Comfortable Shoes Studio

Pictures From My Pocket - Who Loves the Sun 6

Pictures From My Pocket - Who Loves the Sun 6
Originally uploaded by littleblackbooks

Some cool little pictures from littleblackbooks on flickr, head over to their stream to see a lot more of their work.

#4 Do a little every day

Even if all you do is go through your journal and randomly color pages, or doodle borders or even just scribble do something related to art every day. It can take 5 to 10 minutes but you should do something everyday. It's part of the process. Process is the most important part of art journaling. Once art journaling is part of your everyday habit you won't want to leave it behind.

DinaStamps: My Art Journal

via dinastamps.typepad.com

Holy cow, check out this amazing series of beautiful images from this art journal. Fantastic and inspirational. Using masks, watercolor, ink, collage and stencils, pretty much to die for. I'm in love.

Rule #3 Be Wary of the Sales Pitch, but don't begrudge

Everybody wants to sell you something. You need 3 things to art journal:

1. Yourself.
2. A journal.
3. Something to write/draw/paint with.

It's that simple. You don't need every product ever made, though they are fun. Some of the most beautiful journals I"ve seen are black and white or made with a ink and one other media. If you like color all you need is something simple, marker,watercolor, crayons, you name it and you can add color. You don't neede every rubber stamp, ink pad, re-inker, paint or marker ever made. Pick a few and go with them.

There are free tutorials online. There is nothing wrong with paying for a tutorial, hell classes are fun. But you don't need to know how to make a page just like someone else to make a great journal. All you need is you, a journal and something to make marks with. Anything else is optional.

Rule #2 Pages Don't HAVE to be Pretty

That's right your pages don't need to be pretty. They can be ugly. You can leave them raw and "unfinished." I give you permission. Your pages can be:

Dirty
Dark
Ugly
Nasty
Angry
Black
White
Plain

The finished page will be beautiful in some manner. If you don't like it you can always go back to it, reuse it, gesso over it, collage it into another page, glue the pages together and further manipulate the page. 

Make it yours but don't hold it to anyone else's standard of beauty. Don't compare your pages to other people's pages. They are yours.

Back Grounds: A Way to get Past the Blank Page part 2

This weekend I'm talking about just paint on a page, sandpaper, and watercolor crayons. 3 super easy starts for an art journal.

First paint on a page. It's just that- liquid acrylic on a page. You can use any brand that you want, Making Memories, Golden, Liquitex, or CrApple Barrel. The all work. The essence is that you squirt the paint directly on the page. You can then move the paint around in any manner you want. You can work with more than one color at a time too. No rules.

The next thing I like to do is sandpaper pages. In this example. I've taken a page II"ve done the following to: layer 1 gesso Layer 2 liquid acrylic Layer 3 watercolor crayons and water I've let all that dry over night then I've taken a very fine sanding sponge and I've sanded the page. It give the page a weathered "shabby" look (shoot me now for using that word) BUT the page itself is glass smooth. the key to this look is to put on a rough textured layer of gesso. You could actually write on this apge with a fountain pen. I"m using a fine 3m sanding sponge that I've cut into a thin strip. You can also using a sanding block in fine. You can get these in the house goods section of any dollar store or at big box store like Home Cheapo.

Another thing I like to do is to add a layer of watercolor crayons in a  large amount over a page with gesso and acrylic on it. I then use a rag to wipe off some of the color. This can give a great distressed and vintage appearance. It's great to do with a collage piece too.

Next time: MY favorite gesso and sharpie

Rule #1 Process NOT results

An art journal should be a safe place to explore feelings, ideas, art techniques, educations, your belly button and everything else in your life. In your art journal you should be free and feel free to do that. If you are focusing on the end product you lose the point of keeping an art journal and that is to explore all thatI listed above. What the page looks like at the end doesn't matter as much as getting it to that point and HOW you got to that point. Don't approach the page thinking of how it's going to look at the end. Start working on the page without thought.

Write.
Draw.
Paint.
Scribble.
Scrub.
Glue.
Do What feels right.
Do what feels wrong.

Try new things in your art journal. No one else needs to see it, unless you want them to. Be happy. Be sad. Angry. Melancholic. drunk. Introspective. Think about yourself. Your family. The world. Politics. Mass Media. Hysteria. Your friends. People you don't know. Think it out. Write it down. Draw it. Paint it. Doodle. Scribble. Wax. INk Stamp Charcoal. Scrub. Brush. Sand Emboss.

Try things.

Comfortable Shoes Studio's Rules of Art Journaling

So I've been online  alot looking for blogs to link to, art on flickr to post here and watching videos on youtube. In this journey I've been bombarded with adverts for products, workshops, classes, etsy shops, how-to instruction and I've seen an overwhelming number of comments on blogs, youtube and flickr asking a simple question "How do I do this?" What was most concerning to me, other than the startling amount of consumerism that has moved into the art journaling blog-o-sphere and internet were the amount of tutorials on how to build up an image "just like so-and-so's" and also a lot of questions on those same blogs about how to do just that.

From my concern and frustrations I"ve come up with:

The Comfortable Shoes Studio 7 Rules of art Journaling.(TM)

They are as follows:

1. Process NOT results
2. Pages don't have to be pretty.
3. Be wary of sales pitches. (but don't begrudge.)
4. Do a little everyday.
5. Any media/medium is okay.
6. Look for inspiration everywhere.
7. Rules should be broken.

I will over the next few days expound on each of these ideas in a full post. But this is borne of the idea that art journaling should be from inside, art journaling should be free and loose and about exploration. Technique can be taught but the end result should not be. When I was a budding art teacher my mentoring teacher told me that my duty was to shape and mold the kids to make their own art and that I should teach process and method but never the end. I take that idea to the art journals- i can teach people how to make them, how to fill them but I'm not going to tell anyone what to fill them with.

SamanthKIra: Finished Journal

I love looking at a video of somone paging through their journal, it's a great way to view them.

Moleskine Paul Davis notebook @ Detour exhibition

I'm pretty much in love with this moleskine:

Journal technique- Stamp Pad and Photocopy Backgrounds

Again ricefv does a great background tutorial for art journaling. I really like the photocopy b&w images of herself to personalize the journal.

gears

gears
Originally uploaded by Rymann

Check these out, inspired by the Time Holtz masks I was using Ryman made a set of gear stamps. I"m going to have to get my rubber stuff out and make some too! I'm in love!

bricks patterns

bricks patterns
Originally uploaded by mindbum

mindbum does it again with a fantastic page in an altered book. Inspiring. I imagine this with a thin coat of gesso, the colors lifting through and with more image on it.

Back 2 School

It's that Time of year again, Back-to-School. Sigh. Growing up I used to look forward to the start of school. I admit to being something of a geek and school was solace from a long hot summer of farm work which would hit it's apex with the hot slog of August's blueberry harvest. School with it's routine of math, reading and social studies was welcome. Of course at the start of September I was happy to be doing anything but harvest blueberries. As another summer passes without my application to grad school I reflect on the fact that my partner, C is headed back to start her second year of law school.

I reflect green with envy. Yes, I wish that we were able to afford the 2 of us to go to school at the same time. We made a decision 2 years ago that it made the most fiscal sense for me to continue working while she applied for grants and scholarships for law school. While money is certainly tight we both see the rewards not too far in the future. I'm both sad and excited that next summer she'll work for 3 months and possibly make as much as I do in a full year of work. It's exciting to know that your life will change for the better in a short time, but sad that it's so far off, and sad that I'll continue to make the same wage. 

As we get ready for the start of school we both know that I'll be working 40+ hours a week and driving 10 hours. (My commute is 1 hour each way, longer on a bad day.) She'll be in class 2 days a week from 9am to 9pm and the other days she'll be studying and working. In short we'll fly by each other in the mornings and pass out next to each other until May. Because of this our lives need some preparation.

We do a few things like pre-pack single servings of chicken and beef in the freezer, keep the rice cooker out and buy more frozen veggies than usual. Its just not possible for the 2 of us to cook when we have as little time as we will during the semesters. This will allow us to cook fast food that is healthier than getting delivery. At the same time we're making lunches and taking them becuase it's #1 healthier and #2 cheaper.

I'm glad to say that after C finishes law school I'll be going back to school too, for what we're not sure but I've got 2 more years to figure that out.

What I've done with the Spray Ink

Holy crap balls. I love the spray ink.I love the spattered effect you can get when you press the sprayer down partially, I love the fine mist I get when I press hard, and the layered effect and mixing when wet. It's all very very cool. Experimentation is key to learning how to use these. I learned that the ink reacts differently on raw paper versus gesso'ed pages or pages with acrylic on them. The colors are transparent (except the black) so whatever is under them shows through. this can make for some very cool effects.

On thing I learned through trial and error is that alcohol based inks ALWAYs lift through my gesso (Liquitex basic brand) so I always get a ghost. So how to fix that? It would lift through progressive layers of gesso or acrylics too. I have a solution which I'll share at the end of this post. First I'm going to share some recent pages from my journal.

 

IN this image I had gesso'ed and painted the left page, the written on it in sharpie. The black was really sitting on the surface and less of the image than I wanted. So I sprayed it with purple and blue ink and a squirt of plain alcohol, Then moved the inks around. Here I learned that even fully dried acrylic and gesso will soften a touch when these inks are applied heavily. (the right side is the completion of my gesso over sharpie post)

 

This page doesn't use any spray inks but an over lay of watercolor crayons wet down and wiped off and sand papering. I was going for a  dirty look on this page- dirty to express my rage...

 

This page started out yellow-green. I used some Tim Holtz masks, I'll write more about these at the end of this post. I sprayed over them with green, blue and a touch of black spray ink. I also used some rubber stamps with embossing powder. On the right I took on of the masked out shapes and used liquid embossing paint and heated it until it bubbled, burst and dried. I then added some spray ink, watercolor crayons  and colored pencil to give the gear shape a distressed rusted up piece of metal look. The blue black background was too dark to write on, so I hit it with a thin fast application of gesso. No blending and applied with a bristle brush. I used a texture tool to make some marks and stamped on lines for writing and wrote on the gesso with bright green sharpie. I sprayed the sharpie with plain ink, a lot to soften the color and blend it with the background. Then I wrote my entry and sprayed that as well. I then overlay some green and blue spray ink and let it completely blend on the top layer.

 

This page started out with a burgundy acrylic base that had been coated with black and brown watercolor crayons and wiped down for a distressed look. I then hit some areas with sand paper to further weather the page. I've used Tim Holtz masks on this page as well. There are several collaged elements and lots of spray ink and gesso. You'll notice it's shiney... I'll get to that in a minute.

 

This page started out with a background that was bright red in the center and burgundy around that. I drew on an anatomic heart with sharpie. I used rubber stamps and embossing power around the perimeter. I masked the heart out with post it notes and then put down some Tim Holtz masks. I sprayed the background with purple, blue and black spray inks. I sealed around the heart ( more on this later) and then brushed some gesso and yellow to give it that mandala/ mary look. 

 

This page started out gessoed and with acrylic. The colors I can't remember but I think burgundy. I glued on my collage elements, added gesso and sealed the elements I didn't want to get colored with the spray. I sprayed  a variety of colors and then manipulated then with water, alcohol and a rag. I wrote with a sharpie. I used some sand paper, added some little punch outs and then sealed the whole thing.

Okay so the sealant I'm using is something I had around the house, is pretty cheap, and is easy to use: Minwax Polycrylic. Yup. I had a can left over from a project I'd done a year ago and thought I"d give it a try. It looks like the acrylic varnish I have in a small squeeze bottle (that was a lot of money $4 for 2 oz), goes on milky but dries clear. I have semi gloss and it adds a nice shine to the page, the alcohol inks don't lift through it and can be scrubbed off of it with a little work and alcohol. Gesso sticks to it well, as to acrylic paints. Sharpie glides over it. The alochol inks if applied heavy lift while the polycrylic is wet but not once dry so you can see the kind of dragging muddy effect you can get in the next series of pictures.

Here's a pic with can, you can get it at Home Depot for about $5 for this half pint can (8oz).

 

Oh and the best thing about this stuff, is that as of yet, once it's dry, it doesn't seem to stick to itself. SO you CAN get gloss in your art journal without sticking pages!!!

 

This is the page after using a stencil with black spray ink, orange and yellow. I sealed some of the page and then brushed gesso over the whole thing. After it was dry I used my fine sand paper block to distress it and move through the layers a little. It will also give me a super smooth page to write on. While not glass smooth I could write on this page with a fountain pen with ease.

 

Okay a quick note about Tim Holtz masks. They come in super cool shapes-cobwebs, music, nice french curves, flourishes and gears, didn't I just tweet about wanting rubber stamps with gears? These masks will have to be close enough. I really like them. But the glue holds really well to raw paper but not to paper with acrylic paint on it or gesso. Also while made to work with alcohol inks they really don't like to sit in it or swim in it. I ruined the glue on one by dousing it in a heavy coat of spray ink when it was on a gessoed page. :( No worries I have spray mount and will fix it. But if you do get some of these be aware that the glue doesn't like a lot of alcohol AND doesn't stick well to gesso or acrylic. But the effects you can get are so cool. They aren't too expensive and are infinitely reusable, just pic up a can of spray mount when you buy them and save some heart ache.

Spray Ink How to

Initially I got this idea from a youtube, I can't remember the name, her video was about alternatives to Tattered Angels spray inks. At $9 for a bottle the inks are expensive. I found some walnut spray ink for a 4 or 5 oz bottle for the same price. That's pretty pricey to me. She used an assortment of alternatives, Kool-Aid, ink etc.. What caught my eye was her use of stamp pad refills.

You'll need the following:

• 1 bottle isopropyl alcohol, I got 91% but you could go 70% ($1)
• 6 Hand Sanitizer Pocket Spray bottles. Mine are Walgreens brand but any with a removable top will work ($1.50 each) Each container holds .75 ounces of liquid
• 1 package Posh Impressions Inkabilities 6 pack refill inks ($15) I got the Earthtones set. Adirondack Sells 3 packs for $10 with larger bottles in a greater range, either brand will work. I liked the selection for the price of the Inkabilities
• PLEASE keep in mind that isopropyl alcohol is FLAMMABLE. It would not be a good idea to have an open flame while using these as the spray will light up. THIS IS A FIRE HAZARD. I Do not take any responsibility if you do something foolish and burn down your house or apartment.

What to do:
First empty out the hand sanitizer spray bottles. I saved mine in an almost empty bottle. I don't use the stuff, but Christie does. Wash the bottle in warm water. I rinsed until I could no longer smell the stink of the sanitizer.
Then I cleaned the sprayer out. To do this I filled one of the bottle with alcohol, and squirted 3 pumps through the spray head. Then I pulled the spray head out and sprayed until it ran dry. Good enough.
Then I filled each container half full of alcohol.
To this I added about 20 to 30 drops of ink to the alcohol*. twist the cap on tightly. Really tight. Shake.
Spray. Check intensity after the ink dries. Add more ink 5 drops at a time to get the desired intensity.
Now spray to your hearts delight.
My intent is to get some spray paint effects and increase my love of hand cut stencils...Tell me in the comments what you think and link to pages where you use it!

Some pics:

You might be wondering why I'd choose to use a hand sanitizer bottle instead of the Ranger little spray bottles. The hand sanitizer bottles are 2 for $3 regular price. I've seen them on sale at CVS for $1. The Ranger spray bottles are 3 for $5. It's a 16 cent difference to the regular Walgreens price, whcih isn't much. But I also know that the hand sanitizer spray bottles are pretty robust, designed to spray a gel in a very fine mist. That fine mist is what I'm looking for. The Stampington spray bottle I've used spatters, I think it's supposed to but I find the effect annoying. I also wanted to find a new use for something a lot of people might already have around. I know a lot of people use these spray bottles. They are designed to be tossed around in a purse so I know they are sturdy and don't leak as long as the cap is on it. Also as something that is designed to hold something that is alcohol based I know it will stand up to the abuse well. Not everything will tolerate the abuse of alcohol. Also these little hand sanitizer bottles only hold .75 ounces of fluid.

Also, thought not pictured I mixed a 50/50 mix of alcohol and india ink in a Stampington spray bottle and holy shite it's awesome. Anyway, everyone should try this. the total cost for me was about $25 for 6 colors not including the india ink.

Somethign else that is great that you could get extra spray bottles and mix colors- 10 drops yellow, 20 drops green for yellow green or 10 drops glue and 20 drops green for blue greens. You could create a completely individualized line of colors for your journal. ALSO you can remix fast and easy. It would take a long time to go through those refill.

*Do this step in a place where your floors are an easy clean up, becuase if you are like me and knock over your RED sprayer before you get the cap on it, it makes  a god awful mess. I can't image what it would do to grout. This stuff stains. However as it is alcohol based alcohol and the saved hand sanitizer does a great job of lifting it off hardwood. Trust me I know, it came off my oak floor very well. I'm really glad I have down a vinyl sign as a safety mat for my slobbery.

Backgrounds: A Way to get past that Blank Page Part 1

Gesso.

It's a basic thing. I don't see it as a necessary start to all pages. Becuase it's just not. If you work with a heavier page you don't need it. It's nice, it stiffens the page and adds some texture. You can get gesso in a lot of colors now- black, clear, white various other colors. You can also mix regular white or clear gesso with colored acrylics to get any shade you want, and I'm going to tell you how to mix it with watercolor crayons later in this post.

I'm working in a great notebook my friend Jen made me for a Facebook craft exchange. It's a salvaged hardy boys mystery cover filled with recycled pages. the paper is a variety of weights- I assume around 18# and 20# bond paper, computer paper and the like Its cot some printed stuff on one side. This paper needs the love of gesso to stand up the the abuse I'm going to put it through.

So the first thing I do is get out my gesso. I use liquitex, its not too heavy and isn't too wet. It works for me. I put it on with a rather soft brush so I get a nice thin coat. The brush I'm using is a soft old watercolor wash brush, a cheap one that I've previously abused the hell out of.

thin coat done. Easy. I like to work on a bunch of pages at a time. I hate washing brushes. So I separate my pages with freezer paper or waxed if I have it, sheets of plastic, whatever I have on hand. I look at gesso'd and painted pages at this stage as part of the process, something to gain inspiration from.

Moving onto coloring the gesso. I grab my water color crayons and add a thin layer of crayon on, scribble it, no real pattern.

Here you wet your brush and thin the gesso just slightly, so it will wet the crayon and mix it. Spread it around and add more gesso until you get the color you like and the texture you want.

Coat a page with gesso, while still wet randomly drop a few drops of liquid latex paint (ore regular), just a few drops. And start brushing wildly around the page. Blend it in until you like it. I like to leave the areas of color unmixed. (I'm using making memories liquid acrylic. I snagged it on clearance with a set of sweet foam stamps. BUT it's not a bad liquid acrylic. and on clearance who can beat that price?)

All of these pages were done in about a 45 minute stretch of time. Sometimes I force myself to sit down with my journal and just color pages. It's relaxing and after a tough day at work, I need to unwind but I'm not in the frame of mine to draw, sketch or journal. Something that doesn't require thought like this, it allows me to meditate on relaxation, listen to some good music and really just enjoy a few moments in my own head with out a worry. Because really, how can I f*ck up gesso? (that's a rhetorical question and I had several art professors who were really neurotic about how gesso is applied.)

Next installment: Paint on a page, sandpaper, and watercolor crayons

The Gift

I'm a big believer in gifting especially when someone does something really good for me, I like to give that back in some way or another. I received a not totally random gift in the mail after doing something really simple. In the package were some not agreed upon previously gifts- including some moo cards (too cool) and a photograph. Very cool, all stuff I love. So I decided to gift that person with a journal. Not only is this person a photographer but they subscribe to the tenets of Everyday Matters- in that everyday you pick up a pen or pencil and draw, no matter how bad it is, you get in there and draw. So I figured what would be better than to send them a cool journal.

I don't know if the person is vegetarian or would be offended by leather, so I decided to go with my current crazy and stitched up a bastiano inspired cover. I received some jewelry in the envelope a few months ago and since I hoard anything packing related- envelopes, bubble wrap tyvek mailers etc to reuse, I found the perfect envelop in my stash. A small 5x9 inch envelop with some handwriting, labels and stamps. I started stitching with black thread. The pattern is like a doodle with the thread. To give it some stiffness I used a miss cut jotter cover. the needle passed through it with flying colors. Inside I stuffed a small jotter block. I trimmed it and added an elastic to hold it all closed. I'm pretty happy with it, I really like the cover but see that it's still just a  riff on the elegant lines of bastiano's covers.

It's a gift and not for sale. If you would like your own check out Bastiano's flickr stream (link below) for some of his super cool books and for links to his etsy site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyone know what the blue book on the back of the piano is? It's the complete works of a particular band....

One of a Kinds and not for Sales

So I've been working on some one of a kind books and not for sales. The stitched covers I've been doing are inspired by a journal I purchased. I don't feel right selling them as they have been 100% inspired by Bastiano. Which if you haven't seen his work you should follow that there link and go to his flickr stream and check it out. It's not often I find a book artist whose works stops me dead. I follow most other book artists on flickr through a group. Bastiano and very few other I added to my flickr stream. Yes. I have obsessively followed him since I first saw his work and when I saw Sverige I had to have it. Currently. Sverige (I love that my new note book/ journal has it's own name squeee!) sits on my desk right now, where I just look at it. Yes seriously, right now I'm not ready to use him (it's a he) and I just look. I've got 2 other journals in the works before I even crack the cover.

I am inspired by the cover and the interior. But I don't want to riff on it too much, which is why I'm sticking to making anything similar as gifts, I WILL NOT be the a-hole who buys and reproduces and sells. that isn't cool. What I will do is pimp his stuff here. And I as a general rule don't do that.

The last journal that I was working on- the one made of magazine pages that was pissing me off (shall be named PO for PIssed off) and I had to rebind it? I finished it. The last few pages are like those in every journal I want to finish to rush to my next- rushed and hurried but... Done, completely. Filled to full, brimming with stupid hipster art and color, and shit glued to it's pages. Thanks to the rebinding the spine isn't straining too much and the newly waxed thread sits on the slippery tyvek spine much more easily than before.

Okay so for this weekend:

• Crappy Pics of the gift journal- they will be here and facebook
• More pics of the finished journal- most will be here only and NOT all on my flickr stream (video?)
• Some pics of the Bastiano book
• Some background photo tutorials 

I may take the evening off though. My allergies have been kicking my head around and I need a good long sleep, I may get home take my friday afternoon, after work nap and then go to bed, depending on how I feel. This weekend is supposed to be cooler and nicer here.

Earth III - Poetic Science - Bookworks by Daniel E. Kelm - Smith College Museum of Art

Daniel E. Kelm. American, 1951-Photocopy transfer and spattered acrylic on Moriki tissue and Canson paper, with leather, stainless steel wire, paperboard, cloth, thread, and wire edge binding. Collection of the Kohler Art Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Video by Kevin Derose and Jeff Derose, One Match Films.>> problems playing video?

via www.smith.edu

Check out the videos on his other books too. Great ideas for how to add things into an art journal or to create a while new artjournal using hinges and pins

Working on it...

Last night while toning some pages (that's what I call it after an art teacher who used to call coloring a canvas toning it) I decided to shoot some pictures of my process.

I did a few set ups:

• plain gesso
• gesso with watercolor crayons
• gesso and acrylic
• acrylic
• acrylic and watercolor crayon
• Gesso background with sharpie on top and gesso on sharpie

I'll put up a few posts with the pictures here, the pictures will only be here and NOT on my flickr stream. I"m going to shoot for Saturday to have those posts done and will post them starting then. I"ll do themm split up because they will be so image heavy.

'' HOME SWEET HOME '' by John Woolley / 10 years old

'' HOME SWEET HOME '' by John Woolley / 10 years old
Originally uploaded by artistjohnwoolley

Hard to believe this kid is only 10. He's got a nice fresh style. I hope his parents keep giving him art supplies and letting him load his work to flickr.

Technique Video- Backgrounds

I hate working on a plain white page, even when I'm drawing I tend to go through my sketchbooks and tone my pages with watercolor or gouache. I like how it changes the texture of he page and leaves me with something more interesting than plain white or cream. Youtuber ricefz uses ink pads and brushes to create a soft toned background for journaling.

A toned background can also help get you past that scary "white background"syndrome so many of us have. I hate working on a plain page. The white page can be so intimidating, especially if you buy a really nice handmade journal. Last night I was starting on a journal that my friend Jen made for me. (Hardy Boys Salvaged book cover!!!) I was exhausted so I went through the first half of the journal and gesso'd the pages. Gesso is not a must do step for me. I like it but it limits the pens I cna use on the page- I find it's very rough on nibs and ruins them fast. So I stick to sharpies on gesso. I then went through the book with some colored acrylic (making memories brand- purchased on clearance) and added a touch of color to some pages, planned out an entry on one page but really randomly added color to the pages. After taht I added a touch more color to the page with my watercolor crayons. Mostly I added those becuase the acrylic tends to stick if I don't add something a little waxy to the top of them. So now I have a super cool journal about half filled with simply colored pages, ready for me to write and glue and pain in.

Boxed In

Boxed In
Originally uploaded by Original Bliss

this would be a great exercise if your blocked up and lacking inspiration.It a riff on the old grib pattern fill up exercise, this one using collage and color! Very cool. Original Bliss has a blog here.

Vacations Are Good

For those of you who don't know, I've been on vacation. Right now I'm sitting in my father's house in 90 degree heat sweating my ass off. After the massive amounts of rain  the coast of Maine and most of the North East have had the heat is nice, just not something any of us are accustomed to feeling this year. Even this August, and the last few days in which I've been visiting have been abnormally cool. I don't mean for this post to become a meditation on the weather but more of a series of thoughts on vacations.

Every year I take a week in August off (from the DayJob) to visit my family and relax. One year we stayed at the camp on the lake without electricity. Another year we spent the time hiking the easier hikes in the area. Still another year I spent my week off working on the blueberry harvest. The last few years I've spent the time split between the farm, hiking and just spending time with my family. My family is aging and we see each other less and less, and the time in which we do spend together is more and more relaxing and less stressful.Also the pace of life in Maine is different, it always has been.

I say that as someone who grew up in Maine and was involved in many after school activities as well as having worked in Maine. The pace of life is different, I don't want to say slow, but it is something like that, but not with the implication of mediocrity that slow gives. There is less going on, because everything is so spread out and to decide to drive 2 hours to the large cinema or to drive 20 minutes to get Dunkin Donuts; it all takes planning. Forethought. Unlike here where I can walk to Dunks or call Papa Gino's and in 30 minutes a guy with pizza will arrive on my porch. No planning, nothing slowing me down, just doing it.

Planning makes you think, "Do I need that pizza?" "Do I want to drive the WHOLE way over to Dunks?" Nah I'll just  make a second cup here. Maine makes me think.'Thinking is good,even when relaxing on vacation.