The next page

This two page spread resulted from the collage work

 I did preparing for my Art Journaling class.

Layers of ink, watercolor, and colored pencil.

It looks like one thought, but actually the image comes
 as the colors and patterns hit the page. I only have the
vaguest idea when I start.

The process is circular, or a spiral. Put color down. Watch what happens.
Ask, "What next?" Repeat.

Inside my journal

This week's journaling class was about collage. 

For me, collage with scrap paper is a great way into further layers.

The texture calls for color.

The students spent the first half of class painting different translucent papers:

 tissue paper, rice paper, and a mystery paper I picked up at a recycle center. While painting,  the conversation  turned to death, dying, parents, parenting, so we took the papers and created a path-

established a horizon, then built from there.

They could have easily worked another two hours.

Next week, text and pattern:  fills me with ideas.

Work in Progress

A new piece began as the old piece finished. 

The effect felt boxy, flat.

So I worked back into several prints with dye and paint, 

to modify stark contrasts and make both text and image more oblique.

 

This is how it looked when I left.

That evening I thought, if it's about sky, make it about sky.

This is the edited version, manipulated in Photoshop.

 

Tomorrow I go back to the studio and see if this works.

From the Studio

Metaphor

The piece had both lured and stumped me for months.

Its resolution required cutting up "precious" pieces, discarding ideas, 

and over-painting work. It felt fantastic. 

 detail

The grey pieces were made from letters I wrote home from college.

detail

When I was little, I used to walk, alone, in the forest behind our house. 

I couldn't have been more than 5 or 6. 

Those long endless hours among tall trees...

detail

"Go, not knowing where. Bring, not knowing what.

 The path is long,  the way unknown."

-Russian fairy tale

Printing this now

 Text. Tone on tone. Time.

 Marks. Memory.

 The deliberate, then the random. Intent versus chance.

 

 Impermanence, awareness. Loss. Resolve.

The Thermofax path

Thoughtful birds

Last week I had some quite hours in the studio. 

I spread curtain fabric the length of the printing table, 

took out some colors and screens, and invited the muse to visit.

Two favorites

The result is ten feet of sheer, barely pink fabric, with birds, leaves and 

the advice"take your time" drifting its length.

 The only place tall enough at home to photograph it is the entrance stairwell.

This morning I found a beautiful branch to hang it from.

I am pondering whether to do anything else to it.

View from lower stairs

Perhaps another layer - sheer bits, to drift like leaves across the surface. 

Perhaps pleats or stitch that extend the branch lines. 

Or perhaps just hang it and leave it be.

Your thoughts?

Stenciled Tags

"You get there just by doing," I once heard poet Audre Lorde say.

"Your job is to keep your hand moving."

To me that means having a list of small, manageable tasks to pick up when time allows. 

The new scarves begged for new tags.

Love these green

I sponged watercolor through the Balzer Designs Mini-Circle stencil, let them dry, 

Next, I used a thermofax screen and acrylic paint to screen my logo on top.

 

 Some "failed" business cards (look closely and you can see the stripes the dying ink cartridges made)  called out for colored pencils and markers.

My life-time secret: I love coloring.

 

  I stitched these to the other side. Here's one front and one back:

 

As much fun as a recess on a sunny day.