My Roots...

My pages for Orly Avineri's Art Journaling Lab, she's changed the name of her weekly art journaling group because it really is more like a lab than a class. I love the new name. This last weeks class was about "Roots". I would have used more photos of family pictures but my printer ran out of ink and I did not have time before class to head out to Staples. At any rate I digress. This has me thinking about different kinds of roots. The roots of behaviors, behaviors we can change, and those that run deep. the roots of life. The roots of fun. The roots of creativity. The roots of excess. The roots of style or taste.

I showed my art journal to my friend Stormy this past week and she said I "defiantly have a style" and my "art tends to be a bit dark." I thought it was amusing and interesting. I've never really thought much about my art journal having a style. What are your "roots"?

Click on any photo for a larger view.

The right side with my ink "roots" of my tree of life. The "trunk" of my tree is made from vintage papers, collage papers, and scrapbook papers, found vintage photos this page courtesy of Orly.

Right hand side. The photo with the pumpkins is yes of me...

Seeing Things in Black & White

A black & white page spread for Orly Avineri’s Art Journaling class in my XL Moleskine journal. Using vintage images, vintage fonts, vintage advertising, decorative tape, white gel pens, Sharpie poster paint pens, acrylic paint. This spread took on a life of it’s own and was very difficult to know when to stop. With Orly’s help I flushed out the face on the left hand side. I liked that the peice was very collaborative and there was a lot of talking over it as it evolved. It also started out with a smaller picture of the man with the beard or I call him M.W.B. The spread contains a secret page can you guess where? The answer is farther down in this post. Blogger is not working to view a larger size. Click on the images on the left hand side under Flickr to view my pages in Flickr and you can see larger sizes there.

It was really fun to work only in black and white and shades of grey. I am not really a black or white thinker… I’ve always been about the shades of grey. How about you?

The left side of my black and white spread for Orly Avineri's Art Journaling group in my XL Moleskine Journal do you see a face?

The right side of my black and white spread. I love the M.W.B. I brought a couple of sizes to the group, Orly liked the larger size and used in her spread for the evening and I used a smaller one, you can see part of Orly's spread here. Can you guess where the secret page is?

Tada, the secret page...

A close-up of M.W.B. This page folds out to reveal more and a secret mini journaling page tucked in. The photo courtesy of ookami_dou on flickr.

My secret journaling page. Enjoy!

Rain, rain, go away...

"Mercy for Haiti"

"Mercy for Haiti" started out very Teesha Moore"ish" and I added the photo of Haiti photo on the right side, from the Los Angles Times newpaper Sunday. The image of our lady of guadalupe is a packing tape image transfer(image from Flickr). Click on any photo for a

close-up.

"Frame of Perspective"

"Frame of Perspective" was done in Orly Avineri's Art Journaling Class this week. We did an interesting crackle finish for the background. I will definatly be doing it again.

Close-up right "Frame of Perspective"

Close-up left "Frame of Perspective"

These are close-ups of the images I chose for our frame of perspective.

January 2010 Calendar

The January 2010 Calendar is for part of a calendar challenge on "the kathryne wheel" blog. I am not sure if I will be continuing the calendar for the rest of the year but it was a lot of fun to do. I used some favorite papers and some hand-made paper we did in a class with Orly Avineri's Art Journal group.

It is currently pouring down rain in Southern California. I born and raised in Montana, and they certainly have some severe weather up there. I have been in southern California since 1984 and am very climatized to the warm weather we enjoy here. I sort of chuckle every time it rains in southern California we have "Storm Watch (fill in year)" on EVERY news channel. We are currently getting a lot of rain here. There is actually flooding in areas of Long Beach, the ground cannot absorb the moisture fast enough. We are actually getting flooding in our area here. I will be home on "Storm Watch" tonight.

A Model Sanitarium...

A Model Sanitarium

"Sometimes I think I need to have my head examined"

"Hands down"

Here are some photos of my explorations in my XL Moleskine journal. No prompts, just what comes to mind when I am left to my own devices and just let go...

Enjoy... please click on any pic for a larger view. Have a creative weekend & get out and make some art. I spent a couple hours enjoying some 74 degree weather here in Long Beach, CA.

I couldn't take it any longer....

I could not take it any longer... our house is holiday crazy... I had to do some artwork, besides cards, etc...

Orly had been urging me to start a larger journal and it kept nagging in the back of my mind. I took a half hour and played with some Liquitex paints, my XL Moleskin 11 1/2 X 16 1/2 and this is my results... enjoy! It REALLY feels good to work larger! This is the inside cover and first page done as backgrounds. Enjoy and have a wonderful holiday!