Je Dessine ("I Draw") Show-and-Tell Monday

Angie at the Vet's Looking Out a Window

Zeus Laying on the Deck

A Few Quick Sketches of Angie Again at the Vet's

Well, I sketched a lot this past week. Mostly I made small drawings (in a 5"x6" journal) as I was sitting in different venues: my cat at the vet clinic (one drawing is from earlier in the month, as well as this one I quickly drew today today); a friend's greyhound at a meeting;

Lola in Group
and one self-portrait (where I've made myself look like I'm 500 lbs. Ahem, I have gone on a diet!). I do seem to be tackling drawing a bit more confidently...at least I don't worry about what I'm sketching -- I just do it. But I do have an intention, if not expectation, that my skill will increase if I keep doing this.

1000th Post Celebratory Drawing!

Sacred Journey Itsy Bitsy Oriel Pendant (Front)
Leave a comment and you might win this necklace!

Oh my -- I've hit my 1000th post! This is a big deal for me to celebrate almost 3 years of creative postings (my first post was on January 2008). It's been a stimulating, expansive, sometimes frustrating but all-in-all satisfyingly productive journey! I never expected to have any readers, but you guys who take the time to come visit and comment on my posts have added a totally different dimension to my pursuit of creativity. So here's a BIG THANKS to all of you for dropping by (anonymously or not so), and to celebrate my 1000th post I am holding a drawing for one of my handcrafted, hand-soldered oriel pendants! In order to enter your name in the drawing, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. In two weeks time, I will select one reader to be the giftee of my Sacred Journey Itsy Bitsy Oriel Pendant (featured above). Whether or not it's one person or 30 participating, I will use the old put the names in a hat, stir them around, and have my blindfolded husband pick one. So leave a comment on this post, and at the end of two weeks I will post the winning name!

Sacred Journey Itsy Bitsy Oriel Pendant (Back)
Comes with a 24" silver tone ball chain. The pendant contains a original collage with a beveled glass front and flat glass back. Swavorski crystalbeads dangle from the pendant.

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 302

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 302: Going Somewhere

Where is that? Don't know. But I trust that I'm going in the direction I need to go in. Everything will eventually be revealed.

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 301

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 301: What to Do
Sometimes it seems that one side of you wants to go North -- the other -- South. In those moments, I just quiet myself and turn in the direction my feet seem to want to go. It all works out in the end...

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 300

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 300: Mixed Media
Life, some days, is just one shiny, scarlet, patent-leather pump -- kick up those heels!

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 299

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 299: Ah, Come On -- Lighten Up!

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 298

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 298: If the Reception Is Lousy Try Something Else

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 297

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 297: The Impossible Gets Closer Every Day

Je Dessine ("I Draw") Show-and-Tell Monday

I am never going to be able to draw to my own personal satisfaction if I don't challenge myself! Last year I made the commitment of taking a drawing class every week. These were the first art lessons I had ever taken in my life. I had a patient, 85-year old teacher, Ms. Sabrina Terheune. She was fabulous and was always positive. We took a break from classes in the late fall and I have not yet restarted.
I realized that the degree to which you develop your drawing skills is related to how much you practice. The classes with Sabrina showed me that I could indeed draw, but I was not inclined to practice in between my classes. This month I decided that if I were to return to my classes I would first need to establish a drawing discipline.

And to help foster this I need to post my drawings regularly. Not everyday -- but at least once a week. So no matter what my drawings look like, I'm going to hold myself to this. Oh, I'm cringing at the thought. But I want to get past that inner critic and just go for it.
And I want to develop a style and feel a freedom in it. Bottom line, having personal art challenges (like my Daily Journal Page Challenge) and posting my work on my blog makes me be accountable to myself. So I am committing to posting one drawing every Monday for at least three months, and then reevaluate. This group of self portraits is my first submission -- I drew these over the past month.

They are all pretty scary to me. But what's also interesting is that I can also see something evolving from the first to the most recent. Just little things here and there -- from the eyes to the hair to the shape of the face to the style. Interesting...

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 296

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 296: Awakening

In My Travels: Phoenix Rising

I was driving home yesterday afternoon and noticed this cloud formation in the sky. It was a bird rising up with wings spread and beak open -- it seemed to fill the whole sky and resonated with something big inside of me. I pulled my car over to the side of the road and searched for my iphone. It took me a few seconds to find it -- and the bird's breast feathers seemed to have exploded within that tiny space of time. But I got a few pics and pulled back onto the highway. I went just a little farther and noticed that the bird actually had a tail that extended -- what? maybe hundreds of miles across the horizon -- ending in a burst of "feathers" reaching up to the sky. I'm sorry I didn't have the type of camera that could have caught the whole image. What an incredible sight and natural magic on such an ordinary day.

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 295

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 295: Enlighten Next

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 294

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 294: Who Found God

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 293

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 293: We Are All One

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 292

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 292: The Look -- Girl Meets Boy

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 291

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 291: Transformation

Well maybe I'm still in the process -- isn't life a continual transformation of personas, roles, feelings, thoughts, visions, bodily processes? You kinda want to hang on to what works, though -- don't cha? Sometimes way past the leaping off point. A couple of days ago I took that jump -- I had 3 inches cut off my hair -- which is a major step for this Delilah and requires from me an incredible leap of faith: long, beautiful hair has reigned supreme for most of my life. It's one of those rare things that I love about myself. Besides, don't horses, pole dancers, vampires, and mermaids all require long hair? So why change a good thing? For sure I've lived, inhabited, exuded both personally and on stage all of those sexy hair personas and more over the last 6 years -- I needed those long locks. But something has been whispering to me and last week I found in a magazine a photo that simply resonated with something inside. So I took it in to my most excellent hairdresser (thank you, Evet), closed my eyes, and was pushed over the cliff. Who did the pushing? Me. With a leap of faith, and a heap of courage, a lot can happen.

Altered Art: Me Jane Scrabble Board

Me Jane, You Tarzen
(collage piece work-in-progress)

I never know what I'm going to create during my Collage Cafe while my students are busy working on their books. I definitely am inspired by their juice and excitement. During Sunday's Collage Cafe, I was cleaning up around one of the work stations in my art studio and grabbed one of several vintage Scrabble boards I had bought a few years ago. I had just taught the background technique of spreading acrylics with a credit card, so I used that on the board after gessoing it. Flowers printed on vellum paper, magazine images, cut out butterflies, and a Tarzan oblivious to Jane right behind him. It's still a work in progress -- I may add some text to it. Or not!

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 290

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 290: Journey

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 289

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 289: Have Just Flown By

The Collage Cafe -- Downsized!

Collage Cafe "Downsized"

I only had two registrants for my January Collage Cafe. I could have been very bummed out with my desultory January workshop attendance levels -- it seemed like almost everyone contacted couldn't make the scheduled dates. I had to keep telling myself that everything has a rhythm. As it turned out I had two people who did want to come, so I asked if they would come to my home studio in Novato. They did, and it was wonderful -- we had a grand, creative time! The altered book process continues to delight me, and I am fascinated and intrigued as to what emerges from each participant. France, who has attended some of my previous Collage Cafes, worked again in her large format Edward Curtis book -- transforming it into a separate work of art concerning the Polynesian Rice Gods.

France's Rice Gods and Sioux Horses AB Spread

Brooke -- a collagist -- but new to altered books -- worked in a large format Time-Life volume (I believe from the History of Civilizations series) that she had brought with her. She was quite architectural in her cutting and slicing of the pages, creating multiple layers in multiple spreads.

The Making of Brooke's Red Bowl AB Spread

Loved it! And I enjoyed the intimacy of working closely in my home studio with fellow artists.

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 287

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 287: Has Taken Flight

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 286

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 286: Your Life Is on Course

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 285

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 285: Still Girlish But All Grown Up

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 284

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 284: What Is the Potential of the Human Psyche?

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 283

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 283: It's Time to Transition

In My Travels: Frozen Heart

These past few weeks, it's been very cold here in Northern California. When I go for my almost daily walk around Deer Island early in the morning -- the frost has coated the grasses, logs, and wooden structures that I pass by. My breath comes out in puffs of white smoke. I'm cold, but not that cold and my fast walking keeps my core warm. I stopped at one trail log coated with a film of frost, and traced a heart on its surface with a chilly bare finger. Frozen heart. I looked at it and thought of times both past and present where that seemed true. Maybe so. Maybe not. For sure, any moment now, the suns rays will thaw that heart. It will be as if it never existed.

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 282

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 282: Out of Sight and Out of Mind

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 281

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 281: Keeping Her Balance

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 280

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 280: Straight from the Heart

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 279

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 279: Searching, Craving

There is a constant hunger in the body. It shows up in a myriad of ways: need, addictions, rigidity, depression. Thankfully, it is counterbalanced by the desire to know, to question, to be one's most authenticate self, to be at peace, to love. A powerful dichotomy that can overwhelm, elate, affirm, or sedate. Where is your emphasis?

2011 Daily Journal Pages...Day 278

2011 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 278: More Fun Than a Honeymoon

2010 Daily Journal Pages...Day 277

2010 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 277: Eventually You'll Come Up for Air

2010 Daily Journal Pages...Day 276

2010 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 276: Unsaid, Unheard

2010 Daily Journal Pages...Day 275

2010 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 275: Free-Floating Fake Flower Child

Yesterday's journal page reminded me of a poem I wrote when I was maybe 16 or 17. It described the feelings I experienced when picking dandelion puffballs. I'd blow them apart with my breath and watch them float on the wind. Watching them them swirl and move away from me was both poignant and motivating. I wanted that freedom of motion. And as most teenagers I struck out in the only way I new how -- I became a "hippie"(but not really -- I just pretended). I admired and adopted in varying degrees their middle digit salutes to the establishment, wild clothes, long hair, wicked pot, and free love. I dabbled, experimented, joined Planned Parenthood, and generally rebelled. And like most teenagers, I started the movement toward finding out who I really was. Somehow, I'm still workin' on that!

2010 Daily Journal Pages...Day 274

2010 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 274: Moving with Freedom

One of the good things about this country is that it is based on freedom -- freedom of thought, speech, religion, beliefs, and even sexual persuasion (more or less). Unless you are confronted by a group of right wing bigots, you pretty much have the ability to live your life without too much persecution somewhere in the 52 states. But you do have to pay taxes, and you do have to follow the laws. So, you are still pretty much bound in your actions by societal mores and laws. I guess in this journal page I'm talkin' about freedom of just being -- being who you really are. Allowing yourself to move into that, even though it might be frowned upon or feared. I am looking forward to the day when I will move freely and give expression to it. Aren't you?

Right Brain Thinking in a Left Brain World

January Marin Chapter Meeting of NAWBO

I was invited by my friend Donna Perreault to assist her in making a presentation for the December breakfast meeting of the National Association of Women Business Owners (Marin County Chapter). Donna's topic was to have the attendees look at what they had each accomplished in their business and personal lives in 2010, and then establish what they wanted to achieve in 2011.

Cali of Serendipity PEM Sharing Her 2011 Goals and Dreams

She gave the women specific questions to think about and to answer, and then they were given the choice of writing down their answers or illustrating them with pictures pulled from magazines, and then sharing. I spoke about my jewelry business and the Collage Cafe workshops, and then showed the women some simple collage and art techniques and provided supplies for them to illustrate their ideas. In essence each woman was making a mini "vision board." Scissors, glue, ink pads, colored pens, and magic dust (glitter) flew around the table; creativity bloomed in the room and the women seemed to enjoy using the art supplies and images to illustrate their goals.

Donna's Illustrated 2011 Goals and Dreams

From my perspective as one of the facilitators, adding the visual component seemed to "bring to life" the women's ideas, goals, and dreams. It also made for a very lively meeting. On a personal level, I found Donna's exercise very illuminating. I did it the night before in preparation for the meeting. It took away the dry, anxiety-producing left-brain aspect of setting business goals, and opened a door for future creative exploration of my business goals.

2010 Daily Journal Pages...Day 273

2010 Daily Journal Pages -- Day 273: Be, Be, Be