mixed media art journal round robin kick-off

A while back, I put out a call for participants in an art journal round robin, thanks to the kindness of Karen at MMSA. I used her blog figuring I'd get people who were timely, artistic, prolific and pleasant, since that's the only kind of people I run into there. I ended up with 5 women from around the country, and we're about to send our journals out for the first leg of their journey. 

We were to make or buy a journal, do a couple spreads to set the tone for our theme/color/style, and be ready to mail by the 3rd Monday in August. I made a journal using 300lb watercolor paper for the covers and 90lb watercolor paper for the signatures. 

I bound it using some upholstery fabric (from a dumpster diving expedition my friend Moneka made a decade ago. I've been hauling boxes of fabric around all these years using it here and there) and the diamond X stitch. 

The covers were collaged with random papers, stamped a bit, painted with acrylics, collaged with a few layers of crinkled dress pattern tissue, then painted and stamped again. They look a bit leather-like in person and I'm very pleased with them. The inside covers - not so much, so I'm going to do more with them when it comes home 6 months from now.

I did this spread in the art journal class I'm teaching, working from an Oprah magazine, trying to get them to see the way a crazy batch of unrelated stuff can come together in a collage. I like it but it's sooo different from the next one that it's hard to believe I made both of them. And it's weird to look at them together like this. Makes me think maybe I'm a bit schizo LOL. 

This spread is very vintage in feel and fact - almost all original ephemera. The woman is a gel medium transfer of a picture I've used before. I just love her and the transfer was already made from a demo I did in class. The ledger page is from a purchased lot, the envelope flap is from (I think) my friend Julie-in-San-Diego's mom's history notebook which she gifted me with, the blue PAID bit is from a batch of old receipts. The reprint envelope is from my mom's old box of negatives, the postage stamps are from the huge baggie Rhonda gave me, the Clark's strip is from some old crochet thread. I'm very happy with this spread. It's so me.

I struggled trying to settle on a theme and eventually decided that I just want people to cut loose and make good art in whatever mode they're in the mood for, just like I did with my two wildly disparate spreads. I'll post the journals and my work in them as they come thru. Should be interesting.

promises

Thank you Julie FFB and  Lechatquitousse (the cat who coughs)! Julie's been doing a series on other artists and the one from May 8th featuring Carol Mahy-Merveille has made my week! Carol does a step-by-step of her mixed media piece and it lit such a fire in me that I've spent the entire afternoon rolling back and forth in my studio between the computer and my work table, creating my own version by following her steps one by one. 

I took a bunch of process photos but then like a total space cadet, I cleared out the photos on my phone in an idiotic fit of electronic housecleaning and deleted them all. When I read about other people doing stuff like that, I smugly shake my head at their carelessness, thinking how glad I am that I'll never do something that dumb. Well, that hubris has come back to bite me square on the hiney with very sharp teeth. Consequently, I have only the finished product to show you. Beware the smugness! <sigh> But it's a glorious finished product that I am just thrilled to death with.

One of my biggest hurdles in producing the kind of art I so admire is getting enough (paint, layers, lace, elements, etc) onto the piece. I am by nature a cheapskate, unwilling to use a lot when just a little will do. However, I love the depth that only tons of layers will get you, and I have finally achieved that look, thanks to Carol's marvelous tutorial. 

I started with a blank 8x10" canvas panel. Then I proceeded to do exactly what she does in the post - stamps and ink, gesso, tissue paper, ink, stencil, etc, right on down the page. I don't have some of the products she used, but I just grabbed the closest thing I had and kept going. Once the background was done, I let it dry for a while before working on the collage part. I have a bunch of old photos and poked thru them until I found one that grabbed me, added various bits from my shoe box of old paper stuff and played with arrangement until I liked it, then glued it down.

 

The metal items on the right came from my stash of junk I've collected over the years. The little numbers metal  tag is a key code from a motorcycle. I hung it and the key from an old chain using hook and eye closure parts.

The word "promises" was sewn on my machine, a test run for a different project that I ended up not using. It was still laying on my table, along with everything else from the last five projects I've done, and with a little dye work, it was perfect. And different. Sewn words aren't something I've seen, so if it gets real popular, remember I was one of the first LOL!

One of my favorite parts of this is the way the bits of tissue paper took the ink. You can see one in the upper center of the piece, with the crinkles picking up the turquoise ink. I quite like the metal bits too. I can see several more of these in my future. Loved the process, and now that I've done one, it's loosened me up a bit to where I'll try some ideas of my own on the next one. 

 

Green Paper Challenge ATC

January's challenge at Green Paper was to use pieces from all three of the images. I'm sneaking in just under the wire cause it's over tomorrow morning.

I played and played with this in Photoshop but ended up printing everything out and doing a tradition ATC using only the 3 images. I brightened the colors and contrast of the ledger page and printed it out large, so that I can use pieces of it for other ATCs. I did de-saturate the roses cause I have a heck of a time fitting one color image in with sepia or b/w images, then colored them in a bit with chalk.

I like the way the angle of the roses picks up the angle of her hat.

The ledger page immediately made me think about what a balancing act a relationship is, so the title Love's Balance Sheet was an easy one to come up with.  

a few ATCs

Artist Trading Cards... when they first became popular, years ago, I couldn't really see the point. I made a few when I was crazy quilting, but never got the bug. Now that I'm collaging, however, I've realized they're a great size. Big enough to do something interesting, small enough not to be overwhelming.




This first one is so-so to me. I liked the little bird print but couldn't get terribly inspired about what to do with it. The bit of poem helped, but I'm not nuts about the stamp. Grunge-wise, it's fine, and I like the button and bits of old netting, but overall... not so much.








This one I like a lot. I printed the woman onto brown wrapping paper and used it as a shadow for the color print of her. The bit of map was town from an ad and the text was from an old book. I like the button this time as it pulls the color from her dress. The colors look rich and the torn paper background, altho ubiquitous in collaging - works here. The very top bits are masking tape that I rubbed over with a brown stamp pad to cover up some words that I didn't want showing.

This one makes me think 'Old Masters.' It just has that feel.



The picture of the pointing woman grabbed me immediately. I could just hear her shouting at the man to get the hell out! But don't forget to write. The aqua stamp pad I bought on a whim worked great here, picking up the background paper when I rubbed it along the edges.

The tiny image of the stamped letter was torn from a package of little paper bits that I bought. The scrap of lace is from my stash. Looking at it now, I maybe could have toned down the white letter piece some, it's a little bright, but overall, I like this one, mostly because of the feisty lady. For no particular reason, I imagine her speaking Italian.


I'd love to hear what you think of each of these. Art is very subjective, but comments help me see what you see, which helps me see differently, which helps me think outside my particular box.