Many Lands, Many Hands!

Many Lands, Many Hands by Gary Reef's Ning network | Make Your Own Book

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!

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???

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.

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!

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.

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...

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.

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!

A Rose is a Rose...

The picture does not do justice to how well this came out! One of my favorite journal pages from Orly Avineri's Art Journaling Lab. It was one of those classes that was a long process and I loved every single step. I knew from the start it was going to be a magical page. I love the vintage timeworn look it has. Yes, it is wrinkly, I have wrinkles too... I earned them. After we were finished I was sooo nervous about doing lettering and harming how beautifully it came out. The quote from Dale Carnagie says "One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden instead of enjoying the roses outside our window today."

As always click on any image for a larger view.

Left side.

I had a landscaping business for several years. I love climbing roses. I tend to love things that climb and cover, clambor over things. I love how after only a few years they look as if they have been there for ever. My wisteria & clematis are just about to bloom in my back yard. I love plants that are tucked in and you have to walk around and really look at. They are my little treasures. I will take a few pictures and post of my back yard soon. I love my backyard, it is completely enclosed and is like my own secret garden and sanctuary. I love my yard so.

Right side.

How does your garden grow?

Orly's House of Blues & Art Journaling:Shelf Life

Today at Orly's Art Journaling Lab we hand played some blues music and doodled and drew some still lifes. Who knew listening to the blues could be inspiration for art journaling? I was very inspired and had a lot of fun. Have a great weekend! I am going back to my art journal to continue doodling and drawing... click on any image for a larger view.

Close-up of the left side.

Close-up right side.

How Many Hats Do You Wear?

How many hats have do you wear? This spread for Orly Avineri's Art Journaling Lab about exploring the hats many we wear. Click on any image for a larger view.

Here is a close-up of the left side, my Public Social Interactive Hat.

This side is about two other hats I wear:

Top:My Natural Hat - the gardener, artist.

Bottom: The Warriror Hat - sometimes I feel like a warrior.

How many hats do you wear?

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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...

My Page for the Create & Pass Journal Group

My Page for the Create & Pass Journal Group
Originally uploaded by bkasstle

This is my journal page for the Create & Pass Journal Project, Journal #2, on Gary Reef's Art from the Heart on NING.com. I feel really honored to be a part of this project. This journal is very special it started in Europe, was lost for a while and is now back in circulation. Eventually all the journals will be published. Have a great weekend!