The genesis of an art journal page:

Yesterday I received a bit of upsetting news. I have been waiting for many months to see an ear specialist about a hearing problem. Not only did the Dr. have bad news but he also had a terrible bedside manner. I had spent the past year going to clinics about a hearing problem – the doctors made me go home and do strange things like use a steroid nose spray which only made my nose run and clog up my head. Another Dr. Told me to go home and have a shower, plug my nose and blowhard with my mouth closed so that I could pop open my plugged ears. Of course that didn’t work! I kept thinking that I had plugged ears and needed grommets or tubes put in my ears. To make a long story short the ear specialist said I had hearing loss and that grommets in my years would not help. He implied that I would most likely benefit from hearing aids and controlling my environment??? What the heck? By controlling my environment he meant only talking to people when they’re facing me, not across the room or when they’re out of earshot.

So I was pretty upset when I came home and decided to create a journal page around what had transpired. On a happy note – not hearing very well can be quite entertaining since I find what I think people are saying is infinitely more interesting and humorous than what they are actually saying. For example the other day Mr. Gee said we should have brought our umbrellas with us but I heard him say gorilla!!!

Life is full of fodder for your art journal pages.  What upsetting situation did you have that can be transformed by creating a journal page around it?  Art truly can heal you in so many ways!

This is going to take me quite a while to do this tutorial so you might wanna check back in a while to see when it’s finished.

Supply list:

• Micron pens
•  Water color pencil crayons
•  copic pens
• cardstock
• decorative paper for background
• Grommets (grommets kit)
• Folk art acrylics
• Glue
• derwent sketching pencil -medium wash

Begin by painting over a piece of decorative paper (if you look closely you can see I had first glued some text over the background). I thinned down some white folk art paint and dribbled it on the page.

Begin sketching your idea on a loose piece of card stock in pencil.  Ink in with your micron pens and erase your pencil lines.  Colour in the woman’s face, hair and the flowers with watercolor pencil crayons and also copic  pens (you can use ordinary felt pens as well). Colour in other elements as well such as the hands and talk bubbles.

Cut out all of your elements.  A little trick I use to make cutting things out more easier is by outlining everything with a thick black felt pen.

Tone down the background a bit with some watered down white folk art paint.  Glue all the elements  on your page.  As you can see at the last minute I decided to add a hand holding a talk bubble with grommets hammered into it.  When the glue has dried add a bit of shading to your cut out pieces with a derwent sketching pencil -medium wash.

Altered baby board book vlog please click on the link to view the video!  Thanks!

Please come and listen to me live on FAMM Blogtalk radio show  today 1:00 PM PST .

While you are into the frame of mind of listening to podcasts, have a listen to night to my friend Tina Ferguson while she interviews the author of Kick Ass Creativity on her show.  It should be a very inspiring conversation.

I just wanted to give you all the heads up about the podcast i will be on tomorrow at 

4:00 PM (ET) , 3 PM Central, 2 PM mountain, 1 PM Pacific     

FAMM Radio Talk Show

The show is approximately 40 to 50 minutes long.

FAMM Live Talk Show

something for all art lovers. Hosted by creative entrepreneur and Mixed Media

Artist Rebecca E. Parsons, the weekly show is a blend of lively conversation,

cutting edge creative ideas and encouraging support with healthy doses of

inspiration. We will explore the creativity of fiber and mixed media artists, delve

into tools and materials, keep you informed about upcoming events, workshops

and so much more. It is an opportunity to speak with and hear the creative

journeys of other artists who are doing what they love.

live on BlogTalkRadio every Thursday at 4:00 PM (ET) (3 PM Central, 2 PM

Mountain, 1 PM Pacific). Archived episodes can be streamed directly from the

website or downloaded free through iTunes. Show page:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fammrlive

I’m looking forward  to being interviewed by Rebecca Parsons - check out her website – she’s a mentor and creative soul.  Please come and join me for this fun interview – you can even call in with your questions and comments.

I still get befuddled by technology – I’m suppose I have a skype interview today and I’m still having difficulty bringing up the video so that the other person can see me.  I wish I wasn’t so challenged by technology. Maybe tonight I’ll get Mr. Gee to help me with this issue so I can post a short video tomorrow morning.

This is a photo of a Buddha sculpture at Ruby lake resort.  I was enchanted when I saw these lovely statues as well as painted metal sculptures of birds and flowers at the rustic resort.

Before leaving ruby lake I took 5 minutes to quickly sketch the buddha head on a piece of junk cardboard I had pre painted.  I will finish it off and let you see how this art journal page turns out.

When you’re away on vacation or even out on an artist walk/date you can bring along a sketchbook or pre painted pages like I did and quickly document what you see.  Later on when you return to your studio or home you can further embellish and paint your journal page adding text and freeform writing to it.  Don’t feel like you have to finish it all on the spot – it’s just a great way to capture a bit of energy of the moment on a page.  I used to carry around with me a miniature sketchbook and while having coffee at the local coffee shop I would sketch the people around me, my coffee cup and muffin, the chair, or any fanciful idea which was swimming around in my head!  As you can see the supplies can be as simple as a black pen and a sketchbook or even a small collection of recipe cards.  Later on you can collage  your tiny creations either in your art journal or in a mixed media project.

Cast update – I went to the cast clinic yesterday, after four weeks of being in a cast and was told that everything is healing nicely and will have to be in the same cast for another two weeks.  The cast guy – the fellow who  was going to cut off my cast with the scariest looking implements I might add – told me that glitter cast the nicest looking cast he had ever seen!  After they remove the cast I will have to wear a splint for a while but at least I’ll be able to type and have a shower.  YAY!!!

I think I should get an award for using the word cast in a paragraph in as many ways as possible don’t you think?

Mr. Gee and I went away to visit family and friends this weekend and on the way home we dropped by to see some tunnels which had been created in the 1800s to make way for a railroad (near Hope).  Since I have a fascination with orbs I asked Mr. Gee to take a picture of me with my spirit friends.  Notice how there’s a green orb next to my head?  I believe that is a my spirit guide or guardian angel.

We’re walking through another tunnel when I felt somebody walking beside me – so I quickly turned into the pitch black to see who was there.  When I turn there was no one there.  So I asked Mr. Gee to take a picture of me to see if there was a spirit hanging out there – sure enough there was an  orb next to my shoulder!  Cool eh?

This is a picture we took of the pathway to the tunnels.  I always love taking photos of pathways – I’m thinking ahead of future art journal pages that these lovely photos would be perfect for!  Of course pathways are always a metaphor for the journey.  They really speak to me.

Here is another lovely pathway picture we took yesterday.

The cast clinic

Today I’m going to the cast clinic – it’s been four weeks since I’ve had my cast on and I believe they’re going to xray my wrist to see if everything’s healing properly.  I’m hoping that they will put on a smaller cast.  It’s been very hot here and having a big heavy cast on makes me a wee bit cranky.  Ha!!!

I took this picture of a rose from my garden.  Ordinarily I’m not a big rose fan but lately I’ve grown to appreciate them in all of their gorgeous  complexity! They are so delicate and give off such a lovely scent.

Why not take some pictures of roses and use them in your art?

I took this image of a rose and hands from a “Google” image search, printed it off and glued it to a page. I proceeded to paint over it with acrylic paints so that it could blend into the background which is graffiti-ish. I have this illustration as a print and will sell it again on my Etsy shop soon.

Mr. G and I are going on a long car trip today so I’m bringing along my hemp cord to practice macrame’ and also my I-Touch so that I can listen to motivational and inspirational audio books.

Mr. G’s little matrix will become a “travelling school”.

Hope you all have a FAB weekend !!!!

Love, Violette

XOXOXOXO

A friend of mine commissioned me to create two illustrations for a PowerPoint presentation.  He needed them for a talk he gives to his yoga students and teachers in training.  It’s always easier to drive a message home when you have visuals.

I think the two illustrations are pretty self explanatory.  It’s good to stop now and then and see what we are watering or feeding.  Are we focusing on the good or on the bad (supposed)?  A couple of years ago I went away on holidays and had my mother come and water my flowers.  I have lots of flowers to water but in the back corner there’s a section that I’ve let go – it’s full of weeds and brambles.  Unbeknownst to my mom she thought they were flowers so was watering them.  When I came home and she told me that she even remembered to water the back corner I had to laugh!  For me it was a metaphor for what we often do – we often put our attention to what is not working rather than what is working.  It is similar to the good dog/bad dog parable which I’ve mentioned before.  The two dogs are fighting, which dog is going to win?  A good dog or the bad dog?  The one you decide to feed of course!  Which dog are you feeding?

Lately it feels as though I have been having to channel my inner MacGyver in order to get things done when I’m alone. You need to adopt a different mindset when you only have use of one hand. For example when going to a restaurant you want to order something which you can eat with one hand rather than two otherwise you have to ask a friend or your waitress to cut up your food which can be rather embarrassing. This recent impediment has forced me to be a bit more mindful but every now and then I forget. Take last night for example, I walked to the produce store to buy salad fixings and thought to myself ” wouldn’t it be great to have corn on the cob tonight?” Not thinking that Mr. Gee was out of town and I’d be on my own to deal with the consequences of having to shuck the corn with one good hand! As you can see above I had to get pretty creative! I asked Mr. Gee to set up a stepladder in the backyard so that I could pick blackberries for my protein shake. That was another adventure in mindfulness – picking berries one at a time really does force you into the moment

Happy birthday Jessica and Nis!!!

I am teaching myself how to macrame to help keep my fingers limber while they’re in a cast. I’ve always been a bit dyslexic so this is a bit of a challenge but I think it will be fun once I get the hang of it. I’ll be able to add beads to make the macrame pieces more interesting. Ultimately I think my little experiments will find their way as embellishments on my art journal books and other art projects.

Here is the YouTube video I am using to learn how to create a square knot for hemp jewelry.

As you can see from the photograph I don’t quite have the hang of it yet as it’s difficult to pull the Hemp string as taut as it needs to be.

Please check out this wonderful four part Mandala journal video tutorial – it’s absolutely amazing! I am so in love with the entire process and how the book turns out in the end. Karin Bartimole created this book in response to her life-experiences. Her generosity in sharing this process with us truly warms my heart.

Happy Monday!

I created this inspiration card to remind myself to look for the good in all situations.  I have a tendency to fall off the wagon and return to negativity.  I know that we can all find a gem in the midst of our challenges.  Tomorrow i will try to put together a slideshow with a voice over about the good.

In the meantime I will leave you with this wonderful quotation:

“Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend… when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present — love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure — the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth.” 

Sarah Ban Breathnach