ArtiphyTheHeart

July 8. Day 7 Shenanigans

Busy!  I'm filled with J.O.Y. at Full Tilt Boogie, Getting My 30 Days Of Art On while attending Summer Camp. Whew!  So here's what I did yesterday:

At camp, Marit suggested we add a spot of color to a black and white photo.  Actually, I've been doing this all month.  You can see a few of them in the art journal pages of the last 3 or 4 posts, but I'll just show you what I did yesterday.

I didn't shoot a photo of the pic before I started painting out the background, but there was nothing in it that you really needed to see .  It's an Eastman Kodak ad from a 1921 National Geographic.  I acquired a few of the out-of-copyright pre-1923s back in the day when I thought I would photocopy the images and use them more than once.  Uhn-uh, no way.  I cut up the pages.  After all, they're merely tools.  Not precious in and of themselves.  I'm only going to use them once, and I'm not a clip art business.  I'm with Nick Bantock on this.   Nick extolled the virtues of using authentic items in collage.  He said it in the November/December 2000 issue of Somerset Studio, back in the day when the magazine had a slick, glossy cover.  He reminded me of the art teacher who asked the class if we thought Joseph Cornell's reputation as an artist would have suffered if he had used copies in his work.  After the debate, he gave us his opinion, that Joseph Cornell would never have had a reputation as an artist if he had used copies.   I must admit, I'm much happier since I quit photocopying magazine and book stuff for collage and storing the pristine originials.    It's very liberating to use the real deal.

Step two.  I added a color wash to the dress and bow:

But I need to back up a bit.  Before I colored the photo, I had spent the lion's share of the day cutting the frames I'd designed the day before.   I had already made all the cuts using cheap, lightweight card stock, just to be sure they would cut the way they were designed, and in a single pass.  Yesterday I cut the actual material I'll be using for the frame pages in FTB book two, and I'm happy with the design and the way they cut.  I'll show you three of them.

You can see the difference between the material I'm using for the frames and the white card stock I used for my practice cuts.  

I ended up with a lot of thin card stock frames from the practice cuts which I almost tossed in the bin, but then I thought that with a little tweaking, they might be useful as added elements in other books.  So I painted one side, added some thin, gold edge detail, and clipped it to the pic you saw above.  It's thin enough to curl when painted, and you can see the opposite side where it's unfinished.

I like how it looks in yesterday's journal spread.  It was such a busy day, I kept the pages simple.

July 6, Day 5's Stuff

I'm trying to keep the numbers straight.  It's the 6th of July and the 6th day of Traci Bunkers 30 Days Of Get Your Art On.  I'm working on Day 6, but I'm posting what I did yesterday in Day 5.  I don't know why this confuses me, or why I even care.  Actually, I don't think it matters.  

This is what I did yesterday.  It isn't finished.  In addtion to other things, the library pocket will hold a list of the books I'm currently reading and the films I've been watching.  So often I've wished I'd kept a record.  Index cards with notes, summaries and summations. This book can make a place for those things.  I'm finding that I'm more at home working in this book (you can see it here) than in any I've made so far.  Maybe that's not quite true, since I'm really at home in all of them.  I think this one is just more open to my own natural style of play, and it's fun.  Love the deeper stuff to, though....

Marit suggested self portraits in her Summer Camp group, and Phinner shared a quick and easy tutorial with the group for creating stencils in PSE.  I found the corresponding filters in PS CS4, and created the stencil, top left.  Yes.  My face.  In a journal.  Only Mary Ann could convince me to do that.  In one of her vids for FTB, while she's working on a page, she's drawing a mustache on a black and white pic of herself.  It's absolutely wonderful!  

Now, for something completely different...or maybe not so different, since it's already in my journal...inside yesterday's monsoon, was the dust storm from hell!  Talking can't describe it.  You have to see it.  My cousin Cathy's husband is a meteorologist on the east coast.  She sent me this video he posted to youtube.  It's the best I've seen so far.  Watch, as the tower at Sky Harbor International Airport disappears into the cloud of dust!  7000' high, 50 miles wide, 50 mph.  I think it's the 50 mph that saved us.  Any slower and we'd be choking.   A little faster, and there would have been serious damage.  We got lucky!

It's July! Time To Update the Map!

But first, here's my offering for today:

There's just so much going on in cyberspace, it's easy to get lost.  I find it handy to carry a map.  Maps are useful tools.  They don't determine where you're going; they just give you an idea of what's out there, and how to get there.  They help you get where you're going, and you can circle your destination choices on a map.  

At the beginning of every year, I map out my online itinerary, keeping it general enough to allow for additions and subtractions, but specific enough to give me an idea of how I plan to spend my online minutes in a way that will meet my goals and desires most productively.  I do this in January, then in July, I take another look at the map from my life's point of view, and make adjustments as necessary.  

Most of the groups I belong to have been around awhile and do extensive advance planning.  It's easy to take a look in December and get an idea of what will be offered in the coming year.  There's a comfort in things that are established, not the least of which is the benefit of consistent, predictable quality.  It makes the choices easier.  But things change rapidly online.  New things pop up all the time and former things vaporize daily.  I don't serve my rules.  I believe that my rules must serve me, so I want to make sure that my choices are flexible enough to make additions and subtractions without having to look over my shoulder at every crossroads.  

If January begins your year, then July's a great review point.  I keep my choices simple.  This year, I chose three places to hang-out for the summer: Kelly Kilmer's J.O.Y, Mary Ann Moss's FTB, and Marit's Summer Camp, and one place for all-year-long: Julie Fey-Fan Balzer's AJED.  There's also an invitational group of online artists that I belong to which is perennial, and I made my choices in January regarding which projects I'd tackle in 2011 with them.   

When I made my choices, I knew that new things would inevitably pop up on the horizon, and other things would be called on account of rain.  When Effy Wild created Wild Precious Studios earlier this year, I made the decision to jump in on the first day and add this goup to my active list, allocating time to facilitate a weekly Mandala prompt group there, Making Mandalas, Art Within The Circle.  When I post about the goings on in that group, I usually do it from my sister blog, ArtiphyTheSoul.  

Last, but certainly not least, there's SoulCollage®.  Particiaption with the KaleidoSoul Kindred Spirits group is an uplifting, daily joy of mine, and any activity I post regarding SoulCollage® and my participation with KaleidoSoul can be found at ArtiphyTheSoul.  This month, my personal practice with SoulCollage is featured in the KaleidoSoul newsletter, which you'll automatically receive if you're a member.  There's even *gasp* a picture of my face!  If you're an art journaler, a collage artist, a mixed media junkie, or all of the above, you should take a look at KaleidoSoul and see what group membership has to offer.   No matter what you put into it, your return will be greater.  Guaranteed!  

So those were and are my choices for 2011 as decided upon in January.  

Now that it's July, I've added one more, and this is more of an incentive and a promise to myself than an obligation.  Traci Bunkers has initiated Traci Bunker's 30 Days Of Get Your Art On.  It's a bit like AJED, except that it's for the month of July instead of for the entire year, and it's more about doing anything creative daily, even unfinished, and blogging about it, than specifically creating art journal pages.  For me, the two will work hand-in-hand.  Julie's AJED posts and prompts are wonderful and motivating, although I sometimes work differently and often don't post the artwork I've made to her group.  I have found that just looking at Julie's website and her daily offerings sparks my creativity, and I've noticed that I've been more productive since I've had her site as an encouraging resource.  Traci's art is more in tune with what I do daily, even if I don't always post my abstractions and mixed-media work.  And knowing that I'm committing to doing something, even something not finished, every day and then blogging about it, is a real benefit generator for me!

Happy July! 

 

At Full Tilt, and Boogieing...

Here's another peek at how my mind (and hands) work in-process:

It's summer, so theoretically I have more time.  "Theoretically" is the key of course, but I'm counting on it!  

Continuing study is as valuable as practice, practice, practice.  Therefore, I will allow myself three groups to study with over the summer.  I say this to myself every January, then I follow through.

I knew who I'd be playing along with and learning from months and months ago:  Kelly, Marit, and Mary Ann Moss.  There are other places I'd like to be too, but I narrowed it down and made my pick long before some of the other groups sprang up, and I'm not sorry with my choices.  Who would be?  These three are golden!  A stellar way to spend my continuing study credits, and I couldn't be happier!  There is enough that's unique to each group along with subtle hints of an overlap here and there, so that if you concentrate and look hard enough, it can all be woven together whilst giving each module its own, separate attention.  That's what goes through my mind, along with the whistling wind...

Mary Ann Moss launched day one of Full Tilt Boogie on Friday.  Of course it's about books, binding them, and tarting them up a bit.  Actually the tarting part is mine.  The rest of the class is ARTing them.  Sorry, I just gots to be me.  

The entire theme of FTB centers around gorgeous, vintage cabinet card albums.  Drop dead gorgeous ones!  Some with celluloid covers, velvet bindings, exquisite clasps, embossed leather, gorgeous beveled mats to house the photos, tortoise shell covers, damask, silk, moire and more. Beauty!  I spent all of March, bits and pieces of April and most of May trying to find albums to use in this class.  I combed local antique stores and flea markets.  I found two.  One was 3" X 5" with a leather binding for *gasp* $260, and the second was even tinier with a mother of pearl casing, gold leaf, and a clasp that looked like a jeweler designed it.  It was $600.  *chokes*, and pass!

Now I know my experience was local, and I could have gone to Etsy and Ebay.  But I had another idea.  I collect library discards.  Not just any, but ones with pages I'll use and bindngs that make me squeee with delight.  The prices are a bit lower.  Ten books for $1, or 10¢ a piece.  So I have quite a few, and my total investment is under $20.  

I sent Mary Ann an email.  I asked, "What if I used some great boards from one of the books I have on hand?  And what if I employ my underused Cricut Expressions with my SCAL software to design some faux cabinet card frames?  What if I get a deep-cut blade and turn this puppy into a jig saw?  What if I forget the heck about Ebay and antique stores, and make my own knock-off?"   And she said, "Go for it!"  

So yesterday, after dutifully concocting and taking a few sips of the official class martini (yes there is one, in fact there's more than one....), I proceeded to begin my practice book.  Highly suggested, due to the fact that I've never done this binding before, and I want to solve any issues that may surface before I tackle the red leather bound encyclopedia that I'll be using for the real deal (also purchased at 10¢/vol., for a grand total of $1.20 -- get a tissue. No drooling on the computer screen).  

I've used two of these volumes already, both for Juliana Coles Altered States workshop which I took last summer.  That was an art-changing experience for me.  Truly, deeply, awesome.  Jules is repeating Altered States this summer--now, in fact--and has bundled it with Field Notes, another of her workshops which I took last year.  I highly recommend both.  

So before I get to this book, there's the practice book.  And as I look through the stacks of possibilities, I'm thinking that I want something I can work with, something that won't be too precious, but that I'll love enough to use, because I can't do this unless I pour my heart and soul into it.  And I see a book that I bought for the funky, retro designs on the pages.  The boards are in fine shape, sturdy enough to hold up when I rip off library tapes and stickers and possibly citra-solve the residual stickiness.  But the cover just isn't going to work for me.  Santa, on a sleigh, with reindeer, and a tree?  I wouldn't draw, collage, write, or do anything else in this book.   Not that there's anything wrong with it, it just isn't "me".   Hmmm, I love the lettering.  I could mask "Handbook" and paint the boards.  Then maybe stencil them.  So I did.  I cut the hands last.  Like I said, while the others art it up, I'm tarting it.  And this one's just for practice, right?  

Mary Ann mentioned mod-podge.  I'd never used the stuff, but I'd heard lots of people sing its praises.  I think it was developed in the 60's for decoupage when that was so popular and was taught in high school craft classes.  I decided to get a jar, and figured that this time I'd go ahead and seal my lots of thin layers of gesso, paint, stenciling and collage, especially since the area that I had masked-off was glossy, and a few layers lower than the finished, painted board.  I never, ever, seal or varnish pages, but for these boards, it was a good idea.  I'm not sure I'd use mod-podge for collage.  Actually, I wouldn't.  It's wet, it makes images curl, and I'm addicted to Cocoina, which is glue heaven.  But for ease of spread, quick dry and clarity, mod-podge rocks!  It's a keeper, along with the foam spreader I used to spread it, which I'd never, ever use with anything else.  Paint brushes rule the day, even for glue.  But I love the control of application I got from the foam + mod-podge, and it's essential that this stuff is spread evenly and thinly, layer upon layer.  No bubbles, no pooling-up in globs.

So that brings us back up to the pic at top.  On the left, you can see the inside cover page.  I rubber-banded the block and saved the pages after slicing off the boards.  Picture Santa in his sleigh with reindeer, proceeding in a diagonal path from the upper left corner of the tree top, heading across the page to the right, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what the cover looked like before I altered it.  

Now to make signatures, fold folios, punch holes, put it all together and stitch the binding...

On Two Shores

My first involvement with artists on the web began with groups in the Netherlands and Germany, especially with Hermine Koster and Belinda Schneider.  What attracts me is the clean, clear attention to detail, and the choices of subject matter -- especially the surreal.  But what really draws me in is how the artwork valued in the German and Dutch groups seems to mirror my own choices in style, story and design.  

It has been a few years since I played with those groups, and I didn't realize just how much I missed it until Rosie told me about Marit's summer camp and encouraged me to play along, so I said, "Yes".

After I pitched my tent, I started exploring the wilderness, browsing at albums in both the English and the Dutch groups, and I felt like I'd gone home to one of my favorite vacation spots.  I grabbed my pack and hiked over to the community campground.  

I've got my feet on two shores this summer.  I'm also creating pages in Kelly's J.O.Y. workshop, and Kelly's in L.A.  Among other things Kelly suggested, was a book to put together and a combination of selected of materials to mix.  One of Marit's many suggestions involved a grayscale journal spread.  Not a problem. Both of these got my attention, and here's the result:

Answering a question that was asked in the comments of different post, I almost never choose my collage material with a theme or story in mind, and I don't illustrate what I write.  I choose from piles of images and materials that I think have visual appeal, sometimes randomly and sometimes in relation to one another, and get them on the page.  

Then I ask the page what it is, what's left wanting, and what needs to be tossed out, and I make decisions, solve problems, and resolve the issues of the page from a design point of view.  

When I'm finished, I look at it, walk away for a while, then come back and look at it again.  Sooner or later, it shows me something of myself.  Usually something unexpected hits me right between the eyes.  Then I write.  

Usually this is how it all unfolds, but not always.  My journals are my domain.  I'm in charge here, so rules are made and revised to suit and serve my purposes.  You might go about this process in an entirely different way.  There is no right way.  The process is all about the purpose, and people do collage, mixed media and journaling for many diverse personal reasons.  The right way is the way that serves your individual purpose.  What takes you farther from your own goals, not some arbitrary goal in general, would be the wrong way.  My cake, your poison, and vice-versa.  And I'm assuming here that staying alive and healthy is a common purpose, so of course practicing "safe art" is a given, right?  No rinsing paintbrushes soaked in cadmium yellow in the sink you use to scrub veggies...