Just a little more fun from the sunny desert! I go over Liquitex Ink!, paintings, and fun with color!
I'll be putting paintings up next week. This week is for color study and play. Sometimes, your play and time isn't all about the finished product. I'm loving playing with color and thinking differently, and can't wait to try some new ideas out in my journal! This one's certainly getting filled with fun, and fast!
As soon as my sewing machine arrives, I'll be putting up custom journals - both sewn and ring-bound - screenprinted fabrics, and little paintings. I cannot WAIT to get these ideas out of my head and into the real world!
I used to love vlogging! And while I'm without proper video equipment, I thought, "Why not just play?" So I did just that. Which is why this series is called The Experiments Book. Taking a cue from the book I created to try new things in, this weekly vlog series will be about me playing with new things -- from discovering awesome papers to mixing inks, follow along with my artful adventures!
I am really cutting it close, here, aren't I!? I don't like doing two posts in one day, so I want to get this one up before midnight so I can post my little essay on my experience working on the quilt today for tomorrow. And then Friday is Points of Two and then it's the weekend. Woohoo! We're in full-on packing mode here in the Casa de Kira (or de la? I don't know!), so my creative time is in-between purging closets, cabinets, and dressers.
Here's the finished journal page from yesterday's vlog. I only got a chance to work on it while watching the Daily Show as I spent my free time sewing!
I am really, REALLY in love with the look & feel of this page. And the fact that I didn't use ANY PAINT really gets me -- and shows me how much beauty you can create even with the most limited of materials.
And what the page says is true: I've never been a big fan of fall! It always meant the beginning of the school year and end of warm temperatures to me, the foreshadowing of snow to come. And so, whenever I saw decorations for fall/Halloween pop up in stores, I was like -- UGH!
While getting ready this morning, I realized the REAL reason I never was comfortable with fall. At the beginning of the summer, there's just so much possibility on the horizon -- so many plans you can make, places to go, experiences to be had. Commercials and ads show us beautiful people laughing while enjoying the outdoors and the company of friends. There simply are no limits to what can be accomplished during the summer.
And then, fall comes sweeping in on a cool breeze and we're back to our stable, normal lives. As if we can ONLY be spontaneous and fun while the sun is the hottest. While many people take vacations and go to exciting spots, I haven't been able to do so in a few years. Sure, I have picnics and see friends, but am always left feeling depressed as summer ends because I feel I never lived up to the season's potential.
As I'm packing up to move, though, I've finally become comfortable with fall. Maybe it's because where I'm moving to won't have the chilly fun snow time characteristic of Chicago winters -- you have to admit I'm fleeing to a place where summer may live most of the year, and maybe, just maybe, that means there's more room to have those adventures seen on the glossy pages of a magazine...
I do find myself loving the color palette, though!
When I re-organized my supplies for easier access and posted this picture, I never thought it would get more than maybe a few comments -- and most about the artwork on the table, honestly (the piece of the right is now finished and hanging in my studio!). But then I saw this comment:
And it got me to thinking: the last time I posted a supply list was way back in 2007. Look at my hair! I still have the same glasses, though (and am trying to save up for a new pair, since these are now out of date. won't you help a girl out?). And the same desk. As I watched this younger me talk about her favorite supplies, I thought, "Why not do an updated list?"
I haven't changed too much, at least I don't think so. But there ARE some additions, as well as more information on some of the stuff I've now been using for years.
(BTW, I don't know where that annoying sound in the background came from...maybe I should have used my mic! This was done quick and easy this morning!)
Download the PDF that goes into more detail and includes some basic stuff I didn't have time for!
I've also made a free gift just for YOU. I created a set of brushes to use for Hodgepodge #2's layout, and thought, "Why not share 'em?" I do want to get into making more things like this, so what better way to start than to just make it real!
Yep! For Photoshop! You use these just like stamps, but digitally! When you open your brushes palette, there's a little > at the top right -- click it, and then go to Load Brushes. Select this file and you're all set!
A few days ago on Twitter, Kerri and I were chatting about talking trees. How they sway in the wind, fluttering leaves rustling together to create nature's wind chime. My mother, in fact, used to set me under trees as a baby, the leaves a perfect mobile. Our conversation got me thinking about how, in a few weeks, I'll be leaving Chicago to move across the country to Phoenix, and how the trees I love so dearly will be left behind. Kerri's suggestion was to take pictures of my favorite trees to take with on the move.
I thought about that, about all the things I'm leaving behind, not only physically, but mentally and spiritually as well right now in my life. My art is going through a change, a passage that seems so important yet scary at the same time, I often don't know what to do but keep moving forward. When reading last night, this passage from one of my favorite books, 'Dance of the Dissident Daughter' really resonated with me. Sue Monk Kidd writes:
The only way I have ever understood, broken free, emerged, healed, forgiven, flourished, and grown powerful is by asking the hardest questions and then living the answers through opening up to my own terror and transmuting it into creativity. I have gotten nowhere by retreating into hand-me-down sureties or resisting the tensions that truth ignited.
I thought, Isn't this what I'm going through? Passing through my own truths -- about life, family, art, love, attachment -- and coming out the other side with more heartfelt, expressive art? The pieces I've been doing lately, on loose pieces of canvas, have become some of the most earnest pieces I've ever done; in fact, the one I constructed last night brought tears to my eyes as I finished stitching on it.
Wanting to be near the trees and grass and earth beneath my feet, I grabbed my journal, camera, and book and ventured outside. I wrote those passages that really mean something to me in my journal, bringing in this bit of twig -- it was there, right where I decided to sit, as though it was always supposed to be with me.
But after taking photos for awhile, I realized no picture could do these trees true justice. So I switched settings over and began to film, the lyrics, "Don't let this fading summer pass you by," hitting me so hard as I wrote my little letter, I cry every time I watch this. This is art-as-film, not a tutorial or vlog, but me expressing myself as best I possibly can as the sun sets behind me and another day begins to end.
Tonight, I showed you some info on the Copic Airbrush System and my own (slightly dangerous!) way of freestyle sewing. Don't worry -- I'm headed out tomorrow to get the darning foot for my sewing machine, so my fingers should be safe!
Also, goodbye August! I always feel like this is the end of summer, and cold weather is on its way. But I have to remember that A. I don't go outside much in August because it's too hot, and B. I will never see another Chicago winter (as a resident, that is!). So it's bittersweet yet exciting at the same time.
Then again, I think I'm the only person in the world who doesn't love fall!
I realized this week that I've been doing these vlogs for over 7 months, now, which is pretty awesome. There's a wealth of information over on the channel page (or if you click the vlog tuesday tag to this post), stuff I haven't edited down for YouTube. There's always something new, and as I dive into this new creative river, I just can't wait to show you all, each week, just what I've been up to.
This week, I show you how to make the page below, and even pulled out my sewing machine. Yes, there were technical difficulties, but I think the stuff I've been able to figure out (most notably the chat now displaying on the recording, for all those who can't make it live) really made it all worth it.
PS -- if you're one of those who said I! for a journal, please leave me a comment! I'm ready to go snuggle in bed with a good book and a good puppy, so details will be up tomorrow, but I'd just like to get a final number. Also, if you watch the recording and want one, comment here too! Shall order supplies tomorrow!
PPS -- Dawn, I totally know you're getting one. And to hand off a journal in person during our wild Chicago Art Fun Time (with Ky) is going to be EPIC.
