An Art Break from Africa

waste paper pages to use for collage

I have been taking an online journaling class being taught by Judy Wise.  I have long admired Judy's work and having met her through a mutual friend, I know she's funny, fun, incredibly talented and a great teacher.  The class has turned out to be even more fun than I'd expected.  Every morning I rush to my computer to pull up the daily class.

The assignment for this page was to use repetition as a design element.

I devoted this spread to some of my daily posts, just my normal journal entries.  I used a transfer and did a drawing with the stopper of an ink bottle eyedropper, as per an assignment, to add to the page.  I was amazed at how much fun it is to draw with such items---very liberating.  You just can't get tight, or precious.

On this spread I used some tissue paper transfers of photos and some rubber stamping, collages some papers and smeared paint all over.  The writing assignment was to write about 5 wishes, rather like what you might wish for if you were blowing out candles on your birthday cake.  Judy told us that it would be good to go back, someday in the future, and read what we'd wished for on a certain day in March, 2012.

This page is a "roadmap" of my life so far.  I found this exercise to be surprisingly insightful (to me).  By having to pick and choose items to include or not on my journey to now, I found what was the most important to my chosen path truly surprising.  For example, who would have dreamed that a boy who bullied me in the 6th grade gave me the knowledge that I was strong and that it didn't matter that he heckled me.  It was his problem, really, not mine.  A valuable lesson that has served me in good stead all my life!  Thank you, o bully of years past.

This page is all about my dear, dear friend.  I miss her as she lives far away on an island 30 miles out to sea.  It is about the time of year that I first met her and she has been much on my mind lately.  By using a few photos and writing about our first meeting, I feel close to her.  It was a great exercise.

This is another example of a spread I use for my daily journal entries.  I liked how it developed a travel theme---travel always being on my mind.  I'm either thinking about a previous trip or planning a new one.

This was a painting exercise that turned out to be great fun.  I won't tell you how we were instructed to do it, but let me say, it was not the way I usually approach a portrait.  It is always fun to just put brush to paper and see what sort of a face emerges.  I was not expecting a red head!

I love this quote.  It is a variant of a Biblical phrase and is on the wall of a great book shop in Paris, Shakespeare & Company.  The angel is drawn from a photo I took of a beautiful angel statue in Wendy Addison's shop, Theatre of Dreams.  I was glad I finally found a use for that image as it has long been a favorite of mine.

I've been having a lot of fun.  Thanks, Judy!