Portraits and Rice Bags!

What do portraits and rice bags have in common?  Not a lot, usually, but this year they are the items I made as Christmas gifts for my family. 

I can finally show it off. The portrait of my lovely daughter, that is. 

Yes, I know the shadows and the mid-tones could have been better, not to mention the hair but I loved it and I think (I hope) she did too.

It was painted from this photo:

The portrait was started a while back and sat in my studio in various stages of completion for such a long time. It became a part of my day to walk in the studio, look at the picture and wonder what else I should do to it. I know this is going to sound crazy but I procrastinated finishing it because I knew it would be gone when it was done. It was comforting having it around. Having it in the studio was like having her there to keep me company while I worked on other projects.  Just in case you are wondering if I’ve gone off the deep end, No, i didn’t speak to it. Ha ha!!

But now I’m going to miss it too.

Best compliment ever - When I gave it to her, her husband said I captured “Milli” perfectly. That’s his pet name for her cute as a button nose. Awww!

Several years ago, I made a rice bag (i.e. heat therapy bag) for my husband because he suffered from migraines. He loved it. Since then I have made rice bags for other members of the family because almost everyone in his family has migraines.   This year, in addition to the painting, I made a few more. 

In case you are wondering what a rice bag is, it’s simply a small cotton fabric bag filled with rice and includes a washable flannel cover.  You put it in the microwave for 2-3 minutes and then place it where it hurts.  Because it’s filled with rice, not too tightly, it conforms to your face and feels good. The smell of the microwaved dry rice is comforting as well.  It’s a quick and easy gift that keeps on giving.

 

Do you make any gifts for your family?  If so, what were they? Please share.

My Fondest Wish

Is for you and your family to have the 

Merriest Christmas 

and

the very best New Year.

This is the Christmas card I made for my family and friends this year. I wanted to share it with you, my very dear blog friends.  Thank you all for coming to visit me.

See you when we return from our holiday trip.

I’ve been keeping a secret from you.

Yes, I’ve been keeping a secret from you.  Why? I was afraid that if I mentioned it, I would jinx it and it wouldn’t happen. Superstitious much? OK, what am I talking about?  This:

Last August I received an email from the editor of Art Journaling Magazine by Summerset Studio asking if I would like to submit my journal for consideration for publication in their magazine.  You can imagine just how fast I said ‘Yes, I’d love to’, packed up my Moleskine, and shipped it off. It’s been agonizing waiting to hear (or see) if it was going to be used in the Winter issue….. Yesterday I finally heard.

IT WAS!!!!  I’M PUBLISHED!!!

I got a copy of the magazine in the mail yesterday. Here is the cover:

and there, the Gallery, were my journal pages.

 

I have been floating on air since I saw it. My husband just giggles at my perpetual smile.

To see these journal pages close up:

Lower Left: Soul Journals
Top Middle: New Journal Pages
Lower right: Crossing Paths Again

Expressing feelings without words

I’m not big on words, never have been.  Probably never will be no matter how much I try. I internalize everything especially the bad.  But this page wasn’t about the bad, it was about how I have felt since learning about the new grandbaby. It’s about feeling light and airy and colorful inside. In other words…..Happy.

I bought a new journal recently because it has fabulous textured paper and it opens flat. But, sadly, it’s not meant with be used with wet media and I almost tore the paper several times just adding gesso to the page.

To create this page  I used water color crayons and Inktense pencils to limit the moisture on the page.  I actually like how the colors came out and the transparency in the flowers.

Things My Mother Said

This weeks theme, besides being late, is about things my mother said as I was growing up.  Some of those words were also repeated by me to my own daughter.

Some of the funny things my mother said were:

“It’s just as easy to marry a rich man as a poor man.” Said by the woman who married a poor man and didn’t know any rich men.

“Don’t drink coffee it will stunt your growth.” She was right about this one.  I used to dunk my ginger snaps in coffee served by my aunts and I’m only 5’2”. Damn that coffee.

“Money doesn’t grow on trees.”  How many times have you heard this? When my daughter was young she thought that money just magically appeared in your bank account. When I told her we didn’t have money for a certain toy she’d say “Well Duh, just go to the bank.” Ok she didn’t say “well duh”…she knew better…but it was implied.

“I hope when you grow up your kids are just like you.”  I think this one came true….and you know what? I’m more than ok with that.

“If you get hurt don’t come running to me.”  I never got this one, who exactly was I supposed to go running to if not my mother?  I always want my kid to come running to me when she needs me. That’s why I had kids. 

“You’d lose your head if it wasn’t attached.” Sadly, this one is still true.

“If I told you once I told you a thousand times.”  She probably did too.  do kids ever listen to their parents? 

“Just wait till your father gets home.” My mother used this one on me and it worked. However, when I tried this one with My Girl but it didn’t because her dad wasn’t as strict as I was.

 

What are the Momisms either told to you or those you have said to your own children?

Christmas Trees Everywhere You Look

I joined an ATC swap at ATCsforAll.com and the theme was Christmas trees.  Here is what I made for the swap. I hope they like them because I had fun with them.

 

 

Have you swapped any ATCs recently?  I hate that I don’t create and swap them more often.  They are so fun.

I’m Thankful 4

Happy Thanksgiving All!!

It always happens when it rains

It always happens when it rains.  When it’s wet, dreary, foggy and cold outdoors is when I start my pacing around the house feeling restless and confined.  Even though our winter just started, I am already staring out the window longing for spring and summer. 

You’d think, by the way I’m whining, that I’d never spent time in a location that had real winters. I have. In fact, I spent 33 years in New Mexico and in winter the temperatures can drop down into the minus area of the thermometer and stay that way for days on end.  However, even when it’s biting cold outside, the sun still shines. Some days, it even snows with the sun shining. How cool is that?

In California, the temperature doesn’t drop quite so dramatically. In fact, it rarely drops below freezing temp (I do love that). But when it gets rainy, cloudy and dreary, it can last for days and even weeks.  It can be depressingly melancholy (is that redundant?)  I don’t know how people live in Oregon and Washington or in the Great Lakes area.

Have I ever mentioned that we lived in Illinois near the Great Lakes for 15 months? Well, I’ll leave the story of why we were in that hell hole for another time but Oh.My.God, talk about the extreme weather.  Hot with stifling humidity in the summer or months of freezing temps and 10” of snow in winter.  There was barely any middle ground.  I’ve never been so happy to leave a place. No offense to anyone living in the Great Lakes area. I honestly envy your fortitude. I could never make that place home, I’m too much of a wuss.

It was one of these recent rainy Cali days that I created this journal page. It includes a picture I took last summer of the sunflowers grown in my area. I needed some color to cheer me up and this page did the trick.

 

I miss Spring, I miss the promise of long hot summer days.

What season makes you come alive?

What are your Do’s and Don’ts?

This weeks Wanna Play? theme is My Dos and Don’ts.  As usual I didn’t take the theme too seriously.

 

What are yours?

Big News and Small Projects

Do you see this beautiful girl?  This is my daughter Alma, “my girl”, my baby. 

This beautiful girl is now 21 and has decided to make me a grandma!!  That stinker!! I am so excited for her and her husband because I know she is going to be a great mom, they are going to be great parents. They are both so excited about the new baby. Even the horrible morning sickness can’t temper her excitement. The baby is due around the first of July.   I’m thrilled and at the same time I’m a little sad because she lives in NM and I live in California.  Can you imagine how much traveling I’m going to be doing after that little bundle is born? 

Every year I make the gift tags for our Christmas gift exchange.  It’s something I love to do because it makes gift giving extra special. Here are the ones I made this week:

And a couple of close ups:

I use shipping tags in large and small sizes. The backgrounds are colored with stamps pads. Images come from a variety of sources such as catalogs. I use scrapbook paper to add interest. Also used are white pens for snow and silver and gold pens for outlining the images or the card itself. The snowflakes came in a roll of ribbon from Target that I cut the snowflakes from. They look very 3-d. 

I created the base of our family Christmas card as well. But I will embellish each one individually in order to personalize them and make each one unique. More on that next week.

Wanna Play? Happiness is….

This weeks theme is “Happiness is…”   What brings you happiness?  Or better yet, what might give you happiness if you had it? 

The last item on my list says “Home renovation projects finished”. We finished building our his and hers closets a few weeks ago. Ok, we still have a few finish details left to do.. but it’s mostly finished. Boy am I thrilled to have a closet again. It’s been a while. I’ll post photos later this week.

In the meantime, what brings you happiness?

OMG, I think my ears are bleeding.

Who would have thought that a quiet little bedroom community like ours would harbor a teenage boy who could make your ears bleed?  Oh, I’m sure this teenage wonder is a fine young man who has never been in trouble with the law…that we know of. And I’m sure he gets good grades, drives safely, doesn’t do drugs, and he probably doesn’t give his parents any sass.

Although if he did sass his parents they probably can’t hear it anyway. I’m sure they must be deaf by now. 

Who am I rambling on about? The neighborhood drummer boy.  He beats his drums with the volume turned up as high as it will go. (Do drums even have a volume knob?  They must.)  It wouldn’t be so bad if the overly enthusiastic drummer boy could actually keep the beat. He can’t and that’s the problem.   His “music” is all over the place. It’s so bad it reminds me of bad, very bad impromptu jazz. Frankly, I’m surprised no one has told him that he has no talent for the drums.

Nor does the poor boy have a talent for singing. I’d actually feel bad for him if I wasn’t busy cringing while he is screeching into the microphone.

I really wouldn’t mind any of it if he didn’t amp up the volume so high our windows rattle. Or in summer, if he didn’t start playing THE minute we walk outdoors to spend some time in our pool.  It’s driving us F’n nuts. (for My girl: F’n = Fudge and.)

But just when I think of marching myself over to their house to demand he shut it down, I stop myself.  I can’t bring myself stomp on his enthusiasm. He practices so much I don’t have the heart to tell him that even after all that work, he still sucks.  I’ll let someone else throw tomatoes at him until he gets it right. I know someday he will.

Or I’ll be deaf and won’t care. 

Here is my latest page, dedicated to drummer boy.

 

Wanna Play? Romance

Very simple theme this week: Romance.  What comes to mind when you think of Romance? Interpretation is up to you.  Any size is allowed.

Come on, show me what you’ve got.

New Work Using Stencil and Spray Paint

This is acrylic painting on a birch wood substrate. The base layers were texture medium and covered with gesso.  The underlying acrylic paint colors were added using a brush. Used were the colors: yellow, green, blue, purple, magenta and orange.  You can really see the texture in the close ups.

The black paint was all added using spray paint and stencils. The focal image, the bird, is a stencil as is the radiating sun-like image in orange. Both were added using spray paint in aerosol cans 

The balance of the black was added using 3 different lace pieces.  Here is what the whole thing looks like.

Wanna Play? I have the right to be

This weeks theme is “I have the right to be ________. You fill in the blank. What have you earned the right to be at this stage of your life? Have you achieved it or are you still striving to get there? 

 

I certainly have achieved weirdness and eccentricity, in fact I embrace it wholeheartedly. :D  Absurd? definitely, just ask my husband.  There are many days when he looks at me like I’m unsound and I just laugh.  Creative? Some days more than others.

All this makes me think of the poem “Warning”, by Jenny Joseph. I’m sure your heard of it.  If not, here it is:

WARNING

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

VHS tape elicits an ESP experience?

Do you have ESP?  Ever have an experience that left you wondering if you did?  Me, I’ve had several.  Yesterday for example.  I took a me day and went window shopping at the local stores and made a quick stop at the local Goodwill store.  I love shopping at the Goodwill for recyclable art supplies.  That’s where I got the chewed up Barbie doll I altered for Halloween last year. When I bought it the cashier looked at me funny and asked me if I was sure I wanted it with a chewed up hand.  I wasn’t lucky this trip but I did have an ESP experience while I was there.

I was browsing the used book section and in the middle of the book section was a table full of  VHS tapes.  Why I stopped to look at them I’m not too sure. I have only one working VHS player and it’s in the workout room. I don’t watch TV in there for more than 1/2 hour at a time. Anyway, as I was checking out the various titles, I spied out of the corner of my eye, the title “Mrs. Brown.”  My daughter’s married surname is Mrs. Brown.  My first thought was to grab the tape, buy it and use the cover for an art piece for my daughter. (She inspires a lot of my work.)

However, when I looked for it I couldn’t find it.  What? Yeah, I looked all over the table for the “Mrs. Brown” tape but no, it wasn’t there.  I thought I must be going crazy. (Well, I am but shhhh, don’t tell anyone.) I finally gave up and moved on to the the next book shelf. 

A minute later my daughter texted me. Weird, huh?

Here is my latest journal page:

 

Wanna Play? Bliss

The second theme is Bliss.  What gives you that feeling of bliss? Or do have a favorite quote on bliss?  I’ve heard people say the word is overused and tired. If that applies to you,  approach the theme from that point of view.  However you approach it, just have fun. Here is my entry:

A little info on how i created the page.  The background is layered acrylic paint using gray, blue, purple, magenta, orange, yellow green, black and finished off with sienna brown. Quote is by Buddha and written using a white Signo pen. The butterfly is a rubber stamp on sheet music. If you take a closer look at the page, you’ll be able to see that the Buddha quote is rubber stamped repeatedly on the stenciled black figure. Punchinella is used to create the white dots and the white reverse stencil under the word Bliss. The bird is a toner based print (laser printer) transferred using a Chartpak blender pen (not that great of a transfer, IMO.)

I’d really like to see what you come up with.   If you’d like to play along, just create a journal page or ATC, or any other form of art.  It doesn’t matter, just play.  Scan or photograph your work and add it to your blog, flicker account etc…. then be sure to come back to this post and post a link back to where we can view your finished art work. 

And last but not least, BIG thanks to Giggles for playing along with the very first prompt. Here is a link directly to her page: Journal Prompt Dance

Good to be Queen and an award

Here is my latest, called Good to be Queen.

********

My sweet girl has her own blog, called Almond-Alma, and she gave me the following blog award.  Thank you sweetie!

Rules are to pass the award to 15 blogs you think should be named Best Blog. Then visit the blog and leave them a message to let them know. 

Those are the rules but since rules are meant to be broken, I think you should pass on the award to as many as you are comfortable giving it to …. even if it’s not 15.  The award should be heart felt.

 

Here, in no particular order, are the blogs I am passing this award to:

Jackie - Me Down to a Fine Art 

Silvana - Mixed Media e Cafe

Zom - Pinch me to see if you're dreaming

Aimeslee - Paper Paisleys

Anne - Gaal Creative

Teri - Quinceberry

Jean Marie - Jean Marie Lemire Artiste

Pinkglitterfae - http://pinkglitterfae.blogspot.com/

Shariyah  - Shariyah Garner

Jennifer - Trial and Error

Marsha - Tumble Fish Studio

Lori - Kitties & Cupcakes

Elizabeth Able - Quote Snack

Melissa! - Operation NICE 

Please visit these wonderful blogs to see for yourself why I think they are so great.  Please visit, Almond-Alma’s blog as well.  She is such a funny girl. I wish I had her sense of humor.

Wanna Play? Dance

Some days I need a theme to get me started on a journal page.  I was hoping that if I made up a theme every Thursday, I could get some of you to play along. What do you think? 

If you’d like to play along, just make up a journal page or ATC, add it to your blog and then post a link back to your blog. For the first few weeks the materials you use is up to you. Later, we may expand the themes and include colors or tools such as rubber stamps, etc.

The first theme is Dance and this is my entry. I’d really like to see what you come up with.  Just have fun with it.

 

By the way, you can add your link at any time. I’d like to see it no matter when you add it.

How Bizarre, How Bizarre

I’ve come to the last of my journal pages from the Kelly Kilmer class. They’ve been done for a while now but I really haven’t been in the mood to blog. Not sure why… oh yes I do but that’s another story.

Here is the first using my favorite phrase of the moment "How Bizarre" I started saying that when my husband came in to my office doing some really goofy stuff when I wasn’t in the mood for goofy. I said he was really bizarre and he wasn’t too happy I said it. I had make sure that he knew I didn’t really mean it in a bad way (well, not much anyway) and I started saying “how bizarre” to make him feel better ?? Then it stuck and I am saying it … all. the. time. 

I guess it makes sense that I was a CPA when I was a republican. Now than I am no longer focused on accounting for businesses, even though I own my own business, I no longer have a republican point of view.

I love flowers and just wish that I didn’t have such a brown thumb. I’d love to have a garden full of roses and sunflowers and daisies. I can honestly say that I have only one plant that is doing extremely well in my yard and do you know why?  It’s because I don’t give it much thought.  It doesn’t depend on me to water it as it gets watered when the lawn does.

I could use more of these:

What are you up to?

Awesome Art Techniques

I’ve been fascinated with stencils and layering for quite some time. When I see paintings using these methods I see there is a richness and depth of color and texture that it simply begs to be touched and studied.

I was lucky enough to take a stencil class from Mary Ann Moss of Dispatch from LA a few months ago. Mary Ann is an excellent teacher, I would take another class from her in a heartbeat. She was funny and informative. She uses spray paint in her work and gives you all the pros and cons of using spray paint vs spray inks and the health hazards of each. Her class videos demonstrated many projects each, all the while telling you “here is how I do it, but there is no right or wrong way.” I love that.   The information in the class videos ranges from using found objects as masks or stencils to creating your own stencils out of stencil film or acetate.  After watching the videos for each class, I was inspired to create a myriad of stencils, some of which I have yet to use but am dying to. Since taking the class, I now have found stencils made of lace, punchinella, drawer liners, washers, and doilies. And cut stencils of birds, flowers, faces, swirls and borders. Not to mention paper stencils purchased from scrapbook paper aisle. 

If you’ve been reading my blog recently you know that I was also taking a class from Kelly Kilmer of Kelly Kilmer Artist and Instructor. Kelly is so supportive in her Prompt a day class that you never feel like you are making a mess with the layered paints and collage. She always makes you feel like you’ve gone a great job and that support is so important for new artists. OK you know by reading my previous posts that Kelly’s class wasn’t just about layering paint, it was really about journaling daily but paint layering is what I got out of it. The freedom to try splashing 6-7 colors on a page (dry page between colors) and seeing how dreamy it can look. She had us use colors I would have never thought about using together to create some really beautiful background pages, if I do say so myself.  :) What was really interesting was seeing the diversity of art work produced by the students, all of us using the same painting and collage prompts.

The best thing I got out of the two classes is the feeling that I can combine the information I cultivated from both to do what I’ve been wanting to do but couldn’t fathom how until now. To give you an indication of the style I’ve been lusting after here is a video from Gray Reef showing you how he creates his paintings, using the paint layering and stencils techniques.  His work was one of the reasons I really fell for the process in the first place.  His art is impressive. If you get a chance, click on his name above and view more of his technique videos.  He has a lot to offer.

 

I will probably take a short break from taking classes so I can practice my new found information.  However, I am looking for suggestions on classes. What are you taking and how do you like the teacher? Would you recommend the class to others?  I’m most interested in learning more about painting faces but I will entertain other ideas as well.

From Hugs to Mirrors

Who do you give your biggest hugs?  Mine go to my family, of course.

Who floats my boat?  My Guy ‘cuz he always has my back.

All of a sudden I got the urge to sing the Mary Wells song:

No muscle bound man,
Could take my hand,
From my guy.
(My guy)
No handsome face,
Could ever take the place,
Of my guy,
(My guy)
He may not be a movie star,
But when it comes to being happy,
We are,
There's not a man today,
Who can take me away,
From my guy.

 

Another thing I do with lottery winnings? Hire a personal assistant. :) Who wouldn’t want one?  Raise your hand if you couldn’t use someone do do all those mundane chores you’d rather not do. Yeah I don’t don’t see any hands.

When you get to be my age you start looking in the mirror, wondering who that is staring back at you.  Certainly that’s not the 30 year old living inside me….(she used to be 25 for a long time but she’s grown a little.) You wear make up, do your hair, etc… in hopes that “she” will look a bit younger but I hear that after a while you’ll realize that this one is here to stay and you get comfortable with her. I wonder when that will be? :)

How old is your inner self?

Even More Journal Pages

 

I think that at the end of the month I will need a break…..Nah! I’m have a great time.  It’s been fun, not really thinking too much about the pages. Concentrating more on the actual journaling.  I’m not one to write much on my journal pages so it’s been a stretch.  Since I do most of my writing on the computer, my hand writing has been going to pot. While It’s still not great, at least is legible…. If I use the right pen.

The I’m Sorry page is an example of using the wrong pen. The gel pen I used is very juicy, almost too juicy.  The pen put out too much ink and some of the letters filled in.  I know what it says, can you read it?

As I wrote this page I realized that almost the exact same thing happened to me.  When My Girl was three, she and I decided to race from the car to the door.  As I chased her to the front door, I tripped and fell.  I hit my forehead on a concrete step and keeled over. However, even though I wanted to so badly, I couldn’t cry because I didn’t want to scare My Girl. I just rolled over and told her to go get her dad. He ran out and helped me up.

I think some where up in heaven grandma was pointing and laughing.

Thoughts?

A Few More Journal Pages

I’ve been able to keep up with the prompts from Kelly Kilmer’s class but I’m getting behind in posting the images to the blog. So here goes without too much explanation. I’d love to read your thoughts, so please leave me a comment.

Mental health day off is what I used to call a day when I called in sick to work but wasn’t really sick.  Just needed the day off before I stressed out too much. I’m now self-employed so I don’t need to do that any more.

OMG He said what?

The above page is about my dad, god rest his soul.  I thought the image here accurately described how I felt about him and some of his views. I loved the man (the Rose) but he had some odiferous opinions that we argued over many, many times.  However, the time described above, he actually came through for his grand daughter. 

The pin on the lower right belonged to dad.  He used to be a mail carrier for the post office and almost every year he received a good driver pin.  He probably had 20 of them, which I now have and plan to use in my art.

 

I think I’ve written about Lasik surgery before so I will let the page speak for itself about the topic. The face image was combined from two magazine ads. The brown and tan out-of-focus piece on the right shows the view without glasses before surgery and also for 3 months after. OK I admit it, the out-of-focus piece was serendipity and I didn’t notice that worked out like that until after it was all glued down.

I’m still working on the prompt a day workshop. Although I am behind on posting the images here, I am actually keeping up with the class. Finished day 15 and 16 earlier tonight. No telling when they will be posted but I will get around to it soon.

A Frizzy Day at the Beach?

I was born and raised in Albuquerque and the only beach in NM is Tingly Beach which is basically a glorified lake.  Truth be told, it’s really more like a dirty ditch bank.

So the first time saw the ocean (in 1980) was during a weekend trip to New Orleans. I was amazed and it was rejuvenating. It puts all my worries into perspective. I was thoroughly in love with it. So much so that after a year I started having dreams of the ocean calling me.  After a week of these dreams, I knew it was time to schedule another trip. The dreams stopped then but reoccurred every year and would continue until I scheduled another trip to see it.  In the seven years that I lived in NM after that first trip, I managed to visit Hawaii, Grand Cayman, the Bahamas, Mexico, Los Angles, and San Diego. Several more than once and all just to see the ocean.  

Since moving to California in 1988, we’ve visited the beach at least once a year….usually on our anniversary. It’s a must do for both My Guy and I.  I wish we could go more often but we keep further moving east. Why are we doing that, why??? 

My dream is to own a cottage on the beach with a large studio over looking the ocean.  Every week we buy a lottery ticket in hopes that we may one day own that cottage as well as travel to as many beaches as we can possibly see.

The picture above could have been me after my last perm at the beauty shop.  After the rollers came out I wanted to scream.  I told the woman all I wanted was soft curls and this is what I got.  Not only was it frizzy, it was fried. arrrgh!! 

Well, I wasn’t about to let that woman touch my hair again but I had to cut off as much as possible without shaving my head.  Luckily, I found a hair stylist who was able to cut all the frizz off and keep some of the curl. While it was pretty short when she was done, it looked much better. Next perm, I did it myself and it came out nice, if I say so myself.