*She Loves Shiny*

Nanojoumo-November and a Class

  I'm in Dallas this week, with my husband on a business trip of his.  I check out the daily prompt at www.dblogala every day.  I've managed to create a journal page for each prompt but haven't had the time to take pictures and post them here or on the flickr site.  I will eventually do that.

  The prompt today is "solitude".  Hmmm.

Nanojoumo-November 1

  I'm participating in a project called Nanojoumo this month. Nanojoumo stands for National Nonstop Journaling Month.  A journal page, doodle, sketch, whatever-one a day for the thirty days of November.  

  Dawn supplies a word prompt to get the ideas stirring.  Today's is "freedom"  I'm not good with prompts, so I exercised my right to "freedom" and came up with what I did.  

  I started out with one idea and ended up with something totally different.  Thank goodness for gesso, paint and collage.  I really wanted to just do a black and white journal, using my own doodles and drawings.  Yet when I look back at my finished journals, I've never been able to do just black and white.  I also had to resist the urge to tear out my first page.  

  Doing this project may mean that I actually post something every day here!  That would be amazing and worth it all on its own.  

  Read more about the project here:  http://www.dblogala.com/dblogala/2009/10/get-ready-for-nanojoumo.html#comments

Reactions

   Until I posted my journal page yesterday I had never had so many people say they liked my drawings.  That meant a lot to me.  I can't create anything more personal than my drawings.  
  In junior high school I had a teacher tell me that the eyes I drew made people look like they were stoned....I can still see those drawings-one of Robert E. Lee and one of Ulysses S. Grant....Never mind that my report on them got an A.  

  For me this is drawing:
From my head, to my hands.  Via my heart.  

At the End of Your Life-a Page from My Journal

  I am almost done with yet another large moleskine sketch journal.  This one is a fat one, filled with sketches, calendars, lists, etc.  It gapes wide open and I like it like that.

  Here's one of the pages in it:  

You're on My Mind

4x6 inch collaged postcard, the latest in my personal project "76 Postcards for Dad". 

More Mail ARt

 

Kreepie and Kookie

 This postcard is for a friend who asked me to swap a piece of mail art with her.  I wish I'd gotten more of this scary paper as I am not into cute Halloween stuff so much.  Okay, I do like some cute Halloween stuff.  At what other time are we allowed to be kids as much as Halloween?

Catch My Fall

 

While I was making this postcard last night the tune on my iPod was "Catch My Fall" by Billy Idol.  There's  line in the song that says "if I should stumble, catch my fall."  How serendipitous was that?  

For a postcard that comes from loss and grieving the colors are surprisingly bright.  But when I think of my father the first impression is of him smiling.  He liked to laugh, had a great sense of humor and people liked him a lot.  He loved bright colors too.

You Got Mail! on facebook now

  I liked writing in cursive when I was in school. To this day my hand writing still gets compliments. I've always been enchanted with letters, postcards, interesting postage stamps and cancellations. I remember my mother helping me address letters I'd written to my aunt.
  The best days are days when there's something interesting or colorful in the mail. When my former French teacher sends me a postcard from Paris, it takes me back immediately to strolling along the Champs d'Elysees with her.
  I think it's sad that people have gotten so far away from writing something, popping it into an envelope and sending it on to its destination, wherever that may be. To me a plain envelope is a waste of art space,( except if it's going to pay a bill.) I still get excited when the mail's arrived. "Is there anything for me?" 
  When my husband says "You hit the jackpot" and color comes spilling out of his hands, I'm thrilled.
  Like many artists I've tried a lot of things and like even more. The one constant in my artistic life has been my love of mail art. In the time it took to warm up a slice of pizza I had already drawn on an envelope and was set to color it. So I know that creating a piece doesn't require a lot of time. Everybody can do mail art.
  Recently some excellent books have come out on the topic of mail or postal art. I've been involved in a few private exchanges with other artists who love mail art. While exchanging emails (oh, the irony of it) with a friend we realized at the same time that there was a lack of facebook groups about postal art. So voila'--You Got Mail! was created. 
  We're already swapping out our snail mail addresses. I'm excited and looking forward to being told "YOU GOT MAIL!"

Latest Art

  I've been pretty productive today.  I finished a moleskine sketchbook journal last night and added it to the group I have on my book shelf.  Then I made two postcards late at night.  

"Broken"

"Returned"

  Both postcards are for my project, "76 Postcards for Dad".  This is an intensely personal thing-one postcard for each of the 76 years my dad was alive.  Besides my husband, my father was the most influential person in my life.  I miss him very much.