Jogging to "Journey"

I was relaxing amidst a huge pile o'Christmas items.....ornaments, candles, garlands, ribbons, bits and pieces of my decorating scheme....reading my emails on my new computer and sipping on a cup of tea, when I chanced upon a very perky message in the ArtJournalz group that stated she'd sent off her pages and was looking forward to seeing the completed journal. Bells rang, softly, in the far, far reaches of my tiny pea brain. Hmmmmm....had I signed up for this JOURNEY journal with Gina et al? A search of my emails proved that I had. And the pages were due now. I mean, NOW. Panic. How many pages? Documenting my journey? Had I made a journey? Am I on a journey? How do I journal that? How do I journal that now? I rooted about in my hugely messy spare bedroom, also known as the Art Stuff Storage Area, and pulled out a bunch of items and paper and floundered about on the computer looking for some old photos I could print up and use for the story of my journey---where ever it was from and headed to I know not where. I began to frantically start layering things onto the six x six-inch base that Gina had asked for and was not unpleased with the result. It took several hours and a lovely trip down memory lane looking through my Tibet photo album, but I came up with a page that I think nicely documents my journey, such as it has been. It was even quite fun, although I should have been doing a lot of packing up of Christmas stuff, but I got to make another huge mess on the dining room table, and play with my art supplies, and print out old photos, and tear up pieces of paper and glue stuff. It was fun.

I even got the pages the mail today, so it should be with Gina by the deadline. This set of pages are very different from my usual style, but I rather liked them and the process was wonderful. I am, after all, all about process! Process over product, that's my motto.

I went off to the hardware store today and got the last of the items I need for the class at the Gage next week. Anna called again from Big Sur today. She has a
terrible cold and sounds truly awful. Too bad! The timing is really bad as she had taken the week off to go down to Esalen. I know she was really looking forward to her time there but I now understand that she's been sick the entire week. I hope she feels better by next week. I can't imagine the strain of attending such a high pressure class (two paintings a day, after all!) and feeling bad at the same time. Makes me want to go lie down just thinking of it. This message that I photographed on the beach at the Dungeness Spit is most timely. Get well soon, Anna!

I'm Baaaaaaack!

Happy New Year!

I have decided that I am going to make a real effort to keep this blog current this year. This is not a New Year's resolution, but rather a goal. It pleases me to be able to go back and see what I've been up to and what photos and artwork I've posted. I will try to make this a weekly, if not more often, event.

N. and I spend five happy nights in Sequim over the break between Christmas and New Year's Day. We stayed at the Juan de Fuca Cottages, just across from the Dungeness Spit and loved the place. Cute, one room (with a kitchen across the back) and a bathroom added on. The view is spectacular, looking out over the spit to the Straits of Juan de Fuca and Vancouver Island beyond. Behind you, the Olympic Mountain range in all its winter glory. We shopped in Port Townsend, Port Angeles and Sequim. Both of us found treasures at the bead store in PT. Lois has the best bead store I have ever been in. I got a pair of ojime mouse earrings (the mice don't match, but they compliment each other and I love them!) and Eunice's birthday gift (jade beads for a bracelet) and ojime in the shape of a domidary and a tiger. I was born in the year of the Tiger, so that's fitting. (Chinese Zodiac) I am just delighted with all the goodies I found. In Port Angeles, in Fiddleheads, I found a wonderful hand-carved hand! It looks like it might have come off a saint statue. It's a lovely thing. What am I going to do with it, you ask? Beats me! But I love it and over time the right way to use/display it will come to me. N. and I managed to be in Sequim on Saturday for the Doodlebug's big sale. Doodlebugs is a great scrapbooking store and they had a great sale. I found lots of paper to use as backing for my photojournal cards and stocked up. I think this supply should take me through the year.

We spent a lot of time on the beach, either in front of our cottage or at the spit. Since the spit is a park, you can't collect shells or rocks or anything, but down in front of the cottage, N. was able to give herself free reign. There is an old car rusting away on the bank and also a stockpile of bottles that must have been a dump at one time. All the glass you find on this stretch of beach is not weathered. It must all be being exposed to the beach by the tides. N. found many, many interesting pieces of glass, ceramic and pottery. Tiles, parts of plates, crocks and crockery, glass bottles, even a few pieces of Degression glass that had been broken. Seeing that special green of Depression glass made me sad. You don't want to find pieces of it---you want to find the whole thing, complete! Ah, well. It was a treasure trove and N. had an especially fine time gleaning the beach. But then, she always does.

I finally got caught up in my personal journal. Only four months behind....

Next week I am taking an oil portrait class at the Gage Academy with Anna. She asked me to take this particular class with her last fall, and in a weak moment I agreed. Now I'm terrified! The supply list is lengthy and requires the participants to get canvas (or linen) and stretchers to make their own canvases. Gulp. Ms. Natarova also would like us to use Old Holland oil paints but that's not in my budget! She describes Gamblin paints as "tolerable". She's just going to have to put up my using them. At least I already have them and don't need to buy any more. And most of the brushes she wants us to have I already own. I think. I'll have to double check this in the morning as I am off with Susan P. to Utrecht downtown to stock up on supplies so I'll be ready for Monday. I'm still kicking myself for agreeing to do this. WHAT was I thinking??? (Rita Natarova) Well, let's hope I learn a lot and don't crack under the pressure. I surely am in over my head this time!

Saturday is the Gala Opening for the new Edmonds Center for the Arts. There will be a wine reception, then a dinner and finally a preformance by Al Jarreau. It should be quite an evening. I even bought a new outfit to wear. N. and I will be sitting with the EAF folks, so we'll know some of the people at the table and won't feel so much like fish out of water! I am looking forward to the evening very much. (Edmonds Center for the Arts)