Hello, dear friends! There was art last week, but there was even more play. This winter has been particularly rough as the past few winters have been on the mild side. The weather finally broke and we were treated to 3 consecutive days of 50 degree plus days and sunshine. You know I had to make my pilgrimage to the beach!
It felt so good to be out of the house and walking the beach in sand instead of snow. I even found a few pieces of beach glass! It was still chilly, but there were no winds and the warmth of the sun was enough to keep me from getting cold.
I mostly worked in my journal at night, and since the lighting in my house is pretty low and I had new pens to play with, I decided to work on a zendoodle hand mandala. It took me a couple nights to complete.
I didn't make it to the beach on Thursday, but my son and I went on Friday afternoon. The road I live on runs along the river, and we had quite the surprise on our return trip home. It got warm enough for the ice to start melting and break apart and begin floating. It jammed right down the road from where I live so I parked and Mike got some great pics of the jam and resulting flooding.
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| Photo by Mike Thompson |
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| Photo by Mike Thompson |
It was pretty amazing to see so much ice jammed on the Grand River. I haven't been back to take a look, but they were supposed to bring one of the ice cutters to the area on Saturday. It turned bitter cold again yesterday, and we've got a fresh coast of 4 or 5 inches of snow again. I knew we'd get more, I just wasn't expecting it so soon.
I did find some time to play in my journal on Friday morning before we went to the beach. I played with acrylic glazes, collage and oil pastels. It was extremely windy on Friday and our beloved terracotta thermometer was blown off the house and shattered into bits. Being the type to make lemonade out of lemons, I brought the pieces in and immediately did rubbings of the numbers and floral design. The numbers you see on the right side are those rubbings. I've written "We are at the mercy of nature. We are at the mercy of time."
Yesterday, I was in a quiet, reflective mood watching the movie "Dragonfly" with Kevin Costner. I wrote down all the things I was thinking about and covered the writing with acrylic glazes. I painted in the flowers and Queen Anne's Lace with artist acrylic. I drew the dragonflies from magazine print and glued them to the page with a glue stick.
It's cold and snowy again, but I saw my iris beginning to peek through the ground last week. I saw glimpses of water on Lake Erie, and I heard the birds singing as they prepare their nests for spring. I know that soon the snow will be gone for good, but while I wait, I'll remember to "Celebrate, LOVE and Create!"
Every now and then I go on the hunt for new ideas and new techniques. I've found plenty of both at Milliande.ning.com.
I decided to continue the Journal January prompts this past weekend, and boy, did I ever step out of my comfort zone!
I had already used her Day 4 prompt when I created this page. It wasn't really out of my comfort zone, but it did set me on the zebra stripe thought process.
I went back to Day 1, which required using a zebra as part of the image. Hmmmm....me? Draw a zebra? (downloading her zebra printout just wasn't an option for my artist) So, after sketching out 3 animals that looked like everything from pigs to new species, I finally came up with a zebra that I liked. I kept the original and scanned and cut out the zebra from those. The original has some "goof" lines, so I'll have to always cut it out to use in my artwork.
I wanted to use more than one zebra for my page, so I used 3. I have a thing about using even numbers of images in my work, so I always use an odd number of like images. I used Prismacolor pencils to add color. (You KNOW I couldn't leave it black and white!)
Having completed Day 1 (and Day 4), I moved on to the prompt for Day 2 which required a "zendoodle". A what? A zendoodle. I had noticed zendoodle displays in my craft store, but I hadn't really paid much attention to them. Doodling little areas in black and white - NOT my thing. But what the heck, I decided to give it a try and it was really a lot of fun. I began with the head of a zebra and began drawing in areas to doodle from there.
I like the resulting image, but honestly, it's a fussy method that I probably won't be prone to revisiting. (I still have a tedious, colored pencil drawing class to get through!) When I finished this zebra mandala, I scanned and copied the image in a couple different sizes. I cut the zebra head from a couple of the mandalas and used some of the pieces in my page design. And of course, I had to add some color. I just couldn't leave the black and white design as it was - it was screaming for some red at the very least!
I like the way this page turned out, and I will probably continue using some of her journal prompts. It's not that I don't have enough journaling ideas of my own - I have more than I have time to create. What I like about using others' journal prompts is that it gets me to see things in different ways and it prompts me to try new things.
If you're interested in checking out the journaling prompts, there's a blog button for Journal January on my sidebar, and a link to Milliande's ning site at the top of this post. I have also included a blog button for "Inspired By?", the new Milliande prompt for February. February's Inspired By? is Miro - right up my alley! I can't wait to explore him. "Messin' with the Masters" is something you know I like to do! Whatever medium or prompts you enjoy using, remember: "Celebrate, LOVE and Create!"
