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

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.

On this fresh morning

in this broken world. For Memorial Day, I wanted to post this painting first. Never, not for a second, do I ever not fall down on my knees and humble myself for the men and women who gave their lives for my country and my freedom. In all the wars; the American Revolution, to the Civil War, to World War I and II, to Vietnam, to Iraq, Afghanistan, Persian Gulf and all the modern days wars.  I hate modern day politics with a depth of despair I can barely describe. But I owe a debt to all of the American men and women, civilian and military, who died for my freedom, to live, to blog, to paint, to view what I want, to read what I want, to kiss who I love, to vote, to let my voice be heard. I never take it for granted. Let me live on this fresh morning in this beautiful and broken world for all of those who never will.

This 12 x 12  acrylic mixed-media painting is rare for me in that it came together rather quickly. It incorporates vintage book pages, including a lovely pen and ink illustration of a farm from an old children's book.

I made a stencil of the sweet little bird and typed the beautiful Mary Oliver quote on an old notebook scrap. I've used old wallpaper, a paint chip, and leftover painted scraps as well.

For the first time, I've used F&W acrylic inks that I discovered in an art class taught by Tracy Verdugo. I really love them. I painted in some elements of the tree and farmhouse using Tim Holtz Distress Inks which I'm also enamored of.

I'm always trying to develop my own iconography unique to me and most often it is represented by lettering and numerals. Considering I'm a librarian, it feels authentic. In a number of recent pieces I've used some old fragments of rub-ons that I've stashed away for a number of years. I get a little hoardy when it comes to rub-ons (that sentence sounds a little unladylike), so I'm glad when I use them instead of always looking for something new to buy or something else out there to acquire.

I Pray

My wonderful friend Vasia Papazoglou on Pinterest recently invited me to pin to her board,

The Suggested.

I thought for my week of notoriety I would share a few pages from my current art journals.
I have two main journals I work on, "Spark" which is kind of a messy experimental journal, and
"Each Little Bird That Sings" which is also experimental but more spiritual in nature. Later on I can talk about how I constructed them.

I think in light of today's events, sadness both national and personal, I'd share this spread.
I usually work in double-page spreads. These pages contain basically the whole panopoly of mixed-media techniques.

"I Pray"

On hot-press watercolor paper I like to drip alchohol inks, add photo transfers, photographs, stenciling, embellishments, and gilt. I use many photos that I download from Pinterest as inspiration. I love the sherbert colors of this palette.  

The red alchohol ink created a beautiful heart on the second statue. So I dedicate today's post to two prayers.

My first prayer is for the people affected by the Boston Marathon today. For the dead, for the injured, for their families, for the 8-year-old child and for the cowardly evil person(s) who would do such a thing. My next door neighbor ran in the race this morning and I burst into tears to discover from his wife he crossed the finish line 30 minutes before the bombs went off.

My second prayer is for everyone on this planet, who, like me, are born with hearts too fragile, too trusting. Hearts so easily broken and unsuited to this world.

Prayer and love are learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and the heart has turned to stone.

Thomas Merton

Duke it out

Okay, I'm finally posting some of my own art. I LOVE the Copic marker canned airbrush system.
Victorian silhouettes have been so popular lately; I wanted to do a little exercise using a classic silhouette in a fresh setting. So I designed some chinese lantern stencils and masks, used my Copic markers, made a silhouette and had a lot of fun with this piece. I'm sorry I'm so unsophisticated with scanner settings, because the original piece is very soft and lovely. Also need to learn more about kerning. Not too bad for someone self-taught.

Sweetheart: Inspirational messages are momentarily charming, but modestly effective. A lady simply must jump into the fray and duke it out. 

At any rate, Pinterest and society at large are rife with motivational sayings. But when it really gets down to it, how much help are they? Maybe to a young and  impressionable person? I don't know. I find poetry and prose and quotations much more inspirational. I wonder how all those young men and women will fare with their simplistic signange. Maybe just fine.

Only two things I know for sure: 1) I'll ALWAYS look for the wardrobe, and 2) If I'm going down, I'm going down swingin'. I've been in the ring and duke'n it out but I got a few good ones in. Now I have to link to a song. I can't help it.  I view life through a lense and I automatically add a music score. I warned you {link broken} Just consider yourself lucky this isn't a post about the Ice capades.

Spark Journal

Here is a photo collage of the journal I made for Mary Ann Moss's fabulous online class, Remains of the Day. Later I'll show you the book as it looks now with journaling in it.  Lots of fun. I used baker's twine to sew the signatures and I like the contrast of the twine with kraft paper and cardboard. Like the silhouettes, too. For some perverse reason I enjoy my journals most when they're blank. I'm more interested in the construction than the actual use of them.