Here I am. Still here, in this fragile little world

 I have so much affection for my little invisible blog. 

Still, I rise. We lost so much; Dad, Danny, Mom. 

Symphony of Science - Onward to the Edge!

Here we together, still, in this fragile little world.

 I'm hoping a post I made years ago with Neil DeGrasse Tyson called "Onward to the Edge" still exists somewhere on this blog. So much loss in all these years. 

But still here are we together, in this fragile little world.  K

A Slow Burning Dumpster Fire

2022: Death and Cancer.  It's been a long half-decade. 

The Endurance

2021 proved to be both better and worse. But still, I endure. Hold my hand a little tighter for 2022.  

Here We are Together

In this fragile little world. 2020 was ravaging. Hold my hand for 2021. 

Where you'll find me, dear wanderer

As is obvious, I haven't posted to this blog since 2015! I kind of miss it. Although with no followers it was largely an exercise in entertaining myself. This is just to say that if you find yourself here, directed by some of my early pins on Pinterest, I am now sharing my art mostly on Instagram.

Here's a piece I completed this year (actually now I'm thinking it might have been in 2017). I've been working quite a bit with large, loose, flowy watercolors, collage, and stenciling that incorporate text,  hidden prayers, blessings, and always a little glittery magic. Tough times for dreamers these days, but thank you for stopping by. Kind Regards, Kathleen

Harmonic Convergance

This is my great  <step> nephew Mr. A. My twin brother loves him and thinks of him as a son and I think of him as a nephew. I love him.  There's more to this video and real life than what I can say online, but it doesn't matter. He's such a beautiful boy.  Just the teeniest tinyiest amount of love and attention and adult caring goes so very far.

You aren't alone in this

I've made a third new journal "55" that I'll talk about in the near future. But for tonight, this is the journal spread I'm posting.

 

Some really wonderful things happened to me in 2014. And some really hard things. Life is so very beautiful and so very hard. 

 Once again I used Sheer Heaven to transfer this image of an angel. Like so many others artists, I construct my journals using Fabriano Artistico Hot Press Watercolor Paper, 140 lb, 22 x 30 inches. 

I used spatters of paint and glitter and added a star embellishment. 

I did the brush lettering I love so much with a Pentel brush pen and stamped the text with some vintage rubber stamps I hoard. More paint and glitter sparkles and another star.  For what it's worth, I always stand when I brush letter so I use my whole arm and you can't be too precious about it.

We all need reassurance we aren't alone. Even when it feels that way. I hope the Angels look after all of us.

My sexy Tango

I'm not supposed to be here, but I am. Walking through a graveyard on the day after Halloween. On a quiet and beautiful November morning. It's not so bad, being dead like me.   - Dead Like Me

Bring me peace and gratitude

The singer, the song, and the sung

On this Harvest Moon

Come a little bit closer, hear what I have to say.  Just like children sleeping, we can dance this night away.

Be Daring

journal front

Quite unlike me, but I made 2 new art journals this year. My last journal took 5 years to finish, so maybe these two new ones will see me into my golden years (I'll post the 2nd one in the future).  I call this one my "moon journal". Which automatically makes me think of the "moon roof" from Game of Thrones, but that's a post for another day.

The lovely illustration I incorporated here is from Melissa Sweet, an illustrator I worship. I really truly love her and everything she creates. She illustrated the most beautiful book about the poet William Carlos Williams, A River of Words, and this illustration is from that book. It goes without saying that I honor her work and only use it for my own personal use in my journal and in this blog post.

A recent double-page spread. Unlike scrapbookers and many artists, I never use photographs from my actual life in my journals. I  have boards of color palettes and inspirational photographs
on my Pinterest site and I use them constantly for  journal fodder.

For this spread, I watered down some Jewel-It glue and made splatters across the pages. I covered those splatters with fine glitter.  I have to have a little bit of glitter in everything I do.

I have a close friend who's daughter is named "Dare". Isn't that the most awesome name for a child, girl or boy?!

journal back

Be brave, be daring, and just jump.

Run Miss Kitty!

One of my little guys at work is just the most enchanting artist. He always draws me pictures containing two themes; aliens & monsters.

He presented this drawing to me very solemnly. I said, "A monster is chasing me?! Am I gonna make it?!?!" Again, I heard a flat and dismissive, "No." Why am I always hearing that from the male gender?

But how can I hate a monster that has hearts for eyes and just look at his bad-ass magnificence.
At least this time I wasn't drawn as I typically am; with a regulation-length boot-camp buzzcut (why I ask ?) and an ample bossom.

Oh! The Wild Joy of Living!

My last post as guest artist for my actual BFF Vasia, who is also funny and brilliant, is this journal spread.

Life is so hard really and we all struggle. But I do try to revel in the wild joy of living.

I love Anne Lamott's work and particularly this quote about Grace.

I hand lettered the "The Wild Joy of Living", painted over it with a resist, and then removed the resist so that the lettering was revealed. More also of the brush script, "Oh!" that I am so in love with right now.

...a cold, thin,  crisp ribbon of mountain air that gets in the through the cracks. I'll take that.

Can't we talk about something more pleasant?

Last night I was lucky enough to hear Roz Chast speak at Book Passage Bookstore about her new book, Can't We Speak About Something More Pleasant. A memoir about caring for aging parents.

There are a few humans on this planet that I would like to basically beg to be my BFF's. As it turns out, I met two of them at Book Passage. The first was Daniel Handler/Lemony Snicket. When  asked if  he wanted to be best bud's with me, having only met seconds earlier, he flatly announced sans mercy, "No."  I still bought his book.

I didn't get a chance to ask Roz (I'm on a first name basis with her now) last night but I hold out hope. She is so funny, utterly brilliant, and completely approachable, except for last night. I'll buy any book that dame writes and I urge you to do the same.

I would remind you that she is a cartoonist for The New Yorker, but I don't like to brag about my future BFF's.

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer

The May/June 2014 issue of Somerset Studio has a great tutorial by Caitlin Dundon titled Faux Encasutic with Gel Medium. I used the techniques in her article to create this piece. It was really really fun and I definitely want to play around more with layers of gel medium to create a faux encaustic look.

Every Christmas I decorate the Christmas tree with feathered bird ornaments and branches and make spun tinsel nests for them. I used a photo transfer of one those ornaments for this piece.

I used gold and silver foil to mimic the ornament and typed the *Joan Walsh Anglund quote erroneously attributed to Maya Angelou to honor her this week. A painting feels incomplete to me without pencil work. It smeared when I added the layers of gel medium, but I just worked with that challenge. Next time I'll try spraying it with matt fixative before I layer the gel medium on.

We all just have to keep our little bird song alive.

His Tender Mercies are over all his works

This 12 x 12 birch board is a product of an incredible Creative Girl online class I took from the aforementioned Danielle Donaldson.  It was hosted by the lovely Jeanne Oliver.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I do love Psalm 145: 9.  Here are all of my iconographic touchstones that mean something to me; prayer, lettering, numerals. I don't feel like a piece is complete if I don't have some kind of pencil work and stenciling. It's hard to tell but there are rays radiating off the angel (bird) wing here.

More of my current crush; brush script lettering using permanent ink (trust me on that one; I've ruined more than one piece) and rubber stamps and little touches that finish the piece.

The bright spots of color you see are the result of lots of under painted layers and top layers of  brush spattering. The glowing colors on the wings are from watercolors and colored pencils and inks.

I can never NOT think of Robert Duvall and the movie Tender Mercies. It was such a lovely movie and his version of On The Wings of A Dove.