Zinnia

Zinnia

I absolutely love the Japanese ledger paper that I bought on Etsy.  While using the first few pages I fell in love with the calligraphy.  As I removed pages from the ledger I discovered that many of them had illustrations.  What a find!  Zinnia is significant to me because when I was a teenager I had a garden and I grew zinnias.  I guess I am going down memory lane with this series of postcards.

Purples Iris

Purple Iris

While living in Japan I purchased a screen that had hand-painted irises on it.  I had not thought about that screen for some time now and actually I am not sure where it is.  Perhaps it is under my bed.  I will have to check to see if I still have it.  Now that I look at the iris in Purple Iris I really want to find this screen.  I just hope I did not sell it in a garage sale or give it away.  We are talking about a purchase thirty-two years ago.

Purple Iris is one of eleven postcards I have recently begun.  Eight of them are completed and three are part of a collaboration I am doing with art friends.  All will be published on this blog over the next few weeks.  I wanted to add something contemporary to these postcards so all of them have abstract circles.  Several of them go out in the mail tomorrow to my snail mail art friends.

Blue Poppy

Blue Poppy

There is not much of a story to go along with Blue Poppy.  I am using it as my example in my Thursday evenings mixed-media class.  The background was washi tape that we made on freezer paper using masking tape.  The lesson has been on background, middle ground and foreground.

The Heiress

The Heiress

She was an heiress of a canned food corporation.  Even though she inherited a lot of  money she preferred to remain at home. Traveling was tiring.  All she only really wanted to do was to garden. She loved getting her fingers dirty. Her vegetables and her flowers won prizes at the county and state fairs.  Of course she always entered those competitions under an assumed name!

Art Journaling Workshop Opportunity

Lotus

Lotus

In my 8 x 8 round robin I decided to use Japanese ledger paper.  I have no idea of the story behind the paper.  I assume that it was found in a flea market somewhere in Japan and eventually appeared on Etsy for sale.  I scored big time as the papers are mighty fine  There is kanji on each side, one side more formal writing than the other.  This one will go to Michele sometime during April.

Garden Tour

Garden Tour

Having lived in Japan from 1983 to 1985 teaching third grade on an American base I absorbed a great deal of Japanese culture.  It seems that influence is finding its way into art journaling spreads lately. Garden Tour has found a home in a round robin journal belonging to MaryAnn who I met in a class at the Pacific NW Art School in Coupeville, WA.  MaryAnn won't get to see this spread until July when it finally makes the return to her home.

Teabag Series 10 and 11

Teabag Series 10

Teabag Series 11

Here we are at the end of the teabag series.  That does not mean that it is the end of me using teabags, it just is the conclusion of using them on ATCs at least for now.  I especially like how the security envelope insides go with an Asian flavor such as No 11.