The Cry of My Heart



Joy Journal March 2013

 This page evolved over several days. Following the prompts by Amanda Jolley on her Joy Journal Project for March, I started with some quiet time.  Just because it looks like I'm not doing anything, there is usually much going on inside. Purposely quieting myself helped me realize that I distract or mask my chronic physical pain with many distractions.  Music, reading, tv, games on my Kindle Fire, etc.
There is other pain too. We all have it.  I poured out my heart when I came to my journal pages, writing with a red pen.  I tested the ink to see if it would bleed when wet.  It did.  But there is a strong ghost of that written purge lingering under the layers I added.

The writing sat on that page.  Just for my eyes. I followed Amanda's suggestions to add spatters of paint and veils of gesso.  Another day goes by.  I'm not even thinking about the journal and I remember the words of a worship song - "It is the cry of my heart to follow You."  That is what I had poured out.  The cry of my heart.   Another day I came across a Bible verse that put things in perspective and pointing me to the Hope of my heart.    Now I had the heart to continue with the page.  I added glazes of sheer paint and sprayed thinned acrylic ink.  A bleeding heart was drawn with the dropper from a bottle of Liquitex Acrylic Ink.   Scrapbook papers were used for the collage. I glazed layers of paint on a strip, then stamped the words with StazOn Ink.  After tearing the edges, I distressed them with pastel pencils.  The silhouette started as a tracing from an illustration.  I transferred it to scrapbook paper and cut it out.  

Then I added Inka Gold Metallic Rub (a bees wax product). It can be quite sheer but adds a great shine. On the bottom image, the figure looks almost solid in color, but that is the effect of the metallic reflection from that angle.

The page was finished with a few more touches with the pastel pencils, some journaling around the figure using a Pitt Pen, and a bit more sprayed ink.

Comforted in Sorrow

Joy Journal February 2013: The Art of Appreciation

 In my last post I introduced you to my journal page titled "Comfort".  Our Joy Journal assignment was to document a moment from this year for which we were grateful. Something like that can be hard to capture on a page, especially when it is personal.

I'm working on loose smooth bristol pages I prepared to bind once my journal is completed.  I started by writing my thoughts with pencil on the page.

A few swipes of watercolor paint washed over my journaling.

 One of my uncles passed away very suddenly last month. Then I got sick and wasn't able to go to the funeral.  When it really hit me that I wasn't going to be well enough to attend the services, I was so very sad.  My sweet husband was there to comfort me.

Used tea bags applied to page with matte medium.

 I can't tell you how much tea I drank last month.  I started with a basket overflowing with a variety of teas. Now there is a lot of space in the basket. ;-)
The journal challenge asked us to collage on our page for texture and variety.  I like using tea bags because they are translucent and stained.
After the page dried, I added a bit more teal and rusty colored paint using Golden Fluid Acrylics.

Wall paper hearts, a tea bag label and doodled shape collaged on page.

 I have old wall paper books that I got for free at the paint store a few years ago.  They are good for inspiring textures and shapes.  Sometimes I even remember to use them for collage as I did for the hearts on the page.  Hearts go with comfort, right?

You never know when your doodles will come in handy!

 Since I drank so much tea during my illness, I thought a cup of tea would be a good symbol for the page.  (Bigelow Vanilla Chai is delicious with honey and milk.)
While doodling rows of heart chains I started to image the cup shape.  I tore it out to collage on the page.  The string of the tea label is attached under the cup, but the rest of it is loose.

Caran d'Ache crayons used to color the cup and add handle.

 The Caran d'Ache crayons are water soluble.  I blended and sealed them with acrylic matte medium. I also used them to add shadowing around the hearts to help them merge into the background.

Faber Castell Pitt markers were also used for shading and the bit of journaling I added under the cup.
When working on a sealed surface, you can easily blend them by rubbing with your finger.
The white lettering was done with a Sakura Permopaque marker and then outlined with a FC Pitt marker.  The red heart was done with a Sakura Glaze Pen.

The finished page.

I wish I had done more pages that remind me of special moments which can easily pass by and be taken for granted.  Today I was standing at the kitchen sink really enjoying my first cup of water for the day. The sun was sparking like diamonds on the crisp fresh snow.  It occurred to me that I should write about it, so I did.  I grabbed a fresh page for my journal and now that moment is documented. I even started adding color.
But the rest of the story is for another day and another post.

GPP Crusade No. 30: Why is the cow laughing?

This is what I was thinking as I toasted a sesame bagel and pulled the red tag that opened a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese. I think of it as "La Vache Qui Rit" because I first tasted this product when I was in high school French class. It's a French product and the label was in French. Now it's widely available with an English label.
It suddenly occurred to me that this would be a perfect topic to journal and follow the prompt for this month's Green Pepper Press Crusade. I already had plenty of thoughts to write down, I had ephemera to collage. Here's what I did:

If you want to try this cheese, this is what the package looks like:

GPP Crusade No. 30 & Introducing My Hope Journal

Michelle Ward announced the Green Pepper Press Street Team's new crusade today. You can read all about it here.
What does a cat's tongue have to do with making art? Believe it or not, there is something called a Cat's Tongue Brush, but that's not what this crusade is about. Michelle has challenged us to add words to our art/visual journals.
This is a good challenge for me. I often create pages with colors and textures that I enjoy, but hesitate to add writing or anything else, for that matter. In December, I decided to start a journal based on the theme "HOPE". I have several backgrounds started, but few have any words. This is just the prompt I need to get me working on the hope project. I'll start the month by showing you my favorite hope page that I've already created.

Art Journal Day 27 - Comfort

It was my day off. If I was a cat I would have curled up on a cozy spot where the sunlight pooled on the floor. Instead, I made a pot of tea. It's nice to have time to enjoy a POT of tea, not just a hurried cup before heading out for the day. When Hubby & I first moved into a house, we went to auctions to find furnishings and tools. We found great deals and the auction house atmosphere was entertaining as well. One night I spotted a teapot that I fell in love with. It was in a cardboard box with matching cups, a couple of trays, and other items I don't remember anymore. I don't remember how much we got all of that for anymore, maybe about $20. But the only person who bid against us asked what we wanted in that box. She had her eye on one of the trays and she offered us $10 for it. That was a sweet deal.
Not only do I love the blue color and the abstract pussy willow design, but the teapot is made of substantial pottery, so it stays warm for a long time.
In the afternoon I went out for a haircut. After my appointment, I had a bit of time to kill before music rehearsal, so I headed for Starbucks and a chai latte. The weather was so strange and beautiful. There was a very high and thin cloud cover. And it was very gently snowing all afternoon. It didn't seem like there were enough clouds for it to snow. The atmosphere made for an interesting late afternoon shot of the sun through the window at Starbucks.

Art Journal Day 26 - Blah Monday

Misty Mawn has prompted us to express our emotions and thoughts with attention to color, images, etc.
One thing this month of journaling has made me realize is that I tend to be reserved in how much of myself I am comfortable revealing with my art. You can imagine that this assignment didn't excite me very much. But I'm planning on seeing this journey through to the end of the month.

I've been feeling "blah" all day. I spent a couple hours at the doctors' office this morning. Then it was off to work for the afternoon. Nothing was really that bad. It's just that everything seemed so gray today.

So... to come home this evening with this prompt to express how I felt was not appealing. Making art helps lift me up and I would typically choose happier, brighter colors to take me to a happier & brighter place. Well, I learned something. Even though the thought of working on this didn't excite me very much, I still got some of the lifting of my mood through the act of creating.

Art Journal Day 25 - Circles

The art journal assignment was to choose a shape and play with it. Time and energy were very limited, so I kept this page simple. I took a magazine page and cut circles with a punch. These were glued to black card stock. Then I embellished with a white galaxy marker that fizzled out, so I came back with a white china marker. Not enough pizazz, so I used a gold metallic paint marker and a template to draw circles on top of the collage. I purposely let some of the paint puddle for interest. Next I punched black circles and punched smaller holes in the circles. These were glued onto the page.
I punched a row of holes on one end of the page and put more of the magazine page behind them. The last step was to add more gold paint. When I mounted this into my journal, I decided to add a title which was stamped and embossed on a strip of card stock.
This isn't my favorite exercise, but I enjoyed the process.

Art Journal Day 21 - Altered Image

This journal entry proved to be another exercise to stretch the old grey matter. We were to alter an image that we photographed ourselves. Where to start? I decided I wasn't going to take a lot of time finding a picture, so I just went by impulse. I have several digital files labeled flowers or spring or summer with a descriptive. So I just randomly chose one of those. The tulips caught my eye as I went through the file. It's really not a good photo, but I save such things because I see something that appeals to me and it may inspire a painting.
Just to make this more interesting, I made some quick adjustments with PS Elements (hue, saturation, posterized). Then it was time to go to the office.

After work, I decided to cut out some of the flowers so I could control their composition. Then I had to decide what the background would be. I used Daniel Smith's Sedona Clay watercolor to wash the paper. Then I used ModgePodge to add rectangles of orange mulberry paper. Next I added the tulips and some leaves. The watercolored areas needed to be beefed up, so I added more color. That's all I did. I could have done more, but I was loving the play of the complementary colors and that was enough for me.

Art Journal Day 20 - Word Art

This prompt from Misty's challenge was to create a journal page focused on one word. I have already started a separate journal based on the word hope and considered posting from that journal, but I decided to go another direction. In my mail were offers for artist magazines and there were reply cards in artist magazines I purchased last week. There was my word.
I recently purchased the book "Art and Fear". I started the spread by writing a quote from the book. From there I drew the word and outlined it with a Sharpie. The letters were colored with highlighter markers. I printed definitions from the Internet that I glued onto the pages. Marks were made with colored pencils and chalk pastel pencils. I glued down the ephemera I gleaned from the mailings I mentioned earlier. The painting came from a frame catalog.
The bright colors were just what I needed after the somber tones of the previous post.

Art Journal Day 19 - Embellish

Misty challenged us to use fabric and embellishments for this journal entry. This has been the most challenging page for me so far this month. It could be because I was very tired. But I think it has more to do with the brain fog that comes over me when attempting to get very embellished. To help me get started, I flipped through a wallpaper sample book that I picked up for free at the local paint & decorating store. This book had swatches of coordinating fabric for some of the collections. I chose a fairly neutral paisley printed fabric and cut out a section of the coordinating wallpaper, too. I'm drawn to paisley designs and this gave me a theme for the spread. I altered the fabric with blue paint. I added walnut ink to both the wallpaper and the fabric. They were both glued into my journal that had been prepped with gesso. The wallpaper was a nuisance in that it resisted most things I tried on it. I finally got some chalk ink & Stazon ink stamped images to stay on it. I loosely traced some of the design lines on the fabric with a Pitt Pen. The 2nd page of the spread has layers of paint, gesso, walnut ink, and stamped images. I adhered a candy label, drew an eye and journaled my thoughts. Once everything was dry, I added glitter glue and a couple of sequin flowers.
I like the color scheme that I developed. I also like the depth of the background on the 2nd page of the spread. But I'm not impressed with the grunginess that I developed. To me, the glitter is really odd against that setting.

Art Journal Day 14 - Green

I like green. The trouble with green is that there are so many versions of green and today I didn't have the luxury of taking a lot of time deciding which way to go. So I just went with the first green I saw which was some watercolor paint on my table that I hadn't put away. I don't even remember why I had the palette out.
In the end, I'm very glad I chose this springtime yellow-green. Take my word for it, it really is spring green. But once again I'm posting at night when the lighting is not optimal. Even playing with the white balance & photo editing are not letting you see what I see. Where you see some glare on the dragon fly is a reflection off the glossy accent and glitter I added to some of their wing. I put the same glossy accent on the flower centers, but it doesn't really show up well on the photo.
I started by washing the page with watercolor paint. I added a few layers and blotted with wax paper. Next I stamped a large fern frond all over the pages for a subtle background. The dragonflies were stamped next.
It was time to go to the office and I started thinking about green thumbs. My sister has the greenest thumb I know. She shared divisions of so many beautiful perennials with me several years ago. They have multiplied and I've enlarged my garden, added new beds, shared divisions... you get the picture. My sister is a nurse and one of her patients dubbed her "Daisy". After work, I colored and stamped a sheet of green card stock to give some variations of green. Then I used daisy punches to make all the green flowers. There are three sizes and I stacked them or used them singly.
Today I used a Sharpie marker to do the journaling. I found out that my gel pens are very sensitive to moisture when I use them on this water colored surface.
I'm excited about what I'm learning on this journey. Today I was inspired to start another journal, but that is a subject for another post.
By the way, if you've wondered about the little clothes pins that are showing up on some of my journal page images, here's the scoop. The edges of some of the pages want to curl & I'm just using the clothes pins to keep the page flat for the photograph. Once I close the book and let it sit, the pages have been flattening out.
If you haven't been there yet, be sure to check out Misty's page. I'm so glad she put out this journaling challenge.

Art Journal Day 13 - Orange

My inspiration for Orange was "Wild Sweet Orange" Tazo Tea. The label inspired an ATC a few months ago. When Misty prompted us to journal with Orange today, I knew I'd be using the tea label again.

Today I mixed acrylic paint to get different shades of orange. I used Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue, Permanent Rose & Titanium White. Depending on the amount of white used, you can come up with a nice orange sherbert hue. I also added a bit of burnt umber for some of the darker shading. A sepia Pitt marker was used to outline the flower. I used a black gel pen for accents and journaling. There's also a bit of watercolor pencil accent work, too.

I also added a bit of stamping to add texture. A chalk ink pad works great for this.

Art Journal Day 12 - Blue

This week Misty Mawn has prompted us to focus on color in our art journals. Today is blue. If I had to select ONE color as a favorite, I think I would choose blue. There are so many beautiful versions of blue. I chose to use Daniel Smith's Lapis Lazuli Genuine watercolor as my primary blue for this spread. It reminds me of my favorite shade of denim.

I started by prepping the pages with what I thought was thinned gesso I had stored in a yogurt container. I added a bit more gesso into the container and then started spreading it on the page. It just seemed too smooth. Well, I kept on working away prepping a few more pages. When I grabbed the container's lid, I saw where I'd written gloss varnish over the label. OOPS! Since I'd mixed some gesso into it, I thought "What the heck" and see what happens. The surface didn't have as much tooth as I usually desire. But I like the way the watercolor paint looked on the surface. It lifts very easily, so I had to be careful.

Embellishments and journaling finished off the pages. I like working monochromatically. It simplifies decision making. I'm looking forward to the rest of this week's prompts.

Journal Day 10 - Sudoku Portrait

Numbers can intimidate me in the abstract. Calculating yardage and quilt blocks doesn't because it's not abstract. I use a lot of simple math with my jewelry designs. But algebra and calculus are not for me. When I first saw Sudoku puzzles, I didn't give them a second look. I could never do the typical number puzzles in crossword puzzle books. I inherited my Mom's love of crossword puzzles.

But one day I was reading the newspaper while waiting for my husband. I was waiting a long time and I decided to take a look at that number puzzle by the crossword puzzle. Hmmmm. It was fun. I didn't have to do math. I was quickly hooked. Now Hubby likes to do Sudoku puzzles, too. He's got a program on his computer to do them. I like my books edited by Will Shortz. I'll attempt all difficulty levels, but I can't always complete the most challenging. My favorite are the moderate puzzles. There are books that have only moderate puzzles. I'm working on my second one.

My favorite time to do the puzzle is when I go to bed. It helps my mind slow down from the day, and I usually fall to sleep faster if I work on a puzzle or two before I turn off the light. If I read art books or magazines at bedtime, I usually need to work on a puzzle to get my mind to settle down. Otherwise I tend to get bombarded with imagery that keeps me from sleeping very soundly. It's just the creative part of my brain getting all churned up.

Last night I doodled this face on an envelope while talking on the phone and decided to incorporate it into this collage. Once again, I struggled with getting my eyes even. It didn't help that I was working in ink.

This page was colored with Nupastels and Distress Ink. The portrait was colored with Prismacolor pencils. I cut a frame from a catalog. I tore out a page from the last book I completed.

Lest I forget, many of my puzzle pages have doodles all over the bottom of the page. They work like a list for me. You know, when you're at work and your personal life keeps intruding your thoughts. I just stop and jot down reminders to myself so that I can put those thoughts away til I'm done at the office. The doodles on my puzzle pages help me let go of the creative thoughts that would keep me awake.

How do you help transition your brain activity from the creative mode to help you sleep?

Golden Acrylic Collage with Gel Transfers Workshop

This weekend it was my great joy to attend a workshop at the Art Store in Des Moines which was taught by Bonnie Cutts, who is one of Golden Acrylics' Working Artists. If you are interested in working with acrylics, doing collage or transfer techniques, I highly recommend attending a workshop. Check out the link to see if there are offerings in your area.

I attended a lecture/demo on Friday night, which was very informative. There were so many sample boards! The Saturday workshop was a lot of fun. I learned more getting to work directly with the wonderful Golden products that were supplied to us. I've posted the collages that I worked on plus a sample board of direct transfer images. Bonnie prepared acrylic "skins" that we could include in our collages. These could be as simple as a textured gel that was tinted with Golden Fluid acrylic and left to dry on releasable surface such as glass. We adhered the skins to our collages using Gloss Soft Gel. We were also provided with transfers that were partially prepared. Clip art that was printed using a copier or laser printer (not regular ink jet) is coated with 4-5 layers of Gloss Soft Gel, drying between layers. Once the gel is thoroughly dry (no longer cloudy), put the image in lukewarm water to soak the paper. Place gel side down on firm surface & rub away the paper. Your image has transferred to the gel & it can be collaged onto your surface once it has dried (lay on a towel so it doesn't stick to surface while drying). Use Gloss Soft Gel to adhere transfer to the collage.
I have made transfers before using Liquitex products with satisfactory results, but I wasn't able to rub away the paper as thoroughly as I could with the Golden product. I think the toner bonded more thoroughly to the Golden film than it did to the Liquitex.
I would like to do more with the collages I started and will add an update when I get to that point.

Bonnie made the workshop a lot of fun as well as informative, and I recommend her very much. She is based out of the Twin Cities area. Check out her web site for workshop opportunities and to see samples of her art.

Illustration Friday - Primitive

Today while reading Fannie's fabulous blog, Imagine Create Inspire, I was reminded of this ACEO I created that fits the IF theme Primitive. The first thought that came to mind for the word Primitive was of naive art created by untrained artists. Then I remembered the art created by The Quiltmakers of Ghee's Bend. In 2003, they were featured on PBS, which is where I first learned of these artists.

Last year I was introduced to ATC's. (Artist Trading Cards) They are 2.5 x 3.5 inches, which is the same as any regular trading card. When they are made for sale, they are called ACEO's. (Art Cards, Editions and Originals)

This card was made using gesso, Liquitex paints, and colored pencil on paper. When I realized my abstract marks looked like a primitive house, I added the canceled postage stamp using acrylic matte medium. It was a nice bit of serendipity to have painted with the same pink as one of the fabrics in the quilt.

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