Art Journal

The following pictures are excerpts from my art journal. Some pages are just random playfulness while others have more of a point to them. Feel free to click to enlarge the pictures and read.

This first page was inspired by recent artistic expressions about Marie Antoinette that were in my art magazines.  I found the Marie graphic in Somerset Studio, and thought it would be great used with my favorite male nude stamp.  I have used him over and over and over in my art.  Never was a better image rendered in rubber. 

These next pages were playing with glazes (as was the above page) and some of my Asian imagery.

Dimensional Dragonflys in Pearlx and chalked flowers.

Just playing with new stamps.

These next pages are inspired by Alice in Wonderland. 

These next pages are applying one of my all time favorite tools, the stipple brush.  Using dye based inks, I began with a butterscotch colored ink and then applied darker inks around the edges, working towards the center while being careful not to obscure the light and focus of each piece.  The page on the left was inspiration for the 2 Christmas cards I made this past year.  That's right, I only made 2 cards and ended up purchasing cards.  At the time, I was suffering from low inspiration.  

The page on the right took an interesting turn, the result of applying too much ink.  Overnight, the inks ran together a bit, creating a mystical quality.  I give thanks to the cosmic universe for its helping hand to give an eerie feel to this page.  I see this as twilight down in the Louisiana bayous.

More playing with new stamps.  I especially love the image of the boy and his dog.  Maybe I will use it in another project.  Can't you just visualize the little boy and his dog, going on an adventure?  Maybe with one of those hobo sticks with their possessions held inside some fabric on the end, walking along some railroad tracks in the South somewhere.  Hmm...

More new stamps.

The story on these next pages says it all.  Click on it to enlarge and read.  This is a true story, which sounds funnier than it really was.  This was a troubling situation and Lola had to visit the Vet the next day to get a shot of antibiotics as a prevention and poor Conn was traumatized at how difficult it was to remove the cat from our yard.  It was heartbreaking to watch, both because Conn had to deal with it and I saw how bad he felt and because the cat didn't want to leave.  We still see the cat around.  I think he just wanted to adopt us. 

These pages were inspired while visiting my sister in California, October 2009.

More new stamps.  Sometimes it's just fun to use them without any pressure of how it turns out.

The next 4 pages are my artistic approach to depict a period of time that I went through and am still going through in my life.  Sorry, but the journaling is hard to read here even when enlarged.  To describe in brief, the first page is depicting the demoralization of the company and the people who work(ed) there over the past 3 plus years and how oppressive it seemed.  Yes, Alice, we are down the rabbit hole.  Only instead of the Mad Hatter and company, we had monkeys.  Lots and lots of monkeys.

These next 2 pages are how I saw myself coping in that environment.  I broke out my Zettiology stamps for these pages.  I love them and need to break them out more often.

These 2 pages are meant to depict the story after my job came to an end.  It is about rebirth, recreation, reinventing.

Last but not literally are these 2 pages where the focus is on what I want for my personal life.  The quotes say it all.  Okay, who am I kidding.  The guys help too.

More fun with glaze.  Many of the stamped images were also stamped into the wet glaze, creating a resist look.  Fun use of eyes and inspiring quotes.

As shown in my Inspiration and the Rolling Stones?? blog post, here my sun inspired pages...

Stamp Oasis

The next 2 pages are using Paula Best images which are great for coloring with colored pencils.

More coloring fun with Paper Artsy and Zettiology images.

Terry Madaris images

Tim Holtz and Silver Crow images

Playing with my Alice in Wonderland rubber stamp set.  Inspired by recently watching the Tim Burton rendition of A.I.W.

Zettiology and Stampers Anonymous

Tim Holtz Techniques and Images

Playing with Frida.  I really liked how "Echos of Frida" turned out.  The idea to stamp her 3 times was born from the need to correct a mistake. 

Meet Vampira, Dead Kitty and Bat-gon Fly Boy.  Vampira and Dead Kitty are the names I gave these images from Daniel Torrente.  Bat-gon Fly Boy is another name I gave this image from Cats Life Press.

Paper Artsy images.

The page on the left was inspired by zani images from Stamper's Anonymous (ancient buildings on mechanical legs) and Teesha Moore (space man and sun).  After drinking a little wine and letting my creativity loose, the idea of drawing a planet and turning the design into a space theme was born.  I think it turned out really well and is at the top of my favorite pages.

The page on the right is using another Teesha Moore image (girl tossing her hair) and another vampire bat image from Daniel Torrente.  The theme for this page is "accepting destiny".  I took the liberty of drawing in a pair of bloody fangs on the girl.

These next pages are among the last in this particular journal. 

Lynne Perrella's Asian ladies

Stampers Anonymous, Tim Holtz, Nick Bantock stamps were used on the above pages.  I went with the popular Steampunk theme which to me has a very cluttered and busy feel to it.  As you can see, I excel at that look.  My caption..."Some of man's less fortunate creations".

Stampa Rosa Fresco Chalk inks were used on the pages above.  I love the colors.  They are wonderful to work with and give a really great look to the work.

This page moved up to the top of my favorite page list.  I created a mechanism to pull the swan lady across the waves.  Tehehe...feeling really creative and cleaver about it too.

This page is done, however, I created a whole story about my swan lady traveling to China and their explorations that has yet to be inserted.  Stay tuned....