Category Archives: Inspiration

Wordy Monday Evening: Snake Oil, Sharks, Resonate

Lisa over at LifeUnity put up this post earlier and it resonated with me, in part because I’m going through some of the same balance issues but also because it’s a very real post and that is something I feel like the blog-o-sphere has been lacking.

Today Connie over at DirtyFootPrints posted this, and it also resonated with me. It’s also a place I’ve been in my head lately, thinking of what is “enough.” What is good enough? (more on this later.)

Aggression and sharks.

Or as my Dad used to say, “There are assholes everywhere and some of ‘em, most of ‘em, are out to get you.” Often times my Dad meant this about boys (ha!) trying to get in my pants and people trying to take my money, but this applies to the wild internets*.

Let me back up here.

A few weeks back I decided I was going to cut back on what I allow into my internet and life. Every time someone put up a post on facebook or twitter that made me feel icky I unfollowed or hid them from my view. After another week went past I’d go back and check and see if their tweets or posts still made me uncomfortable, if they did, I unfollowed, blocked, and or unfriended them. It’s been about 3 or 4 weeks since I've been doing this and frankly the quality of my twitter feed has gone up, I’m genuinely interested in what people I’m following and I’m not burdened by reading stuff that offends me.**

Why do I do this? No one has the right to make me feel bad, When I allowed people to suck up MY time with their drama I was giving them power over my life and allowing them to waste MY time. Additionally I can't worry that I'm going to offend them, clearly they don't care if they offend me, so why am I concerned about offending them?

It’s as if I gave them permission to crap on my good time.

So I’m done with it. The drama and the snake oil sales, done.

That’s another thing that is getting to me lately, the snake oil sales. If someone is selling you a promise to unlock your deepest inner power, it’s most likely snake oil. The only person who can do that is you. I’m wary of someone who wants to whisper into my ear and ask me to do stuff that makes me feel icky. I’m not talking legit life coaches, teachers, licensed therapists and social workers who have been to school and trained to make you push your boundaries. I’m talking about the arm chair quarterbacks that want to tell me what to do when they haven’t put in the hard work themselves, the do as I say not as I do crowd.

I have made my way so far by listening to myself, going with what I feel is right. It’s why Art Journaling Ning is free and will always be free to join and enjoy with paid classes for those who are interested. I see this whole thing as living real.

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Technique Tuesday: Sticker Paper Toner Transfer

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The other day at work I was about to toss away the backing sheet from some address labels. I looked at it's slick surface and thought about the fact it had already been through a laser printer and that in the past I'd stuck sheets missing a label or two through the printer and that the toner sort of flaked off those areas. I heard about a collage technique in which you cover each collage piece with gel medium, let it dry and then use a sticker sheet to cover the pieces and finally adhere it with an iron. So, I wondered, "What would happen if I ran this empty sheet through a laser printer, with the image reversed, and ironed just the TONER onto a sheet of paper/art journal page?"

Well it turns out you get the best damn toner transfer I've ever seen. Crisp, clean. clear, and nearly 100% transfer of the toner to paper. I haven't tested this on an art journal page but I'm sure the transfer will work just as well.

Here's what I did:

Clear the edges off the stitcker sheet
Set up an image in GIMP(photoshop, or some other program that will let you REVERSE your printing options or lettering)
Go to Image>transform> flip or use the "flip" tool
Flip Horizontally so your image is reversed
Select print
Tell the printer that you're using "thin" paper or a transparency, this uses a lower heat setting so the toner sits on the surface of your sticker sheet better.
Place this on your page, set your iron to a HIGH NO STEAM heat setting. (play around with heat settings to see what gives you the look you want. I found that high heat gave the crispest transfer, but lower heat settings distorted the image and left some toner on the sheet.)
Carefully iron the page, gently move the iron around, hitting ALL the toner with the iron.
Remove the iron
Allow the page to cool enough that you can touch it comfortably.
Gently peel off the sticker backing.
And shout out "HOLY CRAP IT WORKED!!!"

Alternately if you want to grunge this up, peel the sticker paper up when the toner is still hot, if any is still slightly stuck to the backing, it will stretch the toner out and distort your image/words. Then iron it again to get it stuck to the page. Let it cool and peel off the backing, subtle distortion.

This will NOT work with injet or ink based printers, as the ink will just bead off the sticker backing.

The sticker sheet can be used many times, but I found that after a few runs through the printer that the transfer was more and more grungy. I also found that large areas of black did not transfer as well as images with more lines and white.

I will be saving all the address label and sticker backing material frmo here on out, this is the BEST transfer technique I've ever used.

Here are some of my test pages and one page that is 100% from transfers.

bane of my existance

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Around the time of my birth every city in the NorthEast decided it would be a great city beautifying project to plant oranmental trees around their cities. Think about it- pretty flowers it the spring, green leaves all summer and no fruit to clean up in the fall. It's a win right?

Except for people like me. I'm allergic to the little babies show below, the Bradford Ornamental Pear. Pretty white flowers with a shit load of pollen. So cheers to city beautification, I'm taking another claratin and washing it down with my morning coffee.

They sure do make a pretty picture

Wordy Wednesday: Sort of, but just go look

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I have a thing for grungey thing. Bits of paper, paper that looks like it's rolled around in the street and been rained on. Rough brush strokes. Stained paper. Smudged ink.

Take a look at this artist's work. Look at the rust, smudges, weathering. It's what I like.

I've been wordless lately, taking in art, looking, intensely at the things around me. I finally started to organize my random collection of rusty broken bits in little plastic bags, all stapled to a gessoed board. As of now it's a way to collect the pieces, but I'm thinking it's a neat way to organize it too. Show off the random bits.

Pics and Copyright

Wordy Weekender: The BoobTube

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I gave up watching TV over a year ago. I started to watch a few things on Hulu, here and there with sporadic intervals of watching everything at once. About 3 months ago I hadn’t watched anything for close to 3 months. I sat down with a hot cup of tea, my lap top and pulled up my queue in Hulu. I had a serious bunch of Sons of Anarchy. I really enjoyed the last few seasons and the first few episodes of this season. Anyway. I watched on episode and I found myself getting up and doing stuff I like I do with movies I don’t get into. Then a really violent scene came up that involved some torture and I realized I couldn’t watch it.

I turned it off. The violence turned me off. I had no interest in watching it at all.

I deleted it from my queue. I haven’t looked back. I realize I prefer comedies, light hearted stuff, and adventure. I really enjoy shows like Warehouse 13, quirky and funny it explores mythical stuff from history and literature in an intelligent way.

Since I’ve turned off the TV I find myself more open to ideas and thought and the real world inspires me more.

Without TV my world is a little brighter. I’m so glad we turned off the “boob tube.”

Wordy Wednesday: Cult of Tutu

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I followed a link to an art journaling blog where I saw yet another female artist in a tutu. Afterward I tweeted the statement, “To be a mixed media artist do you need to wear a tutu? Or even like them? NO!”

To be blunt, I don’t get tutus. They are made out of plastic scratchy material, the same stuff the exfoliating bath poofs are made of and I can’t imagine they are comfortable.

I’m not saying I’m down on it, I just don’t get it.

What I wear doesn’t define me as an artist. My clothing isn’t a statement. I’d rather my art make the statement. I’m a jeans and t-shirt kind woman; I like cotton, wool and other natural materials. I look for comfort while I create. I don’t need something outward to help me find my inner creativity. I know that some people enjoy costumes*and perhaps that is what the tutu is about. Using costume to find that inner well of creativity, capturing lost childhood insight, or perhaps these ladies really enjoy wearing a tutu. It is not my place to yuck your yum, but I can say that I don’t get it

I also have to wonder, other than Salvador Dali, would you see a male artist wearing something like a tutu? In part I’m somewhat uncomfortable with the idea that female artists have to dress up and play a part to sell their art. Peddle their wares like a carnie, “Win your lady a stuffed teddy bear here!” “Strong man competition, ring the bell, win a prize.” “Hooooot sausage and peppers, fried dough, cold lemonade”

Tutus and tiaras, 2 things you’ll never catch me wearing.

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Technique Tuesday: Faux Ink Wash

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A technique that I’m asked about on a regular basis is how I get that watercolor effect with my ink drawings. First I start out with a regular ink drawing like the one below. If I know I’m going to use this technique I try and use inks that don’t dry waterproof, eternal or bulletproof.

The next step is to use a waterbrush to pick up ink and move it around on the page. It takes a little practice to get the “right” amount of water and ink to get the value/tone you want but after you get the feel of it, it’s effective.