Play time.....

Been playing a lot lately.....with stamp carving:

I carved a new feather stamp and tried it out on white paper with and without a red circle, then experimented on a piece of toned paper.

Then I played with my Gelli plate......practicing mono printing:

Fun to experiment with hand cut stencils and try to design something interesting.

Then I combined collage and a mono print with a couple different hand carved stamp........

Over the weekend the sun came out and I took my camera for a walk in the park and happily discovered these little beauties............

.......mushrooms in the grass gave me some great design inspiration....stay tuned, we'll see where they lead.

I do enjoy my creative play time!  Hope you had some play time this week, too.

A salute to my favorite veteran......

In November 1950 this 18 year old Marine landed in Pusan, Korea.  He ended up at the Chosin Reservoir fighting the Chinese.  Not many people have heard of the battle at the Chosin but it was one of the coldest wars fought by American troops (the coldest was when George Washington crossed the Delaware during the Revolutionary War) then for the better part of two weeks they were trapped in weather that was 40 degrees below zero.  Remember, they had not discovered Gortex at that point in time, these guys wore wool coats, hat,  gloves (if they were lucky) and regular work boots.  Korea is often referred to as the Forgotten War.  Let us never forget what these men gave up for our freedom!

Ron was lucky!  He has some frost bite but is other wise pretty healthy and he has the pleasure of the company of some of the cutest girls around......our Granddaughters.  Here he is pictured with one, Ashley.

Last Tuesday, we spent the morning with Ash and her Dad, son Dean, at the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville, OR. where they were honoring veterans of all wars. Students from Ashley's school and four other high schools were in attendance to hear stories from World War II survivors of the Bataan Death March.  I've seen documentaries on TV about the Death March but to hear the first hand stories of brutality and the will to survive from these men was very powerful! 

Thank a Veteran today for his service! 

Up and running.....

I've been more than a bit neglectful of my blog lately.  I've been reading other blogs, I just have not been writing for mine!  No excuses, I have been busy but aren't we all.

We did finish the Artful Journaling class that my friend and I were team teaching.  It was a good class.  My friend, Jan taught the creative writing part of the class that she loosely based on Julia Cameron's book " Vein of Gold".  This, Jan taught the art part.  The best part of teaching is always how much the teacher learns and this class was no exception. 

For our last class, we all identified some of our "secret selves".  Here is mine:

 

 

The floral background represents my "gardener self", the red pants, red shoes and colorful popsicles, let's see, that could be my "artist self", "outgoing self", "unconformity self" and the model is standing on a stack of newspapers, obviously since I spent 25 years in the newspaper business that's "my career self".  The cool junky jewelry?  More of my prefers "unique to flashy self".

 

This was a fun exercise.  Just quickly go through some magazines and tear out photos that appeal to you....for any reason.  Wait a day or two, go through you pictures and sort out the ones you still really like.....trim them out, arrange them artfully, glue them on to card stock and I'll bet everyone you know will say that is a collage that looks just like you!  Have fun.

 

 

 



Nature journaling......

I'm so excited because next March, Saturday the 22nd to be exact.....Roxanne Evans Stout will be coming to teach at the Woodburn Art Center here in Oregon.

I'm getting in the mind-set by stitching a beautiful, Tazo tea silk bag with a fall leaf in it, to a piece of my eco dyed paper, a layer of handmade paper and another layer of my dyed papers to make this.......

I'm not finished, yet, but these beautiful fall days are certainly inspiring me to try to capture the essence of the season!

Teaching and learning........

I'm teaching a journaling class with another woman.  She loves to write and I love to make art so we have teamed up, again.  We did something similar last fall.

  

So, the "other Jan" gets them thinking and writing about the events of their life, both, large and small and I'm showing them ways to express themselves by adding art to their stories.  In the photo above, we took pieces of a collage and rearranged them to demonstrate how each person has their own idea of how the piece fit together.


These were the pieces.....hopefully, I will be able to share the finished page with you next time.  The story that goes with these pieces is even better, it is about a flashy aunt who always had perfectly manicure red finger nails.  Do you have a story like that?  How would you express it in art and words?

 

 

Just because.......I have to share the latest Gelli prints!

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

I'll share my class story, as well, I remember a neighbor woman who every day sold produce in an out-door Farmer's Market in downtown Portland.  I don't know where the produce came from but she would load it in the trunk of her white Cadillac and drive off wearing a black dress that her slip ALWAYS hung below and her unkempt hair.

     

 

 

Funny, the things we remember.....that is why it is so much fun to write them down and one day your family and friends will treasure those stories.

My kind of weekend........

Yes, my kind of weekend because I got to stay home both days!  That may sound pretty boring to some but, for me, two solid uninterrupted days of playing with my paints and paper.....HEAVEN!

Saturday I accomplished so much, even I was surprised!

First, I gathered some flowers and leaves to do a little more eco dying before the frost hits......

 

 

 

 

then I cut some watercolor paper and boiled away.....here are some of the results.

 

The resulting colors and designs are always a surprise.  I love color and I have found marigold petals make an incredible yellow dye.  However, I may be getting a bit carried away. 

If, the weather and time permit, I hope to do another batch using only one leaf per page.







One of the other projects for the day involved cutting a stencil and making some more Geli prints, which is a form of mono printing using a gelatin-like, commercially made, 8x10 inch printing plate.

With the stencil, you can print the negative and the positive image.  I printed some over already printed surfaces and two that I will now print over. 

Then.....I made a journal page using one of my Geli printed pieces, a stamp I carved and some washi tape.  Like this!

Sunday was almost as productive......I'll share later.

More "geli".........

Still playing with my new toy, the Geli Printing Plate.

Pretty fun!  I've use commercial stencils and cut this one to experiment with, I think it saved the top print. I pretty much thought I had ruined what I had when I put down the dark blue-green but the white stencil on top added depth and interest.  It's a little difficult to know when to stop!

For the journaling class, I'm team teaching, we are going to write about home and how ours have influenced us over the years.  So, I've come up with some examples for the class.

 

 

 

 

The top journal page is really just pieces of paper cut to build a house and the bottom is a Geli print with some magazine pages cut up to add depth......and one of my favorite quotes. 

 

Follow me over to Carolyn Dube's October party of Geli prints!

 

I don't know but I may need some help with my addiction, soon!  Enjoy your weekend.