Late Spring Showers

We have had a lovely, early and warm spring.  Many flowers are blooming as much as a month earlier than usual.  One is this iris.  Our neighbor, Sally, gave us starts of it last year (and one other that is just not ready to bloom this season...but next! ) 
 

The clematis, which for the past two years has been rather paltry in its display, is particularly flamboyant this May. 

 

Yesterday I painted two pictures in my Journal 52 notebook, trying to get caught up from several weeks of being too busy. The prompt for this was "Inside Out" so I sketched in Pitt pen and watercolor the view from my studio window into our garden.  Studio is on the lower level and so my gaze is nearly ground level when seated at my table. 

 

Contemporary Shepherd

This morning I found this piece of calligraphy that I did a few months ago.  It had no color so I fiddled around designing a border that is more "illuminated manuscript" style floral.  Didn't like it with the more contemporary lettering. so decided to use my watercolors and a bit of foil. I'm pleased with the result and particularly happy with the layout of the text and changes in letter size.  Will probably frame it. In "real life"  the foil isn't quite so "brassy" and overwhelming.  The camera picked up the overhead light glare.

Butterfly Falls

Journal 52 has a prompt that I found difficult.  "Collage Crazy"-- I am not good at finding bits and arranging them, so instead of prowling old magazine pages and acknowledging my lack of ephemera and rubber stamp stuff,  decided to raid my stash of special papers--

• some paste papers I had made a few years ago using shaving cream to carry      pigment  -- fun and messy

• some tissue paper left from the installation I did for my senior professional concerns show the year I graduated from college. (boy, does that bring back some memories!)
• some little squares salvaged from an art-paper supplier's sample book (in small squares about 2 1/2" x 2 1/2") 
• and last, but not least, one picture of a butterfly cut from a page that was an insert in a Somerset magazine a few years ago.

Here is the result.  

Butterfly Falls

Story Started

Today has been one of getting "artistically organized."  I am waiting to hear regarding my queries for an agent to represent my alphabet book.  And while I am waiting I have begun writing the first of a series of stories for middle grade children (probably boys, mostly).  The main character will be a young boy who tags along on Marco Polo's adventures.  Lots of fascinating reading already as I begin my background research.  
I also spent  painting--today I finished up the week 14 prompt for Journal 52-- "Sweet Treats"  I did it in the same style as my alphabet book.  Even used the same outline of the letter "S."  

I'm needing to work on my little alphabet (3" squares featured to the right in "letter of the day")  'G' is my last completed letter! :-/  
 

thick and thin

This piece was created for a friend - she had a very narrow space above an archway that just begs for some sort of art.  I made this and alas, it was too "thick" (top to bottom) so I kept it and did something else for her (after measuring :-/) 
Even though it is a "Thin" piece (physical size, narrow from top to bottom and long left to right) it is "Thick" with meaning.  It has been pinned below my upper kitchen cabinets for about a week now and seeing the message regularly is really a "stiffener," spiritually speaking. 

Unearthed

Mom was cleaning her closets a couple days ago. She had packed paintings (framed and not) when she moved to live with us in "how it would fit best" fashion.  Since she didn't inventory the boxes as she went, it has plagued her for the past few years that she "didn't know where anything was."  So, dragging the many paintings out included this one that I had given her several years ago.  I painted it from a still life set up with my depressionware green bowl and nasturtiums from our garden.  
It is brings back such vivid memories here in April when there is not a nasturtium to be found -- that will come in July and August.  There is a strong and distinctive fragrance of the flowers and of the garden dirt warmed by the summer sun.  I can remember dealing with the unwieldy curly stems to create a pleasing arrangement for my studio session.
This memory jogged reminds me of days long past-- other scenes utterly unrelated to the flowers captured for the future on a sheet of paper.  Songs of my children's voices playing in the yard, the delight of dinner cooking in the slow cooker, my radio playing the classical station and the smell of my watercolor paints-- they do have a scent that stirs me everytime I am near them. All these good gifts come from my Heavenly Father. It stirs me to praise again and  puts me in mind of what we do, what we save, what we unearth that winds our past and present together to lead us into the future.

 Interesting muse this morning. 

 

FOKSIC - "fingers on keys, seat in chair"

I have been distracted with the work of preparing a query to find an agent and a publisher for my book.  There is a lot involved and most of the time I really want to look the other way and just ignore it all.  I really enjoy making art, too.  But in this mode of feeling overwhelmed even the motivation for being creative suffers.  So yesterday, took myself in hand and went to my studio.  "I'll just do a small calligraphy piece," I said to myself.  Grabbed a piece of old business stationery, used the wrong side and lettered without layout planning.  Created the "knotwork" border and traced it using my beloved wafer think light box. Shaded the "ropes" with a brush marker and because paint would have wrinkled the paper, I just shaded the negative spaces with pencil.  I think this will be the rough draft for a finished piece.  
Seems lik my life is rather like this... a task done, because "it is the right thing to do" may be a matter of un-fun self discipline, but at the conclusion, yields something good. 

Tyrant Ignored

Journal 52 prompt this week is "Spring Clean."  The idea of a clean house in spring sounds so good on paper!  But reality is, when the creative juices are flowing, there is no time or inclination to clean, sort, purge and polish. Maybe things around here will slowly sink into a mush of grubby chaos... at  least that is what my inner Tyrant says.  Today and tomorrow and probably for the next little while I shall studiously ignore Tyrant-- and proceed with my creative endeavors. That plan is far more satisfying.

my parallel pen cartridge is filled with an ink that smeared when I tried to erase my pencil lines. ARGH! but I decided that the smear-ry mess is a good visual of my mental state when these sorts of commands from Tyrant besiege me.-- is this what is called "artistic license?"

Tree Glory

Mother has long loved and commented on trees.  Her love and "out loud" comments of admiration of the incredible variety of shapes, leaves, bark has been a good spur to me to pay attention to trees and other things in nature. 
I am nudged to notice not only the big picture (the huge maple tree on our north side, the skinny tall evergreen on the corner, the drapey willow in the neighbor's back yard) but the details of things I see around me (flat curl-edged sheets of bark on the sycamore, ragged shreds of bark invaded by a wee woodpecker on the ornamental plum, white paper-y film on the birch tree across the fence.)
The display our Creator's awe-inspiring handiwork is on my mind. I am reading Frances Chan's Crazy Love and his first chapter is titled "Don't Pray."   I think, "huh?!" But he goes on to challenge me to come into God's presence and ponder Him and His handiwork. Go from the vast nebulae in deep space to the tiny spiral on a snail's shell.  This attention to the "big picture" and the "details" cause awe to well up within me. On Sunday we sang, "How great is our God." I can still hear the voices around me lifting the words-- "sing with me, how great is our God!" Won't you sing with me? Admire and worship our God!

How NOT to post a sequence of directions!

Oh, YIKES!!!  Not sure why or how, but blogspot has crossed me up.  I made three posts trying to give a step by step demo of how to make a box from one sheet of paper.  I cannot figure how to get the posts in the proper sequence  SO... please, dear reader, look in "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page, and find the three posts in this order:
Make a Word Box   
Making a Word Box (part 1)
Making a Word Box (part 2) 
Here is a picture of the Journal 52 post that started this project: 

"Just Write" is the prompt.  I picked 5 words from my word box. wink, ladybug, gain, rustle and glimmer

 

Make a Word Box (Part 2)

3)    Fold outer edge of one long side to the center fold (lengthwise)

4)    Fold other long edge  to the center

5)    Unfold previous two folds and then fold one short side to center fold

6)    Fold other short side to center

7)    Make four cuts along outer folds that are PARALLEL with the LONG side from the outer edge JUST to the first fold line encountered

8)    Fold in each short flap

9)    Fold up end flap 

and fold small “extra” length into the box securing the two short flaps

Original word box and “demo” box for comparison.  Blue box in next photo is made with the smaller measure mentioned at beginning (5” x 6 ¼”)

At steps 8 and 9 glue may be used. If you want to make a lidded box, use two different sheets (the same size) but when making the second set of folds (those that bring the outer edges to the center), fold one sheet by bringing the outer edges just short of the center folds and the other sheet, bring the outer edges just barely over the center folds. This will give enough space for the one to fit over the top of the other when the boxes are constructed