I Can Do Plenty - My Word is My Bond

I FOUND a journal and decided it would become my January art journal. I was inspired by this Suzi Blu YouTube video, right here.
I was amazed at the way my woman and living room took shape. She doesn't look much like me, or maybe she is the "me" I didn't turn into.
I also wouldn't have pictured she would live in a house like that with purple walls and a blue sofa with yellow and blue pillows. And that picture on the wall! I love trees, but ... ?
Last, I wouldn't have thought to put myself in a short sleeved blouse because that's so not me! And a headband? Who is this woman?
Well, it looks as if there might be an art easel resting in the room to her left. She'd better leave off gazing into space and get in there and go to work.
I wrote in the journal the way that Suzi did. I wrote down all the good things about me and what makes me special and the skills I take pride in. Suzi painted over hers and then let the paint dry and then scraped it away. Me, I couldn't even find a waterproof pen, but I think you'll get the idea. Perhaps painting over them makes you able to write them down and then cover most of them up to show you don't want to be boastful. What did you do today that was artistic? I'll bet it was something - femminismo
P.S. I'm back. I forgot to say this: Be Kind To Yourself!!

Is It Really Wednesday?

TIME, time, time! Trying to take it one day at a time is a good thought, but often it seems they are rushing by two or three at a time instead.
Monday night I caught up with a writing buddy in the vegetable aisle of a local grocery store. Stuck without my trusty digital camera I had to make do with taking a cell phone photo (actually a stranger pitched in and took it) and then e-mailing it to myself. Here we are, CJ and I. After a good talk together by the lettuce, about how life goes by fast and doesn't always turn out the way we'd planned, she has inspired me to send out some of my writing. And maybe even check in with some of my story characters that have been sitting on the page waiting to see how their lives turn out. Thanks, CJ! (Let me know if you are a "lower case" cj.)
I have also been visiting a friend who is very ill. She is 98 years old and as her nephew says, she has "had a good run." In her years as a teacher she gave so much of herself to all her students. She will live on through every good thing we do.
Her nephew, Dennis, and I were in the same high school class together and he is lucky enough to live in Alaska and sent me this photo which he took in his back yard. (Big back yard!) He put out a salmon carcass hoping to invite a bald eagle and got one. (Look sharp!) A loon paddles in the background. Can't you just hear its lonely cry? There was also a fox running around, but Dennis wasn't quick enough to get a picture of that fellow.
So much has been going through my head regarding living and dying, celebrating and mourning, and I've been considering how I spend - or mis-spend - my time. Sometimes it doesn't seem my brain is big enough for all the thinking I do, so maybe it's time to slow down. Any suggestions on how to do that? Maybe meditation.
Here is a journal page I have begun. With matte gel medium coating the picture, I stuck it face down on the book's photo of two boys fishing in a stream. My mother used to tell us that she always knew where we were. I wondered how that could be when she was always at home and we were traipsing through the woods and all over, up and down streams. So when I found this woman's photo it just seemed to belong watching over these boys.
One more photo and then I'm off to bed. It's newspaper production day tomorrow and there are plenty of loose ends to tie up bright and early.
Here is a calla lily after yet another of our Oregon rainstorms. I hope you are dry and warm tonight with someone you love close at hand - femminismo
p.s. Happy Birthday to Pat who doesn't have e-mail ... or, as far as I know, a computer!

Here Are My Twelve "Children."

JUST like children, they are precious to me. Here, at last, is a picture of the 12 art journals and/or altered books I have made since April 2007.
Lined up in order of the months - from April to April - moments, days, months and finally a year. Not every day complete. Not every cover decorated just right.
Maybe some day, in my rocking chair, I'll complete them with my gnarled and knobby arthritic fingers.
Something to help me remember the days. Tomorrow I'll post some random pages from each, but maybe I'll make them into a slide show rather than post two dozen pictures. Now it's off to watch the "Lost" finale. Right, T? - femminismo

More in Art Journals.

I HAVE a new book to alter for my next journal. It's a book about England and the first pages talk about King Arthur's return. Here is a picture at the beginning of the altering -
The page on the left, where there are lines drawn in a sort of circle next to the flower, is an image glued face down onto acrylic paint.
I let it dry and we have Arthur coming and he's bringing a friend. (I love the autumn crocus by the way. I found it in another book today.)
It looks like Arthur is bringing a friend with him and he doesn't look too happy. Actually, reading the text again, perhaps these men are delivering Arthur to Merlin!
I can't wait to see what this book will bring. There are a lot of photos of very picturesque places in the English countryside.
Having fun. Hope you are too - femminismo