Journal Time

Was journal time today-was feeling way off kilter- we had a storm early Thursday morning with 100mph winds and it took out some of our trees- that is always heartbreaking to me and then backbreaking dealing with it all and then the crazy week politically - it's almost hard to escape it- so needed my safe place to work in. This title is Shortcut- It is about many things but the quote is from what Orly Avineri said in the class I was in of hers in April- wow can it be that long ago already? I had not set out to do this but it is what came out and I am feeling good about it. I am starting to get more comfortable using my own face in my work- I struggle as I was told that doing that was vain ( thank you mother- I believed you for years) I have to say I am looking and reading Erin Faith Allen's incredible book The Underneath-( and by the way that book is nothing short of deep and she has bared her soul) reading of her doing self portraits has stuck with me. So thank you Orly Avineri https://oneartistjournal.com/ and thank you Erin Faith Allen. http://www.erinfaithallen.com/

 

New Book!

I am excited as a project I was a part of just came out in a book.  Art art pals, John Arbuckel http://artjuvenation.blogspot.com/ Brian Kasstel  http://www.briankasstle.com/ and Thomas LaBadia https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasoo/with/10915962744/ were a part of this.  Author and artist Jill K. Berry had put out a call for proposals for a book she was doing Making Art from Maps.  John and I brainstormed and came up with a mail art project.  We were planning a Creative Gents (that's what we call ourselves ) retreat here in Bemidji at my home.  So we made mail art postcards  and I made articulated art dolls of us using maps from where we are from- Thomas altered our faces in Photoshop. This was over a year ago we did this project.  The retreat here did happen last year June 2015.  The first Photo is the book cover then are some shots of the dolls and my post card I made.  This was such a fun project.  The book is full of map awesomeness - some how-to projects and a great gallery of map art done by artist from all over the world.

 John

 Thomas

 Brian

 Terry

 Terry with Bemidji Postcard he made.

 Front side of the postcard Terry made.

 Backside of Terry's postcard

My three pals

A Celebration of a Milestone

I realize often when I share my spreads here they are often  dealing with some difficult feelings or experiences. Today I want to share my happiness with you as I celebrate my 40th anniversary with the most wonderful man. Still finding it hard to believe that it has been that long. The journey has been an amazing one- yes there was the occasional flat tire here or there but I am so very blessed. I want to thank all of you as well- because friends play a big role in our relationship.  Here is a quote that I love about an anniversary:
“The most wonderful of all things in life, I believe, is the discovery of another human being with whom one's relationship has a growing depth, beauty, and joy as the years increase. This inner progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing; it cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a sort of divine accident, and the most wonderful of all things in life.”

 Hugh Walpole, Sr.

Love Will Get Us Through

I can't find who wrote this but I feel it is well said:
 Do not pray for Orlando. If you're going to pray for anyone, pray for the members of Congress (111 Republicans - 2 Democrats) who voted against hate crimes legislation to help protect gay people. Pray for the politicians who stepped over the bodies of your dead children to collect campaign contributions and kick backs from gun lobbies. And pray for the multitude of Americans, who despite yet another mass shooting, will still deny we have a gun problem in this country. Pray for them. They need it more. The dead don't need your prayers.

Such a devastating event- 50 people dead- and so many injured- scarred emotionally and physically. Had to seek shelter in my journal to process. So many are targets- women, people of different races- and LGBT people. The hate is hard to understand let alone be one of the targeted groups. Letting my friends love pour into me. I had to get my feeling put into a visual form. Hug the ones you love and be kind to all you can- The only way I can survive this is with love. I send my love out to you all.

May Already

I can't seen to get on a regular schedule of posting on this blog. I went to California in mid-April and was gone for a week.  I took a class with my art pals Brian Kasstle and Thomas LaBadia-   The class was taught by an amazing woman- Orly Avineri. https://oneartistjournal.com/.  The class was three days: The Visual Journal as Sanctuary .  I have yet to photograph the work from that- we altered old passports- the one I found for the class I found on Ebay- a man's passport from Greece 1951.  We made these into our own personal stories.  Orly teaches all over the world- this was one of the few  classes she taught in her home.  These first photos are from that.

Thomas and Brian and I spent the rest of the week together- we went to the Broad Art Museum in LA and that was amazing.  We also had time to work in our journals together.  The following pictures are of journal spreads I created while there and the last one is a spread I did after I got back as a tribute to the wonderful time.

A new Book Collaboration

I am starting an accordion book collaboration with Julia Dean.
She is a wonderful artist living in Australia. I think these book collaborations are like a collaborative journal where we both work in the books. I have done many of these and find it to be challenging and exciting. For those new to this idea- I make 2 books- one will be for her to start and I start one- I mail it to her she finishes mine and starts hers then mails my finished one back to me along with her start- I finish it and mail it back to her so we each get a completed book with both of us having worked on them. My start on the inside is my response to all the hate and hateful legislation being passed in this country. The other side is about us each carrying our own idea of what home means inside us. I will show each side flat and standing up as it can.

Fear, Anger and Sadness

The fear is from the tone in this country- seeing how many actually are supporting the evil that spews from the devil spawn known as Trump. The anger is: The North Carolina legislature has called a special session for Wednesday to overturn Charlotte's recently passed nondiscrimination ordinance that provides much-needed protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) residents.  The hate that is growing in this country is very scary.  The sadness is my husband and I just returned from being with his sister to say goodbye.  She died on Sunday.  It's hard to process and deal with all these strong emotions all at the same time.

I did this journal spread over a year ago but it still  expresses my feelings.

These two spreads were done in the last week.