I found this image of my Mother as I was packing up to move and it reminded me of how old photographs are perfect for including in journals or artwork.  This photo was my mother's graduation photo from Cornell University.  Not hard to see why my Dad fell in love with her. 

I have lots of B&W photos of relatives I never even known or met as I am the family historian. I will scan them and start using them in my book-making.  I'll share the results with you next week.

Meanwhile, for all your mother's out there, Happy Mother's Day! 

I'm totally in love with this process.  I've never worked in browns and blacks before since I love color, but Karen Stamper has shown me the way!  

I viewed her class on Sketchbook Revival and now, I can't stop thinking about all the possibilities ahead of me as I try variations on her techniques.

Here is the first piece I finished after watching her video and seeing it on my computer screen, I now see all kinds of buildings, gardens, and other urban landscapes.  All made without a plan.

This is my kind of art-making!

​I'm going to do an entire sketchbook using this technique and I know I will be having a fun week.

I recently enrolled in a free 2 week class called Sketchbook Revival.
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Here's a piece I made from taking a class from Tamara LaPort.  I loved her watercolor layering ideas and permission to be free and not worry about perspective!  It was a fun class and I had a great time making my own buildings and working with watercolor and pen to just have fun!
Not sure how long these videos will be available but if you want some fun ideas to jumpstart your journal, this would be a good place to start.

Art exists in many forms.  And the principles are all the same.
Today, I took a class in flower arranging!  Here's what I learned.

• Diversity make it interesting.  (Small amounts of the same flower, color or greens).
• Change the hight of each stem.
• Let some air show between each stem. (don't bunch too many flowers together!)
• Try not to be symmetrical.
• Professionals don't use glass vases (pottery is better).
• Use scotch tape to add a grid to the container mouth.  That makes everything stand tall.

It was a fun couple of hours and I look forward to experimenting more with this type of art!

I guess I'm still fixated on text and story telling. I bought several books and videos on calligraphy but quickly realized this art form was not going to work for me.  I had hand surgery years ago so don't have the necessary control that this art form requires.  Besides, it was too perfect for me.

I came across this video recently and it gave me permission not be perfect in my lettering and writing — start at 4 minutes) . (thanks Joggles!) 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Un4YSgTi0&t=237s

I also liked the idea of working on black paper and so I bought a ooly black paper sketchbook and some Milky Pop gelli pens.  Like them both for their vibrant colors and no bleed through properties.

My idea is to synthesize the news of the day, every day for the rest of my life.  We'll see how long this passion lasts.

Here's my first entry!

OK, this is a photo I took today.  Spring is really here in Denver!

I can't wait to see the trees blossoming and the grasses turning from brown to green.  This is a great time to start new projects, get rid of old "stuff" and to clear the decks.

In light of that, I just cancelled all my "social media" accounts.  Yes, in 30 days (that's how long it takes!) you won't see me on Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin.

I will still maintain my website and I hope that's how people will connect with me in the future.  

I feel a new sense of peace and lack of anxiousness.  Just perfect for a Spring renewal of my daily life!

OK.  I confess.  This is a photo from last year but this is what I'm anticipating soon!

Nature is an amazing tutor for showing us what colors provide us the most satisfying experience.  Purple and green are not exactly complimentary (purple and yellow) or analogous (purple and blue) but obviously, these colors are beautiful when placed next to each other.

I can't wait for Spring to show me other colors that work together that are NOT on the color wheel!

Lately, I'm finding folding paper a very calming and creative way to spend aa couple of hours in my studio.

I've been making books this way for several months and now, I'm exploring the Japanese art of origami.

I love the 3D result as well as the process of folding, unfolding, and being surprised at the end result.  I am finding most "instructions" very mysterious so have been looking at You Tube videos so I can actually SEE what they are doing.  

Everything related to this art form is precise — something I have always had a hard time with since I like to just wing things.  It's teaching me patience.  Is that a good thing?

It takes me and friend Judith Cassel-Mamet 10 months to come up with and test various approaches to the projects we teach at our annual Mixed Media workshops.  Since we both approach everything differently, we can feed off each other's ideas and methods and that is the fun part of developing our curriculum!

Mixed Media can mean many things but one of the components that we always include is some fiber and stitching.  Over the past 4 years, we have also incorporated paint.  But not in the way you might think!  No drawing or fine painting skills are needed!

We had a wonderful group of creative women in our March workshop and they each made amazing books, using a variety of new techniques.  

Judith and I are now contemplating our next workshop which will be held in 2020.  If you subscribe to my newsletter, you'll get the details first.

Meanwhile, I hope you are living in a place with lots of sunshine and are looking forward to Spring!

I just finished teaching a 2 day workshop with my friend and cohort, Judith Cassel-Mamet.  We had 18 students in a lovely sun-lit classroom inside a church near Washington Park.  Everyone created 3 books during the two days and we taught many techniques such as how to print on paper with a gel plate, how to create books using different types of bindings, and most of all, how to layer on paper using a variety of methods to create unique, abstract art.

One of our students gave me a "thank you" card with a pop-up showing the Manhattan Skyline.  (we both called NY our home even though we live in Denver now!)

That got me inspired.

My favorite online book-making teacher is Faith Hale.  She teaches at Creative Bug and yes, I pay $4.95 per month to access all their classes.  I enjoy this learning platform because they have so many classes ranging from 5 minutes to 6 hours so when time is short, I can pop in to see something that might interest me.  So I learned this 3-D folding technique from Faith (she called it a rainbow bridge) and it was super easy and fun to make.  The class is "Altered Book Daily Challenge" if you want to delve into this interesting way to think about using books in a mixed media environment.

Coming from a publishing background, cutting up a book makes me cringe a little but since I have 2,000 books in my personal library, I think eliminating a few this way would save them from the landfill.  So I'm OK with that!