A Wonderful Arting Evening

Lee-Anne came over for a visit and some arting....what a wonderful evening! She is such a great friend and I appreciate her so :)

She's almost finished her first altered book and tonight she prepped her new one.  She also made the base for a beautiful spread and tag in one of the last pages of her very full first book.

You can see that chocolate is front and center - an important part of our arting ;)

Don't you love my messy table? You can see I have a meticulous filing system for my collage papers and my stencils.  yikes!  I need a new system for my overflowing paint bottle bucket.  I am still thinking on that one and haven't quite come up with the right idea yet.  I did buy some shelving for my table though and need to assemble it so my papers and stencils will be a bit more organized and accessible. 

Tonight I worked on a base for a spread in my Anxiety journal and I completed a page in my newest journal which I haven't titled yet....the journal not the page.  I figure that I am rapidly gaining a collection of journals and if they don't have titles then I won't know how to distinguish them from each other.  I took pics tonight of this newest journal and will show you in another entry - maybe by then I will have a title for the journal. 

happy arting!!

Family Inheritance

This post has been sitting in Draft for many many days now. 

I guess it's sometimes tough to lay out my emotions.  Either that or I am lazy ;)

Seriously though, stigmas concerning mental illness make me angry - I am trying to change that.

This is in my Anxiety Journal - an appropriate place for it. 

My usual method of working in my journals is creating several backgrounds in one sitting having fun with paint, collage, gel transfers etc.  Then when I feel the urge to journal I flip through my book to see which page calls to me and fits my mood.  I have never created a page from start to finish in one sitting - until this page.

On this page was a failed - in my mind - attempt at using an image transfer - it was an inkjet copy used with self leveling gel - it didn't work.  The image smudged, the image wore off, it didn't work to my satisfaction at all.  You couldn't even recognise faces - my Geda holding me with my Baba and my older sister Carol.  I love this pic - there is a cow in the background!!  Anyway, one day I was playing around with some crackle paint and spread some over the pic to see if it would improve it.  Much to my delight it did!  I got out my Distress ink - vintage photo - and spread it around the edges. 

All of a sudden something clicked.  This page with my grandparents illustrated deep thoughts that had been on my mind for quite sometime.  The genetic aspect of anxiety and mental illness.  I have suffered from anxiety all my life and depression on and off for over 20 years.  Mental illness - both diagnosed and undiagnosed is prevalent on both sides of my family.  It is daunting to think what I have passed on to my daughters. I am not blaming or taking blame - just acknowledging the very real family history.

I got out my swirly stencil and my trusty Tri-Art Transparent Brown liquid acrylic.....

I had a greenish background in my head - I used Green Gold and Titanium White - not completely covering the page - just here and there....

Whoa!!  too limey yellow - toned it down with some light blue.....first sponging it on and then blending and rubbing some off with a baby wipe....

not quite the colour I was going for....I wanted to push it back a bit....I swear I owned Paynes grey - I must have taken it to leave in Phoenix at Carol's house.  So I improvised - picking out a more neutral blue and a grey - again sponging on and then wiping off with a baby wipe...

ahh yes....Titan Buff!!  the awesome colour that just kind of pulls everything together for me.  A fairly solid layer sponged on and then immediately water drops from my fingers sprayed all over.

After waiting a minute or two to let dry a bit - dabbed off with a tissue and then when almost dry I rubbed with same tissue to buff and weather it a bit.

The page titled itself - Family Inheritance.  I used rubber stamps with a sepia liquid acrylic.

Thank you for indulging me.  I believe by initiating discussion we can break down those old ideas about mental illness and maybe we can start to heal. 

My sister Carol is coming over today to work in our journals - it is going to be a great day!!

Anxiety Journal

Last May my daughter Karly and I took a mixed media on canvas class - it's where I learned how to alter books and where I got my first look at a chockful journal - our instructor Cathy McMillan had several of her personal journals there.  I mean there was really personal information in there and she didn't mind us looking at it - that concept just floored me.  And it gave me a real boost to start my own journal.  I had never journaled consistently in my life before and I had been tossing around the idea that maybe journaling about my "issues" might help me deal with them. 

my issues are - a n x i e t y.  it can be crippling at times and most times it's completely irrational but it always feels beyond my control.  it had gotten so out of hand that I recognised that I was missing out on things because of my wild wild thoughts that went from worry to just plain stupid. 

I had every good intention to journal my feelings about my anxiety so I could figure out how to conquer it - or at least quiet it a bit ;)

journaling is not easy!!!  but I did think and ponder about it a lot - mostly while sitting with my mostly blank journal in front of me.  heh.  little by little I started figuring things out.  seems the more I plan and prepare the less anxiety I feel. 

good to know!!  less easy to actually implement but it's a start. 

I was working my way through learning all new techniques with new supplies - my artistic background was pretty much strictly watercolour and now I was using liquid acrylics and gel mediums and photos and transfers and collage materials etc.  And then....the spine of my book broke.  I had not known to use a sewn signature as opposed to a glued book.

aha.  this is a good learning moment - but really disappointing because I kind of abandoned my anxiety journal.  Every time I looked at it - I got sad. 

But this past weekend I saw a journal Karly had rescued from the same fate - she cut it up and tidied up the glued ends and punched holes and used metal rings to hold it all together.

what an awesome fix for my first and very important journal.....

I also got busy and painted the cover in the style of my play page - I just love the terrific texture created by squishing the wet Gessoed covers together and pulling them apart!!

Here are a few page spreads that I had completed before the book broke. 

Not all my entries deal with anxiety - but I was having so much fun making pretty pages ;)

I have many more blank Gessoed pages to fill up with backgrounds and journaling.  After almost a year of journaling experience I feel much more confident and very excited to explore my anxieties deeper!! 

Do you have themed journals?  Care to share your thoughts?  I'd love to hear what you are thinking!

B-day Journal Page

My method of working on my journals is making a background first and then when I get the urge to write I flip through my book to see which page appeals to me.  Sometimes I flip past a page a hundred times thinking - "when would this page EVER appeal to me?!!" This is one of those pages - but the stencil work on this page reminded me of bows on presents - perfect to journal about turning 48.

I journaled while sitting at the art table with 4 other creative ladies - all laughing and chatting and generally being very distracting to me ;)  it was fun :)

Honesty.....

      How honest are you in your journaling? Or maybe a better question is - do you let others read your honest entries?

I have chronic whiplash and some days are bad...let's just say it's not pretty.  On those days I can't do much of anything let alone sit at my art table and create.  When I try to create on one of these days - my negativity tends to come out and my journaling usually ends up as more of a bitch session than anything else.

I guess it's as real as it gets.

My journals are essentially open books - I let anyone and everyone read what they would like to.  I am basically quite a private person and anything involving another person I do disguise my writing after getting it out.  Some of my pages have my deep dark thoughts under layers of paint.  Going back months later to try to read them - I find I have forgotten what I've written!!  If that's not good therapy then I don't don't what is!!

A couple of weeks ago I woke with one of my horrible neck/headaches and all I wanted to do was sit at my table and create....this is what I created....

  Journaling is very new to me and I do struggle with pretty much all aspects of it. I would love to hear your thoughts on honesty in journaling....