molsk(e)
Originally uploaded by agridoce21

I love the dots.

Skull 158
Originally uploaded by [rich]

Lovely little skull sketches by rich

I'm completely in love with everything this art journaler does. It's so raw and painfully honest.

Love love love the use of the birth control package. 

See her blog here.

I grew up in the woods. Its quiet there, very quiet. I also grew up in a fairly quiet household. My parents are reserved people who used to watch little TV and read books for most of their entertainment.* I became accustomed to quiet and solitude. For fun during much of my childhood I spent hours wandering in the woods, cutting down trees and building forts. It wasn't until I was 11 that Debbie moved next door. We became fast friends and she had many of the same interests as I- walking in the woods, shooting BB Guns, cutting down the neighbor’s trees and spying on her brother. Debbie and I spent hours on end and days together, much of it silent. We did talk, goofy child talk, crazy plans to build bugs for her brothers room (many of which were realized) but sometimes we'd get to work and be silent.

When I went to college life was GO all the time. There was always something going on in the dorm, someone doing something crazy, often times me. Young hyperactive kids without parental supervision and with unfettered access to drugs and alcohol** does not make for a good combination.

GO GO GO

The pace of life was different. Getting a moments peace sometimes required me to walk late at night, alone across campus to the café, buy a coffee and walk to the dock. Depending on the season I'd sit on the dock in the orange pink glow of the street lights, sip the latte with my feet in the water. I'd revel in the relative silence of the dock. The slow water of the Stillwater River chilled my ankles to a delightful shade of purple and the quiet lapping of it against the dock. Silence and quiet solitude. It soothed my frayed nerves from a GO lifestyle to which I was not accustomed.

As that year wore on, I learned better how to close my door and buckle down and study but I was still easily distracted and made frequent trips home to gather myself together.

In my 3rd year of school I spent a good deal of time sketching and drawing the view from the dock. Such a simple view that meant the world to me when what I needed was solitude and silence, such things some up in my work often. I latch onto places that mean more to me than others and I draw and paint them to exhaustion. West Quoddy Head, Roque Bluffs, Yoho Head, O’Bear Park, Independence Park, Dane Street Beach, Bad Little Falls. These are all places I’ve gone for solitude, quiet places to think, quiet places to sketch and draw, quiet places to gather myself and regroup for another week/month at GO.***

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Sometimes it's the little things in life that take your breath away.

I got home from work today fully intending to spend another 3 hours working from home. I noticed on my way in that some of the peaches on my tree were ripe. I dealt with the big stuff first, letting the dogs out, dumping the work laptop, taking out the trash and getting the mail.

Then I walked straight across the lawn to the tree, picked a ripe peach from it's limbs and bit in.

Still warm from the sun, the fuzz tickling my upper lip and juice running down my chin I realized, its things like this simple pleasure of eating a warm juicy peach in my ghetto oasis backyard that make everything worth it.

After that the DayJob slipped from my mind and I shifted gears from DayJob (that gear was totaly slipping all day anyway) back into artist mode. Colors, senses, emotion. Or maybe it was gardener mode as I looked at the rust spots that have transfered from my pear tree to my peach tree.

I also realize that I'm not a city girl. The farmer's genetics runs in my blood, the knowledge of care for plants, though I neglect them, is there waiting for a time when I'll use it. Biting into that peach makes me want to resurect that knowledge and care better for my trees, yard and myself.

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I’m happy to say that I was contacted by Lark Book’s craft publishing person to receive an advance copy of Gwen Diehn’s latest book, Real Life Journals to review. When I say happy, I mean, do a little dance around the studio happy. Seriously, I was stoked to get the book.

Like all of Gwen Diehn’s books this is well planned and executed. She has a particular design and art perspective that could put off some art journalers as she's very fine art focused but what I like about it is that it’s simple. She focuses on the fact that you don’t need a lot to art journal. You’ll notice throughout the book, most of the journaling spreads are done in pencil, pen, ink and watercolor. In the final section of photos some of the journalers get a little fancy with materials, but Diehn’s focus is simply pen, ink and watercolor. Sweet little watercolors dot the pages of the books as do well orchestrated photos of lovely journals.

Don’t take what I write as negativity, Diehn’s book is 100% a visual treat. It’s also well written in an easy to read conversational tone. Even if you’ve never bound a book this will be fairly easy for you to understand and make a book using her instructions.

I like the idea of choose your own adventure type of way to select a type of binding for your journal. With so many options it’s an easy way to make the choice. I highly suggest that you read the book cover to cover first. It’s good.

She begins by talking about design and then moves into discussing with people who have used particular designs. It’s good stuff to help you decide what you want for your journals.  The section on tools is particularly good, though I do wish one of the bookbinding authors out there would write a section on how to use regular things around your house as tools.  The discussion is through and complete.

She has a section on adding pockets, windows and ties. She briefly touches upon things to use in your journal. (I have to point out here that I disagree with her on Golden liquid acrylics not sticking, they do, unless you use very little.) It’s a great introduction to methods and materials. Of particular interest is the section on “why you should write.”

The book is jam packed full of instruction and tips for making some great journals. The instructions are clear, easy to understand and brief. The only one I had an issue understand at first was the Reverse Australian Piano hinge. After I read it again I got it, but it gave me pause. The illustrations are very helpful in understanding the directions.

She spends a lot of time on covers, decorating them and how they can be used to spark your creative juices. I particularly loved the section on journaling and its history. She finishes the book off with a gallery of great journal art.

Over all I’d rank this up there with Gwen Diehn’s other book and Alysa Golden’s as a must have for the beginning bookbinder or art journaler.*

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Today in my UStream I gave a tip on how to fix a warped and damaged canvas, with something as simple as water. I did a tour of my studio and explained everything… Then I did some shout outs and worked on a previously damaged canvas. I did a canvas with lots of color and running of paint.

Sadly it didn't record. I'll have to do another studio tour when I finish the cleaning.

And I have more damaged canvases so I can do my magic fix the canvas trick.

Here's some link love from the show:

Juriaan's twitter also his UStream

Connie of DirtyFootPrintsStudio

Jan Fox's Class on Artjournaling.ning.com Message her directly for more info

Willowing's World Of Whimsy

JournalArtista on UStream

The Artistic Biker

Poe made a journal based on my UStream instructions!!! (Video link)

I'll get some pics up of the art I made during the show.

I'll be UStreaming tonight at 6pm. I'll be streaming from my newly cleaned and organized studio. I'll giv eyou a tour of the studio, which will be easy as it's one small room. Then I'll show yo some of my old art. I want to show you a how to fix it tip on canvases that have had something sitting on them and are stretched out  of shape. Then I'm going to art journal on a canvas I dug up out of the pit of the studio while cleaning.

I live 1 mile from the Atlantic ocean. Beverly has a plethora of gorgeous public parks on hte water. One of my favorites is Obear park. It's often populated by adults with their dogs rahter than adults with their children. Personally, I prefer the dogs, they are mostly silent and unlike Lynch park, the darling park of Beverly, there are few children being chased about by mothers ready to hen peck them.

Often I'm one of a few other people there. I'm able to set up with my sketchbook and sit in quiet solitude, headphones and ipod at the ready but not actually on, becuase it's quiet. In the distance I can hear the hum of traffic buzzing over the Kernwood bridge as they head into salem or into beverly. The horn sounds and the bridge turns allowing yachts and sailboats in and out of the harbor. It's a lovely scene.

I've sketched it often.

The Salem side of the bridge abuts the Kerwood Golf Course, a well maintained vista of lush green grass and well cared for trees. The beverly side juts into scrubby grasses and dirty looking sand. I love both sides.

Today I quickly sketched each side and then painted each side. I paid particulrly close attention to the sky. a touch of cad red into a load of titanium whitebrushed quickly inthe area captured it just perfectly. (I plan on doing some more cloud studies, these had me hooked.) I layered in some of the pink for the water and added the blue. It was a warm day with low humidity so my pink was dry before I got back to the top with my pale blue. Pthalo blue and white made for  a perfect sky color. The pthalo blue made for great shadows in the trees as well. I worked quickly on this, completing it in about 45 minutes.

I forgot my burnt umber, which would have been the perfect under color for the water.

i'm pretty happy with this one.

this one on the other hand… NOt so happy with. I like the composition and sky but the trees leave me flat. Unlike the careful layers I made with teh other trees I globbed these on and they don't sit properly.

sleepy head paris park
Originally uploaded by Wes Ilyin

Wonderful little ink and marker sketch of a bearded man.