Paula is awesome, the guy from Sheldon's art academy is a donkey. I messed up my code and when I enter stuff I can't see the video until it posts, so I'm sorry I confused the 2.
Paula details how you can make your own glitter paint, while glitter ain't my thing I'm glad she shows people HOW to make their own glitter paint. Paula is awesome, all kinds of awesome.
The new issue of Art Journaling: It's All Good just came out and it's ready to roll. 55 pages of non stop art journaling action. An interview with Tracey Moore, book reviews, a piece by Dawl Sokol about NaNoJouMo, and all kinds of great articles. It's $5 and the profits after expences go to the UCSF's Art for Recovery Project. You know the brain child behind the Breast Cancer Quilt Project… Wicked cool stuff.
Head over here to get a copy. Allow me 24 hours for processing.
I have a confession to make.
It’s not a big deal, but it’s kind of embarrassing given the amount of time I spend online, blogging and etc…
I have signed up for NaNoWriMo every year since 2001 and never actually participated. The first year I had no ideas, the second year I was breaking up with my stupid ex, the year after I’d started working retail and had no time, so on and so forth the excuses piled up. This year WILL be the year I not only participate but actually get my novel written. Wait, Is non-fiction allowed? Do footnotes count toward my word count?
There is always NaNoJouMo, which I actually participated and successfully completed!
Damn, the excuses are already starting!!!!!!
For the last 3 Art Field Trips it’s been just Jane and I. Today Jane’s friend Leeann joined us. The theme was “bring a still life object.” I knew we were in business when Leeann pulled out a toy which went well with my rubber ducky. Par usual our conversations ranged from art to work as well as the techniques we used. Leeann went high tech and drew on her iPad while Jane and I stuck to our sketchbooks.
Many cups of coffee were drunk between the 3 of us. As we talked Leeann explained her friend’s project, a sketchbook exchange. One person drew on one page, the next responded on the following page. We talked about 1000 Journals and the MolyX moleskine exchange and how fun it would be to do an exchange ourselves. And thus the art field trip sketchbook exchange was born.
We headed down to artist & craftsman and each purchased a 6.5×9.5 inch Holbein multi drawing book with a fabric tie, coil bound with fabulous hard covers and lovely 110lb multimedia paper. The idea is that we each draw on the left page and then the next person responds on the next page, each time the Art Field Trip group meets we exchange. I can’t wait to see what we each do, as our styles are so different.
I’ll be honest, I’ve balked at the idea of art journal exchanges because, I’ve been burnt in the past. I was a member of Nervousness.org and lost several packages of ATC and a journal to the bowels of the exchange and theft. This time I know the participants and we’re going to see each other every 2 weeks. No pesky USPS involved. Frankly I’m excited.
Of course a trip to Artist &Craftsman leaves me busy purchasing way too many art supplies.
I'm not a glitter type if girl but if you are this is a great tutorial!
Connie wrote about returning “home” after an absence and how it no longer felt like home. I returned to where I grew up this past weekend, for a little rest, relaxation and deep thought. Home hasn’t felt like HOME for close to 7 years. It’s still a place to regroup, gather my wool and to return to a pace of life that hasn’t changed since 1990.
The Boston area has a much different pace from where I grew up. In Maine if it doesn’t get done today it will get done tomorrow. Less stress. In Mass if it doesn’t get done NOW I’m pretty sure somewhere at sometime someone’s head will explode. It’s intense and sometimes I need a timeout.
When I need that timeout I head to Maine. Its unchanged rugged coastline centers my mind and brings me back to a grounded reality. The farm remains the same as when I left it this summer. Sure my family has changed from hand harvesting the blueberry crop to machine harvesting but the layout of the garden beds and the flow of the river is unchanged from when I was 16. It’s not the lack of change that interests me in Maine or makes me love the state so deeply, the sense of “rugged individualism”(emerson wrote about his in one of his books) and the intensity of the colors and scenery. I plug into the Maine vibe and get back to reality.
Driving through my hometown I’m greated by the same corner store where I learned to play pool on quarter tables with my friends and the creepy old guy. I knew enough not to tell my Dad that the creepy old guy showed us how to properly line up the cue, how to hold the cue and the difference between the need for a power shot and a soft hand. I’m still a terrible pool player but I’ve got many fond memories of playing pool and listening to Nirvana on the juke box. The corner store has been overtaken by a café that I’ve never seen anyone enter but the building stands virtually unchanged by over 20 years.
Further up the road I see what was once a horrifyingly bad clearcut, they didn’t even leave the 100ft “beauty strip” as required by Maine law, which has been planted with fir trees, in neat and easily managed rows. The ingenuity of Mainers amazes me. These fir trees will be “tipped” for use in Maine Balsam fir wreaths and sold throughout the world via L L Bean. Next time I’m in town I’ll do a little trespassing and get some pics of the trees. 500 acres of neatly planted fir trees with gravel roads routed around each acre. It’s majestic in its neat parallel rows and maddening in it’s monoculture. Yet those 500 acres will have people lined up to purchase permits to harvest the tips for pennies a pound. It’s a yearly harvest ritual that I adore. I took part in it as a teen. Its hard work but almost nice. Surrounded by woods and crisp air you walk carrying pounds of fir “tips” as you walk to find the next good tree to harvest.*
Part of what I love is that Maine has this seasonal ebb and flow of life, which just doesn’t seem to happen here in Mass. I miss that in September you can tomatoes, in October you harvest your squash and cover up the rutabagas.
Maine screws my head on straight, or as gaily forward as it will go.
Jadvyga
Originally uploaded by Mony Pussoni
amazing pencil work. Note how the pencil lines follow the contours of the face
I arrived in Maine safely after a 6 hour drive with a few leisurely stops* to stretch my legs and investigate the Maine reststops. My advice, there is no investigation needed they are pure gross.
Jonesboro seems to only change with the seasons. It's quiet and peaceful. The silence is ony disturbed by dumptrucks full of sand traveling to the town "sand pile" in preparation for winter. Back and forth they go, load after load.
I thought I would have missed peak leaf season but a quick look around the farm shows me alizarin crimson blueberry fields framed in the bright yellow of aspen and oak. Dotted with the red of the maples and all framed further by the dark evergreen of fir and spruce. Many of the trees have dropped their leaves but those that remain are intensely colored and begging to be painted or drawn.
As much as this area was once my home, I'm deeply aware that I'm "from" here and don't necessarily belong here. This is no longer MY place. I've felt this way for close to 7 years. At some point after you move from what is your hometown to a new place you transition to being at home there. What was formerly home, feels good but not as right as it once did. So here I am sitting in my choldhood home, writing this post on an unfamiliar computer that is not set up for someone of my height; musing on the colors and chill of my hometown and how I've grown out of it.
I had forgotten how much I love this season in Jonesboro. The air is crisp, the sun is warm and the colors are bright. Harvest is nearly over and Halloween is almost here. I could tell you many stories of school time shenanigans but we'll leave those to memory.
On a quick side note- I have no cell service here, which means I can't check twitter or facebook unless I'm on my laptop. I might see if I can check my cell over in Machias, but I'm suspecting I won't get service there either.
It seems mixed media is the new art world buzz word. I partially love and partially hate the labeling. I love it because it means that mixed media is gaining a foothold, it means I no longer had to adapt and change stuff to make it work with other media.
That is how it is supposed to work.
In reality it doesn’t. You see all the companies want to cash in on what we do. Art journaling has grown from a few of us messing about in our sketchbooks with paint, transfers and glue to the start of an industry. Sort of like when scrapbooking was taking off 10 years ago. All the companies got on the bandwagon and now they want on the art journaling bandwagon.
My gripe is that many of the companies slap the label “mixed media” onto their products without proper testing to see if the product WILL actually work in a mixed media environment. Take for instance the Ranger tissue tapes. Labeled mixed media, yet they won’t stick to acrylic paint. Or the Ranger masks that if you use spray ink the glue rubs off and won’t stick to an acrylic painted page, or a page with ANY media on it period. Both products will only stick to raw paper with a smooth finish. By not properly testing the products for true mixed media use these companies make their products useless for mixed media.
It’s really aggravating to pay the price for one of these products and have them not work as advertised. It’s a great disservice not only to the artists but to the budding art journaler and mixed media artist. Instead of bringing more people into the form they drive people away by making the form seem more difficult. If companies decided to accurately define and test their products they would make what is an engaging art form more engaging and easy to take part in.
Instead they want to ride the wave of cash to a fat bottom line.
