Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Dear A Man Who Crafts...

There comes a time in every blogger's life when...well... it's time to move on...

It's not you... it's me... your not meeting my needs... I need to grow and change and to be creative with other blogs... yes... I've found another blog that can grow and change to meet my needs... and allow me to change it and grow...

Come with me to my new blog:http://apaperbear.wordpress.com

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

My maps...



I have been exploring my maps. Internal, where I have been, what got me to this point in time. Navigating, charting, mapping. Looking at my course and trajectory. I am an explorer, a seeker. Where are you going? What are your maps?

left side

right side

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Buried Treasure

Hi there! It is time for Seth Apter's "Buried Treasure" Where each participant reposts some of their favorite post's from the previous year. I have picked three of my favorite posts. Enjoy!


From October 2009 one of my first art journal pages I really liked and felt was really "me". Actually it is the not this first spread, but the second one down in this post. I love all the layers and depth. It was my first time at working in a larger journal and it really felt good to work in a larger journal:

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2009

A Lot of Crazy Layers...

This page titled "Who am I?" was created during OrlyAvineri's Journal workshop on “Attachment Theory ”last Sunday. It was a trial run of her upcoming class at Journalfest in Oregon. I felt really honored to be a participant. I got to meet some amazing artists and create some fun journal pages with attachments. The two glacine envelopes contain photos of my mother and father.

This journal is a new one for me, Orly told me "You work BIG! Need a big journal!" So here is a bigger journal. Click on any image for a larger view...

This is a view of the first page with Blythe Danner quote. There are LOTS of layers on this page... It all started with four pages of different writing, two from a novel, one with Hebrew text, one with Asian text. Then layers and layers of paint, even a doily throw in for good measure. We sure all had a lot of fun in class that day. Even Orly liked her page she did.

This page has the packing tape transfer of "airships"
This is a look at the completed pages from OrlyAvineri's journaling class on Tuesday October 13th at Harmony Works. We were working with layers. The quote says "I think I have a lot of crazy layers." by Blythe Danner.


And from February ok another of my all time favorites, this uses my XL Moleskine journal (11.5" X 16.5") to it's full potentitial:

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2010

Seeing Things in Black & White




A black & white page spread for Orly Avineri’s Art Journaling class in my XL Moleskine journal. Using vintage images, vintage fonts, vintage advertising, decorative tape, white gel pens, Sharpie poster paint pens, acrylic paint. This spread took on a life of it’s own and was very difficult to know when to stop. With Orly’s help I flushed out the face on the left hand side. I liked that the piece was very collaborative and there was a lot of talking over it as it evolved. It also started out with a smaller picture of the man with the beard or I call him M.W.B. The spread contains a secret page can you guess where? The answer is farther down in this post. Blogger is not working to view a larger size. Click on the images on the left hand side under Flickr to view my pages in Flickr and you can see larger sizes there.

It was really fun to work only in black and white and shades of grey. I am not really a black or white thinker… I’ve always been about the shades of grey. How about you?

The left side of my black and white spread for Orly Avineri's Art Journaling group in my XL Moleskine Journal do you see a face?


The right side of my black and white spread. I love the M.W.B. I brought a couple of sizes to the group, Orly liked the larger size and used in her spread for the evening and I used a smaller one, you can see part of Orly's spread here. Can you guess where the secret page is?



Tada, the secret page...


A close-up of M.W.B. This page folds out to reveal more and a secret mini journaling page tucked in. The photo courtesy of ookami_dou on flickr.

My secret journaling page. Enjoy!






And from March probably my favorite spread so far. This for me was such a departure from what I had been doing my journaling. I felt more confident, more secure in what I was doing.

My Roots...



My pages for Orly Avineri's Art Journaling Lab, she's changed the name of her weekly art journaling group because it really is more like a lab than a class. I love the new name. This last weeks class was about "Roots". I would have used more photos of family pictures but my printer ran out of ink and I did not have time before class to head out to Staples. At any rate I digress. This has me thinking about different kinds of roots. The roots of behaviors, behaviors we can change, and those that run deep. the roots of life. The roots of fun. The roots of creativity. The roots of excess. The roots of style or taste.

I showed my art journal to my friend Stormy this past week and she said I "defiantly have a style" and my "art tends to be a bit dark." I thought it was amusing and interesting. I've never really thought much about my art journal having a style. What are your "roots"?

Click on any photo for a larger view.

The right side with my ink "roots" of my tree of life. The "trunk" of my tree is made from vintage papers, collage papers, and scrapbook papers, found vintage photos this page courtesy of Orly.

Right hand side. The photo with the pumpkins is yes of me...


Brick walls...

I've had this idea in my head for some time now...



Watch this space...

brick wall courtesy of:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vizzzual-dot-com/2226095398

Thursday, July 8, 2010

To be Free and Soar

What does freedom mean to you? Freedom to express yourself? What is holding you back? What would you do if you knew you would not fail? Take a chance, take a leap.
Let go...fly...soar!


"Free" by the Zac Brown band is one of my favorite current songs. Enjoy. Support our troops.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

And the Day Came...



One day in June I treked with a friend to San Diego to my friend Pnina's beautiful home for one of Orly Avineri's art journal field trips to San Diego... It was a lovely day, we ate wonderful foods, laughed a lot, did a bit of art journaling and playing with pens, and paint, and paper and made some wonderful new friends. We revisited the roses. I finally added a bit of text and wanted to post it here.
The left side.
And here is the right side.
And here is a close-up of the quote in my awful handwriting. Bloom my friends, take some risks.



Saturday, June 26, 2010

Many Lands, Many Hands!



I participated in Gary's Create and Pass Journal, book #2 from Gary Reef's NING group have an art journal page published in the new book, "Many Lands, Many Hands" and it is now out. Check it out! Have a great weekend!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Happy Mail!

Mail Art!

It is always better to give than to receive. I recently received some mail art and now I have been having fun making my own. Now four lucky folks are going to be receiving these very soon! Have a really wonderful weekend! Go out and create some art. I wonder where this mail art is going???

Friday, June 11, 2010

My trees...

As the old saying goes "money grows on trees", we explored in Orly's art journaling lab what if anything we wanted grew on trees? What would your tree look like? What if anything you desired could be plucked off a tree, what would you put on your tree? Love, youth, creativity? What would you put on your tree? What would it look like?

"Grows on trees" left side.

"Grows on trees" right side.

Hey, also check out "Work of Art The Next Great Artist" on Bravo. I gave it a shot last week it was fun, I think I will give it a try for a few weeks. Sarah Jessica Parker is executive producer. It follows fourteen artists competing for an art show. What brings this to my post is that there was an interesting quote from one of the judges, "an artists work is an outward expression of the artist's inner world" Welcome to my inner world.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Picture Perfect Memories...



Picture Perfect Memories...

left side

right side.






Naturally Nature Journals.


Greetings from Chrestline, California!


This picture was taken Sunday May 23rd, 2010 just before we left the cabin. YES, we got snow and that is hail you see in the picture falling!



On May 21 to the 23rd I joined four other amazing artists went in Crestline, CA for Orly Avineri's Nature Journal Weekend Workshop. Orly presented each of us with a packet like the one above. Each packet contained a hand made art journal I made from Teesha Moores hand made journal videos. Each journal is 16 pages. Teesha's design is brilliant and worked wonderfully for our nature journals.


Here are our completed journals from the weekend. It was a truly amazing journey. Each artist did incredible work. It was a time of sharing, laughing, growing. Orly Avineri lead us on a wonderful exploration of nature journals. To give you some idea we journaled on Saturday 22 of May for almost 12 complete hours! We just kept going on and on we were having so much fun.

If you ever have the opportunity to take one of Orly's classes I so highly encourage it!!! Orly is such a natural and gifted teacher. Orly is encouraging, engaging, challenging(in such a fun and gentle way). I am also so happy to call her my good friend. To see more photos of our group go here.

Here I am presenting my journal just before we left the Crestline cabin.






Have a wonderful weekend, I am headed to another one of Orly's art journaling workshop in San Diego! Go create some art!

Monday, May 17, 2010

Casting My Net A Little Wider

Here is to casting my net a bit wider. Being bold. Be it in relationships, art, life. You never know where it will lead. Try a new technique. Use a color you've never tried. Go down a road you've never traveled. Take a leap! Do something you've always wanted to try.

Left Side
Right Side

I am excited this weekend I am joining Orly Avineri and five other wonderful artists for an art journaling weekend in Crestline, California for almost 3 days and 2 nights of art journaling bliss! I'll take some photos and post them next week. Have a great week!

This journal page came out a bit different than it started out you can see it below in a previous post.
As always click on any photo for a larger version.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Attention blogger friends...

Hop on over to Rachel's blog... where she has a whopping 4 new posts, one including more pictures of our wonderful colaboration day. Sheer magic my friends. Go, go, go... You'll be glad you did! Rich & wonderful shtuff...

Saturday, April 17, 2010

A Fabulous Day of Art Journaling!

Back row:Me, Thalia, Jean
Bottom row:Orly, Rachel

We met today at Orly's lovely home for a day of art journaling. There was a lot of reflecting on our journeys as artists & sharing where we came from, & our process. I've learned as much from the members of Orly's Art Journaling Lab as I have in the class. I have so much respect for each of them. We will not be meeting weekly any longer, we will come together for special occasions. We shared a lot of laughs and smiles.
Orly and I and our art journals. I have so much respect for Orly. She challenges me to expand beyond my comfort zone and work more organically. She's helped me to find the courage to believe in my own creative process my own worth as an artist. Orly was my inspiration for going to this bigger journal (it is an 11.5 x 17.5 Moleskine) and I love each and every page. These are one of my favorite spreads from Orly's and my journals.

Here I am with my WIP(work in progress) I'll show this page when it's finished soon. Have a wonderful creative weekend.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

I LOVE colaborations...

I love collaborative artworks. I spend a lot of time on the internet viewing blogs, art journals, art work, images on flicker. I can not view them and be influenced by them. I enjoy taking art journaling classes, I can't take a class from someone and not be influenced by their work even in some small way. Even from the aspect of having an opinion on some one's art work or class.

Today's post is a wonderful example. In this week's outing to
Orly Avineri's Art Journaling Lab we spray painted some found natural found items on long strips of paper in the picture above, we then cut out pieces that spoke to each of us and glued them to our art journals. We then used pastels provided by the wonderful amazing artist Rachel Peterson , she demonstrated the different types of chalk pastels, soft, oil, and pencil pastels, then we all went to town on our journals. I find pastels very, very addictive... When I got home I added some oil pastels on top of the chalk pastels, and yes even some Sekura white and black gel pens. Oh yes, we even threw in a bit of black india ink for good measure in class. Can you spot our original spray paint pieces? I can't wait to see Orly's post on this her journal page was amazing!!!

Click on any image for a full sized view, grrrr this isn't working click on the my flicker image for a larger view, good ole blogspot....

Collaboration Journal Spread 4.10.10

left side
right side


And a little collaboration from nature for you, one of my clematis blooming in my garden. My garden is one of my biggest influences when I am journaling at home. Have a great week!