Monday Musings

Hello everyone!  

 After almost a month of being laid up with health crappola (that's a technical term, don't ya know), I'm full of new found determination and ready to push forward with life, art and daily adventures in finding my bliss.  First and foremost, I'm ready to launch my first set of online classes, Personal & Potent-Art Journaling From the Heart, To Feed the Soul. 

This week I'll be choosing my hosting site. I want the virtual classroom to be easily accessible, password protected so students feel comfortable sharing their work, have some type of forum for community chit chat and easy to upload content to.  A tall request I know, but it is a must! As soon as my choice is made, I'll post all the sign up deets here!

Those of you who receive the newsletter know I included a journal prompt in it. The prompt was: Describe one time when you were brave.

If you used the prompt in any way, feel free to post a link to it in the comments section!  I'd love to see what your Muse inspired you to do! 

Almost finished painting of one of my 'Glam Girls' 

I started with a quick pencil sketch, then added color with Copic Marker.

 The face was painted with acrylics mixed with a little medium.

The background is Tombow marker spread with water to create a wash.

Journal page from May 13. 

The tape along the left side is handmade Washi. 

I used wide masking tape, acrylic paints and a stencil to make a bunch. 

Why buy tape when it's so easy to create your own?

I've been practicing my lettering skills, 

learned in Letter Love 101 with Joanne Sharpe. 

This banner, on heavy watercolor paper, hangs in my studio window now.

A wonderful reminder for me!!!

Hope you all have a wonderful, creative week!
Until next time, May The Muse Be With You!
-Kristin

Living Life

Hello all and Happy Monday!

  Every day last week I sat down and started writing a blog post. And every day, I never got to finish one! The past few weeks my fibromyalgia and neurological issues have been kicking my butt  Which means that pretty much every part of my body is in terrible pain, paralyzed or both. I'm not one for pity parties, unless you have a groovy fog machine for dreary ambiance and some kick ass confetti to throw around, so I didn't spend my time bitching and whining. What's the point? These are the cards life has dealt me. I handle them as best as I can/

  What does this mean? Extreme self care for one! I rest when I need to. I practically live on my heating pad. I doodle if I can hold a pen. I listen to music. I'm not much of a tv person, but the Big Man and I do enjoy a few shows, so we'll lay around together watching them. Self care is super important no matter what and isn't to be confused with being selfish. Two entirely different things! Self care is nurturing yourself, when you need, how you need and as often as you need.

  I wasn't able to art much the past few weeks, but I did manage to get some time in. Painting journal page backgrounds, a bit of collage, starting a few paintings on super thick, luscious Strathmore watercolor paper and playing with some new sprays, Tattered Angels and Radiant Rain, a best buddy (THANKS RAINE!) was nice enough to give me when she cleaned up her studio. Art making is the ultimate in self care as far as I'm concerned. Even when I can only do a 15 minutes worth, it helps greatly.

One of the backgrounds I made

  I wasn't able to work on the laptop much, my hands wouldn't cooperate, so I haven't gotten far typing up class lessons. But I was able to take some notes, a ton of them in fact. Writing with a smooth marker pen is doable when my hands are playing at being claws, and the ideas I have for lesson plans are abundant. My art journal course, Personal and Potent: Art from the heart, to feed the soul, is coming to life! My target date for launching it is the beginning of June. Stay tuned for more details!

 I've gone and bought an inexpensive, but decent, web cam so I can make videos for my classes. I also want to add one here each month. I've never made art videos before so I'm sure there will be a whole lot of trial and error. As with everything in in life, there's a learning curve. I know my first attempts will be a tad rough as I get use to adjusting for angle, lighting, keeping the art I'm working on in view, etc. I'll improve as I go along and you all can have a good laugh over my early attempts!

  My favorite piece of art from the past few weeks is this painting I sent to a friend. 

It's a mixed media work on masonite. The 'Open" window was done as a gel medium transfer. I love the reverse. It makes it seem as if the viewer is looking out the window from within some where filled with love.

In fact, we are all filled with love. We just need to open ourselves to it. Perfect symbolism for a painting which went to the woman who wrote 'What Love Can Do' (Denise Steiner)  

  Speaking of 'What Love Can Do', check out Denise's book on Amazon.  IT IS AMAZING!  I'm not saying that just because she's a friend of mine.  Seriously. This book is life changing. No matter what your spiritual belief system, this book will touch your heart and open your soul to love in its purest form. 

What Love Can Do

I have my next newsletter almost ready to go. It's going to have links to FREE collage sheets for subscribers. If you haven't signed up yet (and why haven't you?)  and you want an awesome Henna Hands and a super cool, and slightly racy, Vintage Cabaret Collage sheet make sure you sign up before Wednesday!

 Until next time, I hope all your days are sunny and all your nights are filled with love-

Wild Kristin

Monday Musings

 Hello all!

 As I write this all I can think about are the people killed and injured in Boston today. A day of celebration was turned into a day of sadness and disaster thanks to people who felt the need to explode bombs in a crowded place. My mind cannot wrap itself around this. Just like it has never been able to wrap itself around what happened September 11, 2001. I will never understand such senseless cruelty. Such desire to terrorize others. Especially since I lead my life from a place of love and caring. A place where my greatest desire is to help others empower themselves. The desire to hurt others is beyond me.

ART & CLASSES:  My week in art was a busy one. There was much time spent on journaling and painting. Even more spent on writing class descriptions and lessons. I'm hoping to launch my first online classes by the first or second week in May. Putting this all together is time consuming, takes a lot of creative thought and faith. Faith in myself, in my ability to put together art based programs people will want to be a part of. I may be new at online teaching, but I know I will do it right. I have faith, after all.

NEWSLETTER: Tomorrow or Wednesday my first newsletter will be sent out. I'm including a link to a free collage sheet. My thanks for signing up to receive the weekly missive! If you haven't signed up yet, the link is on the right-hand side of this blog. Go for it, so you can keep up with my news, receive free goodies and discount coupons for workshops. Thanks!

MY WEEK IN ART:  These are some of my recent journal pages.

Proud to fly my freak flag! are you?

Love the colors and imagery in this one. 

This one is doodliscious! Most of the writing is done on her hair.

My Sweetling. Sweetlings are mixed-media paper dolls, taught by Effy Wild

This one is done, except for the quote I'm adding. 

That's all for today! It's been an emotional day and I feel the need for rest.

Until next time, many blessings!

-Kristin

Journal Pages

  As usual it's been too long since I blogged. Not going into the boring, medical details of what's been keeping me from doing so. Who wants to hear that? Certainly not me!

  I'd uploaded these journal page photos back in August, with every intention of posting them right away. But, it didn't work out the way I'd planned!  

  All these pages are from the journal made out of old file folders, scrap paper and heavyweight paper. The pages are staggered, with varying sizes,  lots of folds, creases and pockets. It makes for a much more interesting journal, both to work in and visually!

  Most of the border images on these pages are created from copies of previous pages I've done. I print them on the laser printer and cut into strips. I think it makes my pages unique and clearly reflects my style!

 The spread above contains transfers. On the left I did a gesso transfer. On the right a gel medium transfer. Both backgrounds are painted using gouache and watercolor. I typically use acrylic paint on my pages, but decided to try something different this time. 

The page below was painted with gouache also.I love the vibrant colors with a hint of softness.

Here you can see how the various page sizes offer a peek into what came before and after. I think it makes the journal more interesting and visually striking. It also makes you want to peek just around the corner to find what comes next!

A close up of one small page, which is actually a flap. 

This one has a fold in it and has been stapled into the journal with decorative metal staples. When folded you can only see the imagery, not the writing.

Another section where you can see how the different size pages reveal bits and pieces of what's contained within. Again, I love the vibrant colors of the gouache, especially the greens! The file folder edge is covered in decorative tape. It looks great and adds stability.

A combo of watercolor and gouache was used for this page. I like the goofy image at the top coupled with the vintage advertising image. The right hand side border is a portion of an older page I photocopied.

Journal Page 11/16/11

 This page is wider than the others in my Personal & Potent journal thanks to a fold-out. I love mixing up the size of my pages as much as I love mixing up the size of my journals!

The right portion of this page is a fold-out.

This is the fold-out the way it appears when folded down. The other side of the page peeks out enticingly from behind. I haven't journaled that part yet, so this glimpse is all you get to see for now!

Journal Pages 11/15/11

 I was in writing mode on the 15th, as you can see by these pages! I love it when I get in the groove and just keep going.

Journal Pages 11/7/11

 I was finally able to get some journal pages scanned, thanks to my hand healing enough to work with it easily!  These are the three I did on 11/7/11. I am really liking having and entire journal painted and collaged so I can just pick it up and do pen work and journal writing any time I feel like it!

This one is actually in a different journal.  I was upstairs and the skinny journal was down . I like having multiple journals in progress. That way, no matter what room I'm in I have something to work in once the mood hits!

I like how you can see the banana paper on the inside cover peeking out from behind this page. 

I never know what I'm going to write until I start. For whatever reason the watch image on this page made me think of the snobby, society types who expect perfect behavior. Definitely not me at all!

Journal Pages & Musings

  Since the storm Saturday I've had internet access issues. To be honest, it's bugging me for one reason only: My inability to blog easily. Anyone that's been following me for a while will know that consistencey has always been a challenge. Now that I've found a way to blog consistently, something I wanted to do for myself more than anything, not being able to irks me. Isn't it amazing how something we tried so hard to make routine becomes something we don't want to live without? In my case, posting here on certain days has become part of my weekly rituals. Without being able to maintain that ritual throws off my groove! Does this mean I've finally been able to maintain scheduling in one area of life instead of running amok , completely schedule free, as is my norm?

I started making a new journal during the power outage. It's going to be spiral bound so I am painting and collaging all the pages ahead of time.
The banana paper is part of the inside front cover.

A few more pages in the new journal.These are skinny pages, something I find challenging to work on, but like the size because it makes the journal so portable.

I actually have two new journals in progress. The top page here is from the larger of the two. You can see a skinny page below it so you have an idea of the size difference. I like working in all different size journals.
 It keeps me from getting bored!

Journal Pages

  A few recent and not so recent pages. I love making journals that have staggered pages, pockets, fold outs and envelopes for stashing mementos in. This journal has all of those.

  I love this vellum envelope for storing ephemera tidbits. 

Can you see the Bin Laden face? It's from a firecracker we had this summer!

There's also a bit of text from an egg roll package in the envelope. Had to keep it as what it said cracked me up: 

P.S. In case of of emergency defrost 10 minutes and separate into individual pieces.  An egg roll emergency? Goddess forbid!

The journal page beneath the vellum envelope.
You can see one of my skull lino prints peeking though.

I was having a bad pain day and feeling left behind once again.
Best way to get over it is to journal it out!

Skeleton Painting

Yet another skull has appeared in my art work. My hubby has taken to calling our home The Skull Factory because skulls & skeletons are absolutely everywhere!