Weekend Journal

A Journey Through My Moleskin

You may remember my excitement when I bought my first Moleskin journal back in May.  I pull this little gem out about once a month and let my creative muse run free.  If you haven't seen the first posts about my Moleskin, I'll attach some links at the end of this post.


These two pages were all about color and line.  I randomly pulled tubes of artist acrylics and just played to my heart's content.

I wanted to play with a page from an old dictionary on these pages.  I decided to cut out blocks from the page and let my muse play from there.

Music has always played a major part in my life, and these pages were inspired by old sheet music and a postcard for a gallery exhibition.

I created these pages last Saturday.  I was waiting for a student in my art journaling class and was actually writing about her.  When she arrived, she gifted me with a page that read, "Won't you hand on some of your time?"  It was perfect for this spread and I attached it to the page immediately.   You've just got to love synchronicity!

My final two pages were created with water soluble crayons.  I began scribbling in lines in various colors until what emerged was a scene from a woods.  It's no wonder that autumn's on my mind; the weather here is unseasonably cool and my summer flowers are struggling to hold on for a few more weeks.

If you haven't tried using a Moleskin journal, I highly recommend giving it a try.  They're a little pricey for someone as frugal as I, but they're worth their weight in gold.  The pages are watercolor paper and every medium I've tried on them works beautifully.  I bought mine from Dick Blick, but you may be able to find them at your favorite local craft or art store.

TODAY'S PHOTO

The first signs of autumn are beginning to appear in my neighborhood.  I couldn't help but notice this shock of crimson in my neighbor's maple tree.  What's it like in your neighborhood?  I know some of you are entering spring.  As the weather gets cooler and more gloomy by the day, I'm thinking I'd like to trade places with you!

MY SONS' VIDEOS

Here's a shameless plug for my sons' videos.  (Hey, you can't blame a mom for sharing her enthusiasm for her sons' creative endeavors!)  This first video was filmed by my son, Nick, and is footage of Lake Erie last weekend.  It's a little early in the season to see the lake so muddy and active from the north winds.

This next video was created by my son, Mike, who moved to sunny, southern California back in June.  He's having a blast in his new environment and with his new Sony camera.  He's been playing with time lapse and other assorted film making goodies.  This video is from his weekend at Big Bear Lake in CA with his girlfriend, Nadia.

If you've never been to California (as I have not!), check out some of his other videos for a tour of some really beautiful scenery from their travels in CA, NY, and Canada.  They're headed to Europe next week and I can't wait to see those videos.  I'll keep you posted!

My Moleskin Journal Post Links

My First Moleskin
The Black Keys
More Moleskin Fun
Ideas
Visions of Sugar Skulls
Reflecting on the Weekend

Have a Wonderful Weekend!

I hope you have a wonderful, restful and creative weekend!  Take some time out of your busy schedule to do the things that make YOU happy, and don't forget to spend some time out of doors enjoying the scenery in your world.  Whether it's time to flip through spring catalogs or winterize your deck, I hope you're enjoying every moment of your life as you "Celebrate, LOVE, and Create!"  And, hey - don't forget to leave a comment below.   I do so enjoy hearing from you and what you're doing!

Tuesday Tips and Techniques: Manifest Your Music Muse

FIND A GREAT, NEW TUNE
When you need a direction for your journaling, manifest your music muse.  Being somewhat of a closet musician, I like listening to different genres of music and discovering new bands.  When I don't having anything in particular I want to journal about, I find new music to listen to and I let my music muse play in my journal.

PUT THE SONG ON "REPEAT" AND BEGIN PAINTING AND DRAWING
The next pages in my journal were already prepped with left over acrylic paint from another project, and I thought this was a perfect place to begin.  I put the song (playing now), "If You Touch Me I'm Going to Scream, by My Morning Jacket,  on "repeat" and let it play four times while I completed my spread. Thinking of nothing in particular, I just let the rhythm and lyrics permeate my subconscious as I began adding layers of water soluble pastels and gesso to the page.

DEVELOP THE SHAPES THAT EMERGE
As I added more and more color and gesso to the page, I began to see shapes emerging and I began using a scribbling technique as I placed marks and lines on the page to the beat of the music.  

ADD DETAILS AND REFLECT ON YOUR PAGES
As I added the final details to my pages I suddenly realized that they reminded me of the chemotherapy I had undergone such a long time ago.  It's nothing that I've thought about consciously for a very long time, so I was surprised to find my subconscious revisiting this all but forgotten time in my life.  


The thing I like most about this technique is the element of playfulness evoked by just playing with art materials.  This technique also tends to release experimentation as you explore new ways of using the mediums you have at hand.


Whatever you're doing in your journal today, put on some music, crank it up and manifest your music muse.  It's a great way to play as you "Celebrate, LOVE, and Create!"

Three In One

OK...I hope you've got your comfy spot and favorite beverage set again, because here are the three days worth of posts I promised for today!

Before I get started, I want to mention a couple things.  First, one of my dear followers mentioned that she has a difficult time reading and listening to the music at the same time, so I've moved the music box to the top of the sidebar.  All you have to do is click the middle button to stop the music.  I hope this helps anyone who prefers to not to listen!  Secondly, I've decided that "Thursday's Child" is a bit much for me to handle at this time.  It's a lot more labor intensive than I anticipated, so I'm still mulling over what to do with this feature.  I was experiencing technical difficulties posting the last interview to the page, so I'm going to have to figure that out as well. 

I will continue my "Tuesday Tips and Techniques" as well as "Wednesday's Word".  I enjoy bringing these features to you and I hope you're enjoying them too.  "Angelia's Art Journal's" is still in it's infancy, and I'm still evolving and growing and (hopefully) making improvements along the way!

I want to say again that I appreciate EACH AND EVERY COMMENT, and I am trying my best to answer each one.  I know I've missed some along the way, but please know that I do read each comment.  Thanks to all of you for your support.  I maintain this blog for YOU!

LINKS! If you've created pages from inspiration you've found here on a post, I encourage each of you to post links to your pages in the comments section.  We would ALL love to see what everyone is doing!

I hope to begin instructional videos soon.  My tech guy (one of my sweet sons, Mike) is helping me walk through the tech problems such as converting and editing MP4s (I think that's what we're doing! LOL), positioning of the camera, etc.  I'm determined!  OK, enough of my babbling.  On to the art!

TUESDAY TIPS and TECHNIQUES

Wax Paper

Wax paper is your friend.  Most commonly, I use it between pages in my journal that tend to be a little sticky or between pages that have oil pastels that tend to smear.  It's invaluable for those purposes but it's fun to use in creating pages too.

Using a stylus or old ink pen, you can emboss your page using wax paper. Using a fairly heavy pressure, the wax from the paper is left on the page as a resist.  This technique works really great with watercolor or colored pencils.

I've used a fine point Sharpie that's beginning to run out of ink so you can see what I'm doing.  I've made vines, spirals and random lines as a background.

Here's a close up of a watercolor wash on top of the embossed area. Some of the areas where I wasn't so heavy handed left less wax so the lines are much thinner.

After the first wash dried, I took the wax paper and drew a face on the upper right side of the page.  The dark areas are the areas that I want to retain the original wash and remain as highlights on the face.  You have to think in terms of "opposite" when you're doing this.

Here you can see the dark blue wash that I applied.  As the was began drying, I added more pigment to the areas that I wanted to be even darker.

Here's a close up of the left eye.  I love the way the eyes turned out!  I haven't decided what else I'll do with this page, but I'll post a picture of the page when I've finished.

Wednesday's Word

"MUSE"

I've given a lot of thought to my creative muse this week, and I've decided that I have a team of muses.  Yesterday, I told you about my inner child muse, but what I've discovered is I think I have a team of muses, each with a distinct personality.

I'm happy to say that my other muses are much calmer than my inner child muse.  I have a muse that loves the outdoors.  All of her inspirations come from the things of nature.  She's the muse that loves the lake and long strolls through the woods.  She loves flowers and animals and the way the clouds move through the sky.  She is my messenger of SPIRIT.

I have another muse who is "the philosopher".  She loves exploring the unseen and mystical.  She loves the night sky and lives among the stars.  She loves symbolism and has connections with the ancient worlds.  She knows the secrets of the indigenous people of the land.  She is solemn and sensible.  She is the muse that grounds me.  She is my SOUL.

My other muse is "the explorer".  She thrives on experiences, visiting new places and meeting new people.  She is the "class clown" and is the one who continually gets me into trouble!  She doesn't know the meaning of "politically correct".  She speaks her mind and really doesn't mean any harm when she thinks without speaking.  She loves laughter and happy times.  She loves words and language.  She loves communicating with everyone and thrives on art shows and creative websites.  She is my hoarder.  She is my MIND.


All of my muses keep me busy and are part of who I am.  There's never a dull moment with my muses around.  What are your muses like?  Do you have one?  Do you have many?  Do they come and go?  Can you summon them at will?  Do new muses come along?  Create a journaling spread about YOUR muse!

"I follow the muse, and that's when it always works perfectly for me." ~Jackie De Shannon

"The most potent muse of all is our own inner child." ~Stephen Nachmanovitch

"There is something else at work here that is beyond me." ~Genie Francis

THURSDAY'S CHILD

An'Angelia Thompson

Since I don't have a new interview to share with you, I thought you might enjoy seeing a snippet of my life.  I created this video as part of the 21 Secrets workshop that I was so honored to be a part of.  What began as a trip to my old neighborhood for "just a couple of pictures" for a completely different story, turned into a life changing experience for me.  I hope you enjoy my video.  I recommend watching it in full screen so you can see the subtitles.  Thanks for watching!

"Going Home" from An' Angelia Thompson on Vimeo.

VIDEO NOTES:

Circumstances had to be "just right" for me to stumble across that marble.  Just the very top of it was showing through the dirt and the sun was hitting it just right.  I walked right over it and had to step backwards to see what it was.  The large maple tree where I played marbles is long gone, so for me to find this (obviously old) marble was somewhat of a miracle.  The whole experience was incredible for me.

When Mom died, my brother and sister and I had to pick out her headstone.  We had decided that since Mom so loved roses, we would incorporate roses into the things we had to get for her memorial service and burial.  It was important to my sister and me to have three roses on her headstone, representing one for each of her children.  That there were three red roses left blooming on that rosebush hit me after I got home and looked at the pictures.  Coincidence?  I chose to believe not.

Here are my completed journal pages.  I painted over the letter to Mom and the words, "everybody sails alone but we can travel side by side" are lyrics from KT Tunstall's song, "Heal Over".

Well, that's it for today, dear friends.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend filled with lots of creativity.  I'll see you again Monday, so until then remember: "Celebrate, LOVE and Create!"

Painting with Plastic

When I take out my journal, I have no idea where creativity will take me.  This morning, as I pulled out the colors that spoke to me, I decided to paint with plastic. Yep, plastic!

Usually, I only choose 2 or 3 colors, but today 5 colors jumped out at me! Aren't they luscious?

I applied 5 big blobs of color to the right side of my spread

Then I took an old credit card and transfered some of the paint blobs to the left side of my spread.

Holding the card at about a 45 degree angle, I spread the paint in a random manner.

 I applied more blobs of  the same paint colors to my favorite palette - a small paper plate.  In addition, I added black and white and pulled out my plastic fork.  While the background dried, I studied the patterns to see what I could detect.

As I stared at the pages, the shape of a figure began to form, and the purple strokes reminded me of a keyboard.  I began applying paint with the handle of the fork.  First, the light green to highlight the arms, and  then, white and black to hightlight the keys.  I could see the faint beginnings of a face on the upper left.

I turned my attention to the right side of the spread.  I saw the makings of a hand on the lower right corner.  The yellow area looked like the top of a drum, and as I studied the page further, I saw the faint shape of two eyes and a head.  Continuing to use my fork handle, I applied more paint highlighting and shadowing the various shapes that I could see.  I added the curved black line behind my bongo player to draw the eye to the left and add a little more interest to the page.

I had a lot of fun with this spread, and now I have a jazz club in my journal.  I know that somewhere out of view are people laughing and chatting at tables in darkened corners, and the soft tinkle of ice against glasses.

And me? I'm tapping my toe to the rhythm of the bongo player and contemplating where "Happy Creating!" might take me tomorrow. 



Fire, Art, Music & Tech Burn Out

I tried to create a post earlier, but honestly, I'm just burned out, shut down -the brain has exited the building.  I've not yet found a solution to my video tech problems and quite frankly, I'm exasperated to the point where I just can't deal with it anymore for awhile. 

It was definitely time to "Fill the well" and recharge my spirit, and that's just what I did this weekend by working in my journal, and surrounding myself with good friends, good music and good wine.

We had a wonderful bonfire at Ro's on Friday night.  It was a beautiful starry night with some scattered clouds, and the moon was just a few days past full. It was a night perfect for listening to the crackling fire and sipping wine.

Photo: "August Moon" taken by Keith Thompson

We went out Saturday night to listen to our singer/songwriter friend, Tom Smith, play a gig at Rider's 1812 Inn in Painesville.  Tom entertained us with favorites from decades past, like Seals & Crofts', "Summer Breeze" and Bob Dylan's, "Don't Think Twice". 

He covered many more favorites from artists like The Beatles, Al Green, James Taylor and the more contemporary Verve Pipe and Black Crowes, but it's Tom's thoughtful and tender originals that always captivate my attention.  Tom is genuine, caring and  funny, and I am always enriched after having been in his presence.  He and his wife, Kathy, are far more family than friends.

And speaking of Kathy, she turned us on to an excellent Australian Shiraz.  How can you possibly go wrong with a wine named, "Layer Cake"?

So, that's about it for now.  Today I went for my morning walk with Ro and did some grocery shopping.  After putting the groceries away, I basically spent the day doing NOTHING.  That's right, I did NOTHING, and in doing so continued to feed my spirit and recharge my energy.

Now, I'm feeling like I can face my technical problems head-on tomorrow and find a solution.  After all, there are so many wonderful things coming up for the month of September and they all point to "Happy Creating!"