An Artistic Evolution Begins

We're getting ready to embark on yet another collaborative art journal project.  And by we, I mean the usual suspects, who gladly hop on board any and every artistic adventure that our friend and ringleader Elena dreams up.

This one is called Artistic Evolution, and each of us starts with a chipboard journal that looks like this (these three photos courtesy of Val):

You can see that the pages look like steps, each an inch larger than the one that came before. (All are 6" high and the longest is just under 11" long).  There are 3 sets of these steps, so that each of the 15 participants will get a two page spread in everyone else's book, plus two single pages in their own.  Here's a top view:



And in this shot, you can really see the size progression.  You can also see Val's hand with the colorful fingernails.  Val, in her usual generous way, cut and assembled the books for all of us!

We each had the option to pick a color theme, which I did.  Here's why.....because of the nature of the differently sized pages, parts of artist #1's work will peek through when you're looking at artist #2's pages, and so on.  I figured though the content and style would evolve (evolve....evolution....get it?  understand the name now?) at least the colors would remain the same and give the book a cohesive look.  Having said that, a few brave souls have opted to allow everyone to use any and all colors, and you know what?  I'll bet those books will be spectacular.  But in all cases, the evolution from artist to artist is key, and everyone will have to be mindful of what came before. 

I'm really looking forward to the February launch, and have completed my covers, my opening page and sign in page.  I selected turquoise, olive green, and chocolate brown for my color scheme, and once I started I realized I'd made the right decision for myself.  I LOVE how these colors work together.

So, without further blah blah blah, here is my contribution to Eileen's Artistic Evolution:


                                                                          Front Cover

The Inside of the Front Cover

My Art Page (right after the front cover)

View of the inside front cover along side my art page. You can

see a bit of the blank page behind my art page.  The next artist will

have to keep that in mind while creating.  Fun!

These are the two blank pages the next artist will work on. You

can see a bit of my inside front cover on the left.  The artist will

have to incorporate that into her work.  Cool!

This is the very last page in the book, and I'm using it as my artist sign in page.

The inside back cover

The outside back cover (don't know why this came out so blurry, and I retook it

several times with the same result).

I incorporated lots and lots of techniques in my covers and pages.  I inked, painted, embossed and otherwise altered plain and patterned paper.  Colored paper towels were used, as were scraps from previous projects.  There is colorwash and perfect pearls mists, rubber stamping (I'm sure you die hards recognize some of Tim's and Wendy's stamps), die cutting, rub-ons, ribbons, machine stitching, doodling, stenciling, masking.........

When I started, I did not have a theme (besides the colors) in mind, but suddenly there were birds everywhere.  I can't wait to see what evolves.  Maybe my birds will become horses or houses or people or flowers or........whatever my wonderful artist friends want.  Doesn't this sound like the best journey????!!!!!!  Can you tell I'm excited?