Point and Shoot Journaling Class

I am taking a class online from LK Ludwig called Point and Shoot Journaling. I have my interpretation of the first assignment above and below. We were to find two images from our archives of photos that resonated for us, and then a third image that could serve as an echo.

I chose the first two because they seemed to match my current mood. I have been feeling closed off, and distant. The window and gazing into the distance seemed so lonely. We were to make our images black and white, and for me, that furthered the mood.

Journaling exercises helped to come up with words to express the mood. The final photo is an echo, for me that was removing the glass, and "engaging the world". I have never worked with journaling prompts before, but I am really liking that aspect of the assignments.

I love photography also, and being able to work with old photos and make them central to a journal page is what attracted me to this class. I also love LK's work, so I knew it would be a good class!

This class runs through the month of October, but I think that it will be offered every month, here is a link, check it out! There is a button in the right side bar, and if you scroll down through a few posts to about Sept. 8 or 9, you will find an explanation of the class.

More Journal Pages

This is one of the kind of strange pieces I did at the journaling retreat. I found a photo in the Seattle Times of a geisha holding a large paper umbrella, wearing a kimono with a similar pattern on the lower part of the kimono. I loved the graphic boldness of the photo, and was trying to use a technique I learned in a class I took from LK Ludwig at ArtFest a few years ago.

It had to do with abstracting the image, so I took shapes from magazines, roughly corresponding to the shapes in the photo, and collaged them on to a large journal page. I am happy with how it turned out, and it was a stretch for me to do the exercise. I am not done with the process, I am going to try to abstract it even more.
The one one above was a hot mess while I was working on it. It may still look like one. I had done a water transfer of a photo on the page to start, and it didn't transfer very well, lots of blank spots. I decided to glue a doily over one spot that was especially blank, and I used glue stick (on a doily, with holes in it), so I had glue everywhere, oozing through the holes. To cover up all that glue, I started putting pieces of a deconstructed paper napkin over the glue-y holes, with the napkin sticking to my fingers, etc.

I probably would have been smart to just tear out this page and start over, but I was determined to keep going and see if I could salvage the thing. Our watch word that weekend was "just glue s*** down", so I kept going on it. This was also the first thing I attempted when the weekend began, and I was seriously out of practice.

I ended up coloring some of the children in the photo, using Caran d'ache, and drawing in features with a pencil. I liked the look of that. Some more collage added here and there. It may still be a hot mess, but I salvaged it enough for my taste, and won't be tearing it out of the book.
I just loved the image here, it was from one of the Departure magazines we all loved so much. I found the crucifix figure in the same issue of the magazine. I will add more to this, but it is hard, because I really like the way it looks right now. I am also trying not to get too attached to things I think are too good. It can be as much of a stumbling block as the ugly ones, probably more.

What I Did on My Journaling Retreat

The journaling retreat in August was so much fun, I did some seriously ugly stuff to start off with, because it had been so long since I had gotten out the journaling supplies. I knew I had to just start "gluing s*** down" (this was one of our catch-phrases for the weekend) and not obsess about what I was doing. I would be happy to share those pages, but I did them in a really large journal, too large to scan. I actually ended up liking some of them, I had to just keep messing with them until there was something there.
I was more in a groove on Friday, our first day of journaling, Rose brought many copies of a magazine none of us had seen, an exclusive for American Express PLATINUM members, which had gorgeous layouts and ads. I found one with an article about a production of Madame Butterfly. I loved the bright colors and unusual set designs, and rearranged them with other bits from my own collage fodder.
These little guys just appeared toward the end of the retreat. I think I was sufficiently loosened up by then. I had a lot of fun doodling. I really admire the doodling Catherine does in her journals, and I was inspired to do some of my own. Catherine was the instigator of the journaling retreat, and a good friend from ArtFest. She doesn't have a blog, unfortunately. She would rather just sit and journal!
We are going to have another retreat in November. I can hardly wait! I am meeting one of the journalers this afternoon, and will work on some of these pages some more. Sad to say, I haven't done much since we got back from the retreat.

A Magical Weekend!

This is the beautiful group of women I spent the last several days with! In the back row from the left are Liesel, Celeste, Kathe, Catherine. In the front, from the left are Rose, me, Penelope, Michelle and Ruth. We are so happy because we had a perfect weekend sharing, working on art journals and laughing A LOT! This was our first time doing something like this, and it was a smashing success.

Our cabin was big enough and well equipped, everyone had enough room to spread out and work in their various journals, there was plenty of food, everyone pitched in to help, the hot tub was great, and some creative breakthroughs were achieved by everyone.

Catherine had the idea and we managed to pull off such a successful weekend that we are planning another one for November, though not at Mt. Baker (where we went this weekend).

kelly rae has written about the power and just pure FUN of getting together with a bunch of like-minded women in her recent posts about the Love Bomb group she started, and I was envious, even knowing that I had this weekend coming up. I had no idea that the group of us would gel so well, as none of us really knew all of the other people in the group, but gel we did in the best possible way.

We asked a kind stranger at Half Moon Bakery in Maple Falls take this photo. We stopped there this morning to share with each other one last time all of the pages we created over the previous three days.

I will share more in the next few days, and check out Liesel's blog here this week, as she is planning to post about our weekend also.

Randomness

I uploaded what was in my camera yesterday, and thought I would share some randomness from my summer. I walked into our local market, and was amused by the offering inside the front door. One of the clerks saw me taking the picture, and asked why, and I pointed out the sign, which she also thought was funny. The next day the sign had been edited to read "mangos".

While I was in Portland, we ate out and managed to hit some great restaurants. This day we had breakfast at Bread and Ink on Hawthorne. It was fabulous, and I am looking forward to eating there again. There were many interesting shops, this was one. I love signage!

My favorite Chinese restaurant, and pure comfort food for me, The Canton Grill on 82nd. This restaurant is over 60 years old, in the original location, and my family has eaten here for my whole life. I always have the "number 3 dinner". Fried shrimp, pork fried rice and chicken chow mein. I love everything about it. No other fried rice or fried shrimp can touch theirs! I love the lanterns on the ceiling, the large laughing Buddha at the entrance whose belly I have rubbed forever, and all the happy memories of eating here with my family.

I took the train to Portland a couple of times. It is a very pleasant ride and the station is less than 5 minutes from where my father lives. My sister picked me up on one of my trips and said that the ceiling was like one she saw in a train station in Paris! More signage.

Tomorrow I am going on an art journaling retreat with 8 other fabulous women. We'll be at a cabin at Mt. Baker for 3 days, and I am looking forward to it very much. I haven't done much art since I got back from Santa Fe. I will have lots to report on when I return!

My Mother, Helen Louise Thompson

My mother passed away on August 4, 2009. When I went to Portland over the Fourth of July weekend, I knew it was getting close, and the family, my siblings and I, descended on Portland to figure out a plan to help my mom and my dad transition through this time. I spent a lot of July in Portland, and hours on the phone with my sister and brothers.

Even though we all knew that mom was probably not going to make it through the year, none of us expected it to come so fast. Mom told us that she was ready--her vision was almost completely gone, and her body kept her from doing even the simplest things for her self. That was the hardest for her.

She told us, but none of us knew it would come so fast. I am glad for her, that she didn't linger or suffer, but losing our mom is the hardest thing I have ever experienced. I feel like I didn't adequately tell her goodbye, or how much I loved her. I hope that she knows, I think that she does.

The photo is from the memorial pamphlet we made. She is fishing in the high meadows of her Uncle Bert's ranch in the Rockies in Colorado. We spent part of every summer there in the 50's and early 60's with her sisters and brother and my cousins and our grandparents. I hope that she is having good times like that now in Heaven.

I love you, Mom!

(I don't know why blogger highlighted the first few lines of text, I can't seem to make it go away)

More from the travel journal

This is one side of the calendar page I made for my travel journal. I got this idea from my friend Paula, who always puts a calendar page in her travel journals. I made the page in advance, and then added a few words about each day, and some bit of ephemera collected that day. I really liked doing it, and it will be a regular feature of my travel journals from now on!
This is another sketch I made sitting in the Plaza in Santa Fe. I drew the sketch and then painted it later. I realized as I was scanning it that the tree looks like it might be dead, it was actually all leafed out, but I am not that proficient with watercolor, and couldn't figure out how to add the leaves without blocking out the buildings! You can see my sketch lines for leaves in the background!

I really loved the Peerless Watercolors for traveling. I can thank my friend, Paula, for that suggestion, also!