Saffron Skies

I find myself drowning in pink. I recently finished a new altered book/wall hanging, Saffron Skies, which was packed with frills of light pink darkening to magenta. And now I’m working on a book called Dream of Orchids which is also filled with pink . . . and violet, yellow, hints of orange, and white. This book is going to be similar in structure to Anatomy of Paradise. You can see some of the orchids I made in the picture below.

Right now my tiny work area is covered in beautiful scraps of pinkish and yellowish paper, and there are pink inks and crayons and oil pastels lying around. It’s such a lovely mess, that I almost hate to clean it up. But I will. I need to make room for green so I can start working on the tendrils, leaves, and vines that my orchids will dangle from.

Today was my first day of work, and although the thought of going back to work is somewhat depressing, I enjoyed seeing my colleagues and felt that familiar rush of energy and excitement that getting ready for the new school year always brings to me — even as I’m sad by the loss of my “art time.” I got home around four, and continued working on my book, and before I knew it, it was 8:00 p.m. already! The time goes by so fast, and I have so much that I want to do.

But going to back to work also tends to make me more efficient in some ways. I have to make more productive use of each minute and really multi-task. So I write a blog entry while the paint is drying, and I eat a sandwich while the glue sets, and I take a break when all the pinkness is done and watch some TV with my son. Then I clean up and get started again until my eyelids just get too heavy and I know it’s time for bed.

Kneel to the Prettiest

Last week I received an acceptance letter from the Art League of Northern California which is located near me in Novato. I had submitted jpegs of three of my Broken Doll altered books to their 3rd Annual National Juried Exhibition. I wasn’t sure which of the six altered books I should submit, so I let my son John decide. They rejected two of the pieces, but accepted Fear. The letter said they had over 400 entries and were only able to selet 62 pieces, so I’m pretty excited that one of my altered books were among those chosen. The Opening Reception is scheduled for Saturday, September 9, 2006 from 5 - 8 p.m. My husband will be in Greece, so hopefully my sister will be able to go with me for moral support.

Although I still have a lot of ideas for my Broken Dolls series of books that I want to play around with, I’ve decided to to some more Wall Hangings for a while. I need to take a break from the dark, weirdness of that other work for a while and work with some bright colors. I’ve had a book on my shelf for over a year now; it’s called Saffron Skies. I’ve had an idea for that book swirling in my head since I first got it, so I spent the afternoon painting paper shades of pink and splattering the pages with halo pink-gold and metallic gold. So much fun. And to make it even more enjoyable . . . I’m working in a clean, uncluttered work space!! HOORAY! We’ll see how long that lasts . . .

The Art of Happiness :: Page 25

In the two months since my previous entry, I lost my wonderful mother, Sandie, to complications from Alzheimer’s, and my sweet little dog Angel, to blood clots in the lungs. Until just about two weeks ago, when we scattered my mom’s ashes, I had been walking around in a haze, unable to even think about making art. Slowly, I’ve begun to peel back the sadness and have restarted my artful journey.

I want to thank everyone from my Yahoo! Group who emailed me their kind words of support and empathy, as well as those of you who, through this blog, offered encouragement to me during my mother’s illness. You have no idea how helpful it has been over these last few months, to read your touching, heartfelt comments. Thank you so much.

I decided to do a few more pages in The Art of Happiness. Let me tell you a little bit about how I did page 25, which is pictured above.

As per usual, I first prepared the pages by painting on a thin layer of fluid matte medium to protect the text. After I had decided on the found poetry, I used my Masquepen to cover the words. I then drew and painted the orb on the left side using white acrylic paing. Next I covered the entire two pages with Lumiere acrylic paint in Sunset Gold, painting around the white circle.. After the paint was dry, I used the Masquepen again to draw lines over the orb and across the page. I knew that I was going to do a watery color wash over the pages, and I wanted to create the impression of golden threads.

When the Masquepen had dried, I wrapped the book with waxed paper and fastened it up with a rubber band so that only the two pages I was working on were exposed. I knew what I wanted to do would be wet and messy and that I needed to protect the rest of the book. I painted the pages using in turquoise and magenta. I placed several paper towels on my work space, ready to catch the drippings. Then I used the ink droppers and dropped turquoise and magenta FW acrylic inks onto the page. I used a small water spritzer and sprayed into the pools of ink; then, I lifted the book up and tilted it in different directions so the inks would run together and spread across the page. As the ink puddled-up at the bottom of the page, I blotted it with a paper towel. I used a toothbrush to splatter Pearlescent Acrylic ink in Magenta onto the pages, and also used my Pearlescent purple to drop some colors here and there. I sprayed each drop of ink with water and tilted the book. I also used a little red cocktail straw to blow the ink around the page.

I did have a problem with the ink pooling in the gutter of the book. I was worried that it would seep into the other pages, so I used my paper towels and dabbed up as much extra liquid as I could before it could sink in.

When the ink had dried, I peeled away the Masquepen to reveal the poem which says:
sew a thousand golden threads
over her dusty world

I’m happy with the way these pages turned out, even though it isn’t exactly what I expected. I was really hoping for more blueish gray to come through, similar to the color on the white circle and my color square. But I love the way the darker colors got trapped along the edges of the Masquepen. Maybe I’ll try this technique on a larger canvas or on water color paper. It sure was a lot of fun.

P.S. A quick tip — Once you have the Masquepen on the page, don’t close your book! The Masquepen will stick together and pull itself off. Don’t ask me how I know

In response to my post What Inspires Me, Heather wrote this:

. . . how do you just get started. I don’t mean the mechanics, I mean how do you just do it?

My husband and I bought a home three years ago and I have done very little creatively since then b/c I don’t have the space. I know that may sound like a huge copout, and I suppose it is…but nevertheless it stops me in my tracks.

Where do you “do” your work?

Heather– I wouldn’t consider your space limitations a cop-out. They appear to be very real for you. I am very fortunate in that I have a spare bedroom in my house and that’s where I work.

One side of the room has my computer, phone, printer, and school related things along the wall on a big table that my husband built for me. It goes on top of two short file cabinets where I keep all my family related paperwork.

The other side of the room and most of the closet and walls have my art related things. I have two smallish tables against the wall and several stacks of de-wheeled Iris carts with lots of junk inside. I also have two shelves above the work tables that are stacked with paints and clear shoebox-style plastic containers that have labels like “nature bits,” “stamps,” “junk jewelry,” and lots of other ephemera that I collect.

Behind my door, I have a shoe organizer that’s stuffed with ribbon, lace, and yarn. I also have a book shelf with pizza boxes full of paper scraps organized by color and a file drawer with magazine clippings and collage sheets.

Now, as I describe this I know it sounds pretty organized, and on a good day, I am able to put everything in its proper place. But ask my husband– it never stays there for long. I couldn’t keep this room neat and tidy if my life depended on it. As soon as I start a project, out comes everything. Oh, I promise myself that after I’m doing using the gold paint from the gold and silver paint box that I’ll put it back on the shelf– but there it stays– on my work table piling up along with everything else I’m using until I’m working in a space about the size of a book. (At least the space isn’t the size of a postage stamp, although if I was altering a postage stamp, that’s probably all the space I’d have.)

So I really feel for your situation, I don’t know what art you like to do. I think some art is “smaller” that other art. Maybe, if you’d like to start altering a book, you could do one like my Altered Book Journal and just focus on using watercolor crayons inside. Then you just need the crayons, the book, a water dish, a paintbrush, some Masquepen, a pencil and notepad, some fluid matte medium, and a brush for that. It sounds like a lot, but you could probably fit all of it in one plastic shoebox thingy or a cardboard box that you stash in the corner of the closet when you’re not working. You could pull it out onto the kitchen table when you have a few quiet moments, work for a while, and then easily pack it up again (after letting the paint dry!)

I know I’m not much help. Maybe someone else can come to your rescue and give you some good advice. I think the hardest part is not always creating the space, it’s creating the routine. It’s giving yourself permission to not do anything else but art for just a little bit of time each day. I think once we get out of the routine, it’s sometimes hard to get back into it– almost like exercising. I remember when I used to run when I was younger. If I skipped a day, I felt very out of sorts, almost desperate to get back to it. That’s how I feel about doing my art now. If I can’t get to it, after a while I get very cranky.

Have you every heard of micro-movements? Sark talks about them in her books about living a creative life. The idea is to take tiny steps toward your goal. You can even download a copy of her process here Micromovement Sheet . Whenever I have a project that I’m avoiding doing, I try her technique. And sometimes, it works.

I just finished this altered book page for The Art of Happiness. I wanted to counteract the darkness of the text with something rich and colorful, and since I hadn’t used a purple color scheme in a while, that’s what I settled on.

First I covered the pages with a light coat of fluid matte medium. This helps to protect the paper when I apply the Masquepen. I have found that sometimes the Masquepen will lift the paper (and the text) right off the page if I don’t put down a layer of medium first. (You can read more about my Tips for Using Masquepen on my web site.)

After I had decided on the found poem, I used the Masquepen to cover the words, so they would be protected from the paint. I waited for that to dry. Then I used a light gold paint to cover the entire page. Afterwards, I painted different shades of copper and gold randomly across the page.

When that was dry, I used the masquepen again to make the stems and leaves of the flowers. I then painted the flower heads in shades of purple and covered those with masquepen as well.

Once the masquepen was dry, I applied a coat of pearlescent violet acrylic ink and some darker purple around the edges. Finally I was able to remove all the masquepen from the pages, and this is the result. The little flecks that you see in the image is the mica in the paint. I wish the contrast between the gold leaves and stems had been more dramatic, but this was a technique that I’d been wanting to try for a while, and I’m pretty happy with the result.