Resolutions Revisited

As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

• I intended to be faithful and blog at least once a month, maybe more!
• I intended to be a whirlwind of creativity, madly clipping and doing collage, painting up a storm and sketching everything I saw.
• I intended to make time for more art...to find the slivers of the day and fill them with color.
• I intended... I intended... I intended.

And I guess I did some of it. Well, not the blogging part, which apparently I'm pretty miserable at!

I participated in a tag exchange. Mine is the fish.

I spent an art-filled, snowy weekend in Mineral Point, Wisconsin staying in a historic home with my sisters and Pam. Here's an example of the exquisite corpse books we all worked on.

I made a lot of postcards to mail off to people I've only met virtually through the IUOMA (International Union of Mail Artists).

I redecorated my bedroom, painting the walls with exactly the color of periwinkle I'd been longing for, and finally adding the vintage chandelier. Well, I didn't do the painting, Pam did between cooking meals for her blog!

I went to Taos for a luxurious week of art - making a sketchbook then doing my best to fill it with paintings and sketches. All thanks to one of my fav people, Jill K. Berry.

I've even sketched a bit as part of the Sketchbook Challenge. I haven't kept up with every monthly challenge, but there's still time, right?

I suppose I haven't been the slacker I sometimes imagine myself to be. And I have the good fortune to work in a creative job with creative people surrounding me. I did help to launch a new magazine these past months - I guess that counts especially since I get paid to do it!

And it's only April, right?

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Journal

A while back, my 2 sisters, Pam and I started a traveling art journal. Each of us would do a page or two and then mail or pass it along to the next person on the list.

Here is the box complete with instructions and a 'goodie bag' we're always adding to and taking from.

The page on the left is by my sister Ruth (Corky), the one on the right, by me. Very coordinated if I do say so myself!

Here's one of my first entries.

And one from Pam.

Here are two pages from my sister Carol. For some odd reason, we've all been compelled to create circus-themed art. Hmm...

Here's one of my latest. My attempt at the more abstract.

And one more from my sister Corky.

We still have a lot of pages to finish. And now with my sister moving back to our neck of the woods, it should go much faster!

I highly recommend trying a traveling journal with your friends. It's fun to wrap it up, add goodies to the package and send it on its way. And it's even more fun to crack the box open and see what treasures are inside!

Valley Ridge Art Studio Bliss

What could be lovelier than a weekend spent in the rolling hills of western Wisconsin creating art in a beautiful space with creative people?

I had such an opportunity last weekend when I went to Valley Ridge Art Studio for an amazing workshop taught by the super smart and talented Jill K. Berry called Personal Geographies: Mapping Your Life.

And map we did! Here's an example of the body map we did with layers of vellum telling the story our body holds - with words & symbols.

Then it was on to mapping our brains. I managed to censor most of my darkest thoughts, but that pesky fear of falling had to have it's way!

And then onto a cheerier subject - a map of my basic needs!

Everyone really loved this folded map. We all mapped a place we were familiar with. I chose Wilson Park circa 1977 and even included the pine trees aka the 'make-out woods'.

We created a happy mess. Here's Kathy's artfully arranged work station and glimpse of her amazing mind map loaded with Egyptian imagery.

This is a simple strip map of my journey to Valley Ridge. I decided on a more metaphorical route and took some time after the class finishing this. Here's a hint - don't work on items that require good spelling when you're tired. Can you find the typo? I didn't find it until I was done. Completely. Neat, eh?

This was the largest type of map we did - a timeline. This is a brief history of my life. I didn't bring a lot of personal images to use, so I went for symbolism. It's not what I intended, but I felt like I needed to jump in and just try it and let go of the result.

And finally, the finale... a well-crafted atlas holder to carry our maps home. I had to snag some of Jill's hand-painted paper to use on the cover as a remembrance of this wonderful class.

What did I learn? A whole lot of cartographic history. Jill is a storehouse of knowledge and freely shared stories of stolen maps and history gone wrong with the class. I also learned that my drawing skills are very very rusty. I need to practice! I learned that to enjoy the process and let go of the outcome. I also learned that I can push a car up an icy hill. But that's a story for another day!

Thank you Kathy, Jill and all the wonderful women in the workshop. You made it memorable and spectacular!

Tiny Inspiring Things

If you're like me, you like to walk at dusk and look inside people's houses. Not in a creepy way, but a passing glance as you stroll by and the lights come on.... You see people cooking dinner, watching the news, going about their evening tasks, all alight with purpose and meaning.

Here's a peek inside where I create. It's a little like glancing into the lit window of my mind.

This old wooden box is on the wall, directly to the right of where I sit in our studio (I share the space with my partner). I have a thing for old tins, especially little ones or unusually shaped ones. This box houses a bunch of them, and most of them have little supplies inside.

The 'Lustra' beaver tin (top right) holds the scraps from paper hole punches - hundreds of perfect, tiny colorful circles. And yes, I do use them!

The oblong silver tin on the next shelf down has giant paperclips inside. It was a gift from my mom, who adores objects that are scaled oddly - like miniature books and giant tweezers...tiny little kitchen gadgets and giant paperclips!

The bottom center cubbyhole are two of my favorite tins because they have stars on them. I love stars. In fact, I have a star crown that's encrusted with tarnished metal glitter that I sometimes wear when I'm so moved. Just because...

I also have little favorite things squirreled away and tacked to this box... the tiny celluloid bird that I can't bear to use, a tiny metal lion, foreign coins, a package of vintage razor blades... a changing collection of tiny things that inspire me.

Sow's Ear

At our recent art retreat, my sister Carol and I took a short class by Bernie Berlin called Resist This. I should have known there would be trouble when I looked at the supply list... an iron, rubber stamps... egad - paint AND hot irons? Rubber stamps? I'm so not a 'stamper'.

Here's the recipe...

1. Layer copious amounts of acrylic paint onto quality water color paper. Then crouch in a corner with your heat gun and try to get it completely dry.

2. Stamp your painted page with a rubber stamp using colorless embossing ink.

3. Back to the heat gun.

4. Then layer even more paint on top. Repeat drying process.

Allow me to interject here with the part about how little patience I have with waiting for paint to dry. Add to that the fact that we had paint everywhere by this point... well, suffice it to say we were not being star pupils.

5. Then fire up your iron. I was using an old travel iron that gets hot enough to brand cattle.

6. When your iron is smoking (okay, it shouldn't be smoking apparently - we figured that out by the horrified looks from the other class participants and the instructor's nervous laugh), lay a plain sheet of parchment paper (oh man, was it parchment - please don't follow my instructions!) over your painted page and simply iron, and lift, small areas at a time... simply iron, and lift! Lift quickly...and voila - a batik like pattern should emerge.

Ha.

Okay, at this point, my sister and I had dissolved into laughter and snorting. Each time we'd 'simply iron and lift' the paper would begin to scorch and would not 'lift' but instead leave great streaks of paper on the page. But we soldiered on, and attempted to rescue our work by using wet wipes and water to scrub the paper off of the page. We were quite hysterical (no doubt somewhat fueled by the wine we had before the class..) and I'm pretty sure hugely obnoxious to the people in the class that were merrily creating beautifully patterned pages.

So, we laughed and managed to have a fun time. I ended up with two, count em', TWO pages of 'custom' paper suitable for use in other artwork and collage. Yeah.

The cards you see here are the end product of the paper. The paper is the base for a simple collage.

I call them them Silk Purse Note Cards.

You may call them whatever you like!

(And my apologies to Bernie Berlin, a lovely person who put up with our jackassery with grace!)

Retreat into Inspiration

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans... More like, work is what happens when you'd like to be doing something else! 

My apologies for the lack of posts. I must confess that my creativity as of late (oh, the last two months) has been channeled into solving work dilemmas. But hey, it pays the bills, right?! And I've been producing some amazing creative work from writing to changing up ad campaigns -so that counts!

I am excited to report that there IS a way to make room for more art  - take a retreat! This coming week, my partner and my two sisters and I are retreating to the Raevn's Nest Art Retreat in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. 

I'm looking forward to learning from such luminaries as Michael deMeng, Bernie Berlin, Judy Wise, Jill K. Berry and Laurie Mika. There will be music, mingling, art trades and of course wine. And I'm sure much laughter and shared ideas with my fellow retreaters and my irrepressible sisters!

And then after, an outpouring of posts and photos surrounding my new creations and insights. 

I can only hope...

Lady of the Sea

I can't think of a better way to begin than

 to talk about failure and disappointment. And this is coming from an optimist!

I've included an example of one of my recent disappointments 

- let's call her lady of the sea. This is a great example of having a vision in my head that my hands can't seem to translate. Every layer I added seemed to render it more contrived and graceless. 

I wanted to love her, this lady of the sea. She was supposed to be dreamy and royal. I wanted her to impart an anointed saintliness to the mysteries below. Instead, she lives in the corner of my studio, waiting to be finished and reminding me that you have to just dive in sometimes and start creating. And let go of the outcome. 

I'll finish her some day, or morph her into something else. I'm a big fan of recycling and reusing, so she'll have her day!