Author Archives: Alison

She likes to be admired

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I am totally in love with this aqua-blue colour at the moment and I’m telling you now, you have not seen the last of it in my art journal. Started this page in our art journal class a couple of weeks ago. Zom our teacher has gone overseas now and there won’t be another class until mid October, Godverdomme (that’s Goddammit, one of the only words I know in Dutch). How dare she have a life away from us! Anyway, this page started with the curtains…it was actually an ad for sanitary napkins! It inspired me to think about the part of me that likes to be admired, so I wrote down some of the things that I have been praised for over the years, from childhood through to the present day.

Have you ever done an enneagram test? I’ve done several different ones over the years, and I’ve mostly turned out to be a number 2 (people Pleaser/ Helper) but a few times I’ve come close to being a number 3, the Achiever (who loves to be admired!). Strangely I did a test recently and I was clearly a number 7 (the optimist) which I’ve never been before, so this must be something I have grown towards. I feel rather pleased about this, in an ignorant sort of way though, since I don’t actually know much about the enneagram. Anyway, the number 3 part of me does like to get praise and admiration and I do feel slightly embarrassed admitting this, though I don’t know why because I imagine just about everybody likes it, even if they don’t admit it. My sister Kathryn remembers me at about 3 years old twirling around in a circle of family who were admiring me in my new outfit, which would have been sewn by my mother. So actually they were really admiring HER and her clever sewing, but I’m sure I was feeling the admiration!

How I made the page (for the art journalers out there): First, painted the page with aqua acrylics, paler in the centre. Then used a plastic lace table cloth piece given to me by Fran from our class (thanks Fran) as a stencil and sprayed it with dylusions turquoise spray ink.  Loved the effect! Stuck on the curtains and clouds. Went home and googled “vintage dancer” and found this copyright free image. She was black and white, I printed her out and painted her before cutting her out and sticking her down. Found a font that looked a bit 30’s and copied down the heading in that font using a Posca paint pen, then wrote on the right hand page all the things for which I have been praised over the years. I haven’t used vintage images in my journal  before but I love this one and probably will use some more in future. I am very happy with this page for lots of reasons, the colours, the stencilling, the image, the curtains and the insights that I had about myself. Thanks for listening!

Some new pages

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I have a new, smaller  art journal A5 size. I bought it to be a kind of “trash” journal in which I could try out new techniques and not be too concerned about how the pages turned out. Zom encouraged me in this because, as she rightly pointed out, I am now becoming increasingly reluctant to take risks in my large A4 journal, as it now has so many pages I’m happy with and is three quarters finished.

Having said all that, I am already fairly happy with my first 2 pages in this small journal. The one above is about the good things, and the bad things about having a Methodist minister as my father. I made the background using Dylusions spray inks, and a Cathedral stencil from Artist Cellar. In fact, I made the background just to try out my new stencils, and the Cathedral window design got me thinking about my upbringing in the church.

As you can see the girl has a stained glass window skirt, and she’s wearing Exeter Cathedral on her head! It was interesting for me to write down some of the things I’m grateful for with my churchy childhood, and also some of the bits I wasn’t so happy about.

 

Witnessing my thoughts

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I belong to a women’s group that meets very infrequently (although we all love it when we do meet) This page was inspired by a meeting we had a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about Eckhart Tolle and trying just to allow ourselves to witness our thoughts and not get attached to them. Not as easy as it sounds! One of our members lovely 25 year old daughter died one year ago in a fire in Paris. We all so admire how she has dealt with this unimaginable tragedy, and one of the main things she does to survive is not attach to her thoughts but just keep returning to the present moment. Listening to her speak makes me resolve to do this more also, after all, my thoughts must be very petty compared to hers. I used the image of the thoughts drifting into my mind through a window, and I just watch them as they pass through and allow them to float out the door.

To create this page, I took a photo of my own eyes. First I tried fading it out to black (on photoshop) but it looked like I was wearing a burka, so then I faded it out to skin colour. Then I cut it out and blended it into the page more with acrylic paint. The window had a light brown surrounding, and the door a dark brown, so I tried to match this with paint to blend them into the page and then blended both browns into the skin colour above. This was quite difficult, I have trouble with acrylic paint it seems to dry so fast, before you have a chance to blend it! Then I wrote some examples of the kinds of thoughts I might be likely to have. I must say, I am pleased with this page, I like the way my funny little eyes are floating up there, I love the window and door and I love that this page is really meaningful to me as a reminder to summon up my witness more often!

To finish this post I will leave you with a quote from Eckhart Tolle (who I consider one of the great teacher/philosophers of our time)

“Be present as the watcher of your mind — of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations.  Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react.  Notice also how often your attention is in the past or future.  Don’t judge or analyze what you observe.  Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction.  Don’t make a personal problem out of them.  You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher.”

Eckhart Tolle

Medieval page

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A while ago I bought a book for my sister called “Creative Paint workshop for Mixed Media Artists” by Ann Baldwin. It’s very inspiring so I’ve borrowed it and don’t look like giving it back anytime soon (mwah ha ha!) Oops, my sister has subscribed to this blog and now knows my evil plan. Anyway, this page was inspired by that book. I tried to use layers of acrylic glazes but I don’t really know what I’m doing with acrylic paints and it didn’t turn out the way I expected (or anything like Ann Baldwin’s) It’s OK though. I’ve included a photo I took last July in the Tower of London chapel as I loved the way the light was streaming in. There are several layers of collage, black and white medieval designs and buildings, and some coloured collage on the top layer. I bought a calligraphy felt pen and enjoyed using that on this page.

It is true that I have always loved medieval things (and also renaissance) I love the buildings, the churches, the clothes, the art, the music, the OLDNESS. In Australia we don’t have buildings older than 200 years so when we arrived in Europe last year, I was running around Utrecht (where my son is living) exclaiming over the OLDNESS of things. The canals there date from the 11th century! I’m not sure why I find oldness so interesting, I just do! Does anyone else feel that way?

Pages with Doors

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A while ago  in our art journaling class with Zom we made some pages with either a door or a window opening through to the next page….or at least, like most pages I’ve done, we started them in class and finished them at home. Here are my pages, first with the door closed, then with it open so you can see through it to the page behind.

This was the first page I had done with a black gesso background, but it won’t be the last. I love the way the pictures seem to arise out of the darkness. The words are from the “Charge of the Goddess”. I printed out 2 copies of the medieval door and stuck one directly on the other side of this one, so the door opens from both sides of the page.

When the door is open you can see the gorgeous painting of the “Virgin with Angels” by Bouguereau which I think is my favourite painting of Mary. I cut the Goddess stamp from an eraser.

I didn’t really think too much about my choices of images here, just followed my instinct but I suppose I’m showing two different faces of the Goddess here. Here is the next page:

As you can see I was going for a lighter, more “heavenly” look here with sky blue and white clouds. Actually I didn’t really like the circle of clouds once I had done them, partly because I mixed the paint with a Flow medium by Jo Sonja’s which turned out to be gloss. Yuck, I hate gloss in my journal…if anyone wants my Jo Sonja’s flow medium you can have it, I won’t be using it again.

What I do love is when you open the door and see the dark goddess with the snake, again, two faces of the Goddess. The writing on the left is the message of the Virgin of Guadaloupe as cited in Clarissa Pinkola Estes new book “Untie the Strong Woman”. Being brought up as a protestant (Methodist) minister’s daughter I never had much of a relationship to Mary, we thought that was a weird Catholic obsession, but I found this message strangely moving, “Have you forgotten, I am your mother, you are not alone….” Since I have become more into the sacred feminine in recent years I can feel a closer connection to Mary now than I ever have before. Though I have always loved some of the beautiful musical versions of Ave Maria. Especially the version by Franz Biebl…check it out on youtube sung by Chanticleer…I saw these guys sing this in Brisbane in 1997 and I’ve never been the same since!

Inspired by Traci Bunkers

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I’m enrolled in the 21 secrets online art journaling course and one of the teachers is Traci Bunkers. I like her work and I own a copy of her book “The Art Journal Workshop”, which is a useful book for someone new to art journaling as she gives step by step instructions and photos of exactly how she produces her pages. Not surprisingly, when people are following her instructions in 21 Secrets they end up producing pages which are quite similar to hers (the same is true for most of the other teachers also).

I decided to (gently) send myself up a bit for copying her style. I hope you can read the text when you click on the page above. I was thrilled to find this statue of an angel who is covering her eyes, and she’s saying “This page is so derivative, I can’t bear to look. Please tell me she hasn’t included an Indian Goddess!!”   Which of course, I have! Traci often seems to have an Indian deity, and also she often has a photo of herself, and she frequently is addressing herself in large stamped letters, like I have done on this page. Unfortunately I didn’t have any of Traci’s alphabet stamps ; she has produced her own sets which you can buy here:

Anyway, I admire Traci and am not meaning to make fun of her at all, only of myself, as she is not the only art journaler I have tried to copy (see my Teesha Moore inspired page here) However, once I had addressed myself sternly in stamped letters I began to argue with myself, because actually I think it’s fine to be copying the style of others when you are starting out in something, as I say on this page, I’m just following the ancient tradition of art students copying the masters in order to learn new skills. What do you think?

 

Art Journaler

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The prompt we were given in our art journaling class was to write about what might happen if we gave more time to our creativity. Since I already devote quite a lot of time, thought and energy to my art journal (my husband thinks I’m obsessed!) I ended up writing about whether or not it is Ok to do this. I have a couple of 1950’s New Zealand women’s weekly mags from which I collaged down a few housewifely ads and painted over them thinly. I recently bought this songbirds stencil which has seven birds in a tree. I had to buy it because I sing in a group called the Songbirds and there are seven of us!

I was working on this page alongside my friend Christine, and suddenly had the idea to get her to take a pic of me looking like a 1950’s housewife. I have a dustpan in one hand and a paintbrush in the other, and I’m contemplating my daily dilemma…shall I clean the house or play in my art journal? I must admit that the house cleaning hardly ever wins!

I have included a quote which is from Howard Thurman “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Art journaling makes me come alive, as I say on this page, “At this time in my life, this is my bliss and I am following it”.

 

Souls on the Shore

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I’ve signed up for 21 secrets , an online art journaling course this year. Some of the classes are great, while others haven’t really grabbed me, but I have tried painting in a way which is very different from anything I’ve done before. This was inspired by Connie Hozvicka’s class in which we were encouraged to just paint intuitively, not knowing where we were going with it. This is what I came up with. It looked like two seals watching sunrise on another planet. I just let it stay like this for a week or so, then I did a enquiring process similar to what we do in SoulCollage ie I asked the two “beings” who they were and wrote down what they seemed to be saying to me. This is what they said: We are the souls who are watching and waiting for the dawn We are serene, we are at peace  with the cycles of the universe.  When the shining one comes for us we will be reborn, on earth or some other galaxy.  We know our eternal nature, we are outside space and time  It does not matter how long we wait.  We give you these gifts:  PATIENCE, SERENITY, TRUST, ACCEPTANCE.

So it turned out they were SOULS not SEALS! Interesting how the subconscious works! Yes I know, it’s pretty cosmic, but hey, this is Byron Bay, spiritual heart of the east coast.

So anyway, I printed out what they said and stuck it on the page, darkened the edges of the page slightly with walnut ink, and there it is, finished.

I will definitely be trying this painting process again, it reminds me of the intuitive process of making a SoulCollage card. I love the idea that my intuition and or subconscious is leading me to create something significant and I don’t know what it is while I’m doing it. How cool is that!?

Honouring my daughter

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My daughter is living in London, has been there one year and will be there at least one more year. My son is living in Holland for at least 4 years, so of course I am missing both of them, although I know they are doing what they want to do and are happy, so that makes me happy! Anyway, I had created this background a while ago just using Portfolio watersoluble oil pastels and painting over them with gesso. This is one of my favourite background creating techniques, so quick, easy and satisfying!

My daughter works as a personal trainer in London and is being very successful. She has a strong Artemis/Diana archetype thing happening I think….ie she’s very focused (aims her arrow and off she goes), very outdoorsy and fit, and very independent, being quite happy with her own company and not really needing a relationship. I am very admiring of this (having always been much more of a codependent-must-be-in-relationship-or-I’m-nothing type of gal!) Sometimes I just look at her in wonder and think, “where have you come from, amazingly wonderful woman??”

For the top border I just painted some newspaper to tone in with my dress and cut it in a zig zag pattern, and I really like the effect. It gives a more energetic and focused edge to the page which was otherwise quite soft and floaty looking. Used my new alphabet stamp set that I bought in the Blue Mountains a few weeks ago, it’s a typewriter font.

I always thought focused had 2 s’s but my spell check keeps telling me no, so there you go, I was wrong!

I’ve discovered I need to add these pictures as medium, not full size as they take too long to load and you, gentle reader, might get impatient! But I gather that if you click on the picture you can see it full size, so that’s all good then!