All Together Now

Posted on 05/18/2012 by Carolyn

Welcome  to all my Paint Party Friday , Creative Every Day  and Art Journal Every Day friends!  I’d like to introduce you to a fellow painter,  Amy.  She created a blog hop for this weekend to let creative people share their blogs, introduce themselves to  new online friends, and win prizes on every blog- not just one blog, every blog.    I am a fan of her style, her art, and her attitude- I had to join in the fun!   Just click on the button and you will be magically transported to the  list of blogs to visit. (Assuming I did the behind the scenes part correctly.  I should call tech support – oh, wait, I am tech support in my house…)

 

All Together Now
 

My name is Carolyn and I have a very serious, seemingly incurable addiction to messy hands and color.  My blog is a public record of my journey (and hard evidence for my kids’ therapist when they are adults  sorting through all their life issues).

I have a very mature and focused child who values her education. I should be careful what  I wish for…

I politely asked my eldest daughter for her old homework papers.   She knows what I do with it…She told me all about the spirals they have been graphing.  All the formulas, the numbers, oh, I was going to my happy place.  Then she dropped the bomb- she needs them to study for the final exam next week.  I can’t have them yet.  Where are her priorities?  I want to make something NOW.

I had to dip into my stash of of old homework for this project. Yes, I save my kids homework just so I can use it in my art.

 

I stitched pages of it together using less than precise free motion sewing – making a  huge quilt-like sheet of stitched paper.

 

 

 

 

 

I didn’t do well in home economics in high school – my stitching was about the same then as it is now…I am so glad I never learned to follow the domestication rules…

 

 

 

Started by spray inking a home made stencil of my daughter with a couple of Julie Balzer’s stencils and paint..I am very instinct driven with a huge dose of serendipity.  I thought I’d stay with just a few colors for this project but before I knew it I had the rainbow in it.  I am addicted to color- lots and lots of color…

 

 

Added more stencils and embellished them with colored pencils.  I like working this big because it gives me options.  I used the same materials to make multiple versions of my initial idea.

 

 

 

 

1 of them I was thrilled with and I turned it into this journal page.   The other 2 not so much.  They aren’t bad but they didn’t give me that  happy feeling.  The leftover portions of this homework quilt will be used in other projects, cut up for postcards and ATC’s, I may add more paint & ink to them, who knows.

 

 

 

Now that you’ve gotten a glimpse of what life is like in my world, here are the giveaway goodies.

Just leave a comment and you will be automatically entered to win these vintage plastic doilies.  A winner will be chosen randomly on Friday, May 25th.  I will ship internationally so everyone is eligible.  For those shy commenters- jump in and join the conversation- everyone is welcome and appreciated means everyone including you!

 

 

 

If you have enjoyed my blog I’d love for you to follow along.  You can get an email when I post by going here.  You can follow along with Mr. Linky by going here.

Posted in Art Journaling, Mixed Media, stitching | 37 Comments

Making a Mess with my Muse

Posted on 05/16/2012 by Carolyn

My muse is here and we are playing feverishly!  I have ink on my fingers, paint on my arms, and happiness in my heart.  I don’t want to be a rude hostess so I am going to get back to her pronto!

Posted in Mixed Media, Mixed media mess making moment | 14 Comments

Why Do I Make Art?

Posted on 05/14/2012 by Carolyn

Why do I make art?  This is a question I have grappled with over the years. There must be a purpose, a reason, a justification for me to put so much time, energy, and money towards it.  Turns out I don’t need a purpose.  I don’t need a reason.  I don’t need to justify.  I just need to art.

Arting is how I process feelings.  I have spent too many years burying certain emotions, ignoring some emotions, downplaying emotions.  Art lets me honor all of me.  As I look at a journal page, a painting, a collage, any of it, I am taken back to the feelings that fueled the art.  The yucky emotions are more processed once I have arted them which  gives me distance and perspective.  That allows me to see the lessons in the emotions and grow as a person.

Then there are my anchor pieces, like the one above,  that just bring me pure happiness every time I look at them.  This is just my daughter’s homework stitched with envelopes and any thing else I found.  She gets a kick out of knowing why I get excited to get her old homework papers.  The color is pan pastels and stencils.  Just a day when I played with no rules, no restrictions.  Amazing that it is almost a year ago that I did this, but the good feelings are as strong as if I did it today.  Its significance to me is how it makes me feel when I see it.

How about you?  Why do you art?

Linking up with Creative Every Day and Inspire Me Monday!

Posted in Art Journaling | 23 Comments

Flora Bowley’s Class

Posted on 05/11/2012 by Carolyn

Taking a class at the Makerie with Flora Bowley was amazing- especially since I am trying to reducing my “tightness” when arting.  She had so many ideas for how to overcome that.  Thought it was perfect that her new book, Brave Intuitive Painting,  came out just as I finished the class.  You bet I bought it.  You can read about my trip to them Makerire there in this post.

This is the painting that was my neighbors.  Flora had us give 1 of our 30″ x 30″ paintings  to the person on our left.  Wow, was that stressful.  I had never experienced this in a class before.  Even with all the shock I am glad she had us do this.  It really pushed me out of my comfort zone.

 

 

 

I started adding some of my marks to the canvas.  I had no idea of where this was going.  AT ALL.

 

 

 

 

 

Still more mark making.  Guess what, no idea where it was going.  Shocking, I know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve seen a bird like thing in it. Outlined it and decided to add some leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adding colors around the bird to make it stand out more, fiddled with the leaves, but realized, oops.  I don’t like the leaves too much.

 

 

 

 

 

Much happier with the bird with a neck injury now that I have blued in the body.  Still don’t like the leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

For some reason, I kept trying to save the leaves, redeem them in my eyes.  Not working….so obvious to me now but when I was painting it was not so clear…

 

 

 

 

 

Adding the white above the body I thought would help the bird be more defined.  I am starting to see the red blobs at the bottom as red tulips.  There were the most wonderful red tulips blooming all over Chautauqua.

 

 

 

 

At last I fave up on the ugly leaves and covered the entire bottom with red tulips- my favorite part of this painting.

 

 

 

 

 

The odd head has become the feathers on top of the head since that head was at a weird angle.  More paint and colors around the bird to define it more.  Not sure if this is a work in progress still or a finished piece.  I’ll step away from it for a while.

 

 

 

I left my comfort zone many many times during the 2 days with Flora- and I LOVED IT!  How have you been leaving your comfort zone lately?

If you have a moment stop by all the wonderful artists at Paint Party Friday!

 

Posted in painting | 41 Comments

Mork and Mindy and The Makerie

Posted on 05/09/2012 by Carolyn

 

I went to Boulder, CO to the Makerie and Flora Bowley’s class.  My first stop was this house.  Recognize it?  If you do, you are showing your age.  It’s the house from Mork and Mindy, the sitcom staring Robin WIlliams.  Yes, I searched out the house.  Okay, I Googled the house and then used my Garmin to find it.  Then I went shopping on Pearl St. which is the cute little area where Mindy’s dad had his music store.

The Makerie was at Chataqua, an adorable little place from a time long ago.  Wonderful little cottages and  houses.   My room was decorated in Quaker chic and it let me soak up the sunshine and enjoy the peace the mountains radiated.  No tv. All relaxation and art.  Throughout the weekend it was clear that this was an event that came from the heart.  Ali Dejohn had  personal touches in everything from our boxed lunches to a library of art books and fresh cookies to the welcome bag of goodies.

Such magnificent mountains so close, I had to take a hike. This sign was posted at the start of the trail. I  am a city kid, so I read carefully.  I really wanted more details on how you fight back – I think my main fighting skill is hair pulling and I don’t think that would bother a mountain lion.  Just saying…

On to the art!  Flora Bowley was well worth the flight out there.  Watching her process and being able to ask her questions while painting- heavenly!  Looking forward to taking more of her classes in the future!

She not only nudged me out of my comfort zone, she sent me 3 time zones away from it.  The canvas below was one I was finally getting comfortable with when she said we were giving it away to the person next to us.  We would not be getting it back.  I received my neighbor’s canvas. I’ll share how it turned out on Friday.

Just hope I can swing the time to head out to the Makerie next year!  The event was filled with wonderful people and great conversations.  It was such a treat to be able to relax and enjoy because they had it all covered, including my pesky food allergies. A great weekend with friends and art- what could be better?

Posted in Events | 16 Comments

Chaos in my Head

Posted on 05/06/2012 by Carolyn

Do you do morning pages from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron?  I do & I often use my morning pages in my art.  I use a handful of paint pens and just write, especially when I am feeling stuck.  That became my base for this art journal page.  Here is a video showing how I did the first part of this page.

I just started smearing paint on it making some circles.  As I looked at them I saw heads – heads full of chaos- just the way my head feels on way too many days!

 

 

 

 

 

I added a bit more paint and carved more circles into the paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The chaos in my head- all things I want to do, all the things I need to do, all the things I should do, and all the things I haven’t done- were just swirling around.  I realized that what I needed to do was just breathe.  Just take a moment and breathe.  So simple and so powerful.

Got a moment?  Stop by these great blogs to relax and soak up the creativity!  Creative Every Day and Inspire Me Monday and Just Journals!

Posted in Art Journaling, video | 25 Comments

Buildings from a Background

Posted on 05/04/2012 by Carolyn

Remember the canvas I found was getting too precious last week?  You can see the post here.

After I stepped away I began to see buildings in it, so that’s the direction I went.  I wanted to stay with the purples and I didn’t have a lot of purple colors.  I started mixing the ones I had together to make new ones.  Suddenly, I had all the purples I needed.

 

 

 

Blue paint washed on the sky – I was hesitant to cover up the background because I liked it, but I had to sacrifice it for the final look.

 

 

Not enough contrast between the sky and the buildings for the look I was aiming for, so I darkened the sky (see the next picture) to make the windows pop a bit more.

 

 

 

A few words and numbers covered in paints, cardboard birds, and I darkened up the blue sky a bit more.

 

 

 

 

I had to add more whimsy to it so I added photos of my family but colored them with Portfolio oil pastels.  A shrink plastic banner.  A few painted cardboard stars for the sky and I felt it was finished.

 

 

 

Want to see what other artists are up to?  Stop by Paint Party Friday and check them out!

Posted in painting | 45 Comments