Book of Days & the End (of 2011)

I said “the End” but by the time some of you read this, it may be the beginning of another new year.

My friend Janet told me about Book of Days. It’s a free art journal practice hosted by Effy Wild. Go here to read all about it or click on the Book of Days button over on the side.  I love her philosophy of life and art journaling.  Thanks Effy!!! And thanks to Janet for letting me know….and now I’m letting all of you dear readers in on it too.

I have been looking at lots of quotes for the new year.  Here is one of the favorites that I found:

 

“New Year’s eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights.”

- Hamilton Wright Mabie

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I’ll see you next year! Have a happy holiday season…be back after the new year.

I found three Christmas cards in my collection of old post cards.  This antique post card doesn’t have a date on the back…it has written in a corner:”to Uncle Marian from Emma.”   The photo doesn’t do it justice, the flower has a velvet texture.

 

This next card dates back to 1910…one cent to mail it…here’s front and back:

 

This is a small flip card from some time past…I really do not know about its age:

Christmas card and pages…

I want to show a beautiful card I got last week.  It’s a wonderfully  handmade card by Lee.  I agreed to exchange Christmas cards with her…in my mind…card=postcard   I made a postcard for her, in fact, it’s the card on my header.  I don’t usually show cards before the receiver gets them (forgive me Lee)  but I needed a Christmas photo.  The other card I made that day ended up in the trash.  Here is Lee’s card…the bears are so-o-o cute!!!

Here are two pages from my Strathmore Journal.  The big flower piece, I started months ago and decided to finish it…it needs something but I didn’t know what…so I moved on from it.  The abstact is about me trying out a new shade of purple

This the last part of a poem by Joyce Carol Oates, entitled The Time Traveler from a book of poems by the same title:

“I don’t recognize

that person,

you whisper,

who is that person?

A stranger’s face

swimming

in a mirror.”

These are my sentiments about getting older…I don’t have many regrets…a few…or I wouldn’t be human….but sometimes I don’t who that old lady is staring back at me in the mirror.   No, I’m not depressed…or going through the holiday blues…just happened that I found the poem last week.

Journal Pages

I spent most of yesterday afternoon in my studio. I say “studio” rather lightly because my little basement room doesn’t look like some of the studios I see on other blogs.   That’s fine with me, I’m thankful to have a place to  do my art.  I moved everything down there because the dining table was covered most of the time and I’m trying to keep everything in one place.  

I started a piece on a canvas yesterday…I do not like it and I will probably end up painting over it and trying again.  I finished two pages in my Strathmore art journal.  The first page started with a magazine page that I altered with Citra-Solv.  I glued it down first,  then glued a face  from Gas-House McGinty book pages.  I used some additional doodling pieces to complete the page. I used Caran d-Ache water-based crayons, gesso,  and acrylic paint to embellish the face.  Finally, I used a tiny paintbrush with black ink to tie it together. 

The next page is one that I did quickly with charcoal pencil, tinted charcoal pencil and a Derwent sketching (Dark Wash, 8B) pencil. I tried a wash with some orange and yellow acrylic paints.  I liked it better without the color but I couldn’t leave it alone    I also used another pen on the hair….I don’t remember the name of it.

lost in a flurry of pages and postcards…

I’m still here…after recovering from Thanksgiving, I was finally able to get back to my art.  I did two spreads for a round robin journaling group.  There are four of us involved in that project.  It will extend into the middle of next year.  I was asked by Danielle over at A Love Affair With Paper to take part in the project.  Danielle has written an explanation of the project on her blog, click here and go to the November 29th post to read about it.  I will be posting more about that as we go along.

After getting my journal mailed to Danielle, I made some postcards.  I used one for my heading.  I can’t seem to get away from the book pages no matter what I do   I also very quickly used some Caran d’Ache crayons and some white paint on one of my zen doodles.  This poor girl looks like she isn’t going to get anything for Christmas this year.