Edges of Time

The Edges of Time

--Kay Ryan

It is at the edges

that time thins.

Time which had been

dense and viscous

as amber suspending

intentions like bees

unseizes them. A

humming begins,

apparently coming

from stacks of

put-off things or

just in back. A

racket of claims now,

as time flattens. A

glittering fan of things

competing to happen,

brilliant and urgent

as fish when seas

retreat.

Free Spirit

I'm taking the Graffiti of my Life Art Journal Class taught by Dina Wakley. You can read more about it here. I LOVE it! This is one of my pages inspired by the class. The idea is to use poetry, song lyrics or anything that moves you to add to your page once you've got your background finished.

I love poetry and song lyrics so I'm sure I won't have any trouble finding inspiration! :)

Love Song

This is a digital piece I did in response to a challenge at Digital Whisper. We were to take an image of smoke and add something to it. I thought this image of smoke looked like a spirit. So I had him meeting this lady in a secluded spot in a pond...

After I made this I realized the challenge was to add the smoke to an existing photo. Oops, I need to read those challenges more carefully. So I thought I would just post it here to my blog. I'm trying to learn some techniques for photomanipulation. I love some of the results you get with that technique.

Here is a journal page I did for my online journaling group:

This is in response to the prompt for a favorite musical instrument. I don't play any instruments but I have always loved the saxophone. And I love jazz music. So, I sketched this little guy playing the sax.

October 13 my hubby and I celebrated our 20 year wedding anniversary! Yay! So I dedicated this page to that event. We were both kind of in shock that it had been that long. A lot has happened over the years. We've lost some family members and have held together strong through many tough times.

I had many good memories making this page. Here's to many, many more to come!

Crumble

This is another digital art journal page. I was going through my digital files and had forgotten about these silhouette shapes. I love them. Their mysteriousness draws me to them. They remind me of ghosts; ghosts of our past selves, maybe.

The text is from a wonderful poem by Frank Bidart called The Old Man at the Wheel. The first part of the poem starts out like this: "Measured against the immeasurable/universe, no word you have spoken/brought light. Brought/light to what, as a child, you thought/too dark to be survived./By exorcism/you survived. By submission, then making./...

Then later in the poem are the two lines I use in this piece: "As you grip the things that were young when/you were young, they crumble in your hands./" The more I read the entire poem, the more I love it.

I receive the journal POETRY every month and it has been a great inspiration in my art lately. Not to mention a big boost to my poetry collection. There is a little paragraph about each poet in the back of the journal that lists their publishing credits. I have been adding some awesome books to my collection through this resource. Yay! ;)

I go back and forth between digital and physical journaling. I am feeling the pull to get back into the studio now. I've finished a page recently where I painted the page only with my fingers; it felt great! I like the freedom of smearing the paint over the page with my hand.

Today the studio calls again. It is supposed to be much cooler this weekend so I can open the windows and set up the exhaust fan. That means I am going to play with my encaustics for the first time in a long while. We shall see what that produces. I have had a few ideas in my head for a while now and I'm not sure how they will translate with the wax. The best way to find out is to experiment!

Everyone Is A Moon

I love the two digital kits called Stark and Void that I found at Deviant Scrap. They are full of inspiration! I used these elements from both kits to create this digital journal page. I loved this quote! It just knocked my Muse off her chair when she saw that! We are so in tune right now with the dark side and all things along those lines. ;)

Another thing I've been thinking about: Jamie Ridler has a wonderful feature at her website called Wishcasting Wednesday. You can sign up to receive an email from her every Wednesday which asks you a question that really gets you thinking. I love those and look forward to every Wednesday's question. You can read more about how it works on her site. It's a great idea! Every week I look at the questions and think about them and always say yeah, I should write about that one.

The question last week was What do you wish for less of? I think she meant maybe in a material sense, but maybe not. She leaves the questions pretty open. This question has been staying with me all week. I wish I could have less FEAR. I wish I could just create what I really feel and put out there without having to worry about what people would think and all of the baggage that goes along with that.

Usually I go ahead and do what I want but not always. Lately, I have really hesitated before starting some projects, afraid what people would think, and that has resulted in my not starting any of them. I hate where that is taking me. So that leads me back to Jamie's question and seeing the great timing for that!

And that brings me to this journal page. "Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anyone." Okay. But I'm not afraid to show just a little of mine now. ;)

My Big Three: Journal Page

I just bought a BIG sketchbook that I love. It's 11" x 14" with nice, thick pages that are great to work on. I've been a little behind in the Journal Journey group I belong to and really wanted to get a page done for the latest prompt. Plus, I wanted to try out all of my new Golden paints that just came in. ;)

The current prompt is: Name three things that you like about yourself. *groan* Why was that so hard! I decided to have some fun with it and sketched this crazy face to get me started. I've been practicing my Zentangles and thought they would make a lovely jester-style hat for my girl. I LOVE those Zentangles! Check out their newsletter. They will often include new tangles with each issue. These are so fun to doodle, color and even incorporate into your own drawings.

So my three things were: creative (duh!), a big heart, and a sense of humor. These are what I call my big three. I collaged some papers from old textbooks onto the page before starting in with the paints. Oh, these are some yummy colors. More on that in a minute. I love this big surface to work in. Lots of room to play!

I sketched the face on some drawing paper and then scanned it. After printing it out onto copy paper I colored it in and then cut it out and adhered it onto the journal page. I'm doing more with that sketch in another piece. And I've just started another class called Technicolor Faces, taught by Sharon Tomlinson. This is where those luscious colors of Golden paints come in. We are learning to paint faces in technicolor! I'm already loving this! I'm starting to paint my first canvas today. I just reviewed the videos again to make sure I have an idea of what I'm supposed to do. I'll post my results soon. Stay tuned...

I've had four straight days of migraines and have not been able to do much of anything. This is the first day that I've started without pain. I want to paint and play art as long as I can today! :)

Graffiti Journal Page

I am taking an art journaling class online taught by Dina Wakley and I love it. This is exactly the type of effect I want to have in my art journal. OK, here it's done in digital, but I wanted to do it digitally, too! Next I plan on getting my hands dirty and doing it for real. :)

There is a poem in the background that I saw on someone else's blog recently. Sorry to say I forgot whose blog it was. But here's the poem:

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley
(1849-1903)

I especially love the last two lines. Now, off to play in the paint...