Tag Archives: AJ art journal

Build Your Wings

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Build Your Wings

 

Hello friends

I hope all is good with you, I am very well and happy.  We had a proper summery day today and it lightened my mood.

I really like this page from my journal, in fact I have a copy of it on my office wall at work. It’s there to remind me that if I don’t like my job I can actually leave, I can take a leap. When my boss saw it he liked it too and I gave him a copy.

So I am back at work this week and it’s just the same old stuff, but at least I have my own nice little office now and I can listen to Radio 4 all day.

I’ve got to give a speech at a conference in London in a few weeks time about Ryde Social Heritage Group.  I’ve got to get that written before this weekend!   I’ve just about written the words, no doubt they will be ‘tweaked’ a few times before I’m entirely happy, but now I’m working on the images to go with it, I thought if I had images on a screen then people wouldn’t have to look at me all the time, and the images will show the work of the group better than anything I can say.  But I need to send the images to the conference organisers soon just to make sure they are compatible with their software and equipment.

Ryde Arts Festival starts next weekend and I’ve still got a few things to sort out for that. Tomorrow is the last of my workshops at The Foyer making the Matchbox Momentos and I think we will just have enough to fill the display case for the exhibition.  I’ve been trying to think of other things I can do with the group.  Of course I would like to teach them about Art Journaling, but I don’t think they are ready for that at the moment.  I’ll talk to them about it tomorrow.  One idea I have is making jewellery from rolled paper beads, I wonder what they will think of that?  I am going to have to take a break before I work at the Foyer again, I think I need to have the whole of July off just to try and catch up with things I’ve been neglecting and maybe I will work with them again in September.  That is if they want me to.

I have finished making the Art Journal book from the pages created at my workshop in April and I’ve been trying to make an e-book, unfortunately that wasn’t as easy as I had anticipated (either that or I’m an idiot – not sure which). So now I’ve decided to make a movie of the images instead.  If I am successful I will post it on the blog so you can see the great work the class did.  Once the Arts Festival is over I will take the book apart and return all the pages to the people who created them.

I have to collect up all the Family History Shrines made by Ryde Social Heritage Group last week and deliver them, and some sort of heading, to the exhibition space by the middle of next week.  Gosh it’s all go here!!!

Right, that’s all for now, I’m tired and off to bed.  

See you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

2nd Anniversary?!

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2 years

 

Hello friends

According to WordPress, I have just passed my second anniversary of blogging, who’d have thought that I could keep something up for so long?  Not me that’s for sure, but I do like blogging and sharing my art.

I had most of last week off work but I didn’t have a restful time.  On Monday I went to work, on Tuesday I spent most of the morning at the dentist’s having a root canal filling then in the afternoon I set things up for my workshop for my friends making Family History Shrines.  On Wednesday I did a whole day workshop, it was fun.  On Thursday it took me most of the day to unpack and put away all the stuff we had used at the workshop and I also had to prepare some more things for my Matchbox Momento workshop with the young people at the Foyer.  We actually had a good session at the Foyer this week and achieved some good work.  Friday was a nice day so I took Mum and Dad out for a drive and a cup of tea and cake at Quarr Abbey, it was lovely sitting in the garden at the Abbey in the sunshine.  Unfortunately we couldn’t feed the pigs (which was my main reason for going – if you have read my blog for a long time you may remember I am a lover of pigs) because they had sold out of Pig Nuts.  When we feed the pigs they get animated and excited but on Friday afternoon they were just laying and sleeping in the sunshine and to be honest they smelt pretty awful.

Saturday was not such a nice day but I did a session in the cemetery with a couple of friends recording the inscriptions from grave stones to add to our website www.rshg.org.uk.  This is a project I started 11 years ago and there is still no end in sight and I am beginning to lose my mojo for carrying on it’s taking such a long time.  The thought that keeps me going out there to do a few more is that it would be shame not to finish the whole project.  But if I ever have a bright idea like that again, please just shoot me (just kidding) 😉

Yesterday (Saturday) evening we went to the Isle of Wight Festival, I didn’t really want to go by T was DJing in one of the small tents and needed me to drive him.  We used to go to festivals all the time when we were younger, but there is something about the Isle of Wight Festival I really don’t like, it’s very ‘corporate’ and big.  Fortunately we were able to drive to and park in the back stage area so didn’t have far to walk to Bohemia Woods the area where T was working.  We arrived about 7:30pm and had a cup of tea in the back stage area and then went for a walk around the site before he had to get ready for his set at 9pm.  Walking around the site I was aware of lots of really harsh noises coming from the various fair ground rides and small stages and also from people shouting at each other.  Many people appeared to be drunk.  As a non-drinker I always find drunks a bit scary.  I am sure when we used to go to festivals most people were stoned and non-threatening.  As we walked around it just seemed like some great big shopping mall full of weird people, loud noises and horrible smells coming from the various food outlets.  I realised that modern day large festivals are definitely not for me.   It didn’t look like the place was full to capacity so at least it wasn’t too crowded.  I think it would have been a total nightmare if there had been 90,000 people there!

After a while we made our way back to the nice quiet area that was Bohemia Woods.  T was playing in a small Moroccan style tent that would probably hold, at most, 100 people.  When he started playing a lovely friend of ours, Gina, performed her hoola-hoop dancing with LED hoops, she looked fantastic and was a great accompaniment to T’s music.  She has a company called Star Mystique check it out here.  Afterwards T and I had another cup of tea and then headed home at about 11:30, most other people were still partying 🙂

Today has been a quiet day with a little bit of housework, a little bit of art, a few emails and a visit to see parents.

Tomorrow back to work 😦

Above is another page from my Circles of Wisdom book.

That’s all folks see you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

 

Another Teesha Inspired Journal

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Another Teesha Inspired journal :-)

Hello friends, I’m back – I think.

I have my new computer and, as we all predicted, at first it caused more problems than it solved, but gradually it is getting sorted out and at least this one is not crashing all the time and eventually I will sort out all the glitches, it all just takes time which is something I seem to be a bit short of.

Today I did a workshop with some of my colleagues from Ryde Social Heritage Group and we made Family History Shrines based on a free ebook I found on Aisling.net here is the link if you are interested: http://www.aisling.net/freebies/family-hist-shrine.pdf

I got together with 8 friends who have all researched their family histories and I showed them how I create my mixed media backgrounds using acrylic paints, stamping, stencilling etc. and everyone created lovely 3-fold books.  Unfortunately we ran out of time but at least they left with lovely backgrounds and now they will be working at home to put details of their families into the books.  I completed my book a few months ago and then I showed it to my friends and asked if they would like to make books about their families too.  I was delighted when they all said yes and we had a great day today.  At the end of the month our work will go on display in an exhibition called The Unfolding Story for Ryde Arts Festival week.  In fact the work produced at all three of my workshops – Art Journaling, Matchbox Momentos and the Family History Shrines will be in the exhibition.  Woo Hoo that’s just great.

I am not at work this week well I went in on Monday, but took the rest of the week as annual leave.  The main reason for this is that this weekend is the big Isle of Wight Music Festival and it causes a lot of disruption for me getting to and from work, so this year I decided to avoid the hassle and take time off.  Unfortunately the weather has turned wintery again which is not good considering the time of year, but I am getting a few things done and it’s good just away from the daily grind for a few days.

The page above is the front cover of my fourth Teesha Moore inspired art journal a style, which you know I completely love.  I think and hope that my personal style is now beginning to show.  Anyone looking at my art would know it is inspired by Teesha, but I hope a bit of me shines through too.  Anyway after today’s mixed media workshop I realised it’s been a while since I played with acrylic paints, stencils and stamping and  I think I need to get back into that again soon.  I’ll have to find the time some how….

It’s late, I’m cold (it’s supposed to be mid-summer for goodness sake!) so I’m going to bed now to try and get warm, hopefully Billy the cat will come too – he’s a bit like a living hot water bottle.

Take care my friends and I’ll be back soon.

Big love

AJ 🙂

Flower Power

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Flower PowerHello friends!

I am totally out of synch again!  I missed Sunday’s and Wednesday’s posts and I am posting this today instead of tomorrow because I have a new computer.  I got it for my birthday from my lovely husband and once I get it set up things should get a bit easier.  This ‘steam’ driven computer I am still using at the moment is really on its last legs and stops and crashes all the time.  However before I can set up the new one I need to transfer some files from this one to my external hard drive, and then I’ll have to set up the new computer so I can access the internet and my emails – oh you know all that techy stuff that I’m not much good at.  If I disappear for a while again you’ll know why!

Since my last post I really have been ultra busy.  My local history group had two Open Days in the Cemetery – believe me it’s more fun that it sounds – and as well as the actual two days we had to set up displays, learn scripts, I had to research and write a guided walk and then when it was all over we had to take it all down and pack it up.  If you are interested you can read about it here: http://www.rshg.org.uk/newsarticle.asp?newsid=349

The weather was glorious, lots of people came and we had a lot of fun!

The day after our Open Days was a Bank Holiday, this was fortunate because somehow I managed to sleep for 12 hours!  I never do that and normally I am an early riser.  My husband finally came to check if I was OK at 11am and woke me up.  I felt a bit groggy when I first got up but the weather was so nice I spent the rest of the day in the garden tidying up.

On Thursday, after work, I did my first (1 of 4) workshop with the young people at the Foyer.  Gosh that was a challenge!  I’m not sure they were inspired by me or by the idea of making matchbox momentos, that’s what I was asked to do with them.  Some of them did some fantastic work, but it was so hard to keep the attention and interest of others.   I am going to have to try harder for the next three weeks, I hope some of them come back next week, I was really looking forward to sharing a creative experience with new people.

The image above is another page from by Circles of wisdom book, it’s a kind of flowery theme, perfect for an old hippy like me 🙂

Right, now to start sorting out transferring from one computer to another, hopefully I will see you soon from my new super-dooper, ultra fast machine.

Big love

AJ 🙂

Big Mouth :-)

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Big MouthHello friends!

Sorry I went AWOL last weekend, well I didn’t really go missing, just ran out of time!  Nothing new there then!

I’ve got some exciting news though.

I spend a bit (lot) of time searching for inspiration and uplifting ideas on the web and one of the sites I have frequently visited to find excellent quotes and motivation is “Tiny Buddha – Simple Wisdom for Complex Lives”.  So I was surprised and delighted when Lori from that site contacted me about using some of my images, of course I said Yes!  You can find them under the Fun and Inspiring section.  It’s strange I get a lot of inspiration from other people but it never occurred to me that my art might be inspiring to others. Thank you Lori and thank you universe.  Being included Tiny Buddha has made me very happy.

Today I had a meeting with a friend who runs a hostel for young homeless people in the town and I’ve agreed to run 4 short workshops with them making ‘matchbox momentos’.  Of course I really don’t have time to take this on, but I’ll just have to squeeze it into my busy schedule some how!  It’s going to be good. 🙂

Today was my last day at work until next Tuesday, that makes me happy too.   I finally got up to date and cleared my inbox before I left this evening and everything was in order, that’s a really good feeling as sometimes it feels like I’ll never catch up.

For the next two days I will be working with my friends to set everything up for our Open Days in the cemetery on Saturday and Sunday.  We will have exhibitions and lots of interesting historical stuff on display, I will be leading guided tours and taking part in a ‘Character Walk’ where I will dress up and tell the story of someone from the past.  There is lots to do I just hope the sun shines and we get lots of visitors.

The page above is the back cover of my third Teesha Moore inspired journal.  I found the Big Lips and the banana that I wanted to use and the rest of the page just came together.  I decided that my quote should be about the big mouth so it says “If you did not see it with your own eyes and hear it with your own ears, don’t invent it with your small mind and share it with your Big Mouth”.  It’s not exactly a positive quote but true nevertheless.

Have a great week and I’ll see you soon.

Big love

AJ 🙂

Breath and Relax!

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Green MandalaHello friends!

OK it’s official it’s time I sorted out my art room AGAIN.  I’ve just spent two days looking for a journal I’ve been working in.  Well not two whole days because I’m out at work most of the time.  But I’d get up in the morning and look for it, come home from work and look for it, move piles of stuff around and look for it, and it couldn’t be found anywhere.  It was driving me NUTS.  I knew it was here (somewhere) and I also knew that if I was tidier I would stand more chance of knowing where things are.  Of course, once I stopped looking  I found it and just by  moving something on my desk and there it was!

So it’s on my To Do list now – Sort out Room.  Every now and again I have a go at it and if I make a concerted effort I do make some progress, but it is so difficult to stay focused on tidying up when I find so many interesting things.  You see I collect things, things I really don’t need, but things that ‘might come in useful’.  My room is full of ‘stuff’ – art stuff, local history stuff, and general life stuff.  To me it’s all fascinating and interesting and I have plans for using it in the future, but I will admit it would be better if there was some kind of order to it.  My obsessively tidy husband hates having to come into my room, he just can’t cope with the disorder and chaos!

I either need therapy or an assistant, I’m not sure which.

Today’s image is a mandala from my Circles of Wisdom book, I hope you like it 🙂

See you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

Ignite your Fire

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Ignite your fireHello friends!

I hope everything is bright in your area of the world, here all is good.

The page above is from my third Teesha inspired journal.  I really LOVE this style of journaling.  The words on the page are a quote by Osho “Your life spark fires from within your inntermost temple, no-one can reach there but you.  It is your inner sacred sanctum, you are your own master there, only you can reach and ignite your fire”.  So, go on, Ignite Your Fire 🙂

This is a short post because a mountain of ironing is calling to me and has to be done before I go to bed tonight.

Take care everyone and I’ll see you soon.

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

The Seasons

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SeasonsHello friends!

Hope all is good with you.  My email has been sorted out now (I think) and I’ve been trying to catch up.

Monday was a bank holiday and the hottest day of the year so far.  I spent most of the day in the garden, first helping T to refix the fence to the new posts and then tidying up the garden.  It looks quite respectable now and (for the time being at least), doesn’t give the impression of a ramshackle entrance to our house.  I definitely felt better for spending most of the day outside.

I’ve been decorating my new office at work (called ‘the box’ by my colleagues because it is so small) with some prints of my art.  I am expecting a fair bit of mickey taking about this as I don’t think many of the people I work with will get my art.  But I will feel happier when I have bright colours and positive words to look at instead of plain walls.  The photocopier is still in my office and the senior manager came in to use it today.  I wondered what he would say about all the strange pictures on the wall, but he liked them and one in particular which he came back a few times to look at and to try and memorise the quote.  I think I will give him a smaller copy of it.

The page above is from my 6×6 inch Wisdom Circles book, I miscalculated the spacing and had to squeeze in the last word.  It’s supposed to say “To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring”.

That’s all for now, see you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

Humanity

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HumanityHello friends!

I hope you are all well and, if you are in the UK, enjoying the spring weather.  Today especially has been glorious – sunny and warm.

I was supposed to be helping T put in the new concrete gate posts to replace the wooden ones that rotted away at the bottom.  He finally managed to drill out all the old concrete with the pneumatic drill borrowed from a friend and today was the day to put the posts in.  Unfortunately I woke up with a blinding headache and didn’t get out of bed until about mid-day.  By that time he had completed the job on his own.  What a star!

Gradually my headache wore off and as I felt better and it was a nice day I took Mum and Dad out for a drive and a short walk along the beach at Bembridge.  I think it wore them both out even though we didn’t walk very far, but then Mum is 80 and Dad will be 91 in a couple of weeks time.  However I also know they appreciated being taken out for a couple of hours.

I have been receiving lots of lovely feedback from my workshop last week and requests to do more.  I will do more, but I need to pace myself, because I work full time, have commitments at home, have commitments to Ryde Social Heritage Group and I want to have time for my own creativity.  So it’s not something I’m going to rush in to.

I am having major problems with my email at the moment.  My ISP introduced some ‘improvements’ to the mail service recently and ever since then my email has been messed up.  I was receiving some emails but not all of them.  Yesterday I had a long, and sometimes difficult conversation with a support technician.  I think he may have been in India, at least he had an Indian accent.   He spoke very good English, but his voice kept fading in and out and he had to repeat himself lots of times before I understood his instructions.  I thought he had sorted it out, as I received 150 emails while he was talking to me, but today I’m still having problems.  I am pretty sure I should have received more than one email today and I haven’t been able to send any!   I know I just have to make another call to fix it, but today I’ve either been too ill or too busy.  Maybe tomorrow…

The page above is another page from my third Teesha Moore inspired journal.  It’s a little dark, but I do like the images I used.

Have a great week and I’ll see you soon.

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

AJ the Mermaid Clown!

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AJ the Mermaid ClownHello friends!

It’s been a while since I posted on my blog, my only excuse is that if I thought I was busy before the last couple of weeks have been mental!

The Mermaid Circus online workshop with Teesha Moore and Jane Davenport is quite sensational, but I’m struggling to keep up with it all.  In the first two weeks we were tasked with making a shaped book and filling it with mermaids and sea creatures with a circus theme.  This was a huge challenge to me because I have absolutely NO interest in Mermaids 🙂  However I have made my book and so far I have populated it with three performing mermaids and the Ring Master who is an octopus.  There are still at least 6 mermaids or sea creatures to create and the cover to do (I will leave the cover till last).

I decided to include myself in the book.  I have a photograph that I took of my face from underwater when I was snorkeling in Tobago and I was going to use that, but it didn’t work.  So I ended up painting the face based on that photo.  Of course it looks nothing like me so I decided to turn myself into a Mermaid Clown and also to give myslf long flowing red hair!

I’m a bit stuck with the shaped book now because the next challenge is to draw a face, copy it and collage it into the next piece.  I’m not very good at drawing so I’ve been doing lots of practice.  I think I’m improving, here is my first attempt and a later one.

first attemptGirl with roses in her hair

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think it’s going to take a bit more practice before I’m really ready to use a face I’ve drawn in my book though. So far I have had about 12 attempts so I reckon if I do another 88 and I might be there 🙂

On top of the Mermaid Circus I also did my very first Art Journaling workshop last Saturday, and it went REALLY well I had a great day with an amazing group of people.  I did loads and loads of preparation and that really paid off. We created journal pages in the style of Teesha Moore – collage and penwork – and everyone completed one page, a couple of people managed two!.  All the pages will be temporarily bound into a book that will go on display during Ryde Arts Festival 27 June – 7 July.  After the festival all the participants will get their art work back and I am also hoping to turn it into an e-book which I will post on my blog.  I was so impressed with the work everyone did.  We had a lot of fun.  Here is a picture of the group hard at work  on the collage elements:

Art Journaling workshop

 

I am hoping to do another workshop with a group of my friends very soon to create something a little different, and I’ve also been asked to give the same workshop as i did last Saturday to a group of young people who live in sheltered accommodation in the town, I’m going to talk to the manager about that next week.

So that’s pretty much all my news, the weather has been lovely this past week too which is an added bonus.

Now I just have to catch up with all the other stuff that I’ve been falling behind with while I’ve been concentrating on the above.

Have a good week everyone and I’ll see you soon.

Big love

AJ 🙂