#AtoZChallenge, H is for Hot (and Cold)

Happy Saturday! I've been at the zoo all day with Urban Sketchers, hence this very late post. When we first got there, it was freezing, but now, 5.30 PM, it's hotter than a New Mexico chili pepper, good weather for today's topic: Hot and Cold.

What I'm talking about here are hot and cold colors, or in other words, the backgrounds to your journal designs. When I sit down to create a collage or mixed media piece, I often don't know what will be in it, or what colors I'll choose. Sometimes I just let my hand wander over my supplies until I find something that feels right. 

For today's piece, I seemed to have needed hot, bright red, orange and yellow. Immediately the idea of "heat in the kitchen" came to mind, meaning, I think, "If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen." I may have sub-consciously been thinking about the A-Z Challenge, i.e., if you can't handle blogging every day, out you go, LOL. 

But on a more serious level, I started to think about my grandmother's infamous goulash, so hot it quite literally brought tears to the eyes. And she made it all the time! In retrospect, I know I would probably enjoy it much better today than I did as a child, but back then, it was pure torture to eat. All the same, I loved watching her prepare the dish: getting out the big Dutch oven; tying up the spices and peppercorns in cheesecloth bags; the deep red of the gravy once it had simmered all day. I remember having a special fondness for the bay leaves, not quite believing that you could actually use real leaves to cook with.

Today's art page is rather simple, but the kitchen and cooking theme is one I could go on about forever. If the weather today had been a little warmer, I might have gone for a "cold" page of icy blue, leading me back to those long-ago summers when my best friend and I would ride our bikes to the closest 7-11 for electric-blue Slurpees. Or the time I experimented with blue food coloring for the frosting on a batch of cupcakes, and kind of overdid the color.

There is so much you can do in an art journal based on food, so much that I sometimes think it's one of my favorite themes! For instance:

• Beloved (and secret) family recipes.
• Special occasion and holiday meals.
• "Dream" meals and baked good you'd love to try making.
• Recalling when you learned (or didn't learn!) to cook or bake.
• Ethnic foods from various cultures.
• Our relationships to food; the good, the bad, the hopelessly tempting.
• Trying a new and healthier lifestyle: making better choices and celebrating the changes.
• Must-have ingredients, and why you rely upon them.
• 
  

The combination of food, art, and writing has always been special to me, starting with a workshop I took on the poetry of food, led by the poet and food diva extraordinaire, Denise Brennan Watson. Her book, The Undertow of Hunger showed me how eloquent, necessary, and astonishing food can be, from a simple clove of garlic to the satisfying feel of a warm eggplant held in one's hand. Which reminds me--I have to go make dinner! See you on Monday.

Tip of the Day: Art journals aren't always for ourselves. An illustrated journal based solely on recipes and kitchen memories makes a beautiful gift, especially for a younger friend, or  member of the family just starting out and learning there's more to life than the microwave. Bon appetit!

#AtoZChallenge, G is for Grow

It's a rainy day in Albuquerque, just right for spring planting and today's topic of GROW: 

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? 

Looking at the page I've created for today, I guess my garden is full of kittens (and one lone puppy). I'm not sure why, but I do remember how much I enjoyed watching my cats grow from little balls of fluff to grand masters of stealth and grace.

Using your art journal to record and examine your own personal growth can be a very helpful and encouraging exercise. Some questions you might want to ask yourself along the way could include: 

• In what areas of life would you like to grow stronger, wiser, more informed, more forgiving, etc.?
• What actions can you take to get there?
• What's been stopping your growth now or in the past?
• What new projects would you like to plant the seeds for?
• How can you best take stock of, and celebrate, the growth you've already achieved?

Besides examining your own personal growth, you might like to use your journal to record and express:

• Your children's growth and achievements.
• Pets, too!
• An actual garden journal, with notes on planting dates, successes (and failures--my own gardening disasters could fill a whole book. . . ), and wish-lists for future gardens.

As I write this post, sitting under lamplight while the skies remain dark and cloudy and the whole world seems muffled in fog, I'm reminded of elementary school and that constant question: What do you want to be when you grow up? 

For me it was always an archaeologist. That is, until I learned archaeologists had to dig ditches in hot climates and get all dusty and dirty. Yuk! Looking back I think what I really meant was I wanted to work in a beautiful museum, hushed and scholarly, and where the only "dirt" was the collection of rock and gem specimens behind glass. But it makes an interesting study, to see where I came from and where I landed, and where I'm still growing (other than my waistline. . .). So how about you?

Tip of the Day: What did you want to be when you "grew up"? Did you achieve your goal, or did life show you an entirely different path you followed instead? And what about now, any plans for the future? Write, collage, draw and get them down on paper--make that garden grow.

#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.