Tag Archives: collage

Let your mind start a journey…

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Let your mind start a journey...

Click on image to enlarge

Hello friends!

Well after just under two weeks holiday from work, it’s back to the daily grind tomorrow for me. 😦  I wish I could say I feeling joyous about it, but to be honest there is a slight dread in the pit of my stomach right now.  However I’m sure it will all be fine once I get there and once I get used to getting up early again!

I’ve managed to achieve quite a lot in two weeks.  I had 22 things on my ‘To Do’ list, there are 6 left now but I’ve made a start on 4 of them so progress has been good.  More importantly I’ve had time to create some art and that has been so good for my soul. 🙂

The spread above is in one of my board book journals and was inspired by Teesha Moore’s Artstonauts Club.  I’ve also been working on some mixed media pieces, started making some prayer flags, made a new junk journal and had an attempt at tidying up my art room.  This last task was only partially successful and now I’ve run out of time so it won’t get completed.  Still it’s better than it was 🙂

Here is the main wall I sorted out (T says it still looks cluttered!)  I found some interesting stuff that I had forgotten I had!

Art room organisationIf you click on the image you can see it bigger. The things hanging from the ceiling are papier mache fish, there are a group of 6 of them swimming about above my workspace 🙂

The weather here has been pretty bad since before Christmas –  lots of rain and wind.  In some parts there has been a lot of flooding and damage.  Luckily we haven’t suffered in that way and I feel for the people who have, it must be awful to have your home flooded.

I hope your New Year has got off to a good start and I wish you a creative and joyful rest of the year.

See you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2014 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

…And we’re off!

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2013 book

Hello friends

I hope your New Year has got off to a good start.

For me it feels like there is an imperative to start new projects, but today I spent nearly all of my time finishing off last year’s ‘whole year’ project.

This time last year I was putting away the Christmas decorations and I had a stack of Christmas cards, I didn’t want to throw them away so I decided to make them into a book. I made up signatures consisting of 4 or 5 cards and then I covered them with scrap book papers and various bits and pieces from my art room.  I made 13 signatures in total, one for each month and an extra one for the introduction.  For every day last year I wrote (or sometimes typed) a diary entry and put it in my book.  Today I have made the cover and bound it all together.

I didn’t find it easy doing something every day, but I managed it and now my 2013 book is complete.  Below you can see a slide show of some of the book.  It measures 6.5 inches by 5.5 inches and the spine is 4 inches thick.

If the idea of a daily practice appeals to you I recommend that you visit my friend Gretchen Miller’s blog Creativity in Motion.  Gretchen had just completed a project where she made a piece of art every single day of 2013.  The completed project is just THE MOST AMAZING thing, and today Gretchen has started a new year long daily project.  Really, please go and have a look at Gretchen’s work you will be amazed and enthralled.

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions any more  normally between Christmas and New year I make a Revo-lution Book.  This is something I learnt from Gretchen – the idea is to make an art book and on every page put an intention for the coming year and illustrate it with your art.   This year I have decided to work on my Revo-lution book during the year rather than have it all finished at the beginning of the year.  I am going to be using a large sample book I bought in a charity shop which I will be altering, ‘artifying’ and filling with my intentions.

For my ‘year’ project for 2014 I am going to be altering a pack of cards – one card a week for 52 weeks – hopefully that will be slightly easier than forcing myself to do something every day.

What ever your intentions are for the coming year I wish you good health and success in all your endeavours.

See you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2014 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Space, the final frontier

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Space, the final frontier

 

Hello friends

I hope you are all well and happy.  All is good here, my dad has made a miraculous recovery and is back to his old self again.  Most of the bruises have gone and his broken rib gets a bit easier every day.  I am so pleased 🙂 

I am so excited to be sharing with you my first journal spread inspired by Teesha Moore‘s Artstonauts Club.  I made the deep space background using a technique shown by artist James S Flagg, then I collaged images of planets, a spaceman and a rocket on top and altered them with various pens.  I wanted to do something like the Ship’s log I remember from years ago when I used to watch Star Trek.  I typed out the words in a digital looking font and then found an image of an IPad to paste them onto.  I think it worked out quite well.  Oh and I put Teesha’s husband Tracy in the space suit 🙂

I feel like I want to hibernate at the moment, I am going to bed earlier and earlier and I am not so keen to get up in the morning.  I usually manage to be up by about 6am but not with the enthusiasm I have in the light summer months.  Cold, dark days don’t really suit me…

I am progressing (slowly) with the Christmas presents, but I am a little bit disappointed with how they are turning out.  Still I’m committed to making them now so I have to proceed.  I’ll show them to you after Christmas when I have handed them out.  They may not look totally brilliant but there is a lot of work going in to them so I hope they are received OK.

This coming Saturday I will at St Thomas Church in Ryde all day serving teas to visitors at a Ryde Arts Festival event.  There will be Green Wreath making, children’s activities, carol singing and lots of fun.  I am going to wrap up well though because it will probably be very cold.

I am still planning the new kitchen, T seems to have lost interest now it’s come down to the fine detail, but I want to make sure everything is as good as we can possibly make it, I doubt we will every do it again.  I’ve even toyed with the idea of perhaps learning to cook once we have a nice kitchen, I’m in my late 50’s so it’s probably time I did, I’ll never be able to cook as well as T does but I ought to be able to provide meals at least occasionally.

Anyway have a great week and I’ll be back at the weekend with another mandala.

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2013 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 

We are Visitors here

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We are Visitors

Hello friends

I’m a day late this week because, well because…

My week started off as usual, pretty boring really.  At work people were moaning about it ‘only being Monday’ and we ‘have the whole week ahead of us’, but I knew it would soon pass, I didn’t want to be miserable for the whole week so I was trying to make the most of my week.

Then my week suddenly got ‘interesting’

On Tuesday lunchtime I went out for my usual walk.  When I got back to the office I had 4 missed calls from T so I called him back.  He was very worried as my Mum had phoned left a message on the answerphone saying “Oh you’re not there, never mind, I had a message for you”.  He said she sounded worried and he had been trying to phone her back but could get no reply from her house phone or mobile.  What should he do?

I told him not to worry as there was nothing he could do and if it was important she would phone back.

About an hour and half later he phoned me again “I knew there was something wrong” he said.  He had just found out that Dad had fallen over in the street and been taken to hospital.  I left work early and went to the hospital.  Dad looked a mess, his face was swollen, he had tapes over his left eye which was red and swollen closed.

No-one knows what happened except he fell over and into the road (fortunately he was not hit by a car), bashed his head on the road and knocked himself out.  He was unconscious for about 3 minutes.  Someone called an ambulance which arrived very quickly.

They had been out shopping together and Mum had called into a clothes shop, Dad didn’t want to go in there so he walked on alone.  About 10 minutes later Mum was making her way home on her mobility scooter and saw an ambulance at the side of the road.  As she passed by she looked over to see her husband being carried on a stretcher and almost passed out herself.  A kindly policeman looked after her scooter so she could accompany Dad in the ambulance.

By the time I got to the hospital (about 3 hours after them) my brother and his wife were already there. Mum looked as white as a sheet and Dad looked like he’d been badly beaten up.  They did lots of tests on Dad and eventually said he could go home.  My brother thought he should be kept in overnight and was quite persistent about that, but I thought Dad would actually prefer to go home.

Anyway it all looks pretty bad but ‘tough old boy’ that he is he’s OK.  He has a black eye, bump on his head and a cracked rib, he’s going to be sore for a few days but will eventually be OK.  He’s not allowed out for at least a week and then he’s not to go out on his own.  How anyone is going to stop him from doing that I can’t imagine because he loves his independence and doesn’t want anyone fussing around him.

We went to visit yesterday after I got home from work and he is looking much better, but his cracked rib is aching and his eye is very black and bruised.   By the time we got home I had a terrible headache and went to bed early.

Maybe in future I’ll settle for the boring stuff without complaining.

The page above is the last page of my 5th Teesha Moore inspired journal.  The quote is an aboriginal proverb which I really like.

Note to self ‘I must start doing some more collage journals soon’ but I need to get the Christmas presents sorted out first!

I hope you all have a good week and if you are in this part of the world I hope you keep warm because it’s getting distinctly ‘chilly’ now.  I’ll be sleeping in pyjamas AND bed socks for the next several months.

Big love

AJ 🙂

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2013 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Nothing Domestic About Her!

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Nothing Domestic About Her

 

Hello friends!

I hope all is good with you, I am fine and well.

I am a bit tired today as I was busy at the local library all day yesterday with an exhibition on local history and talking to people about how they can use archive material for research and also how they can create their own archives using scrapbooks, journals, memory and story boxes.  It was a great day, but I was on my feet all the time and they hurt by the the time we had to pack up and transport almost everything back to where it came from.  We left one big display board up and that will stay at the library until Christmas.  Anyway it was another success for the local history group Ryde Social Heritage Group.  I am so proud to work with such a fun and enthusiastic group of people.

I have started thinking about Christmas and some things that I might make for people who are close to me.   I just hope I have time to complete them all before the deadline. Christmas always has a way of sneaking up on me before I am ready for it.

I got some copies of Amy Johnson’s book Being Human on Friday and my artwork looks good in black and white.  Amy also sent me a Kindle version so I can see what it looks like in full colour (much better).  Either way I am pleased just to be part of this book and I have set up a page so you can see all the images in one place.  It was a great project to work on and I am so grateful to have had this opportunity.  The publication date has also solved a lot of my Christmas present problems for this year, so I need to order some more soon 🙂

The page above is page 7 from my 5th Teesha Moore inspired art journal.  I am not sure where the quote comes from or who to attribute it to, but I think it’s an excellent description of women.

Have a great week

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2013 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 

 

 

Wild Woman

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Wild Woman

Hello friends!

I hope all is good in your part of the world.

I apologise I went AWOL again for a while mainly because I’ve been feeling a little unwell again.  Nothing too serious, just a bit out of sorts.

So the big storm came and went and thankfully we had no damage here, although other places did not fare so well.  I think I slept through the worst of it anyway.  Despite having hurt my back last time I blogged I decided to do the housework anyway and managed to vacuum most of the house that day.  Movement seems to do it good but it’s taken longer than I expected to recover and I am still getting slight twinges even now.

A week ago today I felt very lethargic and instead of updating my blog I sat and watched television for a couple of hours, that on it’s own should have informed me that all was not well, because I never watch television!  I got through the week and I wasn’t unhappy, just feeling kind of dull.  Then on Saturday I had another massive migraine and spent the whole day in bed trying not to be sick because that just made my head thump even more. On Sunday the pain had gone and I was able to do a couple of hours work with some friends on the next exhibition for the local history group and afterwards I visited my Mum and Dad for a short time.

I think I have finally worked out what is causing the migraines and I just need to figure out how to fix that problem and I’ll be back on track again 🙂  I hate losing whole days like that because I always have far more to do than I can easily cope with and laying in bed for a day means that the ‘stuff to do’ just keeps stacking up.  Fortunately I have managed not to get stressed out about this.  I feel like I’m not being very creative at the moment, but the reality is I am always doodling or painting or cutting and sticking something and really there is no law that says I have to create everyday – it’s just that I feel more complete if I do.

The page above is page 6 of my 5th Teesha Moore inspired journal which I completed a few months ago.  The quote is from Women Who Run With Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes and I dedicate the page to all the wild women I’ve had the pleasure to meet in my life.

Have a great week and I hope to be back again soon.

Big love

AJ 🙂

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2013 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

True Love

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True Love

 

Hello Friends

Hope your weekend is going well.  We are expecting a BIG storm here tonight, but at the moment the sun is shining and, although it’s blustery, it’s hard to imagine what it will be like tonight. I went out in the garden this morning to move some things I thought might get blown away if there are really strong winds.

One of the things I moved was a ridiculous wicker pig-shaped plant holder, and as I bent down to pick it up I felt a clicking in my back followed by PAIN! So now my back is very sore and I’m using that as an excuse not to do any housework today!

The page above is from my 5th Teesha Moore inspired journal and, as you can see, it’s about True Love. I was fortunate to meet my true love and soul mate when I was 15 years old and we’ve been together ever since (and that’s a really long time)!

Yesterday I took my parents to a party to celebrate someone’s 60th Wedding Anniversary. My Dad was (stand-in) Best Man at that wedding. The real Best Man got delayed with his travel arrangements so Dad was persuaded to step in at the last minute.  The hostess gave a lovely speech yesterday and thanked Dad for being best man, but he’s so deaf he didn’t hear a word of it!

My parents have been married for 63 years and, despite the fact that they bicker frequently, they still adore each other.

Me and T are never going to have a 60th, 50th or even 30th Wedding Anniversary because we had already been together for 37 years before we decided to get married in 2007. Even then I was only persuaded because we were on a tropical island paradise on the other side of the world.  We had a great wedding, there were only 6 of us there including the minister. We were on top of Mount Dillon overlooking Castara Bay in beautiful, sunny Tobago, the sun was going down and there was a rainbow in the sky. We didn’t have to make any ridiculous vows or promises either just affirm our love for each other.  It was touching, emotional and magical.

Have a great week everyone and I’ll see you soon. I have decided that if the wind is as strong as they say it’s going to be tonight, I am going to sleep downstairs.  One of the disadvantages of living on top of a hill is that there’s not much to protect us from the wind and it will be safer on the ground floor.

Be safe

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2013 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

She Made Up A Story…

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She made up a storyHello friends!

It’s mid week and I am feeling better.  We had a fantastic storm here last night, lots of lightning and thunder followed by heavy rain and today by lunchtime, when I went out for my walk, the sun was shining 🙂

Above is the last page I made to illustrate Dr Amy Johnson‘s book Being Human, which should be available by the end of November, and hopefully we will be able to get it on Amazon UK – I’ll let you know as soon as I know.  This page has Amy’s daughter Willow, her son Miller, their pet dog and my own photographs making up the rest of the collage elements.  The section of the book it illustrates is about how we tell ourselves stories and then after a while if we are not careful we start believing them.

I told myself that I was going to get in to trouble at work because I was too sick to phone up on Friday to say I was too sick to go to work.  I was quite anxious on Monday morning when I phoned my manager (who works in a different location to me) to tell him, but he was cool.  He asked if I was OK and said I was not to worry about it.

Today I volunteered to attend some training on how to give presentations to schools and groups about the industry I work for.  Apart from anything else it will mean that sometimes I get to do something other than sitting at a computer all day inputting data 🙂  I already give presentations for my local history group so talking in front of people is not a problem for me and who knows I may pick up some new tips and ideas.

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

Big love

AJ 🙂

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2013 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Revel in the Experience of Being Alive

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Revel in the experience of being alive

 

Hello friends!

It’s mid week and I’ve had a very strange day, well not entirely but a couple of weird things happened.  I think the appropriate term for them is ‘Senior Moments’!

I was running a bit late this morning and rushed out of the house only to realised that I had locked myself out and my house and car keys were still inside.  It was raining and cold. Still never mind, I thought, T is home, still in bed, and he spoke to me just before I left so he’s not in deep sleep, I just need to wake him up.  It was almost an hour before he finally came down stairs in a daze and asked me what I was doing on the door-step.  In all that time I had been banging on the door and phoning the house phone constantly.  Fortunately the porch is covered so I was able to keep out of the rain and I had a cat for company most of the time.

So I was late for work, not a good start to the day!  The day at work went OK and I managed to get all my work done.  My job means that I just sit at a computer all day long so at lunch time I always try and get out for a walk.  As I was putting my coat on at lunchtime one of my colleagues told me I was mad as it was pouring with rain, but I said ‘It’s only water and besides I need to stretch my legs”.  By the time I got to the door the sun had come out and I had an enjoyable break.

This evening after work we went to get the weekly shopping, on the way we had to pick up Mum and Dad as they wanted to shop too, and also collect a parcel from the depot (because it wouldn’t fit through the letterbox).  We got to the store, parked the car and then I realised I didn’t have my handbag.  So while they went in and did the shopping I drove home again and collected my bag which I had left in the kitchen.

Sometimes I just have to accept the fact that I am a complete idiot and that’s OK because I’m not an idiot all the time in fact sometimes I am pretty smart (just not today) 😉

The image above is number 7 of 8 illustrations I did for Dr Amy Johnson‘s new book Being Human. Due out in November. The page is reproduced here with Amy’s permission.  It features Miller, Amy’s son, from a photograph Amy sent me, the collage elements are mainly my own photographs and the Buddha body is from an image that is in the public domain.  Then everything was altered with various pens.

I hope you have a great week and I’ll see you soon.

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2013 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Paint your Future

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Paint your Future

 

Hello friends!

I’m back after a busy week and what a difference!  Last Sunday the weather was glorious, sunny and warm, today it’s been wet and cold.  Still that’s UK weather for you and it hasn’t dampened my spirits and in reality, at this time of year, is only to be expected.

I managed to progress my Story Box, but it’s still not finished.  The Story Box is about The Theatre Royal that used to stand in the town, it burnt down in 1961.  I used an ordinary office box file and put a picture of the theatre on the front, then I found lots of vintage theatre posters to cover the rest of the outside of the box.  I lined the inside  with movie posters because in it’s last years the theatre was turned into a cinema.  I finished my little book of pieces found in various publications about the theatre, found images of people who had performed at the theatre and printed them out and also printed out display sheets and information the group has used previously about the theatre.  I am intending to get another small book to put in the box for people to write any memories they might have of the theatre.

Story Box

It was finished enough to take to the Ryde Social Heritage Group meeting yesterday morning, several other people also took story boxes and it was interesting to see all the different styles and contents.  This is going to be a great project 🙂  The meeting was excellent, I really enjoyed it.  Afterwards 8 of us went out for lunch so the fun continued.

The page at the top of this post is the 6th of the 8 pages I did for Dr Amy Johnson‘s book Being Human which will be published next month.  The page is reproduced here with Amy’s permission and it features Willow, her daughter. The chapter is called The Importance of an Empty Future and is about how we don’t have to let things that have happened in the past influence our future.

I have just finished reading Amy’s first book Modern Enlightenment (which I bought on Amazon.UK) I think it’s a great book, really easy to read and jam-packed with wisdom.  It’s like Amy gives you the seed of an idea and does not labour the point, it’s up to you what you do with it.  I have incorporated many of her recommendations into my life and, for me, they work.  It’s a very cool book and has made me even more excited about the new book Being Human.

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

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2013 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.