30 Days of Get Your Art On

Since I'm already doing art every day, for the 2011 Project 365, I decided I wanted to do this challenge too! This next month I have some artwork to finish for my etsy shop, a couple of altered book projects planned, and a couple of art swaps on atcsforall.com, so figure it won't be too hard. Maybe? 

Here are Traci's rules: 

• I’ll make art every day for 30 days and post what I have done.
• I don’t have to finish what ever I’m working on that day, I just have to work on something.
• I have to work for 30 minutes, but can work longer if time permits.
• It doesn’t matter what I do for the art making, as long as I work on art.
• I won’t feel guilty for taking the time to work on art and I won’t have to justify why I’m doing it.
• I don’t have to go into detail in my post about how I did anything or what tools, materials I used (unless I want to).

I can do that. Starting tomorrow, the first of July.

I'll post what I'm doing, whatever stage it is here. It will be separate from what is posted on my 365 Blog, so that will make it a bit more challenging for me. And fun!

Let the Art Begin!

Seeing Circle - Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition: an act or instance of placing close together or side by side,
especially for comparison or contrast.

Interesting theme for last week... the photo I submitted shows the creek behind the house, on the solstice, while they were taking out all the vegetation, and lovely tall trees. The trees on the right are now gone. Straw covers the exposed earth where they are putting in a "vegetative swale", and will be replanting. Hopefully they keep their word and replace the three cedars (7-8 years grown) they ripped out with their excavator. Not to mention the 3-4 shore pines. And the twin berry that was gorgeous hanging over the back fence.

This is a before shot of the same view

And this is an after view - they literally ripped out all the trees with their evil machines - aka excavators.

I cried off and on all morning, and continue to mourn the little trees and native shrubs we planted along the creek bed, and nurtured along. Placed there to enhance the habitat along the creek.

On the positive note, we now have even more birds in our back yard and wild area. For this I am grateful.

Point Whitehorn Excursion

View from the parking lot as we arrived at Point Whitehorn... lovely meadow with wildflowers

Walking along the trail through lush undergrowth to the beach... it's about a mile walk in and was delightful!

Low tide as we arrived at the beach

Starfish were everywhere... even out in the sandy area that is usually under water.

Tide pools

View from our picnic lunch site - a nice comfy driftwood log. Note the sailboat out enjoying the day.

Tide coming in - view from bottom of stairs as we headed back.

And of course, before we left the beach, I had to look for a heart rock. I am never disappointed. :)

Seeing Circle - Repetition

The theme for last week was Repetition... I had many ideas. Most did not work out when photographed. This one however, worked for me. :)

The bridges along the trail to Point Whitehorn beach repeated themselves over and over. We'd have been quite muddy without them. It's a mile long trail through lovely forest with lush undergrowth.

This was another repetition... many deep steps up  from the beach to the trail back to the car.

Palimpsest

Palimpsest. n. a manuscript or piece of writing on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain.

I just read this definition on Diana Trouts blog, and had to use it! A group of local artists (and wonderful friends) are participating in a palimsest (aka altered book) exchange.

We met and exchanged our books this past Sunday...

Don't they look like they'll be fun to work in? The smallest one is mine.

Here is a close up of my getting-the-book-ready to exchange:

Book cover was painted with Lumiere paints. Spine is textured suede cloth (with the help of a supportive artist friend who lent me her Cuttlebug... and oh dear, I may need one too!)

 Inside end papers use fun decorator paper from BasicGrey.

 Theme/Title pages with guidelines... Oh, I went with Pathways as my theme (yes, the same as the Sketchbook Challenge theme this month - happy coincidence)

Peekaboo window with found poetry - one of my pathways is learning more about gardening in harmony with nature. Especially taking care to lessen my impact on the birds and bees and critters that share this place on the earth. I have more to add to this page... 

The page in full view with a reverse peekaboo... much more to add here too!

Another nature themed start to a spread...

And a tag section. This is a technique I adapted from my friend Sherri Angie's Visual Journaling course I took years ago.

And of course, signature pages... or tags in this case.

I have much more work to do on all "my" spreads... and have made notes so I won't forget what I intended. Although sometimes the intention changes by the time you get your book back. :)

I'll share more on this "Palimpsest" project as we go along.

Finch at the feeder

My world traveler son took this photo, while practicing with the new camera before his trip. He sat at patiently waiting for quite awhile, finally learning that if he held still, the birds did not fly away, and that you can bring them closer by zooming in.

Seeing Circle - Texture

A fun theme this week... and one that I've been playing with. Here's my entry for the week:

I can see faces in this photo... can you?

Just happened along...

I was out last night taking pictures of the honeysuckle along the fence in the early evening light.... and a little Annas hummingbird just happened along. I did not move, and kept snapping and one actually came out. I stood there for about five minutes until she was done.

Pathways

"Many are obstinate with regard to the pathway once they have set upon it,
many without regard to the goal."
Friedrich Nietzsche

I'm starting an altered book exchange with some friends, and have chosen the theme "Pathways". I'm still working on the cover and my initial spread... more on that later. 

This quote appeared today on the Sketchbook Challenge blog and I loved it. It reminded me that we have so many paths available to us, although we often don't see or acknowledge them.

Sometimes we get going along a path, and we get good at it, and it becomes familiar. So we keep going in that direction even when it's not taking us where we want to go, or making us happy. The old story of "it's what we've always done"...

Occasionally it is time to make a change, choose a new pathway. Its a brave thing to try a new pathway and it takes courage. 

Ask yourself: "What's the worst thing that could happen"? And then "Can you live with that"? If you can, then go for it! You can always fall back on your "familiar", but there could be another fun new pathway just around the corner!

If my pathway makes me happy and I am doing what I've always wanted to do... I can live with that.

Texture

Exploring texture in what I see... first in a series.