So last week I’d been trying to figure out how to write this
post… And it wasn’t coming to me so I started journaling about it and came up
with an idea for a page. I hadn’t done an AJ in process video in forever so I
recorded the making of the page. I’ve posted it to YouTube. I’ll post it after the cut here
too. It’s vaguely NC-17 because there is a nude involved in it.

At least one person has vastly missed the point of what the
image and journal page is about. So, let me tell you a story. A friend of mine like
to show me dirty pictures, he really likes them and likes to share. The most
recent set of pictures involved a woman, fully nude, with clearly fake breasts,
tanned and posing in an orchard. She’s in a variety of poses smiling for the
camera. I found the orchard setting kinda creepy. I mean, orchards have spiders
and bugs and poisonous sprays. Yes, this is the sort of shit that goes through
my mind in the 30 seconds it takes to show me a couple of pictures. At the end
of everything he asked me what I thought, I was honest and said, “Meh.” He
looked at me and said, “What the hell is the matter with you?”* It was really
too hard to explain to him in that moment that it’s more complicated than that.

As a lesbian who is usually “one of the guys” I’ll have to
admit the dirty pics don’t offend me and I appreciate them but they don’t do
much for me. It’s just that sex/sexuality is a little more complicated than
dirty pictures for me. Sure I appreciate the female figure and form and yeah I
more than glance when I see a nude. The fact is that, like most women (I
suspect), its more complicated than that. Yeah I’m gay but I’m still a woman
and the hardwiring of my brain is really no different than most women. Sure I’m
more comfortable with short hair, you’ll never catch me in a dress ever again
and I’m very practical and pragmatic; but I’m still a woman.

The initial point of my journal page  was that it takes more than a dirty picture
to get me going but it has a dual meaning, the more I look at it, in that it
also means I’m more than just a piece of ass. (There really is no other way to
put it that makes the statement less offensive.) I’m glad though, that the
piece means more to people than just my initial meaning. That’s part of  the beauty of art, we all make our own meaning
when we look at a piece, and  instill our
own life story to the meaning.

Continue reading →

April Journal Spread
Originally uploaded by Paper Relics (Hope W. Karney)

I really like this page. I love the writing and the images.

journal buku5 – kantan bookmark
Originally uploaded by marni in januari

This is a great page. Writing collage and drawing.

journal page background waiting to be journalled on..
Originally uploaded by astrid.maclean

Such an elegant page, I love the mottled texture and the rubber stamped element.

Again I'm looking at sketchbooks on youtube instead of my usual art journals. This is a nice selection of nature inspired drawings. Does nature inspire you? Record it in your art journal!

light of some kind

Originally uploaded by lessherger

This piece was a little more involved than some of the others I've posted. So bear with me as I go through the steps. First I started with a gesso'd page. I wrote on it with G2 gel ink. I allowed the ink to fully dry. I then sketched in the face on the right side with a watersoluble ink pen. On the left side I added a heavy layer of blue watercolor crayon. I scribbled hard and pressed it into the recesses. I wet my brush and used gloss gel medium to mix it with the watercolor crayon. I kept my brush moving and mixed the gel medium with the crayon very well. I used the excess to add some color around the face on the right hand page, I used some of it to blur and seal the watersoluble ink.

I colored a circular die cut and put it around the left eye. It's a common motif in a lot of my art journals. From the center point of this circular die cut I used a ruler to create a radial ray pattern around the eye. I painted this in with a liquid yellow paint. Towards the ends I added some water to thin my paint and allow the color to fade out, like a flashlight beam. Over the parts of the face that were not sealed I worked quickly but deliberately blurred the features in the liquid paint.

It is important to note that between each layer I either allowed it to dry or dried it with my heat gun.

Around the die cut I used my watercolor crayon to add a red "glow." This was a tad too transparent so I added some prismacolor colored pencils. I felt the image needed something more  so I added the trio of stars dangling from around the eye. I deliberately allowed the ink closest to the eye to blur a bit. I did this by moistening the image in that area with a damp brush.

I wanted to soften the edges a bit so with a large bristle brush I scrubbed a very thin layer of white paint into the edges of the painting. I allowed this to dry fully before I noticed that the pages were very sticky. Gloss gel medium sticks to itself when you use it. After it fully dried I coated the entire page with a very thin coat of bee's wax. After I coated the page I buffed it out with a soft rag. Sticking problem solved.

You can see the full sized image and get a lot of detail by clicking on
the thumbnail above and clicking the "see all sizes" button above the
image that comes up.

words
Originally uploaded by Laura Kay's

Seems this is on a lot of minds lately.

Originally uploaded by die dié run run

I love the accounting paper this is done on.

One of the things I really love about being “in charge” of a
site like Art Journaling Ning, is that I have contact with a lot of people with similar interests and
passions as I. Case in point, Samantha Kira, aka Journal Girl, has decided to
step into the AJ Ning class world. This is a great thing for all the art
journalers of AJ Ning. Why? She has a totally different style and approach to
art journaling than I do. We have similar ideas as anyone who is into AJ will
but her style is very different than mine.

Her first free workshop (per AJ ning rules and regulations) is
about layers and it’s packed full of information and ideas to get members
working in layers. It’s already, only a few days old, and active. Head over to AJ
ning and check the layers workshop out and play with layers. Lots of videos and
talk, it’s what makes a workshop great!

Next up she’s got a paid workshop going on. It’s called True To
You: Organic Exploration for the Visual Journaler. Read more about it here so that you can read what she has to say about it.It focuses around authentic
expression and mining your life for prompts rather than looking for external
prompts. In short I’d say it’s a series of essays on looking within to journal authentically.
Many people want to learn how to create art, thus they sign up for classes that
teach you how to copy, this is not that sort of workshop. Kira will teach you
techniques but also how to look within yourself.

This is what I think AJ is all about authentic expression. About looking within yourself, using physical materials to get at the mental materials, making them real and working on them. Part therapy and part craft and part art. I'm so very excited to see Journal Girl's paid workshop.

On days like today when my breathing is shallow, allergy
meds aren’t making a dent in my misery, I like to wander the house and think
about staying awake. Instead I succumb to the misery of my allergies and cold
and fall asleep, yet again, on the couch. 
Today will be a waste in terms of getting anything done. The lawn needs
mowing, the house needs cleaning and the dogs walking but I’m too sick to do
it. The sad reality of owning your own place is that you can’t call the landlord
because the lawn is too high to walk through; instead you just piss off your
neighbors.

Ah well, what can I do? Perhaps I’ll mow between naps.

Most of the time I get one big cold per year and that’s it,
then every now and then I get sick a lot. This happened one summer during
college, I was sick most of the summer and then once when I was teaching. But
it’s been years since I’ve been this miserable more than once per year. Lets
hope I get no more colds this year. I hate this.