24 Years and Loving it

This weekend I had a wonderful excuse for not creating art.  This weekend my guy and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary. We drove to Santa Fe for the weekend and stayed at the La Paloma Bed and Breakfast, visited a lot of wonderful art galleries and ate some great food, and just had a wonderful time in general.  Having two whole days alone with my husband and best friend was simply awesome. We have already planned on visiting again on our 2nd 24th anniversary. (our 48th) LOL. 

365 Creativity - Day 8

Well I’m so far behind on my 365 creativity art journal it’s not even funny.  I haven’t had any creative play dates in quite a while.  Too many other things going on to be make art.  Oh hell, that’s a lie, with the exception of the busy weekends, I just haven’t felt like working on art.  I’m feeling stifled and I can’t concentrate on it.

I’m feeling like the person in the anecdotal story told by Julia Cameron about the artist she knew that couldn’t create because he didn’t have a large art studio and the space he did have was too small for him to paint in. And a year later when he finally got the studio space he wanted, he started painting tiny works of art. And yes his original space had been large enough to create the tiny works -- had he found the motivation to actually work.  

I’m very much like that. Half of my art supplies and my office equipment are sharing a room with my precious grandson but if I don’t get the supplies I need from that room before 7 pm, well, I’m out of luck. When I feel that I may get stuck without the supplies I need, I think ‘why start if I may not be able to use what I need?’ It’s a damn excuse and a lousy one at that. I’ve moved enough of my supplies to the dining room to make due and yet still I can’t work.  Why? Another excuse -- The dining room is not “my room”, know what I mean? 

Damn it, I miss my California studio. It was tiny (8 x 10) but it was mine. It was messy but the mess was mine and I didn’t have to clean it up immediately if I didn’t want too. All my art stuff was where I could see it. Now some is still packed away in boxes in the garage, some is in the Nursery/Office/NoLongerStudio and the rest in the dining room hidden in the buffet or desk.  Everything all put away so it looks neat and tidy.. Choke, choke ARGH !!! 

And yet the following pages say everything I need to know in a few words….If only I would really listen to the message. I need to start seeing my flowers again.

These flowers are a rubber stamps on math book pages, colored with watercolor pencils. The colored circles on the left and right side of the pages is also a rubber stamp on math book pages and colored with gel pens. The challenge was to transform an old book into something new. Obviously I didn’t use a whole book just enough to get the spirit of the challenge. Some of the flowers were stickers from the $1 bin at JoAnn’s. 

What excuses are you using for not being creative? I want to hear yours.

365 Creativity - Day 7

Oooh I’m really falling behind. Day 7 is creating a stencil to use in your art.

My stencil was made using my Cricut cutter and Make the Cut software.  Love them. The reason I actually bought the darn Cricut was to make stencils and I’ve used for everything but. 

Feeling a little quiet today so I will show only the journal page.

I was arrested last night

I woke up this morning thinking about the dream I had last night.  It’s rare that I remember my dreams, but I guess this one made a big impression. In my dream, I was trying to go into the local library to look for a certain art book but they required you to have a purse to enter the building.  (Yeah, it was my dream but it didn’t make sense to me either …. in the dream or now.) 

So what do I do?  I borrowed some woman’s purse without asking.  I was just going to run in, get the book I needed and come right back out and give it back.  Before I could get very far, I was arrested. LOL. Apparently purse borrowing is a federal offense. I told the FBI, that I hadn’t opened it and I fully intended to give it back. They didn’t believe me. Thinking about it, I probably wouldn’t have believed it either. As I was sitting handcuffed, all I could think of was that I was going to have a felony on my record and I wouldn’t be able to get a job.  Weird dream. I wonder what book I was looking for?

Maybe it was 365 Daily Creativity Journal so I could work on Day 6. The prompt for day 6 is work with the first fruit or vegetable you see. Fresh, canned or juice.  Yeah other than potatoes I’m not into using food in art.  Plus, even if I was, I haven’t been shopping in a while, so I didn’t have any. So I found some cool images online and came up with this journal page:

I love love love chocolate strawberries! I love two twice as much!

365 Creativity - An Altered Journal Cover

In case you’re wondering if I’m losing track time because it’s not really the fifth day since I started …. Nope, I haven’t. :) I really do know it’s more like the 7th, 8th, or is it 9th day? Hum… well, it’s day 5 in the book and I was stumped on what to do for day 5.

The challenge is to create something with the items I collect.  In my head, I only had one “collection” (Hearts) and they are still packed since our move from California. So for a few days I sat frozen with the same  ‘what to do, what to do???’ thought. What can I say, I’m slow. :)

Then I re-read my last blog post and it hit me like I shoulda’ had a V-8.  You know, the post where I confessed that I collect “scrapbook paper” even though I don’t scrapbook? (Although now that I have a grandchild I really should start. But until then I’m not a scrapbooker.)

At the same time, I decided to join the Journaling Saves “Walk in This World” group that starts on March 1st. This is a book by Julia Cameron who also wrote “The Artist’s Way.”  We will be doing morning pages in the group and therefore I needed a journal to write in.  I decided to go with a plain composition notebook and dress it up. It started out looking like this:

This is how I altered it using little bits scrapbook paper and ribbon, of which I have plenty. I used gel medium on the paper to adhere it to the cover.

This is the back cover:

The inside front and back covers were covered in photocopies of previous art journal pages. Notice it’s just notebook paper on the inside. No art in this journal, only my witty repartee. Yea, OK who am I kidding?

Then I realized it need a ribbon or elastic to keep it closed and away from curious eyes.  So I added this thick red elastic with a black and white patterned flower that I’d made some months ago.  That will keep everyone out, right?  Yeah, I thought so too.

I think I like it.

By the way, if you’re interested in Julia Cameron’s book “Walk in This World”, try the public library.  I found the book at my local branch. Great way to get a feel for the book without laying out some cash. 

PS: I got the idea for the notebook from iHanna’s blog. Check out this tutorial.

365 Creativity - Days 2 to 4

I have to admit, I’m not very good at finishing up a page or project in a day.  I try but it just doesn’t always work out. Here’s what I have for days 2 through 4 in the book.

Day 2 Challenge was: Use your favorite animal as inspiration

 

Day 3 - Make something from paper but don’t use glue, scissors or draw on it.

I made a birthday card for my nephew’s 1st birthday.

Day 4 - Take a 5 minute walk and use materials you find there.

While I was hunting up some wrapping paper for a baby present I found materials for day 4.

What have you been up to this weekend?

Found a great new book

It’s called 365: A Daily Creativity Journal by Noah Scalin.  Click the book to visit his website.

(Psst:  Looking for my OWOH post? Scroll down to the next post.)

Yes, there are many sites and books that are similar but something drew me to this one.  Maybe it was the quality of the book pages, or the people that were interviewed in the book, but most likely it was the actual prompts.  The prompts were things that spoke to me. I didn’t read them and say eh like I have with other books.

So is it a good thing to look for inspiration in prompts for things I would do anyway?  What do I hope to learn from that?  At this point in time, I don’t really need new techniques…I have a multitude of books in my library that I can learn from.  I mean how many different ways are there to transfer images from one surface to another? I know, I know…many. What I actually need is the inspiration to actually work on my creativity every day.  And by that I mean, work on a visual form of art using the materials I already have on hand.  Yes I’ve said that before but some how I got lost in personal issues this year and lost my motivation to create.  I want the creativity back in whatever form it takes. 

The first prompt was: “Make something that fits in the palm of your hand using only the materials in your immediate environment.”

That was an easy way to start.

• It’s larger than ATC sized, about 4 x 5. (You must think I have large palms? I don’t, I just don’t follow directions well.)
• I used a pressed flower that I’d picked when we first moved here and had been sitting waiting for me to do something with it.
• I also used some scrapbooking paper that I have been collecting like it’s going out of style. (Not sure why I collect it since I don’t scrapbook. Guess I just like the pretty colors. heehee)
• And the pretty ribbon.
• The quote is:
• Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written
• words. ~ by Lydia M. Child

Looks more like a greeting card than my usual art but it’s a start. The book says I should choose a subject or medium, but I haven’t done that yet.  I may freeform it for a while.