{how kira got her mojo back}

It’s no secret that, for the last few weeks, I’ve been working more on the computer than in my journals or on canvas — packing up most of your supplies and losing desk space will do that to you — only pulling them out for Tuesday Vlog sessions or my weekly page for Points of Two. I can’t say it’s been entirely due to circumstance, as stress would be a more motivating force when it comes to art; instead, I’ve just been tired. My legs have been giving me more issues that normal, meaning I haven’t been sleeping very much, and sitting in a chair and pulling out papers and painting has seemed daunting.

And I haven’t been all that inspired, I guess. Maybe long to-do lists are the kryptonite to creative impulses — how could I take time to play when I still had so much to do?

Being a holiday weekend, I decided to take the time off, gather supplies in an old, discarded Easter basket, and head outside to try and journal.

And OMG, did it work! I spent the last three days outside working in two journals, switching back and forth between layers, not wanting to lose the flow while things dried. You see, on Thursday, I ventured to Michael’s and bought a little cheap pan watercolor set — who knew all the great things you could do with them? And with less mess? And with fun effects?

I just had to keep playing and making backgrounds, and then play with tape and new ways of writing inspired by a sign at Starbucks and papers and doodles and bits. I made a MESS. I made other people come out and play with me. I got spray paint in the sand. And sand on my pages.

Now I want to doodle and draw and paint some more and get stencils and make messes and find stick-on letters and new white paint and just keep going keep going until I drop...

{points of two week #25: change}

Points of Two is an experiment in journaling with myself and Roben Marie! Check out our archives to see the previous weeks' pages.

I'm going to give you this week's theme in Roben-Marie's own words:

This might be too deep, but I was thinking this weekend about how much I have changed over the last few years.  I find that I have much more patience and find I am much more giving of my time and talents.  I am calmer and react so differently to situations when things are out of my control.  I believe that people can change and I wonder if there may be a way to reflect on our growth over the last few years or less.  How can we meld that into a journal entry?

I do agree with her. There are so many things in me that have changed over the past few years: different reactions, more silver-lining, less depression, more confidence. I tried to meditate on these things while I worked on my page, even trying to work through the different stages in my art as I created. Experimentation. Mess. Thought. Collage. I even used watercolors, which was my very first medium.

People do change. I've seen it with my own eyes, how, if you put your mind to it, if you truly want to change for the better, you can. And if you want to become something more, a bigger, better YOU, that can happen, too.

I took some shots while I worked outside yesterday. Today, I'm grabbing the umbrella and setting up shop. I can't think of a better way to spend a nice, long holiday weekend.

Here's my completed page:

Materials: gesso, pan watercolors, collage bits, liquid acrylics, white pen, pencil, pen, hand-carved stamp

And Roben-Marie's page. Check out her blog for her story!

{a completed journal #14}

{points of two week #24: trim!}

Points of Two is an experiment in journaling with myself and Roben Marie! Check out our archives to see the previous weeks' pages.

TRIM! I love trim. I really, really do. It's so much fun and comes in all sorts of colors and styles. Just wandering down those aisles of trim in Jo-Ann's or Hobby Lobby causes my muse to start jumping for joy and spurting out all sorts of ideas. Sewing it, stitching it, gluing it -- you can't escape the fun and joy of adding trim to your page.

True, true, in a journal, it may be a bit harder, and defiantly makes it thicker, but sometimes, we've just got to do what we love.

These days, scrapbooking shops carry all sorts of trims made especially for paper work, some of them miniaturized to fit better on the page. They come in more colors, with coordinating patterns, almost cookie-cut for a themed piece. Personally, I love the vintage-looking trims, those crocheted pieces of ivory lace, the sewn pieces full of frills and eyelets. You can find great trims at thrift stores, that is, if you're willing to cut up old tablecloths or sheets.

This page was actually created on the back of one of those postal service flat-rate envelopes. I just finished my current journal and haven't bound together my current one (it's all cut down, along with one I'm making for Norm!), so I grabbed what was closest and just started working. Gesso and paint reacted differently on this cardboard surface, even after a few layers, and I'm tempted to cut up a few more of these envelopes to bind into my new journal. I love working on new materials, and really love how things turned out on this one.

I attached the trims with double-sided tape. I find that works the best when working with ribbon and trim -- just lay down a path with the tape and press the trim/ribbon down along it. I've tried glue and gel medium before, and just wasn't satisfied with the results.

Be sure to check out Roben-Marie's blog for the story behind her page!

(click & go to flickr)

& Roben-Marie's page!

{points of two week #23: art bits & digital work}

Points of Two is an experiment in journaling with myself and Roben Marie! Check out our archives to see the previous weeks' pages.

A few weeks ago, Roben-Marie came to me with a proposition. She said that, over at the site where she sells her digital scrapbooking goods, they sometimes pair designers with artists to create some lovely things, and would I be interested? Now, if you've seen her creations, you know how amazingly talented she is, so I jumped at the opportunity.

And you should see the gorgeous things she came up with!

Of course, I just HAD to play with them. They're so fun and bright and COOL. So this week's pages were created with the digital bits Roben-Marie created. I love how different our pages came out even though we were using the same bits and pieces. It really is a great dichotomy. And if you'd like some of the bits for yourself, go on and grab 'em!

Click to make the images bigger!

And Roben-Marie's page. Be sure to check out her blog for her story!

And here's info and such for the bits ;)

First user save $1 on Art Bits!  Use code:  meandkira110  at checkout! :)

First user save $1 on Art Bits!  Use code:  meandkira210  at checkout! :)

{points of two week #22: nostalgia}

Points of Two is an experiment in journaling with myself and Roben Marie! Check out our archives to see the previous weeks' pages.

Today is hot, for the first time in a week, and I'm still getting ready to walk to the store for a nice ice-cold diet coke.

This week's theme was nostalgia. It came about when I told Roben-Marie I was already working on two pages in my journal, two Very Important Pages, and wondered if we could use one as a theme?

You see, I was driving home last weekend, and decided to stop at one of my favorite places for lunch in the Old Neighborhood -- that moniker given to the place where you grew up. So as I was passing though, I thought, "Why don't I stop at my elementary school?"

Now, I left there over 15 years ago, but the moment that scent of wood-chips and summer heat washed over me, all these memories came back. I couldn't believe the place smelled the same as it did when I was little. And while equipment's been moved, added, and removed, there's still the swings (now off to the left) I used to love playing on and the mass of connected jungle-jim in blue and orange where I broke my nose in 5th grade. Cracked, rusting, and soft at the edges from over a decade of children running all over, it still stands as I remembered. The bar where people would flip over and through their arms (which still makes me go ick!). The weird monkey bars. The slide. Did you know there are bars at the top of slides? This is a detail I conveniently forgot when chasing the leader in Capture the Leader up the slide -- I ran into it full-force, broke my nose, and slid down the corkscrew into all the other kids behind me.

My nose hurts, sometimes, as a reminder. It's one of those crystal clear memories I'll have for the rest of my life.

Sitting down to journal after a week + of not was hard. I had to keep walking away. I feel out of practice. I'll have to fix this ASAP!

Enjoy your weekend!

And Roben-Marie's page for this week. I wonder where she got that font? ;)

{points of two week #21: sketches!}

Points of Two is an experiment in journaling with myself and Roben Marie! Check out our archives to see the previous weeks' pages.

Sipping tea on a nice summer Friday. This week, I suggested adding a sketch to our pages, as I've been in a sketching mood. Roben-Marie was a bit hesitant, which is understandable - many people don't think they can sketch, and so, don't even try. But practice makes perfect, lovelies; five or six years ago, I couldn't draw a thing. And think I still can't. But I love the freedom and discovery and thrill of taking out a pencil and just playing.

And this page doesn't have much on it - not a lot of writing or doodles. But there's a story written there in the swoops of the pencil, swirls of a brush loaded with ink. It starts with me finally getting out of the house, drinking that iced chai I love, and putting on my big pink headphones. Grabbing a pencil and playing around. Shaping the eyes. Going back, in my mind, to shapes I've loved before, those I've hated, and how I wanted to reconcile them into something good.

Working with a blender that wasn't cleaned off shot down the coloring idea. I spread over white paint and spied an old painting from the corner of my eye, how I love the shape of the girl's head, and so I try again, over the paint, with ink. The eyes are big. The hair's odd. And while she isn't the best, she represents me getting back to the journal, having fun, not stressing about classes or blogging or painting on large canvases. Just getting in there, doing my thing. I started as a drawer; my first journal is full of the world around me interpreted through the tip of a pen, and I want to get back to that, somehow.

This was the first page created from my toolbox and suitcase, on the floor in what was a studio and is now half-packed away. Could this still work without it all? Yes. Yes it can. So here she is, a picture with so much written, the letters have blended to paint and shape.

And here's Roben-Marie's. See? She did lovely sketches! I never said they had to be of people!

I'm off to grab some tech gear and clean out my inbox. :D

{working under the sky full of leaves and starts}

First order of business: here's this week's vlog. Outside. In the sun. I couldn't see the computer screen and kept trying to keep up.

I finished the page yesterday while out for an iced chai.

I have to say, getting out and simply doodling in my journal has done wonders. After weeks of prepping for class, rushing through Points of Two entries, and packing, diving back into my journal has help jump-start other creative processes despite having a room full of boxes instead of a working area. Which is fine; I'm down to papers, a toolbox, and a vintage red suitcase filled with goodies. Is it possible to jump into said suitcase? Live among the supplies and scraps and magic wand? I wish we could wrap ourselves in magic and wonder, all that stuff we accumulate that has our muses begging for a moment of time, snatched hours flying by unnoticed.

That happened today, when I took the wood panel painting outside to finish a drawing on it. There's a tree in my front yard that's spread almost like a tent, green leaves hanging off branches that seem to grow up then down into the ground. A dome of nature, with long grass and quiet. And yes, it's in the front, where people can see me, but I don't mind. Put on my pretty pink headphones and do my thing.

Maybe this is all truly like riding a bike. You get distracted, and altered, changed by the crap life throws at you, and then come back, sliding right into that flow of creativity you left for awhile. Things change. A bit of meditation grabbed on a long car ride re-centers and energizes, shows you who you really are, underneath all the failings and bitterness and stress of all this stuff. Secrets. I can only shake my head, detach with love, and count off the days until I move to another state. I'm yearning for that second chance, that new beginning, that moving seems to promise.

And let me say this, while I'm loquacious and frank: thank you. To every single person who's signed up for my class, taken a chance on this whirlwind in my head I'm dying to scream from mountaintops. I am ecstatic for the chance to touch the lives of others, and if one of you comes out with some new way of looking at things, I'll feel accomplished. But more than that, from deeper places, thank you. I've lived with the stress of no more prescription insurance and expensive medications, of bills and calls and denying myself at every turn. And because of you, yes, you, I was able to get meds and pay bills and live with a little more room to breathe. You've helped loosen the corset laced around me, and when I saw sign ups on Tuesday, I actually started to cry. You're the most supportive, amazing, magical people a girl could be blessed to know.

Tomorrow, I'm planning on sitting with my emails until everyone's got an answer. And plan to work out a better organization system. And then, I'm off to the races again, putting together my 'zine or book of journal pages and essays on creativity and journaling, scraps of words and paper put together.

Because isn't that what we're doing, in the end? Collecting scraps and creating meaning, in our own ways?