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.