Play!

So much to do and so few hours in the day!  That's how I feel.  Before talking about today, here's what I did yesterday.

I spent the start of yesterday listening to a great podcast between Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Ronda Palazzari.   Julie has started a series called "Adventures in Arting," and Ronda was her first guest.  Ronda will be Carolyn Dube's and my first guest on Fall Fearless & Fly, the "art cleanse" starting 10/1 on Artists in Blogland.  It was so interesting to hear Ronda's and Julie's perspectives on fear of failure, and what exactly is success, as this is so much what the fall challenge is all about.  As I listened, I stenciled the cover of my new stencil storage book.  Ronda had a great tutorial on her blog about this, and I was so excited to try it.  I love how it turned out, and it's so nice to have all my stencils stored in one place!  I used regular craft and fluid acrylics, and am loving all the colors.

 

When I was done with the stencil journal, I had paint left over on my palette.  I HATE to waste paint!  So I smeared it into my art journal:

and layered over the background with Julie's Leaf Frame and Dyan Reavely's Distressed Harlequin stencils:

Smeared more leftover red and green paint on copy paper and then cut the papers up to make hearts, stems and leaves, to create this page.  Yesterday, I only had 3 students in my 4:30 yoga class because it was back to school night in our area.  Because it was such a small group, we were able to really take time and delve deeply into the poses.  I was able to give each of them a lot of individual attention and hands-on adjustments.  I felt like I was of great service to them -- I helped them get a better understanding of their bodies and breath through very detailed work.  They were so grateful, and I was so grateful.  And this made me happy.  Love truly grows by giving.

Two days ago I received a monthly package from Scarlet Lime studios, which contained a set of Maya Road chip board doorways.  I haven't used chip board in my work, and was a little mystified as to what to do.  So I did a little online research and found this great tutorial by Natalie Kalbach for this beautiful canvas:   

 

I took a canvas I had previously painted but didn't like, and added some stencils, sponging, splattering, etc.  I was pretty random with this.  I knew this layer was going to be behind, and peek through the openings in the doors.

 

Then I used a sponge to texture paint onto 12 doors:

I typed this saying:  "be an opener of doors...every exit is an entrance to somewhere else" using the American typewriter font and printed it out on white card-stock.

 

I added black and white detail on all the doors and windows, as well as some stenciling with TCW's mini-heringbone and mini-hexagon stencils (designed by Balzer Designs),  to add more texture.   

The numbers across the top are plaquettes by Tim Holtz.  I used "82" in honor of my dad - who is a young and vibrant 82 and still plays a mean game of tennis!  (I didn't use one for my mom's age because she likes to keep that a secret.)    UPDATE  - I want to make clear that this is my dad and MY MOM - not me!  I know it's confusing - I am lucky to look a lot like her!

I am busy setting my table and polishing my best silver for the Fairy's Tea Party on Sunday. I hope you'll visit me and all the other artists participating.  One of the commentators to my tea party blogpost will win an original watercolor - you can see and read about it here.

As always, Happy Paint Party Friday, Creative Every Day and Inspire Me Monday! 

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Art Journal Pages

Participating in Dina Wakely's out of the journal challenge has been amazing and also so freeing.  I have definitely conquered my fear of painting on canvas, and am proud of what I've been creating.  My canvas this week memorializes this journey.

Also, creating canvases has helped me return to my art journal for what it it's meant to be - a journal of experiences, experiments, and where I can embrace my creative self without judgment.  Here are some of my pages from the last few days:

Last weekend, I was feeling in such a funk.  It was hard to see the sunshine and feel the beauty of my life.  We had a very busy weekend with too many "to dos" for my liking, and that was part of it.  Also, I was very aware of it being the second to last weekend of the summer.  The thought of packing up and closing our little summer cottage weighed me down.   Even though I could identify the sources of my mood -- stress and genuine sadness, it was hard to kick it.  I had to accept the fact that some days are just blue.  Even though I wasn't in a great mood, I loved the colors of this page.  Here's a close up that captures it more.

I think most moms will be able to identify with the "fly like a butterfly" side of this spread.   As much as we love our kids, sometimes it would be nice to just fly into the sky with no one to be responsible for but ourselves.  I guess it might get a little lonely after a while...  The butterfly page was done with 3 stamps, keeping with Julie and Nathalie's Second Floor Challenge to make a layout using 3 stamps.  First, I stamped the page all over with a Michelle Ward rubber stamp called Graphic Details.  I stamped Artists' Butterfly stamp several times on white copy paper on which I had scraped a pale blue background, painted the butterflies with fluid acrylics, cut 3 out, and pasted them on the page.  Then I used alphabet stamps (don't remember the brand but from Michael's) for the printed lettering.  I hope that still counts as 1 stamp! 

After several days of being blue and snippy to everyone around me, I woke up yesterday and decided: today I will be sweet.  I will not say a mean or grumpy word to anyone.  I will not gossip or be catty or cranky or cross.  And I'm happy to say I went to sleep last night having succeeded in keeping true to my affirmation.  I felt pretty pleased with myself!

Linking up to Dina Wakely's Out of the Journal,  Artists in Blogland, and Paint Party Friday Please visit those blogs and spread some love to the amazing artists there.

Also, A Year in the Life of An Art Journal has just posted a very cool prompt to do a layout where you're speaking to your younger self. I'm definitely going to participate!  And Creative Every Day's theme for September is "Time."  I can't wait to see what people do...

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment.  Hearing from you means the world to me. 

The Wonder of Summer

I am honored to be Artists in Blogland's monthly challenge winner for July.  Thank you!  I love being part of the AIB community.

One of the things I love most about summer is watching my garden.  In the Phantom Tollbooth (one of my favorite books), a conductor leads an orchestra each morning at daybreak and twilight.  But instead of music, the musicians and their instruments play the colors of the sunrise and sunset.   Each season, as first my irises, then my roses, and then my black eyed susans bloom, it is as if somewhere, a conductor, is calling them forth.  It is pure magic, and each season, I marvel in wonder at the beauty of nature.

Coming back to New Jersey from Pine Lake yesterday, the sight of my garden lessened the sadness of leaving the lake.  Here's what greeted me:

 

In honor of summer, and my garden, I painted this canvas.  The words say:  I look in wonder at the magic of everyday life.

 

It's funny -- yesterday I felt so blue.  Perhaps it was knowing I'd be leaving the lake for a while and my vacation was over.  Yesterday, the weather was pristine -- the sky was blue and clear, the humidity low and the sun shining.  And yet, I felt dull and flat. The beauty of the world contrasted sharply with the sourness and impatience I felt inside.  No matter how much I tried to remind myself of the charmed life I lead, I did not feel blessed.  I felt adrift and without purpose.  (I hadn't painted in 3 days...hmm....)  The best I could do was stay quiet and remind myself that things change -- this too shall pass.  Thankfully, it did.  I swam some laps in the lake before leaving, and then was greeted by my beautiful garden upon returning to New Jersey.  Nature has such a way of lifting the spirits.  All was right again!

Artists in Blogland Challenge for August is "Wonder."  Anything Goes' current challenge is "Summer Days."  And Try It On Tuesday's challenge is "Anything Goes."  So I'll be linking up there.  This piece was made with 5 elements:  canvas, acrylic paint, a stencil, stamps and stickers, so I'll also be linking up with The Second Floor Challenge and Out of the Journal.

Here's a tangle for the Diva's challenge this week, which was to use Shelley Beauch's tangle "Brayd."  Zentangle is the name of the game at Inspiration Avenue this week, so linking up there as well.

 

UPDATE:  I had so much fun with Brayd, that I did another.  Again, I couldn't resist using "paradox" inside the triangles -- my pen just wants to go there...  Thanks Shelley for such a versatile tangle!

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Wednesday Mashup & Updates

Wednesday Mashup:  Welcome to Wednesday Mashup, where I make something out of whatever is on my table from the days before.  No thinking, no planning, just clean up by creating.

   Here's what was on my table yesterday:  Lots of medium, scraps of papers, and a playbill from Once on this Island, which we saw at the Papermill last Saturday.  (Yes, there is also deodorant on my desk -- why, you ask?  I don't know.  It's not an art supply!  But ... I am truly showing you what was actually on my desk yesterday morning -- and the deodorant is back in the bathroom.)   We always bring home too many playbills; most end up in the recycling.  But...what if I make a journal out of the playbill?

 

First, glue and staple a bunch of the pages together to thicken them, and then tape the inside seams:

Second, randomly glue down pieces of reclaimed book pages, scraps, old paint experiments -- whatever is on the desk!  Knock back with gesso, and dry thoroughly.

Add paint, stencils, stamps -- whatever is in easy reach.  No planning, just go.  Experiment with color combinations.  Use scraps that didn't fit into anything else.  And voila, a ready to go journal with NO BLANK PAGES. 

 

Don't know yet what I'll use this for, and the cover is still blank, but I will show you when I finish it.  It was fast, furious and fun, and now I know what to do with extra playbills, magazines, etc.!  If you've "up-cycled" something like this, please link to it to share.  And if you know an arty use for deodorant, I'd love to hear it!

30 DAYS IN MY JOURNAL UPDATE:  It's hard to believe that June is almost over.  I'm going to miss the prompts from Run With Scissors so much.  It's been so great to get to know the other artists participating.  The prompt for day 25 was "my wish for you is..." Since school let out, it has been so relaxing for my daughter Samy, age 11, not to have to get up and out the door in a rush.  She has really spread out and been relaxing -- reading a lot, drawing, playing with friends.  She has no schedule until July 17, when she goes to sleep-away camp for 3 weeks.  So I my wish for her was the joy of endless summer.  

I remember well the feeling of the school year ending and the stretch of 2 magical months before the next school year.  That feeling that I could reinvent myself out of the grind of school days.  I could go to camp and morph from a caterpillar into a butterfly before September!  I call this the "power of the pause" -- and even though we are not school kids anymore, it's important to find those pauses -- between sleeping and waking, being in the studio and closing the door/turning off the light to step into other parts of our lives, etc.  Just a moment to stop, take a breath, and remember that we can emerge at any point and at any moment.  

Day 25's prompt continued into day 26 for me.  I took Samy to get a mani/pedi, and had a pedicure myself.  (my hands are a lost cause!)  While on the chair, I drew my feet to memorialize the moment.  They're not the best feet, but they get me where I want to go!  I'm going to link this to Summer of Color and Paint Party Friday too.  Please go check out the amazing art on those two sites!

Second Floor Challenge: Every few weeks, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Nathalie Kalbach challenge you to go beyond your usual limits.  This week's challenge was to use a pencil - whatever that means to you and however that inspires you.  Hmmm - I had already sketched my feet, and honestly, a pencil doesn't do much for me.  It creates marks that I then want to cover over in paint.  But I just bought some cool looking woodless graphite pencils that could be used on their sides for broad strokes, and with the sharp points for detail.  I had started a page with these egg shapes I had cut out of prior experiments.  My initial thought was to turn them into cake pops, or lollipop flowers... but while I was at the town pool,  I started doodling and stroking with the pencils.  I HATED EVERYTHING I DID!  So when I got home, I painted over a lot of it, and the result is at right.  I have a lot to learn about pencil work!  My first thought was to write "Perfection is overrated."  But I like to try to put things in the positive, not negative.  And then I thought that perfection is not something to strive for or aim toward.  It is right here in this moment.  Right here, right now.  And so that's what I wrote!  As always, messy mistakes can lead to magical moments.  So thank you Julie and Nathalie.  In the end, I like my page!

LICENSING NEWS:

I just completed the designs for a new line of "Nibbles n' Nosh"® plates and bowls for Aviv Judaica.  Here are the plates.  Hopefully they will soon be in a store near you!   And... Aviv is re-releasing a latke chef line I designed, which will be available for Hannukah!.  One of the greeting card companies I license to has asked me for some Easter themed designs.  So if you have any inspiration you're willing to share, please let me know!

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

It's a Fab World

 Today's the last day to post a design for the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger, so I wanted to get this design up.  Here's the trigger design: 

 

The colors are definitely "manly," hence the name for the Tuesday Trigger - "Mantastic."  The shape reminded me of both raindrops and flower petals.  So here is what I came up with.  For the Walk, Dance or Just Get Wet design, I created a stencil from a silhouette I found on the internet.  I used the part I cut out as a mask, and sprayed red and blue ink to create a positive and a negative design using  Balzer Designs' blazonry stencil.  Then I stenciled the man using black acrylic, and wrote on him with a Sakura silver gel pen.  It wasn't enough, so I stamped a little, doodled a little, and eventually was happy.  I like how the colors and the shape of the blazonry stencil echo the beautiful rug.  These are color combinations I don't often use.  So I was happy for the challenge.  And I love the saying -- make the best of every situation!

For Run With Scissors June 9 prompt (what would you shout out loud today), I made a background using the colors in the Tuesday Trigger, taking my cue from a great Art Journal Cafe tutorial.    I love this saying.  We can't just sit and wish and dream about our future -- we have to go out and make it.  Seize the day!!

May Your Heart Be As Free As Your Toes

Today's prompt from Run With Scissors was to journal about summer -- what you love most about it.  Summer for me as a child always meant packing up our house and relocating an hour north to Westchester. where we had a bungalow in a small community called Pine Lake Park.  This 65 family community has a lot of history for me -- my grandfather was the first co-op president; my mother started going there at 13; I took my first steps on the beach there; and my parents, aunt & uncle, cousins and siblings and I all have cabins there and continue to summer together.  It's a place where I feel the spirits of my grandparents in the wind and the pine trees, and where my children are growing up with the same sense of family and community that nurtured me.

The first week at Pine Lake always involved walking around barefoot and toughening up our feet, so that we could go without shoes all summer.  Being barefoot all the time symbolized the freedom we had -- running through the park -- our parents knowing that someone was feeding us lunch and the collective community would keep us safe.  At Pine Lake we had, and now my children have, the kind of freedom that kids don't really experience these days.  Now, we're all about play-dates and cell phones and checking in all the time.  For me, summer is about the heart being as free as the toes!

Balzer Designs Second Floor Challenge this week was to use found objects.  For the flower stems in "Summer," I used cable ties.  I have a set of them in bright blue, hot pink, and grass green.  I don't need them to tie up cables, but they're so pretty, I couldn't want to throw them out.  So I used the green ones for the flower stems.  Years ago, I was throwing out some boxes that cushioned new windows for my house.  As I tried to fold them up, they took on the shape of houses and altars.  And after some paper mache, paint, paper and other found objects, here's what happened. Hmmm - I have to get back to that!!

Thanks for visiting!

Taking it to the Second Floor

Julie Fei Fan Balzer posted the Second Floor challenge today, which was to create something inspired by circles using techniques outside of your comfort zone.  What to do?  After sketching, painting, doodling, I was coming up with nothing.  Also, Laura posted her Diva challenge today, which was to do something in sepia tones.  My initial thought was that I wasn't going to participate because one color family, let alone sepia, just isn't my thing.  I LOVE color -- the more the better.  But then, a light bulb went off  --- combine the challenges.  Do something inspired by circles in a color palate outside of my comfort zone.  What would it feel like to limit myself to colors in the sepia family?  And here's the result. 

I started off with a big circle, but then immediately felt confined.  But I decided to press on.  Sepia reminded me of nature, and so I drew a tree.  I've been wanting to draw these chickens ever since I saw them in a Zentangle book.  Using circles (well ovals) in the tree, filling in the grass with more circles, adding lots of gold circles behind the tree, and using circles to border the original circle, was fun and inspired lots of variations.  I went out of the sepia family with touches of green and red, but there's brown mixed in to everything.  I like it!

My takeaways from these challenges:

1.  Never say never.
2.  Experiment with different colors - put aside the tried and true for something different.
3.  Sometimes creativity can emerge from confinement and limitation.

Supplies used: H2O paint, Sakura pens and Koi watercolors.

Challenges

So here I am - new blog - first blog post.  This is a challenge in and of itself.  I feel compelled to write something profound, but instead I am going to jump right in with how I created "One."  This was created in response to two challenges:  Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Second Floor challenge, with asks you to use materials or techniques that are out of your comfort zone, and The Diva's Zentangle Challenge.  Julie's challenge was to create something around the word "Truth," and The Diva's challenge was to create something around Earth Day.  These came together for me in this design.  I knew I wanted to do a design around the word "One."  When I was little, I used to picture the earth from space.  Even then, I knew that we were one organism -- all the beings, nature, etc.  From afar, we were one planet.  But we had the illusion of being all separate.  I wanted to capture this truth.  To begin, I went right to the "Second Floor" to use a technique I saw on a You Tube video that terrified me (I can't find the video but here's a similar technique) -- first I painted my paper with Gesso and then squirted blue, yellow and white acrylic paint onto it.  Then I wiped it all around with a credit card.  This created a very cool background but I had to remind myself to breathe through the lack of control.  Then I placed Julie's chicken wire stencil over it and scrubbed off a lot of the paint, which is a technique from Journal Artista's video here.   On top of this, I glued a bunch of pages torn out of an old book, especially in the middle where the "earth" was going to be.  (All of this is terrifying for me, because I usually work backwards from a pre-conceived image, and here I have to let the art come through me...).  In the center, I sketched out the word "one" and the lotus.  I knew I wanted hands - and my sketches of them were unsatisfying so I created a stencil and pounced them with white and black gesso.  Then the tangling came into play.  To knock back the decoupaged paper, I sprayed and let drip Adirondack Color Wash in Stream -- a technique I've learned from Julie but still find very scarey.  I blotted it with a napkin, and then ended up decoupaging pieces of the napkin onto the paper!  I used a tree stencil for the branches around the earth -- but they looked too stiff so I used a white Signo marker to make lots more swirls and branches.  I'm so happy with how it turned out and thank Julie and The Diva for the inspiration!