Pulled string art and altered book pages

They made it look so easy...

Finished pulled string art from some other, more talented artist

So I tried it...

Um, nope. Let me try thicker string.

Well that was a #fail. Let me try less paint, and pull quickly and more smoothly. Also less pressing down.

Ah! Getting there! That one looks more like the ones I saw in all the videos. Let me try again, still less paint, less pressure.

Voila! Now I have the trick! I still find it harder than it looks, but then again, I find all art harder than it looks.

I persevere though. Now for my altered art.

Fifteen years ago I learned about making Altered Books. You take a discarded book, preferably one that has a vintage cover, and glue together bunches of pages, and of the remaining pages you collage or pant over the words, leaving exposed the words you want to highlight. Each page can then tell your own story, or be a poem. Here is the title page and preface of my altered book. It's the story of my journey toward salvation.

I had a hard time gluing the bunches of pages together and the book came out bulky. I also had a hard time because it was a big project. My talent is small and so my projects must be small. I kept my completed book but abandoned the process, hesitant to try again.

Recently I figured out that you can alter just ONE page. Duh. So I did a few pages last night . They look childish because I used childish materials, colored pencil and crayon, but it's a start. It is harder than it looks, too. Writing poetry is difficult. Even looking over a series of words that already exist to patch together a poem is hard. But it's relaxing and sometimes the stuff comes out pretty, and it's fun, so that's all that matters. Who doesn't like coloring?

More books! The Special Store sells hardbacks for $1 and paperbacks for fifty cents. I got the Sherlock Holmes, Unbroken and Huddle of Sheep, plus the McEwan paperback there. I got the Puritan Paperback The Doctrine of Repentance for 2 cents from Amazon. Yes, 2 cents, the rest was paid for by Amazon points I'd accumulated. Score!

Summertime is time for trying new things, being leisurely, meditating on different things I'm learning, reading, and just relaxing. I hope that even if you don't have vacation time coming, that you can find some time to gather your thoughts, have a cup of coffee straight through, or take a nap. It's the little things.

Deconstructing letters

In cleaning out my bookshelf I rediscovered an old project I'd done. It was from the 1999 Paper & Book Intensive, a long weekend of projects and instruction from Masters on all aspects of papermaking and book binding. It was held at the picturesque location of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts at Blue Hill, Maine.

I can't believe it's been almost 20 years. I just can't believe it. /smh/ I'm getting old.

Anyway, the class was led by Suzanne Moore, called "Still Life with Letters." The blurb had said, "This course will give students new possibilities for page, book, and cover design using letters as visual subject. Students will begin with traditional typographic and written letters, and by abstraction, invention, repetition, and manipulation create a series of unique designs appropriate for a variety of book applications. Unusual tools and a variety of coloring techniques will further expand the horizon."

You know how, on the cooking shows, the chefs or contestants will sometimes "deconstruct meat loaf" and the dish they come up with has vestiges of traditional meat loaf but will be modern and updated? That was what we were supposed to do with letters. Deconstruct them, make them a design element, where you couldn't necessarily see the letter it was, but you could tell it was a letter.

These aren't spectacular but they are good for me at my skill level. It's harder than one would think to deconstruct a letter but still keep vestiges of the letter. I think they are pretty. I should actually take them out of the envelope I'd made for them and use them in another project. That way I won't forget them for another nearly 20 years!

Van Gogh's heavy skies, Monet's water lily filled ponds

I was looking at Van Gogh's art recently. Then yesterday I was driving home and there's a section of the county that is on a higher plateau and seems to draw dramatic clouds. I love the rural scenes around here and I love taking photos of sky and clouds. I love the night sky too, the moon and planets, but I'm not skilled with night photography and the photos I take of the celestial objects tend to come out blurry. Here are a few of the scenes I shot yesterday on the ride home of the pastures and clouds and sky.

I like Van Gogh's work, but if I had to live under what he viewed (and painted) as such an oppressive sky, I'd feel trapped. The sky is looming, pressing I'd feel as though it's reaching down to swallow me up. Perhaps in Van Gogh's madness, this IS how he felt.

His paintings are pretty though. Many of them are just heavy. Apparently, Van Gogh's wavy skies and night time swirls are meteorologically and astronomically accurate!

Monet... I was watching The Impressionists on Amazon Prime. Interesting 4-part series. Anyway, Monet as we all know, liked to paint water. Especially water lilies and ponds. One of my own favorite photos was of two lilies in a pond. I put that photo together with Monet's, lol, for comparison.

Monet planted all his water lilies and ponds. He painted the Japanese bridge over his pond 17 times in different conditions and weathers. Monet loved his spot in Giverny France. He fell in love with the place from the moment he saw it, rented a house there, and finally bought a property 7 years later (the soonest he could afford it). Here are some more art resources on Van Gogh and Monet.

Thanks for reading!


15 Things You Might Not Know about Water Lilies

Water Lilies, 250 paintings in a series

11 Things You Didn't Know About Starry Night

The Ten Best Skies in Art

In praise of the tiny

I've always loved the tiny. Small is good. I live in a 350 sf apartment. I like macro photography, both viewing it and creating it. I prefer teaspoons to tablespoons. I like small journals. I've even made small journals:

The little journals are my creations. The smallest one is called a jelly bean book. The framed watercolor is done by artist Cathy Nash. Her watercolors are very small, and usually depict rural scenes. Here is another view of her work-

To that end, here is Rachel Beltz with her very tiny watercolors. In praise of the small! Definitely click on the link to see the rest of these tiny masterpieces of detail and charm.

See even more of Rachel's work at her Instagram page.

Big or small, "Art is literacy of the heart" ~Elliot Eisner

A Fabriano find

I went to buy some Amish soap at the Second Time Around store and they were out. They called right on the spot and ordered some so I'll look for it when I go back. Meanwhile there was browsing to do!

I bought a bunch of stuff for my teacher's prize box for students. I got two sets of colored pencils and two pair of scissors for my teacher also, plus a long wooden thing like a scrabble tile holder. It has a slot in it to place a white board or chalk board, so we don't have to keep holding it up the whole time while teaching small group at a table. We never have enough hands! Hands-free white board display will be perfect.

I went there not only for the Amish soap but I needed a stencil, an artist's journal, and some tablespoon measuring things for the kitchen. I found those, but the

GREAT FIND

of the day, lol, was a Fabriano journal. Fabriano is a mill and also a brand of paper in Italy. Fabriano is also the name of the town in Italy where paper has been produced for 800 years. The Italians perfected paper making from the Asians, and also introduced the watermark, since the 1200's in Fabriano Italy. Fabriano paper is very expensive, smooth, easy to work with for artists and painters. The journal was only $2. SCOREEEEEEEE!!!! Here is their blurb:

Very few companies can claim a longer or more distinguished heritage than Fabriano. Dating back to 1264, the Fabriano mill’s fine arts papers were used and highly praised by Michelangelo. Fabrianese paper masters pioneered many of the processes now common in paper manufacture today, including the watermark and the technique of surface sheet gluing using gelatine. In 2002, Fabriano became part of the Fedrigoni Group

And my journal is made by the Fabriano Fedrigoni group. It's authentic, in other words. I'm so excited! I had wanted the stencil to try an art technique using paint and collage, and the journal to try the technique. So I'm tried it today and inaugurated my new Fabriano journal.

This is my art journal and the stencil, plus some line green polka dot tissue paper for collages just because it was there and only 89 cents!

See? Fabriano. For realz.

My collage in the journal was underway. The paper is so smooth the paint spread so easily. Ahhh.

I love thrift stores!

I'm welcoming a new art piece into the house

Art tells your home's visitors something about you. It reveals your aesthetic, your preferences, and your style. I love art. I have a lot of it. This is because I grew up with a lot of it, and for that I've always been grateful.

Some of the art I have hung in my apartment is mine that I created or photographed and then hung. One photo is of a favorite vacation spot I used to frequent.

Other art I have is first edition art given to me by the artist. I also have a small watercolor from a local artist. Others were not gifts but I acquired myself.

I acquired my first art piece at approximately age 8. I spotted a bucolic, unframed but matted photo that looked unlike any other photo I'd yet seen. It turned out to be a hand-tinted photo from the early part of the 20th century by well-known colorist Fred Thompson. It was among other items lying on the floor of a white elephant church jumble sale, and I bought it right away. Hand tinting photographs was a fad at the turn of the last century. When I look at it I feel relaxed.

A few weeks ago I saw a new painting at an antique/vintage store in town. It is a large sized painting, 43" wide by 33" high. It depicted a rural scene on a Sunday of a well-dressed group, likely a family, walking up the lane to church. I was charmed by the content and I liked the quality of the frame and matting. It is called Sunday Morning in Sleepy Hollow, and it's by Jennie Brownscombe. The piece is a hand colored engraving on paper by Brownscombe, a Pennsylvania Artist  who lived from 1850-1930. The painting is done on an Engraving by James King, and it's published by Washington Irving.

Jennie Augusta Brownscombe (December 10, 1850 – August 5, 1936) was an American painter, designer, etcher, commercial artist and illustrator. Brownscombe studied art for years in the United States and in Paris. She was a founding member, student and teacher at the Art Students League of New York. She made genre paintings, including revolutionary and colonial American history, most notably The First Thanksgiving held at Pilgrim Hall in Plymouth, Massachusetts. She sold the reproduction rights to more than 100 paintings, and images of her work have appeared on prints, calendars and greeting cards. Her works are in many public collections and museums. In 1899 she was described by New York World as "one of America's best artists." (Source)

Brownscombe's works hang in the Smithsonian, among other places throughout America.

It was a good sized piece, and I'd been wanting a larger one. There are several paintings in my living room I adore. I've had a poster copy of Childe Hassam's impressionist painting, Boston Common at Sunset, for a looooong time, and I've enjoyed looking at it for just as long.  Here it is from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston:

This is the art from Brownscombe that I'd found in a vintage store. It fits very well into the corner and I love it:

I'm surrounded by pretty art, at least, it's art I love. What could be better?

New art on the wall

Yay, we are on a school break right now. We've got Monday and Tuesday off, which is really nice because the rest of February and March is a long haul until the next break. It's the most stressful, tiring part of the year. We've been advised to rest up, not think about school, and have a relaxing time. Always one to follow orders, I am doing just that.

While I waited for the word to leap in the car and go retrieve my Bountiful Basket from my friend who kindly picks it up for me, I scanned some collages I made years ago and found by looking through some of the older notebooks I have on my bookshelf. I made this one just after I moved to GA and was enjoying the first of the south's mild winters and early spring. I had a journal-type-day planner I'd done some art in. I like chronicling things. I Pixlr-ized the scanned journal page, of course.

This next one was from an old day planner in which I was obviously not looking forward to the New Year, lol. I never have been able to keep up a journal. I lasted with this ten year old one until Feb 4. Then I quit writing in it, chronicling in it, and doing art in it. Why I keep a nearly empty ten year old day planner is beyond me. I think this was the last gasp of day planners/journals I ever tried to keep.

I thought this was funny.

I have no clue what was on my mind when I made this. It isn't even cohesive.

Although as general advice, yes, avoid the herd mentality.

I finally bought some new art to hang over my bed. The art that was there before was a photo I had taken over twelve years ago. I like the photo itself, the composition, what it says, and the colors. But I remember that day, I remember that snowstorm, I remember that apartment, and I hated all three. Here is the photo I took down from over my bed, thus making a space for a new piece of art.

It is a watercolor of what seems to be a Greek villa overlooking the blue Aegean sea. The cashier asked me with a grin, if I am going to put the picture in a beachhouse, and I said, no, I am going to hang it over my bed and pretend I am there. If I have to look at something as I fall asleep, at least it's not a snowstorm from hell and frigid temperatures but of a soft sea with crisp white terraces.

It isn't a first edition, nor anything expensive or even particularly special. I liked the colors, I liked that for its size it wasn't heavy, and I liked the frame.

Our Bountiful Basket today was filled to the brim with goodies. I traded my oranges and grapefruits to a friend for her bok choy and beets. We also received a bag of pears, zucchini, broccoli, tomatoes, spinach, and cukes. I also have left over cauliflower and I still need to cut up the pineapple from last time. Yay! healthy food. Beets are so good roasted. You wouldn't even believe.

Well I hope you survive the Polar Vortex that is supposed to bring lots of low temps to much of the eastern seaboard this weekend. I have to say, today was pretty chilly and it's getting colder right now as the sun sets. I'm blessed to have food, clothes, blankets, a home and cats! Count your blessings, no matter what your circumstance, there are many blessings in your life.

The Fickle Muse

I really am a terrible collage maker. This is because I have nothing to say on paper anymore.

I used to have a lot to say, Even though my collages were not great, I liked them because I know what they were saying. There was an underlying theme, concept, or idea that promoted the visual representation of it. Now I look helplessly at the blank paper and have nothing to say. But I add "stuff" to it anyway and that is why there is no soul to it. I am still going gangbusters with writing. Over the last 15 days I've written 32 essays for The End Time and 6 for The Quiet Life. I made 7 photo-verse artistic pictures ahead for my morning posting on The End Time Facebook page. I've gone gangbusters on personal photos as well. But visual art for art's sake...I'm drawing a blank.

These are some of my favorite past collages before the muse had left me:

Armageddon

Revelation 20:2-3 sealing satan in the pit

"Navigating Spiritual Waters"

Bad Moon Rising

And some paintings:

Van Gogh Meets Marsden Hartley

Irises

Mondrian-ish

Poppies

As art brut as my visual creative work is I believe one can see a theme to them, a unity, if not expert execution. But for some reason even that speck of a vestige of a crumb is gone. This is the kind of stuff I do now:

This one below was a workbook practice lesson, to collage quickly using only white. The quick part is to deny the analytical side of our brain, or the no-confidence, editing side of the heart, no room, and just see what moving hands can come up with. I could not resist using some black, not just some hues of white because I liked the gritty quality of the 70's photo book I ripped the boy from. Normally I like monochromatic, so looking for pieces that were only shades of white didn't bother me, but I just didn't have a lot of white on hand. Maybe I'll try with a different color tomorrow.

My paintings just aren't good. I'd titled the top one "Bird of Prey" but it just looks more like a chicken. The bottom one are Four Puppies Watching the Sunset (Ode to Poky Little Puppies) but there is just no color depth to the thing as at least with the index cards above I had that going for me.

I decided to go back to functional art: making books and journals, and bookmarks and tracts. Maybe that will release me for a while. It's what I know.

"The loveliest Muse in the world does not feed her owner; these girls make fine mistresses but terrible wives" ― Alfred de Vigny, Stello