#AtoZChallenge, F is for Focus

It's ironic that today's theme is FOCUS when I'm running late writing this post, while at the same time trying to cram in all my day-job duties, and trying to eat my lunch. To make matters worse, I was so rushed this morning I left my To-Do list at home, and it was a long one. Now I'm trying to figure out what was on it other than "Write Blog Post" scrawled at the very top. Grrr!

So, about focusing . . . what on earth is that??

As I'm typing this, I can hear my co-workers eating their lunch, talking at the top of their voices, and playing the radio full blast (I think it's rap). I just had to get up and shut my door. Not very friendly, but I had to do something to cut out the chaos.

Which is how I view my art journal when things get wild; making it a little sacred space of concentration, just for me. It's where I can go to rest and to play with color, design, and words in ways that feed my spirit and soul more than anything else I know.

Some of the ways I've learned to focus on my journal rather than the noise on the other side of the door are:

• Schedule in the time. For today that meant: get up early, and write before I even got dressed.
• Finish what I start. It's so important to me, I wrote it on today's page! It's fun to start various projects, and I, like most writers and artists, have several awaiting completion. But I do, and will, complete them before they become unmanageable. In fact, that's what I've been doing this year, focusing on one project at a time so I can have a clean slate by 2017.
• Still, despite my best intentions, I'm constantly tempted to begin yet another new project. To maintain some kind of order, I keep a special file for ideas, and pictures I want to use "one day," but not now. Once the idea or image is in the file, I don't have to think about it again until later. Much later.
• Too many art supplies can be a big distraction: which one to use first? A good way to solve this is to work your way through them without buying anything new. For instance, use two, and only two, items until you use them up, e.g. charcoal pencils and watercolors only. If you find you really are resisting using them, give them away, and choose two more until you find your true medium.
• The same applies to collage papers and other decorative items. Work your way through what you have. Even if you dislike a certain color or texture--use it anyway, taking each piece from the top of the pile. Afterwards, step back from the page--you may be very surprised at how things have worked out, and well.
• Prepare your art journal supplies in advance. The night before your scheduled session, gather and arrange the items you'll be using and place them on your desk or table. Having your glue stick, water, paints and brushes, cut-out pictures, and even some clean-up wipes all set in place for when you sit down, is both inviting and time-saving.

Tip of the Day: Create a journal section--or perhaps an entire journal--on the theme of focusing. You might want to include things such as inspiring quotes; peaceful scenes of nature; pictures of candles, altars or other spiritual images; short "recipes" for rituals to follow before you begin working. Enjoy the process, enjoy the quiet.

#AtoZChallenge, E is for Endings

Endings come in all shapes and sizes: from "happily ever after," to "Gosh, am I ever glad that's over." Your art journal is the perfect place to explore, record, and re-imagine a wide variety of endings in your life.

Some of the questions and topics surrounding the theme of "endings" can include:

• Taking a good, long look at endings you've never quite been able to accept: the sudden and unexpected end of a job or relationship; moving from a much-loved home or city; losing a loved one.
• Endings that need closure so you can move on to enjoy and more fully appreciate your current situation.
• Areas in your life that need to end in order to keep your health and sanity, for instance a toxic friendship; a dead-end, low-paying job; an organization that requires far too much of your time with little return or appreciation.

On a lighter note, endings, can also be something to celebrate, especially when the end of one chapter opens the door to a new and brighter future. For instance:

• Graduations.
• Retirement.
• Getting out of a thankless situation.
• Selling a home or business.
• Leaving a job to become self-employed.
• Significant birthdays.
• Moving.

All of these experiences make good fodder for collage, artwork, poetry; creative work that goes a long way toward accepting and even thanking the endings in our lives.

Tip of the Day: If the idea of working with real-life endings sounds too painful right now, or you're just not ready to go there, try this: Consider all the fictional endings you've either enjoyed,or have been disappointed in. What are your favorite book endings? What movies left you saying, "Huh? What just happened there?" How would you change them to create a more satisfying conclusion? And don't forget about all those non-conclusive fairy tale endings. What if Snow White and Cinderella decide they don't want to marry princes after all, or Little Red Riding Hood is really the wolf's accomplice and it's all just a big set-up? Have fun!

#AtoZChallenge, D is for Dress it Up!

Today's topic, Dress it Up!, goes way back to my very first NaNoWriMo effort (2004!) when I made dozens of character, setting, and wardrobe collage pages to go along with my text. I still have that draft as well as all the accompanying illustrations. The reason it stays in a cardboard box is complicated, but let's just say it's got a lot to do with the story being a genre-authentic romance, and I don't know if I'm very good at writing romances. I love the story, I love my characters, but I have other projects with louder voices calling for my attention right now, so . . . maybe one day I'll re-open that manuscript box!

In the meantime, though, I enjoy riffling through those pages of magazine cut-outs I made to go with the story, remembering how much fun I had putting them together. Part of the story is set in an Italian fashion house. Here's a glimpse of Gina, the beautiful designer and evil villain of the story:

She loves to accessorize:

One of my favorite scenes in the plot is when Bailey, my beautiful (all my characters are beautiful, LOL!) heroine is tricked into "borrowing" items from Gina's storerooms so she can go out on a date with Gina's equally villainous accomplice, Ashe, the hero's brother. Bailey goes a little wild for green and gets into a lot of trouble for wearing these items when Gina finds out.

I've got dozens of these pages: outfits for Bailey when she goes to Paris with the hero, Declan, (under duress, of course. The old "on the road together, but they hate each other" scenario); pictures of Bailey as a little girl in jeans and T's, and ending with her gorgeous wedding dress when she finally marries Declan (and they don't hate each other any more).

These and other clothing pages I've made for my various drafts and published work since then have been, for me, one of the great delights of writing. Life in Albuquerque is casual--we hardly ever dress up to the extent I sometimes find myself longing to do, and I admit many of my outfit-collages stem from some kind of wish-fulfillment. Probably the same reason why I prefer to read novels and watch movies filled with fabulous clothes!

Adding clothing pages to your art journal doesn't have to be linked to a manuscript, however.  For today's page I've glued in another of my practice sketches of a dress I liked, and added a few little embellishments. The flower piece actually fell out of an old journal--the glue must have evaporated to nothing, one of the hazards of living in the high desert--so I stuck it on here just because I liked it. It made me think of old prom dresses and yearbooks and that's probably what I'll be writing about later tonight.

Other prompts to get you started on some clothing pages could include:

• Organizing your wardrobe and choosing the pieces you want to keep and those that need to be tossed or donated.
• Memories: favorite dresses, fashion changes throughout your life, fabulous outfit "flops" you'll never recover from . . . 
• Make a list of "What I Wore" on different occasions, e.g., "What I wore on the first day of school throughout the years," or "What I wore to friends' and family weddings," or "What I wore for on first dates."
• Recalling what your mother, grandmother, aunts wore, especially the clothes you loved or that intrigued you in some way. I remember being fascinated by my great-grandmother's old-fashioned black lace-up shoes when I sat on the floor by her feet playing with my tea-set and pouring her cup of air.
• Wish lists of clothes you'd like to own. Past experience has taught me that shopping with intention, not only saves money, but goes a long way to avoiding those "flops" mentioned above.

Another good reason to include clothing in your art journal is that it's super-fun to draw or paint. The colors are pretty, working with the draping, shadows and highlights can help your drawing skills, and there's no dry cleaning bills!

Tip of the Day: When I'm not cutting up fashion magazines, my favorite go-to place for design inspiration is Polyvore.com, a digital fashion collage site that's more fun than a barrel of monkeys. (Warning: it's extremely addictive.) But once you've learned to pace yourself and only go there once a day, you can quickly design all kinds of fashion plates you can then print out and paste straight into your journal. Very easy and very effective.

#AtoZChallenge, C is for Core Values

Core values matter to me. I don't know how to live without values, even though they're far from popular, and ascribing to them lost me a chance to attend teacher's training college when I was eighteen and living in New Zealand. 

The interview was conducted in a stuffy little room with a hard-backed chair for me, and a long table with padded chairs for the twelve formidable professors asking the questions, questions I found confusing and difficult to answer. I was an American living abroad and still unsure about where I fit in, if at all. Finally, the head interrogator asked if I believed in teaching values. Ah, I could get this one, I thought, so I promptly replied, "Yes." 

I don't think I'll ever forget the look of horror that stole across those twelve faces. After a long, uncomfortable pause, the same woman asked, "What values?" Unaware I was committing career-suicide, I listed things such as not stealing, not hitting, forgiveness, not being cruel. You know: be nice! Duh!  

The panel remained grim-faced and after another interminable amount of time shuffling papers and shaking their heads, they calmly announced that I was a very unsuitable candidate for teaching and would be better off finding a job as a shop assistant. 

I don't remember what happened after that, how I got home, how I faced my parents as a reject and a failure. But later that week I took the panel's advice, went to work in a bookstore, loved it, and never looked back. Later, after saving enough money, I went on to get a degree in Spanish Literature from the University of Auckland, all the while thanking my stars that I didn't have to spend my life in a value-free classroom filled with biting, hitting, mean little kids raised without values. Whew! Saved!

I still don't understand what is so awful or backward about having values, and quite frankly, I hope I never do. Admittedly, what I consider to be my values has shifted, changed, and matured over the years, but I will always hold on to an essential code of ethics that makes me, me. 

Which is why I like using my journals, and especially my art journals, to learn more about my values and what I believe in, and why. It's not always an easy process. But after deciding  on today's topic, I realized my core values can easily distill into one important core belief: Make every day count. Make every day matter.

That's it. Every day I'm grateful to be alive, and every day I realize how lucky I am to still be alive. So I do my best to make my day matter with not only journaling, but writing, drawing, helping, encouraging, fulfilling my day-job role with enthusiasm, and most of all, being as aware as I can be of the world around me. It's a good world, and I value it, deeply. And I want to thank you for being part of it. Really and sincerely.

Oh, and why a horse with the Eiffel Tower on a page of values? I simply gathered from my collage supplies what spoke to me: maybe strength, service, enjoy the ride? That's the beauty of art journaling--you never know what will happen, but you can always make a connection, if not now, then down the road. It's all good. See you tomorrow.

Tip of the Day: Using your journal, and especially an art journal, is a wonderful way to connect with your personal, professional, and spiritual being. Whether or not you want to call any of it "values" (you can just call it "The Important Things About Being a Human" if you prefer), creating a dedicated journal solely for your core-self is a valuable exercise (no pun intended) for discovering your very own road map to life.

#AtoZChallenge, B is for Buy a Butterfly

Happy Saturday, all! The perfect day for some art journaling and for today's topic: Buy a Butterfly, or, Sometimes it's Good to Shop.

In yesterday's post I emphasized the importance of using as much FREE STUFF as possible for your journal, but today I'm singing the praises of treating yourself to a trip to the hobby-, dollar-, thrift-, or art supply store. Nothing fancy, mind you, but every now and then your journal could use a little store-bought item or two. And taking yourself to buy some supplies makes the perfect Artist's Date.

My favorite way to do this is to set a budget of about $10 - $20 max, and then drive off with no expectations whatsoever, just an open mind and a sense of adventure. Some of the things I'll look for include: 

• Bags of collage goodies: from paper scraps to die-cut card pieces, such as the butterfly featured above. I've bought collections that are based on a theme, such as beaches and ocean-side designs, or vintage clothing and Victorian sayings. Other bags have included a variety of fascinating but totally unrelated items; one bag I bought even had tiny little clothes-pegs and safety pins in the mix. None of these bags cost more than $5.00 and they were jam-packed with inspiration.
• Old and very-bad-condition books. These are excellent for tearing up and re-using the pages of text and/or illustration for journal backgrounds. (Note: if the book isn't completely falling apart, it can be turned into your actual journal as an "altered book.")
• Bags of ribbon scraps.
• Pre-cut fabric quilting squares. These are usually bundled into small color-coordinated packages.
• Stick-on pearls, rhinestones, and other blingy-type thingies.
• Jewelry-making components such as pendants and miniature printed pictures for inserting into clear pendant-cases. (I don't know how to exactly describe these pictures, but they're wonderful for collage. Each sheet usually has about 20-30 different designs.)
• Stickers! So many to choose from!
• Scrapbook pages sold in tablets or as individual sheets. (The tablets can be pricey, but they're often on sale, especially at the discount stores.)
• Origami papers.
• Craft magazines. Good for inspiration and cutting up for a wealth of words and images.

And that's just for starters. After I come home with my treasures I usually sort them into different categories of size, theme, or color. I then keep everything in a series of cigar boxes for the smaller pieces, and photo-storage boxes (decorated of course!) for the larger bits.

On today's page I've used a background of watercolor crayon, some leftover strips of a scrapbook page, four pieces of die-cut card from a purchased package, and a lovely quote from a lovely member of my writer's group. She had included these in our Christmas cards a few years back and I always knew I'd use mine in some meaningful way down the road--like today. 

For the written part of my journal, I'm going to continue with "I remember. . ." recalling the time my first-grade teacher brought caterpillars to class and we placed them in an aquarium filled with leaves and branches. I'll never forget watching the "worms" (I was a rather squeamish child) form their cocoons, and then the wondrous day when the butterflies emerged to fly out the window. Some things stick with you forever, with or without the glue-gun.

Tip of the Day: The next time someone asks what you'd like for a birthday or holiday gift, why not suggest some supplies for your art journal? I love it when someone surprises me with a grab-bag of notions and "puzzle pieces." Not only does it give me some interesting insights into how other people think (i.e., why they chose particular items over others), but I enjoy the challenge of using things I may not have picked out for myself. Wishing you all a creative weekend!

#AtoZChallenge, A is for Art Journal

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the first day of the A-Z Blogging Challenge! As promised in my last post, my theme for the 2016 A-Z will be art journaling, with a new entry for every day of the challenge.

My plan is to base each of my journal pages on a letter of the alphabet, giving myself about 30 minutes a day to put together a visual page (the part I'll be sharing) from the easiest and cheapest materials available, and another half hour to freewrite about what I find in the images. All along the way I'll also be providing tips and ideas for you to create an art journal of your own.

But before we begin: If you're a first-time art-journaler, please don't think you need to go out and buy tons of supplies. One main point I want to demonstrate over the month is how little you need in both materials and time: an hour at the most broken up into several 15- or 20- minute segments, a journal or notebook, some glue sticks, a pair of scissors, some junk mail/every-day ephemera ("The Moon" is torn from the bottom of a sheet of postage stamps), old magazines, some colored pencils, felt tip markers or watercolors, and optional decorative papers which can range from gift wrap to plain papers you paint and decorate yourself. Chances are you probably have everything at home already; even if you don't have a journal, you can just use individual sheets of paper and staple, sew, or tie them together at a later date.

So what have I got here for this first entry? Scraps! For instance, the green piece of paper in the background up there is a leftover from cutting out some star-shapes for another journal project. I kept it because I liked the unintentional design and also because I'm a great fan of "waste not, want not." The little colored pencil piece I glued in beneath it is a practice drawing on vellum from last year that seemed to fit the overall design in both shape and color--especially as I could then title the piece "A is for Apricot"! And that, along with "Reach for the Moon" is going to be my writing prompt for the day. 

Hint: Apricots always remind me of my childhood in California's San Fernando Valley. A great way to start off your art journal, especially if you're feeling a bit stuck or uninspired is to begin with those wonderful words: "I remember. . . "

Tip of the Day: Did you know cabbage leaves, kale, and collards make excellent journal pages? Oh, okay--April Fools!! See you tomorrow with the letter B.

A to Z Blogging Challenge Theme Reveal: An Art Journal Page a Day

Hello, Everyone! Today I'm revealing my A to Z theme: An Art Journal Page a Day. For anyone unfamiliar with the challenge, the idea is to blog every day during the month of April except for Sundays, and to base each post on a letter of the alphabet. 

This year I'll be creating a small art journal for the month along with tips so you can try something similar yourself. I can't promise it will be a fantastically beautiful journal (see Help, I Hate My Art Journal!), but it will be fun, and it will be a good discipline to collage and journal on a near-daily basis.

To get us all in the art journaling mood, I thought I'd share some pages from past journals. 

I used an actual piece of papyrus on this page. I'm not sure why I associated
Paris with Egypt, but it might have had something to do with the Louvre.
Whatever, to me art journaling is about emotion, not precision.

I found these Betsy McCall paper dolls on line.  I loved
Betsy as a child, but she was a difficult role model
to live up to. My mother had an even more difficult time
trying to understand why I couldn't be as band-box perfect
as dear Betsy, even when I explained to her Betsy was a doll, while I 
was a real little girl. The story of our entire relationship.

This particular collage was in memory of my grandmother. The
picture of the little girl isn't of  her, but reminds me of her all the same.

I put these maps together for a short story I was writing at the time.
My favorite technique was coloring in the black-and-white photocopy of rocks
and sea with colored pencil.

I created this spread after reading a novel set in Africa.

I made this page after I finished writing my novel, Overtaken. 
The bracelet had been one of my  initial writing prompts 
that fueled much of the story.

After Overtaken was published, I wanted to do something with the
old manuscript pages. So I did this.

Using old, failed, watercolors in a new way.

These two pages were created months apart. I was first intrigued enough by
"The Lady in White" to consider using her as the model for a
possible novel set in Egypt. Then when I came across her again in an orange
sweater, I knew there really was a story to write. Currently it's still very much
a WIP, but I'd like to return to it one day. These pages
are a good inspiration and starting point.

So start collecting your junk mail, magazines, ribbons and bows and get ready to journal. See you on April 1, and don't forget your glue sticks!