Still working in art journal. Trying to hone my craft with the dry media,i.e., colored pencil. The paper has to be texturized, roughed up to catch the pencil. Thinking of diluting the clear gesso or sanding it after applying. Straight gesso gives the moleskine journal too much tooth, then the graphite becomes too stark. Will post some journal entries this weekend. Back to work and school, art takes a back seat unfortunately.

Looking back on a wonderful summer, again no text... I might go back to canvas for a bit. I love using the inks to make my own backgrounds and using the rice paper. I guess this is just going to be only a visual journal for now. Not ready for the intimacy of text. It will come, I'm just so much more comfortable speaking with illustration and paint right now.

Whispers in my heart sounds nice, but it's what I feel when I am nervous. I'm giving the whispers to the angels. I'm concerned I won't be able to keep out this same level of creating when school and course starts. Working almost manically. Just need to right now.

I've been focusing mostly on the journal right now. Made some interesting background collage paper with distressing inks. This was fun. I got most of the info on some great youtube sites for ranger inks. There was also a cool site referenced called two peas in a bucket. I will check this out tomorrow. Still struggling with text for journal. My art is such a perfect metaphor for my life. I will go so far with something, then fear of failure causes paralysis. Obviously still drawn to the face. When I was in eighth grade we had to write in journals. Our teacher said we could staple the pages we didn't want her to read. Fortunately or unfortunately, I never had anything that interesting that I would want to hide it from an adult. Anyway, a couple of my journal page disasters I haven't shared. Not so much that they're intimate, just that they're kind of awful. Found the ugly mirror today, but determined to keep working.

I am working on some new women in costume and some journal entries. Working rather feverishly because I know once works starts, more importantly, field study; I won't have time. I just have to get through this course and I'll be able to create again. Now that I'm following my own creative muse, it's fun again. No more landscapes, close ups of flowers and beach scenes, I'm really having fun. Will add more tomorrow. Nature's glory was fun. I wanted to cover her in dread locks but I was afraid the paper wouldn't hold. I would love to teach a class on visual journal entries.

I am really happy with Broken Wing. The words and picture seem to fit. I like the idea of an angel who sees our struggles and watches over us: an angel who sees our broken wing. I liked putting the text on notebook paper so that it looked like a note sent to a friend in a class or somewhere. I've been communicating a lot with classmates on Facebook--yes, time would be better spent on art--but broken wing came from a lot of discussion with old classmates. We all presented the good image as a front but everyone seemed to have a broken wing hidden or partially hidden.
Okay, back to art. Loving the mixed media. Throw everything but the kitchen sink at a painting: colored pencils, acrylic paint, water soluble crayons, paper and, wala! The process is a great metaphor for life, keep trying, try different approaches and do what you love. My untitled girl still needs text and embellishment, but she's not talking to me yet. Okay, I'm not crazy, not really, I haven't found words yet for her expression. I may do a journal page til I figure untitled girl out.
I mentioned in a earlier post that I do get caught up in "the New England painted lighthouse" to please the mass market. Enough already, mixed media tells a story. It's so much more fun. As you can tell, I put the ugly mirror away today. I hope I forget where I put it.<3!

Well, I completed a lot of text with the flapper girls. It's very minimalist. Basically I looked at their expressions and waited for the word or words to come to me. Played with the negative space. I love mixed media. It is not the classic art rendering that I have been taught, but I find such joy in it. I'm going to paint what I want from now on. The human face speaks to me and I am so drawn to it artistically. My photographs are terrible but I hope to improve this. I don't have a cropping tool obviously and would re-shoot to make decent prints. I'm going to make one more in this series and go back to the journal. I will look for a place to exhibit these, but mixed media does not get as warm a reception where I'm from. A lot of people in New England want to look at endless paintings of lighthouses--no fun. It's got to be for me and for fun. Oh well....

I guess I'm frustrated with adding and collaging things to my paintings. I'm always afraid I will ruin them. I do want to look at them and individually see what feelings they convey. It takes time and a thought process. Maybe word association. The first picture on my blog, the girl in the green hat, has an expression that is so open, vulnerable and tentative. I want to be careful with text that I add. I don't want to make the picture harsh in any way. Some of the other girls have a more savy look and I don't have a problem experimenting with text. I think I will write things on paper and kind of place words on them before I get out the matte medium.

Some new paintings on the blog. These are actually works in progress, I want to collage them but the words come after. I have to paint them, look at them, and think about what their expressions convey.
My angel is an angel of gratitude. Every time I paint an angel, I'm compelled to convey gratitude because I believe in angels. I'm grateful for their protection. I am also very grateful for having the time to paint and the energy to be creative.

Here are some journal entries. I am working to incorporate more words and detailed negative space. Always a problem for me. Hopefully will work more tomorrow and post more things. Late now, good night!:)

Welcome to KreativeKandy. I'm so glad you stopped! I have been working on flapper/clown girls.
I love the human face, and as an artist, I always come back to it. Been taking a course with Suzi Blu and have learned a lot and strongly recommend. She knows her stuff! And she's fun, which is very important in art. I have been making art for a long time, but not having a lot of fun. Art school taught me to be rigid, well okay, I'm a little bit rigid to begin with so I won't blame art school. I'm just beginning to kind of fly with my art so if you'll indulge me, I'll add some recent paintings I've been working on.