Journal Mania

This past weekend was spent constructing journals.....a thoroughly enjoyable two days at Michele's studio, with great friends, and putting together two different books under the guidance of the very talented and lovely Dawn DeVries Sokol.

Saturday was Tape  and Doodle Stew.  I brought along about 50 pounds of tapes; masking tape, tissue tape, duct tape, washi tape.....lots and lots of tape.  Which is what we used to bind the pages together, as well as decorate many of the pages.  The covers were made from a flattened cereal box, and the pages themselves, an assortment of papers, bits of previous projects, and items my friends and I kept swapping back and forth.  Oh, and of course, a bit of doodling too.

 

I used some favorite papers, and leftover pieces from a Lynne Perrella workshop, Julie Fei-Fan Balzar's stamp carving class, and some art done by friends.  I think that's what makes this book so appealing to me.  Of course the question (for me) always is......will I actually use this as a journal?  I'll let you know how that works out.

 

Sunday was Jingle Journal, advertised as a holiday journal, but I really don't celebrate anything so I opted for a winter theme instead.  For this book, we deconstructed a hard cover book and used the covers (painted and otherwise decorated), substituting our own papers, done with a very simple sewn binding, and only one signature.

 

 

 

A weekend of art, wonderful.  A weekend of art with friends, priceless.

 

 







Many thanks to Michele for organizing these classes, and to Dawn for a great two days.  Oh, and thanks Michele for the classroom photos, which I swiped from your Meetup board.  :))  Speaking of which, why not go and join Michele's Meetup group so you'll find out about future classes.  She always has something going on, in the works, or on the calendar.



A Little of This and That

Just a few random things I've been busy with lately.  A few days ago, on the hottest day of the year (I don't know if it actually hit 100, but if not, it came close) Teri, Pat, and I ventured out to Wave Hill, a spectacular public garden very close to where I live.  Teri, who'd never been there, summed it up perfectly:  it's like a trip to one of the gardens in Europe without having to get on a plane.  We found some shade and spent a couple of hours sketching.  I was anxious to share with them one of the warm up exercises I used to do when I took drawing classes at the garden many years ago.  We did drawings of each other with two unusual rules:  you can't look at your paper, only at the person you're sketching, and your pen (yes, we used Sharpies) must not be lifted from the page.  So, as you can imagine, you wind up with lots of lines and very Picassoesque drawings.  Later, at home, I filled the many shapes with color, and I just love how these crazy pictures look.

And in case you were wondering, this is how my lovely friends actually looked that day.

Here's a watercolor I did after mangling those faces.

And here is only one of many reasons I think Wave Hill is one of the most beautiful places I've seen.

I signed up for an altered cigar box swap at the Kindred Souls group, and was paired up with Neil from England.  I really admire his work and wanted to do something special for him.  It's always a bit of an extra challenge to make something for a man, but I think I did OK.  No full reveals yet; I would like it to be a surprise, but here is a tiny little piece of it.

The other thing I've been busy with is Joanne Sharpe's online lettering class, Letter Love.  She actually launched it in February, and many of my friends have taken it, but I'm a little late to the party.  I am loving it, by the way.  I already decorated my composition book (which we use for practice), created my inspiration sign, and have been working on lessons each day.  It may be slight right now, but I do see improvement in my lettering.  I will be continuing with this class for sure.  Luckily, once you register you have lifetime access.

Now, for some exciting news.  My friend Michele has a wonderful studio in a great location (the upper west side of Manhattan), and she has started to reach out to some of the best mixed media artists to teach classes there.  So far, she has confirmed dates for Ingrid Dijkers and Dawn DeVries Sokol. The venue is a great space, the location convenient, and the class fees reasonable.  Space is limited, so if you live in the tri state area, check out Michele's Meetup site for all the details.  Ingrid is teaching three different all day classes in late August, and Dawn is teaching two different classes in mid November.  I'd love to see you there!  I was fortunate enough to take a class with Ingrid at the 2011 Keys4Art retreat, and both the class and the teacher were fantastic.

More excitement......recently Michael DeMeng started a FB group called Art Abandonment, and within days it has grown to over 2,000 3,500 members, including moi.  (Wow! Another 1,500 members since the last time I checked).  The idea is to leave some of your art in random places for complete strangers to find.  Some people like to do it anonymously, some include a little card explaining the concept, and some also add an email address so that whoever finds the art can (if they choose) let the artist know all about it.  It's actually more fun than it probably sounds, and I abandoned my first piece in the ladies room at Wave Hill.  When I checked back an hour later it was gone, so either the cleaning staff tossed it or it was found and taken by someone.  Restaurant bathrooms seem to be a popular place to leave art, but some folks have abandoned theirs on park benches, tucked into bushes, and one even tied hers to a tree.  I am not a big FB person, but I love to check back there to see what others are doing.  Wanna join us?