Thursday, August 26, 2010

Journaling


Journaling, a subject dear to my heart. I practice it regularly and have taught classes on how to do it. I just got a new book on Visual Journaling which I may review later, and it gave me a few new ideas to add to what I already do. I have tried Art Journaling or Visual Journaling, but I still come back to mainly writing words. It's a way to keep track of my fascinating life.
The example above is something new I tried at the beginning of 2010, which comes about as close to Art Journaling that I've done. I had heard that Teesha Moore used painted pages with boarders, so I tried it. I painted a bunch of pages and then added the boarders of 1 in. strips of interesting stuff I found. But I produced mainly pages to write on; coordinating pen and paint color. That went on for about 3 mos. and then I was ready for a change. Teesha's pages are much more elaborate and truly wonderful, with collage and markers (check it out on Youtube). I don't know how she finds time to write in her journals.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Artists


Presenting artists Anna & daughter-in-law Dallas Mayer. The WOW poppies, or are they hollyhocks, are the work of Anna & both artists now have work on display at the Guymon Library. Also look for Anna's "art quilts" at the TX County Free Fair; just look for the blue ribbons and you'll find one of Anna's quilts attached.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Art Biz

Well Alyson Stanfield has done it again; she's given me a good word just when I needed it.
I tend to putz with my art. I blame it on my "day job", claiming I have no time. Well Alyson has some advise to help my problem. And it comes in the form of a question: If someone asked you, "What projects are you working on right now and why are you enthusiastic about them" would you have a great answer? I would have to say NO! I usually say, "O, I'm just doing a little of this and a little of that." I must do better than that. So True, start working on something, and then decide why this project is important.
So here goes! I have two projects going right now: 1.) I'm painting my first floorcloth. This is something I have wanted to do for years. I even had this design in my head for about 10 years; a Navajo inspired design. This will go under the kitchen table. 2.) I have started my first installation piece using fiber with the theme of coffee. It will have a place in a corner of the gallery.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Mousetrap?

What is that saying: build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door?

Well how about paint can? Last night I started to paint a floorcloth; I had drawn the pattern on Tues., and I was faced with the challenge of fighting with paint cans. There is just no good way to get the paint out. I have used the paint of one company that has plastic jugs. But that only presents the problem of getting your hand around the lid so you can unscrew it.

We can send people into space but we can't design an efficient way to package paint!