The Personal Journal: Daily Pages

During my Experimental Sketchbook Class

I kept a special journal with art notes

& anything related that came up. 

{By the way, I did not pose the shot: 

My new wooden mannequin, (who I think has arthritis)

happened to be there when I was snapping the page.}

Recently I read through my previous personal daily journal.

During the early days of stay-at-home, 

I spent a fair amount of time embellishing my personal book 

with color, borders, paste-ins, & stickers. 

I wondered if it was somehow a waste of my time. 

Looking back I see that it wasn't.

While releasing nervous energy about 

the new, unknown situation we were in,

I was allowing myself to play with color, layout, & content.

I'm now enjoying the record that I have of those days.

Here I recorded some notes from a book for young people

about artistic process: Neil Gaiman's Art Matters.

I usually record these types of art notes in a separate book,

but I liked incorporating them into the "master journal."

Currently my daily pages are fairly unadorned. 

My art energy is going to several projects 

that will be offered for public viewing. 

But they have their own journal pages where I am

working out my journey to finished products.

Experimental Sketchbook Class: Time & Space to Create

Some of my work during the weeklong class.

It was perhaps the best art class I've ever taken at University. 

We were encouraged to experiment.

Push out of our comfortable ways.

I started getting scribbly & messy (not shown here)

so it was a relief to do some minimalist drawings.

Zoom grids became an integral part of my experience.

I wandered out of my familiar box.

I cut up one of my watercolor "still life" grids

and pasted fragments into a booklet.

And then, relief, back to the familiar~ 

except with a bit of a grid.

A grid containing The Tiny Fears of Rita

Les miniscules craintes de Rita

We tried a wax resist/ink wash/charcoal layering technique

that Maine artist, David Lewis, uses.

(His drawings are very sophisticated & refined...) 

We collected shadows by tracing actual shadows.

Some of the students turned their results into imaginative

imagery, unrelated to the original subjects, and then 

turned them into handmade books.

I loved my Swedish Ivy design & didn't transform it,

except to put it into an accordion format.

Last class exercise: Do 20 versions of the same object, 

using various papers & drawing materials.

I got 3 done in our half hour allotment...

But THIS is the idea which I most want to continue

at the moment...20 objects? 50? 100? 

Maybe they would be painted and drawn, then,

hand sewn together into a paper quilt that folds 

into a book. We shall see...

The beautiful thing is that I have SO many wonderful

inspirations & directions with which to continue.

Thanks to my instructors & to the class, composed of

young undergraduates, graduate students,

& some oldsters like me. 

So much inspiration,

& this is only the tip of the iceberg...

What I Took For Granted...

Funny, I took spiritual gifts less for granted

than material objects, before the virus & shut down.

I don't shop online,

but art tools & materials 

were available at local shops 

within a 100 miles.

Now those shops are closed.

So a friend kindly helped me to order new #11 blades,

and a great, new ergonomic Excel knife. 

They are luxuries to me!!

I did a few test cuts, magnificent feeling

of cutting with a precision blade! 

My edges could be smoother,

but that's me needing to practice...

 I realized I could arrange these simple snippets

in an infinite number of ways,

with lovely negative shapes inbetween...

Like letters in a word, words in a sentence...

An infinite number of ways.

Boggling...

But then, a lot is boggling these days...

Lists and Collections

 I recently wanted to buy a new handbag. 

There were so many styles that

I made notes. It was helpful, if not obsessive.

(Here, only a snippet of several pages.)

 This wasn't the 1st time. Some years ago, I had drawn a 

bunch of bags, & eventually cut some of them out

to save in one of my "repository", catch-all journals.

In 2011, at a city Farmer's Market, 

I devoted a page in my small sketch journal 

to various shoppers' bags. Fascinating variety!

An interesting book : Blackstock's Collections. 

He draws collections at a very intense & obsessive level.

Also interesting:

Lists, To-Do's: Illustrated Inventories

Collected Thoughts & Other Artists' Enumerations

A page from Lists, To-Do's...

Collecting quantities verses buying one of something 

has an economic tie-in in our consumer culture. 

Folks on YouTube show & tell us that they have not one,

 but a multitude of 

bags, notebooks, pens, shoes, etc. 

& they encourage us to buy more, more more.

(They are often given these things at no charge 

or at a  discount. Or, it is their profession.)

What does the average person do who can't afford 

or doesn't need too many of an item?

Me: I admit, sometimes I buy more than one...

But drawing is more affordable.

For a related post please click HERE to my post called

26 Mugs, 100 Monkeys. 

What would YOU choose to draw (or buy)

 if you had to have a collection of 100?

Exploring Rather Than Wandering

 

Sketchbook Wandering. 

I've done it here for almost 7 years!!!!!

Sketching & writing still bring me joy & comfort, 

as when I took a pause from last Saturday's winter festivities

at a café on Main St. I sat by a wall.

My sketchbook transformed the scene to interesting theater.

There are people who appreciate my sketches, 

& some have learned from my process.

But:

Change might be starting...

Expression, discovery, exploration, reflection, 

& who knows what else! 

I've been experimenting with making marks 

with a brush & "high flow" acrylic paints.

(Thanks, for introducing me, Beth. Go to Sew Sew Art.)

My marks turned to shapes & my shapes 

arranged themselves.

Aaaah, order...but maybe not too much...

More will be revealed...

Mini Zumba Greetings

I failed to send Christmas cards this year. 

But I have promised myself that I will send winter cards.

I did make up some mini-cards to give to a few local folks,

some of them being fellow Zumba enthusiasts.

 

 And a card for my Zumba teacher. 

I have enormous gratitude for her. 

This dance & her exercise classes have enriched

my life & my health tremendously!!!

Meditative Color Play, Continued...

Still playing with watercolor with attention & focus...

(previous post). A form of prayer & meditation. 

"L'attention, à son plus haut degré, est la même chose que la prière."  ~Simon Weil 

      

 "But what are you going to DO with them?"

"Well, I could cut them out & make cards..."

 "...and handmade books..."

"And then I could let them go..."

More Watercolor Wandering

 I continue to explore my new watercolor tubes. 

I focus on not judging what I see happening 

but on watching closely how the water & paints react.

It's like watching raindrops on the windshield,

slow, careful observation of a drop as it morphs & changes.

I ponder: 

What is the difference between being influenced by 

& learning from an artist~ & copying them?

Artist Mattina Blue, in a brief workshop, had a big influence 

on my waterpaint experimenting. 

To see her work, click HERE.

 I loved her designs & motifs, 

but I knew I didn't want to copy them.  

What I got from her was a spirit of allowing the water 

to carry the paint,

of allowing the colors to respond to one another.

(Fun when working on a slanted surface.)

Mattina told me to work in series, 

each painting leading to the next.

What will be discovered along the way?

I think it is enjoying the evolution, 

rather than just a brief dabble of something new.

A spirit of "More will be revealed."

Motifs & designs emerge by themselves. 

All of us have our own.

One of mine: Light peeking from behind darker lines, 

In this season I see it in sun on thinning colored leaves,

behind dark branches & twigs.

These "plaids" have other meanings for me too,

which come to me after I'm done painting. 

They are grids, they are boxes, 

& even when I don't know what they mean,

they are pleasing to draw.

While painting (I try) to think of nothing 

but what I'm observing,

& this meditative focus calms me, fills me with serenity.

Boxes: My Key to Organization

The workshop that keeps on giving,

That was Beth's. I continue to play.

I notice my ongoing fascination with squares.

Squares. BOXES. Order. Symmetry. 

Containment which allows for freedom & chaos.

Ohhhh. I get it!

I learned about creative surface design,

but I also learned about how to organize materials

because Beth had 

So So Many!  

(Click on Sew Sew Art , 

Beth's website.)

I've been learning that my creative spirit can't flow without 

organizing my materials!

 That generous Beth lent me her BOX of metallic threads.

Sparkly. Shimmery. Oooooh! Thank you, generous Beth!

The BOX for raw material for my August Art Show.

 The BOX for hand sewing & little papers,

for book covers, for little collages. 

For now it has to wait for me in its BOX 

because I need to be into the Art Show BOX.

 Another BOX of Bookmaking stuff. 

Beth's Beads. Waxed threads. Buttons!

A BOX of travel journals from France voyages.

Also waiting for me.

Rita's saved BOXES, 

thrown in a corner of the spare room.

You never know when you'll need another BOX!

I'm remembering one of the first magical 

BOXES in my life:

Jenny's Mom's BOX of old clothes in the basement,

put there so we could play Dress-Up 

when we were wee kids!!

Thank you Jenny's Mom! 

How do YOU organize your materials?

Beth's Maine Coast Surface Design Class-2

Beth's Midsummer Surface Design Workshop.

I got to go for 2 days this time! 

(see previous posts.)

 I made a little book for Beth last year,

inspired by all of the wonderful design work

that I always see in her studio when I visit her.

Now, not just a visit, but an official class!

We made cover designs using plastic credit type cards

swooshing around paint on large sheets of paper.

 I also printed with the edges. 

On top of that I "pounced" and swirled circles

with a small round sponge gizmo.

Another student had discovered the swirling technique.

 Some of us "copied". 

I found myself cutting out circles,

& then began cutting them into spirals. 

It gave me a delicious bunch of small

snail-fiddlehead-brussel sprout-y creatures. 

I pasted them down & hung metallic thread.

How fun! The process was doing its own thing.

All I had to do was to let it!

 

We used our covers for coptic stitched journals.

I experimented on my top cover,
sort of ruining it (no photo of that!), 

so eventually I pasted a collage design over it. 

It's called Rita's Book of Progress & Imperfection

One of the biggest things that happened

at this workshop is that my perfectionism,

the crippling kind, began to be lifted. 

Beth models & teaches that: 
"You try things,

if something doesn't work, no problem. 

You just keep trying things, & having fun!"

 With a 1 1/2 " hole punch 

I've been continuing to punch circles

from my sheets of painted paper. 

These are on watercolored squares that I'd had made.
They remind me of one of those color theory exercises
that you see in books on painting.

I'd seen Beth's hand-dyed cloth beads several years ago,

& in fact she'd gifted me with some.

I finally got to make my own!!! Total joy!

Above, the cover of a small accordion book.

 Embellishing one of Beth's tags. 
I made the bead,

The rest was from 

her big box of printed papers & ribbons.

"Cloth Paper Scissors", there's a magazine by that name. 

I haven't found the magazine yet, but Marcella,

Beth's assistant shared some wonderful books. 

Austin Kleon in Steal Like an Artist says that

side projects 

inbetween work on your major project

are valuable. 

"Productive Procrastination".

"Just play. That's where the magic happens."

Now, I'm back working on my exhibit at the library.

I'll be showing sketches that were all done

"Not Far From Home" .

Which happens to be the name of the show.