The Calm after the Storm

On one of the many dreary days we've had, I craved color and sunshine. I wanted blue skies and green leaves. So I created this double page spread, and thought "Hey! It's my art journal, I can say exactly what I think". Winter does indeed suck.

A week ago we had 19 inches of snow on the ground, with sub zero temperatures. The wind chill was -41. The frigid blast only lasted about 60 hours, then the warm up began. On Wednesday of last week I discovered that someone had my old driver's license that had been stolen with my purse, and was cashing large checks against my bank account. So in the midst of recuperating from the arctic vortex, I was also dealing with my own whirlwind of protecting my identity and trying to get my money returned.

It was a hell of a week.

I am a strong woman. There are, of course, times when I break down and bawl. Doesn't everyone? But I do not expect anyone else to take care of me. I am independent, a decision maker, and do my level best to stay on top of whatever situation presents itself. This time I was kicked in the gut. A very large corporation thought it was "okay" to make me a victim again. The first time was with the robbery. The second was when one of their employees cashed a $1500 check against my account that had $278 in it. Really????

The police have been contacted. I will take the next step this morning. And folks, I am so loaded for bear.

My word for this year is ACHIEVE. I will achieve my personal goals with my art. I will achieve a level of more financial security. And I will achieve a reputation of being that woman from the south side of Chicago that you really don't want to mess with.

Have a good one.
Linda

A Work in Progress

I ran extra wide masking tape down the center, then added paint

Step two was adding tissue paper and misc. paper

Step three added stamping, inks, and more tissue

I have never photographed a work in progress before, and decided to try it. Kind of interesting, to me, to look back at the layers I added and when I did it.

The sun is shining brightly, but the temperature is -13 with a wind chill factor of -40. I am heading into the studio to try some Gelli Plate prints today. Not much else to do except to talk the dogs out of going outside. Their limit is one minute. Just too damn cold.

Stay safe.
Linda

The Daily Motivation

The Documented Life Project

The Documented Life Project

Large Dylusions journal #1

Large Dylusions journal #1

Large Dylusions journal #1

I fought working in my art journals all year. Oh, I did it off and on. But I was never happy with what I did. As so often happens in crafting and art, one thing leads to another. And sometimes it's a big circle back to the starting point.

About 4 months ago I ordered a Gelli Printmaking plate, and just started to mess around with it. I use a Speedball paint brayer to apply the paint to the surface. It is then necessary to clean off that brayer, so I just pulled the journals out and ran the brayer on random empty pages to clean it. I would have both journals open on the table for a few days to dry, then shut them and forget about what I had done.

A month ago I pulled them out, and the more I flipped through looking at the random paint patterns, the more I was inspired to do something. And so now it is daily. I've run out of old pages with paint, and now have started to experiment with other ways to apply background paint and ink. I like it. I want to work in my journals. For the first time ever.

Achieve. A good word for me for 2014.
Linda

The New Year

The first week's challenge was to represent our front door

Well isn't this just turning out to be a dandy winter? Not. I hate the cold. I hate high heat bills. Hate is a strong word. Let's strike that and change it to intense dislike. Sigh.

As the sun was coming up this morning, I walked into the kitchen and saw the ice on the windows shine from the early light. The camera doesn't quite capture it as well as the human eye, but close enough.

A few weeks ago, a group of artists from Florida decided to offer a free, year-long challenge on their blogs called The Documented Life. They also started a Facebook page, and a Flickr group. The idea is to take a weekly planner and alter it so you are not only using it as it was intended, but adding bits and pieces of your life, photos, art work, doodles, whatever you want to do. This appealed to me based solely on the motivation factor. A nice but swift kick in my ass to keep creating. So I ordered the Moleskine planner from Amazon, and added my own home made tabs and "tip-outs/ins", which are simply extra pages that fold out.

You can read about The Documented Life on Robin Marie's website. 

There is also a blog entitled The Documented Life Project, where the group posts our weekly challenges. The first challenge was to either take a photo, or make a drawing, painting, collage, whatever of our front door. Seeing as how this was posted when the snow started, I was not inclined to go out and take a photo. So I sketched my front entrance, playing around a bit with it, and then redid it on watercolor paper. I used very cheap and old water color pencils to color it. Not getting the intensity I wanted, I did some fine tuning with Faber Castell Big Brush Pitt pens. Love those suckers. Besides paint, my one essential art supply. 

In just 2 short weeks that encompassed the Holidays, over 2,000 women (and perhaps a few men) have signed on to follow this year long adventure.

Pretty damn cool.
Linda

Happy New Year

I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a very Happy New Year. I am glad this marks the official end of the holiday season. Time to move on. Does that sound like Scrooge?

Stay warm, stay safe, and be happy.
Linda