Get Ready to Fall Fearless and Fly!

In only 6 days, Carolyn Dube and I will launch an exciting challenge on Artists in Blogland.   know I've been talking about it a lot, but now that it's almost here, I am beyond excited.  Carolyn and I are getting the launch post ready, preparing our work for the first challenge, and touching base with all of the amazing artists who will be our guests during the challenge.  If this is your first time hearing about it, visit Artists in Blogland here to learn more.  Thinking about the first challenge has required me to delve deeply into my heart and mind.  Even though this has already brought up a lot of "stuff," I'm ready for the journey.   I know these challenges will help me enter 2013 with clarity and more trust in my intuition.

UPDATE! - Jane Davies, one of our FFF featured artists, still has room in the encaustic workshop she is teaching in CT the weekend of October 13-14.  If you're interested in learning about this medium from an absolutely amazing teacher, check it out here. 

Another UPDATE: Nathalie Kalbach, another of our FFF featured artists, has just launched an online workshop about Acrylic Ink that sounds fantastic - here's the link.

I have been taking Flora Bowley's online workshop called "Bloom True."  It is the beginning of week 3, and we are just moving beyond creating layers of paint to adding recognizable elements.  Here are some looks at the transformations one of my canvases has gone through as I've added 5 layers, alternating between warms, cools, black and whites, and translucent layers, letting each one dry before moving to the next:


Flora encourages us to keep turning the canvas around, so that there's never a clear top or bottom, left or right.  I feel like I've only just begun to relax into the process of adding layers, while staying unattached to the layer underneath.   Does this sound like yoga?  You betcha!  Today's assignment is to start to paint in some elements from a sketchbook we started keeping over the weekend.  Stay tuned!

In the meantime, here's a peek inside my art journal:

I had paint leftover from doing the warm and cool colors exercises in Bloom True, so I smeared them on a spread in my journal -- randomly.  Who knows what it will be, but it's a nice, colorful background for the future:

Sometimes I have a lot to write -- so I write.  I write over what I've painted, or I paint over what I've written.  Sometimes I write my schedule for the day, or my list of things to do.  Notice how horrified that girl on the left side of the double spread looks about the size of the to-do list...

When I'm done working on something, I glue in whatever small pieces of paper or other stuff (like leaves!) that I have on my desk.  If they're too small to save, I glue them in.  This will form a basis for something...

This is a lady I painted years ago.  I glued her onto a spread of color and stencils from The Crafter's Workshop by Balzer Designs.  Not sure yet what she is contemplating...

Inspiration Avenue had a challenge to design something around the word "Friends."  I can't think of a better friend than my husband (collective "AWWW"), who I can tell everything to without fear of judgment, who is my biggest source of emotional support and encouragement, and who I just love spending time with.  So that page up there with the nasturtium leaf became this:  

And last but not least, you still have two whole days to link up to Scrapping the Music's current challenge.  Again, you don't have to be a scrapbooker - although you CAN be!  Anything goes.  The song lyrics to the current song, Rain Red Roses, are very cool, as is the other prompt - to design around a song your parent/s liked.  Check out the DT's amazing work.  Only one person has linked up work so far... what are you waiting for!!

And... drumroll please, the winner of my Fairy Tale water color is Diane, who wrote:

Diane ~September 23, 2012 2:24 PM

Hi Jessica, how sweet of you to invite me to your party. Your art work created a lovely party brimming over with delightful whimsy!

Please enter me in your give away and i am your newest follower.
And thank you for stopping by my party, it was wonderful meeting you there! :D 

I have already emailed Diane to get her snail mail address to send her her prize!

Linking up at Paint Party Friday, Creative Every Day and Art Journal Every Day (links on the sidebar.)
Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Let Your Inner Fairy Fly!

 

Welcome to the Fairies' Tea and thank you to Inspiration Avenue for hosting this party!   I love everything about fairies.  One of my favorite stories is Peter Pan.  I had the great joy of playing Peter in our local theater company's production of the musical in 2003.  I loved asking the audience if they believed in fairies, and having them clap their hands to help save Tinkerbell!  I used one of the lines from Peter Pan on this piece, which is a digital collage made of elements I hand-painted using watercolors:

 

Every fairy has, of course, magical powers to make dreams come true, especially the wish to live happily ever after.  (Wouldn't it be fun to do a bookmark swap one day?  Hmmm....)

  

Here's a digital collage with elements I hand painted, including a fairy castle and important fairy accessories:

 

And finally, here is an art journal page, in which I collaged this lovely fairy on top of a watercolor and stamped background, added some zentangled and watercolor flowers, and this great saying: "Spread your wings and let the fairy within you fly!"  We all have the ability to create and experience magic -- we just have to let it out!

There are lots of cool prizes and giveaways on Inspiration Avenue, as well as on the blogs of all the other participants in the Fairies' Tea.   I hope you'll have a chance to visit all the tea parties!  As promised, comment below on my post to have a chance to win this original 6" x 8.5" watercolor  (to be chosen by the random fairy!).

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Play!

So much to do and so few hours in the day!  That's how I feel.  Before talking about today, here's what I did yesterday.

I spent the start of yesterday listening to a great podcast between Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Ronda Palazzari.   Julie has started a series called "Adventures in Arting," and Ronda was her first guest.  Ronda will be Carolyn Dube's and my first guest on Fall Fearless & Fly, the "art cleanse" starting 10/1 on Artists in Blogland.  It was so interesting to hear Ronda's and Julie's perspectives on fear of failure, and what exactly is success, as this is so much what the fall challenge is all about.  As I listened, I stenciled the cover of my new stencil storage book.  Ronda had a great tutorial on her blog about this, and I was so excited to try it.  I love how it turned out, and it's so nice to have all my stencils stored in one place!  I used regular craft and fluid acrylics, and am loving all the colors.

 

When I was done with the stencil journal, I had paint left over on my palette.  I HATE to waste paint!  So I smeared it into my art journal:

and layered over the background with Julie's Leaf Frame and Dyan Reavely's Distressed Harlequin stencils:

Smeared more leftover red and green paint on copy paper and then cut the papers up to make hearts, stems and leaves, to create this page.  Yesterday, I only had 3 students in my 4:30 yoga class because it was back to school night in our area.  Because it was such a small group, we were able to really take time and delve deeply into the poses.  I was able to give each of them a lot of individual attention and hands-on adjustments.  I felt like I was of great service to them -- I helped them get a better understanding of their bodies and breath through very detailed work.  They were so grateful, and I was so grateful.  And this made me happy.  Love truly grows by giving.

Two days ago I received a monthly package from Scarlet Lime studios, which contained a set of Maya Road chip board doorways.  I haven't used chip board in my work, and was a little mystified as to what to do.  So I did a little online research and found this great tutorial by Natalie Kalbach for this beautiful canvas:   

 

I took a canvas I had previously painted but didn't like, and added some stencils, sponging, splattering, etc.  I was pretty random with this.  I knew this layer was going to be behind, and peek through the openings in the doors.

 

Then I used a sponge to texture paint onto 12 doors:

I typed this saying:  "be an opener of doors...every exit is an entrance to somewhere else" using the American typewriter font and printed it out on white card-stock.

 

I added black and white detail on all the doors and windows, as well as some stenciling with TCW's mini-heringbone and mini-hexagon stencils (designed by Balzer Designs),  to add more texture.   

The numbers across the top are plaquettes by Tim Holtz.  I used "82" in honor of my dad - who is a young and vibrant 82 and still plays a mean game of tennis!  (I didn't use one for my mom's age because she likes to keep that a secret.)    UPDATE  - I want to make clear that this is my dad and MY MOM - not me!  I know it's confusing - I am lucky to look a lot like her!

I am busy setting my table and polishing my best silver for the Fairy's Tea Party on Sunday. I hope you'll visit me and all the other artists participating.  One of the commentators to my tea party blogpost will win an original watercolor - you can see and read about it here.

As always, Happy Paint Party Friday, Creative Every Day and Inspire Me Monday! 

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Eye & Art Candy

Last time I posted I was in a total funk.  I got lots of great advice in the comments - so thank you!  (One piece of advice I haven't tried yet is to paint a portrait of the inner monster that narrates the negative soundtrack.  Here's the link - I will definitely do this one day soon!)  After getting outside, I was able to shift.  When I came back in, I worked on this page, which I'd started yesterday, thinking I would paint something with another jar.  But as I started doodling, something else happened completely.  And in the end, I was happy.  Art DOES make everything better!

Sunday night was the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.  Usually we have a big dinner in Pine Lake, and last night was no exception.  Forty families doing a potluck together is a wonderful thing.  However, my dad was under the weather and he and my mom weren't able to get up to Pine Lake -- they were home in Brooklyn.  I could feel the tug of war in my heart.  My sister and brother, Aunt, Uncle, cousins and friends were all up at the lake, expecting us.  But I decided it was more important to be with my folks.  Luckily, my husband and Samy agreed; so I cooked and brought dinner to Brooklyn.  Here's a mandala I drew while talking with mom in the kitchen (of course, she greatly improved the food I made!).   Mom and Dad - may the coming year be sweet and bring you health and happiness.  Shanah Tovah.

Today, Freddie took Samy to play tennis and then she had a friend over. I was able to spend the whole afternoon in my studio!  Here's the progression of what I created.  It went through a lot of variations.

 and some string.  Now I'm happy!

The Diva's challenge this week is to create a Pinwheel for Peace.   Here's my attempt.  I used a template of an origami pinwheel, however my design ended up looking more like a kite because I added extra triangles...  I did use the tangle called "pinwheel," though (and escalator & clothesline)!

Finally, I received two envelopes with lovely Artist Trading Cards -- from Linda Phinney (who's Imagine card is hand stitched and who also sent me a tag too!) and Andrea at Falling Ladies - who paints the most magical, wonderful watercolors.  Aren't they gorgeous!

There's a new challenge up at Scrapping the Music - check it out.  These songs are so much fun and inspiring.  And your submissions don't have to be scrapbook pages.  Heck - have you ever seen a scrapbook layout from me?  So go take your art journal or zentangle tile over to STM and play along!  In my next post, I'll tell you about what I did for the challenge. 

Remember -- we're less than two weeks away from Fall Fearless and Fly.  I can't believe the amazing artists who have agreed to do guest posts during this challenge.  Carolyn Dube and and I are so excited.

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Unlock and Burst Through

Today, I finished this art journal page, which is very inspired by the amazing e-class I am taking, Bloom True.  It says, "I will unlock, burst through or shatter the containers I have made with my mind."  I don't know if it's a little depression from closing the lake house or the transition into the school year and all the "to dos" that are cropping up, but I have had a very negative soundtrack running in my head.  It goes something like this:

• I'm a bad mother - I am often irritable and critical of Samy (my 11 year old).   I don't bake, do crafts with her, and so much of the time I just "vant to be alone," to quote Greta Garbo.   Is it horrible that what I really want to do is spend time alone painting?
• I'm a bad daughter - I am so often short-tempered with my mom.  I don't cut her any slack at all.  I feel bad about that, because really -- we're so much alike (which is probably why...)
• I'm a bad friend - I forget birthdays.  I don't stay in touch or reach out enough.  Is it horrible that what I really want to do is spend time alone painting?
• I'm not a "real" artist.  So much of my work is commercial - I don't trust my process, my intuition, my materials.  I'm not original...

Wow - just writing and re-reading this makes me gag a little!  When do I feel best?  When I am actively engaged in helping others -- like in our volunteer work in Guatemala, or when I am lost in my artwork.  Clearly, to be indulging in all this self-criticism, I have too much time on my hands.   ENOUGH!  As my friend Marcie would say, get out and walk the dog!  Burst through this container of self doubt and judgment and find some joy in nature!

Two good quotes for today:

"Life does not accommodate you.  It shatters you.  It is meant to, and it couldn't do it better.  Every seed destroys its container or else there would be no fruition." (from ThinkExist.com -- no attribution)

"When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure."  Peter Marshall

Linking up to Artists in Blogland Show & Tell Saturday, Moxie Fab Jars of Joy challenge (although my jar is not quite filled with joy!),  Ronda Palazzari's prompt to use the word "Unlock," Illustration Friday's challenge to illustrate the word "Burst," and Inspiration Avenue's dragonflies prompt.

And reminding you about Fall Fearless & Fly - a challenge I am co-hosting beginning October 1.  I am so looking forward to it!

Question:  Do you have a negative soundtrack?  How do you turn it off once it starts playing?

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

UPDATE - I saw this today on FB and had to add it to this post.  It seemed written just for me.

Faces, Tangles, and Journal Pages oh my!

I love mixing styles -- can't you tell?  Fairies are on my mind because Inspiration Avenue is gearing up for the Fairy's Tea party on September 23.  And when the Diva's challenge this week was to break free of the traditional string, fairy tangles seemed the thing to do!  Then, A Year in the Life of an Art Journal challenged us to say something to ourselves of 10 years ago.   So I decided to put them all together!

Ten years ago, I was a 44 year old mother of an 11 and 1 year old.  Samy, then 1, demanded constant interaction and connection.  She was sweet, loving, cheerful, and exhausting.  Mariel, then 11, was just starting see me as a separate human being, and of course beginning to notice that I was less than perfect.  That summer, she developed Bell's Palsy as a result of lyme disease and her face was partially paralyzed (it has since gone away).  Her dad and I were in an extremely acrimonious phase of our often turbulent post divorce life and were only able to communicate through a mediator.  Needless to say, life was stressful.  Now that Mariel is 21, and Samy is 11, most of my days are calm and joyous.  I learned so much about myself and life over the past 10 years.  Even though Samy still loves to chat, she can also become immersed in a book.  Mariel's dad and I have an uneasy friendship, and of course, Mariel is glorious and all grown up now -- 21 and a senior in college.  Ten years ago, I couldn't imagine that I would be in a place where I would spend significant time painting, meditating, practicing yoga, and working in my garden.  And although the journey was sometimes difficult and traumatic, the years seem to have flown by.  Sometimes you have to look back at your past and smile at how far you've come!

The challenge at Stampotique is to use orange, mustard and navy -- not colors I usually use too much.  But I love how they all worked together in this piece.

The lady in this art journal page was inspired by this photo on the Moxie Fab blog.  I'm sorry I didn't photograph the process on this page -- the background went through so many different variations -- and most of the time I hated it so much!  But in the end, I rescued it and now I like it -- something I wouldn't have believed I could have said even 2 hours ago!

I got the idea to add the rectangle for journaling from this great video on Roben-Marie Smith's blog.  If you haven't seen her tutorials, check her out.  She's amazing!  Also, she is closing out her online art shop and there are a lot of great deals to be had!

I watched another great tutorial on layering stencils on Ronda Palazzari's blog.  She has created albums to store all her stencils, and shows how she decorated the album covers.  This tutorial is applicable to all sorts of projects, and I highly recommend it!

Speaking of Ronda, she will be our first guest artist on "Fall Fearless and Fly," the challenge Carolyn Dube and I are co-hosting at Artists in Blogland.  Every other week, there will be artistic prompts designed to get you thinking about setting intentions and shedding emotional baggage to step into 2013 as your bravest, most fearless self.  Have you ever done a juice cleanse?  Think of this as an art cleanse!  Any medium goes, and Aritsts In Blogland has great prizes and giveaways.  Each week, there will be an amazing guest artist participating!  Carolyn and I will be kicking off the art on October 1st.  Here is the line up of our guest artists: Rhonda Palazzari, Jane Davies, Maria McGuire, Marcia Beckett, Dina Wakley, and Joanne Sharpe!


While you are waiting for October 1st to roll around, check out the websites of these amazing artists & grab the blog button to help spread the word about all the fun we’re going to have!

Happy Paint Party Friday and Show and Tell Saturday and Creative Every Day!

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

Fall Fearless and Fly!

Have you been over to Artists in Blogland to check out the challenge "Fall Fearless and Fly?"  Carolyn Dube and I are hosting it starting October 1.  Every other week, there will be artistic prompts designed to get you thinking about setting intentions and shedding emotional baggage to step into 2013 as your bravest, most fearless self!  Have you ever done a juice cleanse?  Think of this as an art cleanse!  Any medium goes, and we have great prizes and giveaways.  Each week, there will be a guest artist participating.  The wonderful Ronda Palazzari, Jane Davies, Maria McGuire, Marcia Beckett and Dina Wakely will be playing along with us.  We hope you'll play along too.  So go to Artists in Blogland and grab a button for your blog.  On October 1, get ready to "Fall Fearless and Fly!"

We went to my cousin's daughter's wedding on Saturday night.  It was just beautiful -- black tie and in the most gorgeous setting called the Pleasantdale Chateau in West Orange.   I hadn't been to a wedding in several years.  It was nice to sit next to my husband and mentally renew my vows to him as I watched this young couple officially start their lives together.  Here's the art journal page I created on Sunday (catching up with my 29 faces!):

The colors of the wedding were black, white, taupe and teal, which I tried to capture.  Of course I was very influenced by Chagall and this painting in particular:  

Yesterday I started Flora Bowley's Bloom True E-course.  Like me, Flora is a yogini and views painting as a very spiritual process.  The community of women doing this course is so warm and wonderful, which is what I've found so far in all the classes I've been taking.  Here's my first step at letting paint do its thing -- not trying to control it in any way.  This will be the bottom of many layers to come, but I kind of like it.  I love these warm colors and how three pink balls are hovering.  I'm excited to see what becomes of this canvas with tomorrow's exercise!

Linking up to Inspire Me Monday, Creative Every Day and Art Journal Every Day.

I love comments...  So if you are so moved, I would love to hear from you!

Round and Round in the Circle Game

And the seasons they go 'round and 'round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came,
And go round and round and round
In the circle game

Joni Mitchell

This song is very much in my head and heart today.  Yesterday, we had to put down our wonderful cat Tory.  She was a rescue kitten who came into our family over 17 years ago as a present for my then 3 year old daughter, Mariel.  She was my companion through a contested divorce, getting my feet wet again in the dating world, several relationships, a new marriage, a new baby, moving to a new home, and transitioning from working as a lawyer, to embracing a new life as a yoga teacher and artist.  She was feisty and a diva -- she didn't like new people, new animals, or being transported to new settings.  She had a wail of a meow, and a purr that was so loud that it could be heard from another room.  As the lyrics from Stray Cat Strut go - she was a black and orange cat with class and style, who never bothered chasing mice around.  I will really miss her.  Although I don't often try to paint with any realism, this art journal page captures her and her regal, haughty expression.

It was fitting that this was the very last page in the art journal I started June 1.  I started it for Running With Scissors 30 day challenge, which was loads of fun.   Here are some pics of my finished journal!  I stenciled the front and back with Julie Balzer's Dashed Lines stencil and then added a zentangled mandala I did a while back.

Here are some spreads -- all of which I think I've blogged about in prior posts.  It's interesting to look at it all together -- I see that there are a lot of days I only feel like "arting," and not writing.  Because I tend to blog about the art in the journal, I'm not as drawn to write in it.  I save my journal writing for events and thoughts that are sensitive for me.

Of course, I had to start a new journal immediately!  Here's the first page, inspired by Inspiration Avenue's weekly challenge: wheels.

I created this page by:

1. stenciling an 8 x 10 piece of cardstock with Julie's dashed lines stencil using adirondack color wash sprays in stream and lettuce.  
2. I placed a circles template on the page and layered modeling paste on top it.   
3. Once the modeling past dried, leaving raised circles, I pasted the page into my journal using Elmer's art paste and a disposable brush.  The color washes ran, creating a nice effect on the paper.  
4. While it was still wet, I used the wooden tip of a paint brush to scribble into the "glue-color wash goop." 
5. I cut out a clip art of someone doing cartwheels and painted the figures black to make silhouettes and then cut them out and glued them on the large circles.
6. The orange mandalas are from a large sheet of Nepalese Lokta paper.
7. I wrote lyrics from "The Circle Game" on copy paper and sprayed them with color mists before cutting them out and gluing them down.

I really like this message to start my new journal.  Hopefully, in each  "go round," we accumulate the wisdom to change how we relate to our experiences.  The Buddha taught that lasting happiness can be attained only through becoming a “lamp unto yourself.”  Both Buddhism and yoga philosophy teach that nirvana or enlightenment is not a different place -- it is a clear perception of oneself and of the entire range of human experience.  This is the key to self-transformation.  Similarly - “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21).  Every great religious, spiritual, and wisdom tradition teaches that life’s ultimate truth, its ultimate treasure, lies within us.

Linking up with Paint Party Friday, Artists in Blogland, Art Journal Every Day and Creative Every Day.  Click the buttons on my sidebar and go spread some love!

Thank you so much for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.