Wow!

A quick journal page yesterday morning

Short walk at Town Hall park. Jake enjoying the breeze

I used to love to walk. It was nothing for me to walk the dogs for 90 minutes, almost daily. But as the scoliosis has progressed, and the nerve compression has increased, I am no longer able to walk more than short distances. I have never felt more helpless than yesterday, while I watched the world walk/march for equality and truth. So I did what I was capable of, sending messages of gratitude to those marching, words of encouragement, and cheering from the sidelines.

It is no longer about what party you choose. It is about not losing our rights. Freedom of the press, Freedom of Speech, equality for all. My heart is now filled with hope for the future.

Thank You.
Linda

Been Working

Wood frame assemblage

Metal embellishments with molding paste

Another piece

Close up of the painted canvas paper

Inspiration Wednesday journal

Lifting the insert

Inspiration Wednesday journal

Inspiration Wednesday journal

inside the inserts

I have been in the mood to work, now that the entire room is organized again. I am having hand surgery tomorrow on my dominant hand, and won't be able to do much of anything for about a week. Knowing this, now, aggravates the sudden need/want of creating. Plus, I am always, always more creative in the winter months when there are no distractions. Too cold or wet to take the dogs to the park, I stay in the house and wander in and out of the studio, creating in spurts.

I also need distraction as this year draws to a close, and we get closer to January 20, 2017. Enough said.

Artists for love.

Happy Birthday to my Gracie. Today she is 8. Hard to believe.

Gracie at 3 months

Gracie, yesterday.

I do love my babies.
Linda

Art Journaling

Woman with finger stuck in light socket. Why, yes, there is a story

"Sunday morning coming down"

Turned the journal sideways

September 11th spread

I have 7 art journals. Only one of them is completely full. Two more are mostly full, and one is halfway but due to the content from Inspiration Wednesday (Donna Downey) in 2015, I can't close it. Nor open it flat. So it's basically done. I will pick up whichever journal is handy, or the cover catches my eye, whatever. I do date each spread I complete. If there is no date on it, that means I have full intention of returning to that page and adding more. Lately, I have been adding more to old pages.

The light socket lady was an experiment in techniques. I do this kind of shit to torture myself. Keep thinking that some day, at some point, I will finally get a woman's face that I have created that I actually like. Probably not, but the hope is eternal.  The September 11th spread was done completely with stencils. I used acrylic paint and a brayer to apply the background, then markers to fill in the woman's head.

I do tend to work when feeling down, depressed, or angry. Hence the bright colors. The "despair" pages were after a series of phone calls with family. It was either work in the art journal, or chew nails and spit out carpet tacks.

Art journal won.
Linda

Gelli Printing Class

One of my classmates with some of her work

More work from classmate

She printed on muslin. I want to do this!

We had Gelli prints everywhere, people!

Muslin printing from another classmate

And more prints

Love this

My favorite from another classmate. Wish I had taken a better shot

Lamp shade metal frame used to hang stencils

One of my prints

Friday night demo table with Carolyn and her friend, Christa

a ton of paint on that Gelli plate

I can get into more trouble. It's me. What else do you expect? I am not afraid to spend money, leave home, board the dogs, or venture out to meet people. My curiosity will lead me down the road and into all kinds of creative adventures. This past Friday was one of them.

Carolyn Dube has a blog here. I read it on a regular basis, and several weeks ago she posted about teaching a Gelli Plate printing class in Columbus, OH. Hmm. I'd never been to Columbus, OH, so why not? I signed up for a 3 hour class this past Friday afternoon. This meant dropping the dogs off at Miss Sherry's in home dog sitting, (Bye, Mom. Yeah, go already) and driving the 190 miles. Unfortunately, and I really need to work on this, I didn't read the tiny little tiny blurb that said "Classes are being held at the Embassy Suites in Dublin, OH." No, I pulled off an address from the net and landed at a very beautiful, historic area in Columbus. An address that was 5 years old. So my first tip to whomever runs this Artscape weekend? UPDATE THE WEBSITE!!! Take that address off, please. After a phone call, I was on my way from Columbus to Dublin. Whew. Lots of driving.

But I had made up my mind that I could either fret about the mix-up, or take it in stride and have a good time. I had a GREAT time. Carolyn is a very inspiring instructor, and I came home with a new perspective on Gelli Plate printing and combining colors on the plate. I noticed on the drive home on Saturday that I also had paint still on my fingernails and under my arm. What can I say?

Carolyn has an all day Gelli Plate printing class called Extreme Printing coming up in September, in Cincinnati. I've never been to Cincinnati. Yep. Road trip!

Enjoy your day.
Linda

How to relieve stress

Larger art journal

Yeah, these quotes are meaningful right now

details of the molding paste

I have been a frustrated art journaler for years. One of those that follows a bunch of women on the internet, watches videos on YouTube, and tries. A lot of my efforts will never see the light of day, but this one turned out to my liking. And that counts.

Donna Downey has demonstrated several times on transferring an image using Golden Gel Medium. This is my second attempt, and it ain't working yet. I think my printer is not of the same quality as Ms. Downey's. Or, and this is a distinct possibility, I just freaking can't do this technique. Should you want to try this at home, you do the following:

1. Select an image to transfer off the net, and print it. Either black and white or color, doesn't matter.
2. Gesso your art journal page and let that dry completely, like overnight.
3. Apply a medium layer of Golden Regular Gel Medium to the page where you want the transfer. Do not hesitate or wait, immediately lay your print down with the ink side on the gel, and start to press with your hands. You may use a bone folder on it's edge to go back and forth. Do this for about 30 seconds. Lift one corner to check.
4. If image is starting to transfer, try rubbing a bit more, but if you wait too long, the print will glue to the page. This happened the first time I tried it.
5. In the above spread, I realized the best I was going to get was a ghost of the moth, on the right hand page, so I went with it. Peeled the print off, cut up the moth and the caterpillar, and then applied them directly to the page with the same gel medium.

I let all of that dry, then went over with a wash of gesso and beige paint to try and blend in the edges. Didn't get what I wanted, so took out some stencils and, using Golden's light molding paste, applied it through the stencils to the edges. I used leaves (Dyan Reavley), and some little squares (Rae Missigman).

Let that dry completely, then applied a glaze of Golden Raw Umber, waited a minute, and wiped it off with baby wipes.

I have not given up. Of course not, it's me. Stubborn south side of Chicago me. Next time going to try something from a magazine. Just because I can. Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by.
Linda

Art Saves

This canvas was created by Cathy. It is currently hanging in the scrapbook store, Allyscraps, in Plainfield, IN. I love it. The colors are subtle, blending well, and the design is simple yet intriguing. I think Cath did a great job.

I also know that the saying was quite intentional. "She loved her family". We all know we love them, but sometimes they can drive us nuts. Happens to everyone.

Which brings me to today's topic. Art Saves. Yes, it does. Every artist or crafter creates for different reasons, to fulfill some need or attain some personal goal. For me, it is relaxing yet energizing at the same time. When I'm on a roll, I can be in and out of that studio 6 times a day, needing to check one more item, try one more technique. Drives the dogs nuts.

I read a great many creative blogs. This is a link to one I recently started to follow, who does a feature entitled Art Saves. If you would like to read more, click here.

Thanks for stopping by.
Linda