In My Art Journal

Happy Friday!!

I am particularly happy this Friday because my hubby gets home from being in Taiwan for 2 weeks! The kids have been great with helping out, keeping us fed and clothed since my arm is still broken. We were cracking up at the state of our home, though.  Seriously, between work, school, a crazy dog, and me being out of commission, we have just been keeping our heads above water!

When Mike travels I often spend more time reading than usual, and I end up filling his side of the bed with books, crossword puzzles, journals and such, as I cast them each aside as I drift off each night.

This time, it being the start of a new year, I busted out a brand new art journal and kicked it off by taking an online class with May Flaum called "Finding the Art in My Journal".  Here's the first spread I made:

I applied a few different shades of green and blue to the background, and spread it around with a paintbrush and a palette knife.  A little mist through a stencil, then taped in a couple of blind contour drawings, a little journaling, and called it done...for now.  I will likely return to it for more journaling and/or doodling as the mood strikes.

After working in so much black and white last year, the color and fun of paint and wet media was refreshing.  I'm looking forward to getting both hands dirty soon!  Next week I should be good to go!

Thanks for stopping by!  Head over to May's site, www.craftwithmay.com to check out her art journaling class and several other paper-crafty subjects!  She is true blue and down to earth and an empowering teacher.

Also, sharing on Julie Fei Fan Balzer's site for her Friday Feature, Art Journal Every Day.  So much inspiration to be found there!

Have a great weekend!

50 Things: An Overdue Update

In August of 2012 I shared a mini book I'd made to document a self-imposed challenge of 50 Things to do before I turn 50 years old.  My 46th birthday is right around the corner, and I hadn't taken stock of my progress for my own sake, let alone to share with you, dear reader!  

So, here's 5 Things that I've tackled so far:

#1:  Travel in Europe

Completed 12/24/12 - 01/08/13

I am absolutely still pinching myself that I was able to check this one off the list so early.  It never would have been possible without the complete physical and financial support of my parents and my sister. They gifted Jillian and I with airfare, meals, expenses, and lodging.  My sister was living just outside of Paris at the time, with plans of moving back to the US, so the timing was ripe!

#2:  Take a Class in Person With
Julie Fei-Fan Balzer
Completed 01/18/14

This was an amazing experience, a dream come true, and a great exercise in holding back the hand-flapping, hyperventilating, "ohmigod! ohmigod!" squeals of a geeked out fan girl.  :)  Coupled with the fantastic studio space, art and hostessing-extraordinaire of the incomparable Jenny Doh, the whole weekend was deliciously surreal.  Julie has committed to teach again next January, and I hope to be a returning student!

#7:  Go to the Thursday Evening Farmer's Market
Completed 04/04/13

The "market" part of this outdoor fair was, I admit,  a bit disappointing.  I didn't expect there to be the abundance of vendors and produce offerings as our local Sunday market, but this particular night as a first impression wasn't terrific.  It was our 21st wedding anniversary, though, so we enjoyed a nostalgic fish taco from one of the few tents there and headed over to an exciting new monthly Art Slam event that will take place with the Farmer's Market.  Particularly AWESOME was that this night featured "GREEN Slam" and art of recycled materials which is a big favorite of mine.  And then, particularly un-awesome was that that part of the event wasn't scheduled to begin until after the market closed, and with a new pup left at home for several hours already, we weren't willing to stay till then.

#39:  Splurge on the Perfect Boots
Completed 11/30/12

Oh, my darlings!  How do I love thee?  And at half the price my splurge budget was set to allow, you are even lovelier paired with the additional sweaters and scarves I've been able to accessorize with you.
I. Love. These. BOOTS!!!

#42:  Go to Griffith Observatory
Completed 07/31/12

Wow!  The Observatory is so much bigger than I expected.  We enjoyed the hike up to the campus, the incredible views of Los Angeles, the science-y displays and explanations, and the film "Centered in the Universe" in the Planetarium.  All completely awesome!!  But, we didn't see everything, so need to make some return visits.  I have to look through the giant telescope yet.

I've checked some other items off the list, too, and will share those with you soon.  As of last night I have another Best Picture Oscar winning movie to watch as I make my way through 86 years of honored films .  With Mike out of town for the next twelve days, I should strategically choose a few that I can never talk him into watching with me...perhaps 1928/29's "The Broadway Melody" or 1952's "The Greatest Show on Earth"?

"All Talking, All Singing, All Dancing" ?
C'mon, Mike?  What's not to love???  ;)

Thank you for letting me share a bit of my journey with you!

Have a wonderful week!

Trend Setter

Los Angeles Times

January 19, 2014

Lisa Flaherty

November 26, 2013

Just sayin'….  ;)   

 Lol!

Maybe this is just the recognition I needed to post more often. 

Here's a look at something new from me to cleanse your eyes from seeing that crazy layout again (Jeremy, once again, horrified that it exists on the interwebs. #sorrynotsorry):

It is a collage I made at an awesome class taught by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer at Studio Crescendoh a couple weeks ago.  I'm finishing up another in a series, and will share more soon!  

Thanks for stopping by!

No Worries

Today I'd like to share a couple projects I made inspired by another canvas-making technique from Alma Stoller's Mixed Media class.

I made these little shadow boxes from the lid of an ink pad, and added a soda can tab to the back for hanging.

I have a bunch of Worry Dolls in my stash left over from this project.  I was thinking about how far Jeremy has come in the past few years and how I don't worry about him or his future the way I did when he was younger.  So, what do worry dolls do if they are not given worries?  They chill out and relax!

The swing is made from a cardboard coffee cup cozy.
They look a little frightened, don't they?  Lol!  

This one I made for a friend's baby shower this past weekend.  I stitched up a "Mother's Work" heart pillow, too, to give her a place to hand over any worries--big or small--that come with being a mom.

I think I will make a little series of these scenes--worry dolls on vacation or something. :)  I am obsessing over putting a couple into a little canoe!

Thanks for stopping by!  Wishing you a worry-free day!

Queen Bee

I'm taking an online mixed media class by Alma Stoller, and having so much fun!  I think it is just what I needed to get the ol' noggin jump started with some fresh ideas.

Alma's voice is soothing, the music that leads into each video lesson is lovely, and the techniques and materials she teaches with are resourceful, often recycled, and innovative.  She really speaks to my true heart.

She presents many ideas for making "canvases", surfaces to art on, and the first one I needed to try was making a stitched surface from magazine pages.

I gessoed over the page to prime the surface, then used a brayer to apply some green and yellow paint.  I had this song, "Honeybee" by Steam Powered Giraffe stuck in my head for a few days, and stumped over what to do next, decided to scribe the lyrics onto the background.   This lead to me looking for an image of a bee on the internet to collage on top.  I added some spray ink and gesso'd stenciling; meanwhile, those Googled links had me thinking about the plight of the honeybee and it's impact on the ecosystem.  "God Save the Queen," I thought, (queen, as in queen bee).

I stamped with StazOn ink on some scraps of canvas and stitched them to the piece.  The crown was freehand cut from a cardboard coffee sleeve and spritzed with Heidi Swapp's gold lame Color Shine (I love that stuff!)

I love the way this turned out!  It is the first thing I've made in a long time that I've felt a strong love for and had to find a place to hang up in the house. :) 

I'm looking forward to exploring more techniques in Alma's class!  

Thanks for having a look!

What's In A Name?

I've had a lot going on lately.  That may be reflected in how little I've been blogging, and also in the chaotic-crazy manifested in this art journal page I completed yesterday.

I hate it, and I love it.  

"What's in a name?  Everything & nothing, all at once."  So, true, right?  I'm not planning to get up on a soap box here, but let's see what comes pouring out of my brain and through the keyboard, and perhaps edit back from there...

Names are simple identifiers.  I love that when Jillian was a toddler she started calling us Mama Lisa and Daddy Mike to distinguish us from all the other parents at the park.  She wasn't calling for the attention of some generic "mom", she wanted HER mom to respond.  Brilliant, I say!  (And, a cute aside:  she didn't want us to use the MIKE-ro-wave for any of her food--we needed to use the JILLY-wave!)  Yes, names are simple identifiers that make for more efficient communication.

Then there is the old sticks-n-stones adage.  I think it is pretty much common knowledge that name-calling and verbal abuse has a very real and powerful effect on the psyche.  Not that common knowledge means there aren't buttheads out there that engage in it.  (Ironic, eh?  See what I did there? It is just so darn easy to resort to name calling!)

Oops.  I painted and stamped over my ampersand (&).
I'll keep searching the magazines and add one in when I find one.

And labels.  Don't get me started on labels.  Alright--a little bit on labels:  Person-First Language.

Person-first language is a concept I learned about, and is encouraged by my local autism support group, Santa Clarita Autism Asperger Network (SCAAN).  The idea is to put the person before their disability when speaking or writing about the person, because a person is not defined by their disability.  For example, "She HAS autism," not "She IS autistic." Autism is only ONE of the MANY traits that define her.

Ok, So back to this journal page.  I've been soul-searching lately, trying to get to know myself on a deeper level, and define some goals and a path for myself.  And feeling at once lost, because I don't have a label for myself, and feeling that that's FINE.  Except...wouldn't this be easier if I could just have a simple identifier??  

I carved this stamp when I was taking Julie's online class.  This assignment was to create a damask stamp.  I wanted to do something original, but struggled with free handing a symmetrical design.  Many times when I feel artistically befuddled I turn to ideas and projects I remember from elementary school.  Do you remember name art?  You fold a piece of paper in half and write your name along the creased edge, cut it out, and unfold.  I wrote my name, scanned it, inverted it, and placed the mirror image next to the original scan.

Then I sketched a design out of it, transferred it to a piece of Speedy Carve and made this stamp.  I love it!    It's so cool!  It's just my name, and yet it is so much more than that!

I went berserk with it on that art journal page.  And as I stamped, all this "stuff" about names, and labels, and the various "hats" we all wear, and the impossibility of defining oneself, and changing one's name to a symbol doesn't help any because people still need a verbal identifier for you so you never get away from just being "Prince."  

Names.  So simple.  So complicated.  Who am I?  Really, that is what I am trying to figure out.  In the meantime, just call me Lisa.

Thanks for visiting!

Stamp Carving Frenzy

I have a new crafty hobby/pastime!  Carving my own rubber stamps!  I have been taking an online class, Stamp Carving 101, from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, and I. Am. Hooked!  It is a self-paced class that you can join anytime, so if you are interested, you can check it out here.

Here is a sampling of some stamps I've made and some tags I created from them.

And, finally, here is a layout I made that incorporated a few of them, including heavy use of that alphabet set:

Thanks for visiting!  I'm still carving away, so will share more at a later date!

30 Days in Your (Art) Journal

I am two weeks into a 30 day online class from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer about the daily practice of art journaling.  I have been fascinated with this concept for about a year now, and in January started an art journal at the encouragement of Julie's Art Journal Every Day online community.

The things that make Julie's concept of art journaling so doable are a) there are no mistakes and b) spend just 10 minutes a day.  I started out really strong, enjoying the daily ritual, experimenting with paint and sketches, writing in a bit of the day's happenings.

While I've kept at it, adding to my art journal here and there, I admit that my practice changed as time went on.  I wanted to spend more and more time on each session, time I just didn't have.  So instead of limiting myself to the 10 minutes, I'd just skip day after day, waiting for an opportunity to play around without a time constraint.

A couple months ago I had a mind to change the focus of the journal, and use it as a life book/catch all.  I started adding To-do lists and grocery lists to blank pages, just trying to get back into the habit of cracking it open on a daily basis.   Not. Very. Inspiring.

When Julie announced that she would do an online art journaling class, I thought that would be just the thing I needed--having someone hold my hand and inspire me to get back to the basic premise of "just 10 minutes a day".  Boy, was I right!

Julie's video lessons are always so straight forward, and getting to see her talk through her process with the choices she makes is really helpful.  She really makes you feel that there are no wrong choices, no bad decisions.  And, she is sticking to that 10 minutes!  She sets a timer at the beginning of each lesson, and off we go.  After the video she types up a bullet list of take home points, and she always lists supplies she used and substitution possibilities so that you really tap into your creativity and don't feel like you need to go out and buy a bunch of stuff.  

Here is what I've accomplished in the past couple of weeks:

I am thoroughly enjoying myself!  I can't get over the culminating results of what only 10 minutes a day can become!  If you would like to join in or check it out, click here or on the "30 Days" icon on the right column of this blog.  

Thanks for visiting and letting me share with you!