Round Robin Spread - Terry Garrett's Journal

Terry Garrett's Round Robin Journal Spread #1

Terry Garrett's Round Robin Journal Spread #2

Terry Garrett's Round Robin Journal Spread #3

I finished Terry Garrett's RR journal and mailed it off yesterday.  This is what I created for him.

Lightbulb No. 2

Light bulb No. 2

Many techniques were used in this postcard.  I used a variety of collage papers including many Never Dull pages.  I love that technique which is using magazine papers over a stencil and rubbing with Never Dull. Perhaps I should have entitled this piece "Tennis Anyone"!

Gorgeous

Gorgeous

I love busy and this ATC is busy!  All of the patterns seem to go well together and do not fight each other. The patterns remind me of Matisse and how successful he was melding patterns together.  Again, I am loving the magnetic words adhered to the ATCs.

Lightbulb No. 3

Lightbulb No. 3

During my day of creating just for me I came up with Lightbulb No. 3.  I have not shown No. 2 yet but I really like how this one turned out so here it is first.

I spent the last four days cleaning and sorting and throwing away my mother's belongings.  What a chore! The dumpster has been filled three times already.  The worst part of the process is close to being done and that was the garage.  It was disgusting and just plain awful.  Once it is cleared it will be power washed. Hopefully it will be returned to order soon.

I am taking a week off to take two classes, Orly Avineri and Brian Kasstle are both teaching next week at the Pacific NW School on Whidbey Island.  Orly will be there for five days and Brian two.  That should give me a great push to take on more at my mother's in August.

Together

Together

I am on a roll with the ATCs today.  It is so much fun to have an all art day for myself.  I have had to promise myself that I will do this at least once a week for the next few weeks.  It is called keeping one's sanity or perhaps not letting the creative juices dry mood syndrome.

Tongue

Tongue

I found a set of the magnetic poetry at a garage sale for $1.00.  I love that I can use individual words on ATCs.  The tongue might not be placed just right but somehow it has an endearing quality at least in my mind. :-)

Madame Butterfly

Madame Butterfly

Most of my time is not my own right now.  I am the executor of my mother's estate and although my father was very organized and had put everything in a trust, my mother headed off death by refusing to allow anything to be taken care of before her death.  Thus I have a huge mess to clean up.  The garage has things in it since they built their house in 1978 that have never been looked at since.  Boxes and garbage piled up. Gardening supplies and just plain junk has to be discarded.  Rats have taken to calling it home.  I am ordering a dumpster be delivered.  The exterminator came on Thursday!  Enough said!

So I have not been able to do much art and will not for several weeks if not months while I take care of everything. So is that love?  Right now it feels like anger.  This morning I have been thinking about the opera Madame Butterfly, the tragedy of it.  So here we go with an ATC for one of my international friends.

Lightbulb No. 1

Lightbulb No. 1

I have been working on backgrounds for postcards for several days, maybe even two weeks.  Family issues arose and then a family member's death happened.  So it has been a crazy time.  Today I decided it was a total John art day and I was bound and determined to complete several postcards.  Well, so far I got one done because a nap interrupted my concentration.  Naps are good though, right?!

I am trying some new things out.  I used some papers that I made using Never Dull and some graffiti photos that I took of a building in Seattle that was recently torn down.  Good thing I documented the graffiti so that I have photos saved on my computer.  I miss the building.  Progress happens!

Round Robin Journal - Jacki Long

We are closing in on the fifth month of our round robin for our dos-a-dos journal.  Late in August everyone in the RR will have a completed journal.  For Jacki's journal I found some vintage women photographs with a swimsuit theme.  At an art garage sale I found some clay shavings.  I had never seen them previously. They are just fantastic.  Colored clay has been rolled and cut to make the shavings.  It makes for a great textured look in Jacki's journal.

Jacki RR Dos-a-dos Journal first

Jacki RR Dos-a-dos second

Jacki RR Dos-a-dos third

Egyptian Man

Egyptian Man

Adding fiber paste through a stencil finished off Egyptian Man.  The slightest sanding and Dylusion spray inks and the piece was complete.  Now that it is done I was thinking I could have used something Arabic in the background.  It is what it is though.  I do not hold back but include the good with the less than successful on this blog.  My blog is archival....whatever I have finished goes up.

Someone asked me recently about my art marketing.  What marketing?  I do some art shows but my art is for me and for those who I share it with.  I think I would lose the joy of doing art if I worried about marketing!  I mostly do art journaling and mail art.  At the moment I have eight works in galleries and shows. Doing shows was a big step for me.  It is enough.

Javanese Woman

Javanese Woman

I am so reminded of Paul Gauguin when I look at the finished Javanese Woman.  This piece evolved totally as I sorted through my baggies of ephemera.  I came across scraps that I had long forgotten and they totally changed the background from my original creations.  That is why I love mixed media so much.  It is so freeing and allows for creativity to the max.

Algerian Woman

Algerian Woman

Just the position of the arm makes this Algerian woman's pose provocative.  I found her in an old book from the sale that I attended this past weekend.  The page from the book had that ancient musty smell.  I was afraid that I would not be able to use her because of it.  However matte medium and tar gel and rubbing alcohol seems to have helped with this problem.  I used a palette knife to adhere tar gel over the lower portion of this piece. I am liking the tar gel technique more and more.  Isn't it fun to provide a venue for old photographs, to create a new "environment" for them.  It is like giving new life to something old and forgotten.

The book is so musty I have banished it from the living portion of our house.  It now is "locked" up in the garage in a baggie with a dryer freshener.  Hopefully I will be able to use more of the photos I found, but it all depends on the success of the smell reduction.