Going Nowhere- Journal Pages

The pages above were stitched together. They are the outsides of the signatures in the coptic bound book I am working in.
The pages above were from the previous spread. For whatever reason, the picture uploader decided to switch them around. The page above has a lot of paint, doodles, and collage. There are two image transfers. One is a photo of a car wreck I witnessed a few weeks ago (a metaphor for a relationship in my life and other other image transfer is roses. It is hard to see from the small size of the picture. I also attached a few rose petals using gel medium. As you can see, there are lots of layers of paint, writing, and then more paint on top of the writing.

Crepe Daze Art Show

For the month of March, my paintings are displayed at a local restaurant! I haven't actually shown my work in public since right after I graduated from college! It's pretty exciting. I spent the last two weeks in February getting them ready.

If you are in Santa Rosa, there will be a "Meet the Artist" reception from 4:30 till 7 on March 10th. The artist would be me!

Here are a couple art journal pages from the past few weeks. The above page uses some really awesome Duct tape I found at the art supply store. It also has many layers of acrylic paint and some washi tape. The lyrics are from an Ani DiFranco song that was going through my head.
This journal page has many different layers of paint and inks. I also integrated some photos I'd taken with my camera phone into the page. I painted a heart in the self portrait to cover up the phone in the picture!

Denial

I took a magazine photo of a person with a blindfold, and then painted over it completely. Somehow, it turned into almost a self portrait. I never mean for my paintings and images of people to turn into self portraits (most of the time, anyway), but most of the time, they always evolve into just that.

Lately, I have not wanted to write anything. Sometimes in life, you are faced with a particular dilemma or situation. You want to put on a blindfold and pretend it is an illusion or maybe other people try to put the blindfold on for you. But it does not work. You see through it and all you feel is guilty for wishing you could not, and perhaps angry or disappointed it is there in the first place. That is what this journal page was about.

On the left page, I started out with a collage and then coated it with gesso and many layers of paint. I then added doodling and writing. There are some inks, and watercolor crayons layered onto both of these pages as well.

Hope your past few weeks have gone well! I have been incredibly busy all of sudden. It's either a desert or a deluge, it seems. Most of me prefers the downpour of activity, no time to think, just constant activity, things to do, and people to see. However, it does not leave a lot of time for blogging! If I do have extra time, I prefer to spend it out in the studio!

It's been hard to find time to work in my art journal, let alone blog the past few weeks. I've taken a second part time job that keeps me busy almost every afternoon and evening. I still substitute teach most days and the days that I do not substitute are days spent catching up on personal errands and business.

The art journaling demonstration at Riley Street went very well. There were some people who were interested in learning book binding and possibly taking classes in art journaling. I have to start planning out some courses!
I thought I would share something from one of my new favorite toys! I recently got an android phone with an unlimited data plan! One of my favorite parts of this new phone is the camera apps!

The photo above was taken with "Retro Camera" app, using the pinhole camera. I love it! Just what I need! A way to produce even more collage fodder!

This weekend I have the Riley Street art journaling demo. I wish I had more time to prepare pages specifically for it, however, I've been busy. That is not a complaint, I love being busy. I've been grabbing ten minutes here and there to run out to the studio and add a dash of paint or color to the pages in my book. I've even managed to work on a few paintings as well.
One part about working in short increments is that the pages end up very richly layered, since the layers have plenty of time to dry. It is also hard to feel satisfied and finish a page in a short period of time, so I find myself coming back to the same ones over and over.

It's Been a While

The last time I posted was in November. Since then, a whole lot of change has occurred. I had to go back to Louisville to help out my family after my father's heart attack. When I returned, there was so much to do because of the holidays and I also spent several weeks sick with the cold and sinus infection that never end.

I have not been doing a lot of art journaling lately and most of the pages I have done are not ones that I would post on my blog.

However, I thought I would post these two spreads and try to get back into the habit of blogging. I also need to find more time to paint. This last weekend, I spent more time out in my art studio than all of December.
Both of the above journal pages include acrylic paint, wrapping paper, and various christmas detritus collected from the holiday season.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Pause

I will be taking a break from blogging for the rest of November. I'm flying out to Louisville KY on Wednesday and will probably have no time to create or paint anyway (although I am packing my art journal.)

I really appreciate everyone's comments and I apologize if I do not respond. I will try to when I get time, but at this point I make no promises.

Hopefully in a few weeks, this stress will calm down, but as part of taking care of myself, I am releasing all extraneous and non-binding obligations.
I leave you with cute adorable fall kitties until I have something positive and good to post about again. :)