Author Archives: leslie

Art Therapy Camp

I spent much of last week at art therapy camp. Actually it was orientation for grad school for art therapy. No matter what I call it, it was AWESOME. Seriously awesome.

First it was in a place that looks like this:

There were drum circles and singing and lots of clapping. I was surrounded by 150 (or so) women and a few men who were all interested in the same sorts of things I am.

There was a table loaded with art supplies and we could use them at anytime, day or night. Speaking of nights, holy crap I was up until at least 11pm EVERY NIGHT and then up again at 7am. That's how I got the sunrise pics and this one:

That's the moon and a little bit of lens flare. Cell phone camera and shooting directly into the light…

Anyway, I made a lot of art, stretched my limits by writing some poetry and in general had an awesome time.

I also learned that if I ever go to "camp" again, to include Gas-X in my bag. The food wasn't bad it was just a huge change from my current largely vegetarian and home grown diet.

I have to write a paper about my experience, 6 pages, in APA style and I have to include references… Holy moly. Loads of work, but I have to tell you, I'm totally excited to be doing it. I feel like I've gotten to the place where I'm meant to be and that is an awesome feeling.

Evidence #2 and Starting Grad School

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I had my first week of grad school last week. It kicked my ass, in a good way. It was an intense 9am to 6pm class Monday through Friday. We did a lot of writing and reading and art making. It was the most completely intense class I've ever had. In short it was awesome. I got to meet and hang out with 23 amazing women. The best thing is I'll be spending the next 4 days with them as well. This time in New Hampshire.

I expected to have evidence on Etsy by the end of last week but I ended up having a lot of work to do for school. I finally got it all scanned and up today. You can get your very own copy.

Peaking In

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When I decided to publish a few pages of my journal as a zine I didn't really think much about doing it, other than I wanted to have it be in the vein of the old school zine. That feeling of being hurriedly photocopied while a copy shop employee looks on worried about the number of copies you're making. Or rushed while at work early hoping your coworkers won't come in and see the weird stuff you're copying and then having to explain to someone. I wanted that feeling, the rush of feeling like you're doing something vaquely not quite right, but yet, feels so right.

A peak inside:

Garden Drawing

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I spend a lot of time working on my garden and talking about my garden but I hadn't yet drawn any part of my garden. I'm going to do a series of drawings from items in my garden. You get a sneak peak of the drawings here, 'cause I'll have them in my next issue of Evidence.

Composition Book Show Down

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I like composition books. A throw back to simplier rtimes I hated them as a kid becuase I could only find wide rule and I prefer college rule. As an adult I'm more likely to ignore the lines and just write where I feel like. I like to have one in the garage for my bike notes and to do lists. I keep them all over the house. (Not sure how C feels about this.) They have many uses doodles, sketching and writing. They are also dirt cheap. This time of year you can get them in Staples for $1 each and Walmart has some for 50 cents. The real question for me is , "How do all these comp books stack up against one another?"

A few weeks back I reviewed to much dismay the Staples Sustainable Earth comp book. It was a bummer because I really enjnoy the brown lines, the feel of the paper, and overall the quality of the book, but not being able ot use fountain pens with it makes it a deal killer. I won't buy another one.

So I'm searching out compbooks that work with my fountain pens. I've done a lot of reading that you need to keep an eye on where they are made, with Brazil as the best country of origin.

Let's start out with the rank and horrible.

Mead Five Star College Ruled with the plastic covers.
The paper feels nice, pens glide but feather and bleed like writing on TP. No country of origin listed. Was more expensive than the rest.

Mead Wide Ruled Fasion Pattern Covers Made in Vietnam
nice stiff covers in a variety of funky patterns, also available college ruled. Some inks did horribly on this paper others did well. Bleed through was intolerable but feathering was okay.

Norcom Fashion Pattern Covers Wide Rule Made in USA Walmart
Covers are flimsy but nice patterns. Paper feels smooth and nice but feathers and bleeds like crazy. even well bahaved inks don't do well on it. It's too bad I'd like to buy made in the US paper. These were on sale at Walmart for 50 cents.

Norcom Original Covers College Rule Made in USA Walmart
Covers are flimsy. Paper feels smooth and nice but
feathers and bleeds like crazy. even well bahaved inks don't do well on
it. It's too bad I'd like to buy made in the US paper. These were on sale at Walmart for 50 cents.

Now let's talk about the acceptable and good.

Staples Quad Comp Graph Rule Made in Egypt
Okay covers. Paper feels nice. Pens like it. Slight feathering with some inks but most fair better than average. Plenty of bleed through, making only one side of the paper usable. On sale at Staples for $1.

Tops Brand Standard Marble Cover Wide Rule Made in Vietnam
Flimsy cover. Paper is smooth and feels great under the pen. No feathering, no bleed through. Both side usable with right pen. Regularly priced at 97 cents at Target. (For what it's worth, I've been told I totally lucked out on the Made in Vietnam book being good, usually it's the Made in Brazil Tops that is good. So your mileage may vary on this one.)

Staples "Fashion" Cover Wide Rule Made in Brazil (Item number 19187)
Okay covers, not the most sturdy. Patterns are neat. Paper feels smooth and pens like it. No feathering even with my Ahab. Bleed through is acceptable. On sale for $1.

Staples "Marble" Cover College Rule Made in Brazil (Item number 40451)
Sturdy covers. Paper feels smooth and
pens like it. No feathering even with my Ahab. Bleed through is
acceptable. On sale for $1.

Have you used a composition notebook that you particularly loved? Let me know about it in the comments.

Other Stuff

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Some of the stuff I've been doing this summerisn't art related. Instead I've been doing a lot of gardening and working on my bike. Since I didn't want that stuff on the blog here I started a secondary blog called, "Other Stuff" that houses all my writing and photos about my other stuff. You can read all about that other stuff here.

All of this inspires me to keep creating, even if it seems like a distraction from my regular posts, I find it energizes and rejuvinates me. Sometimes you HAVE to shift gears into other things. It keeps me sane.

Whoa, It’s been Awhile

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I thought that when I left my job that the summer would be all fluffy kittens and unicorns farting rainbows. Well, my luck doesn't work that way, instead, my car's engine and muffler decided to separate pending divorce and right now we have them on amicable terms but that won't last. Then the washing machine's pump decided it had enough of washing my dirty clothes and died, then well, yeah, you get the point. There were no unicorns farting rainbows. I had to spend a weekend with trolls at the laundromat sweating in places no human being should sweat. The savings ended up being spent on repairs just so we could live life.

Oh also, one of the cars wouldn't start for a month, then miraculously started and runs okay now. Go figure.

Enough bitching. Through all of this I decided I wante dto use up some of my sketchbooks that have been gathering dust, you know since I can't afford to buy another new sketchbook. So I grabbed my Canson XL Recycled Drawing sketchbook, spiral bound 9×12 inches and a handful of pens and started to sketch, doodle, and write in it, art journal style. Back to basics baby. I felt more free than I had in a long long time while art journaling. I have been so constricted by what I THOUGHT this summer should be like and when life handed me a bag of lemons all I did was suck on them instead of figuring out how to make a great lemon pepper chicken.

So after a few pages of the journal I realized I REALLY liked working in this simple illustrative doodle filled manner. I also like writing in my journal. I have no big secrets. My thoughts and doodles meshed to make neat-o pages.

Then I thought, why don't i PUBLISH this ina quick and dirty way. Like the zines I used to make back in the late 90's and early 2000's? Black and white photocopies? Nah, go high tech with it, PDF. The idea of scanning 18 pages of B+W images hi-res bummed me out, instead I downloaded a free app called CamScanner that allows me to use my ScanBox well and make a PDF that I load to my DropBox account and then to Etsy. I'm hooked.

So I call the zine "Evidence" it's 18 pages of pure art journaling in black, white and gray. It's scanned in with the camera on my smart phone and made into a PDF with an app. It's printable and you can share it so long as you give me credit.

Get it on my Etsy account here. It's $5.

Some sneak peaks inside the zine: