Graffiti Art Painting

I have not really made anything in weeks. So I was getting a hard core art jones going. Inspired by the class I’m taking from Traci Bautista I sat down in a few spare minutes yesterday to make this.

It is created on 8 1/2" by 11" ivory cardstock with gel medium, acrylic paint, and Sharpie paint pens. The yellow decoration down the left side is paper tape.

I will be sending this along with some paper goodies for a swap. I suppose it could be used like a collage sheet and torn up and used in other artwork. Or it could be framed as is.

It was really fun to make and I thing I’ll do some more work in this style. I seem to be getting caught up in a lot of planning and that's starting to stifle me a bit. This page was just a big, fun doodle. I need to let go more and trust the process!

Listen To Your Heart: Art Journal Page

This page started as a spot to lay down some leftover paint from another project. I glued down some random paper scraps with gel medium. Some stencils made nice shapes to draw with watercolor crayons. The crayons create a nice opaque color, even doing light drawing over a dark background. Very cool. Then I added the tag in the middle.

I wanted to lay down as much color on this page as I could. It’s a little busy but I think that’s my anxiety coming through from the other day. I really love using up my little paper scraps this way. I don’t like to see paper go to waste.

The watercolor crayons look so good to me that I think I’ll run out today and buy more colors at the art store, which, incidentally, is called "The Art Store". Need to pick up some more gel medium and either heavy body or fluid acrylic paint by Golden, too. They make the best paint. Right now I’m using the cheap craft paint, which is not very heavily pigmented and are a little dry. Oh, my art shopping list keeps getting longer. I want some different colored inks, too, for doing lettering with a brush. Maybe Erik will have to come with me to rein in my spending!

Postcard Swap 2010 Postcards

Long time no see, folks! I’ve been really ill with the migraines and we’re in the middle of trying something new for them. So far so good, I’m happy to report!

I finally got my 10 handmade postcards done for iHanna’s swap! Whew! So they are going out in the mail ASAP. But before I send them I made sure to scan and photograph them for you to enjoy! Here’s a peek:

The bases for the postcards are heavy watercolor papers. I cut them down to 4" x 6". Then I glued down random paper scraps with matte gel medium. After that dried I painted each card differently with craft acrylic paint. They still just needed something, you know? So I stamped the birds in black Archival Ink by Ranger. Great ink for stamping on things that are not porous. The little birdie above got her own crown as I added details with fine tip Sharpies markers.

I signed and dated the back of each card and wrote a special note to the mystery recipients. Some cards are going to Australia and Sweden! I've never sent mail there!

Click image above to go to flickr where you can see each postcard scanned individually. Tell me which is your favorite in the comments!

The postcard swap project was conceived at the Twitter party called #craftsocial. They have a website at CraftSocial.net. Read more about this Twitter party on their "About" page. It's a bunch of crafty tweeple chatting up artsy craftsy things on Twitter!

The next Craft Social will be on Saturday, February 20, 2010 from 3 – 5 PM, EST. The first hour of the event will be dedicated to craft #fails – they dare you to show your worst! See you on Twitter!

She Gets Me

The other day my mom and I were chatting about art and my recent passion for all things art journal. She and I spend a lot of time together in the studio. Out of everyone I know, she knows my creative process the best. She gets to see it. And she totally "gets me" like no other human being on this planet does.

So she shows up last week with her sketchbook in tow. I got excited immediately that she did some artwork and wanted to show me. I’ve been trying to gently encourage her work because she has talent. After all, I get my creativity from her. She starts talking about how excited she gets for me that I have passion in my life in the form of art. And she got all teary eyed. Then she showed me what she made…

It’s a tribute to me. My mom made an art journal page about me! Isn’t that the coolest thing ever?! And she wrote such lovely things about me on it. It makes me cry every time I look at it. It has taken me a full week to be able to write this post without bawling my eyes out!

Yes, that’s me with the crazy, curly hair and sunglasses. (My chronic light sensitivity warrants the wearing of sunglasses all the time or I get migraines from the light.)

I know this image is probably too small for you to read what she wrote so I’ll tell you:

“You dare to dream
You believe in your art
You dare to try (‘It’s only paper’)
You bravely venture forward
You push your limits
You hunger for art knowledge
You dig deep for answers
Your beautiful soul shines
Your hope is strong
Your mind is beautiful
Your strength is amazing
I admire you”

She took the time to include a bunch of things I love like dominoes, art journals, pens, stamps, cloth, scissors, paper, tags, cards, paint, ribbon, and a domino pendant. She even drew my art journal and wrote “I GET YOU” on one page!

She said she had a vision of this page and wasn’t sure she would be able to get it out of her head and onto paper. But she was thrilled to say that it came out exactly like she wanted it to. I’m so proud of her! She and I don't really hold our feelings back from each other. We’re kind of a touchy feely family that way. We don’t hold the kisses and “I love you”s back at all. Life is too short.

I’m still kind of speechless to describe what this means to me, as I’m sure you can understand. This will be something for me to look at in my dark moments when I’m in pain and feel I cannot go on. It gives me hope. It makes me feel so very loved. If this is what my mom sees when she looks at me then I might not be so bad after all.

Thank you, Mom! I love you more than I can express! xoxo

Postcard Swap 2010 and #CraftSocial

Recently I've been getting myself into various art swaps. It started with the artist trading cards on flickr and has now grown to more and more swaps! I'm hooked! It's just too much fun!

I came across a tweet about a new swap a few weeks ago. I have not done any postcard swapping yet so I thought I would give this one a try. This is also quite a large swap. I have to make 10 original postcards to send. But that means I get 10 original postcards from who knows where in the world! For me, it's really more about the giving than the receiving. Receiving is just the icing on the cake of getting to share my work with someone. Plus who doesn't like snail mail (besides bills)?!

I started on my postcards yesterday. So far I have three in the early stages of paper collage. They measure 4" x 6". I just cut them out of 140 lb cold press watercolor paper. I think that's a nice weight for mail. They are all getting an extra thick coat of gel medium to protect the artwork. Stay tuned in the weeks to come for pictures of them.

Click the banner above to go to the blog post to join! The last day to sign up is February 7, 2010. The postcards are due to be mailed out by Valentine's Day on February 14th. The swap is hosted by iHanna. She will be emailing me 10 addresses for the swap. They could be going anywhere! Fun!

The postcard swap project was conceived at the Twitter party called #craftsocial. They have a website at CraftSocial.net. Read more about this Twitter party on their "About" page. It's a bunch of crafty tweeple chatting up artsy craftsy things on Twitter! The next Craft Social will be on Saturday, February 20, 2010 from 3 – 5 PM, EST. The first hour of the event will be dedicated to craft #fails – they dare you to show your worst! Yikes! I'll be there! But that also means I have to go photograph some art fails! Double yikes! See you on Twitter!