Inktober

Haven't been doing a ton of art lately, although I have been pretty faithful about participating in Inktober where you do one ink drawing a day.  I accidentally missed one day in the beginning of the month.  It's been a great practice and I've noticed how much better I'm getting at seeing.  Here are some examples of my drawings.

The first few days:

 About half-way through the month:

doodling

My kids and I are listening to an audio book at home and whilst listening, we've been doing some doodling and drawing.  I had a lot of fun doing this. When I don't know what to doodle, I always start with my initials which is why they are so prominent.  But the woman is not supposed to be me. Oh well.  I never thought I would get into the zentangle thing, but I looked up some patterns on Pinterest and added them in. It was neat to see how everything intermeshed.

Empty Nest necklace

I have a dear friend whose daughter just went off to college.  Wondering how to support her, I came across some how-to tutorials on Pinterest for making a nest necklace (this one and this one).  I also found a quote which said something like "They may leave the nest, but they never leave your heart." Inspired, I made this:

Take care of yourself

A friend of mine came over last weekend and wanted to do some healing art.  We each worked on an intention.  Mine was self-care.  Self-care is such an interesting thing.  We know we need to do it and it is the last thing we do.  I am really working on self-compassion and giving myself permission to take care of myself in my practice right now.

 I had this idea of how do I fill my cup.

 And I realized, there are a lot of ways I sabotage self-care.

Just a fun, quick, little piece to get creative juices flowing again.  I like how the cup kind of looks like it has wings in the final piece.  The red around the cup is actually paint that I've peeled off of a table I'm refinishing.  Some of the wood of the table stuck to the paint.  I love how this looks.  Which means I'm stuck with the heat gun and peeling more paint rather than going to another method which might be quicker.  Oh well.

Stay Cool

A lot has been happening at my house-- three sets of back-to-back guests within 2 weeks.  My husband left on a business venture for 3 months.  School is getting ready to start.  My art has suffered, but this card has a good message for me.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out.  I didn't decide to add wording until I'd already carved out most of the fan.  I drew the words on backwards, directly onto the block.  Glad I didn't get any turned around!  I'm going to carve another set of words: "You got this" to go on the inside of the card.  Stamped with black Versafine inkpad and rubbed Tim Holtz wild honey distress ink on edges.

DLP #35

August Theme: Faces, the Human Form & Characters
August 29
Art Challenge: Self Portrait
Journal Prompt:  Mirror Mirror

For this page, I used some "out-takes" of the self-portrait I did for the Carving Consortium multi-color swap recently.  I like that each one is different, just as we are different every day.  I included a test print in the lower left corner of the first color which I used to help figure out where my registration lines would be when I printed.

The journaling is a quote from Sufi Mullah Nasrudin and says:

How are you?
Perfect, thank you.  I am traveling incognito.
Oh?  As what are you disguised?
I am disguised as myself.
Don't be silly. That's no disguise.
On the contrary, it must be a very good disguise, for I see it has fooled you         completely.

Spectrum: Heart Beat with Andrea Schroeder

Started doing art again last week, but then company came to town and I didn't have time to post any photos. Taking a quick moment to post these before more company come today.

This was an exercise with Andrea Schroeder called Heart Beat.  She gave a lovely guided meditation to fill your heart with love and then create from that space.  For me, there was a lot of tension and fear in my heart.  So, that's the space from which this was created.  It's still so neat to me to start doing art with no preconceived idea of what will come out.

Sacred No with Rachael Rice

One of the exercises in Spectrum was working with the Sacred No (facilitated by Rachael Rice).  I enjoyed it a lot, although not all of the axes really spoke to me.  I'm curious what it would be like to make your own axes to measure.

Rachael used indigo india ink in the background, but I didn't have any, so I did the Derwent color blocks.

 I decided I wanted more depth so I went back in with a stencil and white ink and blue distress ink.

DLP #34

August Theme: Faces, the Human Form & Characters

August 22

Art Challenge: Layered (Using Multiple Mediums)

Journal Prompt:  Speak to your younger self- what advice would you offer?

Layers of paint, ink through stencil, washi tape, and carved image of baby crying stamped onto deli paper.

DLP #33

August Theme: Faces, the Human Form & Characters
August 15
Art Challenge: Painted
Journal Prompt:  How do I face my biggest challenge?

So this page looked way better in my head.  :)  Definitely need practice drawing feet. Most of the paint on the page was from rolling off the extra paint on a brayer from another project.   This is how I've been feeling lately about challenges-- it's all about me finally taking the leap and just doing what needs to be done, but it seems like I have so much resistance first.

Bozeman Craftivists

Inspired by making the quilt for the teacher that we were all sad to see leave, another mom and I started the Bozeman Craftivist group.  In early June, we gathered to create toys to leave for others to find. Messes were made and our basket of toys to give away grew and grew.

Here are some close ups:

 Some of the moms really got into it too and made some great stuff:

Last week, we gathered to tag the items and drop them around downtown Bozeman.  I carved the stamps for the tags.  

After we had dropped off the items, we walked by someone who had just found one and was so excited.  It was a great moment.

Spectrum 2016

So I signed up for an online class called Spectrum.  I know you'll find it hard to believe but I'm behind already.  grin.  However, I did complete the first week's set of videos and art challenge which was to decorate the cover of the journal I'll be using.

How will I be remembered?

Another page in the collaborative art journal.  This idea kept running through my head on how to live my life in a way that I'd want to be remembered.  Sometimes it feels in direct contrast to my self-preservation instincts that just want to run and hide

After I finished the page and sent it off, I realized that I'd change the wording a bit.  Specifically, I'd use the word "and" instead of "anyway."  She was afraid and she took risks.  She was imperfect and she loved herself.   That seems more powerful and true.

Art Journal Quote Page #2

I found that I couldn't stop with just the one quote.  So I did another set of pages with a quote from Marianne Williamson.

Here's a close up of each page so you can read the quote.

Group creative endeavour

One of the teacher's at my son's school decided not to come back next year due to feeling unsupported by the board and school cooperative.  The parents and kids were pretty upset at losing him and wanted to show our support and love through a gift.  One mom suggested making a quilt where each student could decorate a square.  We had 2 and 1/2 weeks.  Four moms volunteered to help sew and tie it off.  We got it done!

 Since alumni were invited, my daughter got to do a square.

 My son has an obsession with hedgehogs right now.  Both he and the teacher play electric bass.

 The finished product!