ArtiphyTheHeart

Little Pages

Most of my time is taken up with painting.  I work around a painting in layers, section by section.   While one section dries I work on another, then I go back and add more layers, fleshing it out.  This is slow, satisfying work.  I spend a lot of time thinking about it while I paint, and I take breaks often.  I love this slow work that takes a days, weeks, or months to complete.  But I also have a real need to finish something in a day for the pat-on-the-back that a sense of completion brings.  

This isn't the reason I work in a tiny collaged book that will morph into an art journal.  I do it because I love it, and because it provides a home for some very luscious snippets that really shouldn't end up in the dust bin.  But working in a tiny book does have the added benefit of quick accomplishment, especially when it's broken up into tasks, such as collage and paint today, embellish and journal on another day.  

Here are a couple of 2 page spreads from my tiny collage book.  They have a very unfinished look partly because they are unfinished, and partly because they haven't yet been sewn into book form.  Working this small, it's much easier for me to collage and embellish the pages, then sew and journal later.  If you click HERE, you can see a post that puts the size of these tiny pages into perspective.  The pages are 3" X 4-1/2".  The book is the one I'm holding in my hand in the first photo when you click the link, and also in the last photo when you scroll down. 

I've also been spending a lot of time reading.  I'm a big fan of Haruki Murakami, and I'm finding that his book1Q84 is unputdownable.  I work more smoothly when I'm in the middle of really good fiction.

And last but not least, there's a new post up on ArtiPhybers.  Click HERE and take a look.

Shorts Book

Here's another first book for those who are learning bookbinding.  Once again, even though I've made these in the past, I'm so glad to have the refresher course because there's so much I'd forgotten.  I had to ask for clarification that my page-turning was in the correct order, but it turns out that I got it right.

This is another book constructed from a single sheet of paper.  I used 98# Canson mixed-media paper, a heavier weight for this book than the last because there were fewer folds, and I didn't want the watercolor and ink to bleed through the pages.  It worked. I prepared the paper by spraying a light solution of gouache over a few of stencils on both sides.  I ground some ink and used the wet side of a sheet of sumi-é paper to make a few brush sketches.  When I realized that I had done nine cats, I got the idea for Nine Lives.

The cats were randomly sketched all over the paper, so I tore them out and added some gouache to the edges.  Pages three and four open up and down.  There are four folds and two sides, so eight pages in all.  I decided to use these up and down pages to add the ninth cat.

The chop I used says "long life".  It's a traditional chop carved from soap stone and I inked it with the traditional toxic red chop ink that takes forever to dry.  I zapped it with a hairdryer to speed things up, but I think it will take the full few weeks before it sets, regardless.  In the meantime, I blotted it a bit, then separated the pages with waxed paper.

This book is part of a project that some members of Artists Of The Round Table are working on.  We plan to make 100 books using Alisa Golden's bookMaking Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures & Forms as our guide.  

If you'd like to see all posts of the books I'm making for this project, scroll up to the top of this page, click on "Archives", then click on "Making Handmade Books Workshop" from the category menu.  

Tools: A DIY Tabletop Easel

I'm sure that there are things we all share and don't share on our blogs and on the web.  I choose to share my collage and bookbinding on this blog, but don't share my paintings, even though painting is what I do primarily.  I have a large floor easel that makes it easy to work standing, and I prefer to stand when I work.   If I had a studio of 14' walls, I'd work against them with a ladder.  The bigger, the better.

But in December I got the flu which seemed to settle in one knee, and I can't work standing on crutches.  One very famous artist said, "The size of our spaces determines the size of our work".  The size of my space is temporarily my table top.  But when I'm painting a subject, I like my substrate standing vertically, not laying flat on the table.  I've looked at table top easels in art stores with only slight interest, but now that I could really use one, I don't want to walk through the long, narrow isles on crutches to pick one out.  

We were always encouraged to make our tools in art school, so I thought I could probably come up with something functional if I put my mind and hands to work.  I found these plans on the web, but I didn't have the necessary wood or hardware at hand, and it was a trip to the store -- any store -- that I was trying to avoid.  So, I grabbed a small box with all of its six sides intact:  A shipping box from amazon.com which was perfect, since I needed something about the size of a large book. Fortunately, it came with a separate piece of notched corrugated cardboard inside, the perfect size to support a small piece of canvas, then I assembled the "tools" that I thought I'd need.

I cut the yellow tape covered riser from a box flap, notched it, and cut a slot in the middle of the back of the box to accomodate it.  It promptly flopped over.  So I removed the middle portion of the yellow tape, and inserted a wooden chopstick through it vertically, then replaced the tape.  Now it stands upright and holds itself perfectly.  I did go inside the box and tape the inserted portion of the riser to the back of the box to hold it steady, then I taped the box shut.  And, you can see that I taped the box to the countertop.  This is really important because it is so light weight that you could move it just by pushing with a paintbrush.  Taping it down is all that's needed to take care of this problem.

I was lucky that this piece of notched corrugated cardboard was inside the box, but I could have cut one just like it from another box if I had needed to.  I cut two slots on either side of the box to hold the notches.  Disregard the slot in the middle.  It was a mistake I made when I originally thought that was a good place for the back riser.  

Not such a good idea to paint with wet media with only the corrugated cardboard behind the substrate.  It might get soaked, and the bumps would transfer.  I had a piece of 10" X 10" plexiglass, so I taped it in place.  It works perfectly.  You could substitue any number of things, such as a small cookie sheet or other piece of flat metal.  I had thought to laminate several pieces of museum board to each other, then seal them with multiple coats of acrylic, sanded smooth.  But then I remembered the plexiglass and realized I didn't have to go to all that work.

I do lay a piece of waxed paper over the top of the box to catch spills and keep the box dry when I paint.  It's only an issue when I purposely go for drippy effects.  

Works beautifully for my purposes, and I didn't have to shop for anything.  Once the brain work was done, I think it took me about 20 minutes to assemble.

A Handbound Book, Start To Finish

Here's a pic of my latest book:

My friend and art partner Rita loves Canson mixed-media paper and in watching her work with it, I've noticed how well it takes wet media and glue without buckling.  It's also smooth and bright white which I like for most drawing and illustration work.  It holds its fibers and keeps them out of my Rapidograph, so it's the paper I chose for the signatures in this book.  

I wanted the spine to harmonize seamlessly with my painted canvas covers.  I found patterned paper that worked well for this purpose, cut 1" wide strips and glued them to the spine of the outside folio of each signature.  More than just aesthetic, this adds bulk to the spine so the book will close flat even after media is added.  And because I glued the outside signature of each folio to the next outside signature as each was sewn, the decorative spines are present only on the outside of the book, not the inside, providing me with a book of pure white pages.

Cover:

I cut museum board to size and painted the canvas to cover the boards with multiple layers of thinned, transparent acrylics.  This was my first time using commercial modeling (or molding, depending on the brand you use) paste.  I tinted it first, then spackled it over a stencil of squares using a palette knife, lifted the stencil and left it to dry for a couple of days.  I liked the texture, so I left it as-is instead of sanding it to a smooth finish, then I adjusted the color.  

Spine:

A more detailed view of the spine shows the book with the back cover, and a closer view of the tapes.  I haven't decided whether or not I'll go back in with a little walnut ink to cover the exposed white edges of the holes for the stitching.

 

Tapes:

 The tapes began as end strips of upholstery fabric which  
were chosen for their color alone, as pictured (right).  But after prepping the strips for book tapes, I realized that the color was a bit off.  The left strip in the picture is the fabric before sewing. To correct this, I randomly and haphazardly machine stitched over the tape with a copper brown thread.  The middle tape in the picture illustrates the tapes at this stage.  To coordinate with the color of the covers and the spine, I added a powdery teal thread, and kept adding copper and teal threads alternatively until I felt that the fibers gave the fabric the color it needed to harmonize effectively.  The end product is the third tape on the right. 

Construction:

I constructed the book as part of a project in the Affair With Art group I belong to.  Nancy wrote a set of beautiful instructions for us and posted them to her blog HERE. Her instructions called for leather tapes and a closure, but I preferred to use what I had on hand.  I also tweaked the instructions a bit and bound the book per the specs for book #1 of Full Tilt Boogie, a perpetual online workshop, which I highly recommend, given by Mary Ann Moss.  The end product looks similar to the AAWA book, but differs just a bit in the way it was put together and the materials used. 

Inside Cover:

I really wanted to use the same paper I cut for the spine, as endpapers inside the book.  But with more than one signature, I had to come up with a way to attach a single sheet of paper to the front of the first signature and to the back of the last.  It worked because of the strips I attached to the spines of those signatures.  I simply glued these pages to the inside of the strip in such a way that the wrong side of the paper faced outward.  The signature then had one additional piece of paper, which after the book was sewn, was glued wrong-side-down to the inside cover as an endpaper.  When the book is opened, it looks like this:

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'll be binding 100 books in 2012 with the Artists Of The Round Table.  Making Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures & Forms by Alisa Golden, is the book we are using.   If you are interested in hand binding books, you'll want to add this to your library!

Mug Shots

One of the art groups I belong to (An Affair With Art) has asked us if we're tea drinkers, and if so, what we prefer to drink from.  Easy questions for me.  I drink tea all day long!  Twinings English Breakfast keeps me going, and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf's Swedish Berries makes me calm and sleepy.  Here's my cup of choice:

Last mother's day, my daughter Amy took me to Anthropologie and told me to pick out a tea cup.  So many beauties to choose from, but the minute I set my eyes on this pretty orange mug, embossed, scalloped, and paint spattered, I knew it was the one for me.  Orange is the color of creativity, and paint spatters, well, every artist needs a paint-spattered mug!

Here's an inside view.  Pre-tea, of course.  I love this!  Usually when I spatter paint in my tea, I have to throw it out.  I love that I can drink out of this!

Mug Shots:

In the meantime, why not join me and have a cup of tea or coffee, too?  And while you're at it, why not share a pic of your favorite cup or mug?  Just leave a comment in this post with a link to a pic of your favorite cup, and we'll all stop by and take a look!  If you post about your favorite tea cup/coffee mug/ or other drinking recepticle of choice, please link back to this post so others will know where to share their links if they want to play along, too! 

Right now I'm busy-busy-busy.  Trying to finish hold-overs from 2011, and beginning some new projects in 2012.  There's a lot on my plate, but at least I love everything I have to do!

My Current List Of Stuff and Stuff To Do:

Here's a partial list:

• Three books ready to bind and stitch -- I thought there were five, but I can't find the other two... Oh well.  If they're around, they'll show up eventually!
• Take a Stitch Tuesday.  LOVE this.  If you want to know all about it, click the TAST badge on my sidebar.
• Setting up ArtiPhybers.  You can go there now, but I haven't yet made a first post, and I'm slow at getting links and photo albums uploaded.  Eventually -- sooner, rather than later, I hope -- it will be home for all my fiber art (including TAST), and I'll add to it regularly.  You can get there from the link in my side bar.
• Journaling, of course.  Three collage journals and a sketchbook/notes journal are active at the moment.  There are others too, but right now I'm concentrating on these.
• Kelly Kilmer's Revel In the Moment workshop.  I'm working without stopping in this one.  Can't get enough of it!  My friend and art partner Rita and I spent hours with this last Thursday, and will have a repeat performance next week.  In the meantime, we're both collaging our little hearts out every chance we get (which is one of the reasons I'm behind on everything else...)
• An Artsits Of The Round Table workshop.  Beginning tomorrow, we'll be binding 100 books in 2012.
• A printing project, which I'm defining and refining as I go.  More about that as things progress...
• A crocheted throw-WISP
• Three quilt tops-WISPS
• A really gorgeous (if I may say so myself) mixed fiber illustration--more on that later...
• Painting!  Lots of painting!  A semi-new direction in paint and collage for me, and I'm loving every minute!  It takes me back to my childhood art loves.  More to come on that, also.
• Oh, and reading.  LOTS!  But that's not unusual.  Right now the books on my nightstand are: Strange Wine by Harlan Ellison, and Nuns and Soldiers (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by Iris Murdoch.  Neither of them new; both are favorites of mine.  And this is the book I'll be working my way through as my 100 bindings in 2012 progress: Alisa Golden's Making Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures & Forms  

But now I have to get busy on these things so I'll have something to photograph, and you'll have something more to see!

Dreams Of Adventure

Still drawing, still glad that Traci challenged us with her 30 Days of Drawing.  But I must admit that while I'd love to post daily, even more than once a day, it doesn't always happen that way.  But drawing always happens.  

There isn't time to shoot and post pics of the last few days of drawing, but I do have time for one and I'll share what I did in case it might be helpful.  I was out when I drew this, and I discovered that I had no plain paper of any kind with me at the time, so I used what I had.  I cut a square of patterned cardstock, flipped it to the white side and drew on that.

My idea was to imagine what this young boy might be dreaming and quickly sketch it in ink.  I know that if I was curled up on a comfy piece of fur (which looks like a flokati, only softer...) with a silky animal plushie for my pillow, asleep on top of my toy box, I'd be dreaming about riding through the skies on a mythical stuffed animal come to life.  

So that's what I drew, and the paper worked wonderfully with my Rapidosketch.  So did the watercolor.  Even somewhat saturated, the paper fibers held their place.  The water dried quickly without buckling, so puddling wasn't an issue, making it easy to apply layers of color quickly.  

If you don't have what you need, use what you have.  I'm so glad that I don't view patterned papers as precious or special.  I still have stacks and stacks of them left over from design team days, sent by vendors to sample and demo.  Even when they're beautiful, if you need the other side, use it! 

Layers

One of the things I like best about working in my current art journal/sketchbook is how the pages interact with each other after they're finished.  This isn't planned, and it often produces the most beautiful and unexpected combinations.

I particularly like how today's page is off-set by the layers of other pages peeking through.  Sometimes it's difficult working with different page sizes, but in the end, it's always rewarding.  

Nothing too complex today.  I saw a bird ornament at Anthropologie, sketched it on plain notepaper, and glued it into my art journal.  I'm thinking of creating a pattern from my sketch, so I added some notes on how I might like to stitch it.  Ten days in, and so far I've sketched every day for Traci Bunkers 30 Days of Drawing.  

Eight and Nine

Yesterday I decided to remake a page.  Actually, I do this almost every day.  It isn't about whether or not I like what's on the page, it's about putting what I happen to want on the page today, and reconciling that with what's already there.  I could start with a blank page.  In fact, I do that all the time.  I've heard people say that blank pages can be intimidating.  I've also heard people say that pages with too much stuff on them can be confusing.  Since I'm neither intimidated nor confused, it really doesn't matter to me whether the page is blank, or full.  Either way, to me it's a just substrate.  

Here's the semi-finished product--semi-finished, because it hasn't been written upon yet. The pages are really not wonderful until they've been written on, so this one still has a long way to go.

 The page was remade primarily with paint, and a pine tree that I drew and carved into a stamp several years ago.  "Road-tested" was clipped from a magazine and used as-is.  "High Altitude" was constructed from white rub-on letters on top of a piece of black magazine paper cut to fit the top. The road and date were drawn onto the page with a Rapidograph and Inda ink.  

For remade pages, much of the the beauty is simply that what's under the finished product lends so much to the final outcome, both texturally, and in meaning, that the page wouldn't at all have been the same if what's underneath hadn't been there in the first place.

 Here's what was underneath the page above when I started:

If you look closely, and maybe squint, you can see some of the dots and part of that smilely face underneath the finshed page.  I didn't remove a thing.  Even the brown grid tape was laid on top of the pink tape that was already there, which added to the color of the tape layer on top.  

I use art journals and sketchbooks to stretch my creative muscles.  Sometimes that means sketching out plans.  Sometimes it means glueing-in a lot of things that please me.  Things which might contain elements I'll want to use in a finished piece later.  Sometimes it's all about color, and making notes.  

This particular book was made for Mary Ann Moss's Full Tilt Boogie workshop, and I've been working in it since mid-summer.  I'm using it to stretch my conscious creative decision making.  I say conscious, because so many of the decisions we make are habitual and shortcut the thought process.  This book is full of pages patched together alongside full blank pages, alongside pages with other elements added.  If you'd like to see what the book looked like just after it was created and before I started working on the pages, there's a flip-through you can see by clicking HERE and scrolling down to the bottom of the page.

Speaking of other elements, I drew some of those today to use later.  I've used quite a few frames on other pages of this book, and really like how they can be used to confine and define select words and design elements, so I drew a couple of funky frames with a wide-tipped Sharpie to have on hand for future pages, one on plain paper, and one on patterned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That takes care of Days 8 and 9 of Traci Bunker's 30 Days of Drawing.  A great incentive to keep pencil to paper, and to post about it.  It's not too late to join the challenge.

Lining Up My Ducks

I first used a computer in the early 80s.  The first one I owned was a Timex Sinclair.  The first computer language I learned was BASIC.  I've been online continuously (read: daily) since the early 90s.  I'm equally Mac and PC savvy, and I evolve with the updates.  I'm no stranger to social media and can carry on conversations about most of it before it hits the public airwaves, although I am picky about what I use personally because I'm not out to collect widgets;  I want what works for me.  I like keeping my knowledge complex, but my experiences simple.

So where did I miss the boat on feed readers?

Yesterday I started using Google Reader to organize my online reading and news.  I spent the afternoon creating and refining subscriptions and making files to house sites I visit daily, weekly, etc.  I took a break long enough to grab my moleskine and put my ducks in a row.

Then I went back to the reader to catch up on what I've been missing by haphazardly cruising online without a navigator.   What a time saver!  

Now I'm off to broom my internet files and bookmarks.  I've accumulated a lot of trivia and it's time to bin everything that isn't useful.  In the process, I've reacquainted myself with some great websites that had gotten lost amongst the rubble.  Big, clean, deep, breaths of fresh air!

Once Upon A Time

I sat down with my brush and inked out a rooster, with absolutely no idea why.   What is a rooster?  Why is it on my mind, so close to consciouness that my brush put it on paper?  Roosters signifiy morning.  Wake up.  Sunrise.  A new day.  

Then my daily dose of Wylde Women's Wisdom from Tammy Vitale hit my inbox.  It all became clear.  My rooster was there to remind me to begin each and every new day with Once Upon A Time.  

Once Upon A Time, Barbara woke up, and by opening her eyes to the morning, she began a whole new day, filled with endless possibilities and magical outcomes!

 Once upon a time is always now and always forever.

 Once upon a time is a sacred place and a sacred time

in which miracles happen.

 

It's the essence of a fairy tale.  It's the essence of story.

 

When we hear it, we become a child.  That is,

we become innocent.

We are ready and able to understand

what is mysterious.

 

I mean, you can hear as you listen to the story

the way it speaks our journeys.

 

Deena Metzger

 

 

Wylde Women's Wisdom collected and brought to you by Tammy Vitale.

 

 

 

Moleskine Monkeys

One more from my moleskine, this time with ink.  I was amazed at how well the moleskine paper accepted ink.  Wet, as well as dry brush.  I didn't expect that at all, since the only thing I've really liked to use with sumi-é ink until now was rice paper, or a small selection of Japanese handmade papers. 

Another good book for the study of sumi-é that I forgot to mention yesterday isOriental Painting Course: A Practical Guide to Painting Skills and Techniques of China and the Far East  It doesn't have any pictures of monkeys, though.  

It isn't as easy to find books on Oriental brush painting that contain monkeys, but they are some of my favorite subjects, so I commit to memory as many as possible to draw from when I'm grinding ink.  My favorite Chinese monkeys are the ones painted by Wang Yani when she was still a very young girl.  I first discovered her work in this book of her life, written for children and young adults:A Young Painter: The Life and Paintings of Wang Yani-- China's Extraordinary Young Artist  

 

Visionary

This is one of my favorite ways to work in a journal.  Not because of any particular technique, combination of techniques, or content, but because of the process of discovery.  Sometimes it delays, and that takes patience, but it never disappoints.  

I make up the rules spontaneously as I go along, working in segments that I define and set time limits to.  It doesn't matter what comes first, second, third.  I just decide, for instance, that I'm going to use two things I haven't used in ages, and three things I use all the time.  I set the timer for 8 minutes and use them.  Then I move on.  Maybe this time I'll write for 5 minutes.  Maybe I'll decide to pick up 3 magazines and cut out things that catch my eye for 4 minutes, then take another 2 minutes to use them all.  It doesn't matter what, how long, or when.  It's about rules, but rules decided randomly, on the spot.  So in the greater context, it's not about rules, it's about me, and my choices of the moment.

 

Without fail, these are the sketchbook pieces that I identify with personally, as opposed to pieces that identify me.   I don't work to illustrate my identity or define myself.  When I'm working, especially in this type of process, I identify intimately with the work that evolves, as it evolves.  

In dreams, the symbols and  connections that are brought to mind by the dream cannot accurately be defined outside the context of life of the dreamer.  In this respect, these sketchbook spreads are like dreams.  Each of the symbols a person perceives, even archetypical symbols, can be defined only through the life and experiences of that individual.  So whatever you see here, it's for you.  If you make identifications in my work and draw parallels, it won't be me you're seeing, it will be yourself. 

Of course this is finished.  And it isn't finished.  Which means that it has said all it has to tell me today.  I think probably this is where it stays, at least for now.   But you never know about later.   

There are lots of great things that come out of working like this for me.  Two of the biggest benefits are that these types of pages almost unfailingly lead to stand alone work, outside of the sketchbook.  Not work that looks like the sketchbook, but work that the sketchbook evokes.  

The other huge benefit is what I see after I've finished, walked away for a time, and then come back fresh.  Things that looked like something at first, now seen in a new light, take on different meanings.  There are Aha! moments.  Things I saw before that had me saying to myself, "I think this may be...." and, "Hmmm, this looks a bit like....", etc., all of a sudden jump out and have me saying, "Ah!  So that's what that is!"  

If you haven't done this type of work before it may seem a bit odd, crazy, quasi-mystical, etc.  But it's none of those things.  It's just making dreams from the unconscious appear on paper, and going back to see what they might have to say, then using ideas from them in larger works.  That's simply all there is to it.

More Joy

I spent the day learning the ropes of two new websites and re-coding parts of my blog.  Hmmm.  Not too smart to do them all in the same day, since each are configured very differently and what I learned about one started bleeding into my knowledge of the others, and vice versa.  Better to keep the days I work on each of them separate from each other.  Also not good to try this with a migraine.  Just the backlit screen was enough to cause pain.  So I moved onto paper, and I kept it very simple.

Another alphabet page.  Working once again in my brown paper wrapper journal with minimal materials.  All papers from magazines and books with a dab of paint and some tape.  J.O. Y. style.  That's all.

Here's "D"

I Think I Can

I skipped a day.  Yesterday I didn't blog my work.  It would have been my 38th consecutive day of blogging, but I really needed a day off.  Which brings me to the conclusion that everyday, just for the sake of everyday, is really not good enough.  But a regular blogging habit is definitely worth it, so from yesterday forward, I've decided to take Sunday's off, curl up with a good book, and prepare myself gently and restfully for the beginning of a new week.  

The artwork is another matter.  Taking a day off from creating would be like, well, taking a day off from myself.  That's just crazy.  So I'll show you on Monday whatever it was that I did on Sunday.  Depending on your time zone it may work out a little bit differently, but it will work out.

Here's the latest two-page spread.  These pages were begun in October of 2010 and then put aside.  They needed more information, but they hadn't yet come into their time.  I finished the background and drew the lettering and the flowers last year.  After I added the bright pink, I let the whole thing sit and percolate all this time while I worked away on other things.

The old date is still there underneath the images.  The new date is on top, but you won't be able to see it since it's on the bottom 2 inches of the page, and that part didn't scan because the book is too large.  But the general idea is there.  And more may be added later.  Sometimes the pages in this book are never finished.  That's perfectly O.K.

Toxic Air

A couple of inches are missing from the bottom of these pages, and there's quite a bit of information there.  But you can still get a fairly good idea of what the spread looks like from this scan.  It's a fairly large book and the lighting just isn't good enough to photograph indoors.  I fit what I could onto the scanner.

This type of page satisfies me more than any other.  Many layers of seemingly unrelated images and words coming together out of nowhere, then resolved to the point where it all makes sense.   Well, maybe not sense to you, but perfect sense to me.  

The third or fourth layer consists of brown doodles.  Another example of raw art.  I mentioned Quinn McDonald's Raw Art Journaling workshop in yesterday's post, HERE.  Go take a look for more information, then join us!