Love Letters

Greetings from Detroit!

Howdy, ya'll!  

It's a gorgeous Saturday morning here in Southeast Michigan, something we haven't seen in what feels like AGES!!!

It's so interesting what sunshine and longer days does for a soul, isn't it?

I feel SO much better now that the long winter is over (for the most part... the forcast is for Tuesday here in SE MI tobe 39 degrees for a high and 24 degrees for a low!)... YIKES!

 

OK, on to business... I thought I'd show you a little of the things I have been working on here lately... 

First of all, I'm taking an Oprah class from Dr. Brene Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection, here is this week's "Weekly Intention":

Here's my journal work for this week:

(I'm really struggling with not being judgemental of this... it's not something I spent a lot of time on, obviously, and now I wish I had!)

 

Here's my "Playlist", my interpretation of Dr. Stuart Brown's list of what constitutes "play", and then my list of what I like to do that is "play" to me:

This class has helped to remind me of how fulfilling it was for me to be making SOMETHING pretty much every day, and how much I enjoyed blogging and ending my posts with "Now, go make something!"... I failed to take my own advice and as a result, just haven't felt like myself... (as my dad would joke, "I'm not exactly sure WHO I felt like, but it wasn't me!")... so, though the demands of grad school are at times seemingly overwhelming, I have realized I NEED to carve out time for PLAY... even if I have to schedule it like an appointment... for my mental health and overall well being, it is as important as any doctor appointment or exercise, or frankly, for me, eating...

MY SOUL NEEDS PLAYTIME!!!

SO,  I've been drawing:

(This is a contour drawing of the top of an armoire in my bedroom)

This is done in an Evernote journal... does anyone out there understand how this is supposed to be used?  I just haven't taken the time to figure it out... I'm starting to feel old... I need a teenager to just show me once and I'll be fine!) :D

 

This is a drawing of some of the gorgeous pattern work chosen for the Sochi Olympics... I thought their graphics were just gorgeous and when I dove a little deeper, to learn more about the designs, I learned there were representations of different sub-cultures in Russia, each with their own unique artforms... and I think the designs were charming and beautiful and SO well done!!!  I just LOVED the colors and the patterns the way they were used to "brand" the Sochi Olympics!

 

 

Do you remember how beautiful and colorful the patterns were?

 

(CreditChang W. Lee/The New York Times)

What I'd give for some of the swag these kids are wearing!!!  Hmmm... maybe I need to peruse ebay and see if anyone is selling any of their Sochi Olympic garb! :D

 

A map of Russia from the official site for the clothing and Olympic swag... HOW cool is this!!!

 

These are some class notes from a workshop I took with Peter Thornton, someone I'd wanted to learn from for ages, and he is just a wonderful teacher with a wealth of knowledge and skill, self-deprecating and funny and very warm and human!  We spent a lot of time discussing and examining the concept of CoNtRaSt in our artwork and also spent a lot of time looking at, and studying the letters of Adolf Bernd, this is a link to a Google search I did of images, it is amazing!!!

 adolf bernd painted letters

Here is a beautiful example of one of Adolf Bernd's painted letters... the detail is AMAZING, all done in watercolor, the shades of which are just SO beautiful!...

 

I hope you've taken some time recently to fill up your creative well, and if you haven't, WHY NOT?!?  

I'd LOVE to hear from you if you've had the same sort of challenges and how you've done what you needed to do to take care of yourself!

THANK YOU for stopping by and taking the time to read this post, take good care!

 

Now, GO MAKE SOMETHING!!!

(And be sure to have FUN!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crossroads...

I am unwittingly at a major crossroads in my life and I am sending out a request for positive energy from my friends and supporters in the "blogosphere"... I've been interviewing for a new position at the hospital, and I really, really, really want this job... I'm SO hopeful that I've been able to come across well in the interviews, with honesty and integrity and grace... during what can be a very intimidating experience!  

This is the front of the thank you note I made... since yesterday was Valentine's Day, I went out on a limb and used a heart on the front of this card.  I've always sent handwritten thank you notes after an interview, and this time I made my own card to send.  I sure hope the recipient likes it!  

Mixed media journaling

Hey there!!!  My new year's resolution is to post more often!  It's been a crazy couple of years, but I'm done with my degree, I'm healthy again, and it's time to rededicate myself to pursuing my true passion... MAKING ART AND STUFF!!!  So here is a sample of a couple of facing pages from a journal I made using 90# cold press Arches watercolor paper. These are a couple of my favorite pages so far...

The color was put down using Golden liquid Acrylic paints with some Super Loaded Matte Medium added to it, which helps keep the paint from getting sticky, and leaves a great surface on which to write. The word JOY was written with acrylic ink and a folded pen, and the white letters were written with a gel pen.  There's some metallic marks on the page which doesn't scan in well at all, and the little spotted areas were made with a rubber type of shelf lining that leaves that sort of impression.  Pretty nifty, huh?!?

Not all my journal pages are this well put together, if you know what I mean, but I sure would like them to be! And truthfully, I could do more to "dress" this up, but I'm not going to mess with it any further... 

So Happy New Year, friends!  I hope you have set some gentle resolutions for yourself, the kind you can keep with JOY in your heart and the kind that will help you learn new techniques and grow as an artist. 

A different take on journal pages...

Good morning!  

After taking an absolutely terrific workshop recently from Jacqueline Sullivan, I've been trying new things in my journal pages, and I thought I'd share the results with you. 

 (This is a photo of Jacqueline, showing some of our backgrounds).

This is the early stages of one of the pages.  The first thing we did was to paint the pages with black gesso and let it dry.  Then we covered that with a layer of diluted Golden Absorbent Ground, and built up layers on top of that, using Golden acrylic paints and various acrylic inks.

 

  

Here is the same page many layers later:

(Honestly, this page is not quite such a shade of baby poop green!)

I can't really say if I'm happy with this page or not, I kind of feel like it's still a work in progress.  But I've enjoyed the process, and I guess that's what is really important.  I've learned some new skills and am trying some new techniques, and most of all, I've had fun doing so.  

 

This is another page that has very little writing on it at this point, and I have absolutely no idea where it will go from here, but this page I'm fairly happy with just like it is.  

(Unfortunately, the color reproduction is not necessarily accurate.  In the steps from scanning the artwork to posting it, and then taking into account different browsers and different monitors, I doubt what you see is exactly what I see; but you get the idea, right?)

So I'd like to encourage you to go get your journals or some watercolor paper, and just play.  Try something new today, and if you don't like it, remember you can cover it up with gesso.  If you still don't like it, add a new layer of paint or pastels, or paper.  

  (And let me know if you've done something you're happy with, ok?!?) 

Is handwriting becoming a lost art?

This past Friday, Detroit News columnist, Marney Rich Keenan, wrote in her column that not only do we not send handwritten letters any longer; but now children are not even being taught handwriting in school. Apparently, learning how to print neatly will be enough, and then students will move on to learn keyboarding. Handwriting will be reduced to rudimentary printing, and cursive writing will be a lost art.  

Ms. Keenan's article, Individuality is lost as art of handwriting dies, brings up a lot of hot issues for me, and it is well worth reading. I hope you'll take the time to read it.  As a calligrapher, it makes me even more concerned than I already was, that ours is an art that may be in peril; and how do we bring calligraphy to today's youth? If they don't even know how to write in cursive, will they have any interest in the tedious work of learning to write with a REALLY old fashioned pen that has to be dipped in ink?  It would be infinitely easier to just find a pleasing font, and layout whatever information needs to be conveyed on the computer, but it would no doubt be lifeless and boring (at least in my opinion).

I think like a lot of things, sending and receiving a hand written letter will become even more cherished, because it is so uncommon and so special.  Recall how sociologists worried that the computer would isolate us even more than we already were at the time? (I'm thinking that was around the time of the Y2K scare).  And now, we seem even more connected than ever, through blogs, emails, text messages and the like. Likewise, the DIY movement has been seen as an antidote to sitting and looking at sterile computer screens all day... we like to use our hands to produce things.  We like to make things.  And some of us like making cards.  

So, in an effort to let Ms. Keenan know the art of letter writing is not dead, I made her a card and made the envelope, and did my best to make it pretty.  It went in Saturday's mail and I hope she gets a kick out of receiving not only a handwritten letter, but a handmade one to boot!  

This is a simple watercolor piece I cut up and glued to the front of a 4x6" vellum cardstock. There's a kind of a shadow on the upper left front of the card, which is a stamp image done with Pearl-Ex Interference Gold, so it doesn't show up well on a scanner.  

This is the back of the envelope which is made out of recycled, painted Tyvek paper.

Here's the front of the envelope, done in an informal Uncial hand, with Keenan written with a silver metallic marker.  There are also tiny little silver dots in between the zip code numbers.

If you like making cards and sending letters, take the time to write to someone you've been thinking about lately, and let them know they've been on your mind.  Maybe you'll be lucky enough to receive a handwritten letter in return.  And if you can't think of anyone to write to, email me and we can be pen pals! 

Here are some links to some mail art sites that you might find interesting:

Mail-Art Across the World

Post Secret

Pushing the Envelopes

EMMA 

Digital Mail Art

Mail Me Art 

Now, GO MAKE SOMETHING!!! :D

Retreat from the world...

For five days, this past week, I had the privilege to spend that time with a group of fabulous women.  We were all on our own journeys, led by our facilitator and instructor, Sharon Zeguin.  Sharon possesses a huge spirit which is housed in a tiny body, sprite-like and full of encourgement and joy.

Below is one of the pieces I worked on at the retreat... 

Somwhere, buried in there are the words to a Shakespeare quote that starts like this:

"Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, 

Pluck from the memory a sorrow rooted..."

One of the things we did was to start with Arches Text Wove 25 x 40" paper and wrote on it however we chose... in pen, in pencil, in crayon if we wanted... and then we made random marks over the words, either in sumi or walnut ink, watercolor, &/or acrylics and paste in order to be able to work with the colors for a longer period of time. Once we were satisfied with that sheet we let it dry, and made our own books from the painted paper.  

I'd always wanted to learn how to make my own journals, and now I know how!!!  I'll show you the finished product, or parts of it at least, soon...

in the mean time, GO MAKE SOMETHING, and HAVE FUN!!! 

 

Look at this!!!

I felt like the luckiest woman in the world yesterday when I went out to retrieve the mail and found this juicy, delicious, spectacular riot of color and joy in my box!!!

I mean, really, how fun is this?!?  This is from Miss Rena, artist extraordinaire, and I LOVE it!!!  

Inside, I found more delights... 

and two of Miss Rena's business cards, which I think are SO charming and delightful...

this is her new card...

and this is her older version...

I honestly cannot say which one I like best!!!  Both are so inventive and fun... what's not to like?!?  Not to mention, included in the envelope was a Hello Kitty message pad, and who doesn't love Hello Kitty?!?  

(Did I ever tell you how my daughter Corey named our big orange kitty Danny

 
after "Dear Daniel", who is "Hello Kitty's" little brother?!?)

Anyhow, I just want to thank Miss Rena for her VERY generous mailing and I am working on a return surprise for you, my friend!  

I hope you all have a wonderful day, thank you for "stopping by", now... 

Derwent Watercolors

I have been using Derwent Watercolor pencils to do my watercolor experiments, and ended up buying two different types... the Derwent Inktense pencils and the Derwent Watercolor pencils... and because I really couldn't tell all that much difference between the two, I made a little chart, which looks like this:

 
And so, from this, I really can see how the Inktense colors are more intense, hence, I guess, the name "Inktense"!  (My shining brilliance baffles me more often than I can begin to tell you!!!) :D

These pencils are really fun to use and are very portable... just don't forget to take a brush and some water with you!  For that, I recommend using a Koi Waterbrush, which is an empty barrel container with a brush on top. (See image below). This eliminates the need to carry around a container of water and a separate brush if you are traveling with your watercolors.  

You can purchase these brushes from Paper & Ink Arts, one of my favorite art suppliers, especially for calligraphy supplies.  And if you're looking for inspiration, this book,
written by a friend of mine, Janet Takahashi, is a wonderful source for information about watercolor, drawing, and journaling with watercolors.    

Corey's flowers

First things, first. I am not a watercolorist, let's make that perfectly clear. BUT I am trying to teach myself some of the skills of working with watercolors and I have been enjoying the process.  Actually, I just really like playing around and seeing how the colors dry and where there are neat little puddles of color!  So in the effort to push myself to learn new skills and work outside my usual comfort zone, here is the watercolor I made of my daughter Corey's Sweetest Day flowers (which are now black and brittle in the same vase out on our back porch... she won't throw them away!). 

I like this little close up better...

or this, even better!

Just having some Saturday morning fun.. it's really nice to be able to do this as a change, after working two twelve-hour shifts back-to-back in the Emergency Room these past two days!  

I must say, I meet the nicest people there... I took care of someone yesterday who made me realize how ridiculous all of my tiny little complaints are, and they really are... this man had endured more suffering than I can imagine and yet he never, ever, uttered a single complaint while he was in my care.  And his wife couldn't understand why people had been so kind and accomodating towards her after her husband's initial injuries.  I was just blown away by these two... he became my hero and she became my example of humility.  People were kind and accomodating towards her because she was kind and accomodating herself!  I really believe we attract the kind of treatment we receive by the kind of behavior we exhibit.  It was truly a privilege to take care of that couple.  I needed to be reminded just how fortunate I am.