Tag Archives: collage

Just Keep Breathing

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Just Keep BreathingHello friends!

How are you?  I am fine although I had a bit of a melt down at work yesterday.  I was doing OK until this lovely woman phoned me up and asked me how I was getting on in my new job.  I had to tell her I wasn’t very happy because it was so tedious and then it was like the flood gates opened.  Unfortunately I can be very emotional and my voice was breaking up, I started crying and I guess she knew that even down the phone line.   Anyway she was very encouraging and supportive and I think my discontent has now been passed up the chain a bit.  I don’t know if anything good will happen as a result of this though.  I am still trying my hardest to do a good job even though I find it totally boring and I am trying to stay positive about it.  It’s a challenge!  Anyway I felt a bit better today.  Sometimes it’s just good to talk and unload some of the crap.

So here is another bright and happy page from my ‘weird and freaky’ Teesha Moore inspired journal.  The quote is by Oprah Winfrey and is something I really need to keep telling myself.

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

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

Home, a place of safety

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Home, a place of safetyHello friends!

I hope you are all well and happy.  I have had a busy weekend.  Yesterday I had to make myself go and do the voluntary work in the cemetery, it was hard because I knew RoseMarie wouldn’t be there, but I also knew it’s what she would want me to carry on.  It was a lovely sunny morning and my friend Kate came to join me and we spent a pleasant couple of hours recording inscriptions from some of the memorials.

In the afternoon I went shopping, I was hoping to be able to buy some old National Geographic magazines cheap from one of the charity shops, but I couldn’t find any 😦  However in one of the charity shops I did find a rather fabulous scrap book of newspaper cuttings someone (unknown) made in the 1930s, I probably spent more than I should have done on it, but I couldn’t resist!  In the same shop I also got some good artist brushes for a bargain price.  Well you can never have too many brushes can you?

It is now 6:30 pm and this is the first time I’ve sat in front of my computer today.  I had to resist switching it on because I had chores to do today.  I got up early this morning and started to clear out and tidy up the cupboard under the stairs.  Eventually we intend to move the washing machine in there to free up some space in the kitchen.  It’s hard to believe that so much stuff could be crammed into such a small space.  I was ruthless and threw of lot out!  When my husband got up (much later than me) we spent time working out how we are going to deal with the plumbing and then we went to a big DIY store to buy the materials we will need.

It was too late to start by the time we got back so I went to see Mum and Dad, who are both fine, and I’ve just got back from that visit.

This image above is a single page from my A4 size journal and was done fairly quickly (I guess you can tell that) as part of the Fall Fearless and Fly challenge:

Headline prompt: Security, what makes you feel safe and secure? What rattles your sense of security? Where do you go for comfort and refuge?

Color prompt: Cool colors (blues, greens, violets, etc)

Quote prompt: You can’t make a place for yourself in the sun, if you keep taking refuge under the family tree. Helen Keller.

Well, my home and my art room make me feel safe and secure so that’s where I go for comfort.  I managed to get my two cats into the image, but not my husband, he is probably around the back of the house tending to the garden, either that or he is upstairs haveing a nap 🙂  By the way my house is not as big as the one depicted on the page.

I’m not sure who to attribute the quote I used to, I have seen several similar quotes attributed to different people, but nevertheless it is what I feel about home.  I feel that I ruined it with the terrible writing, but never mind…

Have a good week everyone and I’ll be back soon.

Big love

AJ 🙂

So Do It!

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So do it!Hello friends

I hope your week is going well, I am doing pretty good 🙂

Here is another page from my Teesha Moore inspired journal, I am totally hooked on this at the moment…

I don’t have time to write a blog post at the moment, it’s late and I need to get to bed, but I hope you like my page.  I showed my journal to one of my friends and he said “It’s a bit ‘freaky’ and a bit weird”.  Oh well that’s me I guess 😉

See you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

Focus on the Journey

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Focus on the JourneyCLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Hello friends!

I hope you have had a great weekend, mine has been OKish.  I woke up with a horrible headache on Saturday morning and that kept me in bed all morning.  I finally managed to get rid of it and at lunch time I got up to make myself some toast.  The phone rang and my husband told me it was a friend wanting to speak to me.  I groaned as I really didn’t feel like talking to anyone but he had already told her he would get me so I answered the call.  Then I was hit by a bombshell, I was told that another friend had collapsed and died that morning.  It was completely unexpected, I had only seen her the previous Saturday when she came and volunteered in the cemetery with me, helping to record inscriptions from the memorials.  She has been helping me do this for several years.  In all that time I hadn’t really got to know her that well as she was a very private person, but gradually she began to open up and chat, especially when it was just the two of us working together.  She was a kind, caring, thoughtful soul who did much to help other people.  The last time I saw her she cheerily said “See you in a couple of weeks”.  As far as I know she had not been ill and her death was sudden and unexpected, she was only in her early 70s.

Rest in peace Rosemarie, dear kind soul, I will think of you and miss you every time I go into the cemetery to work.  The work you did will be appreciated by many people from all across the world who carry out research into their ancestors from our town.

She has been on my mind a lot ever since I heard, I had to phone several other people to impart the sad news and then I spent the rest of the time working on my art which has helped me to stay grounded.

The page above is from my A4 journal and was completed in August.  I used  pieces from an old cycling map as the background and then gave it a wash of watered down gesso and acrylic paint.  The bicycles in the bottom r/h corner were an image transfer.  The image and quote on the left hand page I found on the internet and it made me smile as I can imagine how precarious it was to ride a pennyfarthing bike.  The photograph of the girl is me aged about 18 on a bike ride in Nepal.  I stamped on the page with a Tim Holtz reflections text stamp and a number stamp.  I think I probably used Portfolio water soluable oil pastels to edge the page.  The quote sums up what I feel about art journaling – the process is more important than the end result – It’s All Good even if it’s not always good art 🙂

Have a good week my friends and I will see you soon.

Big love

AJ 🙂

Pigs can fly!

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Pigs can fly!CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Hello friends

I am in desperate need of some bright colours at the moment so here is another page from my Teesha Moore inspired journal.  The image of the pig and the ‘Who says pigs can’t fly’ slogan were cut out of a ‘pigalogue’ I received at work.  There is a company is called Pig, they sell spill kits and absorbant materials,  they list all their products in a pigalogue instead of a catalogue – I love that.  The little pig has been sitting on my desk for weeks just waiting for the right time to appear in a piece of art.  And this was the page I made especially for him!

I am really fond of pigs in fact for years I tried to persaude my husband to let me have a pet pig, but he argued that a pig would a) grow far too big and b) would dig up his garden.  Both of which I’m sure are true.  So I have two cats instead, my Bengal Boys, Bill and Jack, and I’m totally besotted by them.  I suppose you couldn’t really have a pig sleeping on the bed with you could you?  Or could you!?  Well maybe if he took a bath first…

Pig in a Fisheye

So anyway my week has been a tad on the grey and boring side so far, but I’ve been trying to look at all the positives and one BIG positive for me is how much I love this style of journaling.  When my day got so dull I just wanted to bang my head against the desk, I got out my journal, looked through it and thought ‘Now that’s not dull, that’s really bright and juicy, and I did it ‘!  It’s such a shame I can’t actuallty do any art while I’m at work, but looking at  my journal lifts my spirits anyway.

I shouldn’t really involve myself in other people’s politics but I have to admit that when I heard the news this morning that Obama had been re-elected that brought a smile to my face too.  I feared that the alternative would have been such bad news for the US and the world.

Well I hope you are all having a great week, I am going to give myself a good talking to and ensure I enjoy the rest of mine.

See you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

 

Do What Matters Most

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Do What Matters Most

 

 

Hello friends!

Apologies I am out of sych again with my blog posting because I have been super busy again.

This journal page was made back in August, I used a lot of ephemera for the background including a leaflet a got from the doctors about a (rather unpleasant) medical procedure I had to go through, and a leaflet my husband had about access to work.  The colour scheme is a bit odd, I don’t think that acid green and purple really go together that well but it’s just what happened when I made the page.  The words were originally done in a different way and I hated how they looked and re-did them.  To be honest I’m not really that pleased with this page, but I love the sentiment.

At the moment what seems to matter most to me is creating art.  I have just finished my first Teesha inspired journal and I love it.  Creating it has definitely been feeding my soul and given me some ideas which I shall be pursuing in the next few months.

On Friday I gave my presentation to the group in Ventnor and it went really well, I enjoyed it and, judging by all the smiling faces and the comments I received afterwards the audience did too.  I have one more presentation to do tomorrow evening and then I can relax a bit and try and get my life back on track and hopefully regular posting to my blog.

This weekend we successfully constructed the window blind for the dining room (it took several attempts to get it right), so I will soon have to start looking at how to improve the kitchen (and you know how I feel about that)!

Have a good week and I’ll see you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

Grow & Blossom

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Something weird is happening to my computer this is the third time of posting this, the first two times it just disappeared!  Let’s hope it’s third time lucky!

Hello friends

I hope you are all well.  Well this weekend went by in the blink of an eye and it’s back to work tomorrow!

Still I managed to get some art done and even some housework too (that’s almost unheard of)!  I am really loving the Visionary Journaling that Teesha Moore taught at the Call of the Wild Soul Art Retreat and I am now working on the back of the pages I started in her class.  This is my favourite page so far.  My husband likes it too which is high praise from someone who hardly ever comments on my art.

Actually that is not strictly true, I recently finished three A4 size canvases painting in the way that Flora Bowley taught us (also at COTWS) and he is insisting that they are hung in our dining room.  I guess I must be getting better at this art game 🙂

Anyway apologies for the short post but I have a mountain of ironing to do before tomorrow and I also have a presentation to prepare for a talk I am giving next Friday about some of the historical people from my town.

I hope all is good with you, everything is Tickety Boo here.

Big love

AJ 🙂

(Fingers crossed the post stays in place this time)

Jump for Joy!

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Jump for Joy

Hello friends

Sorry I missed posting on Sunday because I was sick – same thing as happened to me when I was on the Art Retreat, blinding headache and sickness only this time much worse and I spent two whole days in bed!  But I am much better now and went back to work today, so it’s time to catch up 🙂

This is the second page that I started in Teesha Moore’s workshop and I finished it yesterday.  I really do like this way of journaling, it’s so different to my usual style – it’s bold, sassy and ‘in your face’.  I like doodling all over my pages, but I think I need to try some different styles, I seem to be stuck on the same few motifs at the moment 😉

I am going to link this page to Challenge 2 of Fall Fearless & Fly over at Artists in Blogland.

This time the prompts are:

Headline prompt:  Taking a Chance, Color prompt: What color do you like least? Use it! Quote prompt: Don’t refuse to go on the occasional Wild Goose chase – that’s what wild geese are for. Anonymous

Click on the link Fall Fearless & Fly for more information and the rules.

My page is all about taking chances and doing something different, I’ve used combinations of colours I wouldn’t normally use and I picked my quote because it seemed to fit with the image on the page and also it made me laugh because I misread it at first as “To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily, not to dare is to lose ones elf”   Well you wouldn’t want to lose your Elf now would you?  You’d be lost without it!

Take care everyone and I’ll see you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

 

Making Connections

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Call of the Wild SoulClick on the image to see it full size

Hello friends

I hope all is good with you because everthing is fine with me.

This time last week I was at the Art Retreat.  Above is a journal page that I started in Teesha Moore’s workshop.  The main reason I decided to go to the Art Retreat was because Teesha was going to be there.  In 2007 I met Tracy and Trista Moore (Teesha’s husband and daughter) at the Lomographic World Congress in London.  I had known Tracy online before I met him in person and the three of us spent a lot of time together, I loved them both from the moment I met them.  As a result of that meeting I got to hear about Art Journaling.  Tracy carried around with him lots of cameras and a huge handmade journal which he encouraged everyone he met to write or draw in.  It was fascinating, but I didn’t think it was something I could do.

Some time later I thought to myself, “I wonder what Tracy Moore is up to these days” and I ‘Googled’ his name and I found Teesha’s YouTube videos about art journaling and that’s what got me started.

It was so good to see Tracy again at the Retreat and to meet his adorable wife Teesha.  What an amazing woman!  Unfortunately I was really unwell on the day I had Teesha’s workshop, I had a really bad headache and was sick a few times during the day.  Eventually I had to leave the workshop about 2 hours before the end as I needed to go and lie down in a dark room, but while I was there, even though I was struggling with health issues, I loved what Teesha was saying to us.  She is a very beautiful vibrant woman as you will see from her art work.  AND she is generous, she brought her wonderful journals which we were allowed to handle.  When you see the images on line they are awesome – when you see them in real life you realise they are priceless pieces of art but Teesha is not precious about them and shares everything she has learnt.  I am so happy to have met her and I truly hope that we will meet again one day.

Above is one of the pages I started in Teesha’s workshop but couldn’t finish.  Before Teesha left the Art Retreat she generously gave me a bag of pens so I could complete the work and I have been working on it this week in my spare time.  I love it!  It also sums up for me what the Retreat was all about.

I am so happy to have met so many beautiful, inspiring and supportive women.  Thank you to Erin, Simon and little Poppy – you all did a great job, thanks to Teesha, Flora and Orly – you were amazing and generous teachers, and especially I’d like to thank all the wonderful Wild Soul Sistas I met there.  It was awesome!

Big love

AJ 🙂

PS I can’t post any photos of the event yet because yesterday I left my camera with all my photos on it at a friend’s house!  I’ll retrieve it next week.

Concentrate the Mind on the Present Moment

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Concentrate the Mind on the Present MomentHello friends

I am still a bit discombobulated after the fantastic weekend at the Call of the Wild Soul Art Retreat.  I am still pretty much on a ‘high’ from the wonderful experience and all the lovely people I met.

This is a spread in my new altered book journal and I am linking it to the Fall Fearless and Fly challenge.  Click the link to see the rules and to find out more about the challenge 🙂

The First Set of Prompts:  Headline Prompt:  Inventing the Future:  Where do you want to be 5, 10, 15 years from now.  What’s holding you back?  What’s propelling you forward?  What do you need to do or stop doing to create your future? Color Prompt:  Warm colors (reds, oranges, pinks, yellows) Quote Prompt:  “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.”  Abraham Lincoln

Well I have used warm colours and although I didn’t use the actual quote my spread has a ‘time’ theme.  First of all I collaged images of clocks, watches and hour-glasses all over the pages; gave them a wash of watered down gesso; finger painted with brown, red, russet, orange and neon pink acrylic paints; more collage with beautiful chinese papers (given to me by  Katie Flowers, one of the new friends I met at the Art Retreat, and who travelled all the way from Hong Kong to join us); I found a great quote about time which is attributed to Buddha – printed it out on my computer in Samarkan font, tore around the words and coloured the paper with Tattered Rose Distress ink and edged with Orange Stazon ink; the image of Buddha I found on the internet and I recoloured it in photoshop (to give it a warm hue) before printing it out and adding to the page; I edged and shaded the pages with brown and red Portfolio water soluable oil pastels.  Finally I added the butterfly which was also a gift I received at the art retreat (I am really sorry I can’t remember who gave that to me).

Well that’s it from me, I hope you like it.  (If you click on the image you can see it larger and in more detail).

Big love and see you soon

AJ 🙂