Category: art books

Mary Book Flip Through

https://youtu.be/BZTaF1LYNdE

Every year, my daughter’s school hosts a big gala and it’s the biggest, and most crucial, fundraiser of the year. At the gala, there are auction items and all of the families donate items. This year, I made this junk journal with the theme of the Blessed Mother. It’s going into a package with other devotional items. I’m packaging the book with a couple of nice pens, and a note about the book and how one might use it. I’m pretty excited and really hope that the winner loves it.

Jingle Journal Pages (Batch 1)

I had intended to make something or work on my journal during this unseemly hour of the morning, but instead, I am sharing some work I’ve been doing for the past week or two. Dawn Sokol runs a class each holiday season that focuses on journaling to help process the holiday season and winter. It’s a great class that I’ve taken a couple of times in the past. Here is some of my work, along with some works in progress, that I have so far.

It’s a homemade book, set up in the style of a travelers notebook, using elastic bands to keep in each signature. The pages are made of old cereal boxes, magazine pages, old Christmas cards, cardstock, regular ole white heavyweight paper, and more. Some of these pages are still works in progress, mostly needing some doodling and journaling. #JingleJournal2021

  • cover of first signature
  • just some fun trees
  • random page with doodling to match the wrapping paper scraps I used
  • journaling between checking on dinner and watching the parade
  • unfinished page listing what I’m grateful for
  • on the left, a page setting my intention for the journal/class. on the right, a page where I intend to vent when I get overwhelmed and stressed
  • I was making a list of people who get wee gifts to show our appreciation (list unfinished)
  • an Advent calendar page where I add one thing each day
  • just a fun collage page I did because I couldn’t wait for the class to start
  • my Christmas icon, when I thought about it, seems to be ornaments
  • the theme for this page is Wish. I plan to hide my little wishes underneath the Christmas card, as it’s a little tuck spot
  • do I have Christmas spirit? not sure, especially since the page is unfinished
  • we learned about higgle (pronounced “hooga”) and I listed what I find to be appropriate for that word
  • a faux chalkboard doodling page

Journal Pages: Walk (WIP)

So, I’ve decided that this isn’t finished and that I can do some more pen work on it. It’s in my France journal and it reflects on a day our group spent walking around a little town that’s referred to as “Village of Books” or something similar. It was lovely. When I think about going back to France, I think about days like this and how much I want to have that feeling again.

The Sketchbook Project

Today, I mailed back to Brooklyn my submission for The Sketchbook Project. I am giddy beyond words about the prospect of being a part of a traveling exhibit like this. And to have my stuff archived in their library? HUGE!


And, because I can’t just see the positive in anything (ha!), I’m also a little disappointed in myself because somewhere in the middle of the project, I lost steam and ended up rushing through the book near the end. I don’t think it helped that this project spanned two months over the holidays, but it was a really good exercise for me and I’m glad I participated. And as if luck would have it, the postmark deadline was moved to today, rather than last Saturday, so I had a little more time to work on it. 🙂


I uploaded my favorite pages to my flickr account:



Despite being disappointed with a bunch of the work I did in this book, I’m especially pleased with a good amount of the work. I gave myself permission to play, to doodle, to be silly and childlike. I scanned my favorite pages, which are in the flickr set here. I particularly love the happy accident that is the first picture in the above slideshow. She’s a little pink girl, who I found in a random watercolor scribble. She reminds me so much of my niece, Devin, in her Christmas photo from 2003, when she was almost a year old:


Devin, December 2003

 

Just for context: Devin just turned 8, is in 2nd grade, is an awesome artist, is about to make her first communion and has brown eyes now…

 

My other favorites in the slideshow are:

– the papertowel I used to clean some brushes (I save everything), which ended up looking like a mountain range. I collaged it onto the page  over some book page scraps.

– the little running doggie. I want to practice more of the watercolor scribbling — I’ve been doing that a lot on my own, but my class a few months ago with Carla Sonheim really “enabled” me.


So, that’s my story for today. Happy January, folks!


My arthouse co-op profile is here.


More info on The Sketchbook Project.

Excited About “Interiors”

Oh HELL no, I did not let another month go by without posting! Criminey!!

Beer on the half shell

It’s Wednesday afternoon, just a couple of days before Christmas, and all is quiet at Poudre Studio Artists & Gallery at Poudre River Arts Center. Only one other artist is working in her studio and the gallery has had a few visitors, giving me plenty of time to work. I’m doing two pieces for our February show, “Interiors.” One is an ode to the Barbie Townhouse I never had and the other is an ode to all of the shorehouses I’ve stayed in during my visits to the Jersey shore.They are coming along really well and I’m getting pretty excited about them. This photo is a part of the shorehouse shrine and I call it “beer on the half shell”.

The show was inspired by the book Mixed Media Dollhouses by Tally Oliveau and Julie Molina.

When I was a child, I always loved making things for my dolls; I had a dollhouse in progress when my friend Eliza showed me the book. We all talked about it here at the center and naturally, we organized a show!

There is still time to enter your work in “Interiors”, if you have a mind to. You do not need to be a Colorado resident in order to join in the fun. You may have already-completed pieces that fit the theme and that are dying for a new audience.