Red Light Dandy

Red Light Dandy

For quite a few months I have been trying to take a photo of the store front of an establishment in Seattle's University District.  Either I did not have my camera or the photo did not turn out like I wanted.  Luckily, the store does not change its windows frequently.  I finally got the photo and decided I wanted to do a gum Arabic transfer of the photo into my new journal.  The transfer process failed but I had gum Arabic and printer's ink all over the photo.  After wiping it many times with a baby wipe I got it to a place that I was pleased. 

We love to watch Project Runway on television and the seed was planted to do a fashion piece for my new crown binding journal.  I recently was in Minnesota visiting my great art friend, Terry Garrett, ( http://whisperwoodartworks.blogspot.com/ ) and with his generous gift of many ephemera pieces the Red Light Dandy was developed to what you see.

Buried Treasure

Each year artist and blogger Seth Apter ( http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/ ) encourages bloggers to repost artists' "treasure" pieces on their blogs.  Seth publishes a list of blogs that are participating to gain more blog exposure.  Here are some of my recent favorite "treasures."

Flight to Paris

 

Barn #7

 

Beloved Boeing

 

Fish Salesman

 

Crazy Guys

 

 

 

Sisters - Red Barn # 9

The total spread for Sisters - Red Barn # 9  is complete.



Sisters - Red Barn # 9

The addition of the left hand side of the spread includes the letters L and E and the number 3. The L stands for Lottie and the E, Elaine.  The sisters are twins and were once triplets, but that is another story.  The time frame for this spread is 1926.




Sisters - Red Barn # 9

Near the end of last week, Ingrid, my friend in Sweden mailed me the first of her signature of the barn journal collaboration.  I was in awe of her work and only minutes passed before I had to start working on my first of four entries into her signature.  I have until October to finish four for Ingrid and four for my second signature in our journal collaboration.

Sisters - Red Barn # 9 evolved over two days and is the right side of a two page spread.  I have not completed the left side yet.  This particular red barn was photographed on a barn scouting safari and is located near Silvana, Washington.  The photo of the two women came from a antique store in Snohomish, Washington that I found on a day's excursion recently.  The dragonflies flew in from my friend, Irene, in a surprise piece of mail art which included dragonfly ephemera.

Street Art

Street Art

Today I took several art journalers into Seattle to journal at a coffee house and to walk the streets looking for ephemera and taking photos.  This is the piece that I completed from this adventure.  It was a great time as it was a totally new experience for everyone and anytime you can add food to the mix then it must be a good time. 

Schoolmarms - Red Barn # 8

Schoolmarms - Red Barn # 8

I am mailing my first signature of the Red Barn series to Sweden today.  I can't wait for Ingrid's signature to arrive here and to see what she does with my signature.  Every other page will be hers.  Yesterday afternoon I spent time with my friend Michele talking about art journaling.  We chatted away about how we start a piece and how it is completed with all the issues that come up and how we come to  solutions.  So much fun!  Fiber paste helped me solve several problems with this piece.

Sophie and Buffy - Red Barn # 7

Sophie and Buffy

Sophie and Buffy is the third spread in the first signature that will be mailed to Ingrid in Sweden for our collaboration.  I actually have completed all four spreads and will post the last one for this signature soon.  I discovered a Golden product that I just love and which I used on this spread.  It is fiber paste.  It gives wonderful texture to the page and is so easy to apply through stencils. It has a great unifying effect.  I have not tried adding pigment to it yet, but coloring over it works great using Faber-Castell pens.

Flight to Paris

Flight to Paris

This week I spent the most amazing time in two Seth Apter workshops on Whidbey Island, Washington.  Over four days we created two different types of journals.  The first was an altered book and this is one of the pages in my new altered journal. I met tremendous artists during the week sharing stories and tips, laughing way too hard, and eating way too much tremendous food.  If you get a chance to take a Seth class or attend the Pacific NW Art School you are in for two great treats.