the summer is moving as it gets darker much earlier now.
This is a journal spread I completed a couple of days ago.  There is something about working in my journal that is so comforting.  It's where I can express my feeling and try new things.  The skull in the lower left is an image I was drawn to- and yes while we associate a skull or skeletons with death I feel it does represent other kinds of death- like the end of a bad habit or a way of thinking.  I tried out doing some transfers on this spread- the black & white drawings of face parts were transferred to the blank spread and then I painted over.  Like most of my journal spreads I had no real idea in starting out and that is why I love journaling.  I just jump in and start painting.

Taking ANother Class

This suite of little collages I made this afternoon as an assignment for an online class I am taking from Randel Plowman. http://acollageaday.blogspot.com/ I enjoyed his first class so much I decided to take his second one. It's always fun to get assignments that push me to do something I may not do on my own. The other nice thing is meeting the other people in the class and like his first one- people from all over the world really. These are 5 inch square collages- they were to be color collages- I did the 3 primary and the 3 secondary colors.

Round Robin Journal

I wanted to share a spread in a journal I just finished. This was done in Irene Rafael's journalhttp://irenerafael.blogspot.com/- it's part of a round robin journal group that John Arbuckle orgaized- http://artjuvenation.blogspot.com/so of course John is in it and Irene and myself and Brian Kasstle http://apaperbear.wordpress.com/and Jacki Long http://jackilong.blogspot.com/and Michele Rawlings. We all made the same size and kind of journal.  We each started by doing a spread in our own journal and then mailed it on.  John organized the mailing schedule. This project is nearing it's completion. At the end of next month we will all get our journals back full of Wonderful pages.  The extra challenge was having the mini-spread inside the regular spread. The first photo shows the journal standing up. Then the next is the left half of the spread- then the right side and the last one is the center of the mini-spread.

Finally A Post!

It can't believe it has been since June 21st.  The time sure has been going fast.  I have been doing studio work but just not posting.
I had a wonderful visit from a very dear friend, Thomas LaBadia.  https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasoo/  Thomas is from Florida and enjoyed our cooler temps.  We had several great studio days together.  We made journals, did Gelli printing, did some journaling together and lots more.  Here are some pictures.  It was such a magical time.

 Some hiking in Lake Bemidji State Park

 Our completed journals

 Fun mess making!

 Gelli prints

 My journal spread using prompts from each other

 Tom's Journal spread using prompts

 My mixed media portrait of Tom

Tom's mixed media portrait of me

June Artist Trading Cards

I am slowly getting my myself into the studio more- I like when I feel like I have my rhythm back.  It has taken some time but I am almost caught up on my art collaborations.  I completed my Artist Trading Cards for June.  I find these still to be such fun. The theme was the color blue.  The backgrounds are cut up Gelli prints.

A Fun Postcard Collaboration.

I was in a very fun postcard collaboration with my three art pals.  John Arbuckle,http://artjuvenation.blogspot.com/ Brian Kasstle, http://apaperbear.wordpress.com/ and Tom LaBadia, https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasoo/.  We each started with 4 postcards from where we are from.  Then they made the rounds until all had worked on them.  Because Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox are a very big thing here in Bemidji I picked postcards that featured them.  The next challenge will be to decide who gets which ones.

Sometimes Life is Hard

It has been a long time since I posted last.  Much has happened- it has been hard for me to get in the studio some times.  Last month my brother was diagnosed with lung cancer- he had one lobe removed- I flew out to be with him for the surgery and for a few days afterwards.  Nothing like a wake-up call to be living the life you want now cause all we have is this moment right now.
I am very behind on several art collaborations but I am making progress.  Here is a set I completed with Scott Hall and Carol White.  The first panel Scott did the top and Carol did the middle and I finished it with the bottom.  The next one Carol did the top- I did the middle and Scott did the bottom.  The last one in this series had me on top and Scott in the middle and Carol did the bottom.