My Newest Journal--Just in case...

On a recent trip I found this beautiful journal in an art store in Lafayette, Colorado, and just couldn't resist it. It is made of recycled leather, bound with waxed linen, and the pages are Arches Text paper. Journals are an obsession with me--I have no fewer than 56 of them that I've picked up here and there over the years. Unfortunately, my journals are blank, or nearly so. It seems my obsession has more to do with collecting the journals--not using them. The cost of this journal inspired me to learn to bind my own, so I'm going to take a class in October to learn how to do it, using the Long Stitch and Coptic binding methods.

I have kept journals sporadically over the years. In the last few years, I've been trying my hand at art/visual journaling, which I find appealing right now as it's so hard (and painful) for me to hand-write for any length of time because of my arthritic thumb joints. Art journaling doesn't take neatness or legibility. My urge to write and journal has been satisfied the last few years with blog entries on this blog and my garden blog. Typing doesn't bother me at all.

There is a journaling software I've looked into called 'Life Journal', but to date I haven't purchased it. Doing so would mean committing to a process that I may or may not use regularly--sort of like all my journals and huge collection of art and craft supplies just sitting there waiting, just in case...

Digging Deep at AU

Another class I took this year at Art Unraveled was Judy Wise' "A Handmade Life" journaling class. We prepared pages, painted, collaged and wrote. The purpose was to learn how to go deeper into finding your unique artistic voice and subject matter through visual journaling. I've taken several classes in art journaling, and have always found it challenging. At first, it seemed that all the sloppy painting, simple subject matter and visual elements were things one would do in grade school, and that journal writing was somehow more mature. Actually, you can uncover a lot of deeply hidden feelings through visual journaling, even more than with writing, at times.

Since I like to manipulate photos with photo editing software, I like to use them a lot in my journaling. The above is an example of visual journaling using an old manipulated photo.





I also took a couple of intuitive painting classes this year. They were quite similar; both were intuitive and experimental. One class used watercolor and the other, fluid acrylics. No drawing or painting ability was needed, which was good for me as I am not that kind of artist. The purpose of the Spontaneous Haiku Painting class was to find images in the blotches, dribblings, and spatterings of watered down fluid acrylics. Then, we had to put words to the visual vignette using haiku form. Once we had six to eight of these paintings, we mounted them on mat board pages and made them into a fabric-bound booklet of personal visual haiku. It was a stretch for me to find various forms among the blotches as I'm such a realist. Some people seemed to be able to immediately see many little animals, people and other things while I sat there and pondered. It reminded me of looking a clouds as a kid and seeing all the ever changing scenes, but apparently I've lost that spontaneous ability.

All in all, it was another great year at Art Unraveled, and, "God willing and the creek don't rise", I'll be there again next year to learn new and different art forms.

What A Relief AU 2009

deMeng reviewing the class' artwork at day's end.

I spent the day at the 2009 Art Unraveled annual art retreat today, taking a class with the renowned Michael deMeng. The class, "What a Relief", taught the participants how to make two dimensional portraits to give the illusion that they are reaching out into the "real world". I've taken classes with him before and he is an excellent instructor. He is patient, humorous, and so helpful. He gives wonderful feedback, and has something constructive and supportive to say about each participant's artwork. He does something that no other instructor I've run into does; he reviews each participant's artwork with the whole class at the end of the session. This provides everyone the opportunity to see all the artwork en masse, and learn from his review. There are always lots of "oohs" and "aahs" as he holds up and discusses each piece.


Each time I participate in art classes or collaborative trades, I do the same thing. Get really excited at the prospect of learning something new or contributing to a collaborative effort. As the time for the activity draws near, I start wondering why I ever signed up, Why did I do this--I have no ideas, I'm going to be the only one who does not have wonderful pieces, I won't finish, everyone will wonder why I would possibly think I pass off anything as art, and on and on. Once I'm finally involved, I focus in on the task at hand and get it done. Then the doubt sets in again. Is it going to be good enough? What if it looks horrible and I'm humiliated, etc. And when it's all over, I am really glad I took the class or participated in a trade, and find out I did just fine all around. I wonder if anyone else goes through this angst!

"Building the Old West"

I've had this frame for about 28 years. (What was I thinking!) We were to bring a couple of gaudy old Gothic frames, and this seemed appropriate. The class goal was to produce pieces that were dimensional and then use paint and different sculpting materials to build up and mount various three dimensional items. Since this frame was ornate to begin with, I left it fairly plain without sculpting material, and did very little painting to the wood, as it was nicely colored to begin with. These are a couple of Old West fellows, proud of their expertise. One is a Trail Blazer, the other, a Rifle Expert.

"True Love Never Dies"

It seems I always revert to Halloween or Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) themes when it's up to me. This is a simple piece that shows a widow and her long dead husband, who still remembers their younger days and longs for her to join him. He is holding an old photo of the pair on their wedding day many, many years ago.

I have three more classes over this week and next--watercolor projects--which is brand new to me, and art journaling. I'm already obsessing over whether I made the right decision to try watercolors for the first time!