In with the New!

A Happy New Year to you all! I love the idea of beginning with a clean slate every 365 days.  It's like having a large, shiny white canvas and complete and total access to an art supply store; the possibilities are endless!  I like the idea of using "tried and true" and I like the excitement of exploring the new.  That's what January 1st feels like to me.

I've been thinking about a new look for "Angelia's Art Journals" since autumn, and I've also been thinking about new ways to share with you and how I can blog more efficiently.   All that thinking and brain storming lead to the creation of a new look and some new features that I hope you'll enjoy.

My first new feature is "Tuesday Tips & Techniques".  I'm going to show you all my little tips, tricks, and methods, and hopefully, there will be plenty of accompanying video.  I'm still trying to work out some tech issues with compression and conversion.  We'll see what happens!

The 2nd new feature I'm offering is "Wednesday's Word".  I love words, and a lot of my artistic inspiration comes from song lyrics, quotes, and the origin and meaning of words.  This will be a weekly feature that I hope inspires you to contemplate your choice and understanding of words in your creativity.

The new feature that I'm most excited about is "Thursday's Child".  I've met a wonderful array of very sweet and talented creatives through sharing my artwork here on the Internet, and I want you to meet them, too!  "Thursday's Child"  is a weekly interview segment with my friends and fellow creatives.  I was thought about how much we all have in common and how "like finds like".  I  thought about the commonality of our struggles, our loves, our fears,  and our incessant need to create.

"Thursday's Child" was inspired by the line from the poem ("...Thursday's child has far to go") and by the David Bowie song, "Thursday's Child" ("All of my life I tried so hard/doing the best with what I had/sometimes my courage fell to my feet....)  Anyway, that's how "Thursday's Child was born, and the first segment premiers this coming Thursday with Kelly Watts.

Kelly has been an ongoing source of inspiration to me since I started following her blog almost a year ago.  One of her posts inspired me to focus on one word for 2011.  I've chosen "love" as my focus word.  If I can focus on "love" in all it's different forms and meanings, and start with myself, just how great will this year be!

I leave you with one of my favorite photos from the last day of 2010.  I took it at Mentor Headlands yesterday around 10:30 am.  It looks extremely cold, but there was a gentle breeze out of the SW and it was around 50 degrees.  I was there for 2 hours and spent the last 20 minutes watching a bald eagle feed from a small ice floe just off shore.  (I got a few pics but they're really bad.  I hope to get some good ones of my eagle friend soon!)

So, Happy New Year!, my friends.  I'm looking forward to an exciting year of unending possibility and I hope you are too.  Until next time, Celebrate, Love, and CREATE! 

Out with the Old

Here we are at the end of another year, and as usual, we wonder what happened to the previous 12 months!  Life certainly seems to go by in a blur, and as I reflect back, I'm grateful to have my journals and blogs to help trigger the memory of those moments worth recalling.

My first "Angelia's Art Journals" post appeared in March 2010, and that's lead to more than I could have ever imagined.  I can't believe how many wonderful people I've met through this blog and I'm looking forward to meeting more of my fellow creatives in the next 12 months.

2010 was the year I decided to take control of my health and begin walking.  My almost daily pilgrimage to the beach has become an integral part of my life, and in spite of the inclimate winter weather, I still sneak down when I can.  I haven't given up on the walking though.  It's been temporarily replaced by a treadmill and recumbent bike. It's not the same, but it's growing on me.

There were commissions and parties and lots of other good moments in 2010.  There were, of course, some moments that I would not want to revisit again under any circumstances.  But you know what?  I can make the choice NOT to revisit those moments.  It's all about editing, and I think this clip from "Everybody Loves Raymond" is the best statement on editing life that I've ever heard.

So, as we bid a final farewell to 2010, I hope that all you take with you into 2011 are the good memories, and I hope you take time to reflect on those things that have helped in your evolution of the wonderful and unique person that you are.  "Happy Creating!"

Embracing Winter

Anyone who knows me knows that winter is my least favorite season. I like to be outdoors with my hands in the warm earth or sitting on my deck painting and communing with the birds. Winter in northeast Ohio is not the place for this, but I've decided that I'm going to try my best to embrace winter this year.


I bundled up against the cold and headed for the beach. There was a strange comfort in the silence and there were still signs of life in the desolate terrain.

The path lay before me with not a sign of any human activity, but I did find tracks of the birds who still call Headlands home during winter.  Their winter dance left behind a beautiful abrstract in the snow.

I found a bush along the path, it's folliage long gone, giving way to glorious red berries that shone brightly against the stark white snow and remined me of a Jackson Pollack painting.

The beach grasses had taken on a warm, golden orange tint and stood in stark contrast to the cool blue of the sky.

Lake Erie's southern shores remained open and flowing, and there were only traces of ice floating near the beach.  The sand lay mostly hidden beneath a thin blanket of snow.

I returned home, chilled by my outing but inspired by the quiet beauty of my journey.  I thought about the artwork that mother nature had left behind in the aftermath of all those warm, sun filled days I had spent on the beach, and I thought about how much more pleasant the winter will be if I make the choice to look at it differently.

I decided that if my little squirrel friend can embrace winter, than so can I.  Who knows what "Happy Creating!" this new perspective may lead to as I open the pages of my art journal?

My Winter Song

I began this journal spread as before; I had previously applied paint left over from my previous day's journaling.

 I didn't know what I was going to journal about, so I took black artist acrylic and drew in some random shapes and the shapes of faces that I could see.

I still wasn't sure where I was headed, so I began to add color to the pages, first adding a medium purple. . .

And then a medium shade of ultramarine blue.

I continued by adding some fuschia as highlights to some of the shapes, and I made some additional shapes and lines for added interest.

I decided to add yellow to the pages to warm the cool colors and add additional highlights.

As I worked with the spread, it began to take on a life of it's own.  A shape on the left seemed like a door and the small rectangles reminded me of windows.  The crescent shapes reminded me of cobblestone.  I added more black lines to both pages to help tie them together and to add some shading to the flat shapes.

As I continued working with the spread, the building began to take on some character and I saw a fushcia path leading to a mountain.  It put me in mind of a cold, winter version of VanGogh's "The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night". 

I added more shadows with black artist acrylic and I added the moon and more hightlights with white artist acrylic to complete the spread.

This will be my last post until after Christmas.  I hope that all of you have a wonderful time and remain safe and warm wherever you are.  I also hope that your holiday season is complete with all the things you love and hold dear to your heart, and that whether you're baking cookies, wrapping packages or making memories, you'll find yourself in the spirit of "Happing Creating!".  That is my winter song for you.  Blessings to you all and I'll see you back here for more journaling inspiration on Monday, December 27th.

Fly

Once again I opened my journal to the next pages that I coated with the left over paint from the day before.

As I looked at the pages, I saw three birds.  The colors were dingy and muddy so I decided to add some cerulean blue and yellow green artist acrylic to punch it up a bit.

 I took out my black water soluble crayon and began to sketch in the outline of the birds.  I liked using the pastel on top of the acrylic.  Adding water to the crayon made it easy to wipe out and re-draw some of the lines until they were the way I wanted them.

After the rough sketch was competed, I added black artist acrylic to further define the shadows and consequently that added areas of highlight.  I added additional highlights with white artist acrylic and I added black lines to represent branches and add interest to the background. 

I added lyrics from the song, "Blackbird", and word "Fly" to complete my spread.

I thought about what birds represent to me.  I thought about Maya Angelou's, "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings", and I thought about that song made popular by the Beatles, "Blackbird".  I thought about soaring as high as the clouds and I thought about freedom.  I thought about this gift I have of being what we label "artist", and I was grateful that I have the freedom to express myself through journaling and what I love to call "Happy Creating!".